001e e e good evening and welcome to the Garfield hike City School District regular board meeting this evening is Monday March 17th 2025 I'll call the meeting to order can I get roll call please Miss Cox yes Mrs Daniels yes Miss Thomas Miss Morrison yes Miss King yes could I get a motion to adopt the agenda for this evening second that was moved by Miss Thomas and second by Miss Cox are there any comments hearing none could I get roll call please miss Thomas yes Miss Cox Mrs Daniels yes Miss Morrison yes Miss King yes now if we could have a moment of Silent reflection and the Pledge of Allegiance and the pledgees of Allegiance will be um led by Miss Daniels if you can please stand I plg to the FL of the United
002States of America America and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you could I get a motion to approve the minutes from the February 10th special board meeting the February 18th regular board meeting and the February 22nd special board meeting Retreat as presented so move that was moved by Miss Morrison and second by Miss Cox are there any discussion hearing none could I get roll call please miss Morrison yes Miss Cox yes Mrs Daniels yes Miss Thomas yes Miss King yes we will now have have the board president's report I would like to report that the Le last several weeks have been an outstanding period of time in our district demonstrating the achievements talents and capabilities of the students and staff in the Garfield height City
003schools for those who were in attendance on Wednesday March 5th you you will attest to the new formate format of the state of the schools was an absolutely awesome presentation of our school family from the Performing Arts at the middle school and high school to the steam projects on display by the students and staff at William Foster Elmo and maple leaf the state of the schools this year was a one-of a kind and a true Showcase of the greatest aspects of the Gara height City Schools congratulations to the principal staff and group advisors who helped prepare our students for this evening great job by all including Dr Reynolds and his administrative team next I'd like to share that I attended the coffee talk host hosted by Dr Reynolds and treasur OKO this past week and
004I thank everyone who attend attended to listen to this informative presentation and asked questions as a new form of community outreach the coffee talk provided an authentic in the town meeting the citizens where there are type of forum it was good and it was productive the next Coffee Talk will be held Wednesday March 26th at 9:00 a.m. at Duncan Donuts come on out and join us Maple Leaf Elementary School hosted representatives from the Ohio Governor's Office in the Cleveland Browns and Cleveland Browns Foundation last week as the stay in the game initiative took Center Stage along with our schools School District's dedication to the initiative students from William Foster and Elmwood were at the building for some cross-pollination of students to see and participate in the activities associated with staying the gang I saw firsthand
005the joy and determination on the face of the students but also the usefulness of the stay in the game program I thank Governor the governor's representative Dr Christopher woard who is the chief integration officer at the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce along with our friends and partners at the Cleveland Browns this was a great few weeks in the Garfield height City schools and I will and I wanted you all to know the community support will be essential over the next several months in order for our future as a district to be secured many different AV venues ex either exist or have been created for our citizens and residents to learn more about our students successes including some of the public Community out Outreach forums shared in this report get informed and I'm confident our
006citizens will see just how successful our Scholars are in this District thank you for your continued support and this concludes my report are there any questions in regards to the president's report rep all right are there any other committee reports Adam yes Miss Thomas I have a report for yes um during our February board meetings we had our first reading of the school calendar we announc that our distinguished alumni Award nominations are open and we also recognize Jackie art um our board member from North flon as she received uh 2025 osba service and training award at our spring conference um we went through our retention report I do have it with me if any of you would like to see it it is quite interesting um so I have that here if you all would
007like to see it and then we got um a presentation of our fiveyear academic plan as well as our adult education customized training um during their report they talked about how popular customized trainings are um to date we have trained 245 employees up trained 245 employees um in various um trades um we do some of our trainings onsite and some of them offsite at their campuses um we talked about multi craft maintenance being a huge Focus which is under our industrial bracket um they discussed a grant that we received to buy training equipment and although the equipment is purchased through a grant for our adult education um our high school students still have access to those machines um and then we also discussed that we are building a 25t tower inside that has virtual capabilities
008and virtual headsets um we are adding more cyber security training program into our computer networking um and then we also discuss taking English um out of our media technology curriculum um in the high school um another thing that we discussed um our tax collections are down about $250,000 in two years um so we had to Pivot as we were looking to bring on our parks and environmental resources program um very soon um we have placed a small hold um on launching that program until um tax collections are caught up our student in connection this month was uh Leia West she's a senior at our high school and thriving in our medical administrative specialist program um she initially explored cosmetology and culinary arts um and she chose the medical administrative specialist program because it seemed fun
009and valuable for gaining receptionist experience um her love for technology and socializing made it the perfect fit and within days of starting she knew she made the right decision um through the this program she will get her CPR certification her Microsoft Office specialist in medical administrative assisting um certification she plans to enter the workforce immediately after graduation aiming for a role in a hospital or nursing home um inspired by her older brother who works As a caretaker um one of her favorite aspects of the program is to call assignments where she and her classmates practice real world phone interactions like scheduling appointments and handling billing beyond the class room she has embraced opportunities through the BPA which is the business Professionals of America where she enjoys networking professional development alongside her classmates in competition in
010um January she showcased her skills she placed first place in business law and ethics third place in health research presentation in third place in coding she has now qualified to compete at the state um competition this month um reflecting on her growth she said I am much more on top of things this year than last at cbcc it's like having a job you have to stay on top of things I genuinely enjoy coming to school especially because I've made great friends we are always having fun while getting our work done outside of school she balances a part-time job in the fast frood industry while enjoying times with her friends relaxing cleaning playing video games and spending time outdoors with her dog keep up the great work Leia um and then lastly this Thursday um we
011will have our National Technical Honor Society um induction after our regular board meeting if anyone would be that concludes thank you are there any questions for Miss Thomas thank you Miss Thomas are there any other committee reports I have a stu or Wellness liaison report um for girls basketball congratulations to St staia Moy on being selected as first team all all LEL Journey wrencher on being selected to Second Team all L and summer Reigns for being selected to third Team all L boys basketball congratulations to our boys basketball team on advancing to the State final four congratulations to Marcus Johnson on being named LEL Player of the Year and Coach Sunny Johnson I'm being named LEL coach of the year Ari Jones and Devon Jackson on being named First Team all LEL and brillan Sullivan
012and Nazir Hines I'm also receiving all LEL recognition wrestling I am proud to announce that several of our wrestling athletes have advanced to the district tournaments for outstanding performance at sectionals their hard work dedication and perseverance have earned them an opportunity to compete at the next level so for our district qualified buers we had Joseph V valva who was second place he was a male senior jayen Anderson alternate alternate male senior we had Mel Macklin third place female sophomore and Faith Boozer as a alternate for female sophomore that concludes my report there any questions about the wellness leaon report are there any other committee reports if not we will go next to our superintendent report thank you madam president uh during the month of March we would like to recognize our invaluable school secretaries and
013administrative assistants on behalf of the garfi high city schools we are very thankful for the incredible work you do each and every day you are the heart of our schools and the first welcoming smile the problem solvers the organizers the ones who keep every everything running smoothly behind the scenes your dedication patience and professionalism never goes unnoticed whether assisting staff supporting students and families or managing the countless details that keep our schools functioning you do it all with Grace and efficiency uh your contributions make it a meaningful difference in the lives of everyone in the school Community thank you for your hard work your commitment and the positive impact you have on each and every day a number of meaningful activities initiatives and events have taken place since the last board meeting and I wanted
014to share the community with the community these different aspects of Hands-On steam learning first our gifted students at Elwood and Maple Leaf met with the touring artifacts team from the uh Cleveland Museum of Art to study in on hands on with Hands-On activities the Cleveland Museum of Arts bring uh uh ancient artifacts for students to see in our elementary gifted team took advantage of what they had to offer by in uh inviting a handful of students to look at and handle uh the artifacts a great job to give the students and to those uh who are all involved a shout out to our principles advisers and students who participated in the state of the school presentation on Wednesday March 5th Mr Dawson with Performing Arts students along with Mr pnar with our show choir music
015express the performers were extremely exciting uh Miss Woodson did a great job with showing the youngest students at William Foster learning how to code and Elwood and maple leaf with their steam presentations you all did a wonderful and a great job and show Bulldog prct extremely well we must uh we must work uh with the school Community to ensure that these opportunities remain um perfectly intact so thank you once again and we also wanted to thank the governor's office for sending uh the chief integration officer Dr Willard to see our building firsthand and to recognize that our District's dedication to the stay in the game initiative of course this event and this initiative does not happen without the support of the Cleveland Browns ultimately our students benefit from um where we are pushing them to
016to come to school and to stay in school so thank you to everyone who's involved and made this visit from the governor's office so impactful uh with that I conclude my report thank you Dr Reynolds thank you is there any other there any questions for Dr Reynolds all right so moving to remarks from the public regarding gender items if we don't have any this evening um reports and recommendations of the treasurer could I get a motion to approve the financials for um February so moved is there a second second is there any discussion Mr OS there anything that you want to um the financials for February will kind of run in with the forecast presentation I'll touch on a little bit of that but um I would say that our collections from the county um
017were quite high this year compared to last given that they withheld a lot of our um early advances um other than that things have been on schedule our next three pay month is May instead of June so uh expenditures should be pretty much in line with that uh the only difference as you'll all see and we'll talk about in the forecast is that Revenue line with State funding which is a little bit lower than where we projected based on November's numbers so thank you questions for Mr oo mad pres Miss Thomas where will the presentation be here 7.2 7.2 okay so we're just approving 7.1 okay thank you yes um could I get roll call please yes Miss Morrison yes Mrs Daniels yes Miss Cox yes Miss Thomas yes Miss King yes okay could I
018get a motion to approve um the fiveyear forecast March optional so move second that was moved by Miss Daniels and second by Miss Thomas um Mr oo want to walk us through yes um I have a 12 uh slide PowerPoint I'll try not to bore you guys with all this fun financial information for for all right so um we don't do these presentation often we usually do our financial fiveyear forcast twice a year in November and in May we're doing a March optional as we discussed um Dr Reynold and our team our administrative team have been working through some data um work since moving from um ProgressBook to Infinite Campus the reason we're doing this is because our variance is a material variance in revenue from what we reported in November it's what we're reported
019to now so it's important that as a board of education we're representing to the state of Ohio that yes we know that there is a discrepancy we are working on it but also we're being transparent with them knowing that you know we're not waiting till no till May to show a huge six-month difference in a discrepancy of that so with that March optional I hope you only have to do this one time in all of our careers but um you'll see here um this July 1 beginning cash balance when we did our November forecast we looked at a $9.4 million cash balance at the end of this fiscal year with the change in what we've been reporting for our student funding with our FTE numbers being down we're looking at a 6.96 1 million um
020cash balance general fund the projected loss for the year would be $2.45 3 million again specifically around our enrollment numbers not being what they were over time so a few years ago we had higher numbers and we've seen a significant drop in Trend in that sort which plays into this as we are heavily formula District so um fiscal this current fiscal year as of this Saturday we are 56% state funded 41% locally funded now if you remember in November we were a little bit more state funded and a little less locally funded this is including the updated property tax reevaluation so our district got hit with one of the highest in the state at 55% it was a real like it was one of the highest and it was devastating for communities um across the
021state and for us in particular so that means that our local taxes have increased as we hit the 20 mil floor marginally and our state funding will drop as we continue to report a trend lower in enrollment that shift will show that we're more locally funded rather than state funded because every student counts for our funding less students you have the shift goes onto the local community more as the partnership between state and local is 60% local 40% state is what they want it to be you'll see that um projected State funding includes a fair school funding plan restricted State funding that's our special education categoricals our English as a second language our gifted funding and most importantly for our district our economically disadvantaged funding since we're C and full title one District every student
022in our district head count counts as an economically disadvantaged student in the eyes of the state of Ohio that's why that number is a little bit more than uh you can see like the state share of local taxes which are those reimbursements um our dpia funding out of the categoricals make up about uh 60% of that special education takes up the other portion of that and we have such a small um uh level of elll and gifted funding when it comes to FTE counts that doesn't really make a marginal difference for us as you can see all other revenue is about $1.2 million majority of that coming in interest income when we have money when we get our tax settlements that sit in the bank and then also we have a tiff payment from the
023city um that will be expiring this year um we talk to the county the city so we should see a loss in some funds that way um and then final portion of that is our threshold cost that we get every year so our special education students that costs a little bit more to educate them than what the state gives us again we are holistically underfunded in special education as it is but after a certain threshold we get reimbursed for a percentage of that it's usually about 30% it's for us it's about $250 to $300,000 a year so that makes up that other Revenue portion of that I'm going stop for any questions there I'm talking fast expenditures um as we all talk about uh personel costs make up the majority of our expenditures in the
024school district as they do for all the school districts in the state of Ohio you will see though that our Personnel costs uh dropped under 80% and purchase Services is up 177% the reason for that is it truly is special education cost um it's been very hard for us to maintain fiscal spending levels sustainable levels when we have students coming in out of District who require services that we have no um possible way in this year of kind of looking at different alternatives for that so we have to hire out and a lot of that Staffing that we have to hire out for will go into purchase Services instead of actually Personnel costs in house but with that salar is about 27 .2 million benefits 10.12 million uh purchase services are 8.2 again I will
025tell you inflation is our worst enemy and then special education costs and legal fees kind of round that up with that and they kind of go hand in hand other expenditures um supplies uh Capital debt other operating advances transfers about 3.8 million 1 million of that was a one-time transfer we made into our O3 fund at the beginning the fiscal year to cover some of the final uh expenditures for that um Stadium we put in over last fiscal year I like this slide it kind of shows you our historical annual annual revenue change and expenditure change so you can see our change in Revenue historically is only 44% per year obviously it's negative 1.27 with this new forecast again solely around the FTE numbers that we have uh that we're reporting to the state of
026Ohio annual change in expenses you'll see we've actually cut expenses um last year and then this year they jumped again with higher inflation and special ad costs um our district is I don't know Mr Forte is here but we've seen a jump in special ed as a percentage of general fund students and when that happens it really exhausts a lot of resources that we have truly like no control to administer in year one that talk about right Mr Forte does um so again a 3.78% change annually from 25 to 29 that includes um Step changes cont contract changes anything that we can accurately project on again all this is going to change tomorrow but this is as accurate as we could have done as of this weekend so now we're going to get into uh
027the most important part of this forecast let's look at our cash balance so in uh 2025 you'll see we are deficit spending now 2.45 3 million we are spending more than we' have taken in um by 2027 fiscal 2027 we um have a negative cash balance what does that mean for us that means we will be in fiscal caution so we will get a letter this week the state will put us in fiscal caution and we'll have to make a plan to address that within the next fiscal year we bylaw can't have a negative cash balance we have to either balance or have have something in there so we'll have 6.8 million I believe it was at the beginning and then you'll see that 6.4 will wipe that out pretty fast by 2027 and that
028is with the levy passing in May without the levy in May um you'll see our cash balance is very very in the negative um we are by that time if we do nothing will be a fiscal emergency um which is what nobody wants here the state of Ohio will be involved in every facet of what we do over local control um but again that's why we do this now that's why we're doing this forecast now so we can address the problems concerns and what we can do as a district to avoid all of that moving forward DA's cash on hand I put this in specifically for Madam president yes Miss Thomas um back to that last slide um looking at this three and five year Financial Outlook and where we anticipate to be regardless if
029we pass the ly or not yeah um how many schools in Ohio or schools in our area are facing similar issues so 26 are in fiscal caution right now there was six last year 26 in fiscal caution there's two in fiscal emergency or our state fiscal emergency one is Mount Healthy and I believe Youngstown City might be heading there this year but there's 26 in fiscal caution the trend is to expect upwards of 100 districts this year because what we have done that other distri districts have not is we managed our esy correctly we're one of the few in the state that's managed our Esser but now Esser is out and this is the year now where the districts that did not manage their Esser funds like some of our neighboring Community districts um will
030be in the same situation and fiscal caution as we are so the difference between what they're experiencing what we're experien is is that we're looking at a significant decline an enrollment what they're looking at is they just didn't manage their onetime SRA dollars correctly um and that's quite the difference and they won't be doing a forecast like this um they'll just do their November or their May and move on and go in fiscal caution now we have a chance to again work through this and be out of fiscal caution in 26 if we can make the necessary changes answer the question thank you cour Madame President your favorite slide da cash on hand um we get very close to no cash in 26 27 we don't make payroll at a negative um again um you
031see the decline it's a direct decline with the change in Revenue over time um here's the big slide the district educated enrollment this is our funding number so um butts and seat so how many kids are in school does not always equal funding there's different calculated formulas they put to each child so someone if a child goes to cbcc they only count as 02 for a funding rather than a one for us you can see here in 2023 we are being funded for 2,969 students 24 2740 and then now 2025 as of the data that we looked at our last Funding payment is 2,434 I always keep the trend going um but I didn't think it was necessary to put another 200 and so different in 26 because that would be truly unsustainable loss of
032students for us so the trend is a negative Trend over time but the big step jumps as you see is 23 24 and 25 and in Cor in direct correlation with that the the lesser amount of students you have the more um it C like the per puple amount will jump so in the eyes of the state of Ohio they're going to look at us and they're going to say you spend $20,000 per student in reality it's not that's not a true ratio of our spend but they look at just simply our forecast and say look you are on paper you are not a poor District you have the ability to spend $20,000 per student the state average is 14 or 15 how can that be when they're not taking into account of enrollment Trends
033and just the specific needs of our school district versus others so it's a correlating trend there and you'll see we jump significantly higher in with the lower enrollment I'm sorry it's a little blurry but here's the annual difference over under compared to our base forecast that we submitted in November you'll see state aid is that is a culprit right there that is the that is the issue at hand so 2.7 million um and then over five years we are at ative $26 million cumulative measure as you see at the bottom there um it will snow all fast if we don't address it if we do nothing today that's what that will look like in fiscal year 29 and then I'm going to jump to our expenditures and you will see here that we have made
034gains uh in looking at cutting costs we we're doing our work to cut costs over time uh you'll see a little bit of jump about $500,000 in fiscal year 25 this year which is um less than I think a 2% range would be for the whole District so we've done our job on looking at cutting costs there you'll see the cumulative over for expenditures is by fiscal 2029 we'll have neg uh we'll be cutting by $2.1 million that includes the EPC teacher buyout so that includes that cost if we did not replace those um certified staff that took the the buyout that is what this accounts for would be a no replace plan for that so if this is the only slide you take away from this this is the most important one uh this
035is our simplified financial statement the state of Ohio is going to issue us a letter after I submit this tomorrow and it's going to be to come up with a deficit reduction plan of $2.9 million so if you see that ending cash balance with levies you'll see in fiscal year 27 it's - 22.92 million the state will require us to put forth a plan showing that we can reduce that um that next fiscal year because that is when we're our ending cash balances levies will show that we have no money in the bank we're actually negative 2.9 in the in the bank we have to make that hit zero now the very bottom slide is ending cash balance without levies if our Levy does not pass in May and all data Trends and variables stay
036the same we will have another letter in May at a $10.8 million deficit that we would have to cut um the state will make us put a plan together for next fiscal year to cut that um because we cannot certify anything in fiscal 27 right now we wouldn't be able to certify anything in fiscal 27 regardless but um -2.9 million is much easier to manage than -1.8 it's a fifth of our budget in fiscal 27 so I know um a lot to take in this data is as accurate as the data we put pulled for our last Funding payment um that we submitted in uh for March number one payment any questions questions for Mr O Madam president Mrs Daniels what are some of the remedies we will be submitting to the state as it
037relates to um our plan to um reduce the 2 9 million deficit so uh Dr Reynolds and I will have to look at that a little bit more in depth because it's not as simple as saying we need to cut this program or that program you have to look at the you know the real cost of the program and what it means to our district and our our academics and all of that I wouldn't say that we have something on paper for you today I would say this is something that Dr Reynolds and I have been talking about but to put something in detail for you I wouldn't want to or a short change the severity of the situation there's definitely more conversation that needs to be had to ensure that we can continue to
038educate our students um we want to to make sure that we are um financially U sustainable moving forward so the things that the decisions we're going to be making is not just going to be for the up and coming years where they're going to be decisions for um several years to go I can recommend cuts to Dr Arnolds but again I'm not I've not been in the Educator's you know side of the work so and that's my my role is to support and and work with and Dr rnold and I have had a fantastic relationship doing that but I think it's it's not as simple as cutting on paper cutting a program or cutting a Personnel you have to look at how to do it when to do it um what's the impact of it
039um because at the end of the day it's affecting students and student outcomes and achievement in academics and um this is not something that Dr Reynolds and I like to do but it's something we have to do unfortunately at this time so that's your question Mr Daniel um yes and um in US developing this plan that the state is requiring us to develop um the effective datea of it will we have when will we have to effectively Implement that or will we have time to remedy this deficit before implementing the plan that we submit to the state yeah so they're going to give us um it'll start in fiscal 26 so on J on July 1st um we'll start we'll be in fiscal caution which means we have to be in it the whole year
040so even if we fix it on July 2nd we'll have to be in fiscal caution through fiscal 26 um they will give us time to implement it because there's there's just no no way we can Implement a $3 million um cut in to our budget in July I me it's going to take some time to implement and to look through um I would also say if we need to put a levy on the ballot that would be something we could put on the recommendation list to to to raise money to be able to afford the deficit so that's all things that well the board will have to approve so we'll have to bring a recommendation to you so the board can approve it and then um I know nordonia is moving towards this pretty heavily
041here so they're and we've been talking to them as well to see what the steps they've been taking but you know when the state gets involved like this they're going to they will make the board approve whatever um cuts are needed to make sure that that deficit is gone unless 300 kids walk through the door on July 1st Mrs Daniels that would be the that would be the easiest Rue 300 students walk through think is right there Madam president can I ask one more question yes and when you say um being in this fiscal um emergency and having the state take over andol what does that mean for a local school district so fiscal emergency having the state yeah so we'll start again star in fiscal caution which means local board authority and um they
042you keep your powers and you're able to pass they want to see Cuts now if it gets to the point where um we are $3 million and we have negative money in the bank account they will put us in fiscal emergency they will come in they'll put a state-based commission um they will strip you of your local Powers everything would have to be approved first by the commission second by you so the governor will appoint a commission the mayor will appoint folks on the commission board they'll have to run through every contract that we want to put through every dime we spend uh will have to be approved by the commission first it really grinds The District operation down to a halt um the districts that are in fiscal emergency right now are struggling to
043operate and that's why we're doing this now so we can we do not want to be in fiscal emergency um I'll just tell you that they're very strict there any other questions for Mr oo do you feel like we're in a place where um just addressing this at this point that we could um do what's best to ensure that we are serving our students the best that we can and I know that it's a that we have a a a challenge ahead of us most definitely but is is there with with support um a remedy to ensure that we sustain as much as we can yeah I think um this is a good step forward I think also we have been at least in our November forecast we did let the state know that we
044had some data issues so this is not the first time that the state is seeing this as they're not going to be overnight like oh my gosh Garfield Heights lost all this no in November when we got our first payment report in our forecast we did submit as part of our um as part of the assumptions to our forecast that we are working through data issues so we're working through that um of course more time is always better on these things but I think if we were to let this go um into next year and gotten the letter on July 1st we would have been um really really far behind the eightball to the point where there's probably no remedy other than significant fast cuts that would upend the beginning of school year at least
045now we have the ability to look at things and see where we can trim back make a dent into this and use fiscal 26 as a way to cut the full amount needed rather than do it all and really disrupt our our academics and our students and our community right away now again this is simply with the levy passing if the levy doesn't pass that's a whole another um scenario that that we will have to address but um from this this is all district data that we're you know if this is the data that the district has then this is the data we have to work with um and I think it's better now that it would be to wait till July to implement this thank you yes any other questions for Mr oo Madam
046president just wanted Clarity you said 300 students would REM remedy yes so if 300 students walked in the walked in the door we would be at that 2749 number that we were at last year that would keep us that would basically keep us on track of where we were in November I mean please understand we were within 1% accuracy of our November forecast before we um looked to do this March Financial option so again I I would say our reporting financially is pretty spot on I can get you within a percent as of the day that I'm doing it but the numbers change every day so you know say our data gets a little bit more cleaned up over the next week and we our students come online a little bit more uh say 50
047or so students that these numbers are going to change drastically so we're going to do this again in May with again more accurate numbers in May but I just think it's very important that it's such a material change that the state needs to know about it and the board has to know about it and um the district I mean this is our district data we have to be accountable for our data um and this is being accountable I believe being transparent in it and I think Dr reyolds I do have a a question uh facts only yes um since we've since we started here we've been attempting to not fill all our positions um over time um what would Levy passing this Levy facts only yeah uh how would that assist as a as a
048school district passing it passing the levy so passing Levy would allow us to look at some ancillary cuts for $3 million we can make3 million in Cuts but we can also look at not having to cut so deeply into staff that it affects academics on day one not passing the levy is significant Staffing Cuts because 76% of our budget as you just saw is Staffing is Personnel costs so it really is the answer your question is all about academics I mean you pass a levy we're going to be able to sustain an academic plan a strategic plan if you don't pass a levy cutting a fifth of your budget as a school district when Revenue only increases less than a percent a year it's unsustainable on every level possible I mean it would be it
049would it would take some very deep cuts to do that so Levy is that important to our school district I'm saying important because it is important it is the the difference between a a sustainable academic plan and one that's not sustainable that question I keep it facts only facts only Madam president I was back on the question things and again can you remind me um about how much um this again this is renewal yes no new money and right now as a resident um about how much per year on average is a resident paying already for this and so that for this renewal that we asking like what would be yeah so this renewal I think is $233 per $100,000 in a v in valuation it don't hold me to that CU I don't have
050the vout language in front of me but I can tell you A Garfield height resident pays uh 56% of their property taxes go to the school district I would say we're about 10% lower than every other community in the state of Ohio so our community pays more in taxes to City Charters County Charters um than they do um than other communities do with six highs taxed District in the state and we're one of the poorest when it comes to school funding it's not because of property taxes it's because our community is burdened with other taxes and Charters and city um levies that um we are not getting the same amount as St Bedford or Maple or Warrenville would get um 56% of a community members tax dollars Miss wanderstock 56% of your tax dollars goes
051to our school system rather it would be 70% in Bedford I can't give you the number off hand because every house is different based on your valuation but it's a 9.83 mil Levy renewal our community only pays 87.5% of that which means the state picks up 122% so if we were to non-renew this Levy and have to put the same amount of money up in November as a new Levy the community would have to pay the full 100% cost to that rather now they only pay 87.5% the state kicks in roll back and homestead exemption so 12 and a half% go to come to us from the state that the property owners do not pay but this R this specific amount yes is only approximately 5.35 million for the district but if my house was
052$100,000 and I'm just going to say maybe2 $50 a year divided by 12 months I'm paying a month if if I did not if if we did not renew this I'm only going to maybe see a $20 savings a month on my tax bill correct at the most yes correct correct yeah and again numbers I'll have to get you the actual I'm just saying just I'm just I'm just I just like to to see things more in a realistic I know we're talking 56% and and 5 whatever million but we're just talking about right now we're only asking for a renewal of a of a of a portion yes of our millage yes and right now that portion if we and it's money that I'm already paying I'm paying approximately $20 yes a month towards
053this and if it does not renew I'm only going to maybe maybe maybe you know in that range if my house is valued at 100,000 or whatever is where I would see correct yeah uh just math fact speaking it's it's cheaper to pass the the renewal Levy than it would be to fail the renewal Levy and then put a new money levy on just to collect the same amount of dollar but yes I can get you that dollar amount but you're correct correct in in the way the logic and what you're saying and it's not anything new money no new money no increase in taxes a ual Levy just a renewal um we have not asked for new money in 13 years as a school district we've made it work we've asked but we just
054haven't been V yes we've asked well not for operating for Opera yeah not for operating money yep and this is what we're talking about here is operating yes operating operating yes ma' and okay I'm sorry I do have one more F question do we know about how many of them our neighbors that we um employ um here in the garfo heist Community because I know we have a substantial amount of our neighbors and community members we just don't educate the community but we are Le we significantly employ a lot of our our neighbors and community members here too right I would say over over half I would say pushing maybe 60% of our staff is Darfield Heights residents okay I'd say most of our classified employees um bus driver own them um work in in
055our school district we have some substantial amount of teachers that also work in our school that's TR in our school district as well thank you thank you thank you any other questions any other questions for Mr oo liting numbers yes as always thank you Mr O could I get a motion to move and W the readings the reading of 8.1 through um 13.1 oh yeah we have to we have to approve my for oh I'm sorry oh you're fine um so the forecast was the approval of the fiveyear forecast March optional was um motioned by Miss Daniels and second by Miss Thomas could I get roll call Mrs Daniels yes Miss Thomas yes Miss Cox Miss Morrison yes Miss King yes all right now could I give a motion to move and wave the reading
056of 8.1 and 13. one second that was moved by Miss Morrison and second by Miss Daniels um is there any questions are there any questions this Thomas never mind any questions all right hearing none could I get roll call please miss Morrison yes Mrs Daniels yes Miss Cox yes Miss Thomas yes Miss King yes could I get a motion to move and weigh the reading of 14.1 through um 15.1 second that was moved by Miss Thomas and second by Miss Morrison are there any questions hearing none could I give roll call please miss Thomas yes Miss Morrison yes Miss Cox yes Mrs Daniels yes Miss King yes okay we have remarks from the public regarding miscellaneous School items we do have one this evening um all meetings of the Board of Education and board appointed
057committees are open to the public in order for the board to fulfill its obligation to complete the planned agenda in an effective and efficient fashion maximum of 30 minutes of public participation may be permitted at each meeting each person addressing the board shall give his or her name and address if several people wish to speak each person is allotted 3 minutes until the total time of 30 minutes is used during that time no person may speak twice until all who desire to speak have had the opportunity to do so persons Desiring more time should follow the procedure of the board to be placed on the regular agenda the period of public participation may be extended by a vote of the majority of the board present and voting agendas are are available to all those who
058attend the board meeting the section on the agenda for public participation shall be indicated noted at the bottom of each agenda shall be a short paragraph outlining the board's policy on public participation at board meetings so we have Mr Dudley who would like to speak this evening all right now it's once a healthy man just a couple months ago it's so different last time I came I think Miss Thomas and Miss Daniels were just being uh seated into office so where do we stand when we speak or stand right here think we maybe here if you a okay all right this ain't going to take long you know I like long ones and everything first I I want to congratulate our boys basketball team and Coach Sunny Johnson who I know and stuff like that
059because uh I love balding even at my age I still play bald and I think I tolded about that I still play basketball none of my sons include the one old not today but back in the day wouldn't have beat me one1 and um I'm going to say honestly I hope that you all don't have to see physical emergency because I am probably the only person alive in Garfield heists who was in office when they first went in physical emergency and was dead through the 5 years and about 9 years afterwards and it just takes so much out out of you and you got to make some critical decisions and nobody's going to love the decisions you made trust me everybody going to point the finger and you talking about being elected during that time
060it's harder than you could ever imagine and everything but I'm here today because I was working on something like I say in the city of Cleveland we done raised 12 children met my wife 46 years and nine of our kids was in graduated from cmsd but as everybody know I took the three grandchildren we been have for like six years now that we raising and I got I don't know how many other grandkids it's also in the Garfield High School District now and because of that they not entitled to some of the programs that kind of give them the grants to go to college and cmsd that they have Garfield don't have over here I had spoke with Dr Reynolds a few ago and I told him because um up until the time I got
061injured I still played ball but I wanted to host a program where we had the citizens actually play against the Garfield Heights Sunny Johnson man John Sunny went over there several times and he thought it was a great plan as well the dollars were not small dollars like I showed you we had one entity was willing to put up $5,000 to see this game go forward and we had Mr Heroes we also had our buddy over there John and Nancy House John house and he actually wanted to participate in the game we were looking at a minimum of $10,000 and like I explained to you and I show give the three names that individual and I did didn't go to anybody else yet and this money can be used actually to give you take 10
06210,000 you figure that's can be five 1,000 that could be 10500 but the pot would surely grew above that and I do want to see that but um for some reason Mr OKO I could never get back from you I um I went back to uh Dr Reynolds and he was saying he was reaching out to you and you supp to contact me and I I went on for a long time I never heard back for you and I'm not here a point that you got enough in your mind right now but the reason why I came and put it to y'all cuz I figur you all probably didn't know to and you got a lot on your plate right now but I think not just for the scholarship program I think what happened in
063garville Hikes we got to get to the point that we kind of getting more involved that you have the everyday parents out there involved in some of these and I was in politics but you don't see me taking pictures with nobody but the thing is I think we got to kind of grasp what we used to have if you back up a little on time when we had Miss Thompson here and I didn't know Dr the prient the beginning of time and Mr O all way back to Dr Stern I didn't work with all them all way up to Dr Reynolds who I knew from Cleveland and I think that somewhere along the line we just we we just don't have the same engagement and not saying that you are not reaching out but sometimes
064you got to do things to make people want to come in and my ideal to the program was the individual playing in this game were actually people's daddies like I am I'm somebody's father don't be fooled I'm 64 4 years old but I'm in great shape I still shoot around at basketball but they would put their parents out there kids can brag about the D we actually had one woman who played for John Caroll she wanted to participate in this program I do want to see her go forward this year I do want to see something happen to it you know uh Sunny's full in for it he had even offers a practice time but I understand the process you all cannot take no money lesson go through him and if I would have took
065it through my nonprofit you know we do the black history everything else anybody know you got a nonprofit you take money like that you got to have an administrative fee meaning and I would had to take some of that money and I didn't want to take no money after I explained to Dr Ry I wanted you all to get all that money so I'm kind of looking for it that that would be something to roll down the road to kind of get them um maybe get the families engaged and everything it can become an annual event even as I outgrow it it still can continue on because that's a lot of money 500 can buy books a th can help take care of some room and stuff and I know also down We R that
066at the Board of Education get cut down in DC money's going to be cut coming here we know the trickle down effect and it's coming and I I offer you the same help that I offer to the city I know we got problems going over the kids uh your job is not to raise children your job to educate children I do my best like my sons know that they had a bus stop we had a little situation in front of my house I didn't have to call nobody my son was home get ready to go to work I went out I took care so many kids you can approach and you can talk to when I didn't feel too good toout the evening same thing would escalate I didn't feel like going out and I
067said well I was a little crowd on my let the police handle but they had the hands full and I told the dispatch it and verifiably it was showed that I said I would go out and take care of it which I did was just a good conversation to the young men and they went on their way but we're dealing with a different type of group of kids a different type of breed of children but the main thing we got to stay focused on the ones as much as powerful as possible possible that we can educate you're not going to save them all but you can save most of them but my main point is this time that now you know who I am and I know who you are and I asked that the
068board kind of support me on this here it's going to take about two more months I got pens and I I stepped in I po you saw attorney R was on social media at the uh attorney town and I ripped my leg and I tore a bone up my feet so I got pens and screws and legit repairs just from stepping in a simple pot but anything I can do help you all out I don't mind doing it I do not care to be a school board member I don't raise too many children we got 46 47 grandchildren I just like seeing children are passing but like I said let's try to make that happen this year I know he had a lot on his table we couldn't get to it but I think it
069would be a good thing to go this year to kind of build it up to build his parents up my team is not small actually we have 14 members at that time we will be 20 members coming up so that's 20 parents coming out of these homes 20 parents if they double household that's 40 people in support of a vote 40 people if you know five people a piece that's 200 and we know the numbers were not tremendously separated but we got to build back the faith it's all about faith and confidence you know it's all about building back in faith and I wish you all the best and like I said if I can do anything to help you I will and like a main thing I'm here down that I do want to
070see that game happen between and sunny cuz I do want to talk crap to him like we talk all the time you know and everything but uh I'm not going to beat y'all down like I said I served my time in government before and I just don't want to see y'all go down I don't want you to have to go to no physical emergency so I'm going to wish you guys the best and everything thank you very much all right thank you thank you for being here this evening I'm going have to leave because I'm getting got discomfort for but I appreciate the time speaking than all right at this time uh we are going to enter into exec executive session um at 703 to consider Personnel matters in regards to public employee evaluation and
071compensation and preparing for collective bargaining um per Ohio Revised Code rule 3358 um 17-1 d04 point two so we will enter into oh I need a motion to enter into executive session at 7:03 so move second that it was moved by Miss Morrison and second by Mrs Daniels um could I get roll call yes uh Miss Morrison yes Mrs Daniels yes Miss Cox Miss Thomas Miss King yes there will be no action after the uh we adjourn from executive session our next regularly scheduled board meeting will be our special board meeting will be held at on March 7th at 6: p.m and our April board meeting will be on April 14th at the high school at 6 p.m. ail April 7th all right we will be going into executive session