Garfield Heights City Schools - December Board of Education Meeting - 12/19/22

001thank you yeah that's right take it when you get it [Music] good evening and welcome to the Garfield Heights City School District regular board meeting today is Monday December 19th I called tonight's meeting to order Mr saluka can I have roll call please yes Miss King here Mr Eisen Ms Morrison here Ms Thomas Mrs Daniels here Mr sloka can you allow the um minutes to show that both Mr Isom and Miss um Thomas um is excused the next item on tonight's agenda is the motion is adopt tonight's agenda so move second Mr saluka that was moved by Miss King and second by Miss Morrison can I have one call please Mrs King yes yes Mrs Daniels yes at this time we'll have our moment of Silent reflection and our Pledge of Allegiance will be led

002by Miss King this evening um moment of silence foreign can I have a motion to adopt the minutes from November 19 2022 special meeting and October 17 2022 regular meeting as president I'm sorry if you say November 17th November sorry if I need to restate that can I have a motion to adopt the minutes from the November 19 2020 two special board special meeting and the November 17 regular board meeting as presented so who second is there any discussion if there's no discussion Mr saluka that was moved by Miss King and that was second by Miss Morrison can I broadcast yes Ms Morrison yes Mrs Daniels yes before I start my board president's report do we have any more chairs for this I think they're hiding in the back there [Music] thank you at this

003time I'll have my report on behalf of everyone in the Garfield Heights City Schools and the entire Board of Education I wish our school family a safe happy and enjoyable holiday season at no greater time are the talents and Treasures of the students and staff at the Garfield Heights City Schools on display then during these past few several routes those who took the time to attend a holiday performance activity or competition will attest that our students and staff truly work every day to uphold the mission in the vision of our district on behalf of the Board of Education we congratulate Coach Johnson which is here tonight yes thank you on attending this most recent Milestone of 300 career victories as a coach while this occasion marks 300 wins as the basketball coach Coach Johnson has

004been matching victories in the community for many many years and for hundreds and hundreds of student athletes and families congratulations and thank you for your contributions you have made to our school community students and staff have the opportunity to participate in a all call for the mahaja dance Collective for drummers and dancers who will participate in this year's Black History Month celebrations through our diversity equity and inclusion team these are great opportunities for our students to understand culture communicate Communications in a safe and productive manner congratulations to those family who made the decision to participate and we look forward to seeing your hard work during our black history month program in February you may have seen our wonderful students portrayed in positive manners in the local and local Broadcast News recently and we want to

005give a special shout out to Channel 5 News who on two occasions have positively spotlighted our elementary students our high school students our staff members and superintendent Dr Reynolds thank you to our student performers from the high school band the theater Department our vocalist and music express and others who've gone above and beyond to entertain or perform within our community at Veterans Day Thanksgiving winter break and other opportunities as we have heard Dr Reynolds say many times we are all in this together and if we stay this course remain dedicated to one another we will successfully reach every child every day together this concludes my report please have a blessed and wonderful holiday thank you at this time we'll have our committee reports are there any reports this evening Madam president miss King I just

006have a quick um community and family engagement liaison report uh last Tuesday the Ohio School Board passed a resolution in opposition to the expansion of the federal Title IX laws this does not have a direct impact on school districts however we may need to be prepared to answer questions from parents in the public on how we address transgender policies such as transgender gender bathroom usage and sports related questions the resolution will be sent out they have 21 days to send it out each board member will get one directly emailed or mailed to us as well as the superintendent um so we should be getting those of the beginning part of January um I also like to wish everyone a happy and a healthy holiday season and with that thank you Miss King is there any

007questions regarding Miss King's report this evening if there's no questions is there any other reports this evening Miss Morrison no I do not have any reports today thank you uh Miss Ken just a piggyback on your report I had the opportunity on yesterday to attend the annual skating with Santa at the recreation center and um the director Paul Burke indicated that we had a record number of families and students from the community that participated this year and um as he was talking and engaging with the families they indicated that they found out about it through the school district so Mr Burke wanted to extend the thanks to Dr Reynolds and the school Community for collaborating with the city and ensuring that we notified the families so that our wreck actually had a record setting um

008attendance at the annual skating with Santa so it was a fabulous evening so just wanted to share that for Community engagement so Dr thank you Dr Reynolds for the work that you have done to bridge that gap between I'm giving our family access to the activity that's available within our city and thanks to the city for offering those opportunities for our families to participate in our recreation activities for nominal fees so it was a really good time and a lot of time and that's what's all working together if there's no other reports this evening I'm going to turn um this portion of our meeting over to Dr Reynolds for our presentations information yes all right thank you all for the opportunity to really discuss our academic community plan moving forward um I wanted to ensure

009that we had a clear and concise plan uh to to respond to what we've seen on our school report card and at the beginning of the year we talked about a few things we talked about where we're going to start where we're going to want to start we're going to look at the standards we're going to then look at assessments and instruction those were kind of the foundational pieces of what we're going to do to to respond to the data reflected in the in the school report card and with those standards we're making sure that all of our teachers administrators understood what those standards were asking for creating assessments that responded to the level rigor of those standards and then the instructions to ensure that we're in mastering those standards that was the foundational piece

010almost the root and the core of what we're trying to do in the plan that we've developed so far so with that plan there are some pieces of the plan or some pieces of that foundational piece that we need to ensure is happening to ensure that those things are actually happening there's going to be four pieces instruction culture and climate leadership and Community Resources and Facilities so I want to tell you about the process how we started to develop this plan what we did we gathered our partners and our partners were the teaching and learning Department special education people Services the ESC also stepped in to provide support student uh the state support team and our building leadership just to really kind of collaborate to begin the process of developing this plan eventually what we're

011going to do is announce it or have a conversation with some of our teacher leaders to also get their input on the plan of the foundational pieces that were we're putting together so development of the task force those four pieces or those four areas we developed task force to really focus on instruction culture and climate leadership and Community Resources and Facilities so the first thing I wanted to do was instead of just kind of going out there and say Here's what we're doing I need to establish a vision now there are a lot of different ways to to kind of uh communicate a vision there are a lot of words and a lot of jargon that you can put in the vision really just talk about where we're going as a district I I wanted

012to keep it simple to make sure that everyone understood exactly where we're going and what we're doing and that is the vision Student Success is our purpose everything that we do is going to be around Student Success and what's going to be very important about Student Success is that we have to remember that we can only do this thing together so that means that we have to be able to collaborate that means that staff members have to be committed to that to students and also staff members have to be committed to each other again this is the only way that we can do this because we have to build that level of trust and collaboration in order to to to Really move students forward because that is the point growing each child not just kind

013of looking at this thing and okay we're just going to be focused on um just proficiency what we're doing is growing each out where they are right now we're going to grow them and the only way that we can do that is together and by doing that we can then impact our PI score where our PI score is basically our performance index that shows the growth of our students that is going to be our proof that what we're doing is actually working and all students will experience this supportive professional engaged learning experience with committed staff members every child needs a champion they deserve a champion so we're going to make sure that they're having that and our why is pretty evident our wise because our state report card shows some serious deficiencies and deficits that

014we have to to to to to dig our way out of and the only way we can do this if we have a clear plan on where we are going there are a lot of different words and everything up here that we will be able to provide for you can read on your own but there are some areas that I wanted to make sure that we took a look at that we have to do this by creating some some common assessments we need to be able to compare apples to apples instead of apples or orange oranges so we have to have conversations over data and those common assessments creates that that opportunity for data professional development we can only get better by working on getting better it doesn't just happen we have to make sure

015that we develop some professional development opportunities for everyone and the last piece as a district everyone has to accept this challenge this is a part of what we're going to do to make sure that the kids are successful and everything in this District that this District does must focus on Student Success so we're going to start on that first area instruction provide the highest quality uh evidence-based instruction to tier one so we've started doing something it's just the teacher Clarity book that's actually the title it's just called the team Clarity book but what it really is is really unpacking the standards to make sure everyone understands exactly what those standards are and understand where we're going with that scope and sequence as well so that is the first part of that in the most part

016we've done great as a district to collect the data now what we're going to do to improve is now responding to that data instead of just collecting and saying here's what we have now we're going to create structures to respond to that data and part of that is by looking at our TBT BLT and our DLT structure we've done some things and I think most districts have done some things to make sure that we were more consistent with what the SST team has asked for we need to have something that's a little more responsive to what we're doing as a district not just let's make sure that we remain consistent with what SST let's remain consistent where our students will send that they're leading and then we're going to develop these curriculum guide for all

017of our subject areas with common assessments so this is a different framework than what we've done in the past which most of this school districts still do it the same way where they they look at the standards and then they do the instruction and then assessment what we're going to do is look at those standards unpack those standards understand what those standards are create an assessment and the assessment will then tell us okay here's the level rigorous standards let's create an assessments that matching the level rigor and now our instruction then feeds that so that is the different framework that we're going to to incorporate and what we're doing okay to three literacy dyslexia uh training uh we've already had that training there are about 10 teachers who are going to require this training foundations

018roll out aims aims well plus but the last part is something that we're going to be doing during the summer after we've done all these things that we're doing instructionally we're going to get the scores back so what do we do with the scores just look at them and pass them on no that's not what we're going to do what we're going to do we're gonna start making some decisions based on the information that we're getting to see what gaps that we still need to address so that's going to be happening to them somewhere the gaps with Master schedules where there's assessments or whether it's our scope and sequence which is also called our pacing guide we're going to be looking at that data to to then make some adjustments the next piece is the

019culture and climate PBIS is a huge part of what we do in this District we've been recognized for our work with PBIS but what we want to do is ensure that we're doing Pediatrics with Fidelity so it is showing not only with behaviors but it's also showing with what we're doing academically so we're going to be doing those tiered Fidelity inventory those reviews are basically walkthroughs of the building where the SST teams walk through and ask uh individuals questions teachers students and just to ensure that we're all on the same page when we're talking about PBIS uh develop expectations for mtss that is where we're looking at mental health we're also looking at how we're doing discipline right now structuring discipline there's some things that we need to make sure matches our handbook and our

020systems to make sure those things are matching right now um district-wide SEO we've done SEO pretty well in some buildings but we need to make sure we have these things across the board taking the security uh it's also an area that we're going to be doing but we're also be doing something as a board as we talked about in our last meeting to put together a Safety and Security committee and CPI training CPI training is a response basically it is um ensuring that we can de-escalate situations and sometimes in certain situations we've made restrained students in a way that's not harmful to them that's what that training is I've done that in every single District that we've been part that I've been a part of cultural uh diversity um we're going to be providing Professor

021development for both our certified and non-certified staff y'all if you see those numbers those numbers are basically where we remain consistent with the um with what the district has been doing so far um school and family engagement parent University we want to ensure that we're engaging parents as as partners families as partners so what the parent University will do is help parents to help their children in the classrooms provide any type of professional development for our parents as they tell us that they need and also post-secondary exposure I want to ensure that we're doing that and obviously we need to make sure that we're compliant with our special education program and this area is the Leisure piece we are talking about all the things that teachers will need to be able to do now we

022need to make sure that as a leadership team that we are able to support those things so we're going to be creating a Leisure PLC and all those are the things that we're going to be doing to to make sure our um our our principals and our building leaders are able to support our students but the first area is restructuring staff and office space I want to make sure that everyone on the bus is in the right seats so that is what that is even with office spaces making some adjustments just so that I'm a little closer to the work than we're talking about with academics the data analysis tool is something we're going to also incorporate in making sure the apartment huddles but those huddles are just ensuring that our leaders are having instructional

023conversations on a regular basis our principles and abilities need to be instructional leaders and this is one of the ways that we will be doing this the last area is Community Resources um then what we're going to be doing is to begin to explore those opportunities to repair some of our facilities with our middle school and also with our Stadium those two areas are our highest needs and and hopefully we'll be able to develop a plan in order to respond to that hire operations director unfortunately we are losing uh someone to retirement and I'm jealous we're losing someone to retirement and we're going to need to to hire operations director and also conduct facility audits what those are basically walkthroughs of the buildings we don't want to get to a point where we're not taking

024care of not being good stewards of the facilities that we currently have so we want to make sure that we're doing some regular walk-through evaluations and development infrastructure for those systems those are the walkthroughs and the last piece right here is the development of District building restructuring plan we are looking now to possibly and we are only at the beginning stages of looking at our K-5 buildings and seeing how we can restructure to ensure that we are getting the most bang for our buck when we're talking about collaborations with teachers when we're talking about conversation instructional conversations to improve what we're doing academically and those are all the things that we're going to be doing obviously the final plan that we're going to submit to the board is going to have a little more details

025than what I'm giving right now so that you know exactly what we're doing but this is going to be the evidence that we are going to take care of every child every day together and that is the conclusion of that are there any questions regarding this plan thank you Dr Reynolds for your presentation this evening um this was very comprehensive and I do also appreciate you aligning it with our strategic plan goals um as um that assist the board and just ensuring that recovery in every area of the Strategic plan so 4.1 and 4.2 are our goals and the district strategic plan that you can find on our website um do anyone have any questions regarding Dr Reynolds report this evening I do have one quick question um with CPI is this a retrain or

026is this it is a retrain okay um thank you for a comprehensive um strategy um in order to move our students and our district forward I I appreciate you covering every aspect from um the educator bus driver cabinet teacher um down to just every aspect because it's going to take all the way through the community and the parents our students meet all of us on board um moving together with the same plan to ensure that we began to see what we know our students have in them that we begin to assist them in being the students and academically ready to be successful um in the community that's that's our goal as a district and I'm excited and the board is most definitely on board um to support the district and ensuring that um every student

027every day and we're doing this together when will um the plan is great um when will the board get updated is it annually or when will this plan um kind of look at um is the plan actually producing what we're promising yeah so so what a part of this plan that you don't see here because it is on the final piece with all the information um it actually has who's responsible for this work and here's the timeline so each one of these committees each one of these task force will be needed monthly to update the system to update what we have as an inventory to update that information so you all will kept abreast on a monthly basis how we're coming along um that was created to hold everyone accountable including myself for you all

028to hold me accountable to this plan so that is something that is extremely important that we do in order to make the same work that we need to be Health accountable including me so all that information will be provided for for each of you with this plan um where there will be some action steps for the board um what we need to consider some additional resources financially what we need to maybe take a look at some policies and procedures um we maybe need to look at our strategic plan and maybe possibly make some adjustments so as we're moving forward in this plan what do you need from the border of Education in order to support um the yeah the um success of our plan which in turn will be success of our students yes all

029of the above um there's going to be some aspects one of which um I know that once we have our sculpting sequence in place uh we want it to be more approved the reason why we wanted to be work proved is because everyone is going to be held accountable for a new policy that the board has approved so it's going to be extremely important that once this thing gets to the point or once we get to the school conceiving to the point um that this is something you're going to adopt I'm going to need board approval for that scope of sequence but there are going to be a few other things that we're still working out as I said we're looking at restructure so we're going to need your assistance in those things uh to

030really try to understand where how far we can take this and your approval on doing those things but we have to we're again we're at the beginning stage where we're just trying to understand where we are um and if it's even feasible thank you thanks so much I have a follow-up question um in terms of our strategic plan I love the way that your plan fits with our strategic plan I want to know are we going to get an update on the other parts of the Strategic plan that may not have been covered with your academic plan because it has been a while and I know you know we may have to do some adjustments to our strategic plan like um Madam president um alluded to but I think it might be also time you

031know at the beginning of the year first quarter you get an update on the entire strategic I agree I agree one of the things that we need to make sure it happen is that everything tied in together um what I've seen in other districts other areas is we've had a lot of initiatives that are just doing a lot of different things that none of those things actually fit into each other this plan shows everyone in the district how it all feeds into each other I know we were doing some professional development they were some questions about how does these things this is how all these things work together including the Strategic plan so yes we can do an update on the Strategic plan and revisit that uh I'd like for us as it possibly set

032a date so we can do that what we're doing now is actually putting in information into the Strategic plan where we're saying where we are with all those um the goals that our workplace industry thank you is there any other questions there's no other questions thank you so much presentation yes and we will now be hearing from Mr Bailey thank you Kevin stuff all right okay thank you Dr Reynolds thank you Miss Daniels and thank you to the school board members who really appreciate the opportunity um some of this I kept a couple things in here just because we had a new school board members so I'll have to make sure I get with him because I just thought it would be an opportunity to go over some things um um I wanna I I

033always ask the team to come because it is a team and we're a department that we all work together to make sure that we keep everything running well into this District so um with me tonight is Jim casuta our network manager and then Tim sobasinski also our network technician and I didn't see if anybody else kind of snuck in from the back when I wasn't paying attention but we have two new members of our team Mr Jeff Gibson actually three Jeff Gibson and Larry Cameron two Network technicians that have also been helping us um news one since July and once since last month but they're doing an excellent job and then Kevin Sparks is new since last March doing earning the supervisor so I asked him to talk about some things related to emus some

034and you know we'll get to that here in a minute but um I can't again speak enough about how how important it is to have a team that works together and have the shared vision and make sure that we're doing things to support all of our students and all of our staff in this District to make sure that everybody can do their job which is ultimately educating their children so thank you so you know our job really is to keep everything working you know we try and maintain all of our district systems to make sure our goal is 100 uptime that doesn't always happen but that's always the goal because you have to strive for that all the time if things aren't working right then no one can do their job whether it's the business

035of school or whether it's educating with the students so I put a little bit this and all I might go over this a little bit faster just because like I said we had a new school board member but really you know we do one for one for our students we do iPads for preschool kindergarten special education we have teachers that use iPads for aims lab assessments so we do a lot of things with iPads PCS for all of our teachers I'll talk more about that in a minute and we do have some PC computer labs at our high school um we support the door access control system I know Dr Reynolds was just mentioning looking at a technology system or really Building Systems right so some of these are these Building Systems that um you

036know we make sure that we try and always have a plan for for keeping things current so we support our security systems in the district we have 11 different servers in all of our buildings um please and these are the number of cameras we have in each location um we have 117 analog cameras which are some of the cameras that are the older cameras in the district quite a few of them are at the middle school and obviously we've been discussing building and building and after the work session we discovered you know it's not going to be a tomorrow thing but ultimately we're trying to to use our resources wisely when things need influenced in the Middle School we're making sure that we can replace things that then could possibly be used somewhere else because

037hopefully we'll be having a new building coming um this is a picture of the wearing closet in the high school which as far as I'm concerned is the best wearing closet in the whole District when we built that high school you know there it was the kind of thing that you couldn't pay to be educated and how to build a brand new building like that and um I always joke that the cable in there is purple and some of my favorite colors not that I got to pick it but it just worked out really nice but it's huge and it's beautiful and it was planned well instead of a lot of our buildings you know we do things kind of we didn't have connectivity and cable way back when our schools were built so um

038this is just an idea of one of our battery backups that one is this one is in our high school closet um the design for this battery backup it backs up the entire network room for a certain number of minutes to make sure there's enough time for the generator to kick in to keep the building up and running in the event of a power outage um this is one of the um ESX server Farms that we actually have this is the one at the high school it's actually 24 servers they're actually virtual we have one in the Middle School one in the high school they back up each other across our Network we should have a catastrophe happening to one of our buildings they back up from the middle school the high school and back

039again and then every night we back up off-site to connect so we have a full backup of everything off-site as well um we also support transfiner which is transportation software peopleworks which is the human resources software Nails Plus which is cafeteria software and I guess by support I really mean and all these things it's not actually you know we're not trained in how to actually do all the utilization of them but we're making sure the pieces Parts work you know that the software works the database is getting updated that we're backing up all these things in the event of some type of an emergency we support our printers and copiers we manage paper cut which is has the ability to manage the district's Printing and copying um and then we have 105 copiers and printers

040in the district and we'll talk about that again in a minute um we also support docuware which is one of the things um I don't know if you guys if you all remember a few years back maybe about eight now there was a firearm in Willoughby South School District and they lost records records forever so around that time you started looking at a program called docuware that where we scan in transcripts IEPs HR papers Finance documents and that too then gets backed up to the server that gets backed off to connect off site so it's something that we you know when that happens you know it's a really adult and trying to figure out the right things to do PD Express is a website and it's used for lpdc or District Wireless is a Aruba

041system we use a management system called what's up gold we get text messages when any piece of equipment in the district goes down and then we get text messages when they come back up again and hopefully that happens immediately but um you know we know that we can make good decisions about what the equipment is how how the impact of it being down and you know if we have to do something then or it's something that can wait to the next day should it be in the evening so if it's their antivirus software we do Microsoft Windows updates um throughout the wsus server and uh phone system we have a denoma which is a relay that takes voicemails that related to email we have 530 phones and I'll be talking a little bit more about

042the Cisco phone system here in a minute so all right so we also filter the internet we have a Cisco umbrella server that we use for all of the district PCS primarily Macs we use goguardian for Chromebooks we have a firewall in place and we've been really trying to move everything to having an increased presence with cyber security some of the um the public school Works have sessions on that related to spam and related to cyber you know stalking and getting emails that actually are not real but we we've moved everybody to two-step authentication as painful as it was for some but we've done that and we're doing even more with that this year um we have Google workspace you all know that we use our email addresses are technically Gmail even though they're regular

043school email addresses but last year we put in place something called success Cloud sys Cloud backs up the entire Google domain backs up all Google Classroom backs up all of our Gmail um it backs up everything and that backs up off-site as well it's cloud-based programs so that's something that we put in place you know especially as we really became dependent on Google Classroom it was important to make sure we had those backups um this is really the huge one and the screen doesn't give it a justice but it's class linked so class link we started thank goodness we started it before the pandemic because it is how we roster all of our students overnight into all of the programs that we have purchased as a district that all of our students need to use

044aims being one of them one of the the training programs um math assessments is another program that we were asked her all of the curricular program there's a new math program called Envision that the middle school is using this year what happens is our students are entered into a progress club that information then it creates a few different Network accounts including their Google accounts and automatically then based on who they are what's teachers class they're in they get put in all of these different programs and it's not you know occasionally it's not Flawless but it's beautiful it's beautiful program because if somebody comes we get them rostered and all their programs immediately and it's it really kind of you know if you think of a phone and your apps on your phone that's really what

045it is it's a it's a desktop it's a it's a launch pad that has all your apps and all your programs and a lot of them are single sign-ons so students don't need to know 20 passwords which is huge so um just really fast high priority tickets the teacher they can't teach the student they can't learn if their device is found teachers computers down those are high priority tickets if we have 10 copiers in a building and one is down that's not a hot priority immediately because we know that when you print you can print anywhere in the district so there's always other places where you can get your job out um this is just some data as of 12 6 when I started running some of it um it's our tickets that we have

046in school dude if you know me you know I love school dude because if you open a ticket if either of us see it if you send me an email well maybe I just see it but maybe I'm in doing something else or in a meeting and I'm not seeing it immediately so this is by you know different types new equipment requests international issues phone issues popular issues um here's here's another one that's broken down by building to give you an idea the one at the bottom is the bus garage which really is a Transportation Center so they've only had 14 tickets this year um but this gives you an ID broken down by building and then Lee is one-to-one manager 101 manager lets us it Imports our student information system so all of our

047students are in there we have imported from Google all of our Chromebooks and I went to society device to a student that likes us to see the last time they're logged in and let's just disable it is should it become lost um we have a lot of powerful things in there that we can actually use and um assign a loaner if something gets lost we document any breakages in here so it's really a good system that we use um I put this in here a little bit and I'm going to talk a little bit more about some of the connections with the Strategic plan a little bit in more detail but really you know the technology department in a lot of ways we support all the different departments the buildings the different um well the

048different departments here so I put a couple of specific programs in here so where we might not be well versed in the how we'll be using the program we make sure that it's working for everyone when they need it so as far as assessments go for teaching and learning we roster aims web and class link it rosters branching Minds which we're using in also in class like the NWA map test we actually load that for map testing it's actually something that I work on to make sure then that all of our students can take the map testing and mentem is something new that we started this year our high school students are using it and our elementary school students will be using it that's roster enVision Math is another new program this year there are

049students use class link to access and then just the classroom technology for students and teachers to make sure that we have that available for wellness there's Ripple effects which is a program that the high school uses and we have pdis rewards which is a program that all of our elementary school teachers use um and then facilities and facilities and then learning resources the network equipment and making sure that we're keeping everything up to date to make sure that we're Forward Thinking we've tried to keep A Five-Year Plan whether it's just for Chromebooks maybe computers but then there's these big systems that we that Dr Reynolds was even starting to talk about you know we have the network equipment we have the wireless system we have security systems we have different systems that we need to

050make sure we keep thinking forward ahead of time when things are going to start being replaced by when we actually made these purchases um and then iPads and Chromebooks keeping those up to date so one of the things that is actually in the Strategic plan is to do a network evaluation and that's one of the things that we did last year now it was a very large document they did a lot of things for us uh May 3rd we had uh some of the recommendations and presentations they did Wireless surveys of our school buildings based on where our access points are in all of our buildings they looked at some of our policies our procedures for handling things the way we use school do to manage problem tickets they looked at our Network equipment they

051looked at our phone system they looked at security to our our server rooms so some these are just a few points that I'm going to mention today and there are other ones out there they really recommended that we expand to form factor authentication to all of our Network equipment we changed everybody last year painfully to having to have two-step to log in your Google account but we did have it in place for our Network equipment or our servers one of their suggestions was to increase security to all of our server rooms in the district with putting card readers so you have records of who goes in and out um improve some of our hva systems in our Middle School room 303 um sometimes it does get a little bit of warm in there the hva

052system doesn't always work really well um so again that's something we're gonna have to put a little bit of money into because when the lobby passes we won't have any Middle School immediately so I'm going to have to look at some of that stuff in a staff Gap staff Gap measures um Continue to update all of our servers making sure that all of our system software is up to date so we can mitigate any vulnerabilities there might be increasing training related to cyber securities so last year when I came and I'm going to talk a little bit some of these are related to strategic plan as well last year when I came I talked about the projects that we had planned this year um and what I've done is I've updated underneath it what we've

053done so far and related to the projects that we were planning for the school year one of the things we were planning is for the high school was new network switches so one of the things that we can apply for annually is e-ray and e-rate our discount is based on our free and reduced lunch model and because we are all of our students get free breakfast and lunch we get the highest discount which is an 85 discount so the high school had the oldest Network equipment of all of our school buildings and as you can imagine it has in some ways the most because it's the largest building the network equipment to replace all the network switches um even the Performing Arts Center we have two small closets in the health and design building we

054have one main plaza in the main classroom building the price of that equipment is over two hundred and three thirty six thousand dollars now the way e-rate works is we put out a 470 form which is a big document and that goes out there and it says that we would like to purchase Cisco equipment for this building this is what we need and then people bid on that and then after we get all the bids we look at them and compare them and evaluate them based on price but also things like are we familiar with the company have we worked with them before they've been responsible with us and then based on that um we make a decision we pick a vendor and the district cost for all that equipment is forty one thousand dollars

055forty one thousand seven hundred thirty five dollars and seventy cents so that's our 15 of everything now system is very backwarded still supply chain issues you're supposed to be here in February so the plan is they're switching it over to the high school hopefully all the high school over spring break that's the plan we launched for the beginning of April I guess it is technically where we're going to start setting up the equipment but actually do the cut over over spring break so hopefully everything comes in February like it's supposed to um something else I talked about last year was additional cyber security procedures such as the two form multi-form factor authentication one of the things they talked about in the network assessment that they did was um going ahead and adding some of these

056things adding two form of thought authentication for our servers and all of the network switches that we have in the buildings so what we did over the summer was we updated some of our storage in the middle school because that server Farm made in larger storage we updated some all of our all but just a couple of our district servers one we're waiting on because of a couple different things but then we purchased a program called Duo and in combination with our Network accounts we now are able to set up two form factor authentication and this is we're still in the process it's been a process getting it moved over but it will be done shortly where now we will have two form factor authentication to log into any equipment so that'll be documented and

057just another layer of safety so that's something we talked about last year that's still a process but we're working on it um one of the things I said was we're replacing additional security cameras you know we were using some of the user funds to replace some of our older security cameras we've been doing that um in some ways as things break as you might imagine we've been replacing less members of middle school but you do have to balance that between locations that need more coverage or maybe when cameras go down we just had an old analog camera go down that I did a purchase order today for to replace so we're trying to make sure that we replace cameras you know and we've been able to use that because it's Safety and Security and the

058life Chromebooks um with e-rate during the pandemic they came out with emergency connectivity funding funds for two years we were able to apply for and it had to do with student devices and it also had to do with student connectivity so one of the things we did do is we purchased hot spots for our families that we can be loan out to them and we could use it for student devices so we looked at the devices that were end of Life coming up for this school year which was about 601 and we would apply for 239 000 worth of Chromebooks and I've never done a purchase order ever your probably will I that was zero dollars we've got a specific coverage for those Chromebooks that we just finished setting up the team because Jim Tim

059and Jeff and and Larry is not here right now and they're not here um and uh they're actually in the middle school right now why they've been everywhere depending where the need was but a lot of them were going into middle school so that was pretty cool um yeah that's an exciting thing um so the other thing that we talked about last year was replacing teacher desktops with laptops for more Mobility you know when the pandemic hit we gave our teachers Chromebooks to work from home and it worked but really you know we wanted we didn't we typically had a desktop model in our classrooms a lot of our special ed teachers had laptops and administrators and laptops but not our classroom teachers so we were able to purchase using Esser funds laptops they have

060five year warranties that includes accidental damage as well and this summer docs were installed we connected the laptops to them we left an additional Monitor and then we also connected it to the classroom computers a humongous project um so that was another big thing that that one is actually done um the new copier contract that um Mr siluka's office negotiated with the with comdoc we've worked for them for a lot of years and it other than the copiers were delayed um as they as they had them they were letting us know and Jim worked with them a lot to make sure that they were put in place and swapped out pretty much pretty flawlessly so I believe we actually have them all now I think we have all the new copiers and they've been put

061in place already so Cisco phone system one of the things that were found out in the network evaluation was that and we knew this that some of the servers the servers that we had for our phone system were reaching end of life we needed to do some upgrades for our server software which when we did those upgrades we're going to force the phones that made belief in M1 to no longer work and the wireless phones that we have in the district district we don't have a lot of them but we have about 22 of those would be obsolete also so we were stuck at upgrading software upgrading Hardware if one we upgraded it's the classroom phones at Elmwood and Maple Leaf are the ones that would stop working so we actually work with connect and

062they and and data serve as another company where we are going to virtualize our servers so they no longer become Hardware based at our expense they're going to get moved to connect because they'll be off-site and now they're going to make sure that we're always staying upgraded up in all of our software so again it's a timing thing all the phones have been ordered and in January we're giving them a list of who's getting a new phone and in January they're going to configure them ahead of time so the rollout and placing them in the classrooms it will work with our current version of software so we're going to place the phones then we're going to do the cut over on the after hours and uh that equipment then is also going to be managed

063by connect and we still have access to do moves ads and changes and to be able to work with the system but that's happening in January um e-rate on so so some things that are coming down the pike for next year um obviously Dr Reynolds just talked about doing the facility audit which is a great idea and these technology systems are all part of that and built in school buildings um but something that definitely has to be done and we did wait one more year to do it is the district wireless system it's six years old and in Wireless that's old and you know we we've gotten it doesn't owe us a thing it's an Aruba system um we're eligible for 85 discount although you get so many dollars of e-rate so we don't quite

064have enough to cover the entire system but we have enough to at least cover half of it so we'll be eligible for the 15 discount but right now the bids are going to be going out soon we haven't done the 470 yet for that but we work with a e-ray consultant that helps us with all that paperwork Network switches there are a few switches at the middle school that need to be replaced and updated in some of the wiring clouds it's not a lot but again you know these would be things that could be used elsewhere in our school district when we build our new Middle School uh and the life June 2024 we have 350 Chromebooks that will reach end of life in June so again that's something out there that's you know definitely

065on the radar um and then that brings us to email so as I mentioned Kevin Sparks joined us in March um after our email supervisor went for Lawrenceville and now we have Dr Reynolds from Warrensville so that's kind of interesting um but I asked Kevin to come and talk a little bit about I'm going to say a couple things about this too um about you know people hear the word Venus and what does that mean and what kinds of things that he works on so we'll go ahead and let him go ahead and start and I'll pull up his presentation and President and Vice President Ms Morrison Dr Reynolds thank you for the afternoon ladies and gentlemen I didn't know I was going to have a full house okay um are you ready okay go

066ahead so um one of the things that um so when when our email supervisor went to Warrensville um I started really working on it I worked on a lot of things in this but I really started working a lot of things in this and one of the things that um some of the great emus mines in the area talked about was Data collaboration and data quality and I thought that was hugely important I know Dr Reynolds is a huge data guy but really when you talk about submitting all of our information to the state because ultimately that's where it goes it talks about the quality of the data and there's a large Circle in the middle which is actually all the different systems where we submit it but all the different shapes on the outside

067um they are the different people in our district where we pull this data from so when you talk about data quality and we're talking about let's say attendance of students that starts from our attendance clerks and our attendance secretaries in our building so when the quality starts there when the information is pulled and submitted then what we're submitting to the state there's the quality there with student assessments with our staff and making sure that they have the appropriate license um there's a lot of different groups in here with special education reporting so in that and on your charts that you have you see names that are connected with them because it takes everybody to make sure our data is accurate so we have to make sure that when we're now talking to all the people

068in central office and all the people that work in our school buildings I think data quality sounds better than Enos because I think everybody understands quality a little bit better so everybody outside is doing all the work and really the emus coordinator which is Kevin is pulling all that together submitting it to the state checking for errors and then going back and looking you know with the different various departments to see why the errors are there sending submissions again collecting the errors and making sure that things are correct so really that's a lot of his role not that he's not actually working on some of the details of the work but it's the collecting and submitting so I wanted to talk about that I'm going to let him go thank you oh yeah back up

069on it thank you pardon me yeah okay what is these I trust that I forgot to believe that I'm sorry but it's it's education management information system um it's basically simply a Statewide database okay it's for it's what ode uses um for district to report students staff Financial building data District data it's just a huge data warehouse machine that takes the gobbley that ode tries to communicate and how we need to do the data so that it can be spoken in regular language to the district so that everybody understands what the expectations are for the most part all right the role of an EMS coordinator um basically a liaison between the district and ode so we're providing English coordinators are provided with emails manuals that that are highly technical engineering type manuals that if you

070can't sleep I'll send you one we'll put you right up but in there our if we read between the lines um there is information that explains all right what are you asking for and how do we need to put that in we pretty much know what data they want it's in what format do you want to see and and that's where I try to figure that out and make sure that everybody that's putting the data in or managing the data and put like from the department has understand what the expectations are as well unfortunately sometimes things change so fast that uh we don't know until the last minute but that's where everybody's been you know is usually great and just adapting and moving on Amos communicates uh or communicate the requirements again the staff within

071the district so basically just the diagram below is basically just very simply how it all goes together right all right Emos coordinator of roles and essential skills not going to go over them but that's really just for your understanding you know in your reading um the roles of the emus coordinator they're all over the place in my opinion I do whatever needs to be done to get the data out to Ode to make them happy okay that's basically my my interest and my goals uh the essential skills there's a lot of training because there's a lot of changes I think this year so far there's been over 70 different reporting changes in this reporting here that um we have to keep up the speed on you know obviously too much so they were nice enough

072to create a website that we could go and refer to as those happen a lot of meetings a lot of training a lot of repetition because even though we may do these from year to year uh we only do it once and then it's another year before you've done it again and you need to get Refreshers so people like our ITC connect offer outstanding training you know just from people that are knowledgeable and skillful I wouldn't be able to do anything in my job without some of the expertise of those people and uh ode offers uh so much information for Amos coordinators uh not like it was in the past so we have ready access to a lot of information we've had okay the emus data collection calendar um that little guy in the right

073time when I first got into this and I saw that I I was kind of couldn't believe it there's a lot there's a lot of collection windows and basically what these are are different periods of the Year where we collect you know we got to collect student information all year but staff information financial information um assessments data and they provide us with open and close dates and a lot of times those change see that gray shaded area it's just where they they have to make adjustments and change so that's um pretty much the entire year there's about 35 or 36 and I think emus as far as what I do is involved with about 25 of them a lot of it um Mr Slicker does with the financials you know is that and some of

074those pertain specifically to Community Schools right for the most part so that's why Amos never stops right it's all year round there's no enemas holiday though we're lobbying for one because they have one day to rest been really fun I mean it is a lot but there's a lot of support that goes along to help you get through that it's just you know there's an old saying eat an elephant one bite at a time it's kind of the way you do it you just take what you can do and do your best um there's always at least one collection open so there's always something to do it's one of the things I love about Enos is that it always changes and there's you know I never come to work thinking tea what am I going

075to do today I I have 20. I have plenty to do so and I it makes work fun okay but it takes a village and again what what Sherry was going over in the beginning with the collaboration Circle um it starts with the superintendent Dr Reynolds and as he was talking about the accuracy of data is so important because he needs to make decisions based off of the information that he's getting from the reports that that we provide and if it's not accurate he's not going to be able to make a solid plan and Go in different directions so the data is so important for it to be accurate for that reason for him okay then to the data you know the the basically the data managers or the principals and the building had you

076know they they're they play such an important role and they've been so supportive people I mean it's been incredible the amount of support that they are you know but they have to make sure that data is being entered correctly and that their Community communicating correctly to the office staff how to to do that data how to put it in what's expected and I work a lot with the building principals and I said they're very supportive and very anxious to do the right thing to make sure that it gets right and then the office staff I I don't I can't say enough I mean they're they're the unsung heroes they really work hard doing a lot of different things and can welcome me with open arms and have been instrumental in communicating to me how to

077communicate to them and how to work with them it's fantastic uh and they also are just very all they're interested in is doing what is right and making it right and making it accurate and they're a pleasure to work with I did not let anybody yet that's been difficult in the building to work with they're just all very welcoming so you've got some really great people here so this can violence that takes a village I'm just the guy you know kind of spinning the dishes uh these are the people that do the real work you know and the department heads uh they do the Rope yeah I'm just just trying to make sure it all gets over there in the right way so more credit to them than anything I think that's yeah that's it

078so thank you for your time and your support are there any questions but all of them for you um no but thank you both for um such a detailed report on where we're at with technology and again um technology is most definitely the foundation of our district we can't do anything we need without our technology department up and running um since last year Sherry I know we have new employees but were you able to add to your team additionally or it's not just replace um not additional employees but we we had two people that retired and then we had we were able to hire Network technicians opposed to technology assistants and they were their 260 employees as opposed to the two people they replaced didn't work on did not work on summer so we got

079more time um which is good but um I I would still lie that's all I'll say about that but they they worked very hard and our two new employees are learning a lot but you forget what you know and how long it takes to get people up to speed and what you know yeah so is there still an area that just as a board I think I think it always could be an area I think it certainly obviously an area that we have to look at um yeah I would say yes but it's better like I see with the amount of tickets like at the middle school for instance is almost you know like someone designated to the middle school right right along like with what is our turnaround as far as ensuring that the

080technology is up and going in New York 100 goal and do we have the manpower to make that happen we're trying to look at some of the things that are going on at the middle school to see if we can make some changes to help with that you know so we're actually talking to the teachers and talking to Mrs cloutman and the administrators to see if we can make some changes there to see if there's some things that we can do help internally and right in the building so that's what we're working on right now but um definitely will not say will not be against having additional support for sure I know they're probably listening to me back they're going what yes yes Jerry say yes yeah because with our two new guys and the

081end up getting right now um we did hit a big comp and we lost you know one of our guys lost for a while and then we had people out for a while so right now we are catching up and getting up to speed so it's hard to say if we're gonna need extra people I I do feel like to get through the times we needed to expert people right but um as she says we are reworking the Middle School how we do things uh right now and uh yeah they're going you're going throughout right the guys and I are going through the carts uh we got those brand new Chromebooks um set up in carts in all of sixth grade has carts in their classrooms um that will not leave the classroom yeah so

082we're working on kind of a new plan to help with the process through Chromebooks but in the classroom one question I did have it's just about um just uh the Safety and Security as it relates to the students utilizing the devices for non-academic purposes and ensuring that so like my thought process behind it because I've just seen the challenges with having students in the district you guys do a great job with um blocking stuff as it come along but those kids are but it's smarter and they kind of stay ahead but when we with them staying ahead how do we um you know stay ahead of them to ensure that we never compromise the safety of our buildings that our students don't have access to anything you know teachers are teaching so I just know

083as a parent it's it's a task right individual just my small group of children you know and their activity um on the internet so just wondering like you know is there more we can do can we do more like parent education student education about you know the risk um or even you know um tighten our disciplinary as it relates to you know violating and doing things on devices that you shouldn't be doing during instructional time because just the overall concern is just ensuring that we keep our students safe and we're not they're not doing anything that can hinder us meeting our academic plan goals because we need them every minute focused on what's going on in the class and not on Roblox and and they got some stuff they figured out how to get through

084the system and oh you um um middle schoolers yes Miss Daniels is the one that calls Sherry then but I found out y'all doing and well you know it's a moving Target right I mean as soon as you find something that is a loophole you close it and you know that's what children do is try and find loopholes um go guarding has been an excellent product to work with as far as blocking things on keywords blocking things on sites blocking categories um I'd love to tell you it's 100 effective but as you know it's not 100 affected so when you reached out to me the teachers do the same thing the thing the couple things that I like about goguardian is the teachers have the ability to look at their class on goguardian and they

085also can see some things um but that too sometimes can be a moving Target where um students may or may not be then be able to be blocked right in the classroom because of some things that they're doing so we're always trying to learn and we're always trying to figure out um I definitely think you're absolutely right as far as educating the students the technology classes that's one of the places where we talk to students about that but we have done some things in the past the Ohio task force against crimes against children have done some training for parents I know there's been some conversations about having the I'd suggest that that would probably be another really great topic for that as far as educating parents because especially today I don't think you could be

086too there's there's no you cannot know enough especially with our students being on the technology that they're on absolutely but we always try and block more things you know we do so I guess that's the thing to know I'm at home yeah we're all blocking but educating is a big part of you know that you don't that we doing everything I know go Guardian I felt like it was so much more effective when we were um virtual yeah because the teachers were in front of the device at all the time so they were able to kind of catch them and throw this but now you know the you know they're doing other things you know they're teaching the class they're more interactive and not necessarily able to catch it and just do we have do

087we kind of um do our principles or anybody kind of just jump in sometimes and randomly check on our students and do the students know because sometimes that accountability will have them think twice you know before they make those poor choices because at the end of the day we do have rules and we do have expectations of our students and the only reason we're facing this problem is because students are making choices not to adhere to our expectations and rules of the district so it's unfortunate that we have to look at these extra measures and have these concerns because we do have an expectation but a lot of the students including my children are not following well I think that um we do there are alert mechanisms in um go Guardian that are set up

088to alert the building Administration and the guidance counselors in every building so they do get an email with a student if and then you know the sites that maybe were inappropriate maybe they didn't get there but they tried to get there they did a search for some of these things so they do get alerts to that effect which is a good thing yes yeah I think you guys contact parents too because we do a few oh yes yes to kind of keep foreign we do want to make sure that the kids are safe yeah absolutely and not and I don't think that's something that it's it's always a high priority really because it won't ever change you know what they're doing might change and how they're doing it might change but what we do to

089try and keep keep them safe will always be a priority and evolve I've said one quick question for Sherry um the district wireless network yes that we will have to replace yes um I know we would we'll get the the discount is there any can you guesstimate about how much debt well we have 400 and I think it's 417 access points in the entire District um anywhere from five hundred dollars to a thousand potentially it's a cloud-based system so we don't need a server to run it um that's an estimate and we have about I think we we have about 280 thousand dollars e-rate e-rate monies available so it just depends how the prices come in that's why it's a bidding process which is a good thing and just thank you for all your work

090oh you're welcome it's my pleasure both of you and your hard work our pleasure safe and secure with our technology I know there's there was a college that um College of the Desert they were hacked they got everything up and going they have to begin so thank you very much for all that you do and just hats off I've had some previous English experience thank you is there any other questions if there's no other questions thank you so much again for all you and your team thank you um and um thank you guys for always just keeping us abreast of where we're at and just keeping our district um share you ahead of the ball as it relates to technology I mean thanks to your Forward Thinking and your vision um when we had to

091go into the pandemic um we were prepared more than others and I just even see these additional Chromebooks coming in and things of that sort where you're keeping us equipped and ready to make sure that they're that our children are able to have access to education and just state of the art because technology is what they do enjoy um and that's a great way to um engage our students as academically so thank you guys for all that hard work thank you and you did a good job at this time we are going to have recognitions accommodations Dr Reynolds thank you um tonight we want to take a moment to celebrate coachelli Johnson thank you from the time he played as a bulldog and sent to the heights of heights in this District including Mr basketball

092and then playing at division one college level and then returning to your album water you have truly mentored others to follow into your footsteps to exceed your expectations to require hard work and integrity among the members of your basketball family and to make our community a better place we argue with a plaque for achieving this Milestone of 300 wins for your coaching career SpongeBob um thank you so much I mean a lot for you and uh any words we have before well uh we're staying here there you go you gotta get on my wife uh lying to me about why we were here today um this means more to me y'all y'all welcome here 18 years um and I uh tried to not just uh do what I can for my basketball players but the

093kids in the community or kids I run into because you know we deal with a lot of kids and different kids are a lot of different and just how we're just trying to all of us are trying to help and um I'm going to continue my mom my mother here okay I want to say that first and foremost my dad can't be here um he he got some bad news for us what he's going through right now we're canceling stuff but I know my mama's gonna be here in my mind Miss morning stalking my kids my beautiful kids my beautiful wife I have to say happy she get mad at me but I want to say this um we are truly this is um I love being here I love um documentary I love what

094I do I love the impact that God has blessing me to be able to do it first of all God thank you because honestly let's be honest I'm not the one I have and honestly his favor um is everything so I thank God for that first and foremost a favor to be able to um just be here this long you know and um and be here with y'all this long you know people don't last as long but I'm enjoying what I do I'm enjoying um hopefully you know just uh keeping the community together any little part I can do and just um I really just want to say um from my heart thank y'all this means more than you know to me you know this is I don't ask for stuff but just been here

095so long to be able to get something like this is truly grateful so love y'all I'm gonna continue to go and go Bulldogs all right thank you yes yes um Coach Johnson for everything that he's done you know I've been through two kids through the basketball system um you do some remarkable work with our Scholars and the way that you work very hard to get them into college and get them to that next step I enjoy getting my text messages with updates that you went to the movies and you know you are Beyond just a basketball coach you are a mentor and a positive role model for our our Scholars thank you Mrs Johnson I just have the same sentiment that Miss King I mean my daughter's at the high school she doesn't play basketball

096but she has a relationship with you she really enjoys you know and I've watched how you Mentor those boys and just any students and you're just such a blessing to us in this District you know doing my board um president report but I just want to thank you for the impact that you're not just making on our students you know we're acknowledging you today for the work you're doing for our students but you actually touch through this Nationwide um the work the ball does not just stop um for our students but you allow it to dribble from community community state to state and you are making a impact Nationwide and that's a big deal and we appreciate that that ball is starting here and out of our community in Garfield Heights is a lot of

097great things and great people that are giving and pouring into the communities not just ours but others and we don't take enough time to have those discussions it's not just a game that you're teaching the kids but you're teaching them how to change the game change the game of their life especially in this inner city in our Urban kids showing them that it's bigger than the ball but this is where it can start so you're teaching a very attributes that we need in our community so I thank you I thank you not for just our students but the impact that you're making Nationwide and we are glad here in city of Garfield Heights that we can be the home for you developing our students not just young men but young women too and we appreciate

098that and may God continue to bless you and your gift but you just got to commit to keeping the boss stands I appreciate you you guys are like family the whole Johnson Family actually make a huge impact it's just he's just one of the seeds of a phenomenal family in our community that goes above and beyond to make an impact so thank you thank you teachers okay are you all coming around too or I think the school board also wants a picture yeah please thank you so much I was not prepared for our adventure okay hey seriously family from my family thank you so much you had on the board is what yeah there you go there you go perfect okay now I can see everybody um a lot probably probably about 200 of them

099so he makes me look good I want to thank everybody for everything you said about my son because I meant so much to me I mean he's a amazing guy he's right he's just not about ball for him getting kids out of college we know a lot of coaches different things that don't do half the stuff that he do and I just want to thank you for taking this time out to acknowledge not just that but the things you said meant more to me than even that so thank you so much thank you oh I meet you too you guys are more than welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting or thank you so much at this time we are going to have our superintendents report Dr Reynolds thank you madam president uh

100for everyone's knowledge I began my report by reminding our school family that winter break began today uh Monday December 19th and runs through Tuesday January 3rd uh please Market your calendars and enjoy your time away from from school with family friends and loved ones and saving joyful men the month of December is a special time in Garfield Heights City Schools inspiring performances heartwarming acts generosity and Goodwill and continue interpersonal uh growth and initiatives and more characterizes uh this past month first uh as a way for our school family to spread festive holiday cheer our family and Community engagement team did a great job of entertainment Supply toys and refreshments and coordinating our special our special guest visit may or may not be around uh during our Winter Wonderland event uh held last week our district

101will continue to be a safe place for families and children to grow and this event represents such an opportunity uh one important initiative that demonstrates the Garfield Heights cities schools uh dedication to Innovation and Technology along with student academic growth took place this month at Elmwood uh since last year students became Heroes for several with several other schools in the state of Ohio as Heroes League online life skills learning platform kicked off this 2000 2003 Statewide competition as a pilot program promoting skills is leadership entrepreneurship problem solving digital literacy personal finance and others the Heroes League will be available for students in Maple Leaf and William Foster in the near future and all of our Illinois students will have the opportunity to get involved in this program which early results are showing that more time

102spent on Heroes League game is improving performance in classrooms and on test scores this is exciting and more to come also early this month Mr Bernard and 85 students from The Varsity choir freshman choir and music express entertaining mail Burke and a room full of senior citizens at the Civic Center uh simply put everyone loved the performance last month about 60 senior citizens attended the center for performance arts uh to see Mr Benjamin's theater Department prepare for their fall play we are positively engaged in the community in so many ways and it's wonderful to see and as I've had I've said so many times we are in this together so every chance we have to take talents of our students out in the community we will do so and in closing he's gone now we

103are here to honor uh head coach Sonny Johnson who recently winning his 300s career game as the coach here at his Elm water and while his accomplishments in basketball uh speaks for themselves um as he's built a successful program that's um very successful in the state of Ohio he Prides himself on helping student athletes um advance to college and a secure scholarship for various division one division two hand division three schools for more than 70 student athletes during his tenure he's positively shaped helped shape the future of our players and become meaningful members of the Great Society Coach Johnson congratulations to your successes and for attending this Milestone and as I close I wish you all Garfield Heights City School family a blessed holiday season an enjoyable winter break thank you for the privilege to

104serve as your superintendent thank you Dr Reynolds is there any questions regarding Dr Williams report this evening if there's no questions we'll go to our next item on our agenda this evening which is remarks from the public regarding agenda items so we have anybody signed up not for the document agenda items yes it is what is an agenda okay I guess it is an agenda item thank you even though he's not here I'm still doing it anyway Joanie wonderstock 10905 Mountain View Avenue do I need to read the guidelines for public comments no I know I have three minutes but thank you oh no more than three minutes no I know I heard to my little Grapevine the center is going to be recognized this evening since I was not sure what was going to

105be said about him I felt compelled to share a few of my thoughts on the man with the tremendous 300 basketball game wins a team Sony is far more than an accomplishing basketball coach and it was important for me to share with that with that with all of you here tonight in addition I never want to miss an opportunity to talk about Jonathan I first met study when he was in high school when he initially came to Garfield Heights High School I never really knew him but I was certainly well aware of all the hype that surrounded the eventual Mr Ohio basketball recipient due to his Beyond impressive Talent on a basketball court what I do remember very verbally is how and all I was at the fact that he never let all the attention

106he received to find who he was when Sunny was a senior I had a student who was very sick because he was afflicted with sickle cell anemia suffice it to say he idolized Sonny during that same year I was asked the chair committee on behalf of the Cleveland food bank's power responder food drive we did our play in front of oh I decided to come up with a rather elaborate skit that would incorporate both Little Chucky and sunny we did a play in front of all three of our elementary schools first stop was Maple Leaf imagine this we announce we have outside with us the crowd erupts and out comes just a little over four feet tall Chucky the crowd gas yet within a few seconds out comes sunny in the crowd of kittens went

107absolutely crazy it was then the pure magic took place because unscripted by me instead of Sonny basking the glory of this Limelight which was his he threw the ball to Little Chucky he gave this frail little student of mine the chance to experience what he could have never ever before ever imagined which was positive attention in all honesty Chuck Lee was never the same after this as his level of self-confidence and self-esteem quite frankly skyrocketed that was Sunny's effect on others when he was just a teenager it was at that moment I saw firsthand how very special Sunny was fast forward to about 20 years ago when I had the Good Fortune to Bear witness to the enormity of Sonny's appeal I had gotten into a car accident and an insurance rep came to the

108high school and assess the damage to my car out of the car stiff's little old man never been in his 80s before he'd been saying one word to me he looked at the high school building and then turned to me and said this is this where Sonny Johnson works I just smiled and responded out of my head yes studies impact on others has continued through the many years he is coaching this District he could have had the opportunity to go anywhere and he chose us never was it more apparent than just a few weeks ago this season the opponent was Cleveland Heights I've worked our games for the better part of over 20 years and I do not recall ever not having some alteration during that matchup this season was different and somebody was able

109to prior to the game and if you were there you saw it I was able to silence a crowd which was no small feat by my dad and he shared his thoughts from his future chart related to behavioral expectations he opened it to throughout the course of the game when he finished speaking I turned the policeman standing next to me and I said very calmly we're not going to have any problems tonight the cop looked at me in disbelief but my words rang true all evening long not even one altercation why the answer is simple Sonny's influence without being disrespectful to anyone else that was there this evening this is the reason why we were all sick that night and students are still talking about it looking at the gate it was like a who's

110who of semi's former players various coaches from the area and most importantly of all Sonny's huge supportive and most loving family no one there was willing to risk a problem resulting in not being able to enjoy watching Sunny coaches boys that's right his voice I would be remiss if I did not also take this opportunity to let you all know that Sonny's been far more than a coach throughout his entire career he has seen as we've talked about um basketball and scholarships he if a student desires to go to college he will find a way regardless of how talented they are in basketball courts he has been his player's number one Advocate and not many coaches can say that Sonny has always been about kids and that is not true not just true to the

111person he is it is also due to how it is raised a lot of people don't know this but Sonny's dad was also a coach um in our district Sunny has not just been a second father to the master glorious of players but in many cases he has been the only thing that they have ever known this is perhaps the easiest role for him as he has learned from the best next to my own beloved dad I honestly do not know any better than any dad better than his I firmly believe that Sonny's family values and recognition of the important role his entire family plays in his life is the biggest reason why he is to choose him with success as a coach as a coach he's learned from the best I'm so happy and

112truly grateful to this board of education Dr Reynolds and Mr hurt for recognizing Sonny in this form especially since it's never been done before I'm also happy that you can now see what those of us that have had the Good Fortune to know for decades and that there how special Sonny really is congratulations Sunny You've Won not just 300 plus games but also the admiration respect of countless number of other people that concludes thank you was there any other um not for the agenda okay thank you thank you at this time can I have a motion to approve Financial agenda items 9.1 and 9.2 as percented on tonight's agenda so no second is there any discussion Mr saluka is there anything you'd like to highlight relative to items 9.1 and 9.24 mostly item 9.2 is

113that we need to tell the county auditor that we want to participate in his Advanced program of the property taxes for the next calendar year and we have to do that by the more approving that as far as the um financial statement I'll have a better handle on that at the end of the half a year and I'll be more in-depth report in January if there's no other questions or discussion relative to items 9.1 and 9.2 is presented Mr saluka that was moved by Miss King and second by Miss Morrison can I roll call please miss King yes Miss Morrison yes Mr Daniels yes foreign agenda item 10.1 and 10.2 as presented on tonight's agenda so moved second in the steering discussion if there's no discussion Mr saluka that was moved by Miss Morrison and

114second by Miss King can I have roll call please Ms Morrison yes Miss King yes Mr Daniels yes a male president at this time I need to um point out that we need a table resolution 10.3 because we do not have enough numbers here to pass that resolution we need a majority of the board which takes four members the fastest resolution so we need to table it and set up a future meeting so we need to get the path um by January 4th and have at least four members of the board in the tennis is it take one or amending the agenda to to remove I think it's not a table it just because it's already here we're going to table it to our future meeting so I think we need to take a motion

115a table to a future meeting can I have a motion to table agenda item 10.3 to a future meeting um for the reasons as stated by Mr saluka just okay I'll explain it after the second one Sonu second um after sitting in here I texted our attorney Rick manoloff and I said can we pass I was just wanted to make sure at three or four it needed to pass this script this type of resolution and during the meeting Texas back and said unfortunately you need a majority of the board which is the four members so he's he reiterated that we need to pass this to get it down to the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Department of Transportation advice uh January 4th so my suggestion is if we get to schedule a meeting

116um either later this week or early next week which is like a Tuesday um to get at least four members here in the past so we can get it down to the County fiscal officer get the necessary financial information and get that filed with the Ohio Department of thought uh taxation on your Iowa Department of Education yeah so I'm looking at you know calendars I don't know I should take only about five minutes the fastest so we can maybe do a quick lunch meeting early lunch meeting or early morning first thing meeting but everybody's schedules looking like and we just need another just one more board member to be able to get there questions open I'm open I'm open also so Mr Saluki if you can reach out to the other two board members to

117just see what their availability is and then weekly schedule for December of December 27th is around 11 or noon work for everybody I would just just think about fun I have a doctor's appointment I think we should maybe out by 12 15. anything yeah before or after that I will reach out to other board members if we'll go with that one to reschedule that and get the special meeting yes okay is there any other questions or discussion if there's no other questions and discussion Mr subuka can I have roll call please Miss King yes yes Mr Daniels yes can I have a motion to a proven way for reading of personnel agenda items 11.1 through 16.1 as presented well no 11.1 I'm sorry 15. 15.1 it was getting ahead of myself there in this summary

118can I have a motion to approve Personnel agenda items 11.1 through 15.1 as presented so moved second and is there any discussion if there's no discussion Mr saluka that the motion to improve away Personnel agenda items 11.1 through 15.1 as presented in tonight's agenda was moved by Miss Morrison and second by Miss King can I both call please Ms Morrison yes Miss King yes Mrs Daniels yes no action on 16.1 tonight is the first reading of the board policies have we got any feedback or anything relative to them at all to yeah Mike I do have can I make comments here yes um just and just two one three suggestions that I wanted to bring I didn't want to just send to Sean because I wanted the board's input and thought um and on two

119two six zero the curriculum a um it talks about uh review current and proposed courses of study and textbooks to detect any bias based upon the protected classes ascertaining whether or not supplemental materials singling or taken as a whole fairly depict the contribution of both genders can we change into all genders so it's not just male female But it includes all genders or something of that nature so it's not binary that's is my suggestion for that and then also um there's several places throughout where it talks about um equal access and I think we may want to look at putting Equitable access because everyone having the same equal access doesn't always meet their needs and they may need more um so there may be places where we have equal access that we may want to

120say Equitable access and then also I would like to recommend um for 3 32 16 and 1616 it talks about the dress code for staff um it states that it needs to be consistent with professional responsibilities I think we need to be a little more specific because [Music] um I think it needs to be a little more specific on um the dress code in terms of length of skirts um the types of material genes versus non-genes that sort of thing in our um teacher dress code and that's all I had that I wanted to just bring to the board's attention for consideration on revisions or foreign so um Sean any suggestions we just kind of take them back into the policy committee make sure legal looks them over and then make the recommendations and they

121are correct yeah so once like what's supported anything once you approve the on the final reading in January that any of the revisions would be able to take it back to Yola and make the adjustments from there so thank you any input relative to the recommendations for many board members relative items um I like the changes that just came recommended thank you Mr morrisonment thank you Miss King for um your review and making the most recommendations and we'll be sure that we filter those through um thank you the next item on our agenda can I have a motion to approve contract agenda items the emotion to approve and wait for reading of contract agenda item 17.1 through 17.4 as presented on tonight's agenda so move second and is there any discussion relative to these items

122but there being no discussion Mr saluka that was moved by Mrs King second by Miss Morrison can I have roll call please yes King yes yes Mr Daniels yes Miracle motion to approve and waive the reading of miscellaneous agenda item 18.1 and 8. 18.2 as presented on tonight's agenda so moved second and is there any discussion um yeah just following up on the uh the donation to The Anthony rigario scholarship this was a donation from his wife to in support of his uh his scholarship that was established upon his passing a couple years ago and they've been raising money and that's uh a very uh fitting tribute to Anthony rigario and the um an aragario family that she wants to keep this scholarship going um machine sees the value of what it is to our

123students so I think it's a very generous donation I will be writing a letter of thank you to her so she would have that to support um the donation the acceptance of the board thank you Mr saluka um just on behalf of the um Board of Education we are extremely grateful for the generosity of the family and them investing in our students through the scholarship um so we thank them and their generosity is truly appreciated and we appreciate their consistency with impacting the students in our district attended letters will reflect that and depreciation from the board and Dr Reynolds and support yes I mean this is yes we impact that this donation has on our students it's phenomenal yeah I have a question in regards to the graduation seals just to make sure I'm understanding

124so the three seals that um you're asking us to approve is community service Fine Arts and student engagement those are alternative Pathways to student graduation almost alternative Pathways but it's a part of the graduation required equipment to have at least two of the seals okay we're creating three additional sales to give them more more opportunity got it okay that's what I wanted included what can students have access to all the seals that are available to our students to make sure we have all of the all of the decisions like if I wanted to see all the seals that my student could possibly earn or where do you find that is that on the website or do your student go to their guidance counselor and get that information well currently I'm not sure if they have

125access to that but I'll ensure that they do okay so how many sales do we have right now we're approving three is this we only have three or is this three additional three is the max there's C ertain seals and for the locally you can have up to three and so we did all three of them this is what's the guidelines outlined from the state so we went we hadn't developed all three of them just so that we could get as many kids to demonstrate Readiness as possible and they start working on these seals in the ninth grade yes okay so do we like start introducing the concept to our eighth graders to prepare them for the pathway like how do we start that conversation or have we worked that out yet Joe is starting

126in like 30. but if that's something there's a couple programs that we're actually working with GCC is one of the programs that actually starts at sixth grade which will help us with pushing kids to work some more sales and backwards it is a program that basically um exposes kids to different careers and opportunities and including activities that can include internships and apprenticeships so we're starting that that is something that being headed by um Mr Towers at the high school he's leading that effort but we think that will help us as well okay because I'm just thinking like you know as they are preparing their ninth grade um um schedule in the eighth grade some of these seals are closely aligned to curriculum and so just the kids kind of knowing the pathway and kind of

127so we're not kind of spinning our wheels so they can get the most bang for the book or if you're going into the arch just really going to work they're on the fence knowing that this can benefit them you know and you know where the benefits lie so they can see the full benefits as they are preparing for their High School career and that can support our students and possibly if they're they have access to this in Middle School list they're planning because they start to plan their ninth grade schedule in middle school and maybe that plan and she can say hey this will these classes will set you along the path of this field and these classes will set you along the path of that seal that way we can streamline our students you

128know to successfully you know just just a thought I'm just thinking like it's what I would need as a parent or just going to want to have happened to the ninth grade knowing that they need to accomplish these seals and the more that they can get do it dually while they're doing their academics would be better for me [Laughter] so maybe that's just the personal sidebar if there's no other discussion Mr saluka that was moved by Miss Morrison and second by Miss King can we have roll call please there's Morrison yes Miss King yes this is Daniels yes thank you our next item went to nice agenda is remarks from the public regarding miscellaneous School items and we have one person here this evening and that is Miss Crystal atteberry and um Miss Adam I'm

129going to read our policy relative to um public participation at board meetings all board meetings of the board and board appointed committees are open to the public in order for the board to fulfill obligation to complete the planned agenda in an effective and efficient fashion a maximum of 30 minutes of public participation may be permitted at each meeting each person addressing the board should give his name his or her name and address if several people wish to speak each person is allotted three minutes until the total time of 30 minutes is used during the period 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

130participation may be extended by a vote of the majority of the board present in voting agendas are available to all those who attend board meetings the section of 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 and board meetings miss atteberry you can address the board and welcome to tonight's board meeting thank you thank you very much if you can confirm your um your address for me please sure it is 12210 Woodward Boulevard um thank you for hearing me out um this evening my name is Crystal atteberry and I am a parent here in Garfield at the middle school as well as the high school um I have four children in this District my first daughter she

131graduated in 2021 um from the high school and I have a 11th grader right now that's at the high school and I have a great chance seventh grader at the middle school and in August I will be having a kindergartener in the elementary um my children did not start off in Garfield because of the reputation that was in Garfield um I was scared to put them in Garfield um the only thing that was going for Garfield that I heard positive plus the basketball team and now I see why so um I hate to come to the meeting with the gloom and doom after such a positive meeting but um my daughter has been experiencing bullying very bad at Garfield Middle School and it started off at Leon Foster in fifth grade and um I am

132that type of parent that's very much engaged I I speak all the time I try to encourage our children in this community all the time whether it's on my street or if I go to a local store or if I just show up at the schools you know I'm that type of parent that if I see a child doing something wrong I'm going to say something you know because like he said it takes a village you know I have no problem with being a village being a part of a village because our children are our future and my daughter doesn't feel like she has a future my daughter constantly asked me am I worthy to live because her peers at the school tell her to kill herself she is being fully constantly and me as

133a parent I didn't have enough and I had enough I have let school I have let leadership in school I have been gaslighted 24 7 about what they're gonna do the mediations and we're going to come together I give out my number email address everything to parents that are involved with their kids that are involved with this bullying and get nothing nothing I did a whole bunch of oh we're gonna call we're gonna get together we're gonna do this and we're gonna do that and I'm the only one that's being a stalker I'm the only one that is reaching out I'm the only one that's saying hey what can we do to get our kids to feel safe in school what can we do to bring our kids together and just talk and see use

134their words and knock their hands what can we do to make our kids that are actually understanding the assignment of going to school feel safe to go to school I Have A and B students in Garfield you know and they don't want to go to school they'd be like Mom I don't want to go to school today because such and such is talking about such and such follows me to the bathroom such and such does this and me as a mother I'm like okay well I go to school which but they don't want the parents in school I'm constantly being told to go to the police station come to the Board of Education go to superintendo do this we don't involve this and I'm tired my daughter goes to therapy now because she her Mentor

135is telling her she's not worthy to even be in society she gets Cyberbully through the um links the um bulldog emails and stuff that was a big thing in sixth grade for her I worked with the principals constantly sending them examples of emails she was getting while they were in Virtual School like oh Dakota you look ugly today oh you look like this today because they're looking on camera they're in Virtual schooling and these are the little sidebars that she getting through emails at the end they went as far as jumping her she can't even walk them she can't walk we stayed literally two minutes from the Middle School she can walk but she can't now because she get jumped on the way to school she get jumped on the way from school and the

136school tells me oh once they leave the property that's not all nice but then I come to find out yeah it is on so I get lied to I'm just a parent trying to make sure my daughter is safe I know my assignment as a parent and my first assignment is to protect my daughter protect my children protect your children because your children are walking up and down the street going to school and can't even get in the school good enough before they're attacked by their peers and then you know she fights all the time she got suspended this last time for 10 days but after an investigation and me just being vocal all left and right baseball she was attacked from the house she had to protect herself what was she supposed to do

137so she fought back so they okay she's gonna be suspended for five days okay but I put her in defense class my daughter I don't teach them to be violent I don't their usual words she only want to do defense class because that's not her character but she is constantly constantly being Cyberbully these kids my daughter unlike other kids she is 13 years old and guess what she don't have that other kids do have a cell phone a laptop an iPad she don't have those things because I don't think she's mature enough to have those things but other kids do have those things and they're studying in class doing this starting trouble she got into this last flight and you know what they did they text each other it's going to be a fight in

138our class they all got up from different classrooms and came to the art class to do this Miss Atterbury we have um Extended the time more than three years I'm sorry no but you do have a lot of valid um things that um I think that will be very valuable for you to have an opportunity to sit down with the superintendent and he will have an opportunity for the impact some things and then I also want to be able to protect your daughter's identity and some other things and this is being streamed on YouTube okay so I just you know just want to kind of offer you that opportunity to um discuss some of these things that's a little bit more personal okay um for your daughter um not so public you know the generalization

139we appreciate you coming for the public but I also want to make sure that we're conscientious that we are on we are being streamlined in some of the personal things about your daughter you can maybe protect her with having those um detailed conversations with the superintendent and just really sharing the overarching and big picture and about your concern about the overall safety of not just your daughter we appreciate you coming this evening you know uh with the heart to protect all children because I have kids that I don't know why I ain't seen you before but my kids come from William Foster and um I have children of William Foster I have children at the middle school and I have children at the high school so and we me and Miss morrisoned as a miss

140miss King does too and we do value the safety of the kids at school because our kids go every day too and and deal with the same culture and climate and that's why we have Dr Reynolds presenting on just really working together in community collaboration so um Dr Reynolds will um will you have an opportunity to reach out to Ms atteberry and really have a discussion with her regarding her concerns yeah that will be an issue at all um I do have Miss Samson who can speak on some of the things that we've been putting in place so far just to address some work in terms of one of the items actually popped up on the agenda item today on one of the initiatives that we're trying to to ensure that children feel safe in

141in the building so this sounds if you can sure Yolanda Hamilton address 10013 Garfield Drive Garfield Heights 44125 as many of you know here I am I'm a contracted di consultant with the district I had the opportunity to engage with um Miss Atterbury along with my colleague Mr Tim Hart who's the district's D.I learning specialist and um just to reiterate the sentiments of the board that we do take allegations of bullying very seriously in in efforts of supporting a framework to really deal with the incidents or occurrences of bullying just to um develop a more positive School culture we do have some things as you saw from the board agenda that are underway we have engaged a specialist who specifically is an anti-bullying expert who will begin um helping us to really Implement some of

142our resource approaches in our Middle School environment to not only work with parents but also students in small SEL anti-bullying groups to help equip students on understanding the seriousness severity of bullying um and the impact of bullying on school culture and also how to resolve conflict in a positive way and so um just to provide some reassurance to miss Atterbury we um we have heard your concerns we took the time to speak with you and because we are on the cusp of winter break we will be following up with you the first week in January our goal really is to make sure that um the families are supported and students are supported we actually had a very positive meeting with another family who had brought some concerns around bullying to our district where we were

143able to bring parents together in a facilitated dialogue understanding victims and perpetrators perspective and just really um setting some foundational work to bring all parties into agreement under the same understanding that we want to hold our kids accountable for their behavior when they're in the school environment we want to equip them with tools that are necessary and we're hoping to follow up with that process by also connecting them with some mentors that can provide that ongoing accountability and support for our students and hopefully also Resort the results in our families taking advantage of some of those additional supports that we offer by um allowing their students to engage with their personals other social services that we provide holistically so there are things that are underway your concerns have been heard we're taking this very seriously

144after we met with you Mr hurt actually went back to the Middle School to have a conversation with the building leadership so um things are underway things are in motion give us some time we will be following back up with you on the first week of January thank you thank you thank you thank you so much and we appreciate you time out to come to come um and share your concerns with the Board of Education it's just very important for us to hear the impact that climate and culture is having on our families and just know that we are in partnership with you not just as members of the Board of Education not just fellow parents but we also your neighbors um and we value our community as a whole um so you're not in

145this by yourself so I just want to ensure you of that and just as a neighbor um if nothing else we're your neighbor and we're here and we care about your child and all the other children and her safety and um she must have a sense of belonging and safety it's not negotiable so um and you're not in this by yourself so I'm speaking as Michelle your neighbor you're welcome if there's no other um remarks from the public this evening um can I have a motion to enter into executive session as of 811 P.M for the purposes of discussing the evaluation of the superintendent so move second any discussion if there's no discussion Mr saluka that was moved by Ms King and second by Miss Morrison can I roll pause please miss King yes yes

146Mrs Daniels yes the board of education is going to be entering into executive session as of 8 11 pm for the purposes of discussing 2.2 intended evaluation no action will be taken um as a result of tonight's executive session so are those intendents if your executive session of our private session where we deal with Personnel matters you know won't have any other actions foreign