001Mhm. >> Go ahead and sit. Okay. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Student Success Celebration today, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. My name is Summer Hall. I am the chair, and we also have our co-chair, Carmella Kelly, that stepped away for just a moment, and we also have member Phil Montgomery. With us also this Huh? Oh, okay. Like I hope I said the right last name. >> [laughter] >> We also have with us is President President Barbara Sykes, Vice President Rene Molnar, and member Nathan Drills. We also have Angela Carter, who also helps prepare this, and she reaches out to all of you and fit your families. Um So, let's go ahead and get started. Um Approval of the previous minutes. Madam Chair, I move to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Okay. And
002I wish to second. Are there any public comments? You need to call the vote. Oh, I'm sorry. All in favor? All in favor? I. Okay. I as well. Okay. Are there any public comments? Any questions? Any concerns? Here's your time. No? Okay. [snorts] Just going to give Member Kelly a few seconds to come in. Ready? Okay. Well, again, welcome, and thank you to all the students and the parents for being here today. Um we are here to celebrate your student. So, we're going to go ahead and start with a leadership award. At Higher CLC, Julie Jacob, Academic Principal. Um this student was nominated by her counselor, Ms. Timika Bates. And the student is being recognized for being a responsible student who consistently demonstrates the skills reflected in our portrait of a graduate. She exhibits strong
003habits of mind, builds positive relationships, and contributes to a safe and supportive school role. Can we have um the school representative come up? You're going to go right there. >> [clears throat] >> Kaya, can you come up here, please? Yes, I will. A little plaque for you for your student leadership. Okay. >> [applause] >> Are there any questions or comments? No? Okay. Next, we have Jennings Podcast Academic Achievement. Dr. Gus Farmakidis, librarian at Jennings CLC, and Don Harper, principal. Thank you. Mine, unfortunately, is not going to be that short, but we'll we're going to go through a quick slideshow of um our new toys at Jennings, our podcast studio, which is in our LRC. And tonight, we're going to recognize the students of Jennings that have committed to this. >> Use the mic. Is that
004loud enough? All right. So, the podcast studio is in the LRC, and it is really working on a couple things. We're we're fostering accountable talks so the students can can find their voice. And we are using it for several different projects, and I'm going to explain those projects in a second. And this is our LRC, our podcast studio at Jennings. It we did get this through a Martha Holden Jennings Foundation grant. And we're looking to expand on this area this year coming up. I don't know if it's going to start or not. at Jennings CLC. So, this will go on to give you an example of the students and their It's a show. We have a show Now, we're doing it once or twice a week. We have teachers that we have I'd like to
005recognize tonight, Ms. Crow, and Ms. Triplett. Where's Ms. Triplett? You can go back there in the back. Thank you. They're students. They come down. They They get on They're prepared beforehand. They meet. They go over some questions about whatever project they're working on, and they're prepared to do the podcast. I'm sorry that it's not working. So, the two main ones that we're talking about tonight are Ms. Triplett uh her group did the is doing the bowl reimagined. If you've been to Jennings, behind it, there is a bowl, and these students are tasked with Ms. Triplett's students are tasked with designing things that they'd want that bowl to look like. They're transforming it. And they come down and prepared. They They speak on it. They're ready for this this change that's going to happen in the
006bowl behind the school. I also want to recognize Principal Harper, Principal Grimes. They are on the podcast with the students. The students are asking them questions about what they want out of the space. The second one is the Secret Garden. We have another group that is analyzing a book. After every chapter, the students from Ms. Crow's class come down, and they analyze a chapter of a book on the podcast. And we record it, and I shoot it back to the teacher, but this gives the students an opportunity to dissect each chapter and talk about the whatever [clears throat] manuscript they're working on. All right. So, we want to recognize the students individually. If you want to come up, Principal Harper. And there there's going to be a couple students that I just want to ask
007a quick question of when they're up here so they can tell you what it's about. It's not about me doing it, and eventually, you're going to see the progress of the podcast studio is to turn it over to them. I'm I'm hosting the first few to just get them to see what it the way it's working, and they are going to take over from there. So, the first student, Sawa Nar. Sawa here? No? Amora. Amora Allen Hardy. >> [applause] >> Just stay right here. Carter. Carter Blackwell here? Raza. Hey. Santiago. These students are all going to get these these certificates because they've done a wonderful job whether they're here or not, and they're they'll continue work on these podcasts. Twa. Twa Mar. >> [applause] >> Emmanuel. Malea. Jessica. Hi, Jessica. [applause] Pris Priscilla. Christian. >>
008Christie. >> [applause] >> Abdul. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Abdul. Come here. Abdul, come here. All right, so Abdul, can you can you give us a a brief since we can't hear it on here, when you came down to do the bowl reimagined the first episode, what was that like for you? It felt amazing and we get it was so fun talking about how we wanted to like design the bowl and working with our peers, it was so fun. So, why are you designing the bowl and what was the podcast about? What are you telling us about? What are you doing it for? Before like we was the community was asking us to design the bowl and we was we thought about it and we we started to design it and right now it's just
009a plain little field, but now we're starting to design it more. Excellent. Christie, you come up here. And then Christie, we are also we also use the podcasting for books and to to talk about the the chapters of each books. How does that What does it mean to you to get to do this every week? Um it's really fun and entertaining and after school I get to read a book or in school when I have a free time, so it's really fun. >> What did you ask me today before you left? Um I asked if when we went to high school we could come back and maybe do the podcast with the rest of the kids. They want to They Thank you, Christie. Thank you very much. So, they want to pass on this knowledge.
010They asked if they're going to get to do this in high school. This is This is what these students are, you know, podcasting with all different kinds of social media. So, preparing them for their their careers or potential careers as they go forward. Thank you, everybody. And we cannot get the uh We're excited. >> teachers to come up. Come on up so we can all take a picture. Thank you. >> [clears throat and cough] >> And take a picture and while the next steps for these students and and all of us at Jennings, we are we're trying to go not just voice, we're going to go I'm good. A video and we're going to go We want to get more pasta podcasting equipment. It's It's really hot right now at Jennings. Uh we're going to
011publish this for you all the community on different platforms. And most importantly, like I said, this is now I'm hosting it now. I do not want to do that a year from now. These students will be in charge of it. So, thank you very much. >> [applause] >> Thank you so much for that. I will say Principal um Harper, you do a great job with our students as well as Dr. um Farmakidis, when I came to the library, I think it was last year or the year before when I had North as my cluster. Uh well, actually I had you for a whole year, so last year. Um it was amazing. The way you care about these kids, the way you um want to educate them through different methods. What's the assimilation? Yes, yes. Just
012learning about that, you know, I'm thinking you just play that game, but you made it interactive like a learning experience. So, just thank you for that. And we appreciate it. Any comments from the Yes, Dr. Molnar. Thank you, Chair Hall. Um so, I also visited Jennings um and I was in the library and they were podcasting in the background. I was not there for the podcast, but I was sitting there reading. I was in the LRC reading, but the LRC at Jennings is very I want to say 2026. There's so much multimedia there. Um anyone who hasn't visited there yet, please uh come to an open house and visit the building. And I was sitting there reading and I heard in the background I heard one word, Ender Dragon. And so, anyone that plays Minecraft,
013I have students that play or my children play Minecraft and the students were all podcasting on how to beat a certain section of Minecraft and I went, "This is exactly what my kids watch on YouTube every day when they come home." [laughter] are all these Minecraft hacks. And so, um I know that I I look forward to hearing this. I went to the back room and when we pushed play, when when you push play, they could hear it in the back room. I think people at home could hear it. We just didn't have the sound out here, so I look forward to when um these are published and we can hear it around the uh entire district because I think there are a lot of students that would appreciate uh hearing from each other, but
014I do want to say that this was great practice because if anyone can be put on the spot in middle school to speak into a microphone, it's our podcasters. You guys did a great job, so thank you. >> [applause] >> Any other comments? No? Okay, thank you so much. I'm moving on to the APS Spelling Bee Regional Finalist. Dr. Carla Chapman. First you have to spell what Dr. Molnar just said. That word. What was it? Ender Dragon. There you go. Minecraft. [laughter] Good evening, everyone. It's so nice to be here to recognize our four middle school regional spelling bee finalists. And while every one of our 10 middle schools had a building winner, four of our building winners went on to compete in the uh Scripps Regional Spelling Bee sponsored by the Akron Beacon Journal
015on March 15th at the Akron Summit County Main Library. So, when I call your name, please come up. I want you to stand on either side of the podium, face your families because we want to recognize them as well. So, first from Book Bowl is Naomi Cooper and I think I saw Naomi and her family. >> [applause] >> Come on up, Naomi. [cheering] Naomi, congratulations on being in the regional competition. Stand right here. Don't go anywhere. [snorts] From Hyre, Zoe Dennis. >> [applause] >> Hi, Zoe. Congratulations on your participation in the regional spelling bee. Next from Miller South, we have Amelia Loreditsch. Is Amelia here? >> [applause] >> And last, but certainly not least, our district spelling bee winner from Litchfield, Miss Amira Cobb. >> [applause] >> Thank you and congratulations to all of our
016finalists. Um next we will um speak about KSU Science Fair Superior Ratings. Dr. Katrina Halasa. Do you need any help? I know. Well, I actually need your help. Yes, I do. May I have your help? Yes, that would be amazing. And the rest of the crew, come on up. And put over here. Thank you. Um if anyone knows me well enough, I'm a we, not a me, and um so um I'm going to ask to help by I'm just going to lay these here and you're going to give them their nice medals by just lifting them up and just putting them on them. So, um I'm going to ask my wonderful people here um about this. I just want to just re-emphasize that we did have our 70th recently and we had 60 superiors, 83
017excellent, and five good. Well, then those students had the opportunity scholars to go to Kent State. And that occurred on March 21st. And we had of a total of 367 participants because we had 172 that participated in KSU um presently and 89 of them were innovative projects, true to the statement of hardworking. 19 superior ratings, but those ratings also include teams. So, if you think about it, we had 29 actual scholars who received a superior who are able to go to state. Now, they can because of conflict and things happen not go to state, but these 19 um uh what do you call it? Um um actual winners um uh that got superior representing 29 are um hopefully here today. And so, what I'm going to do is I'm going to call the school and
018the person is going who actually coached them. As you can see, we've um given you a couple of these to look at and then we'll ask you we'll ask the scholar to come get their um medal first and then come and get their um certificate afterwards. Starting with Barber, I have Patty Miller. Please come up and name the students that you worked with. Okay, we have Marcela Cook, Briones. Monroe Enslin and I think Monroe is there. And those are from Mickey Bright. We need Barber only. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. Barber Oh, those are yours, Tammy. Sorry, wrong person. All right, my fault. But stand right here with me, sweetheart, cuz I'll get you in 2 minutes. You you can go ahead. Tammy, you first and I'll hold you hostage right here next to me.
019From Barber CLC, we have Riley Howe, Zya Hicklin, and also Jordan Spangler, but she couldn't be with us tonight. And so once you get your medal >> [applause] >> you'll have them stand over there with your kids. You have one more, right? Rhymer's not here. All right. For Rhymer CLC, I'm going to go ahead and announce those individuals. Do you have them Do you have them, Patty, right? Okay, please bring them forward and go ahead and announce the kids from Rhymer CLC. Okay, so we have Monroe who's not here and Marcela. >> [applause] >> I'm sorry, she >> [cheering] >> This is Mickey Bright. Okay. I keep guessing. Yeah, just keep going. All right, then the next school that we have is Helen Arnold and Stephanie and Beth. Both Yeah, Stephanie's our key person. All
020right, I got to say something real fast, though. Okay, you don't mind. Oh, please. Okay, I do want to say something that this was a lot of work for these students, especially in fifth grade. And what's even better is that they were kind of chosen. Not all of the fifth graders were able to do this, so they were chosen. So we picked the best of the best of our fifth graders. And I also want to say that in seventh grade they will be doing the science fair. So exactly what they already did, so it will give them a little bit of an advantage in seventh grade as well, too. And my kids they worked during their lunch. So their free time, they came with me once or twice a week and worked as well. So
021their free time, they gave it to me, which is awesome. So I want to call up Yesenia and Lahela. >> [applause] >> Okay, and we did do Mickey Bright yet? Have we done Mickey Bright? But we'll do it again. We'll do it one more time. >> sorry. >> Yeah, it's all right. Patty Miller, go ahead. >> Yes. Okay, so Monroe is not Monroe and Mar- Marcela. >> Okay, I'm so sorry. No, that's all right. And the other ones were Caleb and Ruby. They're not here. Okay, thank you. Next we would like Beth Howe to do Portage Path. Congratulations to Leondre and Bell. >> [applause] >> Sam was also Sam Speck was also on the the team, but he couldn't be here tonight. Thank you. And we did Do we do Rhymer already then, I take
022it? Okay, so next is I will do Cyberline. Thank you. I will name the students for Cyberline. Zyera Walker and Anaya Howard. If they're here today. And then um and Zoe um Zoe Josey. Nope. And then from Ritzman, Amelia um Chenevie. Is she here today? Nope. All right. What I do want to emphasize is back what Stephanie said earlier a bit is that we had between both fairs we had 185 eighth grader I mean fifth graders this year. It's our second year doing this and getting fifth grade involved, which will then open them to be able to apply for the Governor's Award, which last year we had every school represented, which we have never had in this in in this in this award situation. I would like to now go ahead and name the students
023from um Miller South and the National Inventors Hall of Fame. So I'm going to do I don't think we have any representation of faculty from there. So from Miller South and National Inventors Hall of Fame, Evelyn Camp, Alana Powers, Samalia Cain, Avery Metcalf, >> [applause] >> Athena Locke, McKenzie Holmes, Alexia Ru- Cruz Rosa, Paris Mason, Koa Pedretti, and um also we had, because I have to make sure I cover my list correctly, Eleanor Growl and Maxwell Perrona. And I will hand you your um certificates right now and I think that should be everybody. Can we try to take a picture with the whole group that is here today? So best way to do it is if we all kind of all the scholars can come shoulder to shoulder. Don't fight That will work. Um I
024think one of my following so that we can we can maybe adults Yeah, so one adult is in between you all Come up front. All right, fifth grade. Yes. Yes, all of them are fifth I think if you just get on the sides we got I think we got everybody. All right, say science projects. Science projects. How about STEM rules? STEM rules. And that is your Those are your medals today. Those are your medals for STEM rules for going to middle school of KSU and Kent. For Miller South and let me give you guys an National Hall of Thank you. All right, congratulations again to all the students today. And thank you to all the parents who came to support your child. Are there any comments from the board? No. >> [clears throat] >> Come
025here. President Sykes? Thank you, member Hall. Let me just say to each and every one of you how very proud we are for all of the hard work that you have that you have shown that you are capable of doing. Let me say to you that we are excited about your future because we know it's going to be fantastic. And let me finally say that we know that we eventually can rest because we're going to turn this world over to you and you're going to really take care of it. So let me just say congratulations not only to you the students our scholars, but to the parents, to the grandparents, to the neighbors, to the friends, to all of you that's here and to those who are not here, we are so proud and you
026are the reason that we are here and we look forward to what you're going to do next and anytime you need our help, please make sure that you contact us and know that we are here for you and congratulations to each and every one of you. >> [applause] >> Any other comments? No. You sure can. That of the students that are going, almost all of them are going to go to Columbus whether their families are driving them down or providing a bus. Early in the morning, I asked for a late you know, opportunity to judge. Don't put us at at 6:00 in the morning. Like, you know, the later time. So we're excited to have literally 29 of the students that's in writing room. Thank you Thank you so much, Dr. Halasan, for all that
027you do for our students. Um if you would like to nominate a student, your student, or any student, you can go on to the APS website and there is a link where you can click and nominate your student for a great academic achievement, a sport, something they have done well. Um if there is no more comments or any questions, we will go ahead and move for adjournment. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 20th at 5:30 in this boardroom. Um Madam Chair, I move to adjourn. Second. All right. Thank you so much and have a wonderful Do I need to All in favor? Aye. All right. Thank you so much. Have a wonderful evening.