001[music] Good evening and welcome to this November 24th Akran public school board meeting. Call to order at 5:28 p.m. Mr. Bowers. Roll call, please. Mr. Alexander, present. Miss Audrey, present. Reverend Harrison, present. Dr. Dr. Jackson present. Dr. Mullinar present. Mrs. Sykes present. Six present, one absent. Thank you. For those who are able, please stand as we're led in the pledge of allegiance by our vice president, Mr. Bruce Alexander. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Vice President Alexander. Welcome, Superintendent. Next we will have recognitions by our superintendent. Good evening. Tonight we are recognizing Peter George for his 25 years of valued service to Akran public schools. Peter has supported
002so much of our work behind the scenes and has been a familiar face to many of us. To help us get started, I'm going to turn it over to Tommy. Thank you so much members of the board. Uh what a great privilege. In the fall of 2000 is when I first met Peter George uh over at the staff development center and uh he was an intern from the University of Akran and for the past 26 years this guy has done everything and everything you can imagine for this district in our broadcast communications department. But I think most significantly he uh you know everyone knows Gilby and and everybody wanted to know who was the person that went around the school district and inspired children, inspired teachers and was just a a wonderful part of this
003school district. And Peter has done this for hundreds and hundreds of nonprofit and events. And who wouldn't like this furry little friend of ours? And who wouldn't want to wear that costume around town? So, Peter, we recognize you tonight for all of your board work behind that screen over there and all the wonderful work you you do for us as a school district in 26 years later. Superintendent Utley, if you want to continue, then that would be great. Thank you, Tommy. Peter has become one of the most trusted members of our broadcast communications team. He has worked under six superintendent and has been part of more than 730 video productions since 2011, which is an incredible contribution. He has taken on every role we could throw at him. Filming board and committee meetings, covering sports
004and robotic events, editing video, running audio, and of course, stepping into the role of Gilby at both tapings and live appearances. Whatever the job was, Peter was a calm presence, a sense of humor, and a commitment to getting it right. He was also gained a few nicknames over the years. From a ghost to the man in the box, that guy who records the board meetings. All of them say the same thing. He is the person who keeps things moving forward behind the scenes while everyone else focuses on the front of the room. Peter, we thank you for your commitment, your talent, and the way you have supported this district for 25 years. You have made a real impact and you will be missed. Congratulations on your retirement. [applause] [applause] And Peter, on behalf of the
005board and uh the district, we like to present you with this gift and again say thank you. Should I open? You can absolutely. I always open my things immediately. Gilby. [laughter] That's funny. [laughter] I ain't never heard him say that. [clears throat] That's That's a [applause] Say something. All right, I'll make this fast. I'm not used to standing in front of this microphone. I'm used to listening to people. Um, three people I'll thank real fast. Mr. Alexander, uh, keeping North alive. Uh, my mom taught at North for almost 40 years. And when Mr. Alexander talks about North makes me happy. Makes me think of mom and I want to thank you for keeping her alive and every time I see you, I think of her and it's it doesn't get much better than that. So,
006thank you, Mr. Alexander. And you were on the board when I started in 2000. And isn't that funny going out? [laughter] It's like, wow, that's fantastic. Uh, thank all my IT friends. They're all wonderful. They help you. They help me. Uh, they try to help me sometimes. They're all great. They're all so nice to me. I don't know why they don't have to be, but they are. I would name them, but there's too many. IT guys, you know who you are. You're just wonderful when I'm lost, which is many times, especially after COVID. You help me, and I thank you. And the last person, last but certainly not least, is Ryan Writtenhouse. You know Ryan Writtenhouse. If you don't just put the AAN public schools website on his fingers are literally all over everything and
007he's he's just a genius. I know I aged him again after COVID when I came back here because I was just lost as to virtual. It was just so hard for me and he tried to help me and I don't know if he succeeded but let me tell you I was so happy when we were done with virtual because it just made me just it just wore me out. So, I thank you, Ryan, not only for helping me, but more importantly for being my friend. He's been my friend since 2011, and I love him a lot because he's helped me so much. Oregon tries to. Uh, Miss Jackson, could we get back to the meeting, please? Thank you so much for everyone doing this. It's totally unnecessary. This is supposed to be board business, not
008Gilby business. Sorry. No offense. Uh, so again, thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. [applause] All right, Yomi, let's get out of here. [laughter] Thanks again, President Jackson. That concludes recognitions. Thank you, Superintendent. Uh, next, we do have our scholar board member with us, Brooke Yuing. Um, Brooke, if uh without further ado, I'll let you get to what you're getting to. And she's representing Firestone. Stone to the bone, y'all say. Huh? All right, without further ado, Miss Brooke. Uh, good evening, Madame President, Madam Superintendent Outley. Uh, honorable board members and guests. My name is Brooke Euing, uh, a junior in the music pathway at Firestone High School. I am a member of the robotics club, the marching jazz and symphonic band. I'm on the yearbooks 2026 club, a member of the National Honor
009Society, a student ambassador, and model UN. After high school, I plan to attend the University of Akran and attend um and major in biomedical engineering and minor in jazz studies. I chose to become a member of the scholar board to voice my opinion, speak out for others at my school who are unable to do so and build a community with other scholar board members of the of APS. They're are very fun people by the way. They're are very fun people. Uh recently Firestone has hosted a multitude of things from the arts to sports to engineering. In our auditorium, the theater performed their production of McBth and the choir had their fall concert this past week featuring all six of their ensembles. Um in the past month, we hosted an OSAA leadership conference, robotics competition, and
010youth cheerleading competition in our main gym. Firestone is one of, if not the biggest APS high school in APS. Yet, we do not have a very good ratio of students to safety team members. Our student body is around,00 this year. Yet, we only have about four members of the security/safety team, three safe three safety team members, and one SRO. Our students would like to have more qualified and attentive safety team members hired to secure the building. Having more safety team members present would allow us to have more bathrooms open in between classes classes and minimize going to extra floors on the way to class or in the middle of class. This extra travel takes a lot of time away from class and our learning. In the fine arts hallway, we have two student restrooms, one
011boy's restroom and one girl's restroom. Um, they have stayed locked during school hours for a very long time. And this forces students in this hallway to either wait in line for the single stall theater/dance hall restroom or walk over to the cafeteria which is on the other side of the first floor to be able to use the bathroom. And this takes a lot of time away from rehearsal. Recently [clears throat] um recently we have also had issues with the fire alarms going off due to vaping. I believe we're at 12 this year. Um, security officers positioned at these bathrooms could moni could monitor who goes in and out of the restrooms to pre prevent students from vaping in the restrooms and fire alarms interrupting class. Also, while there haven't been many fights this year so
012far, having more security members would help deescalate them faster compared to having some safety members and sometimes teacher deescalate. We we would love to have water bottle filling stations at our building. Due to the recent decision to ban Stanley cups or metal water bottles, students have opted to bring refillable and non-refillable plastic water bottles like like these. Um these bottles tend to not keep water cold or hold as much water as these metal water bottles would. After running out of water, you would have to refill at a water fountain, which is so and often and sometimes messy a messy process. Having water bottle filling stations will both shorten this process and minimize water spills. Um like when you're filling up a water bottle, like the water sort of goes in like this, and this angle
013makes it to where it could sometimes spill quite a bit. Um other schools such as Lichfield next door and Miller South have these stations. These stations would especially allow our many performers and athletes to get back to practice or rehearsal quicker. The stations would not have to be attached to every water fountain in our building. Rather, at least one on the second and third floor and three on the first floor. These these ones on the first floor would be by the by or in the cafeteria, in the fine arts hallway, and by the gyms. In conclusion, my recommendation to the board would be to provide fire with additional qualified safety team members as well as water bottle filling stations. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you so much, Brooke. We appreciate you taking
014the time and to share that information um with your board. Um next, we uh we do not have any requests to address the board. Um but we um also have a moment for board member reflections. Are there any board member reflections? Community reflections. Member Hall. Thank you, Madam President. Um I just wanted to say today I had the honor of um attending Leot um CLC along with Miss Angela Carter. But we had um an organiza well a law firm um Gambella Mclofflin and Pakora law firm who reached out to me and asked how they could be of service to our students here in a public schools. So I reached out a couple weeks ago to Miss Carter and said hey what's a school that do not get the support? I remember last meeting I made
015um a point and kind of asked um churches to maybe you know adopt a school to provide funding or go help read or something with the schools in your neighborhood. So um Sam who is um the wife of Mr. uh Gambella um she called me and she said what can we do? So, they provided over um goodie bags for the students at Leit today. So, we delivered them and um the principal and the staff was really really happy. The kids were like, "What's in the bag?" So very pleased that we'll be able to give those goodie bags to kids tomorrow, which I think is their last day before holiday break, and they'll be able to go home with some snacks because again, we don't know what the situation is with snack for some people if
016they received it or if they did not. But we do know that some of the kids will have um snacks and goodies to take home and be able to enjoy that. So Thank you for that, Member Hall. Are there any other board member reflections, Vice President Alexander? Yes, this is uh good because this young lady's here from Firestone. These are two Firestone uh things I want to talk about. Uh one is the Firestone High School cheerleaders uh went to Bowling Green this past weekend and they did place third uh in about I don't know how many schools there were, a number of schools, but they were they I believe they left at like early that morning on Saturday, didn't get back till late that evening. Uh but they did come in third. So we want
017to congratulate them. And the other uh thing is we want to c congratulate Troy Waist. He is a young man who goes to Firestone High School. He was on the Kelly Clarkson show last week and he represented himself, his family, and APS really well. And I think if if you want to see that, go back and look up Kelly Clarkson show and you'll see him. He did a very good job of representing Akran public schools as a student and as a person. So we want to congratulate him. And I can't remember the the gentleman name that went to Bookum. Say it again. Paul Tazwell. Paul Tazwell was the the special guest for him to meet and so they're going to do something together. He gave him tickets to go to the new show that they
018have out. So uh he's connecting with him. So this is nice to have two uh one individual who from Akan public schools is doing well and the one who's on their way to do well to be able to connect. So thank you. Excellent. Thank you for sharing. Uh, Vice President Alexander, are there any other board member uh reflections? All right, seeing none, we'll move on to uh the president's report. A lot of the highlights that I was going to share has been highlighted. Um, definitely was going to talk about Troy on the Kelly Clarkson show, which I think is great. He has come down here to address the board numerous times and he is an extraordinary young man and so we are excited to see that to see our young people get into the community.
019Also, BookTo's Air Force Junior ROTC um they did very well in West Virginia on on Saturday, November 15th, uh the drill team um competed at Parkerburg High School drill meet and they showed out. Junior varsity armed team got first place. Junior varsity unarmed team was second place and varsity color guard was third place. And so I think that deserves a round of applause. [applause] It's an excellent opportunity. The Air Force, they have come and um visited the board multiple times. A wonderful instructor. Uh their next competition is Saturday, December 6th at ECLC um where they where they will return as the defending champ champions. Again, we say congratulations to the remarkable student leaders as well as their instructors as they continue to demonstrate discipline, precision, and excellence. Additionally, Project RISE, um we talk a lot
020about Project RISE. Project RISE is the organization within the district that helps our homeless population. And I remember we talked about the numbers of being, um I believe that we had document a little over 2,000 between two to 3,000 students that were documented as homeless. And we're grateful for Project Rise and our community partners that help to service those students. But those are the students that we know and as member Hall stated and even in the last meeting, I'm grateful for you um member hall to providing additional resources about um what our city is doing, what our county is doing uh uh local churches and organizations to provide food for the food disparities and what we're facing right now. Um I think Summit County did excellent on a on a quick response for emergency food
021and assistance as well as the list that now is provided on our website uh for food services. The Akran alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Incorporated where the president is Tawanda Mullins uh also partnered with um Deianne what's Deian's last name. at BTO Edwards Edwards Edwards Miss Edwards at Bookto and gave with Project Rise and gave away 100 care packages to Project Rise for their student. And this um is a ongoing uh collaboration between um the Akran alumni chapter of Delta Sigma Theta and uh Project Rise. And so again, that shows our community stepping in and coming alongside us as we serve our students. Uh again it they provide vital support for our students and our families. Um they are they provide advocacy and if you you want more information to see how you
022can help uh you can feel free to call 330761-2969 or look on the district's website um because and you can be blessed by being a blessing. Additionally, Carrington financials turkey giveaway. I want to highlight um Carrington who is uh a young man himself. He has an annual commitment to spreading love in our community. This year they provided 270 turkeys to families across Akran with assistance from volunteers from BookTo Akran Early College and other uh Akran public school middle schools. We are grateful for all the APS volunteers and community partners who show up year after year to make sure that our families again are feeling supported during this season. Snow angels coat giveaway at Mason CLC. The snow angels community organization blessed our families giving away 100 brand new coats at Mason CLC. Um in attendance
023uh again was a community member Tuanda Mullins. is also uh Virgin Whitmore works an instructor at Book CLC that also um helps to assist with this organization. And so again, we want to say thank you for that. Um as we're talking um about our community partners, I bring up uh Tanda Mullins multiple times and she also chaired the Sjoura Truth Scholarship. This is important because the first inaugural student to receive the sjourn the truth scholarship dear Dmitrian Demetrian Duval who is a bookto high school graduate. He has been doing exceptionally well um at his university. He is a national top 25 punter in his division uh division one at Alorn State University. He embodies the brilliance, discipline, and determination that we aim to cultivate in all of our APS students. So, we want to highlight
024to to show that our students still do great things once they metriculate or graduate from high school. So, shout out to Demetrian Duval for all that he's doing. We are still godly proud of him and um pray that he continues to be successful. Uh myself and others I know attended the Ohio School Board Association capital conference. Um I know that I engaged in a session where was talking about treasurer shortage. Uh Akran is very forward thinking in that area. A lot of the advice and strategies that they were sharing with districts are things that we have already done. Um as far as how to get someone already in your organization licensed to become a treasurer in the fact if you find yourself with immediate need like some districts are having um immediate need right now
025because their treasurers are moving to a different district. Additionally, Leila Ali reminded us the power of resilience, identity, and purpose-driven leadership. [snorts] Her message echoed what we believe in APS, that every student deserves a champion who models confidence, courage, courage, and consistency. Akran public schools continues to move forward with purpose, excellence, and deep community partnerships. From national TV appearances to JLTC victories, from scholarships to tangible community care, our district is full of bright moments worth celebrating. So as we go on to celebrate with our families, we have so much to be thankful and it's important. Sandra Stubs used to say, "Your attitude determines your altitude." So your attitude determines how far you will go. And I would say as we enter into this Thanksgiving se, it's good to have an attitude of gratitude. That concludes
026the president's report. Thank you. Next, we'll have updates from the superintendent. Thank you. This evening, I'm pleased to introduce a brief presentation highlighting the important work happening at the United Way Summit Madina and the resource centers across the district. Our family resource centers also known as FRC's operated in partnership with United Way of Summit and Madina provide critical wraparound supports for our students and families. These centers continue to be a cornerstone of how Akran public schools fulfills our commitment to strong family partnerships, whole child support [snorts] and community connection. We are grateful for the opportunity to spotlight the progress, partnerships, and impact of the F FRC's as we enter the season of giving. Our APS United Way campaign runs from November 10th through December 12th. This is a wonderful opportunity to support the services that
027help our students and families. The presentation will be provided jointly by United Way Summit Madina President and CEO Annie McFaten and Family Resource Center Manager Shakira Hunter. Thank you, Superintendent. Thank you so much um Superintendent um President Jackson schoolboard members for giving us a few minutes to talk about the latest and greatest at United Way. We really appreciate the time and and continued partnership. Um, as superintendent said, it is our um our campaign season, although I would say we're never not fundraising. Um, but this is the time of year that we really focus on um raising funds from the community. United Way really is fueled by the community. Uh we go across our our two counties that we cover and um talk about the work day in and day out. um first day of our
028fiscal year, we start at zero and we have to raise every dollar that we then put back into the community to make sure we can do the most for our citizens. So, um we'll give you all a little bit of an update of where we are, especially specific to our family resource centers and then we'll talk a little bit more about the campaign right at the end. I'll come back up. Hopefully, this looks very familiar to everybody by right now. Um but I just wanted to highlight our bold goals by 2028. Um if anybody doesn't know the backstory about in 2016 2017 um United Way spent a lot of time coming together and listening to the community to see what was important most to our citizens where we could really target our areas of focus
029and really affect change in this community. Two of those four bold goals are all about Akran public schools. Right? So bold goal one all about those third grade reading scores. are trying to get to that 65% marker to make sure that kids in Akran public schools are hitting those metrics. Bogle 2, all about graduation rates and college and career readiness. As you all know, you are blowing through that data. Really amazing stuff coming out of the school district. Bogle three is all about financial empowerment of families. This is a really important one. We do have a financial empowerment center that offers free financial counseling to really uplift the fiscal health of families in our community. and we'll [snorts] go four all about that infant mortality rate. We're trying to get to five per 10,000 live
030births for the infant mortality rate in Summit County. So, these are things that the community re really came together on and said this is where these are our north stars. This is where we would really like to focus. Um, and that's important to talk about. So, as myself and our fund development team go across our counties, this is what we talk about to everybody in the community inside the district and outside the district, right? It's just as important. School districts, as we all know, can be an economic driver for the community. So, we really want to talk broadly about why this is important. And two of those goals are all about Akran public schools. Just as a highlight, um besides um partnering, funding with other community agencies, we also have direct services that United Way
031directly runs. Um we have a staff of over 80 who execute all um of these direct services. As you can see that bottom row, we have college and career academy partnerships. We have our family resource centers and we have youth united all focused on Akran public school children. Um up on top I'm hope hopeful that everybody knows 211 at this point. Um a really robust community database uh that we run and maintain here. We actually run it for an 8count district in case anybody doesn't know. Um so a lot of important work done there. Especially when we had our our SNAP halt, we worked heavily with the county, with the the food bank to really make sure that all the data was up to date. People were changing resources in there. We set up a
032text system so people could easily text 211 to find out where food resources were important. So things like that really um come into play when we have these kind of emergent needs that do bubble up in the community. Along with our financial empowerment services, we also do run a VITA program, which is the volunteer income tax assistance program. So, free tax services to people in the community. Last year, we did over 2,000 tax returns alone. Um, yielding about 4.5 million in in return. So, some really great investments there. Um, so again, these are things that we really partner really deeply on and um we really appreciate everybody's partnership in that. I'm going to have Shakira step up and tell you all a few more. um nitty-gritty details of what's going on at the family resource
033centers. They're in there every single day. As of right now, United Way fundraises and funds seven full-time members on our staff that do nothing but support APS every single day. So, we want to make sure we talk about that work with all of you. Good evening. Um so, we have five family resource centers. So those are located at Helen Arnold, Mickey Brightite North, David Hill, and higher. So each school location is a um reflection of the community that they are in. Um so every day that my team goes in, we are working with the school teams, with the teachers and staff to ensure that we are um wrapping around families. So we provide resources in four core areas, which is basic needs. So that looks like housing services, personal care, and h household items. um
034of course our community referrals to community agencies and some rental assistance, community health and wellness, financial empowerment and family development. So within these four core areas, we work with community partners to provide resources and referrals in those areas. So the commitment to the work um we are very intentional about family engagement which is why we have our bimonthly family engagement nights. So we call them families united nights. So we work with the school in collaboration um to provide a dinner to families so that they can come in and have um positive experiences in the school. We do incentives. We invite community partners to come out um and table to provide additional information. Um we do direct service referrals to community partners and we use unite us to do that. Um true partnership within the F
035FRC school again just working with the school teams is very important. working with family leaison, our project rise team, um just working with everyone to ensure that families are um having access to the referrals and resources within the community, serving those with the highest needs and then community collaboration. So, it's just a cycle of making sure that we're wrapping around families, [cough] excuse me. So the types of services that we provide, so engagement and enrichment, um basic needs support, case management, um and referrals. So we work with job and family services, fair housing, um to ensure that families have access to services so they can come right into the school building and meet with the job and family um services case manager as well as fair housing um referrals. So we use utilize units to
036make direct referrals within the community. Um and we are able to follow up with those um referrals with the family and also with where we refer them to. So that that just allows us to continue to kind of walk alongside them to ensure that they are accessing the resources that they need. Um our basic needs support. So we have emergency resource shelves that have been kind of a game changer in the last couple of years. Um we have on those shelves we have hygiene items, toiletry items, personal care items for families. So in between those paychecks and you know when benefits were, as Annie stated at halt, we had families come in, they access those those resource shelves to ensure that they are um able to have the things they need for their family. And
037then engagement and enrichment. So, family stabilization services, crosscultural support, family and student enrichment materials, fun nights as I've talked about, and then of course working with YSS um on out of school time opportunities. So, we allow families to come in, we meet with them, we send emails, we text, um we call. So, we just make sure that we're doing all the things to ensure families have access to the resources that are available to them. And here's some of our us data. So we have um about a year and a half of units um data that we have um secured from the United platform. So as you can see in the yellow is the touch points. So touch points include family united nights when we're out in the community when we're doing emails and phone um
038text messages to families and then when we're making referrals for those families. So the best thing for us is community agencies that are in Unite us so that we can refer to them when those resources are um needed. Oh yes. So you all should have a FRC fact sheet in front of you maybe. Sorry. Oh, here you go. Let me just take these. Did I give enough? Okay. So, just our um 2025 fact sheet is that um every other month we meet with about 25 community partners. Um and in those meetings we talk about what is everyone else doing, how can we partner and connect, how can we make sure that those resources are within reach for families, and how um we can continue to work together to address the needs. Um 947 families have
039received services through the um JFS case managers that are at the F FRC's. Um 60 students throughout F FRC's receive one-on-one tutoring through the University of Akran Center for Literacy. um 700 families received lift rides. We have provide provided $65,000 in gift cards for groceries and gas just assisting families with what they need. Um we assess what their needs are and then we provide a gift card. Um about 5,600 families um provide the services to families with a focus on basic needs. So hygiene products um school supplies, grocery carts and things like that. and then 62,000 plus touch points with families. So that was a very succinct quick um snapshot of all that we do day in and day out um according you know alongside our public schools. So, um, every year we're in the
040family resource centers. The data grows, it gets richer. We work with SEI and and U6X Summit and other other partners that are really enriching how we kind of engage and wrap around students because, as we all know, if basic needs aren't met, if they got empty tummies, if they don't have a solid place to sleep at night, um, if parents are out of work or are stressed, it really does affect these kids and and how they come and metriculate every single day. So, um, we really coordinate a lot to make sure we can support them. uh day in and day out and that really translate into into the campaign work, right? So your your campaign is running right now and again we're fueled by the community. So um anything you all can do to support
041United Way or to really push this down um to staff and other leaders in the community um to talk about the importance even if it's just a few dollars um a few dollars spread across the entire district across the entire county truly makes a huge difference for how we can serve others. So, I would just encourage everybody um to give or to encourage others to give so we can continue this amazing work. So, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thank you. Um I'm so grateful for you all. There's United Way is one of those organizations whereas your footprint is very visible. Before I sat in this chair, the work that you all do to serve the community, it is the real deal. The United Way is the real deal. And I'm grateful for that.
042Um for the student resource centers, for everything that you provide because you are really doing this work. Um I can't emphasize that enough because you can have people present and say, "I've seen the fruit of what you all are doing in the community and people's lives. I've heard the testimonials of it and what you will hear in the our greatest need community is about United Way. Though I see you actively see you in the community." um the blessing that those resource community resource centers are and how you are connectors to our families. Now I had to set this up because how can people give like can people get on a monthly giving? Do you have something if someone want to do recurring giving because how can we gear them towards the work that you're doing
043because you are doing measurable visible work. United Way you who I see all the time. Stan Sykes is another per there are people who outside of this space people in the community will say their names and tell you how they helped them and United Way is one of those sources. So it's sewing into good ground. So how can we connect be connectors for you all for people who may want to give anonymously or who want to be monthly donors? Well thank you so much for the support. Carla has all the emails gone out to staff and everything yet? Great. So, um, so staff emails do go out to connect during the campaign to show how you can give. So, you can do payroll deduct and other things. So, it's really up to you. So, and
044it would have come from Calvin. Who did it come from? From Calvin. Awesome. From Calvin, raise your hand right there. Calvin Robinson. So, you should have gotten an email from Calvin. Um, if you haven't, we're always happy to to forward anything on with all the directions about how people can engage and then set something up and then you don't even have to worry about it for a whole another year. Well, the great this is for outside of here. I'm saying like for the greater community people that is there. Yeah. Wsummitadina.com or.org is the easiest way to do it for sure. Um people can give recurring, they can give a onetime investment. End of year giving is a great time. Sometimes people are looking for ways to give. Um if you want to encourage end of
045year giving for anybody, anybody if you're sitting around the Thanksgiving table um and you can designate it directly to bold goals one and two if you want. So it's very easy to target the dollars exactly where you want them to go. Excellent. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'm sorry. Member Hall. Yes. Hi, Miss McFadden. Um you're doing a wonderful job. Just to let you know that you're most welcome. Um as far as the lift rides, um how many lift rides does a student or a family get? Because you know, we have a lot of people that may well not people, but students that will miss school due to not having transportation or living 1.8 miles away from school and it's too cold to walk or it's raining. Yeah. So, how many rides do we
046get? And how do our families take advantage of that? Yep. So, currently families are able to receive three roundtrip rides a month. Um, and that's just based on funding and the money that the funds that were are allocated for Lyft. Um, but we also have bus passes. Um, and we the coordinator will work with the family to determine like what are the other barriers or challenges from getting their um about getting their child to school. Um, and we also work with the school. So, if they are at a family resource center school, they can go into the coordinator's um into the F FRC and let the family know. They can call or they can text the coordinator and let them know that they need a lift. Right. Okay. Just one more followup if you don't
047mind. Thank you. Um so, with the five schools that the family resource centers are in, other schools are not in that school. So, can families from outside of other schools come to those schools that are in their district to get assistance at the resource centers? Yes. Okay. So um each cluster is um the school each F FRC that's in the cluster they can attend that F FRC to get um access to services. So we start with the family liaison and the family liaison usually reach out to the coordinator because there's that relationship there um and we families get resources that way as well but they are more than welcome to come to an F FRC. Wonderful. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you all. Thank you. Also, I would just like to give a reminder to
048our families. There will be no school on Wednesday, November 26 through Friday, November 28th due to our Thanksgiving break. Please take this time to relax and enjoy the holidays. And this does conclude the superintendent's report. Thank you very much, uh, Superintendent and our United Way representatives. Again, um, next we will have our treasurer's report. Thank you, Madam President. I want to touch on two things. Uh we did go down to Columbus last week and watch some of the legislative process and four property tax bills were passed by the legislature. Uh two of those do not affect us. House bills 309 and 335 don't affect Akran City Schools because we are not at the 20 mil floor, which is the state funding's formula's limit. Um, two will have a slight impact on us potentially, which is
049why I wanted to mention this. House bills 309 and 335. Um, provide county budget commission with authority over property tax levies. Uh, 309 specifically allows county budget commissions to reduce tax rates for certain levies if they are collecting more revenue than needed. And then 335 caps revenue growth from inside millillage to an inflation GDP deflator. Uh both of these issues are still would still have to be figured out how that's going to happen, but I wanted to mention these that we are keeping tabs on this and watching it very closely. Also, later on in our meeting tonight, we're going to be approving the contract for a performance audit with the state auditor's office. Um, this work will be performed from a third-party point of view and we have not had this done since 1998. So,
050this will be a good good way to review all of our uh procedures and policies and this the scope uh of the work will entail reviewing financial management, human resources, facilities, and the transportation area. and they said in their engagement letter that they expect that to be completed in the fall of 26. That concludes my report. Thank you. Um Mr. Bowers, is there a motion to approve the October financial report? So moved. It's been moved by member Sykes. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Hall. Is there any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, roll call, please. Mr. Bowers. Reverend Harrison. Yes. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molner, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Audrey, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Motion carries 70. [clears throat] Thank you. Next. Is there a motion to
051approve the regular board meeting minutes for our November 3rd meeting, 2025? So moved. It's been moved by member Hall. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded by Vice President Alexander. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, roll call, please. Mr. Powers. Dr. Dr. [clears throat] Jackson. Yes. Dr. Molner. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Miss Autri. Yes. Miss Hall. Yes. Reverend Harrison. Yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Uh, next we need a motion to approve the special board meeting minutes for the November 14th, 2025 meeting. Is there a motion? So move. It's been moved by Vice President Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded by member Hall. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing. Uh, Mr. Bowers. Roll call, please. Dr. Molnar. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes, Miss Audrey. Yes,
052Miss Hall. Yes, Reverend Harrison. Yes, Dr. Jackson. Abstain as I was not present. Motion carries 6 01. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Next, we will have our personnel recommendations by our superintendent. Thank you, President Jackson. Does the board have any questions about the personnel items for section 10 professional staff and administrators section 11 miscellaneous you've been recognized member Harrison. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I would like to discuss uh 111 the um superintendent superintendent outly has um sent us emails. She and I have emailed and I I understand her email and she sent us a clarifying email this evening or this afternoon. She sent us a clarifying email which I appreciate that as well. um my my concern with administrative specialists and I don't have a concern about this position in and of itself but the
053um approving of administrative specialists for a per day rate without having um an end, you know, how many hours are they going to work um a week? And um as we look at this particular position, I bring this one up because we were told that this position was going to um be rift through attrition. Okay. And so then rift through attrition, I would think that we would um someone else would be absorbing these duties or someone else would be prepared for the duties. And I'm concerned when we allow people to retire and then bring them back to do the same job that they had um but pay them a daily rate because I don't think we are saving money with that. Um I I think that the the goal is if we're riff people to
054build capacity with the people that we have. So to to clarify this my my my concern when we uh approve administration specialists that we don't have a any type of gauge how long will they be working how often will they be working? We have a daily rate but we don't know and the fact that are we building capacity with the people that we have um if we're bringing other people back to take leadership roles to take oversight roles. Thank you. Thank you. Member Harrison, did you want the superintendent to follow up or is that just a statement? [laughter] I I guess the question was can we put a u a beginning, you know, are we talking three days? Are we talking five days? Are we um So, so that would be the the point. Uh
055the reason why we were requesting or desiring the uh flexibility is she would not work more than 24 hours a week and because the uh windows for different grants es and flows and so we want her to only work when she's actually working on a grant. So I didn't want to give her so many days in a row because I may not need her to work that many days in a row. So, I wanted the flexibility to tell her when to work and when not to work. Thank you for that um explanation. But so, can we amend this to put no more than 24 hours a week? There's no correct time frame in here. Thank you, Member Harrison. Superintendent. Yes, please. That would be acceptable. So for clarification, uh it would reflect that for 11.1
056um the approval of this position is not to exceed 24 hours a week. A week. Correct. Not to exceed 24 hours a week. Yes. All right. Is Is there a motion? Is Is there a motion um to approve the amendment for 11.1 um for the administrative specialist position not to exceed 24 hours a week? Madam Chair, I make a motion to amend 11.1 to reflect uh the employment of this administration u to not exceed 24 hours per week. Okay. Um it's been it's been moved by member Harrison. Um is there any discussion? It seems there may be discussion. You want to second that? A second. Okay. All right. It's been it's been seconded by member Sykes. Any discussion? Thank you, M. Okay. Seeing any uh member Molner, sorry, were you calling for discussion? Yes. Okay.
057And since there has been no discussion, but there appears to be a significant amount of concern, um I would like to uh I believe there might be a question about the 24 hours a week versus the daily rate. If someone could please clarify if it is an issue to put an hourly thing on a daily rate. I I think the question was no it's not it was two two and a half days is what um Dr. Chapman was saying which I understood. So it still falls under the umbrella not to exceed 24 hours because it's it's 2 and 1/2 days. And if I could just add a little bit more clarification, it doesn't have to be two and a half. It could be 0.5 as long as it doesn't exceed the 24 hours because she
058may come in for half a day. Again, I just want her to work for the time that it's needed. So, if a whole day isn't needed, she would only work half a day, but no more than 24 hours. Thank you. Is there um Did you have followup? Uh, I'm sorry, Dr. Muller. Okay. Is there any other dis any other questions from board members? All right. Seeing and hearing none, Mr. Bowers, roll call, please. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Audrey, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molar, yes. Motion carries 70. All right. Thank you. And for our board, our student board member, Dear Hart, if you would like, you can be uh dismissed from this board meeting at this time. If you would like and we do want to
059thank you again, Brooke, let's give her a round of applause. We appreciate our board members and thank you. Did an excellent job. Yes. And before you leave, feel please feel free um I'll take the point of privilege. Please address your board. Um uh thank Uh thank you for having me today. Um it has been a very enlightening experience seeing what happens during these meetings as I haven't been able to be to any of these meetings before. Um I have learned a lot and I remember it was at a meeting like with the student board members a while like a month ago. Um I remember you had brought this up like and like seeing active Dr. Chapman uh like active results like like visible progress being made in the community like from like from United Way.
060Um and that reminded me of that and it makes it makes a lot more sense now to that. Um and [snorts] yeah uh thank you uh board members, guests uh and especially the Mr. Fletcher. Uh thank you. Thank you and you guys have a good evening. You have a great Thanksgiving. [laughter] [applause] All right. Um, does the board have any questions about personnel items section 12? Did you or did you? You didn't. Okay. uh se which is supplemental contracts. Uh section 13 substitute teachers. Section 14 tutors. Section 15 support staff. Section 16 is pair of professionals. Section 17, child nutrition. Section 18, maintenance, operations, and transportation. Section 19, security, and section 20, students. If there are no questions, I wish to recommend the approval of the personnel recommendations presented in categories 10 through 20 with
061the um amendment that was made to item 11.1. Thank you, Superintendent. Is there a motion to approve the personnel recommendations presented in categories 10 through 20? It's been moved by member Hall. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded by Vice President Alexander. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, roll call, please. Mr. Powers. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Miss Audrey. Yes. Miss Hall. Yes. Reverend Harrison. Yes. Dr. Jackson. Yes. Dr. Molinar. Yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Mr. Bower. Bower, excuse me. Next we will have our division recommendations, resolutions, and motions. Superintendent Outley, does the board have any questions about the division recommendations, resolutions, and motions for section 22? If there are no questions, I wish to recommend the approval of the division recommendations, resolutions, and motions in section 22. Thank you, superintendent. Is
062there a motion to approve the division recommendations re resolutions and motions in category 22? So moved. It's been moved by member hall. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded by member Autry. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none. Mr. Bowers. Roll call, please. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Miss Audrey. Yes. Miss Hall abstain 2210. Yes to the balance. Reverend Harrison. Yes. Dr. Jackson. Yes. Dr. Molner. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. 2210 is 61 and 70 on the balance. Thank you, Mr. hours. Next is our business affairs recommendation. Superintendent Outw. Does the board have any questions for section 23, approval of business affairs recommendations category 23? You've been recognized. Member Harrison, I have a question on 2213. Um, how often does it how often do we are we required to maintenance Firestone's pool? I'm not questioning the expense. I
063just want to know how often we incur that. I believe it's annually, but I if it's something different, Miss Faulk, could you correct me? You are correct. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. Is there a motion to approve the business affairs recommendations in categories 23? So move. It's been moved by Vice President Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded by member Autry. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, Mr. Bowers. Roll call, please. [clears throat] Miss Audrey, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Next, we will have our committee reports, beginning with the legal contracts and board policy. Vice President Alexander. Thank you, Madam President. This evening, we have for the third and
064final reading of the following policies. Policy 0141.3 nepotism. Sorry. A policy a pol a policy 0141.3 nepotism. B policy 1130.1 nepotism. C policy 3113.1 nepotism. D policy 4113.1 nepotism. And policy um E policy 5136 personal communications. F policy 5 5200 uh attendance and policy 98 uh00 diplomas and special circumstance and this is uh the third and final reading. Make a motion that we accept these policies as read. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any discussion? I'm sorry member. Thank you all. Uh I said the the motion was brought by the committee. It does not need a second but we are having discussion and member Altry. Yes. Thank you uh Madame Chair. Um I just wanted to acknowledge policy G um which is uh the diplomas for special circumstances. Um I just want to thank the
065committee for their work on bringing this forth. um the parent who actually inspired this um is sitting in the audience and I just wanted to uh say I know this doesn't bring your child back but her memory will live on for future students and so I'm happy that we're able to do this um in honor of her. Thank you Madam President. Yeah. Yes. uh also that the policy committee will be meeting uh December the 1st in this room at 5:30. Uh policy meeting will be be meeting next Monday which is December the 1st in this room at 5:30. Thank you. Thank you Mr. President. The motion has been brought by the committee is to accept uh these policies as their third and final reading and approve all seven as presented by the committee. Miss Audrey,
066yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Next is finance and capital management. Miss Sykes. Uh thank you madam president and members of the committee. So you've heard the report basically from the treasurer. So I will not repeat what he had to say. I will also say that as of December 1st we were scheduled to meet the finance committee but we will cancel the committee because we will not have our finance report for uh data for um November. So we will cancel the meeting and the next schedule meeting to be announced as of the first of the year. Thank you madam president. Thank you, member Sykes. Any question for the chair, the finance committee chair? All right.
067Next, we will have instruction policy and student achievement. Um, member Altry. Thank you, Madam Chair. The instructional policy committee met on Monday, November the 10th. Uh, we received three presentations. Uh the first presentation was from Superintendent Outley um around the blueprint for excellence, our five-year strategic plan um which is currently in its third year. Um following a summer session, the team met to consolidate and update the plan while retaining the core structure of the four foundational cornerstones, academic achievement, culture of safety and belonging, partnerships, family and community engagement, and operational excellence. Um, we have just completed the first quarter key performance indicator reviews for the August to August planning cycle directly linking this performance data back to the four cornerstones. An updated summary is expected later this fall. Um, our second presentation um from Marcy
068Ebrite and Carmela Cooper was around entrepreneurship. Our fourth E. Um, every high school is implementing the marketing and entrepreneurship pathway which encompasses four dedicated courses and three industry recognized credentials. This pathway is strongly supported by the career and technical student organization specifically DECA and technical student organizations I'm sorry specifically DECA which centers on entrepreneurship allowing students to lead real world projects and events. The success of this program was highlighted by a presentation uh from a North High School pathway student detailing his own startup. our pond's vision marketing. He was very um delightful. Yeah. And so further student achievement was evidenced by a group attending the UVA summer Aspire camp and DECA students from Firestone revamping local businesses with many students now actively starting businesses to fund college or as a contingency plan. Future plans include
069incorporating entrepreneurship into Dream Day 2.0 O as part of the senior countdown experience and developing capstone projects. Um our third and final presentation um was from the Glover CLC team. Um and it was a followup to the visit to the Ron Clark Academy um creating a house system. Um, and so as reviewed uh by principal Grace Tone and staff, this system places every student and staff member into a supportive house, fostering a stronger sense of belonging and mutual support throughout the school. The project is generating significant enthusiasm amongst students, beginning with a hype video that was shared at the meeting that announced the imminent start of the house sorting process. Despite being organized in separate houses, the students have fostered a spirit of mutual support which has resulted in a slight improvement in overall student
070attendance. And so, um, one last thing that I would just like to address. Um, and so I know we had an update to the minutes and I appreciate the team making sure the updated minutes were uh presented to us. Um and it did include a discussion around book's cosmetology program. Um and I was uh advised that on our December 8th agenda, we should be expecting um that position that was requested by Bookto's cosmetology uh program to support that. So I just wanted to say that out loud on the mic. So that we're looking for that at our December 8th agenda. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, member Alri. Are there any questions for the chair? All right. If none, next we will hear from student success celebration committee. Um me member hall.
071Thank you, Madam President. Um the student success celebration committee met on November 10th where we were um introduced by our AC our early learners um through art sparks. Um they sang a couple different songs for us about manners. Um and they were very very energetic and they also received their certificates where they were super excited about also. Um we also had recognition for the junior ROTC student leaders as well as um Akan Early College students um students were recognized who demonstrated exceptional academic achievement by earning perfect scores on their state assessments. So, congratulations to all our students. Um, our next meeting will be held on February 2nd at 5:30. Thank you, member Hall. Are there any questions for the chair of the student success celebration committee? All right, seeing and hearing none, um, there is
072no unfinished business, nor is there any new business that I'm aware of. There is however a need to go into executive session pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 121.22G1 to consider the employment, dismissal, discipline, demotion, or compensation of a public employee or official and Ohio Reise Code 121.22 22 G4. Preparing for conducting or reviewing negotiations or bargaining sessions with public employees concerning their composation or other terms and conditions of their employment. [snorts] Is there a motion to go into executive session? So move. It's been moved by Vice President Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded by member Autry. Is there any discussion? Seeing in hearing none, Mr. Bowers, roll call, please. Miss Hall. Yes. Reverend Harrison, no. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Bolnar, yes. I'm sorry. Yes or no? Yes. Miss Sykes? Yes. Mr. Alexander?
073Yes. Miss Audrey? Yes. Motion carries. 61. Thank you. We stand in recess for executive session at 6:38 p.m. Thank you. We we are back in session from our executive session meeting and there is necessary action that is needed from the executive session. Is there a motion to approve the tentative agreement between the Akran Board of Education and the Ohio Association of Public Schools employees AFS CME AFL CIO local 778 foreman. So move. It's been moved by Vice President Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been seconded by member Hall. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, Mr. Bowers, roll call, please. Reverend Harrison, yes. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Audrey, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you. The next meeting will be held on Monday, December
0748th, 2025 here in the boardroom. Is there um a motion to adjurnn? So move. It's been moved by Vice President Alexander. I'm sorry. Here at 5:30 p.m. I don't think I said the time. Um it's been moved by Vice President Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member hall. Any discussion? Member Hall, just real quick, my apologies to delay. Um I did want to make mention to our families that um on next Tuesday, December 2nd, that there's going to be a community wash day where you can bring your clothes, wash them for free, detergent is provided, as well as a meal. So that's going to be December 2nd um which is a Tuesday from 10 to 2 at Super Clean Laundry 1739 Britain Road. Up to three to four loads you can
075wash for free. So hopefully that will help some families going into a new month. Thank you so much um for that member hall. Any other discussion? Seeing and hearing none, everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Roll call, please. Dr. Bolnar. Yes, [clears throat] Mrs. Sykes. Yes, Mr. Alexander. Yes, Miss Audrey. Yes, Miss Hall. Yes, Reverend Harrison. Yes, Dr. Jackson. Yes. Motion carries. 70. Thank you. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Be safe. God bless you. Yes. [music]