Board of Education Livestream - 09/22/25

001[Music] [Applause] [Music] Good evening and welcome to the Akran School Board of Education's public meeting held September 22nd, 2025 at 5:30 p.m. Mr. Bowers. Roll call, please. Mr. Alexander, present. Miss Audrey, present. Miss Hall, present. Reverend Harrison, present. Dr. Jackson, present. Dr. Molenor, present. Mrs. Sykes, present. All present. 70. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Vice President Alexander, could you please lead us as those who are able to stand stands for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. I am not aware of let's see any recognitions on today or um scholar member voices are there any recognition superintendent okay um at this time I'll

002defer to the superintendent for recognitions okay member hall Good evening everyone. Um, I'm here to discuss the Thomas Edison Award. The Governor Thomas Edison Award was established in 1985 under former Governor Richard Celeste administration. The governor the governor Thomas Edison award for excellence in student research and STEM education are presented to Ohio students, schools, and teachers who extend STEM education beyond traditional classroom activities. I will now turn it over to Dr. Halasa. Thank you board member Miss Summer Hall, Superintendent Otley, uh President Dr. Jackson, and all board members for allowing me to speak about this um wonderful prestigious STEM governor's award for the Akran public school system. In um I want to start by telling you how we got here real quick. Um we started with one school at Firestone High School, nine teachers in

0032002 and currently we are at um 2025 with 196 school awards and 3,6 um 473 total teachers till 2025. What makes this award so amazing for this year is that we actually have all our schools, 40 of them being represented. And what you can see in this slide is the number of times that a school has been um receiving the award. And you could see this is a first time for many of our elementary schools. So we have over 40 schools, over 857 K through2 teachers were recognized throughout the district. I'm going to briefly describe how we got here. So the criteria for the school teachers award starts with a local conduct uh a local fair with 12 or more students. So we do this in Akran by having all seventh grade create a presentation

004and and that's around 1,500. Some of our high schools required this course which is 133 and some um did a summer research internship at the University of Akran which counted for 45. Fifth graders and teachers in the elementary school recruited six or more of 158 elementary students participated this year. In our own fair 194 and you can see how many got superior, excellent and good. The second criteria is um going to district day. We had 304 scholars that participated in the regional science day whether it was physically at Kent State or virtually at a district fair. Um we normally have only 50. So imagine 304 this year and normally we have 50. That also produced 90 scholars to participate in our state science day and 27 of them got superiors today. Um in addition, the

005third criteria is that you have to have a school um work on doing something outside with STEM. And as you can see, we have all these things, whether our community partners, CCA, gifted and talented, K through2 teachers, they take them beyond the classroom. And so we're generously thankful for our community members um being able to support us. So today I would be my pleasure to introduce my friend and the executive director of the Ohio Academy of Science, Voy um Mike, Mr. Mike Voy Voytech. He is appointed the um to the full mission of the Ohio's leading organization to advance understanding and practice of science and technology, engineering and math. Michael is responsible including reading uh leading, directing, funding, budgeting all programs that serve OAS members and strategic stakeholders. These activities include professional symposiums, publications, and

006the Ohio Journal of Science and create a preol stem to STEMbased entrepreneur programs. Prior to joining OA, Michael's career um spanned for more 30 years in finance services and professional and entrepreneur. He is a lifelong Ohioan. Michael um graduated his bachelor's from Youngstown State. Then he got his MBA from Cleveland State. And it is my honor to introduce my friend Michael Voytech for um the OAS. Thank you so much. Um it is really my pleasure, Superintendent Otuley, uh President uh Dr. Carla Jackson, members of the board. Um, we have been recognizing schools and teachers since 1985 through this award that has been supported through the by the Ohio Department of Development, the Governor's Thomas Edison Award for uh for STEM education and student research. So, why do we do this and and and who are

007we? Um, we've been doing experiential learning opportunities for students through science and giving students an authentic, genuine opportunity, studentdriven opportunities for them to pursue their own curiosity, for them to discover, and for them to innovate by actually applying what they're learning. Right? Why do we need to learn this stuff anyhow? Um, Akran happens to do it as well, if not better, than any school district in the state. Think about this. 1,400 students. I mean, these are programs of rigor. Students are writing 250word abstracts. They're submitting a complete research plan into a final report. They're making a visual presentation. They're standing in front of a professional practitioner, a professional from the field, and they're they're going over the results, right? What they've what they were able to um you know, what they were able to learn,

008the questions they were able to ask and answer, and how they were able to apply this material. Um we get a lot of feedback from students and they'll tell us that component of standing in front of you know that judge and presenting it is something that makes them stronger, something that makes them resilient, adaptable and framing you know a persuasive presentation, a persuasive argument is something that serves them well. Um, we would love to see them pursue science and engineering as a profession. We realize they're not all going to take that particular pathway, but the durable skills that they're learning. And this isn't just about awareness. This isn't just about, you know, you know, a brief engagement or a one-day thing. Many of these students start their projects in the summer. They continue them through

009the fall. and when they start presenting them in February and March. Um, we're glad to see them. Uh, we currently engage over 400 schools a year from more than 70 different counties. So, um, I have um context, right? And I could tell you what a what a fabulous job Akran's doing. Um, please continue to support this. Um, it is very important for the state of Ohio. It's important for those students futures as well. Um, in our uh news release, we have all the schools listed. I do have proclamations from uh Governor DeWine and Lieutenant Governor Trussell. um we have all the teachers listed the principles but somehow there was a big omission I don't have Dr. Hasa mentioned. So we don't have any particular um reason for that. It's just that we only list the

010schools, the principles, and the teachers. But it wouldn't happen without her. So this is my recognition. It is the 2025 STEM champion from the Ohio Academy of Science and it recognizes Dr. Katrina Hassa, Akran Public Schools. Um I also um requested somebody um to come with me. I have with us today uh Dr. Allen, who is the deputy director from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Uh Dr. Diane Allen is new to the position. She was recently appointed in July of 2025. Previous to that, she was the superintendent of Mary'sville School District. Um she has a few things she would like to say as well. Dr. Allen. Well, thanks for having me. I I I'm going to be honest. After retiring of 13 years of being a superintendent, I was really trying to avoid

011board meetings in my future, but so happy to be here tonight and celebrate with all of you and the great work uh taking place here. 40 schools. So, when I look at that list and I see the change, we had a STEM school in my district. I know what that means for kids. So, well done. I couldn't be more proud of uh the two young ladies I got to hear tonight talk to me about their project and their excitement. Um we all know lessons in life are more valuable when we fail, right? Those are the biggest lessons in life that we take away. So listening to them about what went wrong and what they tried to change and correct are those valuable workforce skills that we need in our students today. So, um, I'm totally

012off script, so I apologize for that. But, uh, as we are dedicated to creating those life experiences where kids are connecting to the community, we all know it takes a village. All of you, all the teacher champions, uh, your community partners. So, I just want to say this is the exemplar. This is what we're looking for. Couldn't be more proud. I can't wait to hire a couple kids that are sitting out here in this crowd because you are preparing tomorrow's workforce and they are honestly they're rocking it. So, couldn't be more proud to be here tonight. Congratulations to you all. Should be a great celebration. Thanks for including me. Um, and I would just like to take a minute to um give a small award to our um young people. So, they'll come up as

013they're coming up um behind me. So, um, Amara Douglas and Amelia Escu, which by the way, her father was one of my students at North High School. So, now we've come back to the turn of Hassa teaching other um, your kids' kids. Yes. So, let's hope it doesn't go to grandchildren like Mr. Hersek. Um, we also want to recognize um, Rosabella um, Morris. Please come up as well to the podium um, with also I I'll also address that in a minute. And she would please come to the podium. She also took over $500 at Best Medicine for her um invention. Um and then finally, Ana um McShane, who was part of our program. Um I'd like to include a couple adults with that. So, Dr. Nadab Mackey, the um vice president of the provost and

014academics, please come up. She is part of the reason why we have our partnership with Akran um Akran U and Karen Collins who's representing case who took the kids all the way to state where they got their superior. Please uh come forward. Um, also I do want to say for um our our special guest, thank you for coming today. Um, we do have a a gift for you as well. And then I just want to recognize this would never happen without the people um that are notice how I am slowly making it work. Um this would not happen without um special thanks to the fifth grade teachers who recommended their work directly either with the um scholars or with our team. I'd like our team who's behind me to stand up. They're in the fourth

015row. They're the ones that coached the fifth grade scholars pro um projects registered the 304. Assured that the paperwork went well. if it wasn't for my team because remember it's a we not a me. I want to recognize Keith um Lei and the OSI coaches who helped drive the application and help our principles. I want CCA um Marcy Ebrite for those STEM related um um experiences and also S OSI for paying for the actual registration. It's $30 per person or $60 to go to state. So it's not inexpensive. It's expensive to send our kids to do those things besides all the chaperons and the buses that we do. But all of this would have not happened without Maryanne Peromic. And so if she could please rise to the feds, that's a great picture, Mom. That's

016a great picture. Um, so with a lot of gratitude and thanks to everything you do, thank you because when Shai said, "Hey, let's get all elementary schools to do this. Let's do the governor's award." And she looked at me and she's like, "Sure, Halasa." And then when it came down to like December, January, she looked at me and she's like, "Are we going to make it?" I go, "Of course we are." So she was naive enough to be my uh coach last year, the the chosen one as we say once in a while. Um and so she u is the reason that all those applications got done and streamlined. If it wasn't for her hard work and persistence, we would have not had this today. Again, our printing service, we have at every school a

017um poster with an easel, so you will be seeing it. The coaches took it this morning, so you should be seeing it at our schools, posted everywhere in the office. And thanks to printing for doing that and in 49 languages in the Akran public schools. I would like to say thank you and allowing me to lead our young people. [Applause] By the way, you all have lemonade because we don't make lemons in APS. We make lemonade. [Applause] Excellent job. Again, thank you all for your hard work and everything that you do. Um, currently we did have uh some one more recognition very quickly. This summer, Akran public schools launched the summer reading adventure contest designed to help our rising kindergarten through fourth grade students stay engaged and learning while away from school. This initiative encouraged

018students to compete with um some fun activities during their summer engaging in workbooks and to bring the workbooks back at the start of the school year. So, I have the honor to recognize the winning school this evening and that is Windmir CLC. If Principal Megan Lee Wilfong is present, would you please stand and be recognized? [Music] Thank you. Windmir had the highest participation rate across the district. Thanks to our valued partnerships with Scholastics, students participation um AC at Wendemir was at a record high and Wendemir will enjoy now a special popup bookstore right at their own school where every student will have the chance to pick out a free book to keep. So congratulations That does conclude the recognitions. [Music] Thank you. One one second here. Um, thank you for that. And we have our

019stu um signed up before we go with our um student scholar voice um which I'll take this time to use that for you because you are a student scholar and then I'll go on to those who want to address the board. So um go ahead dear heart coming from Garfield CLC. Go ahead. Hi my name is Ana. I have a project out there. It's called Stop That Spoilage. But the reason I'm on the mic today is to thank Dr. Halasa for everything that she's done for me and giving me this opportunity. I'm very grateful to be up here see all of you and be able to help the community. And like someone said before me, the way that we learn is failure. And if you don't fail at it, you won't learn how to do

020it right. So, I want to say thank you to whoever said that before before me. And I want to say thank you to all of y'all. Well, thank you. Let's give her and I think she wants to go to school to be an attorney. So, let's be looking for her in the future. Thank you so much, dear heart. Um, now we do have one um request to address the board. Um, and while um Kim Patton gets ready, I'm just going to read our preamble. Participants will not be permitted to speak on matters related to vendors, business matters, formal complaints, grievances, specific student or student records, personnel matters, and potential or pending legal matters. Participants must speak on matters related to the business of the board. Please keep your comments to three minutes or less. The

021board will not respond. Thank you so much. But will assign through the superintendent the appropriate person for followup. Please again state your name and your group affiliation. Thank you. Good evening. Um my name is Kim Patton and I'm the associate director of clinical services at the county of Summit Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services Board. I'm here this evening um to talk to you all on behalf of our levy um that will be on the ballot this coming November. So, the county of Summit ADM board has a statutory responsibility to plan, fund, and monitor mental health and addiction services for Summit County residents. And while we do not provide direct services, we do provide funding for local agencies that provide crisis treatment and school-based services. Several of the providers that we do support are in

022the Akran public schools. And some of those um agencies that we do provide funding to are Akran UMid Minority Behavioral Health Group, Greenly Family Services, Red Oak Behavioral Health, Child Guidance and Family Services, Asia CHC Addiction Services, Alliance for Healthy Youth, Ohio Guidest and Urban of Prevention Services and Behavioral Health. We ensure that services are available to Summit County residents regardless of their insurance status. And we also provide support for critical programs such as crisis center, detox, 988, Summit County outreach team, and crisis intervention training, which is training for emergency service responders where they learn to identify and how to respond to mental health crisis. And we most recently in August had a um youth CIT training, which is the first of its kind. And we're already planning to have another one. Um, our current

023levy generates about 36 million per year. And in 2024, the levy accounted for about 77% of our total income and about 93% of that goes directly into direct contracts and services. The ADM board is on the ballot in November as issue one and we're asking here this evening for formal endorsement and support. The ADM board has not asked voters for an increase in 18 years and in this November we are asking for a renewal with a slight increase for and to 3.45 millillage and what that means is it will cost a homeowner of a $100,000 home $6.25 per month or $75 per year. The ADM board believes that mental health is health care and with your support, we can continue to serve our community members when they're at their most vulnerable. Thank you. And then

024um also in your packet, you have our most l um most recent resource guide and our um 2025 tip card. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you. Okay, we have no more um requests to address the board at this time. Are there any board member reflections? Member Hall. Thank you, Madam President. It's not really a reflection, but with the ADM board, I know that I was in a presentation um with their um their numbers that they provided, especially with Akan public schools. So I want to make sure that we are getting that data because it shows students that you know um may have passed away due to suicide or guns or things like that as well as bullying and all of that information too. So it'd be great if we can get that information um

025to better service our students. Thank you. Thank you member Hall. Are there any other board member community reflections? Uh, member Molinar. Thank you, Madame President. Um, I missed our last meeting because I was in Washington, DC, but it was a wonderful opportunity. I really enjoy and appreciate the ability to represent our district and learn more about how to be an effective advocate for our students, for our families, to talk to our representatives, and also talk to other um educational leaders and policy advocates. So, um this really helps us share challenges and also compare our goals, work together, and discover new ways to support our communities. So, I love going there and telling people what we need, but what I love even more is coming back um with information that can help us right here, right

026now. And so, that's what I'm going to try to do right now because uh one topic from my recent trip was a discussion on Medicaid. And so, as many people know, recent char changes have uh caused adults to lose coverage, but what isn't widely known is that children often still qualify even when their parents don't. And this matters deeply to us as a school district. One, it affects our ability to receive reimbursements for services like physical therapy. But much more importantly, when our children have access to health services, they're healthier. They learn better. Uh Maslo before Bloom, they're more likely to succeed in school. So, I am not by any means an expert on Medicaid. I basically just told you 100% of what I know so far, but a recommendation from the other district leaders

027was for us at APS to leverage our family resource centers where people do know much more than I do about this and they can directly help students and families and other community members too. So, um we have interim conferences happening this week. We're going to have people in the buildings. Um, and so while you're there visiting your teachers, it might be a good idea to stop by the family resource center, but it's also a good time for us to remind families that not all of our buildings have family resource centers. So, you can go to a building that does. Just because your building doesn't have one does not mean that you cannot visit one and get um help and services and information from one. And you um don't even have to be an APS student

028or an APS family. The family resources center is there for the community. So my call to action for this week, I have 40 seconds left, uh is to encourage families, for us as a district to encourage families to connect with opportunities available through our family resource centers. Um and to strengthen support for all Akran children, right? We often say we're here for the kids. So I'm taking this moment to share this message publicly, hoping it's going to reach others and snowball out. And if any of us have connections to our other roles and networks, even uh even private schools, even charter schools, those students are encouraged to come to our buildings, come to our family resource centers and feel invited and supported um uh with resources. Thank you, member Molnar. Are there any other board

029member reflections? Uh Vice President Alexander, please. Thank you, Madam President. Um I just want first of all want to thank uh Dr. Halasa for the work that she's done with our student. Thank our students for the hard work that they they did to uh uh to achieve the the goals that they did. This is what it to me is what it's all about. Uh our students achieving our our our staff be able to give to the students so they can thrive and so they can achieve and so they can uh meet those milestones they need to make sure that they were they will be good individuals for the future. So, I want to thank Dr. Lassa again and thank her team as well as uh all the students of me because I I love things

030like this here because this is to me is what makes every district work. Uh second of all, I wanted to say I I was able to attend the father's walk last week uh at Case Elementary School and uh you know, we always say that a lot of times there's a lot of fathers that are missing in uh the lives of some of our kids. And uh during that walk, I saw a lot of fathers, you know, a lot of fathers who were there. And when the fathers were not there, there were the grandfathers there. So they had a a a a adult male adult with them uh during that day. It was very exciting. The kids were excited. The parents were excited. Crispy Cream, you know, gave a lot of donuts throughout the the the

031city to give to to the to the to the uh students as well as the the the grandparents and and the the parents. Uh so that that's always good to see that we have our fathers who are involved in the lives of their kids. and if not their fathers, they do have a male individual who's involved with their lives. And lastly, um this was uh uh something that's really uh I guess kind of close to me because uh one of my teachers when I was in the first grade, and I I don't forget her, she was one of my neighbors as well, uh Marilyn Walker, and she was uh uh someone who cared about education, who talked about reading and making sure she instilled in us reading and and learning. And this on on the

032on September the 27th, uh there's going to be a program at Patterson Park. It's called a brick painting experience and that is at Patterson Park again, 800 Patterson Avenue. And uh they want people to come and it's $40 donation. It'll it'll include a meal and materials. And this is to raise money for books for kids. And so uh this is dear to me because she Mrs. Walker was one of my teachers and really poured into us. And so I I want anyone who's out there who would like to attend, please attend this event. Uh this will be on September 27th at Patterson Park uh at 6:00 p.m. Patterson Park uh Community Center at 6 p.m. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Vice President Alexander. Um member Altry. Thank you, Madam President. Um I also just

033wanted to acknowledge uh the father's walk. I saw a lot of uh amazing photos um all age groups, not just elementary and middle school and just thanking the 100 black men and the Akran firefighters who also participated um just to have that male presence. Um also piggybacking on uh Dr. Monar thanking the district for the opportunity to attend uh the federal advocacy conference uh in DC um at this last uh meeting. uh since we met, well since I was last here actually, I had the opportunity uh to attend the early learning program classes at Barber King Rymer and Helen Arnold uh to read to them uh for the international dot day which is based on a story about a teacher uh who encourages a doubtful student to trust in their own abilities and creativity. Um

034and so later on in the book we see that same student do the same thing for a peer. And so as early literacy is one of the areas of focus for us, it was my pleasure uh to make this small contribution uh for our learners. Um and then lastly, I had the opportunity to attend a ward meeting where there was a presentation uh from Summit County Children's Services Board uh Sandy Duca. Um and she shared with us that there is a foster home crisis here uh in our county in our city that 50% of our children are being placed outside of the county. Um some as far as Cincinnati and Columbus just due to our lack of foster homes. So I'm sure some families in our district are affected by this. And so she was

035encouraging people to consider becoming trained and that this is a four to sixmonth process. um currently they have 850 uh young people in custody with only 135 available homes. And so she also dispelled some myths that you can be a foster home uh if you're single, if you're a renter, um if you have minimal income, as long as it's stable income. Um and so uh certainly if anyone is uh considering this um this is certainly a need in our community, please feel free to contact Summit County Children's Services Board. And that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, Member Altri. Are there any other board member reflections? [Music] All right, seeing none, I'll move on to uh the president's report. I would concur with the things that have been said, especially concerning the father's walk

036and just want to appreciate our community um village that steps in, especially our faith-based community members and as Audrey said um our firefighters and uh other organizations that stepped in as standin so that no student would have to feel alone um with the absence of a male figure. And so we're grateful for uh them as well. Um, additionally, I would like to speak uh a little bit about the progress of APS, which I know we're all excited about. Miss Halasa, we can't thank you enough for the excellence that you do and for building excellent teams around you. Things always seem to work out very well when we allow the experts and the practitioners to do what they do best and to educate students students in a spirit of excellence. Here at Akran public schools, we

037have been steadfast in adv in advancing our strategic vision. This vision is outlined in our blueprint for excellence and as member Altri has stated, we have priorities in this strategic vision. Some of those priorities include our college and career readiness, our structured literacy and our multi- um tier systems of support as well as social emotional learning. I want to focus on the social emotional learning piece because as we just had a presentation by the ADM board and also when we recall as many times as our student advocates or our student board members approached this board and a lot of the things that they were facing was dealing with their emotional health um and their mental capacities as they walk through the halls. Students cannot learn if their mind is not set in a position to

038learn. If we can put things and systems in our school and we can support those things to better help our students social and emotional health, then we can see better outcomes, the outcomes that we say that we desire. We understand that these priorities of the district have already yielded measurable gains in literacy and graduation rates, helping to position our district, Akran public schools, as the highest rated large urban district in Ohio for the 2025 school year, according to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce report card. We're grateful for that. And while we recognize that continued growth requires consistent implementation at every building, we are taking intentional steps to strengthen instructional fidelity, to reduce teacher turnover, and to expand the reach of our um multi-ter systems of support across all schools. These efforts include discussions

039and action steps in professional development in building stronger pipelines to recruitment and to retain highquality educators and ensuring that supports and best practices developed at the district level are fully embedded in classrooms. Our progress has been made possible through the hard work and dedication of our teachers, administrators, our support staff, and district departments along with the unwavering commitment of our families and our community partners. Together, through collaboration, perseverance, and a shared vision, we we will continue to close gaps, expand opportunities, and create schools where every student has the resource and support they need to thrive. It is important that we understand we are one APS and we in fact are better together. This week regarding community engagement this Sunday I visited Prince of Peace Baptist Church and I had the honor of meeting a 2025

040Garfield High School graduate whose name is Wayne Ri Rivers. He shared with me he has enlisted in the Army Reserves and his excitement about his next steps reflects the strength and promise of our graduates here in Akran public schools. I also attended leadership on Maine hosted by leadership Akran where the executive director and CEO of the rubber division of the American chemical society Lisha Barlay shared her inspire her inspiring journey of resilience. Following her talk, I connected with her organization about possible initiatives to engage our students in the polymer industry. And I do look forward to meeting with their training and outreach director to explore explore more opportunities for meaningful student engagement as was discussed here today with our representatives from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. And um additionally, one of our students

041um I believe it was um Amelia Escu. Did she do the prosthetic hand? Bella Morris. So Bella Morris, if you had a time to look at her project, her project, all I thought about was this will be so great that connection with the polymers because she was talking about how theoretically her she had a model. She said she created a prototype and it was made out of all recycled materials. And all I thought about is the expansion of those experential learning um activities with uh someone like um Lisha Barlay's organization getting with our students so they can even dream bigger, think greater. I love how um the representative also Miss Halasa said it's not just about awareness and I I agree with that that we don't expose our children to these different opportunities simply for

042awareness but for the greater possibilities of what can be and what they can do and so again I was excited about that. I also met with Mr. Robert Brown of Catwick's Design and Build to discuss additional access points for students interested in architectural design and home building careers that do not necessarily require a college degree. I believe that these type of partnerships is critical to expanding career options for students who want to enter the workforce directly upon graduating high school. And so I was very excited to meet with him to discuss those options because the goal is that when students leave Akran public schools, we want them equipped to be contributing citizens into the city of Akran and not necessarily have to go away or abroad. So looking for those options um is what made

043me take these additional meetings. I also attended the grill and chill. I saw a member Harrison there as well as well as multiple board um employees and it was an event at the Summit Lake Nature Center and it was welcoming back our homeschool gear up families which we know financing and things like that is may cause us some challenging with some cut in financing but these are very important opportunities and um leveraging our relationships with community partners and uh surrounding organizations is important and vital so that we can sustain such programming regardless of what happens on the federal level but also agitating that we keep um support. This event had resource table, food trucks and family activities, fishing, salsa, pickle making and again it was just wonderful to strengthen our homeschool networks. Uh lastly, I

044have an announcement for our families. On uh Thursday, October 23rd at 700 p.m., Parents United for Public Schools will will host a virtual statewide meeting called IEP circles. Again, that's Parents United for Public Schools will host a virtual statewide meeting called IEP Circles. And this monthly event provides parents and caregivers with tools, resources, and a community to help them navigate their IEPs and 504 uh processes. So, again, thank you for your time. This does conclude the president's report. Next, we will have superintendent updates and report. Thank you, President Jackson. At this time, I would like to actually turn things over to member Autry. There was a presentation that was made during the instructional policy committee and they are here to present that information at this time on the report card. Okay. Thank you. Um, member

045Autry. Thank you. I wasn't aware. Oh, okay. What What part am I introducing? Uh, Miss Ebrite and company for Yes. Just the presentation on the state report card that we are so excited about. Yes. high level. Thank you. Good evening. Um, President Jackson, uh, board member Superintendent Outley. Um tonight we are sharing the results of the 2025 state report card providing a highlevel uh overview of our district's performance and we situate this um these results in our district's mission uh which is to ensure all of our scholars are college career and life ready as well as our vision that all scholars graduate ready to design their future and also our cornerstones in our strategic plan. And this data is essential for guiding our strategic decisions and ensuring we continue to meet our goals for student

046success. And specifically, the goals and measurements on the report card directly align with our district's key performance indicators or KPIs uh for cornerstone 2, which focuses on these core academic objectives, including increasing kindergarten readiness, uh improving early grade literacy, boosting our proficiency scores and our English, math tests, um and ensuring our students are prepared for college and career. So, our objectives this evening are to share where we are as measured on the state report card and how we will continue um to use our key district initiatives to ensure student success. So, what do the Ohio report cards measure? Um the OI report card is a comprehensive measure of district performance and it looks at six key components. The achievement component, which includes our performance on our state tests in English, language arts, math, science, and

047social studies. Progress, which evaluates student growth over time. Gap closing, which focuses on closing gaps among specific student groups. Early literacy, which looks at our early uh literacy in our grades K through three. graduation, which assesses our graduation rates, um, four years and five years, and college, career, workforce, military readiness, how well we prepare our students for life beyond high school. And the components actually receive a star rating. Each of our components are uh rated from one to five stars. Now even though uh each of these components have their own rating um they also are weighted in the overall district rating and you can see achievement and progress um are more heavily weighted in our overall determination. So the o overall ratings again are presented in a star format. So three stars indicates that we

048are meeting state standards. Anything above three stars means that we are exceeding the standards and anything below means that we need support. And the overall rating, although again each of the components are rated um on stars one to five, our overall rating can actually be in half stars. So you can receive one, one and a half, two, two and a half and so on. And so here you can see the district's overall rating um in each of the specific components as well. And I should point out that from last year to this year, we did improve our rating from 2.5 stars to 3.5 stars. [Applause] I was waiting on that. So my neck is moving just fine, everybody. So this is where we are in terms of performance and each of the the components and

049the rest of this presentation will will overview each of the components so that you can see the data behind each of them that led to our overall rating. And so now um I will ask Dr. Tuan Dengwin uh English language arts learning specialist to come and lead us through our achievement component. Thank you Dr. Lash. Good evening. So for the achievement component, um it's measured by uh our achievement component measures how well our students perform on the Ohio States tests. So we are measured in English language arts, science, social studies, and math. So we earn a rating of two stars. So when we look at the performance index we are um measured so in our our I'm sorry in our performance index each of the level of proficiency is weighted as you can see on

050the PowerPoint if a student scored proficient they earn one point if they score accomplished they earn 1.1 and if they score limited they earn.3 and so forth. So to calculate the performance index the state totals of all the points that our students earn they divide it by um the total number of points that possible that students can earn multiplied by 100 and that's how we've received the performance index of 65.8. So you can see that we've made steady increases from the 2122 school year to our current school year from 58.7 to 65.8. 8. When you look at the pandemic around 21 um 1920, we scored a performance index of 39.2. But now, as you can see in 2425, we are where we're at, which gives us two stars. So, when we talk about the four

051content areas, we have some celebrations. So if you see English language arts, we have two columns here to share the district average as well as the state average. For English language arts, we improved in grades sixth, 7th, 8th, and ELA 2, which is measured in 10th grade. Um, we made gains compared to our score last year. For math, we made gains in every grade level except fifth grade. For algebra 1, we made a 10% increase. And then geometry, we made a 13% increase compared to last year. For science proficiency were measured in fifth grade, 8th grade, and biology. So we make gains in every uh grade level. Our science had a new adoption. So usually when you have a new adoption, you have a little dip, but our teachers and our students that did not

052impact the score. We continue to show progress from the previous school year to this current school year. Lastly is social studies. We are measured in American government and US history. So we made over 8% gain for American um I'm sorry, US history and we made 8% gain in American government. So we have a lot to celebrate uh for our four content areas, but we are still not where we need to be. So we will continue to support our teachers so as they work with our students so that we hope that we can move towards that rating of three stars. Thank you Dr. Wong. All right so let's take a look at the gap closing component. And so again this component focuses on identifying and addressing achievement among various student groups. And so you can see

053um our percentage and rating of three stars and gap closing for the this past year 2425. And when we delve a little bit uh deeper and look at detail behind the measures that factor into gap closing, you can see um under the possible points column that we either receive zero or five. So all or nothing um or the up to nine meaning one point for each of our subgroups. And so whereas uh last time we looked at this data it was preliminary and now that it is final we can see that uh in the gifted performance in addition to the five points in gifted identification and services we did receive five points in gifted progress. Um we can also see again uh chronic absenteeism we did earn our five points. We reduced our chronic absenteeism

054by 1.2 percentage points. And um pointing out in graduation and mathematics progress, we had six and seven respectively um subgroups where we did meet the standards again for an overall three stars in gap closing. And now I will ask uh Keith Liy Clifford to talk through progress component. Thank you Dr. Lass. Get your clackers ready everybody because we went from two stars to four stars. So, uh, as Dr. Lash mentioned, we went as a district, right, overall from three and a from two and a half stars to three and a half stars. How did we go up a whole star? Progress is one of the reasons that happened. Going from two stars to four stars helped us with our overall component. If you're not sure what progress is, it is a very sophisticated value added

055calculation. So if achievement, what Dr. Dangwin presented is a snapshot of what students know in the moment on the state standards, progress is how much growth kids show over time, looking at multiple years of tests and projecting where they're expected to be. Now, I think of it kind of like a race. So, you're making more progress if you're outpacing the other little third graders or fourth graders in your race. And that's exactly what we did. So, I'm proud to say that when we uh unpack our progress that we showed some great uh gains in our gifted ELA and math, they received three stars. In science and social studies, our gifted students received five stars. It is also noteworthy that our special ed students received four stars in math and five stars in uh science. So

056lots to celebrate uh with our gifted subgroup. Now let me unpack that measure a little bit more. We actually under the hood have two years of value added celebration. So if you see in that last column, our value added measure is made up of three years worth of data. So in 2025, that's worth most of our points. So this year, we actually received four stars overall in value added. In 2024, we actually received a one-year rating of three stars, meaning we met state expectations last year. And then in 2023, we had two stars. So when you roll up four stars, three stars, two stars, that gave us an overall four stars. So very excited about that one. One more round of applause please. Uh next the next progress moment uh measure is early literacy. Uh

057you know from sitting on the board we have done so much around um structured literacy the science of reading. We really pour our heart and soul into our early learning program. Now we did not receive uh the marks that we wanted on this measure but the work continues and you'll hear about that at the end of the presentation. So you can see over time we have four years listed. Uh we had one star back in 21-22 slowly making some gains in that measure. We hit two stars last year and then we just fell a little bit. If you notice the chart in the upper right hand corner, it takes a 58% to hit two stars. We were at 57.9. If we could have moved one more student, uh, we probably would have made that measure.

058So, we will continue to work on that. Now, this is also a pretty sophisticated calculation. There's actually three indicators that roll up into the early literacy. So, we have uh our third grade proficiency is a measure. Uh, now this was a little tougher hurdle this year because uh the bar keeps raising. We used to get credit for getting kids close to proficiency. That's no longer the case. So, I suspect that's partly why you saw that go down. You have to be proficient or above. Um, so we uh dipped a little bit to 46.1. That's 40% of our uh weight. Uh promotion to fourth grade. We do a great job with our summer programming, giving kids extra opportunities to show uh that they're they're ready for fourth grade. So that's 35% of the weight. Uh and

059the last one is improving literacy. And this is how we show uh improvement in those pre-ested grades. So you're familiar with I Ready. We talk about those I Ready scores a lot. So that looks at how kids perform from one fall measurement to the next. So any student who's off track in reading in one grade level when they come back the next year, like right now we're doing those I Ready test. any student that moves from offtrack to ontrack we got credit for and that uh is what you're seeing there and we've been pretty flat around 1920% and that's worth 25% of our our score. So next I would like to call up Miss Marcy Ibbrite to talk about our graduation rates. Thank you. Okay. So, uh, of course, graduation, nothing's changed since we presented

060instructional policy, except just want to talk about it again. But the graduation rate, uh, you know, uh, we're sitting at, uh, two scores that you look at here. 60% of this weight comes from the class of 2024 and 40% comes from the class of 2023. This one always lags a year behind. So, the most recent graduating class, the class of 2025, we see their data on next year's report card. uh and uh the states very wisely says some kids need an extra year to finish. So every district in the state gets the opportunity of an extra year to get those students across the stage. So we are looking right now at the twostar component rate which is uh we're seeing that grow and grow and grow at 88.9% which means we are super duper close.

061We can almost see that 90% on the horizon which will be amazing when it happens. So, we're doing great here with graduation. We um if you've seen some of the news, we are looking at being we are the largest uh graduation rate in the state of Ohio for our large urbans. There's some trend data here to look at and see how we've improved over time and how those numbers are trending up. I did uh have some you know sort of we have sort of an idea of how the class of 2025 has done and um I would not be surprised if we don't see a three-star rating come next year. So we're looking really positive with how the numbers are turning out there as well. And finally the CCWMR college career workforce and military readiness

062indicator was a new indicator that uh districts and high schools across the state were rated on. It has been coming for the last several years. They did away with the old prepared for success uh which was heavily focused on uh college credits, ACT, SAT and the state said kids get prepared for success in a variety of fashions. There's 11 readiness elements that they look for and I've given you a copy of those readiness elements with the updated data on it um at your tables. But uh you can see that we've been able to watch even though it was uh not something that we were rated on. It was able to give us some early indicators around how our students were performing. Gave districts a chance to get their data uh you know strate strategies and

063systems and structures in place and the supports that students would need to be successful. So, first time out of the gate, we hit an 81.5% or a four star on this rating, uh, which was fantastic. Thank you. And sometimes, you know, we throw these numbers at you, but I wanted you to have a little bit of comparison about what that means. So, there's 606 districts in the state of Ohio. That 81.5% placed us 93 highest. So that means we're in the top 16% of districts in the state of Ohio for this measure. There were two other districts that scored 81.5% but I put us at n at space 93 because we're accurate and we were alphabetically first. So anyway that's how I came up with that. So uh we're doing really well. We knew this

064was a measure that we could hit out of the gate with the work that we do for students to get them ready uh with all of the elements that were there. So, thank you very much. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Lash. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Johnson. Thank you. And so I would be remissed if we didn't first uh give a huge shout out to our teachers and our administrators who are leading this work in our building. So let's give them a round of applause. In schools, we like to say that this building supports the principles and the principles support the teachers and the teachers support our students. And so as we move forward, we are certainly excited about these three and a half stars as a district, but

065as Kobe said, we're not done. We still more work to do, and we're committed to that work. And so, uh, some of the some of the initiatives that we believe are going to move us up to the next rating, uh, are just to implement fully our multi-ter systems of support. Uh, we have a lot of core instructional strategies that we're implementing both ELA and in math. And we have some de deescalation training that we're implementing district-wide. just one of our big pushes for these first two professional improvement days. Um, elementary and science and social elementary science and social studies achievement. Uh, we've made some changes with how we're rolling that out this year. Shout out to uh our our social studies and our science uh learning specialist. Um, and we're committed to continuing growth for

066our partnerships and work-based learning on our report card. So, super excited about this, but we know we have more work to do and we're excited to get that work done. I think at this time is maybe for questions. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. All right. So, here again, you can see uh our district's rating in each of the specific components. And once again, from last year to this year, we improved our star rating from 2.5 stars to 3.5 stars. And um as some uh conversation has already happened to allude to this, we thought uh we would also share with you when we look at our Ohio's eight large urban school districts across each of the components um how Akran stacks up. And so you can see across the components Akran is leading the way. And I

067do want to point out for early literacy again as uh Mr. Ly Clifford mentioned that we were just a tenth of a point away from two stars uh in early literacy and in graduation although there are uh three districts uh with two stars there I want to point out that Akran public schools is number one with 88.9% and then the next highest is 86.4%. So again as Mr. Johnson stated, "We are definitely proud of the work, uh, but we know it doesn't end there and we look forward to the challenge." And so, in this presentation, we have discussed our report card data, um, as well as our district initiatives that we will we believe will get us to where we are going next. And with that, um, again, thanks to our staff, um, throughout the

068district, to our families who partner with us every day, and to this board of education for your support, as well as the awesome leadership of our superintendent, Mary Outley. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Lash. Are there any uh board member questions resulting from the presentation? All right. Thank you. Seeing none, we just want to let you know that in front of you from our committee is a few tokens of thanks. So the um flowers came from Let's Grow Acron, which represents the community that is willing to grow with us. And um again um the uh um what do you call it? Um I can't talk today. Well, thank you. Let's grow a we appreciate it. They are beautiful. Thank you, Miss Alasa. I want to know how much something like this cost too. Just on

069a side note in case I want to host something cuz I love how I look. So that's a side note. Thank you. Thank you all for the wonderful presentation. Uh superintendent. Thank you, Miss Halasa. We're and if you could enjoy the cupcakes because that's the sweetness of our children. Thank you, Dr. Hassa. Superintendent Good evening board members. I would like to take a moment just to update you on two urgent federal funding issues that directly affect Akran public school students, staff, and families. First is the proposed federal budget cuts. The House has advanced a bill that would cut US Department of Education funding by 15%. For Akran, that means more than $7 million lost. We're talking about our title one, title 2, A, 3A, and 4A would all face reductions. These funds support teacher training,

070academic programs, English learners, student well-being, and enrichment. And losing these funds would be hurtful to our classroom, to our afterchool programs, and the work that we have been doing that you just heard about where we're closing achievement gaps. And these dollars do not serve APS alone. Title funding also supports parochial and private school students across Akran and surrounding communities. Cuts at this level would take resources away from children in every type of school in our city. Let me repeat that more than $7 million will be lost right here in APS alone. Second is our Gear Up grant. On September 12th, we were told AIM High Gear Up will not continue past year 4. This is a seven-year grant that we were awarded and carefully planned for. We had just seven days to submit an appeal,

071and we did. If that appeal is not successful, we will lose $1.2 million this year and $3.6 million in total. Seven APS staff positions and partner roles would be cut, including those with our lead partner, Project Grad Akran. More than 1500 sophomores and juniors would lose mentoring, advising, and college and career readiness support that our trusted partners provide. These students are at a critical point in their lives. Many are in their first uh to go to college. They're the first in their families who even considered college. They began this program when they were in sixth grade and now at a crucial point when they are ready to access things for which they are preparing for the support will no longer be available. So this is the charge. We are asking our community, our staff and

072families to contact their representatives, senators to oppose the cuts and to ask for continuation of our federal dollars, including our currently at risk gear up grant. We are compiling a team under the direction of Ivonne Culver and Keith Licky Clifford to coordinate these efforts. At this time, I would like for um Miss Caver to come forth very quickly to uh Oh, did I call her? Did I call you? Flashback. I'm sorry. Uh Ivon Culver. Um, madame superintendent, madame uh Dr. board president and uh board members, thank you so much Dr. Molinar, um, Mrs. Autri, we are so happy that you have done that federal advocacy training because we can put that to to good use immediately. Um, as uh, Mrs. Outley was saying, we are we were about to enter year five of a seven-year

073grant. um our students started in sixth grade and now looking at them in as juniors and seniors and actually starting to put into those practice the the things that we have been uh planning with them. Um we had literally um 7 days to write an appeal which was submitted um and we will find out uh how that is accepted by September 30th. The grant would end on October 1. So um people would have about a twoe notice um as to whether or not they they had their jobs from the 12th through that 30th. Uh the other thing with that um is those services would be immediately pulled from the schools. So those students that have um built those relationships with those mentors uh the the groups the um the things that we have planning uh

074have planned with them, they would all be immediately eliminated because we do not have the funding to um continue. Um, we were told by the INSEP, which is the advocacy group at the national level, that the appeals that were received were the appeals in which there was community support. They said the letters are not going to get us there. And and I need to mention that our grant was non-continued based on components of the grant that were required five years ago to address DEI but are no longer um in alliance with uh or no longer aligning with the um opportunities or with the the position of the current government. So five years ago, we were awarded the grant based on what you asked and now it's being pulled based on what was in the grant

075that was written five years ago. I can tell you what it feels like from an administrative level, but I think what we really need to focus on are what the kids are feeling and what the kids are seeing. So, our students took it upon themselves to create a video and I'd like to share um some part of that video. We have more if you would like more. Um if you would need to take that to your communities and to your networks, um this is what our students are saying that they would lose and why this is important to them. Thank you. We could table the video um and we can let the board see it um a little later. President Jackson, that concludes my report. Thank you, Superintendent. Next, we will have the treasurer's report.

076And on just one moment, if they could email the video can be emailed to the board because then that will make it easier probably for the board to send it out to their various networks and constituency and maybe place it somewhere on our the district website for those who are watching who may want to view it. Just I want to put that. Thank you, Superintendent. Uh Mr. Bowers. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President. I ask that the board approve the permanent appropriations resolution for fiscal year 26. This is in accordance with Ohio Revised Code. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Is there a motion to approve? So move. It's been moved by member Sykes. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Hall. Any discussion? Seeing hearing none, uh, Mr. Bowers, roll call, please. Dr.

077Jackson. Yes, Dr. Molinar. Yes, Mrs. Sykes. Yes, Mr. Alexander. Yes, Miss Autri. Yes, Miss Hall. Yes, Reverend Harrison. Yes. Motion carries. 70. Thank you. We're also going to go through the August financial report. This is going to represent two months of our fiscal year so far. [Music] So, so far this year, you can see in the first set of tiles there, the blue represents our revenue. So far this year, we are up $18.4 million. Our expenses are down $6.5 million, which is netting a $7.6 million cash benefit for us. Um in section two, the second group of tiles is comparing the first two months of the year of actual data plus 10 months of projected data. Uh it's current pace we're on. We're we are seeing an $ 8.2 million increase to our cash balance.

078So our revenue is trending 6.3 million up. Our expenditures are down 1.8 million and it's netting that 8.2 2 million. And this all sounds great, I know, but just keep in mind this is only two months in. So, we're 60 days in. Things do level out. Uh on the bottom there, the the third section we have a graph with gray and blue bars. The um the gray and blue bar chart at the bottom details the ups and downs of our general fund cash balance over the course of two years. The gray bar is last fiscal year. The blue bar is this fiscal year. This is two months of actual data and 10 months of projected. You can see that our June 30th actual cash balance last year was $89.1 million. We're estimating it to be

079$89.4 million this year, but again, this is just early on. We're projecting 10 months and it's all based on these this uh great couple of months we've had so far. Going into the revenue detail, you can see here that um at the top we're comparing our August revenue of this year to August revenue from last year. And our current revenue is up for the month for the month of August, the revenue is up $1.4 4 million. Most of that is attributable to our new levy, which yielded us 11.1 million more in revenue this month. Um, in section two, we're looking at the first two months revenue of the year compared to each other. At this current pace, the revenue is trending up 6.3 million, which I'm in the wrong spot. I'm sorry. [Music] No, I'm

080correct. I apologize. That at this current pace, since revenue is trending up 6.3 million and expenditures are trending down 1.9 million, this would yield an additional 8.2 million in cash at the end of the school year. On the expenditure side, here we're comparing our general fund expenses from August of 25 to August of 26. Salaries and benefits are slightly down at.5% or 416,000 lower than last August with no significant variances noted. Uh in purchase services, our expenses were down 29% this month at about 572,000 when compared to last August. That decrease was spread evenly amongst the nine categories that make up that category. Our biggest variance in all other expenditures, which is down 3.2 million, in August of this year, we spent 2.8 8 million less on buildings, equipment, and vehicles and 642 less on

081textbooks than last August. In the second section on this page, looking at our total expenses so far this school year through two months, we are down 964,000 or 1.1% in salaries and benefits. And this is comprised of 1.1 less in salaries than an increase of 172,000 in benefits. This is due to a combination of both open positions and reductions in staff. Um we're up 17 we are up 17% or 707,000 so far this year in purchase services primarily from an early insurance premium. Expenses are almost down 6.3 this year. 6.5 million this year. Expenses are almost 6.3 million down in all other expenses this year because so far this year we've not spent the same three and a half million on textbooks that we did last fall on. And our buildings, equipment, and vehicles have

082been about 2.9 million less so far this year. On page six, we're tying all of this together with our five-year forecast projections. Here we compare two months of actual plus 10 months projections to the May 5-year forecast. Through two months, our revenue is trending favorably by 6.3 million, which is about 1.68% of our total $477 million we're forecasting to receive this year. On the expenditure side, we're also trending favorably at about $1.9 million, less in less than forecasted are.5% of our total $487 million. Down in the bottom left, you can see sorry bottom right, you can see that our expenses are down across all categories except non-utility property services. Here's the last page of our monthly financial report and this is our bank reconciliation. This reconciliation re represents all of our fund accounting. On the

083lefth hand side are the book balances. On the right hand side are our bank balances. We perform this reconciliation every month as an internal control to ensure the accuracy and completeness of our financial statements. concludes our monthly financial report. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Are there any questions from members of the board concerning the finance report? Yes, Vice President Alexander. Yes, Mr. Bowers, do you anticipate that the uh expenditures that we've had thus far and in in the future will go up or you think they'll probably stay steady? I think that they'll even out. So, so far this year, we've seen it trend lower. I think it could be timing. We have 10 months more of this school year to um for that to to vet itself. Thank you. All right. No other questions um from

084board members. Thank you, Mr. Powers. Thank you. I have the forecast next, too. So, I I guess I need to do the roll call. Mr. Bowers is just adjusting to his new position, but we are thankful for him. I like hard numbers more than narrative, so I appreciate when you report out. So, thank you. So motion to approve. Yeah. Second it. Wait, no. Is there a motion? So he wants to approve for uh the finance report. Is there a motion to approve the finance report as a move? It's been moved by member Sykes. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by Vice President Alexander. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing Mr. Bowers. Roll call, please. Dr. Molinar. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes, Mr. Alexander. Yes, Miss Audrey. Yes, Miss Hall. Yes, Reverend Harrison. Yes, Dr. Jackson.

085Yes. Motion carries. 70. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. got the they've put up the these are the details. I need the PowerPoint Here we go. Okay. So, today we're going to go over the the fall submission of the five-year forecast. We're here 45 days earlier than last year. Uh up until this year, it's been due by November 30th of each year. This year, according to House Bill 96, they've moved up the deadline 45 days. So, here we are. We have to have this approved before October 15th. Next fall, it will be due by August 28th, so it'll be even earlier. We'll have less time to get it all figured out. Now, there's also going to be a change to this forecast in its structure. Um, up until now, it's had one year of actual data and

086four years of projected. Next year they're having us change it to one year of actual and three years of act of forecasted and they're not sure what they're going to call it and I have a bad accounting joke right now. I'm saying to call it the four cast because there's four years. Okay, maybe that'll catch on and I don't um so we'll get started with it. So, here is our current fiscal year total revenue expenditures and and projected deficit for the year. So, we're going to receive 377 million, spend about 387 million, and we're projecting that that will be a negative $10.4 million deficit for the year. Here's how our revenue is broken down. 55% of that or 155 million comes from local taxes. 41% I'm sorry that's state funded. 41% of that I got

087this. So state funding is 55% or $26 million. Local taxes is 155 million at 41% and all other revenue comes in at about 14.8 million. Here's our expenditure breakdown for the year. Forecasted 81% or 315.5 million will be spent on salaries and benefits with 42.9% spent on purchase services and 29 million spent on all other expenditures which is supplies and capital and debt. So this bar chart on the left is comparing our projected revenue versus expenditures for the next five years. Revenue is in blue and expenditures are in orange. And you can see that our expenses are far outpacing our revenue. And on the right hand side, we're showing that our projected cash balance is decreasing rapidly. So when we hit 2028, we're going to be in deficit spending. So over the next three years,

088we forecast that expenses will exceed revenue by almost $45 million, resulting in a $13.3 million cash deficit at June 30th, 2028. And over the next five years, we're we're expecting to overspend by $160 million for a net deficit of $81 million. 81.7 million at June 30th. Here we're looking at the annual historic change in revenue. On the left hand side you can see that is increased by 1.52% over the last five years. We're projecting that that will that will only go up about 0.12% over the next four years. On the right hand side is the same thing in expenses. Over the past 5 years we've seen expenses increase about 5.34% but we're projecting that they'll only go up 3.3% over the next four years. Here [Music] is a graph of our days cash on hand.

089You can see back in 2022, we had 120 days worth of cash on hand. This school year, we're projected to end the year with 74, 27 next year, and then we're in the red in 28, 29, and 30. Our board policy is that we maintain 60 days of cash on hand. Here is enrollment. It's decreasing by about 1% a year. It has been. That's been the trend about 218 scholars. So, we're expecting that to continue. On the flip side, our general fund pupil per pupil expenditure is increasing. This year, we're spending about 20,000. We expect to spend about 20,588 per student. Here's our daily cost to educate a scholar. It's about $114 a day. So if you take that 20,588 and divide it by an 180day school year, you get that 114. 23% of that

090comes from local property tax. 77% of that is paid for by all other revenue. of state federal funding. When compared to the May forecast, we can see that we're projecting a $444,000 revenue decline and we're expecting our increases to increase our expenses to increase by about 1.9 million or 0.5%. So, in conclusion, on the current path the district is on, we'll be facing some serious financial difficulty in the 2028 school year. It isn't too late to make decisions that will positively influence this path and I recommend that we start doing that now because the sooner we do that, the better off we'll be, the sooner we can get things back on course. Are there any questions on the five-year forecasts? Are there any questions from board members? Um, I have a question. When you say

091um that your recommendation is that we start to make some decisions now that can impact um how we look future forward with this. What What are some of those suggestions? We need to look at our footprint, possibly the number of students in class. Um, we're over we're looking through every purchase service contract right now. Mary and I are looking at anything we can. We're we're looking at all the ideas there are that revolve around how to reduce cost. overtime has already been looked at and it's it's helping, but we need to keep looking and figure out where where we can um make some gains. We do have that performance audit coming. So, we I sent back the the scope to them. She said they'd have that back to us this week sometime. So, that will

092start and they will help us look at things from a third party point of view and maybe give us some ideas that we're not thinking of yet. So that could be helpful. Okay. Uh thank you. So our footprint per pupils in the classroom, how many students are in the class, some of our expenditures, we're already looking at overtime um which is significant. And then our performance audit, which this board discussed um in our last meeting, will help us as far as getting into the weeds of where we can make some cuts. Correct. Correct. They will they will take a comprehensive look at all of our um policies and procedures and let us know where they think that we can make some cuts. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Uh member Sykes. Yeah, Madame President, thank you

093and and members of the board. Uh the finance committee uh has reviewed all of these areas with uh our treasur, the permanent budget, the monthly finance report, the five-year forecast. And as you may remember that with the five-year forecast that we started uh this year, last year, looking at the cut cuts that we have to make and the superintendent is working, of course, to look at making those cuts as we go. So as the treasurer said in 2028 that if we don't do some of these things that we will find ourselves in the situation but we are doing some of these things. Also we want to note that as far as the health benefits that we are seeing the reduction in in the health benefits uh uh that uh is provided. We think we're providing

094the employees with better benefits, better services but with a reduction at the same time. I will also say that one of the big uh reductions that we will one of the big expenses will be the building of the two schools the building of uh Kenmore Fifer and North High School. So we want to make sure you know we have a meeting tomorrow in Kenmore and we have done the business that we need take taken care of the business that we need to and making those necessary reductions as well as looking at the money from the um uh CLC CLC's and so we want to continue to stay in contact with the city on where we are with that the understanding with that as you know that we did when we passed the last resolution dealing

095with our two schools with Feifer and Kenmore that we did declare that it would be a community learning center and therefore that monies should come to Akran public schools as it relates to the LFIS so that uh we are waiting to see if there's any penalty as it relates to arbitrage uh we uh do not think that we'll and significant penalties. So, we're looking at about 17 million. It's the amount I believe that's there now, but uh we're not sure. But in any case, we have have have budget that and we will be able to meet those those goals with the LFI monies and dealing with our schools and we want to stay on top of what's happening at North High School. I believe that we're doing that. So uh we are thinking ahead. We

096are looking ahead. We are making those very difficult cuts each year. The superintendent and her staff working on that I'm sure on a daily basis and the finance committee is constantly looking at that and what's happening with that. But these these are tough times and of course we just heard about uh the cuts that's coming most likely from the federal government that's going to mean even more difficult for us. But uh in working with the uh with our treasurer, with our superintendent, I think that we will uh I don't think we're going to have any big surprises. So when 2028 arrived, it means that we will have to have made some very very difficult decisions and cuts and staff and buildings and other areas. uh expenditures, but uh we are working on that and I

097think that we're going to make it, but it's going to mean all of us really making the sacrifices that's necessary in order to do what we have to do. Just want to make those those comments. Thank you, member Sykes. All right. Thank you, uh Mr. Bowowers. All right. Is there a motion to approve uh the five-year forecast as presented by Treasurer Bowers? So moved. It's been moved by member Sykes. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Hall. Any discussion? 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. Molinar, yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Um, next, um, is the approval of the previous me meeting minutes. Is there a motion to

098approve the regular board meeting minutes for September 8th, 2025? So moved. It's been moved by member Hall. Is there a second? It's the board meeting minutes. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by Mr. Alexander. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, the roll call, please. Mr. Bowers. Mr. Alexander. I was absent. Miss Audrey abstain. Miss Hall. Yes. Reverend Harrison. Yes. Dr. Jackson. Yes. Dr. Molar. Abstain as absent. [Music] Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Motion carries 4 with three abstensions. Thank you, Mr. Powers. Next, is there a motion to approve the emergency board meeting minutes for September 15th of 2025? So moved. It's been moved by Vice President Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Altry. Any discussion? Correction. Uh, member Harrison. Yes, I have a couple corrections to um this these minutes.

099Um, in 31 um it states that I moved to terminate the administrative contract. Um, that wasn't the resolution was presented by the administration. I did I didn't move that. [Music] Okay. So um for the sake of discussion you you move because it was no it was quiet and for the sake of discussion um you moved you moved it I seconded you seconded I'm sorry you moved and I'm sorry Mr. Vice President Alexander moved and then it was for the sake of discussion Mr. Harrison seconded so that's how the minute should read. Yes. Second. And the minutes re that you moved it. So point of correction. Yes. For the minutes. So let the minutes reflect that. Member Harrison in fact seconded. He did not move originally move the motion. Yes. Okay. Member Harrison. And uh I

100think the um in the body of 31 it should read not thought. I thought something. I think it I stated it. I think it should be just clear. I stated it and not it was a thought. [Music] All right. So the correction of it's stated it it's as it's listed now it's his thought and so you wanted to be corrected that you wanted to say stated. Thank you. Let the record reflect the correction. [Music] All right. Thank you. Member Harrison. All right. So, it's been moved. Point of correction made. Um, after it was seconded, that was the point of correction. So, Mr. Bowers, you may call for the vote. Miss Audrey, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you,

101Mr. Bowers. Next, we'll have the personnel recommendations from our superintendent, Miss Oley. Thank you, President Jackson. Does the board have any questions about the personnel items for section 10, professional staff, and administrators? Member Harrison. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madame Chair, on 10.2, the resignation of Stephen Keenan. Um, we we have not, of course, we received the resignation letter um that's attached in the in the uh agenda. I I just want to um for the sake of clarification before the vote uh make sure that there is nothing contingent upon his resignation. that we have not uh agreed to not do anything that this is this is a resignation with no stipulations as I um our council is here but as I understand it the information which is provided is what the board is a breast to

102which does not include us being made a breast of any specific stipulation so for clarity Mr. U Mr. Harrison is stood to just be assured that there's no additional stipulations. So yes, uh David, could you come to the mic? Our general counsel, President Jackson, member of the board. Thank you, Mr. Harrison. Member Harrison. Uh that is the uh letter that the district received. There are no other conditions attached or indicated in that letter. Thank you. Are there any other questions from um personnel? Yes, member Sykes. Thank you m uh President Jackson and members of the board is just in reading the resolution uh it indicates that uh once we take this action that it moots the action that we took last time and just for the legislative language rather than using moot I would suggest

103that it says that we appeal the um [Music] upheld or repealed that that we uh repeal. Repeal repealed. Okay. Thank you, Madam President. That we repeal as opposed to that we m that is mooded because as a legislative body uh everything that we do is is still is there. And so if we want to change it, then we need to repeal it as opposed to saying it's just moot. So I would make that if we can make that change. Uh so where it says that as a as a result of the resignation the board prior notice of intent to terminate employment issue on on September 15th uh is now uh repealed. Understood. Okay. Okay. So, let the record reflect that um with the motion goes when the motion is read to approve this resolution, it's

104with the correction understanding in the record reflects the correction that moot is replaced with repealed. Yes. Thank you. And uh thank you, Madam President. And then one last uh amendment that I would have to item number 10.2 to reconation that the interim treasurer shall refer Steven Keenan investigation report to the Akran chief of police to the Akran city prosecutor to the state auditor to the Ohio ethics commission and the IRS for further investigations. I asked for this amendment because uh as we've heard this school system is very busy and trying to teach our children and trying to do the dayto-day work. However, I think from the uh report that we we receive that there is a need to say to the community that once we do this that there are actions that need additional actions

105that need to take place in order to asssure that we are safeguarding taxpayers monies. I ask that we send it to the Akran chief of police to see if there is any further investigations that need to take place. I can appreciate that the attorneys uh did do some investigation, but that is not the primary responsibilities of attorneys to investigate this and to take a look at it to see if there is any other area of concern that we should have here at the Akran school board to send it to the Akran city prosecutors so that they can provide some additional uh advice to the chief of police and their investigators to determine if in fact there are any charges, what charges should be brought towards any individuals or individuals as it relates to this to

106our state auditor. We have already asked for a performance audit. Uh and with that performance audit, we want to know internally within our system if there are where those weak spots spots lie and to make sure that we are constantly focusing in on areas of weakness that will cause an individual to take advantage of our system to the Ohio Ethics Commission because we have entrusted we have entrusted a great deal of responsibility to individuals and we have paid them and we are paying them fair value salaries and the thought of someone taking advantage of this system. we uh and not taking care of this system in an ethical way is very disheartening, very disappointing. And the Ohio Ethics Commission should take a look at this. And the Ohio Ethics Commission and taking a look at

107this can also refer for prosecution. And then finally, an individual or individuals who would take advantage of the system in such a way that after paying them a fair market value for the work that they do, that they will still make money off of this system and not pay their taxes on it is still very extremely disheartening. I said today as I said before and I say this because of the information that we received from the investigation that there are other individuals involved in this and what we need to do is not only know if there's other individuals involved if there's other departments involved in this process. I think we have a responsibility to the citizens here to the taxpayers to make sure that they know that we're doing everything that we can to protect

108their monies because everything that's here is here because of the taxpayers monies and we hear all of the time and we know it. It is not easy paying taxes. It is not easy supporting levies. It is not easy coming out of their pockets to do the things that we asked them to do, but they keep doing it day in and day out. They keep supporting the system with their monies that they would much rather keep in their own pockets in their own household, but they give it to us and we have a responsibility to safeguard their funds. Therefore, I am asking you to support this amendment whereby the interim treasurer shall refer Steven Keenan investigation report to the Akran chief of police, the Akran city prosecutor, the state auditor, the Ohio Ethics Commission, and the

109and the IRS for further investigation. Thank you, Member Sykes. Um, so the amendment was read uh concerning the resolution for member Sykes. I do know that recommendations have been made and this was discussed already amongst the board with general counsel and the understanding that this was how we were going to proceed. But I guess the amendment makes it so the public understands clearer as well. So that as it's read as member Sykes has just read it that is just the amendment added for public purposes. Second. Is everyone clear? Thank you. Okay. The amendment uh to the resolution um was moved by member Sykes and seconded by member Harrison. Is there any discussion? [Music] Seeing any hearing none, Mr. Bowers, roll call, please. Oh, that was it for I think there was no other questions. I'm

110sorry, Miss Son. Okay, roll call, please. Thank you. Mrs. Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Mrs. Autry. Yes. 70. Motion carries. [Music] Thank you. So that was for the amendment. So now we need to the motion to approve. If there's no other questions, is there a motion to approve personnel recommend recommendations presented in categories 10 through 20? So moved. It's been moved by member hall. Any discussion? Second. Member Sykes. Yeah. Yes, madame president. So what so we that was just a vote on the amendment. Now we need to vote on the uh his resation. his uh resation res resignation with the amendment. [Music] So I have Miss Hall motioned and Alexander seconded. Yes. Okay. So we just voted on 10.2 the amendment correction with

111the amendment. Now we're voting to approve it. Correct. Yeah. We have voted to approve the amend. We voted to approve the resolution with the amendment. And now we're going amendments. Now we're going to actually approve it. I'm sorry. So I'm sorry. Yeah. because I figured cuz his his the resolution is in within his personnel recommendations, right, of 10 through 20, isn't that correct? And so we made the motion to approve. We already accepted the amendment. And so now we're making a motion to approve the personnel recommendations in categories 10 through 20 with the accepted amendments, which we've already accepted. So the motion, as I read, would have been the proper motion because we've accepted the amendments already to the resolution. So to approve as I read it was proper and all we needed to do

112was vote on it because we already approved the amendment to the resolution which is part of 10 section 10 through 20. Okay. Yeah. So you can call for So we're voting. Okay. Mrs. Hall. Yes. Robert Harrison. Yes. Dr. Jackson. Yes. Dr. Molar. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes, Mr. Alexander. Yes, Miss Autri. Yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, member. I mean, sorry. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Next, we have um is the division recommendations. Resolution, M. Superintendent Ali. Thank you. Does the board have any questions about the division recommendations, resolutions, and motions for section 22, member Harrison? Thank you, uh, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I just want to highlight the U resolution at 223 uh the GAR Foundation grant award for $20,000. Um they have been well they continue to be our partners in a lot of things.

113So just want to kind of highlight um anytime we see $20,000 and we hear about the cuts in our schools, we want to acknowledge those community partners that are continuing to partner with our schools. So, just want to u say thank you to the G Foundation um for the $20,000 award and 22.3. Thank you, member Harrison. Oh, yeah. There's a clap, huh? And it's for Project Rise, which we know is one of our most marginalized populations. All right. Thank you. I wish to recommend the approval of the division recommendations, resolutions, and motions in section 22. All right. Is there a motion to approve the division recommendations and resolutions? Resolutions and motions in uh category 22. Some moved. It's been moved by member Hall. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Altry. Any

114discussion? Seeing and hearing none, Mr. Bowers. Roll call, please. Reverend Harrison, yes. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Autri, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Next is our business affairs recommendation. Superintendent Ali, does the board have any questions for section 23, business affairs recommendations? [Music] Member Hall, not really any questions, but it is homecoming time, so just looking at all of this and paying for DJs and things like that is um making this year is just going really, really fast. That's all I wanted to say. Thank you, member Hall. Member Molinar. Thank you, Madame President. Um, looking at 238. Um, I just wanted to point out I think this would be a really great opportunity maybe in instructional policy committee, maybe in

115the student success committee. You know, I I love seeing and hearing what our students are doing in the classroom. So, if the students are working on things, the the presentations today, I would have loved to seeing the students full presentations. Um, I only got to speak to a couple in the hallway. So the student success committee would have been a really good opportunity for us to really highlight them. And so I'm trying to say proactively 238 might be good for instructional policy or student success. [Music] Are there any other questions or discussions? [Music] All right. I wish to recommend the approval of the business affairs recommendations presented in category 23. Thank you. Is there a motion to approve the business affairs recommendation in category 23? I move to approve the business affairs recommendations. It's been

116moved by member Altry. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member hall. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none. Mr. Bowers, roll call, please. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, abstain on 235. Yes. On the balance, [Music] Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Audrey, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. [Music] Motion carries on 23.56 to one. Uh 70 on the balance. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. Uh, next, uh, Superintendent President Jackson and members of the board, this evening, you have granted permission for, uh, me to hire uh, Chase Canfield, who will be the executive director for our human resource department. He was not able to be here this evening, but he will be present at the October 8th board meeting. You also approved the hiring of Dr. Wanda Lash as the assistant superintendent and

117Dr. Lash is here if she would like to stand and be recognized. [Music] [Applause] Uh Dr. Lash, would you mind? I know you said many words already today, but not in your new official capacity. [Music] Oh goodness. Good evening again. And as my husband learned at a city event, you don't give an educator a microphone. Um because we have plenty to say and and talk about, but um thank you for the opportunity, President uh Dr. Jackson. Um just thank you uh to the board. Um very excited. Uh it's my neck where my staff is back there. um who's uh here to support me and and they've laughed at me all day for a stiff neck, but feel like um it hasn't started yet, but I'm ready to strap in, put a neck brace on, and

118let's just figure it out and make it happen. And so, again, thank you. Um I look forward to serving this district. It is my home. Um and has become my heart since I've been here. And so very um grateful to uh Superintendent Outley to learn from her leadership and support her as we um move this district. And uh thank you to all of my colleagues. Um look forward to serving you as we serve each other um in again moving this district forward. So Thank you Dr. Ash. Congratulations. [Music] All right. Uh thank you for that superintendent. Uh next we'll move forward with our committee reports. We have legal contracts and board policy. Vice President Alexander, please give us an update. Thank you madam president. The legal or legal and committee met on September the 15th

119uh with a full agenda. We want to thank David our our council who ran his first meeting and thank him for guiding us through the the meeting. Uh during the meeting we discussed several policies. Those policies was the audit policy policy, the student abuse and neglect policy, release time of rel release time of for religious instruction policy and promotion, academic acceleration, placement and retention policies. Uh all these policies uh needed to be they are part of House Bill 96 and they need to be uh in place by September the 30th so we meet we can meet compliance. Um we're also going to have tonight on our agenda uh the for third and final reading uh the parent bill of rights policy as well. And during our our meeting uh the last meeting we discussed a

120couple other things but we're going to move forward with some other policies that we uh stated we wanted to look at and those are the prummer uh and honorary diploma uh procurement federal grants and funds vendor relations public complaints nepotism and independent contract operations and services which is the um but for tonight we are asking for a third and final reading for the follow following policy so we're clear Those policies are policy 5223 release time for religious instruction during the school day. Policy 5410 promotion academic acceleration placement and retention. Policy 5781.01 parent bill of rights. Policy 6830 audit and policy 8462 uh student abuse and neglect. We are asking for a third and final reading for these policies. Thank you, Madam President. I'm sorry. And our next meeting will be October the 27th here in

121this room at 5:30. October 27th uh next which is next month in this room uh we're in. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Vice President Alexander. Is there a motion to to wave the second reading? Yes, we're waving and we're we're having a third and final reading for all the policies that were read. Okay. I just wanted to be clear. So is there a motion to wave the second reading accept as the third and final final reading and approve these five policies as presented by the committee [Music] has to be moved and then go to discussion. Yeah. Okay. It's been moved by member hall. Is there any discussion? Yes, Mr. Harrison. [Music] Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I think if we um are going to wave the final reading, we have to do those

122individually. Um and then there's a question to the first one that I have, but I don't think we can put them all together. um the uh release release time for religious instruction. I know we had a lot of discussion in that uh but it doesn't seem like the language was changed that we discussed Monday. [Music] Uh thank you. Uh, [Music] member Harrison, is there a specific part of the language that you're referencing for context so they can address that directly? [Music] There's a part that's not in here that we discussed. So, I know I I don't see the part in here uh that we discussed um with the um we talked about what kids are bringing back to from the release time from religious instructions, what they can bring back to the with them, whether

123it be candy, whether it be um instructional materials, um the materials that they could bring back with them. you know, if I remember and I'll have the uh David come up. We uh talked about I don't think there's anything they can bring back because it's part of religion and I think that was part of the pieces I was talking about with between church and state and so I don't we'll need to make sure it's clarified. Uh yes, I that that was actually discussed uh um when they they came up to discuss the materials that come back if they could bring them back and have them in their book bag. And so I understand uh the unreiness about that um because it was said, well, yeah, they can bring it if they have the things with

124them, they can bring it back. They just cannot pass out or share the information. But it was something about that. Uh, and I know that Mullenar had made a comment about something and I did I do recognize I believe your hand was up to say something. Um, who else was here? I know Dr. Lash was here and she I know that they talked about it as well. So, I don't know if David, you have something to add. Member Harrison or no, I'm sorry, Vice President Alexander mentioned your name. If there's nothing then to the point of member Harrison, if no one knows the clarity or the language or what the question is, we might want to get that before moving it forward. But uh we'll have uh David will speak Mr. Puzzek, I'm sorry. And

125then uh doc Dr. Molinar with that your question while he's still at the podium. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, President Jackson. Um if I understand member Harrison what you're addressing make sure uh if you look at the bottom part of the policy right there's a it would be the third sentence from the bottom there is specific language that says non-educational or non-program related materials however are not permitted to return to school and again I'm not sure if that sounds like it's addressing that question that you had. Yes, that that was the the issue is we had specific in I guess conversations on what that meant. Um, and so when we're when we're looking at that, it it's kind of subjective. And so if we're talking about, you know, we had the conversations with administrative guidelines,

126so that's the that's the internal portion, but because this is a policy kind of giving more guidance. Policies are broad, intentionally broad. So you have the administrative guidelines that you mentioned uh that can be addressed. But again, candy I think you mentioned, you know, that's a non-educational or non-program related material. So that would not be permitted would be brought back. Okay. Uh thank you, David. And um member Molinar had a question. Uh just if you stay there just in case you have to address that, Dr. Molinar. Thank you. Yes. And and I understand the concept of policies being intentionally broad, but correct. It's also important to be specific. And I think there might be some that might argue that candy shaped in a certain way or used in a certain way is educational. I as

127a as a former math teacher this time of year, I would use candy corn pumpkins to teach regrouping and things like that. So I I have to agree with member Harrison here that that some specificity beyond that would have been helpful. But my actual comment now because we can continue to do that is um additionally um language that the committee agreed on um is also missing from this. And so the language that the committee uh agreed on at the bottom of page one is about the concept of core curriculum. And so the language that we spoke on at committee and then emailed to Dr. lash was that the board recognizes the core curriculum as including but not limited to courses aligned with state approved learning standards, graded courses, and other learning experiences identified as core

128curriculum under board policies. That statement was specifically said and emailed looking at that statement right here. No, that is not what it says. it there are similar words but it is not what I see in the agenda is when I click on release time for and and if that's how it is if it's just an administrative error then it's very easy to rectify and we can just make sure that's what it says but what I see is the board deems all graded courses to be and that is not what was and that's why I emailed it also so it would be accurate specific and clear what it says. Did you want to President Jackson? Do you want to check? Uh, no. I I see. Yes. Context. Okay. It It's right here. It It does contain

129that. Yeah. The copy that I had. So, the the copy you have, does the sentence start the board deems? Correct. Yes. That is not the statement I sent. It every word you said but not limited to courses that have state approved learning standards, graded courses and other learning experiences identified as core curriculum under board policies. That that is in the copy that I'm holding. I I hear you say that you compromised and took some of the words that I used. But what I'm saying is I sent a specific paragraph, a specific it's sent actually I think it's one long sentence and at some point the board as a policy makers that policy language shifted and evolved. Okay. So um m member chair Alexander and with with the members the committee so the language that was

130sent and you saw the the current language right? Um, and so as the chair and with the because I understand member Molar said she sent the language. It's it's to me I thought it had the same specific points as far as whatever the board who are the policy makers deemed as under our purview that's in there. Um, even though it's not the verbatim language, I'm just asking to cheer because if you if you saw that other verbatim, we don't have to have everything verbatim as long as we have it in there stating that we what we what we want. Now, here's and this is a suggestion that we could possibly do. If we want to uh approve the policy because it's got to be done by the uh the deadline, then we can approve it

131and make an amendment if we need to. Or we can we may have to have a special meeting, which I don't think we want to do that. So, uh, just for a point of just for a point of clarity, I don't think that this matter will would deem a special meeting. I think to what member Molar's point is is well, and I don't need to speak for member Molar, but that email went out with specific language. And so, when she checks what she specifically wrote in L to what was is now presented before us, it is not a word. It's not verbatim to what was submitted by member Molar to Dr. Lash. However, upon reading it, because I I understand what she's saying, it's it's covering the prem. There's nothing in it that's neglecting what

132is being said um as as I read it. So, what I'm going to do is call for the vote. And if it's unreiness, then people you you can vote it down. So, I'm calling for the vote. Can can can I give a point of clarification because I we were doing this and I did not get something back. I do want I want to offer and the opportunity that if it's all the same to everybody else, can we approve it with that verbatim language that the board and the board committee agreed on instead of the language that administration thought was close to what the board and the board committee agreed on. So, can I I actually no, I will now make a motion. That's what I'm doing. I'm making a motion to uh I move that

133the board approve this policy contingent upon replacing the language in the agenda with a following committee approved language. And I will reread it for everyone. The board recognizes the core curriculum as including but not limited to courses aligned with state approved learning standards, graded courses, and other learning experiences identified as cord core curriculum under board policies. Thank you. Let the record reflect that the board chair called for the vote and so the vote was called and so me I'm sorry uh Mr. Bowers because the board chair called for the vote the vote should have been ran and if there's any unreiness with the language as it is then uh the proper thing to do is vote your conscience and vote no because of the vote the call for the vote has proceeded and so you

134cannot interrupt with a motion and you can refer to Robert's rules if that's what you like but the vote I called for the vote and so there should have been no discussion after that the vote should have proceeded so Mr. Bowers. Um, and those please let the record reflect that the board chair called for the vote prior to member Monar then trying to call a motion. So, please Mr. Bowers call. The vote has been called. Could you roll call? I have that hall motioned. I don't have a second yet. In the absence of a second, I make a motion because this is something we do frequently. I called for the chair. I called for the vote. I don't need a second. I will second. Madam chair. It's been moved. I will second. So we can

135have a second. Well, it's been second by Alexander. Dr. Molar dur. No, because during discussion I would have made a motion if I would have known that discussion would have been interrupted and taken from me. Mrs. Sykes, no. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Audrey, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, no. Dr. Jackson, yes. Motion carries 43. Thank you. Next we'll have [Music] finance and capital management. [Music] Thank you madam president, madam president and members of the committee. Uh the various uh pieces of the resolutions that you heard from the finance uh from the treasurer tonight are the same items that we discussed in finance. In addition to that, uh it was announced that the middle Fifer uh update will be tomorrow at 5:00 at the Kenwood Community Center. Thank you, member Sykes. Is there are there

136any questions for the finance chair? Okay, thank you. Next, we'll have instructional policy and student achievement. Thank you, uh Dr. Jackson. I believe the report was given at the last meeting that I wasn't here, but it was on a report card. So, we did receive that today and and thanks again to to everyone involved with with everything um that we achieved on our report card. Um the next instructional policy and student achievement meeting will be October the 13th at 4:30. Thank you, Member Altry. Next, we'll hear from member Hall with instructions referencing uh the student committee. Thank you, Madam President. Um far as student success, we will have our first meeting on September 29th. Um during that meeting, we will be swearing in the new student board members, which are represented at each high school,

137as well as welcoming this year's superintendent advisory committee. Um so, please come out and support our students. Um as well as um our culinary program uh I'm sorry, Elllet High School will be providing refreshments from the culinary program Elllet High School. Sorry, I'm getting tongue tied. Um you know, I've heard when we state that we want to let our students showcase their skills and their abilities and with our college and career academy. So, I'm excited about Elllet coming in to do the refreshments instead of outside businesses. So, please come and support our students at 4:30 September 29th. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Um, member Hall, I'm sure everyone is excited um as uh member Mons to be able to present and um hopefully once we since we've approved the 23.8 8 the American AI forum.

138Once the students utilize that because that was just approval for them to get the training we can probably highlight some things that they some takeaways from getting that training any uh programs that they participate in. So thank you. Um currently there is no unfinished business. Is there any new business? All right. Seeing none, there is an a need to recess into executive session pursuant to Ohio Revised Code 121.22G1 to consider the employment appointment, excuse me, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of public employees or officials. Is there a motion to go into executive session? So moved. It's been moved by Vice President Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member hall. Is there any discussion? Discussion. Yes. Member Harrison. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, which one of these are

139we doing? Cuz I I um which one of the items that we listed are we going into an executive session about? Each that we read. Each that was read. Each one of those. Yes. As it was read, Mmber Harrison. Okay. Is there any other question? All right, Mr. Bowers, roll call, please. Mrs. Sykes, no. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Audrey, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, no. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, no. Motion carries 43. Thank you. We stand in recess for executive session at 7:50 p.m. [Music] ready when you are. We stand back in session at 9:32 um from our executive session. There is no action that needs to be take taken from executive session. Um, currently is there a motion our organiza our next meeting is October 6 here in the boardroom at 5:30

140p.m. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So move. It's been moved by member Alexander. I'll second. It's been second by member hall. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none. Roll call. Mr. Bowers. Miss Audrey. Yes. Miss Hall, yes. Dr. Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Thank you. Mr. Alexander, yes. Motion carries. Five zero. Thank you. We stand adjourn at 9:33 p.m. [Music]