Board of Education Livestream - 04/28/25

001[Music] [Applause] [Music] Greetings and welcome to the official board meeting of the Akran public schools on April 28th at 5:30 p.m. Dr. Thompson, roll call, please. Mr. Alexander, present. Miss Autry, present. Miss Hall, present. Reverend Harrison, present. Miss Jackson, present. Dr. Molinar, present. Mrs. Sykes, present. Seven present. Zero absent. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. Vice President Alexander, would you please uh stand and lead us in the pledge of allegiance? I 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. Next, um we'll have recognitions. the superintendent book of the month club. Thank you and good evening everyone. I'm excited to recognize the superintendent book club winners for the month of March. At

002the elementary level, we have a tie in the elementary category with both students reading an amazing 34 books each. Woohoo. Right. So, we would like to congratulate Slater Harris, a kindergarten student from Betty Jane. Right. and Briana Ramsay who is a first grader from Windemir. I would like to also add that Slater has now claimed the top spot for January, February, and March. This is an amazing streak. So, congratulations [Music] So, at this time, I would like to have Slater and Briana come up. Are did they were they able to make it tonight? Okay, we'll make sure. Is anyone from their school here? Okay, Principal Lucas, come on up. [Applause] I'm not quite ready to award you yet, but I would like you to come stand up here as I move on to the middle

003school category. Are you ready? We have Cooper Gindra, a seventh grader from N STEM who read 16 books. This is an awesome job by Cooper. Is Cooper here this evening? All right, Cooper. All right, Cooper, come on. Cooper, we are so excited for you. You would say that, wouldn't you? Congrat. So, Cooper, congratulations. come on up here and stand next to and I would just like to take a moment to ask if there's anyone else here from NIFT STEM repres supporting Cooper. It takes a village. Who else is here? Excellent. Okay. I think I Okay, the village. It is the village. The one village look familiar to me. Okay, so now we're going to go on to the high school level. The winners for representing grades 9 through 12. This is a repeat champion from

004February. Da Boon. Da, are you here with us this evening? Okay. Okay. Well, we want to congratulate D and she is a 12th grader from Elllet CLC. Is there anyone here from Elllet who could come up and accept on Rene's behalf? If not, I see uh Miss Marcus Karns, would you please come up? [Applause] [Music] She is a former principal at Elliot, so she will I think she'll do. And we just want to recognize D because she read an impressive 15 books this month. So, congratulations to Da. So, we want to give a big round of applause to all of our top readers. And I do have a certificate for you. And um if our board president would like to come up and be in a photo with any of our board members, you are

005more than welcome to join. Attach from I believe it's Acme. No, it's just Cooper's sister. Cooper sister. This is Cooper. Okay. And then who's represented? Briana. She turned. Hold on. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Wait a second. This was not in my notes, but we do have a tie, right? And so we want to make sure Briana Ramsey who was not here we recognize Briana. And did someone come up from her school? Do we have anyone present for [Music] Diana? Okay. So Briana is a first grader at Windemir and if there's no one here to rep is the principal from Windemir here? If not, we will make sure that she receives her recognition. So I believe we have everybody else present. Here's D. Well, yeah, we'll take care of it. Can we get in

006close so you can take a picture? All right. Thank you. Congratulations. Good job. Okay. Okay. And then we're going to wrap this up as we focus on our overall schools who um did some outstanding reading. In total, our scholars achieved the following milestones in March. Grades K through five read an impressive 995 books in February. That's 262 more books than they did in January, which was at 852 books. So, we are really doing a lot of reading, impressive reading. Grades 6 through 8 read 85 books in March, showing a growth of 15 more books than they did in February, which was at 72. and grades 9 through 12 read 136 books this month which is up 58 books from last month of 78. So our students are making amazing strides in their reading goals and

007we encourage them to keep it up. So now I would like to give a special congratulations to the schools with the highest numbers of books read. Are you ready for this? Drum roll please. Thank you. You okay? Thank you, Betty Jane. [Applause] 378 books read. Come on down, Principal Lucas. Congratulations. Excellent. Please remain standing. Are you ready for this one? Yes, we are. Andis Middle School with 43 books read. Is there a representative from Inis? Enis has also been our top middle school each month. So, congratulations to Inennis. We'll make sure they receive theirs. And last but not least, we have North High School with 55 books read. Is there a repres? Okay, Mr. Morrison, I believe this is your third time coming up achieving this award. Congratulations. Thank you very much. Okay. Would you

008like a picture? Sure. Okay. No, this is fine. I would like to ask all parents, principles, and teachers of our scholars to just give a wave again so we can thank you for your hard work and dedication to our scholars. Thank you for supporting this initiative. I know principles have also reported to me that they've been reading as well and so they want to be added to the um the celebration, hint hint, for next year. And this does play an important role in nurturing our children's lifelong love of reading. So, thank you also to our sponsor, which is Acme for their continued partnership with APS and their generous donation of gift cards to our top readers. Madame President, that concludes this part. Thank you. Um, currently we're at the point of our agenda where we

009would hear from a scholar board member who was unable to be with us today. And so now we'll go to the portion of the request to address the board. 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 pending legal matters. Participants must speak on matters related to the business of the board. Please keep your comments to three minutes or less as this uh time will be strictly enforced. The board will not respond, but will assign through the superintendent the appropriate person for followup. Um, please also state your name and/or group affiliation. The first person we have to address the board, I believe it's Loretta Wright. Madame President, may I please ask for a point of um order for

010myself if I can just interject one thing. I am so sorry. No, it's no problem. Um, I do want to take a moment if I may just go back a little bit because I believe we have some representatives that was here for recognition and I do not want to leave that out. If I may before they go into the um the board presentations with requests to address the board. Yes, no problem. So, I do apologize. uh we have introduced an amazing initiative in our district and it's called the amazing shake presentation and I would like to introduce Beth Winter and she is here to do that presentation for us. Thank you superintendent. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Beth Winter. I'm the coordinator of partner engagement with the college and careermies. As you may know, we have

011a summitive experience for our students when they complete their middle school years and their high school years. This year, we piloted the elementary summitive experience. As Miss Alley told us, is called the CCAA amazing shake based on the Ron Clark Academy competition, which emphasizes the mastery of professional skills such as communication, manners, and respect. As a pilot, six schools volunteered to participate. Barber, Krauss, I promise, Portage Path, Sam Salem, and Voris. Scholars demonstrated such things as introducing themselves, providing a thank you, taking responsibility, doing a mock interview, a business lunch, working on a team, and public speaking. So, we were completely aed and humbled by the extraordinary work that was done, not just by our scholars, but our teachers, our counselors, our administrators, and other staff, including our community partners who came forth to volunteer

012as judges. I can honestly tell you, our fifth graders rose to the challenge and showed great effort, poise, and resilience. And I would like you to meet them. I am not going to introduce them because you'll find they are quite adept at doing that themselves. So if our four finalists, you're going to meet our top four finalists tonight. If you four would come up here, please. All right. All right. So I'm going to ask each of them to introduce themselves to you and then they will come around and meet you personally. We'll start with you. My name is Callie Knap and I go to Portage Path CLC. All right. Okay, good. Start with Miss Sykes and let me see. We have you next. My name is Dakota Pere and I go to Barber CLC. All

013right, Dakota. You follow Cali and Zia. Hello. My name is Zia Wilson. I go to I Promise School. All right, Zia, please. We're going to give this a minute while we let them go. Okay. Hi, my name's McKenzie Young from Simtown CLC. [Applause] Congratulations. Hi, I'm Dr. Thompson. What grade are you in? Congratulations. I'm sorry those of you that are watching can't experience this, but these are some awesome students who showed all their terrific professional skills. Look at him chat. Nice to meet you. My name is Dr. Thompson. It's nice to meet you. Come on over here, Kelly. Awesome. You did a great job. Congratulations. Nice to meet you. I'm Dr. Thompson. Nice to meet Nice to meet you. So, while we finish up, I do want all of you to have an opportunity to

014hear ever so briefly from our SC each of our scholars specifically during our third round. So, this event was four rounds. During the third round, each of the scholars among other things did a 2 to three minute speech about something they'd like to change at their school that they thought would help. and they're going to tell you the topic of their speech and they're going to tell you why they chose it. That's the first question for Calie. The my topic of that my topic was more field trips. And the reason behind this is because field trips help kids not academically but creatively throughout their lives because kids are visual learners and if they're just stuck in a classroom they won't learn anything rather than being outside they will learn something. All right. [Applause] So, Cali,

015would you please tell everybody what you liked most about The Amazing Shake and what one skill do you think you helped you learned or perfected that will help you in middle school? What you like best? Okay. One thing I liked best about the uh Amazing Shake is that I got to make friends with other people at different schools. And um one thing that will help me in middle school is that the amazing shake teaches you trust. Trust and companionship and also u your manners that you will need. Okay. Excellent. Thank you. And if you'll just step right here. So Dakota, first question for you. Your speech topic and why you chose it. I chose extra recess. And the reason why I chose it was because um like recess helped kids like develop friendship and like

016teamwork skills. All right, Dakota, that's good. And for the record, Dakota brought resources with him. He did research for that. So, I appreciated that. So, what did you like best and what skill did you learn that'll help you in middle school? What I like best was everything because I got to met new meet new people and like get to know them. And what will help you in middle school? Uh, what will help me in middle school is like proper eye contact and like proper handshake. Good job. Thank you, Dakota. Would you step over with Calie and Mr. Zire? What was your speech about and why did you choose it? My speech was about bullying and the reason why I choose it. Cuz in my school, we have a lot of bullies and a lot of

017people don't want to go to my school cuz there's bullies there and nobody likes a bully. Right. Right. And what did you like best and what helped the middle school? Um, what I liked best about the amazing shake is about all the staff who were kind and helped us through the situations that were tough. All right. Thank you. Um, one thing that will help me in middle school is communication. Cuz if you don't know how to speak, you don't know how to make friends. You don't know how to learn because you got to ask teachers questions about that. Well done. Step over here. All right. So, Miss McKenzie, your speech topic and why you chose it first off. My speech topic was more space. And I chose it because we need special tutoring rooms and

018we also need calming rooms and for kids that need more space to focus and if they're just having a rough day and dealing with something at home. And what did you like to ask them to help you in middle school? What I like best about the amazing shake is that it taught me proper etiquette. how to order food, eat, proper handshakes, and how to introduce myself to people. What would be helpful? The skill that I learned from Amazing Shake that would be helpful through middle school is it taught me to take the first step and not to be scared and also boost my confidence. Thanks. Thank you. Just wait right here one minute. So everyone, thank you so much for your support of the program and of our scholars here. And I want you to

019know, so these were our final four. We started out with 165 students. They we every rounded we've advanced fewer and fewer students as you would in a competition. These were our final four. And please let me introduce our winner, Miss McKenzie Young from Sam Salem CLC. Look at that guys. [Music] Thank you all so much. You can go back and have a seat for just a second. And then finally, for just one more minute, I promise I'd like to introduce my colleague Trisha Kelly, a CCA specialist who does incredible work and will tell you about the future of our competition. Thank you. I'm going to go off script just for one moment. This project has been the highlight of my career. I really think so. Uh so I have the great pleasure of working with

020our elementary schools, the G Foundation, and a number of community partners on our essential experiences programming in which our elementary scholars have guaranteed experiences annually to visit locations in Akran. While scholars are on these experiences, they are exploring careers, learning about problem solving, and investigating things that spark their curiosity, all while seeing what makes Akran special. I can't think of a better addition to that work than to include time and space for our scholars to practice these same professional skills as well as other elements of the portrait of an elementary scholar while they are out learning from and working together with members of our Akran community. Our amazing shake pilot was an opportunity for us to learn how best to do this competition so we could make it bigger and better. So, beginning in the

0212526 school year, we hope to have all elementary scholars practicing these skills as age appropriate, culminating with all of our fifth grade scholars participating in the competition. These skills will serve scholars well throughout their school career, work career, and their professional lives. You'll hear more as we announce the dates for each round of competition next year, and we hope to see you there. Thank you. [Applause] Do you think you could provide some professional development for us here in central office? Bring those four. they could be, you know, lead small groups and college and careermies is happy to be a resource at your disposal. Congratulations again to our scholars. Uh, Vice President Alexander. Thank you, Madam President. I just want to say to everyone in this room, everyone who's out there listening, this is what it's

022all about. It's not about all the other stuff that's going on around here, what's happening in the district, happening across the country. It's all about what is happening here with these kids. So, we need to refocus, re-engage, and get on the right track because this is the right track right here. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you, Vice President Alexander. And thank you, Superintendent Oddley, for reminding me to take me back on the agenda. What a wonderful highlight. And I'm so proud of all of you learners. Excellent. Excellent. And just like when teachers have their professional development and they make notes about what's needed, this is the data that should inform this board's decision- making of what's needed. I heard you about additional spaces, calming rooms, tutoring spaces, um additional recess, which will be c, you know,

023wouldn't cost much. Maybe that could be a perk or something. I don't know. But, uh, part of, uh, uh, PBS, PBIS, um, in some capacity, but I thank you for that because I listen to what you say and see how can we apply what you say that you need and all what all this is about. So, thank you for the staff. Wonderful, wonderful job. Excellent. Thank you. Board President um Jackson, may I just ask very quickly because we know it takes a village and the students did not get here by themselves. If the teachers and principles could just stand who are in the room who supported our scholars through this journey. Oh yes. Yes. Excellent. Excellent. And also their families if any family representatives are here if they could stand as well. So congratulations and

024thank you for all that you do. Uh, next we're at the point um of our agenda to requ where the request to address the board. I've already read our um disclaimer as we like to call it, so I will not uh be reading that again. The first person that we have to address the board is Loretta Wright, I believe, Miss Wright, did I pronounce your name correctly? Lolita. Lolita. Thank you, Lolita. Miss Lolita, right? Is this WGO? Yes, ma'am. Oh, okay. Hello, my name is Laura Wright. I am a longtime AC acting Akran resident. I'm here today as a really worried member of this community speaking for the community and my family. For 10 awful years, my family has lived with the pain of my mentally challenged niece being sexually explo exploded. It started when

025she was 18. She has the mind of a 12 to 15 year old, making her an easy target. He thought there was no one to speak up for her. What he did is sickening. He sent my mentally challenged niece nasty, explicit photos and videos. He even sent naked pictures of himself showering. He committed several sexual acts with her in the church for way too long. No one helped us. The black black pastors didn't help. Signal Akran didn't help. The Beacon Journal didn't help. Akran police didn't. At first, it took me and my sister pushing for the attorney general to finally investigate. Because of that, he was placed on administrative paid leave on February 21st. He was fired by AGS office on April 4th, 2025. This is public record. Many moms have t already taken their

026daughters out of the church because they were scared. And my family has even gotten threats for speaking out. That's right. We need to protect mentally challenged people and hold those who hurt them accountable. This man is 30 years older than my niece. And this is not just about her. This is about the community because this is where he's at. And he's interacting with our children and he's old enough to be her grandfather. He was supposed to be someone she could trust. We cannot accept a situation where predators have access to our kids. We can't let a predator have any say in our children's safety and education. Right. Madam President, I am begging the school board for a meeting in person to hear my family story. This person did this to this this person who did

027this is someone who is sitting in this room right before you. I have a clear demand. This board member must be removed immediately. He is clearly a threat to our children, our community. Thank you for your time. That's right. Again, I just Thank you, Miss uh I just want to No, you may you may leave. Um I just want to reiterate that we we want to make sure that we deal with matters pertaining to the board. This is an open forum for public comment, but um this is a board meeting to conduct board business. The p the public does have a right to speak. So you see me being mindful because I do respect uh public voice but we also want to keep the the quorum within the framework of our meetings. The next person

028to speak I only have Pamela as a name. I'm sorry I don't mean to interrupt. I want to leave that with you. No problem. Good evening again. Good evening. I'm Pamela and that's sufficient for me. Uh, what I do is more important than my name. The word says to study, study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman, woman, boy, girl, needing not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. When I was here on the last time, I stated to you that I would like to have prayer in the name of Jesus Christ restored back into the school system. I have not heard from anyone yet. I went to Columbus and asked that that would be done. When you took prayer out of the school, you took the power of peace out of

029the school system. And I want to reiterate that I do want that again. Uh literacy, letting information talk eloquently, rendering alliances, communicating to youth. Literacy. We have our school system because we want to focus on literacy. Literacy functions not only in reading, writing, and math, but literacy also is financial, a financial matter. They're having budget hearings in Columbus right now, Columbus, Ohio. We need some financial literacy. We need funding in these school systems. Not all schools have computers. Not all schools are financially able to parents to financially fund their children to be in the school system. We need some financial literacy. This literacy will open doors of communication to curtail violence. It will open communication to stop racism. It will open communication back to the faith community because once again without prayer you have no

030power. literacy. I want to encourage you today to not fight among yourselves. We have enough of that. But to come together to see what you have in common, not your differences. We have parents in this room and children do what they see, not what they hear. I am a preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the power of God through the salvation of Jesus Christ. I must practice what I preach and live what I teach. This school system must also do the same thing. That's a word. The church will never go out as being the light in the community. I ask you once again to please put prayer back into our school system as a mandatory practice in the name of Jesus Christ which is the author and finisher and faith of the

031United States of America. Without Jesus Christ, we have no nation. A nation that denies God is a nation that will be destroyed by its own self lack of confidence and faith in our faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you very much. Thank you. Next to address the board, we have Miss Lori Alamine. Good evening. Good evening. Or afternoon, I should say. My name is Lori Alamine and I'm an intervention specialist at Voris CLC. More importantly, I'm a passionate advocate for our students and teachers. I am here today in support of the peer assistance review program or PAR that is being cut in the district budget. This program supports new teachers in their first year of teaching. Research shows that a seasoned teacher guiding a new teacher helps them improve their teaching craft. Having real time teacher

032support is crucial. The blueprint for our district talks about student achievement. When a teacher is supported, children are supported. Speaking from my own personal experience, I've been in the district going on 14 years now. And when I started in special education in the unit for achieve um I had the pleasure of having a PAR person to support me that also taught in the unit before. So it was crucial for her to be able to engage with me, understand where I was coming from, where the students were coming from. I mean, it was just a breath of fresh air to have her come and meet with me. I could call her at any time, text her. It was very important. If this program is removed, who will support those teachers? The principal, the instructional coach? not

033going to happen. Please make our classrooms the priority. We do not need to add any more to their plate. These positions should be protected. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Alamine. Next, we have Miss Margaret Brim. I hope I said your name correctly. Or is it Bream? Margaret Bream. Brian. Okay. Breen. Thank you. Hi, my name is Margaret Bream and I belong to multiple community organizations, but today I speak as a private citizen living in Ohio in Akran, Ohio. I have read the investigation report regarding Dr. Robinson. I am appalled that an investigation was conducted due to the complaints of 16 people in such a large organization, especially since some were no longer employed by the district. It was a huge waste of taxpayer dollars for what was clearly a collusion against the superintendent who did

034nothing wrong and was trying to do his job well. There was nothing wrong with anything the superintendent said or the actions he took listed in the report. However, the collusion of those 16 people and three school board members showed that none of the employees involved should remain employed and that the three board members violated their fudiciary responsibilities to the taxpaying citizens of Akaran. Those involved created a hostile work environment for Dr. Robinson, including violating his civil rights. Dr. Robinson seemed to have worked hard to preserve the jobs of those included in the investigation report and shouldn't have because their own actions. In addition, making false statements to the press shows that these people were working with the union to ruin Dr. Robinson's career rather than the union negotiate in good faith for the next round

035of contract negotiations. One board member had a conflict of interest when he applied to be appointed to the Akran school board, which he knew. He had a conflict of interest when he accepted the appointment which he knew and his actions were based on that conflict of interest rather than based on his obligation to the community. I hope Dr. Robinson stays in his position as superintendent and the board should vote to keep him and the community should know that any board member who doesn't vote to keep Dr. Robinson is also is doing so because they are compromised and working with the union against the taxpayers of this community. In addition, if they vote against Dr. Robinson Stain, they have proven that they are incompetent as board members because now many on the board have hired two

036people they later later said was not the correct person for the job. I understand why Dr. Robinson might not want to stay at Akran public schools. I hope he does today. The three board members involved should resign due to their unethical actions. The remaining board members and the superintendent or acting superintendent should refuse to negotiate with the current union rep because the situation proves she is not capable and cannot negotiate anything in good faith. In addition, the teachers who have a high rate of absenteeism should be fired. Their actions say they do not want the job. Please consider that many who work in Akran public schools are members of the union but do not live in Akran and therefore cannot and did not vote for you. But the taxpaying citizens can vote and your responsibility

037as board members is to the taxpaying citizens of Akran. Thank you. Thank you Miss Bream. Next we have uh Bishop Mark Neil. Greetings to the Akran public school board members and president respectfully. I stand tonight as a pastor in the community. I pastor Dominion Family Church here in Akran. uh a former substitute teacher for six years and prayerfully a voice of reason. Tonight, I recently read in a signal newspaper that there were three ways that should be considered for not retaining Superintendent Michael Robinson. One is simply termination. Two is separation by the buyout. Three, accept Robinson's resignation with no buyout. I'm not sure who decided upon these particular options as the only means for moving forward. Nor am I privy to who submitted them to signal newspaper with or without the consent of all board

038members. Let me be clear that I have not read the entire report that was done by an independent law for firm because the problem with reports and reporting is typically they only give one side and not a full picture as I myself was the victim of a columnist by the name of Phil I won't give his last name in 2011 that at the time Mr. Marco Somerville asked the question to Phil. Phil, do you believe that Bishop Mark Neil did those things? And Phil answered, "No, but it certainly makes a good story." I have learned I have learned that there are some people who are only looking for a good story and not a resolution. So allow me to offer an additional ways on moving forward. One, retain the superintendent with conditions. These conditions be

039considered should be the superintendent be placed on a 90 or 120day probationary period. The superintendent be required to attend conflict resolution training that will also be able to be shared with other administrators. The superintendent required to be to meet personally and individually with every accuser to be held accountable for what was said or what was not said for a formal apology. They also be appointed an advisory team that he is required to meet with weekly. If this was a a school teacher that had accusations that was brought against him or her, certainly the union would be stepping in and assisting them to retain their position. However, I do not know of any of us of our personal or professional records was called into question today. How many of us could stand here without guilt? Certainly,

040all of us would be guilty. I'm hoping and praying again that we can have the spirit of reconciliation, which is a spiritual gift that we all should have. At some point, we need to stop allowing politics to influence our decision and allow our character to speak truth to light. So, I close with this. If you're going to vote tonight, vote to retain so that we can bring harmony back and focus again back upon our children. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bishop Neil. Next, I believe it's Ashley Smith or Sme. Sorry, I don't have a printer. Good afternoon. My name is Ashley Schmidt and I am the parent of two young boys at Resnik CLC. I am here today to address the practice of using schools as polling locations while students and teachers are in

041session. APS has 26 elementary schools and continues to utilize eight of them as polling locations during a regular school day. According to data submitted by the Ohio Board of Elections, last year there were 2,925 voters at ResNick alone. If you combine the total of in-person voters from all eight elementary schools, there were 21,024 members of the public who entered our schools on election day. Resnik, along with many other CLC's in the district, have a long history of being utilized as polling locations for the community. Yet, we can all agree that a lot has changed in APS over the years. For example, parents used to be welcome and encouraged to volunteer in the building during the school day. Security practice in APS have changed notably with mandates from the district. Now fingerprint printing, background checks, and

042ID scanning are required safety measures for entering the building. There are even new safety protocols for events held with large crowds or after hours at school buildings. Within the district, APS determined that our school dance required three security guards despite the event being chaperoned by one adult per child. As a parent, I am very frustrated that the same consideration for altering safety protocols has not been directed to the practice of voting in schools while in session. The double standards of safety measures are confusing at best and read as extremely tonedeaf to the changing needs of our community. It was suggested by one of your board members that the PTA provide our own security on May 6th if we were not satisfied with current safety precautions. For the record, we are not satisfied. For the reference,

043for reference, the current safety plan for our school states that the district will work to see if we can place a cord in the hall so that voters can follow that cord to block off the classrooms and also includes the district's plan to reach out to APD APD to stop by during school hours. This plan, nor the suggestion for TPTA backup, does not read as a well-thoughtout approach to a considerable safety risk that the district is making on our behalf. For those of you who are not familiar with the layout of Resnik, historically voters have been permitted to enter through the front doors and are then led through a hallway to find voting booths set up in the gym. Unlike other building layouts that that allow for more isolated voting space, this problematic footpath provides

044direct access to the two-winged hallways that hold the school's classroom and bathrooms. On April 6, I started a petition online to address this issue directly. I've had the privilege of speaking at length with numerous Resnick family members. After securing 167 signatures from teachers and parents, I can confidently say that there is a significant disapproval of holding school during the primaries. At this phase of the game, I strongly suggest a calamity day. Without a change of plans, you can anticipate a call to action with at least 40 to 50 student absentees due to the grossly inadequate safety plan on behalf of the district and the school itself. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Next to address the board, we have Miss Mrs. Buchanan. Good afternoon. I am Mrs. Mis Matthews Buchanan. I am a retired science educator.

045I am a product of the Akran public school system and 1969 graduate of Akran South. My background is in chemistry, physics, and biology. And I am here because I've been watching via the television the board meetings. I do not like what I'm seeing because we have to put our children first and it is not being done. And I want to see each of you working together. And I'm certainly going to miss Dr. Robinson if he decides to leave. I know about a system because I left the medical profession as a medical technologist diagnosing diseases to transition into teaching school and my students have done well all over the United States and around the world. So, I suggest that each of you work together because it don't have to have a handle behind your name to

046spew out awful things. So, please work together and do right by Dr. Robinson and do right about yourselves. I have spoken and I meant what I said. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Buchanan. That concludes our um request to address the board. Are there any board member reflections at this time? Any board member reflections? Vice President Alexander. Yes. Thank you, Madam President. I I I I uh forgot to talk about this last last meeting and it's uh again it's about our students is art spark program that was at firestone CLC and this was the uh learning early learning program students who were over there who were actually performing in front of their parents and school uh uh personnel to um show their skills the listening skills the the motor skills and and all the other skills

047they have. Some were excited to be there, some were really not excited to be there. But it was it's it's it's all about those students. And it's to see all those students on the stage, young kids, doing as well as they did, speaking as well as they did, and performing as well as they did, listening as well as they did. I thought it was such a very, very good program, and I think uh I would look forward to uh hopefully seeing this again next year. Again, this is the art sparks program, and it's uh deal with our early learning students. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Vice President Alexander. Are there any other board member reflections? Member Hall. Thank you, Madam President. Um, over this past week and weekend, I attended the National Alliance of

048Black School Educators, better known as NAPSY in Columbus, and I tell you, these trainings and these conferences are amazing. Um, I was able to ask very important questions regarding uh our district, what other people are, other school districts are doing. Um, in different ways that we can bring things to Akan that we may not be doing. Um, also they have a parent summit which I would love next year to get our PTA and our parents down there. It's a free event. They provide breakfast and lunch. The only thing we have to do is transport the parents there and back. It's just a one-day event, nothing overnight. And I think this would be a great opportunity for our parents to be more engaged. We want our parents to be more engaged. We constantly talk about our

049parents being more engaged. And I think this would be a great opportunity for our parents to learn um different pathways of being more engaged and how to um get things done at their schools. Um, superintendent, I don't want to take your shine, but I do want to recognize Is it okay or is this in your plan? You sure? Okay. I just want to give a shout out to Chris Haynes, principal from Shoeacher. Would you like to stand? Let's give him a round of applause, then I'll tell you about them. And also, uh, Tyreek Hill, student at Sheamarker CLC. They were honores for this. Oh, hi. they were honores at this event and um another amazing thing um about Mr. Haynes is he received the 2025 NASPY Northwest leadership award only person in Akran. So I

050am very pleased and proud to witness your greatness and keep doing what you're doing and congratulations. Thank you. Yes, absolutely. Congratulations. Are there any other board member community reflections? Yes. Uh member Molnar. Thank you, Madame President. Um first I want to say voting matters. As an elected official, I spend a lot of time encouraging people to come out and vote. Um and especially now we have really critical issues um locally. Uh locally we have ward issues um for new city council people. and these council people are going to make important decisions for our community like whether or not we're going to be a sanctuary city and things like that. This is going to affect all of us and I really want everyone to go out and vote on May 6. It's really important to do

051that and I want people to come to our CLC's and see our CLC's and and visit them. However, focusing on our students, which is what I was elected to do, I do not believe that it has been safely followed through on how we can have people come in to the building and vote on election day while holding a normal day of school. On March 24th, I asked administration direct questions about safety protocols because I knew parents had questions, had concerns from years of experiences. And the answers I got to these to these u responses, not answers, for instance, um about attendance. One of the parents mentioned that they've been told, "Well, if you don't like what we're doing, just pull your kids out for the day." So, I asked a question on March 24th about

052what our attendance data is. As a board member, I asked for attendance data a month ago. And what I received was something about from the board of elections about voter rates. I wanted student attendance information. And as a board member, why couldn't I get that even after a month? Because I know that student attendance is important. We spend so much time and energy on attendance. It's reported on a report card. Why would we encourage parents to leave? Parents are asking and being ignored and said just to leave while we're in a lawsuit for vouchers. We're encouraging parents, if you don't like it, just leave. I think that sends a really bad message. I don't think parents are feeling supported, especially when building access is so uneven and some of the schools like Rhymer, Finley, Forest

053Hill, Bookal, those schools people can walk right into the gym, right out. no access to anywhere else in the building. This is not in the case in Resnik where uh the person spoke about uh having a hundred and a whole bunch half of the school's uh signatures. There is no way to rope off and prevent access and also allow students to eat lunch in the cafeteria. It's either or. either they have access to through the voters on voter day or they have access to the I'm going to go over my three minutes because I've asked this question for a month and I have not been able to finish it. So, I'm almost done, but incomplete plans endanger trust. Member Monar, just just a point of order, member Monard, because um we want to stay as

054tight as possible to the schedule and the rules that we set. It would be an elected official order. I'm an elected official. It is not the law for 3 minutes. So, I'm going to go on and say I spoke with Officer Jones. I don't have another chance for this. So I spoke with but member Monard I'm calling for a point of order and you continue it's a decorum for the meeting member Monar these answers and these questions that you're positing at this moment if you didn't get an answer in a month ago whoever you need deposit it to I don't know that it's being presented now member Monar I'm respectfully asking that you respect the same time within the frame that we gave to the committee and I'm saying I need 30 more seconds and

055I would have been done by now my call to action is very disrespectful your actions member Monar extremely disrespectful as a disrespectful. I called upon the order of the chair of this meeting and the fact that you want to continue on to for a statement to grant student deserve a written safety plan. Families deserve to know how students will move in buildings during voting hours. Parents deserve to know how voter traffic will be separated during certain arrival and dismissal. And people have not even visited the school to examine if there is a safety issue. And the board of elections needs to know that from 2:00 to 3:00 there are no parking story about the disrespect of the chair for member. Right about that right about member is the chair because from 2 to 3 there's

056no access to the building. So what I have asked is to send a written safety and host a public safety Q&A so families can know if their children are safe. Our families are concerned that their children are not safe. Please at least give them some information. Communicate please to families what the plan is and allow them to have a Q&A with someone from safety about the building plan for the day. [Music] Exactly. We promote that behavior and if our children do it, we want to kick them out for insubordination in our schools. But a board member posits that. That's very interesting and what we celebrate. Are there any other board member community reflections? Member Harrison and then uh you've been recognized as well. Member Autry member Harrison completes. Thank you, Member Harrison. Thank you, Madam

057Chair. Madam Chair, I'm going to reiterate and continue to stand on um the public should be able to say whatever they want to say in their three minutes. Um, I think that it it uh No, I'm I'm talking about the public what you run your meeting. I ain't getting to you what you mean. But the three minutes, the public should be able to say what they want to say. If they have a grievance, if they have something they want to put out here, um, I think they should be able to do it because it's their three minutes and that's part of the public records. No matter how painful it be, um, we just have to be accountable for what we say in other areas. Amen. So, u, there's three things I want to talk about.

058I want to talk about the and I'm not going to say this right thespian conference at Firestone. We got a um email and um it was been transferred to our interim superintendent and for so that is in the superintendent is looking at that. I just want to acknowledge that we uh I just want to acknowledge that we did get the email and that that is being looked at. Kimmore u the kids at at Garfield. I'm gonna say Kimmore football field, but it's Garfield. Uh um we heard you bats being worked on. So we will have an update about uh the Kimmore uh field and uh what the kids they conveyed, what they needed and I think we are working on that. um and the um the rift notifications, the reduction in force. It's unfortunate that

059we will have to cut staff, but we will have to cut staff. Um trying to make this the the cuts as painless as possible. Um but we have gotten information and we want to acknowledge the psychologists. Want to acknowledge that we um understand the art therapy, job coaching, audiovisisual. We have received this information um and we don't know the details. We are still working on the plan. Um we still have meetings scheduled but we have received the information. Um but the reality is to the community is we have to cut we just want to make sure that what we cut um is we're not cutting bone. Um but we have to cut but we want to make sure that we do it in a way that is fair um and does reflect that that is

060something that we went through a process to get to. We went through a process. So, we're looking at all the complaints that we had and I just wanted to acknowledge all of those u emails and especially the students concerns respect. Thank you, member Harrison um for that. Uh member Altry. Thank you, Madame President. So, as member Hall already mentioned, I also had the opportunity to attend the uh Midwest Region Conference of the National Alliance of Black School Educators hosted by the Ohio Alliance of Black School Educators. Um, and so we've already acknowledged uh Principal uh Haynes, but it's okay to acknowledge him more than one time because we can hear all the negative stuff over and over and over again. We can hear the positive stuff over and over and over again. And so um

061the things that that school and that PTA are doing should be commended. Congratulations. I was proud uh to be able to uh support um Mr. Haynes uh for his exemplary leadership, outstanding vision, dedication, loyalty, and commitment. Um as well as the student Ty Tyreek Hill. Um also uh we had principal Teresa Essendal from Finley that was there in attendance. um and they were being recognized uh because of significant academic improvement uh from one school year to the next and Glover CLC was also uh recognized at that event. Um member Hall mentioned the various workshops geared around parents, teachers, administrators, board members. Um as we know um there's still a lot of unknowns about a lot what's going on. redistribution of the responsibilities and resources, checking compliance, etc. Uh, we were encouraged to follow bill tracker.

062Ohio School Board Association has a bill tracker feature on their website, so you can keep track of all of these bills that are happening. Um, but one thing I think might be important to students, um, as I've talked and met with them about their concerns around DEI, um, and there are different clubs like Black United Students. So, it sounds like the various clubs are protected and okay, um, as long as they're open to all. Um, but the subject matter and the topics are okay to still address as long as they're factual. So, I just wanted any students who are concerned about their clubs being affected uh by this DEI stuff to know um that as long as everyone is welcome to those uh clubs that uh they're okay to continue on and address those topics

063that matter and are important to them. Um lastly, I just want to say um as the Firestone Cluster liaison um and just in response, I want to actually thank our safety team for keeping us safe. Um I have a student who also went to Resnik as well and so and I didn't open enroll. I lived in that community and so things were okay then. I'm not aware of any incidents. Um I think it's unfair to characterize um our safety team as grossly inadequate because that's just not fair to those people who have kept us safe. And I want to thank the voters who actually have come out to support our CLC's. And so they are part of the CLC. They're actually the C. So I want to thank those voters for continuing to support APS.

064Thank you. Thank you, member Altry. Uh member Sykes, please. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Uh just to uh first of all, I want to say welcome to our interim superintendent, Superintendent Arley. Uh just want to follow up on on the voting just to just just just mention that early voting has started has been taking place for for a number of weeks now. Early voting this week would take place from 7:30 until 7 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. except tomorrow. You can vote as late as 8:30. That is at the Summit County Board of Election Early Voting Center. Uh early voting will take place Saturday from 800 a.m. until 400 pm and Sunday from 1 from 100 pm until 5:00 p. p.m. So right after church want to go vote. Uh during this

065primary election we have wards one where you are selecting your council member as well as ward eight and issue 18 which is our library issue. And I think we all can say, we know, we just heard about our children reading and how wonderful that was and how wonderful it is to have the beautiful libraries that we have here in our community that allow our children to also visit the library and do all kinds of things. My first job was at the Memphis and Shelby County Public Library. And it was such an adventure and such a wonderful place to work and to realize all of the all of the the advantages that we have when we go to the library. We can just hang out there all day. Nobody says anything to you. You can do

066all kinds of things there. It's a fun place to be. So, uh remember issue 18 uh on our ballot. And also we have a state issue that will allow the state to uh when they go out with different projects to go out and to uh sell bonds in order to pay for those projects. So just want to bring that to everyone attention because there is nothing better than this country than this city than this state than this county that we live in that we live in a democracy where we can go out and vote. We can go out and vote. And there are so many people that wish they had the opportunities that we do. And no matter what you think about each one of these individuals sitting around here, they've taken the time to

067go out to get on the ballot or to be appointed and to and to be voted into this seat. And that's what's important. That's what's important, this democracy, and that you we all have a voice and that we can speak our mind within our time limit. That we can speak our mind and say the things that we need to say because so many people don't. And we may disagree. We may disagree. You may disagree, but we still can disagree and we end up at the ballot box and not in the street fighting. That's what's important about this country. So, please vote. Remember, early voting starts at 7:30. Be there. Be there. Vote. Thank you so much, Madam President. No, thank you, member Sykes. That was a wonderful public service announcement. Very informative. I'm grateful for

068it. Are there any other board member discuss uh discussions? I do have a very brief reflection. I just want to highlight um and the member Sykes was also in attendance. Um since the last time we met, we did have the hero stub scholarship banquet and it was a wonderful event. And I just want to highlight a couple of our students who received uh scholarships. We had Jordan Colbert from STEM High School. Um we Jaqucoin Haden from Bookto CLC Kiara Dinkens from Elliot Community Learning Center. We also had Christian Robuk from uh Firestone High School and Lamri Trel from BTO High School as well as Allora Yoda from BookTo High School. Many of these re students receive full tuition scholarships from uh the University of Akran as well as Kent State University. So, we definitely want

069to thank our community partners. We want to thank um uh the Herald K. Stubs uh committee for having a heart and a willingness to keep the legacy alive and to pour into our students here at Akan in Akran public schools in the greater Akran community. So, uh that concludes uh my reflection. Next is the president's re Oh, sorry. Um I'm I apologize, member uh Harrison. Thank you, Madam Chair. I I just want to give a shout out to Shawn Jones from East High School um who graduated from Bowling Green University and signed an undrafted free agent contract in the NFL. So with with the draft, everybody's watching the quarterback, but Sean Jones, defensive back from East High School, um signs undraft. That's a hand clap of East High School. That's all right. Thank you for

070that. U member Harrison, we want to celebrate our we want to celebrate our um our students. All right. Um there I have no uh president's report today. Um superintendent report or updates. Thank you, Madam President. I would like to ask everyone to join me in celebrating Rhonda Ferguson. She is the recipient of the 2025 Ohio Education Association Education Support Professional of the Year. I'm not sure if Miss Ferguson is here this evening. Is Mrs. Ferguson here? I would like to read just a little bit about the award. This award emphasizes the contributions of education through our support professionals to their schools, communities, and all education and demonstrates outstanding accomplishments and dedication to their profession. We know if you know Mrs. Ferguson, you know that she truly is dedicated to Akran public schools and the families

071that we serve. So, thank you, Mrs. Ferguson, for all that you do. This is a recognition that is very welld deserved. I'd also like to say congratulations to our state science day project scholar winners. We had 91 scholars participate either individually or in teams. Of those 27 earned a superior rating and 64 earned an excellent rating. So outstanding work to our scholars and thank you to Dr. Katrina Halasa for her work. Okay, just when you thought I was done, I'm not. I would like to now recognize Laura Kepler. The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce Office of Nutrition completed their review of Akran Public Schools compliance with federal and state regulations focused on our school meal program. They found that our all school meal program areas are in compliance. They extended their appreciation for their

072commitment to the school meal program and operations. So again, we congratulate Laura Kepler and her staff in the office of child nutrition. I am not sure if a representative from Project Grad, Jackie Silus Butler is the executive director, but we would like to take a moment to congratulate Project Grad Akran on being selected as an awardee for the soul of philanthropy Akran awards, a program of black giving of the black giving collective at the Akran Community Foundation. They were selected for the outstanding institution in the philanthropy category. So the category recognizes a business or an institution that has shown its long-term commitment to uplifting the community for an extended period of time, at least 15 years plus. So again, we would like to congratulate Jackie Silas Butler and the Project Grad staff for all that

073they do to support our scholars. There are just a couple photos at this time I would like to show. You've already heard from board members Hall in Autry about our program at um in Columbus where we had Christopher Haynes recognized by the district as an outstanding administrator. Then he went on to compete at a Midwest regional level and he was recognized as one of their six winners. So we would again like to congratulate Mr. Haynes and that is uh a photo of all that were in attendance minus uh our assistant superintendent Tama Caver was also in attendance. So congratulations and I would like to thank our board members who took time out who were able to take time out of their schedules to attend. And I have a save the date for all of our

074board members. If you would like to consider the next event, this is the 53rd National Alliance of Black School Educators annual International Conference, which will be held in Chicago, Illinois, December 10th through 14th. If you are interested, I can certainly give you additional information. Blueprint for Excellence. Our strategic plan and our next cornerstone meetings are as follows. Cornerstone 2, Academic Achievement, will take place on Tuesday, May 6 at 400 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. here in room 2011. Cornerstone 1, Culture and Safety and Belonging. and cornerstone 4, family partners and community engagement, will take place on May 6 at 3:30 and 5:00 in room 207. Cornerstone 3, operational excellence, will take place on May 8th at 3:30 and 5:00 p.m. Both are virtual meetings. And finally, I would like to say thank you to all of

075our partners, our families and supporters who so generously donate and provide grants to support our scholars. Your contributions are truly truly appreciated. And if we could close by looking at our Be Kind 330 at Harris Jackson, our students are teaming up to make a difference and create a positive school environment. This week, our fourth and fifth graders had follow-up meetings with the admin team and school counselor to review the ideas they brainstormed earlier this semester to improve the school climate and culture. They reflected on data collected from their transend survey for grades four and five and the school perception survey for grades K through three. Working in small groups, our students provided leadership teams with thoughtful ideas to make our school experience better for everyone. Their suggestions included to increase kindness, recognize positive behavior, improve

076group work skills, enhance the lunch experience, and support students who need language assistance, and so much more. It was inspiring to see the students excited about contributing to a positive change. Please stay tuned for more. A special thank you to our wonderful counselor Lisa Heath for sharing this story and fostering such a meaningful student engagement opportunity and that includes the interim superintendence report. Thank you. Um it's allowed to say interim superintendent superintendent Ali. Um next we will have the treasurer's report Dr. Thompson. Thank you sir. [Music] Uh, good evening, Madame President, uh, Vice President and members of the board. Um, Superintendent Outlet. Um, I have two things to report on this evening and they're both very positive and so uh that feels good to me right now. Uh, so our fiscal year 2025 state audit

077report. So I'm taking it section by section which came these aren't my words they came from our report under the clean audit opin we received a clean audit opinion. Uh we received an un unmodified or clean which is the highest you can receive. Um our financial statements are accurate and fully compliant with GAP. We disclosed a $13.24 million in tax abatements due to the city of Akran's incentive programs. Um and consistently throughout our audit, we were the commentary was that we were being fully uh disclosing financial information. And of course, I I think we would all agree that this is important in terms of trying to build trust and full transparency in our community. Under strong grant and funding management, uh we accurately recorded our 5.79 uh million dollars in the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission's

078receivables. That's our construction projects. They're just about completely wrapped up. The CLC part or the initial ones. We still have two construction projects that are just getting off the ground now. And we met all those requirements for our reimbursements under compliance and controls. There were no findings for material weaknesses or non-compliance and we demonstrated as noted by the state auditors strong internal controls and ethical fit fiscal practices. Um there was one section on improvements or what they wanted us to take a look at. Uh one of those was to reduce or it was mostly all focused on this and that is reducing the number of individuals from three various departments who had access to sensitive records. primarily personnel records. Um all three are moving in concert with one another to execute things like payroll and

079benefits etc etc. Uh but at just over the course of time the list of people that had access to that information um was something that needed to be taken a look taken a look at but as commented by the auditors. We did do that and we have significantly reduced those just down to the number of people that are uh uh primary in executing the work. Uh so the bottom line overall is Akan public school according to the auditor implements financially sound practices is transparent and compliant and positions the district as a trustworthy steward of public dollars. So I think that's very positive. That's a third party doing this. That's what they do for their living. And so um you know certainly inherited a finance department that was wellrun by our previous treasurer which certainly made

080things a lot easier. And I would be remiss not to say that we have an absolutely awesome finance department. 15 people work there and I can honestly say that every single one of them is knowledgeable. works hard and works well together. So it's really the credit is them. I just get lucky enough to be able to tell you about it. Um so financial report don't freak out at first. So you might when you first look at this total revenues I'm taking the highlights. Total revenues are $8,258,000 unfavorable, meaning less than what we forecasted. Our expenditure total, that's a positive number, $3.1 million less than forecasted, but the net trend is minus $5 million, but just received this morning. This is um these are actual numbers. So in March, our revenue was down $17 million, which

081is alarming, but compared to last year, but just received this morning was our final tax settlement of $29 million. This is reflecting our levy passage. So again, thank you community because we wouldn't be able to keep our head above water if it weren't for the support of our community. So overall, this is what our estimated trends look like. certainly much different uh than what is in your financial report. Again, this information is after receiving this morning. It will be posted by Friday. So, it takes a few days to post that information. That concludes my report. Madam President. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. And um very quickly because you triggered uh something in my mind uh because we are um full of gratitude for the community that supported our levy and I've recently um received

082some uh calls and community feedback about this uh news story and I know member Harrison was uh seeking to set the the the record straight about the 16,000 that was spent on administrators to um seem as though uh we were just spending an in access and the understanding from some community members is that they believe it's their tax dollars and that they passed a levy. And so can we add some clarity to that? Um just in regards to that these are not monies coming from general funds if you can or if you want to call someone up just for community sake because they are very concerned and I've received a call and I felt um and I want to address uh this the the calls that I received even though I will follow up if

083you're watching I am going to follow up later but I feel these people have concerns then this would be a perfect platform for you to address. Thank you Dr. time soon. Yeah. So, we applied for actually prior to even Dr. Robinson's arrival that the the the grant was submitted while um Superintendent Fowler Mack was here. So, it is a $250,000 Hullet Packard grant uh that was time set. So, it was it would sunset. We had a certain amount of time to spend that money and it was very very specific in the grant what its purpose was and the purpose is to train and professionally develop senior level administrators and we have extended the grant for two years because we've been trying to strategically use that money in professional development. So, it's there are still roughly

084$15,000 remaining in that account. Uh, but that's was the purpose of the account. It is not general fund dollars and it is most certainly not taxpayer money. Excellent, Dr. um Thompson, and thank you for sharing that with us and giving us that insight. Member Harrison, please, and then we'll move on. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, can you just briefly go over what happens to that money if we don't spend the grant money? What what happens to th those funds? Well, fortunately, the Huelet Packer has given us two extensions of one year and then a second year. Otherwise, we would have to return the money in its entirety or whatever is remaining balanced back to Hulet Packard. So, if we don't use it to have these professional trainings goes back to Hullet

085Packard. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you both for setting the record straight. Thank you, Mr. Treasurer. All right. Is there a motion to approve the resolution um for the March 2025 financial report? So move. It's been moved by member Harrison. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Sykes. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, Dr. Thompson. Roll call, please. Miss Autry, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Motion carry 70. Thank you. Next is the approval of previous meeting minutes. Um, regular board meeting. Is there a motion to approve the me meeting minutes, excuse me, from the regular board meeting of for April 14th, 2025? So moved. Is there a second? Second. It's been moved and properly second. Is there any

086discussion? Seeing and hearing none, Dr. Thompson, roll call vote, please. Miss Hall. Yes, Reverend Harrison. Yes, Miss Jackson. Yes, Dr. Molinar. Yes, Mrs. Sykes. Yes, Mr. Alexander. Yes, Miss Autry. Yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. Is there a motion to approve the special board meeting minutes for April 15th of 2025? So moved. It's been moved by member Hall. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Sykes. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, roll call vote, please. Dr. Thompson. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Autry, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. Next we'll have personnel recommendations. Miss Ali. Thank you, President Jackson. We will begin with section 10, professional staff and administrators. Does the board have any

087questions about these personnel items? Member Hall, you've been recognized. Yes. So, um, thank you, Madam President. Um, I was just looking I noticed, um, since we I know we dissolved the DEI department. Um, and for 10, which one is this? 1010. I'm just curious, did this go through the finance committee for approval of this? So this particular position did not go through the finance committee but it's not a change in um the overall budget as it relates to the um salary and the entire compensation package is actually the same and the position was actually put on the board. so that we could have um just the record showing that um we have a different department. Okay. That's led by um our leader that was that's in this department, Dr. Chapman. Thank you, member Hall. Does

088the board have any questions about the personnel items for section 11 miscellaneous? Yes. If there are no questions, I will move on to section 12. I would like to um recommend the removal of item 12.1 table. It it is there a motion to remove item 12.1 from this agenda? Madam Chair, I make a motion that we remove that um item um at the um recommendation of superintendent. Thank you, Member Harrison. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Altry. Any discussion? Dr. Thompson, roll call vote, please. Mr. Alexander, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Miss Autry, yes. Motion carry 70 12.1 is tabled. Thank you, Dr. Does the board have any questions for personnel items for section 12? Oh, no, not 12. Not

089member. Member Hall. Thank you. If there are no additional questions, does the board have any questions for section 13, substitute teachers? If there are no questions, does the board have any questions regarding section 14 tutors? Yes. Yes. Member Hall. Thank Thank you, Madam President. Um I've noticed a lot of our um agendas that we are losing tutors, but are we replacing these tutors? And then also second question, I'll just do it all together. What schools are losing the tutors and will they regain um tutors for their I mean I don't know if it's just a school or if these are traveling tutors like half day at certain places but um do we have enough tutors to continue the work? We'll have uh Keith Licky address that for us. Uh good evening. Uh thank you uh

090to the board. Uh so we do have about 140 tutors employed in the district. Um they're all paid through our title federal dollars doing high dosage tutoring. We do have an uh we do have a uh posting up continuously because it is a hard to staff position. Uh our tutors in the district are uh we we go for certified teachers 24 hours a week. And so oftentimes uh as we know there's a teacher shortage. We are losing our certified teachers to full-time positions in other districts, sometimes even within our own district, which is a good thing for folks to work their way up. But, um, we do keep a list. I could share that with the superintendent to share with you on exactly, uh, how many tutors we have at each building and which ones

091are vacant. Okay. That's a followup. Yes, member Hall. Just a quick followup. Um, the reason why I asked the question because I just, you know, we need tutors in our schools and I don't want some schools with a lot of tutors and then some schools that are affected by resignations or um retirement. So, long as we have enough tutors across the board that can help and service all of our schools, I have no problems with that. Thank you. And so, we have been filling uh when we cannot find a certified teacher, we do move to uh subtutors. So, anyone out there with a four-year degree can apply to our human capital department. Uh, and we are always interviewing. And so, that's kind of midyear. What happens is we'll look for that substitute tutor to fill

092those vacancies. And there are, you know, I think we do have a couple buildings out there who are unfilled at this time, but we do work very hard to get those filled as soon as possible. Thank you for that. And just to add upon that uh some uh we had a teacher intervention specialist that uh during public comments she came and she spoke about the PAR program and and in the research that's consistent with mentoring teacher mentoring and I would pause it even and take that further is that when we look at the level to which we lose tutors that we're losing teachers the retention problem with teachers um and also the recruitment issue that we have because Akran is a very good district for teachers as far as pay. So I understand and so

093it's a good place to work. So when you see people exiting the district for whatever reasons or not um staying or seeking to come to the district, we need to examine some things um like Spryicer maybe like psychological empowerment or some implicit followership theories which um side with implicit followership theories. It says that leadership right um comes up with these specific schemas or cognitive perceptions of who they believe people are. Those perceptions would be the people would be teachers in that incident. And if teachers are seen as having a positive followership prototype, then the administration pours into them, elevates them, gives them the resources they need to make sure that they have self-efficacy or self- success. However, if administrators see them as having a negative followship prototype, then they see them as insubordinate um conforming,

094meaning very passive, and so they don't give them those same resources. The reason why I just bring up this um specific research as the intervention mentioned about various research about um teacher mentoring programs is because it is this type of information or professional development that we need to examine because then we need to look at then how does these implicit followership traits impact a teacher psychological empowerment meaning a teacher that's feels that they're competent to do their job. they feel empowered to do their job because um someone said it if teachers are empowered empowered teachers then will empower students. So they have to have meaning a sense of meaning a sense of impact um and things like that. So when we're looking at developing in programs, I I think I just want to say that

095in this forum that those are the type of things that we need to um dive deep into to see really what is happening where you have a district where the pay scale is good, um there's various resources, the retirement is good, the medical benefits are amazing, and you have people leaving. And so we need to probably look at uh some more professional development from the administrative standpoint that the lens is flipped so the administrator can see how am I perceiving teachers and then how are is my perception of those teachers impacting how they perform and then ultimately impacting stu impacting students. So um thank you for all those that shared. U I'm sorry madam superintendent. Thank you. Does the board have any questions about personnel items for section 15 support staff? Member Altry, you're recognized.

096Thank you, Madam President. And this is more of a comment around item 15.1. I understand um our very own Ruth Ryman is going to be retiring as of August 31st. And I have to say out loud how much I've appreciated you since I've been on this board. Um, you've been the assistant to superintendent for I'm not sure exactly how long, but I know that you are a reason why we've been able to keep going and keep focused and keep moving. And you when we're here late, you're here late. And so I just want to thank you and appreciate you for keeping us on track all that you do, all that you have done. and enjoy your well-earned retirement. [Applause] That is across the board. Absolutely, Ruth Run. Absolutely. Excellence in motion. It does look different.

097And my dear, it looks like you. God bless you on everything that you do. You surely have been a blessing to me since I've been on this board. Superintendent, does the board have any questions about personnel items for section 16 pair of professionals? Hearing none. Does the board have any questions regarding section 17 child nutrition? How about excuse me the the paraprofessional? I'm still very concerned about these paraprofessionals because um um prior to you being seated in that position. So I I apolog the the issue the concerns that these parents are sharing and because we know that we are underst staffed just like with teachers but um I'm just curious and not for this time I just want to put that out there we can follow up later is what measures are being taken as

098far as they're talking about physical um issues happening with them with no recourse allegedly that they're saying like kids hitting pair professionals. I mean, I don't I believe in discipline. Sometimes discipline has to happen in the school structure. I know all this other stuff, this coochie coo stuff, but kids will stop hit. You got kids hitting teachers, pair professionals, people that are there to try to assist. And as I'm understand now, people can clear it up for me. That's fine. I stand on whatever I say. And I got rhinoceros skin, so I can take it. But how what is happening? like what can we do to help to support to another level? What needs to shift um to assist them to where we we also um like we talked about the livable wage thing and

099that's that's another component. So this is multiaceted but I want to deal with the lowhanging fruit which is what appears to be acts of violence against these individuals so they call off and they don't come in and it's not being addressed. is what's being shared with me. And so I would love clarity for that because it is concerning. Um and and when I see more and more resignations and and I know how my email was full just um you know some months ago about this I just want some clear followup as a action steps. when I say followup um because if it is happening which I believe it's happening as it's been shared when I say followup like what are what are some things if it's some actionable things that we as the board may

100need to do to help to get put legs and movements on what how it empowers teachers pair professional building leaders or whoever to do something in response to that. Thank you. Um, Miss Oley, most definitely. Um, we I will personally follow up on that and one could also be like around a focus group involving our pair of professionals to get the information directly from them to see how best we can support them. So, thank you. Thank you. If there's no additional questions, we'll move on to section 17, child nutrition. Hearing no questions, we'll move on to section 18, maintenance, operation, and [Music] transportation. Okay, no questions. We'll move on to section 19, security. Member Harrison. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm sorry if I could just pop back to 18 for a second. Um the are

101are these positions um the resignations are these factored into our um current riffs. It's Carter. Okay. So, um it would play a part in the riffs as it relates to having assignments for people to go into instead of being reduced in force. So, if I'm an eight hour person and my position is being um reduced to a 5 hour, I have the opportunity to bid into this position. But with this particular group, it's all based on um seniority as relates to who can. So, it's going to be a lot of movement happening within this particular um group and so it is taken into consideration as it relates to the number of positions that will be available to those who are affected. Okay. I don't want to talk about the available. I'm just saying these positions

102are budgeted positions that we're just keeping in the budget and then the whole correct bidding. Yeah. But but the positions will stay in the budget. Correct. Okay. Thank you, M. Carter. And member Harrison, I believe maybe part of your question also will be addressed in um when we get to it section 21 under the riffs. Okay. Okay. I am um going back to section 19 which is security. Are there any questions under security? over here. Thank you. Um I I I think and this is the value of Ruth. Um I think she she gave me an explanation and I just want to make sure that we on the record are our for the public to know that we're not losing security staff. We're switching my understanding is it's it's switching to a different pay system

103for the positions that are listed here. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Did you have anything a follow-up question? Was that well received? Yeah. Should Yeah. I just want to make sure that everybody know we're not correct. Losing security staff that correct that that was just going transferring to a new page system. Correct. So, okay. There are no uh there is nothing to report under section 20. So, we'll move on to section 21.1 through 21.5. Are there any questions? Member Harrison. Thank you, uh, Madame Chair. Uh it it was my understanding and um the finance chair Sykes can uh madam sites can can help me. Um I thought in the finance committee we looked at the dates by which we had to finalize the five-year forecast and we were trying to sync these the the vote on these

104positional these cuts. Um, and I think it was maybe a misunderstanding, but my understanding was we looked at the dates and we had two more meetings, um, two more board meetings in which to, um, approve these. And so, um, I thought in the finance meeting that we were not, we looked at the dates to make sure that we made the timeline of the finance of the five-year forecast. Um, but we were going to wait to make sure we got clarity on all of these positions and vote on either the meeting on the 12th or the 24th. Okay. Yes, member. Uh, yes, we did discuss the dates. Uh, of course, the uh, five-year forecast needs to be in Columbus by the the 31st of May. And this the, uh, treasurer had indicated that he would prefer

105at least the 30th of May. And so we did take a look at the calendar and determined that there were two dates in uh May that we could vote uh because member Harrison had some more questions uh dealing with with some of the uh reduction in force and I don't know if other board members have any questions so that we can uh delay this uh for another board meeting uh before voting on this if if it is the wishes of the the board and and the president. Thank you, member Sykes. Um because I to my knowledge I didn't I didn't receive multiple fullback to make a statement on behalf of the board as far as pulling this these items from the agenda. So um this is why the agenda stayed as was. Um so I

106did not receive any um indication as far as to uh member Sykes point regarding the the moving of all of these riff items from the agenda. Um, member Harrison, I did hear your point that it was discussed in the finance uh committee meeting. However, it's on the agenda because it was not a board decision to move um these items off the agenda and that would have to be something to be discuss decided by the board. Uh member uh one second uh vice president Alexander. Yeah. So I want I'm asking are we saying we're going to move all of 21 uh all the way through 21.6 and look at them at a the next meeting or the following meeting so that the treasur can meet the deadline and we need to make sure that you get

107it information in time so that you can meet your deadline and not not let it be a couple days before and all a sudden you got to crunch to try to get it there. So you need to make sure it's plenty of time to get it to to to the state. One second Mr. treasure. And just for clarity, the this are the riffs from 21.1 through 21.5. Just the riffs that we're discussing. Correct. And it Okay. I just want to make sure it's that it's the riff though, right, Member Harrison? That That's We're talking about it's 21.1 and 21 I'm sorry, 21.1 through 21.5. The the RIFF section. Correct. Okay. And we do we have to do the five-year forecast as well. So, the riffs go into the five-year forecast. So, we looked at the

108dates to make sure that we would not be late and that we had enough time to make sure that what we send is what we send. We we still may have to make some um correction, what we call them, adjustments or um but we looked at the dates and that was the understanding. They both have to be in um and so that's what we were looking at in the finance committee. Thank you for that clear rationale um member Harrison. So to your point, um, Vice President Alexander, that we could discuss and it could be as a board, we can make that decision now and remove it like we did 12.1. So that's not a problem. No, I'm okay with that. That's why I want to make sure. As long as we have enough time and

109we don't miss our deadline, I'm okay with it. We can pull them all off, talk about it, and then come back and long as we have enough time to get it done within the five-year forecast, get it done so m Dr. Thompson can get it down to the state on time, I'm okay with that. And and Dr. Thompson. Um, thank you. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut your wisdom. Okay. Uh, Dr. Thompson, you were going to speak. You clicked. So, that's good. We in good shape. I think. All right. Member Hall, just really quick, um, while we're in process of talking about removing this from today, I'm curious once it goes to finance, what schools are being affected with, um, the rifts by, you know, um, some of these positions? So, like what schools

110because what I don't want is five, six of these employees being taken from one particular school. Um, if we're going to do it, let's make it balanced across the board. Um, so that every child has an opportunity to continue to learn and get what they need. So, in the finance meeting, if we could just find out what schools cuz I see you have names. Um, so what schools these um individuals are at, please. Thank you, member Hall. All right. So, is there is there a motion then to remove items 21.1? Because that's what I'm hearing, right? Am I hearing that from the board? Okay. Is there a motion um to remove items 21.1 through items 21.5 um from this agenda? So, move. Second. All right. It's been moved by member Sykes, second by member Harrison.

111Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, roll call vote, please. Um, Dr. Miss Autry, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Mr. Sykes, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Motion carry 70 to table 21.1 through 21.5. Yes, madam. Thank you. Uh can I just add um a request if there's anything um that is of great concern regarding any of the items if I could know in advance so that I could come prepared for that discussion at the next finance meeting. Thank you. Thank you Miss Oley. Uh member Hall we just voted on the motion right? Yes. No, we just voted to remove the 21.5 through 21.1 through 21.5. So now I'm going to take you to that. That's okay. So I wish to recommend at this time the approval of the personnel

112recommendations presented in categories uh through 21.5 except for the items you have agreed to table which would be 12.1 and section 21.1 through 21.5. Well done. Uh, Miss Ali, is there Miss Sykes? Is there just to say superintendent can't make that move? Sykes. I would just move uh uh to approve the the uh request by Superintendent. All right. So, I would I would would move uh for that motion uh the request made by the by the interim superintendent. Okay. Thank you, members. Member Sykes has made a motion based off the request from um Superintendent Otley that we move to approve the personnel recommendations with the um exception of 12.1 and items 21.1 through 21.5. Is there a second? Second. Follow me. Second that. Okay. It's it's been moved by member Sykes properly, second by member

113Altry. Any discussion? Seeing hearing none, Dr. Thompson. Roll call, please. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molnar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Autry, yes. Miss Hall, abstain from 191, 192, and yes on everything else. 191, 192. Reverend Harrison. Um, out of an abundance of caution, abstain from 1010 and yes on the balance. Got it. Okay. So, we have um 6 with one abstension on um all the items except 10.2 two or excuse me 10.1 and 19.219.1. Uh those abstensions are from member Hall, member Harrison and 70 on the balance. Thank you. Does the board have any questions about the division? Um recommendations. This is division uh section 22 division recommendations, resolutions and motions and approval. Member Molinar. Thank you, Madam President. I just have a quick discussion. Item 22, the textbook adoption APS social

114studies. I see there's still a lot of people here and those supplies are right on the other side of the door. The globes are so fun to play with. Um I encourage everyone to see what it is that we're voting on um because uh the presentation on this uh textbook adoption was uh very exciting. So thank you. Thank you. Member Mullen. Any other? No. So I wish to recommend the approval of the division recommendations, resolutions and motions in section 22. Is there a motion to approve the division recommend recommendations and resolutions and motions? So moved. It's been moved by Vice President Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Altry. Any discussion? Okay. Seeing hearing none. Dr. Thompson. Roll call, please. Dr. Molnar. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Miss Autry.

115Yes. Miss Hall. Um, I need to abstain 224 and yes to everything else. Got it. Reverend Harrison. Yes. Miss Jackson. Yes. We are um 6 with one abstension on 22.4 and we are 70 on the balance. Uh next we are at the business affairs uh recommendations in our agenda 23. Thank you, President Jackson. I would like to uh recommend the removal of item 23.6. Make that 26. Wait, just one moment, please. Let me make sure I have the right one. Yes, 23.6. The superintendent uh Altley has recommended the removal of item 23.6. Is there a motion to remove that item? So moved. Okay. It's been moved by member Harrison. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by Vice President Alexander. Is there any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, Dr. Thompson. Roll call, please. Dr.

116Molnar, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Miss Autry, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Uh, motion to table 23.6, carry 70. Thank you. Does the board have any questions regarding the balance of section 23? Member Harrison. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to look out um at 232 Ace of Diamond Enterprise. Um I I I sometimes give uh Deborah Folk a lot of grief. Um but I want to give her a shout out here. Um we have a college um our kids are having a college day at Garfield High School and um the colleges will be there to look at our athletes. Um they're trying to get scholarships. Um they will be lining the field at Garfield High School. I'm going give you grief about the 60-yard field, but

117it's still Garfield High School where football originated in the city of Akan. Talk about it. Talk about it. that song. um just want to take a look at some of those contracts sometimes and they can look at and see how much it costs to line the field every time the field gets lined or um whenever we have to make a call to make something happen. But just wanted to give her a shout out for getting that contract in and getting it prepared for them kids to have their college day. Thank you, Member Harrison. Uh member Altry. Thank you, Madame President. Um, my question was around item 23.12, the Smart Sheet Incorporated purchase and service agreement. And I was just wondering if we could just get a little bit of information about this new I guess

118it's a data management and workflow system. Is this how employees clock in? Is what does this all entail? Uh, Mr. Keenan, could you come up? This is um something that Mr. Keenan introduced to me recently and it will help with our data analytics, but he has such a swab way of explaining it. I thought I'd share them with you. Thank you. Um yes, um Mr. Kenyan, thank you. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. Uh Smart Sheet is a for our uses right now. We're using it for um data management and reporting in the facilities services area of the district. Um currently we all have self self-made self-built um spreadsheets typically Excel or in Google Sheets and a lot of information spread over multiple servers and multiple different areas and it takes a lot of time

119to readapt all of those um spreadsheets and all of that data and all of the information as technology changes and as our processes change. So, um, Smart Sheet is a it's a this particular product is a cloud-driven product where we're able to upload all of our current data and make it more accessible and and more usable across our whole team and across the whole district. And it's customuilt to our needs. So, all of the data for all of the buildings that we have can be in one place, a lot more accessible, and we can actually do a lot more reporting, tracking and reporting of all of that data that we have available to us and the data that comes in. There's also the ability then to adapt dashboards to our website if that is so

120desired. So there's public um visibility on some of uh especially our capital projects that go on throughout the year. Um as well as many other similar capabilities that we can further develop as we have it. Um and it's intentionally being designed and set up that it will be able to be um added to other areas and other divisions of the district as well because it is so adaptable. It could in time become more of a central data hub for the administration if collectively the administration feels that it would work well for their area. it is and so it can be used in the on the academic side as well as the business side and has great adaptability and portability but I had um done a lot of research on different programs and softwares that enable

121this and this seemed to be the best fit especially for the cost um I had presented it to Dr. Robinson and other senior leaders over several months and discussed it and worked through it and um we collectively decided to move forward with it. The funding is through ESC funding so it is not general fund dollars that is paying for this um and it'll be just a great way to modernize the business practices starting with facilities. Thank you Mr. Keenan. Okay. Thank you. If there are no additional qu Sorry, quick question. Um 235 um with the new line, the uh interactive boards. Are these the same boards that are currently in some of the classrooms right now where teachers teach off of? I'm sorry, which number was that member hall? 23.5. Are those like those long

122white boards that you can transport and move? Yeah. Uh, member Hall, I will have to make sure. I do not want to say yes. I know that we moved to some Prometheian boards and I'm just not sure which board it is. So, if that's okay, I will if unless Keith knows for sure and he has permission to come up, he can address that. Oh, Keith? No. Keith knows. Uh, so the school improvement office is also looking to invest in the new line boards as we just received some additional federal funds. So, we've been working closely with the technology department and they are they are a smart board. I shouldn't say a smart board just like the Prometheian boards just like the smartboards. They're a technology that allows you to display in a touchscreen manner but

123then also teachers and students can connect their devices. Um, so much like a projector except interactive. So, it is the new technology that the district is going with. It's about half the cost of Prometheian but still delivers um the tools that teachers need in their classrooms. Yes, member Hall. Thank you. So, I guess the question I was asking is do we currently have these boards in some of the schools now or am I am I confused in the other boards? We've had Prometheian and that's been what we've been investing in in the last couple years. Um so, tech could tell you if any have hit the doors. I think some are already in the buildings, but you're going to see these purchases now escalating as uh we're spending down FY25 funds. Okay. Did I not

124answer your question? No, you did, but that was like my first question, but I kind of had to reiterate it. So, can I just have a followup because that was in my first question asking. Is that okay? Okay. So, 40 So, um we're budgeting for 42 of them, but it's for only six schools. So that I'd have to let the tech department speak with. I know that I'm about to order 40 more. That's how I just knew about the new technology. So we're waiting for our funding to um we're waiting for our funding to be uh dropped down from the state and uh into the CCIP before my order goes through. Yeah. So they they'd have to tell you what schools and why. Um, if I could just add to that, um, we do try

125not to purchase everything for everyone at one time because there should be a technology plan where we rotate so that we recognize that the budget can only handle so much. And so there is should be a plan in place for when we're going to roll out the technology at each building. Um, we started out even before now with smartboards. Prior to that, I'm not sure. Then we moved to the Prometheian and now this is the next phase. So, we're always trying to keep up with the latest technology within our budget. So, there should be a plan to follow this like the rollout plan and we can get that to you as a followup and which schools they are currently at if they're at any but that's where they're going to. I thought your question was

126do they currently also exist somewhere? Well, yeah, I was asking that, but then looking here and sorry, Madam President, um, with 42, they're just going to Elllet, Firestone, Miller, South STEM. That's what I'm saying. We'll share the roll out plan with you so you have a better understanding. Thank you, member. Thank you, Superintendent. Good question. If there are no member Autry, thank you, Madam President. I just wanted to acknowledge item 23.16 and this is our partnership with the YMCA of Akran Ohio. Um and this is our SAW program safety around water and 350 of our third graders this summer during mystery camp will have the opportunity to experience um this program. So, this is just one of the many things that our district offers. And I think it's really uh commendable that we have that

127given that um there's reports that up to 70% of African-Americans don't know how to swim. And so, the fact that um our district is majority uh African-American, I'm happy that we have this and wanted to thank the Y for their partnership with this Thank you, member Autry. Okay. At this time, I wish to recommend the approval of the business fairs recommendations presented in category 23. So move that's 23.6. So uh it's been recommended by superintendent Otley. Is there a motion to approve the recommendations in uh with the exception of 23 six? Um is there a motion? So move. All right. It's been moved by member Harrison. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member hall. Any discussion? Seeing hearing none. Roll call vote, please. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes, Miss Autry. Yes,

128Miss Hall. Yes, Reverend Harrison. Yes, Miss Jackson. Yes, Dr. Molnar. Abstain 231. Yes on the balance. Okay. So, we are um 70 on everything except 23.1. 23.6 6 has been tabled previously and we are 6o with one abstension on 23.1 committee. Thank you. Um next we have our committee reports legal contracts and board policy. Thank you madam president. Uh the legal contracts and board policy committee met on April 20 21st. At this meeting we reviewed uh several policies currently in development. The new nepotism policy was presented and is ready to move for forward for the second reading. Updates to the vendor uh vendor relationships policy were discussed and in particular focus on intellectual properties language and it needs to be created to formulate um resolution process. Uh additional work will be done on that and

129discussed on that policy as well. Uh a new electronic equipment policy was introduced. reviews, revisions will be made to that and will be discussed in our next committee meeting as well. Uh the committee also reviewed a draft policy regarding independent contract operations and services providers which will remain uh for discussion on our next meeting as well. The uh a draft policy for the parents bill of rights policy was repres I'm sorry was presented and will be updated uh to address liability concerns before uh we move forward this first reading. And lastly, updates for to the purchasing policy were discussed including uh proposed changes to bidding threshold thresholds. Uh cl clarifications are still needed before the policy is moved to advance. Uh the procurement policy related to the federal grants and funds was deferred due to

130the time constraints and will be discussed at the next meeting as well. I see we have a lot of lot of uh stuff we need to continue to discuss. Uh and then we also have our next board me our next policy committee meeting will be Monday, May the 19th at 5:30 in this room. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you uh Vice President Alexander. Next is Finance and Capital Management. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. The Finance and Capital Management Committee also met on April 21st, and you've heard uh the presentation by our treasurer that he also gave to the uh finance committee. Uh I would just say that uh um of course we heard about the vouchers that today as a matter of fact that there was a hearing in Columbus on vouchers

131and that the uh judge will decide whether or not that hearing and information that she heard during the hearing would mean that we are able now to go to trial. And again, just saying this is our third branch of government. And when there is a disagreement in a democracy, what we want to do is use our our third branch of government. So, we're going uh to the judge and the judge will determine whether or not uh it is worthy to go to trial and hopefully we will uh hear from the judge as soon as possible on that. We also heard from our business affairs office that gave us uh the results of the number of individuals that uh submitted a request for proposal for van drivers. And we were actually uh she indicated that we

132should have gotten some information our Friday notes uh that would have outlined those in those 18 companies that had that had submitted a request for proposal. But I do not remember seeing that in our f Friday notes. So I know that we can expect that soon. So our next meeting is May 19th in this meeting in this in this uh room at 4:30. And I would just echo our interim superintendent request that for 211 through 21.5 if we could have bring all of our questions have all our comments so that we can try and get those answers and move this out of finance back to this uh board so that we can vote on that and make sure that we get our our report down our forecast down to Columbus as requested by the treasurer

133by the 30th. Thank you. Member Sykes. Next, instructional policy and student achievement. Member Altry. Thank you, Madam President. Uh, the instructional policy and student achievement committee meeting will be a week from today, Monday, May 5th, at 4:30 in this room. Thank you. Uh, member Hall, since Thank you, Madam President. Since we dissolved the equity committee, I'm curious to see um if the community relations and strategic engagement would be a committee or the committee that um if we wanted to create another committee is what I'm saying. Or the committee that you all um created would be another committee. So I'm just curious. You don't have to answer now. Just curious to um just wondering if we'll have another committee. Yes. I mean the board reserves the right to create to develop another committee. So that's something

134that you all would that we all would discuss and so the answer is yes. It's just moving forward what what that structure looks like and what the committee is. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you member Hall. Um there is currently no unfinished business. Um and at this time also no new business. However, would like to make a motion for new business when it's time. Okay. Um, we're at you. You're Are you making a motion for new business? Member uh Mullar, you've been recognized. Thank you. Yes. So, as a reminder, because I might have been hard to hear early earlier, not only trying to focus on students, right, the precious little uh gems put in our care, but my call to action is or my motion is about communication with parents because building relationship and trust

135with the families who are putting their children in our care um is important and the district may or may not act, but there's absolutely no good reason to completely ignore the concerns of over a hundred parents that signed a petition asking the board for information. And so if families don't hear a plan from us, they're just going to assume that there is no plan. And um there's just no good reason. So therefore, I move that we, the board of education, direct our interim superintendent and administration to provide written communication to all families by May 1st, outlining safety procedures for election day on May 6th, 2025 in all buildings serving as polling locations. I did speak with Director Jones, Officer Jones, and he said that before this he said that he could, you know, communicate with

136families. So, I would like to make sure um that we know, you know, how students will move safely within buildings specifically um within the buildings, any temporary changes to student routines, if there's going to be a change to lunch, recess, dismissal. As a parent, you know, do you need to know if you if you're going to have to pack a lunch? If I have a special needs students, do I need to prepare for them for this change of routine? What do I need to know? Um specific security measures. Um, and explain to parents how voter traffic will be separated or or different for student arrival and dismissal patterns, especially during peak hours like 2 to 3 p.m. Um, and then the time, date, and location of a virtual or in-person meeting where parents can ask

137questions um of a safety team member who is familiar with their building and a link to a survey for parents, staff, and students about their experience to evaluate what we might want to do or have feedback of what we might want to do in future elections. So, a summary of my motion. I move that we direct the interim superintendent administration to provide written communication to families by May 1st. Um that includes an outline of any building specific security measures or temporary changes to student routines. Two, meeting information, and three, a link to survey information. That's my motion. Thank you. There is a motion on the floor by member Bolar. Is there a second? Second. A second by member Harrison. Any discussion? Uh, no. Member Hall, you were recognized. And then, uh, Vice President Alexander, thank

138you. I'm just curious, um, member Molen, are this hund signatures, was it just at ResNick or was it at all the schools that have voting? Um, I know that you're also, um, the liaison or bookto is in your district. Have you spoken to the bookto cluster when you were at their PT PTA meeting to discuss this voting also? I did. Um actually I did not do this uh survey. Um the PTA person who actually left was both at the Resnik PTA meeting and she also came to the Book PTA meeting. Book PTA was not as concerned as Resnik families. One, I think the students are older. They're not kindergarteners. to the layout for voting at Book Doll. Um PE people come directly into the gym, directly out of the gym, and they don't go anywhere

139else in the building. In Resnik, half of the students cannot access the cafeteria on election day. The other issue is um the parking at Book on election day. There are parking spaces for voters. At Resnik, there are two polling locations and there's over an hour each day that there's nowhere for voters to park. Okay. So, uh what uh this will be your just to follow up and then um so those are two schools, but all the other schools, was there any communication to those schools to see if it was a problem? Cuz my daughter went to Resnick and they voted and had no problem. I went to BTO and I went to um other public schools and we voted and there was no issues and also do we trust the principal and the staff at

140the school since it's been going on for many many years and I know that your kids go to Resnik right now so I know it's also a concern for you too. Um but have we communicated with other schools? Can I answer? Yes. So yes, member Mona. So once again it's not my survey. So, I don't know who's involved in the survey. I don't even have results to the survey. I have no idea. But I can say that in the motion, all schools um with school buildings serving as polling locations are included in that motion. And then in this motion also, there's a survey information for those families. And I think to your point, Member Hall, um that would be the best way to get information from other families from other buildings because I'm going to

141guess it's likely Resnik PTA did not make it to all of the buildings, but this motion is a way to hear from all the buildings. Member was I think member Alexander and member Harrison. Uh and I I hear Mrs. Dr. Molar's uh concerns. Uh my concern is the first is this week. This is a short period of time to get all that stuff done in in less than a week and get a plan out there so that everybody can move. I mean I if if there's a concern at Resnik, maybe they can do that at Resnik at this point and then move into other schools because it's it's really a short time to to to do that by by Friday. I think Friday is Friday or Thursday the 1st. So that's that's we're hearing Monday

142now. that gives administration just a couple days to get this done. So, I don't know. That's my my question. Will it be enough time to have that plan done uh by by the first? Thank you, Madam President. No problem. Member Harrison. Thank you, Madam Chair. U M Madam Chair, this has been an issue for a while. Um and I do think is reasonable um because we we have to have a plan. um and and not say that we have to create new plans but every voting day we have operations okay and we talk about administrative guidelines so we have administrative guidelines in place every voting day of what we do I don't think that it would be unreasonable that it's an unreasonable resolution to this issue is we have plans in place like we have

143plans in place for multiple things that happen in school and it just happens. If we're putting the school on lockdown, the principal knows what to do, the staff knows what to do, the kids know what to do. So, the plan is in place and every now and then you got to tweak the plan, but the plan is in place to to have schools as polling locations. Um, we're not going to get around that. And so if we just have a plan in place for the future, I don't I don't know about, you know, this particular um primary election, but I do think it's worth putting a plan in place when we're going to use the schools during school days so that we have answers for parents. And we're not going to be able to answer,

144but we went through this with the policy meeting. Okay. Is this an administrative guidelines? Well, you have to have a policy to have an administrative guideline. So, let's maybe look at the resolution to this and to the parents is let's get a plan and get some administr let's get a policy. Let's get some administrative guidelines to the policy and then we have that for every building for every election. I think that would be a reasonable solution. Mo most districts have safety. I was just going to call for the vote, Mr. Alexander. Um I'm going Yeah, we're just going to call for the vote. Um and then to examine uh the the discussion has been had. We've heard uh what people had to say. Uh and so let's uh call for the vote. [Music] Yeah. Mir

145Mr. Alexander. No. Mrs. Sykes, no. Dr. Molnar, yes. Miss Jackson, no. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Hall, no. Miss Autry, no. Motion fails. Five nos, two yeses. Thank you. Um there is a need to uh recess into executive session um pursuant to Ohio revised code 121.22G1 to consider the employment dismissal and discipline of a public employee and or officials. 121.22 G3 to conference with an attorney for the public body concerning disputes involving the public body that are the subject of pending or imminent court action. and 121.22 G4 to prepare for conducting or reviewing negotiations or bargaining sessions with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment employment, excuse me. Is there a motion to go into executive session? I move to recess in executive session. Okay, it's been moved by member

146Altry. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by Vice President Alexander. Any discussion? Seeing seeing and hearing none, we stand in recess for executive session at Oh, the roll call, please. Dr. Thompson. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Autry, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molnar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Motion carry 70. Thank you. We stand in recess at 7:54 for executive session. [Music] We return back into session at 10:55 from executive session. There is a motion to be approved. Is there a motion to approve the resignation agreement of Dr. Robinson? So moved. It's been moved by member Hall. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Alexander. Any discussion? Madame President Member Harrison. Thank you. Um this is a um we we have taken a long journey to

147get to this place. The journey didn't start with the investigation. I know that's a lot of um um that's a lot of the focal point is on the investigation. Um and so if we can just talk about the investigation, the motion with with the investigation, the motion is to accept an resignation agreement. Um, thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Member Harrison. Is there any other discussion? Member site. Thank you, Madam President. Madame President, and members of the board. Madame President, would you mind reading the agreement? The resignation agreement? Yes, ma'am. I'm look I'm looking for I got the letter, not the agreement. I'm sorry, y'all. Give me a second. That's what I was trying to find. I apologize you all. I just can't finish. [Music] Okay, thank you for your patience. I apologize. Um, at

148the request of member Sykes, we do have uh the resignation agreement and um that would be entered into by and between uh the Akran City School District Board of Education and Dr. Robinson in consideration of the mutual covenants and promises hearing contain Robinson and the board hereby agree as follows. Upon the execution of this agreement, Robinson shall shall cause to be delivered to the board of president his irrevocable voluntary letter of resignation from all employment positions he holds with the Akran City School District. Said resignation shall take effect on April 28th, 2025. Robinson's letter of re resignation shall be accepted by the board at its next meeting following Robinson's execution of this agreement for the consideration set forth herein and as a material inducement for the board to enter into this agreement Robinson for himself

149his heirs executors administrators successors and assigns hereby releases and forever discharges the Akran City School District Board of Education and its past, present and future board members, officers, administrators, employees, agents, and representatives from all and any liability claims, demands, controversies, damages, actions, and causes of actions of whatever kind or nature, including but not limited to the Federal Age Discrimination and Employment Act of 1967, the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, um Civil Rights Act of 1964, and any other state and federal law claims arising out of or related to employees with board with the board and in separation there from the board shall within 30 days of the execution of this agreement paid to Robinson the total sum of $200,000 subject to all applicable payroll taxes and withholdings. This payment shall be inclusive of any

150mandatory contributions or deductions that the board is required to make under federal, state or local law. This payment shall not be subject to STS contributions and STS will not be will not accept contributions. Thank you, Madam President. Madame President and member of the boards, considering the financial condition that this district is in, uh I find it very difficult to enter into an agreement with the uh Dr. Robertson uh in the amount of $200,000 and therefore I will not be supporting this financial agreement considering what it meant for our citizens to vote for a levy and uh a levy of individuals that said over and over and over again, we cannot afford this. We just can't afford it. But we're going to vote for this anyway because we care about the school district, but more importantly,

151we care about the children in the school district. We have had an independent investigation that shows that Dr. Robertson has violated our policies and to agree to pay him $200,000. When we're thinking about our seniors who are looking every day to figure out how they are going to pay for their medication, how they're going to pay for their next meal, what are they going to do about their electric bill? But yet they still voted for this levy. It would be very irresponsible for me to support giving a person who we I was not a part of it but I'm a part of the school board now so who was hired with at the highest level possible the highest level possible to break our policies to violate our policies one who should have been enforcing the

152policies. I absolutely cannot do this. So, I will be voting no and I will encourage you to vote no for this termination agreement that is before us tonight. Thank you, Member Sykes. Are there any other Is there any other discussion? Member Harrison. Um, Madam President, thank you. I I would encourage anyone who has not read this report to read the report and the nature of being anonymous um has been an issue in the community. Um, but I want to be mindful that the whole report was not anonymous. Dr. Robinson called our kids ghetto. That's something he admitted to in the report. Dr. Robinson did not admit to calling reporters holes, but he said something reference that not that particular thing. Dr. Robinson made disparaging remarks about a board member's children which we know typically is

153off limits in any type of dispute. So the superintendent of the schools is making disparaging remarks about our kids. We would never ever let a white person call our kids ghetto. Period. We We would not allow that in any way. But it happened. And not only did it happen, he admitted to it. I encourage anyone who has not read the report to just read what he said. during the investigation. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Member Harrison. Are there any other board member comments? Any other discussion? Member Molmar. Thank you, Madame President. Um, I wasn't planning on making a statement, but I also have heard a lot of things around the community, and there are some things that I think are important to clarify and highlight. The first thing is anonymous. There's a lot of

154complaints about parts of this investigation being anonymous. It's very important to uh differentiate anonymous and confidential. The people who were involved in this investigation were real human beings who went to a real office and spoke to real teams of attorneys. That is not anonymous. That is confidential. I agree that everyone should read the factf finding investigation that you taxpayers paid for. We taxpayers paid for. We paid for this investigation and it is not allegations. It is information that we have and it is disturbing but it's important and it is a record that we have and we have paid for and it is valid and that thank you. Thank you member Molar. Um before we get to to call for the vote just for clarity for uh the community and the position that we find ourselves

155in as many community members have been discussing and it's um been discussed even amongst the board uh the result of the do a privilege document that was leaked and that was first printed in Signal. I'm not sure if other news outlets um shared it, but as a result of that uh the the cost for this became significantly um more than what we originally would have settled on. This document being released and published gave the entire playbook for the strategies that we would have used during negotiation which has put us in this compromising predicament. based off of the investigation, based off of the information that was shared, uh many are um in agreement that to pay a person with these uh documented alleged misbehaviors uh $200,000 seems almost ridiculous and egregious. But when rogue things happened

156which has happened in this board and that uh privilege document was shared and then um the others council was able to see this it changed our the trajectory of uh this negotiation which is unfortunate and so for the community I thought that was important to know this is how we got to the 200,000 mark because that is not where this board in any negotiation um originally had agreed but as a result of the leak and how that has comp compromised our strategy. Uh this was the rebuttal and to end ties quickly and immediately um with Dr. Robinson with no circle back. Um cognizant of the fact that this wonderful community and the hard work of individuals around this table and within this district to get it levy passed. um we don't discount that and we

157know that there are even harder times as we face and we're trying to transition and to see how do we see our way forward knowing that we're levy um levy prone even just a few years down the road uh this board is seeking to do what is right what is equitable for the students um considering our constituencies and to the point um I think at this point we call for the vote because everything that members have said um was well spoken and true. Uh so at at now I just will call for the vote. Madame President, may I just say what one point of personal privilege? Point of personal privilege. Well, I did call for the vote. Member Sykes the vote. Point of personal privilege can override that. It can override it. If it can,

158sir, just make it plain. I'm fine with it. If if we call Yes. Cuz I should have had personal village when you personal privilege when you call for the vote on me. Learn something new every day. You could have. Go ahead. I learn I know now. So madam madam president let me just say that this is a board this is a board of education. The difference between any other place is that we are here to raise children and to teach children how we expect them to act to set an example as to how we expect them to act. These are our children. And how many times do I hear us say it's for the children, but yet we are given an example to say, okay, it's all about the money now. It's about the money.

159We need to fight for our children. We need to let our children know. It's not okay to call you ghetto. It's not okay to say, "I hope this member lives long because if she doesn't, her children her children's children will have to pay for that." It's not okay to set this kind of an example when we simply we're saying we're this is a over half a billion dollar budget and we're saying let's give this so we can this will go this will not go away. This is telling our children we're not willing to fight for them. We're not willing to say what's right and what's wrong. This is wrong. This is this is about our children. And if you want want to show our children an example, this is the example. You don't do this

160simply because of the money. We fight for our children. We are not fighting for our children for settling for this. Thank you, member Sykes. also a point of clarity. Robertson had a roughly $900,000 left out on his contract. Um that if this was to go to litigation, he could he could he could try to fight it and we can litigate it and um there was some speculation that in litigation. We don't know what the ultimate outcome would be, but possibly a 100,000 or so. But in any event, this is the information and I this board talked about transparency. you've heard from the various board members as well as myself as far as the condition and why we're in this place. Um, and it's a very unfortunate space to be in. And so at this time,

161um, if there's no other personal privileges, I would like I'm calling for the vote. Dr. Thompson, thank you. Miss Autry, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, no. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molar, no. Mrs. Sykes, no. Mr. Alexander, yes. Motion carries 43. Thank you. Uh, Dr. Thompson. Um the next meeting of the Akran public school board will be held on Monday, May 12th. Um at this time, is there a mo a motion to adjourn? So move. It's been moved by member Alexander. Is there a second? I'm sorry. It seems like it's some unreiness. My apologies, Dr. Molar. Did I miss something? Was there a second resolution? Yes, Dr. Molinar. Thank you. It was okay. Yes. Okay. So, the resolution to accept the resignation agreement has passed. Is there a motion to accept the resignation of Dr.

162Robinson? It's been moved by member hall. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by Mr. Alexander. Any discussion? Seeing you hearing none, roll call vote, please. Miss Autry. Yes, Mr. Alexander. Yes, Mrs. Sykes. No, Dr. Molnar. No, Miss Jackson. Yes. Reverend Harrison, no. Miss Hall, yes. Motion carries 43. Thank you. And just for clarity, the one was for the resignation agreement which was read. The second motion was for his resignation. That's what it is. I see the price looking complex. One was for the agreement. The second was for the resignation. Um and now, thank you again uh to Dr. Molinarf to make sure we were in order. I really appreciate that. Is there a motion now? So move. It's been moved to second by member Hall. Any discussion? Uh member Altry. Thank you, Madame

163President. Um, I would like to actually make a motion at this time that we accept Mary Otley as our permanent superintendent. Miss, there Miss A, there's been a motion on the floor. A motion has been made by Miss Autry to appoint us appoint Miss Autley as the permanent superintendent of Akan public schools. Yes. A motion has been made by member Altry to appoint uh Mary Outley as the superintendent of Akran public schools. Is there a second? Can I just ask a point of clarification? Is this like indefinitely or is this like for time bound like a contract? Not indefinitely. Okay. Then there would need to be a contract. Yeah. because otherwise you would be according to this resolution uh you'd be appointing her indefinitely versus on a three-year contract, a four-year contract, a five-year contract

164is what I mean. Pending a a contract appoint her pending pending a contract pending an approved contract. Say something like that. Are you amending it? I would like to amend that to appoint Mary Outley as our permanent superintendent pending a contract. Motion has been made by member Altree to appoint Mary Alley as the superintendent of Akran public schools pending the approval of an accepted contract. A second. It's been moved by member Autry, second by member Hall. I know it's going to be discussion. Any discussion? Member Sykes. Thank Thank you, Madame President and member of the members of the board. You know, we find ourselves as I I said earlier, you know, I am a member of this board. Therefore, I will take responsibility for actions of this board. But, uh, I I think that, uh,

165we find ourselves in this situation, uh, with the, uh, person that you all just entered into a contract with to pay $200,000 because of not thinking through properly the decisions. And I think that this is something that we really need to give more thought to that would not be fair to this district, to the community or to the interim superintendent, wherever she may be, uh to to put her in this position. I I just think this is very unfair to do this make this to to do this type of thing. We need time to deliberate. We need time to decide upon this. We need time to deal talk to the community. We need time before we look at making yet another decision to hire a permanent superintendent. So, I would ask that uh uh we

166uh take time on this motion. Thank you, uh member Sykes. Member Muller. Thank you, Madame President. Um, I agree that we should have time. I I agree that we should have some discussion. I think boards should have some discussion at all. Um, not even just with each other, but with the candidate uh for superintendent. I have not spoken with um I mean I I appreciate the inter current interim superintendent. I've even texted her today. uh she's very communicative, but I have not had the chance to even ask her if she wanted to be superintendent since two years ago when she applied for superintendent. So, I would not feel comfortable voting to put someone in a position that they have not had the opportunity to ask to be in. So, for that reason, I think we

167should uh table this or I I cannot support this motion. Thank you. Uh member Molinar member Hall. Thank you madam president. [Music] Um she was our she was the interim before we had the confidence in her then we asked her to do interim again with the confidence in her to do the work again. I don't think that it's fair to keep playing with people and we have when we have confidence in them born and raised in Akran Akran schools knows our students knows the staff knows the principal I have confidence in her that she can do the job if we we're giving her the option to do it twice why wouldn't we have confidence in her to do the job so I will be voting yes yes uh member Harrison. Um, thank you, Madam President.

168Madame President, I think that was um I think the motion is unfair to Mary outly. Um, I think it's unfair because we have just entered into um the board has entered into an agreement um with the last superintendent. the previous superintendent was hired um on an outlying contract, a five-year contract, which um is almost unheard of. We just talked about the financial situation of the district. $40 million that was borrowed by the board. Bad decision. Now, it may have been a good decision then, it's a bad decision now. There was not due diligence done and I'm not saying that Mary outly has any issues out there to be found, but I will say that there are people, we don't have to go outside. The same thing a board member mentioned about u Mary Outley u

169being the superintendent, there's other people in this building that we can say the same thing for. This is a half billion dollar business. And we don't run a half billion dollar business on feelings. This is not our money. We don't run this district like it's our personal money. It's not. This is taxpayers money and we owe it to the taxpayers to do due diligence and a search. And there may be the best candidate is our interim superintendent, Mary Alley, but we need to do due diligence and have a motion in the same meeting that we just paid someone to go away. We can't pay for what we want and beg for what we need. Thank you, Member Harrison. Uh Mr. Alexander. Thank you, Madam President. You know, we heard a lot of stuff and keep

170hearing or keep hearing a lot of stuff, you know, that's that's going on. Um, I would agree that um I Let me Let me back up. I think Miss Alley would be a good superintendent as well. Um, she would be my choice if we have to to vote for something like that. But I do think that we need to wait just a moment, talk to her. uh fill out what we need to do as far as the contract and then go ahead and and make a vote. But I mean, she is my my person. I would accept right now, but I think we need to do that uh and do it the proper way. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you. Well, there is a motion on the floor. So, a motion has um been made.

171Um and also to Audrey as I was going to close out the meeting appointed clarity because if Robinson is resigned effective immediately she is already serving as an interimm so okay we will be good okay I had to process I'm sorry uh Audrey thank you I just wanted to share as the person who made the motion um as as I've listened to our colleagues speak about finances so I've been a part of several superintendent searches and have interviewed the last several superintendent um including our current interim. And so as we talk about stability and moving forward um there's no time like the present. And so I am confident in Mary Outley um and what she has done and can continue to do for us and the district and the community deserves stability. somebody that they

172do know. Um, I know we might want to keep dragging this out um because there's a cost to our decisions and so there was a cost associated with making this separation agreement. So that's something I feel like we should have been uh prepared for and it is unfortunate that the leak compromised um that particular situation. But now that we have voted on that as a board, it's time to move forward and focus on children and stability. Um, and so there's a cost with the superintendent search as well. So as we're talking about finances and time, these children are showing up every single day. The staff is showing up every single day and they deserve stability and not a lot of what we've been seeing. So I know we want to keep writing stories. Um, we

173want to dissect this investigation and that's all well and fine. Um, but in terms of this, our district, our community deserves stability from someone that they know at this time. Thank you. Thank you, Member Altry. Um, uh, me, uh, no, Miss, uh, Alley, you might as well come in. Uh, your name was brought up. you're the topic of discussion right now. Um, sit at the sit at the table. I don't at this point I I mean Audrey just uh I don't I know I don't know if you were in your office or if you heard since you've been walking down uh member Autry has made a motion. This is going to be all on YouTube. Member Autry has made a motion that you be appointed as the superintendent of Akran public schools pending um a

174contract, the approval of a contract. Board members had some unreiness because you were unaware of this and didn't want it sprung on you. There is a motion right now that's on the floor. We were in the middle of discussion concerning this very thing. Uh my apologies in advance, but we talk about being transparent because I know you just got called into this. um is flowing. This is where we're at currently. Um I'm getting my professional uh bearings so that I don't So it's a motion on the floor. It was made by Audrey. It was seconded by Hall. We are like I said, we are in the discussions. Um and so um as a point um of personal privilege uh Miss Alley the question is because you were not aware um I you're on the floor

175right now for a vote and you currently are the interim. So that gave me clarity that we don't have to worry about a, you know, anything right now cuz you we have someone in the spot. But concerns came up that this would not be fair to you for this vote to get carried and you're unaware and maybe you from two years ago to now maybe that is not your desire. And again, I do apologize that this is the platform, but the motion is on the floor and you were still here. Uh, and you can you can decline it if you want. I would be honored to serve Akran public schools as its next superintendent if given the opportunity. Madame President, may we go into executive session? Um, yes. It's been uh it's been a move

176to go into executive session uh by member Sykes. Is there a second? Second. Okay, it's been second by member Harrison. Any discussion? All right. Roll call vote. No. Yeah, we So, well, we do still have a motion for uh Mr. um parliamentarian. So we have to we have to either vote the motion table the motion that or withdraw the motion that's on the floor take this vote then when you come back out of executive session I assume you'll have a motion or you won't have a motion for adding Okay. So who is who who's responsible to withdraw the motion if she wants to withdraw it? If she doesn't want to withdraw it. There's a motion on the floor that's been first and seconded. All right. So, it needs to be voted on. Thank you. Uh,

177Mr. Treasure Parliamentarian. Uh, Autry, or do you desire to withdraw your motion or go forward with the vote? I don't desire to withdraw my motion. All right. Uh, Mr. Thompson, roll call. Is is there discussion on any of this at this point since there is no executive session and this is something that as a board we have never discussed. I mean I I mean I think that's a uh we we we had discussion uh the motions before we were still in we were in discussion. So I don't see the I don't see why we wouldn't be able to unless parliament hearing if it's a problem with that. I don't see why not uh Dr. Molar cuz we were in discussion. I just she came. So did you have something uh Dr. Molar? So the the

178first question I have is if if this motion passes to a resolution, it is a motion that is open pending a contract. Um, but how like is an attorney here to let us know what type of contract or the parameters of a contract or um who gets to be in like do do we get to read the contract first? Um, I think that's a fair and good question, member Molar. And I think it's because it's pending a contract just like with any um other superintendent like draft. we would go from a draft. I guess member Altley would look over it. The board would look over it, agree or not agree um on that. But yes, to your point, um I I don't see why we would not. We see all the contracts. Um so we

179definitely would be able to look over a superintendent as the board. We can look we would see the contract. I don't see why we wouldn't. And I'm just talking in the conversation now just practically because we're here. Yeah. Do like do we still have attorneys here to let us know like what we would be able to see in the contract before it's approved or does this motion automatically approve any contract? Um, no. It's pending approval of the contract. So I don't believe it would just be it I'm not understanding to just accept a blanket contract. I don't that it would be accepting just a blanket contract. The board approves all contracts. So if the board didn't doesn't approve the contract or agree to the terms of the contract, then that contract would not be approved.

180So it would have to be an agreement of the contract by the board, which is as you know, a majority of the board. Um I'm sorry, I see you waving. I'm not sure who you are. I'm also credential parliamentarian. If she could just amend her motion and say ending a investigation with the contracts, it would be okay. What do we We have that on uh the madam chair. I I would have to out of order. I would I would have to miss out of order. Member site. Thank you. But that is just really out of order. She's not a member of this board. Therefore, I cannot make her. But but I will say, madam, this is the reason why I asked that we take time on this motion because what you're going to do is

181force us to actually do an interview. We I have never we we have not even done conducted an interview for the superintendent's position as a board. We have not even conducted an interview. It's not it's not fair to the community. It's not fair to the interim superintendent. It's not fair to this board. is my prayer to this district. That's why I ask you to please let's take time on this where we we all we're all here. We're not going anywhere. Let's take time to think through this and to handle this properly. It would only be fair to the interim superintendent that we do this properly. This is not the way that we want to do this and and this does not settle anything if we if we do this to inim superintendent oddly. this is

182not fair to her to do this. Please, let's take the time to do this properly. If we go in executive session, I would say let's put a time limit on it and go in there, do what we need to do, and get back out because again, it's not fair to all these people here, all the people who are waiting up to see what happens and what's going on. So, if we go in executive session, we need to go in there with a purpose, do our our our business, and come back out here and vote if that's what we're going to do. and and that's it. So that's what I my recommendation would be. Vice President Xander, the thing is uh member Autry has a motion on the floor. So we that she's not withdrawing. And

183so um to the point the motion that she had that's on the floor um pending the approval of a contract is she submitted Mary Alley as a superintendent of schools. And so we have to we were in discussion so the vote has to carry up. I was saying if we had to go in exe not go in executive session. If we had to go in executive session. Madam chair I call a question. Thank you sir. Uh let's go the question. Roll call. [Music] Mrs. Sykes. No. Mr. Alexander. Yes, Miss Autry. Yes, Miss Hall. Yes, Reverend Harrison. No, Dr. Molnar. Not like this. Not like this, Miss Jackson. Yes. Motion carries. 43. You could go into executive session to discuss a contract, but you she is your Okay. Then she's your superintendent pending a contract renewal

184or contract negot negotiating a contract. Yes. Um, the next meeting will be Monday, May 12th, 2025. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So move. It's been moved by Mr. Alexander, seconded by Miss Hall. Any discussion? Seeing hearing none, Dr. Thompson, roll call vote. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Autry, yes. Motion carry 70. We stand adjourned at 11:35 p.m. [Music]