001Hello everyone and welcome to the Finance and Capital Management Committee meeting uh April 21st of 2025. Uh happy spring break for those of us who's fortunate to have and to be off and not working on spring break. And for those that's here, thank you for joining us on spring break. Uh we're going to get right into the u uh past minutes of the meeting and uh may I need uh a request to approve the minutes from the previous meeting. Madam Chair, so moved. All right. So moved and approved. Let me just note that Dr. Molina will not attend the meeting today. Uh the members of the meetings of this committee me uh committee meeting uh is Dr. Molinaar uh member Harrison and myself Berber Sykes the chair of the finance and capital management committee meeting.
002Also I would note that our president uh Carla Jackson has also joined us. Um so let's just get right into the uh first financial topics and let's hear from our treasurer as it relates to our state audit presentation. Uh thank you, Madame Chair and uh uh member Pastor Harrison and board president uh Carla Jackson. Uh I appreciate the opportunity and we have a lot to cover tonight. So I'm going to try to stay on point as much as I can, but um I think it's really important to point out our audit and the findings from our audit. uh which I give 100% of the credit to the finance department. We truly have an amazing team of 15 people that um work hard, never complain, get along. It's wonderful in our our section of the world
003up there and as a result some positive things happen. We have a clean audit opinion which is the best you can get. when they say clean, um, it's unmodified, uh, the highest rating possible, and the financial statements, these are ter, these are words pulled right off of the audit report itself. Financial statements are accurate and fully compliant with the GAP. Uh, we have transparent reporting. We disclose the 13.24 million in tax abatements due to the city of Akran's initiative programs. Um, and that's important because, you know, we want to be fully transparent in our reporting and and that was noted in our audit report. We have strong grant and funding management, which comes from a different department primarily, but they did a really good job. Um, and they've accurately reported um our receivables from the
004OFCC, which is our um our auditor or excuse me, our controller who did a great job with that. And we've met all the eligibility requirements for state reimbursements, which is good. Com under compliance and controls, there were no findings of material weaknesses or non-compliance, and we demonstrated strong internal controls and ethical practices. And so the bottom line is we are financially sound in terms of how we're managing uh or how we're accounting for our money. We're transparent, we're compliant, and it puts the district in again the words of the state auditor as a trustworthy steward of public funds. So again, um, congratulations to all the folks that put that together and continue to work very hard to make sure that stays consistent. I also wanted to give a quick uh Thank Thank you, Mr. Treasure.
005Let me just see uh if our president or if our member has any questions of any questions, Madame President. Thank you, Madam Chair. Were there any recommendations from the uh the auditor at all? Yes. So, so what a good question. So, what came up, which you'll receive a presentation on as well. Um, you know, for example, some city school districts might have 30 or 40 people in their treasures department. We have 15. That doesn't that doesn't mean that we're underst staffed. What it means is that the work has been split be primarily between HR and us. So um as a result of that there are some control issues in terms of who has access to information and our auditor has cited in two of our um last audits two of the last years that there's
006they their recommendation is not necessarily that there's a problem but this needs to be investigated which we are in the process of doing and we're reducing the number of people that have control have access to certain material or c or access to the system where they could change or manipulate pay for example or where someone is on the salary schedule and when you have multiple people that have the ability to do that that's not there's a risk involved with that obviously for fraud. So that is that is being currently um revised and you'll get a report on that soon as it's complete. But we're trying to limit it, but it's because of the fact that we're not all under one department. I'm not saying that's bad or inefficient. That's just the way it's structured. Okay.
007Final followup. Okay. Member Harrison. Uh thank you, Madam Chair. My understanding was that will be reported in the form of a management letter and those are public letters and so that we could um anybody could anyone a after an audit with the management letter um they can see that recommendations and that was um that particular subject was related to it. Yes. uh information technology, right? And we have we're split into really three three groups have access to all that. Primarily it was IT and some HR and and some in in in the finance department as well. Yeah. Any followup? Thank you. All right, Mr. Treasure, we'll move on to the vouchers update. Yeah. So, we focused a lot on vouchers as we should. Um, and we've discussed this before, but we have some additional information
008that I think is important for us to keep um, on the radar screen, especially as we're making our way through House Bill 96. But, of course, Ohio's Ed Choice Scholarship Program uses fund uses public school dollars to fund private school tuition. And it was originally or it started as a way for underperforming schools uh for students to have opportunities to leave underperforming schools and attend a private school. And uh now that is no longer the case. Those those vouchers are available essentially almost universally to almost all students public school students in the state of Ohio. And you can see here um even those that are above 400% of the poverty line which is where we're at now for the full voucher even people above that uh are eligible for partial scholarships. So how has how
009have the vouchers or who's participating in our district? We have a total of 3,141 students that are in the voucher program. The traditional ed choice is 2540. With the ed choice expansion, which is income based, it was another 601 students joined. Um, and the majority of those students never attended Akran public schools or have never attended Akran public schools. So, the breakdown on that, the base cost is $5,600. Then there's targeted assistance at $1,600. DPIA at $1,100. Supplemental targeted assistance for another $122. And total loss uh this past fiscal year due to vouchers is over 26 almost $27 million that have come from Akan P which would have originally gone to Akran public schools. Now I will put a caveat here. Obviously, when kids leave the district, it's not one for one, but when kids
010leave the district, then we have less potentially less of a need for staffing and could potentially reduce our own expenditures. But remember, the vast majority of these kids never attended Akran public schools. So, our staffing was never based on them attending in the first place. Demographic and operational impacts. Uh what you see primarily is departure of high achieving students. Often um potential increase in racial and income segregation occurs as a result of vouchers. It's an impact. Uh there are that creates operational challenges due to enrollment shifts. How do you how do you balance your schools? Um some of the legal and constitutional considerations. I thought this was an important to note that there has been a US Supreme Court case all in 2002 as it related to vouchers when it first came out. Um the
011challenge was of course that we're using public school dollars to support um you know either Catholic or Christian schools. So there clearly is a violation or at least that was what was brought before the Supreme Court. but they ruled that it was given to the parents and not directly to religious schools. So therefore, it's not a violation. And that's how it that's how this has really grown as a result of that of that ruling. So in conclusion, offering school choice vouchers presents fiscal and equity challenges to APS and really public schools across the entire state. Um, you know, I really feel like we need to consider and still analyze what this is really doing to public schools. It's a debate that needs to continue. You know, as we understand that par parental choice is important.
012Um, but we also have to maintain public schools where the vast majority of kids attend. Nearly 90% of Ohio school students attend public schools, not charter schools, not private schools. Thank you, Mr. Treasurer. Any questions? Any questions? Any comments? Thank you, Mr. Treasurer. Let us move on to the 5-year uh forecast update, please. Sure. So again, we we we keep hitting this and this is going to be um incredibly challenging in May. The board um needs to approve or is statutoily required to approve a 5-year forecast by May 31st. I have to submit on or before May 31st. Uh so we'll come early in May. So it's just a few weeks away. Uh the challenge is I don't know what's going to be on House Bill 96. I only know what's in there now. Um
013and it changes as fast as we get a new document updating us on on what's happening. So that is Excuse me, Mr. Chair. When you say House Bill 96, just for the public, would you explain? House Bill 96 is the governor's budget bill. So it's it's and it's the b the governor presents a budget. It first goes to the house which it's gone through. It's now in the Senate. It will not be finalized until June. So obviously well past the May deadline for our 5-year forecast. So the the uh general consensus amongst treasurers is that we will base our five-year forecast on what we know based on what we see that's in the bill at that time and then we'll make uh modifications and resubmit to OD maybe in July when when we can look
014at it again. So, I anticipate having a five-year forecast in early May to you, followed by probably a revision or an update in July. That's what I'm anticipating. So, this is our November 5-year forecast as we filed it in November, and it was based on, you can see the major assumptions below, uh what the wage increase was based on. Uh it this is a incorrect assumption I think it's fair to say at this point but the continued phase in the second one down the second um bullet the continued phase in and base cost inputs of the fair school funding plan would continue as was originally passed and we know that that is almost assuredly not going to happen. We also uh budgeted at 8% increase in health insurance from fiscal years 26 through 29 and
015then a reduction of $10 million in permanent expenditures beginning in fiscal year 26. The the last bullet were all things that we updated. Those were all positive and we updated those pri prior to this forecast going through. So again, if you focus Well, my dot doesn't work very Yeah, it does. Okay, here we go. So, if you focus on the bottom here for the board members over well, it won't go through on that one. It's too bright, but that bottom line ending balance. Um, you can see and and I and I really want to emphasize this and make sure we're using the right vernacular when we talk about this. We are in deficit spending. That's the line above it where you see the red. Mhm. But we are not in a deficit because of our
016cash reserves. So it's it'd be much like, you know, um you have a check, you get a paycheck, your bills exceed your paycheck, but you have $100,000 in the bank and you just keep eating into your $100,000. That's exactly what we're doing as a school district. It's not an not it shouldn't be taken as negative against anyone in particular. It is the boom and bust cycle that we know um because of House Bill 920 freezing revenue, pass a levy, bring in more money than you need. The unfortunate part for us is you can see where it says $20 million deficit spending. Then fiscal year 26, we're not in we're not in deficit spending. then we're right back in it. Mhm. That's because we received proceeds from our levy, but look how long it lasted before
017we're right back in deficit spending. That's alarming. Um and many school districts are facing exactly this. Uh but unfortunately, this is before the last budget before what we know is in budget bill uh the governor's budget bill, House Bill 96 right now. So, I've shown you this before, but I think it's worth taking a look at. This is the best that we know as of right now, the reductions in funding that we anticipate if the bill continues to go through um as is. So, those aren't those are not adding one year with the next. That's dollar amount loss per year. So, it's over $40 million. Now, keep in mind this number, 16 million right here on 2029. 16 million in cash reserves, but we're taking 40 million out. Watch what happens. $35 million deficit. 16
018million to the good turns into $35 million in the hole. So if this were to hold, this forecast were to hold about right here is where OD is going to start really um being engaged with APS in terms of where where we stand. This um this forecast assumes 1% and it assumes everything that we previously went through to include the 10 million in reductions etc. imperative that if our goal is to get to 2028 for um a presidential cycle two shots at a levy. You can see here if it according to this 5-year forecast, we don't have a lot of wiggle room here. 22 million sounds like a lot, but remember we're spending about 33 million a month. So that's not even enough money to get us through a month in cash reserves, much less
019two, which is what our board policy states. So that's that's where again that's where we stand right now. Um and then um and of course this is previous to negotiations as well. Thank you, Mr. Treasurer. Uh also let's just note that uh in House Bill 96, it also indicates that uh we cannot carry over uh 25% of cash reserve more than our the latest one they did up it to 30%. %. But the beautiful thing is if there's if there's a silver lining to our cloud Yeah. I'm not too worried about it, right? Yeah, I know. But I I think we could get there. We could get there. All right. Any questions from the committee members or the president? Okay. I think part of also the five-year forecast consists of the administration uh with uh
020your information on the uh cuts. So is there someone here from the administration that want to add anything to that? I noticed that our inim superintendent is here. Welcome. Madam superintendent, would you like to join us here around the table? And I don't know, Mrs. Carter, would you like to uh join us? You want to jump in? You know her. What computer is put connected? What computer is connected? This one is Yeah, this one is Oh, right here. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so, Mrs. Carter, what I would like to do is if we could just uh it's a five-year forecast and then under unfinished business, it is reduction in force plan in the force plan. So, I think those just kind of go hand in hand. So, we can uh if it would be easier
021for you, I think it just kind of if the majority of that is going to be the discussion of reduction and force plan, we can talk about that now. Thank you, Mrs. Carter. Okay. So, I'd given you a summary of the reduction in force and um you had asked for more detail. So, greeting uh board member chair Sykes and board member Harrison, President Jackson, uh interim superintendent Mary Alley, and treasurer Dr. Thompson. And so, um it's divided amongst the division and departments. And so the first um page when you flip your page it'll show you the itemized details that falls under the department of teaching and learning. Um, the positions consist of either uh retirement, not filling some vacancies or transferring funds from general funds to either part B, which is special ed funding, or
022um title funds to help with supporting that particular reduction in within our general funds. The next um positions uh fall under the department of college and careermies. Um we have two positions that are being rifted. One position that will uh be absorbed through attrition. Next we have um the department of special education which is also a part of our um divisions uh uh of academics and we have a riff of four school psychologists. Um also uh four special education teachers from the closing of uh one of our schools and then also for parapros from the closing of one of our schools Essex. Next we have a uh lead consultant teacher position that will be a part of the reduction in force. Next, under business affairs, we have a property management supervisor position as well as
023a warehouse worker position. That will be RIFF. Under human capital, we have a chief of staff position that will be eliminated as well as um we will look at reducing hours for our admin specialists. And um admin specialists are as needed. And so we're going to look at minimizing the use of admin specialists. Um, next we have our facilities department and we have uh a riff of two foreman positions. Uh, one uh actually uh resign. We have a riff of one and one is eliminated through attrition resignation. Um, we have some eight-hour custodial positions as well as five-hour custodial positions. Um, some of these positions will be reduced in hours or we're reducing um the positions from a location, but they'll still have some assignments. They have we have vacancies that they'll go into um
024as it relates to um some of these positions. And with the custodial positions, we won't know if anyone will actually receive a reduction in force letter unless they choose not to take an open assignment. So you may we may be eliminating this 5-hour position from Krauss, but there is one open over here at this building. So it's going to be up to that individual employee if they want to move over to that open assignment. Um, next we have the Department of Technology. We have uh one foreman position and one repairman position being rifted. Next we have the department of school counseling and student wellness. We have a director retiring and we also had a counselor retire. Those are both attrition. Next we have some administrative positions that fall under our department of school leadership. We
025have a leader of campus support position being eliminated, two academy principal positions being eliminated and a dean position being eliminated. These are being eliminated through attrition and then the other two um have re are going into vacant academy principal positions the LLC and the dean. Next um on the board doc, this is not part of general fund, but I put it on this slide because it is a part of our um board recommendations that we're asking for. Um the department of school counseling and student wellness is looking at a partial riff of four student success coaches. And so that will be changing a 52-E contract to a 38-week contract. And that's grant funded and it is due to grant funds basically why she's asking to why she's recommending for those reductions and that's it. Okay.
026Thank you Mrs. Carter. Uh Madame Superintendent, did you want to add anything? Thank you, board chair. Um, I had the opportunity to meet with um, Mrs. Carter earlier today along with our assistant superintendent, Dr. Caver, to make sure I had a clear understanding of the reductions. [Music] And this is currently the proposal that will be presented to the board and I am okay with it. I do not have any additional questions or anything to add at this time. Okay. No additional comments. Thank you. Uh member Harrison, President Jackson, did you have any questions? Any comments? I I have a few questions and and we went through this pretty quickly and this is our first time being able to see exactly where the cuts are coming from. Um, I am uncomfortable with some of the cuts
027because we have gotten a lot of feedback. Um, and this is actually just one email um with attachments that would indicate um that some of the numbers or some of the ratios that we have gotten um may not be apples to apples. I can't really explain it because I'm still trying to understand it. But some of the ratios may not be apples to a apples comparison. Um also um there there is some questions as to um for me um that have been raised that that I don't have the answer to as to if some of these cuts were due to some sort of retaliation. So overall, I would like to understand how we came to these cuts and why. And I know it's not, you can't explain everything to me because I'm not going to
028understand everything if you try. Um, but it seems to me that special ed is weighted heavy in these cuts. Um and and that may just be a perception that I have or maybe maybe I'm not understanding but when I see four psychologist cut um so for the school psychologist whenever we talked about that last time so we have 27 school psychologists in district and then we have what we 41w week and 44 week. So a 38 week is a typical kind of student school calendar. Then all of our school psychologists work 41 weeks which is a week after and then two week before students come back. That's where they do their administrative tasks finishing up documents, finalizing, submitting all of that sort of stuff. Then we have the four that are on the reduction list
029that are 44 weeks. So they work an additional week after and an additional two weeks before. The recommendation is to bring everyone in alignment with 41 weeks. So it's not eliminating a position or pulling anybody anybody back. It's just putting everybody in alignment to the 41 weeks. So if I have if if if I have a child that's waiting on the IEP, what is the time what is a reasonable amount of time that I would be waiting for IEP? Yeah. So we have uh mandated timelines that we have to follow whenever we start an initial evaluation is different than say like the trienal review. Initial evaluations is 60 days from consent to initial evaluation and then an additional 30 days to an IEP. So we have 90 days total on an initial evaluation. So what
030what what are we averaging? We we we hit the 60 days for um is that what you're asking like on the timeline? Okay. And I guess what I'm I'm trying to find I'm trying to Yeah. in my mind gauge. Sure. Okay. If it's if we have 90 days to do this and it's taken us 78 days now. Okay. And we cut four people that would increase the time that I would have to wait till started and it would also take me past 78 more than likely. So go ahead. I'm sorry. I didn't mean No, no. I I understand your question now. Thank you. So we we don't during the time from the end of year to the beginning of year, we're not outside of those timelines because part of the evaluation process, we have mandated
031members as well. So the school psychologist has to have an intervention specialist at the ETR meeting. They have to have the district rep, a general education teacher. So it's not just the school psychologist. Okay. I I just want to talk about the psychologist right now. Sure. But so inside that timeline, everybody is required to be in that. So we're never outside that timeline given the extra weeks that the school psychologist has because they can't complete documents during those times anyhow because we don't have other mandated members to participate. So we don't go outside of that timeline. Okay. Madam Chair, I have a lot of questions and I'll just kind of go through this tonight and submit the questions, you know, and and I just generally want to say this is why we asked for this
032earlier because you want us to approve something that we really haven't had a chance to dissect. And so we have a lot of emails coming in and so to read the emails to be really fair to everyone to read the emails and try to understand this. This is just too much information at too late of a time. Um so I'll go through it madam chair and um submit some questions. But again, for me at this particular time, I I would not be able to vote on any reductions that I'm not comfortable that I understand and I'm not going to understand the actual I know we have to cut money. I that's somebody's not going to be happy. We're going to have to reduce some jobs somewhere, but I want to be comfortable that I'm doing
033the right thing. In case I'm sorry, Madam Superintendent, thank you. I was just wondering um member Harrison, is it possible, would it be appropriate for you to be able to get the questions in advance so that it could be presented to you as an update at the meeting as part of the presentation for the board? Yes, ma'am. Yeah, I'm sorry. I wasn't clear. That's what I was saying. I was going to submit them. Thank you. That'll help. Yeah. Uh thank you, Mrs. Carter. Um, Madame Superintendent, Madame President, uh, so I think we just want to keep in mind that May 31st is that deadline that we need to present the five-year forecast to the state. May 31st, Mr. Treasur, is the date that that that we need to have that submitted. Yes. Required statutoily to
034be to OD before the third. I I'm gonna say the 30th just to make myself feel better, but yes. Yeah. So, we have to have that. And in order to do that, you we will have to vote uh at uh at a board meeting to accept the five-year forecast. So, for all questions and information that we're we're looking for, and then at some point, we may just have to recognize that we're not going to all agree on the cuts. all we're not going to all agree upon a recommendation, but what we will have to agree upon is something that we're going to send down to the state of Ohio by May 30th to say this is our proposed plan. Also recognizing that we can continue to update and amend the forecast. It is not in
035stone, but we want to make sure that we're continuing updating the forecast and uh meeting those deadlines for the state of Ohio. So is there another area where there other questions that uh we had as it related to the the uh cuts? I think on operations uh Mrs. Carter uh there were like four million in cuts on operations that brought us up to the 10. Yes. And um none of those have changed. You're still making those same recommendations. Okay. He's not here. Right. Understood. Understood. So, okay. Madam President, do you have any thoughts? Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. My question, I have um two questions. Uh my is that fine, Madam Chair? Yes. My first question is how many of the jobs This is for you probably chief of staff, Miss Cart, Miss Hart, uh
036Carter about the reduction. I'm going to ask a question about how many jobs that were added within the last 5 years have also been cut like are any of these jobs you know how they're when we had extra funds like jobs that's been added in um the last five years whether they're administrative um central office heavy or additional uh building services how many of those do we have the information to reflect these are positions that were added within the last five years um no but I can uh get that I know a lot of our custodial position were added. She comes to the mic. I know that when we had to do extensive cleaning and things like that, I know that our custodial staff had bumped up there, but I don't have an exact number,
037but I can work with Dr. Thompson and um look at what positions were added via ESSER funds. Yeah, because I'm just because I know with some of those positions that were added with ESER and then we went into general funds because we felt that it was a need whether it's some instructional coaches and things like that within the last five years for me I think um I would like to see that as far as where they're at on the RIF schedule. Additionally, um, with the teaching with the academic portion, um, and the teaching and learning, I'm just curious because I see a lot of these, um, intervention specialists, special education coordinator, and the only reason that this is standing out to me because of faith. And so if I know like by law, we have
038to meet those require. I understand how the um IEP works and uh the turnaround time with the IEPs and I also know that there are some delays with IEPs because if parents don't turn in the the questionnaires or the teachers in a loted time that causes delays in our system as well. My concern is with the intervention specialist those are required like that's the right like that's required on many of these IEPs that the students have that there must be an intervention specialist. So I'm just concerned when we're cutting when I see intervention specialists being cut and then the special the pair of professionals when on previous agendas there's we we have a need for par profofessionals if I'm misread if I'm missing something. So the parapro the paraprofessional positions are those positions that are
039closing because of Essex closing. So, we still have tons of vacant parapro positions that we need to uh fill. We just don't need to fill those four because they don't exist anymore. But, but the but there will still be starting the 25 26 school year. But we have planned the same number of pair of pros that we always have planned for all classes that will be up and running for next school year. Okay. Because that's where kind of where my question was going. Even though I understand the closure of with the Essex pair of professionals because we're already at a deficit of need for pair of professionals that the money that what's being spent on them is still going to be spent because they're going to feel other so it's not going to free up
040money. Right. And then like that special ed coordinator position the position is not being lost. The funding is just we're just adjusting the funding to free up general fund. Yeah, I saw it where it says transfer the funds to be. Okay, I understand that. So, okay, you cleared up that about the pair of professionals because that's not it's not it's not going to be a savings. It's kind of like a wash. Um Oh, go ahead. So, yes, it's the same with the pair of professional and their intervention specialist. There are vacant positions that they can move into. So you're what you're saying about a wash is pretty accurate. So with the closing of Essex, we no longer need those positions, but we will have positions open in the district that they can move into. So
041the the positions of intervention specialist, paraprofessional, essays are no longer around, but we have vacant positions in the district that can be um absorb those individuals. Okay. I completely I I understand that. Um I'm thinking I'm not wording what I'm saying properly because what I'm saying is because I understand what you're saying and what I'm saying is a wash because is this supposed to show us where we're going to save money so that we know where we are at position in our 5-year forecast. And so there are three positions that are being um sped positions that's being eliminated. Correct. Because we don't have the students to support those three. So that was based off of our overall sped staffing. After doing that, we had negative three after we did our ads and ads and reductions
042from building. Some buildings were added more intervention specialists. some were um reduced some some units were moved around and then after all of the staffing with special ed they had three positions that we were not in need of. Okay. So this intervention specialist position that's eliminated with the $255,000 is what you were talking about, right? Okay. Um it seems like the special ed numbers in the district increased that they didn't decrease overall the student population um from the last that uh to Dr. Caver can you come up? Sure. because I I'm vaguely recalling some data and I understand this is not an instructional policy meeting so I'm not going to belabor and I'll readress it there but I thought that we had some increase in students qualifying for uh special ed services or IEP requests
043within the district. So, President Jackson, if I could just take the liberty of explaining specifically um the special ed positions that are listed here for the 255. If these are all I'm sorry, I didn't have one of these in front of me, so just let me get caught up really quickly. Um these four positions that are listed here in those four pairs was we had four more than four. We have five classrooms that were ELP classrooms that currently had subs in them. And so when we are doing the restructuring of moving them out into the buildings because we have classrooms that had subs and all of our ELP classrooms were not full to capacity. So we did some restructuring and basically we're saying well you put those children in classrooms some of them move on
044anyway but we put our children in classrooms with certified teachers and is there a need to cut back on the number of classrooms that we have particularly that don't have a pair in them you know we have a shortage of paras or that don't have a certified teacher and we're doing a sub anyway. Okay. So when we did that, then we're able to eliminate those few classrooms. And so basically, it's an elimination of those classrooms um that specifically have intervention specialists, certified teachers in them usually, but we're not eliminating any particular person is not being rifted. Okay. So in that in that case, that's what happened there. We closed um say four or five four classrooms over at Essex total. um we are opening two classrooms somewhere else in the district at King and so
045um the actual individual people. So it looks like um we are reducing special education teachers overall but right now we're saying what we did is just reconfigure in a better way so those positions get eliminated but not individual people. Okay. And then we know as far as the numbers the highest needs as far as the build because they're going they go where the building where the need is at for the intervention specialist and we talking about the push in model that the intervention specialist in the classroom will pull out. So these are actually um core classroom teacher positions. Okay. Okay. So just as an example just as an example excuse me we want to stick with time but I think I think the president understands. So uh if we if was there anything else madam
046president? Okay. So, and let me just note that this is a committee meeting and so we can be a little less formal than we are at our formal board meetings. Uh, and I did not ask at the beginning if there was anyone in the audience that was here to make a statement to the board. So, if there's a statement that anyone would like to make before we proceed. Going once, gone twice, three times. All right, we're going to move on. Thank you. And looking at the calendar, let me just note that uh it look like we have two meetings left. May April 28th and May 12th. Uh because I suppose because of the Memorial Day weekend, I don't see that we're meeting twice in the month of May. Correct me if that's wrong, administration. So
047I think that we're not scheduled to meet but once in May. And so we need to have uh this on our agenda May 12th in order to pass it in time to get down to Columbus on on May 30th. All right. So that's that's where we are. So, if there's no other questions and we understand uh member Harrison that you're going to submit yours to the administration with the understanding that they're going to get that information back to you before that May 12th deadline and hopefully you will share that with all of the other board members uh as you receive the information uh from the administration administration will share that with all of our the board members uh so that we can continue to uh try and make sure that we make the best decisions.
048All righty. So, we're at um the uh where are we? We are at the van driver's contract update. Good afternoon, Chairman Sykes, co-chairman Harrison, President of the Board Jackson, Superintendent Utley, and Treasurer Thompson. Thanks. Okay, where did that go? I am I am happy to report that the RFP that we put out for van contract services for the 2526 year opened and was received by all vendors on Friday, April the 4th. We received a total of 18 vendor responses to that request and they have been compiled. We currently started this morning vetting and reviewing those responses with the following areas covered by the review team. Administration, communications, business affairs, purchasing and transportation staff members. Once we are done completing and reviewing those results, we plan to take those results to the treasurer and the superintendent
049for review and followed up with a recommendation to the board at one of the meetings in May. We would like to see an approval in May of 25 by the board so that we can start routing with a determination at once the rollover of the student population has advanced which will occur mid June because we need to start routing at the end of June in order to get everything set up. But that's the timeline that I would like to advise you tonight. So, we have started that review process and we'll continue to move it forward. And as an example, last year we had 15 responses to our RFP. This year we have 18. So, we have done our due diligence in looking for responses to this RFP. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? Member Harrison,
050President Jackson, how many vendors are we using now? Currently for van transport, you have your ICOs and there are currently 120 and then the actual service contract is one contract with Templeton Services which was approved at the last first meeting in August of last summer after we went through our first RFP of this process last year. Okay. Uh, Miss Folk, it would be helpful u for me if you sent us the information. I am more than happy to as you did. I can't remember the contract. That's okay. But you know what I'm talking about the ranking. I will I would planned on putting it in the Friday notes for this week. Okay. So that you will have that update as we move forward. But we needed to meet this morning to start the vetting process
051with the team members. And please be advised that the rubric was developed with legal counsel in mind. So uh and that was attorney Roth. All righty. Attorney Roth from uh Russell and Andress. He is our transportation specialist and he has helped us with some compliance issues with OD as as an example. We had a non-compliance issue that came up earlier. He assisted us in meet in uh planning that mediation and it was successful. Thank you. Thank you. Just just one other thing to note as I said that it appears that we only have one meeting in May. So that's May 12th. So uh just and I think if you could provide as much information to board members as possible before the May 12th deadline. We also do have a board while finance uh the board
052meeting on the 12th is there. We do have another board meeting on Tuesday the 27th of May as well. Oh, we do? Yes. So therefore, it it can't be on the 26th because of Memorial Day. So your second board meeting in May is the 27th. Okay. That's what we were looking for and and could not find it because it wasn't on a Monday. It was on a Tuesday. All right. Okay. So Tuesday the 27th. So is that the date that you're planning on? We would like to bring it to you as forward as we can as soon as possible, but we would just like the process completed no later than the 27th of May. But the 27th of May is the is the board meeting and I want to bring it back to the finance
053committee prior to that. And when does the contract start? Uh they don't start until July 1st. To July 1st. But we need to have it ready so we can start routing after we promote our students through our regular process to know what grade level schools etc we are processing. And then the other thing I can advise you and it's related to your other issue that came up earlier under Dr. Thompson's voucher issue. We are have opened our RFT process for our students that attend nonpubliclix and community schools. Those are the students that we have to transport in other avenues. That opened after a meeting at the middle of March on April 1st and we've already started processing. And the first base report that came out last Thursday was we've already processed almost 700 students requesting
054transport from that process for the 2526 school year. We currently have 3,600 students that have gone through this process as of last Thursday for the 2425 school year. So those transportation parts are another part of the use of the voucher system because as you know, Miss Sykes, we've talked about what the district is required to do in transport for those students as well. Yes. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right, there's nothing else. All righty. There's no more questions. I see there's a hand up in the audience. And as I said, we try to be a little bit more informal. We got a few more minutes left. No, it's fine. It's it's come to the mic. Yes. Now, I'll just caution you that they may be a little bit uh limited on what they can answer
055because um just real quick, you mentioned the 3600 students. Is that are are we will the van drivers be transporting Ed Choice students this upcoming school year? So, that had nothing to do with the vans. Okay. Okay. I'm sorry. I was confused on that. Um, no problem. Okay. But what about the summer children? So, like if the current vendor's contract ends in the end of June and we know that there are van services that are provided in July or like the mystery camps and all of that, then how would that work? Because I'm I guess I'm confused cuz you're saying that you guys are routing, but I thought whoever our our summer events are all scheduled for June. We do not have any currently scheduled. So there's also no like bridges summer school in the
056month of July. June. Okay. All righty. Okay. So, uh, the if there's no more questions, no more comments, uh, as it relates to the van drivers contract update, we will just move on to board members event information. Mr. Treasure, I I have to say I'm quite shocked that uh, Deborah came up here and knew exactly when and why the board meeting was on Tuesday and not Monday. Leave it to our encyclopedia out there to know that. But um yes, if you just click you can click on this link, everything's updated in terms of uh you know your monthly update on what's happening uh uh for board members to participate and attend know what's occurring. So that that continues. We've already covered this one. Yes, we've already covered unfinished business. I I am pleasantly surprised to
057say we made it through our agenda. Yes, we did. It's possible. It's possible. So, if there's nothing else that's coming before the committee, then this committee will end at 5:25 p.m. Finance and Capital Management Committee meeting and we will see you. We will announce our next committee meeting uh uh via our website. Thank you. Thank everyone for attending. [Music]