Board of Education Livestream - 04/14/25

001[Music] [Applause] [Music] Good evening and welcome to tonight's board meeting assembling on April 14th of 2025. 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. Next, we will have the pledge of of allegiance. Could we all please stand for the pledge led by member Hall. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, member Hall. Next, we will have our recognitions um the gold gold award and momentum award by the superintendent. Thank you, President Jackson. We're excited to announce uh our next goat award recipient. Uh this special recognition

002celebrates exceptional commitment to building cleanliness and operational excellence among our head custodians. And for the month of March, uh we are thrilled to award this honor to Mr. Kevin Strickland who is the head custodian at King CLC and Miss Diane Floyd who is the building principal. Uh, please let's give Mr. Strickland a hand. [Applause] The momentum award um recognizes schools and districts that improve their person performance index by three or more points from the previous year while achieving a value added rating of four or more stars. This award is a testament to the commitment of excellence from the leaders, the staff, and the community. And although some of them are not here, but we do have one recipient that's here. Uh KLC, David Hill CLC, Finley CLC, Glover CLC, and National Inventors Hall of Fame,

003STEM High School and Robinson CLC, and Rhymer CLC, as well as Winmore, uh Windmir, I'm sorry. Congratulations to each of these recipients. And I think that um STEM high at Robinson is [Applause] [Music] here. Congratulations to you both. Thank you, Superintendent. Next, we will hear from our scholar board member, Tatisen. Tatisen. Thank you. From North High School. Good evening, everyone. Good evening, Madame President, Mr. Superintendent, and all the beautiful board members. It is an honor and I am very proud to be here to speaking to all of you as well as people at my house, friends, family everywhere you're watching from. My name is Tatisen and I am a junior at Akan North High School. As your student representative for North, I stand before you to share the concerns of my peers with honesty and

004conviction. I joined this board with one goal in mind, to advocate for meaningful improvements to our school system. One of the most pressing concerns at North is the bathroom pass policy. Currently, students are allowed only two bathroom passes per class per semester. This is not only restrictive, but quite frankly unreasonable. No student should have to choose between their basic human needs and the following school rules. I fully understand that this policy was put in place to prevent students from mis misusing their time outside of class, but limiting bathroom access in this way is not a solution. When I share this policy with my parents, they had a laugh in disbelief, thinking I was joking, but unfortunately I was not. It is clear that we need both updated bathroom facilities as well as more practical student

005consented policy regarding bathroom passes. I also want to address the efficiency of our metal detectors. I fully support the district's commitment to school safety and I acknowledge the importance of having these security measures in place. However, with nearly a thousand students at North using only two metal detectors is simply not time efficient. Metal detectors malfunctions frequently which cause delays in the morning. Yet students who are late due to these security checks are still marked tardy. Additionally, the sheer volume of students waiting in line causes congestion and further delays. Increasing the number of metal detectors would significantly improve both security and efficiency, allowing students to get to class on time without being penalized for the circumstances beyond their control. Finally, I would like to address the restrictions on on students participation in water activities during field

006trips. Akran public school students are not permitted to engage in any water related activities even during leadership camps where activities like kayaking, swimming and polar plunges are the key experiences. While I understand the safety and liability concerns, banning students outright from participating is not the best solution. Instead, Akran public school should consider implementing a waiver system that allows students to participate with parental consent. When I attend when I attended an overnight leadership camp, which is a DECA field trip, students were able to participate in the water activities while the Akran public school students like me were not. My cl my classmates and I had to stand on sidelines and watch other students have fun while we had to stand there just watch them have fun. We were restricted from participating which was sad. As Akran

007public school students, we should not have to miss out on opportunities on opportunities for personal growth, leadership development, and shared experiences simply because of a policy that does not allow for flexibility. These are real concerns that I experience every day at school as well as my classmates, my friends and everyone at school. These are daily experiences which are not only preventing us from having fun in school but also the time the time efficiency. I urge the board to take these matters seriously into hands and work with us to develop solutions that are practical, fair, and students focused. Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to working together create to create a meaningful change for our schools. Thank you. Uh, thank you, uh, Tatisen. Uh, we appreciate that. And also, um, for student

008services, if they're in the crowd, I'm curious because we have these student board members read out to have followups um to the board to what they are positioning, what they're positing, like what is the followup, what are the action action steps that we are taking in regards to these? Because Tati when you speak about this I'm thinking about we have SAW safety around water program that we implemented as a district and I'm also curious as did we ever not have waiverss is when was this policy enacted how long has it been enacted as far as the the water concerned um and these are things that I think we can follow up because the students come and they report out about various issues and concerns and I know I've said this multiple time if there if

009the students the students are the customer if you look at it that way. If you're not serving your customer, the customers leave. And it's very simple. And if you're not meeting the needs of your customer, they find somewhere that meets their needs. And so, when we want to deal with systemic things or we're talking about problems with enrollment, we have to listen to the voices of what the students are saying, what their concerns are, and how we can best meet those needs. And so I wonder um what I would like to see is action items align with what the students are saying their concerns are and also if there's limitations policy-wise or statewise that limit us in some areas for some of the concerns that we're made aware of that. So we also know how

010we may need to pivot or how we may need to advocate in a different way legislatively to help to support what the student body is saying. So again, thank you um for sharing with us and um I do value your input. Uh next week we'll have our request to address the board. Participants will not be permitted to speak on matters related to vendor business matters, formal complaints, grievances, specific student or student records, personnel matters, and potential or pending legal matters. Participants must speak on matters related to the business of the board. Please keep your comments to three minutes or less. The board will not respond, but will assign through the superintendent the appropriate persons for followup. Please state your name as well as your group affiliation when you come to the podium. Uh the first

011person we have is the Reverend Curtis Walker. Good evening to Madame President, to our vice president, to the members of the board, superintendent, to the treasurer, and all those amanable to this school board meeting. First, I want to thank the Akran public school board for taking the time to uh share and add and honoring me on my 50th year in the ministry. I want to thank the superintendent. want to thank uh Sister Barbara Sykes for being in attendance and representing uh this fine board. There are a lot of things I can talk about after having served 20 years on the school board. There are a lot of issues that are on the table, but one of the issues that I wanted to lift up tonight is school funding. Uh this is the third time at

012least that I've approached the board dealing with school funding. It is important that the Akran public school join along with many other school districts in supporting school funding. Without the proper funds, we would not be able to do adequately do the things that we need to do. I want to highlight and thank uh again Barbara Sykes for her op-ed and this is what she said. Let me read. The current Cub Patterson fair school funding plan which was meant to consider the cost of educating a child the community's ability to pay its share of those of their costs has been fully has not been fully implemented. Instead funds are available for traditional public schools are being allocated to finance Ohio's Ed Choice voucher program. It's time now for us to fight for our children. It's time

013now to be actively engaged to make sure our children receive the funding that they need. It's the responsibility of this board to do two things. Hire a superintendent, hire the treasurer, and even a third to make sure that the budget of the school board is clear and in good shape. The state of Ohio has already beginning the process to say to school boards that you cannot keep an excess amount of money. What does that do to our five-year forecast? Please consider supporting Pulp Patterson school funding plan. If you have not done all that you could do, please do what you can to make sure that we have adequate funding for our children. It's personal. I have a fourth grade student in Akran public schools, my granddaughter, and I want to make sure that she has

014all the resources she needs to be the kind of student that Akran public schools will be proud of. Thank you so very much. Thank you, Reverend Walker. Next, we will have um hear from Oscar Williams. [Applause] How's everybody? Uh, I like to say uh I shouldn't be here, but I am. There's a lot of things on my mind that I had planned on saying, but I was uh told that we couldn't speak on certain matters. So, I was sitting here trying to think how I can break this down. Um, first of all, I'd like to thank the superintendent for attending our book to PTA meeting and uh bringing a problem we had to a resolution. It's appreciated and I'd like to express the support for him from the bookto PTA. I think he's being treated

015unfairly and I'm going leave it at that. Thank you, Mr. Williams. The next person to address the board, I believe it is Al Deviso or [Applause] Deiso. Good evening. Thank you for allowing me to speak. And it is weird talking in front of a timer. I do a lot of public speaking but never had the clock right in my face. So, um, as a dedicated professional with over 25 years experience working in transition services for students with disabilities and as the past national president for the division of career development and transition for the council for exceptional children. I'm here today to speak because I'm deeply concerned about the proposed budget cuts when it comes to those individuals that serve our most significant needed population. These are the job training coordinators that work with students with

016the most significant special needs. 20 years ago, during my time as an intervention specialist at Akran public schools, 20 years ago, uh um my students benefited from a robust network of support. This included supplemental support teachers, transition specialists, which I was a pleasure to be one. We had behavior specialists, job training coordinators. Today, only the job training coordinators remain. They are the last line of direct support for students who rely on these services to successfully transition from high school to their adult roles. Now, as a professor of special education at the University of Akran, I've prepared a lot of your teachers and they have been doing fantastic. I'm also a board member for Weaver Industries and I can tell you I know how essential the roles the job training coordinators play not only in theory

017but in practice. Our students with disabilities deserve consistent highquality support to reach their full potential. Eliminating any of these JTC's would be a disservice to the future of our inclusive education which I know Akran public schools so deeply values. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Deiso. Next, we will have uh Shannon Bowlinger. Shannon Bowlinger. Thank you for your time this evening. Some of you may be familiar with me, but I am very passionate about our students with disabilities. And so any cuts made to vital resources and supports like our job training coaches, our psychologists negatively directly impact our students. And they impact it right now. It's not days, weeks, months down the road. These coaches are vital to our students. Our gened students um have a multitude of employment options um strategies and supports to prepare

018them to enter the world. Our students with disabilities depend on our job training coaches. Most are not able to take part in their pathways. This is a vital service and when we cut those that means greater number of students per coach, less students able to access the community res supports and resources that they vitally need and that is just completely unfair to what they are entitled to. And they already get less than the other students. They are not properly supported and resourced and funded through state and federal programs in the way that they should be. And we know this harms our districts, but we cannot cut these services to our students. They vitally depend on it. Our job training coaches are so important um for working and finding programs and providing the the training and

019the supports our kids need to be successful after they leave our schools. I mean we can't they they are our family. They are our children depend on them. When we talk about cutting psychologists that means less children identified under child find. That means longer wait times to conduct evaluations while our kids wait. It is denying them the services they need. And I would like to remind this district very strongly that you cannot deny services based on income or unavailability of providers. You have a legal requirement to provide faith to our students. And we will remind our parents of their rights. I am very prolific about that. You know, our parents and our families and our students, they they have rights and they have rights to be served. So, when we have long lines and long

020lists and not enough and community engagement, who suffers? Our children, the ones least able to advocate and speak for themselves. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you, Miss Wellinger. Next, we'll have Bob Campbell. Thank you to the board for allowing me to come and talk with you and express my concern and frustrations. We at Craft 33, a cabinet assembly company, have been associated with the program of the transition to work uh based program for three years now. We just learned that this program is being reduced due to critical budget cuts. I've been around a long time. I've ran budgets most of my life. I understand the hard management and maintaining of that budget. I also know that the impact of cuts that will have a domino effect far far beyond the dollars and

021cents. Our craft team have watched these young men and women grow and prosper from this program. They come to us with a need to learn and understand the real world. Outside of the classroom, every time they walk through our doors, there's such an energy you can't imagine. There's an excitement. There's curiosity. It is contagious among all of us. When they walk through that door, we all get up from our desk and go and greet them. I even have had young men and women come into my office and say, "Hi, Bob. How are you today?" And I'm sitting with my boss having a budget meeting. So, it's more than the budgets and budget, the dollars and cents. They come with us with a need to learn and understand the real world outside of the classroom. They

022ask a million questions or more and are wanting to learn something new. They get to do things a classroom cannot teach them or isn't scripted. They get to interact with folks in our office on our assembly line and watch equipment pick up big things and move them around in amazement. We have held birthday parties for them. We have end of the year parties for them every year. I just want a chance to convey the importance and the impact of the domino effect of cutting resources, beautiful resources that handle those kids so nurtured, so soft, so good, it's ridiculous. The impact again of the domino effect can be uh understating. These young men and women only get a chance to do this because of this program. This is their basketball game, soccer game, or football game.

023[Applause] Please, I implore you to do not take this program away for any of them. Let them have their day to raise their hand and say, "Yes, I did this." Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Campbell. Next we will have Jodie Layman. Hello. Thank you. Thank you for the chance to speak. I'm Jody. This is my daughter Dakota. She goes to Garfield CLC and she is in the transition to work program there. She's been there in in the program this year and this year I've seen immense growth in her. She's got more confidence. She comes home and she does more stuff at home on her own. She thinks about her future now. She thinks about what she can do and what she can do when she grows older and graduates. She wants to

024go to college. She wants to get a job. She wants to work hard like mommy does. and she sees mommy doing it every day. To take away the funding for this program is a tragedy to these kids. When Miss Davis told me about what was happening, I was appalled for two reasons. I was appalled that there was only seven of these I'm sorry, it's been a long time since I've done this job training coordinators to begin with. And the fact that you want to take two more away, that is not enough for these kids. It's taking their chance to be a normal normal working person in our new society that they are going to be the future of. She is our future. I have I have I have four kids. Two graduates from APS and

025two future graduates from APS. I just want her to have the chance that my three mainstream kids got. She should have the same chance. And I shouldn't have to worry about whether or not she's going to be able to. I want her to be able to have real life experience because I work I do work a lot and it's hard for me to get that for her. And she comes home so excited on the day she gets to go to the zoo on Mondays and she helps clean the aquarium cages. She sends me pictures. She has a blast. She's with the gentleman from Craft 33. Loves it. She absolutely loves it. I just want all these kids, all the kids to have the same chance as every other student. They should have their own pathway

026and taking this away takes away their hope for a future. That's I just that's all I can say. Thank you, Miss Layman. Next, I believe it's uh Kame Rice or Kamar Rice. Good evening, board members. Thank you so much for allowing me to talk about my concerns that are not only important to me but to many families and students in our district. And I'm here because I'm concerned about the proposed cut for the job training coordinators. Um I believe that this will negatively affect all of our students with disabilities. And this is my daughter Carmen. She goes to Bookto CLC and currently she volunteers at Hope Soap Ohio and she goes to the Northplace Marketplace. Um I've since she's participated I've noticed her independence has grown, her confidence has grown, her ability to follow steps

027have grown as well. And when she get home, she'll do something before I even have to tell her to do it. She's wiping off tables. She's she's participating with her laundry. You know, she's getting chores done around the house. And I'm not sure how much she would have been able to do had she not participated in this program. So, I understand that, you know, hard decisions need to be made and budget cuts have to happen, but this cut would be long-term harm to our students with disabilities. So, I'm asking to please reconsider that because they all deserve that equal opportunity to grow. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Rice. Next, we have William Reynolds. Um, before I read what I prep I prepared, I just want to um point out that um I'm proud to be

028part of the Akran community. I look at this room full of people and we might not agree on everything, but this is what democracy looks like. Good evening members of the board. My name is William James Reynolds, Senior. I stand before you today as a proud Akran resident, a community advocate, and most importantly, as someone who cares deeply about the future of our children and the integrity of the institutions meant to serve them. Tonight, I come to you with concern, not just about leadership, but about culture. Not just about what not just about what has been said, but what has been allowed. In recent weeks, this board and our community have been confronted with deeply troubling allegations regarding the superintendent. More than two dozen current and former employees have reported threats, public humiliation, and degrading

029remarks made by the superintendent himself. When educators are told, "I should just fire you all." When community members are described as baby mamas. And when students are reduced to stereotypes like wearing ankle bracelets, we are not just facing a public relations issue. We are confronting a crisis of leadership. This is not a one-time slip of the tongue. This is a pattern, a pattern of disrespect, of intimidation, and of disregard for the people who make our schools function every day. Our teachers, our staff, our families, and our students. Let me ask you this. If any teacher had been accused of saying these things in the classroom, would they be in the building the next day? If if we demanded accountability out of every other level of Akran public schools, why should the highest office be exempt?

030Furthermore, the use of disappearing emails messages sent via Gmail's confidential mode is not just a technical choice. It raises red flags. It undermines public transparency. It shakes our confidence in open government governance. It tells our community, "We don't want you to see." That is unacceptable. I know that leadership is not easy, but leadership is not just about vision. It's about values. It's about building trust, not tearing it down. It's about creating a culture where everyone, especially those who speak up, feel heard, safe, and respected. So, I asked this board, what message are we sending if we allow this behavior to continue unchecked? What are we telling our teachers, our children, and ourselves? I urge you to place the superintendent on administrative leave while a full independent investigation is conducted. Let the facts speak. Let the

031truth come forward. And I will be honest, I don't know the superintendent. And if he's not guilty of what he was has been accused of, it's a travesty. Um, but above all, let the people of Akran know that this board does not condone bullying, disrespect, hostility, or intimidation at any level. You have a duty to the community. Please fulfill it with courage and conscience. Thank you very much. Excuse me. Where's the moderator at? Because at first I had a whole lot to say, but I toned it down just to comply with the rules. How we going to [Applause] Next to speak is Unice Carter. [Music] Hello, my name is Janice Carter and I was booked a cheer coach for the past three years. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak facts and truth

032which can be verified through emails with the human capital director Angela Carter. Please allow the record to reflect that the special needs cheerleader participated in every cheer activity from March to September until her mother singlehandedly sabotaged her daughter's high school cheer career. That mother lied and cried to you at the board meeting in January. Organized an illegal unauthorized team fundraiser in August by soliciting money and exploiting her daughter on mall avenue while in bookto cheer gear. I directed that parent to the building administrators as all fundraisers according to Akran public school policies have to be approved prior to that. parent was told she could turn in the money for her daughter's breast cancer cheer gear. However, that mother went out of town and did not turn any money in. That parent attempted to cohorse other

033parents to not purchase the breast cancer gear and start texting a lot of you guys as well as the parents threatening to physically assault me. On September the 29th, she attempted to fulfill her threats by trying to attack me while I was standing outside with her daughter because she was 20 minutes late picking her up. A no trespass order went in place. However, that parent never adhered to that trespassing order. October. The cheerleader participated in all cheer practices but no football games because not because she was a special needs cheerleader but because her mother did not purchase the breast cancer gear per cheer contract. All cheerleaders must be in uniform. The parent communicated continuously with the human capital director who supported and encouraged that parents bullying and intimidation tactics. During the football season, that mother

034deliberately sent her daughter in the wrong attire to the games, got mad when her daughter could not cheer, and called her listening ear, who again supported all the harassment that I went through. Angela Carter enjoyed the harassment I incurred during this cheer season. Many employees, cheerleaders, and parents wanted to come to my defense. However, I did not want the plan the par the employees to be targeted and I needed my cheerleaders to focus on school and I did not want the parents to come here because they have been through enough. That parent who cried and lied to you deliberately sabotaged her daughter's high school cheerleading career, not me. Was I retaliated against because I spoke up at the meeting the superintendent had at Bookto when proposing to make Book two schools? Because that's where the

035human capital director said she remembered me from. Did I obstruct Michael and his mission or was I the entertainment for unethical Angela while I was being unprotected and harassed? Moving forward, I hope Angela Carter is one of the unnamed administrators that is under investigation. It is if not, I am requesting that she is added. Her allowing hostile environments and supporting unethic harassments and bullying behaviors from parents towards coaches may be common to her but is unacceptable and unappreciated. Thank you. [Applause] And just as a point of order because I believe in being respectful when people come and they speak and I believe this is a public platform but we just ask when you come to refrain from stating um individuals names your grievance can be heard and you can speak to someone in administration concerning

036employees or even as the board um recess or email to any of your board members. Excuse me. We just ask that you refrain from using their names. And additionally, we do want to hear to the time and as the the timer goes off, as you all have witnessed, I've allowed people to finish their sentences just because I believe it's a little uncoo to interrupt them. And so, I'm just asking that you all would adhere to that and when you hear the um timer go off that you would just stop because I would prefer that than to seem like as if I'm rudely interrupting you. However, we do have to conduct this business and um to move it forward. Uh, next we have Donald Carter to address the board. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Carter. Mr. Carter

037said he would abstain for those who are at home. And um, Miss We have Lori Oliver. Good afternoon. I come this afternoon um to the board. Uh my business here is I wish to speak to you all in regards to the elimination of the two job training coordinators with the transition to work pathway closer. Thank you ma'am. Appreciate that. I wish to address the uh elimination of the two job coordinator positions uh with the uh disability pathway program. Um, I just want to say that uh from the time um a child or any child in the Akran public schools is in preschool um onward through grade school, then um their middle school years and then high school. They are taught um to have all of the um accolades of as much independence and as much

038um work ethic as they can towards their um subjects um reading, writing, arithmetic but also um towards self-independence, self-reliance. science and my daughter is currently at CLC and for the last three years she has been uh in the community involved in the pathway program. These pathway programs are bridges. Bridges for uh what these children have learned from the time they have been in preschool uh to what they will become because of the team that has made them along with their family. What we have all worked together so hard to make them into and who they will become. And the job training coordinator position is invaluable. Um particularly um the gal that my daughter has this year has been invaluable in allowing her to communicate and step forward into her learning of how to be a

039human in the workforce of how to try to obtain her future. And not only do I speak today on behalf of my daughter and also my stepson who was in this program, but also those that are yet to come. And I thank you for giving her that opportunity. But I ask that the future students in this disability program have enough job training coordinators to pursue their goals. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Oliver. Nathan Waden. Hello, my name is Nathan Walden. I'm the owner and the founder of Hope Soap. It's a local business here and um the founder of a nonprofit organization called People Serving Hope. And I just want to read a letter to you if that's okay. Um it says, "To superintendent and members of the school board, I'm writing today with deep concern

040regarding the recent decision to cut two job training coordinators from the transition to work pathway that serves students with disabilities, including the job training coordinator who has been my primary point of contact. While I understand that this may not mean the pathway is being eliminated entirely, I'm deeply worried that these cuts put its future and the ability to truly serve these students at serious risk. For the past four years, Hope Soap has partnered with Akran public schools to provide hands-on realorld job experience to students with multiple disabilities. In our um in our instance, we have seen the growth, the confidence, and the independence that this program helps foster. We've heard the testimonies from parents and you've heard today as well and we've seen the impact with our own eyes. In fact, we were so moved

041by one of the students progress and work ethic that we actually hired her after she completed the program with us. These experiences stay with us. I've personally watched non-verbal students greet customers using their communication devices, smile stretching eartoear while proudly helping customers and operating a checkout register. I've seen limited verbal students begin speaking confidently, welcoming people, sharing their favorite products, and walking customers through the shop to show them where things are. These are unforgettable moments. They speak louder than any report or data point could ever. Um, they speak to the power and success of this program. This opportunity is vital in the transition to work pathway for the students. It's not a bonus, it is a bridge. And for many of them, it may be the only chance that they have to experience structure supported

042meaningful job training in the real world setting. The job training coordinators are essential to the success. They guide, communicate, support, and connect. They make sure that the program runs smoothly and that each student receives the individual attention they need to thrive. Without them, I am very afraid that this program would not reach as many students or provide the same quality of support. I urge you to do more research to fully understand what's being cut and what it truly takes to continue this program at the same level, if not at a higher level. From my experience, the two individuals being cut are nothing short of amazing. Their absence would leave a significant void. I invite you um and I want to say this like off the letter. I invite all of you. I know you're all

043very busy, but if you have time on a Tuesday or Thursday, you're welcome to come into my store, Kyhoga Falls, and watch these kids in action. So, you could actually see what they're doing and what they're learning and not just us telling you it. You would be more than welcome to see the kids do that. Um, please reconsider this decision and these cuts. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. W. And next, we will have um Pam Taylor. Hello. Hello, Mr. Dr. Robinson. I want to thank you. I've seen your work and you came out and spoke to a young man that someone had mentioned something bad about you. you came out of your work area and spoke to that young man and I appreciate it. I am sorry that I at the time cuz

044I was dealing with some stuff with my own self being deframed and everything and I want you to remember Palms 13 people that attack you and do things to you as vengeance ain't yours it's God's and he going to take care of everybody and take them through everything they put you through and you remember that cuz I know it's hard but as far as the MRD D I did 27 and a2 years working with them and retired out. So I know the feeling. These kids do do good and I know you'll see it through. A lot of this is Trump's and you know you have some people that's in these suits and ties that mean you no good. But that's all right. You got the army and the reserve behind you, sir. And you going

045to keep on doing it. I ain't going to say you going to try. You're going to do it. Now, put that in the Beacon Journal. Please put that in the Beacon Journal. And Diane Ary, I knew you before you came down here, and you've always been an activist for kids. Always. All right. Always. And she put closets, commended the principles. She went into the schools and talked to the principles and the teachers to find out their needs. And they have a closet that where the students are getting rewards. They got uh tickets that will have their school logo on them. Kids is getting 78 100 tickets to go shop in this closet to buy what they want and also for the parents to go and buy needs that they want. Don't tell me you don't

046run out of toilet paper, paper towels, and need a few extra things. She's provided that for these kids. And I know for a fact I ain't rich, but I didn't donate to some of these uh uh closets, took on my kids ranged from 44 to 24 when they all graduated. I had grandkids, 10 grandkids, lost one because of carelessness. Folks running up and down the street. She was 14 and got m murdered. I had to face them in court. I shouldn't have been there and neither should his people. Folkston struggled to have freedom and they going to sell their self up for nothing. This boy got 22 24 years to life and got babies. You know, it don't make no sense. So, you keep doing what you doing. And I mean that. Thank you, Miss

047Taylor. Next, we have I believe the name is Bonnie Horowitz. Um I apologize if I u please when you come to the mic uh give us the correct pronunciation Hey, can you hear me? Yes, ma'am. Thank you for letting me speak to you. I appreciate it. I'm Bonnie Horvitz. I'm a retired school psychologist with Akran public schools. I've worked with Akran public schools for 27 years and fantastic, fantastic experience. I've been retired for seven years and I've never spoken to the board of ed before. So, this is a little new for me. Lots to say, but I'm trying to think what could have the most impact on you. And maybe I can stick to the school psychology issue. It is so critical that they not be cut. I know there are four people that are

048about to be cut. And I think you all know what school psychologists do, but just briefly as I'm watching that timer, we are the gateway for all the special ed kids. know any child from kindergarten through 12th grade. If the parent suspects that they have a special ed need, they have to come through the school psychologist. And it's a long process and it's all through federal regulations and laws. And you've probably heard some of the lawsuits. So, it's very important to be done correctly. These people that are about to be cut are the best of the best. I think they all have each one more than 20 years experience and you can't replace that. So they're really irreplaceable. If you later decide, well now we we can bring a few back. You won't be able

049to get people like this. They're that talented. I've worked with them. I've seen them. Some have won awards. I know one of them um has been our union rep. And I she would be they're all a tremendous asset to the department. Say [Applause] goodbye. I don't want to take up any of your time, any more of it. I appreciate you letting me speak. I'm very grateful and I know you have a really hard job and I don't know where you make the cuts, but I'm asking please don't make them with this school psychologist. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Horitz. Miss Horowitz. Next, uh, we have Jodie Grass. Grass. Thanks for pronouncing it correctly. I appreciate it. Currently, public schools are under attack. The state of Ohio has reiged on its commitment to fair funding of

050public schools. They are more interested in ha in enhancing private schools through increased public dollars going to vouchers. They are increasing cost placed upon public schools to community schools such as in transportation. The state house is going after the financial stewardship mechanism, the carryover funds used by districts to buffer against unforeseen budgeting issues and to plan for the future. The concept of local control is long gone. We haven't even spoken about the interference from the federal government also taking aim at public schools. While all these outside attacks, it would seem a strong and unified district would be the best defense. And that is what APS is lacking. Therefore, it sadly seems like the best decision for the entire APS community to move forward during this difficult time. Reverend Harris's proposal should be supported while the

051process plays out. the positives far outweigh the negatives. It would be an act of good faith. It would show the superintendent trusts the process and acknowledges the burden that is being placed on administrators and staff who are charged with carrying out their daily duties for the students in the community. Going on leave would support two of four corners cornerstones in the strategic plan. showing how he deeply understands and embraces that document. One, the culture of safety and belonging commitment where all members of our school community are respected and supported. And three, operational excellence commitment. I have been engaged and involved at various levels of public school advocacy in general and in APS specifically over the course of seven superintendent since 1985. The decision to go on leave while the investigation continues may be painful for

052the superintendent. It would seem a brave and generous act if he does so. Thank you. Thank you. Next, we would have Brandy Vickers. Oh, I missed. [Music] Good evening, board members. Um, in the equity meeting prior to the last meeting, speakers, uh, yeah, we can't hear you through the mic. Okay. In the, uh, equity meeting prior to the last meeting, the committee spoke on a policy 2260.07 where they discussed language about ensuring vendors were informed, engaged, but most importantly about being committed to fairness. I'm here speaking with you all tonight because I feel it's important to continue to bring things to your attention. one that directly affects my ability to do business with the district and more importantly speaks to the integrity of how concerns are handled with the administration. As you all know, last

053school year I raised concerns about issues I believe that could affect APS financial situation, student safety, and compliance. I did so in good faith, believing that it was my responsibility to speak up. And then after 18 years of having zero issues, I was accused without evidence of tampering with other vendors vehicles. The accusation is completely false and I believe it was made in retaliation because I came here and I spoke. This situation has damaged my reputation. It's jeopardized my livelihood. And I've always approached my work with professionalism and a sincere commitment to the well-being of our APS students and families. Does being a contractor for APS mean that I don't deserve a thorough investigation? Because I was never asked anything or spoken to about this situation. I was just found guilty and threatened with the

054possibility of losing my contract. Also, I have since provided the transportation coordinator with a written statement from the driver that I was testing my magnet on, coupled with the fact that I was punished for rules that were non-existent at the time. If you guys look at that paper, you'll see the email was sent to the drivers for the rules on March 28th. But if you notice the little highlighted area, they tried to throw March 12th on there to make themselves right. The email was sent March 28th, and 16 days later, rules came out, but I was punished on the 12th. I feel targeted, harassed, and bullied. And I respectfully ask the board to look into this because I believe that every employee and vendor deserves to be treated fairly and without fear of retaliation for

055doing the right thing. I'm willing to cooperate fully and provide any information that you need to support a transparent review. And I'm also just for you guys to understand, I'm not looking for any special treatment. I'm just looking to be treated fairly. You cannot punish someone without speaking to them and at least hearing their side of the story. And that is what is being done. And it is not okay. People just because I don't work for uh APS as an employee, I still serve APS and I have done very well for 18 years and I was the right-hand man to the very people who are now targeting and harassing me. And I I'm not going for it. I'm not. So, thank you for your commitment to your accountability for this district and please keep it

056up. Thank you, Miss Vickers. Next, Ben Shrader. Ben Shrader. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak to you guys. Um, so let me start by introducing myself. I'm also a partner of the Akran public schools. I moved here from DC over 10 years ago. I opened up a hotel called the Hilton Garden in I became partners. I started teaching K through 2 grade alternative eating. Showed them what not to eat. Showed them how to pick up that apple, how to make guacamole. Fun stuff. Uh, currently I sit on the East Community Learning Center Career Academy board as a hospitality partner. I operate the number one most requested job site for the College and Career Academy of Akran. I have donated and physically donated over $17,000 in finances and in goods to Akran

057public schools. I have advocated for these donations and I have made more than just that. I have developed and executed multiple fundraising events for Akran public schools and just their students. I held community charity events at my hotel and handed teachers the cash right then and there. That's where it went because they get lost. So the thought of hobbling this opportunity for our exceptional students by removing or limiting certain job training coordinators would only make this transition to employment program ineffective in the future. The job training coordinators are on site daily with these students and effectively communicate and guide students through the different through different on the job skills and situations. I have personally seen the coordinators mentor these students with academic and career advice, check up on their home life, and step in as

058needed. Limiting this availability would only be a detriment to the trust these kids have in this program. The success of these students depends on the guidance given through interactions with the job training coordinators and our on team site help our teams. These interactions awarded students structure a safe learning environment repetition positive reinforcement and a career training that hopefully would be a building block for a better self-worth and a future financial commerce benefit to our society. I have seen the benefits firsthand, the success of this program. I have employed multiple students. In fact, I am actually on boarding another one tomorrow at my hotel from this program. That makes seven that I have employed at my hotel from this program. Thank you, Mr. Shrader. Next, we have Sally Portoris. Sally Portoris. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. I'm

059here to speak to the proposed um cuts of Oh, I'm sorry. I'm I'm here to speak to the um the recommendation to make cuts to eliminate two of the seven job training coordinators. I'm not going to be redundant. I'm quite happy that a lot of people got up and spoke before me. Um, instead I'm just going to tell you a success story. I have two autistic children. Both um attended Akran public schools. My daughter Hannah, she graduated in 2020 and the um transition to work pathway program was there for her. They worked with her in um the 2018 year and the 2019 2019 and 2020 year. And um the work experience that she gained working through that program helped her get her first job which is at a place called Teammates where she works with

060other children who are disabled and their disabilities are a little more profound than hers. My daughter has been working at that job since she graduated in 2020. And I think that that is a direct she works there now, she works there today. She works 5 days a week, 5 hours a day. And I think that is a direct result of her um working with in the um transition to work pathway. My son Joseph is currently also in the program and he is set to graduate um next year. And I just want to say that I really appreciate all of the teachers in the Akran public school. I don't want to spend a lot of time um thanking uh officials and politicians and church leaders. I appreciate you teachers. I appreciate y'all cuz I didn't know

061what it was going to be like to send two autistic children to school or to see them go out into the world and have normal lives and and be normal people. And that would not happen without any of you. I want to thank you for your hard work. I want to thank you for working overtime. I want to thank you for buying school supplies at the dollar store. I want to thank you for buying Kleenex and and uh Clorox wipes and and other things that we needed in our classrooms. I want to thank you for your patience. And I want to tell you that you are the reason that we will have good people in the future to make better decisions. That's what I want to say today. My daughter was born a month early.

062She weighed 5 lbs and 12 ounces. She was blue, not breathing, and had to be resuscitated. She was non-verbal for the first three years of her life. And now she is a working, functioning, taxpaying, acting resident, and I have a public school teachers. Aan public school teachers. I I thank you and I appreciate you. Don't cut this program. We need this program. Thank you, Miss Portoris. Next, we'll have Dr. NJ [Applause] Akbar. Amen. Hello everyone. Um, I am uh going to try to pair down my uh comments because I know we've had a lot of people here today. Um but as most of you know um over the last fall I knocked um and went door to door knocked um hundreds of doors uh to make sure that we passed the levy um to support

063our schools. I'm an unapologetic public school advocate unapologetic about it. and in and in that um time um knocking doors um and supporting the levy under the um outstanding leadership of Carla Chapman. Um, one of the things was constant that I heard. Um, voters appreciated that this board has been intentional about standing up for people's uh, right to even just speak and share with you as well as um, being able to include them in the process. Uh, those things were um, some things that um was important and making sure that we serve all students. Um, so I'm here to talk about the um, repeal that's on the agenda of the equity policies and racial equity policies. I see no reason to make a change before actually moving forward with the um, comprehensive student success policy.

064Our community deserves us to make a stronger commitment to assure them that all students will be looked at and will be able to have the successful um practices and tools that they need before we repeal something. I know, thank you very much. I know that we live in horrible times with uh dictator um sending directives saying that you can't even say the word diversity. Um the chief diversity officer and the work that that office does is not just about race. It get reduced and minimized to race, but it's more than race. And so the work that they do and the way it was written in the policy and as you know I wrote the policy um the way it was written in the policy is that role and that office is serve as the auditor.

065That role and that office is to look at student outcomes. Our state report card has closing the achievement gap. You can't do that if you're not looking at the data. That office needs to stay put. You don't have to focus on race. let the data take you where you need to go. And I promise you that data will tell you that there's something that you have to do about certain students um and to make sure that they all succeed. And so let's do that. Let's not repeal the policy. Let's actually focus on whatever changes that still need to be made to the comprehensive student success policy. Pass that first. Give the community the assurance that they need. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Obar. Uh, next, Abigail Drenin. Abigail always has nice shoes [Laughter] on. Good

066evening, President Jackson, members of the Akran School Board, Superintendent Robinson, and everyone else here. Uh, first I would like to thank board member Sykes for your recent opinion letter about fair school funding as well as Ohio State Representative Sims for voting no on the recent omnibus budget passed through the Ohio House. My name is Abby Drenin and I'm a mother to two gifted students at KCLC. I'm also a member of our PTA and serve as our communications lead and a member of the college and career academy steering committee with my oldest child Harvey. I have lived in Akran permanently for over 14 years and I'm so proud to send my children to KCLC and be active within our public schools. I am filled with an immense rage when I think about how our tax dollars

067that should be going to our students at public schools are being funneled to children attending attending private schools to subsidize their education as well as to be used to fund a brand new stadium for the worst team in the NFL, the Cleveland Browns. I hate money. I hate talking about money. I hate needing money to do the things I want to do. When I imagine the future, money is not a part of it. But here we are today advocating, asking nicely for our public money to stay with our public institutions. Specifically, $100 million of underfunding for our Akran public schools and $2.75 billion for all public schools in Ohio. Not only would this money help Akran public schools continue and expand the amazing work already happening in our district, it would relieve any future burden

068we'd have to place on taxpayers. Because when the state fully and fairly funds our public schools, there is no longer a need for additional levies. And $100 million is a massive burden to put on taxpayers who are already paying taxes. These amounts of money seem comical, like Dr. Evil when he's setting the ransom for his evil plans. But unlike the Austin Powers universe, these dollars are real based in data and facts and studies of what it actually takes to educate a student in the state of Ohio. And these costs could be higher. These are real costs associated with real life students and the level of support a stu a special needs student needs versus an English as a second language learner versus a gifted student or any other child in the district. I am generally

069of the belief that we make do with what we have and in my day job am tasked to squeeze the most optimal return on investment out of every dollar I am responsible to spend. But in the state of Ohio where our public schools have been chronically underfunded for decades, we've done that. Our students continue to excel even when held to different standards than private and charter school students. The teachers, staff, and families of Akran public schools are giving our students all that they can give and have been doing so for decades. It is time the state of Ohio live up to the promise they made to our students and fully institute the fair school funding plan. And as a board, you can pass a resolution to show your support for the schools you are stewards

070of. I've emailed a sample resolution to all of you for easy access and adoption. Akran public schools need to get loud about this chronic underfunding and the good this money will do for our city, our state, and our future. If we don't speak up, not only will a will Akran lose those dollars, but so will our neighbors in the smaller, more rural areas of the state who don't have private or charter school options available to their students. I could stop. There's just a little bit more, but thank you. Excellent. Thank you, Miss Drenin. Next, we have I believe it's Journey or Arnad, what you think that said right there? A Y, you live on Dillia and you're a parent. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Joan. Okay. Thank you. Jovon. Jova. Jova. Jova. Okay. Thank you, Taylor. Hello

071everyone. Hello, Miss Taylor. I'm a concerned parent. Um, first I want to give an honor to Dr. Robertson. Um, I also want to thank Miss Audrey. Um, I feel that a lot of stuff that has been going on in the school system, even with my daughter that is now deceased, um, I feel a lot of parents that have lost children due to gun violence, stupidity from someone else. I feel that the parents should be honored a high school diploma for their children. Not only that, it was times when my daughter was living and things was going on in Ara public schools. Mind you, she's in special ed. She was in special ed. I have three children that was in special ed. I have my deceased daughter that was in special ed. My son that is

072now 15 that is suffering from the trauma. He has been mistreated with a lot of the staffs that have the secretaries that have been going on in the school system. I have called down there reported. It was even times when my daughter's information that she's deceased has been dug up. Nothing been done about it. I have two children. My oldest daughter is now 25. So, I've been a parent with Acropublic schools for a long period of time. And if it had not been for Miss Audrey and Dr. Robinson for stepping in, my son, it's times my son don't even want to go to school. But now that we have these two that have been stepping up, doing things in the school system that should have been done, a lot of this stuff need to be

073cleared up. And I thank y'all for doing it. I thank both of y'all for doing it. And I don't want to take up no more of y'all's time, but I hope you guys step up and start, you know, honoring these these deceased children. She was in the eighth grade when she was murdered. And I never received a high school diploma for her. She was supposed to be graduating in June, right behind my sister's son. She was supposed to be the student right behind him. And I'm I'm very disappointed because I have put in a lot in the PTA, the the school systems, even other schools that my kids wouldn't even go to. It's about the children, this fundraiser and all this stuff. What about the kids? Make the kids safe and want to go to

074school. Y'all don't know what they're going through. But I thank both of y'all. Thank you, Miss Taylor. Next we have Robert Lions. Good evening. Thanks for the opportunity to speak. It's not my first time. Definitely not my first rodeo. Um, I was going to talk about van driver stuff, but I'm going to stop right there because what I'm going to talk about is something I get a chance to do every day that hasn't been talked about, and that's driving these kids that some of these representatives are here for. Hope Soap. I've been in because I was driving special needs kids there. Bought some of their products. Excellent place. You guys should visit it. It's awesome. It really is. Uh I drove for a year for Bookville going to the Hilton. Uh five different kids there.

075Got the opportunity to have relationship with these kids. You should see them just in the vehicle from the school to some of the job sites they're going to. They are so talented. They have so much to offer. So when they came and wanted to talk about cuts, I wanted to give you our side of it or my side of it from a driver's standpoint to see the enlightenment that you see what public schools, some in the administration, but mostly the boots on the ground, the teachers, they're there every day making sure those kids get what they need. That's all I got to say for now. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Lions. And uh our last person we have to address the board is Clarissa Cornell. Good evening. Um thank you for having us and allowing us

076to speak about our kids. Um, I'm here to echo um some points that Reverend Walker and my fellow parent Abby made um regarding funding in the state of Ohio for education and um to call you all to action. Thank you for the actions you have taken as recently as today. Um, all this stuff that we're talking about, all these cuts that hard hard decisions that have to be made are going to be a whole lot harder if everyone doesn't stand up, take action, get to Columbus, and stop what is happening. The time was yesterday, but here we are today. While I don't know what can be done to stop the state legislature from continuing to erode public education in the state, I know that getting as much media attention as possible on harmful state legislation

077has been an effective way to at least mitigate the damage. What the Ohio House just passed would not just further erode the quality of our education and services in our schools, it would decimate them. According to data from Ohio Policy Matters, APS stands to lose $100 million. $100 million. Has everyone heard that? Like the money that we're supposed to get that we're still we're expecting 100 million. We're not getting with the House plan. Everyone needs to know that this we are on fire. This is a public safety issue. This is a public health issue. a business development issue, not to mention a moral issue. The Akran public schools board, that's you. You are in a position to elevate clarify facts of what is at stake, leveraging media coverage and stakeholder relationships. We need your leadership

078now to build a drum beat of disscent. While there are helpful organizations that are organizing in the state, we don't have centralized leadership in Akran to organize and mobilize in defense of and in advocacy for our Akran public schools. I very much appreciated the superintendent's email calling for action earlier this year uh asking parents to email uh our legislators. That was wonderful. We need more of that and we need some more creativity to add to that. Please use your positions of power and influence to amplify the facts, initiate a drum beat of disscent, and guide our citizens toward organized action. Specifically, I ask that you join school systems like Madina really like we're comparing our Madina has already done this new Philadelphia and Westerville and pass a resolution affirming your support for the fair school

079funding plan. Second, I request that as a board member or as a board and as individuals, you work strategically to identify actions that you can and will take to increase awareness of what is at stake for Akran public schools with the budget cuts that our state leaders are proposing. Thank you. Thank you. Um, next we'll have board member reflections. Um, and uh I think it's appropriate Doc Dr. Thompson, he's going to because about the fair funding and then member hall, I saw that member hall being that uh our uh community member who just shared with us and I've heard a couple communities members mention about us joining um the fight and the fair uh school funding. And so uh Dr. Thompson. Yeah. Just just briefly so everyone's aware, we have uh recently 6 months ago

080roughly uh joined the uh lawsuit against vouchers. So we are Akan public schools is part of that larger group uh trying to make a difference and we have passed one resolution in the past related to vouchers. Uh many of you know that um Mrs. Sykes has been very vocal. Uh she's not vocal very often, so it's a little unusual that she would be vocal against um vouchers, but we have and in fact my update is an update on where that where the current House Bill 96 stands, which it's in the Senate now. So I'll give you a few updates when when we get to that point. But everybody here that spoke about funding is 100% correct. Just vouchers alone is impacting us over $26 million a year. A year in funding and growing and growing.

081And I'll talk a little bit more about um some of the games that are played with the numbers. uh when we use a number it benefits us depending on the message we're trying to send versus a percentage for example and just to give you an idea of what I mean just slightly over the state will say we've added over $200 million to public schools sounds like a lot doesn't it except there are 614 school districts to spread that $200 million across. Do you think it even remotely stays uh even close to just inflationary uh numbers? And of course the answer is no. Absolutely not. So so I will hit that in the report. So absolutely. Thank thank you Dr. Thompson. I just wanted him to address that because it seemed appropriate with what was discussed.

082Member Hall, you wanted to share. Oh no. I just um when everyone was speaking about the um reduction of the um job training coordinators, I just wanted to make sure that we were referring to 21.5 the uh resolution for teacher reduction of force when everyone was coming up speaking about um losing these special needs teachers. So, okay. Well, we can address that when we get to that point on the agenda. Okay. Are there any other uh board member reflections? Member Harrison. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, um I would like to offer a resolution um when you think it's appropriate. Um but I would like to give some um well, if this is the resolution just for a point of order, it will probably it will probably be introduced in new business when we get

083to wherever you think it's appropriate. Yes, sir. Okay. it sort of being a new business and so at that time you can give um you want me to speak on it on that time new business. Okay. Well, I I I would like to speak um about um some of what we've heard today. Um some of the people who have come forward um about the job coordinators and um it is really disappointing that we really can't speak to what they're speaking of um simply because we don't have that information. Um, and so when we look at the agenda, the cuts that are being made, um, I I just want to be clear, um, that we don't have the outline. We don't have the plan. We don't know why what is being cut, uh, because we have

084not received that information. Um, so we're still in a waiting pattern for that. Thank you, Madam Chair. No problem. Um, Mr. Harrison, are there any other board reflections? Board comm community. Yes, Dr. Molar. Thank you, Madame Chair. I have a lot of community reflections because it's been three weeks since our last meeting. I'm going to try to do it as quickly as I can, but I honestly don't think I can get it in three minutes, but I'm going to do my very best and I'm going to keep going. Um, first, uh, this weekend I was at PAC 30001's Pinewood Derby, which is a great STEM event, annual STEM event. Um, I was also happy to attend recently Akran Press Club's battle over DEI lunchon that really uh being present there affirmed our DEI approach. I

085really appreciated hearing that. Um, I visited Resnik PTA's glow dance party. I also attended a Book PTA meeting and really enjoyed my time there with the Book PTA uh members. Um, I also was a guest I was honored to perform as a guest at Firestone's uh Catalina Club. that's their synchronized swimming team uh for the fairy godmother dance and um there's a a rumor about the Firestone Akran swim team that it's Firestone only and I think it's because of the name but I was interested to find out that's not the case. There are a lot of non even a nonaps students and tryyouts are open now and I would love to spend more time talking about all these different programs um and the the various aspects of these different programs because I know it's something

086that we've mentioned before and people care about. But I really don't have time to talk about any of those programs because I really want to reflect on all of the conversations that I had with parents and community members and even students at these various places that I've been because there were uh common themes across all of the events and it was us the board um across all events there was a power powerful consistent message a strong desire for better communication transparency and accountability from leadership and from the board. Multiple issues were repeated again and again, issues that we've heard tonight. Special ed, DEI, van drivers. These are not new problems. Why are they still problems? Um, they're being dismissed and not resolved and it's causing them to repeat and worsen. And then a new concern

087came up at one of the meetings. students feeling that they must defend their worth to the leaders that are meant to support them. And so I want to say I'm hearing everything that people are saying to me. I'm hearing the community members that are coming here and speaking today. And I'm going to quote some of the community members even from today. A strong and unified district is our best defense because right now we have unprecedented challenges. If we don't have um as another parent said, we don't have a centralized leadership to advocate for schools in Akran. That's supposed to be us. Okay. Um there's important work that we need to come together as a team. Our job is to listen to community members. They are our boss. And so school funding and the state stripping

088our vital resources, that is an opportunity for us to come together to do business, to do our job. So before the meeting today, Ruth passed out a resolution that I'm going to present in new business. This is not my resolution. This is the one that uh was emailed to us by uh Abigail Drenin and mentioned by another board member. This is the template resolution to support the fair school funding plan. This is the one that was passed by Madina and Columbus and everyone that they just mentioned. And so everyone has access to this. It was emailed to the whole board. Um, that's how I received it. Um, and also passed out to us earlier today. And I will be presenting this in new business so we can uh move forward and support our students. Thank

089you. Thank you, um, member Molar for, uh, that community reflection or input. Is there any other community reflections? Uh, member Hall, please. Thank you, Madam President. Um, so since we last met, I've had the opportunity to visit Forest Hill CLC and Leot CLC. Um, one thing at Forest Hill, um, when I spoke with the principal during my tour, she spoke about needing to keep um, dean of students. Um, and I didn't really know that we've changed name from um, assistant principal to Dina students. So, that's something that I I learned. Um, and on top of that, when I visited Leot, I was escorted by Adena students. So, getting to these schools and meeting the staff and actually getting to know what's going on in the schools, um, is very, very important, um, to know exactly

090what they do and how they're promoting our children. Um both schools um have a love for our kids. They want to see more, do more, things like that. Um I know that Leget does not have a church or um an organization to sponsor like their um their back hope bags like other schools do. So if there's anyone out there listening, um Legit um does not have and I'm making sure my school Yeah. does not have someone to do the hold bags for our children. Um secondly, well thirdly, well, I visited the um I attended the E3 male summit this past Friday and it was amazing. It was kids from all over, not just Akran but Canton and some were in suits. Um some were in jogging suits, whatever it was, but they were in tuned,

091engaged, and ready to learn. I attended the session for um actually Will Blake put on the session about media and learning how to be a Tik Tocker and things like that and having the special mics and those type of skills and our students were real engaged and wanted to learn how to do podcasts. So, um I challenge our schools if we're not doing podcasting or if we don't have the correct equipment to show our students, let's look into that. Um, secondly, with the male summit, the speaker spoke about being a human, being a good human, being someone that cares about one another. Um, we don't show love towards each other enough, you know, and it's sad because we expect our children to do all these things, but we as adults aren't doing it. So, what

092type of example are we showing to our children about being respectful, loving each other, loving your parents, loving your teachers, your siblings, your community? We're not doing a good job doing that as adults. So, how can we expect our children to do it? So, I just ask for all of us in the city of Akran because that's where I live. That's where I work. That's where I support. We need to do better with one another. We need to love each other. We need to respect each other. We don't always have to like each other, but we should respect each other and love one another. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, member Hall. Uh, Vice President Alexander. Yes. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I just want to share something. This happened last week. I think it was

093good uh that it was it was it was here in Akran. Uh the um Cap Alpha Cipher Attorney Incorporated their north their northeast region had their district meeting here in Akran uh this past few few days and during the the time they visited here they went to uh Bookto High School and while at Bookto High School there's a program that they have been going across the country and uh getting with high school students to talk about and that program is called learn to live program and with this program uh they had about 100 students there at Bookto in auditorium and what they did is they had students who were actually uh students and they had police officers who were actual police officers and they had uh where they the the kids were in a car

094and they were going down the street and they were stopped by a police officer. What this program was to do is to teach them how to how to to relate with police officers so that when they when they leave that interaction with that police offer or those police officers then they can get home safely. And so they also what they did is they did role play. And so the police officers became the students in the vehicle and the students became the police officers so that they can understand the various roles. And it was it was a little funny because uh one of the police officers did what the kids actually do. And he they were stopped and he asked the questions and just like a lot of the kids do, they were asking him a

095question and while they were asking other kids questions, he opened the door and ran. And so he said he get that all the time. He has to chase kids. So the kids were getting a chance to see what happens and what the the officers are looking at and facing uh these days. But they also wanted to make sure that the kids knew uh that they have their rights and they have certain things that they need to do uh to uh meet the meet them make sure them they can get home safely and and sound. So I I just want to give props to them because I think that program any program that we can give or bring that can help our students is worth it. And if we want to make sure our students stay

096alive so they can stay in school so they can get their education so they can be productive citizens one day then that's what we want. So I want to uh give them a shout out for for bringing this program here uh to Bookto and making sure that uh the students got a chance to participate and understand what the roles are they their role as students and the police officers role as law enforcement. Thank you Madam President. Thank you uh Vice President Alexander. Are there any other board member community reflections? Uh member Altry, please. Thank you, Madam President. Um, and so since we last met, um, I had the opportunity to attend the Akran Art Museum's uh, showcase of our fourth grade students and their essential experiences. And so they partnered uh, with all of our

097fourth graders. They've created an art piece and on Thursday, March 27th, they showcased that art. uh they had pizza and I just want to thank the Akran Art Museum uh for their continued partnership and in giving our students those opportunities. Um also I was able to attend the Ohio School Board Association's Northeast Region Spring Conference um where our very own Bruce Alexander uh was honored for his leadership and so I just wanted to thank him uh for his continued leadership. Um, also I attended the United Way and Center for Immersive Leadership uh breakfast most recently. Um, a nice event. Thanks again as usual to United Way for all that they do. Um, they did have a segment um, during that breakfast that I think is very appropriate at this time. Um, they gave us a

098word of the day and that word was focus and so my focus continues to be children. Um, also that very same day I was had the opportunity to visit the early learning program at Essex. Um, thank you to all of those hardworking staff over there who do such amazing work and they were focused on children. Um, I was able to visit the rooms. It's not my first visit there, but it was a pleasure to return. Um, and so one of the things that I learned um, with our youngest folks, they're having challenges with their fine motor skills. Guess what? their thumbs are very strong, but when it comes to writing, they're challenged with that. Um, because of our use of uh phones and tablets, etc. And so, one of the opportunities that all of those

099students get is specialized physical therapy, occupational therapy to help them in their fine motor skills. So, things like that we don't think about, but they provide that to our students. Again, thanks for the invitation. thanks to our staff um over there at Essex and our entire early learning program. Um also before I uh came to the board meeting, we were at House 330. The Ron Clark Academy is there inspiring um many of our staff members who were invited. We just had a presentation last board meeting and so it was nice to walk in and it was a big tunnel of people giving us all kind of applause and claps in. So I said I'm going to need that for this meeting tonight. So, I appreciate that as well. And then I just wanted to um

100acknowledge the many emails that I've received regarding this pathway program for our most vulnerable students. I was happy to learn that this is a model program. You know, board members, you know, we make certain uh demands of our boss, you need to cut this and then we leave it up to you guys to make those hard, difficult decisions. And so I'm happy to learn about this program and I'm looking forward to further discussion about it later on in the meeting. Thank you. Thank you. Member Autry. Um any more reflections? I think that's the board. I'll give my community reflections and I want you to put the timer up because I'm going to model the same behavior I ask at a community of three minutes. I had the privilege and honor of attending and being the

101keynote speaker at the Savannah James uh bookto alum alumni uh prom promise event hosted at house 330 was a wonderful philanthropic event which focused on empowering young women as they enter into their next chapter upon graduating high school as well as bless blessing each young lady with a beautiful prom gown. It was over 30 young women um that were there and it was a wonderful site to see and to be a part of. I also attended, as member Archery um expressed, the United Way Center for Immersive Leadership event featuring our wonderful and dynamic Summit County Executive, Miss Eileene Shapiro. And she spoke about better places and things often come through tough times. She spoke of doing the work you set out to do with a goal of purposeful and meaningful outcomes. And as member Autry

102said, the word was focus. I really enjoyed hearing um Eileen Shapiro speak because if you are from the city of Akran her fingerprint you can trace it throughout so many programs and wonderful things that directly impact our community our youth in a meaningful way. She talked about being strong and unified and I thought that was interesting because as member Molinar mentioned and as our community members mentioned that's what we need to be as a district and when you look at a person who as a kid say have multiple receipts about action items and things that they've done in the community and the things they say I like to glean wisdom from people who went before me that are about the work not just with words but with their action. And so I want to thank

103the United Way for all that they do. our community resource centers for partnering with our district. But I also would like to take this moment to additionally thank our um Summit County Executive Eileen Shapiro for all the wonderful things that her and her office do. Um because I believe that you should give honor where honor is due. And so I definitely want to do that. Um Mr. Alexander talked about the members of KPA Alphasai Frater Attorney Incorporated and the wonder things that they did and so I would not um belabor that but they do wonderful things in our community. They bless the students with books and informative things. Um, also as part of that uh the law program, we have uh Jud Judge Hamilton with Compass and the things that he's doing with the young

104people and also the action that he's taken within BookTo uh CLC uh to help inform and to educate our students as well who uh Savannah is a graduate. she did something that's giving back with the prom dress um prom dresses and when people from our community and young people that are leading in our community still reach back as uh Judge Hamilton is doing uh with uh various programs within our schools. I just want to say kudos to them and thank you as well. And that concludes my reflection. [Applause] Next on the agenda is the president's report. A lot of these things have um been spoken about already. Um and I just want to address them and I'll try to go through them briefly for the sake of time. But as the president of this board,

105I want to take a moment to formally acknowledge and elevate several critical concerns that have been brought forward by staff and community members. These concerns span multiple areas of our work from safety and instructional planning to student services and programmatic support. Each one deserves our thoughtful attention and compassionate response as we strive to create safe, fair, and effective learning environments for all students. Staff members have reported feeling unsafe following repeated credible threats made to them by community members during their regular duties within school buildings. Despite administrative efforts, these individuals continue to violate trespass notices that have been issued. And I want to tell you, it was interesting that the young lady who addressed the board and she talked about violation of trespassing issues when people have been issued sanctions that they're not supposed to come

106upon our school. And this is a separate incident. Um I'm just not sharing the name, but it was not that lady who addressed us. And so I can't help but reflect what is the protocol? What are the procedures when these orders are issued that people are not supposed to come onto our premises and they come anyway? How what is the proper response for that? I wanted that community me that uh staff member who's also a community member to know that I heard her um I received the email and I as everyone knows I say it on a mic because I think these are concerns that really need to be addressed. Additionally, we heard about the proposed reduction in job training coordinator positions. member member Harrison uh kind of highlighted some perspective on that from boards

107when we unpack what are the cuts what what will be the impact to the district uh a parent highlighted that we have seven positions and out of those seven positions we're cutting two so we're down to five positions I the question that comes into my mind as an educator how many students are there per instructor what is the ratio what is um when we talk about efficacy student success we heard the testimonials of the families amilies. We heard about how the children are inspired when it comes to these things, but how many students can be served and in what capacity with fidelity if you're only talking about five to seven people. Um I need to know the total numbers of students who are identifying as our special excuse me population and how we are really

108serving them. Uh there is it is no secret that I'm an advocate of entrepreneurship of career opportunities and technical training for all students. our special population especially because we want to equip them with the life skills to be contributing citizens just as we want to do for all of our learners. So I think those are very sailing issues that we must deal with with fidelity. This is not just a swipe of a pen. This is not just an action that we take and this is not to be disrespectful to anyone or the work that they do. Um I talk about a financial audits all the time since I've been on this board. What can we do with and what can we do without? And I believe cuts should always come from other areas before they

109come to the areas that directly impact students, teachers, and instructors. Um, and so that's um my feeling on that area. Additionally, instructional time and planning models. I've been hearing a lot from um educators and administrators and uh particularly around the uh the ninth grade level. I believe I was trying to remember. I was trying to recall and put in my report from my conversations and it was dealing with the instructional model and they raised concerns about AB scheduling model uh which or which allows students only 90 minutes of instruction every other day. uh the feedback has consistently indicated that daily instruction in core subjects like math and um English language is necessary to adequately support student learning learning especially foundational literacy and numeracy. Now, we had a a a woman that came and addressed the

110board and I I her name uh Mrs. Me now, but she talked about our transitional report and this is a public document that people can look at and I would implore you that if you have time when you want to get to the heart of the matter, I love Dr. D. She was my middle school principal. But one thing she would say as I became older is what pay attention to the data. What does the data say? And so when we look at what the data says um concerning our levels of reading and where our students are fairing at, we have work to do. So if we're going to be transparent and honest, let's be transparent and honest about the work that we must do academically to serve our students in the spirit of educational

111excellence so that they desire to be in our district to remain in our district. The transitional report is very informative. We have great products here at APS. We have excellent even I would say exceptional curriculum. However, we can have the exceptional curriculum. We can have the bell and whistles. But if it's not being executed with fidelity for all learners across all schools, regardless of what your cluster, there should not be a difference between east cluster and firestone cluster if it's one APS. And those are the real conversations that we need to have. So also teachers um talked about uh this additional addition of non-essential assessments and these are things also I'm going to bring up an instructional policy meeting but because this is a a you know a a well attended meeting that most people

112look at I wanted to bring these points up because the teacher said we're reducing effect effective instructional time without clear added value. So when we add these assessments and we require teachers to administrate them during various courses throughout a day and we don't know that it is really adding value to the educational process, these are things too that we should reconsider. Additionally, we talked about the school psychologists and their roles that they're play and as an educator I'm familiar with that and the time that it takes for students to properly get evaluated for individual educational plans or 504 plan. This has to go through school psych. But if there's a limited amount of school psychologist, then that means the wait time, as that's already been shared, is going to be that much longer. However, there's

113another caveat to this. When I was speaking with teachers and administrators, they had a concern about when these meetings are held and they're not in agreement with everything as from a professional standpoint, not personal, with what is being put on the individual educational plans for some students. You will recall a couple board meetings ago when we were talking about schools like Bridges um and being overpop populated. Um I can't help but say I don't know that all students uh meet the designation that is written up about them and the teachers were and administrators I was speaking to were in agreement with that meaning there can be some behavior issues that can be mitigated. However, when we look at policies and you know it seems people it's a challenge with people following policy. We have written

114policy that speaks clear to various issues but people don't refer to policy and people just talk out and say what should be. We have written policy that supports actions of administrators and teachers in building as far as um how to deal with certain behaviors and students. That does not mean that that student is necessarily a behavior issue that needs to go to a behavior school which in some cases that is the case. And so this I thought that that was um very interesting too to share. Um also um professional learning communities and collaborative planning. Uh the teachers have made mention of this being done. Uh what is the point like if we're getting together and doing this that that real salient sharing of knowledge and implementation of what the teachers see and say needs to

115be executed in their building or in their classroom and in their specific domain of education. um clear structures and definitions around these professional collaborations um and also concerns about being challenged on uh with equity questions when they go to select sub subs for their buildings. And so uh that commits concludes the president's report and just I want to reiterate that as a president I remain deeply committed to listening and gaining understanding to individuals. Again, this is why as individuals speak, I don't feel I don't want to cut them off because when you read into our board bylaws and our policies, it says that this engagement between the board and the community is supposed to happen that we are supposed to reflect on our engagement with the community. We we're supposed to hear from you and

116as a result of hearing from you, respond to you. So, um I think it's decent and in order when we do those things. Again, I just want us to be mindful um of when we have time constraints that we stay within those time constraints. And this does conclude the uh president's report. Thank you. Next, we will have the superintend superintendence report. Thank you, President Jackson. want to just remind our parents that beginning Friday, April 21st um through the 25th, but beginning Friday um we will be on spring break. Um had an opportunity to attend the Bookville experience with the Kappa Alphasai fraternity incorporated along with our police uh department. um had the opportunity also to partic with um Mr. Eddie, Dr. Eddie Glide. also have had the opportunity to do some lunch and learns with

117uh some of the schools where I have the opportunity to sit and listen to our students as they're speaking and providing me with information, feedback, data to help support some of the work that's being done, but also to look at how we can imp uh things that we can improve improve upon. also attended the United Way uh breakfast u which was very uh very very good. Had the opportunity to just kind of be at the forefront of the work that's being done tonight with Mr. Iron Clark. had an opportunity to actually meet him in person and um I think that this is going to be the beginning of a great partnership for our teachers as well as for our community around some of the work that we can do collaboratively to help support our teachers

118and so it was great uh having the opportunity to be there. It is with a heavy heart though that I uh announce um the passing of Justin Pas which was one of the CCAA academic academy coaches at North High School. And so I do want to extend um to the students at North, the faculty and staff at North um our deepest sympathy and compassion for you and also his family and his wife uh and co-workers um who he meant a lot to and again just keeping the family in thought and in prayer. Also acknowledging the retirement of Miss Merge Freeman, Secretary 3. Um, you may know her from being the person that does fingerprints and also Mr. Paul Taylor, who is one of our custodians after 30 years of service. The month of April is

119filled with some of our national days, National Counseling Awareness Month. Uh we certainly want to always um let our counselors know how much we really appreciate the work that they do in the schools and helping to support our students. Um but counseling goes outside of that as well. Uh pair of professionals, we want to recognize them and thank them for the work that they do each and every day. Um, we could not do what we do without our pair of professionals and we certainly need many, many more of those. The National Employee Benefits Day, um, National Assistant Principles Week, which is 7th through the 11th of April. Want to say thank you to our academy coaches, our assistant principles, our deans. uh thank you for the work that you do in supporting um the leadership

120of the schools but also our our scholars, our librarians which we refer to as media specialists but we want to say thank you to them. April 4th, um, athletes day and we have so many of our scholars that actually are out there and giving it their all and really, uh, putting themselves out there and so we want to say thank you to each of them and thank you to the coaches that support them as well. National Library Week is April 6th to the 12th. U, there is actually a day for kindergarten. So um but we are thankful to the parents who allow us to educate their children in kindergarten um as they come from prek. To our administrative professionals, our administrative assistants uh throughout our district, thank you for the work that you do, um

121I know that the work that Miss Ruth does to help support me and just all of our district. Um she helps to support so many of us. Thank you for that as well. to our volunteers. Thank you for volunteering and just supporting Akran public schools. Um I know many of our teachers, many of our schools would not be able to do the things that they do with our volunteers, some of which are are part of our PTAs and so thank you to them. Um, thank you again to all of our partners and our families and our supporters who generously donate and give so much of their money, their time, who provide grants for our school district, for our teachers, for our our leaders. Thank you for your contribution. And so now for our be kind

122330. And a simple act of kindness can bridge con continents. And that's exactly what happened at Resnik CLC. Second grader Jace Richardson kicked off the new year by sending a greeting to France. Um, which was received by a friend of Resnik's French teacher, um, Mansour Star. Uh, touched by Jayce's thoughtfulness, the recipient sent a reply. not just to Jace but also to Madame Hansen's entire second grade class. What started as one kind gesture has grown has grown into special um Franco American exchange connecting students across the world through kindness and curiosity. Jayce's actions exemplify the IB learner profile, showing how even small moments can create meaningful global connections. Let's continue to celebrate and encourage the kindness that reaches beyond our own communities. And a special thanks to the uh counselor uh Miss Katie Temperio uh

123for sharing um this story. I think when I went to school, they used to call it pen pals, but um that's a long time ago. Thank you, President Jackson. Thank you, Superintendent. Next, we will have the pre the treasurer's report. Uh thank you, Madame President, members of the board. Uh we've heard a lot of discussion tonight about money. In fact, almost everything that was brought to the podium one way or another finds its way back to funding issues. Uh so we're still working our way through House Bill 96 which changes rapidly and to some extent. Uh we've had I was at meetings all this past week. Um there's every day we would sit and hear the update and sometimes when they made the slides the night before they would say please ignore slide 13 because

124it's no longer uh relevant because it's been changed. But these are the major issues that um that I see right now that have seem to have some degree of staying power. And the most concerning one is uh the fact that there how they dis the formula for determining how much money it costs to educate a student is based on the cost from 2022. So and this goes through 2027. So u imagine that you're that you're going to make the exact same amount of money you make right now 5 years from now and you're and that's only enough to cover your bills from 2022. You're going to be upside down and then you start eating into your cash reserves which is another very interesting point. you eat into your cash reserves and they've placed a cap

125on how much you can keep in cash reserves at 30%. So if you are fiscal stewards of your money and you recently passed a levy, you know you're going to eat into those cash reserves over the course of time, you we're going to find ourselves in a very precarious position because what do you do if you're over 30%. they take that money back away from you. So, they're punishing you if you're not fiscally responsible and they're punishing you if you are a good steward of your dollars, leaving us in a very very um narrow pathways. I was really um um encouraged by our parent speaker who brought in the um Austin Powers um Dr. Evil. And I've been told I look like Dr. Evil. I don't know if that's true or not. A little bit.

126A little bit. Yeah. But I can tell you this. Remember when Dr. Evil says $1 million? We're losing over $26 million a year to the extended voucher program. So we're getting hit on all fronts. Um and again which was mentioned earlier, you know, at somewhere around $240 [Music] million increase, spread that out out over 614 school districts, it's just simply not near enough to cover our cost of inflation of educating students. And yet, and again, unlike our our parent speaker, I'm a huge sucker. I'm a huge Cleveland Browns fan. always will be. Um, love the fact that we don't have to sit outside potentially in January, but $600 million of taxpayer money is okay to spend for a football stadium. But that's about what the increases that public education of 614 school districts would see

127over the course of this budget proposal as it currently stands. It is a clear attempt at dis destruction and disassembly, if you will, of public education. And it's it's got to stop. It's got to stop. Um I don't know how effective I will be, but I will be at the state house tomorrow. And so maybe the media will pick me up like just rambling around in the hallway. I don't know. Um, I do have one legislator who's willing to talk to me, but um, you know, that's all we can do is to continue to advocate and continue to advocate and make sure people understand where where we're at from a fiscal perspective. That's all I have. Madame President, thank you. Uh, Mr. treasurer. Uh, superintendent, you on your report, you had some budgetary items that

128you failed to mention. Yes, thank you. Sorry about that. Um, Miss Angela Kenan [Music] Good evening. My name is Angela Carter. My name is Stephen Keenan. Uh I'm chief of staff here with Akan Public Schools. And I want to say greetings to our board president uh Miss Jackson. Greetings uh vice president Bruce Alexander. Board members Dr. Robinson and Dr. Thompson. Today Mr. Keenan and I will share our framework and approach we used to design the APS reorganization and restructuring plan presented at the finance committee meeting um to chairwoman Sykes on March 17th. We will share the plan and our approach to identifying $10.2 million in cost reductions as part of the district's commitment to help us achieve fiscal sustainability. I want to say thank you to our community. We have heard you and want you

129to know that we shall be good stewards of our money. We have aligned this plan to the blueprint for excellence strategy um strategic plan cornerstone 3 which centers on operational excellence. I also want to take the time to thank Dr. Hodo for leading us through this process and allowing us to leverage her expertise in designing organizational transformation strategies from her global expertise experience in private industry. And then also thank you to our senior leadership, other staff members, our superintendent advisory committees which composed of um business leaders, parents. I want to say thank you to them where we were able to identify needs and then also being able to deliver greater efficiencies as it relates to identifying the reductions. Our mission here with Akran public schools is to ensure all scholars and are college and career

130ready by providing innovative educational experiences. And our vision is that all scholars at APS will graduate as architects of their future to thrive in an everchanging world. Again, this presentation is focused on cornerstone 3, but also touches on all other cornerstones. We're going to start this presentation by watching a quick video, Navigating the [Music] Future. Discussions about efficiency, budgeting, and operational excellence are never easy, but necessary. As a district, we are committed to being responsible stewards of our resources while providing excellence, opportunities, and choice for our scholars. While the challenges we face did not appear overnight, and the solutions will not come overnight, we are on the right track. Several key factors shape our current reality. APS has not had a levy in 12 years, requiring us to maximize every dollar while meeting evolving needs.

131Recent negotiations balanced compensation with cost management. And we've made significant capital investments, including two new schools alongside North High, funded through certificates of participation, which require long-term repayment. Additionally, we face the challenge of sustaining ESSER funded programs as those funds expire. Despite these financial pressures, there are glimmers of hope that will ultimately help us optimize our resources and strengthen APS for the future. By making strategic reductions, streamlining operations, and prioritizing sustainable solutions, we are positioning ourselves to remain a strong, vibrant district that continues to serve our scholars with excellence. We didn't get here overnight and we won't resolve everything overnight. But what's important is that we're taking intentional steps in the right direction, ensuring that APS remains a place where students have access to outstanding educational opportunities and families continue to have confidence in our

132choices. Together, we will navigate this challenge and emerge stronger. [Music] So, building on our enrollment driven financial strength, it's time to turn every dollar into excellence, operational excellence, optimizing personnel and operational expenses so that our resources directly empower student success. So, we owe it to our Akran community to deliver a sustainable plan that will lead us into the future. Our five-year forecast indicates a challenging financial outlook driven by rising costs and revenue that isn't keeping pace with our spending. By fiscal year 2029, our treasurer, Dr. Thompson, forecasted deficit spending without our immediate attention. So, we are also projecting additional education funding pressure due to the implications of House Bill 96, the expiration of ESSER funds and public dollars being allocated to private school vouchers. The combination of these factors could put Akan public schools at

133risk of entering a state of fiscal overwatch. We are all accountable to managing our finances efficiently. This is why the district has developed the fiscal organization plan. We are making the tough, very tough but necessary decisions to make reductions to rightsize our district and streamline operations so we can continue to serve our students and community with a quality public education offering for years to come. The graph on the left shows our enrollment from 1965 to now. And then the graph on the right shows our expenditures from 2021 to where we are now. So as we see it, we're facing a long-term problem. The blue chart shows that Akran public schools has experienced a significant decline in student enrollment since 1970. Back then, there were approximately 55 students 55,000 students in the district. Today, that number

134has dropped to just under 20,000, a 60% decrease. While student enrollment has remained relatively stable over the last five years, our expenses have increased by around 18% over this time period. Generally, if expenses are growing faster than revenue, we are operating at a deficit. This is important because state and federal funding for school districts is based on student enrollment. So, as enrollment decreases, so does our general fund revenue. To address this and ensure the district's financial stability, we need a plan to reorganize our finances by increasing student enrollment to grow revenue while effectively reducing our expenses expenses. Today, we're going to focus on our plan to better manage our expenses. We face several challenges that must be carefully considered. First, we must account for inflation which directly impacts the cost of classroom materials, transportation, utilities,

135and other essential operations. We also need to consider the increasing cost of salaries and benefits, which comprise roughly 80% of our total expenditures. In 2022, the district entered into negotiations and agreed upon um salary increases that impacted all staff with a 4% increase. These increases were designed to support retention and recognize the hard work of our staff, especially during an incredibly difficult period for public education. However, these contractual commitments and the commitments that were made financially while well-intentioned must now be balanced with our current fiscal realities. Additionally, we are preparing for continued flat funding under House Bill 96. At the same time, more public dollars are being diverted to private institutions through vouchers, placing pressure on urban public school districts like ours. Finally, the expiration of ESSER funds, the federal relief dollars provided during the

136pandemic requires us to re-evaluate the sustainability of some of our programs and supports that were funded through this temporary resource. We must now determine which initiatives can be maintained and where we need to responsibly scale back. Next, we're going to introduce the framework that serves as the basis for our fiscal plan. So, we've developed a plan to reduce 10.2 million in fiscal year 2025 2026. This plan has been thoroughly reviewed and vetted by our treasurer, Dr. Thompson, and his staff, and was prepared with input and ideas from the district's senior leadership team and others. This plan identifies 5.7 million in sta savings from personnel costs and 4.5 million in savings from operational efficiencies for a total of 10.2 million in cost savings for the upcoming fiscal year. Given that personnel costs, payroll, and benefits make

137up the largest portion of our expenses, our cutting measures must address this reality. So, our reduction measures must address this reality. And it should be no surprise, unfortunately, that the majority of our reductions as of right now are coming from the personnel side. So, the budget reductions, um, as mentioned before, our approach to budget reductions is twofold. I know last year the majority of our reductions came from just personnel. This year, we're looking at restructuring our organizational design and staffing. So we're looking at personnel also reducing operational costs through the process of management and efficiency gains through looking at operational expenses and looking at how we operate. Now we're going to take a look at the plan for payroll and benefits budget reductions. So we're going to address the staffing component of our framework. First,

138we're proposing a reduction in force to eliminate redundant roles through layoffs and creating a more streamline and efficient organization. It's important to note that this reduction in force is based on organizational requirements and our long-term strategy, not individual employee performance. Second, we are implementing a rigorous review and justification process for all future staffing decisions. This applies to filling positions vacant due to both voluntary or involuntary departures. All replacements to staff must be justified and approved by human capital, the treasures department, and the superintendent. We will explore opportunities to consolidate roles, eliminate positions through attrition, reassign responsibilities, reduce work hours, particularly overtime, and consider additional staffing reductions. We're going to talk about the process. So on this slide are outline five steps that we undertook to redesign our organizational structure. First, we began by analyzing our

139existing structure, identifying areas with excessive layers of management and overlapping responsibilities that could be streamlined. Second, we identified roles that could be eliminated or combined to improve efficiency and reduce unnecessary bureaucracy. Next, we explored opportunities to redistribute tasks from potentially eliminated positions to remaining employees or to atom or to digitize work processes. Fourth, we then examined spans of control to evaluate the ratio of leaders to staff. Finally, we consulted with legal counsel to ensure that our recommendations comply with the collective bargaining agreements. And so legal counsel and our labor relations department. All we work together as relates to looking at the bar bargaining agreements, meeting with union leaders, and then making sure that we're following local laws and board policies. This slide summarizes the results of our workforce analysis and organizational restructuring which has identified

1405.7 million in potential personnel cost savings. The upper portion of the slide breaks down these savings by division and department. As you can see, the facilities team is most affected by the layoff notices followed by teaching and learning. There are 59 full-time equivalent equivalents impacted which translates to positions. Reason being the reductions included layoffs of full-time and part-time employees as well as a reduction in hours of some full-time employees. The lower portion of the slide shows the impact of specific specific bargaining units indicating the number of employees affected in relation in um not just employees but employees and positions because each position didn't have an employee in it but they're being eliminated. Again, um a lot of these reductions are through attrition as relates to resignations or retirements. And so, for example, with AEA, 26

141employees are recommended for layoff out of a total of 1,730 full-time members representing 1.5% of the full-time membership. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Steven Keenan, who's going to cover the operational expenses. Thank you, Mrs. Garter. Um moving to this next slide. Um this just go goes a general overview of the approach to the um operational efficiencies and how what we looked for. Our approach to reducing operational costs is twofold. Cost reductions as well as cost avoidance. Cost reductions involve examining our current spending and finding ways to lower those costs. This includes renegotiating prices, analyzing the cost of individual items, and determining the most efficient order quantities for supplies and equipment. Uh cost avoidance focuses on preventing future cost increases or eliminating expenses altogether. This requires us to brainstorm and develop

142strategies to minimize or avoid cost on the down the line such as determining to close an aging building versus renovating due to the outsized costs of renovation versus moving these operations elsewhere. This balanced approach is essential for addressing both our immediate financial needs as well as our long-term financial stability. This next slide um provides an overview of five of the key areas we have identified to reduce district operating expenses through cost reduction and cost avoidance initiatives. Um from bottom left around to bottom right these are energy cost, asset management and supplies, sourcing, overtime and sustainability. Our focus will continue to expand to encompass other spending categories as this work progresses. Examples of initiatives in these areas are on the next slide. This slide details the top 15 initiatives we are under currently undertaking to achieve

143a $4.5 million reduction in operating expenses. We are thoroughly evaluating employee submitted proposals rig rigorously calculating potential savings and providing detailed documentation of our methodologies. This ensures that the treasur's office can validate the feasibility and potential functional impact of each initiative or financial impact of each initiative. Several of these operational efficiencies pres presented on this slide are reducing the amount of overtime by approximately 30%. Based off of previous year's data that would equate roughly $900,000. Um, another example is um renegotiating contracts such as our recycling and refugees contract, which is it, um, anticipated to save us at least $100,000 a year over the next three years. Um, just to name a few of the 15 that are on this slide here. On this next slide, um we wanted to point out which areas across the

144district will be impacted through the initiatives our teams have proposed. Here in yellow, you can see operations um and facilities services in particular has offered the greatest opportunities for spending and reductions at about 40%. Um, that being said, I do want to stress that every team across this district is and has been helping drive this work. Meaning, this chart will will change from time to time as we continue to uh move forward with finding more efficiencies and more ways to save um the district in the years to come. And it um in closing I do do we want to acknowledge the weight of decisions before us as we enhance our financial rigor and moderator spending. We are dedicated to the responsible stewardship of the resources entrusted to us all in service of providing a quality

145education for our scholars. We hold ourselves accountable to our mission and deeply value the support and commitment of our staff, administrators, this board, our partners, and the entire Akran community. And with that, I'm turning the presentation back over to Mr. Scarger. Thank you, Mr. Kenan. Since last December, our leadership team and stakeholders have been deeply engaged in developing this plan. We presented it to Mrs. Sykes, chairwoman of our finance committee, and the finance committee on March 17th to ensure it aligned with the board expectations. Following that, we met with union leadership to share the plan, collect input, and to deliver layoff notifications to each bargaining unit per our agreements. Prior to today's board meeting, we notified union leadership and those affected employees by the recommendations for the reduction in force. Throughout this difficult process, we

146have remained committed and accountable. Sharing this plan with the community is a reflection of that commitment. Just know we are living in unprecedented times. Times that we previously may not have encountered in Akran public schools. A new day requires a new way of leading, thinking, and operating in our district. We cannot and will not be able to do business as usual. We have to continue to look for reductions knowing what's to come. And while we're looking for those reductions, we're still looking to maintain our improvements and growth in our schools and continue to get better results all at the same time. If we're prudent now, it will enable us to continue to be vibrant in providing essential needs for our scholars, employees, and the community at large. Thank you, Miss Carter. Superintendent, is there anything

147else? This concludes. Okay. Are there any question board members? Are there any questions? Uh, member Molner, thank you. Um, first of all, I want to say I found this entire presentation incredibly inappropriate. I just want to say that at the 317 meeting that was referred to several times, I think the finance committee made it explicitly clear that we expected detailed financial information, not a theoretical presentation regarding the or reorganization plan and that that detailed financial information was going to come back through the finance committee for proper review specifically saying not to come to the full board. This is an ongoing issue contributing to the length and inefficiency of our board meetings. This practice of presenting complex matters during the meeting and asking the board to make a decision moments later. Multiple board members have repeatedly

148instructed not to do this. And in this instance on this exact presentation and and the slides that were added to this presentation, the graph from 1965, I wasn't even alive for like a third of your chart. Okay, I I see the estimated savings on here for the first time. This is the first time I've seen some of these numbers and you didn't even mention it, but on I think it was slide 15, $292,000 for summer school and mystery camps. Parents today brought up examples of academic programs. Um I don't understand why we're going directly to things that are affecting our students. Why are we going directly to classroom and academics for these cuts? And I don't understand it because this is the first time I've ever seen it. Slide 15, workforce sizing said identified areas

149with excessive management layers. So I guess I'm asking uh can you give us examples of the areas with excessive management layers? um not just the academic programs that are being cut because I heard parents today I heard them say I urge you to do more research about the impact of your cuts that are direct to our students and also what did that video cost. [Applause] Thank you, member Molinar. Um, the floor is Do you have any comments for followup for Dr. Molinar's inquiry? you. Madam Chair, may I? Yes, you've been recognized. Madame President, members of the board, uh, uh, Miss Carter is correct. She did make this presentation to the finance committee on March 17th, and at the time, Dr. Molenar is correct that the finance committee did ask that we my comments were that

150um when we do a a a finance report as it relates to reorganization restructuring I'm looking for numbers not narratives and so for Mr. Kenan, when you did said you you was doing a detailed documenting of methodology, you mentioned no absolutely no numbers except for percentages, but no actual raw numbers of how many how much money was being saved in each one of the categories that you mentioned. Is there a reason for that? Examples of those were Would you please speak into the mic? So, because I want the public to hear this answer. Examples of those were on the next slide. was on the next slide. Yes. And so that was the slide that was fuzzy and real small and you really could not see. Were there numbers on that? There were numbers on that.

151I did not see. Could we go to that please? Uh while we're going to that. So that was 4.5 operations and then 5.7. Then I did you say that you informed the union just prior to the board meeting on the on the uh on the reductions that would take place with the union members. Uh we met with um different unions at different times starting in March March I think around March 31st can be. Okay. Okay. So those those are the numbers that well those are the operational expense numbers expenses numbers that we're saving and are these savings every year? Are they one time? Could you kind of again the numbers represented here are for just the 25 26 school year but this is about the five-year forecast. So this is just one year savings. What

152about the next years? Those are in development. Those are in development. Yes. Okay. All right. So, um, uh, so [Music] they will carry over time and just all of these are just in development. So, you can you so do you suspect that there will be a continuation of these? And I remember the treasur was giving us a definition of those one-time expenditures and then those those uh expenditures that go over throughout the year a single expenditure versus a compounding just before people wait to be recognized by the chair but and if member um was finishing but questioning. Thank you. Yeah. So I remember the treasure giving us that explanation about one-time expenditures and then over those long term. So So we're looking at 4.5 just for one year. Correct. And could you explain what we're

153going to do the remainder of the years if you don't mind? Some of these can can and potentially will expand into other years. Um what I was asked to provide was for just the school year. Um so that is what is represented here. Those that can be compounded upon and developed further into other years will be and that will be represented at another time. Can you give us an idea of just one of those that can be compounded? Um one is our recycling and refuge contract. Um and I can't really see that. So what is the amount that we're saving? $100,000 and that is anticipated to at least extend for another two fiscal years but until the contract is finalized we will not be able to accurately say exactly how much that is. Thank you

154Miss Keen. So with that uh Mrs. Carter. So with that 5.7 and the personnel, so we heard tonight from a number of individuals, parents, uh, community leaders that talked about the impact that the cuts are making that we're that you're requesting to be made, an impact that it will have on on our community. Uh, and I know you you gave us a diagram of how you went about that as opposed to uh could you give us an idea of other areas that you consider cutting other than dealing with our our special needs children? Um, just one. Oh, okay. Um, so we again we have uh eliminated at least 27 positions as relates to uh under facilities. And so that's a cost savings as we're looking to where we're overstaffed and making sure that we're staffed

155appropriately there. Um it includes a reduction of hours as well as um eliminating um certain positions. Um also we have um some attrition as relates to um some administrators that have resigned and retired that we're looking at reorganizing that work. So, we're not replacing those people. Um, thank you, Mr. Carter. Real quickly, Don, and I don't want to belabor the point, but just my question was why this partic these particular cuts as opposed to some other cuts. These were um suggestions made by um our directors as relates to where we can make some of the reductions. So I know um for instance with some of our positions um we are overstaffed as it relates to student teacher ratio. Um so as it relates to one of the positions that we were talking about the state

156requires us to have 1 to 75 per pupil. one teacher per 75 students and we were at one per 17 students and with the reductions we'll be at 1 to 24 you won't get order yes um just for for me guests of the board and audience we just ask for a point of order so that the meeting can be conducted I understand um I understand but I just ask that we just be respect respectful and let the proceedings go forth because I'm sure that this is going to be unpacked in a way with fidelity, Miss Sykes, please. So, no, that's that's it. I I just wanted to try to get some understanding about uh if if I could just kind of cl get some clarification on how these cuts, these particular cuts were decided upon

157and whether or not these are one-time cuts as it relates to operation or compounded cuts. And so, uh I got my answer. Thank you. Thank you, member Sykes, member Harrison. Oh, I'm sorry, Superintendent. I I just wanted to um add that the 10 the 10.2 that we're doing now is from this current year, but also going into the 2526 school year, we are actually working because we know we're going to have an additional $10 million that we have to reduce. um between 25 and I know that's overlapping but between 26 and 27 um I'm sorry between yes between 25 and 26 and then 26 and 27 to make the 10 million um additional reductions that we we will have to also make um as it relates to some of these reductions. some of these things

158such as the trash um contracts. For the first time in probably several years, we are actually looking at a lot of our contracts and seeing if we can rene renegotiate some of those. Um we are still on this is an ongoing process even with some of the things that we do via technology even looking at some of those programs right now that aren't even reflected in this that we're looking at to determine how we can uh get all of the things that the teachers want um in their classrooms but finding a different program to maybe do it that will give us more bang for the buck. Um this is uh we're actually looking at copier machines. Uh looking we know that a lot of our teachers, a lot of our administrators have cop printers, you

159know, at their desk. um we we want them to have those things, but when we're looking at the overall cost of the district for the district, we're having to look at some of those things as things that not right now, but things to come that will be reflected in that additional $10 million. Um when we looked at these special education, we're not losing the program. Um but we are trying to look at the amount of staff that we have. And between special education and um CCAA, which is our college and careermies um uh initiative that we have in the district, we're we're we're trying to balance that because the work that has to be done. We want our kids to still have those opportunities and they will have those opportunities. It's just that we are

160having to look at where we are overstaffed. And so each of the directors, executive executive directors had the opportunity to weigh in where they felt that they but also providing a plan for how if I'm reducing, where would the work go? What would that look like for our students? How will we be able to still maintain the the integrity of the work that we're that we're doing? So even though we're bringing this with the $10.2 $2 million. We already are still working because we know um and especially more so now than before with a lot of the legislation that has come down. We know we're going to have to really expedite in terms of looking at the additional $10 million. um trying to keep our district in a fiscal state to where um we we

161can't go back and ask for tax ask taxpayers for another levy um right now. But trying to at least sustain things to get to 28 where we will have to ask for an additional levy at that at that point in time. Yes, member Harrison. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I have a couple questions. Um and and especially since we mentioned the March 17th meeting. Um at at that meeting, was it your understanding that we wanted more information? That we wanted numbers? We wanted to know positions. We wanted to know which direction this was going. We said we would bring that to this meeting here. Yes, sir. You said you would bring that to this meeting. We told you we wanted to see it before this meeting. And so when we get emails and unfair labor

162practices are filed, um it it still becomes a responsibility of the finance committee, of this whole board to make sure that we are being fiscally responsible. I heard um the chief of staff mention stakeholders um your directors, administrators, um community advisory board, but I heard nothing about the school board that ask you for additional information. Um and so now here we are today. Um, and it's it's difficult to say we're not happy, but we're not happy because we continue to ask for information. Is this the 10.2 million from November that we talked about in November? Yes, sir. So, the 10.2 million that we talked about in November, I believe it was the first week of December, you said you would have it to us in January. Um, and then in January when we asked, you

163said that you guys were working on it. you had to have conversation with the union. Um, and sometime in February. So, so now we're talking almost six months and we don't have information, but layoff notices have went out or rift notices, reduction in force notices that went out and we don't know where where they are. And I just wonder does that sound reasonable if we're asking you for information? We provided the information at the time that we could provide. We couldn't we could not give you names of employees that kind of thing because we do have to go through the process that work to work with those union leads and to make sure that we are not doing anything that violates those contracts. So that process has been done. Um, we have not given what

164we've given is a notice to people to let them know that pending board approval that this is what could possibly occur. So, nothing has been done official before it's being brought to you all. So, okay. And and just to be clear, we don't deal with the people, we just deal with the positions. So, if the board does not approve those reduction in positions, what happens? um then we have to go back to look at and which is what we did in between December and and um February we went back and looked at what we initially said in the 10.2 to we made a lot of changes that would not impact the schools because given the time that we had there were things that were on the list that we went back and looked at to

165say no we want to make sure that we value these things. This we knew that these were things that the board would not want us to to to uh to touch. So we had to go back, reconfigure, look at other things that we could use um that would help us to maintain the 10.2 reductions which we had to stick to. So So how would you know that there are things that the board don't want you to touch if you never told us? Well, you made it clear that you did not want we were trying to stay away from the classroom as much as we possibly could and and I think in the schools and that's and I think we I really think that the team did a yman's job at doing that because the original

166plan um you know had some of those things and then we went back revisited met with directors executive directors again had the opportunity to weigh in hear more from them they were able to go back and look at there and meet with their teams, look at what they could do uh across the district rather than it being from one specific area of those reductions. So, I think that the team did a a really yman's job in trying to meet that and adhere to what the board had expressed at the finance committee meeting and that was we would like for you to stay away from the classroom in the schools. We did the best that we could do, but I do want to be clear that this year going into 2526, we're not seeing a lot

167of those types of reductions. But what I can assure you is that coming into 2627, you're probably going to see a little bit more of that. And then into 2728, a little bit more of that. Again, we're trying to stay away from from the the schools and the classrooms. However, there are things that were done with ESRE funds, positions, um, initiatives, things that were given to the schools and we've tried as much as we could to because we don't have ESSER funds anymore. So, that is now on the general fund. So, we've tried to stay away from those things. But as we get closer to 26 27 and 2728, you're going to see unless something changes drastically, we have a larger footprint. We have kids that are we have in some schools, you know, we

168have the enrollment is is not as high in cut off. One second. I'm going to say no further discussion is needed on this. Um I think it's been made clear and we're going to move forward. um it's it's Robert's rules because you look confused. So that's why I'm calling for the end of the discussion. I think it's some clarity things I um that can be reiterated um within a finance department. I think some real clear points were made and so I'm just going to uh no further discussion uh with this matter. So Madam Chair, just if you're going to follow the rules, if you want to cease discussion, we need to vote on that. Well, as I understood that um as the chair, I had the privilege to end no further discussion that it didn't

169need to go to a vote. So, you said we're not going to vote on this. Yeah, this item this Yeah, I I didn't understand this was the item that needed voted on the what you were discussing. Well, this Okay, this plan would need to be voted on. Yeah, this has to be voted on saying that we could No, that's I was understanding this was a discussion. Okay. So, we're not voting on this. No, it's not. It's it's not at the point we were in the discussion. Okay. All right. So, it's no further discussion and then just call for the vote. We had there was not a mo there was not we were at the point of discussion and just for clarity since it seems confusion it the I felt it had run its course and

170so since the discussion has run its course I I uh just said we're ending discussion we weren't voting on ending discussion as I understood so I'm guessing member Sykes you're not asking if I was asking for a vote to end the discussion but a vote concerning the item what he what the superintendent was discussing as far as a reduction is that I'm just trying to get clarity because I don't need a vote to end a discussion. I don't know. Okay. Sure. Member. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, if we are voting on items related to this presentation, can we one last time may I ask for you to bring the slide up that describes the part that we're voting on just for clarity so I can I can know what I'm voting on later and instead

171of having to do it later, right, when we when we have the or would you rather, Madam Chair, would you rather that when we're voting that they bring the slide deck back up? Yeah, when we get to that point in the agenda, that's what I would prefer that we address it when we're at that point in the meeting. We'll bring the slits back up. Yes, ma'am. Harrison, point of order. um some of these um issues that we're talking about um are not contained in in in the riff the riff portion of this is part of this presentation but we have some other things like tinpoint uh which we're not we're not at the agenda item right? Okay. No, we're not this is point of order. We're not at that agenda item, but that agenda item

172goes into this, but it's not at the when we're we're hiring psychologists in the riff, we're laying psychologist off. Those should be together. Yes. So, when we get to that point in the agenda item, then you we can discuss that. When we're at the point, the 10 point what you're referencing in the agenda, then you can we can discuss at the point. I really wanted to follow the agenda and then as we get to the items, we can discuss it. I understand what you're asking when you're saying they're not all capsulated in this. So when you get to the point of where you want further to discuss it at the agenda, then we'll follow that accordingly. So we were at the superintendent, we went back to the superintendent report is where we were at on

173the agenda because he failed to mention he didn't add his numbers. So currently we will be at the approval of the previous meeting minutes on the agenda. Is there a motion to approve the previous minutes um board meeting minutes for March 24th, 2025? So I move to approve the Monday, March 24th regular meeting minutes. Second. It's been moved by member Altry, second by member Alexander. Any discussion? Seeing or hearing none. Roll call, please. Dr. Thompson. Miss Autry. Yes. Miss Hall. Yes. Reverend Harrison. Yes. Miss Jackson. Yes. Dr. Molinar. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you, Dr. Thompson. We're now 9.2 special board meeting minutes. Is there a motion to approve the special board meeting minutes from March for March 26, 2025? So moved. Thank you. It's been moved by member

174Harrison. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by Vice President Alexander. Any discussion? Seeing or hearing none. Dr. Thompson, roll call vote, please. Miss Hall, abstain. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, abstain. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Altry, yes. Motion carries 50 with two abstensions. We are now at the personnel recommendation joint bordering. Oh, I don't have Oh, yeah. Special board meeting minutes for April 4th, 2025. The JBR meeting. Is there a motion to approve the special board meeting minutes for April 4th? Excuse me. So, move. Second. It's been moved by Mr. Alexander and second by member Altry. Any discussion? Uh, I have a correction, Member Harrison. I'm not sure if it's a typo um or if it was stated in that meeting. Um the original agreement um it's under

175discussion topics uh 1 2 3 the fourth bullet down. The original agreement ended December 2023. Uh the original agreement ends this at 2033 33 and so I'm not sure if that may be a typo. Um but the last I think it was mentioned the last school was built in 2023 and the agreement ends in 2033. You are correct u member Harrison. So that is a um that is an air. So is there the motion needs to be amended that uh to approve the April 4th 2025 special board meeting with the uh the noted corrections of the agreement ending in December of 2033. I move to accept those meeting minutes as corrected for the JBR Friday, April 4th meeting. It's been moved by member Altry. Second. Has been second by member Harrison. Thank any discuss any

176discussion. All right. See hearing none. Dr. Thompson. Roll call, please. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Autry, yes. Miss Hall, abstain. Motion carry 60 with one abstension. Okay, we are now at the personnel recommendations. Um, Dr. Robinson. Thank you, President Jackson. looking at the um personnel recommendations in section 10. Are there any questions? Member Harrison. Thank you, Madame Chair. U Dr. Robinson, can you uh help me to understand 10.6? Um the recommendations in 10.6 Six hiring psychologists 10.6 six. Um we we have two Huh. Oh, is that their school site positions? We can talk to it. Okay. So, it's the hiring of two school sites. Okay. So, we have two retirements at the end of this year and those are positions to replace the two

177retirements. So when we move down to the reductions, we are laying four off. No, we are not. So what we have is we have a 41w week school psychologist contract and what that is is that's a week after and then two weeks before the school calendar starts. So then we have 44-w week which are the four people that are on the agenda for tonight and that is asking the reduction of the 44-W week to a 41w week to take away the additional 3 weeks outside of the 41w week contract. Excuse me. Thank you. So so the four that we are reducing they will still have jobs. It will be in alignment with the 40 I'm sorry with the 41w week contract as opposed to reapply. No. No, they're not reapply. I guess I guess that's

178what I'm trying to understand. Okay. So, we're hiring two new ones to fill retirements at the end of retirements. We're not losing any and we're not changing any job descriptions. We're not changing any conditions of work. Reducing. We are looking at reducing the weeks. Okay. And and so I don't want to make this a long thing. When when you reduce somebody and hire someone else, it makes people you reduce come in at something lower. That's called union busting. We're not doing that. That's what that is. Here's where we are with the unfair labor practices. And here's where we are with not discussing with the board how we're going to operate and how we're going to make these positions. And we said in um March 17th, you said you discussed it with legal. We said, "Well,

179we like to talk to legal." Okay. If if they are saying this is okay and and from where I'm standing, this is not okay. It's not okay to change someone's work and bring someone else in. That's not okay. I' I've read the and I'm not an attorney so I don't understand all of the legalities of it but I've read the unfair labor practice um statement of fact and I can't say is true or not and I guess that's why you go through the process but that's also why you communicate with us because we don't want to have an adversarial relationship with our staff. We understand that 80% of the budget is staff. We we understand that staff is going to have to get cut, but the question comes where and how. This for me is

180unacceptable and this is why we communicate in committees and these things come to committees. It's not okay, Mr. M Carter, can you guys stay up? I have I have a question. So, so that we're all clear. The new position, let me back up. We have three positions that we're going to reduce from 44 weeks to 41 weeks. Is that correct? We're looking at Yes. So, a lot of the um savings Mhm. Right. I just I just want to make sure actually we go from reducing hours. And so right now we're looking at with this um particular um group of our employees, we're looking at reducing from a 44 week to a 41 week. Okay. And so um in order to do that, we are recommending that we do a um reduction in force. And just

181like any other reduction in force, when there's positions available that people have proper licenses for, they will have the opportunity to be recalled to those positions. The majority of the people within our groups are going to have the opportunity to be recalled. We intentionally as it relates to um a lot of our positions specifically um one that I'm thinking of we met with the union leader and literally told him that we're refraining from filling positions because we knew we're going to have to do a reduction in force so that way we would have positions for our employees to go into. Okay. Yeah. I I just want to make sure that was clear. That part was clear. But now my other qu part of the question is with these two new employees that we're hiring, will

182they be on that same? They're not replacing anybody's position, right? I know they're coming in. They're they're coming in from people who retired or retired. So now we still need those or or resign or however they're leaving those positions. Okay. So now we still have two those two positions we're still going to fill because they're replacements. Correct. They're not new positions. Okay. So now with the other part of the question, will those uh two individuals come in on the same schedule with these three? Were we in 41 week schedules? Yes. Okay. So they'll all be on it's just it's it's not like you're taking anything from one and giving it to somebody else. Those three are going to have it and the two that are coming in are going to have the same schedule. Correct.

183Okay. That's all I need to know. Thank you. I don't um do you guys Member Mon, you've been recognized? Thank you, President Jackson. Um I have a question because when uh Member Harrison was speaking, he spoke to a a legal document. Um I don't have this legal document. So, I'm going to ask you, is there a current accusation that our district is doing something unlawful with any of the items that were on our current agenda? Are there any accusations present? Lee. So, there are some unfair labor practice um filed, but I don't think I can talk about that in an open meeting. Discuss that in an open meeting. No, I as it relates to as it relates to the contents of that, I can't talk to it talk to it. I I'm letting you know.

184I don't know anything about it. So, just it was just yes or no. Is is there something apparently can't talk about that? So, as asked in our 317 meeting, is there an attorney that can provide an opinion to board members about things like this before meetings? Is there an attorney that can inform? If we can't talk about this right now and we can't talk about in a committee meeting, is there an attorney available to the board to answer a question like this? We can schedule. I'm sorry. Oh, no. I'm sorry. He had to finish what you're saying. Well, my I am concerned that there is potentially a legal issue that I'm unaware of. I am very concerned and I don't know how to find out about how about what's happening. Okay. Thank you. Superintendent, did

185you have some a clarifying point for everyone based off of her question? You recognized to speak at this time. Okay. Oh, I'm sorry. You're recognized to speak at this time. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. So, it was in the newspaper. I mean, it's been everywhere. So, quite naturally, um I'm sure everybody either you saw it or didn't see it or heard or didn't hear it. But these are matters that we are not able to publicly speak about. Um, and even if it's in a committee meeting, we're still not going to be able to talk about that there in terms of what we can that that would have to be determined by the attorney. And so that's something that we can find out uh what communicated to the board. Um, but those are generally matters that

186are just handled internally. Um, and so if it's something that we can share with the board in terms of detailed information outside of the fair labor practice, then I can ask the attorney to to do that. But we can't sit here on in an open floor, open meeting to discuss an unfair labor practice. Uh, Vice President Alexander over here. I I guess to my point um what I was hoping that we was having conversations before we got to that place. Um, and that was the point of um, continuing to ask for this information, continuing to try, not not that I want to talk to an attorney after legal action is filed, but uh, before we get here is is the point that I was making, Madam Chair. Thank you, Member Harrison. Uh, Vice President Alexander.

187Yes. My question is, uh, Dr. Robinson, how soon do we need these positions? So the this this information is contingent is um based upon the timelines that we have to that we have to meet in order to not violate contracts. Um the we have a rift policy to make sure that we're following the policy. So, um, we would need to move on this. If there's going to be a special board meeting on Thursday, then we could possibly, you know, between now and then answer whatever questions board members may have, but we would need to vote on on this. Otherwise, we're going to be up against timelines, um, which some of this stuff is is contingent on our reductions. Okay. The reason I was asking, I wasn't sure if it would be able to to be

188delayed until the next board meeting if if we could and then have legal here to explain it to us in executive session and then maybe we could vote on it. So, we wouldn't be able to wait that long given the timelines that we have to meet, okay, by the end of April. Um, but if there are specific questions, which I've been taking note of those or or if you have further questions, then I could always ask those so that information is provided to you. Right. And only reason I asked that, I just want to make sure my colleagues will be able to get the information. But if they want to hear from legal, then let's have legal here so we can go in executive session, let them talk to us about it, and then we

189can move forward. That way we would have talked to our legal, got what we needed, and then we can move on. Okay? And if we have to have a I don't like having all these meetings, I'm gonna be honest. But if we have to have a special meeting, we'll do it to make it move long so that we can stay within the the time frame that we need for you guys and so we don't go outside of our contract the agreement. Thank you. Um I don't know about a Thursday meeting. Uh yeah, I know about a meeting that's scheduled for Tuesday. And what could possibly happen is that we could um at some point make a motion to amend that agenda because it's specific of what we're meeting for and maybe add this um at

190that time if it's it's if it's the board's pleasure to do that um for to get more clarity and insight. Since we are going to executive session, we will be talking about um certain things. I think uh the point is well taken member Harrison uh stated as well as member Molinar uh information comes I I read in the paper it's clearly a full wonderful clear article in the paper about uh this grievance it was right I mean the the grievance it's it was right after right behind you Harrison and all you had to say like anyone could have read it I'm just saying it it's very public it's very clear as far as what the the Greek grievance. It's in the paper, but to the point of being informed through uh legal counsel so that

191the board is a breast when making decisions of something that is in um litigation. I think if we consider the wisdom of the matter, that's just good practice. If something is in litigation or pending litigation, that is maybe something we can pause. But uh not to belabor this and understanding um what I said, if we want to discuss this and and have an amended agenda item, uh Mr. Harrison, then we'll move forward. Um, Madam Chair, we have a finance meeting to um Monday. We have a finance meeting Monday um at 4:30 and I think that this could be really further unpacked in the finance meeting. Um, so if it's okay with the chair, um, I I would make a motion to move this rift, this restructuring, this restructuring, um, reduction in force to the finance

192meeting um, I mean to Monday and have it go through the finance meeting um, April 21st. Question. um to have Vice President Alexander. Uh so you guys can't discuss what you want to discuss with the attorney in that meeting. So whatever you discuss, it can't be anything that needs to be needs to go in executive session. I I one second. Um member Harrison, member Alexander, uh you posited the question. member here. I am going to recognize you u because this is getting I think this uh conversation also is running its course but I do want you to address that issue. Mr. I'm sorry. Member Harrison had a couple of things that uh was discussed as I understood it. And part of that was based off how the finance committee was talking about breaking down of

193positions, not necessarily names when we're talking about riff in detail order, which is something that I don't want to put words in your mouth, but when you were saying finance, that's what I assume that you wanted that unpacking publicly because we know the legal information. and we wouldn't be able to talk in an open meeting. But I'll I'll I'll defer to you. That was just my assumption. Well, the legal issue is the legal issue. So, we we can't I mean, we don't we can't do anything about that at this point. But the the we're going to have these questions with every position. Okay. So, with every um reduction, we're going to have we we we've gotten information from other unions. Okay. Or other people. And so, I think the wisdom of this is to move

194it to the finance committee. You're saying that the conversation has ran its course. I've just began to ask questions about the reduction in force. Uh and and and that is why we've had this we we've been asking these questions in the in the committee for six months. And so, you know, either we're going to vote them up or down. If if we vote them down, they still have to have conversation because we still need a plan. So I think it's to move it to the finance committee is the reasonable thing to do. Um all right it's it's a you have to do a motion but what I'm saying is Ren's course member Molinar made a wellplaced argument as well as you as far as the what was been asked of uh administration regarding positions and

195rifts. So it's very clear on what the disconnect is and to send it back to the finance committee I don't think is unreasonable. the pleasure of what you all decided. The motion is being made. So the a motion is on the floor. Um and because you did make a motion, right? So move and now it's been second. Now we should be in these discussions because member Harrison uh did make that motion for this to be moved back to committee the finance committee meeting. Um Mr. Alex, Vice President Alexander, um you've been acknowledged in member hall after Alexander. Okay. Yeah. I just want to make sure that what we talk about in the finance committee is nothing we need to talk about in executive commission executive session because there were I I think three questions that

196were asked and one was in in reference to uh union busting. And so we would talk to our attorney. So we need to make sure that we don't talk about that in open session that it would be in executive session only. Just just so you know, you can go into executive session from committee meetings. I understand that you can go into executive session and I understand. I was just saying. Okay. If I'm talking, you're recognized from the chair, please. Members, I'm sorry, Madam Chair. You're absolutely correct. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm just saying I just don't want to make sure that we're not being said in in in open session. And if we need to go in executive session, which whether it's in the committee or whether it's here in the board, that we go

197in that exe executive session and talk about if we all need to be there, we all need to be there so we'll know what's going on and then we can move forward. So, um, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Alexander. I I think the point is clear. Miss member Hall, did you have anything to add to that? Well, I think Thank you, Madam President. I think um member Alexander kind of answered the question. Um, since we're having our meeting tomorrow, why don't we just go into executive session? talk about this tomorrow and then it can then go into the finance committee where we'll have our answers from the attorneys. Well, Mr. uh the mot you can vote like the motion is on the floor. Well, yeah, we were Miss Harrison. So, we can I understand what

198you're saying because I did uh posit that, but member uh Harrison's a member of the finance committee position that uh it can go into the finance meeting for that part and as member Sykes uh elaborated on if it gets into if there's a need for executive session that can be also noticed through the committee meet if we decide if the board if that's the board's pleasure. Um and so, member Wolard, Dr. Hello. Yes, it's it's already been a long night. Uh point of clarification on the motion is the motion for item 10.6. Does the motion include items 211 through 216? How inclusive are the items that we are moving to committee? Thank you. Member Harrison, you've been acknowledged. I my understanding member Mon as we as member Harrison presents it was the ri he had

199made mention of riff. So, I thought it was the gambit. Um, yeah, my motion was anything that is under the reduction in force, um, any positions that we're hiring. Um, so that would be for the reclassification um, riff plans or the re reorganization. Is it am I saying that? You you got me. Okay. Thank you, uh, Mr. Harrison. So, uh, there is a a motion on the floor. Discussion has happened and now we're calling for the vote. What? Audrey. Audrey. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just want to say and acknowledge that this board did ask for 10.2 million in reductions. And so, now we're here facing our requests. And it's not uh easy. I know. Um but it's before us and I think it's going to hurt no matter what we decide. Yeah.

200Um but it's before us per our request for 10.2 million and I'm just stating that I'm fine moving forward with voting on these items. Thank you. I'll call for the vote, please. Dr. Thompson. So for for clarity we are there is a motion on the floor to move 10.6 21.1 21.2 21.3.4.5 and 6 from the consent agenda to the meeting to be held on April 21st. Is that correct? Finance meeting. That's about That is the finance committee meeting. Yes, that is the finance committee meeting. Uh, is that correct? Yes. Okay. That's what I'm taking the roll call for. So fast. Okay. 10.6 21.1 21.2 21.2 21.3 21.3 21.4 five and six. All 21 Okay, here we go. Uh, Mrs. Sykes, yes. Member Harrison, yes. Miss Autry, no. Miss Jackson, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Hall,

201yes. Dr. Molnar, yes. Motion carries 61. So now we're on to division recommendations 11.1 12. We got to go through the rest of the personnel. Okay. Oh, now we we need to go through the the rest of the personnel recommendations. Superintendent. Section 11. Any questions? Section 12. Section 13. Section 14. [Music] Section 15, section [Music] 16, section 17, section 18, section 19. There are no items in section 20. So I'd like to recommend the approval of the recommend approval of the personnel recommendations in categories 10 through 21. Um I'm sorry. 11. I'm sorry, superintendent, but uh the recommendation 10.6, but we still had other items in 10 point in section 10. I'm sorry, I'm getting my agenda 10 point. So your your recommendation 10.6 um been withdrawn, right? Um and so are you is your

202recommendation from 10.7? No, it's section 10 with the exception of 10.6 through 21. Okay, that wasn't the motion. So that's the motion with the exception of 10.6. 21 through 21.5 21.5 21.5 I'm sorry um through section 20.6 and 21.1 through 6 are All right. Yeah, I'm so again sections 10 through 20 with the exception of 10.6 and 21.1 through 21.6. Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, the motion has been made. Is there a second? Second. Uh the [Music] uh she made the most for the clarity for after the clarity. Was the motion made by motion? Okay. Well uh is there a motion? So moved. Alexander second. It's been moved. Is is a second? It's been moved by member Alexander, second by Mr. Harrison. That's Harrison. Thank you Miss Jack. Wait, it's been moving properly. Second.

203Any discussion? Had it at Miss Aldrey. Not a question or discussion. It's an acknowledgement of 19.1 uh Mr. Kurt Hume who is leaving the district. I know the Elllet family adopted him over there. Um but he is a 1040 graduate and he has been around for a really long time. an important member of our safety team who's built amazing relationships uh with our scholars over the years and I just wanted to wish him well as he departs from us and thank him for his service. Excellent. Thank you for that acknowledgement. Member Altry. Um roll call vote please. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, yes. Mrs. Sykes, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Autry, yes. Miss Hall, abstain from 19.4. Yes to everything else. Reverend Harrison, yes. Uh, motion carries 6 with one abstension on 19.4 70 on

204the balance. Superintendent. This would be section 22. Right. I wish to recommend the approval of the division recommendations resolutions. Um, in section 22 is is there a motion to approve? The next is the division recommendations and uh item 22 on the agenda. I make a motion to approve section 22. Okay. It's been moved by member hall. Is there a second? Second. Second by member Altry. Okay. Any discussion, member hall? Um, yes. For 22.4, um, sorry, there's a lot of pages here. Um, approving transfer of student activity funds to the general fund. um the money that is at these schools when they raise the money or however they collect the funding by this going to general fund. Is this just going to general fund then for everyone or does this funding still have like a small

205place for these schools? I'm sorry. Member Hall, could you tell me the sec what number you're specifically? It's 22.4. Okay. where we talk about the transfer of student activity funds to general fund. Right. So I was asking does this um do these schools lose the funding that they have when it goes to general fund? So if it goes to general fund that means it's for everybody. But when we look on the back page 32 I think I have the new agenda. Um, if you're looking on paper, not on your computer, um, these monies that are collected, um, like the class of 2024 at Garfield 716243, that's going to general fund, but does is that still accounted for for Garfield for their class of 2025? Yes, this the schools this is their money. Okay. So, we

206just move it to general fund then. Yeah, it's a it's a line item within the general fund. Okay. So, they're not these schools are not losing this funding. No. Okay. So, is this this is is this a common I'm sorry. Is this a common practice? Yes. Each time it rolls over and so it would accumulate through the years is what I'm understand. So we should see like cuz it's many schools have leftover balances and it comes into this general fund in the district but as a line item for that school, right? So we don't take their money. It's still there. No, I understand. I'm just asking that question because when we a few years ago, the question came up about cap and gowns and student um fees and students pay their senior dues and things

207like that. And I asked a question about reserves. If there if the money is left over, what happens to that money? and if it goes into the general fund, how is it identified? And at that time, I felt that there this clarification was not there. And so, excuse me, I'm just interested in that. So, I'm just going to put a pin in that and to get more. I'm not going to belabor this meeting, but I wanted to say that on the mic since I know I said it on the mic a few years ago because I'm wondering if there's rollover money and then we talk about students who are unable to cover certain expenses or when the school wants graduation and we're talking about giving doing a line item as a board separately. Excuse me.

208But if these schools have funds, I don't care if it's from the class 2013. 2013 had $10 left over and then from 2013 on it was a little bit of money. A little bit of money ended up being a lot of money and so that's why I was asking that question. So, um I can get more clarification later, but thank you, Superintendent. Uh roll call vote, please. Oh, wait. You you had a follow-up question. Member Hall, please. Well, I didn't have a follow-up question. I just had a question on 22.12. Um page 43 if you have paper. Um 22.12 is a resolution for the architect design services for booked CLC press box replacement and track renovation project. Um, I was just curious because I know I'd asked before, but before we got the architect fund,

209will they be um having conversation with the students, the staff and community members to ask about um the needs far as the press box um far as the concession stands, like to know what the needs are? Um as well as will some of our students be able to help assist with the building of the concession stand press box and so far since we have that those programs at BTO. Right. So you have an architectural firm that is being hired to to design and build all these things. um we do have certain um spec specs that we have to follow in terms of um meeting codes and those those types of things. Now whether or not the architectural firm is going to allow our students to have anything to do with that, that's something that would

210have to be discussed with those firms because this is to approve for the firm to actually do the work. Um but in terms of our whether or not our students can we would have to find out from whichever firm uh is approved. If the firm is approved then we have to find out from them what they would allow if anything allow students to be able to do. Can I have a followup please? Yes. Just follow me follow. Um I mean member hall then. Okay. Um, just to follow up, I know far as like with my role at my job, when we have when we have somebody coming in, we can tell them what we want. So, such as like the underbell project, they have to do engagement. That was part of their selection who could

211do engagement with the community and so forth. So with this firm, we can ask or we can say this is what we want you to do versus asking them what they want to do. If they want to be selected, they'll, you know, adhere to having those conversations with our students, right? But it's it's not it's not I mean first of all we would need to find out because we're going to have to have the teacher that's there hopefully willing to want to to do that because that would be an an additional assignment for the teacher because they would have to be the person there to appro to supervise those students. So again, it's not an issue in terms of us of them doing it, but that's something that's going to have to be worked out

212with that particular firm in in the agreement. Member Sykes, please. Uh, thank you, Madam President. Yeah, I was just going to say what member Hall has said. It seems to me that given the uniqueness of Book Dolan that we have a a program there that perhaps could help with this that it would be nice to see if we can uh put some language in the contract or the proposal or request for proposal to include our students in participating in this project. It seemed very reasonable to me, but I don't know. I mean, I don't have an issue with it. I'm just making sure that that's something that we would have to put in and discuss with that firm. Thank you, Superintendent. Oh, thank you, uh, member Sykes, member Hall, and Superintendent um, for that. And

213I'm in agreement it seemed something reasonable because I know when Garfield CLC was being done, I saw young people there, and I inquired who they were, and there were young people working with that firm that was not from our district, but they were young people. And that's why I've been agitating since I've been here about book those masonry program and to pay our kids with all the other lingual extra language people want to give as if that's not a possibility. It is. And so I think that's the deep dive that we need to do. Uh member Autry. Thank you u Madame President. First I just wanted to thank the district for this finally coming to fruition before us. I know this is something that the but community has been fighting for for a really long

214time. So, I just thank the district for uh recognizing um this community's um things that they wanted that they know make the school uh better. No more uh portaotties in the backyard for the two time state champs in football, the only high school with state championships in football, by the way. Uh but the other thing um I wanted to um acknowledge is that in the last probably 10 years the masonry program actually drew up designs. Mr. Matt Simpson and his students actually have designs because we've been wanting it forever. And so I would hope also in that uh language in the contract that they would at least look at those designs and consider them because their heart is in it over there. And so I think that's just going to make the overall project a

215positive one for that community. Thank you. Thank you. Member Haltry uh yes. You're younger than me now. whole, you know, it's so much you got I got a multitask. I mean, I am a Delta, so that's what we do. But go ahead. Thank you, Madam President. You're doing a wonderful job. Um, so just a quick question and then I'll just have another quick question. So, we're voting on hiring this architect firm, correct? Today. Correct. Okay. Um, and I don't like to do double work or, you know, have go round and round, but I would like to before we vote yes and then they say no, they're not doing it. Can we go back to this firm and give our guidelines of what we want to have them engage with the students to have them look

216at what it would be to um I know we haven't hired the firm to do the actual build but to engage with the students and also um you know see how much it would cost if we employed the students to do some of the work with the company because that company could charge 10 million, but with the help of our students, it could be eight if we're trying to cut costs. So, that's all I ask is if you could go back, because I know you're the person that's consulting with all the firms, if you could just go back um and I guess I would make a motion for this to be um moved off the agenda until the next meeting before that, if I may. Yes. the um incorporating students into the design process and

217even the construction process later on was part of the interview process of the firms that had submitted statements of qualifications for this project. So that has been an active discuss active part of the discussion right from the beginning and all of the firms did respond that they were absolutely willing to incorporate our students into the process fully. Um and to that point um Hosen Stab architectural firm who was selected as the number one ranked firm for the interview process specifically partners with APS and with programs that help our students um for the past several years. So they are very actively engaged in incorporating our students and getting our scholars and students involved into the architectural um process and learning what it is and what jobs may be available. So, I didn't unfortunately I hadn't been

218able to update Dr. Robinson with this information just with all the other projects going on. But every all of those concerns have been addressed the throughout the entire process and very deliberate in the selection and ranking process to make sure that when we did bring our number one selection to this meeting, it met those requirements. Just a followup to this. Yes, sir. Thank you. Sorry, I'm I don't mean that one, but you know, I'm 1040 all day, but I support all the schools, too. Right. So, and if any other school has projects like this, I do want the students to be engaged. Absolutely. Because they're the ones that's going to be taking care of this when we're gone. Yes. Um, but I understand that you're saying that they work with schools, but are they going

219to work with bookto? Because people will work with schools, but when it comes to bookto and east, they may not want to. So, not, you know, uh, throwing anything out there, but you're saying that it was a discussion, but it's not in the contract and it's not in policy. So, just cuz you say you you're going to do it, what does that look like? We talked to two kids and we made we did a discussion like, can we put it into like this resolution that they will engage with students? It would be renegotiating the contract with them to But if they already said they're going to do it, it should be a Yeah, we'll we'll engage with the students since they already said they were going to do it, right? Or it's it would be

220go back going back to having our legal representation go back to the firm and request that additional language is added to the contract and then the contract would have to be brought forth to another board meeting. Okay. Well, I guess it's at the pleasure of the board, whatever we want to do. But, uh, yes. Uh, Dr. Thompson, one thing to keep in mind is, um, not to not that budget matters, but budget matters, right? So, it's already been specked out, bid. So you can we you can still make some design changes, but we have to be very careful about design changes in terms of you know students might want to have a third level on it which would be pretty cool. But um but it does change the cost. Just something to keep in mind.

221But the other thing we can do to your point to to to give you some reassurances, we can do an addendum to that contract. So you could approve this contract with them. We could do a one-page addendum that says requires them to take x number of interns or what, however you want to word that. I'd go through legal to do that to make sure we're we're good. We're copathetic. But and then we could bring that addendum back to the next board meeting for to add to that contract so that you don't hold up this process. We've been working on this project for a very long time. I'd like to go um before football comes. Thank you for that clarification. Yeah. Um, thank member Sykes. Did you uh I think that Madame President that you were

222also talking about the students being paid. Yes. Yes. Yes. So I think that's the language and and and I know you've been working on this for a long time, but when you listen to to member Autry, they've been working on it in the book cluster for a long time. A very long time. probably longer than you've been working on this contract. And I think the president was saying that we want to try and make sure that the students are being paid and so that I would just say that we want to make sure in the addendum that we list that also. I think and yeah. No. Yeah. because they say um a lot of the legal because I remember they said that before and then I got so many calls from so many unions and

223journeymen that said uh no students can get paid to a certain capacity that that language that was shared at the board meeting was not accurate that was shared with me as far as students doing certain type of work but I think these are things that have to be like thought out and planned out which can be done with fidelity um and because one of the things that I was when I member Audrey mentioned this is when she said They have ren ar they already have renderings. Well, those who've done building projects know that ren architectural renderings by themselves cost thousands of dollars. And so the the instructor at um bookto is very sharp is a professional has his own business and is also happens to be an instructor. So when I think about those renderings,

224I'm thinking about cost savings that if we earlier on came to the table with the renderings of the students and if the team sat down even with that teacher and looked at the ren renderings that they had for this space that that could have possibly been some type of savings because it could have been minor edits. The the architectural firm could have saw the vision and say oh this and it may have even been more cost-effective. But these are the type of discussions that when we have these discussions about uh the careers, the opportunities for our students to get into these bluecollar union jobs, it's a serious conversation and I feel like there's a lot of um appeasement that happens like, oh yeah, we're going to look into that. But I never see any action

225item. This is what's happening. When I made the tuck point um comment about bookto's masonry, the the work around those windows, I talked to Mason uh Union House's masonry. They was like and because it was such a complicated job and they were like um I mean it could have been done. It's just you know when you it's just the time and fidelity taken with what actually does that look like. So you when people come to our community, we have these college and careermies. We have these skill trades that our student are learning. HVAC, all these things these kids should be getting. They can be compensated. We sign off on contracts so easy for whoever whatever the relationships are within this district that that same type of energy. I want for these kids that we're sending

226through these programs because the goal is we want to see them. We want to show them that although you're going through this at school, this can feed you in real time and not just it's not always free. everything is not always free and when they get to a point of being able to work and a journeyman status and things like that, building those type of relationships I think is very important. And I um I'm not going to just stay on this horse, but I'm always on this. So I need y'all to know I'm always on it and I'm not going to forget like an elephant in my memory is very long. And so every time I'm going to circle back to this um because I feel like we have these discussions, what's the action? What

227happened? I as I know I talked this talk about over a year ago. So what's happened with the compensation part because it is it is available. It can be worked through. Vaselotti came in here and told us about the the refereeing for the students which was cool and that's on the sports end but it's other areas too. I even asked um Bookto has an amazing catering program with an amazing team that works with those kids. We have all these cateres that come to 10 North May. Pay them kids. You don't need to get the You don't need to get the sandwich tray from Subway. Let the people know at Bookto we're having this meeting. We want a sandwich a sandwich tray. What kids qualify to do this? We want desserts. You know, they have final

228assessments where they have to do a Claire's. So, this is like if I know this and I'm just a board member, if it's your job about then I want you to know it in even more detail and tell me how can it flush out if I'm just throwing this stuff out there. Um um who was it? Superintendent you had something. Go ahead. So we are working on some of those things. Um the member Jackson um and I've already had discussions with Marcy about we do a lot of catering throughout the district for various reasons um and how our kids. So I have been working on that. Um, we do have a project. Um, the intent depending upon funding and all of that is for us to put a garden um where the current Miller South

229is um well in that area, but our students would be I've already checked in with the teacher about them working on that. So that that is going to be something that's designed by the students and done by our kids. Um so we are working on some of those things but I wanted Marcy to share in terms of the payment piece um because we do this kind of over the summer so it would be applicable to the year. Okay. So yeah good evening. Thank you. And so we do we primarily pay students uh a lot. We've been moving quite a few students into paid internships uh through our jogs program where we have jog specialists embedded in every single high school. And so this works really well because Jog can bring them on hires them. They

230have a variety of experiences they can go through which could be micro experiences which are 40 or 50 hours shorter type of jobs to longer yearround and summer employment. and we use all those opportunities with students. Uh I think the this the space that maybe you're speaking to is can we hire student workers as APS employees to go into these sites. There's that's a whole another funding line that we would need to do that. It's it works really well with Job because they're with the kids. They're in the pathways. They're meeting them and they are doing matches in the field both in our schools and in projects that are going on and in the community. A great example is the garden dome going up this summer over at Garfield CLC. The Bokeal masonry students are

231out there scoping it out. Matt Sipsson is going to work the project this summer. Uh uh we're going to pay him through CCAA, but he's bringing in about 10 Jog interns from his program to help do that work this summer for that garden center to go up. So they're doing that masonry and construction work. So, it's a great example of how we're able to combine our staffing with uh the jog partnership to grow these opportunities for our students and those are growing routinely all the time. I actually have a jog flyer right here because, you know, I just I shot it out early about Eileen Shapiro, you know, cuz I really do follow people's work and see how it gets in our community. So this is something that you know uh Summit County does fund

232Buckeye State Credit Union then jobs and so it is limited amount of judge jobs in those positions and some of them fill up and kids can't get to certain jobs that they want to go to cuz I just I kind of rock with kids like that and so I know so they come and they tell me like oh Miss J I missed they said they weren't hiring anymore or I couldn't get to this site and so um yeah and so I just what's what's the best committee to for me to like unpack this in because I don't want to let where would what would you say instructional policy I would say so that's usually what because it's an academic piece to it correct yeah thank you it's all their project learning and their uh workbased

233learning hours and all those graduation requirements go all right thank you I just followed there thank you so much for your time is this on the same topic because you had two and then a followup so move yeah you're done okay is there I'm just this is because we're moving the meeting forward so we're calling or uh yeah cuz we've exhausted this. We're voting on um 22 to the thing. No, you can make a motion. That's different. If you want to make a motion, are you is a motion? Aren't we don't we already have what's on the floor now? Right here 22 motion. A motion to approve. So there's already a current motion that's on the floor. So you you would have to make Are you trying to make amendment to the current? So you

234want to make an amendment to the current motion? Yes, you recognize what I had said earlier was I don't want to say no to this, but if we could make a motion to 2212 so that they can go back to the firm and have a conversation. Um I would rather make a motion to move it so that they can go back to the firm and talk about how the students can be engaged into um the press building the press box and so forth. So that's what I had said earlier. Yeah. But then we started talking about everything else. So I wanted to make sure that we were still that's why I raised my hand. Thank you member Hall. So and to your point so because it's an emotion to approve this. So you would so

235you want to make an amendment to the current emo you want to make an amendment to the current um motion to either what the discussion that took place with Dr. Thompson and uh Keenan was to add an addendum possibly to uh what already was the contract before it signed like an addendum that covers what you are requesting. Well, if we're going to do an addendum, I'm okay with it, but I want to make sure that the addendum is done and that they do go back to the this company to talk about our students participating in it. Yeah, the mo a motion is still a motion would have to be made for that you know it still would be along the lines of what you're asking it just a motion can be made to add for

236the addendum for that yeah so I don't okay see so that you so what you're asking can be had and it needs to add Miss Carter did you need to come to the mic to add clarity your feet was moving before you got up so today we had interviews with architect aritects for north and one of the um items that we are looking for is how are you going to incorporate our kids within the project and even when we're um interviewing our CMR and when we did interviews for the book um concession stand that was one of the things that we're listening for is how they can incorporate our students into the work and so Mr. Keenan did do his due diligence as it relates to working with the firm in making sure that they

237can incorporate um our students, our scholars. Also, he conferred with Marcy Ebrite with CCAA as relates to incorporating how we can get our students paid as well. Mhm. That's along with utilizing our resources that we currently have as relates to funding sources under CCAA and then partnering with Jogs as well to make sure that we can get our um those students who are interested in in participating in these um works as relates to the dome and Garfield, the concession stand, they would have those opportunities to be compensated as well as learn um while they're doing the work. So this is already a written up understanding. So to to member Hall's point, so this is something we can reference and hold accountable. So I don't know if it's written anywhere, but Kenan, can you is it

238written written anywhere or is that something that they just we talked about within the interview? Cuz this is what Hall is asking. You said what? I will have to defer to legal counsel to discuss what is the particular language in the contract that is currently being asked to be approved. So we would have to revisit. Okay, that's what Hall Yeah, y'all going um they gonna have to because Hall is her question is very clear to me as what she's asking and that's why we're saying do we need an addendum? So when you guys come back up to the mic to try to convince us this has already been done and I'm asking is this written people can say a lot of stuff. It's just like with contra but if it's not written then how can

239we hold you accountable that you're doing exactly what you say you do with fidelity. It would be good to have the assumption but it's a difference from children being at the table and they're they're laying brick. They're doing whatever and they know they're getting $25 an hour or whatever. Then I picked just okay. I talked to little Renee and little Renee said, "I like red and I'm going to incorporate red in the grout that I use." That's student eng I I I interacted with students. Do you see? And I'm not trying to be cheeky. I'm just saying this because I'm people can say a lot of stuff. And so until I have we have metrics and things that we watch and we look at to be able to to to measure and say, "Okay, this

240is happening. This is the level." So, um, now with this motion that's on the floor and for clarity, Mr. Keenan said he has to refer to legal. Um, member Hall said she would like to she wanted to amend the motion because she didn't want to vote the motion down to see so that we're clear on exactly what we're um discussing. So, if you're if she going to make that amend to a motion, it has to go around to see what does the board what's the board's pleasure with that or if the board is moving forward with this, Mr. Alexander, I was going to say, can we just pull it off and table it until we get that information and get that stuff written in there and then come back? Would that would that be okay

241or do we need to have it put in now? I don't I don't know because we didn't talked about this a good time. Is it a time constraint on this, Mr. Keenan? Yeah, because we were talking about not beloring it for book. So, is it a time constraint where we need to have this done tonight? today. The time constraint will be the longer the contract is delayed in being approved, the less likely that work will be completed before the football season starts for the 2526 school year. Work. Yes. Uh member Autry. Thank you, Madam President. Uh can we consider making uh a motion that an addendum is brought back to us with these things that we are seeking so that the work can move forward with the expectation that an addendum is brought back to

242us or the clarification around what the language in the contract is. So approve it with the with the contingency of having uh the addendum brought back to the board with these items that the approval is contingent on that because then we can receive it. How does that work? Um that's another motion another uh a different amendment. Yes, member hall. It makes sense. I mean I'm fine with an amendment, but my only concern is we can go back to them with an amendment, but we already have a contract signed. You're trying to amend. you're trying to amend the contract, right, to ask these questions. Will you allow students to participate and have conversations? Will you? They could say no, but we already got a contract signed. They'll do the work. So, just because we amend it

243doesn't mean that they have to say the people that we hire has to say yes to it. Okay. My understanding was the current before we signed the contract this amendment it was in lie of the signing of the contract that they have to agree to the what we're how we're because it's already a contract that we have right yes it is a current contract that was worked on with our legal council for construction and the firm that is being presented here right and it's here to be approved by us and so now when we say amendment before we approve it we're saying with the with the amended items within this contract back. That's the contingency of this being approved. Listen, I trust our team. So, if you're going to go back and do an amendment,

244then let's do that. But what I what I will be disappointed in is if we come back and say they didn't want to do it or we tried to have the conversation. So, I'm fine with approving it if we have your word that you'll go back and talk to that firm about Yes. having not talking to them but telling them this is what we need to do because there's going to be more work down the line. I assume this firm would want to apply for more jobs down the line. So we go back and we stand firm on having communication with our students on what this press box will look like, what the concession stand will look like, and how we can engage our students and let them assist with this project. So I trust

245I trust you. So, we'll just we'll just go for it. I cannot I'm not speaking for the firm, but they've been very deliberate in saying yes, we do we already do work with students in the district and we want to continue that and make sure that's part of it. Yeah. Um and that's the most affirmation I can give at this time. Okay, that's that's fine. um we have talked at this at length so I going to end the discussion with this but I will um just uh bring that we I think that this is an item that we should be table until we meet in two weeks y um so that we can really unpack it right um the way that we needed to to ensure that what we expect is going to happen is

246going to happen is so I make a motion that we uh table this until we get the language that we want to be in the contract. So move. Okay, it's been um moved by Vice President Alexander and second by member Sykes. Now y'all, we didn't had a lot of discussion. Any discussion? Seeing hearing none, roll call vote, please. Dr. Molnar. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mh. Pastor Harrison, yes. Miss Autry, no. No. Okay. Miss Miss Jackson. Yes. Miss Hall. Yes. And Mr. Alexander. Yes. Motion carry 61. All right. Um, now we're at business affairs. We we still have to finish 22. Approval of division recommended realizes. Yes. Okay. Okay. So, we just approved the division recommendations and resolutions on item 22. Then, um over here motion to approve the division recommendations and resolutions. Item 22. We

247just said, it's different. We just did 22 twice. Okay. So, just to make sure I'm clear, I thought what we just did a motion on and voted on was to table 22.12. Yes. So, now we still haven't approved 22. 22. Okay. So, it's a approval of the division recommendations. However, because we amended the the recommendations from just 22 point, so we just need to remove Yeah. So, that's correct. That's right. So, we already moved all of 22 out, correct? No, that was 21. We still have to do 22. We should be doing 22. We removing with the removing 22.12. Correct. Correct. Right. 22.12 is the exception. Okay. Is there a motion to approve approval of the division of recommendations um with the removal of 202.12? So moved. It's been moved by member hall. Is there

248a second? Second. It's been second. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, roll call vote, please. Dr. Thompson. Dr. Molnar. Yes. Mrs. Sites. Yes. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Miss Autry. Yes, Miss Hall. Yes, Reverend Harrison. Yes, Miss Jackson. Yes. Motion carry 70. Next is the business affairs recommendation. Dr. Robinson. Thank you, President Jackson. I wish to recommend the approval of the business affairs recommendations in category 23. Is there a motion to approve the business fair rec the business affairs recommendation in category 23? I move to approve the business affairs recommendations. A second. It's been moved by member Altree and properly. Second by member Hall. Any discussion? Yes. Member Harrison. I just have a question on 2320 the southeast security. Is is that a new system we're putting in? Which which one? Uh 2320 Southeast Security. This is

249Southeast Security uh a badge system. I'll let Mr. Keenan elaborate on it, but this is a this is sort of something that was started before I got here. Um and the system is outdated and so um we really need to make a decision on on that. That's how you get in and out of buildings and all that. But I'll let I just wanted to know if if we were updating the system or if it's a new system, but you're saying we're updating. Okay. It's that that's sort of an up. Yes, sir. But I'll let Mr. Keenan elaborate. Do you require any more information? No. Thank you. That was a wise question, Mr. Keenan. All right. Thank you. Uh, member Autry. Thank you, Madam President. I also wanted to acknowledge item 23.26 on the agenda, which

250is a track at ECLC. Um, and getting that process started over there. Again, I just wanted to acknowledge and and thank the district as these uh sports facilities uh bad word equity um are taking place before us. And so I just wanted to say that out loud and and thank the district um for this opportunity um for other schools to see some investment. Thank you. Thank you, member Altry. member Hall is has your hand up with the question. I did um um Okay, I'm sorry. Um what is it? 2320 um where Mr. Harrison had talked about um and that was also part of 2012 213 where we accepted the resolution for the money from the attorney general to um pay for the southeast security and with that southeast security I know that by reading this

251we we talked about um well we didn't talk about it it talked about updating the system for teachers for their badges and so forth what we And I know I had made mention especially also when I ran I had talked about far as like security for our students for our students to if we could incorporate um like badges for our students and that could be another form of security where they could even even tap in to show that they're in the building as attendants and this can be a conversation for committee which I brought up before but um I look at this this system by updating it even we can account for what students are at games and also what students are when they come to a game when I was running I witnessed um

252I don't know if it was a teacher administration or whoever but there was a student that was at pancake day at bookto and she got out the car so excited to go to the game and instead of the adult asking her do you go here that adult shut her down and said you got to you got to have your parent come it was like really nasty and I just stood there and I'm like what's going on and the little girl was like well I she wouldn't let her speak. She was like, "You can't come. Your parent has to come." So the little girl walks to the car with her head down. Another administrator is like, "No, she goes here." And then a student got chased down to, you know, say, "Hey, do you go here?"

253And she's like, "Yes." That could have been a very simple conversation by asking that student, do you go here? Before telling her a parent had to come. So with badges or something like that the student has when they attend games shows that me summer hall student at BTO. So, with this money, by us updating the system, um, and again, we could talk about this in committee. Maybe look into students getting badges that will also work with the system that we're updating. Thank you, member Hall. Any other discussion? All right. Um, roll call, please. Oh, war. Thank you. Um, I have a question on 2327. I see uh $21,000 for a contract from July 1st to 25 to June 30th of 26. Um I was wondering um is this the same as what we paid for

254the same service in 2425 or how does this change from the contract? Yes, it's the same or less. It depends on the number of phones that you actually assign. So it will not incur additional cost over what we had last year. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Faulk and member Molar and Hall. Uh any other member hall? Um I can't recall the number right off back. Um member Altry, what was the east track one? 23 26 26 2326. And also with East, I'm not trying to take anything off the list, but um I also want to make sure that we're mindful um when we're putting this track in to make sure that we're not trying to take up all the field and also make sure that this track is a track that we can compete

255on, a track that other schools can come and utilize when we're not utilizing it to bring money into the school. because if we're not utilizing it, other schools utilize um like Elliot or other other schools that we have that are competitive, maybe Fire Stones baseball field. Let's just make sure that when we put this track in that not only is it an athletic sports track where our kids can compete on, but also make it to where if other schools want to rent our space, they can utilize that too. Yes. Um point that's spec for this specific space at ECLC. Um the space available is six lanes and the specific project is just to provide asphalt paving to actually go from cinders to an asphalt surface similar to as what Firestone was prior to the recent

256upgrade to the synthetic surface on top of the asphalt. Um it's part of an overall larger project to replace goalposts, pave the track, add additional um stad add additional bleachers, and overall improve the athletic area at East CLC. Um partially funded by a grant through Dick Sporting Goods that we received. Yeah. Um, but this for the track, it wasn't within the budget to be able to also then bring it to an synthetic all-weather surface outside of it being paved and lined and striped and numbered so that it is usable as a paved asphalt surface. Follow up. So, just as a quick f Did you want to I'll let you go ahead superintendent first before I follow up. I just want to say I'm sorry, Madam President. That's your call. Okay. Uh, one second. Did you

257have uh if you have a follow, I would like for you to end so that we can end up calling for the vote and then end with just what the superintendent has to say. So, what's your As my followup, when we got the money from Dick Sporting Goods for the $100,000 and we had to match the $100,000, correct? 200,000. 200,000. Okay. Um, I thought that we were getting a new track. We're just paving the old track now. We're not doing any We're just I'm sorry if there may have been some misunderstanding. The current track where it is is the only space on that whole campus that could have a track on it. So, it's taking it from a cinder track and paving it, striping it, lining it. I don't think that's what we discussed when

258we when we first was talking about it. It was like all the excitement that we were getting this money to do a new track, not fixing the old track up and not making it a competitive track. because I I know when I asked that question when we got the money, I I I said exactly what I said today then that we're make that you know we want to make this a competitive track. We want to make this track that, you know, our students can compete on. I I know I said the same thing as I've been you know talking about East and things like that like they don't have a football field or they don't have they can't have the games there with a stadium. So at least we can do is I thought we

259were getting a new track to my understanding. I could be wrong, but I thought we were getting a new track. And in essence, it is a new track on on the same footprint that it was on or currently is on. Oh, okay. Mr. Grand, but the goal to your question is to budget for, and I don't know the technical names, but to make it a competition track. So that's what we're putting into the new budget. So we're going to redo it. I'm sorry. No, you're not redoing it. It's the whatever they did to the track at Elliot so that it is a competition track. There's an overlay and I don't know the technical names to all to all of that, but that's what we will be looking to budget for to make East the same

260track the same way so that it does it does become a competition track with this money. Not with this. We have to budget for that that that extra piece. So when we do the as we're doing the budget for the next year, we would add that in so that the we can do the overlay. But it'll what what we're getting is a track. It can be used. They can run track. They it's just not a competition type track. What I'm saying is that we will be budgeting for that so that it does become a competition track, but what we're going to have will be kids can use it and run on it to do practice and PE and those things, but to make it a competition is what we would need to budget for for

261the following year. And and just just be clarity order. So for the when we're having discussion um board members it's two uh questions and then maybe a follow-up so we can move the meeting along because our needs become labor because we get an in-depth discussions um per board member about these topics. So I just want to reiterate that I did send an email weeks ago to the board that we wanted to make our leans a little bit more conducive with this. So, um, lastly, uh, with this item as far as this track at ease, member hall. Okay. I'm sorry. Just I just just trying to understand it and bless you. [Music] Um, so later on we're going to budget more money to redo something that we're putting money into now. Well, you're not redoing it.

262You're adding the the overlay, the piece that the stuff that goes on top of I understand that, but what they just said was we're going to budget to make it a competitive track later. So, with the money that we currently have, why aren't we using the money that we have and then add some into it to make it all the way right? Or maybe I'm just not understanding. I don't know. I I I think what Mr. Chair and Dr. Thompson was okay. Dr. Thompson had said he could add clarity. So, I was acknowledging Dr. Thompson. I was waiting for you to finish. Think of a think of a competitive track as a two-phase plan. You put the black top down and then you put a rubbery synthetic surface over over top of it. But I

263believe I think we'd have to double check, but I'm pretty certain that the other challenge with making that a competitive OSAA track for a track meet has to be eight lanes. And I don't think there's space there for eight lanes is my understanding. So you'd have to check into that. I I won't say that for certain, but I think that's why it's why they're black topping six lanes and not eight because there's not space for there isn't physical space to do eight lanes. There is there is not that's what I thought. Yeah. So it could never be a competitive track no matter what you did. Not not a not a not a state approved track for a track meet. Harrison. [Music] Yeah. This did come through the committee and we talked about it and and

264this the space was an issue and so what we were discussing was this would be the foundation and that would be an upgrade. Okay. So, we would do it in two parts, but it wasn't uh we didn't have enough space for for eight lanes, but this would be like the foundation and then they would upgrade it once fund was ava a available. So, that sound like what some Miss uh member Hall was referencing about the new the understanding of a new track for clarity. All right, vote. Roll call vote, please. Dr. Thompson. We're on item 23. Mrs. Sykes. Mr. Alexander. Yes. Miss Autry. Yes. Miss Hall. Yes. Reverend Harrison. Yes. Miss Jackson. Yes. Dr. Molinar. Yes. Motion carries 70. Thank you. Next, we'll have a committee um committee reports, legal contracts and board policy. Yes.

265Thank you, Madam President. Legal board policy committee will be meeting uh Monday the 21st of April uh at 5:30 in this room. We'll be discussing our nepotism policy, the vendor relation, electric equipment, independent contractor operations, parent bills and right bills of rights and the comprehensive operation instructional oversight policies. Also, we'll be talking about uh NEOLA policies that we're purchasing and per procurement and federal grants and funding. So, we will be meeting here. Uh all who wants to attend can be here in this room uh Monday, April 21st at 5:30. Thank you, Madam President. Thank you, Mr. Alexander. Next, finance and capital management. Thanks, Madame President. Finance and Capital Management will be meeting in this room on the 21st at 4:30 and we will discuss those items. [Music] Thank you. Uh member Sykes, instructional policy, student

266achievement. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um this past Monday, April 7th, the instructional policy committee met um where we received a presentation from Adam Mer, our social studies uh curriculum specialist. Um and he discussed with us um the new social studies curriculum for K through three, which is actually just outside the boardroom that I encourage everybody to take a look at. It looks really um exciting. And then also I just wanted to uh thank the staff that was involved with the uh approval process. I understand it's quite uh rigorous, takes a lot of time and effort and so thank you to those staff members who participated in that. Um, also we heard about a textbook adoption for AP European history pathway um at Firestone that's needed and so the committee chose Pearson um the Western Heritage

267since 1312th edition um this adoption is directly aligned with the AP test and has significant support for the students um in that pathway um at Firestone. Also, we received a uh recruitment overview from Larry Johnson. Um, one of the things I had asked for um is a report around Teach for America and other staffing things because we talk about this exceptional curriculum that we have, but if our buildings are consistently having 15 to 20 subs, how can that exceptionalism really uh be maximized? So unfortunately they were not able to connect with Teach for America just yet. So that'll be coming back to the instructional policy. Um but we did hear about our existing uh recruitment efforts including um some collaboration initiatives and relationships. The Cleveland Area Multicultural Educators Recruitment Association otherwise known as CARA. Um

268university partnerships, the Harrington Scholarship. Um, also, uh, they touched upon our job fair participation. Um, and I do understand that maybe six months after graduation, we will be reaching out to graduates to see where they're at and potentially because that's that magic moment where they realize, oh my gosh, life is real. I've graduated. What can I do? So, we talked about possibly having um job fairs for those uh, scholars. I'm also talked about our grow our own program which is a state initiative offers up to $7,500 per year for four years to support aspiring teachers. Um they have to commit to teaching in the home district here for four years. Uh as it relates to us applicants can be long-term sub secretary security etc already working in our district. So, I'm encouraging anyone who has

269thoughts uh who has just that knack with students um who are not necessarily teachers at the present to consider um any of these programs. Um we did get a nice big phone booksiz pack of data around our attendance and absenteeisms um by uh staff at our buildings. Um and unfortunately those numbers are are never where we want to see them. Um I know one of the questions that um Mr. Johnson asked us is uh what do we need to know before we do anything? So I'm just um asking my colleagues to send questions um around that particular topic. Um one of the things that I noticed that was bothersome to me and and member Hall please chime in. Um but as I looked at this data um I noticed the field rates um of our

270substitutes and at some of our schools I see those field rates I think we had the month of March um some of those field rates were 100% in some schools you know multiple days of the week but then there were other schools that only had 100% fill rate for one day out the whole month and I just we have to figure out why that is and how can we remedy at. And so I'm looking forward to further conversations about how we can address um our staffing. Again, this is another long-term issue um that I was advocating for long before I got on this board and we have to eventually do something different to get something different. And so, member Hall, if you have anything to add. Uh yes, one second. Uh I I also want

271at this time to take a moment of personal privilege. I need to use the restroom. So, uh, Vice President Alexander will presside over the meeting from this point. Member Hall, you've been recognized. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I will just, um, state, well, Miss Mrs. Ebrite, Marcy Ebrite, um stated that alumni program would be good by having someone um do a check-in with our graduates, making sure they that they are employed or um in school or um or enlisted if need be. Um, so having someone, you know, create this program will make it a lot easier to make sure that our our alumni, our graduates, um, are on the right path versus just graduating and saying they want to go to college, but then they don't have the money to go to college, so now

272they're sitting at home. So, I think that would be something great if we could start that up one day um, sooner than later. That's why I said jocks, you know, have some of those students work on that. Um, also after our meeting, um, a retired teacher came up to me and she stated, you know, with the books that we're getting, um, and Mr. M, you can probably answer to this. Um, are these books that we've had in the past I'm sorry, he's not here. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Um, it's long. It's long. Um, but the books that we're we're adopting now, are these kind of like are these similar to books that we had in the past and that those books didn't work in the past, but we're just reintroducing them again. So, I just

273when Mr. M, you know, we can have that conversation. I'm curious about that because a previous teacher had asked about that. Um, so that's it. Any further discussion? If not, we'll move to the equity committee. Okay. Hello again. Um so with the equity committee or anyways um Larry Johnson came and spoke about building recruitment um building relationships with institutions such as Stark State um creating a program to increase the number of pair professionals moving into education. Um so that's our current pair of professionals that we might have that may want to be teachers. we start a program or again a relationship with a university to um work with these pair professionals to become teachers. Um also Dr. Chapman spoke about um the advisory council and the workbased learning session with the big picture learning um

274and also um working with guys and gals community partnership. Um I think we have this in our um agenda to vote on the big picture which is a free program um with our guys and gals and I just want to shout out to uh Jerome Moss with guys and gals graduate of Firestone High School um created guys and gals um to give back to the community. So we have a APS graduate that is still here doing the work for our community, his community, and he also sees a need for our kids. So he does the hoop for coupe which was last Saturday. Um just as a skill set, health and wellness, teaching our kids about just themselves and being an athlete and what that is. Being an athlete doesn't mean you just good at that

275sport. You have to be good in school. You have to also be good at, you know, listening. being an athlete, it's listening is one of the big um issues, too. So, just a shout out to Jerome Moss for all that you're doing for our community, for our kids. Thank you. Thank you, Member Hall. We now are uh Yes. Uh I I need to go back to business affairs. I'm sorry. This is a long and I'm way past my bedtime. Uh I need to abstain from uh 23.17 in business affairs. Okay. Um thank you. Thank you. Can you notate uh the absention? I miss [Music] that. Okay. Okay. So, uh, the necessary has been added. Um, your abstension in the roll. I'm edited. We're now at unfinished business on the agenda. It's a motion to approve

276the memorandum of understanding between Akran Board of Education and the city of Akran for the for the department of police officers in selected schools. [Music] So move. It's been moved by member Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Altry. Any discussion? Member Sykes. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President, and members of the board. I'm just wondering I don't believe so but the uh that the key language that we've discussed in this particular uh has been amended omitted uh that language saying that the Akran school board the Akran schools will have the authority to remove an officer when needed. that language does not appear to to be in this. Is is that correct? The language I believe still indicates that the only way an officer can be removed is if we contact

277the chief of police and that that language is still in here. Okay. Well, I would would have to be against this this piece of Mr. I'm sorry, superintendent. Yes, ma'am. Sykes. Um given where we are with this school year because this contract ends June 30 with end June 30th. Um and we understand that um there was a there was some other language that also was in there in terms of the superintendent being able to move these people around and and then the board. um just trying to compromise to work to get this completed for just this time here because it starts from January. It's already started. It would end June 30th. Now going if if it is the pleasure of the board going into a different contract, then that's something that we could then have

278time to really address and massage. Um I've spoken with the mayor about it. Um so he is aware. uh he shared some things as well, but in terms of us just being able to get through this year here and be able to close out this year, we wouldn't have that in in the contract, right? That's that's that's my clarification. That's what I wanted to to be clear on. So, that means that that language has been omitted. That means that between now and when this contract end that if something should happens at a at a school where we have a police officer and we feel that our student has not been treated fairly that we cannot ask that officer to remove themselves from our school but we will have to contact the chief of police and

279ask that chief of police to remove that officer. the mayor. Thank you. Now, let me let me just say having been on Akran City Council, I know the Akran City Council would never approve this, would never support this, saying that we did not over in Akran City Council have the authority to ask an individual to leave one of our buildings if we were a city council. uh but I think that the students need to feel that we support them and if we feel that something has happened that we need time to investigate that we need time to see if that student has been treated properly and if so we need that officer to be removed and we need a a board employee the superintendent i.e the principal, someone to be able to say, "We need

280you to remove yourself from this situation until we can check this out." So, for that reason, there's no way I can support this this this item. Thank you, member Sykes. Is there any discussion? Any further discussion? Member Alexander? No, I was going to say is this it's if we don't approve this, we have time again to to talk about it again if we need to to get the language in that we may want to move forward with the with the city. I don't know what with the time frame. Do we do we have that or not? Superintendent. Um no sir. Um, this has been a very interesting process and just kind of going back and forth. And then there are things in their contract with their unions that I'm not sure why um it's just

281now surfacing, but there are some things that were not in uh that did not coincide with their contract. So, and this was one of those those those particular nuances that Mrs. Sykes was referring to. Um, I clearly understand um because I too would not have the leverage of moving or removing them. Um, but I also know that if we didn't do this, even though we don't have a long period of time left before school ends, but we would have we would we wouldn't be able to continue to maintain them in the building. We would or we would not. We would not. So, we don't understand not going to service our our school buildings. Well, that's that's a that could be a possibility. I just didn't want I do understand the language piece and I I

282do agree with it. I was just looking at the fact that we need as school is coming to a close this year. we have activities. Um I guess for I could but I'm not the board but I'm just speaking from I I'm not I don't like it but I know that there's not a lot that I can really do about that piece because it is something that has to do with their contract. So, just for us to be able to close out the year, which would be at the end of May, um the contract went in June 30th, but of course, we don't really have school during that time other than summer schools and those activities. So, I guess I was looking at it from that perspective. I'm not necessarily that I like it, but

283I guess I'm just looking at the bigger picture. Now, when it comes to if the board's pleasure is for us to go into a new contract um with them, then that would be something that we would have to really have some conversation around. And I'm not sure that it would um how that would go. But I'm I was just looking at for this to get us to close the school year out. Is there any other discussion before we call for the vote? member Molinar, excuse me. Thank you, Madame President. Um, I just want to say our board often gets criticized for being divided, but this was an issue that I was under the impression that we were unified on. We agreed on. We wanted to support our students and tell our students that we support

284them and that if there is someone in our building that we don't want in our building, we will take them out of our building. I thought our board was unified in believing that we should not give up control over if someone is in our buildings. And this item is in unfinished business because it was removed from the agenda at our last meeting. And placing this item back on the agenda without that critical piece being honored and without an explanation of the alternatives that have been explored immediately, things that can be done now. To me, it feels like just yet another instance of the board's direction not being heard or followed. I must vote no on this item. Thank you, member Molinar. Um, member Altru. Thank you, Madame President. And so, I know we're really not

285at full liberty to discuss contracts, right? Um, and so I just wanted to say that for me personally, it's not a matter of belief. Um, cuz I will say, and I've said it to my colleagues that I do not believe. Um, and they say only a hit dog holler, right? So this is no disrespect meant to any officer, but given the current state of what I see in my city, I just don't feel it is compatible with our school system and our children. That's Diana Autry speaking. However, that being said, um there is a need to have this in our buildings. Um, this is not because the board doesn't believe that we have that right because I think we all do, you know, to remove someone that's not proper for our students. So, you know,

286I just want to clarify how I feel. It's not about what I believe and it's about what we need to do to move forward correctly with theou at this time. But yes, I believe this board reserves the right to decide who's appropriate in our building for our children. That's Diana Autry speaking. Madame President, just may I just Thank you, Member Altry. Uh, member Sykes. Thank you. By voting for this, then we do not reserve the right to determine who is in our building. It's just that simple. And I have not and from the conversation that we've had and I won't repeat it but we were all there in executive session there was no proof that by us not uh omitting by us not putting the language in that we have the authority to determine who

287was in our building that that eliminates those officers from working in the building. Uh thank you uh member Sykes both member Sykes and member Altry um our legal council did send an email out yesterday about 8 in the morning kind of unpacking this which does not change the rationale given both um by the members um of the board regarding where we were at in agreement and um where we position oursel now when this comes for a vote. Um, but there was a unpacking as to how this ended back up on the agenda. To your uh point, member Molnar, an email was sent by legal counsel yesterday morning uh describing as to why it was put on the agenda. Uh, not necessarily that it was like a defiant thing done, but just for information, although I

288don't know that that necessarily changes the board, the majority of the board's positioning, but it gives the information uh just forformational purposes. Mr. Alexander. Madam Excuse me, madam. Thank you, Madam President. I I move that that we have this because we can't have any discussion if we don't and we talk about being transparent. I know we can't talk about everything in this se this section, but we still need to talk about it a little bit so that people know what's going on. And so that's why we if we don't make a motion, there's no discussion. So I made the motion so we can have some discussion. Thank you. All right. Thank you, member Alexander. Um Dr. Thompson, roll call vote, please. Mr. Alexander, no. Miss Autry, yes. Miss Hall, abstain. Reverend Harrison, no. Miss Jackson,

289no. Dr. Molinar, no. Mrs. Sykes, no. Motion fails. One five with one abstension. Next agenda item is agenda item 25.2. Motion to repeal board policy 2260.04. equity policy. Is there a motion to repeal? So move. It's been moved by member Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Hall. Any discussion hearing? None. Uh seeing or hearing none. Dr. Thompson, roll call vote, please. Miss Autry, yes. Miss Hall, yes. Reverend Harrison, abstain. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molinar, no. Mrs. Sites, no. Mr. Alexander, I think I need to abstain too. Question. Motion carries 32 with two abstensions. Next on the agenda, we have motion um 25.3, motion to repeal board policy 2260.05, working definition of DEI and excellence in education. Is there a motion to repeal board policy 2260.05? So move. It's been moved

290by member Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Hall. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, roll call vote, please. Miss Hall. Abstain. Reverend Harrison, abstain. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molnar, no. Mrs. Sykes, no. Mr. Alexander, abstain. Miss Autry, yes. Um 22. Motion fails. Next on the agenda is 25.4, motion to repeal board policy 2260.07, racial equity. Is there a motion to repeal board policy 2260.07? So moved. It's been moved by member hall. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Alexander. Any discussion? Uh, member Autry. Thank you, U, Madame President. Um, I just wanted to share um in regards to this in particular because I was actually here when this policy was being um created. And so um it'll be a hostile yes for me because a philosophical no

291is not producing $85 million for us. And so, um, is in these times that you have to make these hard, tough decisions that I certainly wasn't thinking about in 2019, but here I am having to make it. And I resent that we are being placed in a position to have to choose between such an important issue because if we didn't have inequities in the first place, it would have never been a need to have these committees, these definitions, these policies. However, that being said, I've been waiting patiently for a rich $85 million benefactor so that I would be able to say no and not worry that our breakfast and lunch program is being threatened, that our special education services are being threatened by our college access programming and so much more is being threatened by

292this. So none of us around this table are enemies cuz we aren't the ones who um have put ourselves in this position. And so it it is with a a tough and and um sad heart um that I will uh support this so that our district can continue to run um with the $85 million in funds that we need. Thank you. Thank you, member Altry. Is there any other discussion? Seeing hearing none, roll call vote, please. Reverend Harrison, abstain. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molnar, no. Mrs. Sykes, no. Mr. Alexander stay. Miss Autry. Yes. Miss Hall. Yes. But I'm saying yes to this. And I also I think I need to correct my vote for 25.3 if it's not too late. But if it's too late, it's okay. It's the working definition. The working definition for

293DEI and excellence. Uh then that means motion carries 32 meaning it is repealed. Do we want to revote 25.3? Well, yeah, because um the so to just for clarity, member hall, the working definition for DEI and excellence in education, uh you need you want to change your vote on that. This is just a policy. So, yes. Okay. So, yeah. 23.5 or excuse me, 25.3. That's 25.3 is what member Hall is saying. She What did you have saying on that vote? I did. to a yes. So that means motion carries 32 on 25.3 as well. Okay, now we're to 20.5. Motion to end the equity committee. Is there is there a motion to end the equity committee? So moved. It's been moved by member hall. Is there a second? Second. Second. It's been seconded by member

294Alexander. Any discussion? Member Altry. Thank you, Madam President. Um I just wanted to also um add so I think this is the original policy from 2017. Um, and so at the time I I know a lot of this has been around race, even though we all know um, DEI is much more than race, right? Um, but at the time of this policy, this district was not a majority brown and black district, which is another reason that we had a need for these policies. So, I would say today that we probably are majority brown and black students. We're here for all students. All means all. And so without a policy, I just want to state that the work to serve all children is still there for us to do. And so that is my intention as

295a board member um in light of having to make this most difficult challenging uh decision around this. But but all means all. And so now we have an opportunity to really mean that moving forward. Thank you. Excuse me. Thank you, member Autry. Member Hall. Um I just want to say just like with the work that um Helen Arnold did while fighting for the board for equal opportunities for children at APS, it wasn't DEI then, but she was still doing the work. Um I'm not against DEI. I also work in DI which we have to get rid of that also. Um but who are we doing this for? Are we doing it for the children or are we doing it for the adults? You know, at the end of the day, we still have to make

296sure that every child has the same opportunity. We can't say just like what we talked about earlier today talking about given the opportunity to book to be able to build their concession stands or uh and then I'm sorry I get so embedded in this. Um my words don't always come out right but fair is fair, right is right, wrong is wrong. We have to support our kids on every single level. Regardless if it's food, we need to make sure our kids are eating. If we lose $14 million from keeping it, then our kids won't eat. Who's going to supply the food? The teachers already say they've had enough. They can't continue to take out of their pockets to feed our kids. Um, so I feel like we just have to continue to do the work.

297If we have DEI or if we don't, we got to look after one another. Again, be kind. Isn't that what we talk about? We praise about be kind. Well, we need to be kind to our kids. We need to be kind to our staff and the ones that have the power to hire. Make it make sense. If you see that you're 20 um African-Americans are applying for a job, you don't hire any of them, but you hire all 20 white, then that's a problem with you. That's not a problem within um the people that are trying to do the work for the kids. So, we have to be mindful and make that decision on our own while you're hiring, while you're um interacting with our kids that we're doing the right thing for everybody because

298any of us can fall out today. And you better hope that you treated that person with kindness that's standing right next to you to give you that glass of water. So, regardless if DEI is here or DEI is gone, we still need to be one unit, one sound body to support our kids. That's why we're here. That's why I ran for the board. That's why teachers come to work every day. That's why you administrators come and do the work. We just got to think about that and be mindful of that. That's all. Madam President. Thank you, member Hall. Member Sykes. Thank you, Madam President. Madame President and members of this committee, uh the equity committee worked for hours in coming up with language that we thought would be acceptable that was not DEI language. That

299was sent over to the legal committee. No action has been taken on that at all. No action, not has been taken on that. The committee has not met on that. We spent hours on that. Most of you attended the majority of the meetings. So, it's it's not about whether or not we want everyone to be treated properly. Of course, we did. No doubt that when you first wrote this legislation that you wanted everyone, it wasn't whether or not the this district was black and brown. It was about treating everyone fairly. Now we have some language coming from the national level and our state house saying you can't use the words DEI. Okay, let's not use the words DEI. But let's not discriminate against individuals either. Our students still have rights. Our teachers still have rights.

300Our vendors still have rights. And what this committee did was sit down and try to acknowledge that. As a matter of fact, we put those rights within that language. But no action has been taken on that. Of course, this is about the kids. You say this is about the kids. Let's show the kids what it means. Let me just just say to you, it it is not the words DEI. And as I said to this committee when we started looking at this for my great grandmother, you know, her word was, "Call me a negro. That's respectful to me. Call me a negro." But my grandmother said, "No, no, call me colored. I want to be called colored because that's respectful to me. And then when I came along, I said, "I'm black and I'm proud,

301so call me black." And now my daughter says, "I'm Africanamean." So it's not it's not what we call ourselves, but all of us, whether it's my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, or my daughters, we will all said recognize us and accept us for who we are. accept us and say we belong here. We belong here. So we sit down and we came up with language that says everyone here belongs here. And we ask you to look at that and we ask you if you have some problems with that language to change it to work with us. That's what we did. But we've heard nothing from you. So all we're asking you to say is to still have policies within this school district that says we all belong here, that we all deserve to succeed, that

302we all deserve the very best that we can get and not act like it that it is not happening. So you don't have to say DEI. We all can come up. We We have We're We're words smmiths in here. We can all come up with words and meanings without violating the law. There's no one ever on this table that appreciate the law more than I do. I've been on both sides. I've made laws. I've interpret laws. I've supported laws. I've I've marched for laws. I've done I respect laws. I don't have no intentions of breaking a law. Which is why I took the time to sit down with the committee to come up with language that we could use that would tell our children that would tell that young man that said when I walked

303into North High School what it meant to me to see a banner that had my language on it. I came from another country. and it said, "Welcome in my language." That's what it's all about. That wasn't DEI. That was saying to him, "You belong here. We recognize that. And we're going to do everything that we can to make sure that you feel that way every day that you're in this school system." So to sit here and to eliminate this without having anything else in its place to say to our children, you belong here. Don't tell me you care about the children. Sure. Member Molinar. Thank you, Madame Chair. Um, I will not say it as well as member Sykes, but I echo everything she said. We spent a very long time crafting an important policy

304to look at our distribution of resources to look at fulfilling the achievement gap and ensuring that we are serving our students and policy 2260.06 is not a replacement DEI policy. The comprehensive operations and institute oversight policy is we intentionally included in it references to civil rights federal laws that were cited in the dear colleague le letter to show how we are supporting our students in the exact way that DEI policies were accused of discriminating against students for doing to show that we are supporting our students and as member Sykes said following the law. We crafted this policy in over 10 hours of meetings and I know that generally there are three readings to a policy. However, since we so publicly and for so long created this policy and since we are now without any policies

305to look at the achievement gap of supporting our students with resources, I would like to make a sus motion to suspend the rules and pass policy 2260.06 as written and as presented to the legal policy committee. second. Um, the motion is on the floor. Um, it's been moved by member Molar properly, second by member Sykes. Um, is there any discussion? Yeah, I I want to hear what the motion is again. The motion is to suspend the rules that usually require three readings and pass policy 2260.06 as presented to the legal policy committee. Okay. It's been moved by member Molar sec. Oh, and uh seconded by member Sykes. Uh you have a question, Member Hall? I do have a question. Um so TW 2260. Why do I have $2,200? Um 2260 was the policy that was

306created. Correct. That's over at um member 2206 is what you're referencing. 2260.06 comprehensive operations and institutional oversight policy. No, no, that's the motion I just made. Turn your mic on. That's what I'm trying to follow. Okay. So, you made a motion that we suspend suspend the rules to approve 2260 point that we approve it. We We can't approve something that's not on the agenda. So you would have to make a motion to that it be added to the agenda. Madam J. You can't approve something that's not on the agenda. But we don't it's not on what I'm saying is not on the agenda. No, not here. It's not. That's what I'm saying. How can we approve a item that's not on the agenda or added to the agenda and we don't have reference on it?

307I don't have a reference of that. Members sites. Yes, Madam Chair, you can you can as the the uh you actually accepted it when I second it. So, you actually can approve an item uh from a member of this board at any time and it does not have to be on the agenda and especially since we're under new business. Question. Sorry, it was it is a motion on the floor for it, but that's why I'm I'm trying to get clarity, which I'm still So, now maybe what you want to do is you want to see a copy of it. You know, one one second. So, currently we already we had a motion already on the floor to end the equity to end the equity committee. We were in discussion about that motion and then member

308Molinar made a additional motion before we concluded the business of this motion to which I we went with it. So things were moving and so that was out of or so we were out of order um with that movement because there's already a motion that's on the floor and so the motion that's on the floor has to be dealt with and then member Molinar we can revisit the motion that was made by member Molar because we were already at the motion 25.5 and member Monar had a question her question during that was to make another motion but it There was already a motion on the floor and we approved and we did that. So it was out of order. Member Monar. Yes. Ma'am. Um as we do this if anybody I know a lot of

309us have our computers. If anyone would like to reference the policy that I am referring to is the one that we publicly created over 10 hours in committee meetings and it was emailed to the full board on March 15th and before it was presented to the legal committee on March 17th. So, if anyone would like to pull it up for review, March 15th is when you received it. Okay. Thank you. Uh, roll call vote for 25.5. Miss Jackson, yes. Dr. Molar, no. Mrs. Sykes, no. Mr. Alexander stay. Miss Autri. Yes. Miss Hall. Yes. Reverend Harrison. Abstain. Motion carries. 32. All right. Thank you. Now uh and um for the parliamentarian so member Mullar made a motion in which I guess she will have to remake the motion but I still have un readiness and I

310needed reference from from Robert's rule that we can add something to agenda that is not that once a motion is made that it has to be voted on because I had I looked before I came into most recent so I just need reference because maybe I read something that was inaccurate. Yeah. Me remember me remember me remember me remember me remember me remember me remember me remember um I'm sorry uh treasurer treasurer Steve because I'm just going off my notes Dr. Thompson and so I just want to be sure Okay. Thank you. Thank you. If if the board had the practice of approving the agenda which which we don't do that and you don't have to do that. Robert does not require that. Okay. And because we don't do that, you can make an you

311can add something to the agenda just like you can take something off. Okay. So, it's just the motion to add it and it doesn't have to be voted on. So, then it's just added and then we discuss it and vote on it. That's correct. Okay. Member Molar, you want to restate your motion? Um, yes. My motion is to suspend the rules that require three readings and uh approve policy 2260.06, the comprehensive operations and institutional oversight policy. Second. It's been moved by member Molnar um and properly second by member Sykes. Is there any discussion? Member Alexander. Yes. And now this this this probably it did come to the policy committee and it went to the staff to look at and it hadn't got back to policy committee. So that that is right that it came to

312policy committee and that is the procedure that we send these policies to the policy committee just like we do the finances to finance committee all the other stuff to the committees then it comes back and then we we bring it here. If that's the case then we're we're circumventing our own procedure in in doing that. Madam President, that is not the case. One second. Member Sykes, I had no problem with recognizing you either. I just trying to keep in order. Member Sykes. Thank you, Madam President. That is not the case. As a matter of fact, the staff was with us every minute there that we were in in there. The staff helped us with the language. The staff was a part of it. Uh as we prepared the language, the staff was actively involved in

313it. starting with the superintendent, starting with the chief of staff and members of the DEI uh office was was all there as well as the public. The public actively participated in this process too. They made recommendations as we went through this because it was a public meeting. Everyone that wanted to participated in this process during those hours, during those three different meetings, everyone participated, the public, the staff, the the uh members of the committee and then it was sent to your committee and and it it was sent to the committee which will bring it back to be on the agenda to vote for and it hasn't got to agenda yet. So, we didn't we didn't So, that's my point. Yeah, it's the point. That is the point. Okay. Um, member Autry and then, uh, member

314Harrison, I want to acknowledge you as well, member Autry. Thank you, Madam President. Um, I just wanted to acknowledge to anyone listening that this is again not an easy decision, but it was a decision made after speaking with many people and the full board did get a a legal opinion from our council. So, I just wanted to say that out loud because this is not something we're just doing um or trying to disregard anybody's work. And so I know we don't always like some of the counsel we get because it's not what we, you know, necessarily want to hear, but it is what it is. There's a lot of things that aren't necessarily uh to our liking. And we've had a few examples already with other agenda items, and this is just yet another one.

315But yes, we did indeed receive legal counsel around this. The full board did. Thank you, member Audrey, member Harrison. Uh, thank you, Madam President. And I don't want to uh speak specifically to the policy, but I want to say that we have gotten legal um counsel on a few things and then we got different legal counsel on the same things. So, um having legal counsel I guess for me in this space as I have been on this board, I have received counsel and then we received the same counsel or or different counsel. Um but but I I want to address the um committee suspension of the rules. Suspension of the rules is it's not circumventing the committee. Suspension of the rules is a tool that boards use and we do suspend rules. Um as with

316the policies that we updated, Mr. Licky has some policies that um had no material change. Okay. And so they didn't require three readings. So we suspended the rules to pass the policy. So I just want to be clear with suspension of the rules is not circumventing any committee. It's a tool that exists for the use of a full board vote. Thank you members um Harrison uh Autry Sykes and Mard and uh member Hall I'm acknowledge you. also want to bring up the fact that the board uh receives uh like Audrey said, we received legal counsel, but also um a letter that came through that the superintendent will be responsible, whoever is superintendent in that role to sign a document stating that we completely dismantled um our DEI and up with council based off of what

317we did because I was a part of that work and we were excited because we saw how language could be transposed and some information came up about Senate Bill 113 and also about not editing and then renaming and changing and we did that in an open meeting. This is the just so the conversations that was had and legal counsel advised that the current superintendent could not be advised to sign the document that came from the uh United States Department of uh education um regarding the dismantling of it and um Senate Bill 113 um as I recall it says like that we can't how we did in our open meeting it appeared as it explain other pe people have talked to me about this that it's so this space is so unclear so I'm not saying

318this in any definitive matter but that's exactly what we did as a board in an open meeting and so this is some of the questioning that may have led to some decisions on some deter determinations as individual and all you have is people h have their vote and to vote their conscience but I just wanted to make mention of that document um that as present would not be able to be signed to say as we're advised that we were in compliance. Um and so I thought I would add that also that uh note that letter that we received on April 3rd just for additional information as we all are adding information. Member Hall so right now we're talking about 2260.06 correct? Yes. Okay. So, I know one issue that I have with the new policy

319is we shouldn't be putting someone's job title in our policies. We don't do it for any other policies. Why are we doing it for this one? So I think that should be the discretion of the superintendent to hire someone or even not not saying anyone's job has been taken away or to keep that person to do the job but it should not be in the policy as being made a director or a chief over that. Um so that's that's one of the issues that I have um with this policy. Madame President, may I just Yes. Just make just real quick quick note that anything that the committee does, anything that we come up with will have to be in public. So to say that one of the concerns may be from legal counsel that what

320the committee did was done in public. Yeah, that's that's right. And anything that we do shall be done in public unless we are in executive session. Yeah. Yes. Uh I'm not into disagree with that. I'm saying the way we went about in dealing with the the the changing editing of the policy and then renaming. It was the questioning, not the public because we talk about being trans parent. I get that. So that's not the questioning. Member Molar, I read it and and that was one of the issues about it being in public. I did read. Yeah. Well, what I'm what I'm saying, I'm standing for what my stance is and now I'm recognizing member Molar. Thank you, Member Sykes. Thank you. Um, I wanted to say my intention to suspend the rules was not trying

321to um disrespect the legal committee. As member Harrison pointed out, we frequently suspend the rules in emergency situations and as the other policies have been repealed because of concern of losing $85 million. We publicly created another policy, a different policy, a new policy, different numbers, different perspective, different things. The timing, coincidence, sure. But to say that the excuse for not um supporting our students and the excuse of not passing this policy is because of the legal guidance that you got would only make sense if you followed all of the legal recommendations in that email. And there were other legal recommendations in that email that are not being followed. So, we are picking and choosing what advice we are receiving and using from our attorney and I am choosing to support our students and our schools.

322Thank you, Member Moner. I really hope that a school district wouldn't cease to support children or did not not support children before such policies existed because that's a problem within itself. And so when we talk about things doing what you expect you should inspect, we do have policies that talk about students being treated fairly already on the books. We do have legislation and laws that talk about the unfair treatment of people based off of their race. We have civil rights act legislation that has passed. But what you expect you inspect. I've said and from this point from this microphone I've stated about policies that we have in place and then we turn around and then create new policies because the old policies were not enforced. We have policies concerning discipline and what should happen to

323students which are not enforced. So you have teachers leaving districts you have pair of professionals um like what is the outcome what should happen to students we have policies for days what you expect you inspect. So what I'm saying is when we look at the various things, our suspension rate of our children, kindergarteners being suspended, reading um levels of our student and things of that, if we're not inspecting policies that we already have on the board, when we talk about supporting our children, supporting that they are getting a free appropriate public education with all the things that they need that is already required for them outside of any de when DEI became a thing or not. If we were never expecting um inspecting it and holding people accountable then then that's on us. The accountability

324is always the accountability. There are structures and things in place. What you expect you inspect. And what has happened in many of our schools and many of our communities uh for when we look at places where the when we look at the demographic layout of our schools the the rules are there. The rules have not changed. the agitation and those fighting for those kids in those clusters or those communities. That's what shifted. It is not that we don't have policy on our side currently that and previously before DI that would have supported it. That would have made us lean at well why is it acceptable that people can make comments at certain buildings when things happen to certain children like that's a standard operating procedure and that it wouldn't be a problem if it was

325in at this school. Why is it that we have to talk about um things when it's a budget for school and it's supposed to be all schools until someone speaks out from the point of a board that's not focusing on one cluster. The rules are already in place. Enforce the rules that is are in place. Hold people accountable how they deal with our children in these schools. Period. Off of rules that already exist. So listen to when teachers are informing and talking about best practices and things that's happening in class and what's not happening in class that they should be getting in class that there's already standing policy and things for them that there's already federal laws that support these actions. So my dear colleague member Monar when you talk about or member Sykes when

326we say things about those who love or don't support call the question. In any event call the question now we have to do that. We're going to call the question for the vote and I'm more than fine with that. So, let's call for the vote. Miss Autry. So, we had a lot of conversation. We're on member Mon's motion. Yeah, we're approving policy 2260. Order. Miss Vickers in that audience. No. Okay. Oh, your vote is no. Okay. I'm sorry. Miss Hall, no. Um, Reverend Harrison, abstain. Miss Jackson, no. Mrs. Sykes, yes. [Music] Mr. Alexander, abstain. Dr. Molnar, yes. Um, so we've got one, two abstensions. Uh, motion carries. 32. Is that right? No. Wait. Jackson's no. Sykes is a yes. Molar is a yes. That's it. Is a no. Yeah, it's 3-2. Hall. Autri and Jackson

327are nos. Sykes and Molnar are yes. So it fa So it so yeah the the the policy does not pass. Now we're at the point of new business. Is there any new business? Member Harrison. Thank you, Madam Chair. Madam Chair, I would like to offer one, possibly two resolutions. U the second resolution will be dependent upon the first resolution if it pass or fail. Um I would like to offer this resolution. Um and this resolution is to put the uh Dr. Robinson, our superintendent on administrative leave. And I would like to make four points to this. Um, point one, proximity to the problem. Uh, point two, duty of care. Point three, the fidiciary responsibility. And point four would be supervision. My point one, proximity to the problem, is there has been a lot of conversation

328and a lot of opinions as to what is going on in the Akran City School District. Um, and either you've read about it, you've heard about it, but what my my concern would be if you have experienced it or not. So, everybody has opinion, but how close are you to the problem? I think there's some things that this board has information on. There's some things that when we originally had discussions that we were not privy to the whole entire board and as this thing this investigation this factf finding has progressed we continue to find out more and it just comes down to at what point has that threshold been met and for me it is it has been met. Duty of care. Um, when we hear about this investigation, when we hear about anonymous sources,

329um, we keep hearing the same thing over and over again. Now, do we hear them from the administration building? Yes. Do we hear them from the school buildings? Yes. Do we hear them from the police officers? Yes. And so, at a certain point, we have to say, well, maybe there's something to this. Uh, because I simply don't believe that two dozen people got together and made up stuff. the fidiciary responsibility of the board. How much liability are we willing to accept? How much liability are we willing to accept? If if these things are true because if these things are true, we have a whole lot of liability. We talk about the kids and we can't take care of the kids unless we taking care of the people who take care of the kids. That's the

330only way we can take care of the kids. We talk about taking care of the kids. We did a lot of stuff about finances here. If these things are to be believed or not, the district is at a financial liability here, supervision. Um, the superintendent has some directors that a couple of them that believe that they can just threaten board members. They can just send us emails whenever they want to and that's unacceptable. We have two employees. We don't interact with the superintendent staff. We don't direct his staff. We don't correct his staff. They don't direct us and they don't correct us. They should be talking to the superintendent or through the superintendent as we should. I offer this resolution because I believe that we have to really think about what has happened and what

331is occurring and we need to make some decisions. We no longer have plausible deniability. In any other situation, in any other circumstance, an employee would be put on administrative leave in this situation. I offer this as a resolution. I I offer this as a motion in the form of the resolutions that you have. So, I make a motion to put uh Superintendent Michael Robinson on administrative leave. So the first resolution is just to place it on the All right. So um Mr. Harrison has made a motion to place the resolution on the agenda. Um so it's been moved by Mr. Harrison. Is there a second? It's been second. Second. Thank you. It's been second by member sites. And uh madame president uh I'm seconded so we can have it have the discussion. Uh so this

332is on administrative leave uh but this does not say with or without pay. It it has to be paid leave or you'd be violating due process. M so so would we need to make that amendment that amendment? Yeah, Madame President, I would amend the the motion to include it to to state he would be on page administration. All right. Um the motion has been um properly amended. has been moved by member Harrison. It was second by um member Sykes. Is there any discussion? Member Hall. Thank you, Madam President. Um now, when we when we agreed to do the factf finding, right? Um cuz I'm not going to throw that out there. We also agreed to wait for the results of the factf finding. Um, as a board member, I am, you know, kind of disappointed

333that I had to find out through the media that this is what we're doing. Um, is this Well, you can point. I'm uh, no. Uh, it's Germaine to the topic. So, you Well, yeah, I'm talking about what I'm talking about. So for us to say we're going to do a factf finding and then for us to say we're going to wait for the results of the factf finding and then for this to come out to be a resolution to put them on leave. I think that's unfair and not right of what we're saying. We always saying stick to the policy. We're saying do what we're supposed to do. We're going to do it this way. We're going to do it that way. But then this comes about to ask for the superintendent on leave when

334we'll be getting the results very soon. So I will be voting no to this. May I respond? Thank you, Member Hall. Uh yes, Mr. Member Harrison. Madam Chair, I I want to really be clear with this. Okay. Um at the time there was no agreement. There was no agreement at the time. If we want to talk about it, let's talk about it. At the time, I originally had strong feelings about the superintendent staying in the building during the investigation. Some things were put in place, but I told everyone in this on this board if something else came up that I was going to call for the admin, the superintendent be put on administrative leave. Something did come up. And something did come up. and something did come up. Okay, so this is not a surprise

335and if someone found out about it in the media, okay, cuz I don't owe anyone an explanation. I say what I say. I said then December 18th, if something else comes up since I said that, we've had four or five different things that have come up. So things change. The situation has changed. The situation has escalated. Unfortunately, when this first was brought to our attention, everybody in this board didn't have the same information because if I had the information when it first came out that I had now, the motion would have been made then. Thank you, member Harrison. Member Alexander. Yes. you know, uh, I I um I didn't have all the information either. I mean, I didn't know what was some of the stuff that was going on. There's all kind of things that

336are out there. People saying this, people saying on both ends of of what's happening and so you really don't know what is being said out there, who's saying it, what side are they on, on this side or that side? So, excuse me. So, we decided to have the factfinder get in here and get the information and give it to us so we can make a decision. I will wait for the factf finder to bring us the information like we agreed to and then when it comes we'll look at it and then we can make some decisions. But I don't think that I won't say yes to this here until I get the information from the factfinder because the factf finders are the ones who given us information. They're doing the doing the investigation and they'll

337get back to us and it's it should be here soon hopefully within this week. Thank you madam president. Madame President, just to be just for clarification and and for the public is that we do not take a vote in executive session. So, we did not vote to do anything in executive session. Let's just be clear on that. You're correct. We do not vote in executive session in executive session to not put the super Thank you for correcting. We did not. So, let's say that we don't we don't we don't vote everyone we do not vote in executive session. I let everyone know that we did not vote in executive session which means that we did not make an agreement in executive session either. We have already been sued for not handling executive sessions properly. So

338please let's not let's not get into that. All right. That's all I say. I thank you. Is there any other discussion from board members? Um, I think my only I believe as I said before in due process and I think when something is consistent that it usually always pans out inconsistently, but it's just you wait for the process. And now we're at the end of the process. And I just find it um interesting that this would be the point that we ask for leave when we're we're when we're at the point where we should be positioned to make some sure action one way or the other because we know the report is coming out. And so I just for me the board is the majority of the board. So when I look at this resolution

339and it says thing such as the board has found it necessary one p one board member does not execute any power of or author authority within themsself to speak on behalf of the board the board when you speak on behalf of the board and when I make any comments the board I'm speaking about the majority because that's what constitutes the board and so when a resolution is rendered that has not been discussed with the board that then reference the board that's my only um trepidation and that there's the name interim um in this resolution for with the board no without any discussion when there are multiple discussions that can be had regarding such things. So, um, for that reason and those two reasons alone, um, I this wouldn't be, um, something that I would support,

340but I want to be very clear that, um, as I said before, I support due process and when we have facts in place, um, I support, um, the will of the board in regarding our actions, um, that will go forth as a result of that action. Thank you. U, Madame President, just a point of clarification. uh member Harrison had two draft resolutions that he was going to potentially propose one at a time and I think the one that you're referring to is the second one um if the first one had passed. So I just wanted to point of clarification on that. So yeah, I didn't I didn't know the sequential order the I thought the first item that he was putting on was to get the resolution on the agenda which we passed and then

341which resolution we were going with same. So yeah, my comments remain the same. All right. So, um, Madame President, yes, ma'am. May I ask May I mean, I'm sorry. Yes, members. May I move for time on on this? I'm sorry, member sty. I didn't hear. Oh. Oh, Madame President and members of the board and member Harrison, I was just asking him if he would uh that uh I would move that we uh just take time on his resolution. Yeah, I think that would be just sit down. I mean, he he has it on the floor. So, where are we with this? Member Sites has uh in her discussion made a comment as far as taking time on the resolution. Uh not sure. Member Harrison. Uh I think there's some information that um it would be

342um reasonable to take time. So, I defer to member Sykes wisdom and I take time. I I I would ask for time. All right. So, we're Are you withdrawing this motion at this time? Yes, ma'am. All right. Thank you, member Harrison. The motion um to put the superintendent on leave and this resolution to be added to the agenda has been withdrawn. Oh, I need my part to read. Yes, we are. Okay. Now, we are at the part of executive session. I'm sorry, member Molinar. Thank you, Madam President. During my community reflection today, I mentioned that I was proposing a resolution to be added in new business, something that we as a full board can unify and rally around in supporting the fair school funding plan. This is the draft language. So, this is the same

343that Columbus passed, Westerville passed, Madina City passed. Uh, all I did to this was change the name to Akran public schools. So I would like to make a motion to pass this resolution in support of the fair school funding plan. Thank you member Molinar. My apologies because you did mention that earlier earlier. So there is a motion on the floor from member Molnar to accept this fair funding um resolution that was um positioned to us by a parent um and updated by member Molnar. Is there a second? Second. Okay. It's been moved by member Molar and properly second by member Harrison. Any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, roll call vote, please. Dr. Mmar, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Hall. Yes, ma'am. Miss Otry, yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Mrs. SC, yes. Mrs. Hall.

344Yes. Sorry, I just married you. Well, then is did hall vote? Are we She did. Okay. All right. Thank you. Next. Um, we there is a need for us to go into executive session. There is a need for us to go into executive session. I The hour is late. Um, I think we should go in it tonight. Um, there is a need to go into executive session pursuing Ohio Revised Code 121.22G1 to consider the employment or discipline of a public employee andor official. Is there a motion to go into executive session? So move. Second. Thank you. Thank you. It's been properly moved by member Sykes and seconded by member Altry. Is there any discussion? Seeing and hearing none, we stand in recess and executive Oh, we have to vote. Sorry. Roll call vote. Dr. Yes.

345Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Mr. Alexander, yes. Miss Audrey, yes. Hall. Reverend Harrison, yes. Miss Jackson, yes. Motion carries 70. We stand in recess at 11:06 into executive session. [Music] Thank you. We stand back in session at 11:52 p.m. Um there is no action at this time. However, the APS board is meeting again tomorrow in special session to consider the findings um of the factf finding investigation. The final decision has no final decision has been made, but the board is expected to consider um recommendations on a path ahead during Tuesday's meeting. Our next organizational meeting um official organizational meeting will be Monday, April 28th. Is there a motion to adjurnn? So move. It's been moved by Mr. Alexander. Is there a second? Second. It's been second by member Hall. Any discussion? Oh, please. Not even funny. No

346discussion. Dr. Thompson, roll call, please. Mr. Alexander, yes. Yes. Miss Autri. Yes. Miss Hall. Yes. Reverend Harrison. Yes. Miss Jackson. Yes. Dr. Molinar. Yes. Mrs. Sykes. Yes. Yes. Uh, motion carry 70. We stand adjourned at 11:53 p.m. Okay. Uh [Music]