Finance Committee Meeting Livestream - May 13, 2024

001welcome to this May 13th finance and capital uh finance committee meeting we appreciate the turnout tonight everyone is here uh we packed full house we're live streaming as well so thank you for coming out the first thing on our agenda is to look at the minutes from last meeting March 18th were there any questions or anything about our last minute uh minutes any additions Corrections with that said next we have our fiscal reorganizational and R structuring plan presented by human capital is opening so so if you don't mind can um Mr Perry uh I we have a little system going on here to make sure because we have multiple presenters tonight so I just want to you can see the the agenda the finance topics are that fiscal as you just mentioned the reorganization and

002restructuring plan and then we also have a presentation from the athletic facilities committee then we'll do a quick recap of our Levy recommendation and then make sure that you're aware of any events that are upcoming so uh without further Ado I would um the former meetings uh minutes are attached um but do Dr Robinson will introduce um this fiscal reorganization a and restructuring plan and then those that will present in more detail play it [Music] now okay keeping our mission in Focus over a century ago our City's leadership pioneered publicly funded schools reshaping the education landscape today the pulse of Aran beats in sync with the evolution of what's at its core Public Schools they are more than just buildings they're beacons of Hope centers of learning and communities coming together our story is shaped

003by what happens both in and outside their doors a journey of challenges triumphs and focused commitment to our vision and Mission our mission is clear to ensure all APS Scholars are college career and life ready by providing Innovative educational experiences but our path hasn't always been smooth covid-19 disrupted our classrooms our community and our lives but we adapted we adjusted and we kept moving forward toward our goal in the words of James Baldwin not everything that is faced can be changed but nothing can be changed until it is faced our instructional core remains steadfast it is why we do what we do we believe in the power of teaching and learning it's not just about textbooks and tests it's about sparking curiosity nurturing creativity and fostering resilience and it's all built upon the four cornerstones

004that guide us culture of safety and belonging academic achievement operational excellence and family and Community engagement so as we navigate these uncharted waters remember a ship doesn't sail straight to Port it adapts it adjusts and stays on course we're charting our course Guided by Excellence compassion and the unwavering belief that education changes lives [Music] let's give um our Communications Department Mr Ryan written house um Mr Bruno Tommy Bruno Miss Joanne Mark a hand for the video that you saw [Applause] today today I address you with a strong sense of purpose I've led a our team in Thoroughly examining our District's operations and finances together we have left no stone unturned in our efforts to ensure fiscal stabil and operational efficiency all while maintaining our focus on the core of instruction and upholding high standards of

005excellence for our Scholars I tasked my team with conducting a comprehensive review but also looking closer at what is working and What needs adjustments we have carefully evaluated what is working well identified areas needing improve Improvement and areas that we can no longer financially afford to continue while these decisions are difficult they are essential to ensure the ongoing progress of our school district I want to thank the human capital and Labor Relations teams members Miss Yaman Atkins human capital executive director Mr Mike deinbo director of Labor Relations Miss Judy ner benefits manager and Patty Russell human capital compliance specialist their insights and collaboration with our finance team our communication team building leadership and my senior leadership Think Tank have enabled us to make informed decisions that prioritize fiscal stability and operational efficiency while upholding our

006standards of excellence in instruction many of my teams team members will recall our late night budget meetings we had as we collaboratively worked together each of us here today shares a commitment to Excellence despite the obstacles that we face I'm confident that together we will overcome them and continue to provide the highest quality education for our Scholars at this time we go the at this time I'm going to turn it over to human capital and Labor Relations team um who will uh take us from this point and miss Patty thank Youk you Dr Robinson hello okay thank you Dr Robinson as we all know APS like many other public schools around the nation has faced significant challenges over the past years student learning overall has taken a serious hit due to the covid pandemic which

007has had a downward impact on student enrollment additionally APS has been operating under basically flat revenues since 2013 despite regular inflationary costs rise in cost of living amounts the need to hire more Staffing during covid the need to purchase updated technological equipment and other necessary operating expenses many of these costs were paid from federal Esser do dollars that were received by districts to combat the learning loss that occurred during the covid pandemic however Esser funding has since stopped these factors have required this District to take an indepth and realistic look into its financial status and this superintendent has indicated a willingness to make some difficult decisions for the overall future of akan public schools Dr Robinson has directed this office to look carefully from all angles at workplace deficiencies that can be structured to create

008efficiencies which includes right sizing the district offices and buildings without compromising student outcomes just in the past six months this district has taken measures through the HC office to implement coste effective and responsible workplace processes and procedures these include a position control policy where we are regularly monitoring and evaluating the replacement of positions centralization and management of an attendance and absence management control system implementation of a Time Clock system management of overtime focus on staff training and development delegation of Duties to a Labor Relations Department with districtwide oversight of proper application of all collective bargaining agreements further we have looked at the application and enforcement and the updating of workplace rules and policies these are just a few examples of some of the steps that have been taken the district CFO Dr Steve Thompson has

009made several presentations alerting us as to the financial shortfalls in the recent 5year forecast as indicated in his reports continuing to operate without identifying savings places The District in Jeopardy of deficit spending and in following the fate of some of other neighboring school districts which have fallen into such status as fiscal watch and state receivership in order to avoid the situation the department of human capital has reviewed centralization of services accountability processes and other workplace efficiencies which were described earlier however further steps must be taken in order to meet the fiscal reorganization and restructuring plan goals that are needed to maintain a responsible fiscal School District before we dive into the details of the savings plan that I will present I want to make some important points the first uh point I would like to

010just uh talk about and I actually am going to ask Dr Carla Chapman to please come forward uh we have met with Dr uh Chapman she's our chief uh diversity officer of the district and the concept of equity revolves around every aspect of what this school stands for and what we do and we have asked Dr uh Chapman to review our plan and to share her thoughts with all of you good afternoon everyone I wanted to just share our approach to the equity lens that was used as we were considering the redistribution of uh staff resources and funding in our district related to red districting and right sizing and so I always like to lead with the way we approach this work is to be as research oriented and best practice oriented as we can

011be and so the four Source documents that were used as we were having our Equity conversations were the global diversity equity and inclusion benchmarks developed by the center for Global inclusion the Ohio Department of education's equity Gap analysis tool which also lays out benchmarks and standards for being Equitable in our decision making we also applied the research of um authors and uh those who study education equity and some Central questions that we ask and also the local Equitable access report and here are the things that I really wanted to know know more about is I had discussions with um Miss Atkins and her human capital team I wanted to know that we would maintain a commitment to Equitable student access in the classroom so that we did not compromise student learning supports wanted to make

012budget decisions and collaborations with those who are most impacted by those decisions including principls Union leadership and Department heads wanted to ensure that we would continue to have regular reviews of District challenges in light of the decisions that we're going to make around reallocation of resources and then to also conduct reviews on the current use of our funds and superintendent uh Dr Robinson if you want to share even today your uh stance on creating a committee around review of contracts and our district to ensure that we are fair and Equitable in how we award and allocate funds related to Contract Services thank you Dr Chapman so um in our earlier meeting today um we discussed uh contracts and what the process is going to be moving forward so there will be a committee that I'm

013going to assemble together um that that uh will review all contracts that we have for the district uh how we go about getting those contracts um who those contracts are awarded to now we do have state processes that we must follow which that work is under the leadership of Miss Deborah folk um but the committee is going to work along with Miss folk um to ensure that we are being fair and Equitable that we are being fiscally responsible um that we are following State guidelines and procedures um as it relates to um the processes that we have to go through um and and then they will bring that information to me and at which time then it will be placed on the uh board docket for uh the board to vote as they normally would

014do this was just an additional uh piece that we're putting in there around accountability and so members of that team will rotate in and out um um and that's only because if it doesn't deal with their department or division that they won't um necessarily be a part of th of that committee but if it is they'll join the committee so that they can give voice to the area of their for their Department if our division if it's something that deals with directly with them okay thank you thank you Dr Chapman thank Dr Robinson the other uh point that I wanted to talk about before we begin is is the concept of um attrition in the workforce and attrition generally looks at the uh review of those individuals that have uh left the schools due to

015resignation um retirement uh and other reasons that they may have left and those positions that are left create vacancies during our review of the um entire District's Staffing levels those were that was a factor that was of uh Forefront of our um decision making in terms of being able to receive we can identify savings from those vacancies by not filling them rather than having to affect an individual so those were factors that that you will see in the numbers that that come up so I wanted to bring that to your attention up front as to what attrition is the other the other uh point I want to make is that I would like us to understand that this is a very fluid and an evolving process as people resign and retire retirement occurs Staffing numbers

016and savings will continue to be adjusted so this is an ongoing uh adjustment as we look at these uh numbers at which we continue to Monitor and evaluate but the point I want to also raise is that this plan is about transformation so the focus should not be solely on the fact that we are looking at reductions and eliminations of jobs that is only part of what this is therefore you will be seeing some new positions repurposed positions and changes and restructuring of departments and that will be brought to the attention of the board in the future we are speaking at this point also I want to say at a very high level we're not getting into the details of individuals that would be involved or affected by these uh steps that we are taking

017um these are legal steps and this the collective bargaining agreements and state law is implicated so we want to be uh you know cautious in how we uh lay out information on that process um and we also want to be sensitive to employees who have not yet received notification at this time a comprehensive booklet has been prepared by the department the human capital Department uh outlining the restructuring and reorganization plan and this will be made available to the board to the uh to the media to the public and will also be posted on the district website uh and um included in this booklet at the end are some uh frequently Asked question sections that will what we anticipated would be some of the fundamental questions that would be asked regarding the um restructuring process and

018I guess finally what I'd like to share is is that I would like to just extend a thank you um to Union leadership we had to meet with our Union leadership uh where staff was affected by their um by some of their staff was affected in these bargaining units we have seven unions here at akan public schools and our meetings while we had difficult conversations were uh very professional uh and I do we do appreciate uh the cooperation that was received and I do appreciate their understanding so saying that I think we can go ahead and just just a moment um Mr chair may we uh have a moment to stand down yes stand down for a few minutes okay yes thank you e e e good we're back in session now we do apologize

019for that quick break we had to make a discussion about the five of us being here as board members and whether we have an illegal meeting we've been advised by Council that we okay to continue this meeting we'll uh start where we left [Music] off okay so go ahead and up our slide this is our um this is our savings plan that we have in place here as you can see uh the total savings that the district has recognized been able to identify here is close to 24 million okay sorry about that as we can see from this Slide the district has put up here this is a a um uh showing all the different departments and divisions that the district has reviewed and has been able to recognize a savings identify Savings in the

020amount of close to $24 million 20 million of that of that is towards a general fund amount which was a targeted amount that was presented by the fiscal office and close to 4 million of that is is from from title and Grant funds I will point out that attrition while these numbers are here attrition played a very big role in the savings that were uh realized through these um numbers so as I explained about attrition earlier that played a big factor in this this slide shows the um can show really how all the different uh approach was taken in terms of looking at all the different groups that were affected um and reviewed uh it is the job breakdown of the job reductions based on each employee group that is being identified here um overall

021the recommendation is to reduce staff in the akan public schools by 6.11% across a variety of impacted groups I will point out as a point of note that um you know first recognize that these numbers are an equitable approach to this where some uh numbers or you see reductions are higher uh that is relative to the number of employees within a specific group so um also administrators and teacher groups uh percent wise were affected very similarly in terms of reductions this slide shows um as you know if we focus on our um instructional core it is important to note that 21.5 instructional staff were affected out of that 66.5 of those are classroom teachers the remaining is 59 non-classroom teachers assigned to positions a central office and 77 non-certified sub tutors that were paid from

022the general fund and uh Patty can explain these these sub tutors are um temporary non-certified subs and they were brought on during the covid pandemic and at this point the district is not able to continue to sustain these positions through the general fund any longer py does not need to explain I think yam summed that up quite well and this slide shows the impact of um the attrition and what and the role that it played a very big role here um in the um in the savings that were viewed um it shows that about um close to 110 employees were affected uh not employees positions were affected through attrition uh vacancies and about 169.50 are position reductions within the district for a total of 285 and you know finally I I just want to point

023out that um fiscal responsibility is key for our community credibility um and and the quote here is from our blueprint of Excellence uh under Cornerstone three which is operational excellence objective number four and I'll just read it aan public schools will evaluate and optimize operational efficiency by strategically repurposing existing positions and creating new roles ensuring alignment of responsibilities to enhance overall Effectiveness and efficiency within the organization and uh I think that is what we stood true to in our review of these um of these recommendations thank you and next we have the presentation on athletic facilities uh Mr chair just uh so is it the idea of the chair to have uh all of the presentations and then questions yes and would that be questions from the board members and the public or from the

024committee members and the public how where does the public fit in let's do it all at the end once we get the presentations done you want to do it all at the end presentation well I think the problem with that is that uh memor so I don't know if individuals can remember everything that's been said uh do you have anything in writing yeah um yes we are going to present to the board and to the uh media certainly can have it and we have created our booklets that I talked about that will have all the details of what we just went over and a further explanation of the reasoning behind what the why behind the steps that um are being presented okay so we'll take questions now then go ahead Miss Jackson thank you member

025s and thank you um chair um I thank member s for bringing it the the point up for memory um because what I want to address is it was the slides because I just want to be very clear that I'm understanding properly um as far as the cuts when it had it has teachers tutors and substitutes um and I was try if we can get back to that it was like the highest percentage and I know [Music] that no not the CL before the classro no before this slide I think second SL here and so teachers tutors and substitute total employees 2 698 that's the number of employees that are in that group that are in that group and out of that group we're looking at a reduction about 200 that's correct yes uh which

026is a which is about 7.47% M okay yeah okay and then on the next slide so we have 200 teachers tutors and substitute so then this number of positions aimit ated which is about 32% so about positions and these positions are these classroom direct teachers tutors things that touch the learner directly so if you look at the slide we've broken it up to classroom um being 66.5 non-classroom no no no y I just want to worry about classroom because I worry about who impacts the student okay so I want to know about classroom is 66.5 okay and so that 66.5 then correlates with the 2011 number on the previous slide yes because this is a breakdown of that 2011 number okay great okay so um yeah I think out of um all of this I

027see because you know I like when they the comments that we don't make widgets right and I said but we do cultivate vines in classrooms so when we start cutting positions I think the the last thing to cut like if we can get as lean as possible is that whoever directly impacts learning and impacts students should be the last and the lowest of the cuts because we are in the business of educating children so um I understand and I heard you about that this is done with Fidelity and it was some comparison with Administration so that's where I'm kind of just perplexed and and I may be unclear I may be missing something but a lot of teachers especially when we can't F classrooms with teachers already where can we you look a little perplexed

028I'm saying when we are short staffed and when we don't have permanent positions we're not short staffed in terms of classroom teachers we are looking at um we're not I'm just asking because when I go through my book the cluster sometimes on any day it could be about 20 Subs in the building and booked them my cluster where I been well that's that's a different question about whether there's an you know there's absence that needs a sub but in terms of actual allocation of teachers to a classroom we are um I mean I believe that we are not short we don't have a shortage of teachers for classrooms okay so these long-term Subs that's are in these positions and um things like that there are the reason I'm asking this because I'm wondering are those

029going to be some of those cuts those teachers that you're saying aren't short but have been um those positions filled by long-term substitutes or um the earlier slide about cutting those who were like noncertified uh what does that look like for the Y yeah go ahead I I think Patty's gonna try to yeah so um so in regards to to the types of questions you're asking um there is a lot of attrition that comes into play with these types of reductions when we're doing uh this type of process uh two things are looked at it's the attritional processes like those vacancies retirements and resignations and then the other thing we're looking at is the lure areas that are affected by the recommendations and making sure that we can match those up so a lot of

030times they do align now you will have some you know licenses that um are are very specific to the nature of a course that might not be aligned to one of our teachers and that would be a reason why there would be a long-term subc continuing in a certain type of employment but for the most part long-term Subs are identified as a nutritional vacancy um so if if a long-term sub is in a position that position is actually considered a vacancy or an attrition reduction and not um not an affected staff member Angela do you have anything else to add so Miss Jackson we are not necessarily I I want to make sure that this is clear so you have vacancies across the district right now where you do have long-term subs and those those

031positions those are still vacancies CU a sub is not a permanent employee they're a vacancy okay right yes okay so the what takes me back to this is because then it said the the removal of those substitutes those non-certified subs that filled positions during because the Esser funds which made me question oh just the they say substitutes though the word these are substitute okay all right so now yeah because my we maintain a substitute teacher list we still have that okay okay all right because that was my concern so are now we're getting rid of this population of workers that are instructing and how was that going okay and that's why I said I wanted to get clarity because I could it's hard for me to as an educator to rationalize decreasing teachers in classrooms

032since our main asset are students and then if we are putting people in classrooms if they are sub or non-certified or certified and they don't have classroom management or you know so many things I'm thinking about that raises my concern when we think about our output and which is the output of our Scholars that they're prepared and things of that nature so okay I think that added me some clarity yeah because the the last thing that we're wanting to do or trying to do is to eliminate uh things that touch the classroom there are some things that connect to the classroom that we may not be able to afford to continue um but the goal is to make sure that that's the place that we last and so when you have openings substitutes in in

033that are long-term Subs that is still a vacancy because if a certified teacher comes along we're going to have to hire and will hire the certified teacher um and perhaps there is somewhere else that that sub could could continue to work uh within our district especially if it's in a a critical shortage area U like The Sciences or the maths um special education okay from a budgetary perspective I think it's important to remember that Dr give me one second so you will see you will see that and what Miss Atkins is is is saying is that you know we we know that we do have classrooms in the district right now that have vacancies but there might be a long-term sub in it but it's still a vacancy until we can find a permanent teacher

034so you will have some of the I mean we have a critical this a national shortage of teachers across the board um and we're going to continue to do what we can to grow teachers to work with our universities but um when it comes to like the tutors that was purchased with aser money and so that's not something that we can continue on the general fund we'll still have some tutors but those tutors will be out of title funds but the ones that will purchase with Esser on the general fund we can't continue to afford to pay for that thank you sir yeah I I understand that because um I know months ago I asked the question is how are we measuring impact and effectiveness of the things we put in place with Esser funds

035such as tutors and AIDS and and I I I haven't seen that yet to be able to then like gauge and I talked about the audit of like different things and systems that we're spending money on um how what are the teachers saying is it being fully utilized because can we trim the fat in those areas to and really see you know where we can have the greatest impact from the lens of the teacher that's interacting directly with the learner because teachers are superheroes so I I just wanted to add to you um you know just so when we looked at this I do want to say that we we spoke with with um you know we got information and feedback from principles from the directors of the department departments this was done in collaboration

036with discussion with them as to where we could identify some of these savings so these these were discussions that were made to determine how we could least impact the classroom but it did not mean that EV that we would not affect any you know we still needed to have some uh cuts that were made but but we did this as I said earlier uh to to do it in a way that would not compromise student learning so we expect that to still continue and and um you know be able to be able to go forward based on based on our recommendations okay um thank you were were teachers at this meeting the the teachers uh Madam uh Mr uh chair uh could you uh conduct a meeting yep Dr Thompson thank you ju just a

037quick points that I think we all need to understand that makes education different in terms of its comparison to maybe industry for example so of our $370 million budget about 310 million of it is people's salaries the rest of those dollars are very difficult to trim how do you trim fuel how do you trim the um ability to pick up our students how do you trim the electric bill you know all of those things um make it very difficult 84% of our budget is people so while I think they took great effort to circle the wagons around the classroom um that ju deposed against the fact that since 2021 we've added 400 staff members with declining student enrollment so when we have declining student enrollment then we also lose dollars so it only exacerbates the

038challenge the fiscal challenge that we Face the reality is the district needs to make adjustments almost every year as long as student population continues to decline that would just be competent business sense to to do that and so those positions the reason it swelled so much was because of student learning loss during Co which we all understand is real still exists I suppose it probably will until those kids age out probably but um that was $10 million that was used for Esser money that transferred to the general fund and that was never supposed to happen so it it it again more pressure on the five-year forecast coming from those realities and that's why um unfortunately our first year superintendent finds himself in a difficult position uh because that's that's that's the reality of that we

039face as a district so that it's very difficult to make any kind of substantial cut without impacting people because that's the Ser we're a service industry it's unfortunate Dr mono you got a question yes thank you um and thank you all for this presentation I know last Monday when we said that this was coming I said it's it's hard the you know we've seen this we've had as much time with this as anyone else in the room has so it's hard to come up with good questions on the spot I'm trying to digest this from my colleagues and everyone as as we're learning of this um but the table that's on page nine I don't know what slide it's on because I don't have these slides but the table that's on page nine here um

040here we go I think this kind of uh stuff out to me based on the conversation um we have here the vacancy and the eliminated so I was wondering and I will ask four questions in a row because sometimes it's hard to jump in here so as many of these questions that can be answered because I don't know when I'll get a turn to ask questions again um the vacancy versus eliminated my first question is does this does this say that in addition to the vacant positions another 60 six positions are being eliminated um on top of that as far as the people you know as as it was said the boots on the ground the people who work directly with our students the second question is what does this do to our estimated student

041teacher ratio you know are these from specific programs is it is it across the board do we know what what grade levels we are um having and then the the last question is is this permanent or is this something that is going to be communicated that is Levy contingent so after this we add a 33 to one student teacher ratio but if the levy passes we might come down to a 20 student ratio something like that so let me um I was just going to make one point is that um understand that these employee groups are not all teachers we're talking about the entire District these are all different groups uh and and several units are here bargaining units are represented here opsy aacp so you know understand that this is not just teacher information

042that is one group amongst all these groups that have been affected by this so I want to make that point clear go ahead so let me um I want Dr Robinson so I wanted to address what Dr molinar was saying about the um if we have a levy so it right now I want us to not think about the levy for just a second I want us to just think about our fiveyear forecast and in order for us to get to the end of the 5 years and not be in the negative of the of the of the red we have to make these Cuts 15 million do was the minimum that we could make however it was to our advantage which we truly needed so in other words you really could say that the

043minimum threshold probably should have been maybe let's say 2021 million right um so because we knew that in order for that we would have to come back again next school year possibly and make additional cuts and with or without a levy we still may have to come back and make additional Cuts we won't really know that and I'll be able to assess that that until the end you know until the end of the year um you know we certainly have not had a levy in 12 years so we're still trying to function as we did 12 years ago with the same amount of money except we have less students and we don't have the same number of students anymore so but we were still you know um with Co it exacerbated things we had to

044but we had funds to do the things things around learning loss and to support our kids and our families well we don't have that anymore we don't have the eser money anymore um you can expect that the in coming into this next school year you can expect to see class sizes a little higher than they perhaps were this year um and that may increase again the following year if and to the maximum if we perhaps are not able to get a levy but right now um you might expect to see that as we are restructuring and reshaping this district and trying to get it right siiz to where we can still function still offer viable resources and supports for our kids and to our families and our parents without taking away everything and not having

045anything to Market our district with so that you could expect thank you but this is not something I'm sorry um Mr chair this is not something that we didn't know about we knew about this long before I came here um since I'm here it's mine now and I and I have to own it and I do but we knew about this even before covid that in 2019 we were getting ready to make significant severe Cuts in the district we were up for a levy around 2020 1920 but because of Co the district didn't do a levy didn't go after a levy because we got the co money well we probably should have still went after the levy as well however it was unknown times no one knew what was going to happen in terms of

046that so that's understandable as to perhaps why we didn't do it but now we do have to go for a levy and now we don't have any Co money so we have to make Cuts because what we essentially everybody in every school district in the United States is going through the very same thing and essentially what happened is you take stuff off of the general fun excuse me excuse me excuse me excuse me excuse me giving us a chance to speak well we'll have a chance for public in a minute okay just a whole lot going on is being said and the public is not getting we not getting out there with Y and that's not fair we will have a chance in the meeting for public participation that's all I'm saying I ain't trying

047to start no problem but we just can't just listen if you're not going hear us okay thank you member Hall a question just a real quick question so out of 2,698 teachers tutors and substitutes how many of those teachers that are still on teacher salary work here at the administration building and I'll do like Rene I'll just ask my questions real quick how many of those work here in the administration building um I know we talked about you know you're working on that and things like that but also how much overtime is being paid to the teachers that are here at the administration building that are not teaching in the classroom but are still on teacher salary and one more question is how many teachers will be affected in the administration building that are teachers

048that should be in the classroom still in the teachers contract will be affected out of that 66 um teachers tutors and substitutes yeah we can we can answer your first question as to the cost of overtime cost we are not able to present that here today we did not you know in terms of who's used overtime we've not done that um review for this meeting but um you can probably answer in terms of we which ones are classroom versus teachers that are non instructional right so overall right now it it is identified that there is 2.5 positions in aea which is our teachers representative Union on that are impacted by this presentation of those 20.5 66.5 of those teachers teach in the classrooms directly with our students 58 of them are non-classroom teachers which means

049they are assigned to positions outside of the classroom and are not teaching students instructionally on a regular basis and then 77 of those members are non-certified substitute tutors uh which we spoke about earlier um is a uh type of lure that the state of Ohio um made available to help combat some of the learning loss during the covid pandemic uh we have been paying for this group out of our general funding um and that is why this group of non-certified temporary substitute tutors has been identified as well so just to be real clear and don't mean to cut you off trying to make this short sure um out of all out of the 66 teachers that will well 20 101 that will be affected how many teachers that are still teachers that work down at

050this administration building that are not in the classroom but are considered teachers will be affected is it just the 58 they're included in there but we can't say that they're all from this building we can't give specifics about the 58 but that does capture but how many teachers still work in this administration building well so some one of the I'm sorry um one of the things we're trying to do is we want to give you this this overview but more details in terms of the those affected that's why I said UPF front we did not want to get into the details of location and and you know we have not sent out notices yet to the individuals so to preserve that you know level of sensitivity to the employee we will have that information out

051you know uh next week uh but at this point we um just wanted to identify the breakdown of classroom versus uh non-instructional teachers recognized teachers contracts if I can summarize you me you're saying they'll be notified next week and you can let give us the information after you tell them that's correct okay any other questions at this point point of order could you have you have we'll have public in a minute we'll have public I I just wanted to ask yeah in a minute we'll have public you got identify who you are no anybody oh we don't know who you are okay any other questions at this point okay thank you you so what our last hello my name is Angela Carter I'm Chief of Staff um and thank you you're welcome uh at our

052last board meeting um we were talking about our athletic facilities and one of the things that we're doing is we are looking at making sure that we're keeping our facilities up to date for our Scholars because we know our Scholars Thrive through Athletics and so we want to make sure that we have an equity lens across everything that we do including our Athletics specifically our facilities and so this presentation basically is connected to Cornerstone one which is culture of safety and belonging and then also Cornerstone three which is operational excellence and commitment yeah we'll St we have Dr Chapman um from our diversity equity and inclusion office we have Deborah folk our executive director of business Affairs Larry Johnson who's over our talent and organizational development as well as he has worked um closely with

053our athletics department and our building principles because he has recently exited the school supervisor position and so he is very familiar with our athletic needs and then also we have Joe velotti here and is Michelle here today okay and so today we are going to talk about and understand and prioritize the needs of our APS athletic facilities as well as Dr Chapman is going to talk to us about having an equity lens we're going to ensure maintenance of all athletic facilities and we're going to talk to you about some updates that some of our buildings need as relates to Athletics and then also we're going to provide an overview of the process used in getting to a recommendation as well as looking at things that we're going to do future forward knowing that we have

054new Administration in place and we have new processes in place because what we want to do is continue to get better at what we do and then make changes and revise things that need to be stronger I'm going now hand it over to Dr Chapman all right so um as we were reviewing where we are with our um athletic facilities I just want to say these are the things we focused on the practices that we use in terms of how we fund maintenance uh how we pay attention to our facilities the processes we're using to determine who needs what and when and we focused on the solutions that we want to put in place as well as the importance of relationships so um just to give some history and context there were some past initiatives

055put in place to address our athletic facilities and also some challenges we learned of a former athletic advisory committee we also learned some new information about some Financial constraints on previously requested facility upgrades and then there was some disruption related to co um there are a number of school teams that utilize the ellich stadium and we reviewed that we learned of some IR irreparable issues around the stadium lights we wanted to look at prior athletic advisory committee recommendations and we wanted to have some more discussions about the permanent Improvement funds that are used in our district and also paid to our city as a part of our 2003 CLC um agreement there are some budget restrictions related to the 034 funds we talked a lot about needs and of course the assessment that is underway

056of the booko uh Stadium Press Box and concession stand and then of course we have a new director of facilities and uh Building Services that will be coming on board that will pick up this work and continue with it along with a committee that's dedicated to athletic facilities so Larry's going to come and talk more about some of our competition spaces and how we evaluated those and then what we are uh determined to be some immediate needs around enhancing our JV and Middle School athletic teams okay um so this is this is what our group uh discussed and these are some of our findings um I don't want to read each of these but I I do want to talk I want to provide an overlay a commentary about about how we arrived at these

057our our group learned a lot as Dr Chapman uh discussed the potential consequences of Lights failure for games and events related to ell Stadium I'm going to get into that a little bit later so I'm going to let's just stick a pin in that um a lot of this this information that you see here regarding the lighting and and some of the things that are happening there's there's a time constraint on this and and I'm going to review that as we look at this as as we look at our plan as we look at our comprehensive plan so um our team prioritized the following needs for each building regarding bringing each building or each uh site up to a competition site so you will see bookto has several um several areas that we discussed were

058in need of upgrades air conditioning to the competition gem the concession stand needs an upgrade Dr Chapman talked about that we in the process of looking at that uh Stadium lights are required at bookto with their beautiful new Turf stadium and upgrade for the track those are all the priorities that the committee identifi for bookle the next on our our list was Garfield uh that's at the what side was that what stadium the kimmore stadium um Turf on that field uh for practicing games um Kimmer Stadium uh needs lights as well uh we'd also like to upgrade East we'd also like to upgrade that track uh the turf for the a new turf field and more bleachers now we obviously we'll be looking for a budget line in this but that is not this the

059time for this there's there's there's funding associated with all of these requests um ellot is uh is at this point where we're talking about lighting upgrades for the field um and here's a time sensitiveness that that was discussed earlier because the lights are are in such disrepair that we have we have to replace the facilities we have to replace all the lighting mechanisms and in order to do that it's a 3month timeline from the time we get approval uh as from the time we get board approval so it will take our staff um and the the the vendor we'd have to to go in tear down or remove I'm sorry remove the lights that are there and prepare for upgrading the lights hopefully we can get that done it it's a three-month process we can

060get that done at the end of septe I'm sorry at the end of August at the beginning of September which could impact um competition there uh if we can get this done currently but that's the time there's a 3-month process from the time we get board approval um fire Stone uh turf field needed for practice and North this is really sticking a pin in hopefully we can um with the new with the new building at North we will be able to make some different recommendations once that building uh once that new building is is upgraded and and that Community has a new site uh but we' like a turf field upgraded upgraded track um with the proposal for upgraded track uh somewhere between 5 75,6 our next steps um we' like we like the opportunity

061to uh increase our Communications around this we'd like to expose Scholars to this and really get them at the table um to to advocate for themselves their communities and their schools um this established athletic facilities team um this is a subgroup of the Master's facility planning team with regular review of these facilities and budgeting this this committee really is just an overview and an oversight the the real goal of this is to really upgrade this and send this to um back to the buildings to get student voice and to get uh an oversight so that we have a lot of a lot of eyes looking at this um at this comprehensive Point are there any questions are there any question disc team for the team at the table yep thank you uh thank you for

062this presentation also I don't have access to these slides could you so I don't know which slide it is but can you go back to maybe that one one more one more nope just kidding that the first one of the table doesn't matter uh perfect okay so all of these items that are you know our our desires our lists our wants and things like that um is this are these items already accounted for in the 5year forecast are we rece receiving this in the 5year forecast or is there possibly I wonder if there could be like another column of like priority level for these these these in this list here these are the priorities for these buildings depending on what the budget is it would it would it would we we make some adjustments to

063this so let's just say for funsies that Dr Thompson allocated a million dollars per year for our facilities manag we would allocate we would take that million dollar each year and we will start with these priorities booko Garfield and East in this work depending on the cost of those things so if we had a million dollars we would upgrade for example we would upgrade the air conditioning at BTO we would upgrade the concession stand and we would upgrade we would look at upgrading the stadium LS so it's not just an order by building but it's all all of the bulleted items within each building in order as far as prioritization right thank you okay other questions at the table I do remember hle thank you um when you say upgrade the concession stand at book

064though can you explain what an upgrade is yeah but by upgrade we we mean um raise redo there's there's there's running water that that needs to be there there's a press box that's that's in dire need of repair so if you've been to the booko stadium start if you were at the Press Box and you worked your way all the way down right below it that whole structure needs to be so instead of upgrading we're talking about recommission getting new right we're not talking about build on from what we already currently have which we know is totally out of order you know unusable we're going to rebuild that's our plan that's our proposal in okay cuz when you said upgrade yes upgrade to me is like you know we put lipstick on something you know

065it's more than paint it's more than paint we we like to we like to provide an upgrade to the facility that is required and is needed that is as appropriate for that facility okay any other question how much was that what was the dollar amount for the we we we don't have one we we talked we talked somewhere in the in the in the realm of 400,000 for the concession okay any other question or discussion to the table was it an altery I don't know how I got at the podium to I don't know either but actually but I appreciate it I appreciate that you're here um it's no secret that I've been involved with this topic for many years I'm surprised that you're not up here she she's on her way depending on what

066your question is okay okay I mean I I mentioned this I believe at the last uh board meeting um I feel like this information is is old um to me I know I've heard this information for probably at least 10 years at least 10 years and so once again I say we have to get to a point we seem to be able to find a way to advocate for certain schools to get their needs brought to this table and now here I am again hearing well we got to get student voice they're the ones playing on it so when I was out in the community volunteering I don't know what more you want to hear from them um and so we have to get to a place where we acknowledge that the issue is not

067what these priorities are cuz I think we've known for quite some time but when is this District going to truly act in equity um and and I know we can dress it up and make it look and sound nice but the regular average everyday person just wants to finally see it for us to stop talking about it you know I volunteered in that concession Booth so I am completely clear I've been clear for the last 10 years and it's disappointing that this district is aware that that concession booth and Press Box has been there since the 50s yet we still have no we we need another committee and student voice so that's just unacceptable to me as a board member and while I'm here it's time to do something different to get something different so

068that's all I'd like to say is there something you have Miss f um me if I if she could answer I I just wanted to bring this was a very active discussion last week and we had to pull a lot of research I will advise you that this is the first time the air conditioning in the competition gym has been part of an athletic and I brought that up because I knew how many activities I have in that gym and when you go through and explain to everybody what is actually used in these facilities year round Mr vasel and I felt that this needed to be added because it was not part of the new structure for the new building when it was originally added to the gym that existed you have air conditioning in

069the auxiliary gym and you have air conditioning at Bal in the Middle School gym because they were new bills but this was something that Mr bassotti and I actually did so to miss A's um think we can ideas that we were knowing of some of this absolutely but again you need to talk about the funding and what is available and part of our committee discussion last week was how do we set aside some of the actual funds dedicated to Athletics facilities only because what appears to have been involved other than new construction is the fact that there is a standard budget set available but it depends on the priorities within the year as to how the budget goes to maintain all the type of the facilities whether it is a roof whether it is a

070safety fire alarm there's never been a dedicated amount just for athletics and I went through that history and trying to prepare for this meeting last week so to that point one of the proposals as Dr uh Chapman said earlier was is there a way and we took the average year over the report that you saw when I provided it to equity took out all the donations that came and it came to about $900,000 over the last8 years that we spent we actually divided it um Dr Chapman sat with us that day and did it but the point was it was never dedicated to only be spent on athletic facilities so that's another proposal that came out of the committee's discussion last week should there be something that to oh I'm sorry I obviously hit the

071wrong button um that would help set those aside so as an example to the amount that the concession stand would cost and it's a good question Miss Hall that you asked it needs to be absolutely abated and demoed before we can even start a new construction because of its age and that's where the Architects came in and that's where they're looking at what would do an abatement and demo but if you only had a million dollars dedicated to athletic facilities in the year no matter where they are at and what structure does that come and what priority do you do do you do as an example the Press Box for a half a mill or 400,000 and what happens to the other say 600,000 what could be done to the priorities that are there I

072will be honest with you the air conditioning at bookal would be a true renovation of the HVAC system in that and until you get into it you don't know how it impacts the rest of the operational system so this was a really active discussion it was brought with a new lens of trying to bring Equity through it it is Miss ay has been very active in being a part of these discussions in the past and I think she's correct student boys has been there because some of the kids have asked in the past why is it this why is it that that's how we were looking at it but we have no dedicated funds there is a permanent provements Levy it's been around for many many decades and currently according to the treasur office it

073brings in about $4 million a year of that $3 million of that automatically is sent to the city as part of the 2003 agreement and I sat with Mr uh Dr Thompson Mr Dr Robinson and the budget review team last Tuesday and Mr Atkin's advis currently there are no additional funds in the permanent Improvement funding line at this time so which is to help build or renovate or maintain the physical assets that we have so this has been a discussion that we've actually been going very very an participating in and it was a good meeting among the group that we brought last Friday together to help with this upgrade in information to you thank you you're welcome I want to make sure we have time for public participation we want to make sure we have

074that here more question one more question Miss ho yeah I'm sorry guys just so you said it comes out to about $800 Miss fol but when I did a breakdown because I know on the 6 we had a conversation about the Athletics when I did a breakdown of all of the numbers of the general fund that we have paid for in our schools and when you talk about the bleachers at booko and needed to be replaced in the concession stand in 2020 we spent at ellot $584,000 800 well I'm sorry $584,000 on Old bleachers but book those bleachers in concession stand has been as it is for many years I'm book bleachers were replaced at the same time as zot as long and as well as the Kenmore Stadium it was a continuous activation process

075through that whole summer and it involved all three uh bleacher sets being replaced on the same year and with the same quality from the same vendor so how do we spend a million dollars at only ellot and Firestone but all the other high schools we spend less than 600,000 um some of the actual assets that are at these locations are different so I'll give you an example at Firestone you have the pool that was originally built in the 1960s during the renovation and upgrade of the building to change it from Rampart to Castle we were able to build around the actual Natatorium so we could continue to have a competition pool but that did not include and could not include the renovation of the tile of the pool the tile then had to come out

076of the pool because of its age and that was $914,000 if I remember for the competition pool which is the one we have so some of that is actually assigned to renovate or maintain the physical assets that are associated with with each location in the case of ellot you had two different things going on over the last four years one of which was the building of the new school which changed the location of the baseball field if you remember Miss Hall the original ellot was at the corner of wolf facing wolf itself the stadium was behind it and the baseball field was to the east of the stadium if I remember my directions correctly the school went in and took over the actual location of the baseball field and for the uh way that this

077was done we had to replace equal to what we took out and so the new baseball field actually just got completed a year ago so these are some of the assets that were renovated during the construction process remember all I want to make sure we get to the public participation you have one last question this will be long because I just I don't I I still don't see equality for all of our schools right so I think that's like the past no this isn't this is just presented no just pres oh okay our Equity oh this what you gave it that me no but I'm saying moving forward we are looking at making sure that we're being Equitable within our practices and so that's why Dr Robinson has asked for a subcommittee of the facilities

078planning team to be put in place to address just Athletics and making sure that we're being Equitable within the distribution of funds and so at um and we're making sure that every school like that has a football field that they can play at their home school in the night too and not just give all the money to the El yes absolutely to address all of the facilities this the first time I'm hearing it cuz I did ask for updated information as of the six so today I'm hearing this information correct okay that is correct I think we need to Tamp that one down and and and and just it's going to be being factual here there is no chance that every school first of all Garfield doesn't have a space to put it well I'm

079not talking about every what I'm saying is the schools that have the football field that stuff was taken from them too when you look at it we're not looking at it at through a lens of being equal everything for night games are only at ellot it's not fair that the concessions that ell goes back to ellot when there's a firestone and a East gang just let's make it E I understand what you're trying to say you're trying to prove a point and that's fine but I stand here for I was voted in for the residents and to fight for our children and make sure everything is equal and I don't see that and coming in I'm new to this you guys are all here at the board before me this is still going on so

080when do we take a stand and I thank you for saying going forward we're going to do this but Diana's been complaining about this when she got on the board and it's been years so now we're taking a stand and thank you but we got to stop always when I say something or somebody else trying to make them oh well you're wrong or you don't understand we're we don't try enough we keep saying what we can't do instead of trying trying to make a difference and a different impact in our children's lives or we're going to keep losing kids to private schools through ad choice we're going to keep kids coming out of our school and I stand here at the board cuz I have one vote just like everybody else but I'm here to

081fight for our kids which I think all of us are but if we keep having people make excuses on why things can't happen we're going to continue to have this thank you I I I'm not arguing with you at all there is great disparity in athletic facilities we know that acoss mrom Dr Thompson if we're talking about they're saying going forward we're going to see a change we're going to have committees then let's do that but let's do it and not keep talking about it and don't let the new school year or 2026 come and we're talking about a committee so thank you I'm Miss Angela for State letting me know that we are going forward with looking at this and making sure that our schools are equal regardless if they have a field or

082not we're going to make sure our kids have an equal opportunity and two schools will not continue to get [Music] everything and I just want to put this on the radar because again we've been talking about this for so long bookto masonry program created a whole model for this Press Box probably five or six seven years ago so let's try to utilize and incorporate them I know there's been reasons why we seem to not be able to use our Pathways but that doesn't make sense to me if the students at East can help repair cars and our masonry program at bookle should be able to uh invest in their own School building and they do have a so that's [Applause] [Music] it okay thank you guys we got to move on though at this point

083and now we're going to move to our public participation in our board meetings we have several signed up to talk tonight participants are kindly requested to refrain from addressing addressing topics concerning vendors business matters formal complaints grievances specific student or Student Records Personnel matters and or pending legal matters during the committee's meetings contribution should focus solely on matters pertinent to the committee's business each participant is allowed a maximum of three minutes for comments however if the topic on the discussion during the meeting directly relates to one of these matters participants may be invited to provide additional information it is a discretion of the committee to respond or delegate further action to the appropriate personnel via the superintendent first up we have Robert Lions [Applause] senior let me just say I didn't mean to disrespect any

084of the board but it's hard to keep track of how many people that are here and who's speaking um I'm Robert Lions I'm a van driver back from public schools I also have a parent and an aunt of uh special needs kid that's here also in attendance and more will be coming you're talking about millions of dollars levies Cuts whether you have a levy or not van drivers have not had a raise Mr all we can't speak on contractual issues at this meeting okay um well um that's probably why we're here and there's a lot of van drivers here and voters and we need to be heard uh we asked before how we address we asked for an executive session and it was shot down so I don't know what's wrong with talking about public

085matters that's affecting public voters but um we're paid one amount of money the contracted companies are paid another they get $310 to transport one kid we get $100 to transport five I don't know how that's fiscally yeah M with all due respect sir not my rules we can't discuss contractual issues at a meeting this so how do we how do they get to talk to us because we can't talk about it we were denied night last week executive session so how do we how do they be able to talk to us about what's going on as far as I understand executive session is place to do that so I'd want to discuss who denied you and why that was done I think you're on the list Miss Vickers if you want to yeah I okay

086so this is a group just I'm sorry these are a group of of vendors if I'm not mistaken so there is a a difference you're not it's not a unionized group I'm just stating not yet a fact and so there's a current request for proposals process going on which is a legal process which is also one of the reasons why this is not a matter that can be discussed publicly because there's a current legal process for proposals the in place the process that we weren't is not even a public it's not a public bid if you look at your request for proposals website when I was listening to the board meeting the superintendent stated to you guys in a board meeting that he wanted the community to be able able to easily accept access the

087rfps and that it should be a community thing okay I know about the RFP because me listening to the board meeting when I got on your website to look at the rfps one you have to pay to actually see the proposal so that's not easily accessible for any Community member if you have to pay secondly this the RFP the first page of the proposal states that it is not a public bid due to health concerns what health concern concerns there is no Co we're out of flu season so why is it not a public Bid And the reason why we're speaking at this point is because we have no other way to communicate with you guys I called the superintendent's office I spoke to I don't know how you say her name Ruth Ryman or

088reman and when I called there her response to me was she answered the phone I said yes I would like to schedule an executive session she said may I ask who you are I said I am a van driver her first statement to me was well I was under the impression that we weren't using van drivers this year and then I said well excuse me I'm sorry but uh transportation is passing out 24 25 packets to us she said oh well I must have been mistaken I said well I would like to schedule an executive session to speak to the board and she told me at that time the board does not speak to vendors and you will not be scheduled for one so if this is the only way because we are taxpayers as

089well so our voice should be heard regardlessly whether it's here EX session but we should be heard somewhere this is completely unacceptable and if you guys you guys the board members you guys are Community you are supposed to be here to represent us so if we as the community cannot speak to the people that represent us how do you even know what our issues [Music] are so I vote that you board members take a vote and ask if we can be speak if we can be heard tonight yeah you're here so we can communicate among ourselves by scheduling a time and date to make this happen you know I wouldn't get to the bottom of this like anyone else so I want to do that for sure we discuss that let's follow within this coming

090up week with the time and why don't we submit why don't we do that Brandy we'll submit times and dates you can do the same we might be available to do that make it happen we can actually sit and listen to what you have to say yeah because you guys are spending $2.9 million in unnecessary funds and then you guys want us to pass a levy but when we see you being financially irresponsible we can't support you guys and we want to support you guys but you guys have to support us we will follow [Music] up next we have Natalie carmac yeah we'll get that meeting set up Natalie we're going to get that set up everybody here oh my B understand this is your board meeting without us you don't even have public people

091here you guys got to respect us at some point like this is [Music] ridiculous yeah how about Bassie we're going to schedule a meeting you said we'll schedule meeting with you by the week is out to hear your hear what the van drivers have to say are you is it Bassie Andrea Morton okay yes hi I'll be quick I'm going to skip through some things because I respect the non-contract um conversation um I I I just want to this GNA be hard um I I I just want to State yeah you guys put us in a you put us in a little bind um we're going to schedule it I'm I I'm a van driver and a parent um I'm not a f from public school students anymore but um I just as far as

092the vendors go I'm not speaking on contract but I do think that it needs to be questioned how are we going to regulate that these vendors are following APS guidelines because they're being ran by this company that was started a year ago I'm not talking contract right um I it's getting really close okay I'm it's getting but I I just we'll excuse me I think it needs to be questioned we need to open our eyes and see that there is definitely some I'm going to say it collusion going on here with this company the amount I'm not speaking specifics but the amount of money that has been shelled out for a company to do exactly what we were doing for 50 plus years it it doesn't make sense and the three this is not about

093contract the three individuals that were hired into management who has since resigned have direct relationships with that company with these companies I I'll leave it at that you guys got to open your eyes it so it it's we've been bamboozled basically and it it it is so obvious but I don't understand how no one else else is seeing it but I do understand because we don't have a voice to speak the only person that we can get to is Mrs Faulk and then it stops there and so our complaints go they fall on deaf ears and we had all of our children snatched away which wasn't a part of the contract let's keep that in mind that wasn't a part of the contract our children go ahead can't keep talking contractual I'm sorry we just

094well that wasn't but that wasn't a part of the contract is what I'm saying there's things that went on outside of the contract but I'll leave it at that I just oh eyes got to get open like you guys got to open your eyes this is so much wrong going on and we who who do we talk to who H H how can we get our point across we care about the kids let me let me speak on that real quick and then I'll be done I promise we collectively in here we've been driving for over 50 years okay these parents know us these parents come to us and complain when their child their special needs child is being dropped off at school a half an hour before school starts because certain companies don't understand

095this is more than just a paycheck we we spend our money on these kids there's me personally I purchased clothes coats shoes for these kids it's not just a job these are special needs kids that were put in the hand of somebody that started a company8 months ago it doesn't make sense I'm just saying we got to open our eyes and we got to put the children first yes we want to raise but that's not why I'm here I'm here about the kids like it's pay us the same amount of money I don't care they might shoot me for saying that but I don't care I want these kids to be in the hands of somebody that really cares thank you next with tanty Lewis is it tati good afternoon um my name is tonti

096Lewis um I am a mother of a special needs child to go to bookto um 10:40 um I was coming here because I was trying to stand up not only for my son not only for the parents that have disabled children but the van drivers me I don't really trust a lot of people with my Down syndrome child but I have grown to know excuse me I have grown to know Mr Robert he is my current van driver and I love him he's good to my son he is good he deserve him and everybody else in here they deserve a raise I have five companies that I work for I know I pay good taxes so why they not getting paid okay I just want a change I don't understand you guys say that we

097don't have enough students in this in our district but that's because y'all bust them out further y'all took away West High West Junior high school and shipped everybody to ell for what B was doing good West High School was doing good y'all said that it wasn't the building wasn't up to cold for West High School but you put senior citizens and other people to live in there in the same building that y said wasn't good when y'all could have just updated and kept our students that was learning here in that area I'm willing to um cuz my auntie know a little bit more and I'm new about this or whatever so I'm willing to share some of my um time with her but you guys I'm glad I came out I only came out because

098I happen to see it on news break and I was like hold on this contractor van driver said she was working for 17 years and she was making $11 an hour I'm I'm know I know I I know I'm about to I it just I'm just saying it it Disturbed me a little bit you know cuz I know I pay for it um but you guys I'm glad I was able to come out and talk you guys was like folders in My Cup today I appreciate you guys thank you next we have councilman Ward Lombardo I'm sorry councilman Lombardo thank you um appreciate the uh time and the uh um the amount of work I know the staff puts in uh as an accountant for forget the councilman part but as the an accountant I

099can understand and appreciate that it comes down to the the bottom dollar so first thing I want to say is anything I can do to help with the the proposed Levy you know just let me know um second thing um one of the first slides it said office of school Improvement this regards to the budget cuts it said office of school Improvement a cut of $2.2 million I just want to know what the definition of that is school Improvement thank you thank you okay do you want to say something yeah you can yeah go ahead you question you want to go okay okay so the office of school Improvement is the office that operates our title funds those are all of our Title One title two title three title four funds and so they they

100they govern that um so I I but again going back to the earlier point that um this is still fluid and so um there may be additional things but this is what right now where we are and trying to meet deadlines and making sure we've slowed down a lot of things to just make sure that we do what we're doing well and and not have any issues so but School Improvement Works along with our schools on their school budgets okay thank you superintendent Brandy will definitely get that meeting scheduled okay I'm sorry I get a date and time yeah we're going to get three dates we're going to get times and dates and you know you can reach me so we can do that minutes she's three minutes yeah she's at three minutes yeah you

101spoke when Mr Lions was speaking I had to that was his he told me I could have his one minute we'll get it scheduled I promise that to you so last we have item 3.01 which is board member event information any discussion questions additions on that I have six names here those are the names I read what was your name show you my screens I did sign UPL what's your name I I don't see it here y I came down this mornings walk okay go go ahead sure yes okay okay so excuse me for having a couple of notes so my notes that esteemed members of the board thank you for having me um I'm not going to get into any contractual talk I just want to piggyback off of some of what the other

102drivers are talking about and what our concerns are to kind of spell that out for Mrs Sykes as well because in the last meeting she said she really wasn't sure what the issues were with our transportation department and um we're all we've all become extremely concerned about the lack of equity and inclusion within our department even though we aren't employees of APs we've experienced a lack of equity and inclusion um as well as some what feels like now to be discrimination and some deceptive practices that we would like to discuss in these meetings that you guys are going to schedule us for um with some of the staff members and things that we're not going to bring up in today's meeting um and some of the things that came to light for us to some

103of the other moves that were made like a secretary blocking our ability to make a meeting with your guys' board um there's been a lot of steps um including some misleading that were was done on the news I believe um when our team as well as the public was told that um that these other providers would provide Superior Services in some form and they do not um so things like that is what concerned us um because they do not provide Superior Services at all in fact we provide services for the majority of the children that provide that ride for transportation of the vans so yes so we're our overhead is any who we're not getting into contracts um I did want to ask with some of the slides that we saw today of are any

104of these Cuts including the icos No No that has any nothing to do with with you all okay I just wasn't sure I saw a lot of numbers and a lot of categories I have no clue what category we belong to if we belong to any of those categories okay right I I did see Transportation up there but that didn't include us oh okay so okay good so I'm also an alumnist of North High School and um just from my little experience there I I I saw you guys make mention of the track that the same track that was there when I graduated in 2002 okay but we just now talking about it in the early and then I noticed the disparity between the list for bookal and the list for the other schools it

105seemed like everything all the other schools was getting was going to bookal too like they yeah they do um so I was I'm just concerned about that as well because again in my own personal experience it seems like North was neglected severely and then when the levy came around before the ask us if we wanted North to be torn down a lot of us said no we wanted North to be refurbished because there's a lot of history there I think North is one of the oldest high schools in akan so that's kind of where our place was but I think I feel like that's part of why it was also neglected because well we'll just kind of force this is what it kind of felt like I don't know what y'all think um but that's

106the same track that we ran on in high school it should have absolutely had attention to it well before now and um so yes let me get back to my little notes and um so we did confirm that I wanted to also just make a note here about something I heard here about how teachers I wanted to include drivers including the van drivers do directly impact the students learning ability and ability to get to school to learn and so this is where why we are very concerned and again needed to get that scheduled with you guys as soon as possible so that we could really sit down and we're hoping that you guys don't pick and choose who you sit down and talk to because there's a 140 maybe a little more of us and

107I think you guys should speak to each driver um to really understand some of what has happened um lastly as a parent something I also experienced and I think that it connects because again I'm just not seeing little connections it just might be my little brain um covid seemed to impact a lot of what our children are going through a lot of what our families are going through and I specifically experienced a wrongful treny of my children after covid because of the mishandling of not just the entire situation clearly some of the funds were being mishandled I think our 3 minutes is up J thank you very much oh is it oh I a't see no clock there thank you are we sure all right thank you thank you guys thank you is there anything

108else to come before the board the committee Mr chair thank you Mr chair as the vice president as the vice chair of this committee let me just first of all thank everyone for coming out and uh secondly uh uh sir uh you did not offend me I just simply wanted you to know that you did not have the permission from the chair so I try to back up my chair whenever I can to uh let you know that he had not recognized you but I appreciate you being here thirdly let me just be very clear in that this meeting that the board members are looking at setting up that I will not be a part of that because I am not a part of the administration I am part of the legislative process I have

109all the confidence in our superintendent and his staff and sitting down uh and coming up with uh an agreement with you and then he will bring that to this board and the board will vote on it but I will not participate in that I will stay in my lane and my Lane is it's a legislative Lane I'm Barbara syes of this board of the board of the board yes I am a legislator I am not an administrator for this board and so therefore I will not interfere with what the administration is doing and I will wait on their recommendation to the board and at that time when it is time for us to vote then I will will state whether or not I agree with what's coming before the board but it is important uh

110that we understand the roles of each person and my role is I am not the superintendent I am not the assistant superintendent nor am might treasure or any administrator in this system thank you Miss SES anything else Dr Thompson you have something uh my name is Steve Thompson and I'm the treasurer so this has been a fun meeting so uh yeah yeah it's been a fun meeting anyway um just briefly want to touch on I just want to put it out there because what we're going to I want you to understand what we're moving into and why it's so important we have two major things we have to cover at our next board meeting one is the recommendation from the administration to move forward with the levy which is 7.6 General operating 1.3 bond issue

111which where did our last speaker go raise your hand where is she oh in the back and that 1.3 Mills is what would be used to construct a new North High School so and I think I think think I've said this last meeting but I think it's important for people to hear you know things get lost over the years and we forget why decisions were made when the money came up to build North High School and during all the construction the student population at North was significantly lower than what it is and the state wouldn't co-fund it so without co-funding from the state it looked like it was going to close you know as late as 200 16 and here we are growing in population in that part of the district now so the board's

112trying to address that issue and we need your support in order to to do that to make to make that happen um and I think we all when we talk about Cuts I think it's imperative for you all to understand and know that these are the most difficult decisions that administrators make these impact people's lives and every job that's out there is important or we wouldn't have hired it you know and part of the challenge with van drivers by the way is we can't get enough van drivers which is part of it okay well well well then I'm glad I'm sorry I said that maybe we'll come back to that and figure that out but that's always been my understanding so okay I sorry sorry told people to pay we're not hiring V we don't

113need V I sent five people and they were told that okay well I guess that's that's one of the discussions that we can have and get into I digress I like your vocabulary anyway um so that is coming up and then and then also so you'll be asked to vote on the necess on an on the uh uh resolution of necessity which will have those millage in unless you tell me otherwise wi or tell Dr Robinson otherwise that will be the millage that you'll be voting on and that can't change once we once it's in a resolution then we'd have to back up again another meeting if we come to that meeting and we're not collectively on the same page so if there is a problem with that please let Dr Robinson know let me

114know so that we can make whatever decision we need to make secondly you you're going to be you'll get the first look at the 5-year forecast 5year forecast couldn't be completed until we know how much we're cutting well that won't be solidified until next week I'll give you the fiveyear for cast predicated on what you saw today but then we must come back must must must come back before May's over and approve it we can't approve we're going to give you time to digest it but it's really important that we have at least a quum to come back and vote on that before May because it is due to OD at the End by the end of the month so that is why it's imperative and I know we have a lot going on at

115the end of May and graduations and busy lives and all of those things but we have to get a quorum together some way somehow after you've had a chance to digest that information okay thank you Dr Thompson that's it our next finance and Capital Management committee meeting is Monday June 17th at 4:30 time time we'll now stand in adjournment thank you thank you thank [Music] Youk e