ACLSD BOE Regular Meeting October 2025

001Mr. Ready. >> Okay. I will call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. >> Dr. Budley >> here. >> Mrs. King >> here. >> Mrs. S >> here. >> Mr. Sharp >> here. >> Mr. Here 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. >> Item is to approve the agenda as presented. Although have one added a new business item. Uh new business item D will approve the indoor track to approve indoor track as a district recognized club sport. >> Where does that go? It goes uh item D under new business. It's actually under new business. >> It'll be it's right before the board discussion is where it >> is it under communications consent agenda. Where

002are we >> seven? Thank you. >> Down here. Okay. So there is one small addition. So then we need what's for clarification. Clarification. So we need an approval of the agenda as presented with that one addition. Is there a motion? >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Spaintock. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Young. >> Yes. >> Dr. Buckley. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Song. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sharp. >> Yes. >> Public participation. >> We have Kate doing an FFA and >> student. Yeah. So, I'm going to start with our students on report first. So, within academics and instruction within the primary, first nine weeks have come to an end and report cards go home on Thursday. Their ACP quarterly awards will be rec will be celebrated Thursday at 2 p.m. to recognize their persevering students and

003their ace of the quarter. They're also excited to have 82 primary students participating in the perfect attendance Chris Cakes pancake celebration. The second grade musical will be coming up next week and all classes will be participating in the fall festival sponsored by the PTO at the end of the month. For the elementary, their attendance goal is to maintain at least 95% and grades 3 through 5 met this. So, they will be participating in the pancakes for perfect attendance on October 16th at 9:00 a.m. The first time we report cards will also be sent home on Thursday, October 16th, and the awards assembly will be on October 24th at 2 p.m. Now, for testing, the fifth grade gifts screenings will be wrapped up this week. And third grade OST will take place with part one on

004October 22nd and part two on October 23rd. This Thursday, the fifth grade instead of trips to pigeon will happen to pigeon response and the fourth grade will be posting their because of win party. For the middle school, Veterans Day 5 and Veterans Day poetry contest will be coming up. The quarterly incentive trip will be on October 31st. Student students will receive their honoral standing soon and ASUS way card applications will be sent out this week and then started in the near future. For the high school, the juniors will be taking the PSAT this Wednesday on October 15th. And the high school will also be taking part in the Veterans Day flag as well. And ASUS swing cards will be started soon. for student life and extracurriculars. Our as our all sports come to an end

005this season. All our athletes have done very successful. The varsity football heads into their week nine of this season ready to take on Fairfield Union. Our team has traveled well with the cheerleaders and marching band leading the student section and community and spirit. The varsity boys soccer takes on Northridge at home in the sectional tournament game this Saturday. The varsity girls soccer team takes on Heath tomorrow in the sectional tournament game at home. The varsity volleyball team also has their sectional tournament game tomorrow against you. Now for our clubs. Our student body has multiple organizations and school multiple different clubs and school organizations that they can join. With the music, the marching band is staying busy with football season and pep rallies right now. And the choir is also in a preparation phase as they

006learn music for the upcoming concert in October. The drama club finished wrapped up their signups a couple weeks ago and now they're in the process of planning what they what what they want to do and assigning parts. FFA report will be in a minute. Um, the National Honor Society has their community service childc care underway and NHS introductions are being posted to Instagram to show me show the members involvement. Miss Parker and the officers are working on planning a trip for the next summer. Student council um the student council pulled off an extremely successful homecoming dance with the help of Miss Williams. In regards to community participation, last week a large portion of our student body exhibited livestock at the Fairfield County Fair. Our students had tremendous success with their animals. Additionally, many students submitted

007other miscellaneous act projects for judging, including welding joints, electrical circuits, concrete stepping stones, and more. Looking at this week, the Circable Pumpkin Show is in full swing. Emma Strickle will be representing our school as the outgoing first attendant, and McKenna Singleton and Kila Gerald will be competing for the 2025 2026 Queen title. The high school marching band performed at the Fairfield County Fair last week in the parade of bands and will be marching in one of the circle pumpkin shows par this week, most likely Thursday. Now for the FFA report. So this past week the FFA had um submitted multiple projects to the fair and we had certain winners in these each um respective categories. So I competed in the welding category and placed first and then we had Cara Fletcher or Kira Fletcher placed

008fourth in the um concrete division and then Cara Johnson placed second overall with electricity. In the month of September we had multiple activities. One of them being the hog roast which was a very successful event in which a lot of the community showed up and just had a nice meal together. And today our fall fruit and snack sale started off. So um if any of you guys are interested, you feel free to reach out to Mr. Tilly or more than likely FFA member will reach out to you. And then um Emma is currently at our job interview invitational right now as that is job interview started to kick off as that CE. On October 20th, both our state animal management and state aquarium management will be taking will be commencing their um competition and the

009job interview county competition will happen on October 21st. October 29th through November 1st is when national convention will occur when we have a large amount of members sign up to go and we have representing Ohio as a national officer candidate. Um I just want to say thank you guys for letting us do all these events as it really helps to foster leadership and dedication within every generation. >> Thank you. Much appreciated and congrats to >> uh let's see transportation committee. Um you want me to go ahead and go there basically three items. Uh the two buses that we we're going to have new this year. The one we have received and it's already on route. It's doing the route to the career center and back. Um the other bus is one with a wheelchair lift

010and it is at the dealership so we should be getting it pretty much any day and uh that is well needed because the current route that has a wheelchair lift that it will replace that bus is it's one that goes out with a lot of dirt roads and rumble strips and everything else. So it's it's >> It's taking a beating and has some issues. So, I was pretty excited to have the new one here before long because that one's has some issues. You said just related to again the dust bouncing. >> What's that? >> Potholes. Yeah. All that good stuff on dirt roads. Um, let's see. Uh, there was a brief discussion that Elena actually brought up about maybe looking at a natural gas bus or two on the dirt roads. She said her previous

011district, the bus superintendent swore by those on the dirt roads. He said they were a lot better than a diesel ones because they were lighter. I'm not sure, but but L said he'd be happy to look into that anything. So that was at least discussed. Um the EV buses were mentioned that they're doing still doing great. You know, a couple of minor things, but minor things that would happen with any bus, nothing to do with them being an EV bus. And that their charges have been fine. They never had any issues where they've gotten low at all since we've gotten them. Uh let's see the transportation count uh the this for state for state funding purposes uh is going to be next week. Um it used to be that was always very crucial because every

012district it was based on headcounts on the bus but they switched that a few years ago and so now since we're more of a rural district ours is based more on mileage than it is headcount but it's still something they want to do a headcount. So just for classification purposes and all at the state level that's next week. Um and then the last thing the administrative assistant to operate for operations has had to do a few routes but uh but is also starting to get it into the swing of things I guess LA said in terms of helping him out with some of the more administrative stuff and helping with district operations and all. So um he's pleased with how that's going so far. He did put out a couple things. Uh the last thing

013was safe routes. He mentioned uh this is the third year. Of course, it was partway through when he started, but this is his third school year. The first year we had safe routes, there were 68% of the students that were routed. Um la and then last year was 69% and this year 73%. So getting more percentage of the students riding buses, which is good. Then the number of parents who are linked through the portal have gone up as well where this year it's said 94%. So they're the ones that will get a notification of you know bus or whatever along those lines. So that's everything I had. I missing any questions. All right. Um student achievement there's nothing legislative. Is there anything? >> I checked the blog. They no longer send out information. So you

014can go see there's still around property tax relief for taxpayers from other things and hopper but nothing. >> Yes, there are two two bills that pass the house that are should call them bills. They are um proposals >> proposals to overturn vetos. So there's two more that I'm not sure if the Senate has voted on yet or not. I'll talk about those two more work because neither of those will >> Thank you. Building principles. Who wants to go first? >> I think we're going to go backwards today. >> I think so. Since Stephanie's got a lot on her plate to deliver tonight, we'll go back. >> Um, so to start at the top, um, honoral recognition, we're going to get that back and rolling. So, we'll have that kind of done. Uh, third quarter grades

015are are wrapped up tomorrow morning at 8:00. So, we'll announce our first quarter honor roll for the first time in quite a while. Get that back out and recognize the good things going on. Um like K said the PSAT is going to be coming up on the 15th on Wednesday. Um attendance right now we first quarter um our our goal is to be above 90%. Uh we are at 92.8% attendance rate for the high school building at the moment. So it's kind of holding steady there right on that cusp. So I want to keep keep that going. 40 students I'm sorry 62 students with the perfect attendance for the first 40. Chris Cakes incentive. So we'll have six excused students across all four grade levels. So that takes into account student with zero absences. There's

016no distinction between excused and excused. It's just zero absences. So that's how that work out. Um our behaviorally, you know, coded the ABCs academics behavior. Let's start with behavior next. Um our our 10th grade continues to have the highest number of referrals. Uh so that's kind of another look and see what what is going on with that group specifically and what we can do with that. Um our uh ASUS way incentive program our cards are back a little bit simplified a little bit easier to understand and get sent out to kids quicker. So this week we'll be putting those out. And some of the things we have is lunch line passes, you know, ice cream for cafeteria, just different things, gym time, outside time. If you have different levels, there's different things you can you

017can do for those. So that's that's come out this week. Um, also our this is first quarter. We're using the first quarter to roll out and use our social probation. you know, you have to be well attended, good grades, and um be well behaved to take part in some of the things that are coming up. Field trips and the like are all included in that. So, if you meet those categories, then you're good to go. If not, then you got four weeks to fix it or continue to stay on. She said the band performs. We uh football fair school this Friday and national convention coming up and then we're into November already. So there we go. So year's almost half over >> maybe not quite >> or say it's been the fastest year for me.

018Um okay so like Mr. Dennis said the second quarter began today. um kind of piggybacking off some of the things um as well. So students will get great cards on Thursday um in their home room class as well as um honoral certificates and incentive trip letters will come out next week for those students. So our first quarter honor or first quarter incentive trip at the middle school is on October 31st. So it's still a mystery of where we're going. Um I know where we're going but um because parents will get the letter here soon. Um, parent teacher conferences. I know this is somewhat on the radar right now, November 4th. So, we're a few weeks out from that. So, at the middle school, we will target our conferences to specific individuals who the teachers believe

019u we need to get parents in the building and then that form will go public to everybody and anybody else can fill the remaining spots. In the past, we have been overwhelmed by the amount of parents that won a parent teacher conference, which is great. So, for those that don't necessarily make it um or aren't able to make it, we do meet with parents um after school, you know, when when their schedules permit um with work and things. Um couple um programs that are coming up. So, our seventh grade students are going to have the opportunity um to complete safe dates and our eighth grade students will complete project alerts. So this is um Adam Adam each board provided funding um and our students receive um these courses. So in the weekly announcements which Justin

020they just came out for the middle school so thanks to the parents for their patience with that um I have included what each the date of each um topic what the topic is as well as a letter um and parents obviously have the opportunity to off their student out if they don't want their student to participate in that um chronic absenteeism. So, at the middle school, um we are at 93% just slightly over 93% um with our attendance rate, which is great. Our eighth grade class um is the lowest in the percent. They're still over 90. They're they're at 91.8% and sixth grade is leading the way at 94.2% um for the for the first quarter. So, sixth grade had the opportunity to go to lunch first, which is a big deal when you're trying

021to get 350 kids through um three lines. Um so, we try to offer that as an incentive um for grade level attendance. So, best attendance among grade level gets to go to lunch first and go through the line first. 85 middle school students had perfect attendance in their first quarter. So, they earned the pancake breakfast later this week. And then the last thing I want to touch on, um, this didn't happen how I wanted to happen, but we had some schedule changes over break. So, you may have heard about some of this. So, our foundations courses, if you recall from last spring, Mr. Dennis and I did um the foundations of reading course as a tier three intervention and then um foundations of ELA as a tier 2 intervention and then kids are all in

022ELA as tier one. Um the way we scheduled them not knowing at the time is we need our tier three grade level intervention classes. But what we really found out was with the program phonics for reading. It was very challenging for teachers to meet everybody's needs in that class when three different books so students could test into book A, book or book C. So when we had it by grade level, we had ranges from the beginning of book A all the way up to the high end of book C. Um so what we Mrs. McFarland and I did over break is we had the teachers group those students who needed book A, book B, book C, and we went back to the master schedule and revised their their schedules. Um so it did change some

023things with student schedules. Obviously that wasn't our intent. Um but we didn't really know anything about this program. teachers actually didn't get trained until the first Thursday of um school. The first Thursday kids came back was the first training date that they offered. So going into scheduling for next year, we'll have a better idea. So we'll have students take that assessment and we'll know where we need to place students to offer that remediation. So, I'll be tracking that data as the year progresses because um students have the opportunity at um the semester to reassess and move up in a book or essentially test out. So, we're looking at that data. So, hopefully we see a lot of um progress with with um those courses and helping students ultimately become better readers and just more confidence

024in reading. All right, we'll move on to elementary. I'm going to cover elementary, primary, and preschool today. So, uh, for elementary, kind of, um, repeat a little bit. Our attendance school was 95%. So, we've reached that and we've maintained 95%. So, our kiddos is 84 of the elementary students will engage in the pancake pooa. Um, we have our first nine weeks great cards that'll go out on Thursday, October 16th. And then we're doing awards ceremony on the 24th to celebrate those um big moments for those kiddos. Uh testing fifth grade, we're doing the gifted screenings and we're wrapping up that this week. And third grade reading OSD part one is October 22nd, part two on October 23rd. And um Fa and I put together a um parent, you know, parent meeting. We had parents come

025in. We had a really good turnout. I was really impressed um because, you know, kind of had some feedback saying, "Oh, parents really haven't attended that in the past, but they showed up loud and proud." and wanted to know what's going on, what to expect, like what do what can we do as parents to help support our kiddos. And um it was a great piece since we were able to walk them through that, navigate that. Um let's see here. And then on the 30th, we have our PTS sponsored fall festivals um during specials time and Halloween parties the following day. So that's what's happening in elementary. Um looking at the primary um once again, our first nine weeks have come to an end. Reports are from home Thursday. Um we have those awards for the

026primary for Thursday at two um to recognize um our persevering students in our ace of the quarter. And we're also excited to have 82 primary students participate in perfect attendance for pancakes. Uh and then second grade will have their musical the um coming coming up the next week. That'll be fun and exciting. I know they've been really working hard towards that. And I just always love to how it starts and how it ends. The kiddos are just they're really working hard. Um and then all classes will be participating in the fall festival sponsored by PTO as well. Um and then they'll have their parties. Um for preschool, our students have been learning via integrated lessons. So it's really cool. Right now um some of the classrooms have partnered with some different um businesses through the

027community. Uh they were part partnered with this Southern Brewing coffee. So they had so they're doing eighth grade lessons. So they they have their own little labels and their coffees. And we're working our big goal for this year in preschool is communication. So the kiddos are working on taking orders. how did the community, you know, that whole back and forth, that reciprocation piece that that sometimes gets lost and so increasing vocabulary, which is all, you know, the basis of science of reading. Um, so we're starting really fresh with that. Um, so it's been really neat to see the kiddos, you know, pretending to be a barista and all that communication coming out of the the little ones. Um, and all the students will take their first, um, field trip to the firehouse on the 22nd

028in preschool. And then our preschool staff that, um, work with our kiddo list have all completed their step up to quality professional development. um they have actually all year to complete it, but I really put that that line that I put that deadline in there. They completed it before fair break and I'm really proud of our staff for that. Um and then the staff will also be completing um their ELA assessments for the DCY requirements here very soon. So yeah, I have questions. Um, you know, several years ago, we did away with the perfect attendance because we didn't want kids coming to school sick. >> Yeah. During COVID and the years couple years following that. So, I'm just kind of surprised to hear the emphasis on perfect attendance. I mean, I understand we want them

029here 100%. We want you here if you can be here, but I really don't want you coming sick. I don't want you giving it to me or whoever else is there. So, >> I'm not wild about hearing all these great things that we're doing for the kids for perfect attendance. Like, I think it's great that they're here, but could we consider maybe 95% for attendance and you get the award or whatever your goal is because I want you to be home if you're sick. I don't want you coming to school. >> So, a few things. One, um, across the state, um, there's an emphasis on chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism, you know, covers 95% attendance is a chronic absenteeism per student. >> So if you miss I think it's two days per month. Isn't that what

030factors out into >> 17 days per month? >> 17 days. Yeah. >> So um that actually puts you below what the this the standard is that that we're looking trying to reach. Um we have multiple opportunities throughout the year. So, you know, as we talk to students, if they don't meet the first first one, you know, it's it's okay to be sick sometimes. And so, maybe you don't make it the first one and you it's something that you work to for the second or third time um throughout the year. >> But that's not what we're really telling them. We're really telling them if you come 100% of the time, whether you're sick or not, we're going to give you an award. And we're giving you several awards. You're going to get the pancake breakfast and

031then when we do our assembly, we're going to recognize you again. And I heard several of you say that you were going to do that. Um, and I'm all about students coming to school. Don't get me wrong. I'm not at all saying they shouldn't be here, but I want you to be home when you're sick and we're not. There has to be some kind of middle ground there. I'd rather see you say, "Okay, we I heard one of them is a 95% attendance." That's the younger grades, I think. You know, why aren't we setting that as the bar for these kids? or if that's your bar, then if you're 98% or whatever you want to do, but we should be allowing for these kids. If you're truly sick, don't come to school because you're just

032passing it to every and we've seen it already this year. Kids came to school sick. It went around the beginning of the year. It happens all the time when you congregate people. Um I just wish you would reconsider that in some middle ground because we're not just saying perfect intense. We're giving them all kinds of recognition for coming to school full-time. It's the same where I work. If you're working next to me and you're sick, stay home. I don't want what you got. >> I think it's kind of a catch 22 situation. >> It is. It is. But we're giving them a lot. Yeah. >> We're giving them a lot of recognition for that. Um, I just assume giving the kid who stayed home day recognition too that was sick and did come to school.

033>> I don't know. I like the idea of him coming here. So, I don't know. Yeah, I said it's hard to, I guess, find a balance there. >> That's why I'm asking, can you consider looking for a balance somewhere between I need you to be here and I don't want you to be here when you're sick. I'm not saying excuse them every day and they're sick and they're perfect attendance. I'm just saying we look at the quarter and that's what we're giving these things on. Can you at least discuss like is there >> I think this will be a good year to collect some data for um what perfect attendance how it impacts our overall gra overall attendance rate. We had a similar attendance last year where we we excused if they had a doctor's

034excuse or something like that. Um and in the end we actually found that there was no that that had no effect on the overall attendance rate um for students coming in. So that's why we made some adjustments for this year. Um you know I think you know as I've talked to a few few parents um you know they they have commented you can they can tell that there's a a large emphasis on attendance this year. Um, so like I said, not only across the state, but also I mean that was a direct impact on our report card that um, you know, if six more kids were came two more days, then we would be a three and a half star district. So um, >> well, I get that, but I hear you saying no, I'm

035not going to consider that. That's what I'm hearing you say. >> Well, I think I think we've we've set out like our what we're doing this year. I think we can examine what impact that would have and if it was at 98% how many days would that how many days would that lay out and things like that? >> I don't think it's going to impact your attendance. It's going to impact who you recognize. So, if they're already out sick for a day because they stayed home because they should, we're punishing you again by saying we're going to recognize you for the effort that you made the other 99% of the time that you came to school. >> So, we're not going to recognize you. >> No, we're not. >> We're not. Um, and I and

036I get you're saying, but like it just feels overboard when you're getting the pancake breakfast, going to get recognized again at the assembly, probably going to get a certificate, whatever. There has to be some middle ground somewhere. Um, all right. Anyways, >> thank you all. Appreciate it. >> Uh, where are we at? Superintendent report few things. [Music] Um few things from uh our last meeting. Uh one of the big items was our strategic planning process. So, um, a reminder, as I talked about that before, we we partnered with the Schlei Center, um, to go through the strategic change or strategic change agenda. Um, it's a little different than what the typical, um, strategic planning conversation is. Um, I know Mr. Sharp came to our two days and the discovery phase, uh, which was October 1st

037and 2nd. Um, and I'll talk a little bit about kind of what we did there and that portion of it. Overall, this is the overall calendar uh and plan of where we're going. Second bullet there shows extended discovery. So basically what our facilitator is doing is she's taken the conversations from that initial from that in additional two days of meetings and then she's developed some uh more specific questions for different stakeholder groups u pulling in more data and um and then using that to either go into additional conversations or uh next go to the analyzing data portion. So, November 13th to 14th is when they'll be working with us, going through some of the responses and analyzing that data. Um, January 8th and 9th is when we will be going into conversations related to goal

038setting and where we're at. Um, February 12th and 13th, it's discover discovery team reconvene. So, that first initial group of parents, um, Mr. Sharp uh was there. Students, we had um I think it was six students that were engaged in the conversation. Uh and then we had parents and teachers, administrators. So, bringing that team back together to kind of look at where where we're where we've been, was um anything missed or or do we need to go into any further conversations? and then with the ultimate goal that we would meet and share with the board at the March meeting uh kind of the findings of where we're at and then um work to finalize so that in May we have that tangible um product that we can put together. Here's a few pictures um of

039our uh students. Uh first of all, I can't talk enough about how great the student voice was during that that process. Um here each of our our some of our students were um they were presenting they were at our students were sitting at tables with parents and teachers and administrators. Um and they were giving us some good feedback that might not have been so uh easy to hear. Uh you know whatever you're thinking, oh well this is great and they love it and then they're like no we really don't. Um so it was it was good information. Um there's a picture at the bottom of just kind of how we were all engaged in that conversation and we had students spread out um and administrators and parents spread out at various places throughout the room.

040The first piece that we uh went into was what they call defining moments. So we talked about like okay what what is some of the history of the district and where have we been and what have we learned and and and what are what's what's really important to us. So, um, we actually physically lined up in order of how long we've been part of the community or part of the district and then had conversations based upon, uh, those pieces. The second piece we looked at was images of schools. So, we looked at each one of those stakeholders um, students, parents, teachers, principal, uh, superintendents and and central office and then the school board. What how did they view what is their image of a school? Uh we had common conversation about kind of that and

041where you fall anywhere from are you up at a learning organization or or where might you fall on that matrix and then um how others view their role. For example, um you know students and teachers and and administrators were able to talk a little bit about well what how do they view the role of the superintendent or district office? uh and we may view ourselves a certain way but um how did they view our role in that process? Ultimately we looked at there were key um focal points within um 10 10 focal points within um the the planning process um looking at uh developing shared missions belief and this is where we went into the capacity building or the the capacity audit. So we were looking at okay within developing shared beliefs and visions where

042are we right now and what evidence do we feel like we have that each of those stakeholders are are engaged or they understand uh what our shared beliefs and and vision is and then what can we do to impact that. So, we dove into each one of those um pieces. Ultimately, it was student engagement at the center. Um and again, that's where that student voice was very um important for them to give us feedback on what what real engagement is into their learning. Um this was our team. Quick picture of our team um that met. Uh that was the team from the second day. uh any questions about kind of where we're at from just that strategic planning point? I did share out an email um and within that conversation with the group, we also

043looked at okay, who are other stakeholders or who are other people that we can engage in that conversation. Um, so I sent out emails um recently and had people sign up for um either parents or community members to sign up for specific time slots so they can have conversations with our facilitator and um and amongst others that may be in that same group uh stakeholder group and uh provide additional pro additional feedback. Um, one other update that I wanted to share. Um, there's a quick picture of the inside of the gym from today. Uh, so we are still on schedule for um, this Friday uh, for handover of the fieldhouse. That of course is not punch list. Um, that is just initial handover. Turn over to us. This is a picture from inside the gym.

044They yesterday did the striping on the floor. So the gym floor is down. I found them completely with striping. Um we talked in our agenda planning about a tenative ribbon cutting on November 22nd um from 3 to 5. That's a Saturday. So if you would um the five of you if you would check your uh calendar, see if that is um a good date for you guys and then um give us a feedback on um if that would work or not work. We have not necessarily publicized that out. We've only started the initial conversation of what what might be possible. >> There's a girls basketball >> say there's a girls basketball game. Yeah. Which is kind of the thought was here. Anyway, >> yeah. Go right from one to the other. And then we would

045highlight um not just the fieldhouse but we would highlight the addition of the primary the baseball softball building and the fieldhouse all together during that ribbon ribbon cutting because the final culmination of >> that's the Saturday before Thanksgiving right? >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> I'm not available once my family's Thanksgiving. >> But you don't have everyone else. [Laughter] If somebody else >> scarf down my food, see you later. >> It's dishes time, right? I'm sure we'll have cookies here so you can have dessert. >> Have something. We always have something. >> But that's uh that's the extent of my report, but just a couple big things that's happening recently. >> Yeah, I appreciated the ones who showed up for the strategic planning stuff. was good groups and some good feedback from all around the student

046well really good and I can see that being beneficial moving forward too because sometimes in the big picture you think these things are great but like I said some things that were brought up and you ask a student about it they'd be like >> now granted they're going to hear that anyways in some cases when they got to get it regardless but >> but it was it was good I mean it was kind of a it was a lot of kind of get your feet wet get process moving sort of stuff so I'll be anxious to where it goes from here for sure. But um comes out with the extended stuff, but good start. So, and you know, we'll we'll see where we're at once we have the extended discovery and if we need to

047bring in more people or have more conversations at that point um just to get a well-rounded view of >> Are we able to add things to the punch out list? >> Yeah. >> Um a hook on the back of bathroom now. >> I was going to say Was it last week? It wasn't there. I was like, "Oh, where am I putting my first?" >> That's the hook. Is that the hook, Mrs. Psalm? I think >> cuz you had mentioned a hook one time. That's >> No, that's not the one I was. >> That's not the make the door shut hookatch. >> There was no latch. >> There's a latch on the door, >> but they don't match up. So, the door doesn't latch shut. It just stays going open. >> It does now. >> I

048was going to say the door first game they put those in like at 2:00 and people were coming through the gates at 5:30. It was that way for the first two home was I wasn't at the second home games on the concrete and the drainage >> the concrete and the drainage the pools of the puddles >> over on the >> as you walk to the stand >> stands that is something that's on the punch list. >> That's what I figured. >> The old field house. >> What's that? >> Where the old field house was. >> Where the old field was. Yeah. There's some high spots that you know or excuse me low spots that don't. >> How did they fix those with a punch list? They saw cut and concrete and change. That's what I

049was >> This is This is the second goound. They made a third >> like they've done it several times. They did it up at the primary multiple times. >> Okay. building and they looked at the quality of the concrete and how it's finished and they ripped out most of the concrete up at the primary and we did it which is good because Yeah. Yeah. >> That's good. I enjoyed the strate I want to mention in the strategic planning we started the planning with a historical perspective and they put people in groups by when they came into the district. So, the more seasoned, I don't want to say older people, but were in one group and then it went by um timeline and then you had to describe the era that you came in and what

050was going on and stuff. And I thought that was a great place to start because you know the Amanda I remember and the Amanda the kids see today or whatever it it's so different and it traveled probably what five decades maybe so 50 years across that timeline that we each got to talk each got to talk about it and it was such a great place to start because you know it truly went from um you know an an ad school or a war Yeah. To, you know, the heyday during the late 90s, early 2000s that there was just so many great things that we were at our highest enrollment and everything was going on to can't pass a levy and things are going downhill and then coming back and it's like the roller coaster. It

051was cool to see like everybody had positive things. It wasn't negative by any means, but just to see that kind of transition was a great place to start um to really look back and hear from people that were here. this is what the the school district was like and how would you describe it and things like that. So, I enjoyed that part of it a lot. I I learned a lot about the district and it gave me a great perspective um to start the process with your kids. >> All right. Well, we will move on to consent agenda one, which includes accepting the minutes from our previous meeting, approving the substitute lists as presented by the Fairfield and Pickway County ESC's, and accepting donations, which included an anonymous athletic donation of 86 and Collins Real

052Estate and Investment LLC schoolboard donation of $500. Is there a motion? >> Moves seconds. Any discussion? Roll call. >> Dr. Buckley. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pinktock. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Song. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Young. >> Mr. Sharp. >> Yes. >> And treasur recommendations, financial reports. >> Okay. Um starting on page 12, um we have a financial report. Um general fund revenues this month for the month of September was the state foundation and then we did receive our state reimbursement for homestead and roll back. Um we did get the SF14 tuition which is um monies we get from the state for foster placeed students in our district. Um and then um investment earnings. Our revenue was up approximately 303,000 from last September, but that had to do with timing when we received the state reimbursement

053last year. It came a little later last year, so that throws that number off. um interest earnings um for the month were $121,789. Um that is up as we um dissolve or dispose of or spend the uh money that we financed for the fieldhouse. um those investments had um the interest is what I say realized at the time those are dissolved that that's what kind of inflates that sum so we're getting some more of that money so as over the next two months we'll dissolve all of them um that should remain pretty high for the for the like I call the cops investments um because there isn't there's about $2 million left in in that fund out Um I believe there was 19 million to start. Um so the interest for the cops or for

054the investments were 38,764. To date we have received 1,34,000 um and change in interest on that money. Um and again by the way uh the board um issued those um into two um projects. Basically we were able to keep all of that and not have to pay the arbitrage uh tax arbitrage. So um that's a good thing. That's our our money. Um expenditures for September were 2,124,182 [Music] and total checks were um 4,675,893. Um the checks written that you're provided are from all funds. So when you when you see your dispersement report in in the finances, make sure you realize that that's comes from all of our funds. So, some of it may be for things that are um grant related or um construction related. So, that's why that number is not a little higher

055than normal. Um once we're through the construction project, that's usually around 2 million. It's not quite that high. Um expenditures are up only $8,554 from September of 24. So, that's good. That's pretty flat. Overall general fund expensive expenses exceeded our revenues um by 563,000. Salary and benefits continue to be our largest expenditure at 73% of our monthly total for expenditures. Um the current general fund balance is 12,77,624. We have incumbrances or POS outstanding of 3,740,829. So, our available cash balance is $8,966,795. The 070 fund, which I always report with the general fund, um, and I'll remind everybody that money from that fund can be moved back into the general fund at any time. Um, it just takes board action to do so, transferring fund to fund. Um, the balance in that account is $8,828,689. The

056incumbrances on that fund are1,431,160 with leaving an unencumbered balance of 7,397,529. um to track our carryover balance for our cash policy. Um I did update the um expenditure number from the October forecast that we'll go over next. Um which is 25,541,112. [Music] um we have a 35% um carryover balance which is our unencumbered balance with um compared to expenses expected for fiscal year 26. So that's tracking under the at one time 40% that was being legislated. um that is not a um veto um override right now with the general assembly. So um it's not as pertinent as what it was before and they they say they're going to go back and revisit that, but we'll see what happens. >> Um yeah, about that because when they passed this budget, if it would have stayed in

057there, it would have been retroactive. Correct. because we had talked about that and to be real honest with you the way it was written in the law there was not um the department of education was actually panicking because they weren't sure how to calculate it >> because of yes they were they were talking about >> they were talking about it but the way I was understanding the interpretation of the law that's what they were trying to come up with because that formula of how to do that calculation really isn't >> viable because the way schools receive money and stuff. So, it was kind of being and the department was a little bit panicked for exactly how they were going to comply with the law, not having enough guidance to know how to calculate%. >> So,

058with this, so since we're going into fiscal year 26, >> yes, >> we're in fiscal year 26, I guess you should say. Um, so are we going to go ahead and move those funds? Well, because we're under the 40% do, >> I don't think we will >> because that was the debate at June 30. >> Yeah, because when we talked before you were like, we could lose move them into the 070 because as of right now, they're not, you know, we really have a robust capital improvement plan, especially with what the projects we just got done. We have a use of those funds. Um I don't my opinion is it isn't really necessary right now to see what happens moving forward. We're as we discuss the forecast we do have um a negative forecast um

059this year next year will be positive and then the three years following will be negative. So we really will need those funds. Um I don't think when we we met with uh Senator Schaefer two weeks ago maybe three um and he even said that I mean the clear group was not on his radar of having absorbent you know carryover balances and that he felt that he was very comfortable because he skips our financials and stuff of where we were and that that wasn't the intent of the legislators to look at district like ours and be like, "Okay, well, we need to start moving their money or whatever." So, um, it is, like I said, our cash balance is going to decline over the next five years. It isn't by no means a will ever be

060in an emergency situation. We will maintain a healthy cash balance. Um, that is not because the state is paying anymore. It's because of our local taxpayers. These property tax reforms we need to really keep a close eye on and it we very much need it because our residents need it. The state needs to come up with a way to supplement that money because we've received the same amount of money from the state since about 2013 I think as far as I went back. I mean, it's really stayed the same for over 10 years and it's like that burden can't be put on our residents. So, if that makes sense. So, I think we're good where we are right now. Um, but we keep an eye on everything and keep, you know, if we would do

061something would come up and then we would move money, they're going to capture that and they're going to say, "Unless you have a purpose," which we would. I mean, we have so much going on and you know, at any point we could pay down debt that we have or whatever. Um, so does that answer your question? >> Yeah. I just wanted to make sure because when we talked this spring when they were proposing that that we could have been caught in that and we could have had to forfeit some funds. >> Yeah. >> Because we had not moved them out of the general fund into the 0700. So, I'm just I was just >> Yeah. curious like if they're thinking about that again, do we need to think about moving those funds >> so we

062don't get caught in that because we can always move them back. >> The other to pay down debt either way. We've been meeting a lot with um we actually went to one of the commissioner events last week and I've been staying in touch with K Brown with the auditor's office and really talking to the county about where are they because the budget commission is really pay playing a pivotal role in this and that's the other um house bill that um not a house bill one of the other item line item vetos that they are >> trying to overturn is restructuring the county budget commission. um to give them more authority or it doesn't give them more authority. It restructures it but their idea is they're they're the ones that play a pivotal role on you

063know taking those taxes as property taxes back basically and um which would impact us if they got to that point. Um, I don't get the impression that Fairfield County has any interest in doing that because they don't feel any other school districts are overspending or being um in any way not responsible with taxpayer dollars. Um, so I they've never given us any indication. That's why when a couple years ago, if you recall, they um waved the budget commission uh meetings that we used to have with them um at the tax budget season to present the tax budget um because they went to an alternative form, which quite frankly is easier. But it it really we kind of lost that communication with the tax commission that we would go in and talk with them to you

064talk about what's going on in a clear why do we need these funds what we've got coming down the pike and just have conversation. Um and I expressed to to Auditor Brown that I was really concerned about that because we don't run into the budget commission like unless we make an appointment with them and go see them. Um, so she said she realized that, but at this point there's no concern because they're not a county budget commission that's going to be like, "Hey, we're going to do this because we think our school districts are too wealthy and have all this money." So, um, I felt pretty comfortable that we would know this well in advance where we could do some things and talk to them through like how do we preserve this because we've got

065this, this, and this because I don't think the intent of our commission would be to to rob Peter to pay Paul. Um, which when I talk about the forecast, we look at our commercial versus residential stuff. We'll talk a little bit about the Google project and how that really has a negative impact and how we need to be, you know, when you guys see our county commissioners and when we see people, we got to talk about that because it's not necessarily hurting us as a district. It's hurting our residents because it's putting that burden back on them instead of, you know, I'd rather them be billing Google than I would be, you know, billing our local residents. So, um, does that help, >> too? It's it's a volatile time. It's a very interesting time right

066now. Um so sorry. Are there any other questions? >> If you can do a motion to approve the financial reports motion 60 seconds. Any other questions, discussion? call. >> Um, Dr. Buckley, >> yes. >> Mrs. Pinktock, >> yes. >> Mrs. Song, >> yes. >> Mrs. Young, >> yes. >> Mr. Sharp, >> yes. >> Forecast. >> I have a recommendation. Okay. Um, the forecast actual cop. >> So in my board notes um I talk first of all it is current year plus three. So, um is what the state's looking for. That was changed. Um with the new budget, um we I'll still provide you five for right now. So, is it still called the five-year forecast? No, they're just calling it the forecast. So, okay. >> Um >> this is so I'm sorry. >> It is.

067I just This drives me. It's a selfserving like it's why take >> realistically years four and five >> are best guesses. >> Yes. >> But they're still best guesses, >> right? >> And there's still a guideline for if you want if we want to do a project or we want to do something, it gives us an idea of what our cash balance is going to look like trying to do that. We're coming into negotiations in the spring. Um, a lot of school districts are not certifying a five-year negotiated agreement anymore. They're doing a three-year negotiated agreement because we've always done it knowing we have a bianium budget, a two-year state budget. So, we have no guarantee what what's going to happen in two years, but that's always been the case. But, it's also, you know,

068been typically half the funding. So, it's like, okay, you still have a pretty good guide and and we're all relatives. Okay, we're giving you zero money. Um, they've been historically consistent, so you've got to kind of go with that. Um there according to Senator Schaefer there all al are alternative motives and it's right now trying to be for me I feel and this was our discussion as transparent as possible as open as possible talking about why the wise of what we do with this money what our district looks like. You know, legislators cannot I don't know what Senator Schaer has. I just remember Representative Miller saying he has 19 school districts in his in his district and his decisions and his votes may have different impacts on different districts, but he's got to understand what

069the whole means. Because for example, these two bills or two provisions that they're overriding um doesn't have an effect on us because it the one has no monetary effect because it's changing the budget commission and the other one we do not have any of those levies. So it's not so they're changing the 20 mil floor calculation which we've been at the 20 mil floor since 2020 2021 um for residential and commercial. we we aren't the commercial so small for our revenue that it's kind of irrelevant. Um but we've been at the 20 mil floor for for a while. Um, but including emergency levies and I can't remember the other levy in those calculations are going to bring 227 school districts off the floor, which means that there will be an effective rate established again, which

070gives a savings to the homeowner um and reduces the revenue that comes to the school district. Um, for us, it's not going to affect us right now. There are some um potentially some of the vetos that were overridden um that if they bring those back it will affect us um without Senator Schaefer kept we were at a meeting and he asked a question property taxes have gone up so much for our residents where is the money going and so that's when we went up that was one of the questions I wanted to answer for him if we did not have the increase from our local sources from our property tax and our income tax, we would be in big trouble because the state has not increased their um percentage to us for a decade. So

071that would be like we gave teachers no salary, no increases. Our electric bills didn't go up. We didn't buy any new curriculum. So all the things that we spent money on, our local taxpayer would pay for. >> Was he asking that as a rhetorical question or did he genuinely not know? because that that gives me pause that he doesn't know. >> I think he was asking it because he generally doesn't know because that's not the case with every district. >> Okay. >> So, it's different district to district. I wanted him to be very clear that he really didn't know that the state has an increase. I mean, and they will legislators say we the state is given more every year, year over year, but it's like >> 1%. It's not enough to keep up. And

072some years we go up and some years we go down. And we'll go over that um through this presentation. I mean, I won't belabor it, but some years we go up and some years we go down the state. And it's all like $200,000, $50,000, $300,000, >> $250,000. Like it just kind of vascalates depending on what they do. We went several years with no formula. If you recall, like this is probably before you Dr. Doctor got on the board. Um there were many many years that there was not a formula in place at all and they would just do a guarantee. So they'd be like, "Okay, we're just going to pay X amount per kid because that's what you got last year. You're guaranteed to get the same money you got last year." And then there

073would be a couple of little calculations here and there and maybe you'd end up with slightly more than you did the year before. Maybe end up with slightly less than you did, but it was basically to be unharmed and they were just maintaining which Okay, that's great. except our enrollment has changed. You know, we prefer to give salary increases. So, we keep our teachers and you know, stuff like that. So, our expenses definitely have increased. Um, going on to the So, the current legislation that I wanted Go ahead and go back to. I'm sorry. That I want to talk about was those two items that are sitting in that just got voted out of the House that I think the Senate is waiting to act on. unless they did today. I kind of thought I

074saw an email, but I didn't have a chance to read the whole thing. Um, and maybe I'm wrong and that's not the case. The other the other last thing was when you look at a forecast, if you want to go to page, so the actual forecast we submit is on page 62 minus year 20 or 2030. So, current year plus three. So mine is 2029 as well or no current year is 2026. >> Yeah. >> So act you don't give them anything for actual >> actual was last year. So we know where we ended there which last year um we were actually supposed to be in the negative like by $100,000 and we ended up doing a little better than what we did and that's because of some changes in salaries and things. Um the

075other thing is when you have $18 million worth of salaries and benefits um and you're only off maybe $200,000. That sounds like a lot of money, which it is a lot of money, but over that it's not a big percentage. So um that could be sub costs or some variables that we may have put budgeted some things into that maybe we didn't have as many class coverages for the teachers or this that the other. Just little things like that that adds up pretty quickly. So line the the biggest line I always say is 6.01. Um which is I call it the overunder line. Um because it's got overunder on it. And that basically says are we are we holding money or are we losing money? What are what are we doing? And so when I

076said that, you know, this year we're um probably going to be in the hole about a half a million dollars, um but next year we'll come back at 2 228,000 that we will add to our cash balance. And then going into 28, we're about 400,000. and then 29 and 30 it starts to grow a little bit to almost threequarters of a million dollars um each of those years. Although those aren't ideal um as I go through this presentation, I'll show you why that's it's really not that bad. Actually, our consultant that I worked with, he and I were discussing. He said it was the best forecast he's worked on yet this year because there's some school districts that are actually going to run out of cash um like two years in and it's going to

077be a problem. Like they're going to run out of cash. Um there's just a lot of things like when they come off the 20 mil floor and it's reducing their local um participation or local revenue, it it's going to be problematic. So, >> the chief hand. >> He does understand it. Um, >> he's okay. >> He's not. He's actually I think right now they're more in a panic that whoever's circulating the get rid of property tax, they're they're in a complete and total panic about that. >> Yeah. Because they said if that actually goes through, the state doesn't know what's going to happen because they can't let all those local governments fold. Um, so that's why he's like, "We need the support." I said, "Well, who's doing it?" He's like, "We don't know. We're trying

078to figure out who is at the root of that push." Um, so, and that's exactly what he said because I said, "Well, who's who's doing this?" Because I honestly >> at least he got his picture taken at the Fairfield County Fairtop with the grand champion, you know? I mean, at least he was there. >> I struggle with our legislation. Yes. So, Representative Miller contacted us last week, >> beginning last week and asked for some additional information. So, we provided that um expeditiously because I think when they ask for stuff to give them immediately. I also when they ask for something, I give them what to ask for. I don't give them a bunch of fluff with it. here's the information because I think that it's so much information it's hard to school funding is very

079complicated. It's been very complicated. There's a long history of why it's considered inadequate. There's and I I think that it I mean the legislators said it point blank. The fair school funding plan is a solid funding plan and it's a good funding plan. The problem is and they they flat out said it in writing. They don't understand it and it's hard to fund something to that level and not understand what they're funding because it's very complic it's a very complicated formula because our property tax structure so the local share of what school districts can afford to have as that local share is complicated to try to calculate and that's you have to do that to make the state share make sense and it's a lot and I question whether we'll survive the budget cycle because

080it's just a lot for them to understand. And then with term limits, I think, you know, we'll continue to see new people every two years or every four years, depending on it's four years. Um, how to cycle through. And he was concerned about that, too, because he's like, once we get up to speed on what's going on, we're done. And then you got somebody new that you've got to educate. This is what this is. This is this is why this works. This is why this works. Um, so back to the second line that I think is really important that that you know we we focus on but we've not really been that focused on that and we need to focus on is uh 10.0100 which is basically our ending cash balance. It's our carryover balance

081and we started 25 2025 at 10 um 10,945,000 and we end in 2030 at 8,795,000. Yes, it's going down, but I think it's still really strong. I mean, we're still well within operating limits. We're not, you know, that that's provided that everything remain the same at this point. So, you know, the goal is is every time something is coming up to change or does change that we're able to um pivot and we're able to get that information to you as quickly as possible and say this is how this is going to affect this. If we took a million dollar hit on property taxes, just add a million dollars to that over underline um in the negative and it's going to start looking really bleak really fast. Um I can't remember the inside. So the biggest

082thing that would have that I've seen to this point that would have affected our um district was when they were talking about abolishing inside millillage completely. Um that would have been I think when I calculated it would have been 21 teaching positions. So I called TR and I said how many Dr. Edwards sorry how many teach or which teachers would you like to cut? We need to cut 21 or we're not going to make it. Um that's not there's no way that that can happen. Um, that was I can't remember what the state number was, but I want to say it was like 20,000 teachers across the state of Ohio. I'm like, they're that would crash the Ohio economy. That would be like a business that had 20,000 employees. They just laid off with good

083benefits. What are we doing with those 20,000 people? So, our unemployment rate just skyrocketed. They're not going to do that. Like, they they're going to make that before they do that. Um, so those are the two lines we pay attention to. Those are the two things that, you know, as these things come through, I'm going to be talking about this will happen or that'll happen, this will happen or that'll happen. And then hopefully decisions can be made, you know, based on real numbers with real information. Um, but for now, I I think we're doing pretty well in that we've done a lot of cost-saving measures. um the controls project we did in 2020 and 2021 like over that year period that has helped so much with um keeping our our electricity and gas usage down.

084Now, the cost of those have gone up, but it's been tempered because we've got these things in place that shut these buildings down when we're not using them. And we've got to continue that. We've got to continue to tweak them because if I can save $20,000 on electric and our electric bill runs $30,000 a month, if we can save 20 $40,000 over a year, you know, that that's a position. So that's where, you know, we need to tighten our belts in that way. So we're keeping our operational costs as low as possible so we keep everybody intact. It's disappointing right now for us because I feel like we just got our curriculum back where it needs to be. I feel like we've got classes added that the kids needed um for their futures and we've

085been running barebones for so long and we've ramped up I feel even though you know one point we had a higher carryover but I think we ramped these things up in a good way in a realistic way in a sustainable way. So, we didn't just go, "Oh, we passed a levy. We're going to spend all this money that we don't know we have." We started spending it as it started coming in. So, we, you know, added those extra career tech classes. We added um music back into the primary. >> We had one music teacher was K8 plus or K12. >> So, things like that that we had cut prior to the income tax levy. We've finally got all these things back. So, you know, we're going to work really hard to try to keep everything

086and try to try to do some things differently wherever we can to let it to last as long as we can with what's going on right now. And then hope maybe we'll have a turn in the tide um over the next benium. We'll see. Okay. Um so, if you want to go to the next slide. So, what I tried to do is just put some slides together um that were very very basic. I wish that one was kind of bigger. Can you make that bigger? No. >> So, >> they're not really random, but they kind of are. So, bear with me. Um I wanted to show you how our property taxes What are you doing? Are anyway what makes up our property taxes. So, the orange, which is 68% is our residential. the blue which

087is um I think 30 23% I didn't >> is a the um 6% is our public utility and then um that little tiny 3% at the top is class two which is our commercial. So, I pulled this out because when we did when we going through the Google process and I just read an article right before and I am very frustrated because Miller's Porter just got a data center and they only had and it's a $2.1 trillion data center project and they only had a 50% abatement. So, they're going to get 50% of you where we got none. So um that Google data center is sitting in a CRA. It's a pre94. They get 100% abatement for 15 years. >> It is minimum >> so frustrating and they can renew it and there is no

088legislation out there that I know of that would get rid of those economic development tools. And that's where, you know, when we talk to I know the city of I guess you're not going to care about us, but the, you know, those council members and stuff, they're the ones that control that CRA. If we could have got a 50% off that table, that would have changed that 3% to probably 10% and would have given us the ability to potentially reduce our income tax percentage. We could have rolled back some property tax millage. we could have done some things to go back to make that equal like and and on the back of Google not on the gap back of our residents and it's really frustrating because I look at Miller's report getting their 50% and

089it just 50% of $2.1 billion. It's a game changer because I think the last time I saw what the valuation on the permits were for this Google data center was 775 million. >> They're putting into more buildings. Yeah, I think the total value of the whole thing was 775 million. >> 775 sounds correct. That's the number I've heard. >> Which, you know, if we could got 50% of that, that would have added to our valuation. Um, >> yeah, 300 325 million million dollars. Um, which is more than our whole valuation of our school district. So, just put that out there. um pretty frustrating because those are the type of things and we did talk about that with Senator Schaefer some because that's what's working against school districts too because um OEPI um Howard Bleer and

090I don't remember the other guy's name has put out some great documents that really talk about this that and I am not bashing business as a business owner previous business owner I am not saying businesses are bad I'm saying that businesses have not been paying in Ohio have not been paying their fair share of taxes. Um, property taxes, they get a lot of there's a lot of baitments out there and it is not hurting our schools because the residential property owners are making the difference up and that is not fair and that's what the problem is. It's down to I want to say 35% I think is the last number they put out where it used to be 50/50 residential commercial across the state and it's down now to 35% businesses are paying and so

091that you know that 15% difference is going where it's going to the residential property owner. So um that's the elephant in the room that I'm not 100% sure the legislators are going to talk about that. Um, and that's to me, not saying that I don't want Google to succeed because we are a Google school district and we use a lot of their products and things like that, but I think there's a balance that could be reached where there's a benefit um to both. though as the consumer. Okay. So the next slide um this I love this slide because to me as the treasurer from 25 to 2030 that's what we want to see. We are spending these are our revenues and our expenses and they are right on top of each other. We are spending

092the money we get. Um we are making gains on our um report card which is how we are judged by the state. Our academics are doing well. We even received I am so proud of this. It's not a lot of money, but god damn it, these kids and these teachers, everybody has worked so hard. And Dr. Edwards, we got $55,000 in this budget for our progress scores on the report card. I'm just so excited about that. I mean, it's not a lot of money, but the fact that we got anything is a lot more than a lot of school districts. We got something because we did we are doing good. um and we're grown kids. So anyway, the um so I like this slide. I think this tells this is one of the slides we'll

093probably use in the forecast meeting that we're not forecast but the outlook meeting we're having Wednesday evening because I think that's what Mr. Ringer has talked about a million times. He wants, you know, are we spending the money that we've been given and are we spending it in a good way? And I think that this shows that as a board I think you've been so responsible because you know 21 to 23 going into 24 you know there is a little bit difference in that line but that is when that income tax is ramping up you don't spend it before you have it be conservative know what you're getting you know we didn't have full collections on that till really um and I talk about that a little bit in the assumptions in the forecast itself

094until really 23 three. Um, that's when we knew what we were going to be getting year over year and it would have a normal growth pattern, not a, you know, million dollars a year. That's not how that's going to play out over the 15 years. It's going to be a normal growth pattern. So, anyway, um, you look at the next slide. This one is a little bit too busy for you guys to see, but it's really to show you each of the um, sections are um, different sources. So the state is red. Um the local is the green and the blue. Um orange is is pup. So it kind of stays the same. But the orange and the blue or not the orange the um green and the blue if you notice is getting bigger

095and bigger and bigger. And that's just a visual of our share locally is getting bigger and bigger and bigger um which has been the increases. >> Red and red stay about the same. And that goes from 23 I think to uh >> 2030 >> is that out to 2030. Okay. So these slides um really just talk about um they're kind of they're very very very basic. Um what is local, what is state? Um and then all of the revenue. All of the revenue um is going it's it's a variety thing. our interest earnings is in there. Um money we get paid for preschool from um the preschool participants are there. Um but the biggest thing is the local taxes versus the state funding. So prior years we were over 50% state funded in prior years.

096So we're down to um 47 local and 45 state. um which again is basically the same. The other I don't know if there isn't and I I could be wrong. It's been so long since I looked at all the vetos that that the governor did, but there was discussion if not a bill introduced about um getting rid of homestead and roll back payments back to schools. So the state reimbures us. When I talk about state reimbursements, um that is when the county auditor um gives a discounts to residential um taxpayers for homestead roll back on their taxes. The state then reimburses us that amount of money. So it's actually a state expense. Um and we calculate that with our state funding. Um there was a point where they talked about doing away with that and

097then they realized that would then increase property taxes because they were going to do away with the whole thing and then they thought that wasn't a good idea which it's not. Let's not raise taxes because that would have raised taxes. Um but you know if that would ever happen or they would still allow the discount and then just let the school district take the hit that you know it's important that you know what that number is which is threequarters of a million dollars. um 779,000 to be exact, but that's how much money that is. Um I also wanted to see because we constantly ask, you know, what are we what are we collecting in from the income tax and it's kind of hard to extrapolate because we receive if you look at the five-year border

098report that you get monthly, it's hard to extrapolate that out of that because we get it four times a year. So you have to add those together to figure out how much we're getting. So this is just one slide that gives you that information. So, we collect about 550 thou or 55,455,000 for income tax um and about 5,500,000 on real estate tax. So, we're about 5050. You go to the next slide. Um these are what what are we spending our money on? Um we're at about 72% um projected. based up projections for this year and they should be relatively accurate accurate because we're into October. Um 72% is what you spend on personnel costs. Um the next highest is uh 16% I think for um all other expenditures which is going to be um supplies

099anything but purchase services those are higher because we bought curriculum this year. So, if you recall, we spent um about $400,000 on math curriculum and then another $100,000 on science curriculum. So, we don't have that kind of investment year-over-year in specific curriculum. That's a multi-year um contract, but those are a little bit higher, which is why the other expenditures were higher than purchase services. our purchase services um is where our utilities are as well as so as that electric bill has gone up um that's increased but it also is where we a lot of our special ed costs fall into purchase services. So, as we place students outside the school district in private, usually private um I wouldn't call them schools, but placements for whether they're behavior unit or whatever. Um that falls under that

100expense falls under purchase service. Is it funny? There you go. I just thought this is an interesting um little thing because um once we have a forecast put together, we can kind of come up with a bunch of different things. And one of the things is how much does it cost us daily uh per pupil to educate a child which is $99. But yet in 2003 it cost Ohio $103 to house an inmate for each day which it's I find it funny because the state put more money this year in prisons than we have in previous years. So money that they didn't give to schools they gave to prisons number one. And number two, the other thing that we hear a lot of criticism about is school efficiency. And I'm like, well, we're running more

101efficient than a prison. So other government entities. So anyway, I thought that was just a funny little comparison. Um, if you recall last, um, gosh, when was it last fall, we had an issue with enrollment because of some reporting and how we were doing it, blah, blah, blah. And I've been providing the enrollment issues uh or updates constantly. Um, the enrollment is a vital part of how we forecast. So, when I make assumptions, we've got to really estimate what our enrollment is. There is an algorithm that we use um that we use through forecast analytics that includes like birth rate analysis there. There's a ton of data they pull in in addition to historical trends to try to figure out what your enrollment's going to be. um factors like is there a housing development being

102built in your school district that'll be finished in 2028 where you may they you know if there's 100 houses you may have 30 kids be added to your school district as residential children. Um so I provided this so you could see what we're basing the the um forecast on. We are pretty certain we're going to continue to see increases. I question knowing what we had happen in 2025 whether our data was actually correct in 2023 and 24. And I know that sounds crazy, but we have we haven't seen that fluctuation. Like we haven't had problems getting kids into class and maintaining the teacher student ratio. Like we should feel 40 students difference. like you should we're not that big of a district if we have 40. So I I am really starting to question that.

103I have no way we have no way of knowing that these numbers come out of our EMUS and as I've explained before the the way ENIS calculates FTEES. A student isn't a student. They're a combination of classes that they take and where they're taking those classes. So we could have a student that has a butt in the seat that we might only be getting 75 FTE for if that makes sense. So that's why it's so complicated. Could you imagine doing that with every kid? So every child that has a career tech um class, every student that maybe doesn't come in at this bright taunt meaning at the beginning of the school year and leave, what there's just so many reasons that their FTES are split. Um it's really hard to go is this actually correct

104because that number is coming out that is not a that kid's here for half a day. We're counting him as a we call it butts and seats. There's a there's a kid here. Um it's crazy but that's how they calculate. So >> do the postsecary classes and stuff is that broke down like that too? So if they're doing college classes while they're here in the building then that's >> they're not fully here. Yeah. Yeah. Well, matter of a time, I vaguely remember this when I came on the board three years ago, two years ago, but we were much higher enrollment like the early 2000 >> like 2010, 2012, I thought we were much higher in enrollment and have dropped steadily. >> Yes. >> And we've kind of hit the bottom and now we're starting to

105Is that fair? I think that's fair because that's what I have assumed knowing how data is handled within a school and knowing how I don't think we've had a 40 kids swing from 2023 to 2025. If something presented, if any fact came about that presented itself that said that that was inaccurate, I would be like, it could be. But I believe I feel like with everything I feel like that's an accurate statement. >> The data says that what you just said is absolutely correct. >> Okay. >> Could there be some, you know, I mean, I know it sounds stupid. It's like, well, why don't you know? It's not that easy. We struggle with it a lot. Um, every school district does. Um, it's a it's a constant. Every time we get a foundation payment, that

106is that is a a point um that they pull data at that point. I go through it every single time. I check those FTEEs. I make sure if anything's off with special ed, we're looking into it. You know, if it went up or down, I'm on the phone with Dave and going, "Did we lose three people? Did we gain three people?" because if they don't have an IEP entered correctly, um, it will come off our count. >> Is this the number that's used for OHSA and divisions and then like division? >> They follow EM numbers. >> They they do EMOS numbers too. Okay. >> So, if we've got a higher CCP to your point enrollment than other districts, >> then ours are dropping >> and suddenly we're a division six school. Well, they might not

107pull FTEEs. They may pull something else out of Unus. So, we'll check into that and see. >> Oh, it's just a curiosity. I mean, I'm not asking you to like answer that, but yeah, I >> It's almost like if our children are excelling in >> if our children are excelling in more CCP, then we're going to drop a division. >> Yeah. >> Which might not be a bad thing. >> So, >> there you go. Now we know how but you know >> districts that are on the border. I mean you'll watch them and we're I don't know if we're one of these to be honest with you or not. But you'll watch them go back and forth year over year. One year this next year they're down next year. We went between five and four.

108>> Yeah. I remember when we division four and it's like this. >> Yeah. They're not incredibly wide, but we don't usually have a hundred students swinging. And so those ones that are right on the border, they'll just go back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And it's and it's over five kids or six kids or something. Um >> my last boys and just high school. >> So those were and that's it. That's all I've got um for the and I didn't want to belabor the forecast, but I thought it was really important that we pull out something so we understand where we are, especially as it's going to be probably a crazy winter and all kinds of things are going to come down the pike and we're going to see if they're going

109to get the petition filed the property taxes on on the ballot issue. >> Did Schaefer Now that property tax is not on this that's not on November, right? I didn't think they were they're still in the signature gathering phase. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Cuz what you said I don't I have not followed that closely enough. Um I don't know where the status is, but you're right. They it did not make this >> this November, but it can appear at it could appear in May. It could appear in next November. Did Schaefer or Miller give any inkling of what any final solution might look like from the legislature beyond these kind of ticky text stuff that they're >> So when um we were up there it was either the day of the day after the day

110before the governor's work group had just finished their report and I don't even think he had looked at it yet. Um, no. That's my concern is I don't One of them said there were 17 bills introduced on tax reform and some of them are out there and some of them are solid, but none of them are holistic that are actually going to fix the problem. So it's going to be and a lot of them doesn't include how their ideas I mean typically a law is not a fully vetted like they don't have do this then do this then do this they rely on the government agencies to figure out how to implement it but they're so not put together that there there's a lot of confusion of how would you even do that um when

111do you do that when do you make it you The thing about my understanding, I am not a legislative expert. From my understanding though, the way the veto overrides work is there's no changing what's in there. It's either yes or no. So it's either exactly as it is written or it doesn't happen at all. Um, so that I think helps some because if they can amend them, I think it would be a never ending. It would never end. Um, we have another year and a half to get through with this budget and they can, as far as I was told, they can override these right up until the last day of the >> Yeah. >> thing. So, um, well, it's quite interesting, but but the good news is for now, I think the school district's

112in pretty good shape. Um, we're solid going into, you know, at least for this year. Um I don't believe I think with the T property tax I I wonder because Sha like he was like honestly very alarmed about it like this is problem like this could be a huge problem because he's like we just don't have that much money in the state to and there's no way we can do without these services. I mean because it would it would bankrupt county like counties would have no money. um the general family services levy, children services, all that stuff would go away. Like he wouldn't have any of that stuff. Um and I I don't know they don't know how any of it get funded is what he was saying. And that's what he was little about.

113So and I don't I just I don't know the general public would be like we'll just do away with everything. I don't I don't know. Some would >> they don't think big picture >> really. >> All right, >> but I know you both Miller and Schaefer want to hear from people and if you guys feel inclined, he will answer. If you call or if you email, he will answer. And even if it's a get off your tush and do this, he wants to hear from people. you know, TR and I give them information, talk to them, try to build a relationship because I want to feel like if they have questions, they can call too, like, you know, we don't always know every single thing that's coming down the pike. And he did say if

114we see a crazy bill that he misses to contact him like be like, "This is a bad bad thing because there's just many of them." >> Yeah. But we elected him and I expect him to do his job >> and his job is to understand the bill and I know they don't I get it but man that just >> it's frustrating but I for me I think and I can you can board meeting it's it's I know we got to get through >> these bills are so big there's so much crap shoved in them >> sure >> that nobody can get there the budget was how many thousands of pages? >> Sure. >> Who's reading that? Nobody's reading that. They didn't know. He didn't know half of it was in the belly belt. >> I

115don't know how he would because it didn't affect him direct. You know what I mean? Like if it was just something he didn't know when we talked about the hockey, which was I found the next >> Yeah, we can talk about it. >> What they were trying to do, he was like, "What do you mean there was hockey in there?" >> All right. Any other have any questions related to forecast? It has to be filed by tomorrow. So I app not tomorrow but Wednesday and we'll file it tomorrow. I appreciate you guys coming in for the special or the changing the regular meeting to accommodate. So sorry I forgot to thank everybody. >> All right. Motion to approve. >> Susan move seconds. Any other discussion? >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Young. >> Yes. >> Dr.

116Bley. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pink. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Song. Yes. Mr. Sharp. Yes. Item D is approve a transfer of $352,68.50 from the O1 general fund capital fund to meet the requirements of RC 3315.18. Is there a motion? Move >> we'll go on a second discussion. So this is something we've not done in the past because we've handled it within the general fund as I explained in the board notes. Um so we had a set aside that was embedded in the general fund. So, when you saw the cash summary, so if you turn to show where that was page um um in the packet, this report's called the cash summary report, and it accounts for every single penny we have in the district, and it tells you what fund that money sits in. Even

117though it's all in the same checking account, it's in these funds. the state um it's effective next year but we were advised to implement this year mandated we create um funds within the general fund they have special cost centers for um the restricted funds gives us like student wellness and career tech um basically the thought was they the state not the state board but the department of education wanted to be able through emails to be able to pull information of how much money did we get, how much money have we spent. So to do that they use this mechanism with a special cost. So how this affects our maintenance and this is for capital improvement maintenance is we used to have capital improvement and maintenance inside the general fund. And so from time to time

118I'd ask I I think sometimes I asked you. I didn't always have to because it was a lot of money $300,000 by moving it between. I would just move it into it's in the general fund. I have legal authority to do that and then we would spend it from there. I didn't like it because it overstates our revenue. So when we move money in there, it would it increases our revenue by that amount. So we would have to appropriate it. I just showed on estimated resources that that it was something, you know, adding to and then expensed it because I took it from the O and put it in whatever special cost center was. So to understand it made our expenses go up and it made our revenies go up just by moving that money

119around inside the general fund. Even though it really didn't go anywhere, it's still there by moving by putting it in the 070 that we established several years ago, it basically expenses out and it's done. So, we spend it out of there or we don't, doesn't matter. We set it aside according to state law, but that money is earmarked for capital improvement and maintenance items. As you can see, um I provide you I think now I did a construction report. I do keep monthly a report of what we spend out of 070 um that was we are spending that money down um with different projects that you've approved or whatever according to you know what what the cost is but I found it to be a cleaner way now that we have to have all of

120these funds inside the general fund that we don't have yet another one in there when when I came in I didn't change any of these funds until this year. Um there were several set aides inside the general fund um that I dissolved by putting whatever funds were in there into the O. So I didn't move them anywhere. I just they went right back to the general fund and cleaned that up. So we only have what we have to have statutoily. So we have to have one for the lease purchase. We have to have one for the cops that was issued 23, the cops in 24. and then the restricted funds um that the state mandates. So that's the purpose of that and you've never seen in the past because I just took care of it

121and didn't need any board authority to do so because it was within the same fund. Does that make sense? So this is not something new. That set's been there for probably I have not looked it up and I'm guessing 10 years. It's always been there. Um and we've always done it. I just would prefer to do it this way because I think it's cleaner. I think it's easier to see and I think that it'll um be a little more transparent that way because I hate saying to you when we do a board report that well we moved this so it inflated this inflated that because it throws off our monthly numbers. So you can't really see a trend because you've got to deduct the $100,000 that I move because it's not really money spent. It's

122just money moved. Make sense? discussion questions. >> I was going to say to Robin's point too, the 070, we can move that money back at any time. So, um the fact that there's more in there than just a set aside if we give it and we want to move it back to general fund, we can do that as well. So, sorry, >> Mrs. Pock. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Song, >> yes. >> Dr. Buckley, >> yes. >> Mrs. Young, >> yes. >> Mr. Sharp, >> yes. All right. Item five, consent agenda number two for personnel includes accepting resignations and retirements as listed, approving classified contracts, approving of classified substitute contracts as listed, approving supplemental employment for 2526 which includes teacher teachers coaches as listed. Approving supplemental employment for 25 and 26. second listing there outside which

123is also coaches for various sports and game managers and then also finally approving volunteers for 2526 which includes um volunteer indoor track coaches for athletics and then the classroom volunteers as listed and always thank you to all the folks who volunteer in our classrooms and beyond to help out the district. It's always appreciated. Is there a motion problem moves? Susan seconds. Any discussion? >> U one of the things there I wanted to point out just um Mrs. Rich resignation is on there as coordinator um first of all I just want to thank her for her time here as coordinator work with that um and she is even though she's moved on to a new position she's committed to helping us in the transition and we're going to be working with her on until we're able

124to get that position filled. Thank you. [Music] Any discussion? >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Song. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Young. >> Yes. Dr. Buckley. >> Mrs. Pinktock. Yes. >> Mr. Shir. >> Yes. Right. Old business. Uh, only item item A, policy updates. Second read for the policies as listed. Is there a motion? So >> Susan moves Jeremy seconds. Any discussion on any as we talked about last week just wording as required by state and roll call. >> Mrs. Young. >> Yes. >> Dr. Beckler. >> Yes. >> M. Mrs. Song. >> Yes. >> Mr. Shark. >> Yes. And with the most recent PDQ, there's many more on their way. All right. New business. Item A is approved contract with New Story Schools effective August 1225 through May 21 and 26. Attachment 7. Is there a motion?

125Moves 60 seconds discussion. See the regular individual placement is actually a transition over to a different specificity of what services are being provided. discussion roll. >> Mrs. S. Yes. Mrs. Pto. Yes. Dr. Buckley. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Young. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sharp. >> Yes. Then it B is a approve a resolution for declaring transportation to be impractical as listed there by reading the wherees and so forth. Is there a motion? >> Robin moves. Jeremy seconds discussion. Um this is what we have received from Nicole Christian. Um there may be another round come through with one other school but sometimes we get around. So any other discussion roll call >> Mrs. Yes. Dr. Buckley? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hanktock? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Young. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sharp. >> Yes. Item C is approved.

126Staff leave without pay as listed. Is there a motion? Mr. Mes discussion. >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Spock. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Young. Yes. >> Dr. Buckley. >> Yes. >> Mr. Song. >> Yes. >> Mr. Shark. >> Yes. Then item D which was added is to approve indoor track as a district recognized club sport so our students can go do indoor tracking. Is there a motion? >> So the move 60 seconds discussion. >> Yeah. Roll call. >> Mrs. John. >> Yes. Mrs. Spaintock, >> yes. >> Dr. Buckley, >> yes. >> Mrs. Song, >> yes. >> Mr. Sharp, >> yes. >> Or discussion. We got nothing on the list. There's got to discuss. >> I want better legislator. >> Jeremy lose. Mr. Seconds discussion roll call. >> Dr. Buckley. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Kingtock. >> Yes.

127>> Mrs. Mrs. Young. >> Yes. Mr. >> Yes. [Music] Is that still on? >> She starts practice the day after. [Music] >> Yes, she'll run for Amanda. >> Right. I have a question >> this