10/13/2025 CWLS Board Meeting

001I Okay. All right, good. We're good. >> Good evening. Uh we call this meeting to order on October 13, 2025. I'm sorry that we're a little bit late. We had some technical issues. Um we will now take um our roll call. >> Miss Barnes, >> present. >> Mr. Mr. George >> here. >> Miss Green >> here. >> Mrs. Tally >> here. >> Mr. Twist >> here. >> Great. Thank you. We'll do our pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Are there any um additions or deletions to the agenda? >> There are not. >> Move for the approval of the agenda. >> So move second. >> Take a

002roll call. >> Mr. George, >> yes. Mrs. Tally, >> yes. >> Miss Barnes, yes. M >> Green, >> yes. >> Swiss. >> Yes. Next we'll have our presentations um with Mr. Witchlatch uh director of teaching and learning data assessment. >> Very eager to hear what you have to say. >> Um going to briefly uh go through our state report card from the district lens. There are Um so once again we were fourstar overall achievement is a four progress four gap graduation. I'll go through all these here in just a second. Um the next slide if I do this right this kind of shows our whole breakdown. Every one of our buildings feeds into our district and I just put the last two years on there. Uh you can see the gains as a district was

003within the achievement area and also in gap closing. And as I jump around here a little bit at the bottom says how does our CW promise performance index goal of 0.5 impact our report card. Our performance index is 100% in the achievement outcome. And that's also a huge part of gap closing. And if you I will say if you have large gains in your PI your progress is also going to have a positive outcome as well. Uh but that is how we go all the way across in our outcomes there. Early literacy is the third grade reading guarantee. You're probably scratching your head already of saying how can Winchester Trail and Indian Trail both be a twostar but the district's a three star. So the early literacy outcome is based on grades K through three.

004Think of our building setup, K2 building and a 35 building. So our district takes into account if we were a K3 elementary school only. So as a K3 elementary school only, we met the expectations of the state. But we can also see we have opportunities at Indian Trail and Winchester Trail to improve on that as well. So I, you know, I I wish there was a way around that because Indian Trail and Winchester Trail both do not get credit for students who were on a rent in second grade and who moved off in third grade. That credit gets lost for either building and that credit only goes to the district. So that helped make us a three star there. um at Indian Trail for the early literary. Those are students in 2023, fall 23 as

005kindergarteners were put on a ramp and then either moved off or remained on a ramp in the fall of 24 as first graders. So that's how it's a year-over-year analysis of fall of one year to the fall of the next year. So at Indian Trail, 61% of our students moved off a ramp in those grade levels. we need 68% to get to a 35. So I I think 61% is wonderful. Um but it's just that's just the um how the state has it set up right now. So biggest thing my biggest takeaway is there's great things happening. We all want to see our stars be higher, but if we were a K3 campus or a K5 elementary, we would be a three star as that building just like the district is. Um, as you can

006see also at the building levels now Winchester High School popped to a 4.5 overall this year once again based on achievement and gap closing where the PI drives a lot of that information. The middle school went to a fourstar which is was done by their progress which is your value ad and your gap closing. Winchester Trail remained a three and a half. um they fell in progress which we've already had discussions about that went to a two and gap closing went down a little bit to a four and Indian trail went to a 3.5 and that was due to the two star in early literacy at Indian Trail that fivear and gap closing is based off of EL students and chronic absenteeism that's what pulls into that but that's awesome that we get a fivestar

007our e program at the at the Indian trail is is very important to that outcome Um, any questions on that slide? >> Yes, I have a question. >> Um, I first of all, congratulations. I think, you know, the the district is doing really well. I wondered if um the numbers going from Winchester Trail in 2024 to Canal Winchester Middle School in 2025 um show that we were at a a two at Winchester Trails, but in 2025 um at the middle school we're at what a a four. Is that is there any indication that we jumped that high going from 2024 those same students going into 2025? >> That would only be one grade level going there. >> Yeah. >> So, and that our two is in 2025. So, to make a comparison there, our Winchester

008Trail was a three in progress in 2024. And so, with fifth grade joining, they also lose eighth grade to the high school. >> So, it becomes a different cohort of kids. But as that cohort of kids joined them, um it did raise to a four. Uh I will say I was having a conversation with um Dr. Dyer back there. It is we were looking at the achievement overall and it's really unique as students go up through all systems that the the PI has the most um volatility. Basically, it it is really wide in the elementary level. And honestly, those are the students that are just learning. They're just now getting their data points in for the state of Ohio. And they could have a wonderful third grade year and start to, you know, have some

009difficulty in fourth and fifth because the content now is not concrete. It gets more abstract and it becomes more complicated. Um, but overall it it's I would say as our kids we are in elementary we're kind of mirroring some of most of the state and at the secondary levels starting in middle school and high school we're exceeding some of the outcomes that we see and when I compared the central Ohio counties of Union Pickaway Fairfield Franklin Licking and Delaware the next slide I kind of elaborated on this on was why we focus on the performance index because it's the results of all students on the state report card grades three through high school. Um like I said before it is 100% is the achievement indicator and then the gap analysis for EA ELA and math

010and subgroups and it's onethird or one of the three parts of the gifted indicator. I also pull out the PI for Indian Trail with their math instrument or math resources and their I Ready um product as well. Uh just to highlight here, our district PI grew from 862 to 891. Uh the largest building gain was 4.8 and that was at the middle school last year. High school was right behind it. Uh and then gap closing. This is where our metrics for gifted PI, chronic absenteeism, ODW, um, ELA and mass subgroup. All that gets put in the gap closing. It's just not one thing, it's multiple things go across that. So the focus on the PI last year, I appreciate all the work of the building principles, the staff, um because you know got the eye

011on our students, how the progress is going, what was working well, what were some opportunities and the overall focus of writing. It's not just a tested subjects, it's all subjects in the building because you've got to set the standard high for our students. um the text complexity and any type of activity should be at their grade level. Um so it's just all across the board. No matter what class they're in, they're being exposed to a rigorous content of the grade. Um this is the gap closing for our gifted. This is the PI outcomes. Unfortunately, we've not hit the PI piece of this indicator. I put basically the last four years in there. That's the Canal Winchester PI that's grown every year from 21 22 to last school year. And you can see the state has

012grown as well. ODW's targets 97.5 and that's now finally fixed. Um but the state PI that is the top 2% of all districts in the state of Ohio. That was their PI. You take 117 divided by 121 and we get 97. That's how that works. So, we're gaining on it, but we just haven't get there. Haven't gotten there. Do I see anything wrong with that? No. It's just one of those things you want. But you always have to look at everything that's on the report card. I would say this is the strength of our program because those are new third graders coming in. There, students leaving the metric because they're no longer on state exams at the high school. It's always new bodies coming into them. Very nice to see. Uh this is more on

013the gap closing on the ELA categories. This is kind of this is just my madness. This is not how the state puts it out there. But you can see our PI for 2425. That was our outcomes for our kids on our state exams. You can see a 2025 goal and a 2026 goal. Those are established by the state of Ohio. And the way we get credit is if our students exceed that goal. So anything in green is where we've exceeded it over time. Last year we missed two areas and you can you can see the two areas that are highlighted. Um you can also see that goal starts to increase and I believe it's in 203031 all students will be at 100%. So I bring that up because as these targets continue to grow we're

014not going to have as much green on them. But one thing I look at is what's our PI doing with our current students? Are we making gains? Are there opportunities there? And then getting even digging into it more to what grade level, what content area, everything else, what's happening to it. So that's our ELA for the district right there. And then the next one's our math gains. And math is where we had a large increase last year is where our gains really um flourish last year on the state report card. Once again, we got all but one. Um, but if you look at that one in 2324, it was our students with disabilities. As a district, we're at 496. We increased to 515. So, we gained on the outcomes on the performance of that of

015that subgroup of students. It's just not to the level at the state has established for us. Um, and you can see in the 2020 or this school year, that target is now up to 56.99. So, it's keeps growing every year. Like I said, in 2030 2031, all students target will be 100%. >> I noticed on both of those last two slides, it seems like we had a falloff from 2223 to 2324. >> Yes. in the in the two affected groups. So, Asian or Pacific Islander students with disabilities. Um, and then it looks like we had a pretty significant gain in 2425. Any thoughts on why we had that fall off in the previous school year. >> I don't I mean I mean it almost looks like we got back to >> Yeah, we >> the

016TR we got back to where we were trending. >> Yes, >> that year seems like an outlier. 23 24 seemed like an outlier for some reason. >> Isn't that when um we started going back to full days >> in that 212? >> Yeah. So 23 24 we were having progress having progress and then it kind of >> Yeah. >> plateaued and then we had progress again. I make a comment >> when I meet with staff that >> honestly school looking at data kind of like the stock market. You're going to have ups and downs. it's going to plateau at times and it's what we're g what how are we going to react to it? What's the conversations we're going to have? Um there's been a real focus on writing at the ELA level. Um that

017has helped us but there it's also in my board report just to jump into that. I've actually been using AI this year to kind of find strengths and opportunities uh from my wonderful spreadsheets that I create. Laughter. All right. Uh but it helps and it it has brought out like certain grade levels literary text would be an opportunity keep but the thing is you can't lose focus on the one that you've been building upon. It's always just keeping your kids and how they're doing you know at the forefront throughout everything. So I wish I had a better explanation for 2324 but I don't. Uh the nice thing I like about 2324 is how we rebounded in 2425 and there's still room for continue to grow. This slide I threw in because this is gap closing.

018This has to do with growth, which is value ad. Um, I was at a meeting last Friday at Ohio State with a member of ODW asking specifically about this particular piece because that line to get credit for your subgroup has to exceed has to go beyond that twopoint level in value add in the progress metric. If you go above two above two that's a four or five star rating. So, my problem with this is that this is almost like an extra credit, but it's not extra credit. Every one of these counts, but they're asking you to be four or five stars, and everybody to the left, those are all positive numbers. That means we met the expectations for those students, but we get no credit for them. I just threw that in there. So, if

019you're ever at a meeting, there's Ohio school boards coming up. If you're in a session, I mean, it's not perfect. This is why it's established for all districts. But at one time, the gap closing component did not we didn't have this bar. It was about improvement. It was about maintaining our kids. This seems to be really setting the bar high. Mathematics, like I said, you can see we had five groups make it and several very close. In ELA, we only had one, but at the same time, every other subgroup had a positive outcome, which means they met their year's worth of growth. That's just a little soap box on that one. So, went through all this, flew through it really fast, but what are we doing this year? And honestly, we're just going to reflect

020and refine and reinforce our practices. You know, reflect on the data. What's the data telling us? Last year, I'll shout out eighth grade science. They had one of their categories that did not look as strong as the other two. They talked about it. They addressed it and it became one of the strongest outcomes and they had one of the biggest turnarounds this year because it's just realizing it was taught first, never came back around and it's just being reflecting on what your data is telling you. Uh refining our curriculum, assessment practices and interventions to ensure alignment within with the Ohio's learning standards. Everything is aligned, but we're all guilty of doing this when you work with your kids or if you're trying to do something at home. We don't if you're reading a technical manual,

021the words in there are important, but we will change those words so they're easier for us to understand. If we don't use the language or the vocabulary within Ohio learning standards with our students, they get to the day of the exam and those standards, they're going to have unfamiliar vocabulary that does not it it will shock them. So we have to make sure we are providing them with you know with the alignment of what the standards and the vocabulary that they're using and reinforcing and reinforcing uh effective teacher strategies through ongoing collaborative sessions and analysis. Each building has their meeting times um I'm aware of their TBTs and it's all the way across the board at the middle school. I know um with the related arts and there I I know last year you had

022a expectation to have writing some sort of writing shared out all the way through to help that and writing was one of the bigger gains in sixth, seventh, eighth grade last year. So and not that this is all about the state exam but we do maintain a holistic focus of our students learning and well-being. Um you know we are looking to improve the performance on accountability measures but we're also looking at the skills of the portrait of the graduate you know how can we instill you know the soft skills in our students and the knowledge of the academic content standard. So, as our PI targets, it's a half point gain. Those are the targets right there for the district this year. Indian Trails targets are a little different. They don't have a state exam, but

023what they I gave the breakdown to Indian Trail had all the same subgroups in there. All the subgroups are not green. Uh but Indian Trail becomes unique because we have so many students coming and going at that K2 level that it's not that consistent population. I take all scores from fall to spring. Um but overall you can see the growth of their PI was four points in ELA and four points in mathematics and they'll build upon that going again this year. So that's you know keep building on it and hopefully we continue to um have the success that we had last year. It was really impressive to see the work that was done and the outcome of our kids. Questions, comments. >> Thank you. Um I do have a quick question. Um, I know that

024uh we don't have prior data for the uh college career and work and military readiness metric, but um being that we do have a a career coordinator here, um I'm kind of interested in knowing if we're going to do anything different, if we're going to go with a different framework within that. >> It it's not a framework. It's basically expanding opportunities. Say that correctly, Mrs. Pink. I mean, it it is what we've learned this year. we started the um teaching pathway and that and those students right there it's a senior only but those students in that pathway will actually impact that CCWMR we didn't do it knowing that we we did it for the experience of the kids to give them an opportunity if that's what they were thinking about and if they're successful through

025there they'll get the 12point credential is that correct 12 point credential pre-apprenticeship so I mean there's There's a lot of the pre-apprenticeship things that we are, for lack of a better term, stumbling into. We didn't go out setting set up to do it really and we're finding out because honestly the state keeps changing things and and maybe we were a littlehead of the game because it's benefiting us saying there's a lot of credit for that. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome. And we do I will say we do have what our percentages were for that three. We would we would have been a three star if that was actual part of the report card last year. We already know what our outcome is for next schools next year, but we spent a lot of

026time looking at our kids, making sure because we we the state does give you the ability to make sure you entered everything correctly and we found probably a dozen 15 kids that we were able to correct which put us solid once again solid as a three-star district and actually gaining closer to the four. What happens with this graduating Then I have one more question. Um I know the districts it looks very heavily at the MAP testing. Um so for the reading for the early literacy component. Um, would there be other uh baselines or guidelines that you guys are going to be looking at to help determine if there are certain students that need more help outside of just using the map? >> At Indian Trail, they actually use um went blank. Well, no, for for

027reading the um any kid that was on a RIMP also was screened with Ames web. So, we have that data that we're also tracking to go with MAP. Um, honestly maps sometimes for the young learners, they aren't familiar with a device. They aren't familiar with how to answer answer. But the Ames web actually takes in the sounds and everything else as well that builds upon the classroom instruction. Uh, in map when it's given again in December, we'll look at all of our kids again, decide who has flourished and become a sponge and has grown like crazy and who still needs the support and we'll rotate kids in. So it's not a fixed thing that we do. Um and actually it's more kids than just the ones on the rimp have been it's there's been teacher

028input of this student needs to be looked at and so they get that information as well or get that additional screener as well. We're looking at multiple instruments try to best serve our students. Okay. >> Good. Because of course obviously we want to be sure that we capture all the students that might be struggling. Any other questions? >> Thank you, M. Um, next we have to knock your socks off. >> Good evening. >> I'm excited to recognize two of our staff members this month. Um, first up is Panel Winchester High School science teacher EMTT Tusco who was nominated by Tiara Freeland. Tiara says, "EMTT shows up every day ready to make biology fun and engaging. His great sense of humor and ability to redirect chaos into focused learning make his classroom a welcoming and productive

029space for students." So, he was unable to be here with us tonight, so I will deliver socks and his certificate to him tomorrow. Next up, we have bus driver Aziza Jenkins, who was nominated by Jodie Good. Aziza goes above and beyond every day to ensure her students are safe, supported, and cared for. She takes time to get to know each child on a route and builds positive relationships that make a difference in their day. Her kindness, attentiveness, and professionalism shine through in everything she does. Aziza truly knocks our socks off with her dedication to Canal Winchester schools. Congratulations. I don't know if she is here with us this evening as well. Um, but again, I will drop off her certificate in box to her and get pictures and get those out. So, congratulations to both.

030>> Thank you. >> Um, next we have the CWEA. And before you give your report, I just wanted to thank you guys for doing the um meet the candidate um that you did for us. And I'd also like to say that the person who did the moderating, I think her name was Sammy. She was excellent and she made it so much fun. Even though I felt like we were on the gong show, but it was so much fun. So, we really appreciate you guys doing that and giving us opportunity to talk about I know Tory Big is big on organizing that. Um, so good evening. Um, my name is Marina Daringer. I'm a high school social studies teacher at Canel High School. Um I'm here for C.WEA. We're here tonight to share a few events

031and activities that are happening across our schools. Um this past Wednesday, both Winchester Trail and Indian Trail hosted Trunk Retreat in partnership with their PTO. Over a thousand students and families came out for the event where they enjoyed games, food trucks, the music of the Lu Brothers Band, and of course candy. Uh it was a great night of community involvement. And then the seventh graders over at the middle school just hosted their annual Greek Fest this past Wednesday, October 8th. This festive event allowed seventh grade students to dress up, eat Greek food, perform Greek myths that they wrote, and participate in a modified Greek Olympic event. In preparation for this, students wrote their own Greek myths that were performed during the Greek Fest day. Their Greek myths included a variety of topics like character, conflict,

032setting, plot, story devices, etc. And this celebration was a very memorable event for the students. Thank you. >> Thank you. Anything else? Okay. Um, next on the agenda is our public um comments. We have public voice and we don't have anybody tonight, do we? >> We don't have anyone listed for public voice. Is there anyone wanting to speak with public voice? >> Thank you. Executive report. Can we get our treasures to executive report please? >> May I have public voice afteration? So this is presentation but I want this to be interactive before this is meant to be informative before we get into worksh action items. This is just going to depending this forecast is substantially different than what we saw in November of 24 and May of 25. And there's some reason why mostly legislative

033reasons. Um so just want to get into it. So the cash balance impacted by state budget, potential tax reform, emergency levy, missionary pressure. So state budget, state budget is made up of really three key areas. Enrollment, local capacity, and base costs. Those three things lead to whether you're on the formula considered to be on the formula or you're considered to be on a guarantee and the guarantee is fiscal year 2020. And I'll show you the reason why for that in a second. Um but we are now on the guarantee. Uh so everything that happened with enrollment, local capacity and base costs have driven us into the guarantee. We have always been a formula district up until this bianium budget process. So enrollment, you can see that we were growing uh all the way up to

0342020. COVID hit and we had a loss of students. We had hybrid, non-hybrid, return to school, all of these different things really impacted our our school district uh in a negative way when it comes to enrollment. Uh precoid we were down to about 60 kids attending charter schools. we had really driven that down from about 120 to 60. COVID hits and the very next year we go back to 150 plus and we've been pretty much at 150 plus ever since. Uh the number that we don't know for sure is private schools. We know we know home schools, we know charter, we know obviously joint vocational schools, but we don't ever really know the private number because those kids don't report to us. Um, so you can see we we took a big hit in 2021,

035the year after CO, and then we've been declining ever since, and then this year we are starting to make a trend back. A lot of that is to do with full day kindergarten. You can see below, um, it's kindergarten is the is the hardest number to p predict. Uh once we get to first grade, we could it's easily for us to kind of track trends and and now down first through 12th. Uh so we look at birth rates and you can see that our birth rates starting at 25 are some of the highest that we've had. 256, 36, 262, and we even have a 289. And that is kids that were born five years ago. So that would be kids that were born in 2025 that would be kindergarten ready in 2030. Uh, and then

036this is actual enrollment. So, you can see we trend above our birth rates quite a bit. You can see here and then up through here and then there's a couple years under, but for the most part, we average about 103% of our birth rate. So, we're usually 3% above what the birth rates say. So, it gives us a pretty good idea of what to forecast. Um, we're forecasting 100% of these uh just until we get more data. This is only the second year of data for us uh on full day kindergarten. So you can see the myth was during the banial budget process was enrollments were drastically declining. Well, we're not drastic drastically declining, but when you have a base year of 2020 and they didn't pick 2020 by chance, we're not the only school

037district that shows this type of trend. almost every district in the state of Ohio peaked at 2020 and CO really hurt a lot of school districts. So you see the decline after that. So 2020 is chosen for a reason when they're when they're looking at the state formula budget >> and to be specific it hurt public schools >> hurt public schools. Yes. Yes. So, if you compare us back to 2020, yes, our enrollment is declining, but when you look at the last few years, uh, we're not declining to that level. So, enrollment's going all the way back to 2020. Well, assessed values, look at a three-year average, and that is also hurting us because you can look at a three-year average of these was what, 470. Well, a three-year average of these five years later,

038it looks like we're much wealthier from a local capacity standpoint. So, this is really driving this is driving the formula more than anything else. Um because you can look at base cost. Uh this was a big talking point uh among advocates of trying to get the base cost changed. um they've only changed the base cost one time in the era of the formula and that was in the very first year of the last bianium budget. So we are now three years of base cost being unchanged. So what that means to the formula is when you see our enrollment increasing or our RSS valuations increasing and local capacity growing and they don't change the base cost, the only thing that can happen is local share go up per pupil and state share go down per pupil.

039To give you an example, if they were not to change the base cost in the next benium budget, so 26 and 27 is is is a done deal. It's the benium budget we're in. If they were to leave this again, the state share would go from $3,600 to $2,200 in 29 per pupil. So, it's a $1,400 decline. Flip that to us to where we are picking up the extra burden um on the cost. So, the factors in the fair funding formula enrollment was stable. So, I consider that a net positive. Uh local capacity obviously is up. The other piece of that on the valuations is income. Income is is almost a mirror of the of the valuations, property valuations. So I didn't want to duplicate. I mean, properties going up on average 6%, income's going

040on average 5%. So, uh, base cost no change that results in a guarantee back to fiscal 2020 level. So, what does that mean? So the gray bar was the forecast that we filed in November 24. The black bar is the one that we filed in May of 25. The burgundy bar is what we're faced with currently. So in the gray bar, we just said, "Hey, they changed the base cost last time in year one of by year one of banium budget." That's literally all that had was a 100% phase in and a base cost change in year one of banium budget. So it would have been 2026. That didn't happen. So then when come back in May of 25, we said, okay, they're not going to change the base cost. That's pretty evident that that's

041not going to happen. In the history of state funding, they've never decreased schools below what they got the prior year. So we said, okay, 24.5 is our base. So, we kept 24.5 because in 30 years of a formula, they've never taken districts below that mark. Well, not only did they do that, they did 100 100% phase in. They took you back to that 2020 guarantee. So, when you do that, we continuously decline because they're not changing the base cost, which means the local capacity share is going up. base cost is not changing and our valuations are skyrocketing. So the only thing that can happen is our local taxpayers have to pick up the effort more. Any questions on the state budget side? So that leads us to tax reform. Tax reform. Um there's a lot

042of different things out there. Um really your taxes are made up of of three things. Tax rates, property values, and whether a district's at the 20 mil floor or not. And then reappraisals are done every six years. Updates are done every three years. That's pretty much the the cycle of property taxes. You can see our tax rates have been on a steady decline. That's due to reduction factors of the values going up. That's due to new construction. We have about new construction of 20% of our values per year. So this isn't all due to inflation. This is due to growth in the district from or new construction. Um a lot of it is inflation. Um so you can see our tax rates are down. Uh district or Franklin Countywide all tax rates are down. We

043peaked out in 2020 and since 2020 Franklin County tax rates have continuously declined. assess valuations. This is a repeat of the previous slide. Yeah. >> I just want to make a quick comment on this for anybody who's listening in or watching this live. So tax rates being down doesn't necessarily mean your property taxes went down. >> Correct. It just means that the share of your property taxes that are coming to the school district is down in relation. So our our levies are all fixed some levies or fixed amount levies. So we're not getting more money because my house increased in value. I'm not paying more to the school district than I was. My share of what's going to the school district of my total property tax bill is is decreasing. So this chart on top

044it doesn't for those of you watching we're not saying that you're paying less in taxes >> but what we're saying is what you are paying in taxes the share of what you're paying that is coming to the school district is decreasing correct we had the 20 mil floor for class one residential and agriculture on up to that point reduction reduction factors were taking place so basically Ohio law says when you pass a levy, you cannot collect more on that levy until you're at the 20 mil floor. So class 2 for us, industrial and commercial, is not at the 20 mil floor. So when you saw this huge bump from 667 million to 853 million, our our businesses didn't have any additional taxes. It all went to residential because class one was at the floor. Class

045two was not at the floor. The only thing that happened for class two was these tax rates reduced downward because you could not collect more than what the levy was initially passed for. Does that make sense? And this is the main reason we are talking tax reform. This one jump on the reappraisal in Franklin County and there was a lot of other counties. It's it was a bigger it's the biggest count. The reappraisals are broken up by county, but the Franklin County column of schools is by far the most that it has in county. So, it's like 30 30 or 40 of the 88 counties all happened in one year. This right here is the reason we're even discussing tax reform. Because from 2008 to 2017, we had 0% growth. We averaged 0% property tax

046growth. 0%. And that was Franklin Countywide. And then from here to here was less than 4%. So this big reappraisal uh is the reason we're talking. And guess what? 2025, the current tax year we're in, Fairfield County, is in a reappraisal year. So people have either heard their values or they're getting ready to hear their values. And that is why legislators are pushing to make some sort of move because they're trying to beat the tax year uh before auditors have to close out the bills and send and send the bills out. So So this is the reappraisal cycle. Um 2025 or 23 was the reappraisal in Franklin. It's due to come back in 2029. We've got to get a handle on property tax values. Um the mortgage rates are 7%. Once those drop to 3

047or 4% in the next coming years, the property values are going to skyrocket again because more people are going to buy homes and it's going to launch those values. So tax reform is important. Um but trying to get a handle on that and figuring out what's the right tax reform. Just want to remind people this was our current levy plan. So we've had new new taxes since 2009. We've renewed the emergency levy in 11, 14, 19, and 24. We were going to come back and renew it in 29 for a 10-year stint. 2034, all of our debt is gone by that point. If we needed new taxes, we were going to look at that, but it wasn't um a necessity possibly. Uh but it wouldn't be new taxes because we'd be replacing bonds. That was

048our current levy strategy with basically living off of what we have. House Bill 186, which is currently making its rounds, would pretty much wipe any of those plans away. Um and I'm not sure exactly what we would do. um we would have to really look at it, but this is what House Bill 186 does. You can see we didn't change that much from November to May, but you can see starting in this forecast, it's monumental declines on top of the state budget. So what this does is it looked at districts that are at the 20 20 mil floor which I said we got to in 2021 and it's basically again going back to fiscal year 2020 and they're saying any increase above inflationary values they're going to wipe away. So that would mean would be

049phased in for us but it would be 2.8 million in the first year and then 3.2 2 million in year two, year three, year four, year five. Um, to give you perspective on this, out of the three largest counties, Franklin, Kyhoga, and Hamilton, 18.8% of the school districts are seeing a cut in House Bill 186. That's it. 18.8%. We're three of 16 districts in Franklin County that are seeing a cut. US, Groport, Hamilton, Southwestern joins us in year, year two, and year three. Those three districts are the lowest tax rate districts in in Franklin County. They're 14, 15, and 16. We rank 10th. So, four of your least wealthy districts are the ones experiencing 100% of the cuts in Franklin County. One of 31 school districts in Kyhoga County. That's where tax reform started was

050Kyhogi County with their property values, tax rates. So, one of 31 and then six of 22 in Hamilton County. I don't know where this goes. I know it's making its strides through the House side. Um, but I don't consider this to be tax reform. I consider this to be very unfair. Um, when they're not doing things that impact 100% of the school districts and they're not doing anything to impact the districts with the highest property rates. This is penalizing districts that haven't levied. This is penalizing districts that are poor because most of your poor districts are at the 20 mil floor. Your districts that are off the floor, your backs, your upper Arlington's, your new albies, because they're able to levy. The only way you can pull yourself off the floor is levy. So, I

051feel like House Bill 186 is rewarding districts for levying and it's punishing districts that are poor and that have remained at the 20 mil floor. Now, it's just a perfect whirlwind for us that we hit the 20 mil floor. Had the biggest reappraisal in the history of the school district. And this is coming out. I don't have a problem with tax reform, but I do have a problem with retroactively going back to make up a new value because in 2020, we had plans for this. We could see this coming. We said, "Okay, we're going to do X. We're going to build a performing arts center. We're going to negotiate with the teachers union. we're going to do all of these things and to retroactively go back and say, "Hey, immediately we're going to take you

052back to 2020 levels," which is what this does. This this is this is a million dollars high just because it's one tax collection. It's one settlement payment or otherwise it would be 19.2. I just don't know how that works. >> The other piece, Nick, will you go back one slide? The other piece just to note for those paying attention um FY26 is now this year correct. So again we are in midocctober and we are we don't know what this is going to look like yet. That's >> that makes absolutely no sense for us. How do you plan for that? >> So I've sent proposals to the uh Senate and the House. they have gotten back. Uh we are looking to meet with them at some point. The issue is the spikes, the spikes in property

053value. How do you fix that? Well, we recommended why do six-year reappraisals? That seems archaic. Let's let's do annual updates. Base those updates on inflation. Base it on GDP. Base it on anything you want, but update the values annually. You've you've got real estate data that's accessible. You've got all of these things that are accessible to you. Why wait six years to give people 30% increases? It doesn't make any sense because 30 30% is really only 5% because that's 6% per year. But it doesn't matter. We're we're humans. We see our tax bill go from $1,000 to $1,500 and it is an impact. So let's update values annually. Let's count the emergency levy toward the floor. That would pull 254 districts off the floor and it would stop 254 more districts from having increases when

054values go up because reduction factors would kick in. If you did those two things, you're going to you're going to impact 85% of your taxpayers where they don't see much growth annually in their property tax bill. Any questions on the tax side of it before we get into the emergency levy? So, the emergency levy, uh, we passed this in 2009. The Senate and the House had this in their in their budget bill. It passed through. The governor vetoed it in June. The governor said, "Hey, we're going to put a we're going to put a tax working group together, and we're going to come up with recommendations on what tax reform should look like." In the meantime, the House went ahead and voted to override the governor's veto. They did that in September. the Senate was

055on recess and they basically said, "We've got the votes, but we're going to wait to come back." So, they did come back and they vetoed it on the day that the working group came out with their recommendations for tax reform. So since then, last week, the House issued a new House bill that they passed that says, "Hey, we're sorry. I think we jumped the gun. We're going to let schools that have emergency levies have one more renewal on their emergency levies, but we're going to count the emergency levy towards the floor." That's passed the House, going through the Senate. I have no idea what that looks like. So, the emergency levy is still up in the air. Right now, it's gone because the overrides happened. The Senate overrode it. The the House overrode it. So,

056as it stands right now, the Senate could just sit on it and do nothing. >> Let me jump in and ask a question though. It's not gone from us until >> 29. Correct. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, we will not be able to renew it and we lose the homestead and roll back credits from the state, which is $800,000. So, again, it costs our taxpayers more money by not letting us renew this levy. So when we talk about inflationary pressures and you tie this back to the to the base cost, here's here's per pupil expenditure data from the cup report. The state issues this report, you can see the growth on expenditures from 2019 to 2024, $4,000 increase per pupil from a statewide per expenditure report. But we're not changing base costs. So it doesn't

057make any sense to me on what how we do not change base cost, but they have the data that shows the cost of expenditures have increased drastically. We are still below the state average. We've caught the state average from different things, but we're still below state average on the per pupil expenditure. So I I so I still feel like we're doing the right things um of being better than the state average, but nothing's being looked at on the formula side on the base cost. >> What all goes into that expenditure? >> General fund. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> General fund divided by the number of students basically >> pretty much. There's a little bit more to it, but that's that's the the basics of it. >> Okay. So, so our message is this. I mean,

058it's it's it's that we've got to we've got to make sure people understand that state decisions, not local spending, is making our forecast look the way it looks. When you reduce your revenues, the services are going to be reduced. I mean, we are a public entity that provides public educational services. I just want people to understand we are we've we have been fiscally responsible. We've had a game plan. We've we've tried to make sure tax rates are down. We've tried to make sure no new taxes are issued. Um but unless we're able to get the policy changes our way, we're going to see a reduction in revenue. So ed continue to educate community. We have to continue to engage legis legislators. Let them know what the tax reform the impacts that this has on us

059and as a I mean as a state I mean anytime I send something to them I send them more than just us. I try to send them Franklin County or the state or what it looks like or I try to send here's a solution instead of just coming across as complaining complaining complaining because they already think that we're crybab which I mean we do complain a lot. So I'm trying to come at them with data and solutions and not just complaints. Um, and hopefully we get through to them and and things like House Bill 186 doesn't make its way through. Um, because I can tell you, House Bill 186 crushes a lot of districts. Um, so we've got to have a plan for fiscal adjustments moving forward and potentially prepare for new levy, but hopefully

060not. >> When do we when do you think? >> We have no idea. I know they're they're the reason they're in such a hurry is tax bill 25 is ending. So all your county do county auditors are putting the new values together and they're preparing to send out your bills in January. So they're trying to get all of these things in ahead of time, but at some point, like I said earlier, the auditors are going to push back and say, "Guys, we're we're done with tax year 25. We have to move forward and get tax bills out. We can't have any more changes to what a tax bill might look like with credits or values or whatever it might be because we're going to miss the deadline to to send out invoices or bills. So

061hopefully this stuff settles down in the next few weeks. Um but then it's not going to stop. We're going to continue to have tax reform discussions. I saw Florida this morning have an article out about giving credits back. So the rhetoric is there um to make sure something happens with with property taxes. Um oh by the way we've funded with property taxes since 1905. So it's not any it's not something new and we've been doing it for for quite a while. Um I feel like we're reacting personally. I feel like we let one reappraisal cycle dictate what we're doing statewide. So, any questions? I'll have the forecast uh later in action items, but I at least wanted to prepare you for some of the numbers that were going to be coming. >> Any questions? >>

062I don't necessarily have a question. Um, I know that um, politics play a large role in what we're experiencing right now and um, I I like to be an optimist and I'm always hopeful. So, I just want to put that out there. Um, something that could potentially change the trajectory of what we're experiencing is if come 2026 we elect a a governor that's going to support the fair school funding formula. Would that put us on the right path towards kind of getting out of this bleak um expectation of what we are looking at for our fiscal position. the governor will help, but we have super majorities in the Senate and the House. So, we just saw that the governor supported us and vetoed many financial and educational issues from the bingium budget and the Senate

063and House came back and overrode them. For me, I I can't think of a time where the Senate and House is came back and overrode governor vetos. It's very rare, but they have super majority, so they know they have the vote. So really, it comes down to >> state representatives and senators. I'm not I'm not saying Democrats, Republicans, any of that. But when you have a supermajority, whether it's Republican or Democrat, there are no guard rails to keep them in check, and they're going to get almost any issue they want through because they have super majority. Until we even out of the chambers, they're going to continue to to go and do the things they want. And they're cocky about it. I mean, they you can read articles in the paper. They basically come out

064and say, "We're going to wait until October. We've got the votes. There's no rush for us." >> This includes fair districts and redrawing the map lines and all the other things that >> So, you need a balance. And I mean, it would we'd be looking at the same thing if it was Democrats. It would just be different issues, different topics, all of those different things. But you can't allow super majorities where things like this happen. even if one of the chambers had more Democrats to offset and then because you have to have both chambers pass it and get it through and right now they both have super majorities and it's really tough to argue against it. I mean we've got great representatives. Um Lawson Row is a Democrat on the House side and she's a

065supporter but she's in the minority when it comes to her influence in the House. Senator Reynolds is a Republican and she is I think she does listen. Um but at the end of the day, she's got party commitments and she's got to vote one way or another and she seems to be voting with the rest of the party, which is disadvantage for us. So yeah, I mean maybe maybe the new governor can come in and persuade the main leaders of the Senate and the House. And that's what I thought would happen. I I I thought when the governor vetoed those lines, I thought maybe he had a sidebar, an arrangement that said, "You guys aren't going to come back and override these." I thought he had maybe some influence, but it turned out that he

066didn't. So again, it's just very important that um the legislators hear from their constituents and that we keep pushing information, valid information out. Um so I think that's one that's our main leverage as well. >> Your voice does matter. They I mean they do seem to listen. um they respond when you send them uh proposals or feedback. Um I mean so they they are engaged. I don't think they're completely shut off and and blinded. I think they do want to educate themselves. They do want to try to understand impacts of districts. I don't know if they care at the end of the day. I think at the end of the day, they just want to be able to say they cut $1.2 two billion dollars and it's not any interest of them if it was

067all 610 districts or 300 districts. I think the the bottom line number is what some of them are concerned about. Uh so it looks good in the paper that they saved $1.3 billion, but 50% of your districts didn't take any hit. Well, we won't call you the grim reaper. Um, with that, we'll move on to our next report from the superintendent. >> Okay, I'm going to try to bring it back a little bit. Try and u, good evening. Uh, to our board members and our community members who are watching, I'm excited to share some updates from across the district. Students at Canalow Winchester High School and Winchester Trail Elementary recently participated in Ohio Tech Day, a statewide celebration of technology and innovation. The event gave students the opportunity to explore robotics, coding, and other STEM

068activities that connect classroom learning to realworld careers. Our local business partner, NFCO America Corp. made the day even more special by sharing information about STEM career pathways and providing Lego kits for every third grade student. We also appreciate the Educational Service Center of Ohio for supplying additional resources including Ozobots and Makey Makey Kits. A special thank you goes to our library media specialists who organized and led this engaging day of exploration and learning. And I think our third grade students who went were buzzing about it for the next week. It was good to see. On Monday, September the 29th, our community gathered to celebrate the dedication of the new mini pitch at Canal Winchester High School. This project was made possible through a partnership between Canal Winchester High School alumnist Scott Wyel, class of 1975,

069Musco Lighting, the US Soccer Foundation, and the MLS Players Association. Scott dedicated the field in memory of Canal Winchester students London and Demetrius Wall Neil. Their mother Britney Jones and family attended the event, and their brother honored them with a ceremonial first kick. The mini pitch is already a favorite recess activity for our students and will serve as both a tribute and a lasting gift to the community. The Canal Winchester Marching Band has officially qualified for the OMA state marching band finals following an outstanding performance at the Northwestern Bandfest. Although the band typically competes in class A, they entered the class doubleA division and rose to the challenge in impressive fashion. The band earned second place in both class doubleA and overall competition. Received the award for best music and achieved straight superior ratings. This

070qualification is a major accomplishment and a reflection of the hard work, talent, and dedication of our students, directors, and families. Congratulations to the entire program on this welldeserved success. And now Winchester Middle School has been recognized be it by the Ohio Middle Level Association with the Central Region Award for best practices in college and career exploration. Under the leadership of Principal Brian Moore, the school has built a strong career exploration program that connects students with professionals in a variety of fields through partners partnerships with Eastland Fairfield Career Center and the technical schools and junior achievement. Students participate in workshops and simulations that promote career awareness and financial literacy. Reflection activities following each event help students connect their experiences to future goals. This recognition highlights the outstanding work taking place at Canal Winchester Middle School to

071prepare students for success beyond middle school. Indian Trails second grade students in the primmer law Westall and more pod are participating in an exciting program called classroom champions which connects classrooms with Olympic and parolympic athlete mentors. Through this partnership, students will learn important life skills such as goal setting, perseverance, leadership, teamwork, and community. The program provides realworld inspiration as students hear directly from their athlete mentor during virtual chats and activities throughout the year. On September 22nd, all certified teachers participated in a district-wide professional development session focused on behavioral leadership led by Scott Irvin, who is also known as the Kid Whisperer. Mr. Urban provided strategies to help teachers prevent, guide, and respond to student behaviors in ways that build strong relationships and positive classroom environments. His approach emphasizes prevention through structure and connection, gentle guidance

072in place of demands or threats, and calm, purposeful responses to teach positive behaviors. A group of teachers from Indian Trail Elementary will continue working with Mr. Irvin throughout the school year to explore these strategies in greater depth. That concludes my report. Thank you for continued support of our students, staff, and school. >> Uh the only thing to report, I guess, is uh that uh um wrestling through October 15th, I believe. Uh grades K through six. So they're still taking uh um uh applications if somebody's interested in that. The I rest sound bath is ongoing. So if somebody is interested in that, that is uh still registrations are still open. And karate is uh anyone ages six to 99. So welcome to join karate with the JRD. So I think that's that's the only thing we

073have. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Yes. Um my report somewhat echoes um some of the key uh legislation that uh Mr. Roberts um discussed uh with his uh presentation. Um just reiterating uh the Ohio property tax work group released its final report to Governor DeWine on September 30th and there were um key recommendations that could significantly affect public education. Uh I'm not going to go into all those recommendations, but um specifically the work group does support House Bill 186 and it also supported uh House Bill 154. Um they also uh released a recommendation to form a new work group to explore government efficiencies and shared services. And as you heard already, our district continues to advocate strongly against House Bill 186. Um and when it's combined with the uh shortfall from the state from state

074funding um specifically our district with the state shortfall we're looking at a 2.5 million um short or cut in our budget. Um and then like Mr. Robert said about the emergency levy. Um that's going to hurt us as well and other bills affecting um school revenue is uh also House Bill 129 and House Bill 309. And Nick alluded to that as well. He's there's a lot out there and they're just making their way through the chambers. Um, specifically, House Bill 129 and House Bill 309 have passed the House and they're now under uh Senate uh for consideration. In other news, uh, Governor Dwine announced the Ohio School bus safety grant program with applications open now, or actually it's open October 15th through November 14th at 5:00 p.m. And it's for districts to use the grant

075money for um, bus safety repairs and upgrades and enhancements. So um, are we going to be going for that? >> Yes, that's good. that our director of transportation reached out to us uh to see if we want to apply and we said yes. We kind of just got a glimpse of what she would want to do and she was going to do some upgrades to the buses. I forget exactly what it was, but it was going to add some safety items to the buses. >> Yeah, there was a couple safety things to all the buses. >> Great. Excellent. Um, next month at the Ohio School Board Association Capitol Conference, I will be voting on legislative platform recommendations um during the delegate assembly. And what that does, it it helps shape the association's policy priorities that

076they actually go lobby um at the state house. Um, so just to reiterate, please know that our district remains actively engaged in these legislative discussions and we're committed to keeping our community informed. So if you have any questions, please reach out to the board or Mr. Roberts or Mrs. Hunt. Um, we will be more than happy to share the information, additional insight and so forth with you. Um, this concludes my report. Thank you for your attention. Thank you. And student achievement liaison. >> I don't have anything to report, but I did want to say happy belated birthday to President Barnes. She celebrated her birthday last week. >> Well, thank you. >> I'm 29. And um who's going to the uh OSB? I know I'm going. You're going. You're going. Anyone else going? You're going? Okay.

077We got some good good representation this year. Lots of uh information to be able to bring back. Um next we have um our district reports. >> If I may, President Barnes, um I just wanted to thank Dr. Hipler for um the detailed report that she gave the board. Um, and I love the expansion of the data that's reflected there because it's important that we look at um, the big picture. And what really stood out to me was how within the past three years um, staffing responsibility and uh, as well as uh, what the district is required to do that's mandated. um that has not kept up with the increase in student needs. So, this report really um showed that uh that difference and that it brings it out why at our previous meeting um staff

078uh we administrators were asking for additional staffing and so forth. So, it helped to explain that. So, I really appreciate that, Dr. H, >> Mr. Tally, and I often have the same comments to make, so I'll just echo that, but uh yes, Dr. Hipler, thank you for that added information. I think it's going to be uh I just looked through it yesterday for the first time and uh I want to continue diving through it. There's a lot there, but uh but it was great to great to be able to see that expanded information. So, thank you. Um, also wanted to give a shout out to technology. Uh, because just like uh last month I think I gave a shout out to busing and and said, you know, we all take it for granted. Well, we

079take technology for granted as well until something goes wrong like it did at the start of the meeting tonight. So, uh, and possibly now. So, uh, we appreciate all that you that the technology department does, uh, for the school district and us. So, that's all I have. Anyone else have anything? >> Okay, that we'll move on to the Senate. >> Um, can we take a a motion for the consent agenda? >> So move. >> A second. >> All right. Thank you. We'll start uh first with number two is our minutes from the September 8th regular meeting. Number three, we have donations. We have two donations. Uh one from the Michael T. Hummel Farm to Canal Winchester High School football and one from NO Paul's uh to the middle school music department in the amount of

0803500. So we want to thank both of those for their gracious donations. Number four, certified personnel. We do have two letters of re resignations uh from two intervention specialists and then also we are rescending uh extended days for a psychologist that was in error. Moving on to number five, we have our classified personnel. You're going to see resignations um from a couple custodians as well as a special education aid. And then we are uh recommending approval of several positions, custodian, bus aid, and special ed aids. We also have a transfer of a night custodian to a daytime custodian position. And then we are uh we have some substitute classified recommendations. Number six is our supplemental personnel and stipens. I'm not going to go through these um in great detail. It's actually a lot of cleanup.

081So you'll see some resensions of contracts and then we're approving. Some of the same individuals are being approved. Um but those are both for uh basketball positions and then also some theater positions as well. And then we have our volunteer positions for spring sports and a girls basketball volunteer. That's all I have on the consent agenda. We take a vote. Does anybody have any questions? >> All right. And can we take a vote on the consent agenda? Twist. >> Yes. >> Miss Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. George. >> Yes. >> Miss Green. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Tally. >> Yes. >> Action items. >> Motion to the action items. >> Second. >> I think each one I believe, right? We have to approve like for the first one action items each individual. >> Oh, okay. >>

082For a motion. >> So, that was a motion for the first one. Can you get a motion? We're going to do a motion for the second one too at the same time or no. >> Okay. Um, are we going to go over? >> Yep. >> So, uh, I did two forecasts. Um, I wanted to show the impact uh that tax bill or house bill 186 would have um and the elimination of the emergency levy which it current currently stands hopefully in there. You're about as techsavvy as I am. How are you guys doing tonight? Good. >> It probably I'm s I'm setting such a great mood tonight. It probably doesn't want me to talk anymore. says you don't have Wi-Fi down here. >> That's one drive. Okay. They're different. Go to apps and then go

083to your left. So you are better than this. Nice. Here we go. All right. Well, I'm going to have to just speak from the May not even let me pull it up, though. No. Still has to connect. No, I'm trying to just get it through my files. Hard to present a forecast when you can't get the file. There we go. Got be smarter than a second grader. Yeah. All right. How do you get this down? There we go. This is one. This is the tax reform version. There we go. Okay. So exp in both these versions the expenditures remain unchanged. If something happens with tax reform all that stuff obviously we've got to tweak but to compare apples to apples this is impacting tax reform the loss of the uh emergency levy as it currently

084stands. Cash balance at the end of this year 29.6 6 next year 259 and that declines very quickly 19914 and then -2 $2.8 million and that would continue even drast more drastic because half of the emergency levy is up here. So 3.6 million would al would come off of this number in the following year because we're receiving one half of that emergency levy in fiscal 30. So this would drop in the 13 million range for real estate property taxes. So we would be operating on $55 million of revenue. That would you'd have to go back a ways. >> That's assuming we didn't replace the levy. >> Assuming we didn't replace anything. House Bill 186. This I mean you can see House Bill 186 really >> suffocates us. Um, >> if I pull up just the

085>> the other version. He You can see it's quite a bit of difference when you're looking at the real estate line. So we go from 22.1 22.6 22.9 to down to 195 down to 155 down into the 13 million range. So, not only does 186 just crush us going bad retroactively, we would never see growth in that line item ever again. So, property values could essentially skyrocket to the moon and not receive another penny of real estate revenue unless we levied new taxes. And oh, by the way, this is the number one driver of the state formula. So, not only are we not receiving any additional revenue on the property tax valuations, it's also crushing our state revenue side to the tune of from 198 to 179. So, a loss of $2 million because of

086the property tax valuation showing that we're local capacity is wealthy, but we're not collecting on that wealth. So we're hit two different ways from the same property tax reform essentially. So tax reform can't happen without adjusting the formula. If you don't adjust the way the formula is is done, every district with property tax growth is going to see this and every district that's at the floor is going to see this. To offset the loss in state revenue, you would have to increase enrollment by almost 10% if not greater per year. And that's just to break even. That would just be to break even at 198 with no changes to base cost and them using local capacity of your values. So the state funding formula unless something changes is broken almost immediately. Correct. And that's just

087getting so if you increase enrollment by 10% that's going to drive up your expenditures and that's just for you to break even on state revenues. So the revenue side legislation has to understand I hope that I can get through to them when we meet with them that you can't live on 2020 levels. That's what we're expected to do on real estate. That's what we're expected to do on state revenue. And you can't live on no growth. The only growth item we would have left is income tax. So, think about what was House Bill 309. That's where they want tax commissioners to control whether a levy is beneficial or not. So, if we were to pass a levy, the taxpayers of this school district would pass a levy, the Franklin County tax commissioners could come in

088and say, "Yeah, you're sitting with $20 million. We're going to revoke that levy. You don't need it." They don't know anything about the school district, but they're able to come in and do it. So even when you do pass a levy, there is still that side of it to say they still may revoke this and we still may not get it. So you could do all of that work. The community could could support you 80% to 20% and you still not have the ability to levy that money if the county commissioners don't think you should have it. So I say that is we're walking a very fine line that the state could possibly control this line, this line, this line, this line, and this line. So basically 90% of school district's revenues could be controlled

089somehow someway by the state with legislation that's pending. That to me is very scary. >> Very intentional. >> And very intentional. Correct. So you can see this is this is a big hit. And then this is obviously a huge hit to from the 20 192 192 195 163 versus 22 226 229 and 20 million because we would lose the emergency levy at this point. regardless, our cash balance has still taken a significant hit either way. >> Yeah. But it's cut in half. I mean, so to have 22.4 um with the ability to make some changes and to trim out some costs. Having 22.4 and only overspending by 5 million is a little bit different than having 11 million. Yeah. and overspending by 8.5 million. The overspending is where you're in you're in trouble. Um you

090can do the one-time things. Uh like we have I have the transfer in here for to fulfill the debt for the project. >> Um so you can do the one-time things. It's when you start running into 8.5 overspending and 14.2 overspending. That's where you don't you not only can't survive. I mean, you're you're basically making drastic measures to even balance that budget. >> Yep. >> I don't even know what I mean. I haven't looked at it because I'm hoping I'm with Monica. I'm hoping I'm optimistic that something like House Bill 186 doesn't make its way through. Um, don't even want to look at the options yet to to know what a levy would even mean. it would be have to be substantial but you would also have to reduce a lot of services unfortunately. Um

091so I put both forecasts on here. Uh one's obviously worst case. I mean it's kind of where it stands right now. This is probably the one I'm going to file because I do want legislators to see the impact of their decisions on us. I mean, at this point, House Bill 186 is 50/50. The emergency levy has been voted to be removed. So, I feel like having it off of here is where we currently stand. And the state budget doesn't have base costs here. I don't have base costs here. I don't have confidence yet in legislation to be able to say, you know what, I think they're going to do base cost changes. They almost have to in the next bianium because the formula is now 100% phased in. So if they don't change base cost,

092there's no growth for districts to have now because you went from 83% phase in to 100% phase in. So now every district's at 100%. If you don't adjust base costs, every local capacity is going to outpace base costs. So, every district's going to be in our situation. So, you have 610 districts that are getting closer and closer to a 2020 guarantee. So, they're going to have to change base costs or the funding formula doesn't work. But I think that's also intentional. So, don't know what our path is moving forward, but I mean, you can see that obviously our revenues are going to be cut and we're going to have to probably come up with some sort of plan. I think that's the end goal or the end message. Uh, and continue to advocate. I mean,

093if they can't look at this and say that has a traumatic impact, then we're almost saying words for no reason. But I do think they want to see the impact. And this is a real impact. Uh, and it's not just us. I mean, this this is us. We filed that November forecast last year had us showing a $50 million cash balance. That's a $40 million swing in less than a year based on legislative actions. Nothing to do with expenditures, nothing to do with anything that we did, just the change in state formula. I didn't even mention DPI and how much it changed. Uh, and Department of Education just came out with a report basically saying disadvantaged students are severely underfunded and here's why. So part of the bianium budget, they came and they changed the

094formula that gives districts less money for disadvantaged students. So their own department is coming out with reports to say it's underfunded, but then they do things in the formula to lower the amount that you're getting. So >> I just wanted to say I saw a correlation of that with um Mr. Whitlatch's presentation in regard to the state report card for the dis the children with disabilities um that um performance index was constantly lower and then I immediately thought about the funding that's associated with that. >> Yes. >> Yeah. So any questions on either of these forecasts? Uh this will be the version that I file. Um, any comments or recommendations? >> Okay, all I have for the forecast tonight. >> We're voting on um the two attachments that you just went through, right? Voting on

095the five-year forecast >> on the last document. >> All right. Um, you take a vote. >> M. Barnes? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thally? >> Yes. >> Mr. George? >> Yes. Mrs. Green? >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Swiss? >> Yes. >> And um next we take a motion on the uh insurance rates. I move I move to approve the insurance rates. >> I'll second. So I sent out a detailed email. You guys probably saw it on Friday. Uh medical rates are going up 9.8%. You have any questions on any of the information that was sent on Friday to all staff? I'm good. We'll get this pulled up. >> That was sent to all staff. >> Yeah. >> All right. I did have some staff reach out to me about it and wasn't sure if you had

096sent that out or not. So, I just wanted to ask >> all staff is that the the the 9.8% 8%. Is that the the staff increase or is that the overall increase? Overall. >> Okay. >> Yeah, >> I broke out what theirs was. Uh, is it a pay? 3650. >> Yeah, I saw I saw that. I saw that. Yeah. >> Per month per pay. Take a vote. Go ahead, please. >> Mr. George, >> yes. >> Mr. Swiss, >> yes. >> Miss Barnes, >> yes. >> Miss Green, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tally, >> yes. >> Uh, next on the agenda is the contract um for private tuition. >> Recurring contract for private tuition. Uh, I move to approve the private tuition contracts. >> Second. >> These contracts um there's two separate ones. The ones for uh

097Growport Madison, we are actually taking students who are currently with Newtory and we are transitioning them to uh Growport. It's still Newtory services. It's just uh Growport is now housing that new story unit. So these three students um it's not started yet. It will begin January 1. They're still working on the facility, but I believe that will start January 1. So moving them will allow these students to get with their classmates and with where they're at now so that when they do transition, they're ready to go. >> And then the um >> save a little bit on the tuition piece of it. We're going to save quite a bit on the transportation piece of it. Uh it's a new story. I think it's in Westerville. Umville compared to Growport. So transportation costs will be cheaper.

098>> Yep. And then the other one at St. Vincent Prep Academy, uh we had a student in a another placement and that student needs to transition to a new place. >> Take a vote. >> Mr. George. >> Yes. Mrs. Yes. >> Miss Barnes, >> yes. >> Green, >> yes. >> Payment in Lewis Transportation. >> Um, >> I'll move to uh for the payment in Lewis Transportation. >> Second. >> This one is your routine item. Does >> anybody have any questions? Can we take a vote? >> Yes. >> Mr. George? >> Yes. >> Miss Barnes? >> No. >> Miss Green? >> Yes. >> Sally? >> Yes. >> And the next one we have is discussion items for the calendar first reading 2627 school. >> So thank you. Um, as we do each year, uh, this is

099a process we actually started last spring to begin looking at the calendars. Uh, a team of staff members and teachers and administrators work together to prepare a couple different calendars, looking at all the things that we need to take into account. And then it narrows down and eventually goes to vote. And the calendar that we will hopefully try to bring up, which may not be brought up, will be is the one that uh was approved. See if we can get it up. And if not, >> was approved by C.WEA. >> Yes. Was approved by CWA. Yep. So, uh well, it was the one that won the votes, I guess. Um so, a couple different ones. And one of the messages that we put out, it's if you've ever been a part of the calendar committee,

100you know, you know, everybody wants to start after Memorial or after Labor Day, be done before June, uh get a couple weeks off at the holiday uh break, have a fall break, get some days off at Thanksgiving. It's just a lot of once, but in the end, you have to have so many days of students being in school. So, this one here is the one that may or may not pop up. It's very similar to what we have this year for a calendar. So, some breaks throughout the year and um it does start about a week after what we started this year. The way the dates fall. Give me a second. I will try to see if I can't at least give some dates. I apologize. Oh, look at you. Thank you. So, we would

101have um our new staff work days August 5th through 7th. Our uh full staff work days would be the 10th, 11th, and 12th. And then the first day for students would be the 13th of August. Um and then we would go through uh we would get a fall break. There we go. Wonderful. Thank you. I leave that up just in case. Looking in October, you get uh 16th would be our fall break. And uh moving in November, the three days at Thanksgiving. Let's see here. Um November 2nd and third would be some days off for conferences and professional development back toback. We get our holiday break for two weeks. in December, uh, Martin Luther King and President's Day. You do see that you get two days off around President's Day, moving into spring break, the

102last week of March, April, and last day of school will be May 27th for students and May 28th for teachers. So what we'll do is um if there's any feedback we do take uh put it out in a meeting. If there's any feedback then we'll come at the next meeting in November for a vote of approval. Is >> there any reason why fall rate got reduced to one day instead of two? Um just the number of days and where it fell. So the days had to give somewhere. So that's what where it was at. >> What's the 15th? >> The 15th is the I believe the last day of >> end of the quarter. >> Yeah. >> Quarter. >> When's um indigenous day in October? Is it the 12th? >> Yes. Yes. It does come

103down a lot of discussion and just for purposes like the question that you had asked Miss Tally about fall break. So when you look at it a day has to give somewhere. So with spring break, Good Friday is the 26th. That's a and then when you look at February, there's two days there really. when you look at breaks, I think the staff would would agree that getting days off in the springish when it becomes long long days um is a little bit uh better than breaks coming out in the fall because you seem to get more when you get to, you know, Thanksgiving, two week holiday break and so forth. So trying to spread those out. >> But it really does come down to being just when days fall. Each each year it's a different

104calendar. You got to work around the dates. And we shoot for I believe 176 student days. I believe student days. All right, we'll bring that back to you then uh in November if there's any feedback. >> Uh next we have um policy. >> Yeah, if I may, I'll go ahead and >> policy discussion. >> Yeah, I'll have a little uh little some comments, I guess, about this. Um, I believe this is this is something we've been tossing around talking about discussing and um, uh, this is concerning anonymous emails that are coming into the district and how to handle them. Um, I I came up with this one. This is uh uh I will say it's it's very staff oriented and uh to protect staff and I know there's been some debate and conversation about that

105but uh I came back to this one. I continue to come back to this one and so uh that's that's the reason that I I put this I wanted to put this one in there for us to have a conversation about uh and have a first reading. Was this a new draft from the one we had the last time. >> It is. >> Yes. We're going to disregard things that could be verified. That's what it's saying. Unless we're legally required to take a look at it. Yes. >> How many anonymous complaints do we get typically in a year? >> I don't know if there's I don't know if there's been a typical >> roughly >> five, six or maybe two. >> I think we had two this two last year, didn't we? >> I had

106provided you guys with that information in a in a email at some point of time. I don't want to quote it. I believe that last year we were a ballpark of four or five somewhere in that ballpark. And then prior to that, I could say we probably had four or five in the 13 years that I've been in the district. >> We we can't just throw these out and not look at them if there's except when we're required to look at them by law, especially with that volume. I mean I I you know if we if we want to set up a committee of the whole of this board member of of the board to look at these I mean with the volume of I mean let's say 10 per year let's say one per

107month I don't think it's too much for us to go into executive session and look at every anonymous complaint that comes in as a board and say this is credible and verifiable. We need to take a look at this. Just throwing it out because it's anonymous when it's credible and verifiable, I think, puts us in a bad situation as a school board. >> What's going to determine if it's credible and verifiable? >> We do. The board members do. >> Five board members look at every anonymous complaint that comes in and say there is credible and verifiable information in this. We're going to move forward with an investigation. But some things can be um credible and verifiable that don't necessarily have to do with something illegal. It could just be a policy that we have that

108is being um not being taken not being followed. And if it's credible and verifiable that they're not following a policy, then I think as a board we are we should be weighing in on whether or not we move forward with it. >> I would agree with Dave >> and I think it's a low enough volume that I don't think it's unreasonable to say that. I mean, we could even put in the policy that, you know, this will be this will be, you know, an anonymous complaint will be reviewed at the next board member at the next board meeting. I mean, we're never more than we're never more than four weeks away from a board meeting. I think the big thing is that if if it's not something that's illegal and if it's not something that

109is against policy, then that's something we wouldn't need to follow up on because it's not a policy. >> They're not doing anything wrong from our perspective of what is required of them. Um but if it's not following a policy or it's illegal then and there's verifiable information that we can verify to to check into it then I think it's behooves us to follow that to go through that one more step. >> I agree. Go ahead. >> I was just going to say I agree with um Mr. George and Miss Barnes. Um I would just add that uh the provision in 2B maintain like we'll maintain that in the policy. I do feel that anonymous communication shall not serve as the basis for any disciplinary or evaluative action unless it's legally mandated. >> So I agree

110with that provision. So if we if we determine that there is credible and verifiable, we do an investigation and determine that there was a violation of policy. Are you saying we don't discipline for a violation of policy that we were able to verify? >> It says unless legally mandated, >> right? Polic policy violation would not be legally mandated. >> It depends on >> some of them will be, right? But there's like four categories. whatever those four categories of legal requirement would be. But if we have a policy violation that we do an investigation and we determine that yes, this happened, are you saying that we shouldn't discipline an employee because that came in anonymously? I am saying that um because otherwise if it's legally mandated then we would but if it doesn't fall under that

111>> under the guise of protecting our staff because again it's going to be um some subjectivity in that even though the board will be reviewing that um I would think that if it's something to a greater magnitude that we would have the ability to then communicate with the um the person who's who submitted the anonymous complaint so that we can follow up and get additional information then therefore it's not anonymous and then we would follow protocol. So you're saying, but what you're saying though is if we verify that there's a policy violation, we're not going to discipline based on that verified policy violation only because it was an anonymous report. >> Yes. >> Okay. I don't agree with that, but I understand that. >> I don't agree with that either. I think if it's verifiable

112whether it's anonymous or not if they um can't get the word out if they didn't follow a policy and we can verify that they didn't follow follow a policy then there should still be disciplinary there still there should still be discipline but if it's not against the policy and you know Um, I'll just give a a silly example. You know, I I saw um um board member Barnes screaming at one of her kids. That's not against the policy. Somebody might like it >> and they could verify it, but it's not against the policy. Um, now if I post a kid, even my own kid, that that could be against a policy and it could be verifiable even though it might have come in anonymously and I should be disciplined. That's what I'm saying. >> But

113in that in that case now that'd be a CPS call that would be >> that would be illegal that would meet the legal requirement, right? >> But what I'm saying is it came in anonymously and you have to verify it first. No, not if it's legal, >> right? >> That's the provision that I'm sticking by. >> Yeah. >> Because then it would be to some degree that it would definitely warrant some kind of discipline action. >> I guess I come down I've it's difficult for me to ask this question. All right. Um so respectfully, but why are we not protecting staff? >> We to the most of our abilities. But we are that's why we're doing it as a committee of the whole of the board >> rather than asking you know our administrators to

114evaluate those and if it requires an investigation then I you know I I think that the board also would would then be required if we're saying this needs to be investigated we would be the ones that would have to do the investigation. So, we're protecting the staff all the way up until the point that we verified that there is a policy violation. And at that point, there's not protection needed because there's a violation of policy. >> And furthermore, one staff who may call who may be the one reporting may want to be protected just as much as the one that they may be reporting on. We don't know the situation. So, you know, that's why you would want to review it. even if it's anonymous because maybe that person wants to make a complaint or

115file a complaint about something and in order to hear that person out and protect that person, you have to listen to what it is that they that they're what they're saying, even if we don't know who it is. And and I think we can even go back and look at the anonymous complaints that have come in, you know, in the last year, the ones that I'm aware of in the last year. Of the eight or nine that we received in the last year, we only investigated one. >> So, you know, did others need to be investigated? I don't know. I I I I don't think so. But I think that there's even some disagreement on the board on whether we think it should have been investigated or not. Um but you know if we bring

116that into the board and do it in handle it in executive session then we can make sure that you know number one staff are taken care of when they should be taken care of and protected and number two if there's a violation of policy and and we're able to verify that violation of policy that's also cared for because it could be one staff member anonymously reporting another staff member. And so now, which staff member are we caring for on a policy violation? Are we caring for the policy for the staff member that reported a policy violation because they reported it anonymously, >> or are we taking care of the staff member that actually did violate policy? How do you know trying to think of a policy that one staff member would do? Yeah, I don't

117Yeah, I don't I don't know whether that was I don't know whether that would happen or not, but but >> you know and and in the end as as as the board of education, we're responsible for making sure the policies upheld. So if we know of a policy violation as a board as a board, we can't ignore that. >> But my my stance is we want to be sure that we are upholding the integrity um of all of our policies as well. We don't want to give so much time and energy if these numbers might increase. We haven't seen it yet, but forward thinking, there could be an uptick in these. And we're spending so much time reviewing these. So, that's kind of where I'm coming from in terms of additionally protecting staff. Um, >>

118and I and I think if that happens, then you look to adjust the policy. Well, could it be just a policy if it to be outrageous? >> If it gets to be outrageous, then we have to figure out what the solution is at that point. I mean, it could happen, right? But we haven't seen that. I mean, you know, even going back historically, I don't know that we've had a bunch of anonymous complaints. I I'm not even sure if it's necessary to notify a staff person that we got an anonymous communication if we review it and determine that it's not worth going any further. I don't even know that it should be, you know, because this executive session we'd be reviewing them in. >> I I don't even think >> I think we should. I

119think we should. I mean, because we're not It is an executive session, but it's it's directly, you know, it's relating to one staff member. >> I think you still follow up with that staff member and say, "Hey, we received an anonymous complaint. Here's the general nature. We've, you know, as a board decided that we're not going to take action because it's not verifiable." I I think the staff member still needs to understand or still needs to have that knowledge. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. just reiterating it's a I don't agree with I do agree with you and that we should take into account but when it comes to um the discipline area you know to me that's a little gray if if it's anonymous and then we're invoking some kind of discipline upon a staff member

120but again there's so many variables in there it would have to >> come down to what kind of what the allegation is. >> Yeah. And then if it's that severe, it's going to fall into that legally mandated piece. Most likely just a clarification question on the ones that we know were required to harassment, child abuse, those those would be ones that we would still handle as we are now. Not it wouldn't wait to come in from the in front of the board. Is that an agreement? >> Okay. >> We don't we have legal requirements on handling those situations, right? >> Yeah, >> there are. That's kind of where I I kind of lean that direction too is we allow >> the proper authorities to investigate those and do those things. >> But that's now we're

121talking protocol. >> yeah, which is >> would be the next conversation I think after this policy is >> Yeah. >> What will determine if something is verifiable? Will it be a witness? Will it be the person that the anonymous complaint is about? How would you determine how do we determine what's verifiable? >> Well, you know, if I see an anonymous complaint come in and it's got, you know, very specific information, you know, this happened at this location, here are people who witnessed it, then we have enough information to be able to go and actually talk to people who witnessed this supposed event to verify whether that happened. Maybe it happened, you know, on High Street in Canal Winchester. I I don't know if there are cameras on High Street or not, but you know, do

122we use that? I don't know that I would that we could use that as verifiable. So, I think, you know, I think it's a case by case basis on on whether it's, you know, whether it's and and that's why I think also that that and and we had some discussions on this earlier. I think that's also why the board needs to be the ones that review these. Um, number one, that way it's the it's the five member group that's really charged with the responsibility of making sure the policy is upheld. Um, and number two, it kind of it it takes out any uh I guess any color of unfairness or or you know, potentially if we have administrators, a board of you know, a committee of administrators who would review these, you know, that's I

123think you're I think you're putting those administrators and potentially the staff members in question uh in a bad situation. So, you know, if we handle it as a board, then we can determine I think and I think it's I think it comes down individually to to an individual on whether we it's verifiable. If it is, then we have to do an investigation on it. And then my follow-up question, um, say it was like my sister, she worked for the school district and there's an anonymous complaint on her. Would I be excluded from voting? >> You would have to be, you would have to recuse yourself. >> So, if you know the person that the anonymous complaint is on. So, if you three knew someone and it was just me and you voting, it would come

124down to our decision. >> Yeah. Have to. Yeah. >> I wouldn't go with whether we knew them. I would have to go with whether or not there was a conflict of interest because I know a lot of people in this >> district and I could eliminate anybody, right? >> So I it would have to be somebody that >> would be a conflict of interest for me like >> you know a second grade teacher so I don't know but I'm just saying where where I could say I feel like this is a conflict of interest. I'm going to recuse myself. >> Well that that would you know we would really be affecting Adam. So, you know, it'd have to be whether there was a conflict that would from being able to look at that fairly and

125impartially. One thing you you mentioned was uh you know, if there were cameras on High Street and then you made the comment, you don't even know if you we could do that. >> I don't know if we could. >> Yeah, >> we we did. That's that's part of what part of this >> But we didn't. It wasn't it wasn't public cameras on High Street. It was specific cameras in an establishment. Right. But um did so yeah I don't know that I don't know that I differentiate that >> I think what he's saying is some are accessible and some are not might >> permission some take sound don't take sound. >> You know a high street camera is probably sitting down at high in water. If something happened on high street down by Huntington Bank you're

126you probably not seeing it. So I think there's a lot that goes into that and I think that's why we need to discuss these uh you know as a group and determine you know hey does this make sense for us to investigate because an investigation will take time as well and we all have a ton of time right so for you Galvat and around the world >> and and I'm not saying that necessarily that we have to investigate if it's something that we determine is credible and should be invest investigated. Um, you know, we could as a board turn it over to one of our administrative staff people to say, "We feel this should be investigated. Can you proceed?" But >> I don't I don't think I don't I wouldn't feel I wouldn't feel comfortable

127doing that >> really. >> Yeah. I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. I mean, if we're going to if we're going to take on the honest of or, you know, the responsibility of determining whether these need to be investigated, I think that we should have the responsibility of doing the investigation as well, which means we'll have to learn the SOP for investigations. >> Yeah, because I don't want to be an investigator. >> I would be up to you guys if you would run them by once you run that by legal. Yeah. I wouldn't think that they would think that the board of education should do investigations on >> like of certain people. I just that's but I don't know that. I think that if the policy is written then you probably want to run it by

128them. >> We would regardless >> right what 100%. >> So where are we at with this policy? >> I think I think we're I think we're still in uh in working and working group on it. >> Okay. So, we're going provide our own revisions or notes and provide them back to Adam or what are we going to do? >> Yeah, I think Sure. Adam. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And Adam sent this. You sent this to us, right? I think I think I remember seeing it in email somewhere. >> He had sent it to me and I had forwarded it to you guys in your weekly board or in the >> board meeting. >> Okay. update. >> I got it somewhere. Yeah, I remember seeing it somewhere. >> Obviously, we can sit here and what if

129it what if it's to death. >> Um, again, my basis for doing this is the protection staff. That's that's the basis. That's that's, you know, if you're talking about mission, vision, uh, you know, how to execute that, th this is this is at the top right there. This this is the vision. And so, how do we get there is the question. And what's the best way to get there? All right. Um, >> I'll redline this whole thing and send you some updates. >> Any um, anything else? Um, closing. Um, >> we might want to have a work session for that. I don't believe that you want to do work on a policy in email, but just thinking through. So, we might want to look at a work session to Okay. work through it. >> Can

130you um get a date for us and get back to us on when we could do a work session like in the next week or two? >> Yep. >> Do we have any policies that we're going to need to review in a work session at some point coming up? >> Actually, I have a stack um from Miola there. We could >> more than five. >> It's it's a big one. Uh, but we could tie that in. I've got them. >> Okay. >> Ready to go. There's a couple that we're still waiting out on, but that won't stop us. So, we can definitely do that. >> Make it. >> Okay. >> Um, I move that we adjourn at 7 or 9:14 p.m. >> Second. >> We take a vote, please. >> Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr.

131George. >> Yeah. Miss Green. >> Yes. >> Mr. Styley. >> Yes. >> Mr. Twist. >> Yes. >> Thank you everybody. [Music] We got a text brain problem here.