001for um the Canal Win and Chester School Board. You take roll call, please at um 7:01 p.m. Miss Barnes, present. Mr. George, here. Miss Green, here. Mrs. Tally, here. Mr. Twist here. Thank you. At this time, we'll stand and say our pledge of allegiance. 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. Thank you. Thank you and welcome everybody. Um, next on the agenda, we have the additions and deletions to any additions and deletions to the agenda. Um, no, there are none. Okay. All right. And then, uh, next on our agenda is, uh, the approval of the agenda, please. So, moved. Second. You take a roll call. Mrs. Tally? Yes. Mr. George? Yes. Miss
002Barnes? Yes. Miss Green? Yes. Mr. Twist? Yes. Thank you. Next on the agenda is we have a presentation tonight um from um our treasurer Nick Roberts who I've asked to uh give us a presentation on uh the state budget. Yep. Good evening. This is more of an update. Uh I kind of want to have some open discussion um once I get through uh but it's meant to be more of an update on what's happening uh with the state budget uh at this point. And we'll start with the state funding. Um last 10 years of the history, you can see uh we've went from 17.4 million to 24.4 million in the funding. I've got some key points of what has happened throughout this uh last 10 years. So in 1617, 1819, we were under a formula.
003uh we we had reached year six of the formula and then that formula went away when Governor Dwine took office in 2020. Uh we converted back to a flat funding model. Um he provided wellness dollars in addition to the flat funding uh from the prior year. Uh but the formula was eliminated in favor of the flat funding model. Um 2223 we introduced the fair funding formula. um model that's currently in place. It was planned to be a six-year phase in uh 24. Um they they did one base cost adjustment of 12% was the only base adjustment that was done so far in the four years of the funding formula. Uh we initialized the C in 2025 which generated $2.5 million for us. So had we not done that we actually would have uh decreased here
004uh without the 12% base increase here we would have this would have been the other way so with the base cost adjustment in 24 and then the C that we uh did to get additional disadvantaged uh dollars in 25 we would have pretty much been flat over the last five years had had those two things not happened. Is C considered state funding or is that federal? It's C federal. Uh but the disadvant economically disadvantaged is calculated off of C. Okay. Uh so we went from showing about 40% economically disadvantaged to almost 100% dis disadvantaged. Uh so we went from $300,000 of funding to $2.8 million because of the change in C and how disadvantage is calculated. So up to this point we were planning to uh come into the fifth and sixth year of the
005phase in on the funding formula. Uh Governor DeWine released that in his executive budget. Um there was no base cost adjustments but the phase in was to happen for years five and six. Uh the House budget which just passed I think 6239 or 6139 uh eliminates the fair funding formula back to a flat funding model. So basically guarantees that no district will receive less than they did in this current fiscal year. They're throwing some additional dollars in there, but it's mainly for schools that have uh a little bit of student enrollment growth. Um, which we're we've been flat uh basically flat the last couple years, even with the kindergarten uh half day to full day. But the most significant piece of the House budget uh is imposing a uh savings clause. Basically what they're they're
006saying is that you cannot carry over a cash balance greater than 30% of your prior year expenditures. So here's our cash balance history. Uh you can see we were low up until co uh we received esser dollars in 2021 2022 we received about $12.5 million that really helped schools uh build up general fund cash balances if they planned accordingly. uh we did um and it went up, but now us and most schools are going to start plateauing back down and coming back down because we no longer have those ESTR dollars. Just to give you an example in in tonight's forecast, just through March, nine months, salaries and benefits are up over $6.5 million with the loss of the Esser dollar. So, we will start eating into the cash balance. Um but the that cash balance
007requirement um is going to really crush us. So just give you an idea what the 30% means. We would have to get our cash balance down to 17.3 million if we were basing the 30% off of our current forecast. We haven't been below 18.8 million in the last 10 years. So, it really puts us in a predicament to transfer $28 million, spend $28 million, or possibly give $28 million back to to local taxpayers. Mr. Roberts, um, does that money have to actually just be allocated or spent? Spent. Spent. It needs to get out of the general fund. They're going to look at the general fund and if you have that then the language actually says the budget commission may reduce your taxes even below the floor to give the money back. Uh the house is
008celebrating this as tax reform. I don't really regardless as tax reform. uh tax reform would be reducing state taxes, reducing all of local tax, not just the school portion of it. Um so you can see that 86% of districts are exceeding this proposed 30% cap as of today. How does that affect um us with the proposed improvements that we have in the plan right now? Let me re ask that again. Sorry, my mic wasn't on. How does that affect um Cano and Chester schools with uh the proposed improvements that we have in our plan right now? Um if we would have to give that amount of money back, would we be able to to do those improvements still? Yeah, we would. We wouldn't. Let me be clear, we would not give money back. We will
009find a way. Um it actually would help us. What I would do is transfer the money into a capital projects fund to earmark to pay off that debt. Um, so it would be $19.2 million. So that gets us halfway there. I would move $3 million additional into the other debt that we that we borrowed to do the Indian trail edition. Um, so we'd be up to almost $23 million just in in debt um to secure the long-term future because that debt is a general fund debt. So we were required to transfer the money from general fund to um do those projects. Um so we would still be able to do the projects. Um just getting down to $17 million, it puts you it just restricts you so much when you have an operating budget of
010close to 60 million dollars. It just puts you in such a bind. Um because this would be at June 30th. I mean there November, December, January, February. We have very limited revenue that comes in. So this 17 million would be down at times five, six million dollars below. So and it shouldn't be a state level control. As you're going to see in a second, they're intervening with local boards. are intervening with what local control means. Those taxes were already they were passed. They were approved by the by the taxpayers. Every levy that is on a tax bill is approved by the voters. I mean, we haven't had any new taxes since 2009. That's not a secret. We don't have a plan for new taxes. Um, I feel like we're very diligent with the money. We
011have done $7.5 million renovation addition to high school. We've done the indent trail addition of 30,000 square feet. We're doing the performing arts center, athletic facilities coming up. Um multitude of other things in between. The the implications of this are are huge. We're going to adjust and we'll and we'll plan and we'll game plan however we need to do it. It's just the thought and idea that the state feels like they need to impose a requirement just on schools. I mean, I looked at I looked at property tax bills for people that live in Canal. A property tax bill was $12,200. 6,000 of it was the schools. There's $6,200 of that tax bill that's not the school. But we're not looking at cash balances for municipalities and townships and the county or we're not looking
012at the rainy day fund that the state has. I mean, they have over $2 billion sitting in a rainy day fund. But it's easy to say, let's do tax reform and give the school money back when they could also cut state income tax. They could reduce sales tax. They could they could do a lot of different things if you want to classify it as tax reform. But this is a direct t attack on school financing. The ultimate goal is to try to eliminate certain public school districts. I think that's the long-term initiative from the house at this point. So any questions at this point? So if you're wanting to advocate, I mean, it's kind of tough. The governor's executive budget really doesn't mean much at this point. It's going to come down to what the
013house and the senate decides they want to do. When the governor proposed his budget, he was phasing in. So our our really our critical concern was trying to get base cost adjusted because the formula was worthless to us. It was worthless to all the other school districts if they were not going to adjust the base costs. uh without a base cost adjustment, all that was going to happen was local effort was going to increase and local capacity t local taxpayers were going to take on more of the burden and the state share was going to go down without base costs. On average, the per pupil expenditure in Ohio has went up 6% year-over-year for the last 10 years. when you don't have a base cost adjustment to um take an account for inflation and and
014expenses going up while income tax and real estate values are increasing then the only result that could happen is local picks up more money and state share goes down. So the formula really was a disadvantage for us without a base cost adjustment. But long term, I'm a supporter of it because I know that a formula is ultimately the best financing model for us to have sustainability. The House budget is actually better for us on the flat funding, but you're fighting every two years and there's no reliability, sustainability, uh, and you're going to bat every two years like we have been doing. And then with the cap, it really just I mean cuts our legs to where we are pretty much stuck and there's not a lot of proactive planning. But I feel like that's kind
015of the approach is reacting to what's happening um and and just wanting to cut um public K12 schools. So we have a really good credit rating um which gives us really good interest when you go out to banks to get loans. um that credit rating isn't it it's based on carryover right it's based on carryover or not it's a big piece I actually had a call with uh Moody's for our rating today okay and it's a big it's a big piece of it yeah um so do we risk falling below their require their requirement to maintain our credit rating if we have to hold to maintaining no more than 30% carryover at the end of the year our rating would would most likely be downgraded. Yes. Yeah. Which right now we're looking right. There's a
016great chance that we're gonna our rating is going to be upgraded based on our call today just because of the local economy, cash balance, everything that's going on uh in the school district. Uh and like you said, ours we can only get bonds and those rates are much lower when you're rated higher. So, so it makes it harder for us to kind of plan our financial future when we're held to to the 30%. And it makes it more expensive for us to borrow money when we do need to borrow money because our credit rating is lower, right? So, it really kind of it it really kind of hits us from it's not it's not just one way that it's that it really strikes at our ability to handle the district fiscally. It's really kind of
017multiple avenues of effect. Yeah, it I mean we're earning $1.8 million on interest earnings right now. I mean lower your cash balance goes down. You're also now cutting your budget on the miscellaneous revenue side. So what I would say is reach out to your reach out to your senator. Um it's in their core at this point. I mean obviously we want to oppose the 30% reserve cap. Uh we feel that it's local control. Um and it should be in our hands. Um I don't I don't see it as tax reform. Um I I don't think that local decision should be made at the state level. Um that's why the it's why the five of you are elected to be accountable to the taxpayers of this district. Um, that's why we were required to have a
018public tax hearing a couple months ago for the inside millillage move. That's why we're required to take tax levies to to vote. Um, otherwise, this really trumps all of that. I mean, you've got the 20 mil floor law in place. You've got levies that are approved and passed by taxpayers. This basically says we don't care about any of those things. We're going to impose what we want to impose and deal with it basically is what they're saying. And we will deal with it. Uh I think we're positioned to be we're better positioned than some other districts. I'm talking to peers. I'm sure Kai you've talked to some superintendent. They I mean there's schools that are panicked like this could shut their doors. So Ohio is a home rule state. So can we investigate whether this
019is something that could be challenged assuming it passes and gets and gets signed by the governor? Can we at least talk to our lawyers and see whether this is an issue that could be um contested via home rule? We are we are a political subdivision of the state. So we I think home rule applies. I'm not a lawyer, but I stayed at a holiday and express recently. I I mean, we can we can always challenge it and I'm sure there will be a challenge. I mean, um there's a monumental lawsuit that 450 plus districts are a part of right now for for the school vouchers. Uh that was supposed to to start in November, but it just keeps getting kicked back and kicked back and kicked back and kicked back. Um, I mean, it's going
020to be probably as big, if not bigger, than the Dough case. Um, the Dough case had a lot to do with the the funding not being constitutional. Uh, you could argue that until you're blew in the face because I mean, some people say we're underfunded. Some people were saying say we we're overfunded. What does that mean? I mean, no one can pinpoint that number to say that funding is constitutional, but this is different. This case is different because they're taking public dollars and they're giving it to private use to where they cannot hold them accountable because they're considered to be private businesses. So, so I I just want to reiterate um this is being um recorded. Um it will be available to the community. Um my plan is to have a community town hall somewhere
021here close in the f in the near future um to address our residents. I think um you know we we have to make time for things like this. We um have very busy lives. We are all very busy. And and you know, this affects us all. It doesn't just affect those of us who have students in the district. It affects those who do not have students in the district. It affects our uh the value of our homes. Um it affects our community. Um and we may not all necessarily on this board feel the same way about it, but at the end of the day, we all love our school district. We love Canal Winchester schools and it's it's time that um I feel that we start talking directly to our public and letting you know
022here's how we need you to talk to your state senator Michelle uh Reynolds and your state representative Meredith Lawson Row to let them know how you feel and what you um would like them to do with regards to how the budget is funding our schools and that's why we wanted to give the community um information about uh what we see and how that's going to impact our school district. So, um I I don't have a date yet. Um but I would just say just be looking on um on the website or on social media. Um, my plan is if we need to do that, I really want to um have a question answer session for us to ask the questions to be able to um collect your questions and to be able to provide those
023questions um to those who represent us before a vote is taken so that they know where our residents stand. So if um and again uh we we have um provided you with this information because we think that it's very important that we all understand how our schools are going to be funded and where that might leave us as taxpayers. Yeah. Because at the end of the day now if the state was coming out and they're saying our goal was to cut state income tax or our our goal is to cut state sales tax. But that's not the message. So what's going to happen is schools are going to take a hit on their cash. They're going to take a hit on the revenue and then they're going to have to levy while the state share
024of everything stays the same. I would be okay if they said, "Okay, we're going to cut the state bill in half, not provide funding to the schools at this level, and then it's up to the local level to say, "Okay, let's go try to capture some of those state income tax dollars." But that's not that's not what's happening. They want to cut the school budget. Well, it's easy. It's easy to cut somebody else's budget. It's easy to take somebody else's revenue. Um, and and I've sent letters. I sent I sent a letter to uh the finance committee of the of the House and I said exactly that. You need to look in the mirror in a professional way. I said this, you need to look in the mirror and look at your own cash situation
025because it's easy to take someone else's money. But they're touting this as the most historical tax reform in the history of Ohio. and even throwing the numbers out. I mean, they're throwing billions of dollars of tax savings. And all that's doing is hurting public K12. And at the end of the day, it's going to hurt local taxpayers because those schools that have the ability to levy are going to levy. The the schools that are poor and don't have the ability to levy, they're probably going to have to shut down. That's just the reality of it. But unfortunately, I think that's the that's the goal of of the house right now. Not not it's not the full house, guys. It only it only passed 6139. There's key leaders house of the speaker of the house being
026the leader that want public education gone and they have the freedom to do what they need to do right now. We need a bipartisan. Not going to get into politics, but when you have every the Senate, the House, the governor, all one side, whether it's Republican or Democrat, bad things are going to bad decisions are going to be made. That's why it's great to have bipartisanship because we need checks and balances and right now the checks and balances are not there. Uh and it's not a Republican Democrat thing. It's just one side controls everything. So the balance is gone. And as we said, I I trust our community and I while we may have done voted a certain way in our community. I believe that our community doesn't necessarily want some of the things that
027are being proposed for our school districts. And so that's going to take our community to speak up, to call, to write letters, to meet with um those are those who are in charge of this proposal and let them know that how they these things are going to impact and they need the information so that they would be able to have those conversations. And I think uh President Barnes put it perfectly, but I just would like to add one last thing. if you would again for the people that are watching at home or people who are here those two or three or four bullet points that they should reach out to and who they should reach out to so that way it's very clear as to what our message is uh as a school district and
028as a board if you can lay that out right now for them. Again, you've already stated it but just those couple bullet points. Yeah, you can you can go to the Senate um Senate web page. That's that's that's that's whose hands it's in right now. Um, go to the Senate web page. The finance committee is listed. Um, that's where I would start. Um, Michelle Reynolds, uh, is our representative for the Senate. Unfortunately, it's it's it's too late for the House representative. It's already it's already passed the House, but it will go back to them after if the Senate makes any changes. It'll still go back to Well, it'll be a reconciliation. So, the House the House's version is going to remain the House version. the Senate will have their version and then they'll come together
029to reconcile the differences. Um, but the Senate is still able to hopefully get this cash requirement out of their budget and then the House and the Senate will will be able to talk. Um, so really the key thing is one, we'd love the formula to stay. That's that's the first thing. Um, I just don't think we have a fighting chance of that. But we still need to advocate it for I'm still advocating for the formula. That's number one. Two, the 30% reserve requirement really has to go. I mean, it it's a local decision and it really punishes every school district um fiscally. Uh, it's a budget cut without having to budget cut. Uh those are really the the two big things um right now. Yeah, those are the two those are the two things. Um
03030% reserve cap and trying to get a funding formula back or keeping the funding formula. Um hopefully the Senate is able to do both of these things. Uh maybe hopefully they work more off the governor's executive budget to where the if the phase end continues and we look at base cost and then it becomes a debate between the house and the senate. Um but we need to advocate that. I tell treasurers that they're like I don't think the 30% reserve requirement is going to stay. So I'm like you still need to write your representation to make sure that that doesn't stay. You can't just hope that it's not going to stay. And and I would say um as a third, it's the um and it may not be affecting us that much right now, but
031it is affecting a lot of the school districts in the state of Ohio, and that's the voucher program. um because it takes money out of our schools and I don't think enough people understand how that's funded um and how that affects our school districts um and to the extent that um it's fair across the board. As public schools, we're held to a certain standard for reporting, for um providing various different reports to the state um to let them know how our students are doing, various different rules and and regulations that apply to us that do not apply to private schools who are receiving the f public funds um for ever how they're getting them. um for um private schooling outside of public schooling. They're not being held to the same standards as public schools are
032being held. And so I just would like to see our legislators u look at the policies and procedures around that and make it more even across the board. If if you're if a kid is not going to be in in in a public school and public funds are going to be taken from our public schools to support a kid going to a private school, then the rules for that private school need to be the same as they are for public schools. That's my opinion. Um but uh I just would like to see less of our money being taken out of out of our public schools and going to private schools because we budget our school districts based on the number of kids in the district and that could potentially go here and our we do
033a great job I think of educating our students and we want to keep that up and that costs money so we don't want to lose funds that will allow us to be able to continue the programs that we have in our school district. And I just wanted to add, I'll get into it a little bit more in my report. Um, but to President Barnes's point, um, I just wanted the, um, listeners to understand that the majority of Ohio's students attend public schools. um over a million students attend schools in Ohio and 90% approximately are metriculating in public schools versus the 10% that are attending private non-public schools and they are slated to get an increase whereas the public schools are continually um being decreased in funding. Um, so this board is very passionate about putting
034information out to the public so that you understand how schools are funded, what's at stake, because this budget bill is very consequential. Um, so, uh, we're just asking you to reach out to your, um, state representatives, your state senator specifically at this point, and just, you know, fiercely let them know how these decisions are going to impact the students in our district. Um, we're going to do the same. And just like, um, Mr. Roberts said, I also wrote to the House Finance Committee as well. Um, we just need everyone to do what we can and unfortunately it it appears to be an a political agenda. Um, and there is attack an attack right now on public education. We just have to face that and we have to get out there and fight and do what
035we can do. I'll give you a couple stats. 1.4 million school students attend public schools. 101,000 attend private schools. Another 103 thou thousand attend charter schools. $1.2 billion in school vouchers were awarded last year. 89% went to families household income of over $144,000. How much Say that again. Say that number again. About 89% went to household incomes of over $144,000. So it comes out to be almost 90% the 1.4 million that are attending public schools versus the 10% that are attending charter andor private and within those numbers are the homeschooled kids as well. And with the increase and correct me if I'm wrong, but with the increase in the voucher money that has been going to private charter, um there has not been a huge increase in students attending private or charter. It's the the
036story is that the money is going to those students who were already choosing private or charter schools. Yeah, I think it's been validated um through organizations that confirm that data that most of it is just kids that were already attending private. And I believe one of the I believe the House budget bill that was just released actually increased the financial household financial dollars to receive funding. They increased that amount to be to go even higher. So now more students will have access to it. I I think it's almost unlimited at this point on your income. Yeah. And it's all messaging, right? It's all messaging. Uh the words of uh speaker of the house is the school funding formula is not sustainable. But at the same time, we're giving $1.2 billion to private entities for private
037use. Um, five years ago, private entities because we're not really holding them to account either. Correct. The money, public money that they're getting. Eight years ago, we were spending too much money. Now, we're not spending enough. It's so it's it's all messaging. Um I and I think that's what people have to understand in the public is they're saying what they need you to hear when a lot of it is just um kind of a mirage of what really what's happening. Um obviously it's our job to uh to do this. Um, it's tough from a per public perspective to to know everything and listen because the you're going to see headlines, you're going to see news stories, you're going to see just the clips of of what's happening, you're going to see historical uh tax reform,
038you're going to see all of these different key points. Uh, we're just urging you to pay attention to the details um within what's happening. So that's all I have tonight. Thank you. Um I appreciate that. Uh so again um don't just contact um one of your state representative um your state senator Michelle Reynolds. There are several other ones that represent the state and they all vote. So uh we need to rep you need to contact them all. make an effort to send a letter to all of them and let them know how you feel about uh school funding and the budget and how it's affecting the school funding. So, thank you everybody for listening to that. Um, next on our presentation agenda is a little lighter note of knock your socks off uh from our
039uh staff for staff recognition. We haven't had this for a while. So, we have not and we did those of you that have seen the socks we did have to order new socks. So, we have a new branding of the socks. They were maroon with white. Yeah, some of that you have them and now they're white with maroon. So, took us a little longer to get those in, so we had a little bit of couple months off. But, I am excited to recognize three staff members as our April 2025 recipients of the Knocked Your Socks Off awards. First up is Ashley Bradley, health aid at Canal Winchester High School, and she was nominated by Amy Cruz. Amy says that Ashley is a vital component to keeping Canal Winchester High School running smoothly. She does her
040job with confidence and confidence. It's nice to know that students who need help from the clinic will be taken care of and return to class in a timely and efficient manner. Ashley is always willing to reach out to staff to take care of our needs as well as our students needs. She helps everyone who comes comes to her in need and even those who don't make it into her office. It's so nice to have a clinic that works efficiently within our building. I want Ashley to know her aptitude and skills are much appreciated. So, congratulations and you can come up and receive your [Applause] socks. All right. All right. Next up, and I do not believe the others two could be here with us this evening, but next up we have Jacqueline Tishu, who is
041our mental health specialist at Indian Trail Elementary, and she was nominated by Susan Kurpatre. Miss Kurpatre says, "Miss Tishu goes above and beyond every day to service the behavioral needs of the student at Indian Trail. She maintains a calm and collective demeanor while showing she truly cares about our students and their well-being. Mrs. Tishu has been a great addition to the Indian Trail Elementary School staff and our mental health team. And congratulations to Mrs. Tishu. and I will deliver their socks and their certificate um when we get back next week after the break. Next up, we have intervention specialist Brittany Jardy who is at the high school and she was nominated by Renee Hamilton. Miss Hamilton says Brittany consistently demonstrates exceptional dedication to both her students and colleagues. She frequently sacrifices her coverage period to
042provide additional support to students who are struggling, ensuring they receive the help they need. It is not uncommon to see her sharing her lunch break with students at her desk as she prioritizes their academic success over personal time. Beyond her commitment to students, Britney is also a highly supportive colleague. During my absence due to the illness and passing of my mother, she went above and beyond to ensure my classes ran smoothly. She prepared copies, organized lesson plans, and facilitated a seamless transition in my absence. She even welcomed my honor students into her classroom, offering guidance and checking in on them while a substitute was covering my classes. Additionally, she took the thoughtful initiative to decorate my classroom for March before my return, knowing it was something I did each month. Britney's dedication, kindness, and unwavering
043support make a profound impact on those around her. Her willingness to go above and beyond does not go unnoticed, and I want to express my deepest appreciation for all that she does. Congratulations to Britney. Thank you. Next on the agenda, we have the uh C.WEA presentation. Good evening. I'm Carla Sherwinsky, CWA co-president along with Britney Link, who is our Indian Trail building rep. And we just have a brief um update um of things going on across the district. Um we're just going to give you a snapshot of what's happening. Um at Indian Trail, our second graders creatively developed their math skills through an Easter egg hunt last week. Inside the eggs, students were tasked with practicing their money counting skills as well as their clock reading skills. Sixth graders in Mrs. Shiplet's flight and science
044class recently showcased their Newton's Cradle project to teachers and students throughout the middle school. Mrs. Logston's fourth grade grade reading class has been creating Google Slides, introducing books that each student enjoyed during their 40 book reading challenge. These slides serve as book talks to recommend new books to try out from um to with their fellow classmates. Um Ohio State testing is um taking place at Winchester Trail, the middle school, and the high school. Buildings have held pep rallies to drive student buyin as well as a way to unwind after testing has taken place. Testing will continue after spring break. Lastly, we would like to invite everyone to the Winchester Trail Elementary production of 101 Dalmatians Kids that will take place at 7 PM on April 25th and 26th right here at Oolie Speaks. It is
045sure to be a dogone good time. So, um you're all invited to that. And that is our report tonight. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Can you tell the energy that Carla just gave like that they're on spring break today? All right. Uh the next part of our meeting is public participation. Uh we did not have anyone sign up before the meeting for uh public comment but wanted to make sure that no one had come in after the start of the meeting uh or had not had an opportunity to sign up to give public comment. Okay. All right. Um, just before we do the executive reports, um, I wanted to, um, have a comment and maybe even apologize to, um, our teachers for whatever reason. Um, I think I might have said something at the last
046meeting that, um, may have come across as though I'm not supportive of our teachers. Um, but I want all of our teachers to know that I am very supportive of every teacher at every level in this school district. Um, I love you all. I think you guys do a great job. Um, and I just give you guys a little bit of background from me. Um, I have been a foster parent for over 10 years. Uh, I came to Canal Winchester over 20 years ago. I've had four students that have graduated from Canal Winchester schools and my heart is in here for Canal. So, um, whenever I say something, just just know I have your back and I'm definitely there for our teachers and our administrative staff and our school district and community. Um, I don't
047say the things that I say here. Um, I don't take anything lightly and I want you all to know that I think the world of this community and uh I I I'm here to bridge the gap and to make sure that we all have um the same uh that that anything that we do or say that we we should feel like we can talk in this community. We can say what we need to say and we can feel good about the things that um our teachers are doing and how well that they come in here every day and they do their job. I I can't even imagine um being a teacher sometimes. So, uh I I appreciate everything you guys do. So, the next thing we have on the agenda is um the executive report
048for the treasury. Good evening to me. Again, I'll keep it short. Um we are trending to the forecast. Um salaries and benefits make and purchase services make up the largest piece of the budget. We should be 75% through. You can see that we're under in each of those areas. Uh so we're trending right to where the forecast is. Um other revenue is actually trending upward. Um otherwise revenue is trending almost exactly where we've projected throughout the lines um year-over-year. Uh this would scare you um if you didn't have the prior report. You can see that we're up $6.4 million. Um, but when you pop back up here and you see that we're at 73 and 74%, uh, we were expecting those increases. Uh, but those are big big increases, uh, year-over-year. Um, sitting with $50.8
049million. Um, it's the it's the biggest cash balance we have in a year. We just we we just received all of our property taxes uh from Franklin and Fairfield. Uh, so we're at the height of a cash balance. Uh, And then after this, you start spending down uh until you get the next property tax collection in August. And then after that, it's it's a long way home. Um so interest earnings are still uh booming. $1.9 million uh is what we've posted to this point. Uh three million last year. I think we're going to get u pretty close to that, if not exceed that. Um, it's just it's a big part of our other revenue. And that's what I was saying earlier. When you lose the ability to have that kind of cash on hand, you
050lose another revenue source. Um, and right now it's historical interest rates. Our portfolio is averaging close to 4.5%. Um, that's why we've borrowed instead of spending cash. uh we've been strategic in everything we've done uh that has led to uh our current financial position. So any questions on the reports tonight? What's the unrestricted grants and aids number that 211 that's down? What is that? This here on the next page. Uh that's the state budget. That's that's the base funding. Uh it's down $211,000. um which it it is down this year. Uh we went from 20.2 million down to 19.7 million in funding. Is there anything particular that other than state funding? Is there something about the state funding that went down that made it go down? No base cost adjustment. Um even though we picked
051up 130 new kids through full day kindergarten, uh our formula still says we're going down. That's the impact that base cost has uh on the formula. So had we not had full day kindergarten, we would have been down about 1.5 million um in the same funding formula, same amount of kids uh just because of no adjustment to base cost. Okay. just go down that go down to the interest income piece. So, just kind of to to you you glossed over this and and it went by really quick, but but what we did we so we have cash and we could have paid cash for our kindergarten edition and we could have paid cash for the upcoming performing arts center. And rather than doing that because of the position that we're in, rather than and because
052of our great credit rating, we borrowed the money because we're getting a low interest rate to borrow the money and we're getting and then we invest that money and we're getting a higher interest rate than it cost us to borrow that money. So last year we made $3 million in interest income um off of by doing it that way because of the cash position that we have right now. So, kind of going back to our long conversation earlier around the state funding, you know, if we were held to that 30% threshold, we wouldn't have made $3 million last year. Our cash balance would be significantly lower than it is right now because we would have had to pay cash out of our general fund for the kindergarten edition. So, it's not just about having money.
053It's not just about having a slush fund, you know, which I've heard some people refer to our cash balance. It's not a slush fund. It gives us the ability to kind of be proactive about the way we spend money so that we can intelligently spend the district's money and, you know, not only do the things that we need to do to make the school district better, but also make sure that we maintain that same uh kind of fiscal responsibility with the money that we've been entrusted with. So, I didn't want to gloss that over. Nick, you very well said. You sped right through that. Yeah. And this is the reason why I asked him about that number. I I didn't want to like skip over the fact that if we hadn't gone with all day
054kindergarten and just to get that information out to the community and the public is how that impacts us and how that number would have been a lot less if we hadn't been a if you hadn't, you know, done some of the planning that that we needed for the school district to make sure that we, you know, had the right money. Had this holiday kindergarten were able to re receive those revenues from the state. So no, you said things matter and they count. I mean we've timed things up well. So had we not let's just say next year we we would have opened full day kindergarten. We wouldn't have picked up another dime for that in the flat funding model. Um so we timed it up. we knew the funding formula there was a chance of
055it going away. So we hurried and did the addition. Um so there's a lot of things that go into play, but you're right. The the biggest thing of having cash is you are in the driver's seat. When you get down to a certain level, you're reacting. And I've been in that position. And I'm telling you, it's not it's not a place you want to be. It's not fun uh to have zero dollars in January, February, March. I'm not saying we're there. I'm just saying the writing's on the wall. The biggest piece of the cash balance is once they get you to that, then the state budget cuts come and then you're at the mercy of the state and you're and you're you're reacting to have to levy. So, I mean, it's baby steps to getting
056to where they they're trying to put us. So, and also, um, it's important for districts to maintain a cash reserve. Um, for example, the ESR funds have gone away. Um, we, uh, want to pay our teachers competitively. Um, we had the funds to do so. Um, there's other implications as well. It just kind of goes on and on. Um, it supports different programming for our districts. Um, it allows us to uh make decisions for long-term planning um comfortably and responsibly. Um, it's just something that is wise and prudent for districts to to have and maintain. Okay. Thank you. Um, next on the agenda is the superintendent report. Thank you very much. Good evening, board members and community members. I'm proud to announce that Canal Winchester Schools has been named one of Columbus CEOs top workplaces
057for the for 2025. This recognition is especially meaningful because it's based entirely on anonymous feedback from our staff through a survey that measures organizational health, culture, and employee engagement. This award is a reflection of the strong, positive culture we've built together. A culture where people feel supported, valued, and committed to our shared purpose. I'm so grateful for the dedication and heart our staff bring to work every day. They are what makes Canal Winchester schools such a special place to be. Next week, I'll have the opportunity to speak at the Canal Winchester Chamber of Commerce's state of the school's lunchon, which will be held on Wednesday, April 23rd. I'll be sharing updates on the progress we've made toward our facilities master plan and highlighting new and expanding career pathways at Canal Winchester High School. I'll be
058joined by our career readiness coordinator, Jasmine Stevenson, who will speak about the meaningful ways we're preparing students for life after graduation through work-based learning, professional skill development, and internships. We look forward to sharing our story with business and community partners and continuing to build strong connections that support student success. That concludes my report for this evening. Thank you for your continued support of Canal Winchester Schools. Mrs. Hunt, what time are you speaking then on Wednesday? The 23rd. What time is that? Sorry. Nope, you're on the spot. 11:30. Okay. Sorry. Thank you. Nope, you're Thank you for asking. There. I think there's still um I don't know. Is it tickets avail? Yeah. if you're excited to come see me speak. Um at this time we'll do our board committee reports. Um we could start um with
059you with Monica. Good evening everyone. Um much of my report will echo uh talking points that we've already discussed. Um but nonetheless um we are very much still in a advocating for the fair school funding plan even though just like Mr. Robert said um it's pretty pretty difficult pretty challenging at this point but we're still going to um make our voices heard. Um it's again more equitable and a robust approach to funding schools and it helps to ensure that the state contributes its fair share. Um on April 9th, the GOP majority le house passed its version of House Bill um mostly along party lines and has sent the budget to the Senate and my record show was a 6039 vote. Yeah, that sounds right. Um following two months of testimony and negotiations, um their version
060of the bill underfunds Ohio school districts by $2.75 billion. So, it reduces funding to school districts while increasing money put towards private and non-public charter school vouchers. Um, one of the um, as we've discussed in at great length, um, one of the additional changes made and it greatly impacts school funding is the creation of the ceiling on how much money the public school districts can potentially carry over from year to year. um this can result in a reduction of school district property tax rates and it does not consider the unique circumstances of each district and the reasons for their cash balances. Um this kind of funding provision makes it more challenging for districts to engage in meaningful long-term planning um that benefit our students and the community. Uh the Senate Education Committee is slated to
061begin its work on the budget bill starting the week of April 28th and they are working um in an expedited manner to kind of push this through. So keep that in mind. So our work and our advocacy and support for the fair funding for schools um is certainly not over and it's more important now than before. Um, this bill reflects the state's priorities which seemingly do not align with what is best for our students and our families. Um, I reiterate that uh one key demonstration of this is by the foregoing and dismantling um of the fair funding, the fair school funding in the house version of the bill. Um therefore please consider contacting your state senator and thank you for your attention and this concludes my report. Thank you um CWJRD. The only thing I
062wanted to report is uh we had conversation of uh starting esports and I think that's uh exciting possible creation once again developing programs at the youth level to help build our high school programs and uh Mr. George, do you have anything to add? Uh the esports actually went live, registration went live last week. So uh if you have kids that are interested in online gaming, uh esports are live on the CWJRD. So go in and get your kids registered. No equipment necessary. You know, we'll have computers. Uh I think they're they've listed some of the games they're participating in like I think Mario Kart or Super Mario Kart is one and I don't know what the other ones are and I probably wouldn't know how to play it even if I did know what the
063name was. So, but it's live now. Great. Thank you. Um Miss Tally, do you know um what the number the Senate bill number is? Um I don't have Okay. So, it's still House Bill 96. If you call in or you write, that's what you refer to. Still House Bill 96. Um, student achievement liaison, Miss Green. I have one thing um to report on and it is about a scholarship through the OSBA Black Caucus. It's the Leo Lucas Scholarship. The Leo Lucas Scholarship is named for the late Leo Lucas, a Dayton City Schoolboard member and educator who founded the caucus, providing graduating high school seniors with funds for college. The application uh portal is open through April 30th, and the scholarship is for $500. So, if you know any seniors that are looking for some money
064for college, um feel free to apply for this at the Ohios.org website. Um and that's all I have. Uh next we have the district reports backage. Okay. Um do we have any um reports from the districts that anyone wants to do specifically? Yeah, I have several things. Um, first of all, I wanted to welcome President of the City Council, Will Bennett, is in attendance tonight. So, good to see you, President Bennett. Appreciate you coming in. Um, couple uh congratulations out to I wasn't here last month and uh my wife had had surgery, so I was out of town. Um, but uh wanted to congratulate Mrs. Krooks on uh middle school staff member of the month. And this month, oh, I'm sorry, last month was was Dr. Bdon. This month was Mrs. Krooks. Uh, so I
065wanted to say congratulations to the the to the two, excuse me, to the two of them. Um, the middle school science Olympiad, uh, qualified for the state tournament on Saturday, Mr. Moore. And how'd they do? Did really well. Excellent. Excellent. All right. Um, also I think it's exciting. We're we're tonight I believe uh we are approving the new drone club and uh I think that's extremely exciting. Um my kids were when they were growing up were extremely excited to have drones and and to play with them and to have a club for that at the school to offer that opportunity is is uh pretty neat. Um, the last thing I I would like to do is uh read a letter that I've written to the teachers of the district. And uh I believe and I
066did not send this out to the board ahead of time. Uh but I I do think that that they will agree with uh what with what I had to say. And if not, they can speak up. But um here here's what I what I put in it. So dear teachers, we want to take a moment to recognize the incredible work you do every single day. Teaching is not just a profession. It's a calling, a commitment, and a labor of love. The time, energy, and heart you pour into your classrooms does not go unnoticed. You carry the responsibility of shaping young minds, guiding them not only through academic lessons, but through the many life lessons they encounter along the way. You adapt, support, inspire, and uplift, often all at once. It takes patience, resilience, and an
067extraordinary amount of care to do what you do. We know the job isn't always easy. The late nights planning, the extra hours spent supporting students, the constant balancing act of expectations and challenges. These are the things most people don't see, but we see you. And more importantly, we are deeply grateful for you. Thank you for showing up even when it's tough. Thank you for believing in your students even when they don't believe in themselves. And thank you for making a difference every single day. So, I just wanted to in and uh I know that March um I wrote it down here. Where is it? May, I think. May, I'm sorry. May 5th through the 9th. So, it'll be before our next meeting is teacher appreciation week. Uh so, that was one main reason that that
068I wanted to to uh make that statement to all of our all of our staff members. uh truthfully, whether it's a custodians, uh support staff, um people that work in the c in the cafeteria, whoever it is, we thank you for your time and your efforts and what you do for our kids. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I did want to say I had an opportunity to go visit Winchester um trails and um Indian trails and I enjoyed my time with um with Miss Hunt cruising the halls of Winchester Trails, but I enjoyed the time at Indian Trails even more because I got to go hang out in the library for the book fair and it was just amazing watching the little people with their with their little money and trying to figure figure out
069what they were going to buy and what mommy and daddy said they could and couldn't get and uh just you know just the various different things that they the books are there's so many books. Um so that was a lot of fun. So I I I know my kids always loved the book fairs at the school and they've changed a little bit but it was still a lot of fun have being there and watching them um spend their little funds on the book fair. So anyone else have anything? Yeah, I just wanted to add um just wanted to also recognize the high school um Olympiad teams. Uh they did a great job as well. Um and to uh echo the sentiments of um Adam. Uh I wanted to express kudos to the high school staff
070of the quarter uh for being recognized for exemplifying key portrait of a graduate competencies and going over and beyond their standard roles. Um, and I'd like to recognize Ben Wyatt, Autumn Fugate, Kevin Barhurst, Todd Solders, Lynn Bombush, and last but not least, Sandy Thomas. Thank you. Okay, moving on to next on the agenda is our consent agenda. Motion for approval of the consent agenda. So moved. Second. Thank you. So we're going to start off with number two is the minutes. We have um the minutes from the March 10th regular meeting and the minutes from the March 26th special meeting. Number three are donations. We do have several donations um and we want to thank each individual for their donation. uh several uh I'll go through here quickly. We have a donation to the senior scholarship
071from the high school class of 1960. We have uh several donations to the fourth grade STEM field trip. Uh let's see, it looks like the Praau family. We have the Brock Strong Foundation, the Fuller family, the Scott family. Uh Colin Weaver. Oh, I should have stuck with first names. Um we have Loris McHugh Kepundi um and the elementary school PTO and we also have donation from the Sedeskis to the track boosters and another donation from the Brock Strong Foundation to the middle school media center. So again we just want to thank everyone for those donations. Um number four is our certified personnel. We do have three resignations uh from teaching staff for the end of this school year and we have certified recommendations coming in. We have an occupational therapist, a psychologist, and a school
072counselor. And all of those are replacement positions. We have extended days that we're asking you you to approve uh for Christy Krooks and Lisa Days. They're both middle school counselors and they need additional days than what we've approved in the fall to uh wrap up the school year and prepare for the start of next school year. And then also we are asking you to approve kindergarten assessors um at the rate of 3250 uh for the pretty much moving into May of this school year and into the summer to assess our kindergarten students uh for kindergarten registration. Number five is our classified personnel. Uh you'll see we have several resignations. Um we're also uh adjusting John Tusi John Tui's resignation date. Um we originally approved that on the uh April board meeting, I'm sorry, the March
073board meeting and that would move from April 11th and he has changed that date and has resigned April 4th. We have request for a leave of absence. And then we move on to classified resignations which are for um the remainder of this school year. We have custodian bus aids and a health desk specialist. And lastly, under classified, we are approving several uh bus and custodian sub positions. Moving on to number six is our supplemental personnel. Here we are approving uh several spring positions as well as um approving two winter director positions. And again, we these are ones that we missed earlier. Um we are uh restructuring our uh process of hiring the theater and the music position. So hopefully this is cleaned up come for the future. We have our supplemental and our stipens uh
074a varsity soccer position for next school year for the fall, a volunteer position, and we're rescending a contract uh for our high school JV assistant position. And then number seven, we have our student workers. We are hiring our summer technology interns. Um, these students will make uh an hourly rate of $15 an hour. However, the district will be reimbursed for the cost of the student interns by the governor's office of workforce transformation as part of ODU's high school tech internship program. And number eight, we have our overnight field trips which uh we have our canal Winchester OMU traveling to the junior OMUN conference and that would be April 27th through the 29th. Next, we have our new student activity charters. We're approving two clubs. The Dungeons and Dragons Club that will be at the high
075school and also as mentioned by Mr. twist, we have the high school drone club and that will be advised by Jordan Octman and that will be held at the high school. And last uh under consent agenda, we have our early graduation request uh for two students um that both will be graduating 14, which is today. Great. Thank you, Mr. George. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Next is action items. Classified salary schedules. Oh, can we take a a motion for um action items for classified salary schedules? So moved. I'll second. Thank you. So this is the salary schedule. Uh starting with this year, uh we are going to change a couple positions. It's it's small changes. So previously under the um we had our technicians, they were computer technicians and with um Mr. Aulie coming in as
076our new tech director, he's made some changes that we have. So we're changing the technicians to help desk specialists and integration specialist. So they're still technicians, but these positions help us to really uh name them on what they will be doing. And so that's the change. It still stays in that same column. And then we are also changing our net network, I think it was network support specialist, network systems coordinator. Um and that one will be changed to an infrastructure specialist. So again, same column that we will have that um but we are we did make some changes to those names just to uh update the information. Mrs. Hunt um by any chance does this change help accommodate like different families requests in case they were looking to get like ticket assistance and a quicker
077response? Yes. I'm actually Mr. Pulley, can you would you mind coming up and answering that question because he just shared with me last week or the week before um changes that he is making specifically to the help desk both internally with staff and then with families? Yes, indeed. Is the green light on? All right, perfect. So, so yes indeed, we're working uh toward that end. There are two major changes that we already have put in place. The form um used to go to one individual, now it goes to seven. Every time uh someone submits a written request, it would go to to everybody in the technology team. We'll go to our ticketing system. Used to be somebody's email, now it is into our ticketing system. That's the first thing. And the second thing, we're putting
078together a an email as well as we'll modify our website, a phone number, and we will modify our website uh to to allow parents to call if I have an immediate request. Now what we need to do is train our staff. Initially it was one person who took who took all the work because we were very segregated. Now we need to train all six or seven staffs who are building SOPs as well as we're having training sessions to address those needs. But I foresee that this would be live before the next board meeting. And now since I said that I can take it back, right? That's how it goes. So yes. Okay. That's our goal. I'm happy to hear that. Thank you. Thank you. I I did notice from from the district report that ticket
079time had been reduced from like two and a half days down to like four hours or something like that. Yeah. So I noticed that. So we're already seeing positive movement for getting resolution on those. So I appreciate that effort. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Miss Barnes, Mr. George. Yes, Miss Green. Yes, Mrs. Tally. Yes. So approval of the city does that but the city has ordinance code that requires developer to donate land or provide cash in the landing road acal came Not sure where the city is. Is it uh is it typical that these I haven't had one of these since I've been on the board. Is it typical that these kind of arrangements happen at this at this juncture? And I asked because I noticed as I was reading the
080third party report. So the sale terms to the developer haven't been finalized yet. So, we don't really know the actual value of that property. We know based on the third party report, and I'm assume they're fair. I don't have any question on that. But is it typical that this is handled this way? Yeah, we've done it. It's been a while, but we've done two other very similar. Uh, one was with this actual developer. I think it was in 2017 maybe. Um, but yeah, it's it's pretty typical u to handle it that way. Okay. I mean, I didn't It looked like it's I think it's what $35,000 an acre or something like that. So, yeah. I mean, that doesn't seem out of line with what I've seen property out in my neck of the woods. So,
081is this the is this the farm or the same land that was just auctioned off? No. I don't have any other questions. Thank you. All right. Can we take a vote, Mr. George? Yes, Miss Barnes. I'm not going to vote, Miss Green. Yes, Mrs. Tally. Yes, Mr. West. Yes. Thank you. Next, we have on the agenda the 2025 High School Athletic Association membership resolution. The motion to approve resolution authorizing membership in the Ohio High School Athletic Association for the 2025 2026 school year. Um, get a motion. So moved. Second. This is a routine item that we approve annually um to allow us to compete in the OSAA. Any questions? Take a vote. Mrs. Tally? Yes. Mr. Twist? Yes. Miss Barnes? Yes. Mr. George? Yes. Miss Green? Yes. Thank you. Next we have the handbook discussion.
082Um, is there a vote on it? Is that motion? I move to approve the handbook for I'm assuming it's 257. Correct. Yes. Second. All right. time. They might the attachments of them they might be in a uh or they got lost in attachments. So, I'll make sure to attach those. Um but we reviewed these in the work session uh in when we had our work session. It was probably two weeks ago. And um the you know there were changes if you are following along or listening in when we do have the attachment you'll notice there will be what changed small changes for the most part uh but the handbooks will be approved for high school middle school Indian trail preschool and athletics. So So are we taking a vote on it tonight or is this
083another reading? Nope. Take it we will take it take a vote tonight please. Yep. Um so the motion we do. Okay. All right. So we go ahead please. Mr. George. Yes. Mrs. Tally. Yes. Miss Barnes. Yes. Miss Green. Yes. Mr. Twist. We have the first reading for discussion items of policy. Yeah, great. Um, we again spent uh some time in the work session reviewing uh the policy. So, they're here for a first reading. I do want to make mention uh that one of the policies which would be 5223 is the policy on release time for religious instruction during the school day. We the law actually changed that we would be required to have a release time policy in place. Um our release time policy uh does make some statements that I'm just going to highlight
084uh for our listeners. So there will be no board funds that would be expended for and no district personnel would be able to be involved in uh the provisions of rel religious instruction. The policy also states that students shall not be excused from a core curriculum subject course to attend released time instruction. Uh and the board deems that all graded courses would be core curriculum. And um it would be the responsibility of any private entity providing the religious instruction during release time from the school day to annually submit to the board an acknowledgement that it is responsible for ensuring that all instructors, staff, and volunteers will have completed background checks. Also, we would prohibit any uh distribution of pro promotional materials uh or solicitation of funds uh any advertising or commercial activities uh when students
085would return. And that would include a prohibition on providing participating students with any materials, snacks, clothing, candies, trinkets, or other items for their return to school. Um and again for in here it mentions that if there is a um entity that would like to discuss uh they would reach out and we would then sit down and look at how that would work for our buildings. Thank you. You're welcome. When is the final reading on this? The final reading will be at the May board meeting. May meeting. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Be clear, you just went over one of 25 policies, right? Yes. Yes. I just wanted to highlight one policy. Um we probably went through uh quite a few last week and there is an attachment that you would be able to click on
086to see the other policies that were revised and then a summary of why they were revised or new or deleted. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda, executive uh session. Do we need to go into executive session tonight? Yes, we do. I move to enter into executive session. I second. Yes. Miss Barnes. Yes. Yes. Mrs. Tally. Yes. Mr. Twist. Yes. Session. We're going to take a quick break. Um it's 8:23. Um so 8:20 8:25 or I mean um 8:30 8:30. Right. Thank you. And no action will be taken at this executive session. Um and we will reconvene back into regular session and um immediately um adjourn. Thank you. Thank you for attending.