001I call to order our May 18th, 2026 board of education meeting. Superintendent, you want to introduce our uh lovely students who will be leading us in the pledge of allegiance? >> Yes, sir. Uh so tonight uh we're being led by the students at Hyde Park School where Jill Sundererman is their principal. >> Hide Park Eagles, please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> As as I say, each week our schools get uh more and more creative in how they lead us in the in the pledge. Um, Treasure August, >> Miss Armbster >> here, >> Miss Bolton >> present, >> Mr. Crosset >> here,
002>> Mr. Lindy, Miss Matt >> here, >> Vice President Moffett >> here, >> President Craig >> here. Um, before I turn it over to Vice President Moffet to explain the virtual hearing in the public process, I just wanted to mention uh board member Lindy will be joining us a little bit later. He is currently uh delivering the conferral of diplomas at SCPA's graduation. It's a graduation every year that seems to fall right on a scheduled board meeting. Um but it is a tremendous one and so he will be in attendance a little bit later on. Uh Vice President Moffett, >> thank you. Members of the public who are online and wish to speak during our hearing of the public this evening may do so by clicking the chat button now. The chat feature will be
003open for your request for 5 minutes. If you would like a direct response to your questions, please make sure to share your name, your affiliation to the district, your school community, your topic, and your contact information. >> All righty. Uh, a motion uh, I'm sorry, a agenda was submitted for today's meeting. I need a motion and a second for our to approve our May 18th, 2026 business meeting agenda. >> So move. >> Second. >> Treasure August. >> Miss Arburster? >> Yes. >> Miss Bolton? >> Yes. >> Mr. Cross? >> Yes. >> Miss M? >> Yes. >> Vice President Moffett? >> Yes. >> President Craig? >> Yes. All righty. So the today's agenda has been approved. Um, do any board members have any acknowledgements or announcements? >> I do. And I'm gonna try to be brief
004because this is two meetings worth of stuff. So, these are my pictures. We're ready, Rob. I'm going to try to go through them quickly, as quickly as possible. And I don't have pictures, but kudos to Bor Weinberg and the girls track team. This was at the Evston um community day where we were very well represented. Um didn't take any pictures of kids, but we had Oh, wait. No. Okay. Well, that says Read Across Madisonville. I'm just going to keep going. We got Read Across Madisonville at John P. Parker. They're celebrating their 10th anniversary, and the kids got to hold chickens. They are doing some awesome things out there. If you would like to have a baby chick for a couple weeks, you can. They give you a box, food, water, and all that. and they
005just love cuddles. So, I attended that with board member map and board member Croset. Do you all want to say anything about ReadAcross Madisonville? >> Uh, sure. Read across uh Madisonville was just a great event. Lots of energy and a 10 I think a 10-year tradition and uh you know, let's just hope it keeps rolling on. lots of um community support for that school which is great to see. >> Uh yes, I would just add that again it was an awesome event. Um excited to be in attendance. >> Back one Rob back two now. >> One more. >> Um it's always really packed with uh the community and students that attend uh John P. Parker and so I was just really excited to be present and congratulations on tenure. >> Great. Dr. Mac at John
006P. Parker and their environmental program doing great things. Next event, North Aenddale had with under Miss Brookings had a wonderful uh volunteer parent event lunchon great food. They have shrimp burgers which was really good and um I got an opportunity to speak was the keynote there talking about the benefit of um volunteering and that was really good. Go ahead Rob. These are some of those pictures. And that's our very own Mr. Wilson uh who is was at the uh Slate Safe Sleep Lot grand opening. Uh we'll go back one more. Rob uh Superintendent Murphy, would you like to share the cool thing about that particular picture? The Girl Scouts. Okay, >> absolutely. So, Girl Scouts from Wet Hills High School decided to put a dropbox on the lot of books that have been donated so
007that children as they are staying at the safe sleep lot will be able to read uh in the evenings um nice books that have been donated. Okay. Go ahead, Rob. And we were joined by some of our city leaders as well. Kudos to my president Craig gave a great speech. Um, board member Armbberster was there, board member Croset, some of our city council members. Next, we have girls to women. They have an awesome leadership day that I was able to drop in on under Shelley Conrad. Uh, this was some of their cool shirts. I did. She sent some bags to all of the female board members. Sorry guys, you don't get the pink swag bag, but this was really, really good. Um, also I went to uh Rising Stars in Chevette. They had an awesome
008Taco Tuesday in celebration of teacher appreciation week. So these are just some pictures for there too. Um, they had a paint party for their staff and they invited me to attend. It was super awesome. I actually won a gift card to be honest with you. And um, so congratulations to our all of our teachers on teacher appreciation week. I really appreciate you educator of the year. I'm gonna kind of let um Superintendent Murphy take over this, but here are some photos and she can talk about our educators and what happened. I know you have a probably the names of everyone. I did attend that with my colleagues, board member Matt, board member Cross, would you like to say anything about that too? >> Sure. I I think it's it's um we are so blessed to
009have um Western Southern sponsor this uh great corporate sponsor the teacher year awards and um all all the finalists were deserving and it was it's a it's a really um important uh moment in the in the school year because this is this is school teachers that um are nominated by their peers and and Um there's a lot of thought that goes into the nominations and and who get who get who gets to receive the award. So it's an important event. >> Matt, anything? >> Again, just congratulations to all of the finalists and to the uh recipient. Um it's always a great event to attend every year and to see all of the amazing work that all of our teachers are doing in the classroom. Neil Beth was our teacher of the year and this is
010her and her mother. her mother and father were n 95 years old years young years young and then and her mother started families forward. So it was great history. Next I got an opportunity to confer diplomas at Western Hills High School. So this is a happy congratulations to the class of 2026 from Western Hills High School. And then I also attended that with Superintendent Murphy and then Dater High School as well. Um Dr. Blair was Western Hills and um Principal Madison was Dator. And I believe that I think they're out of order, but that's about it. I think that's it. Rob. All right. Thank you. >> Ready. Any other uh board me board member crosset? Yeah, I don't have any slides, but last Thursday uh adopted class had their uh uh skills trades day and
011there were a thousand children there and the majority of them were CPS middle school kids learning about uh the different professions in the trades. Very very well attended uh event adopted class. >> Uh board member Matt. >> Uh yes. So I just want to say congratulations to all of the graduates. I had an opportunity to confer the diplomas at uh Hughes as well as Oiler High School. So, it was a great experience. Um I also had the privilege uh of attending Midway Elementary School today. And uh this young man here is Sincere Cooks and I wanted to make sure that I highlighted him because this is his second year earning a perfect score, so an advanced on his math uh uh state test. And so for third grade and fourth grade, he knocked it out
012the park with an advanced uh rating and a perfect score. So if we could just congratulate Sincere CL and then also just want to acknowledge that um I had the privilege of finalizing my um book club experience with the girls at Midway today. And so you see we have on our shirts today that says readers make leaders. And so they were really excited um and really engaged in the book, A Good Kind of Trouble. And so just was excited to spend the day and the time with them. >> All righty. You know, as I'm sure all of us board members will say, the graduation time of year is one of the our best and favorite times of the year. Um I'll give my own little quick kudos and I'll pass it over to Superintendent Treasure
013for any of theirs. Um I had the great joy of attending Akin's graduation with Dr. Smith. Uh, I think we both can, uh, we're we're in agreement that these were the most huggingest kids we've ever had at a graduation. I mean, every single one was, "Oh, you get a hug, too. You get a hug." Um, but it is always one of our favorite times to really get a chance to see the joy and excitement that parents have and families have for their kids. All right. Uh, Superintendent Treasure Gustin, uh, any kudos? Yes, I have a few um certificated and civil service retirees I'd like to share with everyone first. And so from certificated staffing, we have Miss Kelly Gray. She's a teacher at Midway School. Speaking of Midway today, and then in our civil service
014class, we have several. First of all, Mary Barlage, a pair professional at Dar Monasuri School. Colleen Fogle, a pair professional at Oiler School. Cameron Glover, a custodian at Hugh STEM High School. We have Laura Moore, a support specialist in the department of positive school culture. Miss Lai Lahi Simpson, she is a pair professional at Frederick Douglas School. and Miss Brenda Toiver, a senior support specialist in our student dining services department. And then finally, we have one more. Miss Teresa Whitfield is a pair professional at Rising Stars. Not sure which Rising Stars, but she's a pair professional with our youngest learners. And then I do have one kudos mentioning all these end of the year celebrations and amazing things happening with our young people in schools. And so uh what we put together if you click
015on that link for me Rob is the CPS assessment brag board. So what happened was we started to see many of our principles posting about having amazing testing days, perfect attendance, all of the um celebrations that were going on, pep rallies, and so what we decided to do was put together this brag board. It says, "Sorry, we cannot open this file at this time. Bummer." Well, I think the Bragg board is listed in board docs if you want to take a look, but it does um talk about student growth and momentum, teamwork and collaboration, student engagement and ownership. It just has different examples of our students being leaders in all of our school houses. And that's my kudos for today. All righty. Um, thank you for the announcements and the coups. Um, Vice President Moffett,
016>> it's back to you. >> And we're up. So, we are going to have I'm going to call the following people down. Rob, can you tell me how many we have online? >> Yeah. As of now, we have about 13, but we're still processing some. So, if Dave go first, that would be wonderful. Thank you. >> Okay. Well, while we're processing that, I'm going to call down Mr. Griffin. We're also going to call down President Sers. Is she online? Okay, Mr. Griffin, come on down. Brian, come on down. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Julie, President Sers, if you could raise your hand if you're online or if you're in person, come down. I don't see you. Um, Lauren Carus. >> Good evening, everybody. How are you? >> Hold on one second, Brian. Hold on. Give me one
017second, Brian. And then Michael Cabraw. We'll just do those three or four so far. Go ahead, Mr. >> All righty. Good evening. I want to thank the Cincinnati Public School Board and Education for opportunity to address you tonight. I appreciate it very, very much. My name is Brian Griffin and I serve as the executive secretary treasure of the Cincinnati AFL CIO Central Labor Council representing tens of thousands of hardworking women and men in this city and their families. That's what brings me here. I'm here tonight on my way to yet another meeting to urge this board to place a levy on the November ballot. And that request coming from the labor council leader rather than a parent teacher organization tells you anything. If it does, let it tell you that the stakes have never been
018higher. What is happening to public education in Ohio right now is not a political talking point. It is a five alarm fire and the Cincinnati children are directly in its path. I know what some might be thinking. Can we win this? Are people too squeezed to say yes? Those are fair questions. But we do not get to choose the moments when we are called to stand up for our children. And this moment is certainly one of them. With the elimination of the bipartisan fair school funding plan, nearly $3 billion has been slashed from public education over the next two years and 1.5 billion siphoned away to fund private school vouchers. while the same legislature fund found 600 million for a Cleveland Brown stadium. Now, let that settle in. A football stadium while our classrooms go
019unfunded. Just let that set in. I am not an alarmist. I am a pragmatist, a realist who works every day alongside families who are working harder and harder to keep up. So, when Columbus just keeps piling it on, we have an obligation to stand up. And as any good worker knows, we have to stand up together. More than 75% of Ohio school districts are being underfunded and is the highest poverty districts being cut the deepest. That is not an accident. That is a choice. At the legislature is threatening to override vetos that could last cost another 203 million. Cincinnati's children can no longer afford the mistakes being made in Columbus. It's not about more money. It's about whether or not we are a community that refuses to let Columbus decide what our children are worth.
020Put it on the ballot. Let the people decide. And if we cannot win this one, shame on every one of us. Thank you. And unfortunately, I have to go to another meeting. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. All righty. Before I I call you up, Miss Lauren, resident sellers. Did she raise her? Did she >> um let me let me do these two because they're going to be two minutes each and then she may be a little bit longer. Miss Lauren, >> it's a hard act to follow. Um hi everyone. Good evening. My name is Lauren Carris and I serve as the chief learning officer at the Nancy and David Wolf Holocaust and Humanity Center located in historic Union Terminal. I'm also a CPS parent and I'm a former high school social studies
021teacher. I'm here tonight to urge you to reconsider proposed cuts to the curriculum and instruction department, specifically elimination of the social studies curriculum manager position currently held by David Trrowbert. For the past five years, I've worked closely with David through a partnership between Cincinnati Public Schools and the Holocaust and Humanity Center. And quite honestly, without David's leadership and vision, this partnership never would have happened. Because he understood the value of a meaningful social studies education, every CPS freshman now has the opportunity to engage authentically with history through visits to our museum. And this wasn't just a one-time initiative. We recently secured funding for another five years to continue this partnership because the impact on students has been so significant. By the end of this next phase of partnership, more than 20,000 CPS students will have
022benefited from this experience. What makes David's work especially important is that he didn't just stop at simply organizing a field trip. He and his team of talented curriculum coaches, Carrie McCarthy and Steven Uhhghorn, collaborated with us to create previsit lessons and museum activities that help students think critically before they arrive and engage more meaningfully while they are there. This kind of thoughtful curriculum work does not happen accidentally. It requires a champion at the district level. As a former teacher, I know firsthand that social studies is often one of the first areas treated as expendable. But in this moment with mis when misinformation, polarization studies education is not optional. It is essential to the health of our democracy. I urge you to preserve this role and continue investing in the kind of robust social studies education
023and experiential learning that all CPS students deserve. Thank you. Thank you. And I'm going to call up Mr. Mr. Michael Cabraw. I hope I'm not messing up anyone's name. So, okay. >> Good evening. My name is Michael Cabraw and I am a Cincinnati public schools teacher, a CFT building rep, a resident Cincinnati taxpayer. Tonight, I urge the board to use all tools at its disposal to fight the consistent attack attacks on public education in our district and our state. As a teacher who has worked my entire career in Cincinnati public schools, I have grown to know countless people who work in our schools in a variety of positions every day doing what's best for kids. I asked the board to consider cuts to non- studententf facing positions first before the board considers a cut to
024one of these positions that does so much to support student growth and learning. Our social workers, counselors, ads, coaches, psychologists, librarians, and secretaries do so much to support student learning and shouldn't be cut just because the board sees removing these positions as an easy fix. Additionally, the board should not make cuts in favor of bigger class sizes. Having taught high school classes of 35 students and 20 students and everything in between, I can tell you with absolute certainty that class size does make a difference and can impact student learning. It affects how much attention and support you can give struggling learners, how much feedback you can give on student assignments, and the overall learning environment the teacher is able to create in the classroom. Additionally, I asked the board to use all tools at its
025disposal to fight the constant daily attacks on public education in the state of Ohio. The state government has been laser focused on dismantling public education for years. We shouldn't do their job for them. We need a new money levy on the ballot in November to support our school district and to ensure these cuts will eventually stop being so drastic and devastating. As a frequent viewer of board meetings, our district's treasur has done a good job of warning us over and over again about how the school funding situation is not getting any better. Please heed his warnings and put a levy on the ballot. As frequently is said in these board meetings, we can do we need to do more with less. As a public school teacher in Ohio, we've always had to do more with
026less. But attempting to do the same with less and less money, without using all the tools at our disposal, is asking us to do more with nothing. And that will be impossible. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rob. We're going to bring over President Sers. I'm going to remind everyone that President Sers does not have a time limit. However, she has offered to be brief today. And we hope she feels better. >> Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. Um, I want to speak tonight about the board's fiduciary responsibility concerning district funding and levies. Under Ohio law, this board serves as a steward of public education, public trust, and public dollars. That responsibility is not limited to approving expenditures after the fact. It also includes the obligation
027to responsibly plan for the financial s sustainability of this district and to communicate honestly and transparently with the public about its fiscal conditions. A levy is not simply a political tool. It is one of the primary mechanisms available to maintain the operation of public school districts in Ohio. When boards delay difficult financial conversations, avoid transparent forecasting, or fail to publicly explain the long-term implication of budget decisions, the burden ultimately falls on students, staff, and taxpayers. The public deserves clear answers. What are the district's actual long-term structural financial challenges? and why haven't they been addressed before? Now, what assumptions are being used to regard enrollment, staffing, vouchers, charter deductions, and state funding? We know some of those numbers, and I think we're being conservative. What cuts are being contemplated if revenue does not keep pace with
028operational needs? What is the district doing to advocate for fair state funding while also maintaining local trust? And how are we what can we do to generate additional revenue? Do we need to go back to the city and ask them to fund nurses again? Because nursing for children is a public health concern and we have seen that recently in the news. Is it should they be paying for our crossing guards to relieve us of some of the financial burdens that they have put on us? The crossing guards were always paid for out of the police budget because that is the jurisdiction of the city and the police department to fund crossing guards. I think we have not been aggressive enough with the city to fund what they are um responsible for. Um, the board's fiduciary
029duty requires more than balancing a spreadsheet for one fiscal year. It requires prudent oversight, long-term planning, and transparency with the community before a crisis develops. We are in a crisis at this moment. Ohio's open meetings and public records laws exist because public trust depends on public accountability. Financial discussions affecting staffing, programming, building closures, transportation, and educational services should not be treated as private matters insulated from community scrutiny. Taxpayers have both a legal and moral right to understand how decisions are being made and why additional revenue may be necessary. The board cannot control whether voters approve a levy, but it absolutely does have the responsibility to provide accurate financial information, responsible forecasting of future needs, avoiding unnecessary fiscal instability which we currently have and engage the public honestly about the realities facing this district. I was
030extremely disappointed that we were not able as the union to see the details of both the keep and cut list um for the budget until this morning. I know that this is a difficult process to make. For the third year in a row, we have been making um tens of millions of dollars worth of cuts. There are still vendor contracts that still need to be cut and staff cuts that are unacceptable. While we still have uncertified contractors working in our district with students, this is unacceptable. Public education is a constitutional obligation in Ohio. It is not a luxury service. The decisions made by this board today will determine whether this district remains financially stable and emotionally educationally strong in the years ahead. If we don't have a levy this year, we will be lucky to
031keep the lights on and the doors open. Thank you very much. Thank you. We are going to take another person online, but I'm going to call the following people down. Preston Poland, >> Chad, Chad Stump, Audrey Sawyer, and Robin Weaver. If you all would come down and have a seat. And Rob, let's take the next two or three people online. >> Okay. Though, for those online, please uh mute your camera and microphone until your name is called. Uh we have a high number of people online that we're inviting over. So we want to make sure that we don't interrupt anyone while they're speaking. Our first uh speaker online is going to be Isa Merk. Isa, you can unmute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. >> Thank you. Um, I don't envy the cuts
032that need to be made and I hope that we can get a levy on the ballot to reverse some of the cuts that seem to be what needs uh to happen to keep our district going. Um, that said, a lot of these cuts that are listed are studentf facing positions that students desperately need. They need social workers and they need school counselors in order to face a lot of the challenges they have in obtaining an education in the first place. Um, a lot of our students don't come in ready to learn. Um, and it is our job to educate them, but at the same time, a lot of the support can't be administered in an academic classroom, especially with class sizes as large as they are. I may have forgotten to fully introduce myself. Uh
033my name is Isa Merik. I am the science department chair at Hugh Sm High School. I'm also a parent of two children in the district. Um as a representative of Hughes, it concerns me that we could go down to a six bell day. Um this would increase our class sizes drastically. Um we are a title one school. We are facing challenges enough um in education and outside of our classrooms as well. And to have our students have fewer opportunities to learn, um, fewer opportunities for their arts, their financial literacy, their computer sciences, um, is devastating. And as a career tech high school, especially, our juniors and seniors have pathway classes they need to take in order for certification in those fields. And that leaves no wiggle room with four academic classes and two pathway classes
034for them to take any arts or any extracurriculars or even required courses for graduation such as financial literacy. Um the last thing I want to mention is there's cuts to the personal protective equipment um for students in science lab classrooms in the high school. I think that that is a very dangerous thing to cut. Um we need to protect our students. They need access to hands-on materials and they need access to um science laboratories and without the protective equipment. >> Thank you. >> Let's take our let's take another one online. Rob, >> thank you. Our next speaker online is Angie Wilson. Angie, you can unmute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. >> Um is the camera working? It is not, but you can go ahead, Angie. >> Okay. Hello, my name is Angie
035Wilson, parent to a rising ninth grader at Spencer Center. I'm also vice chair and pre parent representative for our LSDMC and vice president-elect for our PTSO. We've been with Cincinnati Public Schools since my now 21-year-old went to kindergarten at SAMS. I realize there has been recent talk about budgets and possible cuts, and I thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts as you weigh the district's options, knowing that these decisions have a dramatic impact on our schools, our staff, our families, and my daughter. I know I have to be brief, so to cut to the chase, please take all my money. Tax me, bill me. I want to pay you. I choose to live in Cincinnati Public School District because I want my tax dollars to fund these schools. I'm involved. I'm in the
036hallways and I see what we are creating together and it deserves to be nurtured. Please put a healthy levy on the next ballot and I will vote for it. We will vote for it. I happen to be a realer by trade and it's no secret that a strong strong school district positively impacts property owners property owners um sorry impacts values. So, I suspect that even property owners who are not utilizing the school system will see the importance of supporting our schools. In summary, please fully fund our resource coordinators, our athletic directors, our social workers, our school counselors. We are Cincinnati public schools aspiring to be the best we can be for our future generations. We have amazing talents, compassion, connections, and decades of experience and skills across our vastly diverse schools. The one thing it
037seems that you don't have enough of is money. So, please don't break apart the things that are good. Please instead seek the funding to keep us whole. I'm ready to write the check and I suspect many people watching here today are too. Thank you for the good and hard work you continue to do. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next online speaker is Sue Rolland. You can unmute your camera and microphone. Au Roland. >> Good evening to the board and all attendees. Um I would like to I would like to as the pers from the perspective of a parent of a child medically vulnerable child who goes to Roselan Condan. Uh I am a parent. My wife here is also a parent participating in the LSDMC at Roseline cond. I would like to ask that
038this board places the levies on the November ballot of from our perspective of a medically fragile child. We have to the paraprofessionals, nurses, and intervention specialists to thank so much for the positive parts of the experience that we've had there. And I have systematically seen a decrease in all of the supports needed. Um, I've seen the loss of key people who add to the day-to-day experiences and needs for our daughter. And um I would say that it is a responsibility to give the people and the families, ourselves included, in this district, a chance to say whether or not we are currently paying enough to fund everything that we enjoy and need on a day-to-day basis for our children. And to every board member present, anyone who would motion not to do so, I would like
039to take the responsibility to make a sound argument as to a reason to not hear the people of the district and give us a chance to fight for the funding that's needed. Thank you for the chance TO BE HEARD. THANK YOU. Let's go in person now to Mr. Preston and then we'll have Mr. Jazz. >> Hello everyone. My name is Preston Poland. I'm a fifth year Cincinnati Public Schools STEM and technology and computer science teacher. I'm also the tech coordinator at Parker Woods Monastery and the curriculum council chair for the 2026 2027 steam technology and computer science uh curriculum department chair. Uh, I'm going to start by addressing the difficult situation that I recognize the district is in. We are fighting an increasingly fascist state and federal government that wants to defund public education and
040redirect all those funds towards private schools, charter schools, and honestly in many cases towards their oligarch friends who have gained significant power in the past decade. With the stage set, I would like the school board and all those uh in attendance to know that I understand the difficulty of the school board's situation in this circumstance. I see it every day. I've seen my profession under direct assault by the right-wing in this country who are coming after our students identity, freedom of speech, and after our collective bargaining rights. However, I cannot in good conscious stand here without complaint for the way that this schoolboard has conducted itself during my tenure at CPS. In my 5 years of teaching uh steam computer science technology, I have seen more than a thousand students. I don't believe that I
041have to convince anyone the importance uh of that subject tonight. We didn't choose to be born into a computerized generation. uh but that necessitates the technological fluency uh in our students. But nonetheless, it was the hand that we were dealt. The proposed budget cuts toward curriculum uh for steam, computer science, technology, library science, and IT support for our teachers will put both our teachers and our students behind and our ability to access the content that they need to navigate today's digital world. Therefore, I would like to firstly um stand in opposition against the IT support cuts. Secondly, stand in opposition against the library and media uh science cuts. Thirdly, stand in opposition to the STEM, computer science, and technology cuts. And as an uh excuse me, as an amendment, I would like to see there
042is a significant amount of waste in this district and it is in the second to sixth grade computer devices within the classrooms. The data does not support that this is helping our students and it is a significant sink on resources. speak to any teacher or technology coordinator. The amount of these devices that we see past our desks is significant. If these cuts need to be made, it should be in the hardware department, not in the software, not in the curriculum. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Preston. Next, we have Chaz Stump. Am I good to go? >> Good evening. My name is Chaz Stump and I am a multiple disabilities intervention specialist at Robert Ataft Information Technology High School and I'm also a case coordinator and a CTF building rep. I specialize in delivering instruction
043to students with moderate to severe disabilities when I am not providing individualized instruction to meet the extended standards of all of my students. I am on transfer meetings address loading addressing case load numbers which we are already overloaded in more than one grade and I'm writing IEPs for long-term substitutes. I will tell you that I don't have enough time in the day to do everything under the sun. But let me give one example of the staff at our building and how they excel. I got a student last October, my first year teaching, who had se severe aggressive behaviors and mom was a capacity without support. I knew he needed a onetoone aid behavior plans and extended school year services. It was the school social worker who supported me in this. When mom didn't have enough
044minutes on her phone and I was not informed of the options we had for support, it was the school social worker who took me on a home visit to call developmental disability services with mom to get them set up with a caseworker. It was the school social worker who drove over forms to get my student enrolled in a behavior camp over the summer. We are all at capacity, but we lean on each other. By cutting these vital roles, it puts more on everyone's plates in order to meet the needs of all these kids. I will do anything to meet the needs of my learners. If we are here for kids, please vote for putting a school levy on the ballot because we need to maintain the funding that we have had. We need more money.
045And if we are celebrating the accomplishments of all of our departments, please respect us with the money that it takes to support our students. >> Thank you, Miss Audrey. And then next we have Robin. Good evening. Uh my name is Audrey Shroyer. I am a licensed independent social worker in the state of Ohio. Uh and I'm also a parent of a second grader at Sans Monasuri. Um I am here tonight because I am urging this board to put a levy out this November for us to vote on. Our students deserve the utmost that we can give them. Per the Ohio Department of Education's report card, we know that 91% of our students are listed as deficient in funding from home. So, they come to school, they come to school for meals, they come to school
046for support, they come to school for a healthy adult to be there. Um, as a social worker, I did spend time with Cincinnati Children's. I worked on the inpatient and partial hospitalization psychiatric programs. I worked diligently with social workers and our school counselors to make sure that our kids could get back into school after having a psychiatric emergency. We would make plans with them. We would do all these extensive things and we need them. We need them. My son is in second grade. Of course, he we have the privilege that I have the background I have and we have the funding that I can give. So, my son goes to therapy, but he also sees his social worker every Monday and he loves it. today. He came home and he said, "Mama, I'm sad." And
047I said, "Why?" And he said, "Well, it's the last Monday of the school. I don't get to see Miss Nicole again next week before school's out. It has been monumental what these people have done, not only for my family, but for the the patients and the clients I work with as a social worker in our community. My husband and I are both Cincinnati natives. We grew up in a different community, but we moved into Cincinnati specifically because we wanted to support our community. He is a city firefighter. We want to vote on things for that. But we are proud that our son goes to CPS and we love CPS, but we have to do something for them. We have to fight for these children. I can't imagine the job you have. I do not envy
048you, but please put it to a vote. Please put it on the levy here or put a levy on for November. Thank you. Thank you. and Robin. Uh, good evening board and Superintendent Murphy. I'm Robin Weaver, a reading specialist at Chase Elementary and a proud parent of two students at Spencer Center in Walnut Hills. I'm asking this board to take a clear, accountable action, hold a public vote on whether to place a new money levy on the November ballot because right now the pattern's hard to ignore. You're proposing cuts to the essential staff and student supports. You're acknowledging a serious and growing financial problem and yet you're not putting the most direct solution in front of the people who fund this district. A few months ago in an MTSS meeting where our team includes all
049your chopping block items, our school social worker, speech pathologist, occupational therapist, intervention specialists, reading specialists, and school psychologists. All those people sitting in red and green behind me. We discussed a sixth grader I serve in reading intervention who was struggling significantly academically and dealing with intense anxiety. In that meeting, our school social worker, Miss Anna, made an immediate referral to our partner organization and that student was quickly connected with counseling support. A few weeks later, I noticed a change. He was calmer, more regulated. I asked him what was going on and he told me. He said, "Miss A has been helping me work on being less anxious." And it showed. So that's what you're talking about cutting a thousand times over across the district. So the question's not complicated. Why are you willing to cut
050but not willing to ask? A levy does not raise taxes on its own. It gives voters a choice. And refusing to even vote on placing it on the ballot denies the C this CPS community that choice. And let's be clear about the consequences. If this district slides closer into fiscal emergency, you lose control. So what's the justification for not allowing a public vote before more cuts are made and before the risk of state intervention grows? Because from the outside, it doesn't look like a strategy. It looks like avoidance. And in the meantime, it's the students like that sixth grader, not systems, not spreadsheets, who are absorbing the consequences of that avoidance every single day. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm going to call the next set down and while you're coming down, we're going
051to take three online speakers. So, come on down. Glennetta, Greta, I hope I'm saying that right. Lindsor, Demetrius, and Craig. Rob, we got three. >> Thank you. Our next online speaker is going to be Emily Moors. Emily, you can unmute your camera and microphone and go ahead. >> Hello to the board and to the Cincinnati public school community. My name is Emily Morris and I have two children at Chase Elementary. Um, like everyone here, I want us to grow in our academic success for all of our children, and this cannot happen with so many budget cuts. I am here to ask you to put a levy on the ballot in November. We need to show our children that we care about them, and this doesn't come from magical thinking. We need to do everything we
052can to keep our schools properly funded. And so, I'm asking again to please put the levy on the budget in November. Thank you. Our next online speaker is Holly Miller. Holly, you can unmute unmute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. >> Hi, my name is Holly Miller. I have five children who have went through the district. I'm also a resident. I also work at Roslon Condan. And what I would like to say is that over the past couple of years, I have watched the resources at Roselon Condan specifically dwindle. I have seen cuts to my classroom nurse. I have seen cuts in paraprofessional staff. Um I'm severely under staff most days. Um and we can't afford any more cuts, especially to the special education department. So, what I'm urging this district to do
053is what everyone else is asking for. Let us vote. Let us pay and offset the huge burden that is coming out of Columbus right now. Um, and you need to you need to let the people be in control. It's time to flip tables. I need you to flip your table tonight. Our democracy is at stake. It is dying. Literally dying. Flip the table. Do what's right. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Our next online speaker is Jillian Whitaker. Jillian, unmute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. >> All right, that works out. Jillian, wait. >> Sorry, I was stuck. Um, good evening. Thanks for taking the time to listen. Uh, my name is Jillian Whitaker. I am a teacher and a parent of CPS students. And tonight, I am here to
054ask you to please consider placing a levy on the ballot. Superintendent Murphy and Dr. Moffet, we were lucky enough to have you at our graduation ceremony uh for West High this weekend. We had our largest graduating class ever. Uh this year we received the momentum award. Our test scores are rising and we even got a clocket from the superintendent. Um we're doing all we can for our kids. However, in order to do that, we cannot afford to lose a single resource. I know for a fact that at least five of our students only made it across the stage thanks to our in-house counselors and partnership with Lighthouse. They're able to give the focused support outside of school that our students so often need but can't get inside. Things are declining rapidly in the community. Everything
055is more expensive. I saw on the news today that gun violence is up 20% compared to this time last year. The lives of our students are literally at stake. For some of our kids, school is the only safe place. They show up just to go to the after school club or to get a free hot dinner from Grad Cincinnati. They show up for their sports practices or because their artistic talents are celebrated. They show up because some of them feel like they have nowhere else to go or that no one else really sees them. We live in a world that seems like it's getting darker every day, but these kids, they're smart and kind and resilient, and I am so tired of having to encourage them to be resilient in the face of adult failures.
056Please consider placing a new money levy on the ballot this November. The needs of our community and our students continue to grow. The safe sleep law is just one example. We're asked to fund so many things outside of our scope. We have to find more money. Let's give our neighbors the chance to show that they're willing to invest in the future of our city. Thank you. Thank you, Glennetta. Hello, everyone. I'm Glennetta Krauss. I'm a district-wide mentor at Cincinnati Public Schools. I'm also a taxpayer in this district for every one of the 31 years I've been employed by you. I am someone accused of looking at the world through rosecolored glasses. I'm sorry that's a occupational hazard. But let me tell you what I see around CPS. I see an impressive portfolio of schools, a
057competent and inspiring superintendent, and a staff that is fired up about how education has always been the foundation for positive change in our community. I run into CPS grads all the time who credit what they learned in our schools and my classroom for their successes today. But I also see you board and I fear that some of you are looking at the district through glasses you may have purchased in Columbus. You see you seem nervous to put a levy on the ballot that would protect the judicious investments my neighbors and I have made as taxpayers. It's hard to explain to voters how school finance works, but it's not hard to show that a district that hasn't asked for new dollars in 20 years is going to need more just to keep up with inflation. And
058when you explain to them that the state is not following the bipartisan school funding plan they originally committed to, that the state is starving public schools of money through the use of ed choice vouchers that send our tax dollars unconstitutionally to private and religious schools, you might find a lot of sympathetic voters out there who understand that the state legislators are the bad guys here and that CPS needs their help. I've heard some board members say that you're not comfortable with asking our taxpayers for money until scores come up. How dare you? People in your chair should understand that the state uses tests to shame and blame students and teachers and distract from their refusal to fund schools constitutionally for my entire career. That kind of rhetoric is straight out of Columbus and their talking
059points come straight from Washington DC. Don't tell me that you've given up on democracy, too. Help voters understand the real issues here and put a levy on this ballot. Thank you, Miss Linda. And Greta Greta is next. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Greta Linder and I'm a junior at Walnut Hills High School. I'm also the captain of the women's water polo team. Within the proposed budget cuts, a position that is not recommended for funding next year is the assistant athletic directors. Walnut Hills has two of the three assistant athletic director positions with the third at West High. The athletics department at Walnut Hills is simply too big of a job to be done by one person with over,00 athletes, 32 school sponsored sports, and a total of 92 teams. The elimination of the
060assistant athletic director would undoubtedly result in reductions to athletic programs, especially impacting junior high athletics and noneCC sports such as water polo with the possibility of these programs being cut altogether. I've been playing water polo for four years and the lessons I've learned are irreplaceable. The sports builds teamwork, resilience, and fosters friendships and determination and like any other sport is fueled by passion. Athletics is such an important part of student life and eliminating assistant athletic directors would take that away from so many student athletes. The size and range of student athletes at Walnut Hills High School warrants a need to maintain at least one athletic assistant athletic director to protect the athletic culture and opportunities that are provided. It is understandable that the reductions have to be made somewhere. However, we argued that eliminating assistant
061athletic director would leave too many challenges for athletic administrators and student athletes. This is not just about water polo, but other sports such as field hockey or rugby and potentially all junior high programs are also at risk. Playing high school sports is such a formative experience and entirely necessary to preserve. If sports like water polo were no longer to be offered by the school, athletes would have to find somewhere else if they still want to play their sport. Oftentimes, this would be a club which would include expensive team fees that are impossible for so many families. School sanctioned sports make athletic opportunities more accessible for everyone and gives meaningful experiences that can shape who they are. This, however, is only made possible with adequate athletic administration staff, which includes our assistant athletic director. I've been
062lucky enough to be given the opportunity to play the sport I love for the past four years. Coming right out of the co pandemic, water polo is where I found my passion and my community and it has been an indescribable experience and opportunity that should be continued for future students. Thank you. >> Thank you, Demetrius. >> All right. Um, good evening board. My name is Demetrius Greg. I'm part of Singap. Um I am also just here to talk about the the new money levy for our schools. Um we need that new money because we have to have buildings that have running water, electricity, and we need those teachers and all the frontline employees to be there and be employed. We can't do this without the new money. Um, I believe some some ideas of cuts
063that could be done are like the contractors and that have like these that have like life coaches. We don't need life coaches if we have the social workers and the counselors. That's just extra money that we're wasting. And there are like you know there there's just like the KPI that's supposed to be the key um performance indicators and if they use that data that we have on those if the the U contracts are fulfilling those then they will see that they can like get rid of those things. Um and I just believe that we should have that new money and it will help the district out a lot. >> Thank you. Good evening. Uh, my name is Craig Trasa. I'm a homeowner, voter, and school counselor here in CPS. Before I speak about the impact
064of our work, I want to recognize that we've made some good progress over the years. Since the pandemic, our district has increased the number of counselors supporting our students. And I would hate to see that progress be lost because of misplaced budgetary priorities and the indecisions of our leaders. School counselors are essential roles that directly influence all of the district's goals and ensure that our schools remain safe and supportive environments for all students. School counselors are here for kids and I expect that you be too. School counselors have an impact beyond graduation. This year I'm proud to say that one of my rising nth graders will join the OSU Young Scholars program. This puts him on a path towards becoming the first college graduate in his family with the full backing of academic and financial
065support along the way. This would be the first student in our school community to ever participate in such a program. The conversation I had with him and his grandmother really struck me. Mr. T, I couldn't have done this without you. I couldn't thank you enough for believing in me and sharing this with me. Without a school counselor, students like this would miss out on life-changing opportunity. Lastly, I want to share the impact that counselors and social workers have on the mental well-being of our students. We undoubtedly live in unchallenging times. Young people are struggling to cope. This is not the time to be considering cutting ESP positions. In one of the many students letters that I will share with you tonight, a student wrote, "My sister was going to take her own life, but my
066school counselor helped her get help. Without my counselor, she might not be here. Based on survey results, 90% of my students in the middle and high school report that their school counselor is their trusted adult in the building, someone that they know they can go to for help. When we're making our decisions at the about the budget, please do not consider studentf facing personnel and especially not ESPs who are out in our buildings every day changing and saving lives. Thank you. >> Thank you. How many online lines do we have left, Rob? >> About nine. >> Did you say how many did you say? >> About nine. >> Okay. Yeah. Well, we're going to take the next three and I'm going to call down the next four. Um, Python Brown, Katherine Kenny, Daniel Whitford, and
067Bailey Pierce. We got three online ones, Rob. >> Our next online speaker will be Mary Weinberg. Mary, you can unmute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. >> All right, let me get everything put up. Good evening everyone. My name is Mary Weinberg, head track and field coach at Walnut Hills High School, also a parent within CPS and a former CPS board member. difficult financial decisions facing this district and recognize that balancing a budget is not easy. However, I want to speak tonight about the very real impact these proposed cuts could have on our students, our families, and staff. One of the proposed cuts is Wana's assistant athletic director position. I cannot stress enough how important this role is to the daily operation and success of athletics. He coordinates transportation, manages facilities and event
068operations, supports coaches and athletes, handles scheduling and communication, addresses safety concerns, ensures compliance, and solves countless problems behind the scenes each and every um day. As a coach, I've personally relied on our assistant AD during situations involving transport transportation issues, facility concerns, and meet logistics to ensure our students are safe and that our programs are run effectively. As a parent, I also see how visible and supportive he is to our students and our families. And removing this position would place an enormous burden on remaining staff and would negatively affect the athletic programming that we have, causing some to be lost. In addition, I am concerned also about other proposed staffing cuts, including support staff and social workers. Our students need strong support systems now more than ever. Social workers play a critical role in helping
069the students navigate mental health challenges, family hardships, attendance concerns, and emotional well-being. I do want to ask this board and our superintendent to carefully consider these reductions and explore creative alternatives before cutting positions that directly impact our students each and every day. Thank you so much for your time and your consideration. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next online speaker is Roger Horton. Roger, you can unmute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. It says my video has been disabled by the host. >> I'll fix that. Go ahead. Roger. >> Thank you to our esteemed board and also also to our superintendent and treasurer. Um, thank you for listening to everyone um during this particular time of our board meeting. Imagine trying to focus on a math center sta with or stations when you
070haven't eaten lunch since yesterday. Imagine trying to pass a reading test while sharing a motel room with five family members. The reality is that students cannot learn if they are stuck in survival mode. And that is why resource coordinators and so school social workers are not just extras. They are essent essential. While teachers deliver the curriculum, these professionals dismantle the barriers preventing kids from learning. They tackle food insecurity, manage mental health crisises, and connect struggling families with housing. They provide the emotional stability that transforms a chaotic morning into a productive afternoon. But right now, Cai Public School is facing a critical fiscal gap. If we don't act right now, these vital lifelines are the first to be stretched thin or cut entirely. That is why I am urging you to put a levy on the
071ballot this November and this should be non-negotiable. This levy isn't just a line item on the ballot. It is a direct investment in the safety, stability, and future of our kids. It ensures CPS schools are properly staffed so that teachers can focus on teaching while social workers focus on healing and supporting. We can have the best lesson plans in the world, but they don't matter if a student's basic needs aren't met. Let's protect our academic investments, properly fund our schools, and put a levy on the put a levy on the ballot this November because when our schools are supported, our entire community thrives. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next online speaker is Karen Rumscy. Karen, you can go on and mute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. >> Thank you
072so much, and I appreciate the opportunity to address the board. Um, I've just come tonight as a licensed independent social worker. Um, the uniqueness of where I work is with the Cincinnati Police Department victim's assistance liaison unit and my primary role has been to usher and support those families impacted by homicide and any type of violence within the city of Cincinnati. So, I'd like to just share just some quick facts. Um, and they come in the role of stats. Uh in 2023, uh the city of Cincinnati saw an increase of 70% in juveniles impacted by um violent crime. And that's on either side of the coin. So we're not going to be specific about that. But what we will be specific about is that it is fundamentally important. It is the highest of importance that
073we continue to fund the school social workers because if you also follow those same stats over in 2025 we saw a decrease where young people are getting the services they need at school oftent times even talking to some of the families who have been impacted by homicide the worst of the crimes families tell me that the kids want to go to school they don't see anything wrong with the children they think that the biggest burden belongs to them because they've lost a loved one. So, kids are being seen in schools and the social workers are the frontline folks to making sure that families have the stabilities that they need. And I would just ask you all please as we look towards what we still have power to support our youth with, one of those things
074and a critical thing is our school social workers. They have made a difference and continue to make a difference and it frees up the professional teachers to be able to properly teach and educate our young people. Thank you for the opportunity to speak and I I appreciate your time. >> Thank you. Mr. Brown, good evening board. My name is Pan Brown. I'm a graduate of Cincinnati public schools, class of 2024, graduate of Wthro University High School, and I will soon be a junior at the University of Cincinnati, where I'm pursuing a bachelor of arts, business administration with a double minor in public relations, and journalism. Today, I am speaking on behalf of Shelley Conrad, a student engagement specialist within sis night public schools under the student, family, and community community engagement department. Shelley Conrad is
075just not a title or a position. She is a person who is consistently present in schools, investing her time, energy, and care directly into students. She builds real relationships just not during the school year, but beyond it. She checks in on students, supports them through their academic journey, and continues those relationships even after graduation. A student transition into college and also adulthood. The concern is specifically that her role as the only student engagement specialist position is recommended for a renewal next year that would be removed and that matters because it removes a consistent point of connection that students like myself have relied on in the past. From my own experience, she has been present in schools in ways that go beyond programming. She shows up, follows up, and stays consistent. Even after student graduate, she
076continues to check in, making sure we are adjusting, progressing, and staying on track in college and in life. The kind of long-term relationship that is not replaceable by a system or a spreadsheet. Site public schools, like many urban districts in Ohio, continue to operate under financial pressure that impacts staffing, decision, and student support capacity. At the same time, the district shows that students are still working towards meeting state prof state proficiency benchmarks in courses subjects such as math, reading, and science. These outcomes reflect more than academics. They reflect access and consistency and support systems. Research and education consensually shows that student engagement roles and mentorship based positions are directly linked to improved attendance, stronger academic performance, and higher post-secary success. When those roles are reduced, students often lose not just support but continuency. This is
077why this decision matters. It's not only about position, it's about the relationship built through the position and the measurable impact those relationships of students have success. From my experience as a CPS graduate and now student of the University of Cincinnati, I can see those relationships matter. Do better CPS and start being present not for just but for our students. Thank you, >> Katherine Kinley. Kenny. Miss Kenny. Hello, board. You know why I'm here. I'm not going to beat around the bush. The state has failed to do what they are supposed to do with funding our schools. We know they're not going to, at least not with our current legislature. So, at this point, I need you to do it for us. The public can't do it on our own. Do you want me to just
078send you a check? I'll do it, but you have to ask. You have to request that levy so that I can. There's no other way for me to do that. Our students need all of our staff. You want them to be successful. You want them to come to school. You want them to learn. You want them to graduate. And at this point, we are cut to the quick. There is nothing left that isn't studentf facing except for a few positions that we could replace with in-house people. I'm tired of my students coming to me and asking why the district is always broke, why they don't have the opportunities they might if they went somewhere else. Please ask us for funding. Please put a levy on the ballot so that we can do what we need
079to do so that we can all be successful and do our jobs to make the future better. Thank you, Daniel Witford. Before I put on my professional hat, I think it kind of is frustrating that Ben Lindy is not here. All right. Uh I'm Daniel Whitford. I'm a school psychologist, a CFT representative, community member, and taxpayer. I'm here this evening to urge the board to immediately place a levy on the ballot this November. A vote needs to be taken tonight. The board's stated mission is to provide highquality learning and equitable opportunities for students in this district. That mission cannot be met without adequate funding and staffing. People are losing faith in public institutions because those institutions are failing to provide the quality of life that communities deserve. Public education is essential to a functional society.
080I hope the board makes a decision tonight that reflects its mission and protects the promise of public education. Teachers, staff, and parents are watching this budget process very closely. We see what's being taken away from our students. We've seen programs cut, resources stretch thinner, and staff push beyond their limits. The current proposed cuts severely diminish psychologists, counselors, and social workers, which will absolutely reduce our ability to meet students mental health needs and provide disability supports. When the state decides equitable school funding is no longer a priority, this board has the responsibility to ask the city to make it a priority. A levy is essential because this district is being forced to make up for lost state funding through the abandonment of the fair school funding plan. And at the same time, voucher programs and private
081school busing continue to pull money directly from our budget. The timing is right for a levy this year. Midterm elections bring out significantly higher voter turnout and the primary turnout this year was much higher than previous years. The last maintenance levy passed with over 73% approval. The community has already shown its willingness to support public schools. I urge the board to put its faith in the people of Cincinnati give them the opportunity to decide what kind of city they want to live in. Refusing to place a levy on the ballot denies the public that choice and stands in the way of a better future for Cincinnati. vote tonight to place the levy on the November ballot. >> Thank you. >> And Bailey, >> am I good now? Okay, first time. Um, hello. My name is
082Bailey Pierce and I am a visual arts educator at Clifton Area Neighborhood School. our union building rep, our ILT co-chair, and a proud public school teacher. But I'm frustrated that I'm up here trying to advocate for my colleagues jobs and for potentially an arts cut coming down the pipeline because arts are usually next. So, I understand what it's like to be sitting here and be worried. But, I'd love to tell you a little bit about my workday. We just had our whole school umwide fine arts night. Every student in our school had a piece of artwork up on display. Some had two, some had three, but everybody had one. And I'm sure the other art educators understand the the success that that is. But I couldn't do it on my own. Our school social worker
083and our school therapist helped out. There are kids that only had a piece of art in the art show because they did it outside of my classroom. Those colleagues of mine came in, they asked for my lesson plans, they worked with me, and they did those works with those students outside of my class time so that they knew that their student was represented as a whole school. Our classroom teachers did the same thing. They worked with me to pull students at different times. I literally could not have done that without our entire team working together. Our community volunteered their time to mountain, hang, and display artwork. All of that was because of our community at CANS. We're a crew. We're conscious, responsible, engaged, and welcoming. And I am expecting the board to do that, too.
084So, I hope you do the same. >> Thank you, Rob. How many more do we have? >> We have eight more. >> Okay, that number seems to keep growing. All right, I'm going to call the next set down and then we'll take three more. Three more. Uh Danielle Reigns, Karen Cheryl Mason, Janet Thompson, Amy Bolton. Thank you. Our next online speaker is uh Dona uh Garlington. You can unmute your camera and microphone and you have two minutes. >> Um it looks like I can't be seen visually, but I'll go ahead and start speaking. Um good evening, um board members and Superintendent Murphy. I'd like to come to you from a different lens. I recently read a piece from one of our wonderful board members about rebuilding community trust and doing this through the reband rebuilding
085of partnerships with our trade community. Well, I beg the question, how do you pose rebranding the partnership with our trade uh community without the counselors who are studentf facing boots on the ground guidance for our students and families? For the first time in five years, Western Hills will have doubledigit attendees at the IBED IBEW electrical union program with all 10 of our slots filled. This is the groundwork for the rebuilding of the trades community. This was done in collaboration with the community trust and with all counselors at Western Hills. The work requires us to be in the classroom semesterly and quarterly to hone in on student requirements and opportunities as well as being able to send home information consistently. Eeroding away from counselor positions, especially from a school like West will look like losing those
086opportunities will look like possibly being back in CSI status as well as losing the momentum that gained us the momentum award this past year. As a former college financial aid counselor, I understand the need for being in the black. I also understand the need for building trust with the community, but that can't be done with the people who are working in the schools to build the trust with those students and those families. Also, if you reduce the counselors, think of all the other positions that you'll either have to reallocate or load back onto the counselors with the 375 to1 student ratio you want us to have. Your counselors in your buildings are master or master schedulers. We are building test coordinators. We are AP coordinators, CCP coordinators, AAA pathway coordinators, and last but not least,
087PLC adviserss for girls to women and men of more. Thank you for your time today. Thank you. Our next online speaker is Igor Titiv. Igor Titiv, you can unmute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. >> Your microphone is still muted. >> Hi everybody. Uh hi the board. Uh I have a 5-year-old who's a special needs and uh she goes to Rosland Condan. Uh for 5 years she's been in a wheelchair and she's a recent walker. Uh after visiting the school for a few times um I've raised a lot of concerns about the staffing in the school. Um and also the school's hygiene. Um there's a lot of things that are not clean. Um, I'm here to urge the board to uh put a ballot on a levy because the class that she has
088or classes she takes are underst staffed. There are times that I can't take my daughter to school because there isn't enough teachers or the the only teacher that she's got is sick. Um, please uh put a bot in Levy tonight. Thank you so much everybody. Thank you. Our next online speaker is Joe Mitchell. Joe, you can unmute your camera microphone. You have two minutes. >> Hello. Uh my name is Joe Mitchell. I'm a CPS teacher, CFT member, and Cincinnati resident and taxpayer. I would like to respectfully express my concern with the proposed budget cuts to the district. In particular, student-f facing roles are under threat by the district, including school counselors, social workers, assistant principles, athletic directors, librarians, and intervention specialists, among many others. I am a first year teacher. I'm extremely proud to be
089at CPS and I hope to be at CPS for many years. Um, and here at the end of my first year, it's been especially rewarding to witness firsthand the impact my colleagues and I have had on my students. Even hearing from a student that I've created a safe space for them means the world to me and I'm only one person. Multiply that by um as many studentf facing roles as you have in the district. The impact is immeasurable. Um I became a teacher because I wanted to first and foremost serve the students and I thought that's why we were all in education to serve the students but I am disheartened that the budgetary decisions at the district level will directly harm the student experience. Because of this, I encourage you to reconsider the uh roles
090that you are proposing to cut for next year's budget. I additionally encourage you to add a new money levy for the November ballot. At new teacher orientation back in August, Superintendent Murphy encouraged us to know when to ask for help. We are here asking you for help. Please ask us and the people of Cincinnati for help this November. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. And if that's our three, Danielle. >> Danielle had to step out, so she asked me to switch. Okay. Um, so I am not Danielle Reigns. Good evening, Christine board members and superintendent Murphy and Treasurer Augustine. My name is Karen and I am the school counselor at Oiler School, as well as one of the school counselor leads for the district. This evening, I am reading a letter that one of
091my 2023 graduates asked me to share on her behalf when she learned about the potential cuts to school counselors. This is her letter. Going into high school, I had no idea how big of an impact my counselor was going to make on my life. Turns out, she was somebody that helped me more than anybody else in my high school. As somebody who struggled with my mental health, I never knew where to start my journey and helping getting the help I needed. When I met Miss she was the most supportive and helped me start my journey of getting the help that I needed. She met with me, helped me find resources that were accessible to me, and often checked in to see how I was doing and if I needed help with anything else. Anytime I
092or anyone else needed help, she was usually the first one to help figure out a solution. My counselor didn't just stop helping after high school either. During my first year of college at Miami University, I had a pretty rough year. My mental health was declining, my grades were dropping, and I was ready to give up on everything, including myself. The first person that noticed was Miss She reached out often to check on me and was there when I needed any support. She made sure I knew that no matter what decisions I made, she supported me and would help me find my path. I was on the path of wanting to drop out and give up. But after many conversations with her, I realized that she had faith in me and knew what I was capable
093of even when I didn't. I stayed in college. She helped me with mental health resources and still checked in with me often to make sure that I was staying on track for success. With all of that, earlier this year, I had a big life event that really stopped me in my tracks and started to make me lose hope for myself again. The first person that I called was Miss Out of everybody in my life, I knew she would be the first one to answer and help me with zero hesitation hesitation or judgment. She reassured me that I would be okay as she helped me find a solution. High school counselors don't get enough credit. I know I have classmates that would agree with me when I say I truly don't know what I would have
094done without mine. Even now out of high school, my high school counselor is one of my strongest support systems who has helped me continue to be su successful. Me speaking as me again, I'm very appreciative and proud of my former students desire to speak out for me and my colleagues. We are so grateful for the reduction in cuts that will be presented tonight and encourage you to continue looking at alternative options to meet the budget without cutting important building personnel. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Is are you are you Danielle? >> Oh no. Okay, so Danielle's gone, right? All right, Cheryl. >> Yes. >> All right. >> Good evening, Cincinnati Public Schools. My name is Cheryl Mason. I'm a proud middle school counselor at the Academy of World Languages. As a
095middle school counselor, I provide an essential bridge between academic success and emotional well-being. If a counselor, a dedicated, trusted adult, an advocate for these seventh and eighth grade students wasn't available, there would be gaps for our most vulnerable students. If we cut counselors, academic achievement gaps for marginalized students would widen. Studies show that lower studentto counselor ratios are directly linked to improved academic outcomes, including higher graduation rates, better attendance, and reduced disciplinary incidents. Excessive counselor case loads disproportionately harm students of color, English learners, and those from lowincome backgrounds. With ratios when ratios are too high, students with the most needs will not get their needs met. Currently, I continuously monitor my students in my case load and to identify these students who are struggling. I manage my case load and offer tiered supports whether it's
096group or individually. If we cut counselors, career and college readiness, post-secary planning, and knowledge of high school and graduation requirements would stall until decisions are urgent in high school. We cannot eliminate this courtesy for our students. As we make difficult budget cuts, please consider the staff in our schools with students. Consider those helping young people navigate circumstances that extend beyond the classroom. Does the budget line you are cutting spend 7 hours a day talking to students, 5 days a week empowering our youth, and countless moments of compassion and work for the students, for this, for the kids. Thank you. Thank you. Janet Thompson. >> Yes. >> Okay. I just want to make sure I've got everybody in there. Amy, right? >> Yes, it's me. >> Good evening. My name is Janet Thompson, former teacher, current
097school counselor, and CPS parent. I wish to express concern at the proposed reduction in school counselors. While we recognize the reduced number in the updated proposal, my fear is that removing these holistic support professionals will create long-term decreased safety in our schools and communities in a climate where public schools are struggling to be perceived as safe already. I will share some data for a fellow CPS counselor who could not speak tonight. But before I do, I'll share my own. In one year as a middle school counselor, I received 527 student requests to meet with me for social emotional concerns. Specifically, this was on top of emerent situations and crisis management. 58% of these students requested scaled moderate to severe in terms of student need and urgency. By the end of that year, I had conducted
098a suicide assessment on almost onethird of my entire case load of students, some of which resulted in a hospital referral for further evaluation. As for my counselor colleague, she collaborated with her assistant principal to reduce behavior referrals for eighth graders after teaching classroom lessons to all students about conflict resolution, facilitating restorative justice circles in small groups, and meeting with students returning from suspension. They saw a 22% reduction in behavior referrals. There were 19 referrals for fighting in semester 1 and only one in semester 2. A 90% reduction in 8th grade fights fall to spring. The trend continued zero fights fall of their freshman year. The data speaks for itself. School counselors help keep students safe so that they can learn. Safety must be our first priority when looking at the budget. Thank you. >> Thank
099you. >> And Amy Bolton. >> Hi. Good evening. My name is Amy Bolton and I'm a school counselor. I would like to acknowledge the recent reduction in proposed cuts to counselors and school social workers as well as the difficulty you are facing in tackling the budget deficit. However, school counselors are undervalued and have a great deal of importance in the lives of students and for the future of the district. That needs to be acknowledged as well. While I could make a lot of points about emotional support and the safe environment school counselors provide and so much more, I'm here to talk to you about data. School counselors support all district report card components, but we play a heavy role in the graduation and CCWMR components, which make up 25% of report cards. Graduation requirements have
100drastically changed since CO began and school counselors are the ones in the district that are tracking the graduation progress of all students, ensuring students are in the right classes and meeting other graduation requirements. In the 202021 school year, there were 53 school counselors in the district and a weighted graduation rate of 81.4%. By the 2324 school year, there were 73 counselors and an 85.7% graduation rate. There is a steady positive correlation between the amount of school counselors and the graduation rates in the district. The biggest jump, a 2.4% increase was in the 23 24 school year in which graduation counselors were introduced. The CCWMR is a new standard that measures students readiness for employment, enrollment, and enlistment in the 2425 school year is the first year it is included in the ratings on report cards.
101In this first year, the district met 63% readiness rate compared to the years prior unreported 45.4%. With the state continuing to change graduation requirements and report card metrics, the need for school counselors will continue to grow. We are a necessity for the district as the district continually adds more data tracking duties to school counselors. Keeping in mind the positive correlation in graduation rates as counselor rates increase and the added component of CCWMR, fewer counselors will mean less success in these numbers and in turn our report card numbers will drop. While the reduction of cuts is a good step, any loss in counselors is a huge loss for the district. >> Thank you. Thank you, Rob. How many more online do we have? >> We have five. >> All right. So, I'm going to call down
102my next set and you all can be coming down on as we go to our um one lines. Leslie, uh Haddle Meyer, I hope I'm saying that right. Reita Brooks, Sandy Orin, Sandra Hartman, and Joe Keller. Those are our next five. And we'll take the online ones. Rob, >> thank you very much. Our next online speaker is Ken to uh Kim Tobin. Kim, you can unmute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. >> Hi. Um, I am a teacher in the district as well as a parent of a current student and a graduate from the district. Uh, like pretty much everyone else here tonight, um, I am here to to demand that this board does its job and put a new money levy on the ballot this November. Looking at the budget cuts uh
103that are being proposed by the board right now, so many of those cuts are studentf facing positions. This district claims to be here for kids, but how can we be here for kids if we're cutting our studentf facing positions instead of the honestly just fat in the budget that is unnecessary and does not serve our students or our staff. We cannot continue to ask our staff to do their jobs with no money. For the last decade, we have been told that we need to do more with less. And now we are at a point where we're doing more with nothing. We cannot sustain this. We cannot depend on the politicians in Washington or Columbus. We know that public education is under attack. The saddest part is that currently public education in this city is under
104attack by this board. We cannot sustain this. You must do your jobs and put a new money levy on the ballot this November. There is absolutely no excuse for you not to. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our next online speaker is Megan Graham. Megan, you can unmute your camera. Your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. >> Hi. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak virtually. Uh, with one left month with one month left in my pregnancy. Testifying on my couch is honestly quite the blessing. Uh, my name is Megan Graham. I'm an ESL teacher, taxpayer, and future CPS parent, and I'm here to ask you to vote on putting a levy on the ballot in November. Um, cuts will affect student well-being and achievement. And we all don't want to see larger class
105sizes and fewer support staff. Obviously, support staff make sure resources get to students, food, clothes, mental health, internet, all the things that folks have spoke to already today. And we have a moral obligation to fund these supports. Uh but furthermore, they help us meet the accountability measures that I'm hearing the board wants to improve. Um without these positions, report card data will fall. So for example, social workers help bring back students who stop attending. Um helping them learn. Um but at the same time, they also figure out where they are now, like they're at a new school. Um, and by cleaning up that data, so to speak, we are impacting attendance data and total students tested data and all kinds of things that go on the report card. Obviously, counselors affect the graduation rate. And
106um there are two specialized roles that I'd like to speak to um such as MLL coordinator and ESL counselor um that do this in a unique way that is difficult to do when staff is overwhelmed with workloads due to cuts. So they um they help support um students who are dealing with an increasingly cruel immigration system um and a general mental health crisis um and help students graduate. So um in conclusion, I'm a taxpayer, a future CPS parent that wants to be a part of a district that promotes democracy and accountability and wraparound services. Thank you. Bye. >> Thank you. Our next online speaker is Mike Flesh. Mike, you can unmute your camera and microphone. That's Mike Flech. >> Thank you, school board. This is Mike Flesh. Uh coming to you from Clifton. Um I'm
107a CPS parent of two students at Walnut Hills uh with a third joining in the fall. I'm also a track and field there co uh coach there. I was glad to see Coach Mary on the call earlier. Um, I'm from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but I've been here in Cincinnati now for almost 20 years. Uh, everything everyone has said deeply resonates, but I'd like to share a slightly different perspective uh, but landing in the same place. In my professional work, I'm a designer and facilitator. I've worked with uh, leading educational institutions and universities all around the world. I'm a co-founder of the Global Commons Alliance and I work with the top scientists, earth system scientists and social scientists around the world. I've worked with the Coffin Foundation and the National Science Foundation on equitable economic development and
108ecosystem building in education and entrepreneurship. And across all of these efforts and institutions over the years, um there's a few trends. Uh one is that education, public education supports communities. It supports economic development. It supports healthy communities and healthy people. Um, studentf facing roles should be the last thing that should be cut. Uh, I definitely support uh putting a levy on the ballot and I hope that you give communities the chance here to vote for themselves uh and in their own futures. Uh there's so much uncertainty with AI, with climate and nature threats, uh democracy, uh forwardinking organizations, cities and education systems are all moving in the same direction. They're shifting toward public good. they're shifting toward public services, toward shared value, uh away from screens and computers, away from testing data. Uh so I
109would just ask the school board to really be leaders to look at what's happening in the world and to notice that putting a levy on the ballot supporting these roles is showing leadership for Cincinnati and for Cincinnati public schools. Thanks. >> Thank you. Before Before I call my inerson, we only have two left. Let's do those two and we'll be done with that. >> Thank you. Our next speaker online will be Mela Edwards. Mela, you have two minutes. You can unmute your camera microphone. >> Hello, my name is Mila Edwards. Um, I am I am an employee of Cincinnati Public and I also have a kindergartener that um just this year with CPS as well. I am coming to you today to speak on the behalf of Shelley Conrad. Um Shelley has constantly and consistently
110gone above and beyond for the community and for the students she serves. Her impact can be seen through countless programs, events, and opportunities she has helped create and support, including International Day of Girl, the Miami Summer Retreat, Girls That STEM, Heroes and Shees event, community outreach efforts such as feeding the homeless, providing students with access um enriching um experiences just to name a few. her um her her ability extend far beyond what we can even be listed here. Shelley is one of the most supportive, dedicated and selfless individuals within our community. She has become an essential part of the girls to women and men of more community serving as both a mentor and advocate for so many young people including myself. Even while facing her own personal barriers and challenges, Shelley has always made the
111students her first priority. She is constantly showing up, giving up her time, pours into others, and create opportunities that positively impact lives. Removing Miss Shelly will not only be unfair, but it would also be a major disservice to the students, families, and the entire community that depends on her leadership and compassion and commitment. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our last online speaker is Monica Benton. Monica, you can click uh unmute your camera and microphone. You have two minutes. Monica Benton. Benton. >> Hello. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak to the board to Superintendent Murphy. My name is Monica Benton. I'm a graduate of Aken High School 1995. also a parent of a graduate from Clark Monasuri from 2020 2016 and today I want to speak from the Cincinnati section of
112the National Council of Negro Women who've adopted William Howard Taff Elementary School this year um and as a part of our commitment to supporting students and families experiencing hardship. We've been able to provide selected family members with um $200 gift cards to assist with food and essential household um needs. One of the ways that we are able to identify our families is through the social worker, Miss Alicia Shepard, who directs and connects us with the students and families and allows us to have a little time to get to know them and to hear about their greatest challenges. I think one of the major things that I want to to just share is that um the partnership demonstrates a critical role that the school social workers play in connecting communities, organizations and families and needs. And
113with the without the guidance and the assessments, she does an amazing job assessing to make sure that the families who are going to receive our support is is going to be able to use it and is in need. and it helps us to feel like we are continuing to support the funding of some of the things that maybe schools can't give outside of the classroom and outside of the school building. And so I just want to share with everyone there that we would love to keep our school social workers. We need them. I'm a social worker myself. I've been in CPS. I've worked there through some other organizations and I know the importance of having social workers be able to find those critical organizations to help support the students and families in CPS schools. Thank
114you for your time. >> Thank you for for coordinating that, Rob. Let's move to our online. I'm sorry. are in person. I'm sorry. Is >> I got you. Hi. Good evening. My name is Leslie Hatimer and I have proudly served Sunsign Public Schools since 1993. Over the past three decades, I have worked as an elementary school paraprofessional, a middle school language arts teacher, um a homeless liaison for Project Connect, and a high school counselor. CPS is truly part of my family. My mother retired from Woodward and my stepfather retired from Witro and my children are all CPS grads. I know firsthand the incredible work our staff does every day for our students. This year I returned to my roots as a middle school counselor at Robert's Academy because I wanted to help students before they
115enter high school. At Roberts, I've found one of the most dedicated staffed principal and supportive school cultures I've ever experienced. All of our students and especially our ELELLL population is treated with respect and dignity every day at Roberts. In fact, we had three ELELLL students get the Ohio State Young Scholar Scholarship this year. To demonstrate why middle school counselors matter, I want to ask everyone here, the audience, and the board to briefly recall your own high school, your own junior high experience and remember how fragile your social emotional journey was during these specific years. Please raise your hand if you're still traumatized by your middle school experience. Middle school is a critical time socially, emotionally, and academically. As someone who struggled during these years myself, I remember the adults who helped me, and now I
116get to be a part of that support for our students. During our recent House Bill 123 training, students were asked to name their safe people in the building. I am proud that our school social worker, Susan Deca, and I were at the top of that list. Our impact also extends to high school readiness. This year, 90% of our eighth graders informed making high school placement decisions because of our guidance sessions, and 100% said they now understand high school credits and feel confident about next year's expectations. Middle school counselors help ensure students do not fall through the cracks before high school even begins. As you consider potential budget cuts, I urge you to recognize that reducing counseling staff directly impacts impacts student stability and future graduation success. Please protect our counselors so we can continue to
117support our students. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Reita Brooks. >> Hi, good evening. >> My name is Reita Brooks. I am a school counselor at Walnut Hills High School and I've been a counselor in the district for about 10 years. Um I am a city Cincinnati homeowner and taxpayer as well. This budget issue that we have we all know is a problem of political making and it just goes to figure that we also have a political response which is putting a levy on the ballot. So I did want to advocate for that um as we're all getting caught up in the budget. You know, the children are the most important things and they're the reason that we all fight to do our job and we're fighting to keep doing what we do.
118Um, I have two letters that I know I'm only going to have time to read one from two class of 2025 graduates that speak to the necessity of school counselors. Um, uh, I'm reading now. A high school counselor can be defined as a certified educator who provides support for students ranging from K through 12. This definition absolutely does not do justice for what the job of a counselor actually entails, especially since it left out how they're second moms, therapists, adviserss, advocates, researchers, and most important of all, they're problem solvers. During high school, I experienced some of the most difficult parts of my life, whether or not that was academic or health related. None. Uh, nonetheless, without my high school counselor, I know I would not be where I am today, which is a firstear architecture
119student at the University of Kentucky on the deans list and a summer research fellow. Without my counselor, I wouldn't have even applied because of the price. But with her encouragement and guidance, I was able to acquire enough scholarship money to attend the school of my choice and had the courage to chase my passion for research and become the only freshman in architecture to receive funding for independent research. So if you want to cut school counselors, just remember that you'll have promising students fall through the cracks because I would have fallen through the cracks without mine. Sincerely, Olivia Wyant. Thank you. Miss Brooks, if you do have those Miss Brooks, if you have those letters or if anyone has any information they'd like to give to the board, our admin, Miss Phyllis Davis, is right there.
120Miss Phyllis, raise your hand and she will give you she will give it to us a little later. Thank you, Sandy Hin. >> Thank you, Sandy Herine. I am a counselor at Aken High School. I've been with the district since about 2004. First of all, I'd just like to say I wouldn't trade places with any of you for the decisions that you have to make. just want to know we all respect that this is a hard hard time and hard decisions. I came to talk a little bit about um college and career and counselor's um participation with that as I know that's one of the visions of CPS. Under Ohio law and OD's accountability system, schools are judged not only on test scores but on whether students have leave high school prepared for life after
121graduation. Schools are not measured on college, career, workforce, and military readiness indicators and are expected to provide pathways, advising, career exploration, graduation planning, FASA support, industry credential opportunities, and post-secary access for students. This is not extra work anymore. This is required work. And this aligns directly with the vision of CPS. CPS has repeatedly stated that we are preparing every student who graduated with a plan and a pathway. And in our district, we call this the three E, employment, enrollment, enlist, enlistment. Although it is true that we explore all these pathways um at every level in high school as as a 12th grade counselor, this is many of my responsibilities. At Aken, I work with more than 200 seniors and this year over 50 students alone completed the Common App, which means recommendation letters, transcripts, documentation,
122essays, deadlines, and one-on-one support for students that maybe without help would not either fill it out or meet the deadlines. Then there's FASA, which becomes increasingly complicated for family families. Yet, FASA completion is now considered one of the strongest predictors of whether a student will successfully enroll in college. And beyond college, we are working hard to open doors for trades and living wage careers. This work takes enormous time and individual attention. Many trade pathways are highly competitive and require things that our students lack. Transportation, a driver's license, application support. Trade pathways are not something students simply sign up for. They require mentoring, advocacy, relationships, and coordination. Helping students truly build a future requires time. Thank you. Thank you, Sandra Hartman. >> Sorry, we messed the order up. Good evening. Um, my name is Sandy Hartman.
123It's been almost 300 and something something days since I last spoke to you guys, but it was 364 days ago that the board approved the mental health and wellness policy. Yay. Which requires all schools to have a designated space for students to calm down. And I was so proudly spoke at that board meeting saying that Hartwell has had one for three years. and la we we offer resources and la and I decided to tell you all my data in that day and I was because I was being so proud so I thought I'd come back and give you an update. So last year we had 526 visits and since then we've lost two grade levels now andund something kids. So we also cut our school counselor in half and we lost our school psych one
124day. But this year we had 1,030 visits so far and trust me there's more. um which was a 99% increase from last year. We had a of those students 24% last year used the Zen zone of our school. This year 42% of our students use it. Last year we had 78 documented hours at the zen zone and this year we have 171 which is a document is 120% increase and um of that time we have 79% of the students were seen by me 13% were seen by the school counselor 7% were seen by the school psych so I just want to come on to say that school social workers school counselors and all face um student facing positions address the here and But our students future depends on you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Joe
125Keller. Good evening. My name is Joe Keller and I'm the attendant social worker at Western Hills High School. I previously spoke to you in regards to the role importance of social workers to the district. I want to start by thanking the board members who have expressed support for us and the work we do. I see you. I hear you and I will not forget it. I also hear and see when there is silence from board members. I will not forget that either. I will be transitioning to a new role in our department next year and I'm making it my goal to ensure we are not in this position again where we are forced to fight for our jobs and prove our worth at the end of the year. In order to accomplish that, I need
126to ensure the board has a full understanding of what we do each and every day and the barriers we face. I assure you this goes well beyond what you currently understand and what is in our job description. We abide by an ethical and mor moral code that far exceeds most in the district. To be transparent, the district cannot afford to lose even one social worker. When I spoke with you previously, I offered to meet with all of you to provide more information on the importance of our role and the value we provide to students, families, staff, and district. That offer still stands. I will make myself available to any of you anytime, day or night. I want to help you address the barriers and issues currently impacting our district. This is not the platform for
127the conversations that need to be had. However, if this is the only platform that I have, I will utilize it to provide this information two minutes at a time until the proper information is made available to all who can hear it. I will continue to pray for all of you. Thank you and God bless. >> Thank you. >> Our next set, Naomi Green. Chia Hung, Suzanne Dica, please forgive me if I'm messing these up. Adrienne Jackson, Destiny Bartnett, and Sarah Hayes board members. you know, do you want to >> Good evening. My name is Naomi Green and I am an ALLL social worker with our district. Tonight I would like to speak to you about the unquantifiable impact of social workers and counselors. It is hard to measure how many fights have not happened, how
128many behavior referrals have not been written, how much support we have given parents, how many crisis didn't happen, or how many lives we have not lost to suicide. Because in great part of the time and skills that we have dedicated to our students who often do not have access to any other mental health or social emotional support other than CPS social workers and counselors. That is especially true for our thousands of ELLL students. Allow me to share an experience to illustrate that. One morning at one of our high schools, a student confided in me that they had taken a whole bottle of pills in the middle of the night in a moment of desperation trying to escape their pain. They told our father who went back to sleep because he later told me he did
129not know how to talk about mental health with his child and he did not want to start crying with his child. The student and I called Children's Hospital who advised them to present to the hospital SAP. I called dad and explained and he dropped everything to come pick the student up. The student spent several days in the hospital but after they were discharged they could not access therapy services because they were not insured and they did not speak English. Their only access to mental health support was through regular check-ins with me at school. With time, they improved and they were eventually able to graduate from high school, walk in the gradu graduation stage with confidence and a strong desire to live. This is just one example and I share this not for self- congratulatory reasons
130because I'm confident any of my fellow social workers would have supported this student just as well. But I share it to illustrate that this student would not have come to me for support without the hours that we spend building rapport and trust and helping them feel seen. That is the kind of stuff that can't really be measured. I also share this to illustrate the mental health and social emotional vacuum and risk that our students would be left in, especially our ELLL students without their social workers and counselors. Thank you. >> Thank you, Chia. Good evening. My name is Chia Hong. I'm a resident of the city of Cincinnati and I'm a school psychologist at Gamble Monasury High School. Um it is May and I, like so many of our colleagues, are exhausted. The impact of
131COVID, absenteeism, mental health needs, and academic gaps continue to persist today. But we still show up every day and are here for the kids. As we continue to confront these challenges, it's important that we focus on prevention and ensure we properly staff our schools. Our social workers and counselors are an integral part of our building. They handle day-to-day conflict, monitor student attendance, support our PBIS initiatives, build relationships with students, improve graduation rates, and connect our families to resources. A reduction in school counselors and social workers will strain our systems even more and require more cost inensive resources for students who need tier 2 and tier three. As we think of the long-term viability of our staff and schools, I'm urging the board to ensure a levy is featured on November's ballot. In addition to the
132safety of student support personnel, it's critical that our cost of living is considered, administrators are protected, and teacher roles remain intact. Now is the time to uphold your duty as board members and ensure that the financial decisions made are in line with the CPS vision, mission, and forecast. To guarantee a levy on the November ballot is the way to honor the values of this district, protect jobs, promote positive student outcomes, and ensure the safety and security of our most vulnerable students. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Suzanne. Oh, just tell me your name. >> Susan. Okay. Yes, ma'am. >> You are close. >> Okay. >> Uh I'm Susan Da. I'm the only social worker at Robert's Academy. We have over 700 students. Over the past several years, our district has asked schools to close the
133academic gaps, improve student attendance, address behavioral concerns, respond to trauma, and support students mental health at levels we have never seen before. School social workers are part of the foundation that make this possible. My full-time presence and consistent attendance focus interventions and help Roberts gain a star in progress with a year of just constant struggle and having parents work with their kids on attendance. But we do way more than just attendance. On any given day, we respond to suicidal ideiations, self harm concerns, abuse disclosures, panic attacks, homelessness, grief, family crisis, and escalating student behavior that directly impact learning in the classroom. We help deescalate students so teachers can continue teaching. Teachers cannot be expected to close academic gaps while also managing increased mental crisis alone. Students cannot s succeed academically when they are struggling to
134survive emotionally. At Roberts, many students are also cope coping with deportation of family members, community violence, poverty, trauma, and fear simply walking to school. If you ask Cincinnati Children's Hospital and review their behavioral medicine consult data, their highest rates are among ages 9 through 17. Those are our students. The reality is students do not open up to people they don't trust. A rotating social worker or a contract therapist in a building one or two days a week will not do. Students need to feel safe enough to say, "I need help." At some point, reducing support staff does not simply create an inconvenience, it creates risk. Thank you. Adrienne Jackson. Hello. I'm Adrienne Jackson, school social worker at GDA. I'm one social worker here tonight at this microphone, but I stand with a department of over
13580 professionals serving 33,548 plus students across the district. First, I want to acknowledge you all. I respect um I respect you all. I see how you've repeatedly showed up for students, family, and staff during an incredibly difficult time. I understand public education is under attack. And these are not easy decisions. But I also want to remind you that you were elected to serve children. You established goals and guard rails centered around supporting the whole child. Tonight, the very positions that help carry out and sustain the strategic visions that you have provided are now being considered for reduction. As school social workers, we complete over 400 suicide assessments every year. 400 plus times a student was in pain enough to ask, "Are you had to ask someone that someone had to ask them? Are you thinking
136about ending your life?" We are the people who ask. We are the people who stay. If these are positions are cut, then who? Last year, eight social work positions were eliminated. Tonight, 12 more are proposed. That still is 20 positions lost in two years. When you remove the bridges, who drowns? The 33,548 students in this district need you to find alternatives. We need bold solutions, not business as usual. Because when mileage and parking survive a budget but social workers and counselors do not, that becomes a statement about priorities. You've chose the model here for kids. Tonight, we are asking you to choose it again when it cost you something. Because for 33,548 plus students, it was never just a slogan. It was a promise. Thank you. Thank you, Destiny Barnett. Okay. Good evening, everyone. My
137name is Destiny Barnett. I'm a school social worker specializing in attendance and reducing chronic absenteeism. For the past three years, I've worked directly with our students and families to understand and dismantle the barriers keeping our children from schools. Right now, our families are experiencing homelessness, food insecurity, poverty, severe mental health challenges at alarming rates. Social workers, we are the absolute first line of defense in reporting and resolving these crises. As social workers, we address the root causes of chronic absenteeism, behavior disruption, and academic failure. We provide the vital stability a child needs to simply sit in a seat and learn. Cutting social workers will directly strip away the resources families rely on for student success. Furthermore, research consistently shows that early intervention saves schools districts money over time. Cutting our positions will result in a
138net negative in meeting the needs of our students and increasing district spending on expensive educational placements and things of that nature. Our slogan, we are here for kids. If we are truly here for our kids, we cannot cut school social workers. You cannot measure the value of a student feeling safe, heard, and supported based on a spreadsheet. I urge you to look past the immediate numbers and protect the essentially safety net that our students need in our schools to stay home. Please protect our students, support our teachers, and retain your school social workers. Thank you. Thank you. And as Sarah Hayes comes up, I'm going to call down our next group. John Ford, Sia May, David Jared, Suzanne Null, Jean, Jeanie Jason. All right, you got the floor. >> Good evening, members of the board,
139Superintendent Murphy, Treasure Augustine. My name is Sarah Hayes. I'm a school psychologist with positive school culture and I'm here to speak in support of our school social workers. As the district continues developing a plan focused on student safety, academic success, and fiscal responsibility, I urge us to keep prevention at the center of these discussions. Our school social workers are a critical part of that prevention work every day. They remove barriers to attendance, strengthen PBIS, connect families to community resources, and intervene early before student needs escalate into crisis. Research consistently shows that frameworks like PBIS and MTSS reduce downstream cost while improving attendance, instructional time, academic outcomes, graduation rates with net benefits of up to $3,600 per student. At our current funding levels, even a 1% drop in enrollment due to attendance can represent millions of
140dollars in loss funding. Likewise, alternative placements often cost significantly more per student than preventative supports delivered in our schools. Over the past six years, we have seen consistent reductions in category 3 behaviors that often lead to more intensive services. That progress does not happen by accident. It requires fully staffed schools, trained professionals, and comprehensive student and family support. Without strong prevention, needs do not disappear. They shift downstream into more expensive services like crisis response, intensive remediation, and alternative placements. As the district plans for the future, I hope we continue investing in the pre preventative systems and more importantly the people, our social workers that keep students present, supported, and successful. Thank you. Thank you. That was Miss Sarah Hayes, right? Is that right? Okay, Mr. Ford. >> Hello. Hello. My name is John Ford and
141I'm the greater Cincinnati area director for Shoes for the Shoeless, but I know some of you here, most of you I don't. Um, and I stand here before you guys tonight as a former CPS employee, as a current CPS contractor and community partner, and most importantly, I return on educational investment of CPS as a graduate of WAR University High School, class of 2007. Tonight, I come with an urgent plea to you guys. Like many others, we need this levy. Please simply put it there. Regarding the several proposed cuts, I can spend all night talking about all these different things, but two things stand out to me above all else. The potential loss of our resource coordinators and our social workers, and the student engagement specialist position held by Shelley Conrad. The deep impact that Shelley
142has had over the years is honestly hard to put into words. My young fellow uh Wro grad spoke to it beautifully. Mila did as well. But I want to echo some of that because her impact means just that much through programming like International Day of Girls, Girls That STEM, the Miami Summer Retreat, community outreach efforts, uh, Feeding the Homeless, the countless mentorship opportunities. Shelley has helped shape the lives of young men and women across this district. But her impact goes beyond programs. She mentored people. She connected to people. She believed in people. And as I began as a more adviser, which I am now, Shelley mentored me. She led me and she taught me as an adult how to further reach the students that I thought that I had left. I come here to tell
143you guys that programs don't change lives. People do. and positions like student engagement, resource coordinators, and social workers are the bridge that brings us to these children. They're the bridge that brings the resources like us and shoes for the shoe list to serve over 12,000 since 2023 to their front doors. Please don't eliminate them. We need them. Our children need them. Thank you guys. >> Thank you. Anna May. Miss May. Okay. David Jerry. >> Hello. Um, good evening. My name is David Jared. I'm a first year teacher at Pleasant Hill Middle School. I teach art. Um before that for 20 years I did uh work in the film and television industry and ran an animation company. Um and this has been the most meaningful work I've done. So I just want to thank you for
144the job. But um I also wanted to speak about the importance of art in our schools and you know I'm constantly working with our social workers and counselors and stuff like that because my field is also an emotional field. Um, but I wanted to talk about the importance of art and how it can reduce school suspensions. Um, and it can increase attendance, which I've seen firsthand just in this first year. Um, I'm often surprised to some of the students who have A's in my class when I check their grades that is not across the board. Um, and it's because they find what we do engaging. Um, my whole class was excited to get Clay, you know. So I think that the work we're doing is really important and I see um the spatial reasoning uh
145increase the eye hand coordination, project management, responsibility, all that stuff goes up with these students and a lot of them are just struggling across the board and then they come into my class and they get to get valued for their creativity um and their ability to render something in an interesting way. So thank you. >> Thank you. Suzanne Null. >> Good evening, superintendent and members of the board. My name is Suzanne Null. I am an art teacher at the Academy of World Languages and the Fine Arts Curriculum Council Chair. Uh last year, our fine arts manager position was eliminated and I thought maybe tonight I should come and report back to you on uh how our department responded. We stepped up. Emily Campbell and a leadership team of teachers including Maria Katsini, our fine arts
146coach, myself, Leerk Wesley, John Jung, Laura McMullen, and Renee Lent shared administrative duties to ensure every classroom was equipped, every teacher was supported, and our students received the impactful arts education they deserve. Fine arts programs bring families into our schools to celebrate their child. This year, we didn't just bridge gaps, we dug paths. This list is just a sample of what we were able to accomplish. 87% of CPS schools participated in our 56th annual citywide art show filling this auditorium to standing room only. We hosted two district-wide arts and culture fest with over 24 participating schools celebrating Latino culture and black history. Our all city marching band was more visible than ever, including an inspiring appearance in the opening day parade. And we brought back monastery band night to another standing room only crowd. We
147increased we increased student identified as gifted in visual art by 37% secured an elementary scheduling policy to support that process and are now writing a plan to identify and serve gifted in the creative thinking. Um we're gifted in creative thinking. Crucially these identifications mean more points on the state report card. We built career pathways with H.B.CU and UC's DAP, forging seamless paths from high school art and band to lifelong careers. Most remarkably, our 200 our 2026 graduating seniors are among the very first CPS students ever who have always had access to art and music and have never known a classroom without art supplies or instruments. I'm deeply proud of my colleagues for stepping up and incredibly grateful to work in a district that shares my values for educating the mind and the heart of the
148whole child. Put the levy on the ballot. Let's keep our fine arts strong. >> Thank you. Janine, are you are you Janine? >> Okay, tell me your what's your name? >> Okay, we'll get you right after. Greetings, Superintendent Murphy, Treasurer Augustine, and board members. My name is Janine Jason. I am the music teacher at Dor Monttoauri Elementary School. I am also a proud product of CPS schools. I went through North Aendell Elementary and graduated from Walnut Hills High School. I have been a music teacher in the district for 29 years now. And I want to just talk to you not about numbers or statistics, but about the children that I serve. Exhibit A. This is an email that I received from one of our um MD teachers at our school. When we were eating lunch
149at Kings Island today, we were sitting right next to some speakers. There was classical music playing and a particular student who is severely um autistic, very limited um language. He used his AAC device and he kept repeating rhythm, rhythm, rhythm and tone, tone, tone. Hannah said they have learned about those in music class, so she just wanted me to know that he was applying it in real life. Exhibit B from a student in kindergarten who has tested more nerves than I thought I ever had. And um but through patience, persistence, and consistency um and high expectations for this child. He has done remarkably well this second year through kindergarten. And his pair of professionals share this with me. He was working on sentences and it says, "When I grow up, I want to be a
150music teacher." Exhibit C is this bracelet that I have on. A sixth grade student had not been performing well in my class. She came to me after class one day and she said, "Miss Jason, I'm sorry I haven't been performing well. My father just went back to prison." and I told her, "That's okay, sweetheart. Don't you worry. You're going to do fine. Thank you for letting me know. I will do everything I can to assist you." She asked me what my favorite colors were, and I told her green and purple. She went home and made this bracelet for me. I wear it every Monday when I see her. And today, she came down front and taught the class. She taught them a rhythmic game with a chant. And she did that with confidence and boldness.
151And at the end of class, she said, "You wore my bracelet." And I said, "Yes, I do. And I will always wear it and remember you." So I ask that you all remember the students and that these are our children. And without adequate funding for the arts and every subject, it would be likened to the Israelites being asked to make bricks without straw. We are teachers, not miracle workers. Please put the levy on the ballot. Thank you. As you come up, we are going to call the next batch down and it would be Jamie Bergen, Dr. Nona Oliver, Cara Van Dover, Miss Lopez, and it is long. Jimmy Densen, and Samantha Stevenson. Miss May, you have the floor for two minutes. >> Good evening. My name is Sam and I'm here today not just as
152a former Cincinnati public school student, but as someone whose life was genuinely changed because CPS invested in people and not just test scores, data or budgets, but people. When we talk about removing program event coordinators, social workers, and other social related positions within the school system, we are not talking about cutting extra positions. We are talking about removing individuals who create opportunities, mentorship, leadership, and life-changing support systems for students who may otherwise feel overlooked. I know this personally because of Shelley Conrad. Throughout my time in CPS, Shelley Conrad was more than just a program event coordinator to me. She became a mentor, an advocate, and someone who consistently encouraged me to see potential within myself, even during some of the most difficult moments of my life. I first became involved in Girls to Women simply
153as a member, a young girl trying to find herself, trying to feel understood, and trying to feel like she belonged somewhere. Over time, through Shel's leadership and mentorship, I grew into leadership roles myself, eventually becoming co- captain and later captain. More importantly, she helped shape who I became as a person. Through the programs and opportunities she created, I strengthened my emotional empathy, communication skills, writing abilities, leadership skills, and professionalism. She taught me how to advocate for myself, how to support others, and how to carry myself confidently in perspect in professional spaces. Even after I graduated from CPS, Shelley continued supporting me. During my first semester of college, I became pregnant while also dealing with serious domestic challenges and struggles with my mental health due to the loss of a friend who died the night of
154our graduation. There were many moments where continuing my education felt overwhelming. But instead of allowing me to give up on myself, Shelley reminded me of my potential and continued encouraging me to pursue my passion for the legal field. Because of her dedication to students like me, she helped create opportunities such as Girls in Law, a program that gave young women exposure to legal careers, mentorship, and professional development. Programs like that do not happen on their own. They happen because program event coordinators take the time to truly invest in students futures. That investment changed my life. Today, I'm graduating college two years early with a bachelor's degree in communications. I am also a parallegal and a mother of two beautiful twin boys. But my story is only one of many. There are countless students throughout CPS
155whose confidence, goals, mental well-being, and futures have been shaped because someone like Shelley Conrad, who took the time to mentor them, encourage them, and remind them that their future still mattered. Removing program event coordinators, social workers, and other important positions does not just remove a a position title. It removes mentorship. It removes opportunity. It removes safe spaces, guidance, leadership, development, and life and life-changing support for students who need it most. Please do not take away from future students. Thank you, Miss May and Jamie Bergen. Hello. Did I do it right? Do you see a button? >> It's on. Is it on? >> There we go. >> Um, I'm Jamie Bergen. I am currently the health student health assistant at Reesei Price Academy. Um, I'm a healthcare professional. Yes, I give out ice packs, band-aids, and
156medication. That is just a part of my responsibility, but there's only a fraction of what I do. I'm the one who lets a child sleep because they stayed up all night caring for their siblings while they slept in a car. I am the one who calms the child whose father lost his temper. Who carries the bruises so her younger siblings don't have to. I say steady in a crisis when a frantic call comes in that I have a first grader who is unresponsive. While you count dollars, I count breaths. I count the minutes while a special needs student seizes on the gym floor. And I count the number of gauze pads I hold on a wound to stop the bleeding. And I count the seconds until 911 arrives. When you count dollars, I count bruises,
157wounds, and marks that children try to hide. These are not statistics. These are our students. We may be a number to you, but to our students in our schools, we are a lifeline. It is a team effort. Alongside my psychologists, security and social workers, resource coordinators, we are breaking cycles of fear and uncertainty and building trust and understanding. Because my social worker is across the hall. Our teacher our our students are receiving interventions within hours, not days, not months, not years. While you decide our fate, we help change the outcomes of some of the district's most vulnerable children. We show up, we advocate, and we protect. We build relationships with families. We listen, and we make sure our students have access to the care that they need. These students face realities that many will never
158understand, but they still show up. least you can do is meet them there and provide the care they need to survive, learn, and have a chance. And until you do, we get to tell you our value, not the other way around. Because when the gratus police chief showed up at my school, my admin had the support staff to jump in and take action. Being poor is not a crime, but having not having access to health care professionals, mental health professionals, social workers, health information, and basic resources while you attend a public school should be. Thank you. >> Thank you. Dr. Oliver, >> good evening, Superintendent Murphy. Good evening, board members. My name is Dr. Winona Oliver and I am the special education liaison for the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers. Many times I have heard different
159board members state that the reason they cannot put a levy on the ballot is because you need a plan as if the district has not already developed a plan and presented it to you. The district and CTF have collaboratively developed a multi-tered systems of support and has begun implementation of this evidence-based framework that provides high quality instruction and interventions matched to each students needs across domains and monitors progress frequently to make decisions about changes in instruction or goals. It provides a systemic framework which gives all students with the best opportunities to succeed both academically and behaviorally in school. The Ohio Board of Education has praised it as being a very good framework. As you know, it is presently in implementation stage with the use of implementation protocols in order to ensure it is implemented with
160fidelity. Implementing an educational initiative with Fidelity typically takes two to four years. Meaningful change requires adequate staff, time for staff training, routine building, and cultural adoption. One of the responsibilities you have as our school board is to manage the budget. As we can see, that hasn't gone very well. At this point in time, the district needs additional funds to ensure the adequate staffing of our counselors, social workers, teachers, and clerical staff so that our multi-tered systems of support can flourish and meet the needs of all of our students. At this moment in time, that means putting a new levy on the ballot. Please do your job and do what's best for kids. Thank you. Thank you, Carara Van Doran. My name is Cara Van Doran. I'm here as a parent of CPS children, four of
161them, a coach in the district, an athletic trainer who has previously worked full-time in a high school setting, and worked directly with athletic directors. and I'm also newly confirmed as the um coordinator, also known as the athletic director of Fairview German Clifton Language School. I accepted this position because I see how much athletics excel or deteriorate depending on administrative support. I'm grateful for all the speakers so far and I second what they've said about how hard it is to decide which student facing positions you would need to cut without more funding. I want to speak specifically about the proposal to cut assistant athletic directors. With one student at Walnut Hills and one student heading to Walnut Hills next year, I have experienced already with my ninth grader and some of her friends getting cut from
162a team because it's already so difficult to make some of these teams because of the school being so large. I believe athletics is a co-curricular activity, not just a extracurricular. I do not suggest that other line items do not also build great students. But I see athletics as an opportunities to create well-rounded students. This there is camaraderie, discipline, physical exercise outlet, and face-to-face interactions which are both so hard to come by in our technological world where parents are fighting against the draw our students have to be on their devices so much. Having sports keeps our students focused on school because they have to keep certain grades to get their playing time. It helps them gain confidence, be engaged during the school day and gives them access to alternative skills for life and furthering their educational
163educational career with scholarships without assistant ads that decreases dramatically. I feel this is just as fundamental as gym class in elementary school as fundamental as fine arts and core classes in the school day. Please consider athletics as an important part of student health and needs funding. Thank you for considering creative ideas in how to balance the budget so that I can still proudly and confidently send my children to CPS schools and trust that our friends in lower income situations are having a place they can thrive. >> Thank you. Okay, I have Jimmy Densen. >> Go ahead, Mr. Densen. >> Good evening. I'd like to say a few things because I came from a different environment. So, this is just my fourth year here, okay? I appreciate the opportunity to work for you, but I've learned
164so much in the four years. I've learned how much the counselors, social workers, and the job that they do, how important it is, cuz I've seen it work at Walnut. I've seen it work time and time again. Superintendent Murphy, you may remember me and you may not. I am the security guard that would not let you bring your big purse into walnut. Okay? But I was just following your orders. Okay? All right, folks. All I'm asking you to do is to think about the things that these people are talking about today, okay? And the decisions how and how they will affect it down the road. Like I said, I'm not was never involved in schools. My friends talked me to into coming down here to work with them cuz they had to work. Okay. But
165folks, I've seen so much at Walnut. And I work with the counselors. I help them as best I can. Sometimes I have to become a counselor, but it's all things that are necessary. So I'm asking you to do the necessary by putting a levy on the balance. Okay? It only in athletics at Walnut that helps these kids and to have two assistant ads and now we're down to one. To take another one away would be how would I say this very nicely? Not a very good thing to do. Uh, folks, you may not know this, but I'm a retired Duke Energy engineer, and one of my decisions I made years ago is City West. I did all the underground utilities for City West. And the only reason Still Stadium is where it is is because
166I decided to let CHA try to do a contract with Kroger's. They wanted to put a big Super Kroger's right there. I agreed to let that go. If id held that to my gun, Stu Stadium would not be there. FC would not be there. So guys, make a decision that makes sense. That's all I'm asking you to do. Sometimes we make mistakes, but putting a levy on the ballot is never a mistake. I came from with my graduating class was,248 kids. We graduated 1,230 of them on a Sunday afternoon. So this system always has worked. It's just the people who run it that make a difference. >> Thank you, Mr. Densen. >> We have Miss Lopez, Stevenson, and I'm going to call down the next group. We have uh it is getting thinner, >> Michelle
167Dunn, Karen Imbis, Brad Smith, Kendra Phelps. But first, we have Miss Lopez >> Stevenson. >> Miss Stevenson. Okay. Good evening. My name is Samantha Stevenson and I am a Cincinnati public schools teacher at Walnut Hills High School. I'm also a homeowner, voter, and taxpayer. Instead of telling you to put a levy on the ballot, I'm going to tell you what will happen if you don't. When I was a senior in high school, Little Miami local schools went into fiscal emergency and was taken over by the state of Ohio. Uh we had failed, I think, eight levies in a row. We had no library, no modern mold languages, teachers were moved to other buildings, AP classes cut, we had no theater program, and all sports, band, choir, and other activities were the devastating paytoplay. My teachers
168were so strong and fought with us every step of the way, standing on the side of the road, urging our community to vote for us in a honken wave for many, many years. These brave teachers inspired me to become the teacher I am today. But I am urging you to not let this happen to Cincinnati public schools, put a new money levy on the ballot in November. Further, I urge you to consider the cuts to studentf facing positions. We need counselors, social workers, assistant principles, school health employees, school psychologists. We need cafeteria workers, custodians, independent uh intervention specialists, cafeteria workers, librarians, secretaries, security personnel. These are the heroes our students need and deserve as they are truly hash here for kids. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Stevenson. Is Miss Lopez in the building? She's left
169the building. Michelle Dunn. >> Good evening. Students like uh my son over there went to CPS with cerebal palsy. He went to Rosan Con and Gamble. Um students that politicians and privatizers do not care about. Um your buzz budget decisions obviously affect real lives like my son and mine. And so these are the voices you should be listening to. All these voices in this room tonight, the educators, the parents, the students, not business leaders on Fourth Street and the Chamber of Commerce, people who do not pay into our system and do not send their children to our schools. Their playbook is well documented and it starts with weak governance and a board unwilling to stand up uh for their district. They cut. They talk about failing test scores. Some members of this board have cherrypicked
170data to make the case that it is our teachers fault that were in this position. Again, shameful. Uh it is clear that is not the teachers or the counselors or the children's fault. We are consistently regularly underfunded and cut. Again, we're asking you tonight to put a levy up for a vote because you have to do it twice so we can get it on the ballot. It is almost too late. It's really late to get this started. Um, and so instead of talking about us as failures, stand with your staff and your families and do the right thing and allow the community to support our schools. That's what we need from you tonight. Please support a levy. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Imbus. Good evening, President Craig and members of the board. My name is
171Karen Imbis and I am a field representative for the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers. And I have to say it's a little daunting to stand up here and follow the comments of so many incredible uh CFT members whom I have the privilege of representing. Uh and if any of my some of my comments will be redundant and I apologize in advance. Um this morning when the budget recommendations were finally posted for review, I was surprised to learn that the administration is asking you to reduce the bell schedule at Aken, Hughes, and Schroeder from seven bells to six bells. Reducing the number of teachers and electives for students is inequitable. Those students deserve the same opportunities as the students at other high schools. The superintendent is also asking you to furlow teachers for five days. That would
172have a negative impact on students and wipe out the benefit of the modest cola teachers are counting on next year. Moreover, both the bell schedule and the number of contract days are subjects of collective bargaining and the board cannot impose those changes unilaterally. This board's primary duty is to fund the schools. Yet, despite $48 million of painful cuts that make children's lives less rich and limit their opportunities to thrive on top of last year's $112 million in cuts, this board still will not commit to putting a levy on the ballot in November. Board members tout the responsibility for fiscal stewardship. Yet, we know that if we don't pass a levy in November, we'll be facing even deeper, more devastating cuts next year. and that if if you don't put a levy on the ballot, you
173will be condemning CPS to a spiral of downward cuts. That does not comport with my understanding of fiscal restorship. Uh please put a levy on the ballot and start working on this now. There will never be a better time to pass a levy before it's too late for CPS than this November. If you mean what you say account about accountability, put a levy to the voters. Let them decide. Don't declare defeat without giving the community the opportunity to support this city. Thank you, Brad Smith. And let me call the rest down after as Brad comes up. We have Kendra Phelps, Clayton Adams, Sandy Bennett, Sonia Lackey. That's it. >> Good evening, Board of Education. My name is Brad Smith. I'm a constituent. I'm a resident. I'm a taxpayer. And I am a CFT field rep.
174You have some choices to make in the budget. For example, there's $200,000 for Teach for America, which has utterly failed to help us fill any of the high needs positions in this district. Or you could take that $200,000 and pay for two of the positions that you want to cut. We're going to spend $984,000 on I Ready. That could also fund eight school social workers or eight counselors. We have several managers and coaches who are contractors of the Hamilton County Educational Services. I hear this board talking about doing more with less. Well, we have employees here in Cincinnati Public Schools that could do that work a lot better at a lower cost. So, no CPS employee should be cut or furled before you cut the contractors. And finally, you know, I don't know what else
175you need to hear. In the past, board members would listen to the public comment and they would hear the same thing being said over and over again and they would pause the uh public comment. They would bring the issue up in front of the board for discussion and a vote. What are you waiting for? You hear how painful these cuts are going to be. You hear how this is going to impact our students. I don't know what you're waiting for. Time is of the essence. It's time to put a new levy money ballot or new money levy on the ballot. Thank you. >> Thank you, Kendra Phelps. Good evening, board members. I've heard you talking about accountability, being accountable to the community. Well, we are part of that community. The superintendent has informed you that
176we need a new money levy, and all these stakeholders are here today echoing that message. Let's be clear, this levy is not for some flashy new initiative, but for survival, and the citizens of Cincinnati want our public schools to survive. Without this levy, we cannot continue providing our students the education they deserve along with the support services they require to thrive. CPS has always been a district that is a model for others, not only in Ohio, but throughout the nation, and I'm a proud graduate, parent, employee, and taxpayer. Aren't you partners with us in this work of providing a top-notch public school? Or are you okay with reducing our schools to the bare minimum? Cincinnati's children deserve more. How can you consider maxing out class sizes, a reduction in needed services to our students provided
177by counselors, school social workers, psychologists, and cutting clerical staff who we know are the people making sure everything gets done. We have been put in this unfair position by Ohio legislators who do not support public education, but it provides an opportunity for you to show that you do. We are all watching and we hope you'll do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you. Clayton Adams. >> Good evening, members of the board, President Craig, Superintendent, and community members. My name is Clayton Adams. I'm a special education teacher with Cincinnati Public Schools, a union leader, and someone who believes deeply in the promise of public education in this city. I'm here tonight because I'm frustrated. And I know many educators, families, and community members are frustrated, too. For months, this district has talked openly about financial instability,
178structural deficits, declining enrollment, and the difficult choices that may lie ahead. We've heard about position cuts. We've heard about shrinking resources. We've heard about constant warnings about our future. But what we have not seen is bold leadership. This board has had an opportunity to act decisively by placing a new money levy before the voters. Uh a real plan to stabilize Cincinnati public schools and invest in its future instead of what we've seen as hesitation, delay, and silence. And while this inaction continues, enrollment continues to decline under this board's leadership. Families are making decisions every day about whether they believe this district's future. Teachers, I'm sorry, families are making decisions every day about the whether they believe in this district's future. Teachers are deciding whether they can continue building careers here. Students are deciding whether they
179feel supported, valued, and safe in our schools. Leadership is not about waiting until a crisis becomes unavoidable. Leadership means confronting hard truths before they become disasters. The people of Cincinnati have historically supported public education where they when they are given a reason to believe in a vision. But right now, I don't think this board is presenting a vision. I think you're presenting uncertainty. You cannot cut your way into growth. You cannot market your way out of instability. You cannot re rebuild public confidence while refusing to have an honest conversation about revenue. And I want to be clear, this is not simply about balancing spreadsheets. This is about long-term survival and strength of Cincinnati public schools. If we want families to stay, we have students. If we want families to stay, if we want students to
180thrive, and if we want educators to remain committed to this district, then this board must act with urgency and courage. Our students deserve a board that's willing to lead, not simply just managing a decline. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Bennett. >> Good evening, board, Superintendent Murphy, Treasure Augustine. I am Sandy Bennett. I am a teacher and a district-wide mentor. I listened to the budget meeting yesterday to prepare. I appreciate the thought and consideration that has been given to the horrible budget we have been dealt due to the lack of fair funding. I appreciate the superintendent and treasurer and all of the unions who have been working to figure out where cuts can be made with as little disruption as possible. I have a few questions for you, the board. Who who influences you and
181your decisions? Who are you listening to? We have been loud and clear tonight. What What is your plan? You know, the current funding formula is not funding our schools. We know the state is setting public schools up for failure. What are you going to do to address this? What is the purpose of a strategic plan if we are not going to fund it? When when are you planning to address the budget cuts? Are you waiting for the state to take over? Time is of the essence. Just heard that. Where where are you going to get new employees or retain teachers while we self-implode? Why? Why are you setting our students up for failure? Why, when we are in a budget crisis, are we still paying outside vendors? How how do you expect to compete with
182other other districts? How do you expect teachers to improve test scores if you cut school supports and teachers? Do you do you support public education, especially CPS? It doesn't appear that you do when all I see and hear are rhetoric and lack of action. Do you expect students to grow academically if we make cuts at the school level? Are we are we on the same side with the same goals? Are you committed to improving our district? Are you are you here to serve a private agenda, a business, or our students? If you are not going to put a levy on the ballot to fund our classrooms, what is your plan? Give the public the opportunity to vote for our schools. They need the need for a levy is clear. Who sitting up here has the
183faith in our devoted and ed dedicated staff, our hardworking students. Show us with your voice. >> Thank you. And thank you. And last, um, Miss Lackey, you have the pleasure of going last having the last two-minute word. Good evening, everyone. >> My name is Sonia Lackey. I'm a second grade teacher at Midway Elementary. I was thinking back when I interviewed my first teaching position in 1996 at Rosenberg. Man, I went in there scared. I fumbled and stumbled over my words during my interview. They came to the last question. The principal said, "Why should we hire you?" And I looked at her and I said, without hesitation, I said, "Because I can give the kids stability." So I thought, "Lord have mercy. I messed this one up." So the rest of the team was looking at
184me and I said, "That's it." I didn't know what else to say. So after the interview, I said headed out to my car. got out to my car, saw the principal coming out. And I thought, oh, so principal comes out, stops me, and says, "Hey, we'd like to offer you the position." I said, "That's wonderful." I said, "But why me?" When after that interview I just gave, "Why me?" And she looked at me, she said, "Because you're going to give our kids stability." Stability represents consistency, balance, and the ability to withstand outstanding forces without collapsing. And that's what every staff member in our school houses provide students daily. We are the one the one constant in their lives. Respect. The act of treating people, ideas or things with consideration, esteem and high regard. Trust. Reliance
185on the character, ability, strength, or truth of someone or something. An advocate. the act of publicly supporting, recommending, or arguing for a cause, policy, or group. To continue to provide the stability CPS students need and deserve, I ask three things. One, respect families and other citizens enough to really explain to them what's going to happen if we don't get a new levy or new money, excuse me, because we all know that fewer staff is not going to raise test scores. Two, trust your voters. Trust the voters. Let them decide what our future's going to be with our students. And three, I ask this board advocate for all our students and agree to put a new money levy on the November ballot. Thank y'all. Thank you. President Craig, I am turning this back over to you
186after a total of 61 speakers, 122 minutes of public hearing of the public. Thank you. >> Uh, and again, thanks to everyone who raised their voices here. I wanted to make sure that we we gave folks plenty of time to speak and wanted to have everybody a chance to share their thoughts. Um, and so we are now going to go to our uh next portion of our meeting. We're going to do a slight adjustment to our uh regularly scheduled presentation to allow one of our other speakers uh for our strategic plan to get a chance to speak before we go into the budget section of our presentations. And so I will turn it over to the superintendent to introduce uh this topic. So, we have our speaker get a chance to speak and then or
187provide the presentation and then uh we can go into other regular business as well. >> Thank you for the adjustment, President Craig. Um Rob, just need your help um to find out if Miss Aisha from Bellweather is on. Thank you for hanging in there with us. So, we have been working uh very diligently with both, excuse me, Belleather and Rice. And so Belleather I believe is on tonight um to provide an update with where we are with their work in the strategic planning. There we go. All righty. So, we'll turn it over to you, uh, Aisha, to to kind of walk us through the update. >> Thank you, President Craig. Good evening, board members. Good evening, Superintendent Murphy. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to share with you just a brief update um on our
188progress recently um as we support you in your strategic planning effort. Um, on the next slide, you will see um just a reminder of our timeline and our phases of work. uh we are approaching an important transition from our phase one work where we are focused on assessing the current state uh to our phase two work where we begin to define um the go forward direction for the district. Um I want to share with you a little bit tonight um about our work to define uh where the district wants to be in four years at the end of this strategic plan. Before I do that, I want to give you just a brief update on stakeholder engagement. Um, I believe Superintendent Murphy shared with you at the last board meeting, just an update on the
189number of um, listening sessions and interviews and focus groups um that uh, Redcon has been facilitating across the district. Um, I believe she also shared uh just the number of uh survey responses we received from staff, from community, and from local school decision-making uh committees. Um, on the next couple of slides, I just want to share with you um that since that update, we have also um recruited members to a community advisory committee. You can see the individuals um who have said yes listed on the screen. Um across these individuals, we've had a chance to um interview them in groups of two or three. We will also engage them um in working sessions in June and July to react and respond to emerging strategic plan goals um and associated priorities. On the next slide, you
190see just kind of at a high level some of the themes that have surfaced um as we've had conversations with members of the communitywide advisory committee. I think a lot of what you see here um is consistent with what we have heard across a number of other stakeholders. Um as part of our phase one uh interim report, uh we will share themes across all of the stakeholders that we heard from. Um but tonight in particular, I wanted to share with you just some of the things we're hearing from the community advisory committee. Um one theme that was loud and clear is just a sense of urgency around addressing significant gaps in student achievement, especially for students of color. Um I think this is a shared sense of urgency with everyone that we have spoken with
191uh both internal and external to the district. Um the communitywide advisory committee also identified um opportunities for additional transparency um looks for the community into data and how they inform decision making. They were incredibly enthusiastic about the strategic planning committee. Almost as soon as um the invitations went out, uh we immediately began hearing from people who were um excited to serve in this capacity, excited to support the district strategic strategic planning effort. Um and they also just expressed alongside the strategic planning a strong desire to see evidence of intentional implementation and performance management. Um, and that work is in scope for us to work on um, together through just the incredible foresight of leaders. Um, as you all sketched out what it was you wanted Belleather to um, help you accomplish uh, as part of
192this engagement. Um, they thought it was important to point out that there is some community skepticism um, and opportunities to continue to build trust across community partners. Um they stated that um they see examples of community partners wanting to support CPS uh more thoughtfully and strategically and having some hesitation um due to past leadership transitions. And so just an opportunity to continue building trust and engagement um across the community with external partners. Um and then finally um in align with uh much of the commentary from the public this evening um this is a group of folks who share broadly that they believe support for a levy is within reach and it will um require CPS to make a strong case for why additional support is needed uh and what the community can expect um from
193CPS and for CPS students as a result. Um and we believe that the strategic plan will be one part um of helping to tell that story uh and helping to make the case. I want to shift now to talking about two important anchors of the strategic plan uh the graduate profile as well as the intended impact. On the next slide, you see uh a visual. And so if you think about the current state, where the district is today, um where you ultimately want to go in the long term, what you ultimately want to achieve uh and help students achieve um is articulated in a couple of statements. Uh first, of course, your mission and vision and values. um but also in the profile of a CPS graduate. What are the experiences and skills and habits
194of mind uh that you want from all students uh who graduate uh from the district and so we see that as an important anchor and a long-term um kind of value that the district is adding to students and to the community. A nearer term uh statement of the district's goals is the intended impact. And so over a shorter period of time, what is the progress the district intends to make toward its longer term aims um that are articulated in the graduate profile? As part of the strategic planning work, we help CPS to define both of these aims, both the graduate profile and then the intended impact. um a little more uh detail on the graduate profile um on the next slide. Um and I think this is an important aspect of the graduate profile. It
195is not intended to be um just a compelling statement of what the district wants for its students, but it is meant to inform um programmatic uh investments, priorities, and strategies. Um, it is meant to help the district align all of its academic work to the experiences and skills and habits of mind that it has said in the graduate profile that it wants for its students. On the next slide, you see a number of questions that um we will be asking and have been asking of uh district leaders to help us articulate that profile of a graduate. Um, and you see here those questions align with those mindsets and academic habits. What are the skills and knowledge and disposition? Um, and how do those align with and inform what it takes for young people to be
196successful in their post-secary pursuits regardless of what those post-secary pursuits are. Um we started this conversation um as part of our planning effort and we will continue to have it. Um as part of the community umwide stakeholder engagement that Redcon has been leading um they've also been asking questions about uh what individuals envision uh for CPS's students uh upon graduation. And so we will take all of that input um to draft and iterate and improve um on a profile of the CPS graduate. On the next slide you see a little bit more about the intended impact statement and this really becomes the anchor for the strategic plan. Um so if we think about um the strategic plan as both acknowledging where the district is today and then the intended impact saying where the district wants
197to be and what are the measures of having succeeded in that uh over the next four years then the strategic plan is really about the work that bridges the current state and the intended impact. Um so as part of our planning effort uh and an important part of transitioning from thinking about the current state to the future state um we want to help the district to articulate an intended impact statement and then aligned with that measurable intended impact goal. Um based on kind of our data and document review and our conversations with um internal and external stakeholders, um we are kind we're beginning to frame that intended impact statement around five broad goal categories. Um you can see them here. Um academic success across grades and content areas. um preparing students for post-secary access and
198success. Culture and engagement um across the district but especially in schools and classrooms. Talent uh this includes school-based talent as well as central office talent. And then finance and operation. So um internally what are the important decisions that the district needs to make around its finances and how it operates to imp to support the important work of teaching and learning um and preparing students for postsecary success. We know that it is true in a strategic plan that there are tradeoffs that have to be made and so we don't expect an intended impact statement to necessarily touch on all of these things. But this is our starting place um based on our phase one work and what is surfacing um as opportunities for CPS to address as a part of the strategic plan. On the next
199slide, um you'll see just a little bit about um one of our upcoming milestones. And so you may recall that there is a strategic planning steering committee uh which is made up of the superintendent and the senior leadership team. We will be convening that group on June sess on June 2nd for a working session and our objectives and goals for that time are really to ground in where we are today. So we will be sharing with that group um our interim report on the current state of the district aligned to um our school quality framework which I have shared with you in previous updates. We will begin to articulate where we're going and so that is grounded in that draft uh graduate profile and the intended impact statement and then at a high level we
200will begin to chart um how we will get there. So just beginning to discuss the emerging strategic options. Um we will likely not begin yet to narrow to the three to five highest leverage priorities, but we will begin to talk about um what are the selection criteria that we might use as a filter through which to look at the broader set of options and over time after that June 2nd working session begin to narrow uh to the three to five highest leverage priorities. Again, just on this final slide, just grounding a little bit in where we are. Um, that working session uh marks an important transition for us from the phase one work, which is the current state assessment to the phase two work um which is strategy development. Um you'll notice also in this
201phase is when we begin to develop uh financial scenarios aligned with the plan. And so as those strategic uh priorities begin to take shape, we'll begin looking at what will it take to execute that work well. Um what does it look like at scale and at um the desired pace of implementation and execution uh and developing financial scenarios uh aligned to those priorities. This concludes my updates. I welcome any feedback or any questions uh that you might have. >> All righty. Uh thank you for providing this partition. Are there questions from board members? >> Uh board member Bolton. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate the presentation. I I have u some interest though in knowing a little bit more uh about the u community advisory committee. Uh and I I'm a little concerned there's
20216 members. Uh I see two people on this uh list that have have spent decades supporting CPS. Um, and I won't name who they are, but I also see a heavy presence of business, uh, the business community. Out of the 16, there's at least five that are business. And what I'm what I'm interested in knowing is I'm concerned as to where neighborhood leadership is or the faith community is or the artistic community. Um and maybe you could talk a little bit more about how the the selection was made. >> Thank you for the question. We um developed uh the composition of this committee um in partnership with uh the superintendent and in partnership um with external partners who are supporting uh the strategic planning um effort. Um, and the goal really was to um include
203individuals from uh the business and philanthropic community um as well as higher education. understanding that through our community engagement efforts that are being led by Rice Education Consulting or REDCON um that we would be engaging kind of a broader set of community partners um including uh faith-based and uh neighborhood or community specific organizations. Um what you see represented in the community advisory committee um are organizations who have um much more of a citywide um presence um and can offer uh insight throughout the strategic planning process um have based on their particular lens um both for education but uh really for the role that CPS plays uh in the broader community um and ways is to engage the broader community in the work uh that CPS is taking on. >> Well, I I appreciate that explanation
204and I and I'm I'm I feel reassured that superintendent had something to do with this list, but again, my a third of our district, well, almost a third of our district is outside the city. Uh and this is again heavy duty not only on business, but heavy duty on Cincinnati proper. And I I'm just concern and I understand the philanthropic piece because let's face it, uh we we wouldn't be in this position that we're in right now had had the philanthropic uh community uh and the business community come forward with funding uh the uh strategic plan. But I just think I don't know if it's we we have a vocabulary issue the last several the last several meetings. I just I worry about it being a community advisory. It's not really uh it's a stakeholders,
205it's a partners, it's because I again um I I hate that we're going to have to depend uh on Rice necessarily for the community uh involvement or or checking into the lower profile uh citizens uh for their presentation. But I just wanted to express my concerns about that and but I appreciate your explanations and I have a clearer understanding now of of the of the committee. Thank you very much. >> I really appreciate that feedback and your concern and um I just wanted to assure um the entire board that Belleather is working um incredibly closely with Rice Education um consulting. Um the intent is not to tear stakeholders internal or external. Um we see them all as important. Um and their engagement will continue throughout uh the strategic planning process. >> Thank you very much.
206I appreciate it. >> All right. Um board member Armbber and then board member Lindy. >> Yeah, I'll be quick. I know we've got a lot to handle. I just wanted to say thank you for um the graduate profile um explanation on the mindsets academic habits. That slide is very informative for me and really helps give me an idea of where all of this is going. So I really appreciate that um kind of insight into what the end goal and end point um will be. It's it's very nice. Thank you. Thanks, President Craig, and uh colleagues and guests. Uh I apologize I was not here earlier this evening. Um a board member goes to each of the graduations, and I was the board member at the School for Creative and Performing Arts graduation this evening. Um
207and this is a hard time, I think, for the board, for the administration, for uh everybody who's a part of the CPS community. And I would just say that if you would like some inspiration, go to a high school graduation uh and go to the SCPA graduation because I heard beautiful music uh and I heard wonderful student speakers uh and it was just fantastic. Um so I'm sorry that I missed the first part of the meeting, but I'm grateful that I can be here now. Um I wanted to say um just two things about member Bolton's point on the committee composition and then I had one question for Belleather. Um, on the composition, um, you know, I'm I'm glad, frankly, to see that this is a list of people who are not as frequently involved
208in our board meetings. Um, if we're going to ask for a money, new money increase in a levy, we need the entire city of Cincinnati to vote for it. Uh, and we need people who aren't usually a part of these conversations to understand what it is we're trying to do and to believe in it. So to me, this committee looks like here's a path to building the biggest tent possible to support a future vision and direction for the district. And so I'm excited about that. Um I'd also add that um I don't know what's going to come out of it. Uh but later tonight I think we're going to have a conversation about updating one of the superintendent's goals for the year because our planning timeline has changed. And one of the one of the
209aspects of that I'd like to put forward um is that whatever the strategic plan that comes out of all this, the board has to approve it. Uh and so if let's say that what the group comes up with or or some of the ideas out of this committee are different from what a majority of the board wants to do, this is still a democracy and so a majority of the board has to hopefully all of the board has to vote to approve whatever the strategic plan would be. Um, so I think that's just a nice kind of check and balance as we go through this. And so the question for Bellweather is um I'm just as you all move through this process, I'm very interested in whether there's a part of the process that looks
210for strategies from places that are seeing bigger improvements in student outcomes than we're seeing as a district as a whole. Um, and I'll give a local example and I'll give a national example. Um, but Hayes Porter uh has almost double the number of third graders passing the state test than the district average. Those students are almost entirely lowincome. Uh, it's the vast majority are students of color. Uh, there's something happening there, but I'd like to figure out how we can do it as a district. Um similarly uh if we if we zoom out a little bit um the state of Mississippi now outperforms the state of Ohio on the national assessment of education progress in fourth grade. Um so that there are things I think we can learn from places that are progressing faster than
211we are on average and I'm just curious about the extent to which that's going to be a part of the process. >> It's a great question and it's absolutely part of the progress uh part of the process. we are both looking at where are there bright spots within the district um because we know that there are some so where are there bright spots uh within the district that we can understand better um why or like what are what are the root causes what are driving those bright spots um and how can we take that work to scale and replicate it across the district. Um and then we also look at promising practices um across the country in uh districts that are similar um to yours. And so uh we we will bring recommendations informed by
212both of those um aspects of the work. >> Thank you very much. Um, other board members, uh, Vice President Buffett. >> So, I, um, thank you for the presentation and I, I just had to step out to, uh, but I was listening in the back and so I, I do have, and I, when I looked at this a little bit, I did have some concerns about the composition. take kind of just to piggyback on both my colleagues. I think it is not broad enough and I don't know exactly where um or if there is space to allow for a little bit more of a wider net so that as you do as I look at the goals of your goals to develop a plan that takes us into the future I think that you need
213to have a little bit of a broader perspective. um when I looked at the go the graduate profile as a north star with the intended impact um of the four-year strategic plan to serve concretely define what success looks like over the length of the plan. So that's a 4-year forwardinking perspective and I think it should have a slightly um just be a little bit more inclusive. I had on my list and I was I I thought the list that you had was was actually good, but I I wanted to see some of our other university partner organizations particularly around the school of education at Miami University and even um um Mount St. Joseph who have who have significant impact to our learning and our future educators. they are are uniquely qualified to tell you what
214the type of uh teacher is that they're seeing coming in that they're preparing us to be able to employ. And I don't see their voice included there. So I was wanting to see like Miami University um even Northern Kentucky, Mount St. Joseph, we also have a very strong monastery presence in public education that is unique to Cincinnati public, almost unique to Ohio because I have some colleagues across the nation who are asking about monastery education being in a public school and they're asking me about that. So that's pretty unique and again I don't see that perspective shared there, that voice either. uh faith leaders have a particular interest in what goes on within our schools as partnering organizations and I don't see or I don't see their voice represented. Also to me retirees we've got
215a lot of 30 plus year veterans who can tell you a a perspective over time in the change that they've seen some successes that they've seen and that's not captured there either. So, I'm talking about retired teachers and retired professionals. Um, I've I've said this before and I just don't see it as legislators being represented at all. Whether that be at the community level or that be at the state level, they can give you a very unique perspective on what is coming down the pike legislatively that will adversely, maybe positively as well on some levels, impact education in totality and education within our district. And again, I don't see that perspective represented. Some of our partners at Children's Hospital can also share some mental health perspectives. They've been very uniquely um able to give us
216a window and a snapshot into the types of students that we need to prepare for. So, for example, a couple of years ago, our children's hospital partners told us that we needed to add a significant amount of autism units in the future for some of our students because they were seeing that trend looking forward. Again, I don't see that perspective shared here. I just think that the list that you have is is is definitely diverse. It is um a little bit siloed but I would invite you to have a few additional perspectives as you move towards u preparing us for what the the perspective of a graduate looks like by your definition that you have here on the slide. I think that we need to not only look at where we've been and look at
217where we are but look forward to what we want them to be and those perspectives and those some of those voices are just missing. So, um, I I do I do like the presentation, but I do want to invite you to expand that net just a little bit further and I've I've kind of advocated for legislators particularly because they're able to tell us some of the things that are actually very recently going to impact our district and that needs to be captured there. So, thank you for the presentation and I look forward to the next one. >> Thank you, >> uh, board member Crosset. Uh yes, thank you for the presentation and it's very exciting that we that we've got such a robust strategic plan going and lots of input from lots of people. It
218seems like you're capturing a lot of uh information that is relevant to our current situation and we can use that information to help leverage the future. Um, I think uh my fellow co colleague board member Lindy made a good point about looking for examples of places where there's been success. I caution you though to when you do that to be sure to look at the details carefully. Um, a year I a year ago I was down at uh Hayes our Hayes Porter School and it it is a phenomenal uh example of community volunteers doing tutoring in that school that make the difference. Uh I think it's also an example of a terrific attendance problem in that school. And so maybe the strategic plan could uh incorporate um a little more whole uh collective impact of
219the whole society of what we need to have happen. It's it's not just um that tutoring program, but there's there's challenges with with a lot of our students that are beyond beyond the classroom and beyond the school day. So hopefully those can be incorporated. And also in the Mississippi example, I think it's important to look at that one because in Ohio, I think we have a policy of where kids get uh get an improvement plan rather than getting held back. And so there's a difference in how that so I think it's great to look at those examples and maybe those are examples we need to adopt, but it's important to look at the subtle differences as well. So thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Board member Matt. Uh yes, I'll be brief. Thank you for the
220presentation. Um I do appreciate the um graduate profile because it does give us um clarity and direction and vision as to where we are uh striving to be over the next four years with our our students. Um, as we look at the uh list of um community members that will be a part of the community advisory, I am uh too looking for that um list to just be broadened just a little bit as it pertains to maybe our um our universities and our collegiate partners. Just recognizing that there is a transition that is also happening in higher education and maybe you are um able to provide some um clarity and some more direction or or have conversations with these individuals about what is the direction of higher education as well. I know that some colleges
221are kind of transitioning to a polytechnic uh model and so what does that impact look like for our students and our graduates and how we prepare them. Um the other aspect of this is I would be interested um and I've had this conversation with um our superintendent as well as our board um as we're looking at reorganizing um the work um what that crossf functional um dynamic will be um I think that having some um expertise or some um direction there could also be helpful in making sure that we're really honing in on our strategic planning and how we effectively allocate our resources um as well as how we effectively um make sure that we're uh putting those strategic plans in place. And so just what that crossunctional scope would um entail. So I think
222having um the depth of knowledge from members of the business community of higher education who um or of children's hospital who directly engage in this work on a regular basis and having to work with um different teams um from their scope of practice could be really impactful and so those are the things that I'm interested in seeing. >> Thank you. >> All righty. I will share a few thoughts and then if anyone else has a quick thought or two uh we'll allow others to share those. Um first want again thank you for doing the pres bringing the presentation to us and also you know recognizing that I believe it was either at our last board meeting or the one before where we had some information also shared about the efforts Rice has been doing um
223to bring uh the meetings and in the folks that they've spoken with and so I mean I think at maybe our next presentation of information it'd be good to kind of revisit what the progress and steps we've done since then >> returning back to some of those folks getting additional information and how many of those different ways because I know we were pushing at every different event, every little activity, every probably student activity, those efforts to get people to give feedback and in some of the surveys. Um I think one of the things that I will want to just share an appreciation of what we're doing with the strategic plan is a recognition that the strategic plan also requires us to have a plan financially for the district that moves forward. And I think one
224of the things that I heard from you is something that we as a board has said or at least several members of the board have said is that having something to tell folks we about to do that will let them know their kids are going in the right direction. They're that the district's moving in the right direction is a very positive thing that can bring so many people on board and onto the table. And I think the the strategic plan is a part of that process. But the reality is that that process may require us to take some steps along the way to prepare for that strategic plan to really be implemented in full. And so I think there's a there's space for us to have both kind of conversations that also is guided by
225some of the information that you all are gathering as part of the strategic plan process. And I think that's one of those maybe beneficial aspects that we can continue to to get updates on and get and and kind of get guidance as to how that shapes what is being built in the strategic plan. Um the second comment that I I wanted to share is that I you know again I I love the idea of the graduate profile as well as the uh intended impact but I think more importantly it may it fits into a narrative that we can be talking about more which is in our bsentennial which is next year. What is a CPS student looked like or CPS graduate look like? What does a current CPS graduate maybe look like? And then where
226are we going in the future to what a CPS graduate will look like even past the four years of the strategic plan. So I think like even us talking about the strategic plan is guiding us along the way. We're really talking about building the next four to five years of students so that we can prepare for those students who are 10 15 years out. Mhm. >> And so it would be I don't know again let you share a little bit from from you all from the way you're thinking about it but I I think it'd be almost interesting to think about what could a CPS graduate look like in 15 years in 20 years even as a way to do a bigger scope to what we might do over the next few cycles here of
227strategic planning. >> That is exactly how we think of the graduate profile. And so it is intended to be a much more enduring statement of what it is the district wants for um its students as they graduate and move on to their post-secary s uh pursuits. And so it is much more of a 10, 15, 20 year um uh statement that certainly um you might revisit and tweak, but we wouldn't expect you to create a completely different one each time you do a strategic plan. And so if that graduate profile, you know, kind of like your mission, vision, and values is more enduring, then the intended impact statement and goals is intended to represent progress towards that longer term aim. Uh so what impact will the district have um at the end of this four-year
228strategic planning process on the way to achieving its longerterm north star which is um captured by its mission, vision, values and the profile of the CPS graduate. And then my last thought is really just around if if you could just kind of describe also the work you've been doing with the superintendent's office as well as with the treasur's office to kind of maintain and and kind of keep updated on the progress that's being made in the process but also how that might shape decisions that might be being made today or tomorrow or the next few days um with regards to how the district currently operates. >> Yeah. So we have um really appreciated uh Michael Gustin's um investment of time and working with our team. Um we have really been looking across looking and working
229with him to understand um the district's current financial position but our focus has been on current um kind of budgeting uh processes and decision makings less so that we can um make recommendations for the current process which is well uh in progress but thinking about going forward um how to really align those uh processes with the strategic plan. Um and so really just trying to understand um which elements of the budget are truly fixed um versus where there might be flexibility uh by exploring things like different operating approaches. um really interrogating uh and making sure there is a clear and shared definition of high, medium and low uh priorities uh and that there is a way to um assess priority that is in align with um the strategic plan and the goals and initiatives um
230that are um listed there. Um and then using outcome data um to inform where CPS continues or discontinues spending. So um how can the district have some sense of um which investments are driving progress uh versus which investments may or may not be um as a really important input to uh financial decisions. >> All right. Um, are there any last short uh comments or questions for Bellweather? All righty, seeing none, uh, thank you again for, uh, providing us this update and sticking around, uh, through our hearing of the public there to get to give us an update. We appreciate it. Um, and look forward to the next one. >> Thank you. It's my pleasure. Thank you all. >> All right. Uh, Superintendent Murphy and Treasure Gustin, uh, can we introduce our next presentation? >> So,
231at this point, we're going to discuss, uh, and give a an update on where we are with the budget. I do want to share, um, with everyone that I definitely appreciate all the commentary today and all the emails that we have received and we've definitely respect that and tried to do due diligence in responding to everybody's comment. We understand that this is a challenging season for us, a challenging process, and we'll continue to do our very best to a protect classrooms, but also understanding that we don't have many, many choices um and that some of the choices would just be horrific um to have to deal with as a uh school community. So, what you'll see tonight is starting with our treasurer uh where we are, how we got to where we are today, and
232uh then um our chief information officer, Mr. Galahghue, will share with you some adjustments we've made based on your feedback uh over the last couple of meetings, based on community feedback, based on uh the budget task force that we've been working with. and then uh finally we'll talk about um a path forward for the district. So, treasure, >> thank you, superintendent. Um yeah, I'll go ahead and get started. So, try to be brief, but I put the slide up every time to just remind people how we got here. Um I do think thank you for all the here for all the public comments. I think you know the more we talk about school funding in Ohio, the more these things start start to get into the public consciousness. And so, it's an important thing. Um
233just to remind folks, you know, you know, kind of two two concurrent things came from the state. One is property tax reform, which took us off the 20 mil floor. The other is the uh legislaturator's failure to update the cost in the ferris school funding formula. Both of those create um incredibly flat revenue with us. The only thing I would change in this first slide is really the inflation rate. I think it's going to be a little higher now. So, so that's another another cost pressure on us. If you go to the next slide, please. So, this um just kind of reminded where our forecast is. So, this is from the February forecast. Um you know, you know, we've seen this before, but you see that you know um expenses, you know, basically have to
234match revenue that that is by board resolution. Um and so and and so the revenue picture I think is what's most important for me, you know, because that that kind of tells our our expenditure forecast also want to remind people, you know, we only have about 33 days of operating cash at the end of any fiscal year, which is not a great place to be in. It's stable. Um but this whole forecast is stable based on this board being able to make decisions that get us into um a balanced budget. Obviously, if that wasn't the case, you would see the cash balance drop very quickly. Next two slides are just kind of show the numbers on property taxes and state aid. You can see our property taxes really flatten off. And this graph goes back
235to fiscal year 15. So, this is a longterm pretty much my entire career at CPS um is in is in this one graph. And you can see the the you know ex the you know increases in revenue from property taxes you know level off and they and they don't increase as they would normally. Similarly if you go to the next slide state aid you know state aid from from when they changed when they ended the pass through funding we saw increases and now that has flattened off and isn't is decreasing over time. So always important to remind folks the state continues to not invest in public schools and so it becomes it becomes dependent on the local communities to pick up where the state decides not to do their funding. Couple other things for big
236picture. Um this graph I love this graph. This graph kind of shows the interplay between schoolbased budgets, central office budgets and what we call central support. Central support are all those folks at central office who are deployed out to the schools. They may be included in a central budget, but they spend the majority or all their time um at the schools. You can see overtime central office continues to decrease as an overall percentage of the budget. Um and school support increases as a percentage of the budget. If you flip to the next slide, just looking at instruction, I think this is also a very good graph to look at. Uh you can see, you know, over the course of several years, you've had increases in certain areas um specifically students with disabilities, um instruction um
237funding for ELLL students, and um a fun an increase in career tech funding. So, so that gives you an idea of instructionally where our dollars go and I think it kind of helps flag the um the the overall conversation. The other thing I want to point out is uh Moody's investment agency issued what they call a sector comment. So this is looking at all schools in Ohio, not just CPS. Um they are a little concerned u based on the levy results in May about district's abilities to meet their financial obligations. And so they put out a comment um you know the big things here and I think are important for all districts is you know that have districts with strong governance will demonstrate credible levy planning strategies adherence to a formal fund balance policy which
238we did pass a couple years ago. We do have a formal fund balance policy and the ability and willingness to constrain expenditure growth. So so that's that's what the people who underwrite our bonds are looking for. That gives you an idea of uh you know the big picture perspective. So that point I'm going to switch to talking about one change we want to make to our budget picture. That is um the administration's recommendation to increase revenue. So So we have a current offer out there to sell our wireless spectrum. So don't want to go into a ton of details, but the district owns wireless spectrum. We currently lease it out for about 250 $260,000 a year. uh we have an offer from the company we lease to to buy it outright. So so with the
239board's permission, we would like to pursue that and obviously we'll negotiate the best deal possible, but but we feel that is at a minimum an additional $2.3 million that we can we can record in revenue for FY27. If you're willing to do that, we would obviously then be able to upgrade our budget target um to 630.2 million. And next slide kind of gives a high level. So I know there were some there was some um asked that we bring it back to the 155 million that we had talked about after the first couple rounds of approvals are there. So just overall process um original target was 627.9. This board has approved the legal requirements also approved the schoolbased staffing for state and federal compliance. The schoolbased staff for CBA compliance. uh where we kind of
240left it last meeting was there was a there's you know $155.4 million left to be budgeted. Again, we recommend adding 2.3 million to that revenue. So that would give our remaining amount would be 157.7. And I think my final slide for me tonight uh is just to remind people that what happens in Columbus has a major impact, you know, on school funding. And so we just provide you know list of um legislators there who represent the district you know um state will be starting pretty soon you know the discussions about the next bianial budget and and so we want to make sure that our voices are heard you know as that statewide work is done. So I'll turn it over to Mr. Galahu, I think. >> So, pardon me. At the le last meeting, we
241spoke briefly around the strategy um that we went into a lot of this work with as we were synthesizing through the various pathways and we really wanted to bring that to the next level of talking about as we've moved through the rest of the work and as we bring the completed proposal to the table tonight. and how we approached that work and went from strategy into execution around what a guiding principle would be which helps us to be able to formalize um how we made some of the decisions on what the recommendations you'll see tonight look like. So that really came down to two parts. The first part ultimately was the philosophy behind it, right? and that was that we wanted to protect students access to safe schools while minimizing choices that could create barriers
242or disincentivize attendance. And ultimately that's in recognition of the reality that students must first be present at CPS both in our enrollment and in our buildings to benefit from the services that the district can both responsibly and fiscally provide. So that then goes from philosophy to how we recognize a priority ordering to what the funds we were going to be be spending would look like. That moves from the first step of get them here again in as part of CPS and as attending part of CPS so that we can provide them with the education through the quality teachers we have here through the use of um appropriate core curriculum while surrounded by the student supports that can maximize student outcomes and then finally supported by streamlined and efficient operations. So that created a priority order
243as to how we approach some of these decisions. As we were working through a lot of these very tough options that we could consider for where our spending would happen, there were a few that we looked at due diligence. a lot that were common to large urban districts both in the state and across the country that are rep repetitiously represented in what some of the choices that those districts may make when faced with financial constraints like we are seeing. However, as we were going through those, we did not feel that a number of those align to those philosophy and priority that we just talked about. To be very clear because there has been a little confusion on this. This list, what you see on this slide, represents items that you will not see in the
244recommendations tonight for elimination, reduction, or action based on what the statement you see on the slide is. Right? So, they include we looked at school mergers. We looked at transportation in a ton of different options, a lot of which you've seen before. Whether that's increasing the walk distance for yellow bus, Metro for 9 to 12, limiting magnet transportation in some capacity, or even looking at what it costs for athletic transportation in isolation. We also looked at how we could propose an increase or what the cost would be for proposing an increase in class size. Reducing school security at our buildings. Eliminating extracurricular afterchool programs as well as building usage for after school or off hours. Delaying the fiscal year 27 portion of the cola. Reductions to OT, PT, and school psychologists. athletic moving athletics to
245a participationbased fees or as people like to say the pay-to-play model which could be a scaling model to recover an amount of costs from small to large. We looked at charging collocation partners rent or lease based on market values. Of course, there runs a risk of the partner relationships that we have in the CLC model that we hold very dear. We talked about eliminating band especially at the elementary grades. eliminating the elective benchmark diagnostic testing, eliminating mileage and parking. And just this makes a good example for a couple of things here. One note on this list, it's not exclusive. So, we're not talking about all the mileage and parking in this one thing. You will see in some of the recommendations for departmentalbased depart uh mileage. We could have reduced those anywhere from a half
246to completely. This mileage and parking is referring directly to or more directly to the staffing costs related for either parking or mileage that they have to do for their travels as jobreated. So if we didn't do this, this would mean that they would have to pay for like a parking space downtown. This is very specific to that portion. And then of course the last one of the last things we looked at is dissolving Riverview East early. Collectively, these could represent a significant amount of money, but again, we did not feel that these represented what we were wanting to see in that philosophy. So, they are not in tonight's recommendations. Moving from there to what is though, maybe this chart should look fairly familiar. It's what we've been using throughout these meetings. Uh we have streamlined
247it slightly and hopefully made it a little more consistent across all of the presentation so that it's a little easier to follow. We'll start on the left side in the gray columns. Of course, the first being where we set our target at the original 628 million. We showed that the ask broke down between our three primary budgeting buckets between central office, centrally funded school positions and school budgets and how that total ask was at 688.8 million. Now, with the adjustment that Mike just proposed that I'm sorry, Treasure Augustine just proposed, that would bring our new target to 630.2 million, meaning our ask is now approximately 58,600,000 over that total. The next three columns will break down what everything you see here tonight in terms of recommendations looks like. The green column represents the legally required
248and the compliantbased school-based positions that the board has already approved. Those total 472.5 million. The blue column uh what we had previously referred to as the 155 million remaining to budget now 157 with the proposed adjustment are in blue. So that comprises the the recommendations for things that we the items recommended for funding. In orange we see those items that we would not be recommending for funding for next school year in the total of 58,369. With those that brings the complete proposal to a balanced prospect. Digging into those a little bit deeper, the next slide shows a couple of tables that gives you the categorical breakdowns of those spins. On the left, you have the recommended for funding, which shows the categorical breakdown for the central office and then the totals for the remainder. On
249the right, you have the categorical breakdowns for the items not recommended for funding. But I think for tonight, we may be better served by actually looking in the budget book and go talking through it quickly if that's okay. Nice mar uh to Rob to take over just a little bit and get us into that link please. So you'll notice the budget book has a consistency again with the chart. The f the three tabs equaling the three columns. The first tab in green are those legally required and school-based positions to meet compliance. U quick call out. If you recall, the first time you saw this list was on the March 16th board meeting, followed closely by the April 6th board meeting where we showed the rest of the schoolbased positions. Uh this is the line by
250line breakdown. If we scroll down to the towards the bottom, you will note there's a consistency in the format of each of these. The first a little bit higher, little bit more. All right. The first section will provide a subtotal for the central office portion while the second section will include the school-based expenditures and positions. In total, this will show you the line by line that gets us to the 472.5 million that the board had already approved. To the second tab, again matching in blue for the blue column, you have the items that are now uh being recommended for funding partially. This list originated in the April 20th meeting followed by in the May 4th meeting that we provided the multiple portions. Recall the 70 million at one point that we show that was then
251postponed to be included in the total. So this does include that uh list as well that has been modified or tweaked based on the feedback we received along the way. So if you will, this represents the 157 million that we are recommending for budget. You'll scroll down towards the bottom of this one as well. Note again, the first section will be the central office with a subtotal. The second section will be the school-based positions and expenditures with a final note. Scroll faster with a final note. Sorry. Uh with a final note at the bottom for a note that we'll cover under the next column in a little more detail, but note it does refer to the third tab at the end of that list. All right, the last tab is the not recommended for funding
252in orange. Again, this list partially comes from the ones you've seen in the past starting on May 4th in our previous board meeting. Um, if you could scroll a little bit to the right on this one for me, Rob. So, note again, this totals the 58 million, but there is one additional column that's very important in this tab that's not in the first two, and that is column G that says new request or funding changed. So, we wanted to capture everything that represented a reduction or something that's not being recommended within the general fund as it would be today. But that column will help identify those things that were a new ask and effectively less of a reduction as much as a denial that we can't afford to have an addition to that ask. So
253hopefully that can help clarify some of those questions about what's a new ask versus a reduction from something we had today versus something that's being reduced from general fund and moved to an an alternative funding source. And I'll take a drink while you scroll to the bottom, please, Rob. Again, central office followed by the schoolbased positions. But there is the one special category at the bottom of this that I think that we want to spend some time actually looking at. If you scroll a little bit to the left. So these are the additional items that are removed from the funded re or the items recommended for funding and included and not recommended but they're not easily identified in a single reduction line. These are things that we are proposing for consideration of of not funding
254for next year but to represent those easily. It would be difficult to do because it could be a small reduction across hundred or hundreds of lines and we really wanted to gather them together collectively so that it represented a specific function or something of an action being recommended if that makes sense. So these are meaningfully the new stuff for tonight. We had seen the 34 million or 36 million previously of the potential reductions. We were considering some of those again with minor changes tonight. But this is the primarily the new list which does include the average persistent vacancy contingency. Previously, we had estimated that to be around 7 million, but as we've worked through the other items not recommended, that eliminates some of the vacancies that contribute to this contingency. So, we have to make
255sure we don't double count. So, the reality is is that number now comes down to around five, just over 5 million. The second item is the elimination of the IB programs throughout CPS. The third is a proposed reorganization of the treasures department that could span overlapping roles and tasks with some other departments. The potential of a budget duplication for DSS parah and LPN contracts and vacancies. So that's a lot to say. Minor explanation essentially is when we have vacancies that they're not able to fill that are required, we have to go to contract to fill those positions. So in the way this currently is budgeted is both as that vacancy and then we budget for the contract to fill to provide the services when we can't fill that vacancy. So there's a potential overlap of
256those that still has to be reconciled but we believe we could have up to a million dollars in that duplication. Uh the next item are five furlow days across the Cass CFT and leadership teams and this would be represented this is essentially a non-working non-paid day additional non-working non-paid day. The next item is to eliminate or consider charging for summer school of next summer of the school year 2627 school uh summer. The next item is to pause the vacation buyback program for the Cass administrators. Of course, if the board is considering of approving all of these or these recommendations, then we would need to continue negotiations with that to finalize the agreement for it. There is the six bell day at three of the high schools who have school programming and scheduling that can support
257a sixbell day. That's Akin Hughes and Schroeder. a 10% reduction in the school's non-personnel per pupil allocation sub and copyclick lines collectively based on the underspend that we're seeing this year of then followed by uh the last two items are what we believe if we are moving forward with allowing our high schools to select a cart-based model for their devices that we would be able to realize about another $250,000 in reduced brake fix parts and service costs and finally the leadership team uh foregoing the performance bonuses for this year. So those are the additional items if we refer to or you see throughout these the additional items that compromise that comprise the last 20.2 million that brings us to the balanced negative of not funded of 58 to go with our 157 recommended. All right.
258Now, we can go back to the presentation for a second and then we will immediately go back into the link for this. Um, so with the schoolbased position table, uh, what you see is a snapshot on the screen. We'll go to the link that actually shows the full table because there's a few things there also worth calling out that really focuses on some of the changes based on what we've seen over the last several presentations. So what the table represents as a whole are the nondirect instructional student supports at each of the schools. This is reflective of what those supports and those FTEEs would look like including the proposed reductions, what's funded, what's not funded across for every school. If you could scroll towards the bottom, some of the important callouts that I think that
259are worth calling out. First and foremost are the ones in red or rows. They uh security assistants, crossing guards, and resource coordinators. Those previously were recommended for a fixed number reduction. They are no longer being recommended for those reductions. Now, uh the all three are being well, I'm sorry, security assistants and crossing guards are now included in that vac that average persistent vacancy contingency number. So, we're only looking at the vacancies for those positions and counting them as a contingency based on their fill rate. With resource coordinators, the proposal currently is that we not reduce the number or any of the schools who have them, but reduce the contract from a 12-month base contract to a 10-month to match the school year. the uh other numbers that you see and other colors that kind of
260code through here with the school health services. Um previously there were two sets of schools that were expect that were planned to share a school health service provider. Those are now no longer shared. So we've added back full-time person at each of those locations. Uh so you what you'll see now are in blue those schools that are noting only a change from an L RN to an LPN or from an LN L LPN to a SHA and then in green you'll see the ones who were previously going to share who are no longer sharing. Uh in purple for counselors that does denote you can see the reduction previously the recommendation was for 16.8 now it is 8. Likewise for school social workers, originally it was uh 23.5, now down to 12. Thank you. So I
261believe that encapsulates what the proposal is tonight in terms of both the 155 additional million for spend, the 58ish million for reduction. That brings us to a complete proposal for consideration. and I will toss it back to the superintendent who will talk about the academic network models. >> Before I talk about the network, I do appreciate Jeremy. I mentioned this during Friday's finance committee meeting. We asked him to do this because he is so great at organizing all the ideas that have come to the table and it's his work to put it in these tables um so that everybody can read, understand with full transparency all of our discussions. So, I appreciate him for doing all of that work. But what we want to do in order to make sure that our schools um have
262all the things that they need and can run efficiently and effectively and that there's a higher level of accountability for our assistant superintendent is we like to create what we are calling our academic networks. And so on these networks of four um two elementary networks, a middle school network, and a high school network, you see each of the schools that as of today would be assigned to those assistant superintendent. You see the departments that they would be responsible for and additional supports that they would have. So, in general, that means these are teams outside of the regular school day that they typically work with in order to help keep our district moving forward. In addition to those schools, the departments and the additional supports you see listed, we're restructuring our curriculum departments so that all
263of the teams would have full complement of those elements you see in the bottom box uh below each of the networks. Uh so we believe that those pieces are what's going to help to keep us moving forward with instruction being a priority. And then on the next slide, I'll toss it back to Treasurer Augustine. So I think this is just gives the the visual of where we're where we've come and where we're where we're at. So I think we're we're ready to take your questions. >> All righty. Uh so board members uh who have questions? Board member Arsterster. >> Uh thank you. Uh there's so many things. Um first I want to just say thank you. I know it has thinned out significantly but hopefully the people that came to speak will be able to
264watch back um the comments that we have online later. So, I just wanted to say thank you to all the people that have written into us that have come here to speak, especially the 99% of you that have done it with positive mindsets. I would ask the remaining 1% of you to stop attacking the integrity of the people who dedicate countless hours to this community. If you're in this room, no matter where you're sitting, you care deeply for the students in this district. Every single one. and it's very unfair for you to accuse otherwise. Thank you. Now, moving on to the budget. Um, none of this is easy. It's incredibly difficult to do. Um, I want to start with just asking Jeremy to give an update on the question I had previously about reducing device
265ratio. He sent me an email response, but I wanted him to have the chance to address it because he will do it better than I do. So I had asked if we reduced the ratio for elementary would it result in any savings this coming year. >> Yeah. And so as I explained in the email or in the response that it is very difficult to to give a straight answer to that as much as we would love to because the life cycle of our devices and the lease and the way that we operate. We're really a year out from being able to see significant savings. But that doesn't mean we don't see some savings. So in the current school year, not necessarily looking directly at going to a 2:1 kind of ratio for devices, we have
266to have some realization in terms of we have extended the life of our devices and they are going to start failing. That failure rate will drive up the cost of repair beyond what the value of the device is or that we have the ability to support. So we'll start deprecating some of the devices throughout this year. So what we've looked at more is at the rate at which we expect those devices to come out of the pool. what that looks like towards the middle and end of the year. And we do suspect that we'll be ending the year closer to a two cart to one classroom model. It's not a two devices per or I'm sorry, one devices per two students, >> but the with a maximized cart based on the attendance in classrooms that
267keeps us largely at a one:1 ratio in the rooms, but it will be just barely enough. And that's what we're projecting this year, which with that projection, that's what it enabled us to essentially look at the 700 the initial $750,000 reduction that we've talked about in our support services along with the additional 250,000 tonight that we're we brought up in the potential reduction in break fix as well as an overall reduction in our support contracts as a whole. So, we do expect to see savings. Now, if we were in a situation to where we were manage, if we were able to fiscally sustain our life cycle exactly as it was intended on a four-year lease cycle, if we were to just then be able to make that isolated change to go to a 2:1, you're
268looking at about a $2.2 million savings, but that's not really where we're at. >> So, that would take us at this point, we don't have the devices to even make that kind of change. We have to have a more natural deprecation. >> Yeah. Helpful. not the answer any of us wanted, but helpful information. So, I appreciate uh you looking into that and providing that detail. Um I wanted to provide my feedback on um the cuts. I think we've all seen uh and heard from the community the importance of some of these student facing rules. I I mean, no one here thinks they're not important, including the administration who's had to make these proposals. From a single board member perspective, um I have some thoughts on potential opportunities for other funding cuts that are different than
269what the administration recommended. So, um, I want to put those forward just for the public's information of where I stand. On the slide before where, um, it says things we didn't consider or things we considered but decided not to go with, it has like all the bullets. Yep. So, the last three for me um for everyone in the room, we have a lovely email that has um uh financial totals that go along with these. And those last three, the eliminate elective benchmark diagnostics, eliminate mileage and parking, and dissolve riverview east early would total 1.1 million. Um none of this is easy. I want to clarify that. I don't make any of these recommendations lightly. Uh, specifically the Riverview East decision I think is an incredibly difficult one. Um, that would need to be done with
270a lot of care of making sure those students have a place in the building they're currently in if that's where they wanted to stay or opportunities to go to alternate places. But these feel to me like opportunities for us to maintain really important services that aren't student facing in the same way. Um I also know I'm going to get in trouble for this one from Dr. Smith maybe, but the I Ready math line is $900,000. It I I'm not saying it's not important. I'm not saying it's not valuable. That's not my argument. The I Ready math line. Um I I don't know I don't know what else to do to be totally honest with you. Um, but when I'm looking at a school counselor that is literally saving lives and I ready math, I don't
271know what else to suggest. Um, so for me, those are areas that as one board member, I would recommend the administration consider. Um and then the only other suggestion I had was on um there is on the recommended for funding line oh it's not line 28 cuz I messed it all up. Um there's a line for enrollment and boundaries 16 full-time employees. This is for customer care. And I don't even know that this is a cost savings because I don't know that I would cut FTEES, but if we went back and undid centralized enrollment, it would allow those people to actually focus on other items and for customer care to get better at addressing issues for our families. Just another suggestion I would have as a potential opportunity to improve the district moving forward. So,
272that's where I am on budget. And then just to address the largest elephant in the room, which which is the levy. Um, I've never suggested we not pursue a levy. I have suggested we pursue a levy with fidelity, which is the key word, I think, um, in this whole process. Um, I do want to point out that going back in recent years, city issues have had anywhere between 75 and 100,000 voters. That means we would need 38,000 to 50,000 people to say yes. While I appreciate that everyone in this room would support us, we cannot say for granted that 50,000 people need to support us. And I'm not saying they won't. I'm saying what someone else already said like we need to present them with a vision. You made the argument for me. We do
273need to present them with a vision and to do that we need to get this budget done and we need to have significant pro process on that strategic plan. I saw it today. I saw where they're going. I'm excited about where they're going and I'm excited to put a levy on to be able to stop having these horrific conversations. But I do feel that it's important to do it in a proper order to be able to confidently go out and ask the voters for that support. I'm not saying that's not November. That's never what I've said. I've asked for it to go in a proper way and I I stand by that. So, thank you. >> All righty. Other board members board member Bolton or cross it. >> I was just curious about the six
274bell uh component in the three high schools. Um what what's what's the detriment to the to the students that would would be potentially experiencing that? Well, they may have fewer elective options, but they this still would allow them to have electives. So, if you have your four core courses, that would allow you to still have two bells of electives. So, not as many, three bells of electives or something you choose to do. >> Okay. Uh, board member Bolton. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. And again, I've been here a long time and I I think the process and the and the work that's been done is has been stellar. Um, and uh, very transparent. I I I don't think we usually have a I mean, we've got a re we've got a
275balanced recommendation basically. Uh but usually when the recommendations presented, we don't necessarily the first time it's presented necessarily vote on the first time that we've seen it. But um uh I'd like to thank the some of the adjustments that have been made as you've pointed out uh especially the things I was most concerned about the crossing guards security assistance and what have you and and resource coordinators. I think those are crucial is particularly the safety is the number one job and and the resource coordinators is exactly when we need them is when we are faced with these challenges that we have. Um, I also um I did see and I I still haven't quite seen enough of the uh what I perceived and I think I said this couple the last time we met in
276in the first uh efforts that I saw. I I I kind of picked up a bias of anti-arts and I I'm hoping to still see some more adjustments about that. I was moved by one of the people tonight. Uh, everyone was uh very very I think good about what they were saying, but I was moved by what uh someone said where this was the this graduating class was the first graduating class at CPS who could actually point back to the fact that all 12 years they were here in our schools, we had art and music. And that is the truth. That is and that took years and it and that was not because the administration decided that that's what was going to be that was the community wanting it and the board representing the interest
277of the community. So I I still have a little problem with that. I I saw a little bit of a bias too in the initial uh presentation and I think I said something about the AP and college prep and whether or not all the kids get to take the PSAT at our cost or something. I I still I'm not I'm not convinced yet that that those biases have not been taken care of. I I respect arm member arm Brewster's suggestion because I think as we say no to some of this stuff or concerned about some of this stuff I think we are um probably responsible for filling in the gap and I think that's also another thing we can do people have mentioned about vendors and contracts um and I know we've have now had
278a big list presented to us of contracts of recommendations. I still think we could probably see from the administration additional work regarding the contracts. Now on the um I superintendent and the treasurer at the end of uh uh uh finance had to live through my reaction to uh this six bell um which I I I apologize for probably losing my temper a little bit. But that's another thing that it is millions of dollars to do what we did over a period of time. It's millions of dollars to move all of our high schools to have not less than seven. That's millions of dollars that it took. But we ha you have when you've been here, you have to it's an incremental kind of thing. But more particularly, you had a two-tier system in this school
279district. You had the magnets and you had the neighborhoods. And that's the perception out in the public for year after year after year after year. And people have worked hard to to take care of that. Matter of fact, we've eliminated more than a half dozen magnets in the last three three years, I think. and we've built up, I think, our neighborhood and made commitment. But for our high schools, 12 years ago, maybe a little bit longer, there were only three high schools that had counselors out of 15. You want to talk about two-tier system of high schools? And you can all guess who had the counselors and who didn't. So that's important. But the other two-tier thing that was a bother that had to be overcome in the name of equity because remember we do
280still believe DEI and part of that's the equity piece was to make sure that you didn't have some schools pretty much the same schools that had the counselors that had a particular bell schedule that allowed for CTE allowed for more electives And really as we want to invent a new high school day, I think we want to, especially as we embrace career tech, the other tier system was getting us millions of dollars each year. It cost us so that all high schools had no less than seven bills. And the additional piece of that for me is that I don't think it's allowed in the new CFT contract to have only six bells. The contract before it, I think, gave you allowed you to and describe how your schedule would have to be, but I I'm
281not sure about the new contract. I think that it's somewhat adjusted. So, I would look at that. The other piece of the six bell piece is that what we got a couple of weeks ago, it there was really only like 10 teachers that we were kind of not having those positions based upon spring uh attack. Is that I think that's was that something like that. But then the last two weeks of the budget work, we now uh for uh Schroeder, Aken, and uh uh uh Big Red, I think Hughes, we just eliminated 15 teachers, where in the whole district-wide pre uh uh uh spring TAC, we only, thank God, only had to eliminate 10 positions. But now that's that's like five teach it may not only be teachers. I'm not sure. But it's a $1.5
282million. Well, that's like five teachers each school. I I don't understand how you could only eliminate 10 districtwide in attack, but then all of a sudden we can. And I'm still not sure about what you mentioned about how um there's something about the Aken and the Schroeder and the Hughes uh uh programs that make them be the three that get cut. So I I'm very opposed to to that and and I largely because I I'm not going back. I'm not, as I've said a hundred times, my dad taught me, don't pay for territory twice. So, we've already had this battle and high schools need to have this. All high schools have to have the same flexibility in their schedule, not just some. But, um, the work that has been done here has been outstanding. There's
283by everyone. Uh, and I think we we have some more work to do and because I think you you want to get as close to a unanimous vote as you can get and I think in many ways we're close but um oh I had one other the the contingency thing the several buildings that needed some capital improvements for safety. I think they were on both lists. Uh recommended the in Can you help me out with that? >> I think the in working with the facilities team, the recommendation was that some of that work could be done uh inhouse and some of that work would still require to be done um with with external with external stuff. And so and so the overall thing got split. Some of it was recommended and some of it was
284not recommended. And I and I still think there's some positions in some of these uh booklets that I think still are out there. And I I'm concerned about that. But I um again I think remarkable work but not quite done. >> All righty. Uh Vice President M. So, my colleagues have shared much of what I was thinking. So, I won't I won't beat you all down. I do think that we are we are close um where I'm a little bit more comfortable. I will share the areas where I'm still very uncomfortable. Um have recognizing that my colleagues have shared some areas that I'm not going to mention, but I do have a couple of qu questions. Um at first, when it said schedule E fringes, what is that? So, um, the schedule E budget was
285broken into a couple different pieces. So, there's there's kind of the base schedule E um, which is the amounts allocated to the to the schools. The fringes are just the fringe rate on top of that if that makes sense. So, so schedule E because it is a, um, secondary assignment, we budget the fringes at like right around 16%. And that pays retirement and some other employer paid stuff. And so that's recommended for cut, right? Is that did I look at that sheet? We're going back and forth different p different pages, different books, different sheets. While that's very helpful in some perspectives, it's not in others. Is that on the list for cutting or is that on the list for keeping? >> If if you if you guys are having a difficult time, then imagine me
286looking at it, too. >> I'm kind of going back. I'm just looking for the right. >> I believe what's happening there is >> it's on the key. >> Okay. >> There is some reduction in schedule E >> so therefore there should be some reduction in the fringes. >> Okay. Um I I'm not for it doesn't feel equitable at all for me to have Aken Hughes and Schroer have something different. I think that is the introduction of disparity and inequity under the guise of, oh, we're trying to save money. That is not student centered at all. And I I'm I'm very hurt that that's even on there. I don't even care about an explanation. Besides the fact, in addition to that, I don't even understand how we can have that conversation without the collective bargaining agreement
287being in tandem with that. So to have that even be proposed seems very premature and um I I I just don't like it. So my support for that is not there. Um again, I've said before I don't understand I've said before that I'm not for cutting social workers and counselors and or adjusting resource coordination. I I kind of hear that resource coordination is not necessarily um looked at to be touched, but I in in a time like this when we're talking about here for kids and we're talking about preparing for life and we heard that strategic plan talk about we want we want them to be in four years. I don't understand how cutting a significant support system as significant as it is being proposed makes any sense. I am I understand where we are
288as far as the budget, but I also read the um proposal from the positive school culture, which makes a lot of sense to me and I don't see very much of that in anything here. So, it feels to me like we're not um we're wanting to do what we've done instead of being creative. And I think I am in support of a levy. So, just to clarify that when we get all these crazy emails, but I also think this is a time for us to reimagine education. I've said that before multiple times, multiple ways. We keep trying to put this square peg into this round hole and this is an opportunity for us to do something different. So, had we suggested that Aken Hughes and Schroeder had a more robust different type of um bail
289schedule that was robust in in collaboration with the unions, I think I'd feel better about that. But this isn't about reimagining. This is about reduction simply for the economics of it. And that just doesn't feel here for kids. So, I don't think we're living up to that model at all. I am maybe a little different from my colleagues, but when we see transportation and we want to preserve that, we are still very significantly under what the state minimums are. And so I think that there's space for us to explore that as an option. What does that look like? I'm not saying that that's something I want to vote on tomorrow, but I do want the numbers of what does that look like? We haven't even talked about those numbers. What does it look like if
290we were to I guess we would be increasing towards the what the state minimums are and then um how much would the of a savings would that be? I haven't seen nor am I comfortable with keeping contracts in especially I've I've shared one that I'm really um nervous about or hiring contractors to replace positions that we're losing. We have staff that can probably do our work much better than contractors, particularly with institutional knowledge. I don't see where that's even being preserved or or or suggested. So maybe you could direct me to that because I just don't see where we're saying if we have to get rid of this position, maybe let's let's look at some contract work of that particular person still. I don't even know how that works, but I would really like to
291maintain institutional knowledge if we can because I think that's how our students benefit. Um, I also have some questions around um the the Wana Hills College success center and the student success center cutting that completely just feels like and I don't think we talked about that, but I've seen emails where it's been proposed. I've seen emails where it hasn't. I want some clarity publicly right now if we could understand what the proposal from administration is. >> Yes. Um I'm not sure where that came from. Um it's not in the budget book. We've never discussed the center being closed. The emails I've gotten as it relates to that. I've responded that this is not being recommended. I'm not sure where that came from, Dr. M. >> Okay. I just wanted to get clarification because I I
292thought we I didn't see it and I thought that we had not discussed that but then we've been inundated with emails asking for clarity. So that's not on the list. My my last questions are around what if any we got a presentation from the foundation that they have hit their goal of $2 million and I think that's wonderful. I had no doubt. Where do they supplement any of this? So my question is if we were to look at some of these extracurricular after school programs or on this slide, you know, athletic participation based fees. Is there any space for or proposal from the administration to have the foundation supplement any of these since they've reached their $2 million goal? I've made one uh proposal to um the foundation, >> but that doesn't cover the 1.5.
293We just heard the 1.5 the last meeting. Um and so there's the possibilities of what could be done with that money, but we've not been back together since our last board meeting. >> Okay. So I think there's some space there for maybe looking at ways or at least exploring some options financially there. And my question around that is we dedicated a certain amount of money for them every year. Is that right? >> Yes. >> And that's been being proposed to be maintained. >> Yes. >> Okay. Maybe. Um I'm not saying we cut it. I'm just saying, you know, there are some areas that we could maybe look at some different things that I'm just not seeing proposed here even on this guiding principles list. I just don't see those as areas that you all have
294considered and then taken off the table. I heard >> you're saying cut the foundation money for next year. Is that what you is that what you're saying? >> My question was was it being proposed to maintain that amount that we give to them? >> Yes. and that is in the budget book. >> Oh, I I've been I'm looking at the guiding principles. I'm sorry. I I may have missed that. My my apologies. Um, one of the questions that was asked is what are the district's long-term financial challenges and what is the district doing to advocate for funding? And I wanted to say this um here since my colleagues shared some similar sentiments. I'm not opposed to a levy, but I would like to ensure that what we are talking about right now maintains the academic
295integrity and we can continue to build on that. And that's what I've asked for is just how can we continue to grow in this process? What's the plan? And that's strictly the treasurer and the um superintendent in proposing to us what is the plan so that we can continue to maintain and grow even though we are fight faced with financial challenges. We still just need a plan. So thank you Jeremy for the work that you've done and thank you all for the work that you've done too. I know it's difficult but I I do think we're close. We do just have I have some sign some more significant questions, but I'm also not interested in cutting social workers or counselors at all. So, I've said that publicly. >> All righty. Other board members, board member
296Lindy. Thank you very much, President Craig. Um, I had a couple things I wanted to ask about and then share. I wanted to start though by asking the administration. Your ask of us tonight is are we being asked to approve a particular set of recommendations? >> I do not think so at this point. I think President Craig may have had a path, but we did not bring an expectation for a vote because there wasn't one listed on the agenda. >> So, this is this is discussion which is uh different from we're not being asked to approve anything tonight. Uh there is no current vote there. I do think what would be helpful is to certainly give guidance so that certain steps can be taken in in moving towards it to set up for the I
297got it. Okay, that's helpful. Um so thank you. I think I want to um address the levy question first and then I have some questions uh and a couple of ideas about the presentation tonight. Uh and I shared something similar at the committee of the whole meeting last week but I uh I wanted to share it again. Um, first of all, I were this board to vote tonight to put a levy on the ballot in November, it would change zero about the decisions we have to make that are incredibly difficult and painful in this budget. And I just wanted to say that out loud. Um, so the levy is an important conversation and it does not get rid of these difficult choices. Um, on the topic of a levy, I think two things are true.
298First, I think there are good reasons why we should ask for a tax increase. Our revenue is flat. Our costs are increasing. We have a ton of deferred facilities work that needs to happen. There are real reasons. We haven't had a new money in 10 years. Uh I think there are real reasons why this district should ask for new money. And the second thing I think that's true is there are real reasons to be concerned that additional investments will not lead to stronger student outcomes. Last year, our third grade reading results went down. In algebra 1, we set a goal to be in the bottom third of peer districts in the state of Ohio. Efforts that would genuinely increase student outcomes are often met with massive resistance, like for example, the use of high-quality instructional
299materials. I was in a school this Friday where I was told by the principal that teachers in the building still insist that the collective bargaining agreement gives them the ability not to teach the board approved curriculum. That is false. So I'm just there are reasons to be concerned that additional investments would actually lead to different student outcomes. So what do we do about this? For me to vote in favor of a levy, we're going to need to get three very specific things in place. Sorry. For me to vote in favor of a levy, I need to see three things in place. First, through the strategic planning process, which is well underway, we need a clear list of strategies that we think are going to move student outcomes over the next three years. Second, we need
300a written commitment from this board, either a resolution or a board policy that we as a district are going to commit to doing those three things. And then third, we need a written commitment from the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers that they are equally committed to those strategies. I've been here long enough to know that for any instructional strategy to make a real difference, there has to be long-term and buyin from the full team. If we can get those three things, I will be the first in line to support and campaign for a new money levy. If we cannot get those three things, I don't see how I, as an individual board member, will be able to support a new money levy. So, that's on the long-term picture. On the short-term picture, I do have a
301couple of clarifying questions. Um, could we the my colleague mentioned this $900,000 for I Ready and I just wanted to understand more about what that line in the budget is funding. So I'll take a little bit of a cue here, but I think for one part of the clarity of that is that currently that is funding our tier one math curriculum. So that is the entire curriculum for like the tier one of math meaning we have >> physical textbooks that kids are using or these are things on a computer. >> Yes. >> Okay. because some people >> I I ready can can be lots of different things. It is simultaneously the actual physical textbook that my third grader uses in her math class and brings home with the nice letters to the parents about what
302it is that they're studying and all of that. Um and it's also an assessment that gets given beginning, middle, and end of year in some grades to show where kids are. And it's also sometimes a one-on-one maybe tier two method that a student is doing at a computer. But that $900,000 is not the one-on-one work that a student is doing at a computer. It it's the it's the physical textbooks. >> It's all of it. >> I got it. >> Wait, wait. Thank you, Dr. Smith. >> It is our tier one. It's our tier one instruction. So, it's everything that goes with I Ready for mathematics. So, reading was a add-on. They always had I Ready mathematics for our um so it's the assessment that goes with it that does the my path. It is the
303workbook that they have in the classroom and it's the online slide decks. It's everything that the teachers use in order to teach mathematics. That's great. And I'm not saying we should or shouldn't. I just I wanted to understand more about what the row was. >> Yes. Um >> and if we don't have that, then we have to figure out what we're going to use. Then we have to figure out how we're going to train and then all those other things. >> Can you clarify that versus Whitten Wisdom? >> Whitten wisdom is uh English totally. Whitten wisdom is our uh reading program. Yes. For grades K to six and then 7 to 12 is my perspectives. and Whitten Wisdom is also has the books and all the things. Yes, my path is our intervention on I
304Ready. >> So, thank you. Um I I think I had a um that was my clarifying question. I think I just had two other things I wanted to say. Um and I appreciate the time. I really appreciate the addition of slide 13. Uh I think it is really important to be able to show the public um what are the other ways that we could close the budget gap other than the cuts that are recommended. Um it I I also want to encourage the administration when I saw this I emailed the administration and asked hey do we have numbers for these? So I understand that we're not recommending school mergers but if we did one how much would it save? I understand we're not recommending transportation changes, but if we did, how much would we save?
305I was very impressed that very quickly I got back an email with a bunch of very specific numbers in it. I would highly encourage the administration to make some version of that public. Uh I'm going to share a couple of them. The emails, it's all public documents anyway, so like anybody could get access to these. Um but I think just to make it easy to find without filing a records request, I think it's helpful. Um because I I think the only way to think through a process like this is to make things really concrete trade-offs. So I also would like to avoid uh cutting social workers and cutting counselors if we can. How might we do that? Well, according to the numbers that are here uh in this email, um if we decided, for example,
306to cut transportation to athletic events, and if we decided to increase class sizes, we could avoid all of the reductions in social workers and all of the reductions in counselors. I'm not saying that's a good idea or a bad idea, but I think it's a different kind of question than saying, should we reduce counselors and social workers? I don't want to do that. I think the people who came at the last board meeting that I was when I was here for hearing of the public made great cases for why that matters, but we have to compare it to something. Um, and what's what I want to credit the administration for doing is that math has been done. Um, I think it would make these conversations more focused and I think it would help us get
307back to constituents who email us with concerns and saying, I listen, I understand why the administration made this recommendation because the other alternative was to close three schools. Um, I don't want to do any of those things. Um, but I think it helps have a a more realistic conversation about what the actual trade-offs are. Um, so that was a suggestion. Um, my last question, um, I know I've brought this up for about a year now, but there is great research on the value of highquality instructional materials when used faithfully. I I understand from past presentations this year that there's still some work to do on that front. Um, superintendent, could you just say a bit about um to what extent are we still putting resources behind helping educators take full advantage of the curriculum that
308we've purchased? >> So, we are still working through that uh with the teaching lab this school year. Um, we are going to make an assessment of the teaching lab as soon as we are able to wrap up the work that we're doing with them. I've heard nothing but favorable things about that work that went on this year. We have not discussed PD and the dollars uh that we'll set aside for that yet because we were trying to work with our general fund, but happy to have that conversation. >> Is there currently funding in the budget in if the board tonight approved everything that is being recommended and didn't fund everything that's not being if we did what you're proposing here, would there be money in the budget next year to support that work? >> Well,
309Mr. Lindy, um that money that we used this year, we took from title dollars. >> So Oh, that's a great point. >> Right. Yes, sir. So, right now with the general fund budget that we're working through, it's not recommended, >> but that's >> that's a great answer because it makes a great and just for people who are listening like we get federal funds. Yes. That we can only use for certain things. We can't hire a social worker with title two dollars. We can provide PD for teachers on using the curriculum. Is that the idea? >> That's correct. Now I think are the attendant social workers in some of the title dollars. I don't want to be >> I don't want to say the wrong thing. >> Not in title two though, right? >> Not not
310to not to go down the title rabbit hole, but yeah, title two is specifically for improving teacher quality. >> That is that is a perfect use of, you know, all all sorts of PD and stuff is in there. I think one there are some attendant social workers paid out title one. That is a school-based decision. I think that's a great answer and I really appreciate it. So again, just encourage the data or the numbers on the trade-offs and thank you. >> All righty. Um, other board members who had comments before Okay, board member Matt. >> Um, so thank you again for the presentation. Um, I think I have been um very vocal um over the past few budget conversations as to where I stand um specifically as it pertains to our social workers um as
311well as our counselors and also just the direct impact that we would experience negatively as we're thinking about the potential um reduction in our curriculum managers which I think provide a uniform scope of the work uh and the core content so that we are able to also see those continuous improved outcomes. Um so those are areas that are of significant concern to me as well. Um these are areas that I have shared directly with our superintendent um that I believe that those major areas um while we're seeing significant results um we could see a decline in our overall um student outcome. So, those are very much significant concerns to me and very much opposed to it. Um, as I talked um with the uh bailweather uh consultant, I addressed the reorganization that our superintendent is
312recommending. And while I do think that reorganization can be helpful in ways, I do think that it has to come from a systematic lens and a crossf functional lens. And so there are areas that I think um are going to directly and negatively impact um again our student outcomes. And so that would be an area that I think would be helpful, Superintendent Murphy, for you to continue to um revisit. Thank you for providing that um those networks, but I do believe that it it presents siloed work um and we'll continue to see um a significant decline. Um, as it pertains to just the going back to the budget conversation, it is very challenging I think for all of us. Um, I think that has been presented several times over. Um, but I do think that
313it is equally important that as board member um, Lindy talked about really assessing um, the the tradeoffs. And as I'm considering this and looking at the different options that have been made available, um all of them are very difficult. But I do want to um present this in a manner that we all have to sacrifice something. And I think respectfully and I do not want this to be taken out of context. Um but respectfully we have um our CTF representation come meeting after meeting and um share things that may need to be considered. And so there are options on here. And I do think that um as we're looking at the presentations that maybe our CTF representations or uh union reps have presented, I think it's also very important that there's some consideration as well.
314whether it's pertaining to maybe delaying the cola or whether it's pertaining to um increased class size. This is not going to be comfortable for anyone, but I do think it's an opportunity as we talked about making sure that we still have those direct services available to all of our students um and that we have those essential um staff represented um to support all of our our schools um in this process. And so again, I know that this is not going to be easy, but I do believe that there's um opportunity for continuous conversation as we are considering budgetary decisions. Um I do think that it will be helpful for our administration to go back and have conversations with our unions. Um, I do think it will be helpful for our superintendent to also go back
315and have conversations with our um our um administration or different directors and positions to make sure that we are really advocating as much as possible to have these positions. I know that there's been proposals that have been provided. Um, again, we have not necessarily seen that entertained or really fleshed out. And so that's what I would be interested in seeing because at this point in time, if we're talking about survival, I think everyone is impacted in some type of way. Um, and we can't continue to say, well, let's push um all the resources back into the schools and we're not necessarily considering everyone um with these budgetary conversations. I think there are some protected entities and I think that's unfair and I think it's um you know, not equitable. So, those would be my thoughts
316as we're considering moving forward with the budget conversation. Um, I do have questions about the uh dissolution of Riverview East. What would that particularly entail? How many students would be impacted there? Um, I I just I'm looking for context there. >> So, there's currently, I believe, 70 students at Riverview East. next year would be um their scheduled last year, I believe, based on what we had agreed to do a couple of years ago, allowing those young people to stay in the school and uh be able to graduate as a Riverview East student. Um we have done some work uh with the building. For example, um the there are two assistant principles last year. Well, this current year, we eliminated the second principal. Um and so there was conversation about how can we do that. It's
317possible to be done but then that is um against the direction that we were given a couple of years ago. >> Okay. And so for the 70 students uh how many of those students would be I guess like rising seniors? >> So this is a senior class. >> This is a senior class. >> Okay. I can uh I >> um as it pertains to the uh mileage and parking that would be something that I would be interested in considering. I do know that that was uh a proposal um that was shared by the positive school culture um team. So it sounds like that would be an area that they would be willing to consider as well as >> so that particular parking um board member map is um like SCPA. They don't have a lot
318like um virtual GDA um right now rising star Ezra Charles they don't have a lot. We have to pay for them to be able to park. >> Okay. So, thank you for that clarity. That's actually helpful. I was going off of what um Mr. Galahu had shared in terms of driving to different locations or um having to pay for parking. So, that is additional um information that is helpful. um I would not be in favor of eliminating the diagnostic or the benchmark. Again, our goal is to make sure that we are yielding um successful outcomes and this is a way for us to be able to have regular opportunities to assess where our students are um and to accelerate their learning um and also close potential gaps. Um, and then just if you could lean
319into where are we presently with class size? Like what is the so the is the average 25 students or where >> class size uh K3 the max is 18? Um there's a a pretty wide variance 18 and then if you um go uh 19 or 20 K3 that requires overload pay and um 21 to 25 triggers a pair professional andor overload pay. Mr. Lindy asked me this earlier so I did take a screenshot. I do not have this memorized. And then uh it it changes for um academic teachers and also fine arts teachers. Um Monasuri K3 is 18 to 25 with a paraprofessional. Um intermediate monastery is 28 to 32 with a paraprofessional. 4 to6 academic is 28. 4 to6 academic with overload pay is 29. Uh a paraprofessional going up to I can send
320this to you. So you don't have to please that would be >> and then um new teachers are added four to six at 33 students 4 to6 specialists can be up to 34 >> students and then high school um well K to 8 the 78 academic is 28 students. >> You want me to keep going? >> Yeah. No, my thoughts around this is that again as I talk about making sacrifice again I recognize that this isn't ideal, right? And I don't necessarily, you know, agree with having to increase class sizes, but again, I do think that there's opportunity to have conversation, right? Um, are we still able to put different supports in place in the event that there is an increase uh in class size? Having taught with well over 20 students, I recognize um
321that it yes has its challenges, but I also think that it could potentially be feasible and doable. Um, and so I'm I'm I'm interested in you exploring what that conversation would look like with our uh unions uh our teacher union um to see if there is any flexibility uh there um while also not being in violation obviously of the contract. Um but again I just I think that with this process it could be very easy to place blame and I don't think that any of us want to do that. But I think that we want to be a collaborative um you know entity working towards solutions for our students and um I would be interested again in maybe conversations going back to our union reps to see where there could be a little bit more
322flexibility um to assist us with our budget um our budget um direction. So we've certainly had conversations through our budget task force based on your conversation today. We'll have to go back to them. Um, I don't want you to think that we have not discussed the items on slide 13. We have. We just came to the conclusion that those would not be good options at this time. Happy to revisit. >> Absolutely. And just given again the recommendation that um as again as it pertains to the things that I have identified as the school counselors, the school social workers, our uh our attendance support team, our resource coordinators, our curriculum managers. Um I think those are directly studentf facing. maybe not so much the curriculum managers, but I think that they help provide that uniformity to
323make sure that um we are all on one accord with making sure that our students are receiving um highquality instruction and receiving those equitable outcomes. Um so again, that's just kind of my focus and I'll conclude it there. >> All right. Um, so I will share my thoughts and then I will give like 30 seconds to anybody else who wants to go again because it is already 10:30 almost 10:30 in the hour here. Um, so I will try to keep my thoughts really quick. Um, just a few and Mr. can take a seat if he wants to just chill for a little second here so he doesn't have to keep standing there. Um, one thing I think you're you're seeing why this is such a hard process and why balancing his budget is such a
324difficult thing because everybody has different priorities and everybody has the different things they want. But we all recognize that all of these different parts are important. And the reality is is just that as we keep going forward, as we keep going along, even when we pass a a levy, it's still going to be very difficult to provide the necessary services because we're we're not even talking about are the deferred maintenance costs that need to be done in some of our buildings to keep the building structurally safe uh for the long term. So, I mean, what we are facing here are a lot of challenges that do not start with this is the panacea to do X, right? what we're what we're really talking about is how do we keep moving forward and at least doing
325as much as we can with what we have in front of us. Um so I think it's just a reality that this is a very difficult conversation to have. I think there is a space and in some of the recommendations and again I think for some of the positions that are not necessarily seen in the the same controversy as others right now um for those hard decisions to those hard discussions to be had. I I I warned one thing on this and I think we all say that everybody should have some stake in the game and everybody should have some level of investment into feeling the struggles and then we carve out folks who don't right and so like we've done that and and and it's not necessarily on purpose. It's not necessarily done in
326in in with with bad intentions or anything but I just think we also need to be very careful how we talk about those things because it still hurts those folks. And so someone who's looking around and says, "Oh, well, if you take this X from me, it might be seem minor, but it is still hurt, right?" And I think that's there's an aspect of that. We heard that from folks in here or every little position every day, every everything from programs in a school to an assistant athletic director to whatever else that may be on the budget cut list. It's really easy to say, "Do this." when it's not yours and it feels bad, it's really hard for the decision we have to do, which is to say of all the bad choices that we
327may have to make on certain things, which one is the least bad, which one is the least harm? Um, with regards to the Riverview model, I think my my only concern with doing this is that again, we made commitments to people who made a decision to stay there. And I and I appreciate the need to say maybe we can rethink how it's operated in a way that would also save us some costs. I think the simple idea of like getting rid of Riverview as a as a entity feels a little bit like you've gotten all the way to the 11th grade and then we tell you, hey 12th grade, you got to go somewhere else. And so I mean to me there's some aspects of allowing them to stay within a building but maybe adjusting
328how the programming might map out might be that phased out version that that would be more appropriate as opposed to simply so you may still see some of the same benefits from a uh financial or maybe some levels of those same financial benefits without necessarily the complete entity of its like non-existence kind of feel to it to that some of the students would then be required to go to a different school or go to a different building for their 12th grade year and may you know, in some cases may also have implications of whether or not they're able to complete programming that's required um that they were going through from from a career career uh tech uh aspects. So, I mean I think there's is everything comes at a cost is is more to say.
329I think one particular slide that could be really important for us to just also recognize and appreciate uh and I don't know if Jeremy has control or Rob has control but slide six um And I normally don't do this, but yes, there we go. I point this out because I want to I want to acknowledge something here. We have talked about cutting from everything that does not go to student facing. And at some point, we're going to get to a level within our central office that it's not it's not feasible to manage the district. And and I think we're we're not quite there, but we're not far as as some may think. And that's why some of these cuts have come straight from what is very studentf facing, what may have a greater direct impact
330on on students classrooms is because there's only 14% of the budget that is central office that is not school-based. And and so 14% was less than we were in 2021. Like when we talked about going back to where we were pre-COVID, I mean that's we're we've gone way we're we had to go up to get to where we were precoid and so in a lot of ways we're doing a whole lot less and that's because we've taken out of these things over the last couple years to bring that number down from the 28% 24 down to where we are projecting uh for 26. And I mean again that's half the level of central office budget that we've had. Um but that comes at a cost also that that does mean things get changed in a
331school building that does mean certain things get adjusted in a way that can't be done the same way and so I I I think we have to acknowledge yes by those priorities the student facing are maybe our most important it does not mean that the central office is not it does you know the the teacher is important but so is the HR person has to process to make sure you get in the system. So, it's the payroll person that has to make sure your payroll gets paid on time. Cuz last time I checked, nobody in the district is going to work for free for months without a paycheck. At least I wouldn't. Um, and so I I do think we have to be just very cognizant of that's one of the thing I would ask
332is just as you all are thinking about the budget, maybe giving just kind of a a brief and by brief I mean really brief because we're really late. um kind of idea of how the structure that you're proposing which is this new network model is really living within that projected 14% of the budget being central office u because I do think there are some aspects of that that may require some true accountability efforts and other things that may not get phrased out in the budget but is but may need to be kind of explained as part of the plan how the networks might work and operate >> I because the networks will also provide direct services to to the schools and there will be very specific um individuals who are a part of the network
333who have expertise in particular subject areas. Um and the most of these people have already been coaching with us. So they're familiar with our ways and means so to speak and have had the training and know the expectations that we have um for our school houses and as this model grows. So then we will see um further examples. So for example, we've talked about even in the treasur's office what that looks like to partner with schools uh a little more carefully. Last week we did a redesign of our school community partnership work and how that can be more directly impacting schools. And so we'll continue to grow in that direction um because I do think it's the best approach to have them actually in the schools invested in working with teachers and students in the
334classroom. >> Yeah. And I and again I think that goes a little bit into the essence of this network model that will have certain expectations to it. Um, I think what would be also great maybe in our next kind of reiteration of these things is also to outline how those expectations will be um upheld or you know how we're how we will define those expectations as they go forward because I think some of that also is a little bit what's not defined in here is how you plan to exercise that accountability and what that accountability might look like to be something different um and especially if that is tied towards academic or or student uh outcomes. Right? Because if we're saying that this is supposed to drive towards those student outcomes, we would want to
335have measurables that we could sit down and say we're seeing growth in these programs, we're seeing this level of educational achievement or this uh expectations and standards. Um the last thing I will say on this topic and I think we have a a great conversation to be had. I I think all of us at the table here believe that if we are investing in education, we want to invest in the right things. We want to invest in the right ways to educate. I don't think anyone here is saying we want to invest poorly in education. So I I think that's the true model of hope there. We did a lot of work on KPI. We did a lot of work on return on investment that I do think needs to be somehow culturally reflected in
336what the expectations going forward are. So like if a contract does not work, we won't just keep doing the contract every year because the school said I like this contractor, right? Which is kind of how some of these things work right now still. And even within this budget, we're not able to do that in some great level because we just haven't had the time to do that yet. Uh, I guess that that would be my only ask for our next conversation also is how are we incorporating KPIs and kind of ROIs into some of the the thought process and methodology so that we're able to adjust quicker, be more accountable, and even with things like our contracts we have with places because I also could see a time where we might have a a really
337fun person that everybody loves in that building that comes in every day and full of smiles and not a single academic result is changed by the work that they pledge to do, right? And so I think that's still something we have to kind of get in a bigger conversation around. Um, are there any further quick 30 seconds questions andor statements? Board member Balden. >> Yeah. Uh, I have a one thing to suggest on the class size thing. If we are concerned, and we all are, about student outcomes, it's probably the last thing you want to do is increase class size. uh uh in order to save other positions and that will be a number of teachers that will then also be be gone if you that's that's the savings is that you lose teachers but
338um I'm just food for thought I I I'm not sure how the things work but uh I I hate to have to wait all the way till June 8th and was in uh for for a vote but I I don't think it's we can I I'm so glad to hear people say we're close. Um, and I think we are, but um, I just for the good of the order to contemplate maybe an extra meeting before June 8th is just as a thought uh, rather than keep going and give everybody an opportunity to clean up and get things uh, organized and them people to the administration to react to what we've said, react to community input and and and try to maybe meet before June 8th if possible. But that's just a s just a thought.
339>> Okay. Uh board member Matt 30 seconds. >> Uh yes, I'm okay with meeting before June 8th. That's the recommendation of the board. Um but I continue to stress I think that in making these decisions um it will be extremely helpful to have um a clear rationale um as to justify the decisions that are being put forth. Um, I recognize there there are options that are being selected, but again, in terms of being able to make these decisions, I think all of us as a board would want to be able to have a uh strategic and justifiable rationale as to why certain decisions are being recommended um from the administration. Again, we want to be able to trust the vision and the direction that you all proposed to us. Um, and so to make that
340clear, I just want to stress that again. >> Okay. Well, remember member I'm Brewster 30 seconds. >> It's fine. Uh, I just wanted to practice what I preached and say thank you. I know you guys have done this with care and concern for each and every one of the people that work for this district and the students that go to this district and it's not easy and I just appreciate all the work that all the administration has done to get us here. Thank you. >> All righty. Well, thank you uh superintendent for this portion. Um we have the uh next resition our communities if we want to run through that here. >> Absolutely. Uh Miss Sheily Green is going to come forward uh giving us an update um with the my our communities this time
341about uh opportunities for this upcoming summer. Good evening. Um, as the countdown to summer break is on, Cincinnat Schools is focused on ensuring students remain active, engaged, nourished, and connected to opportunities throughout the community. To support families, the Office of Marketing Communications has created a centralized summer resources web page, highlighting opportunities across Cincinnati. Tonight, we're asking for your partnership in specific ways, helping to spread the word um to CPS families so that they are aware of these resources. And then second, any resources that you have that you would like to share, please share them with the office of marketing and communications as they will continue to be updating summer resources um on the dedicated landing page. Next slide. Why this matters? Um, summer can either accelerate growth or widen gaps for students. For many families,
342school is the only place where students receive consistent meals and support. The Office of Marketing Communications has included meal resources across the city to ensure students continue to have access during the summer months. This work supports the whole child, keeping the students engaged, supported, and cared for. Next slide, please. Um, this is a screen grab of the dedicated landing page that highlights summer resources for our students. Rather than having families to search across multiple platforms and sources, there's one place that is dedicated that they can go to to find these opportunities. This includes things like summer camps, academic programs, as I mentioned, meals, um, enrichment programs, workforce opportunities, and community programs. Um this is designed to meet the needs of all CPS students and families. If you go to the next slide. So before we
343play this video, um the website highlights opportunities, but the team wanted to hear directly from CPS students. So students across the district from a variety of schools were briefly interviewed about what their plans are for this summer. And here's what they had to share for with us. Oh, that's a bummer. >> Okay. Well, hopefully we can share that out. It will go on our social media page. Um the students have mentioned things such as camp, they're going to travel. Um their mom is going to take them to the park. Um it's a really cute video, so we'll make sure that everyone gets to see that. Um and then finally, we have a QR code here um that can easily be scanned to connect to the summer resources page. families are encouraged to explore both the
344summer opportunities um and then also ensure that their student is ready for the fall for the next school year. >> Any comments or questions from board members? We will make sure every board member gets a video access to the video. Yes. going to say is thank you for the work that you all are doing and just send us the video because I want to see it via email. >> Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. We'll do. >> All righty. >> And so that concludes our presentation portion of the board meeting. Uh board member Bolton, we have a resolution that needs to be voted on. Yes, >> tax amounts. And I'm going to turn it over if I can. I'm going to introduce it for a passage, but the treasurer is going to explain it. And there
345was some confusion about it uh among media folks. So I think a little bit of a explanation that this is rudimentary. It's for it's a formality. >> Yes, >> Mr. treasure. >> Yes. Thank you, Miss Bolton. Um, so just for the board members, if you remember back in January, the first thing that the board does was do a hearing on the tax budget. Um, that that actually was the first part of this process. Um, board approved the tax budget. It goes to the county, the county budget commission reviews it and then they give the information to the county auditor's office who calculates all of our millage um for the tax rates and the amounts. And so this process next process is a formality where this board then um accepts the calculations and the work of
346the county auditor's office. Then it goes back in and those are the rates that will be in effect for next calendar year. And I make the motion and look for a second and hope for passage. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you. >> Any discussion? Seeing none. Treasure. >> All right. Miss Arburster. >> Yes. >> Miss Bolton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Crosset. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lundy. >> Yes. >> Miss M. Vice President Moffett. >> Yes. >> President Greg. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All righty. Um so we're now at the portion where we go through our board matters andor uh inquiries, assignments, updates. Uh there is one update I had asked for our uh chief a executive to come provide to us here. >> Turn the floor over to her for a
347quick couple minutes. >> Thank you. Well, thank you. I uh appreciate the opportunity to speak with you and also appreciate the time in the evening. So, I will try to keep this brief. Uh, but as an introduction to those who I haven't had the pleasure of working with before, my name is Lauren Havcos and I lead the district's internal audit department. So, um, I think Rob's pulling up my slides here. Sorry, I just realized I have slides that need to go up. >> But while Rob pulls those slides up, I'll go ahead and continue moving through. So I wanted to start today's conversation by framing um especially for the board but more so for our public and our community as we talk about finances and and things of great importance right now. What is internal
348audit and why do we have that as an organization? So board policy 6836 states just that it sets the ground rules for what is internal audit. So, it's important to share that our role here at CPS is uh to provide independent um oversight and serves as an independent function that assists both the board and district administration by providing objective recommendations and to strengthen internal controls. I'll give Rob just one second to catch up because this next image is something I'd like to share. Yes. Oh, our board members have it handy. This is great. Miss Armbster, maybe just hold up a little higher. >> Thank you. >> There we go. >> Oh, beautiful. Thank you. So this next slide here uh provides further context on how that independence works operationally. This slide illustrates our reporting structure.
349Next slide if you don't mind, Rob illustrates our reporting structure. My role reports directly to the board of education with additional oversight provided by our audit committee which is comprised of 10 dedicated committee members as well as our three finance committee members. CPS aligns its governance with the Institute of Internal Auditors three lines model. In this framework, the board serves as the governing body, delegating responsibilities and resources to management. The first two lines fall under administration, focusing on achieving objectives and managing day-to-day risk. Internal audit serves as the third line, providing independent assurance on governance. Finally, you'll see external auditors provide that oversight for our taxpayers in the broader Cincinnati community. So, this quote directly from the IAA's global audit standards perfectly underscores our purpose. Internal audit is vital for fostering public trust and confidence
350in our organization through transparency and accountability. So now that we've set the stage onto the purpose of today's presentation, I will first provide a summary of the work our team completed through fiscal 2026 internal audit plan and then I'll transition the conversation to a brief uh moment to look ahead to fiscal 27. So, this slide summarizes um all of the projects from our fiscal 2026 internal audit plan, which were successfully completed and reported to the audit committee at the April 29th uh deadline. To give you a brief look at the value of this work that it brings to the district, I want to highlight a few key takeaways. Um you'll see that we focused on numerous areas of compliance a strong focus on our IT systems specifically our student information system uh focus which not
351only was evaluated from a operational perspective around enrollment um it also took a look at the IT insights to say how is our user access set up and what is that IT structure functioning um and that's critically important to our student data privacy team. And then finally, we took a look through agile auditing and that took a look at our transactional controls. And I think the biggest thing to celebrate and highlight here with agile auditing, they're quick audits that we we revisit frequently. And two of those areas, actually all these areas we've done numerous times, but two especially I wanted to celebrate and highlight where procurement cards had 100% compliance. Kudos to the treasur's office as well as everybody here that submits their receipts properly. Um, in employee reimbursements, uh, duplications were found to only
352be occurring at a 0.03% rate. So, when we look at this year-over-year, it's undoubtable that things are improving and getting better. So, I invite everyone um, you know, with the rest of your time this evening to follow the link up there and read all of our audit reports for the night. No, but in all seriousness, uh I think this was a very effective year. Um a quick notable um slide here for notable achievements. Uh not only do we complete the plan, we hit about 1100 tasks. And to date in my 10 years here, we've issued 204 audit recommendations. And so what happens is after we complete a report, we issue these recommendations to our management team who then takes the time and effort to implement them. And to date, I'm really pleased to share that
353management has reported 81% of those recommendations as complete to date. And I will also share a notable achievement of this year was that management reported 28 of those just during fiscal 26. So major kudos to the management team who has to take on uh the implementation. So, we took a brief moment to celebrate the 2026 achievements, but right on along we move to our fiscal 27 planning and risk assessment. So, I'll keep this brief, but as a quick refresher, this is our annual audit cycle. You'll see we are moving from the conclusion of the current year plan into that top section as we prepare for fiscal 27. What this means is on our next slide as we move into this independent development of an audit plan by assessing what could we audit our audit universe
354developing what are the risk inputs how do we gather information to say how do we quantitatively score and rate our risks and then ultimately how do we objectively select projects that we will include in that coming year's audit plan. So this is the next slide. This is where I have the big ask for the board um this evening. So, as we dive deeper into this work, the quality of our risk assessment is only as good as the inputs. So, the information that our team must gather, it comes from these numerous sources. I won't read them, but the big ask and the big change this year is that we historically have shared with you all, you may remember these risk assessment surveys. They were shared with our board members, our audit committee members, and our leadership
355and management teams. feedback has said that a survey on a Google form is not the best engagement and we agree. So our change this year is we are having individual meetings with each member of our audit committee to facilitate conversation around risk and strategy as we head to this next year as well as with our senior leadership members. And where that ask comes tonight is that we would like to also meet with each member of the board and engage in a conversation from your governance perspective on risk and strategy. So I welcome feedback. I welcome ideas. Um it can be one-on-one meetings or whatever form of feedback is best as I know I do work for the entire board as a unit. Um but logistically I'm looking for your guidance and how to best engage.
356So I'll pause there. Forgive me, that was a little discombobulated and quick, but hopefully um if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. >> I appreciate the presentation. And again, this is an opportunity for the board members to share their thoughts about things uh for this year's a plan as we come up. Seeing no questions, I will keep us moving along here. Oh, sorry, board member Bolton. I >> I just was going to say that we've not done it this way before, and I think it's very exciting. uh appreciate it for the whole board to be able to kind of enter in as individuals and as member I think it's great and so you surprised me. I like this >> or remember crossing. >> Yes, we're we're very blessed with a really strong
357uh internal audit function, internal audit team. Just wanted to recommend that uh it's your 10th anniversary with this district this year. So, thank you very much. >> All righty. Um, we had two other board matters on the agenda. Um, so let me do those two first and I'll come to you Ben. Um, I think both those were from board member Bolton. >> Thank you. This will take less than three minutes even doing all both of them. Um, wanted to uh I think we posted this on um board docs. uh got from a friend of mine that's a part of the um uh health justice cancer justice coalition. Uh not surprisingly the Ohio uh House uh health committee is contemplating or considering bill 561 known as Parental Choice Act. a dangerous proposal in my opinion and
358the writer believes it rooted in anti-science rhetoric and what it does is it requires schools and daycarees to actively promote vaccine exemptions and promote excuse me and prohibit the exclusion of unvaccinated children during outbreaks. And I just would like to pe have people kind of re review this, think about it, and maybe down the road in the near future, we could possibly take a stand as a board as to uh this being either good or bad uh depending upon how we learn about it more. Um and so I put that out there for for consideration. And the other item is another chart that I think we did post uh previously and again and that's uh as we look at these um goals for the superintendent. I know one of the ones we care most deeply
359about certainly is the gap uh issue uh as we look between the uh economically disadvantaged and the non-economically disadvantaged I believe for sixth graders. And the goal uh talks about our students and there is this very serious gap between uh the dis economically disadvantaged and those that are not. But the part of this and the superintendent might be able to help me with this, but the my understanding is that the way we measure it is by comparing schools rather than students. And when we compare on this chart, when we compare and we've and this assessment and testing teams and analysis folks have said that we need to do keep doing it the way we've been doing it, which is comparing schools because that's the way the state does it for the report card. But I
360think it's interesting and informative that when we are comparing not the schools necessarily where there's economic disadvantaged versus non-economic disadvantaged when we compare the students the gap is is much smaller than the gap when we compare schools. And for example, if with the state designation of economically disadvantaged, uh when we're talking in terms of schools, uh the the gap, I believe, as you can perhaps see f the fall and the winter, the total gap is in the 50some percent. But when we compare our students rather than the way the state wants us to do it by comparing schools, the gap goes down to 28% or 30ome percent. And I just, you know, I I like to I think that that's um in informative where we're comparing our kids versus this kind of false way of
361comparing the schools where there's economic disadvantage and whatever. So I thought that both of those things were kind of interesting and I I think that I'm not suggesting we change that goal, but I think we we be more informed about the difference and rec The administration's recommended we continue to do it the way we're doing it largely because that's the way the state does it for the report card and that's what has to be reported. But it's it it shows our kids in a far better light and also our our uh educators I think in a far better light. Thank you. >> All righty. Um and then board member Lindy, >> this can also be very quick. Um but we had um in October we voted on five goals for the superintendent's evaluation for this
362year. Um and one of those goals uh states as follows that the strategic plan and supporting financial plan will be completed by June 30th, 2026. Um that's before we had the timeline we have with Bellweather and with Rice. Um, and I wanted to suggest this evening that we update that goal to reflect the current planning timeline. We can do that without lowering the bar for this year. I think we can do it in such a way that we simply acknowledge the actual planning timeline uh and make that a goal that is meaningful and achievable. Um, I have some language here that I'm happy to uh read. I think board members also have received a copy of it. Um, but the original language I read, uh, I'd like to introduce this proposed alternative as a motion.
363Um, the proposed alternative, um, Mike, do you have a or treasure, do you have a copy of this? >> I believe I I don't have the most recent edit, so >> I will I will read those, but do you have the like a hard copy? >> I have the I have the original. Yes. >> Okay, great. So, um the proposed alternative that I am introducing with this motion is as follows. Um the new goal five will read, "The superintendent will submit and secure board approval for a multi-year strategic plan by August 3rd, 2026." There are two sub bullets. The first bullet reads, "This plan shall include a recommendation from the administration for whether CPS should seek a new money levy within the next 0 to two years. And the last sub bullet is if the
364plan recommends a new money levy, the plan will show in detail how new funds would be deployed and how those investments will lead to improved student outcomes. So, I offer that as a motion. So move. >> Second. >> No, whatever. >> So we have a motion from board member Lindy and a second from Ron Rooster. It's getting late at night. >> Yes. >> Any discussion? >> Seeing none, uh, Treasure Gen, you ready? >> All right. Miss Harbrewster, >> yes. >> Miss Bolton, >> yes. >> Mr. Crosset, >> yes. >> Mr. Lindy, >> yes. >> Miss Matt, >> yes. >> Vice President Moffett, >> yes. President Greg. >> Yes. Um there was a proposed consent agenda that has been distributed. Are there any exceptions? >> Yes. Uh so the exceptions are to the treasures report page
365seven line item number three. Page 10, line items number 11 and 12. Page 11, line item number three. Page 14, line items, oh, excuse me, page 14 and then the attachment line items number 12 and 13. Let me know, Treasure Gustin, if I need to repeat it. And then for the superintendence report, um, page 11, section D, line item number three. All righty. Jud, you have all that? >> I do. >> All righty. I need a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda. >> I move to I don't know. I move to approve the consent agenda. >> Second ready to go. >> Uh see no discussion. Georgia. >> Okay. >> Under discussion. I had questions. I was waiting to get there. Yep. I promise I won't be long. um under under the um
366suggestion that President Craig mentioned around KPIs and ROIs under the treasures report I have a question um under page six it says like the dream builder staff retreat and they had like a section for general counsel and then I'm just wondering when we're talking about I think it was just to increase that amount that was already allotted. I just wanted a little bit of explanation about that. >> I'm sorry, which page? >> Page six, I believe. >> Oh, sorry, forgot. We We amended it, pushed all the pages out. All right. >> I was just kind of wondering about the because it says a staff retreat. I think it was like an additional $5,000. >> It's an additional $5,000. So, so when we talk about like KPIs and ROIs, I'm looking I'm very interested in what
367is that what is that about particularly like there was a page six for general counsel, there was page six for dream builder staff retreat and then there was another one under page 10 for Pleasant Hill yonder pouches at $11,000. Um, I'm just wondering when we look at KPIs, are we assessing the effectiveness of yonder pouches? Um, I know at OSBA I've introduced like a free service that we could be getting rather than to be saving $11,000 or saving thousands of dollars and then going to schools and seeing a bucket full of yonder pouches that students have broken. So, I'm just wondering, do we have any data on yonder pouches? Do we have any data on the staff retreat or the general counsel suggestion? >> So, I'll start I'll start with general counsel. That's the easiest
368one. Um that is the amendment for they have a contract for outside legal services um that they've used for years. Uh and just just added another $10,000 on for that. But that provides us legal that provides a service for legal legal things that aren't in the experience for our internal legal counsel. Um, dream builders, I'm not sure about the $5,000. There is a KPI for the overall contract which we could look up. Um, and then same thing for I think the yonder pouches is just an just an just a purchase order the schools make. So, you know, we schools have committed to the yonder pouches for for several years now. Uh, I do remember assistant superintendent provided some data early on. >> Yeah. >> Not seeing anything recently. um generally in generally KPI reviews. So,
369and we've talked about this at finance a couple times, you know, we do we you know check at the beginning of the contract, we do a midyear where everyone looks at the midyear and kind of our next step in this KPI process multi-year is to do the look back at the end of the contracts. You know, we've we've talked with we've talked it's been a conversation at finance committee multiple times with how we get to that next level because now you're now you're looking back at the prior year. You need most of these things need test scores and evaluation scores from the prior year to come in uh and and how to do that with the school-based teams in a way that gives them feedback. >> I appreciate that. But I I also when President
370Crick brought it up around KPIs and ROIs and how we are we have a habit of just automatically renewing things or automatically extending things. Those stood out as areas I was going to bring that up anyway. What what are we extending for general counsel? What are we extending it for an additional $10,000 for? What are we extending the Dream Builders Retreat an additional $5,000 for? Like I think um >> yeah, I'm I'm sure general counsel >> that be great. But then also like the yonder pouches, that's an area we use title money for, right? I believe that came out of title and and I provided information about a free service >> where what are are some ways that we can are we going back to look at KPIs and ROIs and then are we looking
371actually genuinely authentically looking for ways to save money? I realize that's title for some of that, but what with integrity are we doing to really save some funding? And I got no report back and I submitted this about six months ago around the free service, but what other ways are we doing to explore options? So to my question around what you're talking >> speak to the general counsel the additional funds for general counsel were to uh for our outside council that does our board of revision cases that tries to >> um keep our property taxes the the values of the properties that we we receive taxes on to uh keep those cases going. >> And so my question remains unanswered. What are we doing around reviewing um like is >> we have contracts? >> We
372we every legal expense that's uh approved is um you know there they're one we don't have contracts. We have agreements to take on cases that have either been filed against the district or that the district is pursuing in these board of revision cases to keep our property taxes and and we do a costbenefit analysis every time. >> Okay. >> Whether or not to uh continue a case or not. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. >> So the other two, we don't have to go into lengthy discussion. I just looked at those with respect to we're extending contracts and we tend to just do that regularly and routinely. And so under the guise of now this is a a real emergency, a fiscal emergency, what are we doing to save money? Are we looking at those
373KPIs and those RARI? >> Just real quickly for the yonder pouches, there was a survey done that was shared when we did the secondary presentation if you remember. And um right now what we're spending money on is because we have this huge investment right now. It's just a refresh or a replenish. So for this school year, I think we added them to the middle school so they would have the yonder pouches moving forward. It's just um refreshing, replenishing ones that to your point are broken somehow some way um to make sure we keep it going. Um, so we didn't want to just drop the entire investment u because in many ways it is being helpful. >> Well, I know I visited a couple schools and they're not even using them. So maybe we need to
374look at that with Fidelity, particularly around this budget crisis. They've got phone policies. Some schools have um a whole another way to use uh a phone restriction process. So, I I I'm looking at it like we're replenishing $11,000 worth of supplies, but are we really are are they is that necessary? And I I love getting reports and all of that, but when we go visit, there's theory and applications. So, I'm going to invite the administrative team to look into and utilize KPIs and ROIs, particularly around contracts that we're just automatically extending um with little data to support that moving forward. Thank you. >> All right. Seeing no further discussion, Treasure Gus, call the RO. >> All right. Miss Arrewster, >> yes. >> Miss Bolton, >> yes. >> Mr. Crosset, >> yes. >> Mr. Lindy, >>
375yes. >> Miss Matt, >> yes. Vice President Moffett. >> Yes. >> President Craig. >> Yes. Uh the chair will entertain a motion for adjournment. >> So moved. >> Is there Huh? >> We will I will talk with the administration because we would have to also be able to bring something back for a future meeting. So need to give them time to also be able to do that. So I want to make sure that they have time to do it and then we will share information with the rest of the board as to what that plan might look like. Go.