CPS Board Business Meeting May 4th, 2026

001Okay. Seeing a quorum of voting members, I call the May 4th, 2026 Cincinnati School Board meeting to order. Superintendent Murphy, please introduce our wonderful students who will be leading us in the pledge of allegiance. So today we have students from Woodford Academy where their principal is Miss Caitlyn Donner. >> Please stand. I pledge 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 for all. >> You know, each each school's getting more and more creative with this. I think we're going to have some uh some challenges up here in the future. Uh Treasure August, please call the attendance role. >> Good evening. Miss

002Arburster >> here. >> Miss Bolton, >> present. >> Mr. Crosset, >> here. >> Mr. Lindy >> here. Miss Matt >> here. >> Vice President Moffett >> here. President Craig >> here. Uh, Vice President Moffet, please explain the virtual hearing of the public process. >> My pleasure. 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. That chat feature will be open 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. And if you are in person, make sure that we have your sheet if you're desiring to speak. >> All righty.

003Uh, I need a motion and a second to approve the May 4th business meeting agenda. >> So move. >> Second. >> Treasure Genet. >> Miss Arburster. >> Yes. >> Miss Bolton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Crosset. Yes, >> Mr. Lindy. >> Yes, >> Miss Matt. >> Yes, >> Vice President Moffett. >> Yes, >> President Craig. >> Yes. All righty. And let's see here. Superintendent Murphy, it is now really is the best time uh for all of these things. The best part of tonight's meeting. It will be the highlight of tonight's meeting for sure. Please begin the ceremony for our wonderful valadictorians and saludiatorans. Yes. I'm going to begin and ask that the board members and treasurer join us on the stage and then assistant superintendent will lead us in this recognition. Okay. How about that? Good

004evening. As Superintendent Murphy said, tonight is very exciting as we celebrate our validictorians and saludiatorans from all of our high schools. So, our first assistant principal that we'll be introducing is Dr. Steve Barton from Aken High School. >> Good evening board members and superintendent Murphy. Uh, I am here to present our validictorian and saludiatoran for Aken High School. Our valadictorian is Miss Kennedy Woods and our saludiatoran is New Honaba. Kennedy is graduating with a GPA of 4.93. She will be attending the University of Cincinnati to major in neuroscience in the college of arts and science. Kennedy is a Marian Spencer Scholar. In high school, she was a member of National Honor Society and involved in varsity basketball, varsity track, and field flag and football. here. Mr. Crosset, everyone, thank you. >> All right. Nuhan uh

005Nuhan is graduating with a 4.85 GPA. He will be attending the University of Cincinnati to major in math in the College of Arts and Sciences. Nuhan is a Mary and Spencer scholarship recipient and UC ambassador. In high school, he was involved in National Honor Society, Speak Up, Speak Out, Varsity Football and Wrestling, where he was captain in both sports, track and field, conference, honorable honorable mention in football, conference first team in wrestling. >> Awesome. Thank you. >> Congratulations. Good evening board. Superintendent Murphy. Um I'm Eric Higgins, principal at Clark Monasuri High School. Uh proud to present uh three distinguished graduates for us this year. Uh our first is our Valley Victorian, Charlotte Blae. Charlotte will be attending Bren Mar College to study English literature where she was inspired to become a teacher with her senior

006class of teachers at Clark Monasuri. Uh Charlotte is an exceptional student and helped run a studentled theater program for four years uh building a great community at our school. Charlotte's senior project this year was how to bring theater into marginalized communities. OUR next val Victorian, our other grad valor Victorian is Aiden Guinea Gundo. Aiden will be attending the Columbus College of Arts and Design to study animation. Aiden is a exceptional student, prolific artist and was a a critical piece of our studentr run theater program epic um helping with set design and performing in multiple productions. Aiden senior project was a negative impact of gen AI on creative industries. >> Excellent. Thank you. >> Our last honore tonight is Holland Clansancy, our saludiatoran. Holland will be attending the University of Michigan to study cellular and molecular

007biology. Holland is an exceptional student as well uh human and artist and scientist. first seen project. She blended her love of art and science by creating a comic book to make science topics more interesting and access and accessible to non-science and medical people. Good evening. I'm Jasmine Madison, principal at Gilbert Adator High School, and I am here to um honor and introduce our validictorian and saludiatoran. Unfortunately, our saludiatoran, Florida Benet, was not able to attend today. Um but I do want to share a few words. She will be attending the University of Cincinnati to study mechanical engineering. She is an outstanding student whose academic achievements reflect her intelligence and passion for learning, especially in the areas of math and science where her problem solving skills really shine. We have Abel Bhani here. Abel will be

008attending the University of Cincinnati to study finance with a full ac academic scholarship. He is an exceptional student leader. He has participated in our student council for many years and he represents the very best of our school community. Um he is an incredible We are incredibly proud of his perseverance and determination. He makes stator greater. Thank you. >> All right. So, tonight for GDA, we have Miss Jalis McCoy. She is our validictorian. It's not Gilbert. Uh Jaliss plans to attend University of Cincinnati this fall to study as a dental hygienist or enter the exploratory studies program. She has overcome many challenges including navigating a learning disability and being held back in second grade. After transferring to GDA during the pandemic, she began the college credit plus program in her junior year. She's on track to

009receive her Ohio 36 transfer certificate from Cincinnati State this summer. Um, and thanks to these completed thanks to these completed credits, she will enter her first year at the University of Cincinnati as a sophomore standing, effectively making up her loss earlier in education, sir. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. >> Mr. Davon Greenway is our saludiatoran. He is a graduate of Gilligan Digital Academy and a Marian Spencer Scholar at the University of Cincinnati where he will study computer engineering with the Ascend program. He serves on the Inner Alliance leadership council and is the learning team director for the Walnut Hills chapter of the Inner Alliance of Greater Cincinnati. His team recently took first place overall at the UC IT Expo. Uh DaVon is passionate about building technology that makes education more accessible and

010he plans to pursue software engineering and entrepreneurship at UC. >> Excellent. >> Great job. >> All righty. So, Dr. Odell Owens, Center for Learning is proud to introduce Josiah Williams, our 2026 valadictorian. Josiah would like to pursue trade school and to study welding. Throughout his time at Owens Center, he has been a model student as well as a great mentor to all of his peers. Congratulations, Josiah. You got this. Dr. Odell Owens, Center for Learning is proud to introduce Shawn Michael Walker, our 2026 soluditorian. Shawn is has many opportunities and is still deciding between job core or employment. While at Owens Center, he found his creative spark through art classes and producing his rap, music, and technology courses. Congratulations, Tom Michael Walker. >> Excellent. Good evening. I would like to introduce you all to the

011Hugh STEM High School validictorian for 2026, Miss Nagali Soul Maharo. Today we celebrate not only her 5.27 27 GPA, >> but we celebrate purpose, perseverance, and a quiet excellence. Naggali represents what it truly means to embody the big red way. Through her involvement in student government, girls to women, national honors society, and academic team, Nagali did more than prot participate. She led, she served, and she inspired. As she takes her next steps at Miami University to study information technology, we know she carries with her not only academic excellence, but the heart of a leader who will continue to uplift every space she enters. Thank you. >> Great job. Ladies and gentlemen, Ariana Leam, the Hugh STEM High School saludiatoran. She is graduating with a 5.2 2 GPA and she stands as a powerful example of

012balance, of strength and dedication. While excelling academically, Ariana committed herself fully to our school community. She played volleyball, participated in student government, national honor society, our academic team, and girls to women. As she prepares to attend the University of Cincinnati to study information technology and data analysis, Ariana steps into a future filled with innovation, compassion, and impact. >> Got it. >> All right. All right. come on up. So, um board, thank you for allowing me to come speak. Superintendent Murphy, always great to see you. These, uh two young ladies who are going to come up and um honestly, it's their time to shine right now. They represent Gamble Monastery High School. We have five core values, which is learning, peace, community, hard work, and respect. And so, I'm Principal Greco from James N. Gamble High

013School. And I'm honored to introduce our validictorian, Kina Fox. Kina will be attending University of Cincinnati to study biomemed research. Kina is a positive role model through and through our building. She's the president of student council, participates in our academic quiz team, is a UC ambassador, one of two students who sits on our Gamble Foundation committee, winner of the McDonald's Black History Makers of Tomorrow, 26 college credits, and the blow off the roof with a GPA of a 5.35. Give it up for Kina. Good job. >> All right, coming up next, also representing our five core values: learning, peace, community, hard work, and respect. I am honored to introduce our salutatoran, Victoria Ferguson. Victoria will be attending the University of Cincinnati, majoring in health sciences, but right now undecided on what path she will take

014when she graduates. Victoria is a beautiful ray of sunshine that walks throughout our halls every single day. Victoria was the captain of our academic quiz team, captain of our dynamic dance team, represented CPS and gamble at the Bengals game dancing during halftime show, sat at Superintendent Murphy's round table this school year, played varsity volleyball, 27 college credits, and tops it off with a GPA of 5.28. Give it up for Victoria Ferguson. Y >> good evening. I'm principal Caleb Brunswick from Oiler School and I'm honored to introduce our valadictorian, Tashiana Miller. Tashiana will be attending the University of Cincinnati's DAP program to study fine arts. She has been a member of the college PLC this year and has participated in the college access podcast campus conversations. She's currently working on a mural project with Keep Cincinnati

015Beautiful and has spent the last two summers working with artworks completing murals around the city. This year she earned a $10,000 scholarship from the Greater Cincinnati African-American Scholarship Fund, the Cell Scholarship from YWCA, and was a recipient of the Cincinnati Alumni Delta Sigma Theta Scholarship. Excellent. >> And I am also honored to introduce our saludiatoran, a lifelong Oiler student, Kansas Shaant. Kansas will Yay. Kansas will be attending Cincinnati State Community and Technical College to study business. She was a part of the volleyball team, the wellness club, and the career club. And she's also a founding member of the Oiler Book Club and is in the process of getting her poetry book published. Kansas has earned an honor scholarship which will cover her tuition and books next year, actually for the next three years. >> Excellent.

016Thank you. Congratulations. Good evening. I'm principal Nina Janakio from Riverview East Academy and I'm honored to introduce our valadictorian Naa Asbury. Nivea will be attending Mount St. Joseph to study nursing on a full ride scholarship. Na is a dedicated member of girls to women and is a leader at her tri health school to work internship. She has shown dedication to pursuing a nursing degree and has worked to set a high standard for those who follow. >> Next, I'd like to introduce Elelliana Dawson, our saludiatoran. Elelliana will be attending University of Cincinnati to study pre-advanced medical imaging. Elelliana is a dedicated member of Girls to Women and a star student in our allied health career tech pathway. She sets an example for her peers with her dedication to her academic career, her kind demeanor, and respect

017for all around her. Great job. >> All right. Good evening. >> I'm Principal Liz from Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School, TA. >> I'm honored to introduce our valadictorian, Will Nia Lindseay Thompson. Well, Nia will be attending UC to study premed in biology. She's an exceptional student and a cheerleader as she received the Carter Woodson Award. >> Great job. I am also honored to introduce our saludiatoran, Destiny Payne. >> Destiny was accepted into her dream school, Howard University. She will be attending Berea College to study criminal justice and run track. Destiny is an exceptional student and attracts star as she received the woman alliances scholarship. >> All right. Good evening. I am Michael D. Owens, the proud principal of the School for Creative and Performing Arts. I'd like to introduce our valadictorian, Maggie Mcool.

018Maggie is a senior majoring in dance. She will be attending Indiana University majoring in entrepreneurship and corporate innovation. And she's graduating with in just wicked smart um a 5.43 GPA. Introducing our saludiatoran, Solidad Kasanova. Salad is attending Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland. She's majoring in visual arts at our school, but she will be majoring in environmental science and engineering. And she's graduating with a 5.38 GPA. Good evening. I am Principal Neil representing Schroeder High School and I'm honored to introduce to you tonight our validictorian, Taylor Isaac. Taylor will be attending North Carolina ENT, majoring in biology in their pre- dental program with a weighted 5.5 GPA. Taylor is an exceptional student leader, holding many positions, among them the captain position of the cheer team and the PLC career group. She is a awesome, wonderful young

019lady. Thank you, Taylor. Excellent. Congratulations. >> I am also very proud to introduce our saludiatoran, Kamaran Moxley. He will be attending the University of Cincinnati as a honor student in the college of business studying accounting. With a 4.95 GPA, Kamaran wants everyone to know that he is a very hard worker. evident by him being awarded multiple scholarships, including the Governor's Merit Scholarship. >> Got it. Thank you. >> Good evening. I'm Principal Nita Janakio from Spencer Center and I'm honored to introduce our co-firstin-class award recipient, Lindseay Liry. Lindsay will be attending the University of Cincinnati to study mechanical engineering. Lindsay is an exceptional student who was awarded the Marian Spencer Scholarship to attend UC and has been a leader on our ethics bowl team as well as a founding member of literature club. Congratulations, Lindsay. Next,

020I'm honored to introduce our co-first and class award recipient, Wisdom Francis. Wisdom will be attending the Ohio State University to study aerospace space engineering. Wisdom is an exceptional student who is a member of our basketball team and a leader in our school community and at home. Congratulations, Wisdom. >> Our last award recipient is not here this evening. He is at senior night for baseball. Um, so he's being honored there. Um, I'm honored to share a little bit about our Marian Spencer graduate award winner, Alexander McNeel. Alexander is receiving this award by a vote of the full staff recognizing his academic achievement, commitment to his school community and leadership skills. Alex will be attending Miami University to study accounting. And Alex has been a member of our soccer, basketball, and baseball teams, as well as a

021student ambassador and is not able to join us this evening because he's being recognized at his baseball senior night. That's all for >> I got three pages for y'all. >> Greetings from Walnut Hills High School. I am Principal John Chambers and the two young men that I'm going to introduce tonight epitomizes what it means to be a Walner Hills Eagle. First up, James Clark Ser. Clark has Clark has a 5.44 weighted GPA. He has taken 10 AP courses in five CCP courses. He is an AP scholar with distinction, national merit commended scholar, and an inductee into the International Thespian Society. Clark will be attending Northwestern University majoring in theater. Ladies and gentlemen, Clark Ser. >> Oh, thank you. >> Good job. Our Kum Lai scholar is um excuse me uh Spencer Pew. Spencer has a

0225.41 weighted GPA, has taken 14 AP courses, five CCP courses. He is an AP scholar with distinction, national recognition award winner, national merit commended scholar and cumludy scholar. Spencer will be attending the University of Cincinnati majoring in biomed engineering. Ladies and gentlemen, Spencer Pew. Congratulations. >> Good evening, President Craig, members of the board, Superintendent Murphy, distinguished guest, staff, and most importantly, families of honored students. My name is Carlos Blair, and I am the proud principal of Western Hills University High School. I am honored to introduce the pride of Western Hills High School, the valadictorian and the saludiatoran. Please allow me to introduce Western Hills validictorian Anthony Alvarez Gonzalez. He is a senior and a scholar who has mastered our most rigorous honors AP and college credit plus curriculum. Anthony is a multi-talented leader who excelled

023as a three-year varsity soccer player and academic team member while maintaining an impressive professional work ethic outside of school. His exceptional discipline, humility and his exceptional discipline and humility have proven his ability above all in terms of balancing high level academics with significant responsibil responsibilities which make him an outstanding well-rounded person. Anthony will attend the University of Cincinnati to study mechanical engineering. Ladies and gentlemen, Anthony Alvarez Gonzalez. Next, I'm honored to introduce our saludiatoran, Martina Hall. Martina and is an exceptional driven scholar who has nearly exhausted our school's AP offerings while ex while excelling in additional college credit plus courses and elective summer coursework. Beyond her academic achievements, she serves as a dedicated teacher assistant. Martina will attend the University of Cincinnati to study health sciences. Ladies and gentlemen, Martina Hall. >> Good evening. My

024name is Steven Lickard. I'm the proud principal of the Wiiro Tigers. Um, I'm proud to be here to announce our valadictorian, Janelle Burch. Janelle is the daughter Oh, sorry. Please. Janelle's a daughter of Camille Burch and comes from a long line of Tigers, including her sister, her mother, and several other family members. Um, over the past four years, Janelle's played volleyball and earned many seals and honors, including being in National Honor Society, a phenomenal 4.82 82 GPA and also earned the governor's merit scholarship. Her goal after high school is to go to UC and major in health sciences where her dream where she achieves her dream to become an occupational therapist. Valadictorian with her high school. Janelle Burch. Unfortunately, our saludiatoran could not make it tonight, but I'm very proud to announce her as well.

025Landra Du is our saludiatoran. She's the proud daughter of Leticia Brooks and comes from a also comes from a long line of Tigers. Over the past four years, she's played many sports, earned many seals, and had many honors had many honors, including a 4.61 GPA. She will she will be attending Miami University in Oxford and majoring in political science. Her dream is to become an attorney. Saludiatoran Salander Du, thank you very much. Good evening. It's blue all day. I'm Dwayne Doboy, the proud principal of what Career Technical High School. It's my pleasure this evening to introduce to you I'm going against the grain and going with our saludiatoran first, Mr. Eric Perez. Uh upon graduation, Eric will be employed through uh a graduation apprenticeship program. Eric, also an exceptional student, is a participant in the

026IBEDW internship and a member of JCG. Mr. Eric Perez. We have co- validictorians this evening. I'll introduce to you first. Uh it is my honor to introduce Mr. Isaiah Parish. Isaiah Isaiah upon graduation will be attending the University of Cincinnati where he will study information technology. Uh I can't begin to tell you how many CTE certifications this young man has earned. Uh, awesome young man. Always greets me when he sees me. And he is also a recipient of the prestigious Gates Scholarship. >> Mr. Isaiah Parish. Finally, this evening, and I've had the pleasure of watching this young lady grow up over the years as I've worked with her mother. Um, Miss Leia Akoff is our co-aladictorian. Upon grad graduation, Leia will be attending Bellereman College to study psychology on a basketball SC full scholarship, I

027might add. an awesome athlete. Again, member of the basketball team, a member of our thousand points club, and a member of our flag football team, Miss Leia Ak. Congratulations. >> I'm here to close out. Well, thank you everyone for joining us for our celebration of our seniors. Thank you board and superintendent Murphy. >> Good job. >> Great job. That was much better than All right. So, as we let the families of those wonderful valadictorians, Louis Orans join their wonderful students, let's give them one more big round of applause for all of our grads just this year. Um so this is the time in our meeting where we go to um if any board members have any announcements, acknowledgements, kudos, positive things, kudos. >> Vice President Buffett, >> I do have kudos, but I did not

028send my pictures into Robin enough time. So, I'm and I knew we had the saludiator, so I'm going to save my kudos to the next meeting. >> Uh, board member Lindy. >> Uh, thank you. I I can be quick. I just wanted to thank the team at Western Hills High School. I went on a school visit there on Friday. Uh, really enjoyed um, seeing the important work that they're doing there. Um, they are the proud recipients of an Ohio Momentum Award uh, for growth and improvement uh, over the last school year. I think it's a big deal. uh and I got a chance to see a fabulous uh algebra 1 classroom um led by Miss Siver um who has done just a wonderful job all year and appreciate all the hard work that is happening

029in that building. So, thank you. >> All righty. Uh I'll just give two real quick. Um, one, we had an amazing first annual CPS ethics bowl uh over the weekend on Saturday at Riverview Riverview Spencer building. Um, it came down to uh Schroeder versus one of the Walnut Hills teams and it was tight. And I mean by tight, I mean like one point separated uh but but uh Walnut won this year. We're looking forward to doing it more for next year and having more of the students and teams come out. It was a great opportunity. Um, and I I want to also note that a number of the students who were participating in ethics bowl enjoyed it so much that they're when they come to UC are going to be working with the ethics center

030as interns and as uh student workers. And so it's a just a great opportunity again to build those coalitions as we go forward. Um, and then I will give just kind of a general shout out to all those wonderful folks who decided this weekend they wanted to run around outside for the flying pig. It seems rather dangerous and terrifying though I've done the half myself a couple times, but uh just want to congratulate anybody who decided to venture out in cool weathers and run the flying pig this week. Uh, superintendent. >> Yes, sir. Uh, thank you, President Kirk. I do have a couple of retirees um today. They both are from our civil service team. The first is Miss Sheila Cox. She is a custodian at Winton Hills Academy. And then Miss Diana Richardson who

031is a pair professional at Hayes Porter School. And then I did have one kudos, but maybe I'll make it two. Um, one kudos is so Aken New Techch High School who has had junior ROTC now I believe three school years um was awarded by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce the Purple Star. And the Purple Star the Purple Star is awarded for commitment to serving military connected students and families. So congratulations to Aken. And I just want to give a shout out to everyone um community school district um our project connect team for the opening last week. I don't have a slide for it. Um but for our uh safe sleep lot and I do want you to know that we have already had a few families uh stay. So thank you. >> Uh

032board member Matt. >> Uh yes. I just wanted to give a shout out to uh Hartwell Middle School. Um had the opportunity to attend last week. So, thank you, Principal Lewis, for a great tour of all the classrooms and the uh great work that the teachers and the students are doing there. The students were extremely engaged. They were excited about the work. Um we talked about the American Revolution for the fourth with the fourth grade. So, I know board member Bolton could appreciate that. Um, and also just having an opportunity to talk to our students and they share their feedback. And one of the things that stood out was just not only the culture and how it was um, just really a safe space, but also just the appreciation for social and emotional learning and

033mental health. And so I know that our social workers and our counselors are here today. So just wanted to highlight that our students are also advocating for that work. And I just want to uh note really quickly on the opening of the safe sleeping lot. I actually had someone who works with one of our corporate partners reach out and and stop me as I'm just out in the public and saying that they were already ready to reach out to help. So it's it's a great opportunity to get a lot of resources into families who need it. So it was really exciting to see so many people supporting it there this weekend or uh last week, I should say. All righty. Um, Vice President Muffet, the show is yours. >> Right. We are now at the

034item on our agenda for a hearing of the public. Each speaker will have two minutes and we'll address all comments to the presiding officer. If you have any materials or presentations wanting to be distributed to board members, please don't approach. Just give them to our board administrative assistant, Miss Phyllis Davis. If you are online, once a request to speak has been granted, you'll be invited to enter. You should click on the camera icon to go interactive. Provide your name, your affiliation to the district, your school community, your topic, and your contact information if you'd like a response to any questions you may have. This request is consistent with board protocol, and we appreciate your help. In the unusual event that someone is not willing to follow this protocol, we do reserve the right to end

035that person's time. Again, each person will have two minutes to speak. When the timer goes off, your time is up. Please refrain from discussing any personnel items. And after speaking, if you are online, you'll briefly see the welcome screen again as you transition back to the live stream meeting. Mr. Wilson, do we have any speakers online? I'm nervous. We can start in person if you want. While we're waiting on that, I'm going to call some people down to the front. >> I'm here. >> Okay. >> Shall I start now? >> Okay. Yeah. >> Okay. Good evening, board members. My name is Dr. Winona Oliver. I am a special education Please hold. >> Thank you. We're going to do in person first. And for those online, I know we have a few of you. Please leave

036your cameras and microphones muted until we call your name. >> How many do we have online? >> Eight. Okay. Well, let's uh let's while let's have her one go and then we'll call some people down while they're coming. She can go. Uh Katherine Berquette, >> Angie. >> Okay, Miss Oliver, go ahead. Angie Wilson, Lashonda Perry. >> Good evening, board members. My name is Dr. Winona Oliver. I am the special education liaison for the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers. Our students with disabilities represent our neediest student population, many of which have social emotional needs that affect them, others around them, and their ability to access the general ed curriculum. School social workers are our first line of defense when it comes to addressing the social emotional needs of our students. Healthy kids learn better. May is mental

037health awareness month and it's more important than ever to support our students who may be struggling. School-based health care is a vital part of the mental health ecosystem, expanding access to behavioral health services, providing early identification and intervention, and spreading positive messaging that promotes mental health and well-being. At the center of these supports are student and uh our students and the school social workers. According to the CPS job description, school social workers coordinate and provide social services for students. They are trained in mental health, negative and positive behavioral concerns, and academic and classroom intervention. At a time when child and adolescent social emotional needs are at an all-time high, it would be totally irresponsible to remove the school staff that provides most of the social emotional supports needed for our students, especially our students with

038disabilities. If you are really here for kids, rather than removing vital direct student services, you should remove indirect services. I ask that you consider a reduction of administrative bloat in the department of student services rather than removing vital direct social emotional supports from students with disabilities provided by our school social workers. Thank you so much. >> Thank you Miss Miss Bquette. on the mic for the mic. >> Okay, sorry about that guys. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Katie Berquette and I am the Leap Academy PTO president and an active member of LSDMC. I'm grateful to share a few things regarding the stability, equity, and continued success of students in the LEAP Academy community. First, I'd like to address the frequent reassignment of teachers. While I understand

039that sapping adjustments are necessary, consistent changes can be challenging for students. They disrupt continuity, make it harder to build strong relationships, and can impact academic progress. Greater consistency would help create more supportive and predictable learning environment where students can truly thrive. Second, I'd like to touch on students entering the magnet program at upper grade levels without sufficient prepar preparation, especially in Spanish, which is such an important part of Leap Academyy's curriculum. When students don't have that strong foundation, it can be difficult for them to keep up. It creates additional challenges in the classroom and clear admission criteria after the third grade along with placement assessments with targeted supports would go a long way in settling all students up for success while preserving the strength of the program. Third, as our school grows to include seventh

040and eighth grade, we're excited about the opportunities that it brings. But it also comes with new demands. Programs like band, career and technical education, and counseling services are essential. Yet, they're putting increased pressure on our limited space. Currently, key staff members such as counselors and psychologists don't have the private areas needed for confidential conversations. We truly appreciate the consideration of relocating the ECE hub to help create the space needed to better support our students. In addition, resource disparities continue to impact our school. Compared to other schools in the district, we face limitations in funding, parent engagement, and facilities. Our classrooms are fully utilized. Our playground is small, and our gymnasium cannot support a full athletic program. We also do not have an auditorium. Our art and music spaces are limited than others in our schools.

041And addressing these gaps would make a meaningful difference in student opportunity, well-being, and overall school pride. Finally, I just wanted to thank you guys. Thank >> Thank you guys. Angie Wilson, Lashondaanda Perry. >> Hello, my name is Angie Wilson, parent to an eighth grader at Spencer Center and vice chair of our LSDMC. I personally thank you for the opportunities you've given our community. We found a balance in sharing resources with Riverview East and our PTSO has adopted the Riverview staff celebrating all of our CPS teachers as we are this week for teacher appreciation week. I've spoken here numerous times over the years to advocate for just how valuable our resource coordinator is. And here I am again. Last week, I filled out a survey that I received from CPS. When asked what I thought needed

042to be increased or improved, one of my suggestions was more social workers and counselors. So, I was surprised this week to learn these positions along with resource coordinators and athletic directors were being proposed as cuts or reductions in staff. The loss of these positions would put an immeasurable and unfair burden on teachers and impacting learning for all of our students. Our teachers are not trained to support our students in any role other than teaching. And yet, our students needs do not go away merely because a staff person may no longer be employed to support them. As a parent, I deeply value each of these roles and how they all work together and how they support our students. As we celebrate the As we celebrated the amazing graduates graduates earlier today, I noticed that each of

043them participated in various sports and clubs. I believe that these activities help to develop leadership skills and a student's confidence to succeed. I do not doubt that within the diverse body of students walking our halls today, some child is coming to school because of game day or an after-school club. And when they care, they attend. We need resource coordinators and athletic directors to facilitate these opportunities for our students. As much as I appreciate the board for the value and work that you're doing, I have to admit I'm exhausted by budget cuts followed by proposed people cuts. Our school needs our resource coordinators, our athletic directors directors, our school counselors, and our social workers. I ask that you please find another solution. Thank you for your time. One more reminder to our online um speakers who

044are waiting, please keep your cameras and microphones muted so that way the other audience members can uh hear who's speaking. Thank you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Hi, my name is Landa Perry. My children attend Pleasant Ridge Monasuri. Um I'm just simply a parent. First, I want to thank the board for giving me opportunity to speak. I'm not a public speaker, so I will be brief. Um, I've been teaching my children this week about wants and needs, and it's funny that today that applies to me. Um, my son was diagnosed with autism in 2023. And as an educator, I understood the challenges that he would have, also the support he would need. And it was no one in the world that can give that to him in my mind as a mother. And then we found

045our social worker at our school. I don't know if I could say her name or not, but um our Miss Ali Quinter, our angel. And I just want to say that, oh my god, I'm so emotional all the time. How important she is to William as a kid who has autism. We all know the struggles of how social and emotional um it's hard for them to trust people. And he trusts Miss Alley. She walks William out every day, not to the door, but to the car, my car, and give me a playbyplay every single day of what William can't say to me about his day. That gives me peace. It helps me work and get through my day because I was contemplating quitting my career to bring my son home and homeschool him. So, I

046just want you guys to know how much of a need our social workers are. They're not our wants. That's all I have to say. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Rob, let's do let's do uh our online speakers. Um and then I'm going to call you down and you can come and have a seat and we will get right to you all. Naomi Maderas. Um go one second. Uh, Valenni Elliot. I hope I'm not pardon me if I mispronounced. Lauren Pollen, Anna Wanenberg, and Joe Keller. And let's go to our online. >> Perfect. Thank you very much. Our first online speaker today is going to be Amber Kasem. Amber, you may unmute your camera microphone. And you have two minutes. >> You got me? >> We do. Yes. >> Thank you. Um, I'm

047here because I had um staff and social workers and parents reach out to me asking questions and expressing a lot of concern. Um, and I'm here to um call out how inconsistent and counterintuitive to cut social worker funds and positions. I think you guys have like 24 or 30 up on the chopping block. um at the same time that you're putting out um and acknowledging social barriers such as um you know being unhoused and what social workers actually work through. So I'm asking for you guys to be consistent and intelligent and not cut social workers funding um and those positions. Um I would also ask for you to reach out to the city of Cincinnati since they have $8 million to fund to leisure venues um at the outskirts of the city. um that maybe

048they could help supplement with uh social work um funding uh as a move to help academic achievement as a leading indicator of success which also also bears on life expectancy and uh students ability to future function and successfully participate in the economy. So let's be consistent and smart and let's not be dumb. Um, also I'm asking for the English language learning provided by HCESC that is uh funded to only public school systems from the state. That should not be cut. Also, if there are supplemental funds, you guys can reach out to parochial schools that are also subcontracted and using these services that will impact far more students than just uh Cincinnati public schools, but also the families and communities surrounding your schools that um particularly in this time, this political climate, um we we need

049as much support as possible to the English language learning programs. So, we'll I'm asking for the board to suspend any decision to cut this relationship and also seek supplemental funding um and also be consistent in their principles and values as Democrats that we have elected. >> Thank you, Amber. Our next speaker is Audrey Ray. Audrey, you can unmute your camera and microphone. Audrey Ray. Good evening, CPS Board of Education Superintendent Murphy and Treasurer Augustine. My name is Audrey Ray and I'm a school counselor at Walnut Hills High School as well as a homeowner within our district. Thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I'm here to advocate for the school counseling profession, but more importantly advocating for our students. Tonight, there is a proposed reduction of 17 school counselor positions for next year. That's

050nearly 30% of our department. I under I understand the pressure to balance budgets and the desire to return to precoid staffing levels, but I urge you to consider that our students have not returned to pre-covid conditions. I should also mention that the graduation requirements have changed as well as the criteria for the school report card in which school counselors directly impact these district goals. The American School Counseling Association recommends a school counselor ratio of 250 students to one school counselor. Currently, CPS's staffing ratio is 375 to1, which is 50% higher than recommended. If we cut 17 positions, this ratio will be even higher, making it harder for students to receive the indiv individual attention that they need. If anything, we should be increasing the number of school counselors, not reducing. School counselors are not optional

051supports. We are essential. We are often the first line of defense when a student is struggling academically, emotionally, or socially. We help students navigate challenges such as anxiety, depression, family instability, and peer conflict. We guide students through college and career planning, ensuring that every student, regardless of their background, has a pathway to success. Instead of reducing these positions, I encourage the board to explore alternative solutions and prioritize the needs of our students. This decision will not just impact next school year, but our students lives for the years to come. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you. Thank you, Audrey. Our next speaker is uh Briana, you can go ahead and unmute your camera and microphone. >> All right. Can you hear me? >> Yes, please unmute your camera as well. >> Okay.

052I'm multitasking like we do because I got to make sure everyone's on track to graduate. >> Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Good evening. I stand before you understanding the weight of this moment. I definitely understand. But tonight is bigger than just a budget line, right? So we have to make sure we are not eliminating access. Our students need access to support people. We understand that every day they're in our office is dealing with so much like this new generation is dealing with the social media just pressure and everything else that comes with it. We cannot eliminate access to mental health support to trusted adults to guidance to guidance right to make sure that they're navigating this thing called life help supporting them. So just want to make sure that we take that in consideration

053especially when we increased having middle schools to make sure we were taking care of mental health of our students. So we can't take away something add something and then take away the people who directly support it. So, I just really want us to really try to look for different ways to make sure that these positions are not cut. And also, if we cut positions, a student in crisis, they wait longer, right? A struggling student goes unnoticed. And that's one thing that from every survey, students say that they don't feel seen sometime. And so, when they have these trusted adults, they feel seen, they feel supported, and then they do well. They can go to class and focus. So, we want to make sure we're increasing that support for our students. We also adapted the wonderful

054mental health and wellness policy. That policy was directly for the whole child to support and those positions that are being cut are in that new policy that this board just adopted. So I just want us to really consider that when we are moving forward with this budget um crisis. Um also graduation rates, everything is always changing. There's new graduation uh requirements that comes all through our office. That's exactly why I'm in here where instead of in there focusing on that to make sure my parents are supported for the graduation coming up. So, I just want to make sure that we are putting our heads together and weighing every option and being intentional um with um you know this budget cut. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Danielle

055Wag Wagner. Danielle, you can unmute your camera microphone. Uh oh. Okay. Is it on? I think I did it right. Okay. Hello. So, my name is Danielle Wagner. Uh I'm a SCPA parent and a we parent leader. Uh so I am coming today as far as for what's happening with the social workers. Um, so of course everyone know as far as we are work directly with families to help bridge the gap between home and school. So through this work I've seen firsthand what happens when families feel disconnected and what's possible when they are truly supported. Social workers are often the bridge that makes that connection possible. That's why I'm deeply disappointed to hear about the decision to cut social worker positions. For so long we heard that family engagement and closing the gap between families

056and schools is a priority. But removing social workers moves us farther away from their goal. They are not an extra. They are essential. They build trust, support, support students through real life challenges and help schools understand the full picture of what families are facing. In my advocacy, we push for transparency, accountability, and real support for families, not just in words, but in action. Decision decisions like this makes it harder to build trust and harder to meet families where they are. And bridging the gap is truly a priority. that we must protect the roads that make this possible. I urge to reconsider how this decision aligns with the needs of our students and families. You cannot close the gap without while removing the bridge. Thank you. Okay, let's go to some in-person speakers. Mr. Wilson, I

057sent you a text message. Someone asked me. Let's go to Miss Maderas. Did I pronounce that right wrong? Yes, ma'am. All right. Good evening members of the board, Superintendent Murphy and team. I'm Naomi Madaris. I'm your lead school social worker. I'm here to speak about the proposed reduction of 23.5 school social worker FTEES. This is a decision that will directly impact student safety, mental health, and the daily functioning of our schools. Strategy one of our strategic plan is to support our students. We are operating in the middle of multiple overlapping crises. a youth mental health crisis, a chronic absenteeism crisis, a teacher burnout crisis. At the same time, families are navigating real pressures like the rising cost of food and gas, housing instability, and broader uncertainty about the future in our country. All of these

058show up in the classroom every day. You would not just be cutting positions. You would be reducing access. Access to trusted adults who build relationships with students. Access to crisis intervention when a student is suicidal. Access to someone who can show up at a home when a student stops coming to school. Access to support for teachers who are managing increasingly complex student needs. Happy teacher appreciation week, by the way. The perceived dollar savings come at a disproportionate cost. These reductions will decrease tiered SEO supports that prevent escalation. They will reduce suicide risk assessments, slow response times, attendance initiatives, PBIS, restorative practices, discipline will all be weakened. It will limit our ability to connect families to their basic needs like food, housing, and healthcare. And most critically, it will reduce access to mental health support, especially

059for students who cannot access it through their school provider due to waiting lists, incomplete enrollment forms, and lack of Medicaid coverage. When these supports are cut, the needs do not disappear. I urge you to reconsider these cuts. The long-term costs will far outweigh the short-term sa savings. And lastly, I encourage everyone listening, our schools do not exist in isolation. The decisions made in our communities and our country matter. Please make your voice heard and go vote tomorrow. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Elliot. And then we'll do an online one, Rob. >> Hi, my name is Valerie Elliott. Um, and I am the school social worker at Parkerwood's Monastery. I want to thank you guys for giving me your time tonight and giving me the opportunity to address you. Um today I want to speak to

060you about trauma and the impact that has on a child's ability to learn in the classroom. Um students that are suffering from trauma, they have a lot of symptoms um like PTSD symptoms. We all know that how that looks in adults. We don't think about that often in children. Um some of the things that they might suffer from are academic and cognitive issues. Um trauma affects the ability to remember things. It affects the ability to concentrate. It affects the ability to engage in classes. Students might struggle with transitions and task. They might struggle with multi-step instructions. This can lead to lower um grade point averages, poor reading ability, and increased school absences and dropouts. Um behavioral changes in emotional changes. Um they cannot regulate or they cannot regulate their emotions very well. Traumatized children often

061have a difficult time managing strong emotions leading to sudden outburst, aggressive behavior or complete withdrawal. They may suffer from severe anxiety, guilt, sadness, intense mood swings. They have social difficulties. A lack of trust can often lead to difficulty forming healthy relationship with peers and teachers resulting in social isolation or bullying behaviors. This is where social workers come in. We are safe and trusted adults for all the children in our schools. Children might display um constant vigilant um behaviors looking for threats. um they might be disturbed by loud noises, go to any school during a drill of any kind. It's pretty traumatizing to some of these kids. Peer relationships, trauma can um um affect that. They don't know how to respond to social cues. They don't know how to form those um connections with their peers

062very well. Um they have uncontrollable reactions, inconsistency like dramatic shifts in their behaviors or their learning abilities in the classroom. um they have difficulty with authority and difficulty following rules early. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Do you Yep. Um Dr. Winona Oliver, you are our next online speaker. You have two minutes. You can unmute your camera and microphone. >> I think she went already. >> Oh well. Uh am I wrong? >> Nice job. We're moving on to Kate Kenny. Kate Kenny, you can unmute your camera and microphone. >> Hello. I would like to speak with you tonight about uh I'm Kate Kenny. I am uh at Schroeder Middle School and I've spoken with the board a couple of times before when there were big concerns. I'm back because I have yet another large concern.

063I'd like to speak with you tonight about the value of undermining your own efforts and the or the problem with undermining your own efforts and the value in asking for what you need. I understand that we have to make cuts and increase our budget in order to be successful as a school district in much the same way that families are having to do the same thing right now. I don't see how cutting valuable members of our staff, actually improves our district. Our counselors and social workers have a direct impact on some of the goals that we set as a district, specifically those increasing graduation rates and improving attendance. They get students in the buildings. They help them stay in school. They help make sure they're doing the work to graduate. None of the consultants and

064contractors that we have hired and continue to pay can say that. Don't undermine our work towards the goals you've set. Stop spending money out of the district to people who don't directly affect the district's goals. If you need to cut the technology budget by following Los Angeles and Sweden's decision to remove 1:1 devices from the classroom, stop paying for online only textbooks and the costs that go with them. Put a levy on the ballot and I'll vote for it. Most importantly, do the thing we tell students to do and ask for help. You'll be surprised what we can accomplish if we are all staff and community allowed to keep working together. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Kenny. >> Thank you. Our next online speaker is going to be Kendra Phelps. Kendra, you can unmute

065your camera and microphone and you have two minutes. Good evening board members. My name is Kendra Phelps. I am a CFT teacher leader. I am a taxpayer, former student, and parent. I'm here to speak on the discussions around proposed co cuts to our school counselors and school social workers. I implore you to not allow these current attacks on public education to rob our students of such needed frontline educators. Our school social workers and counselors are responsible for supporting me student mental health, responding to crisis, providing support to our families, and much much more. Cuts to these educational supports will also have a profound impact on our multilanguage learner learners. Besides the way that their fam they and their families are being targeted right now by a bully government, many of them struggle with language barriers

066and social isolation that our school social workers and counselors directly help them with. School social workers and counselors are critical to our district improving in those areas that you have identified as our focus. Regular school attendance, academic improvement, improvement, and graduation. We are here for kids, right? So, do not take away those who directly support them. Instead, look at areas like the data coaches who don't work with our students at all. There are many other areas that we can choose um instead of continually taking away from our children. Thank you. Thank you. Let's do some online. Lauren Polling, I'm sorry, some in persons. Lauren Polling, Anna Wenberg, >> Wenberg, and Mr. Keller. >> Good evening. My name is Lauren Polling and I am the school social worker at Clark Monasuri High School. I want to

067speak to you tonight about attendance because attendance is not just a metric. It is the foundation of everything that we do. If students are not in school, they cannot learn, they cannot grow, and they cannot succeed. Right now, chronic absenteeism remains a challenge across the state of Ohio and here in Cincinnati. But within that reality, something important is happening across our district. About half the schools have improved or maintained attendance performance this year. That is not full recovery, but it is something just as important. It means we have stopped the decline. It means we are stabilizing and it means that we are beginning to turn in the right direction. That kind of progress does not happen by accident. Chronic absenteeism is not primarily about motivation or discipline. It is driven by housing instability, mental health

068needs, transportation barriers, and family crisis. Those are not classroom problems. They are barriers to access. School social workers are the professionals trained and assigned to remove those barriers for our students. We work directly with students who miss the most school, the small group driving a disproportionate amount of lost instructional time. Through targeted intervention and case management, we make it possible for those students to return and stay. That is why improvement shows up first at the building level before it ever appears in district-wide averages. So when you see half of our schools stabilizing or improving, you are seeing the early signs of systemwide recovery. Cutting your social workers at this moment does not maintain progress. It risked reversing it. In a time when attendance challenges have intensified everywhere, this is one of the few strategies that

069directly addresses the root causes and it's beginning to show results. I urge you to protect this investment, protect this progress, and protect the students who depend on it. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. My name is Anna Warpenberg and I am the school social worker at Chase Elementary. And I just want to tell you about a typical day in my life as a social worker because it can be hard to imagine sometimes. So, it's 7:10 in the morning and I am knocking on the door of an apartment building because this chronically absent student was late again. And I told them that if they were, I was going to come be their alarm clock. They are very surprised to see me at their door, but they get to school on time for the first

070time in weeks. 7:20, I walk into the office. The Cincinnati Police Department is there. They tell me one of our Kisser students eloped again. Luckily, they fled to the school because it's where they feel safe. This student has been on a waiting list for mental health services and the mental health provider is having a very difficult time reaching their caseworker. I work very hard to set up a meeting with the case worker, the teachers, the group home staff, our mental health provider. And thanks to this meeting, the mental health intake is finally completed later that day. There's a knock on my door. It's a teacher. They cannot reach parents to schedule an IEP. I complete a home visit. We schedule the IEP. And I'm back at school when a student stops me in the hallway.

071Can I talk to you, Miss Anna? In my office, she tells me how sad she's been feeling lately, and she brings up the suicide prevention training that we did a few weeks ago. She sees warning signs in herself. She says that sometimes she feels like the world would be a place without her in it. We complete a suicide screener. We call her parents together. We make a safety plan. We make a referral for therapy services. She feels well enough to go back to class. I look at the time. It's 10:20. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Joe Keller and I'm the attendant social worker at Western Hills High School. I understand the importance of data in making decisions regarding staffing and I wanted to share some of my own. We currently have 850 students

072at Western Hills High School. Over 600 of them are either habitually truining or chronically absent. We started the year with 140 no-show students, all of which have been accounted for. We also have almost 800 students on my yearly tracking sheet and I've been directly involved with the transferring or withdrawing of 125 students this year. I have sent as many as 115 truency court referrals in one year and have had up to 11 truency hearings for one individual student in the same year. This data is just from one social worker and one support specialist who splits our time between me and multiple schools and works with me one day a week. I say this say that to say this. Social workers do more with less than any other department in this district. We are often appreciated

073for our work, but we are also undervalued given our roles and responsibilities. We have the largest outreach of any department and district, and our main objective is to improve the outcomes of all students, regardless of what that is. I'm willing to make myself available to all of you to provide any additional information you may need regarding our role and the impact we have on schools. We often hear from those at the top of the district things such as it's all about the students or the students are the most important thing to us. I'm glad those things have been said because now you have an opportunity to prove that with the decisions you make moving forward. I'll continue to pray for all of you. God bless. So, Rob, as we transition to our next two online

074speakers, I'm going to call down uh Sarah Madringle, Karina Griggs, Miss Embus, and Mr. Smith. Come on down. Let's go to our online. >> Thank you. Yes, our last two speakers. Our la our next speaker is Michelle Dunn. Michelle, you can unmute your camera and microphone. And you have two minutes. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm trying to turn on my video. It's not allowing me to. It says the host has disabled it. >> Try now. >> Okay. Thank you. Uh, good evening board. I just want to thank all the incredible speakers so far tonight. We want to express my name is Michelle Dunn. I work at the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers Office. We want to express our extreme disappointment for this board in failing your most important task and that is to help keep our

075district financially strong. We are dumbfounded that this body has refused to endorse a levy this year um to support the children of this community. This should be all that you're working on. Um you're not even talking about it. Um, you know what we hear a lot in these board meetings is you're talking about this minutia, this administrative level stuff, you know, um, like putting certain scores on a report card or walking around making sure teachers are abiding by some online curriculum. What your job is is actually to support the fiscal health of this district. Because while this is bad right now, it's going to be really, really worse when we don't have a new money levy on the ballot this year. And if you think these $160 million in cuts are bad from the last

076two years, folks, uh, saddle up because we are facing much harder times. And I just have to say we're so disappointed that this board um only three of you came to the public educations under attack to hear our statewide experts on um what's going on with the state and funding. You guys are the representatives of our school district to the community. Where are you leveraging these relationships with the business community or relationships with city hall that you all promised when you ran to be elected to the school board? Uh that's what we need you to do. We don't need you to micromanage uh teachers in our classrooms. We need to do you we need you to do your job, which is to leverage the political will and the support in the community to fund our

077schools. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Our last speaker is Tia Rochelle. Tia, you can unmute your camera and microphone and you have two minutes. >> Good evening. My name is Tia Rochelle. I am a proud former Cincinnati public school student, a parent of CPS students and graduates um and a mother of a current graduate this year and a past graduate of Wro. I currently have an eighth grader at Hartwell Elementary and a senior at Aken High School. I also previously served as the LSDMC chair at both Wro University High School and Hartwell Elementary. I stand before you tonight in full support of our social workers and counselors. I'm not speaking from theory. I'm speaking from lived experience. There were moments in my son Houston's journey where the weight of life, grief, trauma, and

078transition became overwhelming. And in those moments, it was our social workers and counselors who stepped in, who saw him, who supported him, and helped carry him when he could not do it alone. As for my daughter, Belle, as she prepares to enter high school, I'm grateful knowing she is surrounded by professionals who care not just about her academics, but her well-being and future. Our social workers and counselors are not just staff. They are protectors. They are advocates. They are lifelines. I know what it feels like to wonder if your child is okay and to be able to breathe because someone at that school is looking out for them. Without them, some of our children simply do not make it. If we are serious about student success, we must be serious about investing in them. They

079are essential and they are irreplaceable. I ask that you continue to prioritize and protect these roles because when you support them, you are directly supporting our children and the future of this city. Thank you. >> Thank you, TA. My apologies, Dr. Mafford, that is all for online. >> Okay, moving um to our in person. Miss Sarah, Karina, Miss Embus, Brad. Good evening. um back again in front of most of you. Some of you I think I've not had the opportunity to speak in front of, but my name is Sarah Madrical and I am a social worker supporting our English language learners. Um and when you know word got out to our school that social workers and counselors were considered for part of the budget cuts coming up, um the teachers actually of the school came

080to us and they're like, "Hey, we know how important it is for you to be here so that we can do our job." And so they went around and they asked students in their classes to like, hey, let's put some of the things that we're learning into practice and write some letters. So I have some letters for y'all I will give you at the end of this, but I'm going to read a couple of them. Um, to whom it may concern. I'm a 10th grade student at Aken High School and I've attended Cincinnati Public Schools since and it's off a little bit. So for a little bit, I'm guessing. I'm writing this because I heard about the budget cuts that might take away our counselors and social workers. I know the district has hard choices

081to make about money, but these staff are a huge part of why our school feels like community. If these positions are cut, it leaves a gap in our daily lives. For example, when a student has personal problems or high stress, these are the people we trust to help us figure things out so we can focus on our work. Without them, there is nobody when things get heavy, and it makes it so much harder to stay motivated in school. Please keep our counselors and social workers. This one says, And if that was hard for you to understand, it is doubly important that you understand the need for our bilingual social workers in these schools because without people like me, these students don't have a voice. So when we cut, even if my particular position is not

082on, right, we're not cutting specific positions, just overall roles. We reduce access for students like this because we can't do our jobs if we can't keep our jobs. >> Thank you. >> Who these go to? >> There she is. Right there. Right there. Right. >> Sorry. >> Um, Miss Karina. >> Hello. >> Is it on? It's on the mic. Nope. >> Okay. Thank you for your time today. Um, I'm Karina Griggs. I'm the school social worker at Academy of World Languages and this is my first time speaking with you. Um, I've been a social worker for over 25 years and I can confidently say that mental health concerns and attendance issues have increased. Um, attendance issues are well known at both the state level and the national level and every school district is attending to

083this. Um, and uh, House Bill was passed uh, House Bill 96 was passed this year. Uh, and it requires that attendance improvement plans be made with every parents and guardians of every student that has missed more than 10% of school. So for to meet the state law, we need social workers to do that. Um this year alone, I met with 239 um families to complete attendance meetings. Uh this doesn't include when they reach the excessive level um when I'm contacted in by phone. We really are the front lines when it comes to communicating with families. Um the uh we directly relate to test scores um teacher retention, student retention. Uh we lost 5,000 students um to other school districts and with Ed Choice, there's more options within the community. At the start of the year,

084we have 77 no-shows at my school. Um, and I went around, I'm calling, and I'm making sure they're enrolled in our school and attending. Um, and that helps with retention and viability for our district. Um, when it comes to test scores and making sure that they're here and present to take those tests, to keep the test scores up. Um, and Oh, I went quick. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Marina. >> Good evening, President Craig and members of the board. My name is Karen Imbis. I am a CFT field representative, a resident of C of Cincinnati, and the parent of three CPS graduates. I am appealing to you this evening to put a new money levy on the November ballot. Last year, CPS cut $112 million from its budget. This year, it's cutting another $ 48

085million. Those cuts are deep and crippling. As you know, the state legislature decided not to fund schools under the fair school funding formula. This cut in state funding, coupled with legislation that changes the way local property taxes are allocated, means CPS's funding will not increase for years while inflation erodess its value. If you fail to support a new money levy in November, you are condemning this district to a relentless downward spiral of cuts. It is simply unsustainable. I have heard multiple members of this board say that they cannot support a new money levy until we do something different. Is that code for something? Because it seems clear that what needs to be different is that this board must facilitate a solution to the funding crisis, not make it worse. Does anyone really think that any

086metric will improve if the schools are desperately underfunded? CPS funding has flatlined while the cost of everything is increasing. Gas is 550 a gallon and working families are suffering. That's a reason to put a levy on the ballot, not to block it. Think about all the supports that a properly funded school district provides. From class- size limits to nutritious meals and mental health services to extracurricular activities, voters will understand what's at stake. If this board refuses to put a new money levy on the ballot, it is disenfranchising the voters who want to support CPS. Voters elected you to lead the district, not to sabotage it. Please put a new money levy on the ballot. >> Thank you. We have um Brad Smith, Tamila Paul, Annie Terodine, Sandy, and I thought I had one for President

087Sers, but I don't see her here. So, Mr. Smith, >> good evening, Board of Education. My name is Brad Smith. I'm a resident, taxpayer, and CFT field representative. One of the key responsibilities of you as board members is fiscal accountability, ensuring the district's financial health, and managing budgets. It's clear that the state of Ohio is refusing to constitutionally fund our schools. And it's clear that the pain that we are experiencing is coming from that. It's also clear that our district has done very, very well at managing its budgets because it's been 10 years since we've asked for new money. It is time for this board to ask for a new money levy in November. If you listen to your own comments at the board meetings, you've already made the case as to why we need

088this new levy. Painful cuts that are going to affect our students and staff are coming. Again, state legislature is at fault. Your inaction is going to lead to even more pain. Some on this board are focused on curriculum. One must ask, what's more important, the curriculum or the people who actually do the work? We spend about a million dollars on I Ready every year. That's nine school social workers. That's nine counselors. Instead of trying to micromanage our schools and micromanage the curriculum and the report card, instead you should be focused on fully funding our schools. We also contract with Hammond County Educational Service Centers for services that our own CPS employees could do a lot better and a lot cheaper. We I encourage the board to cut those contracted services before you cut CPS employees.

089Finally, it's time for you to actually fulfill your fiduciary responsibility. It's time for you to make a commitment to Cincinnati public schools. It is time for you to vote to put a new money levy on the ballot in November. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Fanny. Miss Fanny. >> Good evening, board superintendent Murphy. My name is Fanny Keredine and I am the CFOP field rep. I am here requesting and asking the question of why we did not put a levy on the ballot and I'm asking if we can have communication around that with our members so that we can explain to them why these cuts are necessary when we could have put a ballot I mean a levy on the ballot and then maybe that could have saved jobs. So my information is on those

090sheets and I'm asking if I can get a response to this question. Thank you. Are you Miss Paul? >> Yes, ma'am. Go ahead. >> Good evening, board members and Superintendent Murphy. My name is Tamila Paul. I am the clerical specialist for our district and I am a COP executive council member. As the district addresses the deficit that we face, CFOP leadership is asking for improvement in how the district communicates necessary budget cuts, particularly those that may affect our clerical team members livelihood. We sincerely hope to avoid clerical staff reductions. However, we realize that staff reductions may be inevitable. As the board, district, and union leaders collaborate, I believe that we should advocate for a people first strategy regarding potential clerical staff reductions. If cuts are deemed necessary, we ask the board to first exhaust voluntary

091options such as those that may be eligible for re those that were retired and then came back as eligible for rehiring. And then we ask that you prioritize um those that are eligible for reh uh retirement in its entirety. and phase out retirees if possible. Prioritizing these transitions minimizes the impact on our current career employees and maintains a morale during a difficult fiscal period. Considering these options or transitions may be a bit more supportive of the workforce and perhaps help us meet our fiscal goals. The CFOP executive council asked that any employee who may be affected by riffing that their reliability is considered. Many of our staff members are on public transportation and they use that to get to work. If employees are to be cut due to the rift process, we ask that the

092district notifies them as soon as possible to allow them the opportunity to obtain adequate replacement employment due to being rifted or to consider their retirement options if eligible. We ask that they have ample time to make informed decisions about their livelihood and what options will best serve the needs of their families. Thank you for your time, consideration, and all that you do for CPS. >> And I think that is conclusion with the exception of one thing. I just want to acknowledge that uh Vanessa Hoffman did send us an email. Um I'm not going to read it because it deals with some of the same thing that we've already heard around social workers. So, Miss Hoffman, we did get your email and we um we we will ensure that all board members do get it. President

093Craig, I'm turning it back over to you. >> Yes. And we'll make sure that's part of the record that uh is shared uh for the meeting minutes. Um all righty. Superintendent Murphy, please introduce our first presentation today. >> Yes, ma'am. This is the second reading for the fiscal year 27 code of conduct being brought to us by our director of positive school culture, Miss Fonicia House. >> All right. And we know you're a little bit more healed up than the last time you were forced coming. >> I am. I can kind of swing around and get into all kind of trouble. Well, good evening board um and superintendent. This is our second reading. So, um, the document should look familiar, um, because we wanted to have a level of consistency, but I did highlight in

094blue those areas that we made changes in modification to language, but then I also wanted to address at the bottom the questions that you had or the concerns that you brought up from last time that were valuable points that we wanted to address. So, um, in speaking with that, just looking at the second page on page 10, what was added, um, is designated school staff. And this is dealing with, um, just thinking about emergency removals. There was a lot of questions last time. And so as a committee, we really thoughtfully talked about what that whole process should be and what would be supportive for the families, the students, and the staff because those were all concerns that came up last time um in that communication. And so the reason why this designated school staff was

095added is that we understand that the principal or AP might not always be the best person doing this meeting or holding it or they might not be available at that time. Sometimes there are the counselors are pulled in or a teacher is pulled in or there's an other team of people that are assigned. It could be members of the MTSS team that have been working with this student and family. And so we wanted to be able to provide that leverage that it could be um the school official but if it's not specifically the principal that is a designated school staff member that allows the school to have that leverage. Um the next uh feedback and going with this whole process same um area in the code of conduct page 10 on the next page the

096additional information that we added um was about who should participate in the meeting and how do we make sure that not only the student is participating but also that the families. So the language that we added is the student and school officials or designated school staff should be participants in this meeting. The family should also be invited to participate in this school re-entry meeting. At the conclusion of the re-entry meeting, the school team will communicate the agreed upon goals, expectations, and support to the students family, administration, and appropriate staff. And so that was definite feedback from last time of how do we make sure even if the parents can't attend, how do they get information? How do the teachers, if they're not directly involved in that meeting, get attent um receive that information, but to

097make sure that everyone is on the same page of what's the plan in place to help this student because we don't want to continue to have emergency removals as the go-to strategy. We want to put some definite supports in place. Um the next change uh was based on where um page 13, but it's the the next page in this document um talking about last time we had MTSS back/pbis and it was the feedback just go uh it's the next slide. Thank you. Um, instead of saying either and or which would lead to confusion, we do have areas in the code of conduct that spells out what PBIS is and how that flows into the framework of MTSS. And so we put um this would guide people to go back to the MTSS guidance for support,

098the same as the feedback on page 12. um we put that as MTSS guidance um for that area. So, thank you for that feedback. So, we're gonna go a couple of slides, Rob, to goes to the board questions to address. Thank you. Um so, based on the feedback last time um of knowing that sometimes unfortunately students could use language um that could be threatening. And so we wanted to add in that goes into our protected classes of um that come out of our bullying and harassment work of you know there shouldn't be any language um derogatory manner based on race, gender, religious beliefs, nationality and we added immigration status. We wanted to call to call that out. And uh page eight um there was the question I knew it was in there somewhere but I

099couldn't call it out last meeting. We wanted to be right, but on page eight, there was a question about where do we um where's our jurisdiction? And so, we wanted to be as far as implementation of the code of conduct. Where does it start? Where does it end? So, we wanted to add this language because it does say that the code is in effect inside school buildings, on school grounds, and at school related activities. Students must also follow these rules on their way to and from school, including yellow buses, vans, metro buses that bring them to school, take them home, and transport them to school related activity. And so, um, student expectations are also noted in the code of conduct that apply during extended school closures. So, we wanted to make sure that that was

100in there and that those were the um items that were brought up from last time, but all of the other proposed changes we left in here because we would need approval for all of them to go into effect for the code of conduct for next year. >> All righty. Uh thank you for being brief. Are there any questions, comments, statements from board members? Uh, board member Bolton, >> I just want to say I appreciate the uh, adjustments that you've made based upon board comment. >> Greatly appreciated. Thank you. >> All righty. Um, so I believe we do need a motion and a second to uh to um adopt these changes to the code of conduct. >> So moved. >> A second. Three of us were ready to go. Okay, we're ready. Ready. >> Miss Arm

101Brewster. >> Yes. >> Miss Molton? >> Yes. >> Mr. Crosset? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lindy? >> Yes. >> Miss Matt? >> Yes. >> Vice President Moffett? >> Yes. >> President Craig? >> Yes. It's much shorter time at the podium today. >> We'll be back. >> All righty. Um, next uh presentation um was from our it's an update from our comm our partners at uh Kid Future CPS. So, invite them down uh to the podium here. Yeah, we got chairs on this side also. Good evening, Superintendent Murphy and Treasurer Gustin, President Craig, Vice President Moffett to the board and the staff. Uh my name is Charlie Frank. I am the current board chair of ABC activities beyond the classroom which as you all know is morphing into kid kid future CPS. First of all, I want

102to thank uh all of you for your efforts and your time and your communication and support uh over this past year. We refer to it as year zero um as we're learning our way and I just want to appreciate or recognize our appreciation to all of you uh for your input and your support. Uh I also wanted to introduce uh a crew that we have with us here tonight. Uh we have some board and some staff members. So, uh, first of all, you're going to be hearing from her in just a moment. Uh, but it's our interim director, Rachel Stallings. Uh, also Sophia Scott, Vanessa Macy, and Amanda Randolph from our staff. Uh, and from our board, our treasurer, uh, Carol Gibbs. Uh, excuse me, our secretary, Carol Gibbs. Sorry, Carol. And sorry, Brandon. Our

103treasurer, Brandon Holmes. Our our chairman of our advancement committee, Alex Stilpass. uh one of our board members, Christopher Mattress, and our vice president, Jenny Mock. Appreciate them all being with us here tonight. Uh the first thing that I wanted to do is to acknowledge the uh leadership transition that we've been through here over the past handful of weeks. Uh I also wanted to commend Sally Grimes, uh who officially resigned as of April 30th. Uh she was in her position first as our advancement director, uh and most recently as our executive director. uh for a period of over nine years and she has put us in this position for success through her tireless work. Uh and I just cannot say enough good things uh about Sally's efforts to lead us to this point and also want

104to recognize our gratitude and appreciation both from a staff uh and from a board standpoint. Uh with that in mind, I am thrilled uh to introduce our intram director. It's a familiar face to the district and the community, someone who has served uh in her role with uh ABC and now Kid Future for over 11 years. And she's going to walk us through the presentation tonight. Uh a pleasure to welcome our interim executive director, Rachel Stallings. >> Thank you. Good evening all. I'm Rachel Stallings, inter room executive director for KIA future CPS and I it is my pleasure to be here today in front of you. Uh next slide please. I'll be before you briefly today to provide an overview of kid future CPS, our framework financial stewardship and we'll take a look ahead. Next

105slide, please. Uh, Charlie, thanks for introducing our leadership team. Again, Vanessa Macy is the director of advancement. Amanda Randolph, director of finance, and Sophia Scott, operations director. Next slide. Kia Future is governed by leaders that are committed to student success. Charlie Frank is our board president. We do have representation on the board from Cincinnati Public Schools, including Superintendent Murphy, Treasurer Gustin, and CPS board member Crosset. Additionally, there are two appointed seats um by Cincinnati public schools board by the Cincinnati public schools board um that participate as well on the leadership and governance committee. Next slide. We have been working together to expand opportunity for CPS students. Uh KIA future is powered by these strong comm strong partnerships and uh here's a snapshot of the partners that we have engaged and worked with over the past

106year. Next slide. For 20 years, our focus has been supporting the Cincinnati public school district through extracurriculars and wraparound services. But that has evolved into supporting the school district, supporting the school, the whole child, and meeting the growing and complex needs of all of our students. Our evolution also includes scaling community investments to meet the demand for support of our students and to strategically strengthen the alignment between the community investments and the district goals. Next slide. As the fundraising partner to Cincinnati Public Schools, we are keeping the 35,000 students at the center of every decision. We're committed to securing and stewarding investments for the the school district and serving as the primary fundraising partner investing in the education of our students. Our goal is to align community investment and donor resources in ways that complement

107the district goals, reinforcing student opportunities and reflecting a district informed and partnership oriented approach. Next slide. This is my favorite slide here. The community's investment is directed through four pillars. These are four strategic pillars that were developed with Cincinnati public schools and align to the school's strategic plan. In the pillar of academic excellence, this is where you will find a focus on literacy, third grade literacy, a focus on algebra 1 proficiency. Then there's whole child wellness. Here you'll find a a focus on financial literacy, mental health, and emotional supports, as well as wraparound services for our students. Under the pillar of career and workforce development, you'll find internship opportunities for our students as well as job shadowing opportunities and other tours. And then there's beyond the classroom. This is where our extracurricular opportunities are as

108well as our field trip opportunities and in general those opportunities that occur outside of the outside of the classroom. It is through these pillars that the community investments are aligned to the district priorities, programs are funded for student success and community partnerships are strengthened. Kia Future ensures that funding has reached programs where it matters the most. Next slide. Actually, this is my favorite slide. Um, I'd like to we we've had a lot of momentum, positive momentum over the last year, and I am excited to share with you all that we have exceeded our goal of raising $2 million for fiscal year 26. Uh, special thank you to our Kid Future supporters and our team. Also over the last year we have installed our first mini pitch at Reesei Price our first soccer mini pitch at

109Reesei Price School. Um just from that just from this installation alone and working with this donor alone um we have expanded the number of donors who want to install more mini pitches for our students across the district. Um, also we have supported the sixth annual jazz festival which is always exciting each year down held down at the Areronoff and we have entered into an agreement with Cincinnati Children's Innovations to assist us in making datainformed decisions. Fuel the future series. Uh we have created a speaking tour that are typically intimate gatherings of supporters getting them excited about KIA KIA future CPS. Um informing them of what we have coming available for KIA future CPS and just how telling them how they can get engaged. Um we have had to date four of those sponsored events um

110where we have engaged 57 new donor relationships and just at our last fuel the fuel the future event we've raised $12,000. Um and I do want to point out that board member Crosset, he was a host at the last Fuel the Future. Um, so thank you board member Crosset for your participation there and also thank you for interact for health for sponsoring all of our fuel the future events. Next slide please. At CPS we're managing I'm sorry at Kia Future CPS um we are managing the community investment with transparency account accountability and purpose. Next slide. The community investments here are managed with purpose and alignment to student priorities through the four strategic pillars. We've already secured multi-year funding from United Way and the Milstone Fund. We currently have raised over $2 million. We have $510,000

111invested in student programs and $1.5 million that are ready to be deployed in pillars where um there is alignment. Um I will note that the $ 1.5 million has not been allocated because these are funds that we've received recently. So we're working to allocate those funds to one of the four pillars. Next slide. Here you can see a breakdown of the $2 million that we've raised to date. Um you'll see $85,000 is allocated to academic excellence. $500,000 is allocated to beyond the classroom. Um there are launch and startup dollars that are allocated and again the $1.2 $2 million are funds that we are ready to deploy um as soon as we we figure out where they are most useful within the four pillars. Next slide. So, of the f the $510,000 that is currently fueling

112student center and district approved priorities. These activities include supporting the humanities initiatives at Pleasant Hill School. It includes um supporting athletics around soccer, swimming, tennis, baseball, purchasing equipment and supplies for students to decrease um barriers for students participation as well as supporting uh students around nutrition and supplying team meals where appropriate. We've deployed the $51,000 to support the jazz festival which I spoke of briefly and we are supporting afterchool programs for students in K through 12th grades. Uh you may see field improvements on the slide above that is to in support of the field improvements at Reesei Price School. Again, we have 1.5 million available that is ready to be dep deployed. Um, and we'd like to um align those dollars when appropriate to the school district's new strategic plan and we'll be ready to

113go for next school year. Next slide. Looking ahead. So, what's next? Next slide, please. Looking ahead, we will publicly launch our Kid Future CPS brand and our program finder in sync with the district's strategic plan for a unified vision of student success. We will transition our transition traditional stewardship for to directing uh students I'm sorry to directing donors investment toward district-led strategies and we will also focus on scaling alignment with community that support the district's priorities and the needs of our students. And last, we will share data informed stories that highlight student impact, ultimately strengthening donor confidence. Next slide. Our path to building long-term sustainability for student success and raising $20 million over the next five years involves securing philanthropic resources, funding, support, and transforming the district priorities. Um you've I said earlier in the

114presentation that we have already received multi-year commitments for fiscal year 27 and fiscal year 28 from our donor network. And we will continue the momentum of scaling alignment with our community partners that align to the district priorities as we work to secure 20 3 million not 20 million 3 million in fiscal year 27. Next slide. Any questions? >> All righty. Um well I will open it up to board members for any questions. Again, thank you for up for for the updates. Uh board member Lindy, >> hi. I don't have any questions. I just wanted to say congratulations on a great fundraising year. Uh and excited to uh see what the future brings. So, thank you very much. >> Other board members? >> Board member Bolton. >> Yes. Thank you so much. Appreciate it a great

115deal. Um just a couple of comments. one, uh, the people that are sitting here today, especially that are members of the board of, uh, Kid Future, have a long history of supporting our kids and this district. And I'm so glad that we are transitioning from to uh, and the credibility that all of you bring to this endeavor means a great deal to me. It means a great deal to the board, but most particularly, it means the most to the kids. So the tradition continues maybe different name but the uh the goal is the same to help our kids of CPS. So thank you so much. >> All righty. Uh board member map and then board member Armbster. >> Uh thank you for the presentation and thank you all for the hard work that you are

116doing to support our students within the district. Um and again on a uh great I would say capital campaign in the sense of fundraising uh endeavors. Um I do have a question as it pertains to um the slide where it's talking about the strategic deployment invested in student opportunity. So the targeted initiatives I know as a uh as a board we have been in conversation with the city um trying to figure out different ideas and strategies around um the um growth of afterchool programming and I know that you all have been very instrumental in helping in that. Um, but I'm curious to know um what other opportunities or additional supports are you all thinking about because we do have areas where we uh recognize that some schools are um have a plethora of afterchool programming

117where there may be deficits in others and so that is just a huge concern that I have and so just trying to get you all's thoughts or your thoughts about how we can maybe and possibly strengthen that area. >> Yes, thanks for the question. Um, and this is something that we talked about at one of our recent board meetings. Um, where we are, um, we want to align where the need is at our elementary and high schools. Um, we would love to grow our afterchool programs. Um, we know that there are some schools that may not have anything that they offer after school. um we would like to address that and ensure that students have uh some type of afterchool activity to participate in. We know that it provides all kind of skills and character

118development that you can't get inside of the classroom. So, so to answer your question, um we do want to do some type of needs assessment and um make sure you know of course that the program and the need aligns to one of the four pillars. >> Thank you for that. And uh I did hear you say that a lot of the funds will um kind of be allocated based off of where we are in terms of the strategic planning process. And so is that the expectation for you know how to move forward um after conducting the needs assessment? >> Yes. Um and currently all of our activities and priorities they do align with the current school district's um plan. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. board member on Brewster. >> Uh yeah, thank you so

119much. I'm really excited to see you guys hit your goal. That's amazing. Congratulations. Thank you. Um I don't want to take a lot of time because I know we have a lot to get through tonight, but I did just kind of want to piggyback off what she was saying as far as um we're going to need partners. I think that was made very clear during public comment. Um and so I would love to hear from you guys again in the future. um with that 1.5 of unallocated funds of the type of programming you would like to bring into our schools to help and assist on the stated goals that are in our current strategic plan or new strategic plan, whatever that looks like that fit within your pillars. Um because I think it's important that

120you guys have autonomy in in building that programming, but I think it obviously should align to our goals. So, I would love to have you guys come back with some proposals of like what that would look like so we can just kind of get feedback on that. Um, I think it would be a a good collaborative conversation. >> Thank you. We would love to stay in front of the board. We would love to come back and rest assured that we are not making these decisions alone. Um, we're making them in collaboration with Superintendent Murphy, U. Board Member Crosset, and Treasurer Mike Gustin. All right. Uh, board member Crosset, >> I just wanted to say congratulations on on the uh making the goal. Amazing. Fantastic. Thank you very much. I al also in particular wanted to

121thank the board members that are here and the board members that are not here. Um, you guys have uh put in a lot of time and a lot of hours and a lot of care and a lot of concern for our for the children of the city. So, thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right, Vice President Muffet. >> Well, I want to say thank you because this has been a crazy 00 and um crazy because you all are having to juggle many things. Um and trying to raise money is always tough in a time when money is the biggest issue for everyone. So, thank you for finally reaching your goal because I know it's it's hard. It's kind of tough to ask I think it's tough to ask people for money and you all

122did it. $2 million is not a small feat. And so, thank you to your team and thank you to the board for partnering with us and believing in our kids. Um, Kid Future CPS. I kind of like it. So, thank you for that. I do have a question and congratulations to you. >> Thank you. >> Do have a question around um the process and you did mention like a needs assessment. So, I'm I'm looking forward to that. Do you also happen to have a timeline? And I don't know, I'm asking this question with true ignorance. So the monies are raised. Is it that all of it has to go out or is it, you know, kind of we're going to spend 30%. Or like how is the process for determining the allocation of funds? And

123then is there um a set measurement of every year that gets spent? I I I want to add some clarity to the public so that they don't hear 1.5 and they're like, "Okay, wait, they got 1.5 million." So, I'm wondering, do we happen to have like a timeline about spending that >> um >> allocating it and spending it? >> Well, I heard a few different things there. Um so, I'm going to work my way through it. Okay. >> Um I heard what it I think I heard um is the process to actually access dollars. Um so, we work with the superintendent and there is a process in place to access funds. um superintendent, she makes a request after finding a finding a need, identifying a need, aligning the dollars to that need. Um the request

124comes to Kia Future CPS and then we work from that point to deploy the funds. >> Gotcha. >> Um and then I think I heard >> the timeline of deploying funds for this current year. Well, would the would the 1.5 million be for the next academic year or is that just as it as the need arises? >> Got it. Um, we are ready to deploy funds immediately as the need arises this current fiscal year. Um, any funds not used this fiscal year will roll over into fiscal year 27. >> Okay, great. Well, thank you. >> My pleasure. >> All right. um you know so I'm going to say first welcome to the the big podium here uh at the board meeting and we we will be happy to have you back many times um in

125the future. I think this is a good mark of showing the ability to begin that process of fundraising connected to the needs of the district in a way that's been different than we've done in the past. Right? In the past, it's always been a come with one project, come with one thing. And I think what we really do need to get to is a level where we're doing a more strategic way of having that conversation. So it's not whether or not every school has an after school program. It's identifying all the schools that don't and saying how do we do something strategic so we spend dollars in a more uh efficient manner but also do it over you know a period of time we're doing something more effective for uh the whole district as opposed

126to kind of the one-offs that we've been used to. So I'm excited about that part. I also think this is a big opportunity for us to be utilizing these things as we prepare to go into our bsentennial year because I do think there's a story to be told about the work that's been put in from the community, from families, from every aspect of our society to support our students, right? And we've we've heard it from the support from folks today and hearing the public. But we we recognize that there are other folks who have given to a team so they could go to a sporting event who've been able to pay for um shoes for kids that have cleats for that year or jerseys that year. These types of things that then made a student

127successful later, gave them an opportunity to be successful later. And I think that's one way that we can start to build those attachments to how these students have become so successful because they were exposed to opportunities and because they had opportunities put in front of them by the work that's been you know again from ABC's work and now as we go forward Kid Futures work. So I do look forward to that opportunity to really build the story of what 200 years of CPS has looked like and what the next 200 years could look like through partnerships. Um, the last thing I will say really quickly because I think we should let you off easy today and and not leave you up here for a long time, um, is that I do think what we will

128want to see and what will be great opportunity for us to discuss as we build the strategic plan is or what are those targeted things that we need to build some larger consensus around as to this is a major project. this is a major thing we need to do or these are the major steps we're trying to move towards and how does the foundation kid future CPS work in conjunction with that and I don't know that we've fully had that conversation with you all yet because I don't know if we've fully had that conversation as a board and and and that may come from that strategic plan development um but there are a lot of things that will have to change as we go forward in the future and I would rather us have some

129strategic way of modeling that where maybe we're identifying those parties or those people within district who can really start to think that strategic level with you all. So, as we're putting those four pillars together that we're we're not every year coming with a different four items or different things in those each of those four, but that we're thinking about it over a three or five year what do we need funding for? What are we looking to grow funding for? And so, that's hopefully the next steps that we're moving towards. And so, really happy to have you all come here. feel free to if you have any additional things you want to say before we let you all off the hot seat here. >> I don't I just um appreciate your your time and look forward

130to working closely with you all. Um we are here for kids as well um and excited to be along for the ride. >> Yeah, thank you for coming out today and thank you for providing the update. >> Thanks. All righty, Superintendent Murphy. The next presentation on our agenda. >> So, yeah, our friends from uh Bellweather and Rice sent over notes uh in order to be able to provide a solid update for you. And so, that's what I have to share with you today. Uh it continues to be a wonderful experience uh for the senior leadership team to work with both of the uh consultants. But since they have last been here, there are a few things that they asked that I provide an update on uh for you. And one they are continuing to assess

131our district's strengths risk and opportunities um especially around our current academic programming. They are working really hard with the treasurer. They've had um separate and independent meetings around this work to discuss our current financial situation and to create and think and talk through a plan to move us forward. Uh something that would be viable and sustainable over the next several years aligned as you have requested with our strategic plan. There have been a multitude of listening sessions and in a few slides down you'll see uh the answer to a question the last time uh for what the listening sessions have been with Rice and who they have been uh engaging with. So on the next slide, we are excited because uh tomorrow, this is Wednesday and Thursday, but I think it's tomorrow and Wednesday. Well,

132this week, Belleather will be here on site on campus visiting uh several of our schools. Uh we started with a larger list, but we narrowed uh with them their focus. And so you'll see a variety in terms of types of schools, elementary schools, and high schools uh selected there. We are very excited to um see what the feedback is from those site visits. So on the next slide, oh maybe I'll let treasure uh Gustin talk about this because as I said they he has been working very diligently and specifically with Bellweather on the financial outlook. Do you want to >> Sure. >> Okay. >> Sure. Yeah. um been meeting with um Kenny from Belleather on kind of a weekly basis in addition to the other meetings to do deep dives into their finances. Um really

133interested in our current budget process as a way to kind of get a lens on what's going on, but we've also looked backwards um for a couple years and look forward. So, a lot of good information going on there and a lot of good um data sharing at this point. And then on the next slide you do see the rice uh listening sessions. Uh they are continuing to engage. I believe the survey has been closed out uh but they are still working uh in a variety of ways to meet with people and to have listening sessions. And so you see a variety of opportunities from whether you are a community leader or you are school-based or you are some type of support staff or family uh as a part of our constituent group. And that

134is the update at this time. >> All righty. Uh questions from board members or statements from board members? Seeing none. Oh, sorry. Borman B. >> Is there a a was there a a an original language or an alternative language? I've got a sheet here and I think it is part of the strategic plan. I don't know proposed alternative submit and secure board approval. That's just a draft. >> Oh, is that from board member Lindy's suggestion for my goal? >> So, we can do that later or are we doing it now? >> I think we're going to do it at a different meeting. >> Okay, cool. >> But just because we are in a public meeting, if anybody's watching and wondering what this is, I wanted to create some transparency. When we voted on the superintendent's

135goals in October, the fifth goal was to submit a strategic and financial plan by June 30th. That's a goal that is now impossible given the strategic planning timeline. I believe very strongly in accountability for possible goals. I do not believe in accountability for impossible ones. And so a responsibility of our board, I think, should be updating that goal so it reflects the current timeline. I'm excited to have that conversation whether that is tonight or at a future meeting. I think it's a future meeting, but if that changes, let me know. >> Yep. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> Other comments? >> I I will just say uh I appreciate uh getting the QR codes out uh after our last meeting so it could be shared with folks. Um, I also appreciate the fact that uh

136Redcon uh or I'm sorry that Bellweather is uh in addition to while they're here in town meeting and checking out the schools to see how the schools are operating, they're also having some strategic conversations as well. So, there's a um great opportunity for us to get a lot of information uh about how both the district works and then how we can potentially go forward. But, all right, thank you for the strategic plan update. Um our next presentation, >> the next presentation is on our fiscal year 27 budget. Uh treasurer Gustin will begin that presentation and Mr. Gala who uh bless his soul with his organizational brain uh will also help us walk through that presentation. >> Thank you, Superintendent. >> Yes, sir. Rob, if you'll go to the next slide. Um, so take a minute

137here, just a point of privilege here to do a reminder of how we got to the point we're at. Um, this actually came up today in a meeting and I said it probably far better than it will tonight. But remember that the current situation um, we're we're in is really a factor of two things. One is the property tax reform bills uh, that were signed by the governor over the winter that moved the district off the 20 mil floor, which really flattens our revenue. um especially from taxfree appraisals. And the other kind of revenue pressure is the failure of the legislature to update the base cost and other inputs that has skewed the fair school funding formula. And so I think multiple people have mentioned that tonight. Um so what I'll do is I'll just

138kind of throw a couple slides out there, some graphs. If you go to the next slide, Rob, um this slide I really like. This is our um district revenue. So, we're going back to fiscal year 22. Um, up through fiscal year 30th. Uh, the blue the blue bar is is kind of the overall revenue. You can see, you know, we have some increases from 22 to 24. Um, a dip between 26 and 27, which is one of the issues we're facing currently, and then flattened um from 28 through 30. And you can see the percent increase there. These are less than well less than one well less than 1%. So you're looking at you know this year negative.7% next year.4% um years after that 2%. Just to keep in mind inflation right now is running

139about 2 and a half%. Um probably may get worse um depending on the news in the Middle East currently. Um not looking good. So, just remember that everything we're buying is getting 2 to 3% more more expensive while our revenue coming in is staying relatively flat. And so, that's part two. The other slide, Rob, another graph I just wanted to show, and I talked about this a little bit, because the fair school funding formula is now so skewed, uh, we're going to be on what's called the guarantee. So, this is the state guaranteeing us the amount of revenue we had for fiscal year 2020. in 2021. And you can see over the next few years, the amount of guaranteed revenue increases um significantly, which means the fair school funding formula is not working. This is

140this is what happens when the formula is broken is that you go back to a residual amount. And that's what we're looking at through through fiscal year 30. And then finally, Rob, one more slide just just to look at our year-end cash balances. Um just a reminder of kind of where we're at. um our cash balances are kind of hovering in that $40 million a year range unencumbered at the end of each fiscal year which is is you know less than a month's worth of cash operating cash. Um not a good place to be in. Uh we are not in the part where we start getting letters from the state every year about it but but we're kind of on that cusp. So, just wanted to kind of set the high macro level um on

141the economics affecting us, but I will turn it over to Mr. Galahghue to dig into the specifics of the budget process. So, as we start some of the very difficult conversations tonight around the pathway development and the recommendations coming, I started I was going to start this by saying like as we dug through the pathways, we discovered, but I don't think that's the right word. Really, we've acknowledged since last year that the budget process this year was going to be progressively more difficult than last year and even the year before that. maybe both of them combined and that's a reality we're facing. On the flip side of that coin, we also are trying to maintain the pillars between operations, student experience, and academic outcomes that lead to successful education. So, we're trying to balance all

142of these factors across things as we evaluated the pathways. And really, it just reinforced or confirmed what we knew going into it. and that that was there really wasn't sufficient flexibility in any one of those pathways as we had defined them that was going to get us to the target goal without unbalancing one of those pillars and bringing the whole thing into into a weaker position. So our strategy ultimately came to be one and this is a great AI way of saying this right the avoiding substitutions and instead favoring prioritizing coordinated strengths against all the domains. So, what does that really mean? And hopefully you'll see this as we go through some of the recommendations and how we broke this up tonight. But the re the recommendations for tonight really come from a place for

143administration of looking at how do we build fiscally responsible minimal but meaningful frameworks of the services we have that make us CPS. there's a lot of opportunity to say, you know, don't cut X, only cut Y, right? But again, with those three pillars, it's a balancing act to figure out how do we bring all of those up or down together. So, as we looked at each of the pathways, we went into this work doing multiple layers of things. One of those was we did have a union budget collaborative. Uh this was a day uh that was discussed between the union leadership and district leadership where we met and defined and assigned workg groupoups to review different budget areas. Um ultimately leading to a conference day that was better than eight hours long 12 teams that

144were co-led between administration and the union leadership looking at 12 different areas and want to be very careful how I phrase this right there were nine resulting recommendations. So this is really placed in this part of the presentation to emphasize this is rolled into and incorporated into the following recommendations. It is not accounting that the recommendations you see are those nine recommendations just for clarity. Right? So as we reflected through the pathways looking at again the idea behind each of the pathways for in this case decentralized operations the idea that stood out that became something that was actionable was how do we move district level services and supports to schools to cover overlapping needs. There were several areas of where those kind of opportunities come up. one of those where when you look at school

145services we have a lot of fractional needs that you know as you're looking across what the school needs it may be a 0 2 of a service or a point 2 of an FTE or 3.5 so within our health services and providing those kind of those services there are schools with lower needs that we can instead of trying to find um you know positions that can meet all of those rotational needs we can utilize the district level resources in this case the district registered nurses, placing those at those schools with the smaller needs to cover their needs as well as the district level work that they're accomplishing. Some of the other areas of opportunities that came out from this were looking at one-off positions that are centrally funded at schools, not so much the position

146itself, but the title of the position being different than what it would be at the school allocation. So that would be a central title, but what we found in looking at them was that they were really a full-time teacher and should be included as part of the teacher allocation for that school. So we were able to reconcile where there were additional titles tied to positions. We also looked at realigning the pair of professionals with schools that have assistant principles and those that don't. This is kind of a yearly activity that we should be looking at given that the the assistant principal changes based on the enrollment. Then we reduce mileage across the board really through aligning multiple supports to to support the corridor model. Some of the specific areas of this we're looking at ITM

147support. We do a lot of this already within clusters of school but by leveraging the corridor model we could tighten up those groupings and save multiple sources of of re save additional costs as well as just the mileage. Same with athletic directors. So when it came to the pre-COVID level of staffing and programming, we we discovered and the idea that came out of there again that was more actionable was that precoid baseline establishes a really strong starting point for what our services and our staffing look like at that time. The gap that came through though was that it didn't include a lot of the critical services of a postcoid world. So there had to be a balancing act of applying that kind of methodology while retaining a lot of the services that are now more

148important in this in the more modern um postcoid terms. Right? Some of the positions and some of the areas that we found opportunity here were looking at resource coordinators comparing that to what that baseline look like looked at looked like then compared to what our current needs are. And this is a term you'll see across a lot of the materials is the taring of schools. So just a special call out the note in the lower right hand corner. You notice that school tiering at this point when we're referring to that refers to uh a combination of the school improvement status, the size and demographic of the school, the achievement star rating and report card metrics, the title status and condition, the student needs, and of course grouping by corridor. But through remodeling, redesigning, um, gaining

149efficiencies, streamlining, aligning by corridors, a a host of different methodologies, we were able to remodel a lot of these services to better meet where we think we can sustain now. So for resource coordinators, that represents a decrease of nine positions. for school social workers. We compared not just what the school taring needs look like, but what the CBA requirements are, national and state level standards, and we really tried to look at all kinds of ratio variables to establish what something that would fit within our needs. What we came down to was looking at one per high school and retaining.5 school social workers at all of the other schools that are not high schools. So, this would reduce 23.5 school social worker positions. counselors again evaluating the model resulted in a proposal that would be one

150per 375 students based on the district level enrollment rounded to the closest point two essentially so that every service was a full day so that there wasn't a need to split days between schools crossing guards the proposal was considered looking at eliminating the crossing guards for the upper grade bands where there would be lesser needs for those students uh but that is also couched within and the need to do a safety analysis at those locations that would then find if there are specific needs that still remain at those schools in areas where we might have to have coverage. And finally, under the looking at this staff or looking at the precoid levels, we also looked at our device usage. Again, I know you you've heard this before. I think it was last week in my

151IT presentation, but looking at a model that would better balance the device usage and respect the screen time and family feedback around device usage. Um, the proposal would be to allow the remaining schools, that would be all of our 7 through 12 or 9 through 12 schools, to have the option to go to a cart-based model if they so select it. So they could have both schools with a take-home and schools with a cart-based model, but still offering a take-home option in a limited like checkout kind of capacity that we would facilitate them setting up. And finally, under pathway three, previously what we referring to as the leveraging partners and investing in talent, we were essentially taking away that we were looking for an evaluation of every opportunity, every potential reduction to determine if there

152was a partner alignment that could exist, does exist, or could be implemented. a couple of the very specific things that we've identified so far. Uh, one is to leverage the new CL cloud-based phone system in partnership with the provider there who has agreed to um give us additional licenses so that we can meet our need to provide uh CL uh sorry um applicationbased softones that can be used on CPS or personal cell phones as opposed to the district having to issue CPS cell phones to all of our users. And finally, the UC partnership that is being finalized now along with a grant that would allow us to continue our AIPD, specifically a staff-based AI academy in the summer, uh, without having to bring in potentially costly thirdparty vendors to supplement the AI training that we

153can do going forward and keep our momentum in that area going as well as as we talked about or as you heard, >> continuing the conversations with the city around the other school safety issues and the kid future CPS funding requests. So all of that frames how we got to where we're at for these recommendations. But the real question is is how does that fit into the bigger picture. So this is where it gets a little harder, a lot more numbers to follow through, right? So let's start back at the beginning of last meeting where we talked about the little summary of our target for this year is the 627.9 million. Our total ask, remember, for meeting our goals, supporting flexibility for the the strategic plan, the innovations, improving student achievement, all of those things

154that we want to do comes in at 688.8 million, meaning that the ask is 60.9 million above our target. We already have your approval on the legal requirements. And then on the April 20th items of recommendation, we approved the 330 million in school-based positions essentially. So that brings the total approved amount to 472.5 million. That means out of the original 688 ask, we still have 216.3 million on the table that we need to fund. Unfortunately, that means we only have 155.4 million available to fund it. So in the last column is where we get to the new information for tonight. This is the recommendation for what the administration feels that we would not be recommending for funding at this time for next year. Breaking down by the same three buckets that we looked at originally,

155the central office would be 27.7 million with an additional 3.4 four from centrally funded school-based positions and 2.9 million from school budgets directly. That's a total proposed notrecommended items or reductions of $34.1 million. We've also come to a comfortable place where with our treasur that we can add around 7 million to our negative contingencies for vacancies next year. That brings the gap between our current ask on the table and what we have available still to $19.7 million. So looking at that 34.4 in the proposed not the items not recommended for funding right now breaks down a little further into this summary table that provides for central office. You can see the 27.7 and how that breaks down between equipment, extended time, um other services, primarily the contracts, 8.9 in in staffing, um supplies, and then

156the various negative contingencies that are included at the department level. In the centrally funded school positions, you can see the breakdown of the specific positions there. If you refer to the links under each of the tables, it will take you directly to the tab in the budget book that gives you the detailed breakdown. Finally, under school budgets, you can see the nonCBA positions that are encompassed in that. One quick note where it says athletic directors for budgeting purposes, we include all of the athletic directors in that. That reduction recommendation is actually for assistant athletic directors of three. And finally, that ties in to what's colloially been called the spring TAC, even though it's not a full on TAC process. It's really the spring projections and staffing review. So really this year, looking at our October

157enrollment and our April ending or near ending enrollment, we have decreased in around 450 students in this year. how that impacts projections for next year. The fall-based projections that we would have used in October to now what the new projections are that includes our school selection process, the roll up of all the students and all of the information just like we discussed last year that makes it more accurate is going to make the projections about 300 students less which culminates in from a staffing position staffing formulas a net change of about 10 FTEES. that's between teachers, intervention specialists, etc. So here on the right are those same links, but they're gathered again one so that you have access to them as a whole. And they're joined by there was commentary last week and some mention

158of maintaining the 70 million list of the priority items that we had talked about at the last meeting. um even though they are now included just in the totals of tonight's presentation but there was a a call for maintaining that list. So we have added it here just so that we also still keep it for reference if anybody wanting to look at it but as it comes to the 19.7 million that we are still outstanding that will require additional reductions. We've provided a list here. It's not an exhaustive list. Um, but it does represent a number of items that we are we have to have on the table for consideration as to how we can approach that gap. Some due diligence, some very specific. We talked earlier a little bit about the approach of how

159we've come to this from an administration of minimal meaningful frameworks of all of our services as opposed to holistic elimination. This I think demonstrates a number of categories whether that's a functional service like transportation a school-based program like IB or additional positions across all staff departments schools that we would have to look at that meaningfully will impact and cause concerns with us either functional issues or even possibly approaching compliance issues with meeting deadlines and requirements that we have. But these are the types of things that we're going to have to look at going into this next step for that $19.7 million. So, we'll close there uh with a revised and updated version of our overall calendar for this process and open to discussion and questions. All >> righty. Um open it up to board members

160for any comments. uh board member Amber and then Vice President Mal. >> So I'm gonna start with an easy one. Thank you. Um this is very difficult. Um I'm going to start with an easy one cuz I asked this earlier but I want it to be stated publicly. So, um, the nursing reduction that is on here, I want to clarify this will not eliminate a medical staff member from schools. There will still be a medical professional in each of our school buildings after this change. >> There will be some level of services. So, some of our SHAs, I don't want to confuse you, okay, >> and say that they're a medical professional, but they are trained to be able to deliver a certain level >> like Yes, ma'am. >> things like type 1 diabetic care.

161>> Okay. Just wanted that stated publicly. That was something someone had reached out to me with concerns. I just not to confuse just because there are I believe two instances in the model that calls for a shared SHA type service between schools with an extremely low need of medical services. >> Okay. So it doesn't then maintain one in every building. >> There is some level of services for >> but it's not in the building full-time >> one with one shared. >> Okay. And that that decision was made based on the level of needed services. >> I I get that. Um my comment back to that would be there's a low need until there's not. Um medical events happen every single day to perfectly healthy people. Um every single one of our schools has students with

162allergies. Um those can be life-threatening. I do not want to be responsible for telling a parent that um something terrible happened to their child because we couldn't afford someone that was trained with an EpiPen on site. So, that one to me is a big deal. Um and I understand we're on budget constraints. This is where I want to refer back to Miss Kenny's statement earlier and asking for help. We have some amazing health-based organizations in this community. Um, I don't understand why uh we don't have partnerships that can strengthen um we do have partnerships. I shouldn't say that. I don't understand why we can't find schoolbased nursing care in every single one of our buildings through those partnerships. um these are kids that are going to be in their hospitals if they aren't getting treated

163with preventative care um in our schools. And that's all I'll say on that. Um then I have a question. Um because as we go down um on slide 13 under the more considererations um it mentions consolidate schools. Um, I would love to have more information on what are our schools that are not at capacity and can have a list of that so we understand what that potential actually looks like. So, by state definition, which of our schools are actually not at capacity? And I would also add the caveat of let's factor in um the units in those buildings because when we say they're not at capacity but their classroom is actually full even if it's only six kids because it's a unit classroom. Um that would be great. Um when it comes to school social

164workers, thank you all for being here. Thank you for the work that you do. Thank you for being here at 8:15 and waking up tomorrow and going to work. Um, I see you. Um, I appreciate you. I know what you do is valuable and important. There is no one up here on this board that doesn't believe that. Um, from a full transparent perspective, I was in the audience last year and now I'm up here with a different sense of visibility. So, I want to try and provide some of that. Um, I'm looking at spreadsheets upon spreadsheets for the budget and when I look at alternatives, right? So, if we want to cut $2.9 million, which is the equivalent, we're looking at things like transportation for kids. We're looking at things like maintenance, like serious maintenance

165on buildings that have structural concerns. We're looking at resource coordinators who also have valuable jobs. We're looking at devices, which is something I don't know what it looks like to cut back on devices. is I don't know the impact that that makes. I think it's something we can look at as a as administration. I'm not saying I'm recommending it. I'm saying it's something to look at. Um what would it look like in the elementary school if we instead of one had one to two? Um what would that cost be? Um because when we're talking about student impact, we got to think about mental health versus testing and diagnostics and I ready my path and and I don't know the right answer to everything. So I'm just trying to explore options here. Um my last point

166um that I'm going to make at the at this time is on the levy cuz that came up earlier and um very specifically someone asked why we didn't already have one and I want to mention we did have the renewal for the preschool promise last year and so um from a standpoint of success having two levies for the same school district at the same time is generally not very successful. So that would be why we haven't had one in last year. Um because as a board we are fiscally responsible for this district and to have a levy fail is so much more devastating than just having that levy fail. It sets a precedent for failure continually. You can ask Loveland. It's bad. So we want to be fiscally responsible by putting a successful levy on.

167We want that so badly. There's no one here that wants to see this district run out of money. We want it to succeed. We want a levy to succeed. So, we are being very meticulous on how we do that. We are we're going to pull it together. It's just a matter of when and how. Um, and so I just wanted to reassure the public that the levy is definitely on the table. Uh, it's something that will be discussed. Um, and yeah, just know that we are we are trying our best. >> All righty. Um, other Vice President Mafy. >> So, thanks Jeremy. I think it's a it's tough for you to stand there. Um, I'm I appreciate the fact that you gave the presentation, but I think most of my questions are to the administration.

168Um, so I want to be very clear that I do understand fully the financial constraints that we're facing as a district. The impact of state funding changes and the rising costs are real, especially for our taxpayers and our parents. My role is not to slow the process down. My questions are not to slow it down, but to ensure that the decisions that we make are aligned to student outcomes, long-term stability, and public trust. So, what I'm not seeing clearly in this presentation is the connection between the proposed staffing reductions and how the decisions will improve student proficiency, reduce absenteeism, and support district growth because that's what we need to do. We need to grow. I do have a couple questions, but I'm going to make this um statement. I also have a governance concern that

169we're making structural decisions before a completed strategic plan and without clearly presented needs assessment. I want to understand what framework we're using. Is this a student centered framework or is this um just reduction to get to a goal? So ultimately I'm trying to ensure that we're not just solving a short-term financial problem in a way that creates long-term academic or enrollment challenges. I look forward to hearing how the plan in the future achieves both fiscal responsibility and student centered outcomes. Um, part of the role of a board member since it was told in uh hearing of the public that we're not doing our job uh is to be responsible for setting district policy, hiring, evaluating the superintendent and treasurer along with holding them accountable and managing the budget. Part of that is that we are

170a liaison between the community and schools focusing on student achievement and long-term goals rather than to get into the day-to-day. Having said that, a levy discussion has been had, but we also have to do more than one thing at one time. So my questions maybe to you to somebody what measurable academic outcomes will improve as a direct result of the reductions and can you point me to the data that supports that? >> Dr. Dr. Mafet, probably my best response right now, as you know that we are in our state testing season is based on the results that we received this past fall that you're holding me accountable for improving based on what I've seen and heard over the past year and a half looking at instruction and multiple practices. So it's based on my observation

171and the responsibility that you have given me to hit uh particular targets and so we do have to do changes but I will also say or and I also want to say I don't know how else to frame the dollars that we have to work with. I don't know how else to paint the picture of how challenging this is. Um there's there's no tricks to this. It is the amount of money that we have, the resources that we have. We have a lot of people coming to the table. The community uh presentation shortly is going to be about how Children's Hospital has helped us, continues to help us. Um, I don't I don't have a magic bullet. There is a dollar amount I have to figure out how to get to. I know that people

172don't like it. I don't like it. I completely get it and I appreciate it holistically. Um, I am very too impassioned about having to impact our staff particularly when we talk about services that directly impact our students. But my question is specific. What measurable student outcomes improve as a result of the changes? And where what is the data? I appreciate um that we we we're passionate, but I'm wondering do we have data that says succinctly reduction of social workers, reduction of guidance counselors, reduction of security, reduction of um consolidating schools. Where's the data? Because I want us to be data driven because then it's not passion, it's not emotion, it's data. So I just we can come back to that one. Um my next question and and that's actually you know just a question that

173I have. How do the reductions in counselors, social workers and resource coordinators align with our goal of reducing absenteeism and improving student support? Those just questions that I have because that's the data. The data is very clear that it is on the rise. So how in these positions directly impact those goals from the state and the national impact that we're seeing and we heard that we we've been able to kind of stop the bleeding. So I just want to understand if the decisions have been made with data that's going to say how it is going to continue that momentum. I I'll just ask all the other two questions and then I don't I don't want um to put you all on the spot. what analysis was used to determine that precoid staffing levels are sufficient

174for today's student needs because we're going back to precoid and that's great but those are not the same types of students and the data is not the same for those students so I'm kind of confused as to how we got to precoid when the needs of the students in certain areas are significantly different than precoid so I'm confused how we're basing our decisions today off of students that don't look like that. It should be data driven. And then my last question is how does this budget position us to grow enrollment rather than risk further decline because that's the the goal of the district. We need to go we need to grow. We had a growth plan. We need to grow. And so I'm also curious as to how is the re if we're data driven,

175how is that going to help us position us to grow? Because we're talking about consolidating schools and we're shrinking and I I fully understand we have constraints, financial constraints. I'm not dismissing that. But I do think we can walk and chew gum at the same time. So we can do multiple things. And I want us to make sure that we're looking at how do we grow while we're having these challenges. And so I also want to clarify that just because I'm asking for clarity, that's not obstruction and accountability is not disruption. I'm just trying to make sure that we're not making short-term decisions that are going to significantly impact our students and then they have a long-term effect. I I want to understand how these cuts and the cuts to their social emotional health is

176going to be beneficial. Um and so that's I'm happy to make those questions. Um if can you point me to the data Jeremy where we actually >> I mean this is this isn't something that we're um happy to present to you. I can tell you that we looked at yes precoid levels. I understand that these are different children in different different times. I do understand that. We looked at what are the national norms for having counselors and school social workers. Um we looked at what our collective bargaining agreement said in terms of staffing levels. We will continue to be above what that says. But we have limitations and that's just my truth. And it's not just about being passionate cuz I am passionate that can't be taken away from me. Um, but there is a

177certain amount of money I'm going to take it back to that we have to deal with and I don't have a choice in that matter. >> I think if I may, I mean, I think I think one of the first things Mr. Gyu said um, when talking about the overall budget picture is is is you have to keep the three kind of legs of the district in and somewhat equal. Um and and the board, we thank you for approving the things you've approved so far. You've approved the legal compliance. You've approved the school-based staffing. Um you know, that leaves us about $155 million overall left in the budget. And we have not we have not funded one person at central office at this point. We've not funded one person in facilities to fix our facilities.

178We haven't funded one person to run payroll. We haven't funded one person to hire someone in HR. we haven't funded, you know, one person to fix our devices when they break. Um, and so and so this conversation is awful in a lot of ways and and these decisions are horrible um to to the point where, you know, we these these are hor these are horrible decisions they have to make. And so it's really about about what is the least harmful way to way to get to a balanced budget this year. I I want to acknowledge that I'm not in any way suggesting that the administration and the treasur's office is insensitive or just making these cuts arbitrarily. I'm just asking for the data to support the decisions. I'm not ask I'm not suggesting that this

179is easy because it's not easy for us to see andor have to contemplate approving. I just was I'm asking for the framework that we're making these decisions and is it is it what is the framework? Where's the data? And that's what I was asking for. And so again, this is not to refute that you all are not sensitive to that. This is a very tough decision. I just was wondering if we made those decisions from a data standpoint um and not just not not anything else. So it doesn't if you find the data then that'd be great. Thanks. All righty. Other board members. Board member Bolton. >> Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Um I think we said last year, which was the third year in a row, we had to make cuts if

180I recall. Um I think we said last year that this year any cuts we were going to be making with all intents and purposes are going to impact children. And that is where we are right now. These are these are no longer cuts that aren't going to impact our our young people, be they our little people or our teenagers. So that's where we are now and that's why you're going to get some good resistance from this board because it's one thing to cut when we can still cut around without necessarily impacting the kids. Um uh you know I know student achievement is not going to improve because we make some of these cuts. It's not going to uh child and teenage safety is not going to improve because we're making any of these cuts. Um

181I have some questions. Uh Jeremy on the on slide 12 the resource coordinators are not there. Or am I missing it? Is that I know that's I know there are cuts of nine of them or something. >> Yes, >> it's a previous slide somewhere. I just want I'm going to start with that. Nobody will be Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. There it is. Great. Yeah, that's that slide's really upsetting me. Slide nine is is the slide from hell. Um, and uh, I I I don't like anything there because as a person that's been here a pretty long time, I have been a part of all of those numbers that we've built up. When I first was on the board, if it hadn't been for Alex Coons, when he was a board member, we had six

182counselors, and you'll never guess what high schools they were in. So, I'm not really interested in not having enough counselors because a lot of board members have fought to have that and administration after administration has built up on that. But my first concern right now besides counselors is I I'm not going to do a means testing for crossing guards. Uh because I've sat here after we've lost kids and there isn't there is not a month that goes by that we don't hear somebody getting hit with a car and and the and I understand what we're doing. The idea of put of reducing the crossing guards at high schools. I understand that the state the state government doesn't even require by law that our kids going to high school have the appropriate safety infrastructure in front

183of their schools. We actually mentioned that to city council. City council's actually been trying to build up that infrastructure. We need crossing guards even at the high school places, maybe even more when things are considered. So I have problem with that one. And resource coordinators. Uh I'm I'm going to uh speak highly of the resource coordinators because the the reason people come to our district and I think over the last uh oh certainly seven years a hundred different school districts have come to visit us and they came to visit us because of community learning center model and at the heart of that is a resource coordinator and we tried to make some savings last year by sharing and cutting place here and there. I think every school has to have a resource coordinator and I

184would like to propose at this point in time too that it is time to um try very hard to suggest that resource coordination uh which we are paying for at all of all of but six of our schools. Those resource coordinators need to be a part uh of our um funding and probably part of our personnel complement and those uh partners that want to have a resource coordinator, they have to be able to sustain it. But for resource coordination, I would also suggest we have inhouse a partner that is nationally and internationally known as the inventor of the Cincinnati model for create for Cincinnati model of of uh community learning centers and that's that's the institute. So, I don't know why we aren't reaching out to that partner to actually help us figure out how

185to how to run it, how to make it more evenly uh uh quality oriented with that. So, I I would I don't want to see a reduction in resource coordination. I really am not wanting to think of resource uh being cut for crossing guards or counselors. I have a question for the treasurer. Somewhere in my memory, the guarantee cares or is somehow is that predicated on attendance or excuse me enrollment in any way? Why do I remember that? >> It is. So you do it does look at your enrollment. So you don't get the exact amount you get in 2020. You know, it is it is graduated based on enrollment. So again to the vice president's position regarding enrollment and growth, it's important on the guarantee that we grow. Is that right or not? I

186just remember that from the previous treasur trying to say I think I long ago when Mr. Lindy and I had a little bit of a dispute about growth in the five years ago or something. It somehow I remember the issue of guarantee being somehow associated with enrollment. >> Yeah. The reason I'm hesitating to answer this >> please I don't mean to put you on the spot. >> No, it's a great question and I wish it was as simple as saying, hey, we need growth to get more money. That's >> I'm sure they found another way to make that be bad, too. >> You know, that's normal. But but as you as we say that and as I think through my head, our state share continues to drop. You know, we you know, the state says

187it cost about $8,200 to educate a student. You know, they're giving us less than three grand of that. And every year in the future, we're getting less and less of that, right? So, so you know, it's around three grand now. It might be 2,800 next year >> and keep going down. So it's hard to even again the state funding formula is so backwards currently it's hard to even say hey this is great for growth. I mean, we know we want growth for a ton of reasons, you know, be beyond funding for viability of the district. And definitely every penny we we get comes every penny we bring in is helpful, but but again, the formula is so skewed now. It's not the big it's not the big bucks that you would hope, you know? I

188mean, there are districts there are districts that are getting 70 80% funding, right? And so it's really easy to say, "Hey, every kid, boom, there's there's four or $5,000 into our coffers until the formula is fixed. I mean, there are some there's some really weird there's some really weird math behind it." >> Well, and it's so screwed up. If Cleveland, which is closing a third of its schools, they've been under state control for all intents and purposes, a quasi state control, no board as such. Uh, and and they're there in the mess even though they got What was their percentage of state funding? Oh, they're in the they're in the high 70s, low 80s. >> High 70s, low 80s money. >> I mean, just Yeah, they're they're closing about a third of their schools. They

189announced the layoffs of 400 plus staff members. So, I mean I mean, we're not alone. It doesn't doesn't really make it better, but we we are definitely not the only folks on this boat. >> Exactly. U Jeremy on the on the um uh clicking to the link and stuff. So is that is that what you're suggesting we click to is that go back to the budget book that was uh not recommended is that or is there another new document another the new one? >> So the only one the last one on this page on SL or on slide 13 that says the high priority that's the one that was not approved previously and it's just there for reference. Everything else is going to two new budget books. Right now they're more list style. They don't

190have the narratives that the previous budget books had since we're to this last phase. But the other two, they are new budget books. >> And this the 70 million package piece with that we're that's done. It's >> it's just correct. Now it is just included in the totality of what's left. >> And then in the budget book that we had, which is the one that says not recommended pathway pathway merge, not recommended list. Um, that is the one I've been looking at, but there's a a newer, better, a more relevant post union, post administration budget meetings on that would still be the slide 13. >> That would still be the accurate. Uh, it has been updated a few of the items on it. I'm sorry if that may be what you're referring to. Yes, that

191version has been revised as of today, up to date with everything on it for the reductions. >> Okay. Um, and then the other one, the pending list, is essentially everything that's left that has not been approved and is not being not recommended for funding. >> Yeah, that's that's that's a little hard. Uh, so then Treasurer Wagner with the 155. >> I'm sorry. Couldn't I couldn't help it. Look how long I did it without doing it. >> You've been so good, too. >> I have been sorry. If I'm having probably a some sort of post-traumatic stress from this, but if we if we look at the 155, that's so much easier than all this other way of doing it. Like when we left the board meeting the last time, we had 150 160 million that we

192had to do all this stuff with and you start with 40ome million or 50ome million for transportation. Now you're down to 100 million. That just is in my slow brain that is it's easier for me to kind of grasp that. But if I go just and I'll do this close this out in that previous book budget book I I was obviously concerned as you know about the resource coordination. um counselors and crossing guards, but I also felt that there was a fine arts um bias against fine arts showing up in some of these cuts that I'm not going to tolerate either. Uh and I felt that even a AP access seem to be on the cutting board. Uh again, I can remember those battles. Um and and whether it's um enrichment for preschool. I know

193enrichment like that's like some low priority enrichment for me for little our little preschoolers. That's not low priority. Um our little ones need as much as they can for that. I did see where there's a delay of adoption for is it the um language arts or something that was a I mean I can see where that kind of a delay makes sense. right now. Um but um for me um I I'd like us to kind of I'll be happy to massage this this other list, but those are some of my initial large uh suggestions. And actually I I will say as I keep saying to the superintendent, school consolidation does need to happen between GDA and virtual and it does have to happen between Owens and Promise Center and any other school consolidation at this

194point in time, which I think we're going to have to do, uh is probably too big of a a a chunk to bite into. But those four into two. Um I I don't know that that's that much of a savings, but at least we're we're explaining to the folks that were making every effort. So, thank you for all this work and thanks for the specificity throughout and uh I know not surprisingly I have many other opinions, but I'll share those as we proceed. Not tonight. Thank you. >> All right. uh board member Matt. >> Um so thank you for the presentation. Um I will begin to frame the conversation by recognizing the challenge um the grave challenge that we're all presented with um and the financial implications that um are at stake. I do want

195to say respectfully that I would like the presentations to be led more from the superintendent superintendent, excuse me, as well as treasure Augustine because this is this is the recommendation that you all are making. So to be able to communicate that out, the rationale behind it, um I think will be really helpful because this is based off of your work and your vision and your direction. And so as a board, we are looking to um hold you accountable to that and also trust the direction that you're providing um for us as it pertains to um the pathways that were shared. Um yes, we talked about having um a blending of the pathways. Um however what is being presented and I'll just speak for me for myself is uh things or are things that are very

196challenging for me. I've sat on this board and specifically advocated um and helped to create in partnership with members um and administration within our district pertaining to a mental health and wellness policy. And so my first question is when we're considering um the reductions, are we also considering the policy that um is in place or the policies that are in place as it pertains to for example the mental health and wellness policy or as uh board member Bolton talked about the uh resource coordinator policy. Um how much consideration are we taking into that? Board member Matt, we really truly give total consideration um to the policies, both the areas that you just mentioned, resource coordination and the policy created last school year and the conversations that we have had around this work, last year's budget,

197we know going into this year's budget and presenting it the way we have, there were going to be challenges and there were there was going to be feedback that would be difficult. diffult. >> Yes. >> So, thank you for that. Um, yet again though, as it pertains to our school counselors, our school social workers, our resource coordinators, um, I recognize the um, great work that they all do. I am in fact one of them. And so, I will constantly stand and advocate for the work um, that they do each and every day. things that are not even um maybe even able to be accounted for. Um but as we talk about uh data and the mental health and wellness policy data uh policy specifically talks about making decisions based off of the data and so

198we have had um several presentations from our director of positive school culture um talking about the significant progress that is being made around chronic absenteeism and how there is a reduction there. we have uh recognized the great work of our school counselors um in terms of meeting the target with our graduation rates. So if we're making financial decisions, it has to be connected to a strategic plan and I have not heard that. And so um I cannot justify supporting reductions in these areas because they are essential staff, right? I know that you shared the direction from the state around the focus of MTSS, correct? >> Yes, sir. >> And so those workers, those individuals are instrumental in that work. It's not where it's just a focus on the academics. There's a merging and a blending

199of the social and emotional and mental health component as well. And so we cannot do this work in isolation. our teachers are looking for that additional support to be able to lean into the MTSS work. We have trained um employees that are able to support our teachers, support our students, support our families. What I would recommend is that we have a few contracts that um allow life coaches to be in our schools and they are not trained with the same level of lure or even ability or scope of practice. And so when we're talking about making some reductions, I think it would be advantageous for us to consider that first um because that undermines and devalues the work that our school social workers, our counselors are doing when you're creating duplicative roles and then talking

200about reductions. So that's what I I'll pretty much uh leave it with as it pertains to the school social workers and counselors. again, they are truly essential and our students have been advocating for them. If you're in the schools, if you're having conversations with the students, they're talking about how um how we need to do more, right? And we cannot reduce uh our social workers and our counselors and then think we can overcompensate with uh providing them services. we are going to drastically uh impact a uh access and create more barriers. And so I I think that you all and your team need to go back and think of other options to consider because we are here visiting this again. And I think that this is I don't know if this is the easy way

201of trying to get to a balanced budget. Um but this is not something that I can support or um be in favor of. I do appreciate um the direction with balancing the devices because um we do know the negative impact um as it pertains to um our students with having way too much access to technology. Right. So I I do appreciate the balance there and receiving the family feedback to support that work. And then as it pertains to the crossing guards, I am with you board member Bolton about the importance of safety. Um, I do think that there's possible consideration in seeing if our security staff is also able to help and support with this. Maybe I'm dating myself, but I know that when I was in high school, our security also helped to fulfill

202that role um, in terms of providing those crossing guards um, uh, resources. So, those are my thoughts. Um but again as as these things have been presented I don't think that it is going to be conducive to helping us uh yield progress and growth with student outcomes. Again it is not done in isolation. This work is done in tandem and I think as a team we have worked really hard to create a policy and I really would like that to be honored. Thank you. Uh I do want to take the opportunity to say that this is not Shauna Murphy devaluing counselors, social workers or anyone who is in this presentation tonight. This again in I understand uh people are asking for datadriven decisions around this. I will just say we do need we do need

203a new money levy because we don't have the same revenue to be able to provide the same level of services. I totally recognize that. Again, I do think that there are potential areas that can be considered that have not been presented that maybe we can begin to explore. And again, as I talked about, particularly looking at certain contracts, we talked about um looking into the KPIs. Are we actually receiving, right? Um the services that we were intending to receive, are they meeting the outcomes and the goals? Does it align to our overall goals as a district? And so, if we don't have that information, then we're not making strategic decisions. >> Board member Lindy Thank you very much, President Craig. Um, and again, thank you for all the work from the administration and and comments

204from board members. This is important. Um, thank you to everyone who came tonight for hearing of the public. Um, I thought that a number of the speakers spoke with such clarity and narrative power and force that I was personally quite moved and I wanted to thank you for that. Uh, and say that that's not something that I can only speak for myself. um but not something that I take lightly. Uh and so thank you. Um from a procedural standpoint, I wanted to clarify what the request is of us tonight. Are we being asked to vote to approve anything in the recommendation from the PowerPoint? >> No, sir. >> There's no vote tonight. >> So there will be no vote tonight on whether or not these cuts happen or don't happen. >> That's correct. >> Sorry.

205Sorry. You're not asking us to make a motion to approve cuts of one type or another. >> No, sir. >> Okay. Um, so I think that's helpful. Um, I I think I have I have a couple of thoughts about um what might this is just going to be difficult, but I have a thought about what might make it less difficult for this one board member as we go forward. And then I had a couple of thoughts about the levy topic. um on the uh on the first of those ideas. It's just such um awful and difficult position to be in. And and it's not as difficult as having your job on the line or it's not as difficult as being a staff member or a parent of a of a in a school or of

206a child in a school who would feel the consequences of a budget cut like some of the ones that we're discussing. That's harder. But for us, for for me, what makes this difficult is there just are no good options. Um, what's difficult though about the way we're approaching it tonight is we're being asked I'm being asked to give feedback on um some cuts that seem pretty awful. And even if we make them, we still have more cuts that we need to make. And so, it's very hard to know what I'm comparing it to. And so, I think it's easy to say, I think this is bad. I think this is terrible. we shouldn't do it, but we don't we're not really looking at what the alternatives are. Uh and so I my request would be

207I think we have to look at the whole picture and we have to say hey here's three different ways we could get to a balanced budget. The administration's recommendation is route one. We like it better than routes two and three. Here's why. But if you don't like one board members, you have to suggest something that gets to the balanced budget. And the only other way we see that are routes two and three. Then if I have to vote in favor of a really awful cut, I can say, "Yeah, that's awful. The reason I did that is because the alternatives were worse. And here's what the alternatives were." But we're not we're not specifying that yet. Um, and so it's hard it's hard to say for sure one way or another because I was quite moved

208by what a number of the people said tonight. Um, that that's and I'm open to feedback on that. I mean, if there's a reason why we can't do that or that won't work, I'd love to hear about it. But from my perspective, that would make this an easier process um or um to make an awful process slightly less awful. Uh so I'll I'll hold on the levy front for a second, but I'm just curious if you all have any reactions or thoughts to that. >> No, totally understand. >> Yeah, I I mean I think that's a good it's a good way to frame it. I mean I just from our perspective, you know, we went down from the last board meeting kind of the takeaway was look at blending the pathways. We had separate look

209at blending the pathways into one kind of coherent, you know, budget for approval. Um, we went down that path and thank you to our union partners for work working with us. Um, you know, there were some things that were in the presentation tonight that that, you know, we thought, okay, these things are part of it, but we're still $19 million away, right? So, that's that's the thing is we haven't gotten to I know exactly what you're saying. You want to see the whole end to say, okay, here's everything is in, everything is out. Totally understand that. Um, we haven't gotten there. And that's and that's part of part of the takeaway is we are still and if you look at the kind of that last slide that J we are still $19 million away from

210that and kind of asking for some guidance on that next round of of big reductions if there are things that that that folks are adamantly opposed to if they're in favor of um if they want more information around. >> Yeah. >> There and I think um so thank you. Uh I think I think that that would be from my perspective helpful for this one board member. Um and then on the on the topic of the levy, uh I just wanted to say a couple things. Um you know, one of the topics that came up and hearing in the public tonight was the idea that it's our job, our only job to advocate for more money for the district. And I just really disagree that that's not why I ran for office. It's not how I

211see my job. I see my job as representing the people who voted for me and providing an accountability function um and accountability for outcomes and also fiscal responsibility and accountability to taxpayers. Um I just want to say really clearly for the record, I know we have some press here tonight, I'm very open to voting in favor of a levy and I have not made my mind up for whether I'm going to support a levy or not. Um, one thing I feel really good about is we are on a timeline that will allow us to make that decision by the date that we need to make it. Um, there also were some comments tonight that if only we um, this wasn't quite explicit, but it seemed implied. If only we would vote for a levy, all

212of these cut problems would go away. That's false. Even if we vote for a levy now, we don't receive that money for longer than this budget process. Um, there was also some thoughts, well, why didn't you do it last year? I think my colleague made a great point, which is we did have a levy on the ballot last year. It was a renewal levy and we we really should do these things one at a time if we want to have a consistent and clear message to the public. So, I think we are on a path to do this the right way. I'm only willing to vote for a levy that I think we do the right way. And I want to be clear about what I think that means. There are really good cases to

213be made for why we need more resources. We've heard a lot of them tonight. The flat revenue and increasing costs, that is real. Uh this hasn't come up as much tonight, but our facilities needs are are a big deal. Like that we need to have a plan for those things. And our third grade reading scores went down last year. We set a goal in algebra 1 this year where we're aspiring to be in the bottom third of districts in Ohio for growth. I don't think you can go to the public in good conscience and say we want more money to keep delivering certain outcomes that are not where they need to be. I think what we need to do is say to the public we have a plan for how we can address rising costs,

214address our facility needs, deliver stronger outcomes for students and for families and for staff, but we can only do it with your help. Here's what that plan is. Here's what our request is. Please vote for it in the fall. I think we have a path to do that. We're just not there yet. We have to continue doing the work. Um and if we do that work, I'll be first in line to support it. Um but if we haven't, um well, hopefully we don't get there. Um but I think we have a lot of important work to do. Thank you. >> Board member Cross. >> I uh I wanted to if we could go back to slide number one about how we got there. I think it might be important to talk about the timing of

215how we got there because some of these changes are very recent. We wouldn't have been able to necessarily anticipate them a year ago. Correct. >> Yeah. I mean, if you think about property tax reform passed between um the November election and the election tomorrow. So I I think part of part of how we got there is timing would be important to to mention that if that's possible or helpful. I think it might be helpful. We had comments in tonight from nearing the public. Why didn't we pass the levy before? Well, we did pass one before, but also this is all new information in terms of what's impacting our revenue. Um, so I I I also feel feel like I really appreciate the presentation. I know it's a ton of work. I know it's a lot

216of um stress and a lot of um hard thinking. I think tonight what you're telling us is that we just need to keep sharpening our pencils in a way to really look at whether it's a contract or we or where where we might have some opportunities to still provide the u impact that we can on student outcomes u as best we can. So, uh, no, I appreciate the update on where we are in the process, what every everything that we've been looking at and, um, it's just going to come down to maybe, uh, where we where we can still make the best impact we can with the resources we have. That's maybe a thought that I have in my head. So, thank you. >> All righty. Uh, so I'll share a few of my thoughts

217here and and try and keep us moving forward. Um, first thing is just a reminder that we have two more three more meetings after the today to pass a budget on time. Uh, I reiterate that in part because I want us to be really thinking about the hard decisions that have to be made, but also because there's no way to tell a voter not to vote for a levy than to say we can't seem to pass a budget on time, but give us more money. Um, the second thing I'll say is I think all of these things are very hard decisions because every single person who walks in and dedicates their time to giving to kids is important. There's not a single person you can sit down and say if you're willing to donate your

218time and dedicate your efforts and do for others in a way that you're not going to get compensated fully for that you're not going to get every praise and wish that you you are owed that we that you still will not do that means something and I say that to say every person has a value. The the true struggle is that we do have a finite set of resources and as we talked about in last last year and the year before that budget, we can keep taking away contracts. We can take away everything else but people. But at some point there is nothing left but people and it is hard and it is rough and it is problematic. If you take people out of HR and then folks want to figure out how come, you

219know, you didn't get processed correctly through HR, this didn't happen through HR. That is true. You take away folks from the treasur's office and you try and figure out why we cannot get these things done financially. There's a reason for it. Everything has a a balance to it. And I I appreciate uh Mr. Gall talking about the fact that there is a balance to the administrative, the like organizational side as well as the academic side and they all play together to ensure that our students are successful. If you cannot hire a teacher, it does not matter how good that person is. If when that teacher gets here, they're not supported, they're not paid on time, they will not stay. if when that teacher gets here, they're having to do 20 things because we do not

220have the other support services within the school, they will not stay. They cannot educate. And so, I do think there is a value to having a lot of these things connected. But I think that's what makes the conversation harder because there is no easy, no good, no way to do the budget that will that will make sure that nobody's hurt. We we've passed a stage two or three years ago when we refused to make any hard moves thin. We as a board made a decision not to make those hard moves thin and we now we're sitting at a point where we don't have those options anymore. I also want to point out that we are not the only district in this world facing this problem. In fact, across the country right now, we're seeing layoffs

221in the percentages of quarter of staff at districts that are being lost. Um there are some very major districts down in Florida that are right now losing 25% of a staff. That's a huge loss for especially the size of some of those districts. And so I and I I don't often to say that this is like an excuse for our work. I just say that it's really hard right now in the field of education because there is not the support for public education that there needs to be. There is not the effort to say we should be funding public education at the rate it should be. That 688 number is actually not what we would ideally want. That 688 number is if we just did everything we did this year in the ways that we

222would do it next year. This is the amount. Because the truth is we haven't done a bunch of stuff that we were supposed to do like our facilities repairs, like some of our IT contracts, like some of these other things that we kept putting off to balance our budget. every year we passed a policy with regards to having a cash balance. So when we talk about we've done stuff and made commitments to doing stuff and we have not lived up to that. So I I I really want us to be honest about like if we're going to have this conversation over the next three board meetings which is fair to have which is important for us to have. Let's also recognize that there has to be something given up at some point. The the last

223thing I'll say uh because I feel like I'm on my little soap box too fast here. Um I want us also to acknowledge and and recognize that if we bring if options are brought back that there are going to be things in there we won't like. There are absolutely going to be things in there we won't like. And there'll be ways that we're going to operate that we will not like. And truth is that all of these things are being done in the best way possible to maintain and get us to a point where we might be potentially able to say we have a new pathway towards education. But my I I will say this about anytime we make a decision about a building as we go forward. I don't believe in closing buildings without

224giving people an opportunity to have their voices heard. I don't believe in telling people we're going to do something in the dead of night when they have not had a chance to react, respond or provide any clarity to that or how that will change. And I think if we sit here and keep saying that doing that did not affect our enrollment right now, I think that is and I think that's a falsehood. I think the fact of the matter is the method in which we used to do some of the changes over the last couple years have affected our current enrollment. And so as we look to the future, we may say that there is a need to do certain steps. There's may be an absolute reason we would do certain things, but let's do

225it the right way. Let's have the conversation. Let's be proud enough and brave enough and courageous enough and strong enough to stand in front of folks who will be upset and say, "I understand you're upset. I recognize you're upset, but this is what we must do." If all we're willing to do is tell the superintendent to be out there and have that conversation and for the board not to be able to take those spears, then why are we here? I als in in saying that I think we have to have a plan if we're going to do certain things to really make a difference. So, if we're going to be here, if we're going to be the the support, if we're going to do this together, if we're going to walk towards our future together,

226because that's the only way you get a a levy pass is that people sit there and look at it and say, "You're doing the right thing." We can look around at the districts around us who right now are passing or attempting to pass a levy for the third time and fourth time and have not been successful. We don't want to be in that space. We've historically not been in a space because we've been able to show we're walking together. And and I think it would be behoove us to to really think about that aspect of this also um as we move forward over these next few meetings. Again, I think everybody wants for us to have a district that operates, that provides the best quality education, that provides the best quality experience, that recognizes every

227aspect of a child's education. It is just far easier said than done these days given our current state. And I just give a little grace to the folks who have been in the trenches because I recognize that we had the unions at the table as part of these discussions and about the budget. I know we've had others in the administration at the table. I know there going to be some departments were basically gutted for lack of a better term as as a result of some of these budget cuts. And I want them to know I recognize that, appreciate that and understand it. And I really wish we didn't have to. But the truth is the first data point that we have to look at is this $627 million number. And so again, I appreciate all

228the effort to be brought here. I think what we've heard today is that, you know, for our 18th our meeting on the 18th that we can bring back some more fuller pictures of what an option would be that the the administration is recommending as well as some comparables, some maybe reasoning and logic behind uh why certain things were recommended, why certain things were not, certain decisions were made um to to provide that information or to provide that as a recommendation. Um, and so we can kind of play around and figure out that that method of how that gets delivered. But I think where we are at least in this process is we do need to get to the probably more full picture at the end of the day of with that $19 million. What is

229the best options that the administration is going to recommend and then whether or not those options are things that the board will offer their opinion about as well as look at the alternatives and make a distinctive uh direction uh advisement for that. Anything else from treasur superintendent other board members? All righty. Jeremy, you can go sit down now. Uh superintendent. So for today's our community segment uh we are going to have just a brief word uh from our friends from children's hospital uh partnering with uh Monushia House. Thank you all. >> Have your own cheering section up here. >> My own cheering. You >> said you're going to be back. No, we are uh I I did say that we would be um we would be back really um excited to uh bring this information

230to you. There's been a lot of work that has been going on this whole year and it dawned on me when we're h I'm having conversations like oh my goodness we've never just shared kind of like an update on the things that we've learned through this um opportunity and we hope that through our findings and the information that we share hopefully it inspires us to um think about things diff differently and that's kind of where the nexus of this work came from through the insp inspiration of the board and the administration of realizing that we have some difficult problems that we have to address whether they're in our school and community and how do we look at that knowing that we do not have the fiscal re uh resources to replicate strategies at every school.

231Um but what does that look like when we look at it through a community lens? So, we're going to talk about just the unified strategy in advancing uh educational and clinical equity. And so, Morgan Henry is here from Children's Hospital. So, welcome her. >> Thank Thank you, board, and thank you, Superintendent Murphy, for having me. pleasure to present with Monisha on the shared strategy with Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center and CPS. We've done great work and my hope today is through this presentation you guys are able to see um not only our progress in our efforts but our continual focus on not only educational outcomes but clinical outcomes and health outcomes. I am here representing the office of population health at Cincinnati Children's and in the office of population health we have three shared strategic

232priorities with CPS um obviously positive school culture which Monisha um greatly represents which aims to reduce chronic absenteeism and that supports social emotional learning and limit exclusionary consequence. The second piece is um known as the population health school program or we commonly refer to that at Cincinnati Children's as PHSP. So as you see that progress throughout this presentation, just wanted to add context to what that meant. That effort is solely dedicated on expanding equitable clinical care to underresourced communities where we are able to use a datadriven approach to identify care gaps and close them. That is the primary goal of that program. The third goal is promoting school health. It's a pilot for chronic conditions. The three chronic conditions are sickle cell, asthma and diabetes. And I will share more about that. But the two

233schools participating in the pilot for the three conditions are rollill and rocktail. If we can advance to the next slide, please. Thank you. So over the years we have had a lot of work in partnership together. Many people don't realize how long this relationship has really um been establishment um really doing great work together starting in 2014 and 16 really thinking about how do we improve reading at third grade. Um so we know that Dr. Um was like a major part of that work and so thinking about how we've transitioned and really how a lot of the work continued to bloom even outside of the curriculum department when it became essential in 20 between 2020 and 20 um 2022 when we were dealing with COVID and how do we close schools and how do we

234open schools and how do we stay safe. There are a lot of things that we learned through the quality improvement process that we continued to expand. There was this commitment not only for us to as a district to make sure that our uh members of our staff and our team were informed on quality improvement processes, but what does that look like and how does that influence our processes and what we do so that we can continue to get better at being the best. And so at this point as we continue we've moved to the work of chronic absenteeism and reducing um exclusionary discipline but we've now at this point in our phase there was a commitment in hiring that resource coordinator manager because we really wanted to look at the work at a community lens.

235What does it look like when we're supporting a community as opposed to many individual schools? But if we address some of the issues in the community, how does that impact all of the schools that are supported within that community? So that's just a timeline, the history of our work. Next slide. So I will present this. you always talk about um data and so just to give you a glimpse of what we have been working on this year our targets in reducing chronic absenteeism there were two communities that we wanted to target based on several factors there were medical factors there were um kind of what is going on in the community and what is chronic absenteeism and where are two places in our city that we want to start this work and so Aendale was

236an area as as well as I could not make a decision between lower and east Price Hill. So I just said all of Price Hill was that important to us. So in the Avendale um area when we think about reducing chronic absenteeism with the starting point of 66% um and having the goal of reducing by 3 percentage points to 63% and then the east and lower Price Hill reducing our chronic absenteeism from 54% to 51%. Um and that was just coming up with those factors alone is very interesting work that we don't do in our capacity. So we needed our partnership with children's to be able to say okay if we put these schools together in all of this data what do we come up with? So our third quarter outcomes Aendale at 62%. So

237it was 4 percentage point improvement from our baseline and we're not even through yet. They still have targets for the end of the the year but we know we have what 18 days left and we're pushing on every day. our east and lower price hill 52% it's two percentage point improvement from the baseline and one percentage point above not yet at the goal of 51% and so to be able to see those improvements and know what we've been trying to do to reach out into the community some of the things that you've talked about bringing in those community resources really talking we've had wonderful conversations with the Price Hill Council to talk about what are their concerns what are resources in their communities Because believe it or not, they want to own this. They want

238to know what is our chronic absenteeism for our community, not just for the district and not just for individual schools. We want to know because we want to improve as a community because that's how we support. And so that is a part on our PSC time. And Morgan's going to talk about some of the health outcomes that we've been able to identify and target. Thank you, Monica. We can advance to Oh, thank you. So talking a little bit about the population health school program again that goal is expanding equitable clinical care to under represented communities. I want to talk a little bit about our data and also talk about where we've been able to close care gaps. So, in the Westwood community or neighborhood alone, Cincinnati Children's encountered in a two-year period 24,891 visits. Those

239can be multiple visits from one patient or one to one, one patient per visit. Of all of those scheduled visits, from a primary care standpoint, only 61% of those visits were completed. The remainder of those visits resulted in a no-show appointment or cancellation, which for Cincinnati Children's is a clear indicator of lack of access, lack of transportation, lack of resources to be able to make the medical appointment. There's also College Hill um gaps or access gaps in the College Hill community where fewer than 300 patients per our data um do not have consistent access to care and we've identified a substantial number of students in those communities that also don't have any um PCP or network um coverage. So, they're not seeing a primary care provider or a specialty provider at all. With that being

240said, talking about our school-based health clinical services. And I want to clarify what a school-based health center is for those that may not be as familiar. A school-based health center is a facility housed within the school that affords students the access and ability to have comprehensive highquality care through a certified or pediatric nurse practitioner in collaboration with the school nurse or the school health assistant. So, as you see the schools that we are currently offering school-based health center services, I also want to note that we do work closely with the school nurse, school health assistant, we also work closely with your mind, peace, and mental health partners. And for some of these sites, we also have launched integrated behavioral health services. The three school-based health centers we've currently um had with CPS or have had

241longstanding, the oldest being Rockdale um dating back 20 plus years is Rockdale Academy, South Aenddale Elementary and Houston High School. And going back to why I mentioned just to clarify Westwood and College Hill, there is a active proposal that if invited again, I would love to provide an update on to propose a school-based health center for Pleasant Hill and Midway. So, we're super excited about CPS partnering with us to identify those care gaps and actually effectively think through a solution to provide kids better access to care. With that being said, I want to talk about some other things we've done with CPS. So, um, this past school year, we've launched at Westwood Elementary, really going back to our data, um, endocrinology care, which is diabetes care for those that are under reppresented addition in addition

242to aiology clinic for those that fail hearing screenings in the school, and dermatology services, which consistently fails. So kudos to you guys at CPS for um promoting those services. There was also recently in the April edition of the Sunday Scoop a promotion and um public announcement about the diabetes services so the district at large have a better understanding of how they can take advantage of those services. I mentioned the Pleasant Hill partnership. So, in conclusion to this slide, one thing that I want to note that I'm very impressed by and it just speaks to how consistency breeds amazing results is at Cincinnati Children's between our mobile care services, our school-based health center services and teleaalth with CPS alone, we've had 2,879 visits scheduled just this calendar year. So very very proud of that work and

243very very proud that your kids are getting that access to care. The last thing I will note before advancing to the next slide is this care is available to students in the school in the greater community. So for mom who has a 10-year-old at Westwood but also have a newborn baby, we will see that newborn baby. So really our goal as your health partners and as a nationally ranked children's hospital, we want to elevate what it means for us to be accountable and be those subject matter experts in providing health and assisting CPS with that. Next slide, please. So chronic conditions performance outcomes. I've talked about that project. I wanted to share at large what the data looks like. So this data to clarify is from a community standpoint. So in deep partnership with Crystal

244Watson and Vicky Graves Hill, we have been able to obtain substantial data that aids our understanding and what chronic conditions are not only impacting students in the school but students in the greater community. With that being said, I will read off the chronic conditions respectively. So for Roll Hill Elementary, we've identified 1,13 patients with asthma, 1114 patients with diabetes, and 32 patients with cickle cell. And patient students, I'll use that interchangeably because at Children's, we tend to use the word patients. So excuse me if I use patients instead of students. For Rockdale Academy, we've identified 1,180 patients with asthma, patients with diabetes, and 26 patients with cickle cell. So that resulted in us identifying um over 2578 children with chronic conditions. So where we are in this project and working with the schools is really

245bringing in a quality improvement approach where we are conducting SFMEAs with the principles accordingly. And what we look to do is co-design how to better manage these conditions for the students in the school and the greater community. But starting with the school some just to give you a preliminary idea of what these interventions could look like. It could look like emergency plans for the school so that the principal or the school health assistant is equipped with understanding what to do during a diabetes crisis. It that is where children's has value add to CPS. Also the kid with cickle cell who might have a trait or when it comes to supplies what does it mean for Cincinnati Children's to show up and support in that space. With that being said, um in our recent budget for

246Cincinnati Children's, we did put aside $20,000 to assist with managing chronic conditions in collaboration with CPS. And we will continue to support you as your um medical partners in closing those care gaps, providing resources needed to better care for children because your kids are our kids. I say that all the time and I can't say that enough. When I hear you guys talk about the impact, the budget, when I hear people speak, the same kids that are in your school are the same kids that are at our hospital and that joint accountability is so important to us at Cincinnati Children's. And I really, really appreciate the opportunity to represent that. >> Thank you for your presentation. Uh, board member Lindy. >> Um, I know it's late. I'll be super quick. Um big thing is thank

247you. Um I'm a big fan of the quality improvement work that you all do. Um also have a family who's been at Children's Hospital many times uh for lots of reasons and appreciate uh um the great um organization uh that you all are. So thank you. Um I I think on this um great to see the decreases in chronic absenteeism. Um on the one hand a small percentage point change is small. On the other hand it's moving in the right direction. And um if we do that every year and keep getting better, that's a big deal. So, thank you. Um I just I had one question on the numbers. If we can go back maybe one slide for a second. >> Yeah. Could could you just say the unit again for are those when it

248says Roll Hill asthma 1,13 patients? >> You want a better understanding of where those numbers are coming from? >> No, just what the unit is. Like there aren't that many kids in Ro Hill. And so I was trying to understand like what the what the number is. >> I love this question. I can clarify. So for what we did when we conducted our initial intake meetings with the principles and this is standard for children's tell us what neighborhoods and zip codes you're pulling from. Vicky Graves Hill said East Westwood Moosewood and um some other communities like Cumminsville Fairmont. So when you see this data number, it's based on the neighborhoods that the principles told us that they're pulling from. So it doesn't represent, we're not saying 1,180 students at I'll actually use Roll Hill as

249an example since that's what we're talking about. 1,13 patients at Rollill have asthma because there's not even 1,13 patients that attend Roll Hill. What we're saying is from the neighborhoods that Roll Hill pulls from, that's how many patients have asthma as a general chronic condition. Does that clarify? >> And those are kids or adults. >> Zero to 18 only. >> 0 to 18. Okay. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Board member Brewster. >> Yeah. Um, thank you for being here. I, um, appreciate all that you guys do. Um, I am glad I clarified earlier when I said we do have great partnerships. Um, because we do. Um, but I I love that you called out being able to train like the school health assistants on those things. And um, I just want to reiterate the importance

250of that cuz for me, I think student health and safety is just incredibly vital because like I mentioned earlier, it's a it's a low need until it's a high need, right? We can't predict any health event. And so I think it's incredibly important that every single one of our schools has medically trained um individuals on site to be able to administer not just medication but CPR or things like that. So um I appreciate all that you're doing and I uh hope we can find a way to make sure that happens for all of our schools. >> Yeah, I appreciate that sentiment. And I I would say additionally in some of our schools when able um we do colllocate with the school health assistant. An example of that is South Aenddale. If you walk in you

251have Mindpiece Cincinnati Children's and the SHA in the same space and it works beautifully because when you think about the continuum of care and how kids experience health crisis, we are all there colloated together to be able to address those needs. Board member Bolton. >> Yes, thank you. Thank you for this report. Uh really appreciate it. Um I know for a district, I know we have, I don't know, 23 or 25 school-based health centers uh as part of our 60some schools. I'm excited to hear what you're talking about regarding Pleasant Hill. Of course, uh uh College Hill is the College Hill campus for Children's is >> actually ne I'm I live next door to it. Uh and it's been such a great partner for the neighborhood. Now, Aken has a school-based health center. >> Correct.

252>> Uh which I think is very important and if but the need at Pleasant Hill I think is quite great. Um and and I I think that would be welcome. And um I believe that uh within the next school year or before the next school year, that whole library building next to Pleasant Hill will be uh perhaps available to us or it's going to be available to us how we choose to use it. And I think a health center would be very useful. Uh and I appreciate that. Um the other thing is I'm so glad to see these statistics because one of the things that has gone wrong for us I think in the last few years is the ending of what we was once called growing well. >> Yes. >> Uh and and children

253played a major part in that and that was those folks were able to keep the statistics of every one of our schools. >> Our health statistics were very very useful. But when the group kind of I won't say disbanded but they instead joined the statewide uh association of school-based health centers and growing well kind of dissolved in its own uh way. We stopped getting as a board those kinds of stats. So I'm thrilled to see these and hope that that with the reemergence for the community learning center institute they are revitalizing the um crossboundary leadership team and I think one of these will be the health centers and let's hope that we can get growing well and now with your leadership u you know that can be a great um instigator if you don't mind

254being an instigator uh that could be useful because for our board members to really know those health stats school by school by school >> also the concentration on getting consent forms >> definitely >> without growing well being very very strong it's been increasingly difficult to get the absolutely crucial consent forms that we once were getting and we were up in in many of our schools up in the 80s some percent without those consent forms, our kids can't seek or whatever the medical care that they need, be it for mental health or physical. Uh, so this is great. I appreciate it. I am interested too. I'm concerned about Roll Hill because of the the the community and the fact that that is um changing significantly and just would be interested not tonight but interested is I've

255been trying to keep track of the degree of segregation in our in our uh uh city of Cincinnati and also the degree and percentages of poverty >> uh by neighborhood. And you know, as you keep working through this and with Dr. House, this is something that we could be talking more and more about uh influencing um or at least informing some of our decisions uh which uh you've kind of played into here and I think that'd be useful. So, thank you so much. And you now have to be the instigator. I feel I have I have a fellow instigator to get growing well back functioning and and vibrant. But this is great leadership on on children's >> and I do want to make a comment about Roll Hill to highlight some additional efforts in why

256Roll Hill was selected as a school for chronic conditions work and why we really wanted to do work there. And I'm sure you guys know this. Roll Hill is one of the top 10 poorest communities in the nation with an average income of around $16,000. We per family we do a lot of school work in Mur Hill. We also do a lot of community work in Ro Hill, including meeting with the community council to understand the impact of all that the community is enduring with the recent sale and other things happening in their community. So, it would be my pleasure and my honor to continue to report out on that community specifically because they do have unique socioeconomic challenges, especially giving the s given the saturation and the size of the community that some of

257your other communities um where you have students don't necessarily have those unique challenges. So, I appreciate that call out. >> Yeah. to follow up exactly on that, the Roll Hill and also Whitten Hills and part of Milvale where you have just the highest concentration of of of children. >> Definitely. >> Uh this just so it's so good that you're doing this work. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, >> Vice President Moffet. >> So, I apologize. I had to step out and go to the restrooms. I missed the beginning, but um I just want to say Children's Hospital is one of my least favorite places. not for the, you know, having to go there, but you all are just very good community partners wherever you land. You happen to be in my neighborhood cuz I'm

258in Aenddale and not only are you very good for our students and our families, but the community council, you're just really good in that neighborhood as well. Um, I have a question though because I know you all do a lot of work with the Aenddale Community Council. So my question is coming from I know what you can do and I used to sit on the family advisory council for uh children's hospital a while ago. Is there any correlation if you go to slide um six rom is there any correlation around the intersectionality of the number of health concerns that you've identified and attendance improvement >> definitely >> so if we know that and I know it's not just rollill but it's not just rockell probably it's probably Cummingsville and other areas too. But if we

259know that those number of students have asthma >> and they're being seen now because your earlier presentation said that many of them did not have primary care physicians. >> Do we are we tracking it to see that now they have an increase in attendance because they're dealing they're managing their asthma. >> Are we looking at it like that? >> Yeah. So we are starting to look at that through um two different pathways and two different projects. One is a release of information project that Cincinnati Children's is spearheading where at the outset of registration we are attempting to collect and ensure that it is accurate the school that the families say that they attend or the students say that they attend. That helps us make the health link. But the long-term solution to what you're proposing

260is some form of data sharing agreement that is HIPPA and FERPA compliant where Cincinnati Children's is able to share information with CPS and vice versa because you guys are the primary holders of attendance while we have the primary records for health and sometimes if those two systems don't interface or speak or we don't have an effective in place. hard for us to share that information from a birectional standpoint. So that is one of our goals is to improve information sharing from both organizations. >> I was just wondering because you are seeing a decrease in absenteeism which is perfect but as we see an increase in services I'm wondering is there a correlation there >> there is um and it is hard right like in the QI space to say it's one singular thing. Some of

261the trends or root causes we have identified and Monish keep me honest for chronic absenteeism is transportation related. We see that kids miss more school when it's below is it >> degrees about 27 23 that's when they start to fall off. We do see that a lot of families that even say transportation is a primary issue. When we started peeling back, we noticed some commonalities like, whoa, >> a large percentage of these kids also have a chronic condition, particularly asthma. And so families were very hesitant on sending their kids in the wintertime, which is that third quarter blues that we have in January, February, March, because they're trying to protect their kids from having bad asthmatic reactions and what have you. So I think the more that we can have preventative care, preventative services, but

262even the education around how to stay healthy and there's so much and so many things that we probably could share about um Children's um provided um air purifiers for our families that just want them um especially in these areas. And if you think about where they are and they have students with these chronic conditions and they need um clean air in their houses to keep them healthy. So that's just like a resource that we're able to connect um with those families. So we anticipate seeing a greater impact now that we have doing a lot of like um looking at root cause analysis. We know what appropriate strategies we should put in place because some of the strategies we thought were the problem. >> It's not that people don't want to send their kids to school.

263We just had to do a little bit deeper even beyond the initial whatever parents told us. >> I was wondering that and you know I kind of like the data piece. So that was why I asked that question. And then my other um comment really is that this data sounds like something that the city could also use. So perhaps and I'm talking to my colleague um board member Armbberster that this could be a topic for presentation at the joint med the joint city council CPS meeting because um there are plans for Roll Hill and Ethel Taylor and Milville and Whitten Whitten Terrace um that the city knows about but they're impacting our students um environmentally um and we we need to maybe have some of this data presented um on a on a different level.

264We we did that a lot with Project Connect and they they wanted Project Connect to come back. I think this is another area where they they would want that data um because it's it's really it's really telling that our kids are impacted. We're working really hard to reduce absenteeism, but it's also a health concern and those are neighborhoods that they have her view over for sure. So hopefully we'll and if you do have any other information, any other data to share, I'm happy to look at it too because I like it. >> Thank you. Thank you. I like data too, so we have that in common. >> Yes, we do. >> Absolutely. Thank you, >> Board Member Matt. >> Uh thank you for the presentation. I do not have any questions. I just really want

265to um communicate that I'm very impressed with the presentation overall. Um I uh am greatly appreciative of the focus on looking at the root cause analysis right and helping uh that helping to inform kind of like strategic plans right and decisions and um also taking that opportunity to engage in the community um to ensure that it is a collective partnership. So I greatly appreciate the partnership that we have with uh Cincinnati Children's and your uh subject matter expertise. it is truly instrumental. Um I know that I've served in the capacity of doing trauma informed assessments and and from that data you all were able to provide um um family counseling services which I was able to serve as one of those providers in schools like Rothenberg and Taft Elementary. So I know the great work

266that you all do. I'm so again um appreciative of the partnership and my hopes is that we are able to not just have this information um just for the sake of having it. Um I know you all are not um looking at it from that way, but as a collective, as a board, as an administration that we're really utilizing this information to help drive the decisions, especially as we've talked about um in our budget social workers, as we've talked about our counselors or our resource coordinators, how do we use this information that we were just provided with today, right? We're talking about the progress that's being made. how do we use that information to support um our overall um outcomes and objectives that we're trying to to reach. So that is the focal point for

267me. So thank you again um for this presentation. It was really great. >> Thank you. >> All righty. Uh seeing no other questions. Uh thank you for sticking around till 9:45. Uh that's true dedication as a partner. Um and you guys are free to go. >> Thank you guys for your time. All righty. I believe that is our last presentation for today. Um we are now at the section of board matters, inquiries, updates and assignments. I think the first thing on the topic was uh preschool promise. Uh board members, as board members are aware, we received a recommendation. And so at the next board meeting, we will uh have a discussion around who are the folks that we will be nominating uh for the preschool promise uh board this cycle. Um but we want to

268thank everybody, thank the uh families forward folks uh for submitting a name to us um so that we could uh consider it for our um recommendation here. And because as folks are aware, each of the five seats we've had historically had groups that were associated with uh submitting names for our recommendations onto the preschool promise board. Uh families forward has been the one that handled our community learning centers um and and uh support. And so um they have continued to bring about another name to replace uh former board member um Carolyn Jones. Uh board member Bolton. Thank you. I just wanted to say something about Families Forward. One of the reasons that Families Forward is actually on the preschool board, so to speak, uh, governing board is that, uh, they were the first lead agency

269in the district. And that is why Mrs. Ronan said that uh through Deborah Alop and whoever families Forward, they were the absolutely the first ones that were seated uh at the request of the superintendent because of their long history of support for the district and as the longest serving lead agency. >> Excellent. Excellent. >> All righty. Uh yeah, look, we got a lot of history coming up with these 200 years that we've been been around as a district. Um, next. Yeah, >> I I was a little worried when member map talked because I thought >> No, just adding and noting that you would have enjoyed being a part of the classroom. I had the opportunity to kind of step into my teacher role for just a moment. So, >> I saw pictures I saw pictures

270of uh Bolton Um our next uh next up on our board matters that were submitted uh vice president. >> So I'll just be very brief. I wanted to um share with my colleagues a little bit about my request. Send it that way. Send it this way. for the Oaks presentation. Superintendent Murphy had an opportunity I had an opportunity to speak with General Counsel Ho and um Superintendent Murphy has made an appointment so I'm to speak with the uh president of the Oaks and do a little bit more deeper dive. Rather than go into this in and read it, I just thought I would give you guys just some of what I thought around um why that request was there. Uh it would have to require as per general counsel has submitted a levy from the

271voters. Um I do we do actually know several Great Oaks board members. They've been wanting a partnership with CPS for many many years and they have satellite locations. Um many districts are satellite locations and so I thought of it as a way to possibly explore um having some enrollment in our buildings. we are losing students to um other districts that are open enrollment and actually getting some of our students who want a more robust opportunities. And so um the superintendent has agreed to do a little bit more research and so she'll bring that back with us. But I just wanted to provide you all with some of the reasonings why uh I actually made that suggestion. Um the levy would they require well Dan has already sent us all that but um they some of

272my questions are on the back and then superintendent Murphy's going to collect more data so that's just it. >> All right I think you have the next couple questions. >> I actually do. Um the Rosson House. I was wondering about Rosson House as just some of our assets and I wanted to get from the administration um what is the usage clarification on the usage because we had a memo under a previous administration in 2023 that it was not usable for kids in part because it was the ADA compliance. um it needed some work which I think it has had and then we got an updated memo January 5th of 2024 um from Elevar Design Group and um it was talked about maybe having it as not community space but um making some improvements for possible

273meeting space without kids um maybe the district as a whole. So, I'm just And we said can, so I just wanted to understand what was the intended usage of that since we couldn't put kids there. >> Yes. In Mr. Bart's absence, my understanding is it'll be used for cans. I have not had a chance to speak to the principal about the specific use, but I did have a chance to touch base with him to make sure that was his understanding as well that can be utilizing the Rosson building. >> Okay. I just kind of had some concerns about that because we It says in his memo there were recreational limitations, parking restrictions. Um, and this was August of 2024. Um, operational scope. It was limited to office functions for up to 10 people. So, I

274just was wondering um is it only cans? Is it going to be just maybe a site that that the district uses for events? We've had that happen long ago. I went to as a community member um a meeting with Superintendent Mitchell and it was she used it to entertain the community around question and answers and so I just was wondering what was the usage based off of the improvements. So by uh >> vulnerable >> uh I would just add to that I know that um a tremendous amount of money has been spent now at Rosson far more than I think many of us anticipated would ever be. Uh, of course it is contiguous to the other pieces of property that we own, which are obviously where Canes is, but also the land that we own

275with the recreation uh that that sits the land on which the Clifton Recreation Center sits. All of that's contiguous. uh for the uh Rosson my understanding and recollection is that we had to get special uh zoning uh for cans and I know that's gone through that was a hold up for a while and then I think Mr. Birkart, if I recall, really was making it into something even more than what we were all anticipating, but I think it is now available for kids and available for whatever zoning modifications had to be made. Uh what I've heard people talk about too is a an not only as a meeting place uh both districtwide and and uh uh as a small concert or exhibition area as well, but what I've heard too is a is an extension

276regarding our culinary uh uh kids uh from Dator in particular as a place to actually house events that they could be doing as well as uh some some CTE regarding agriculture and landscaping and kids actually taking the responsibility of of some of that land. I know the community, the neighborhood's very interested in finding ways to uh uh share in some of the responsibility, but it I think it'd be great when Mr. Burkhart's back maybe get a a full rundown. Uh it's incredibly important to and I know we've already eased on to the property line uh for uh the the house itself and I think we had to draw lines uh and change lines because I think that's where the playground started to abut into the actual yard area. Yeah, I think it says it says

277that the building was designed to accommodate approximately 10 people daily for office use and up to 30 people occasionally, but it's not really intended for kids. And so again, I just as we look at assets and as we look at budgets, I'm just wondering um you know, this should also be on the the list as well. That was just >> further clarification is needed. certainly as part of the inventory just like the >> acorage on the west side and stuff. >> Yeah, for sure >> because cans is already use I'm not saying that they don't need capacity but I'm just saying that um to have that there I want to understand what we're intending to use that for. >> Dr. Mafy, can you point me in the direction I can find that document that information?

278You said it's from 24 >> you're talking about from um uh Chief Burkhard or the emails. I'll send you the email from January 5th, 2024 was a memo from uh Dan Ho to the board members and then uh July 12th, 2023 was a memo from um former superintendent, right? So, I'll send them to you if you want. >> I think uh general counsel and uh assistant superintendent Badget they have the information also, so they can provide it. And I think you have two more. Um well the needs assessment um we we kind of talked about that. I think that the superintendent is going to bring that one back. So um with just more information on how we're getting our our data. I was wondering were we using a student centered model for the the budget

279but um I can send that in an email. That's fine. And then the preschool request um I'm going to table that for the >> another meeting. Uh, are there any other board matter items? Board member Arber. >> Uh, yes. Just given the discussion we had tonight, I think it is great to bring up that um, Council Member Albi and her team um, had reached out to see if we wanted to sneak in another joint meeting regarding pedestrian safety. um they have their regularly scheduled committee meetings at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesdays. So they offered up Tuesday, June 2nd and Tuesday, June 16th as an opportunity for us to meet. So, I can send that out via email to you guys, but I just kind of thought I would bring it up here and get a consensus

280on whether or not we thought we could find um time for that given the uh conversation around crossing guards today. >> Okay. What dates did you say? I'm sorry. >> June 2nd and June 16th. They are both Tuesdays. >> Okay. Can you send the email? >> Yep, I will. I just wanted to make sure like we were all inclined to conduct that meeting >> another time. >> Yeah. >> And this would be specifically focused on just pedestrian safety. Um I this was something that was brought and I felt we should uh talk about as a board instead of making choices without >> I think it could be helpful especially given the fact that at the last meeting we didn't have a full opportunity to discuss those um common adjacent um areas and then also I

281know that we all received um emails specifically to you know different schools around um this very topic. So I will be open to it. Uh yes, >> just a note, the June 2nd day in the evening is the CPS retiree recognition. >> These are during the day >> during the day. >> These are 12:30. >> They their committee regularly meets at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesdays. So they were offering that time slot. We could host it here or their location notwithstanding, but time and dates were set for them. So, they just thought we could do that. >> So, we'll send an email out and then again, we'll maybe coordinate through uh Miss Davis or Miss Buckner to try and figure out what schedules work best and which date might work best for the board. Uh any

282other board matters, inquiries, updates, assignments? All right, seeing none, um, a proposed agenda, a proposed consent agenda has been distributed. However, before we uh get a motion forward to ordo the exemptions, um I wanted to make sure that we're also aware that we did an amendment or to amend it, I should say, um to include the um resolution completing the evaluation of the chief audit executive. Um this was something that was added to the to the board docs but was not added prior to us submitting out the actual agenda for today's um meeting. So it is would need to be amended to be added to the consent agenda but it was shared in in full to the full board. >> May I make a motion to amend the consent agenda? Is that what you're looking

283for? >> So I just wanted to make that announcement before we do the exemption the exceptions first. >> Okay. Then we'll do the motion. Yes. Uh so are there any exceptions? >> Yes. Just one exception. Uh like to abstain from uh page eight, line item three under the treasures report. And I'll again if you need me to say it, page eight, line item three. >> All right. Well, then now I will take a motion for the amended consent agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All righty. >> All right. Miss Arburster. >> Yes. >> Miss Bolton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Crosset. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lindy. >> Yes. >> Miss M. >> Yes. >> Vice President Moffett. >> Yes. >> President Greg. Yes. Um, seeing no further business for today, um, I will let me

284first say this. We'll have a meeting on the 18th is our next board meeting. Our next business meeting and I can't remember the other date. So, I will this late hour 15 >> 14th I don't wait a minute. >> It's too late of an hour for me to figure out what the dates are. >> Is it? >> But we have also our committee of the whole meeting as well before our next board meeting. Um but I will now entertain a motion for adjournment.