001Seeing a quorum of voting members, I call the October 20th Cincinnati School Board meeting to order. I apologize that we are coming out of exact session late, so I apologize to everyone. Rob, were we were you ready? I'm sorry. Okay. Superintendent Murphy, please introduce our wonderful students from one of our wonderful schools who are leading us virtually. So, I'm happy to share that today uh the students from South Aendale Middle School where April Simmons is the principal will be leading us in our pledge. >> Please rise. Join me class as we do our version of the pledge of allegiance. That's the South Aendale Middle School version. I pledge allegiance >> I pledge allegiance >> to the flag >> of the United States >> of America >> and to the republic >> for which it stands.
002One nation under God. >> One nation under God. >> Indivisible. >> With liberty >> And justice >> for all. >> Excellent. Excellent. I like that. All right. Now, we got a little competition going on here because I'm liking the versions. mic in the versions. Treasurer Augustine, please call the attendance role. >> Mr. Craig, >> here. >> Mr. Crosset. >> Mr. Lindy >> here. >> Miss Matt >> here. >> Mrs. Weinberg >> here. >> Vice President Bolton >> present. >> President Moffett >> here. Vice President Bolton, please share the uh expectations around the hearing of the public. >> Thank you very much. I certainly will. Members of the public who are online and wish to speak during our hearing of the public this evening may do so by clicking the chat button now. The chat feature
003will be open for your requests for five minutes. If you would like a direct response to our question to your questions, please make sure that you share your name, your affiliation to the district, your school community, your topic, and your contact information. Wow, that was quick. I need a motion and a second to approve the October 20th business meeting agenda. >> So moved. >> Second. Treasure Augustine, please call the voting role. >> Mr. Craig, >> yes. >> Mr. Crosset, >> yes. >> Mr. Lindy, >> yes. >> Miss Matt, >> yes. >> Mrs. Weinberg, >> yes. >> Vice President Bolton, >> yes. President Moffett. >> Yes. And just like that, tonight's agenda is approved as posted. Do board members have any acknowledgements or uh announcements. I just need to be like on a swivel back and
004forth. All right. Superintendent Murphy, please present any announcements or retirements that you may have. I would like to start by acknowledging uh one certificated personnel who is retiring and that is Susan Suré, a psychologist in our department of student services. Congratulations to her. And then I do have one uh actually I'll make two announcements if that's okay. The first that is in the deck is uh recognizing that Spencer Center has been named one of Greater Cincinnati's best elementary schools by NISH, a leading school ranking platform. This naming is based on a detailed analysis of state test scores, student teacher ratios, student diversity, and student parent reviews. I don't know. I'm thinking Rob that might be on the next slide. I'm sorry. There we go. Yes. So, congratulations to Spencer Center. And then I just want
005to make mention of um on last Thursday night, our athletic department led by Mr. Josh Harden had our induction. And so, appreciate all of those who were able to attend and congratulations to our new uh inductees. [Applause] And I apologize. I was not able to get my pictures in to Rob in enough time, but I do want to say I attended the Athletic Hall of Fame. It was awesome. It was unfortunately on the same day as the Bengals Steelers game, so I was on a quick In and Out >> and the Brandy Monica concert, so had to be quick for me, but it was good. And I also want to say um I attended with Assistant Superintendent Randolph, Superintendent Murphy, and my colleague, Mr. Crosset. It was a great great time. And I did not
006submit my pictures in enough time, but we had an opportunity to hear from one of our colleagues as a keynote speaker uh for the guiding light mentoring program and she did an awesome job and we had one young student would you like to speak on it who was an AWL student who was considered the mentee of the year. Yeah, it was a extremely um very um well I would say an outstanding program in which uh guiding light mentoring they honored u mentor and a mentee of the year and this little girl from AWL came up in her crown and she was owning it and just was very excited to just share uh the great journey that she has had with her mentor. So kudos to her and I think for our next meeting we'll make
007sure to have at least a picture and her name as well to share. >> All right, we are now at the item on the agenda where I turn it over to Vice President Bolton for the hearing of the public. >> Thank you very much. We are now at the item of uh our agenda for hearing the public. Each speaker will have two minutes and will address all comments to the presiding officer. If you have any materials or presentations or wanting to be that were wanting to be distributed to the board, please give them to board administrative assistant Miss Davis who is here uh in the second row somewhere there. She'll raise her hand when she comes in. If you're on line, once a request to speak has been granted, you'll be invited to enter. You
008should 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 want a response or to any of the questions you might raise. This request is consistent with board protocol. We appreciate your help. In the unusual event that someone is not willing to follow this protocol, we reserve the right to end that 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 matters. After speaking, if you're online, you'll briefly see the welcome screen again as you transition back to live stream meeting. Finally, we ask that your public commentary be respectful of all listeners and we remind everyone that the twominut requirement uh is
009not a limit on the president of the Cincinnati Federation of Teachers. Tonight we have two members live. And do we have anybody online? Oh, we have one speaker. Uh, great. Uh, and that is Miss Jackson. Erica Jackson. Come on down to the podium. We welcome you uh and are happy to be here with you. and also might want to make reference perhaps uh President Moffett might want to make reference to the folks that are in the audience with the same t-shirt. >> We're going to give uh their director uh CPEN uh two minutes to speak about why they're here. So, we'll put Miss Mrs. Davis on there as well. >> Perfect. Oh, excellent. >> I can go whenever >> you go. >> Hello. I'm um a mother of seven. I have one who just graduated
010from Hughes last year. Um, we are having a big issue with the IEPs. The IEP is something that parents aren't aware of our rights behind it. Though there is laws that stand behind our children with disabilities, and these children are being pushed to the side. I had to even go get somebody to advocate for me outside of myself for my children. But we're not even aware that there are laws that stand behind us and our children. And our children are being left behind. So my question is if it can be answered if the staff can be retaught these different laws and these different regulations that support these children with these learning disabilities so they don't keep falling behind. And my last question is about the homeless parking lot. My question is, is anybody considering the
011trauma that these children will withstand sleeping in cars and how we've had to do this also in our own lives? Sleeping in cars when we haven't had stuff. I've been homeless. I've slept in shelters. I've been in the street with my kids. But the trauma is just what we're healing from just now because I signed my children up. I know there's therapists and psychiatrists, but if the parents don't give acknowledgement or consent, then the children aren't getting the help that they need. So, as a parent, I'm here for everybody because we don't know all of the information that supports us as well as their parents. And we're just trying to advocate for our kids. But if we advocate for our kids and we're not being heard, we're left with no other choices or options to
012make for our children. >> Thank you. >> So, those were my two questions. >> Thank you very much, Miss Jackson. Appreciate it. And now this is Miss Davis. Okay. >> Hello members of the board. Um so my name is Christian Davis and I'm the CEO and founder of Cincinnati Parent Empowerment Network. We are the largest parentled organization here in the city with over 26,000 families in our network. Um we've recently recently launched a 8-week parent paid parent um fellowship training. Um so in the audience today we have our first cohort. Um so over the next eight weeks we will be educating parents on how to navigate through the education system as well as how to become more civically engaged because we believe that both of those go hand in hand. Um so we are excited.
013This is our first field trip. so to speak. Um many of the parents in the room have never been to a school board and so today they are really just here for observation to learn the um structure of the board to look at the agenda to learn who the board members are. Um they were also given an observation sheet as well. So thank you so much for having us. Um and we will follow up with the email to each of you just to kind of keep you updated of our progress. Thank you. >> Thank you. Well, welcome. Welcome to everybody. >> That concludes uh the portion of the hearing of the public. >> I particularly like all those t-shirts out there. >> Yeah, that's a nice color blue. It's nice to look out and see
014some blue. >> Um let's see. Superintendent Murphy, we're on you. Please introduce your presentation. >> Yes, ma'am. So, uh, Jeremy Galyhu is going to join me for this presentation, but this is work that we started last late last school year, um, into the summer with the senior leadership team as well as the directors of the district and some of our managers looking at, um, our district resources. And so this is including the work that we've done looking at our data for the school year and then moving towards our strategic plan uh for this upcoming school year. So I will turn it over to Jeremy. >> Well, thank you Superintendent Murphy and good evening everyone. It is my pleasure and privilege to be able to introduce the CPS resource asset and service maps tonight. This collection
015represents an exciting online interactive resource for our families, the community, our partners and our staff. Uh really this development began as the superintendent uh mentioned a number of months ago when she led a conversation as she defined with the leadership, the director, the departments around what really are the must playing tricks on me. Let me see if I can keep going uh around what really are the CPS musthaves that define CPS. So, this is really a brainstorming session through a whole child lens where we looked at those critical things which really broke down into the people, partners and services that we have and that we offer that can wrap around our students and give them the best outcomes possible. So at the conclusion of that brainstorming and creating these lists, it beg the inevitable question,
016right, is how do we make the availability of all of this more visible to the re to the our customers, right? Uh so if you want to click on that link for me, Rob, or go to the next page, you'll see this is our landing page on the website that is live tonight. So this is immediately live and available right now. So on this page, you'll see the header of course along with a description of what we're going to be looking at and talking about for the rest of the presentation around the maps. You want to flip back for me for just a second and to the next slide. So as we went through these lists, we broke it down into four categories. So really what those represent is four individual maps. Uh you'll see
017what I mean by interactive here in just a moment when we look at them. And we could really go through each of these buckets and say, "Okay, under the partner locations and services, here are the things you'll see, but I think it's a lot more impactful. How about we just go and look at it?" We'll flip over to the first one. So, just to orient us a little bit as Rob brings up the map. First of all, these are built on the Google platform. So, it's very similar to what you've experienced that familiarity and that usability of a Google Maps experience. You'll see by default when you go to any of the maps collectively, you'll see that it opens by default to the Cincinnati area highlighting the Cincinnati public schools overall district boundary and our
018schools. If you would click on one of the schools for me, so here's part of that interaction. If you click on any of the icon showing, it will pull up and tell you the name or the label of what that icon is representing as well as the address that you're looking for. So that starts at the base level with our schools. So let's take a look at one of the others. Let's click off the schools for a second. And these list on the left are basically the layers to the map. So you can enable any of these that you would like. So let's say we're a parent and we want to look and see where do I what are resources available that I can find for before school care. So click on before school care
019for me and immediately you'll see we have the flags pull up. It'll tell you where all of the before school care uh offerings and services are at across our district. It also if you click on one of those it'll tell you who the provider is as well as the address and what the service they're offering is back now you can also so we can uncheck look at after school quite a few more offerings there they are colorcoded by showing who the providers are so that you can follow if there's multiple providers for one service let's take one more let's look at our athletic partners at rec centers so all of these are in reference to our schools. That doesn't necessarily mean all the services are in our buildings, but they're the services around our buildings.
020So, looking at the rec centers, if you want to click the schools, you can look to see multiple layers. So, we can actually turn the schools on to see where they're at and then have the rec centers layered with that so that you can see where those services are in relation to our buildings. So, that's that kind of breaks down. There's a couple more of these we can go through, but that's the partnership category. Then we have the CPS programs that that really details the program focuses for each of our schools and offerings around there. Uh go to that one for just a second. So again, it'll load the CPS default view and then you can start enabling what layers you would like to see. So you can see language programs and you can see
021by the language it'll break down where those are located at and what we have to offer. Let's look at the books and library availability. Again, overlapping not just the CPS resources in our buildings, but where all of those are at. So, it includes the public library where books are available through our re Rosie reader program as well as just schools that have libraries where books are available in the Queen City Bank boot book bank. All right, let's go to the next one. So this click back over to the other slide for just a second is the CPS asset and data map. This one is less about where specific resources are although there are a few you can see on the list like the few the food distribution locations which are really important but it also
022just has some additional data about us. So, if you wanted to go and look at the report card star, overall star rating of each of our schools, you can see we now have school year 2324 and school year 2425. So, now if you want to flip back over to the go down and let's let's turn on the 23x 24 first. So, we can see what each of those are for each of the schools. But with this one, you can also leave that one turned on, but go down and turn the 2425 on. So basically, by toggling on either one of these at the same time, you can flip back and forth to see what the changes were for each of those locations. It gives you a one-stop shop to be able to see that very
023visually. All right. And our final map, we can just go straight to that one is around the safety and transportation offerings, protocols and controls that are in place. So this takes a little bit different look again at our schools so that we can see what the particular equipment or services around transportation and safety are in reference to the buildings. So start at the top and this one also has a little bit different functionality you can see built into it just from the interaction. If we take these in order and start enabling the layers let's enable the safety safety flashing speed limit layer. That's a tongue twister. Take the school. Yeah. So first we'll see this is where the flashing speed limit signs are. But now let's click the non- flashing. And you'll see that it
024changes so that you can kind of track what is h what is available at each location. Let's go to the next one for the painted crosswalks. So again, building on each of those layers where you can see what was there before and what is there in addition to the crosswalk signals. Uh let's add the speed bumps. So you get the idea. So you can add each of those layers and and can and see at each school what are the safety controls that are in place. Okay. And again, this is found live starting tonight on our CPS website off the community hub. So, if you go to our community, you'll see the CPS asset resource uh resource asset and data maps that are available or services maps that are available tonight. Any questions? >> Board members,
025uh board member Craig. >> So, first, thank you. This is a tremendous thing that we are doing and it is a tremendous thing that a lot of districts have not done um to put those assets in front of consumers and to make them easily obtainable. So I want to say that you know kind of upfront here because I think that's another aspect that we've had conversations with parents about trying to navigate figuring out where schools are in addition to also figuring out how which school is right for their students and those type of things. uh but also the community partners and the other aspects of things that are going on around that community is a great way to again inform parents and inform the community of where they can be of assistance. Um I guess
026my my only question is as we continue to look at more and more of the partnerships and opportunities to partner with some of our community uh organizations, some of them may not have as stagnant of a spot, right? So they may operate out of multiple places and so have we given any thought about like kind of that aspect of it u you know I think about like for instance places that will go meet students at different places or will maybe they're at the library on certain days of the week to provide a service or those type of things where it's not so much a set location how we might incorporate those into the so we've had some of those conversations one thing I would definitely say is this is a version one so this is
027we wanted to get live get our base levels down By no means is this an exhaustive list of the resources, assets and services that we have, but it was a critical starting point that we wanted to get available, you know, within the time frame we had. So there's definitely a phase two or improvements to come three, four and on as we look at deeper into more of the things that we could add just so that there's more awareness around and we'll definitely consider that in terms of you know mobile services. There are ways to do that in a mapping schema as well. We just have to see how it would apply best, but we definitely will consider that. >> Great. Thank you, >> M Crosset. >> Yeah, thank you again to echo um Brandon's comments.
028Very impressive maps and very useful and visual and thank you for doing it. I I was I'm assuming this is version one. So, for example, when you clicked on a school, all it had was the address. Maybe you could have the phone number and the grades that it serves and maybe even the uh what do you call that thing that outlines where the school territory is? >> What's that called? >> The attendance boundary. >> Yeah, maybe. Maybe it could even have that someday. So when a parent clicks on a school, they can know, do I live in that school's boundary? And uh can I call the building? >> Those are absolutely things on the on the >> to visit for next time. There's things like that you could do throughout the whole all the maps.
029Yeah. Thank you. >> Wineberg, I was just going to say thank you so much. As I'm kind of looking through the different options that we have here, I do like the interaction aspect of being able to see what the stars are for each of the schools and then also being able to see before and after school care. I think this is going to be a great tool for a lot of families who want to compare and kind of try to see what's in their area as well. So, thank you so much and I look forward to digging a little deeper into it as well and um also being able to suggest any additions. So, thank you, >> Vice President Bolton. >> Yeah. Um I I think this is f fantastic uh for for board members
030this is fantastic. I think it's really great for the community. Um uh some things I and not surprisingly just as we've said since this is version one I this is so developed already. This is version one or the beginning or the baseline. Uh thinking to some of the conversations we've had with city council uh previously this um the interest in where our extracurricular activities would be and what they would be by school particularly at our high schools but also in our feeder programs as well. Uh because I've heard a couple of times out on the actually out on the campaign trail uh been hearing uh people talk about this school or that school providing more care and more this more that and I I think we need to make sure that we list our extracurricular
031where where we can. I'd probably draw in as best you can since you kind of invented the lines that uh show what the corridors are. That might be interesting. Um, but and to uh somebody that just mentioned it about the libraries, thinking of them as a as a a partner to us might be something to continue to to work for. And I didn't notice if and it because you went so fast uh which we appreciate uh health centers, vision, dental and medical uh centers that we have that are housed in our schools. again something that not everybody knows but some this is this is great and I you had the preschools which I think is very important um I don't know if we would want to put the uh other the private providers regarding preschool
032and maybe that is there but it for sure it was ours was just ours might want to put in the private providers and where they're located as well but I I think this is great I think that probably next year this is going to be something to take to OSBA PA to shame every the other 606 school districts cuz they don't have this and uh this is great and this you know what this is really not only a great compilation of of your work and everybody's work but seeing this it's a it's like a history lesson I mean these are things that didn't happen overnight people made great efforts to make sure that they're there like that partnership with the recreation commission and how many recreation centers are so close to our buildings and what
033have you. So, I'm very impressed, very pleased, and I would just make those couple of suggestions. Um, but or three suggestions, but I I love it. I love it. It's better than the big wall I always keep talking about. We need to put on a big wall everything we do at each building. And but this is great. You've caught me into this other century that I've been avoiding for a long time. Thank you, >> woman. Uh thank you for the presentation. Um I think this as my colleagues has stated is uh very helpful um for uh parents for uh partners and for all of us within the district. Um my question is around and I haven't had a chance to peruse it um but my question is around um the school piece. Is there um
034opportunity for maybe each school to maybe have like a impact report? like I'm thinking about instruction. So, if this is a tool that we're utilizing to have our parents interface with this material, one to recognize what assets are available um in proximity to the school, but also what um it what you know uh assets are at that school. Particularly, I was wondering if there's an opportunity to make sure that we capture that um as like a you know, it could be a onepage impact report of all the highlights for that particular school. who I recognize that yes, they can go to the school's website, but again, this may be one um way or method to again showcase the various strengths that each school has and what the programming looks like for that particular school. And
035then um if there's a way to again continue to tie this into like that instructional piece. Um so just wondering if there's conversation or thoughts around that because again we want to make sure that um our community is aware of the assets around the particular schools but also within the schools specifically um because again I think this is a an engagement piece. I think this could be an opportunity for um really increasing enrollment and so really utilizing um this tool to the best of our ability. So just curious uh has there been conversation around those uh areas that I asked about? >> Yeah, absolutely. There's definitely been conversation, thought and consideration to the opportunities. Um, again, you know, from a version one to maybe three, four or later and some of those ideas that we're
036talking about, but I mean, this could definitely go down to a more granular level to where we start at the district and work down when you go to a school that you then see the school in and of itself as a map with the services and those kind of things. Um, I think that's definitely a developmental future that we would want to look into. >> Thank you for that. And again, thank you for version one and I look forward to what's to come from this. >> Well, I'm going to give my comments. Um, I am always impressed with you, Jeremy. Thank you so much um for the work that you do. This is great. I do have a couple of um insights, not criticisms, insights. >> I'll take them both. >> So, um I am
037very interested. While I love it, I think it is wonderful. Um, I'm interested in parent feedback. We have a wonderful group of parents right there that we can be asking about u maybe to to collect some of their data, but I think we need to also ask the customer what do they think about it? What do they first of all, what do they need? And secondly, what do they think about what we've built and then put those areas of interest in place? Because I'm interested very much in website traffic. Um, I I'm not exactly sure if people are coming to our website in droves. So to put a wonderful tool there that is not going to be utilized is um would be a a wonderful waste of the talents and treasures of your department. And
038so um please get some parent feedback. I would also solicit staff feedback and uh student feedback. Uh they are the people that are going to be using this and um while we've built this and and I love it, I just want to make sure that it's utilized. segueing that into a mobile version. I think that may be more realistic um than to drive people to our website. I know mobile's mobile mobile sites, mobile apps and things cost money, but I don't know if we have the ability to kind of easily segue into um a mobile version that would be a little bit more utilized. When I think of a mobile version version and when I think of the engagement piece, I'm very interested in tying this into Metro's existing um route information so that if
039I do want to go to Carson, I know how to get there. if I live on the west side of town or on the east side of town. Um I think that the functionality should be um broader based than just awareness because this is an awareness piece to me more than an engagement piece. Um this is about sharing what we do rather than having people engage in it. But along the lines of engagement, I'd be very interested to see if we could add PTO's to this. What buildings have PTO's? what buildings have LSDMC's? Put a contact information there so that they can just click on it and link. Um, again, I don't see this as being something that people are going to look at and be like, "Wow, I'm just really really um going to
040keep engaging with this like a game, but more like this is where I'm going to go to get information." And I really don't want to have to call the help center to get the contact information. If I am already here and I'm looking at it, I want to get the whole gamut. that I want to be able to email and text and all of that from here and figure out how to get there. So, I um I'm I'm very interested in the mobile version. Lastly, I will say for phase two, I think this is a wonderful tool for those English-speaking families and students. Uh not so much for the our ESL families and students and staff. So I think we need to um this is great but is there a version where we are engaging
041our families of a of a different language where their native language is not English? Again I would very first before I go and switch this into a different language ask them what they need because they'll be able to tell you what they're interested in far better than myself. But this is a great um this is a great foundation. Um, I'm really interested to see the parent, the staff, the student, and the community feedback. This is really more importantly for community, the community to know what we're what we're doing. Um, so we can brag on it for sure, but if we're going to brag on it, we need to make it so that they don't really have to ask us for a question, uh, you know, for an answer. It's already there. So, and again, the
042extracurricular piece is what I was interested in when I suggested we put all this in one place. I'm thinking of a parent that maybe I just want to know if your school has Girl Scouts. Maybe I don't want to know all this, but I, you know, that's what I'm thinking parents are going to want to use it for. But again, that's me as a grandparent. We got a group of parents right there that'll tell you what they would use this for, if they will use it, and what they might need in the tool. So, um, I'm I'm very interested in seeing in the near future phase two, and some engagement pieces that are um that are missing at the moment, but I'm sure are coming. So, thank you board members. Any other questions, comments, concerns?
043Vice President B. >> At the very beginning, it was mentioned about what every school must have, which makes sense like it's a ground level. And I think really this this helps us also think about what schools need more than that or don't have what everybody else has. I mean the equity this is this is as much about equity as it is about equality among the schools. I think that's interesting and if if nothing else and there's a lot else but the idea of this would help the future planning. I mean this can this impacts how we budget. Uh we can see where there's deficit or where there's tremendous asset and and uh and make some decisions more and more like we've been talking about per school per student. I think this is uh this is
044very important. Thank you. >> Just if I could one last thing just greatly appreciative of the feedback. Some fantastic points. absolutely intend that we would want to solicit both you, the parents, community, and everything for feedback now that we have the platform. Absolutely. Um, the other thing I would just like to take a moment to say when I say it was a privilege to be able to show this tonight, it truly was because it was not just all of my work. As much as I appreciate some of the kudos, this was truly a collaborative effort of gathering all of this information was not um Chief Gallery, right? I mean, there there was basically the entire district involved in this. So, it was a very large collaborative effort. Uh, so definitely want to spread those kudos
045to everybody and thank you for all the hard work. >> Well, kudos to everybody that put this together because we are really appreciative and I know it's not just you, but everybody, thank you so much for all that you did. Member Craig, >> just want to point out one thing also as we even have right now. If you look at the map of where our schools are located, you also see the history of how the district was built and is shaped and has been reshaped. And I think, you know, we'll have more conversations around what our population in and other trends look like and and areas where schools are um what we've talked about for years where schools are are just we need more of based on the population density and those type of things.
046But I think it is important for us to just acknowledge even looking at our buildings right now and looking where we have in our district, we cover a very large area and the extent of where you have to go to from one edge of the district to the other edge and from the top of the district to the bottom of the district is a still a pretty substantial amount of space. And I think it's just worth always remembering when we talk about the resources that we do in our district because, you know, again, I think that's that's one of the unique things about our district in comparison to some of the others, even in some of the other urban districts in the state of Ohio is the compactness of some of those districts in which
047if you move one school over, you have two more right around the >> corner. And here we have some areas where you Yeah, you may have two around the corner and others where it's the only school for a good little amount of space. Um, and so I I just think it's sometimes helpful for us to remember that the the way we got here is not necessarily by planning it out based on the city map as much as it is based on where populations tended to move at the time that we were doing investments in our facilities master plans and and other things. >> Great. Thanks, Jeremy. I appreciate you. You and your team appreciate it. Vice President Bolton, please present your topic under board matters. >> Yes. And I'm going to need this is very
048brief, but I'm going to need the assistance of our treasurer who can remain where he is, but also general counsel. Uh what it is is that uh these are some questions that have uh arisen over the last couple of weeks uh out in the community and I wanted to bring back some of these questions uh so that our treasurer and our general counsel could answer these rather than me so inadequately answer these questions uh out in public. And uh so I'm just going to read some questions and I'm going to ask either Mike or Dan to to answer those questions uh if it if it pleases the the the group. Um first Mike uh treasurer uh would you uh kind of explain to the public uh and remind the board about the size the history
049and the length of the renewal that is going to be uh voted on in two weeks? >> Certainly. So, the renewal that's voted on two weeks is a $ 48 million fixed sum levy. And it's it'll show on the ballot as an emergency levy, but what that means is it's a thick sum. It generates $48 million every year um of tax of revenue. It was first enacted in 2016 and was renewed for five years, was renewed in 2020 for an additional five years. Um the issue on the ballot this November is going to is the renewal for for a period of 10 years. Um of that $48 million um there's kind of a split there and that's the way this levy has always been discussed with the community. So out of the $48 million 33
050million is is to be used for K12 programs by CPS. The other 15 million is set aside for preschool was preschool expansion. I think I have to say preschool at this point. Um and and then that money is split again between um Cincinnati Public Schools and Cincinnati Preschool Promise. >> Thank you. And when you say fixed sum levy, could you explain that for the public? >> Sure. There there are two types of levies or fixed sum and fixed rate. Uh the difference is a fixed sum levy will only ever bring back that amount of money. So when we say it's a $48 million fixum levy, that is the amount of tax revenue we receive minus any delinquencies we don't get every year. Um a fixed rate levy can have the amount changed over time. That
051is not this. This levy is built specifically to bring in that amount of income every year. >> And because of that, this uh renewal does not raise taxes, >> right? >> Is that correct? >> That is correct. >> All right. Um, this is Mr. Ho from the community. Could you explain the wording of the on the ballot, which sounds kind of strange? Sure. Uh, the ballot language is set by the Ohio Revised Code. It reads, "Shall a levy renewing an existing levy be imposed by Cincinnati school district for the purpose of providing for the emergency requirements of the school district in the sum of $48 million and a levy of taxes to be made outside of the 10 mil limitation estimated by the county auditor to average 5.05 05 MS for each $1 of taxable
052value, which amounts to $177 for each $100,000 of the county auditors appraised value for a period of 10 years commencing in 26 and first due in calendar year 27. Couple of points there. Uh, one is, uh, the emergency requirements of the district is a determination made by the board, but it is one type of levy, an emergency levy, and it allows the district, as uh, treasure said, to raise a fixed sum of $48 million. Um uh the $48 million is then submitted to or the um uh board's intent to renew this levy was submitted to the county auditor who determines based on all the taxable value in the c county what millillage uh is used to generate $48 million. And then this year the auditor estimates that that would be five mills 5.05 mills. So
053that's how that's generated. Um, also I think it's uh worth pointing out that this uh renewal would extend uh this levy for 10 years instead of the 5 years that it was renewed in 2020 and the initial term of 5 years that was passed in 2016. >> Thank you. And that came from people that have started voting already who are familiar with the language and wanted explanation. Um and then uh can you explain uh why the district uh is closed on election day basically and also um what the district can and cannot do regarding uh an election like this? >> Sure. So uh there are 18 schools in the district that serve as polling places. Uh they are the community location where uh the board of elections leases our buildings in order to conduct the
054elections. Uh the board of elections is very appreciative of schools being closed on those days. Uh there is a lot of traffic obviously in and out of the building. It's um in order to take all those folks through our security procedures. Um it it just has been a great benefit and blessing to have schools closed on that day. I' I'd say it's been at least five or six years that the calendar committee has chosen to close schools on election day. The board of elections would love to have the spring election day also as a school uh day when schools is closed are closed, but uh I I will say there there are less people in the building generally in spring elections. And so that's that's not been quite as uh problematic in terms of what
055the district can and cannot do. It may not use its property or personnel uh to support or oppose a political candidate or issue. So the district cannot use its own dollars or property or personnel to go out and advocate for any political candidate or issue including the school levy. This is something we train folks on and do principal trainings. We had a session about it in the all LSDMC meeting as well. So, we try to make sure that that we're following the rules. >> Thank you very much. You've the two of you have answered the questions far better than I have been doing out on the uh campaign trail. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Board members, do you have any need for clarity? >> All right. Next topic is our superintendent board guardrail discussion.
056So let me preface this with board members have solicited ideas for board matters inquiries and updates. So this is a compilation of people's ideas. These are not Dr. Moffett's ideas only. So there was a question around and number or B and C are kind of inter intertwined the what is posted on the website as guard rails and goals. When we talk about the strategic plan, there is 2027 data listed and we've and the the 2026 data hasn't been updated yet because we just finalized it. So there was further clarification needed around wanting to ensure that our strategic plan is going to be for 2026 27 and we're going to fix are we going to use that number that's currently listed there and then or are we going to adjust that number and have it for
057four years cuz the board talked about four years as a as a timeline but I couldn't succinctly answer that question. So that's why this is coming back up as wanting to have some clarification around the superintendent's goals being for the 2026 year and having that updated. Additionally having clarification around the strategic planning and I believe this came from our committee of the whole. So, do board members want to offer any clarification or offer any question around either the superintendent bold goal guard discussion or strategic plan timeline and clarification. the superintendent proposed at the committee of the whole and we haven't had a chance to speak but she proposed the desire to um well there was an offer or there was a discussion around kind of suspending guardrail discussions since we are no longer utilizing council
058of great city schools formally but to have there was also discussion around maintaining guard rails but just monitoring them. There was discussion around not monitoring them but allowing the staff to focus solely on strategic planning. So I brought this back up because we didn't decide on anything at the cow. Uh so we we needed to talk about that. What are the thoughts of the entire board? Superintendent Murphy, would you like to clarify anything that I've said? >> No, ma'am. We'll work at the pleasure of the board. >> Okay. I'm going to start over here. board member map and then we'll go to board member Weinberg. >> Okay. Yes. So, I uh in fact needed the clarification that you just outlined because trying to make sure that all of the um different changes are working in
059sync. So, we've just completed the superintendent evaluation process. Superintendent Murphy, you established new goals um which are for 2526, correct? And then um but all of those goals don't specifically align to our current goals and guard rails or strategic plan for the 4-year time frame. So my question is is the expectation to while you have your goals that's a separate entity while still honoring and working towards reaching the annual targets from our strategic plan um up until uh June 2027 because while some of the annual targets have been met, not all of them have, you know, been accomplished And so I'm trying to get clarity on where we are with still honoring our current strategic plan and making sure that whatever targets were met that we are maybe modifying the targets because I think for
060your your uh your superintendent goals, the only two that really align with the goals for the strategic plan is third grade reading and the uh algebra 1. uh targets correct >> uh yes >> so so I'm trying to identify are is it the recommendation from you to suspend our current strategic plan um adopt a new strategic plan with I I I think the outline or the presentation that you have is for 2628 eight. Um I'm just unsure about what the expectation is given the fact that we have not honored all of the uh initial goals or targets from our strategic plan. For me, in August, we presented uh the status of our goals and guard rails and we asked the board what their pleasure was because some of the goals had been met and some
061of the goals the timeline had or had not expired. So, we wanted to enter into that conversation. The same is true with the guard rails. The reason I also wanted to enter into that conversation is because the entire plan expires 2027. So the thought was we would begin working on that in January of 2026. Throughout the conversation there was the idea of begin to work on as part of your 2526 goals the next strategic plan having it done by June 2026. So there was a combination of thought as we were having this um collective conversation. Where I am right now is my understanding is goal five for me is working with the treasur to create a at least four-year strategic plan that would begin the fall of 2026. That's my current understanding. >> Okay. So,
062I guess this is just a question for the the board. Thank you, uh, superintendent. What I'm hearing you say is that ultimately your decision making and your thought processes around it is based off of the conversations that we've had collectively as a board. >> Okay. Um, so I guess my question is to the board trying to make sure that to Superintendent Murphy's point, yes, there's planning for the uh the uh new strategic plan and I think that can begin to happen um starting in January of 2026 um to make sure that it is prepared and finalized to roll out by January of 2027. I don't think that I would necessarily be in favor of us uh starting the strategic plan, the the new one in what did you say? Uh my understanding is the plan
063would start in the fall of 2026. So our team is starting cuz we we're starting because I thought that was what we agreed upon as goal number five. >> Yeah. So so again and I thank you for that. I think my concern is we have not been able to fully identify areas of strength, areas of maybe um improvement. I mean, we've only kind of worked this plan for 2 years. So, I don't think it really allows us uh full depth uh of knowledge of how the plan is actually working. I think that in planning for the January 26, we'll have more uh data points, more um opportunities to assess and evaluate um how to reach those targets from the actual goal and not necessarily the annual targets that's embedded in that specific goal. Um and
064then be prepared to roll out the new strategic plan come January of 2027. remember Lindy. >> Um, so I I did have an understanding that was I think pretty similar to what the superintendent was sharing, but I do want to hear more and and figure out um the way to do the best that we can. I think there's a reason why there there are a couple reasons why I like what we approved on the 6th of the um a must-have for the superintendent for this school year is the creation of a next strategic plan. The reason I like that timing is um I want to try to link as close as we can the finances with the rest of the plan. >> Um and I like the idea that the superintendent and the treasurer would
065work closely together. There's the nice thing is it's October, you know, this is we're talking about end of June. So, and I where I think I agree for sure is there's some important um reflection that should happen in coming up with a new strategic plan. What worked? What didn't work? What are lessons learned? Um my my hope and expectation is that we have plenty of time to do do all of those things. I think I I have some desire just transparently to move towards a next thing because so much has changed. um I think both within the board, within the administration, within the community. Um and I think it's going to take time to get a good strategic plan put together. Um so my my my understanding is quite in line with what the superintendent
066shared. Um and my hope would be that there's a way to do the kind of reflection that we need to do. Also, I think I'll just add one one piece, and I'm open to push back on on any of this, which is that as we go through this school year 2526, um, and I mentioned this in the committee, the whole meeting, uh, it does feel quite important to get meaningful regular updates on the five goals that we approved in the October 6th meeting. There's also some content in the in the guardrails in particular um that's really important, you know, and and I think like whether it's it's uh disparities and discipline or you know, any any number of the the guard rails that are in there, you know, the idea that that we um have
067a right-sized amount of attention and focus to that as we go through the year feels important. I'm I'm using this word right size just because I don't exactly know what the right amount is because what I what I worry about is asking the administration to do so much in a given school year that they can't do any of it well. Um but that that's what where that's what my understanding was. But again, I'm open to other ideas on any of this feedback. >> Yeah, I'll be really quick. Um, I know that I missed the cow meeting and I um I'm sad that I missed the discussion that you all had. The one thing that I just wanted to add in here is although we're not with the council, I still think that we should personally
068stick with the guardrails and I would be in favor for at least keeping those. I think that they are key. Um, of course I know there is obviously a want for a new strategic plan and making sure that we're being very precise with that and um I am in favor of keeping the art rails. >> Well Craig >> um so and and again I think this this conversation comes very timely because I think we have a lot of things that we are working through as we've changed the district a lot in the last year and a half. Um I do want to make sure that we are clear about one distinction though. There is a strategic plan that was the super the prior superintendent strategic plan that was what was built off of the both
069the goals and guardrails that we created but also other things that were a priority to the district at the time that I think is more in alignment with what the superintendent is discussing as regards to building a uh strategic plan for this coming up years is a really realignment of what the district's focus and efforts and those type of things that you know again I think is more of the administrative end of it, not so much the vision of the of the board in that sense. I mean, I think we are part of that process, but not necessarily the stakeholders for it. Whereas the goals and guardrails were supposed to be our way of holding the superintendent accountable for the things that we identified as the most important things based on the conversations with the
070community. And and again, I think I I take board member Lindy's point that we've somewhat moved away from how we are checking ourselves on those things. And so I think it is not necessarily the most accurate for us to continue to kind of say that we are still living upon those. Uh but I do think it is worth us until we have the new strategic plan that might incorporate what is the most important parts or the most important things that we not necessarily let go of the guard rails in in in that sense. Um, the one thing I do worry about in us having this conversation and having the movement back towards just having a straight strategic plan as opposed to our established expectations and goals in that sense of the goals and guard rails
071were supposed to be for the superintendent. is that our role in communicating with the public is very limited without having kind of a considered effort as the board going out and having conversations that are about what the board sets as the is the values of the district or the values at least that have been communicated to us from the public about where the district should go. And I think that was in part the thing that we did gain from the goals and guard rails conversations was there were certainly I know board member Bolton and I sat through conversation where it it went all over the rails about how people invested in the district and how much money came from where and that type of thing that we had to be able to answer to. And
072not to say that I think we should not do the strategic plan. I actually think we should. I just think there may be needs for the board to take a more direct approach of having our own board outreach to ensure that we whatever comes out whatever we review and and proceed to approve is a reflection of the values that were communicated to us from the community. Um, and I don't think it hurts for us to have maybe couple opportunities to do some community forums or those type of things where we get a chance to hear from the public more than we've probably done in the last year or two. Um, and I think that may get to board member Map's point in some ways of finding out what works and doesn't work because if we
073don't talk to folks, we don't know what works and doesn't work, but it may be things that we have to figure out how we would accomplish those things in the same process as the strategic plan is is developed. Um, and while the superintendent does and the administration does their own communication and outreach and engagement with the public on on the things that would be in there. So, I think there in some ways we created a two-tier or two-way system when we did the goals and guardrails >> and I'm wondering whether or not the board still wants to stay with that process where the board has a certain amount of values that we establish for our own direction to the superintendent and where the superintendent has the administrative strategic plan that is built to determine where
074the district kind of moves towards. Um, so I mean I I kind of just pose that out there to to us as a board to kind of discuss or decide. >> Thank you, Vice President Bolton. >> Yes, great great conversation. I think u and it's helping me clarify my thoughts. Um, you know, I was I was never too excited about the whole uh uh great city schools approach to it, but I do think that the two products, the two work products particularly that were important were establishing a limited number of goals by which we measure our superintendent success uh in the district. And then also the the idea of stating our values as a board representing the community if indeed or at least the way we understand what the values of the community that we
075represent are. Um so my my brothers would be that we have now moved to the five goals that we have u agreed to with the superintendent with her mutually uh rather than the other goals. Uh, and I would suggest that if we need to have a discussion about all of the guard rails remaining or if there's any that we feel are no longer uh of of value, uh, that could be a that could be a discussion. But I'm predisposed to keep virtually all the guard rails. But again, I'm open to discussion. I do know that looking back at documents, it was it has been said that the the current strategic plan uh could be finished as early as the spring of 26 or the uh summer of 27th. That that was always kind of a
076range that could happen. And I do believe that for financial reasons and for all the reorganization that's occurred uh in the district, I do think that we probably want to live uh by the idea of what we voted on uh and and have a strategic plan that is uh put together and is part of the the next fiscal year 27 uh and 28 and 29 and 30. Uh I think we are in deep deep economic duress and and and uh tension and I think that our our strategic plan will need to reflect that. So I I'm uh I'd like to move to the five goals. I'd like to keep all the guard rails unless our discussion proves different. I think we can put the strategic plan together uh and have it impact the next three
077fiscal years or four fiscal years as well as the next three or four uh school years. >> Thank you. >> Uh yes, thank you very much. I appreciate that the administration has already started on strategic planning. I think that's important. I think that keep to echo board member Weineberg's point. I think the if the administration has the bandwidth, I think for this school year to continue to monitor and report on the goals and guard rails would be fine because I think those can go a long way towards informing what our strategic plan is going to be going forward. I also think that um trying to have the strategic plan aligned with our fiscal years is going to be really important. I I think I believe that we can have we're starting now. we can have
078a strategic plan ready for the next school year and be in line with our fiscal year. So, uh I would be in favor of continuing to at least look at the goals and guard rails as as to help us inform a strategic plan. There may be some very good things in this that we will want to continue. So, thank you very much. >> Thank you. I'm going to go and then we can if anyone wants to add to this then they can. I um as I shared with the my colleagues at the cow, I am not a proponent of getting rid of guard rails. I think while we don't formally pay for the council of greater city schools, the work that we spent almost a year doing is invaluable and I think that the it
079needs to be presented to the public. Not only does it hold the administration accountable, but it also tells the public where we are in full transparency around values that we spent a significant amount of time learning from them that they valued. So, I think the bandwidth of the administration is already established. So, I'm not interested in shortening that. Um, I I do feel for our staff though because they are doing a lot with less. And so, um, I appreciate everything that they've they everyone is doing, but I think that the awareness to the community is significant. And I just believe we need to publicly place our values out there and then hold um the the community needs to hold us accountable to that. Also, once upon a time there was a time when the community
080was involved in the strategic plan and I it it really we we talk about the administration doing this strategic plan and I I think that's great. I think that bulk of work should be done by the administration and the treasur's office, but I really will invite you to schedule expeditiously some community involvement sessions where you authentically and transparently hear from the community around the strategic plan. The the theme that I'm going for here that I don't see enough of and I'd like to is engagement with the community. Um I I think that it should be organic. If it's not organic, then the board should hold that as a preserved um value that it become organic because the community should be in the strategic plan. The community should be monitoring the goals and guard. So, I'm
081never going to be a fan of cutting that out simply because it makes life easier on some level um minimally. Additionally, I think that um I think it's aggressive to have a strategic plan that we can get established in a very short period of time ahead of our expectations. But I would almost caution that we're planning for four years. And I initially I like the idea of four years because I thought that was the typical lifespan of a high school student. You come in in nth grade, you get out in in 12th grade. And that makes sense. But with the changes that are rapidly happening at the state level and the federal level, I am more prone for us to have a short timeline so that if we need to pivot, we can pivot quickly.
082We already have engagement with the community. So if we need to ask the community to become involved with us legislatively, it is just filling in blanks. It's not creating a wheel. we need to um have a shorter window with realistic tangible small goals um that are already established to the community. So um I I'm not for a 4-year time line for a strategic plan. Um again, I was for that because it made sense, but we're talking about changes that we learned in January, February that are now going to be implemented within this 2025 year. And so I I just would caution us to be in in our effort to think long term and I know strategic plans are not one year but we need to be cognizant of the fact that there is a huge
083weight upon us that may cause us to pivot quickly which would allow which would force our staff to have to really make large adjustments rather than to make them incrementally. So, um I my heart feels for the administration and having to present uh guard rails monthly, but I think that that's how we remain true to the community and letting them know every regularly where we are so that they can hold us accountable. We can go back around. Did anyone else have anything to add? >> Member map, were you were you on? Okay. So, um, to board member Lindy and, um, board me board member Craig's point, I do, uh, appreciate the alignment with the, um, the the budget or the financial plan because we do recognize that, um, how we budget our dollars, that also
084expresses our values. what we're spending our money on um as a district is whether uh advertently or inadvertently communicating what our values are. Um so I agree with making sure that the strategic plan aligns with that. Um but to the point that I raised before is that I am concerned that we've established a strategic plan that the community that um the district has been invested in um in supporting and we have not again met and correct me if I'm wrong because maybe I am wrong and maybe I am missing something. We have not met the actual uh goal target or surpassed the goal the the major goal target. What we have done if I am interpreting this correctly we may have surpassed annual targets with the expectation of continuously working towards that final target in
085the 2027 uh year. So I think that it is helpful for us to continue to um monitor that data. I think the goals that the superintendent um have shared with us, especially as the one the ones that pertain to uh third grade reading and algebra 1, if we want to um incorporate those or update those targets on the website, I think that would be helpful and maybe then make adjustments to the 2027 one if we need to. But given the fact that we have not reached or surpassed the overall target area and the main goal, I I think it's really um negligent of us to continue to make changes in our district. As you all have talked about, there's been significant changes in the district. And I think that we need to make sure that
086we have some foundational level to make sure that there's stability in what we are doing. We will never be able to evaluate again what is working, what is not working if we don't have um something that's going to hold us all accountable to the work. And so, um, I I just think that we need to make sure that we're being responsible and how we are, um, holding the superintendent accountable to this work as well. So, again, I'm in agreement with the strategic plan and the financial plan aligning. That uh, date is for September of 2026, correct? For the financial plan, >> June. Okay. >> Okay. So, and this may be a question for Treasurer Augustine. So, if we pass the budget in June, that would be for the 2627 year though, correct? So, I guess
087why I guess maybe I'm missing why we couldn't implement that plan in uh what January of 26 27. Yeah, I think the discussion was that the 2627 budget would then be year one of the strategic plan and so and so kind of to echo what you said, you know, where where you spend the money, you know, kind of shows, you know, what you value. And so and so the importance was, you know, you only we only approve a budget every year. And so having the budget starting in June aligned to the strategic plan so that even even the spending that we would do in July and August, you know, ramp up the school would would be targeted towards that new strategic plan. And so we wouldn't come in mid year and say, "Okay, now we
088need to make changes." Well, it's much it's much easier to change things before the year starts in the middle of the year. I think we found that over the last couple years. Okay, thank you for that. Um, again, I'm just having challenges with recognizing that um this strategic plan was pretty much only for two years um which the superintendent was only really accountable for uh maybe um one and a half of those uh years. And so I am apprehensive about us continuing to change yet another thing without having um accountability around it. And so that is my concern. Well, member Lindy, >> uh, I think I agree with, um, big big big pieces, if not everything of what you shared, particularly on the importance of accountability and what's at risk when you change over and
089over and over and over again because there's no sustained focus, no sustained attention, and no accountability for anything. Um, so I I I am with you 100% on that. It's one of the reasons for the last several months I've been banging this drum over and over again about um the importance of the evaluation policy and I just am grateful for everybody who's whether that's policy committee last year or the board this year. I do think that's taken some big steps forward and I appreciate it. Um there is no butt coming at the end of all this. Uh I think the um I think the thing that is also true is at least in my experience it is easier to own something if you feel like you had a role in creating it. Uh and all
090of this was created with a previous administration and a different board. Um, and so my hypothesis is we're actually going to be able we're going to be better at sustaining focus and having accountability if if there's a sense of ownership from this administration for what the goals are, what the long-term plan is. My worry in um trying to sustain accountability and focus on something that is a that is a a carryover and I think a good carryover from the previous administration is that there's that absence of ownership piece from the superintendent. Um and that's not a I I like I voted for every single one of these goals. I did we have too many guardrails. I didn't vote for all the guardrails. I think we should have only had five instead of six. Um uh
091anybody was here will remember that meeting. I was outvoted. Um, but I think but like I stand by the things I voted for. Um, it's just a question of what's going to get us the best ownership from the current administration and that that's like other other than that I agree with every single thing you said. >> I saw across it. >> Yeah. I think um to echo board members map's concerns about accountability. I think it's really important to have the financial year and the review year be the same because if you have them separate uh it's much harder to hold the superintendent accountable if mid year that you know the goals change or the dollars change. So I I really think it's critical that they be in sync. Uh the fisc and the other thing
092um that I think we might want to consider that I've had experience with in the past and maybe we we've done this but you could have a three year or four year strategic plan but I think evaluating it every year as you go along to tweak it just a little bit based on what happened in the year before is going to be really important. Not doesn't have to be a static strategic plan that we're stuck with. it can be it can live based on the changes that we have. I hope we'll be open to that. Thank you. >> It's a very good book, Vice President B. >> Yeah, thank you. Um I think it is would be useful uh to member Map's position. It would be useful for some period uh and work product to
093reflect on what was accomplished or not yet accomplished in the existing strategic plan. I think that would be helpful to everyone. Uh and I think we need that reflective time. Uh I do need some clarification though about the goals. My my understanding uh is that the the new goals would be the five that we have uh with the superintendent arrived at. So I would suggest a reflection by the administration and by the board who's interested in in in in kind of assessing and I know we've done it before assessing how much of the strategic plan was accomplished or not. Uh I think that can inform the next strategic plan to a certain extent and and clarify the goals. I do think that we keep some of the consistency and the accountability if we maintain the
094values that are expressed in the guard rails. If those carry forward, I think that helps me financially. Um, the state now is not doing five years. The state now is doing a three-year forecast. So, that would also lend itself to us thinking in terms of not the five or the four uh to the president's po position, but a three-year. And yeah, you should be annually evaluating the strategic plan where you are and and and being reflective about it. I don't have a lot of ownership of the current strategic plan largely because the previous strategic plan was really generated by the community. This one that we've been living under for good reason was very much a a strategic plan based on governance and a relationship between the superintendent and the board and it was needed for
095that. But I think it is better to return to our traditional values of having the community have a a bigger uh say in it. So I'm looking at keeping the the guard rails or whatever ones we think we should uh changing the goals having maybe a three-year strategic plan that we work on. And maybe it'll be shorter or longer, but it would be better if it it is a confluence with the uh four the three-year forecast and having a communitydriven strategic plan. Um and then my other issue is over these next three years, we are be we will be going to the public in significant effort regarding dollars and monies. And I think whatever we're doing has to have a time frame that makes sense with what the requests are going to be that we're
096going to be making for new money in these next few years. And and I I can't remember the glorious year that we will have paid off the the $ 1.7 billion uh facilities master plan, but it is on the horizon >> 2030. 2030 and that has to be some kind of bookend for us or some kind of goal, some kind of target as we look at these coming years as we are now getting ready to do fiscal year 27. Um this this is all kind of happening in a very fortuitous way I think. So that that's what I would like to be thinking about. But um it's good important to do this. Very important. Thanks. I'm just going to add before I go to board member Lindy, you bring up that in the next few
097years we're going to be asking the community for money and I would suggest that you've engaged them prior to asking and make sure it's just a forewarning to the administration and the treasurer that um people don't like just as board member Lindy shared people don't um typically respond well when they don't have ownership. it is the exact same with regard to a strategic plan. And so keep that in mind when you are designing that. Well, member Lindy, this is um on the same point around community involvement. Um I can't tell if there's a disagreement between what my colleagues are saying and what I'm about to say or there's actually no disagreement. Um if we go back a couple of board meetings, the administration shared a a series of bullets around the the plan for creating
098the strategic plan. Um and my first piece of feedback was it has to start with listening. Uh so to this point I do believe deeply in the importance of engaging community uh here and elsewhere. I also think this is not um instead of this is in addition to there's a really important role for expertise. Uh I we we pay a lot of money to salaries for people across our entire district. I'm including teachers and principles and central office administrators. Uh, and I think that, um, where I've sometimes seen some strategic planning processes go astray is that the community engagement is not just about what are the things the community really wants most from its school system and where do we have the most work to do, but also around what are the specific strategies for
099how we get there. I'm not saying there's that you never ask for that. That's not at all what I'm saying. I think you absolutely ask for that, but I think it it there has to be some role for the superintendent, for her team, um, to look at all of this information that we're receiving and to say, you know, we're not going to be able to do everything, but here are the set of big strategic moves we think will most advance the values that we're hearing from the community. And I say that just because um I I think that it's not so much a yes or no around community involvement, but a where and how. Um and I'm one board member. I understand I'm often outvoted and maybe outvoted on this one. Um but this is
100from my perspective where there is a vital role for community involvement and also a risk that that we abdicate our responsibility to have an opinion uh about what will drive the largest outcomes um and that we lead on that uh and my my hope is that we can do both. >> Thank you Craig. So I don't want to get ahead of what is another part of our agenda today because I think the actual very next item is the schedule on the strategic plan planning. Um but I think that is a little bit into one of the things I do think whatever we decide to do as a board. Um I think we have an obligation to hold ourselves accountable in some ways to whatever the results that come from that might be. And I think
101this may get a little bit into where um I I completely understand and and actually support in a lot of ways the the desire to make sure that we are making determinations based on evidence and based on facts, right? Based on things that we've gotten information on, that we able to guide and gauge as to how successful those things have been. And I do think that's one of the things for at least the last couple years. We've made so many changes in this district where it does not feel like we have given time for us to even be able to ascertain whether or not the change has worked, hasn't worked, has grown, hasn't grown in the district, has has been successful. Some of those things were necessary changes, right? Some of those things were things
102we had to do and some of those things are things that we have chosen to do as a as a board given direction and as as the administration um under undertaken the the effort. What I think might be helpful for me and then again I think we all have things that'll be helpful for each of us but as we talk through strategic planning I think there is a role for the board to decide what is our purpose in that strategic plan process and I think that is in some ways you do want the strategic plan to be created outside of the board right because you don't want any one board member to have like an outside influence on conversation you wanted to be driven based on the folks who are actually in the trenches who
103actually know what's happening each day and that kind of deal. Um, and the parents and the students who are all involved in that process. I think President Muffford raised a great point of the community part to building the strategic plan. Um, and so again, I think we'll next thing on our agenda, so we'll go through the schedule. Uh but I think to to a certain extent um to honor the things that we said when we went through the governance coaching and honor some of the principles of what we said. I do think there is an obligation for us, regardless of what we even moved to, to still go back and do the thoughtful look into how things have operated and how some of what has been how some of what we've done over the last
104couple years and some of the things we'll have to do over the next couple years. Um to to how those things either worked, didn't work, the lessons we learned from them, the things that we continue to keep growing from. Um because while I don't necessarily say that we should should stop process to do that that we can do them somewhat simultaneously maybe not as efficiently or effectively that way I think we are unfortunately left in this position because we do have some things that are going to be coming down the pipeline even whether it's next year or the year after that are some huge potential budgetary issues that will limit our ability to do any of the things that we want to do in our strategic plan to be quite honest outside of the bare,
105you know, like the bare basics. Um, the way that our state seems to want to fund public education. And what I think we what would be helpful as we talk through the next section of our agenda is also recognizing leaving space for both the idea of the board's role in that creating the vision, creating the the message that is what is our district's purpose. Um, but also the nimleness to be able to explain to the public when we have to make changes from where we have set as a path. And I think that is where we have not done the best over these last couple years is that when we make changes, we make them and then expect folks to just adjust. And I think that's, you know, maybe to board member Matt's point, I
106think in a lot of ways when we do that and then we say, "Okay, here's now a new thing we're going to do, and you just got to adjust." at some point folks can no longer adjust and I that's what I I I will say that's what I somewhat worried about. I I waiting to hear back from you know waiting to hear the plan and all these other parts to it but I think there is some level of the planet and has to recognize that if we have to make substantial changes to the district. It's going to have a big effect both on the psyche and how some of our students have experienced the district and how some of our students will continue to experience the district, but it will also have a a effect
107on how people trust what we say we're going to do, we'll do. And I think that's the that is one area where I do think we can address some of that. we can. So, I think like the board's hearing from the people and we're able to hear some of those messages, we're able to provide some of that thought into what our our our vision of what it is will be, but I I think that I'm looking forward to hearing a little bit more about the the plan again up next and how that how the board's role in that ultimately will look like and how the community's role and ultimately look like, but also how we will stay committed to whatever we promise to do. Um because again, I think that's where I'm I'm a little
108bit more worried about some of the stuff we've been doing and some of the ways we're tracking it and and communicating it is that I don't know that we as a board have really held ourselves accountable to when we've said we're going to do something and then we change up and do something different. >> Well, having said that, I was going to that's why I kind of paused when I looked at you like, well, let's go into the next presentation so that we can be talking about something that we've presented on. So, Superintendent Murphy, the next item was the strategic plan, timeline, and clarification. Can you present that for us? >> Yes, ma'am. So, Rob, on the very next slide, uh I think the board knows that Mike and I had a opportunity to have
109a conversation just before your retreat. Um and we just talked about a skeletal framework that we shared with you on that Saturday in terms of how long what would the approach be the direction that we received from you about making sure that our work is aligned and so after that we were able to get together and pulled in Mr. work hard uh in particular because of um procurement uh questions and needs. But we hope that you can see on this timeline that we are uh hearing you uh as it relates to the need to engage with the community to have community engagement. the type of strategic planning I'm used to doing. Uh I did participate on the previous strategic plan um committee where there was deep uh community engagement and involvement and input. Um and
110so that's what we're looking forward to do and you can see the entire outline which involves um getting information from our staff, from our teachers, from our administrators as well as the members of our LSDMC's and the broader community as a whole with the goal of being able to deliver to you by the end of June if that is still the direction um a strategic plan for the next we at one point said four years. We can adjust that to three, whatever you think is the best to do. I do understand um aligning it uh with the treasurer. There is now a three-year uh picture, but then we also talked about the life cycle of a high school student being four years. So, we are ready to do whatever the pleasure is of the board.
111There are additional uh I didn't know if you wanted me to stop there or keep going. So um Rob, if you go forward probably a couple of slides and then I'll have Mr. Burkhart come to talk about the bid process. Thank you. So, as we put together the timeline, the proposed timeline, uh we looked at where we wanted to start from and where we wanted to end and uh basically um reverse engineered everything that we wanted to have happen from the starting point and the ending point. And so as you'll see we start October, November start uh the bid process looking in uh sending out the bid evaluating the proposals selecting the vendor and then from then on we go to uh vendor onboarding and having those discussions uh with the vendor on what our
112expectations are moving forward. Rob if you want to go to the next slide. Um so we issue the bid we look at the the proposal review and we select the vendors. Next slide Rob. That was October, November. In December, we start to make it a formal announcement of who we selected. We start to on board and align those um sessions with the selected vendor and then we start planning. So that's uh teacher, principal and parent insights. As we look at the next slide, we'll go into getting everyone's voice to uh Dr. Moffett's uh concern is having a student voice, educator input, parent engagement, and leadership feedback. So, we're trying to make sure that we get multiple sessions of all of those inputs over the next uh couple of months. So, that's over January and February.
113If we go to the next slide, we'll see an SLT workshop. So the senior leadership aligns on all the strategic directions as well as LSDMC's also integrating that with their budget planning and what the schoolhouse looks like. As we look at March uh we have some strategy retreats. So each department looks and develops their uh focused plans. Uh also performance goals, strategies and metrics are defined. So it takes us one step further into the process. Now, as we're into each one of these into March and April and May, it doesn't mean that we have stopped engaging with those groups, it just means that as we look at each one of these benchmarks in each one of those months, uh we want to specifically put these in, but we always want to look back at do
114we need to engage students more as we develop the performance goals, strategies, and metrics or as the department um develop develops their plans underneath the strategic plan. Do we have to go back and talk to adults or families or communities about that work? So, I don't want to say that this is siloed. This is all uh working together in tandem. As we go into April, I'm sorry, March through May. Uh we're doing the budget review. So, that budgeting process will will continue to happen all the way up until May. Uh obviously having again as we get deeper and deeper into solidifying the plan, having community feedback sessions on kind of our first uh inklings on what this is actually going to look like as a finished product. And then also reaching out to our vendors
115and making sure that what we want to have done is also within some of our vendors and making sure that they can deliver on exactly what we want to have happen through that process. Uh obviously through June the board will approve the final budget um which will hope hopefully finalize that part of the plan as well. We will have our road map finalized and then individual uh objectives aligned to that strategy will happen as well uh June and beyond as we finalize in July. Again this isn't um a we're done in July. This is a we hope to have a final draft that we can start executing. This is a living breathing document. So as we uh look at our action plans and looking at continuous improvement and monitoring our process, we also want the
116the plan to be able to be fluid throughout those uh months all the way up through 2028 or as the board was discussing earlier uh even longer. So with that uh we put together some key factors of success. So having stakeholder engagement, having it be a transparent process. Those are two things that prior to putting the or putting the slide together and then hearing that reaffirms that these are the things that the the board is uh actively looking at and making sure that that the administration is is looking at having datadriven decisions, clear accountability and adaptive planning. that adaptive planning goes to uh as we look at multiple years of that that uh plan. If something on our landscape changes, being able to adapt that plan so it's not just a static uh uh piece
117of paper static plan that we can't adjust if things uh adjust either at the uh federal, state or local level. And that is it. >> Thank you. Board members, do you have any questions, comments, concerns? Board member Craig. >> Uh, so two questions and I'll try to be quick about these. Um, the first one is, and I think this is maybe to the point that Dr. Maf raised earlier, but I think point that we've done a little bit of is adding is it possible or not possible, but is there a component of this that we'll actually look at specifically what community feedback outside of just LSCMC community members? Um, I think that's another aspect as we're expanding outreach into some of these folks. It's it might be good to just bring them in on the
118strategic plan as well because it also gives them a space to figure out how they can help in the capacity and as well as what are the things that the district needs. So, I think that would be one is as to whether or not we're going to provide that. And then I think the second question is just kind of the cadence of check-ins with the board to give updates on where things are moving and kind of what are those expectations around that. Yeah. So, in in relation to the the community feedback, I think uh we uh purposely put together some different ways um to to nuance that feedback. One was you might be asking a a parent upfront in the process. You might be asking a teacher upfront in the process. You might be asking
119administrator upfront in the process. But you're also through the process also asking the community. So that people are wearing multiple hats have multiple places in which to insert uh in early on it might be a a parent or a teacher but later on it might be as a community member. So I think we've we've intentionally called those out differently throughout the plan so that we could get maybe the same person who has a different view or a different hat on for that uh different experience. And then the second part was the cadence of bringing uh updates to the board. >> Thank you. >> I don't know uh Mr. Craig if we'll have much to report on before January because right now we're doing the technical pieces of putting it together, getting someone to work with
120us on the design. So if that's acceptable. Thank you. I'm going to just take a point of privilege and go as well. I I think I'm concerned about a three-year contract. Again, I don't know if I I I just am concerned about our our budget. And so tying us to a three-year contract concerns me. And um I I don't know if that's considered in my mind if it's standard operating procedure or if it's just we need to be we need to be cognizant of a one-year cont. I I don't know. I don't know what the norm is, but I'm just telling you I'm worried about that. Um, I'm I'm also worried about and I understand you all are in the beginning stages, but community feedback should include board members because we report to the community.
121So perhaps what you could do right now is include board members in this in the questions that you're posing. You what you could do right now is send all of those things, you know, not not necessarily for approval, but for awareness. again you need to in it's not the ad the administration show it's really about engaging the community and I understand um doing it different ways and your analogy for different hats but um there's a way to do that that includes board members who report to the community so that needs to be forethought and it also should be a regular reporting again maybe at the cow with the goals and guard rails talk about the strategic plan and um and those things as well but again for me a three-year commitment is just um I
122don't want to want to tell you who to hire, but I definitely think that that needs to be stated that we're talking about a contract, a long-term contract, and our monies are um are are are questionable. So, that's just my personal opinion. Any other board member feedback? >> I'm going to go to board member Lindy and then Vice President Bolton. >> Thank you. It's a great update. Uh, and I really appreciate it. Um, could we go to the very first slide you shared that had the full picture on it or timeline? Uh, great. Thank you. Um, I think there on on the on the bid piece, I think there are pros and cons to getting outside help on something like this. I hear the resource constraint point for sure. I also think that there is
123power in having a third party for us as a board uh and for the administration because they can play a role in reflecting back certain pros and cons and choices in a way that is hard to do as a as a as a stakeholder in the in the system itself. So I I I see both sides of that. Um I think when when when you had shared superintendent the original um version of this there were three points that I had raised and I think I see some of them addressed. I just wanted to track the three of them for a second. The first thing I said was start with listening. Um and so I do see the stakeholder insight sessions here really clearly. Um is that am I following that correctly? We we're frontloading this
124with listening to the community. It's great. Um I think the second one was um um that it be linked to the finances. I think that's also really clear throughout all of this. Um so I think those two things feel like they get a big check mark from my perspective. Um the third one was um once we have pulled out the issues that are of highest priority to the community um whatever we choose to do in terms of strategy I think should learn from who is best at this in the country and the this there is what what let's say that the priority from the community listening is uh career readiness outside of college. I'm making this up, but let's say that that is a priority. Then I think wherever we're coming up with what are
125our big big ideas for how we're going to improve that, we're not coming up with things from nothing. We're learning from well, which districts have made the biggest strides on college and career readiness around the country. What do they do? And how can how can we apply those lessons for students and families here in Cincinnati? That was the the last piece. I just wanted to see where that came through in this process. That was my my last question. >> I do see that work being done um as part of the strategy workshops um starting in about February or so um after we get the insight from all of the stakeholders. >> And would that be a part that the whatever the vendor is is helping to facilitate? Yes, >> that's that sounds like a very
126reasonable approach. It sounds great from my perspective. I think my my suggestion would be if that's what we're going to ask the firm to do in that stage that part of the RFP that goes out is asking them for examples of times when they have led that kind of work in the past. Specifically, um pulling strategies from where there have been the strongest results um in in other uh communities. But thank you. I think that this really does address um the things that that were top of mind for me and I appreciate it. >> Vice President Bolton. Yeah, I understand the importance of having a a facilitator through the process uh especially facilitating uh community engagement uh particularly uh which requires the I think the greatest amount of skills and needs to be totally open
127and unbiased. I have no interest in having a three-year contract with anybody after this thing gets done. uh when it's created uh it it falls to you all to implement and us to oversee. Um I I don't I don't want to establish some long-term relationship with another third party, but we do need somebody to facilitate and guide us through this process especially considering that it's rather short period of time uh to develop a strategic plan. Um so that's one thing. Um the couple of strategic plans ago, we actually put out a call to the community if they were interested in participating in the strategic plan and there and it took two directions if I recall and one was that we with all the people that said we want to participate we actually selected some and
128explained why the the selections were done. But then you had also a continuing plenary group that had expressed interest in the beginning and then was added on as we went. So that the community was uh very participatory as were the major partners and organizations and what have you. Uh I think that that opening it up is is good uh for the community uh to not just really not just about the LSDMC's and the people that are already full participants but people that might have some uh wider perspective. Um I think it can be done in these six in these months if we're starting now and we give a strong direction as to what it is instead of any kind of confused approach. Uh the other piece I would say on the strategic plan uh is
129that um we already and I I said this sort of at the retreat and I I think member Lindy was right in correcting me on something where I I said it it's actually we're in a position right now to move more quickly than we normally would largely because of what we've lived through for the last two years cutting and cutting and adding and adding and reorganizing, reorganizing and what have you. And and we also now have um I think uppermost a high profile of our uh governance regarding our direct reports. Uh and we also know that the LSDMC situation and other uh u uh internal uh activation at the school level has been happening. So I I think we can get it done. I'm not interested in a long-term relationship. I'll happy to have us
130hire some sort of facilitator. Um and um I'm excited about being able to do this and actually having a confluence of the budget and the strategic plan. We tried that for one year and at that time we we spent so much money the first year of the strategic plan that we had to regroup. So we have to be very careful about frontloading any money early on in the plan because we don't have that money then we did now we don't but we paid for that for the next three years after that thank you >> one member cross >> yep um I think the community involvement that Eve was talking about the broader community is going to be important I I especially think we ought to take a look at try to dovetail our plan see
131if we can sync it up a little bit with like Greater Cincinnati Foundation, Chamber of Commerce, uh United Way, some of those organizations are that are big helpful partners. If we can be sure to link into ways that they can uh augment us would be would be good. >> Well, member Matt, >> uh yes, so Chief Burkhard and Superintendent Murphy. So I do like uh both perspectives that uh my colleagues have shared about um having a third party to make sure that there is objectivity and and fairness in the process but also recognizing that financially we are not in a good space. So, I'm curious to know what are your thoughts around being able to do to balance both um because I also am not interested in a long-term um financial um agreement and um
132but wanting to again make sure that there's that level of um transparency um and objectivity in the process because engagement has been a significant challenge for us. Um and um I want to make sure that we are able to hear our voices to support the strategic planning process. We understand uh of the financial picture for certain. Um and then so we are really just looking at someone to help us facilitate bring all the pertinent people together to have the conversations and be a third party so that it doesn't appear biased or leading. And we understand it. We believe we can do that just with this initial creation of the plan and then we will do the rest of the work. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Remember Craig? >> Um I actually just and again it's
133a little bit goes into when we were talking about aligning the uh strategic plan with also our budget development. And so this is probably more towards treasure custom than to the superintendent and chief Birkhart. But um the need to also think through as we talked about the ideas of like revenue generators or potential things that we would need to change within a district as our operations go forward. I I guess I'm wondering to board member Lindy's point about like the best ideas both can go towards the instructional side but also are we thinking about like what's in the best course of action those budgetary things and are those conversations that would be occurring as we're developing the budget in alignment with the development of the strategic plan. >> So the short answer is yes. Um,
134I think I think as we've recognized here, there's there is there's potential to have less money significantly. There's not new money coming in in the near future. And so in order to kind of build space to do new instructional things, we have to get more efficient on the operational side. We have to look at, like you said, like new revenue ideas, you know, that aren't your traditional, you know, funding through through tax dollars and those sort of things. So, so I think that's a key part of the plan is how is how we make it not just an instructional plan, but a strategic plan that crosses the entire organization. And I think that taps into what was the the presentation that was done at the uh retreat where we had the what uh Vice President
135Bolton loved about the one colorful uh slide slide that had the different plans that we all have for the district that can be looped into one. I think the concept of that also with looking at the budgetary aspect as you're having the conversations with the parents as you're having the conversations maybe maybe to a different degree with the students around budget but um they understand but we don't want to get too far into the weeds with with for them but um for the staff as or you know administrations at the different schools and stuff I think it is helpful to in some ways map out the choices more so than what is your priority and and I say that in part because I think people are going to come in with their thing that they
136absolutely want and it sounds great and every one of them will sound great and we can't fund all of them right so then as we come up with a strategic plan I think it is helpful to maybe provide some at least parameters to the discussions and I don't again I think that's through however you had to do those conversations but I I've seen focus groups work better when they have a topic that they can then give some thoughts around as opposed to free form. And that's the only thing I would worry about is that we're going to have a lot of schools who and a lot of parents who have really specific things they want that we absolutely probably in an ideal world would do but may not have it match up to our budgetary
137plan as well. So, I think it's maybe like it's a good way to guide some of that. Is it not not start with the if we had infinite dollars, what would we do conversation that we typically do when we go out and talk to folks. >> Great. I'll just add my um last two cents is um I understand the need for having to hire an outside person. I'm I echo the sentiments of my colleagues here. I would like to also find an opportunity to utilize some of our own in-house for facilitation and that would be a very appropriate space to me to provide a bonus or a stipen um for our own people to do this work uh so that we're not outsourcing. I'd love for us to look at more ways to be able
138to utilize the expertise that our staff have. um maybe not for the the initial uh getting us through the foundation, but this to me seems like a space where we could um incentivize our own people uh with a with an appropriate stipen rather than um how we've been using them on some instances. Any other questions, comments? All right, Superintendent Murphy, anything else from you? Thank you, Mr. Burkhard. Well, we are chugging along. Board members, we always get to the part where it's heavy. We almost need to stretch. Board member Lendy. Yeah. But just before moving on, there was a I wanted to make sure we got the superintendent clarity on the issues that were raised before just about goals, guard rails, strategic planning, timeline. Do you feel like you have clarity? And if so, could
139you just share it back with us to make sure we don't wind up making your life difficult later on? I am clear on my five goals. Uh may need some adjustment on the way the strategic plan goal is written as it says four years right now and maybe I'm hearing three years. So clarity there. I am clear that we will continue to report out in Cal on the current guard rails and I believe I am clear on moving forward with planning the new strategic plan for fall of 2026 and beyond. That's my understanding. >> No objections here. Thank you. Sounds like board member Lindy needed the clarification. Sounds like you I I understood it the way you did. >> So Dr. Maf just so the current goals have already been approved. We already approved those
140five goals. So five goals. Continue to report during um student achieve Macau on the current guard rails and begin to work uh with the treasur continue to the work with the treasurer on the new strategic plan three years. I'm hearing three what my colleagues board >> I think the there was a thought process around and there was a reasoning behind the four-year and I I'm somewhat blanking on it but I I know treasure cousin gave it at the uh retreat but I do think if we're talking about getting towards our new money potential we would be making that push in that last year to establish whatever we were going to do if we were going to do another additional funds for uh for the end of the facilities master plan bond levy time period. Um
141but I don't remember if that was the exact reason but I just remember there was something said at the retreat about it. >> I think the four years part of it was just you know freshman year to senior year for student. So your kind of high school life cycle. The other thing I will remind folks is as we talk about new money strategic plan there there is a delay. You know the t your tax year is a year behind your calendar year. So so anything you do there's going to be a lag before you start seeing the funding for it. That was what I remember. >> Well, remember Matt? >> No, I'm just trying to track with you. So, is that Yes, the life cycle of the um high school student, but with the lag,
142are you saying that's also why it may be helpful with the four-year instead of three-year plan or am I okay? Thank you, >> Vice President Bolton. I I'm in agreement with what everyone's saying and what I think the summary is. I do think still hanging out there is whether or not we need all of these guard rails. And I don't know if we needed to have a discussion about that. I mean, looking at them, they're they're quite different from one another. They're all useful and good, but I don't know if all of them are and and we don't have to decide that tonight, but I I wouldn't mind if the administration came back and said maybe we don't need this one or that one or whether we have we think about it or what have
143you cuz some of them are a little bit more procedural than um the procedural isn't fair isn't uh where it's more concrete been lofty or dealing with children and teenagers. So I I just think that maybe if there's a continuing discussion, it might be as to which if it's all the guard rails or we know we've flipped the goals now to the new goals, which is great, but I I think you might want to review the whether or not all six guard rails are of value. I think what's applicable as I look at the interim goals and and guardrails is we need to decide if we're going to do interim goals and guardrails both because there are two there are things there not just guard rails. So I mean I see value myself in in
144them um or come up with a way to report those things. Um, but I I really maybe they could be worded differently, but I think there is a benefit as as an example, the percentage of high school students participating in arts and athletics based on extracurricular activities will increase from a num, you know, number to a number. There's benefit in that. So, um, the reporting of it to me is significant. However, if it needs to look differently and say something differently, maybe we can work on that. But are we saying that we don't want to do goal interim guard interim goals and guardrails or are we saying that we do? I think that's the very first question I'm interested in. Member Croset, >> I I go back to what I said earlier. I think we
145should continue to report on the guard rails as we go forward. It may be to ease point as we go through the strategic process maybe there's a couple we drop because they're not that helpful. But I think for now, as long as the administration has a bandwidth, continue to report on them. I mean, they're out there for the public, and we should kind of honor that until we make a big shift to a new strategic plan. >> Well, I think I'm going to give some homework to the board members. Let's go back and pull them and actually look at them. So, Superintendent Murphy, can you send them out to all of the board members? I'm looking at this particular sheet. It's just, you know, from we approved it December 14th, 2022. Um, if you could
146update the website with your goals, update this sheet with your with the goals that we decide landed on, and then list out the interim goals and the guardrails, and then we can kind of look over that because I' I'd like to provide some direction to you going into the new year on what it is we need you to report on. >> Yes, ma'am. I appreciate that. We gave you one slide that has like a red or green where we are with guard rails and then I thought um maybe people don't exactly have that memorized. So we put a hard copy of the status of the guard rails from the start of the year if that's somewhat helpful and certainly can send it electronically. >> That would be great. So board members will visit this one
147more time this year at the goal at the uh my my vote is that we keep them but vice president Bolton did you have something to add? Yeah. Not I just need a point of clarification. When you said interim goals, you are you talking about goals? Yeah. Interim goals of the new goals, not interim goals from the previous goals. My understanding is that the superintendent has changed the interim goals herself. So it's her interim goals, not anything from previous. >> Okay. It's it's interim goals for the of the new goals. >> Correct. >> Okay. Not the old goals. >> That's why I think it's imperative that she send us what we need to work from so that we're all on the same page. >> That's what I'm asking. That's >> that's I think that's important.
148So, let's have this conversation again when we all are looking at the same documentation. So, Superintendent Murphy, can you send us >> your goals, interim goals, and guard rails of all of your goals? Make sense? Send the five goals of Shauna Murphy for 2025 2026 that the board approved. Yes. Send the guard rail. Send a hard an electronic copy of what you have a hard copy of. >> Yes. And the interim goals from the current body of work. >> Yes. >> And we're only going to look at what she sends us when we talk about it. >> Member Matt, >> I'm I'm with board member Bing. I'm trying to so I I receive what has been shared but again as I uh discussed previously about the superintendent's goals are we saying that those goals are
149now becoming the current goals ultimately for the strategic plan or just for this particular year, right? But then that would mean we are abandoning the current goals that we already have in place. >> Yeah. >> Wait, what do you mean? >> So, we haven't necessarily reached those particular goals yet. And if we're switching them, is that your question that you're asking? >> Right. We haven't reached those goals. >> Reach them. I'm trying to distinguish between the difference between the goals that we already have with the for the strategic plan. Are we saying that those the superintendent's goals that she's established those five goals are now going to become the goals for the strategic plan even if it's for 2526 meaning we're getting rid of and I think this is what board member Bolton is asking
150as well we're getting rid of what was once in place to now replace it with what the superintendent's goals are that were approved because the way that I interpret it initially is that while we still maintain the current strategic plan goals, the the superintendent's goals would be ultimately what we're evaluating the superintendent on while still upholding and monitoring the goals from the um current strategic plan. >> That's the reason why I was on here cuz you asked me that question and I was I was a little lost. So, I'm deferring to my colleagues on this one. Board member Lindy, >> I think it's a good question. I don't think there's an answer. I think people walked away from the previous meeting with different interpretations. I think that just means that the people up here are
151human beings. Um, and so I think the idea that there be this piece that's sent out and maybe my request would just be can there be a clear prompt that like what what what kind of feedback or ideas are you looking for from us in response to those? And then I think we got to get to closure on this. Um, but I do think it feels pretty normal for people to have walked away with different understanding and a perfectly healthy and good thing for us to do is to get clear together. So, thank you, >> Superintendent Murphy. I think I'm going to ask you to weigh in because it's a very valid question and the question was asked to me and I did not know nor would I be able to say that definitively for
152the whole board. So what what what are you thinking? >> I thought I was clear four minutes ago. I'm sorry. >> That's fine. >> I thought when my goals were approved, the direction was those would be the five goals administration should focus on this year. Today, that's not what I think anymore. I I think there are still some pause because the previous goals um where members don't feel have been thoroughly addressed. So I'm a little um I just need the direction and the from >> I think the only it's not the it's just the strategic plan goals that is causing you pause. Correct. So, it's the strategic plan that is on the website has goals listed and those goals are what we've been working under. Yes, >> we've set individual goals for you that we
153did whenever last month. And so I think the question is are we overriding the strategic plan goals which are different than your goals? Are we saying those goals that we have voted on for you are now becoming the last year of the strategic plan? Well, the 2020 five, year of the strategic plan, which means a that the website is off and b we would be moving 2026 27 strategic plan goals differently because what's posted now is different. I thought when my goals were approved, that's what I was told to do. I thought today I heard you say to edit the website to be aligned to those five, but now that's not necessarily what I'm hearing. Well, member map, are you opposed to having the five goals that we're working for for the superintendent be aligned
154with and immersed into the current strategic plan? that is what we're working from. >> I I am uh that's the point that I raised pretty much the entire um meeting in terms of this discussion. Uh like I said, there's only two of the superintendent's individual goals uh that were approved that are now that are in alignment with what the actual strategic plan was. And so my my understanding and my assumption was that the superintendent's uh goals that were set were for this year and ultimately working to change the annual targets or the interim goals of the main goal. Um again, we have not accomplished the overall uh targets for those um those main goals that are listed in the strategic plan. So, I was approving the superintendent's evaluation or the superintendent's goals under the premise
155that this would be her own individual goals that she would have been working towards and that we would have been holding her accountable to for the superintendent evaluation. >> Vice President Bolton. >> Yeah, this is why I posed the question because I think there is some confusion. reason >> uh first of all I don't think we should add to more things for us to be overseeing that's why I did propose that we have a reflective uh effort by both the administration and the board to see what had been accomplished based upon the current and hopefully previous strategic plan and we have an understanding of that but I do think that we are it's time to move to the next strategic plan after that reflective effort and that we only have those five goals and that
156is what we're evaluating the superintendent on and it would be in congruent for me intellectually to have a group of things over here that we're monitoring as well as monitoring what we're expecting the superintendent to deliver. So, I would be proposing we have a reflective period of time to and and assess the end of the current strategic plan. We've already voted and said we want to start planning the new strategic plan and have it done by June 30th. So, I I think that we we're in that transition and that gets confusing and I think it would be well worth everybody's effort for the administration to reflect on what was accomplished, what wasn't accomplished from the current slashpre strategic plan. But it's time to move on now uh uh from the standpoint of really making true
157the importance of those five goals that we've said the superintendent needs to be uh having the administration work by. >> Thank you. One member Lindy. >> Yeah. Um I think um on the one hand this this feels long and difficult. On the other hand I think it's be it's for a good reason which is we're trying to get clarity. Um and I I so uh I appreciate everybody's time on this. U I had two things I wanted to say. Um the first one is um I think for me it's helpful to see how much overlap there is between the old five and the five that are on the superintendent's evaluation. I know that technically algebra 1 and third grade reading are the only ones that are exactly the same. But the third goal is about
158shrinking the gap in academic outcomes in sixth grade reading for low-income students versus non-low-inccome students. It is different from the way we were measuring the gap because the previous measure focused explicitly on different racial groups. I think the value behind goal three in both sets is very similar, which is we want better opportunities for all kids regardless of zip code in the city of Cincinnati and we're going to hold the superintendent accountable for making meaningful progress on that. So on one and two and three high alignment. The fourth one used to be about college and career. Our fourth one is still about college and career where we're focusing on a slightly different thing but it's a thing that really matters which is expanding the number of offerings that are higher than six points. Um I
159happen to think that's actually a better thing for us to focus on than where we were focused on. And the fifth one I know is different. we're swapping out graduation rates for a long-term strategic plan. But I think that's the right call, you know, and so from my perspective, if we decide that we're only going to focus on the five that are in her evaluation, from my perspective, we we're not losing a ton. Um, we've updated our focus in a way that feels intentional. I still think our algebra goal is too low. I voted against that one. I lost. Um, but on the others, I think there are good things for us to strive towards. Um, that was my my first point. My second one, um, look where I started on all this during our
160committee the whole was we should drop all the goals, all the guard rails, and the only thing we should focus on are the five things we approved in the superintendent's evaluation and then let's everybody go home. Um, I I I'm I've come around to the idea that there are important things in the guardrails that we want to continue to wa to watch. But from my perspective, if what we're monitoring are the the five pieces on her evaluation as the goals for this year and the guard rails because they're important things we want to hold on to there, um we we are that that feels like plenty from my perspective and to add more than that I worry starts to dilute focus. But but for that to work there has to be real genuine accountability for
161those things. um this can't be an excuse to um kick the can down the road and that's really important to me and I wanted to say that out loud um because with with the five we approved also needs to come some real accountability. Thank you. >> Thank you. I think what Superintendent Murphy what I'd like for you to do because we don't need to keep badgering you. We're all saying the same thing over and over again. I I think I I like the idea of um you creating for us a presentation or some sort of document and you can share it before the next meeting of where the overlap is for you. Um board member Lindy did a very good job of of uh summarizing that, but I think the visual would be great. We've
162got your five goals. Where were we with regard to the strategic plan and those goals and where are we now? That would be a great presentation for you. Additionally, um, and put your goals down there that we voted on. Additionally, I'd like for you to just look at the interim goals, look at the guard rails, find out the ones that pertain to your goals that we have already approved and that can be measured that we're already measuring. You report on some things that directly impact your goals that we've already voted on, and then some of them that align with the strategic plan. Pick those out. Remember, Lindy says five. I I kind of think five to six is fine, but then provide that back to us that we can see where we were with the
163strategic plan. How far are we off and then where we're we voted for you to go and then where you're proposing for us to go with regard to um your you and your team's design of the strategic plan. I think that's that would be a very good presentation. we can kind of align on something like that or member map will be able to see um where there's overlap and where uh where there's already alignment and where we're moving towards um in in totality. I think that sounds fair. We'll plan that for the next meeting um not the business meeting, the committee of the whole. We'll use that we'll use that time there for that and then hopefully we can if we need to vote on something we can do it at the next meeting but
164we can also get some closure for for you for this. We know we've got your five goals, but maybe we have maybe you propose that we do a strategic plan just for you know to kind of finish out and then 2025 2026 27 the last year that's published there but come up with something for us that has that data there. Does that sound reasonable? Okay. You've got one last presentation. Um middle school update. We really don't have a presentation. We thought it was a conversation. Um we did put in the packet um we were specifically asked about attendance enrollment projection around middle school and so we put that in um for you to see and to review. Okay. >> But other than that, we did not really create a presentation. >> And I know that
165you had planned something for us uh in December. So we'll get some more in-depth information and I think mentally um people may have a little bit more questions but the data is >> we will Dr. Maf keep I apologize on the scorecard that I think is coming the next business meeting um enrollment data. >> Okay board members have questions? I do. >> Member Wineberg. >> Yes. So for the presentation you said you'll have one in December on >> Yes, ma'am. There's a there was already scheduled a middle a middle school and elementary school and a secondary ed presentation and so uh that middle school one is scheduled now for December. So can I I just made a list because after seeing this I thought it was going to be a full full presentation and just
166seeing that it has the enrollment and attendance. So I just had a couple things that I would want to get some further information on not just from me personally but also community concerns. So, I just wanted to know how is the academic structure and the progress monitoring occurring at our middle schools. How is the parent engagement? And I can send this in an email if I need to. How is the parent engagement? Um, what are the student outcomes for first quarter? How is transportation? How are athletics and extracurricular? And then from all of the schools, Ethel, Evston, Hartwell, Pleasant Hill, Schroeder, and South Aenddale, what are the needs and challenges and successes so far that we have seen so that we know how to move forward? And then also, can you also remind us on
167what uh each of the focuses are for each of the schools as well? >> You want that in an email. You want that December. >> Okay. Since this isn't a presentation and it's just a kind of a sharing of enrollment numbers and attendance, um I'd like that for the December presentation. >> Can you follow that up with an email? >> And I will follow it up with an email. Yes. >> President all that that you just asked for, do you do you want to wait until December for that or >> That's fine. I don't know if are you prepared to answer any of those questions for today, but it would be fine for December since you are doing a presentation on it. I just want to make sure that that information is included. >> Yeah,
168there are a few of these I can respond to. >> It's at your pleasure or I can wait until December. >> All righty. So, uh the focus for each school, sorry. focus for each school. Uh Evston is entrepreneurship. Uh and they had that IB uh ad this year as well linking to uh with row with their uh IB ad for this school year. Uh what we did at um Pleasant Hill is the um public service work. Very excited about that. Um we have um again for Pleasant Hill. Was that the social social justice or what? >> Social justice. Okay. At Pleasant Hill. >> Um Hartwell has the um um business focus. And then I think I'm going to have Sierra come down so I don't get these messed up. >> And is Heartwell no longer
169the steam focus? >> Um Hartwell has steam and um I think there is a STEM component as well. >> Okay. Good evening. Ethel Taylor's technology >> and who am I missing? >> I think that's all of them at this point. >> What was the Ethel Taylor one again? >> Technology. >> What was the ETH? >> Ethel Taylor technology. So, it's no longer the arts and communication >> or maybe I got it backwards. What do you have for South Aenddale? >> Um, for South Aenddale, Steam focus. >> Okay. So, believe Ethel Taylor. >> Okay. >> And it's fine if we come back in December. I will email you the list of every single ma'am. >> We will we will have that for you. >> Perfect. >> Okay. I think we probably should just wait and give
170you time to go ahead >> get it all in. >> Okay. Well, remember member Matt got your mic off on? >> Um, yes. So, I did um prepare having some questions thinking that this was a presentation. Um I I do have some concerns about uh the projection numbers that have been shared uh today in comparison to the projection numbers that were shared in the past. Uh I went through uh all of the it's at least the uh middle and junior high schools to compare those projections and we've or I've recognized that there are several um misalignments with the projections and that um some of our schools are uh reflecting that they're underenrolled based off what the projection uh was or overenrolled based off the projection was and I recognize that there's obviously going to be
171some discrepancy because the projection is just a guess but some of them reflected a very significant um uh misalignment to what we were anticipating and so um can you speak to that superintendent Murphy because again I don't know if the projections were changed throughout the period of time um to get to where we are now what we're seeing on the screen Um and so I'm just trying to you know make sure that I am tracking and processing um what we have uh presently with what you're presenting. So for instance I know that the initial projection for ETH Taylor was 275 is currently reflecting a projection count of 423 and it's showing that our current enrollment is at 358. So I'm just concerned or um curious about how we are now at these numbers uh for
172the projection. Um and then also looking at the enrollment versus the attendance data. Um we recognize that several students are enrolled in all of our schools. However, the attendance in um several of our schools are not um reflecting maybe what the actual enrollment number would be. And so are we are we informed about if these students are actually in our schools and maybe just showing up, you know, sometimes or I know that they're on the roster, but are they actually accounted for as having been present and they're just absent? Because that definitely impacts the narrative of the chronic absenteeism. if it's reflecting that students are enrolled um but maybe they're not even attending the school, maybe they're at a different school, I don't know, but that impacts our uh chronic absenteeism. So, has there been
173a deep dive or an investigative kind of study to assess, you know, uh the trends with enrollment versus attendance? So, I'm going to ask Jeremy to talk about the projection piece, but on the attendance, what I will say is we have done the no-show process. So, anyone who has just simply not shown up should have been removed to the no-show home room and addressed uh by the school social worker. the uh the concern around attendances is not necessarily the same students absent Monday, Tuesday, etc. to your question. >> Okay. So, with the students that have been um removed and assigned or categorized as the no-show home room, how long do we like what does that process entail um to uh account for if they're actually a student within the district? Um I'm thinking about the
174financial or funding piece of that. I'm sure you know students um uh we're receiving funding for those students. What does that mean if they are not actually uh you know in and truly enrolled as a student within our district and when do we um I don't know if we're receiving funding for them do we have to reimburse for that that funding if they're not in fact in the district like how does that process work >> yes ma'am so it's an ongoing process in terms of trying to I locate where the students are if they are in another schoolhouse. Usually that's pretty easy for us to figure that out internally. If they have moved um to a different district or a different location in the state or out of state, even worse. So we do watch
175this very very carefully because it is an accountability piece not just on attendance but then it will also affect our accountability in terms of academics. So we monitor this on an ongoing basis. >> Okay. Thank you. But to the point around the the accountability and the funding, what does that if so if we're getting payment for a student that we're saying is enrolled and they are in fact not enrolled um and maybe have gone to a different district um we've gone through the you know the rigorous process of trying to locate the students and all of the above, but they're no longer enrolled. What does that financial piece then look like for us? Um do we still receive the funding? Does those dollars follow uh do they follow the student? What does that process? >>
176We receive funding for every student who is enrolled in our school district. So, as long as we are still accountable and they're enrolled, then when the EMIS team reports those numbers, that's how our funding is determined. >> Okay. I think you're answering part of it, but I think Treasure Gustin, do you want to weigh in? Yeah, superintendent was doing was doing a fine job. Um, I will say the state pays us twice a month and so and so they they update the data and there's there's a constant kind of adjustment to get to the right number. So it's not only the number of students we have enrolled that changes as well, but it's making sure that we have students in the right classifications. So, you know, there's there's different weights depending on, you know, special
177needs students, they have a higher weight. Um, English language learners have a higher weight. Um, you know, gifted students, even some of the career tech things, there's a higher weight. So, so it's not just it's not only having kids enrolled, it's also having their characteristics marked correctly so that so that we maximize that. And I will say our EMIS team works on works on that data year round. I know I know Jeremy's team and I we talk we talk quite a bit about it just making sure that that the students in the building are reflected in the reports that go to the state. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Mr. Galahoo Miss Map asked a question about projection and a shift in projections. Can you help us with that? >> Yeah, I apologize. I had to
178step out for just a minute but I believe that the nature of the question was the thought that there was something that the projections may have changed from one time to another. Um so without looking exactly I would just what projections are you looking at previously from last year we had the multiple projections if you recall the fall based on the baseline all the way through the spring which was the final um revision we had when we did what we called the spring TAC looking at the budget reductions and every all of that work that happened. The numbers that are here are from that most recent spring numbers of the revised projections once we had completed the lottery and all of the associated numbers along behind that. >> Okay. Uh I would like to see
179I I don't necessarily recall that but I would like to see um that work and this is something we can look at offline. Um so you can update me on that. Um but also what my question around the projection pertains to um recognizing that we've had in the past a conversation around capacity and bu building utilization. And so what I have since learned is that enrollment doesn't necessarily um fully align to what our uh capacity or building util utilization is. So say for instance if a school's uh capacity uh we'll say Pleasant Hill for example if a school's capacity is 650 students right um their enrollment numbers may not directly align with what that school's capacity is to hold the students. Um, and so I'm just concerned because for Pleasant Hill specifically, I I would
180say that that school is maybe over in Enro or or using um I I would say trending beyond what the building capacity actually is. Does that make sense? >> Uh, it does. So, I mean, there's always a little bit of room with the capacity numbers from various changes that we've made. The capacity numbers that we use traditionally in any of these analysis are the FMP rated capacities that the building was either renovated or designed for during the FMP process. So the building was designed as a 650 building, meaning that it's supposed to be able to support the academic programming as well as all of the support structures with 650 students in the building. So that's what it was designed for. Um obviously with changes we've made um putting up walls, taking down walls, those can
181fluctuate a little bit. We try to capture as much of those as we could over the years, but there can be some differences. Typically, those go higher, not lower, when we actually walk the buildings and evaluate them. But this, without speaking specifically to South Aenddale, I would have to look to see. >> Okay. I I mentioned uh Pleasant Hill. I'm not too familiar with South Aenddale, but um as you talked about design. Uh we know that uh Pleasant Hill was designed as a as an elementary school and now we've configured it into a uh middle school. So while there may be a capacity for 650 students, that's considering uh maybe prek or K up until sixth grade. So, um I think that's just really worth like um evaluating and assessing as we are continuing to
182move forward um with our middle schools and to make sure that there's more intentionality around how we are um you know providing supports or uh or strategic planning around our middle schools because again I'll continue to say that there's a lot of uh supports that need to be in place to ensure that our students are successful and uh I know for Having visited Pleasant Hill, I know that that's a that's a a school that is presenting to be overcrowded, right? And so again, yes, we may want to breach our enrollment target, but what does that actually mean in terms of the building capacity? >> So that was my concern there. Well, member Craig. Um, so again, I think appreciate you all providing this data and then we'll have a bigger discussion at a later time
183uh with kind of more in depth as to what it all means and what it will look like for the district. I do think there's a couple things I just wanted to maybe make sure we're also bringing to the table. So, one, I actually want to give some credit to reassessing the capacity of the building use for Riverview and Spencer, which because I know in past ones we've looked at, we've had them as as if both of them had the same building, and this one, it does appear to reflect a little bit more of the divide of the space that they're using within the building. I think that's also why in some ways for instance um the Yoda Owen Center and some of these others where they're not really meant to be at capac like
184in theory if we were at capacity in some of these spaces we would be that would be a problem more so but I do think that's something we also maybe have to think about as a district as to how do we utilize that or how do we address that because of the potential issues that came through with some of the state legislature requirements that also gets into an additional point um the capacity of each building and I think this is a hard one for us to do because to uh Mr. got to this point. We we did these on what we designed a building for at one point as part of the FMP. Some of those buildings have substantially changed or andor we've created spaces that were designated as classroom that we're now using for
185something else. Um or in some of these buildings we making them into administrative services within a building or whether it's like a health center or something to that effect that changes out in a lot of ways how the building structure is and how much of the building we can use. A and I don't know how we reflect that into what the capacity numbers are. And in part I'm thinking about this because some of our buildings are like on paper look really low in capacity that may not be necessarily a true reflection of what the building usage is, right? Like uh and so that that's one aspect and I think that's something that happily I think can be part of that bigger discussion about how do we talk about those things? how do we think about
186those things and to ensure we are using the buildings to their full capacity. Where I do have a little bit of a worry and I think this is just a longer conversation that we will have as a district is the reality is that our our our some of our buildings the only way we expand into those spaces is to truly grow the district by thousands of students on like one side of the town, one side of the city. And I'm I I think while we can grow and we'll continue to have opportunities to grow the district, I just don't know that we're going to keep growing in excessive numbers to make us meet some of those needs in those spaces. And that's what I I worry about in a lot of ways if we're not
187having the the real conversation with folks to say some of our buildings, we can try as hard as we want to to make them exist. And I worked in the district when we had the hard conversation around one of our buildings on the west side that literally there was a charter school and us in the building and something else and it still didn't fill the ba the building. So, um, it's just a hard conversation that we're going to have to have at some point as to whether or not all of our buildings can be utilized in the capacity in the same way that they are now and if there's something that we have to make a strategic decision upon what we do with that. Because, you know, again, looking at some of the numbers, even
188if we took enrollment numbers, they would still be under 50 around at 50 to 60 capacity. and that's not strategically where we want to be at for some of those buildings. Um, the last thing I will say and I think it's just helpful for us to again be thinking about especially when we talk about our middle schools is I think we certain schools we moved out folks for the purposes of creating space in the building to kind of calming some of the buildings down. Uh oh, let me rewind back. Like so for instance, Hughes's example for me, they're also re-evaluating what is the actual building capacity because a good portion of the building can't be used. And so or is that part of what we're considering as part of the FMP capacity? But I to
189go back, I think we move some of them out in an effort to take some effort to move students into a space where they could be in a more collective group with their own age and not as much with the older group of students. What I do think we have to be making a concerted effort about is maintaining if not growing the number of students who then are flowing into those higher grades. Um because what I do worry about is that there are certain buildings that yes they were pretty close to capacity with seventh eighth grade but they weren't over. They weren't substantially over like you know there there were a couple that were but now it's going to look like we have a bunch of buildings that have 60 to 70% 70 80% capacity.
190And what does that mean? what does that look like? What are the opportunities? Or is that a true reflection of what the the building capacity is? So, I just think maybe us as we strategically having those conversations about where our buildings look like in December, having the thought process around is there a plan for where we're going that will align with whatever we decide to do as far as the strategic plan or that's part of what we would have to talk about as part of the strategic plan goals because I I do think there are some that are I just I I would there's been a lot of effort to maintain and a lot of effort to do great things with them, but I just I worry that we are at a point where we're
191probably maxing out the capacity that we can put into that school and that's not a high level and I think that there comes a point where we have a duty to the public to actually have the real conversation as to where we go from there. >> Vice President Bolton. Yeah, I do think that uh we we have to maybe internally with our experts figure out um the capacity piece really rather than necessary. And I don't we I know we don't uh over rely on whatever was the FMP capacity. I know you guys have been working through that to figure out what the capacity really is, but you're right. People will tell me like they went to Hughes, well we had like 5,000 kids there. Why do you need to do it? Well, yeah, but that
192was like before there was like special ed. That was before you had any number of things that had to be housed in a in a building. My interest in the enrollment piece, Jeremy, is is the um enrollment across the district by gradeband. meaning um you know that's that's my old Wyoming uh approach which is are we going to have a senior class? How big is the senior class? And and staffing was kind of done more by grade bands. For example, in on the August report about the challenges that we were facing. Uh there were some projections for all PK all the way through the 12th grade. And it it appeared that uh this both the for sixth and seventh and eighth grade the enrollment in that chart versus the projection in that chart from August
1934th. the the um enrollment was doing well in those three grade bands uh better than than the projection but the total projection for all 12 grade bands was uh the enrollment was lower. So, I'm just interested, have we seen a drop in the sixth uh grade band, the seventh grade band, or the eighth grade band uh in part because we did this reorganization or have we um rather than building by building for me, I just trying to see the the metriculation of of where we are. I know we always have our PK numbers. They're remarkable uh and and ever fluid as the three and four year olds join us. But I'm just looking at this chart that was distributed on August 4th under the presentation of opening challenges. >> Mhm. >> And so where in
194your judgment where are we on the across the district on sixth grade, seventh grade, and eighth grade? So, for and I brought up the chart. I figured it would just be easier so I could get a little bit more realistic numbers. Um, so the last one I'm pulling from right now is from September 30th. I have the October 15th, but I haven't put it into a nice chart yet uh to where I can pull the numbers easily. So, we're going to be a little behind, but >> September 30th. >> Uh, September 30th. >> Okay. >> Correct. So in sixth grade our enrollment was 2379 versus the projection of 2425. So we were 46 students under. 7th grade was 47 students under and eighth grade was 16 students over projection. So as a total uh just
195looking across all of it our biggest area of challenge right now from a projection comparative standpoint is in preschool. We're about 500 total students off of our original projection. 400 of those are in preschool, which we know those will continue to enroll. So, we hope to have that closed. But that is where the bulk of the number comes from. From kindergarten through 12th grade, which is our funded students, we were 93 students off of our projection at our ADM between September 30th and our ADM. So, comparing overall at the school levels, we certainly are seeing some different changes and different trends than what we've seen, you know, as we've been basing based on the changes. But overall um our projections were I believe that's about 2% >> very close >> to exactly where we were
196with enrollment. >> Could you repeat the enrollment for sixth grade and seventh grade more slowly? Is this these >> do you just want the over under projection or do you want the actual >> No I I'm happy to have the enrollment numbers for sixth grade >> 2379 for sixth grade >> 2325 for seven. 2,34 for 8th grade. So that's um as you would look at those numbers versus whatever projections there were or enrollment that you anticipated, what's your analysis there? >> Correct. So the sixth grade was 46 students under projection. Mhm. >> The seventh grade was 47 under projection and the eighth grade was 16 students over projection. >> Thanks. >> While you're there, Jeremy, I have a question. Sure. What was the enrollment last year of the fifth graders? So, what my question is
197asking about is how many students did we lose from the fifth grade to the sixth grade? because I understand we're projecting, but I'm really interested in how many students left the district per grade level to six, sixth to 7th, 7th to 8th, >> and 8th to 9th maybe. >> I don't have it off top of my head. You'd have to give me a minute. If we want to wait, I can pull it. >> You can get it for the next meeting because that's really that's really um what I'm interested in. I asked for enrollment versus attendance because we keep getting oh enrolled is a number of 600 but realistically there was only 400 kids in the building so that's different and so that I was I was specific in my ask for the disagregated data
198but I also believe that we've lost students um in part because of a lack of a lack of engagement for junior high specifically um we we didn't We we missed a lot of marks on being able to clarify to the community around what their expectations would be in moving and in opening our buildings. And that's that's that's an US issue. If I received one more competitor postcard, I was going to scream. And I had people asking, you know, hey, is CPS sending out anything? Because they were receiving it. So, I think that part of our problem was regarding engagement. What I'm specifically interested in, since you have that data, and not right now, but for the next one, is the decline in enrollment from those grade bands that could have been attending these schools. And
199so, um, that's what that's what I'm looking for. >> If there is decline, >> if there isn't, then you'll you'll say that, but my guess would be there may be. Um, I'm also interested in capacity from a legislative standpoint. I particularly took a hit with regard to the community because there is that Ohio Revised Code that talked about the capacity of our buildings and I understand how we're defining it. Unfortunately, we don't quite know how the state is going to be uh judging our buildings that they can close and so um this is particularly interesting to me with regard to a capacity issue because of that um and wanting I don't I'm not interested in moving chess pieces around. I'm interested in true growth. I'm also not interested in closing buildings because we use that
200on one hand, we need to close specific buildings for low enrollment, but then we're not using it in areas where there's clearly low enrollment and we're not engaging. So that's um a part of what I'm very much interested in for the the next meeting is capacity and a plan to grow to truly grow not just move pieces on the board but to truly grow which includes engagement and communication and building that um that we haven't seen significantly. Um, and I'm interested in the drop the the data around those gray bands transitioning from one to another in corridors that they could be going to um that that we've implemented this year. So, I'm looking forward to the presentation. I think board member Weineberg has also sent some questions and I'm I'm kind of looking forward to
201the updated data information. My next inquiry would be putting discipline on those uh enrollment numbers, but that's definitely um we could look at it for the semester or for the first quarter and the second quarter, but um that would be the next piece that I think is super significant and looking at it not only for middle and junior high, but around some of those other underenrolled buildings to compare it to um is it just a junior high middle middle junior high issue or is it truly um you know a building specific issue board members. So we will get a presentation in December around more in-depth middle school data. >> All right. Can I just uh superintendent Murphy, can you share um I guess maybe uh some of the uh expectations for the presentation that will
202be forthcoming in December? Some of the uh areas of discussion? Well, we can definitely include the areas board member Weinberg mentioned in particular and if there's anything else um that board members are interested in, we can definitely include it. We have already had a conversation around the enrollment question and the discipline question, but we also wanted to give some highlights in terms of what things are going well in each of the middle schools. >> Okay. Um, and just if possible to add to that, um, if you can um have a a component where it's outlining what the initial plan was for the middle schools and then comparing it uh against where we are now. Thank you. We are cooking with grease. All righty. A proposed consent agenda has been distributed. Do board members, the superintendent
203or the treasurer have any exception items to the consent agenda? >> I'm sorry, treasure. >> You were expecting me to I do have a couple things in the treasures report. Um just on page seven, the amendment for Hampton County um educational services center. Apologize and we were cleaning up sometimes we clean up the text and you know we read OT as overtime was actual o actually occupational therapy. So apology apologies for that. That is the contract for occupational the extended or additional occupational therapy hours. Um and then the other one is um on the then and nows. Um the first then and now lines 1 through 10 is not actually a then and now. Um the issue is the invoice came in from the vendor with a different date. Um but but our folks both
204the vendor and um folks in curriculum pointed out that services had not started before the PO and so I verified that with both of them. So it is not a true then and now. Well, members, any other clarity? Vice President Bolton? >> I want to thank the treasurer for looking into the U exception that I was going to be making and uh uh glad that uh we got that corrected. Thank you. Clarified, not corrected. I'm sorry. >> Whoa. Vice board president board member Matt uh just would like to abstain from the treasures report page 14. >> Page 14. Thank you. >> Any others? My usual suspects over here to my right. All right. Treasurer Augustine, please call the voting role for the passage of Wait, >> I'm sorry. I'm sorry. We got to have a
205motion. I'm sorry. >> I'm so sorry. >> So, I would make a motion to approve the uh consent agenda with the corrected language >> on the treasur's report. >> Second. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everybody. >> Now, it was on you, Treasury. >> Mr. Craig? >> Yes. >> Mr. Cross? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lindy? >> Yes. >> Miss Matt? Yes, >> Mrs. Weinberg. >> Yes, >> Vice President Bolton. >> Yes, >> President Moffett. >> Yes. Do we need to review the assignments that were that were made? Board member Craig. >> I would just say we don't necessarily need to review it, but I think the uh request from uh board member Weinberg um should be included as a as an assignment. It's actually a specific task that we're asking the >> superintendent to
206do. It's already been shared with her as well as with the board. So I think it's fine to include that. >> So would you like me to make the assignment >> formally? >> Okay. So yes, I would like to make an assignment that the superintendent um will get back to the full board in her presentation in December. I have shared the email with Miss Phillis and that email has been shared with all board members as well. And we've got an assignment for the goals guards. I don't think we need to go through that again, but I think she's got a clear uh strategy for presenting um 20 2025 2026 goals as voted on and the last year of the strategic plan in any interims. So, we've got that assignment clarified. Superintendent, did you need us
207to repeat that? I think you have it. Okay. and board member Matt. >> Uh just the assignment around the middle schools, what the initial plan was before the uh phase 2 process and um comparing it against where we are now. Um again, opportunities to assess and evaluate um areas of improvement or things that are working well. Superintendent Murphy discussed. And then I do have another assignment, but it's completely different from what we've discussed today. um wanting to get an update about um our central uh enrollment process. um specifically as it pertains to our students with uh disability uh uh supports um to make sure that they are enrolled um in a best fit school for them as well as that they are um receiving the supports that they need um in terms of whether they
208are in a gened class or if they are in um a particular unit. So, if you could provide us with um a update around that process. I've received some concerns from um community members about the challenges there. And so, and also because we've had a parent uh share today about making sure that IEP uh rights are um honored, if you could provide us with the update. And I just have one more kind of lightweight assignment. I I'd love to get an update on Metro and we can I we've heard that there's still some concerns around these passes and so our team has been able to share what the expectation was with Metro, but there's still some significant concerns. I know Ethel Taylor has had a bus stop change right in front of their building and
209that is causing some of the the bus stop is not there and it's causing some of their students to miss school and or be late to school and so um specifically around that particular building metro has moved the stop and it is adversely impacting the transportation of those students. But I'd also like to get some sort of uh idea on what buildings are still having trouble because we hear it but then when we inquire it's always no there's no problem. So we need to have an understanding formally so that we can let Metro know. So transportation is a concern for me. Vice President Bolton. >> Yes. This is a I think one of the issues at the Ethel Taylor is the construction >> on that street. Uh just tried to get on it myself. Um
210this is a specific one to the uh treasure if it pleases the rest of the board. Uh I've been uh told by some folks that should know some things that we would be well advised and this would be helpful to our communication with the public if we were able to explain you know we talked about how many millions of tax dollar uh tax revenue excuse me state revenue that didn't come our way and it really was still singledigit millions uh if I recall but I've been told that if we look at what if the fair funding plan had actually been kept, how many millions of dollars would we have gotten? So, this an assignment, I don't know if that's an information request or an assignment, but it will require you to do some things, but
211I think that that is will be useful uh as we explain things to the public. Thank you. Okay, board members. Anything else? Well, board. Okay. So, the chair will now gladly entertain a motion for adjournment. suit. >> Second