Cincinnati Public Schools and City of Cincinnati's Healthy Neighborhoods Committee August 6, 2025

001[Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey. [Music] Yeah. [Music] Nah. [Music] Natal. [Music] Natal. [Music] It's a chicken. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. Yeah. [Music] Heat. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] So, our deputy superintendent will wave her hand. She is here. Dr. Alicia Smith, our director of human resources, Julia Indelatio, our chief operations officer, Chris Burkhard, soon to be treasurer, current assistant treasurer, Mike Gustin. We have on the next row, Rebecca Beachch, who is our project connect manager. We have our director of transportation, Pam Williams. And uh over here on my side of the room, we have assistant superintendent Sier Badget. and Dan Hoying, our general counsel is on the back rowish. >> Thank you. And I should mention we have two more um city team members who

002who came. We have our our deputy clerk of council and that's uh Nicole Crawford. Thank you for being here. And also Roy Hackworth from our Department of Community Economic Development. Thank you for being here. Okay, so we're going to start with with public comment. I'll call your name. Come on up to the microphone. You don't have to touch it. And you will have the privilege of the floor for two minutes. And we'll start with Minister Adrien. And he will be followed by, let me put on my glasses to make sure I read the name correctly, Alexis Marsh with her son. >> So, um, I came today just to comment on the Rothenberg. I don't know if you say Rothenberg or Rothenberg, but the Roen Rothenberg. Yeah, I know. Um, but the Roth and R crosswalk,

003um, I wanted to know where y'all at with that because it needs to be up there at least before the school year so no kids so the kids can be safe. Um, in our nonprofit, we at least have 20 of those kids. So, the safetiness over there is very important to us for those kids. Um, I don't know. When I went through the agendas and read it, um, it was not as clear on when it was going to be put up there, but I know y'all already said it was going to be put up there, but I just wanted to know if it can get up there before the school year starts so they can be safe. And instead of the white paint because of the the tires mess it up, they can put high

004yellow paint so everybody can see that. >> Um, just a suggestion on the painting when you paint it. >> Okay. Thank you so much, Minister Adrian. And we'll check. That's a question for our department of um transportation and engineering. So, we'll check on that. Um okay. Next, we have Alexis Marsh and her son, and she will be followed by uh Andy Shark. >> Okay. >> Hi. Thanks for having us. Um this is Errol, my son. He is the motivation for getting involved in anything in OTR. um his safety. He goes to SCPA, has gone there since kindergarten. And Arrol, what do you say whenever I suggest we move out of otr? I don't just quick quick quick. I don't want to move because I have a lot of friends here. They go to my school.

005They go to Washington Park over near SCPA, the place where I go to school. Okay. So, after school, what do we do every day? Every day we go to Washington Park. >> And how do we typically cross? >> Um, usually we either go in the middle, which is dangerous, or we go around, which takes much longer, right? So, we thought it would be a good idea since we see a lot of families crossing in the middle of the block if we could just get crosswalk between those two streets or those two crossings. That would be really helpful for helping families and kids get to the park or cross the street to get into their kids their parents' car. What would you do if I wasn't there and you had to cross the street? Um, I

006would usually I would one look both ways and go through the middle because it is faster. >> Cool. That's it. That's why we'd like a crosswalk. Thank you. >> Okay. Let me ask you, Errol, how old are you? >> I am 10. >> I really appreciate you coming down here to speak for public comment. You did an excellent job. Thank you for that. And so, shout out to SCPA and and to the parents as well. Thank you so much. Okay, next we have Andy Shark. You have the pleasure of the floor for two minutes. >> Thank you. I'm also here to speak about the crosswalk between SCPA and Washington Park. >> Okay. Um, I have three children and my wife, um, in the back here, Henry's a second grader at SCPA and Emanuel and Xavier

007are, um, preschoolers at Rising Stars as a Charles and will be going to SCPA for kindergarten next year. >> Nice. Um to give a little bit more um input to on the crosswalk situation, um that spot be on 12th Street um between Washington Park and SCPA is where all of the elementary school kids come out at the end of the day and where they go in in the morning to be dropped off for school. Um and because of the limited parking in otr, there's a lot of cars on both sides of the street. So there's constantly parents that are parking on both sides of the streets that are running across the street because they're in a rush with their kids and then running back to their cars. And then there's a lot of families like

008us that live downtown like Alexis and Arrol um that like to use the park after school especially or that are coming through the park to drop their kid off in the morning and that's a direct spot between the park and the school and there's already a walk through the park. Um, so we've been in discussion with SCPA and had support from the principal. Um, but we're trying to get more um feedback from city council and and CPS to um make something happen to make the street a lot safer and to create direct access to the park. Thank you. >> All right. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Okay, our next speaker is Christian Davis. And Miss Davis, you have the pleasure of the floor for two minutes. I think you're our last public comment.

009>> Hello and thank you for having me. Um, my name is Christian Davis. I am a CPS parent. My children also attend SCPA. I'm also the founder of Cincinnati Parent Empowerment Network. And today I'm really just here to encourage this joint collaboration. Cincinnati public schools aren't just educating children. They're shaping the future workforce, civic leaders, and community members of the city. If the city of Cincinnati wants to ensure a thriving community, it must invest in a strong collaborative relationship with CPS. There is an upward trend of Cincinnati high school graduates leaving the city and state to go to college and never returning. They are settling in their professional careers and starting families in cities and states that they believe have more appeal and opportunity than their hometown. Cincinnati has a lot to offer, but many

010professionals, especially professionals with families, are no longer choosing Cincinnati as their home because they want better educational options. They will come to our city to work and play, but not live. I believe that by building a strong partnership between the city of Cincinnati and CPS, together we can change that narrative. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And thank you for the work you do with the Cincinnati Parent Empowerment Network. Excellent. If anyone hasn't been to visit, you really need to. So, thank you so much. Okay, that ends public comment. So, I'm going to uh turn the agenda the at least the first parts there. A lot of it is really CPS um presenting and I know you have to do roll call as well. So, I'll turn it over to Dr. Moffett. >> So,

011I'm going to we um just as a formality for people to know that we need to memorialize who is here. So, Treasurer Wagner, can you call roll for me? Mr. Craig, >> Mr. Crosset >> here, >> Mr. Lindy, Miss M >> here, >> Mrs. Weinberg, Vice President Bolton >> present. >> President Moffett >> here. Thank you. And to start our agenda, um, we're going to have a presentation. We thought we would update the city and the community on Metro busing students. Uh, we've had some some changes this year and so I believe Superintendent Murphy, stop me if I'm wrong. This is Mr. Burkhart, his team. Um, >> let's go. >> Yes, ma'am. That is Mr. Chris Burkhard. And we Oh, we have our partners from Metro joining us. >> Yes, this is great. And I

012left my jacket downstairs. So if somebody is near the entrance, can they bring up my jacket? Thank you. >> Down by the security desk. >> Okay, Alex, do you mind checking on that, please? Thank you so much. >> Thank you for for allowing us to be here to talk a little bit about Metro. Uh I'm Chris Burkard. I'm the chief operating officer for Cincinnati Public Schools. And to my left is Andy Ayello, the CEO of Metro. Uh we're going to go through some slides and give you uh a highle overview of where we're at with busing in in Metro for this upcoming uh 2526 school year. So as we're looking at Metro and transportation this year, we have over 12,000 CPS passes for all students grades 7 through 12. And now that's >> Dr. Bart,

013do you mind speaking directly to the mic? I'm sorry. >> Yeah. So that's not only CPS students, but those are uh students that uh are in the city of Cincinnati uh whether they're chartered, non-public where we we are required to transport every student in the city of Cincinnati. So this 12,000 includes all of those students as well. So, this includes not only our high school students, it also includes all of our seventh and eighth graders this year and approximately 12 new schools, whether those are middle schools, whether those are junior highs, or some of our K through8 schools. That's approximately 1,200 new students, which is a 10% increase over um last year. >> I'll talk a little bit about the passes for 2025 and 2026. Um before I do, I'll take just a point of

014privilege. Um, we have an outstanding relationship with the administration at CPS and superintendent's team. As you'll see through this presentation, we've been working very collaboratively over the last few years. And that collaboration is even deeper today than it's ever been. Um, and it's this communication with not only CPS, but also the city and the city manager's office that again continues to get stronger and it leads us to making tweaks and adjustments to the system um as a way to improve all the outcomes for the city and for the students. So in 2020 in 2025 and 2026 school year, a slight adjustment to the pass. As you know, we create RFID smart card passes that are tied individually to each student and they um have that student ID associated with that pass. The regular passes that

015we create for most students operate during the morning peak and in the afternoon peak. Um, two years ago, those passes would cut off at 6 PM. Last year, um, we found that we could get most students to where they needed to go prior to 5:30 p.m. And this year, we're happy to report that with improvements to the network and how we move students through the system. Those passes cut off at 5:00 p.m. Um, and that's just a means to get students quickly to their final destination. And that's been possible through the improvements of the bus network over the last few years. Um, for those students that participate in extracurricular activity, um, CPS lets Metro know who those students are and we create extracurricular passes for them and those last well into the evening so they

016can, you know, go to football practice or debate club or whatever they have after school and still get home. Um, a new adaptation this year is that we're also encoding each of those student passes to whether that student has a direct trip home or whether based on their home address and school address would require to transfer somewhere at one of our transit centers in the system. With that, we're going to color code those passes. So students that have blueprint on their pass means that their home destin their home address and their school address most likely requires them to transfer. Um and and the bus drivers and CPS and CPD and our community partners will see that that student probably needs to transfer at a transit hub. And then the ones printed with black ink means

017that based on those two addresses, that student should have a direct trip home and doesn't necessarily need to be at a transit center. What we did last year is we captured that data and for those students that had a direct trip home but were using Government Square, we sent that list of students to CPS. CPS robo called parents. We did that every week over the last school year and we saw a significant decline over the year of kids that had a direct route home um and found themselves at Government Square. So, we're going to continue that with just a little bit u more of a visual validation that's going to happen this year as well. >> And and as you can see by the slide, there's about 7,000 passes that have direct. We have about

0183,000 passes that would have to have a transfer. We have about 2,000 students who have an extracurricular activity that they would need a a extracurricular pass for. So, as we look at the um 2526 school year, we've obviously made some changes which uh Andy just spoke about, but uh what we really want to do is get communication into the hands of the community and those parents and and guardians about what these changes are. Um, so we have set up open houses at each one of our um, junior high, middle schools, and high schools. And those will run from August 4th to August 15th. And at each one of those open houses, we will have not only transportation staff, school administrative staff, but also our friends from Metro there to be able to answer questions from

019each uh, parent or guardian about their trip from uh, school to home or home to school. Um, so a lot of Metro staff will be there to not only assist to answer questions, but more importantly, they will be around for their first week of school to make sure that they see the same faces at not only the transfer centers, but actually at the bus stops as well. Um, so we want to make sure that there's visibility there. Um, as well as making sure that parents uh feel comfortable with what's happening. So, we are allowing parents to ride free from August 20th through 27th. Um, we actually passed out uh cards at our back to school fest, but uh parents don't actually need that card. Um, they can just uh tell the driver that when they

020get on the bus, I'm here to ride to school with my son or daughter. And then when they uh ride back, they just need to tell their their driver that they are returning home. So we think uh that is a something that in the past has worked really well for us and now with seventh grade graduates riding metro we're allowing and extending that for this year as well. >> May I just ask so is August 20th first day of school? >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> So that first week parents can ride for free with their children to school and then home again. Do they are they able to go back and actually pick them up? Yeah. When do they get to do that twice? Okay. >> Yes. And then actually the

021pass that is on the screen right now is what the pass looks like. Um our transportation department has those passes as well. So um the other piece that we're really uh excited about is meeting students where they are. So we have produced some videos. Uh um Metro has has graciously had uh one of one of their great supporters uh make a Tik Tok video on how to get to school using Metro. So, if you've never um done that before, we have uh uh videos uh how to, you know, how to navigate the app all the way through how to get on the bus and what uh protocol is like on the bus. Um and then what to do once you get to school. So, >> I love that you guys are very cool. Tik Tok.

022All right. Go CPS and >> Metro. Yeah. Go Metro. Right. Right. >> And just to underline some of the things that Chris has said is that we've been working really hard to get the word out. And if you think about order of magnitude, we had 12,000 students who were using Metro as their main means of transportation last year, maybe a 10% increase with the change this year. So, we're ready for this. Um, I'm a a parent of a CPS student that rides Metro and I've received already two emails from CPS saying this is how you know you can expect to ride Metro and click on this link to go to the transportation page to get more information. And so we're we're really pushing uh communication and again as a recipient of that communication I see

023it happening in real time. >> Let me just ask so there are cards available passes available for parents. They don't really need them but they might feel more comfortable like I would feel more comfortable having one as opposed to the bus driver taking my word for it. Is there a way of like going online and getting these passes or calling a number? uh we we can post this online so they can print it print it out and just have a copy of it. So we'll we'll make sure that that's available online on our website. So we'll go we'll put it on our transportation page uh within CPS so anyone who's going to be looking for it. >> Uh let's give us a day please. So I won't say tomorrow but maybe uh by the next

024day by Friday we'll have that on on our web page so that we uh anyone who wants it can print it off. We've also really done a lot of outreach and and uh making sure that our social media presence uh there's not been a single day that I haven't gone on social media and seen information about transportation. So every single day we're saturating the market on you know what the changes are, what you can expect, what you can uh what uh changes have been made as well as emails, roocalls. Um, so if if a parent or or student doesn't know about Metro this year, it's not from a lack of trying. We've really tried to saturate the market in every possible place um that that uh students and parents would look. The the other piece

025that we really want to highlight and both uh uh Andy and I have been working really boots on the ground from this standpoint is student safety. And and I always say that it's not only that students are safe, but that students feel safe as they're on Metro or at the transit centers. And we've really made a concerted effort to uh put together a bunch of uh points so that uh if there is any concerns, parents andor students have a way to let us know so that we can take care of that immediately so that they feel safe. We do know that there are, you know, um third or 12,000 students taking Metro in the morning and 12,000 students taking Metro in the afternoon. That's happening 5 days a week, 38 weeks out out of the

026uh year. And the number of issues that we have are minimal compared to the number of students who take Metro every single day. So, I'll let Andy expand a little bit more about that. >> Yeah. And as Chris said, it's about partnerships. Um, at Metro, we have a contract with CPD, um, where we're providing coverage at all of our mainly downtown government square, but also at our suburban transit centers. We also work with, uh, the CPS staff and their security team. If there's an issue, there's a protocol to where we can report that issue up through CPS so the the particular uh, school can handle that issue. Um, we have a metro supervisor presence at Government Square. We have a contract with the city's 311 community responders that also help us at all four transit

027centers every afternoon. Um, a new development that I'm sure you're aware of. Something that we're very happy to report is that the the liquor store on Fifth Street has closed and Metro had an opportunity to take over that lease and we've done so. So, we're going to take our ticket sales office that was interior to the Merkantill building and bring it out to the storefront um on Government Square and we're also going to have an adjacent door which will be our safety security door that'll be used by the the Metro supervisors and the metro funded CPD detail and so on and so forth. So, we're trying to improve the aesthetic and the safety um at at Government Square as well. Um and again, we continue to use data there. There are we carry about 1.6

0286 million student trips a year and so we have to rely upon data and systems to solve problems. So we're continuing to improve our game with respect to this partnership and data. Um the next slide talks about you know in terms of empowering and encouraging. So if you're talking to parents who are new to this the transit app is a phenomenal tool. Um I've you know my kids have grown up in a household where they're sitting looking at the transit app trying to decide where they're going to go now or they're going to wait a couple minutes more to catch the bus. So, um, when you go into the, um, app, you just essentially, we're encouraging parents now, you can start to schedule and plan your trip. Just go in and put a date after

029August 20th and you can do that. Um, also gives you, next slide, gives you real-time service alerts. So, once you figure out what route you take, you pin that route and if there's an interruption or a detour, um, you'll get a notification on your phone that there is a detour. So, as we go through the school year, the the question always is, um, you know, the the bus doesn't come quick enough or, you know, I've missed missed the bus or are routes going to change. And I and I want to make sure the community knows. Uh, both Metro and CPS look at this data regularly. And so, we know that the first week of school is going to be challenging. Um, and what we're telling students is please take the first bus that comes along.

030Don't wait until the last bus comes and then find out that it's full. So, we're encouraging students maybe get to school a little bit early during that first week um as folks, you know, try these new situations and are going through a new uh a new trial phase for riding Metro. Um we are making continuous improvements together. So CPS and Metro have officially monthly calls, but we actually get together every other week to talk um um about any issues that that we have. Um the the folks from Metro call CPS. We call Metro on any given day. So, if we see that there is a a uh route that may need some some uh tweaking, uh Metro is really great about pulling that data in real time and having that conversation. Um, so we're we've

031we've been blessed with this partnership. I'll also say the one thing that we didn't bring up before is that on the safety piece, safety goes both ways. So, we do require all of our students to follow our transportation code of conduct that they must read and sign before the school year starts to make sure that they know what those rules are governing them being good stewards on our buses, both yellow bus and metro transportation. >> With that, we can either stop for questions or or move on to the transit centers as well. >> You know, could we stop for questions real quickly, please? I I wanted to I was just thinking so you know after the first week and and and maybe even during the first week depending on the parents schedule the child might

032be on the bus by themselves. Uh and so what happens if for example they you know get off at the wrong stop or let's say they don't get off and they're you know they actually miss their stop, they fall asleep or they're not feeling well. What does a bus does the bus driver call a certain number? How do we how do we track that? >> Yeah. If if we have a student that is lost in the system, that bus driver, the protocol is for them to call our RCC dispatch center. >> Okay? >> Right? And then we immediately put a supervisor heading to that location to figure out what the best solution is, whether it's to take that kid to school or to call the parents or whatnot. So that happens in real time every

033day. Um if there are situations where somebody's lost in the system, we have a protocol in place. >> Okay, that's on the CPS side. is 363 RID ride is the number that parents can call and our dispatchers um reach out to um the dispatchers at Metro whether it's a metro student or whether it's the yellow bus student you can call that number to get a real live human between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p p.m. u Monday through Friday. >> So if the child for example gets off at the wrong stop and the parents are like I don't know where my child is. They can call 363 ride and you're able to know where they I mean you can track their card, right? So you can know where that's where John Smith got off the bus.

034>> We can't actually track the card, but we will get in in contact with Metro so we have direct line to Metro so that um we don't have to have two or three different people on hold um trying to to solve the problem. um when that call comes in. If there is a lost student that actually rings to every single phone in our transportation department, so we know that something is going on. Literally all the phones ring at the same time. So we know that there's a a student that is is uh lost or missing. Okay. And and you know, knock on wood, most of the time they they uh like you're saying, you know, fall asleep on the bus or or or get off at the wrong stop. >> Okay. And then another question.

035Um, you know, we were we were just talking about, um, well, you know, let me let me hold that one. Let me turn it over to my colleagues because I'll take up all the time with questions. I want you all to have a chance. >> She does have a lot of questions. >> I know. I said, let me let me not hog up all the air time. Go ahead. >> Do any of my colleagues have questions? Board member Matt. >> Yes. Uh, thank you for the presentation. Um, and I absolutely love that there's an opportunity for students and parents to track their ride on the app. So, I think that's really helpful. Um, I do, um, have questions about the, um, the ongoing writership, uh, experience. So, I know that you're going to be having

036conversations with students and parents, um, before school begins. Is that going to be a continuous conversation or opportunity for that conversation to continue to occur so that you can get real-time feedback or you know not just through an email or through a portal but you are able to actively engage with the individuals to help improve the quality of the uh writership experience. >> Yeah, great question and thank you for bringing that up because uh I'm I'm remissed that we didn't talk about that. So during the school year, we always want to get good feedback and that comes in the way of sometimes a survey that has gone out. We have had also at um various schools throughout the year, we've had Metro come in so we can talk through um um what Metro uh process

037looks like uh with students, with parents. Um, so sometimes when there is a open house at the school during the school year, we will make sure that we have that partnership that we've uh extended to Metro and we try to also get on um any any uh situations in which there are parent and uh student engagement at the school. We always want to have that that open for for to get that feedback. >> Anything else? Anything I'm missing? >> Okay, >> great. Thank you for that. And lastly, I know that you talked about the passes for the parents and that it will be available for them to print it out, but just thinking about access. Um, is it possible for there to be some available passes at the schools given that orientations will be coming

038up? >> For sure. And just to underline what said before as well is that we've done this every year or at least for the last few years. We've allowed parents to ride for free. So the pass is not required. a parent can can board with their student and then you know from that return trip from the school home the the operators are well aware that that is expected and can ride for free. So >> any other board member questions board member crosset >> I have do you have a question? >> Well I just want to make a statement I I I really want to highlight the importance of the partnership and all of the work that has gone on behind the scenes. I've attended some meetings as well, but this is this has been really

039really tough. Our staff, I know, because I've been fussing about, hey, make a video, meet kids where they are, meet parents where they are. And Metro really, really, really did listen. So much so, our relationship is um a model across the state because there was some legislation coming down that was going to impact us with regard to transportation. And we fought really hard in partnership with Metro like no no no no no no we have a great relationship and we are actually asked to be a model to other uh large cities which are which will rem remain nameless but this has been when we talk about engagement we're we're really getting Metro to come to the schools hear the students hear the parents the only piece that is missing are the parents we need the

040parents and the public >> to see what's going on and help us to help the students there may be students students that are lost. As much engagement as we're trying, there may be students and parents that have been missing as far as getting this information. So, share this information out because we're really, really trying, but we may miss some people because everybody's not on social media. Everybody's not listening. Make sure that every parent knows that they can ride the bus. It is encouraged for them to ride the bus. don't need a pass, but I heard last year that they didn't have any problems from any particular at any time of day and going after work or before work to get with their kids for riding the bus. But we need the public and the parents.

041Don't fight with the kids. They're some of them are just as confused as that the public is that they're there. But we this can be a really good relationship that's modeled after what we are already doing. So, >> okay, one more question. I'll just go ahead and ask my last question. Let me start by saying to to Eve Bolton because I know she's going to jump down my throat about about this question, but I I don't mean that our children are not welcome at Government Square. Okay, so let me start by saying that. But here's my question. So um so if a child doesn't really need to transfer, but they constantly or several times you you realize they're going down to government square. I think last year the the plan was to talk to the

042or ask the principles to actually talk to the students just to kind of see what's going on or is that still what's going on what will go on this school year? >> Yeah, great great question and and that teases up for the government square slide next but uh yes that is that is going to happen. So we get the the the data in real time at the end of every week from Metro. we get that in the hands of the school leadership teams same day and the expectation is that we have those um you know administration to student conversations on why they're going through government square and some of those um answers are because I'm going to you know grandma's house or I'm going to a job or I'm going to somewhere else and those

043are legitimate reasons. We also have students who are going to meet their friends and and maybe some other reason, but we want to make sure that we're not taxing Metro at Government Square and the other transit centers as well. And those students who actually need the service have that service available for them. So, we're having the conversations. We have the data in real time. Uh we did see last year when we uh started this process. uh we saw every week the numbers went down on the number of students at the transit centers that were going um through the transit centers that didn't need to. And I think by having the colored passes this year also helps because you have a visual um right then and there that does that student really need to be there

044or not. And so if they have a pass that that is um um not black that is blue or red, we know that those students with a blue or red should be there. Those students who have a black pass know that they're um a home to school direct route. >> Okay. I like that because sometimes there are issues that children can share. Um and so it might just be they want that social thing. We know our children are, you know, children in general or young people, I should say, not just little kids, but they're especially teenagers are very social and want to, you know, as as as someone said in city council earlier this week, they want to see and be seen and be around their peers. So, we get that, but also something could

045be wrong at home. And so, um, I mean, I think it's good. I'm I I like having that conversation so that if there's some resource they need, um, the appropriate adults will be notified. So, um, Miss Bolton, did you want to say anything about that? I've been very very rough on the city fathers, never the city mothers, but uh I'm very rough always on Metro. But I as we walked down memory lane just about three years ago prior to where you're now in this position, but when you were just uh in charge of all the logistics and what have you, >> the vice mayor, you and I were downstairs in some corner office figuring some of this stuff up. And the reality is the vice mayor has been a part of our struggle on this

046issue since the extra routes >> were lost. So, this is not a uh you know a sunshine soldier and I appreciate it and I know the board and and the district appreciates the fact that day in and day out you've been helping us with this. And to the president's point, other cities where they don't have this collaboration, the children have lost the right to be on a bus to get to school. >> So, this is very important, but it's just day in and day out work. >> Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. Okay, Dr. method. >> So, we're going to encourage you to continue to educate us on Government Square and transit centers already. >> Yeah. So, so I think the the the key for the government square and transit centers to to the points that

047that u were just made is it takes a village and it's not just the the city, it's not Metro, it's not CPS, it's all of us coming together. um where we at the transit centers do have presence from the Cincinnati Police. We have Metro and Metro supervisors. We have CPS staff. We have CPS transportation staff. Um we also have a a group of committed partners who are there to make sure that this goes well every single day, whether it's warm and sunny and 75 degrees or whether there's three inches of snow on the ground and and it's blistering cold. So, we want to make sure that students feel safe at these transit centers. Obviously, they are safe, but we want them to feel safe as well. So, we we have a a number of folks

048um who are working uh diligently. We actually have our first meeting next Wednesday um with all of our partners to discuss where we were last year and where we expect to go this year. So we are really excited about the partnership not only with uh between uh CPS and Metro but also with the city and the greater community. Uh finally, do students need to make more than one transfer? And the answer to that is a resounding no. Uh Metro has a great uh uh network set up so that students uh will only have to transfer once, if they have to transfer at all. So, we're looking at about those 3,000 students um out of 12,000 on any given day that might need a transfer. And so, they can get from home to school and school

049to home with only one transfer at one of the transfer centers. >> Any other any other questions from my colleagues from the city or the district? Mr. Cross member cross. >> Thank you, Metro. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you, Vice Mayor. this is, you know, becoming the gold standard for the state of Ohio. It's very much appreciated. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. >> And can you say the number one more time for if there is a problem on the metro? Just say that process one more time from the metro side and the CPS side. So, on the CPS side, it's 363 Ride Ri, and we have a real human there and a bunch of real humans there from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through obviously um the one of the things

050that we always ask folks uh first is go to the app and and whether it's this whether it's uh the Metro app or the CPS app to track, you know, where the bus is and where the students are. Um, sometimes a bus might be either CPS or Metro might be running late for some reason. Maybe there's an accident and and we're running, you know, 10 minutes behind. So, we say check those things first and then give us a call if you need to. >> And then on the metro side, they can parents who are trying to plan right now for school opening can begin to get their route together and they need to do what in the on the metro side? They they need to download the transit app and they plan or they can

051also use Google Maps and they plan their trip for August 20th or any weekday into the future because there changes to the network that happen the week before school starts, right? And so we want to make sure that they're planning their trip on that future network that's going to be in operation on August 20th. So, that's in all of our materials. It says go on the transit app or go on Google Maps. And you can use Google Maps just like you do for for driving directions. You just click the little bus button. It'll show you exactly where to walk, what stop to stand at, how long you're going to wait, and it'll show your bus coming in real time. So, that is the transit app is the key and all the kids know how to

052use it. So, uh, that's the best thing to do is to, uh, encourage your kids to talk to their fellow classmates who have figured out the transit app and and it's, uh, it's an amazing tool. >> And we are on Twitter. We, you, you have a video. I just want to pull I just want to highlight some things that, um, that the kids probably already know and but parents need to know. >> We do have um, a video to show how to ride the metro. Yep. Go and get plan the trips if they need it. >> And we are here to help. school starts August. >> Both both marketing teams are spectacular, both CPS and Metro, and they have gone above and beyond to make sure that there's the information out there in however the

053the person out there wants it. So, kudos to both teams. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you both. >> Okay. Thank you so much. And we're going to move along because we have less than an hour left. We appreciate you. So, Dr. Moffet. All right. Mr. B, are you still sadly you're stuck with me for a couple more slides? All right. Um, as as as we transition, this will be relatively quick. As we talk about crossing guards, um, CPS took over crossing guards from the city last year. Um, the slide I have up here right now is actually wrong uh because we put this slide together to make sure we had uh time to get it into this presentation. Uh, we currently have 10 positions remain unfilled. So, it says up here 16. We

054have 10 positions of the 144 crossing guards across the city. We have 10 positions that are unfilled. That doesn't mean that we don't have crossing guards there. That means that we don't have a full-time crossing guard there um for the for the start of school. So, we're hoping within the next two weeks we can get that number down to zero, but right now we have 10. The other thing that I really want to highlight for for just a minute is over uh the summer and actually started back in April and May, we made a concerted effort to look at all of the schools and all the safety and signage around all of the schools. So, we have a matrix now of where every sign is, whether it's a flashing sign or not flashing sign, school

055zone, speed limit, crosswalk, speed hump, everything you can uh uh put together in relation to every school within our campus. And we've been working very closely with DOT on making sure that for the start of school this year that they have three of the four major things that we want folks to see. So that would be a signage of some point, crosswalks as as well as um some sort of flashing sign. So we are are well on our way to having those uh items in place. We don't have them at all all of those items at every school, but that's obviously our goal. So, we will continue to uh every month uh have that conversation with the DOT about what the next steps are so that by the end of the year or by the

056end of next year, we will have the full complement at every site across Cincinnati. >> Okay, great. >> Thank you. Any questions on my with with our team board member Matt? >> So, thank you for the update. Can you just speak uh specifically to um Rothenberg as well as uh performing arts since we did have members come and speak for public comment? >> Yeah. Yeah. So I um before the meeting I I looked up Rothenberg and and and uh they they do they do need a crosswalk repainted over at Rothenberg. That was on our list that went to DOT. So we're hoping that that is done before the start of school. We have uh we gave them kind of a laundry list. So, um I think it's a little unfair for us to say do

057this entire laundry list overnight, but they have committed to us that there are five or six schools that they will get to before school starts. I believe without having uh my emails back and forth. I believe Rothenberg is one of them to be honest with you. Uh in relation to SCPA, um we have had lots of conversations about the crosswalk. Um mid mid street, if you will, uh on either end of the street, there is a crosswalk that is about 50 feet or so away. Um the reason uh that we've been talking with DOT at length about this is we would then also have to eliminate the parking in that area because you cannot see around the park cars to be able to see cars that are coming in each direction as well as we'd

058have to make curb cuts into that area. So it is um able to be handicap accessible. So there's some challenges to that at this point right now. is not on the uh docket for DOT to make those changes um for right now. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Council Member Ali. >> Yeah, thank you so much for the update on the SCPA thing. I know I've reached out to DOT about it as well and because those other crosswalks are way more visible in addition to everything else you said that those are really the safer options. So, thank you for breaking that down. I just wanted to thank you for bringing up this the signage around school zones. I've gone out with a couple different principles and watched the drop off in the morning. Um, with row

059especially is like awful with that intersection and so I believe they're one of the schools getting signage for this fall. Um, so this is something continue to communicate with us on because you know we've heard stories from West uh high kids who have come in talked about they got hit by a car and then had to go sit in class and I genuinely don't understand how you can concentrate after being hit by a car. Um, so it's our first priority to make sure we get kids into the building safely. So, thank you for your partnership on this. I know our Department of Transportation really values your your partnership and collaboration. So, thank you. >> Thank you. And thank you for your your continued support. It it it it helpful. Um, and I and it goes

060without saying that DOT has been a wonderful partner as well. um as well as the assistant city manager in uh highlighting these issues and making sure that there's resources dedicated to these situations that that we see every single day. >> Thank you. Warm up. Yeah, I just wanted to um get your um you know, we had a pretty big project at West High, the West High students with their input and I just wanted to maybe you could just talk a little bit about how you collaborate with that our students from time to time to get get to address issues that that pop up. >> Yeah. at at West High, it's it's really about the students at this point, not about, you know, CPS and and, you know, um the transportation department, but the the the

061students have really gone above and beyond um having the the billboard and having uh safety be front and center to um them getting to and from school, safe routes to school. And that is something that they brought up themselves. They took that and ran with it. That was not CPS saying you should do this. These are students who started grassroots, did it themselves, and got it all the way to the the billboard. Um that they there's a picture of them standing in front of it with smiles on their face and and that's that's what this is all about at the end of the day. That's what this is all about. >> Thank you. Thank you, Vice President Bolton. >> Yes. Thank you for uh presentation. Just one question uh and then one comment. are are

062who is supplying the crossing guards for the nonCPS schools. So the noncps schools are the requirement of the school. I believe the city does have a few that they are helping those schools with. I believe I don't know that to be true because we don't oversee them. Um but we are not supplying crossing guards to the nonCPS sites. So then a point of uh kind of to watch and to monitor the need for crossing guards at non CPS schools. It's not our responsibility but the schools or the cities or someone else. Okay. >> Correct. Correct. We are we are required to transport them but if they are walking to school we don't have a requirement from the state to make sure or the city for that matter. and we might want to supply if the

063city doesn't already know those what where those crossing guards would be or should be based upon those nonCPS schools I think would be helpful. Um and then to the point about uh at at Withro uh we really appreciate the work regarding the safety infrastructure but you know the state law doesn't require a lot of safety infrastructure uh around high schools. Instead it's uh requires at the elementary. So it would be the city and we appreciate it going above what the state law requires in order to provide that kind of safety for our high schoolers. So, whatever the city can do, and they've been doing a lot, just keep at it. It's great. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Burkhart. We appreciate you for all that you do. We are going to just pick

064up the speed a little bit so that we can get to going. Um, I think Superintendent Murphy is talking very quickly about the change in student bodies at various buildings. >> That Yes, ma'am. I'm happy to do that. So you heard a lot about some of the operational efficiencies that we've been able to garner uh heading into the 2526 school year. A lot of the work planning and decisions were made around the ad hoc recommendations that came from our school board listening to the community, listening to what was coming out of the city in terms of what we are interested in for our prek to 12 students in the city of Cincinnati. And so the first thing we did was create this corridor model in our school district where we are now divided up by

065an east, a central, and a west portion of the city. And the goal around that is to make sure that children, no matter where they live, have the same opportunities and experiences that families are asking for, grades preK to 12. We are super excited about that because in addition to going back to the traditional 9 to2 high schools, being a former high school principal, I know principal colleagues love that. But we've also created an additional five middle schools and junior high schools last year. Schroeder being our first middle school having very nice results that we are very proud of both instructionally and in terms of student behaviors. And so we're looking to be able to duplicate some of those successes at Pleasant Hill Academy, at Hartwell, at South Aendale, at Evston, and at the M

066Taylor schools. So those principles are on fire about this school year. They are having sessions for families and children to be able to come into the building, to be able to tour and walk the building, and to meet staff. And so we are super excited. first day of school, I will begin my day at South Aenddale School. And the reason we did this as well, as I mentioned, is to make sure that we are providing seats that are in demand. So, in addition to being able to focus on that middle-aged child, we also have increased our footprint in terms of being able to offer um programming that families are asking for. Additional monastery seats, additional seats at Walnut Hills High School, additional seats in our gifted programs and strengthening the programming that is happening in

067all of our neighborhood schools. And we're also being a little bit more efficient in terms of our enrollment processes. This year, the board has supported us in moving to a centralized enrollment system where families can either come to the ed center in person or enroll and register for school online. And we are super excited about being uh a more efficient model for our families. Well, you know what I said to CPS? I'd hurry up and they did just that. Does anyone have any questions, council members? All right, we're going to call up Rebecca Beach who's in charge of our project connect so that she can give an update around um project connect the resources for family families experiencing homelessness within CPS. >> Thank you, Dr. Moffett, and thank you all for um taking the time

068to hear about what Project Connect is doing. Um so for those of you who don't know um Project Connect is the Cincinnati public school program serving um students and families who are experiencing homelessness. Um we are a federallymandated program that is required to remove educational barriers for our students um who are experiencing housing instability. Um, we did revamp our mission last year because we really feel like we um go above the letter of the law and provide um more holistic services to our families. So, I won't um go into our mission statement just for the sake of time um but did want to provide an update on our identification. Um as you know um the the year before last we saw a huge increase in ident identification. Um it was we had a 23% increase

069between the 2022 23 academic year and the 2023 24 academic year. Um and last school year we saw a slight increase um uh we served 4,326 students in our district. So that's still um an increase from the year before um slightly but um aligned with that larger increase that go um and so just to highlight a little bit of our data, we did serve 595 unaccompanied youth. These are students who are not in the care of a parent or legal guardian. We also serve 681 multi- language learners. Um, so we are seeing an increase in this population and the needs of this population are often greater just because a lot of our immigrant families do not have access to public benefits and so we really have to be creative in how to serve them. Um,

070we served over 500 students 0 to 5 years of age. This is required by law, but one of our highlights is that we were able to get almost 200 students into CPS preschool programs. And so that was actually double what we've ever done in the past. Um so we were really happy about that. Um and we saw a large increase, a 65% increase in families who are accessing our order ahead food program. And so this is a program that is in partnership with the free store and provides um food for families and they are able to have autonomy in deciding what food they want and pick up the food at our resource center every two weeks. Um, and actually overall we served almost 2,000 students with um, emergency food of some kind, whether it be

071from the order ahead food program or through our food pantry. Um, and so that was a large increase from the previous year. We have also been working on expanding our housing services. Um, so during the CO 19 pandemic, we decided to use some of that COVID relief funding to provide a housing navigator. Um and this is our housing navigating um Megan Rahill. Um and she has worked really hard to improve our housing services for families. So we've increased our partnerships um with various organizations around the city and we continue to do so. Um we have increased the number of priority CHA vouchers that we are we are allowed to give to families. So we can now provide 200 families with priority vouchers and they are now accepting those vouchers and processing them again because there

072was a temporary hold. Um we've been been able to serve many many families with our emergency housing services which um is a hotel stay and so we had a a 33.6% increase from the previous year and actually um we were able to do that because of the city leverage grant. So, we do want to thank the city for that funding. Um, that is very helpful for our families because we're often able to get them into shelter during that time. Um, and then in collaboration with the Cincinnati Public School Transportation Department, we were really able to decrease the number of families waiting to be routed. So, on any given day, we actually had an 86% decrease. So, very thankful to um Pam and Chris Burkhart for just their collaboration with us. Um and so this means

073that we're able to quickly get students um who are very transient into their seats at school. Um and so overall we provided over 38,000 support services to our families experiencing homelessness. And we are very proud of that um that number. Um we actually Oh, this is Megan's slide. We're actually missing a slide. That's okay. Um >> um so over 300 students were identified this past school year as um living in their vehicle or staying outside or in a place that's not intended for humans to live like in an abandoned building or a storage unit which was um a significant increase from the year before as Rebecca was mentioning. Um so for these families we were able to provide a four to six night hotel stay for them. um and for families who were in at

074risk of becoming unsheltered. Um so that really helped those families to take some time to be able to look at other options. Um or just to have a a warm bed and a shower for their children and a safe place to sleep. Um and as Rebecca mentioned, that was that was also a significant increase compared to the previous year. Um unfortunately a lot of our families do have to return to their vehicle or outside for a little while after the temporary hotel stay just due to the current um shelter waiting lists being pretty long and the lack of other options that they have for housing. Um but Rebecca and I are um continuing to work to try to find other um solutions for that issue. Thank you. Um so this is just a chart um

075demonstrating the increase in emergency housing, basically emergency hotel room stays for our families. And so we did provide 355 students with emergency hotel stays last school year and we do anticipate that this will increase this year. Um and so we have given you some of the data and I wanted to talk a little bit about what we're going to do about it. Um we are all very familiar with some of the systemic inequities that contribute to persistent homelessness and um lack of affordable housing. Um but what we know is that education cannot be separate from housing, health and well-being. And so actually our superintendent um Shauna Murphy came up with this idea for a wraparound um support center for our families which we are calling the wrap um wellness resources, access and partnerships. Um we're

076very excited about this initiative. Um we will be moving in September to Taft Elementary School and we will have a soft opening of the wrap. Um in the month of September um we will temporarily be in a swing space there while while the district is building out our permanent space. Um but I wanted to talk a little bit about some of the supports that we will provide there. Um, we will continue to provide all the educational supports that Project Connect has uh traditionally provided such as uniforms, school supplies, shoes, hygiene items, um, transportation, school enrollment. Um, we will continue to also provide our housing services. Um but we are looking at some new partnerships with agencies such as Carees Source who has offered to um actually go into a partnership with us through strategies to

077end homelessness to provide families who receive Care Source with two weeks in a hotel and um connection to a housing case manager. So we're really excited about that. Um and we will continue um the services that we currently have in place. Um, we also are hoping to open a safe sleep lot and I will go into that in a little bit. Um, we're planning to continue to expand on our emergency food program. Um, at Taft there is a health clinic so our families will be able to access um, health resources on site. Um we will also continue to do our mobile um wellness screenings at the shelters for families who are in shelter and we will have um Hamilton County Department of Jobs and Family Services on site um one day a week and they

078will provide intake for Medicaid um as well as reertification and public benefits. Um so we're excited about that partnership. We will continue to expand our referrals um with partner agencies. We cannot do this work alone and so we have several um direct referral processes with various agencies that our families will be able to access at the RAP. Um we are continuing to build out um partnerships for legal support for families facing eviction or dealing with immigration issues. Um, and then one of the things that I'm most excited about with the RAP is that we will actually have various agencies who will be on site and provide services to our families. So, it will be like a one-stop shop. Um, so we've already secured the partnership with Hamilton County Department of Jobs and Family Services. We

079will also be able to do intake um for with um Hamilton County and um UC Law Cent's limited representation program. and we are entering into a partnership with Sucasa to expand services for our multil- language learner families. Um and so we are going to continue over time to add partners and um we will have the space and so we're excited about that and we do feel that Taft Elementary School will be a great place to have our six week summer academic and enrichment program um because we will have all of the facilities we need on site. Um, and so as I mentioned, we are also in discussion um, and planning um, the opening of a safe sleep lot. Um, I wanted to just give you a little background on why this is important to us.

080Um, Megan and I see a lot of families who are sleeping in their car or outside. Um, and in order to get into shelter, a family has to be verified as sleeping in this unhoused situation. And this is done by Greater Cincinnati Behavioral. Um, and it can take some time because they only work for um, a couple of hours a day, which are in the early morning hours. And a lot of our families have left where they were. Um, they often have to move throughout the night due to safety issues or um, they're being told to move or they've left to go to work or school by the time that um, an a street outreach worker gets there. And so it can take days for a family situation to be verified just to get on

081the waiting list for shelter. Um, so that is one of the barriers our families face. Another is that um when you're sleeping in your car and you have children, it's just very hard to get a good night's rest. And we had a family who came in and the mom was lovely. She worked for um a local bus company. She was sleeping in the car with her children and couldn't sleep at night because she was watching them and moved um very often. and she lost her position um at the company she worked for because she fell asleep while at work and was in an accident. Um luckily no one was hurt, but this just perpetuates the cycle of homelessness because she's now not able to obtain a position. Um and so we actually did a research

082trip where we went to California and visited some safe sleep lots in San Diego and Long Beach because this is a very common model um on the West Coast. and we came up with a variety of options. We took away something from every lot that we went to. Um, and tonight I'm just going to share with you briefly one option, and this is the option that we hope to implement, um, which we consider to be our optimal facility, um, and what we would like to implement, um, at Taft Elementary School. And this would just be a small lot with 12 parking spaces, which we do feel is enough because on any given night, we typically don't have more than um, four or five families who are sleeping in their car at a time. So, our

083numbers are always over the course of the school year. Um, our hours of operation will be 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. daily. Um, one of the things that is important to us is that we have a structure either fixed or semi-permanent where families can shower and use the restroom and get ready for school with dignity. Um, so that's very important to us. Um, we also would like to have security at the lot for the sake of our families and also for the community. Um, and so when families enter the lot, if they leave, they cannot actually return to the lot that night. So, um, the security would do the intake and be there, um, throughout the night to monitor the lot. Um, and we'd like to provide things such as, uh, breakfast for children before

084they go to school. Um, hot meals on certain nights of the week in partnership with the freetore food bank, who has already agreed to this. um in in the future possibly tutoring and different parent engagement activities. And we do want the families in our lot connected to case management. So just to summarize um we do want bathroom access security um case management with Greater Cincinnati Behavioral, possibly the United Way and definitely um with Care Source um shelter placement prioritization. So Greater Cincinnati Behavioral has agreed that our lot would be their first stop every morning. So all of those families would be verified within 24 hours and could quickly be placed on the shelter waiting list. So that does reduce um the time it takes to get into shelter and of course connection to resources at

085the wrap. Um daily breakfast um safe sleep car kits which are something that we saw in California we really liked. Um, we want to be able to provide the families who are sleeping in their cars with pillows, blankets, flashlights, um, water bottles, granola bars, and even window covers for privacy. Um, so that's what we're hoping for. And the lot would be open March um, 1st through December 1st. Um, and the reason for that is that we do not think that it would be um, a good idea to have the lot open during the coldest months of the year. And we have um spoken with Christ Cathedral Church and they will open their doors to those families on cold nights um when we refer them. So um I will >> let me jump in real fast.

086Thank you for that. That's actually my church. I'm really really proud of them. Yeah. Last wonderful. >> Yeah. Earlier this year um when we had to close our our rec center, our our our warming center, they let in 200 people and they um had food for them and everything and it was it was really good. So thank you. They were very they were they were thanking us for giving them that opportunity. We were thanking them. So >> yeah, we were thanking them as well because they did open their door families. Yeah, they were wonderful. >> Thank you so much for that. So let me ask you this because you mentioned volunteers. You need people to serve food at the lot and and to tutor. Where do people call if they want to volunteer to help?

087>> Um they will call us, but we're not there yet. I do want to say we don't intend for the safe sleep lot to open until this March. Um, and so initially we don't plan to have tutoring and parent programming. We want to this school year just see how the lot goes. Um, >> so that is something that we will look at for next school year and when we move into our more permanent space, but we will start a list of partners who would potentially be interested so they can call project connect. Okay. >> Um, right. Now our number is 513-3636570 but when we move it will be 3635670. So we were able to keep it pretty close. >> That's close. Okay, great. So we tell people don't call now to volunteer. >> They can

088call now but we won't be ready for that part of the program until next year. >> Next year March 2026. Okay. Thank you for that. Any questions >> Mr. Crosset? Uh, not a question. Just um, thank you for all you're doing. I'm wondering uh, if I don't expect the answer for you to answer this. I've been a volunteer for homelessness for many years through Foundhouse. Yes. >> And um, what I've noticed is many of the folks who who are experienc experiencing homelessness that the composition has changed. It's not unemployment. It's people that are employed and have cars but no place to live. >> Yes. So I'm wondering if you could collect more data on that as you go along and to provide that for uh helping identify the root cause of some of these issues.

089Also I would suggest that IHN Foundhouse might be a really good partner if you >> connect you. Thank you. >> Oh, we work Yes, we work very um closely with Foundhouse. They actually send us their shelter logs and today we just um sent over school supplies, backpacks, and uniforms for all of the students there. Thank you. Um these are just a couple of pictures um of the lots and again I'll just fly through them. This was a lot in California. I did just want to show this because this um was a partnership between the city and Jewish family services where they actually donated FEMA trailers. So the families didn't have to sleep in their cars. They could actually sleep in these FEMA trailers. And this was just an um a lot that was also um

090through a city improvement grant that is um similar to what I'm kind of envisioning for our structure. It just had an intake room somewhere where parents could um heat up food, wash dishes, charge their cell phones, and then they had a bathroom and shower facility. And then my final slide is I just wanted to kind of show how this safe sleep lot um kind of plays into the housing pipeline. Um and so I'll quickly just go through that just to show that um there is an end goal with the safe sleep lot. We know it's not an answer. Um it's really just um part of the housing continuum. Um because the reality is we do have families sleeping in their cars. Um and so if they have CPS children, we would invite them to sleep

091at the safe sleep lot. Um the goal would be the Greater Cincinnati Behavioral would verify them within 24 hours and they would be placed on the waiting list for shelter. Um and at that point we can then put those families into hotel for 4 to six nights. The reason we can't do that initially is because if they're in a hotel, Greater Cincinnati Behavioral will say that they are not eligible for shelter placement. >> Okay? >> So we do have to wait. They do have to stay 24 hours in the lot to be verified before we can place them in hotel. Um, and then while in hotel, we anticipate one of three things happening. Sometimes our families are able to work out an alternative living situation and go stay with family or friends once they have

092time to regroup. um they may have to return to our safe sleep lot while awaiting shelter placement or our hope is that they will get into shelter and then be connected to a variety of housing resources and case management that can only be accessed through um the shelter pipeline such as rapid rehousing, permanent supportive housing um and options like that. >> And then I final slide is just I would be remiss if I didn't thank our partners. We are expanding um like I said our services. We can't do this work alone. Um we appreciate the f financial donations, the inind donations um and the goods and services that we received to make it possible to be able to open the wrap and be able to provide um these expansive services. We even received um Northgate

093Mall had some stores closing and they donated all of their clothing to us. Wow. >> And so that was actually really fun. We got to go out there and get all this new clothing. So that will be at the wrap as well. >> That's great. >> Um so we thank you and we we do thank the city of Cincinnati um because you all have really provided us with a lot of support um in being able to improve our housing services. >> That's fantastic. Thank you for your work. It's just, you know, we're really um just very grateful um you know, to have some of our young people, any of our families experiencing um being unhoused, especially our children who are, you know, really need to be in school and that that's just a huge barrier.

094So, this is important work. Um you know, I look forward to um just having, you know, more of of our uh adults involved in the schools and in many different ways. And I think at some point we'll ask our superintendent, give us a wish list. How do we get people to come in? I, you know, I was talking to someone who used to work in the city, Cheryl Meadows, and she's in North Aenddale, you know, reading to the kids all the time. And I think that kind of interaction uh is really helpful for our schools. A lot of people say, "How can we help?" And there's so many ways you can volunteer. You don't have to be a certified teacher to go in and, you know, read to young people, make sure they can pass

095that, you know, reading proficiency test. and just to have that positive interaction with them. So, we'll talk about that at some point uh some point soon. >> I just want to say thank you for being brief and we do have more things that we need to work out with regard to the safe lots, but homelessness of our students is increasing and I I I don't want that to be remiss that we are seeing a huge increase in having to educate our students that are experiencing homelessness. The safe lots is definitely something that we're working on um at the district level and we've got more more work to do. But um from the time that we started this conversation last year, we were seeing hundreds more students, hundreds more families that are experiencing homelessness. And that's

096one of the things that I want to take away that I want everyone to take away is that they still have to be educated. And how can you learn if you are hungry, if you are experiencing homelessness? We've got a lot that we're doing to try to remedy this, but I don't want to get away from the fact that we have 595 unaccompanied youth, 681 multilingual learners that are experiencing home insecurity. So, um, thank you so much for this. Um, there's more work to do. We're definitely the city always wants to have, uh, an update, so we'll definitely have you back again with more. >> Thank you. And thank you for having us. >> Thank you. And so, you know, our goal in city council, just, you know, hopefully this just goes without saying, but

097I'll say it anyway, is that we're working really hard on getting more housing, more affordable housing, um, all across the city. So, that's that's a definite priority. Um, it just doesn't go quickly. We've done, this council has done more than I think any other council over the last decade in terms of affordable housing. It's not enough. We have so much more to do and we continue to work on it. So, thank you. Thank you for Thank you for your work. Um we we really appreciate the city of Cincinnati and we work very closely with um Deanna White and we know her she's very passionate about affordable housing and so we we appreciate that it is a it's a large issue like Dr. Mafet said and >> right and you and we talked about this at

098the last meeting but their resources for people who are facing uh eviction uh legal they have legal um representation in the course and also we have funds to help them pay that background due so that they can avoid eviction but uh they will be represented in court which really helps. So >> yes, >> thank you so much. >> Thank you madam >> chair. Madam chair, >> member Albi. >> Oh thank you. Thank you for the this presentation. I'm really excited about the rap. That's fantastic. The whole thing. I did want to take a moment just to pause on a few pieces of your presentation. You know, I was look I flipped back to kind of beginning with the stats around the children you're serving and we know the federal government just passed a budget that's

099going to make all of it a lot harder. Uh I'm curious when we think about the changes to maybe less so Medicaid, but SNAP with all the emergency food that you're already providing. Um you know, are are we ready? Um, yep. Yep. That's the face I was expecting, but if you can talk a little bit about like what you see the implications of the federal government having in these policies on on the work you're doing every day. >> Well, um, so we are concerned about our funding because it is a federal grant. Um so we are funded through the McKenna Vento um grant which is a competitive federal grant and so there has been a lot of advocacy at the federal level to maintain and sustain that funding. Um we heard good news recently. it

100was on the it was being looked at as um being um added as part of a block grant instead of its own um funding source which means that states could determine where that funding went but I believe that um at the moment they haven't moved forward with making that change. Um we are concerned for our families um who receive public benefits such as Medicaid and and um food assistance. We are again just trying to increase partnerships, donations. Um we are hoping to continue to apply for grant funding that can um you know subsidize some of these um things but we are a school district so we don't necessarily we can't necessarily become you know an agency that provides everything but we are definitely committed to doing whatever we can to support the basic needs of

101our students but we are concerned. >> Me too. >> Yeah. um if there's anything we can do around advocacy. Uh our one of our US senators is just in town today talking about safety and I think what you all provide is so fundamental to our safety of our community. So if there's anything we can do around that advocacy, please let us know. Um thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. And to that point, I I did want to take a moment to pause on why the safe sleep lots are necessary. I I don't want to breeze past the way that the rule is structured is that they the families have to be counted living in their cars before they're eligible for relief. And I can you just spend a few more seconds explaining why how that system

102works and why this solution is necessary to tap into this resource. Yes. Um so that is not our system. Um uh that is a decision that was made about two years ago um by Strategies Stand Homelessness who they are partners of ours. So I I I do want to say that they've been great partners, but they did um I think because of how overcrowded shelters were, they wanted to make sure that the people that really needed to be in shelter were the ones entering shelter. Um, so they have partnered with Greater Cincinnati Behavioral to verify that these families are indeed sleeping outside or in their car. But it is not a perfect system. Like I explained, it's, you know, I didn't even know that those um outreach workers didn't start until 5 or 6 in

103the morning until last school year because Megan kept getting calls saying that these families were waiting but they had to get their kids to school and or like um Mr. Crossley said, a lot of our parents work and so the parents have to get to work and they couldn't wait around for a street outreach worker. So, we really advocated for the ability to be able to verify these families ourselves. Um, but it is an extensive process for us to be able to do it. And we're also not working at 5:00 a.m. typically. Um and so um this I think would eliminate that barrier for our families very quickly because if they sleep in our lot, even if the street outreach worker gets there um after a family has to leave, we will have a signin

104sheet, we will be able to say this family slept here last night and they will accept that. So those families in our lot will be able to be immediately verified and at least placed on the waiting list for shelter. >> Thank you. I appreciate all your work to come up with a creative solution to to meet this challenge. Um because obviously we want it's a complicated system and there a lot of moving pieces and uh you know when you hear sleep parking lot that maybe people like why are we doing that but this is really wanted to zoom in on why we're doing it and why this is such a creative solution. It's maybe slightly imperfect solution but it's getting there. We know it's not a permanent thing for any of these families. It's a

105way to get them into the broader system. So thank you so much. >> Exactly. Thank you for actually putting it that way. That's a great way to put it. It is a way to get them into the broader system so that they can access resources that will hopefully sustain housing for them. I mean, we're really hoping with the RAP to improve generations to come. Um, so >> thank you so much. We really appreciate it. We um we're we're getting short on time. Um, but we you know, this is really a very important topic. So, thank you so much both of you, all your work. Um, our next speaker is going to we're down to e budget update and state impact. I understand Miss Wagner is going to lead lead that discussion. >> Actually, your ne

106future treasur is going to be leading it. >> Oh, okay. Trial by fire, huh? Just come on up. >> No, thank you. Thank you. I will do my best to get us back on back on time track. Um, just present some budget updates. So, >> we'll start with the district and then move to the state and then move to the federal government. So, >> on July 9th, our board approved a um a fiscal year 26 op general fund operating budget of 634.7 million, which it was quite a process to get us there. It was a great great partnership between the board, the administration, and our union partners. you know, we did at some point, you know, we closed about a $51 million budget gap, which, you know, that's that's tough. But I think the thing

107that we're proudest of is even with the cuts we made and those were difficult, you know, we were still able to fund our strategic plan, our strategic goals and guard rails and our growth plan. So, so they were tough choices, but we're still we're still moving forward. >> Great job. That great job. That that was tough. I know that was really hard. great leadership. >> Definitely. So, to go up a level to the state budget and and I want to thank um the council for the resolution they did supporting the fair school funding plan. I remember being here for that um discussion, but appreciate all the advocacy efforts and and that resolution. So, at the end of the state budget process and just the money portion, you know, we we lost about $3 million from

108where we were at last year as far as the projections. which wasn't the worst it could have been. You can see on the graph, um these are all the different budget versions. I've presented this slide to our board several times to see the range of options. So, wasn't the best, wasn't the worst. Um good things about the budget for sure is that the fair school funding plan was kept in place. They didn't update all the inputs, which is what we would have hoped for, but there's still a framework for fair school funding, which was which was important, I think, to to every school district. Also, luckily for us, we had some we had some enrollment growth in the second half of the year, and so all the budget projections were based on January numbers. So,

109as we kind of grew it, our enrollment growth really offset the loss. So, so that was a net positive for us. As you know, there's two sides of the state budget. One side is money, the other side is all the policy and law changes. Um and and many of those would have been fairly devastating for school districts. So, luckily, Governor DeWine um did line item vetos on a lot of items you can see there in the slide that were would have been detrimental to our ability to raise funds. um you know would would affect our property taxes our inside our 20 mil floor would affect how much money districts can carry over in cash from year to year u would give the county budget commission some new authority so so luckily at this point only

110one of those uh vetos has been overridden by the house senate has still not acted though we expect them to do so when they return from recess um the one the one change that would be dangerous to us the veto override is getting rid of fixed sum levies. So, so these are levies like the one we have coming up in November uh that are for a certain amount of money. So, like November's levy is a $48 million tax levy. You know, 15 million of that is for preschool expansion and the other 33 is for district operations. So, if the Senate concurs the veto override, we'll lose the ability to do those levies in the future, which will make which will make things a little more complicated for us. Governor also established a property tax uh

111reform working group and I'm sure there's lots of conversations about property taxes across the state on all different levels. So so their goal is to come up with some proposals by the 30th of September. We're hoping to see how see how that shakes out. And then finally just to talk about federal funds. Um I am Miss Beach talked about talked about kind of but we'll bring in bring a little more detail into it. So, we get our federal funds generally on July 1st of every year and we have until September 30 for the next year to spend it. Um, and it kind of flows downhill. So, the US Department of Education gives money to the state. State then takes that and gives money to each school district that qualifies. This year on June 30th, our

112allocations for title two, title three, and title four all got held out or paused. and and these these are the these are the federal funds that help us with, you know, teacher retention, recruitment, education, direct services to English language learners. Um, and then a lot of social emotional support, some some curriculum textbooks, a lot of really important things. Um, and so luckily on July 25th, those those funds were officially released the news. Uh, the state has received them on the 30th of July. We haven't officially se received our allocations yet. And so I drive my grants manager nuts. Every morning I'm asking her 8:00 in the morning, have you heard from the state? Uh we haven't yet. We expect that any day now. Um and the state did do us a favor by extending the

113grant period for for past fiscal years until September 30th. So we're able to continue our operations as as anticipated. That's a really high level. No, go ahead. Anything else? Was that it? >> No, >> I was going to say it's really it's really hard working under those conditions where you know the money is so iffy like is it coming or not? When is it coming? Like that's you know that's just stress right there. >> Yeah, we spent we spent a week of work which I'm glad you didn't have to do building different contingency plans. If we get this amount, if we just get this amount, if we don't get this, you know, what can we shift? where can we find other funds? So, luckily it was work we didn't have to use. >> Okay. Well,

114then we and we look forward to hearing about the property tax proposals in September. Um I know that um to the state as well, so we can put all those together and kind of see where we are and where we're going. I know uh Donnie Isacson, Representative Isacson is working on this issue. So, um that might be a good topic for our next quarterly meeting to see how we're doing. So, okay. Any any questions? Anybody questions or comments? I only have a few minutes left. Keep that in mind. >> Well, remember member Matt, you vice mayor, you actually just touched on the question that I um have. It's really just around what are the recommendations that we can do collectively as council as well as a district to ensure the financial stability um for our

115students and for our city as a whole. So, I look forward to us discussing that at the next next meeting. >> That sounds great. We'll try to pull all that together since um CPS's recommendations are due September 30th and our meeting will be probably shortly after that, probably October, November, right, for the next quarterly meeting. So, we'll be well prepared to to bring all of that together. Thank you so much. Great job. >> Thank you. >> Bolton had a question. >> Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Bolton. Vice President. >> Uh thank you. Just uh very quickly uh wanted to make sure that um we are very uh aware of the environment in which we are all operating uh and certainly those of us in public schools feel it perhaps the most but it's also impacting all

116local governments as well the kinds of things that are happening and we're proud to say that not only did we refuse to sign the DEI mandate but also as a district uh we are full legal partners in that lawsuit when they started to withhold the money just this summer as well as being full legal partners of the vouchers hurt Ohio. So we expect our taxpayers money to be spent here >> right >> on public schools and it's been important to have the city support and as for the uh group that is convening in September we're glad to have a commissioner uh commissioner Dhouse on that and more particularly even uh our our former school board member Mr. sites whom I think was very I think pivotal in the overrides the refusal to override as well

117as uh the vetos that the governor passed for us because of his commitment to public schools. So that's fantastic. >> Fingers crossed but also sue people that you need to. >> There you go. Okay, Mr. Crosset. Just briefly, I just want to uh recognize the Cincinnati um teachers association for accepting a cost of living increase of zero to make this budget happen and it's a fantastic partnership. It it shows how much our teachers care. So, thank you to them. >> Big sacrifice and we really appreciate it. Miss Murphy, >> I really just want to add to board member across all all of our unions accepted the zero cola. >> Yes. Wow. Thank you so much. Just real dedication. We really appreciate that. Thank you. Okay, so we're we're uh getting short on time. Let me

118just look at this agenda. Um we're at at Book Club Washington DC. Uh and so we're going to put that on hold. I'll just say quickly, we had a wonderful time taking some of our sixth graders to Washington DC. We have all kinds of photos to show you. I think what we'll do at the next quarterly meeting is is talk about the book club and have some of the young ladies who went to talk about their experiences. Um you know Miss Matt um we had a ball uh Elise Willis from from uh Ethel Taylor went as well and it was all headed by Dr. Alicia Smith. Did you want to say something about the book clubs for this year? Should people call you to volunteer? She kind of volunttoled us. Um, her daughter Ashley showed

119up in my off. Ashley Harp showed up in my office with the books and said, "Okay, here are your books. Your school is Rockdale. Get moving." But it was so much fun. It was just great. And it was really the girls who had the idea to to go to Washington. So, that wasn't that wasn't our idea, but we had a great time. >> Is my mic on? It is. First, I would like to um thank Superintendent Murphy for supporting me and allowing me to do uh the book club. We are going to spread it out even more this year. Um so, I will be reaching out to more of community council and um members so that they can be a part of our board members to more of our schools. It's about a fiveweek commitment.

120You meet with a group of young men or a group of young women. You read the book and you just get to know them. And it was important for it to happen because the community and the school are in partnership and it was important for people that work in the community to come in and see our young people and so they could see them in a different light. Sometimes they see them outside of school and they wonder but when they come into the school they see these amazing young people who are doing awesome things. So yes, I will. You can reach me at 513-4488698 and my email is smith ali cpsb.k12.h [Music] us. Yes, it's very long. Um >> CPS's emails are worse than city emails, right? Um or you can just call the office

121at 36300 and they'll connect you to my secretary. But I'm going to be reaching out to more community. We want to spread it to more schools because it is an impact. We want our kids to fall in love with reading and they do that by reading books where they see themselves and they get an opportunity to talk about what they're reading and how it's connected to real life. Thank you. I'm I'm going to say the mayor had a group, you had a group, some judges had a group, and they were all impacted. I think the kids made more of an impact on them than they made on the kids. So for sure we want to make sure that community members, people that they regularly see get a chance to enforce the love of reading to

122them. >> Yeah. Miss Map and I don't want to let our girls go. So we're bringing them back together at some point soon. We have a whole another book even though they've moved to middle school now. We have a whole another book ready for them. Good Trouble, I think, is is the book. Yeah. So we're we're ready to um continue. Okay. So we're going to end. We're getting really close to the end. Um, oh, for for afterchool programs at rec centers, enrollment, availability, and staff pay. There's a lot to talk about there. Um, and we're going to hold that for our next meeting as well. Um, we'll have some updates before that because we want to update you before school starts and so we'll we'll get the message out to Dr. Moffett and she'll put

123it in the communication to CPS, but we'll talk more about it. um just to say lots of good things are are happening. So um and then finally um this is not on the agenda, but today city council passed two new curfew ordinances and we want you all to spread the word. Um let me just start. I'm going to let uh council I'm going to ask council member Johnson to talk about it because um this came out of his his public safety committee. Um one thing was very important for all of us. I know council member Albi and I talked about this a lot is we did not want our children to be criminalized. We want them, you know, as always, we want them treated well with respect to have good interactions, but um there are

124some positive things about this about these curfew ordinances and I'm going to let Council Member Johnson explain them to you. >> Well, great evening to everybody. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh very just quickly, uh we want to make sure as the vice mayor has made it clear that um the curfew is not going to be punitive to and criminalized young people for being out beyond ours. More than anything though, we want to make sure that young people are safe. And let's just be frank and honest. There's nothing beneficial for young people to be out past 11:00 at night. just not. So, the curfew is a blanket curfew. It uh it updates where we were with the first initial curfew to where all unaccompanied minors have to be off Cincinnati streets by 11:00 p.m. There is

125a um a 900 p.m. curfew for what we're calling the special extended curfew district which is in our central business district downtown. they have to be out of the central business district by 900 p.m. These are safety measures that we took and I must uh applaud um our city administration, the city manager, Cheryl Long, our law department and the Cincinnati Police Department that came up with the best of the best that we could in making sure first and for first and foremost as the vice mayor said, young people have to be safe. Safety is paramount. Safety is the number one priority for this city. I know it's the number one priority for CPS also. But I must say as I talked about in committee, I am begging parents, I am begging parents to make sure

126that gift that you have received from God, your children, you know where they are. You're concerned about where they are. and you help us help you keep your gifts safe. So once again, 900 p.m. out of the central business district, 11:00 p.m. for all unaccompanied minors, excuse me, throughout the city. It's 11 p.m. Now, there are exceptions to the rule working. I know one of our colleagues, Mr. Nolan was very concerned about proms and homecomings and things of that nature. We will not be enforcing the curfew if you're attending a prom homecom home homecoming and special events downtown. So, we want to make sure young people are having a good time, but we want to make sure it's done safely. So, uh, this curfew is extended throughout the entire year. So, we want to make

127sure those messages are crystal clear to the amazing parents in the city of Cincinnati. But I reiterate, help us help you keep that precious gift safe, the children that you've been given. Help us help you make sure our young people are safe. Thank you, Vice Mayor. >> Thank you. And you'll be getting more information about it. you know where they'll where the the young people will be taken if they do break curfew which is 7 Hills neighborhood houses which is an opportunity to really check on them to see oh you know do you have an afterchool job you know what kind of activities are you involved in how are things going at home to really get some resources for those who need it um the and Dr. Dr. Mafa just asked me about football games.

128So, as as council member Johnson said, um the curfew the exceptions are for um for those who are going to and from jobs and also for ticketed events. So, if you're if a young ch person is going to a ticketed event, uh that waves that uh curfew um requirement. So, it's going to happen soon. I think we're not quite there yet. We're still working on it, but we want you to be aware of it. Uh the curfew, the the hours are actually in place as of now because we passed it today. So, it would be good to start letting young people know about it. And just keep in mind, Cincinnati has had a curfew since the 1990s. Periodically, we enforce it. So, it's not always enforced, but they've been in place. They were just confusing

129before. Like, if you were, you know, under 16, you had to be in by 10. If you were 16 or 17, you had to be in by midnight. It just got really confusing. So, now it's 11:00 except 9:00 in the central business district. So, we'll we'll we'll send you information though, Council Member Albi. >> Yeah, thank you for that. And and again, we there was a really long conversation about how do we make sure the interactions with the kids are as positive as possible. But one thing I do want to emphasize, especially for you all since you work with parents. So for on the parent side, if your kid is caught or parent caretaker, um if your child uh violates curfew once, there's a warning, but a second time it's a minor misdemeanor for the

130parents. So there is parent accountability as as well. So I don't want to I don't want that to be lost as well. >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> I just have I just have a very quick question. I want you all to clarify for ticketed events. If the event is over at 10:00 and that's like or let's say 11 and it's at the curfew, you still have a time to get home. So, it's not like the curfew's finished because you had a you had a ticketed event. You have so many minutes to get home. >> Well, that's not actually part of the ordinance. The ordinance just has exceptions for ticketed events and um and for uh young people going to jobs or coming home from jobs. >> Okay? So it's not, you know, we're

131not counting the minutes. >> So I'm just wondering they c can they still kind of hang out? I went to a basketball game and it's been an hour and a half, two hours later. How does that work? >> Well, let me say, you know, if the ordinance doesn't address the ordinance doesn't really address like hang out time, but I get what you're saying. We do encourage our young people to get home. I mean, it's late, get home. You know, it's not safe to be out in the street late at night. Um, for young people, that's why when we were growing up, street lights came on. and you're supposed to be home. You know, we would have those, you know, those commercials that came on. It's 11:00. Do you know where your children are? I mean,

132that's kind of that's been around forever. So, we still encourage that. Get home. Get home. So, nothing good happens after 11:00. >> And and then and then very quickly, Madam Chair, it's our C the Cincinnati Police Department are is aware of major high school events, uh, big-time football and basketball games. So discretion will be exercised. Uh the chief thei made that crystal clear. So we we have to make sure that we are going to uh rely on good judgment from our police officers. Al also now I'll tell you this to be quite frank that's the last thing police officers want to be doing is picking up young people for curfews. But we want to make sure our young people stay safe too. Thank you. >> Thank you. And as council member Johnson said that we

133want to have positive interaction with our young people and the police. So here here's an opportunity for that as well. >> If we're concluded, I would just like to a point of personal privilege uh as finance chair and I know this is the president Moffett and I have talked about this. Um this is the last combined meeting that our current treasurer will be in attendance. Jen Wagner has served this city uh by serving the district uh for over 32 years. >> Wow. >> Uh this district is in part the way it is because of her. And um it's very important that uh that kind of public service be honored at a time when throughout the country people are dishonoring public service as though it's something bad. So, she's helped build this school district and therefore

134that's why we are one of the very few urban districts that are growing in this country and that's why we're still an important part at C for the city of Cincinnati. >> I think that deserves a standing ovation. [Music] [Applause] Miss Wagner, would you like to say anything? >> We'll just put you on the spot. >> It's okay. Thank you. Thank you. That was very touching. Um, it has been an honor and a privilege to serve the children of Cincinnati. And um, thank you. I've seen a lot of great things happen over the last 30 years. And um in the last 10 serving as a treasurer, I've tried to um lead the district with fiscal transparency and integrity um being good stewards of taxpayers dollars while accomplishing and funding our students needs. And um I'm

135leaving and moving on to the next chapter of my life uh with confidence that Cincinnati public schools will continue to flourish. And so thank you for your support. Thank you for your partnership to the council. um we've done good things together and um I'm I'm just really proud of of the time there. I'm I'm very honored. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. And Superintendent Murphy, would you like to make comments, please? >> Well, I just appreciate one uh my team for being here. It's been a long uh day as we prepare for the start of the 2025 2026 school year, but we are super excited. We continue to be here for kids and we cannot wait to see the young people come back to school and I know their parents are excited about that

136as well. Sure they are. Thank you so much. Well, any final comments? Okay. Thank you everyone for joining us. We will see you soon. The next CPS board meeting of course is August 24th. Um and the next city council meeting will be right after Labor Day. We get back in session. next quarterly meeting. We will let you know. It's coming up probably late October, early November.