001got everybody's attention. Getting good at it. Seeing a quorum of voting members, I call the August 4 Cincinnati School Board meeting to order. Please stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation indivisible indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> It's the most important part. >> I can't wait till our little people come back to school so we can have the kids sing in the pledge of allegiance. Say in the pledge of allegiance. Treasurer Wagner, please call the attendance role. >> Mr. Craig, >> here. Mr. Crossson >> here. >> Mr. Lindy >> here. >> Miss M >> here. >> Mrs. Weinberg, >> Vice President Bolton >> present. >> President Moffett >> here. Vice President Bolton, please explain
002the virtual hearing, the public process. Thank you very much. Members of the public who are online and wish to speak during our hearing of the public this evening may do so by clicking the chat button now. The chat feature will o will be open for your requests for five minutes. If you would like a direct response to your questions, please make sure to share your name, your affiliation to the district, your school community, your topic, and your contact information. >> Thank you. The chair will now entertain a motion and a second to approve the August 4th business meeting agenda. >> So moved. Second. Treasure Wagner, please call the voting role. Mr. >> Yes. >> Mr. Crossen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lindy. >> Yes. >> Miss M. >> Yes. >> Vice President Bolton? >> Yes. >>
003President Moffett? >> Yes. And that means tonight's agenda is approved as posted. Let's get into our new business. Do board members have any acknowledgements or announcements? woman across it. >> Uh yes. Uh tonight is my oneyear anniversary of being on the board and I just wanted to thank Congratulations. >> Yay. >> Just wanted to thank my fellow board members. It's been a pleasure working with all of you. I I've learned a lot and it's just been been enjoyable on the policy committee and on the finance committee. I also want to thank the uh superintendent, the treasurer. It's been a really great pleasure working with you and also the the team uh the management team out here is is is superb. So, thank you all for making my first year really great. Appreciate it. Thank you.
004>> It's great. >> Well, congratulations on your first year. >> I survived >> and he wants to return. >> Yeah, that's that's a testament. board member Craig. >> Um I know it not to steal the thunder from the superintendent later, but uh I just wanted to thank all the folks who came out in our community to the uh welcome back. It was tremendous group of folks that were out there. It was a beautiful day to be out and truly was one of the most rewarding parts is to seeing the number of principles and and assistant principles who had ran out of stuff because that many people from our community came through and said they needed the book bags and the books and the papers and pens and everything else. Um, so again, it's a testament
005to all the hard work that folks did to put it on and really again to the to the superintendent's team for working hard to make sure you heard nothing bad happen. You notice that we can do really great things with our students and our parents and our families. And it probably should get more coverage when great things like that happen. So, um, I was really motivated by the things that I saw and some of the partners over there like Joe Burrow Foundation and others who really are stepping up with our kids. So, it's a great time. >> Congratulations to our teams that put that together. We've got some awesome folks in our district. Any other uh kudos announcements? I'm kind of excited because August means it's time for the kids to come back. And if
006you don't know, those are my favorite people are the kids. Superintendent Murphy, please present any announcements and retirements that you may have except for one. You may not say one name on your list, but other than that, you can go don't say that name. >> Don't say that name. I won't. We'll we'll project it, but I won't say it. All right. So, we do have certificated employees who are retiring that we want to acknowledge. The first is Gail L. Castle, a teacher at Woodford Academy. Carol J. Connor, a teacher at Fairview Clifton German Language School. Susan G. Fox, a teacher at Oiler School. Katherine L. Kger, a teacher at Academy of World Languages. Glenda C. Nicks, a teacher with Juvenile Court. Fred M. Schneider, a teacher at Walnut Hills High School. Michelle B. Cy, thank
007you. One more time. Cifki. Michelle B. Cifki, an intervention specialist in our auxiliary services department. On the civil service side, we have Sarah Harris, a student services assistant at Hayes Porter School. Andrea Robinson, a paraprofessional with Aspire >> and the name which we will not mention. >> Say your own name. Jennifer M. Wagner, Treasurer, CFO, Treasures Department. [Applause] And I do have a couple of announcements. Uh, one just wanted to share the picture uh from when our business advisory council was recognized by the state of Ohio. There we go. Um, yes, with the four-star award. Congratulations to them. And then our annual golf outing uh led by uh Josh Harden and our athletics team. Thank you for everyone who came out to support uh that day. And then uh I do also want to just
008acknowledge not only the NAACP block party, but a lot of summer activities that even though the children are away from us and St. public schools maintains its presence in the community. So on July 19th, we were present at the NAACP block party. So deeply appreciative to those who organized and supported that event. And the consumate back to school event um was absolutely amazing as board member Craig mentioned um over a thousand book bags given away. Uh physicals uh took place that day. Uh it was just great not only for our staff, departments, school houses, but the community uh at large and our partners as well. And mother nature greatly appreciated uh her participation on that day. All righty. So, even though it's the summertime, we're still busy around here. We're doing some great things. Thank
009you to everybody. Vice President Bolton, the chair is now yours to conduct the hearing of the public. >> Thank you very much. We are now at the item on our agenda for hearing the public. Each speaker will have two minutes and we'll address all comments to the presiding officer. If you're online, once a request to speak has been granted, you'll be invited to enter. You should click on the camera icon to go interactive. Provide your name, your affiliation to the district, your school community, your topic, and your contact information if you wish to have a response. This request is consistent with board protocol, and we appreciate your help. In the uh unusual event that someone is not willing to follow the protocol, we reserve the right to end that person's time. Again, each person will
010have two minutes to speak. When the timer goes off, your time is up. Please refrain from discussing any personnel matters. And after speaking, if you're online, you'll briefly see the welcome screen again as you transition back to live stream meeting. Finally, we ask that your public commentary be respectful of all listeners. Rob, do we have anybody online? Let's start with the one person online and then we have one person uh in person besides uh uh President Sers if she's speaking this evening and she's not speaking this evening. So, one online and and one uh in person. Thank you, Rob. >> Online speaker today will be Hershel Daniels. Hershel Daniels, you have two minutes. You can go ahead and begin. Thank you. My name is Hershel Daniels. I'm with the Buckeye Black Chamber of Commerce and
011my company is Hershel Daniels Junior LLC. We previously started to work with uh the superintendent's investigative uh committee uh relative to our proposal to create a revenue anticipation note with the uh Cincinnati public schools. Uh we met on January 17th and we were waiting for uh you to pass your budget on July 9th. you did do so and I uh notified you uh that we are ready to re-engage uh now that you have your budget in hand uh and that the administration has set out its education policy and that now we have statutory law in the one big beautiful bill act uh the genius act and other actions of the administration uh to create that uh we now have our underwriting group in hand. And again, we also have uh the PNC $88 billion community
012benefit agreement already in place that ends on December uh 2025. The mo most important uh we have an upcoming meeting with uh uh our partners over a thousand of them uh that uh are all focused on helping you make Cincinnati a national model around a creation of a revenue anticipation note. and uh that uh revenue anticipation note will provide the necessary funding uh to make up the gap uh that you are experiencing uh based on the uh politics at the state level. I want to thank you very much uh for all that you are doing and we will be in contact with the superintendence uh committee uh to re-engage. Thank you. >> Thank you very much Mr. Daniels. And now we'll uh hear from uh Christian Davis. >> Good evening. >> Hello. >> My name
013is Sorry. My name is >> Okay. Hello. My name is Christian Davis. I am the CPS I am a CPS parent and the founder of Cincinnati Parent Empowerment Network. First and foremost, I want to thank and congratulate the district on hosting another successful back- to-school bash. The event was thoughtfully planned and is clear that the district collaborated extensively with community partners and organizations to elevate the experience to the highest level. I also want to extend a special thank you to Superintendent Murphy and District Parent Champion Londa Thomas, both of whom joined us live on our CPAN Facebook page to share important information with families. Superintendent Murphy's video earned 3,600 views and Miss Thomas video received 1,000 views. Both were shared multiple times to amplify the reach. This year, our organization proudly participated at the event
014and we distribute 578 books to CPS students. Today, we have three asks related to parent and family engagement, inclusion of the district parent champion at board meetings. We kindly request that the board consider including Miss Thomas in each board meeting. We also ask that the district allocate time for Miss Thomas to share updates, announcements, recognitions, and information related to parent engagement. This would not only elevate her role, but help more CPS families become familiar with the services and supports provided by Miss Thomas. Second, spotlighting resource coordinators. We ask that the district consider highlighting all resource coordinators with approximately 65 coordinators featuring two each week would allow full coverage of the academic year. Spotlighting these coordinators will help families put faces to available support systems. And lastly, live streaming Sundays with Sha. We are excited about
015the upcoming series. Our request is that these sessions be streamed live on the district's Facebook page and other social media platforms. This will enable parents who cannot attend in person to participate virtually and remain informed. Thank you so much. Have a good day. >> Thank you so much, M. Davis. Appreciate it. And that concludes uh the portion of the meeting regarding hearing the public. >> Thank you. I need a motion to approve um a resolution to request a waiver for alcohol to be served at an event at the School for Creative and Performing Arts to benefit the Starshine Hospice Program at Cincinnati Children's. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Do we need a reading for that or does every Did everyone read that? >> To do at least a title.
016>> I did I did a title. >> You did a title. >> That was a title. Okay, title's been entered. So, the title has been entered for the record. Um, Treasurer Wagner, please call the role. >> Mr. Craig, >> yes. >> Mr. Cross, >> yes. >> Mr. Lindy, >> yes. >> Miss M, >> yes. >> Vice President Bolton, >> yes. >> President Moffett, >> yes. I now need a motion to approve a resolution opposing the US Department of Education's decision to withhold federal title 2A, 3A, and 4A funds and approving the district joining a lawsuit to demand the release of funds resolution. >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> There's a second and a third. >> And is there any discussion? Uh pre Board member Lindy. >> Thank you. Um, I
017wanted to just make sure I was tracking. Uh, a lot's happened since our last board meeting. Um, but, uh, as I understand it, uh, we joined a lawsuit and did sue the Trump administration. Subsequent to which this Trump administration reversed its position uh, and has decided to release these funds. I'm not saying that's entirely because of our lawsuit. I'm still very glad we filed it. Um, but this is uh I imagine a uh resolution that we put together before we knew that the Trump administration was going to change course. Is that is all that accurate? >> Yes, sir. It is. >> Great. So, let me um this was all done exactly as you've stated in speaking to our general counsel and Mr. Horn, you can definitely come up. I understand that we are now given
018the first aotment that would be due July 1st, but there is a there are other future dispersements and um I suggested that we keep continue this momentum in the event that those dispersements are delayed, we wouldn't have >> Yeah, I think we stay in the fight. No question. Um I just for anybody who's watching, uh I wanted to make sure that that people knew um that we did file this lawsuit. we were one of a handful of school districts, teachers unions, parent organizations, um that sued uh and that the Trump administration changed its position and that that's good news and my level of trust in the future is low. Uh and I think staying in this makes a ton of sense. Um and and thank you. >> Any other commentary or discussion? Um Mr. Ho,
019would you like to add anything about the the resolution? Yeah, just wanted to thank the board for its support uh and also the other groups that we joined in. One one important thing is we were able to join this lawsuit uh to have the funds uh or or to sue to to have the funds released without spending any CPS dollars on this uh because of contributions of some of the other participants in the lawsuit. So that that's just another advantage that about joining this. Um the treasurer may be able to speak to whether funds have been released. They have been released to the states at this point. Uh I'm not sure whether they the states have then released them to us yet. >> Not in Ohio, but um Mike has the presentation he's going to
020do. >> Um the only other thing I'd add is there are there's a future uh payment I think due in October. Uh we have dropped or the the plaintiffs have dropped the demand for a preliminary injunction which is asking the court to do emergency relief because we had not had the uh funds released. the the emergency part is over, but the case is not dismissed at this point in part because we want we're asking for some assurances that those future payments will be made >> on time. >> Thank you. Vice President Bton, >> how many um to your knowledge, how many dis school districts participated in this? >> We were the only one, as far as I know, in the continental or in the um lower 48. There were three uh school districts in Alaska
021that joined as well. Fairbanks, um, Anchorage, and one other, but we were the only school district in the lower 48 to have joined. >> Big dog. Thank you. >> And I will say we've been, it's been inquired. We're going to be talking to a few more who have asked us as well. So, trendsetters, board member Matt, I just want to say uh thank you to the administration for your swift and persistent effort to advocate for our district and just for um public schools overall and I just really commend you on the hard work that you all put into this. So, thank you. >> Thanks. Lot lots of others. Uh there were declarations that we submitted and um just really good team effort. >> Any other comments? So, Treasure Wagner, we need a vote. >> Thank
022you, >> Mr. Craig. >> Yes. >> Mr. Crosset, >> yes. >> Mr. Lindy, >> yes. >> Miss M. >> Yes. >> Vice President Bolton. >> Yes. >> President Moffett. >> Yes. Thank you to the team and everyone that put it together. And thank you to my colleagues because we stood up. We did. Um board member, we're at the point now for presentations and discussions. And up next is our CPS foundation update. So this is a section for board member Croset and Superintendent Murphy to give us an update if any around the foundation. For the purposes of the public, can you share a little around um the status of the foundation, what what the foundation is charged to do, and I know that we're also going to talk about it a little later. So we're going
023to kind of combine those two. It's scheduled to be talked about around theou um a little bit later, but if you could just kind of update us. Board member Crosset is our liaison with the ABC Foundation and Superintendent Murphy is our uh staff. >> Thank you. Do can I do it from here or do I go down to the podium? >> You can do it from there if you want to feel like you know part of you. >> I don't want to go to the well. >> I'm happy to do it from here. Um so yes, just by way of background um our longtime u supporter nonprofit supporter uh ABC activities beyond the classroom has been in the process of migrating to become this Cincinnati public school foundation now. Uh so it's it's uh it's
024in the works. It's in process. Um they uh there's there's two primary activities that have been going on. One is rebranding and they got a grant to do rebranding and they've been taking a study on what is the best naming or taglines or other kinds of uh uh uh descriptions of the new foundation will be. And so they've got they've solicited some input from uh from us and they've also been in the process of uh strategizing their initial campaign process. They've uh gotten some information from us and they're getting information from potential donors and they're kind of melding all that to come up with a a campaign plan in the first year. And this first year campa campaign plan is critical for the long-term success of of the foundation. Um the um um the um
025let's see I want to what else did I want to say? the yeah there they're primarily going to be a soft launch of that campaign this fall and a hard launch at probably in December January of 2026. So it's it's u you know a little there's not exactly like deadlines and time pressures that we're up against right now until we get closer to that hard launch date which I think hasn't really been announced yet. But uh it's um so those are the two main things that the foundation has been working on and um we've had uh Shauna and myself, Mike Gustin have been attending the meetings. I think board president Moffett got to attend a meeting recently. So we're we are uh fairly constant communication with them and uh so we're excited about the potential.
026So, the potential is really good upside in terms of being able to provide more financial resources for for the schools. Uh, the only thing I did want to address a little bit specifically, um, and I'm I'm not sure. I think some of, uh, I guess there's an item on the agenda for board matters to discuss theou. Um, I think we can do a little bit of that now, but I'd like to do a lot more of that at our next meeting. uh so that m when Mary is here and we we she can all be included because Mary's got some specific questions and uh so so it doesn't have to be all discussed or brought out now and I may not have all the answers to the questions around theou some of it uh we
027might need to get help from Dan Hoyang who can better interpret some some of whatever the questions are but um the uh the one specific thing I did want to talk about was just because it's coming up next on our agenda is a resolution regarding appointing uh two folks that we've selected to be on the board. Uh what what's unique now is the the foundation is uh we we have exopicio members myself as the liaison superintendent Murphy and assistant treasure. are exeicio members of the foundation board and which means we're non- voting members but we get to uh select and and recommend two voting members to the board who would be representing uh CPS interests and we've done uh a good job of uh soliciting candidates vetting those candidates and hopefully that will approve their
028recommendation of those candidates. Dan, you might have to help me with the language on this, but the um the Cincinnati public school foundation board has to go through a process to approve them also. And there's a couple reasons for that. The primary reason is that in order for the foundation to retain its 501c3 tax status, it has to be independent from us. And so they do have to sort of go through this prefuncter uh process to approve who we recommend. And basically who we recommend and I've spoken with uh the president of their board. Uh they will accept whoever we recommend unless there's some giant glaring conflict of interest or some giant problem that we didn't foresee. But basically their uh view is whoever we recommend they're going to approve. they just have to go
029through the process especially uh for from a tax status standpoint. But what's Dan what's the language that uh I can't ever remember what it says but >> yeah from the foundationou it says uh that that the board's community uh rep uh the foundation board has the right to approve the community member recommended by CPS's board of education such approval not to be unreasonably withheld >> right not to be unreasonably withheld which means basically they've got to have a really good reason not to you know it's got to be like a real blatant conflict of interest or something that we've missed in our vetting process. So, um that's that's a little bit specifics on that part of theou that I thought might be uh good to talk about since we are uh now our next item
030on the agenda is to resolution for these two folks to recommend. So, that's my update. >> Thank you. Superintendent Murphy, did you want to add anything? I just would like to just add one thing and this just came out Friday, but uh ABC is planning a the first fundraiser at the Soapbox Salon and it is on Sunday, October the 12th. It's right after a Sundays with Shana, so it'll be a busy day, but uh there is a fundraiser being planned. >> Well, I definitely look forward to getting that invitation via email. Board members, do you have any questions? And and I just want to pro provide a little bit of clarity. Um, >> before I u we're going to have be be sure to remember that we'll have a more time to talk about this
031and a and a more formal updated presentation from um foundation folks at our next meeting or whatever that's worth. Sorry. >> Sure. No, you're fine. Um, this is on the agenda because several board members um have expressed some concern around needing to further clarify the vision, mission, and values of the foundation. It's it's it's been more than one or two. And um ourou, which is on board docs for people to read, um has also needing just a little bit more clarity. And so as we've engaged over the past few months, I think it's prudent for us to further provide some meat to the bones of theou. So I wanted the board in totality to work on some of the specifics. Is ABC fundraising only? Are they going to um be a vendor for the district?
032We need to I think we need to further clarify what the roles are, what the expectations are and then um maybe adjust theou or at least go into this with all of us on the same page because I think that there is some uh some confusion around are they are we just paying for their administrative fees and then nothing else yet we have uh RFPs that are being carried over from year to year because that's in a vendor position. position. Uh so we need to clarify those things immediately. It's not really a wait and see. It's a we either take them out and then we can kind of clarify those things or um we need to we need to have done those. And do we set the goals of the foundation or do we tell
033them the projects that that they're wanting to work on? And I know Superintendent Murphy when I did attend a meeting, she shared some projects that she was was wanting to lift up that the district needs. So is that driving the fundraising efforts of the foundation? I just think we need to have some things spelled out so that the foundation is not they are a separate entity, but they should not and I did not vote for them to be a separately functioning out here on their own type entity without the district. they are supposed to be working in tandem and I expected superintendent Murphy to be at the table um with designing the vision with designing the vision and um in addition to the board member but reporting that back. So there's been some some question
034from multiple board members around the need to clarify and um what are they working for and um so that's what this purpose is for. I'm so I'm I'm absolutely certain that when ABC does come that they'll give us some of their updated information, but I do think that there's some due diligent work that the board can do to further clarify what our expectation level is for the foundation moving forward. So, um I've received some questions, but I want the board members to be able to ask those so that you're at least able to know what those questions are so that you can take them back and then they can watch it publicly as well. Does anyone have any questions to look up? >> Bo member Craig. >> Um, not so much a question but like
035again a thought along the line there which is I think in some ways this is where understanding the purpose of a foundation might be a bigger discussion for us to have as a starting point because I I think part of what we are there to do is task what are the things that the district needs? What are the things that we're asking for them to be able to gather resources for? I do think there is a level of autonomy that has to be there >> but then to be able to say yeah we can't grab money for that like no one's gonna give you dollars for that or something to that effect or hey we've gathered these things we can give funds there and in part it needs to be very separate because if it
036is viewed as dollars being raised by the district for the district's purposes those are supposed to go to a different through a different process um and so in a lot of ways this is a opportunity to do some of the same things that we see at a lot of the schools who have their own um like alumni foundations or athletics foundations or those type of things where they're given something that the school needs and then they're able to go and resource buy it donated to the school in that way. Um or resource and put money towards X Y andZ is a donation. Um, so I do think it would be helpful for us to establish, you know, are we to, you know, like just establishing what that partnership and that relationship looks like as far
037as this first year goes because I also do think this first year is very different from year two, three, and four where there should be in some ways a system, a a a process, you know, it should be kind of a machine set up that does that work. The first year you're kind of growing from the start. And so, um, having some of that clarity as to what's the purpose of a of a a foundation's role and responsibilities and that also keeps us separate from district funds because I think that's the other part that I worry a little bit about us talking too much overlap on is that like so we need something so if we just automatically can go back and say, "Hey, hand me hand me $100,000 to do XYZ." that may make
038it less of a separate 501c3 than if we say we have these needs at a school. How can you assist? Right. Um, that is also why I believed and I think we did a great job of this of establishing that they're separate from the other vendor services that we have used them for in the past because I do think it got would get muddled if we had for instance an athletic director who was able to go and say I need new X Y and Z that's chose to raise funds for some other school doesn't have that same connection and couldn't do that same thing right and so I think that's maybe also important about establishing the lines in which superintendent and the board and the district um can establish what those things are and those
039needs that need to be met. Um >> okay vice president I think she I think M >> whichever one it doesn't matter >> well to expedite we'll just do this. Thank you. Uh yes I I have uh my experience with foundations unlike uh Mr. Crosset uh is is very limited. It is it's only been in association with the school for the creative and performing arts here when indeed there was trouble and there was an issue uh and that our separation was critical uh as uh state government you know and others investigated what was going on regarding that foundation which had been hallowed and wonderful for so long and then got into some uh issues and the fact that we were separate from it helped the district uh navigate not only the crisis but also navigate
040post crisis. The other one of course is with previous uh life uh Wyoming city schools foundation. So those um it's very limited in that way but that that limitation is kind of deep on a couple of things. One there must be separation but there is not this complete autonomy because the only reason this foundation exists is for the benefit of our young people. There's no other reason for it to exist. It has nothing to do with any other purpose whatsoever. So to the level that it is about our children, we have to be involved and obviously have to be part of it. I don't have an issue with the umou uh and if we if people do, I think they need to be as specific as they can be about theou. I also don't want
041the foundation to be used to fill our budget gaps. That's not how you use a a foundation. It's something extraordinarily separate and special, something we can't do, something our taxpayers shouldn't necessarily be expected to do. Uh and so I've appreciated the president's emphasis on keep it within our uh experience and goals and guard rails and what have you, but the reality is this is not to fill a budget gap. This is to do something extraordinary and and special. I think where we have failed a little bit is that as a board we have not talked enough among ourselves as to what we do think the purpose of the foundation is. We knew that we needed it. We wanted it. We're ready for it and I appreciate the superintendent getting it created. Uh but I I
042would suggest even something as as our retreat in October uh might not be a bad place to spend a little bit of time to talk about because I think if anything my understanding uh from the other folks that are involved with this foundation that's what they kind of want is more of a uh a broadstroke guidance about what's acceptable to us or what's part of our vision. So I think I would suggest we do that. Then the other last thing uh they did send out a um uh feedback and I found it very very useful. I of course not surprisingly was very opinionated on the whole thing and filled it out pretty uh pretty uh specifically. But do look and make sure that all board members have filled that feedback that and I think the
043superintendent sent it out. She received it from Sally Grimes and probably you all did but if you haven't done it yet I mean even about what's going to be the name and and what are some of the the projects that are being discussed it was and but more importantly did it fit within a vision and mission as they were being as they described and that was educational to me too so all of us could do that and I'd welcome a good discussion about what is the purpose and and how we see the foundation but I'm glad you brought this to our attention but on ammo I I think it's a pretty good document all things considered. Thank you. >> Member Matt. >> Uh yes. So I do uh appreciate everyone's feedback. I did have concerns
044um regarding um just some of the things that were presented specifically around the mission, vision uh and values. And so while I recognize that they are an independent entity, I do think that the mission, vision, and values should be spearheaded by the district because this is for our students, right? And so there has to be that alignment there. And I do see that there's efforts um and ways to try to align, but there are moments and you know, the materials that we receive that I feel that we may be moving full steam ahead where we don't have clarity. And so I would appreciate that opportunity for us um both entities to have conversation on what the expectation is, what the roles, what the responsibilities entail. And then also if there's opportunity with there being a
045separate with them being an independent entity for an oversight committee on both ends. I don't know if that's something that is possible um within the the um the relationship or dynamics of a foundation but to ensure that there is mutual understanding to ensure that there's no conflict because I am concerned about how are we navigating u moving forward with them serving as a foundation while uh this is to board member Mafett's point transitioning out of being a vendor right is there a specific timeline in which that ends, what does that look like? So, I think there's just pertinent conversation that needs to occur um before moving forward. Even with the the effort to have a fundraiser coming up soon, I think that's great, but I think that presents a challenge because again, if we're not
046on one accord, we want to make sure that we're um communicating the same message. And so, that can present a challenge um in that manner. So, I do have some questions um as we're working to move forward and navigate this space. So, I want to um I I I think that we're definitely going to take some time at the retreat to discuss it then, too. That's in October. But I but I also when um it was shared that maybe we needed to have some specific around theou then I I want to be able to provide that as well. So I have some questions around um section six uh letter D. Um, when we talk about the foundation receiving gifts, um, I'm I'm confused because we had a a donation at one point in time a
047few months ago come in and it didn't go through the foundation and but but I thought that theou was that all gifts and all donations went through the foundation. So, there was some concern. There was some confusion around that and we didn't really address it, but it was still a little um confusing to me and I think that the board needs to provide further direction. I do still have some concerns and I didn't see them in here readily available. So, I I'll definitely continue to look. But when we talk about we need to address the vendor piece and we need to address um the the the foundation piece and I think that they are getting conflated for me. So when I look at the treasures report there's an RFP in here that was awarded when
048they were considered a vendor. Um, let's look. There's two. One for $224,564, one for 90,000, and it's for an RFP under vendor contracting services. And so I don't know if we adequately describe that in theou around that because technically speaking in my mind when you're a vendor they when once they've become a foundation that may have ceased or should it have ceased may have ceased ceased um but that doesn't address that in theou I also have some concerns around if we're going to continue to pay for fine arts programming under a previous contract. What does that look like? We're paying for that as a district. And so, are we paying for that for the remainder of the contract? Are we paying for that under the RFP? Are we paying for that until they've um raised
049funds? Those things need to be clarified because the expenses are significant. And if we I know for one particular instance, we've got Dr. Rednick's um who has retired unfortunately and left us. his position supplied a lot of fine arts programming and if that's to be absorbed within our staff and our team that's now a burden on us what does that look like so we need to further clarify for the public and for us in theou what does some of those things what are some of the expectations um around being a vendor and vendor services and the foundation is the purpose of the foundation to reduce CPS costs in some areas they're raising monies for that are they um we also need to talk about a sustainability plan for fundraising. Um those are things that are
050not outlined in this that I think are super significant that need to be outlined further and um when we talk about the vision and the mission those are great but those things should not be vote uh discussed outside of CPS staff. Superintendent Murphy needs to be at that table every time. And I was at a I happened to go to a meeting where it was shared some of the project ideas that Superintendent Murphy had in order for the district to reach some of the goals that should be driving those fundraising efforts and we should be getting some of that feedback. So I don't need to see another survey. Superintendent Murphy has a clearer understanding of what the expectations are and what where the needs are and so that should be driving the fundraising efforts. But
051again, we need to define that, I think, um, and put it in theou so that they are very clear on what they're working for. And I I also would like to have the foundation when they're out meeting with outside organizations and entities that our interests are represented by either yourself or Superintendent Murphy, they need to be having meetings with the community and the partners and the funders with CPS staff um, in collaboration and in partnership. again if those things need to be outlined in theou I don't see them there. So when we ask for were specifically in theou are those things needed those are some um examples of where they're needed. I do have a question around section six administrative expense. So we paid them 1.1 million for the first year they're to raise two.
052Am I understanding it correctly that we'll pay them for 26 27 1.2 million. So we as as the years go up their expenses go up and we continue we'll pay them more money. Is that right? >> Uh yeah there's an inflation it's just an inflation factor fig figured into the administrative costs that we've agreed to cover. So I mean that's that's what's in theou. >> Okay. So again, >> I I've just uh I've been taking notes and I kind of want to um I'm glad for all this feedback. This is important feedback or well I don't want to interrupt. Board member Matt, let let her speak now because I'm I'm just taking notes. >> Board member Matt, >> uh I just have a quick question. I don't know if there's been discussion around this, but
053I am curious to know how do we navigate the space uh as we're talking about um you know finances and and them raising money. We are a public board and they are a private board. How do we I guess navigate that space? So if there's any you know uh records that we would like to receive in terms of the finances, how do we go about having those conversations and what does that look like? I think there's some language Dan could probably help clarify, but I think there's some language in the MLOU that they have to do financial reporting to us and they have to have an audit. So there I think those are uh built into the uh into the uh already built into the MLOU on that specific question. >> So I do recognize
054that that is in there um and that may have been on like a quarterly uh basis. I don't know if say if we needed a financial report before then what would that process entail or is there discussion um that we need to have for us to be able to pull that information and then also what does that uh look like for us again being a public board how how do we present that information because I'm sure that there are some things that they may not want to share being a private board Right. So, how do we navigate between that space? >> I mean, there's there's reporting that that is a part of it's in section 9 of the agreement. Um there's also um some language in here about uh uh keeping track of donations and
055and but I I I mean this this was all subject to lots and lots of discussion that from from the first semester of last year and then approved. Um, I glad to I answer whatever questions you have about theou. Um, >> I think that one thing that I'm encouraged by and and I'll try to uh evoke this and try to get help you all get comfortable with this, but I've had lots of discussions with Charlie Frank, president of the board, and I feel like their spirit of collaboration is high. I mean, these are folks that really care about CPS, really care about our students, and they're here to do good for us. And theou I know does, I think, I do believe it states that they have to be aligned with our goals and our
056guard rails and our our our strategic plan. So, that's built into theou. So, it we have some leverage there to make sure that we have the kind of alignment that everybody's looking for for what for what that's worth. Um, I do think I'm just taking some notes here so that we can have a fuller discussion of this uh at next meeting after there's a presentation from um Charlie the president of the board and and maybe Sally Grimes is will present. But just to recap, uh we want to be sure we have clarity on the purpose of the foundation and make sure that that purpose is aligned with our mission um vision and values. We want to be sure that there is an opportunity in how the money gets uh spent that it it incorporates equity
057between the schools. Board member Craig's point, we have there's a there is a process in fundraising that is important for all of us to understand that what our needs are and and Brandon mentioned this too may not match up with what donors are interested in giving for. So it there is a matchmaking process. I think we all got a survey. I don't know if we've all filled it out, but that's part of helping to try to get some get us some big wins early in terms of fundraising. Um, let's see. The um, you know, there does need to be remain fiscally independent and so we can talk a little bit more about I'll get some more information about what that is and why that's important. Um then there's the topic about vendor contracts and whether
058or not you know how that relates to theou. I think there's and we've discussed this in board meetings before but there is no mention of the vendor piece of it in theou because it's not part of theou so it's it's kind of a separate discussion but we can have more discussions about that. Um, I guess we want to work on clarity about when we get gifts, uh, whether the CPS gets a gift or the foundation gets a gift, we really maybe get some clarity around being knowing that we have to honor the donor's wishes and that can sometimes be restrictive, but that's how that works. Um, and then, um, let's see. I guess make sure um, I mean those are in in my notes. Um, I guess the Oh, and that and I think there
059was a good point that this cannot cover a budget gap. That was a really good point that that you made. This has to be money that's not money that we uh would get from our taxpayers or spent in that way. So, am I missing anything that we need to cover more in more depth at our ne next meeting? >> I have one, but I'll go after Vice President B. I the thing I would add is I think part of the confusion is that we are not presenting necessarily a united board in this and I think that adds to the confusion. We have to find consensus that we all seven of us can buy into and I don't know that it's about theou as much as it's about the vision and what it is we are
060going to expect. I mean, I expect the foundation to provide to provide another stream of revenue and I expect them to be able to do that stream of revenue and I expect them to have this have a clear understanding of what our vision and mission and thought of that revenue would go toward and I think I think that's why we need a board discussion and have a a stronger sense of consensus and and once we have that then I think we've got a great I mean certainly a great board in the in the uh foundation board that we're going to augment now and they're augmenting and so but I think we have a responsibility to come up with a united uh uh commitment and united vision to share with them and uh I think once
061that happens listen this district is the most supported most partnered older urban district in the United States of America, we wouldn't be here. But that this community has supported us uh in many many ways for many many many generations. So uh I'm I think I think I've heard Kareem mention we think people are going to give money but it people have to understand for what purpose and with with some integrity. And I think that's what we have to come to grips with. But I think that's our job one right now is to become united in our vision of what this needs to be and then gang busters to the to the uh foundation board. >> Member Craig, did you have something to say? >> Yeah, I was just going to say two things and then
062uh I will kind of uh step back out because I want to get us towards our goal of getting out of here. Yes. >> At the appointed time that our president uh wished for us. >> I was in charge of publica statements. the the two things are really first so this is an agreement we've already reached and so I think to a certain extent what we will certainly to uh vice president Bolton's point what we maybe need to navigate is how do we live within what we've already agreed to I think is one thing um and so that means looking at what do what are the things that we think are the most important things what are the things superintendent thinks are the most important things how do we combine that messaging and communication out
063to ensure that both entities are operating with the same expectation same understanding I think that's very good to do and I think maybe to your point uh President Moffett that that that in some levels has not been reached yet. Um so that's a fair assessment to do. I don't know that that's done through theou or revisiting theou and that's the only thing I was would say in that part because we've kind of already agreed and so unless we want to unbreak the deal and restart over it which then gets a little bit more trickier and harier um I think we can find ways to answer some of the concerns and address some of the issues while also living within some of the things we were doing. I do think there is also a space for
064the long-term future of a foundation that is meant to support because like for instance we would love to be able to tell alumni foundations not to do certain things and not to send certain communications out. we don't we can't they do it anyway right like and and some levels of we don't have control and I think that's the other part of this that I think we as a board have to also get a little bit of that comfort with is that at the end of the day they are a separate entity there is a benefit to that which means that certain things we don't have to worry about we don't have to report we don't have to do certain parts of it they are responsible for it when they don't do it we tell them
065we don't need you anymore and we move on. Um, but they are a separate thing. And I think that's the other part to the conversation that we might have in in October is about yes, they're here. They're ready to support. Their values should should match to should align to the values that the district has because that's what they're communicating out to folks. They're communicating they're raising funds to support efforts for things in the district that otherwise would not get done. Right? So things that otherwise there is no dollars for otherwise we can't spend money for those type of things. Um, and that's maybe another aspect of what we would have that conversation in October about is are those things that we can't do because we're not allowed to do or we're not able to get
066funds for or that's just something not in the budget that then can be something the foundation does as opposed to we wanted another book so we got this other or we wanted the better book instead of this book kind of deal. Um, but I I think all of that is stuff we can have the conversation around it. I don't know that it always benefits us to stay within theou as the basis for that conversation. That was my only like add-on thought to that is that since we've already made the agreement, I I think one aspect of it is start to ask what are those deliverables? What are those things that we're going to be expecting to see? When can we see it? I think uh board member Matt brings up a great point of there
067there are times where we may have situations where we have concerns that warrant us to do more review of what is being done in our name or done with our name. there may be a valid reason to go and say, "Hey, you know, we're understanding that you're doing certain things that that are using the CPS name to get resources and it may not align to the goals that we've agreed to or the things we've agreed to as part of the agreement." And I think there are ways to enforce that that is separate from like us just want to know what you're doing with money, right? Like those are things I think we can talk through of how that is aligned in the in theou and how that is operating. Um, but to the to the
068other part to this, which is the second part I'll be really quick on, is I do think there are some things that we have to figure out as a as vendors of the of the district. What are the expectations we're going to hold for every vendor who's a vendor of the district. And I say that because I do think we have a long-term problem with when it it only really becomes an issue when we don't see the results or we don't or we start to see a problem, right? Right. So, as long as there's nothing bad happens, we have this tendency to say, "Oh, well, that like it worked out, right?" Um, and I think we've said this with transportation in the past. We've done this with other things in in the past where we
069said because it became a problem, now we go and look at it. And I think that's something that we have embarked on a little bit with the KPIs, with other things like that. But we could do even more version of that of is this vendor truly bringing a benefit to the district that is a long-term, short-term, midterm kind of conversation, which is something I think the treasur's uh reformed treasures report starts to get us towards where we look at what are the obligations the district's under short-term, midterm, longterm. But we can do more of that. I just think those are maybe two separate conversations but may be aligned on this specific situation and so I just hope we can kind of keep discussing where we stand on it so we get into accordance and that
070way it makes it easier for us to have a conversation with them. >> Mr. Hoy. >> Yeah, just to give a more coherent answer to board member maps uh question which I was trying to scramble through the agreement that there's three sections in terms of what uh we can expect from them in terms of reporting. One is these quarterly reports. They're kind of big picture though, I think is the point. Second is they they're required to do a budget for us every year. So in terms of how they're spending the money, the administrative expense, that's in 6C, they have to do an uh budget to show us how they're going to spend that money. And finally, with respect to funds or gifts that have been donated to the foundation and how th those dollars are
071being spent, um there's to be spent uh for the benefit of CPS um uh by the executive director or or with the approval of the executive director in collaboration with the CPS superintendent and then the executive director shall be responsible for complete and accurate recordkeeping regarding all foundation receipts and expenditures. And such records shall at all times be available for review by CPS superintendent his or her designate at all times. So that's 7B of the of the agreement. Sorry for my previous incoherent answer. >> Thank you for that. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Well, we definitely have begun the conversation. You do have some work to do. I would like to add to your list um that we need to clarify um the role as a vendor. I think you mentioned it, but I'm specific with
072uh resource coordination. Like I want the specifics around resource coordination, fine arts programming and star stadium administration because they have some administrative um efforts with regard to Starel whatever it is that a that the current ABC is under. We need to kind of revisit those and look at those things um to further clarify. I brought it to theou and I almost think that it should kind of stay there or we can create an addendum to it because um I and I think my colleagues I join my colleagues in wanting the foundation absolutely wanting the foundation. I foresee that they will have no problem and I collecting money on behalf of the district and I think that I'd love to help them get there. But I do think that we need to having been with the
073foundation preliminarily right now for the past few months. There are there's the need to clarify some things um for so that our best interests which are taxpayer funded by taxpayer dollars are represented very clearly with no limitations and the expectation is that our representatives will be at the table will be engaging with the community for our best interest with no with no restrictions there and that needs to have been clarified unfortunately. So, we'll put this back on the agenda for next week and I mean for next for next meeting and we'll expect um maybe an update around naming and branding. But then also, are we just a a question right now because it's in the treasures report. Are we funding the requests for proposals that are here for approximately $320 um,000 that are because I
074thought the foundation's role was to raise the money, but there's two program two um two RFP requests in the treasures report for funding and we pulled them the last time and so we pulled them the last time to get a little bit more clarification and I don't know if we really got that yet. >> So, I I'll I'll speak a little bit then, but I think the superintendent might want to speak. I'll give you an example of uh of of a specific example of I just happen to know the details of it, which would be the arts um contract. So, uh I believe that the arts contract is a three-year contract and it's a so it doesn't go out for RFP each year. It's it's a three-year deal. I believe that the money that was
075in that contract for this coming fiscal year or school year was reduced just like so many other budgets that we had to cut. I don't know the details of the reduction, but um so that that is a continuing contract that's with uh ABC or now the Cincinnati Public School Foundation and it's it's it's a um service contract, right? We budgeted for it. It's in the budget. the program has been approved approved in our budget and that contract is in a continuation kind of contract and it's less money than we spent last year. So it's um you know at some point that contract will come up for RFP and then that'll be a whole new ball game with that but right now it's a contract and so that's an example of >> ABC there. >> Right.
076Right. And so they're under contract and they're going to live with reduced dollars. The program will be different than it has been in the past. Reduced dollars, different personnel, but it is in the budget and we've approved it. >> So again, this is an area that I think we need to just clarify. The again, if you could bring that back at the next meeting, ABC is a vendor is different than because it's not ABC, it's foundation. So, we need to clarify if we are funding the foundation to do specific vendor contract services or should those things be um since ABC when they were awarded was different than they are now, should they be re um sent out for RFP? So, that's those are the things that we need to clarify. Any other questions? Board member
077Matt. So are you recommending so the example um that you just provided that's in the treasurer's report presently today? Correct. >> It is in there today. >> Okay. Um are you recommending that is it was removed from the treasures report or continue to be tabled? >> I just asked for clarification because it says >> that increase the number of weekly student arts enrichment activities per week by January 7th. So, is that for the full year, this particular contracted amount? And those particular and both of those RFPs end in I'm assuming that they kind of end in January. I just needed a little bit of further clarification. >> Part of this is the uh international jazz festival work, which doesn't come till the latter part of the school year, but this is for the full amount
078that was requested and included in the budget to Mr. Cross's point a little bit earlier. So this does cover that work for the school year. >> So So our RFPs we're paying for fine arts programming with separately from again a little confusing to me. >> Yes. All this is all new to all of us. So yes and and lots to work through. No question. Um and I do remember when we were having the moou conversations um we did keep separate the other pieces resource coordination for example the piece as a vendor with a contract the only piece I believe we discussed was the um athletic director piece at that time. >> Okay. >> So again and I'm I'm happy to um get a little bit more further clarification. I I would still like that, but
079those are things that we need to work on. Absolutely. Last comment. >> Yeah, as I think Mr. Craig mentioned, then this first year is different than the following years. The we need to have them be in this transition, the vendor, for a while while they have to then create the stream of revenue. until they create that stream of revenue, we're going to be paying for it as we have been, whether that's our athletic programs and the boys and girls are on the field and on the court now. Uh so, so this transition, we'll have time to get some more clarification without necessarily holding up >> I think how we're going to spend tonight and whatever. But it this is my dream where there that stream of revenue replaces what the taxpayers have having been doing
080and very frankly uh indeed ABC has been doing that for almost 20 years. So this is just that transition. But I think the more clarity we get the better and the more conversation we have the better. >> And I definitely don't want >> we want to get to the same place. >> I don't want to take anything away from our kids if we've been doing that for sure. So, we'll we're going to continue this discussion and looking forward to the next one. >> Yeah. >> I would also like to say that we have approved we've vetted two members to represent CPS on the ABC Foundation board, Miss Leslie Mooney, Mrs. Leslie Mooney, and Mr. Christopher Mattress. So, I do have a resolution appointing Leslie Mooney and Christopher Mattress to serve as community representatives and voting
081members of the board of directors of the Cincinnati Public School Foundation. I need a first and a second. >> So, move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Do we have two great candidates? >> These are two awesome awesome candidates. And so, we've taken we had some interviews. We've gotten a chance to know them better. I did with meet with Mr. Mattress. I knew Leslie Mooney before and they are super excited. They both said, "Is it official? Is it official?" So once we vote, it will be official. >> Treasure Wagner. >> Mr. Craig. >> Yes. >> Mr. Crosset. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lindy. >> Yes. >> Miss M. >> Yes. >> Vice President Bolton. >> Yes. >> President Moffett. >> Yes. Treasurer Wagner, please begin the update regarding the um status of federal funds for fiscal
082year 26 and the Ohio legislator's actions regarding school funding and district's capacity to tax. So, I'm going to pass the baton to Mr. >> Gustin. Uh oh. >> Who's been valently working on this um with Dan and our grants team to stay on top of it. Mike, >> thank you, Treasurer Wagner. Um, if you go to the next slide, Rob. So, let's start actually with the state budget. Uh, if you remember last time we were here, I think our presentation was the congratulations to Governor Dwine for vetoing 67 items out of the budget. Um, the House did want to override three of those line items. um they were successfully able to override one of them which is the one that prohibits um fix some levies. We'll talk about that in a minute. The other two
083they had to table. Um the other thing that has to happen for the override to take effect is that the Senate has to concur. They have not scheduled a vote yet. So it's out there. The expectation is that the Senate will vote along with the House when they come back into session. Um, the kind of other scary thing about overrides is the House and any override has to start in the House because that's where the budget started. So, but they can actually vote on overriding any veto up until December 31st, 2026. So, if you go to the next slide, Rob, you can see here, I'm not going to read it for you, um, the changes to the law. So, so really what it's doing is it's getting rid of fixed sum levies, substitute levies, uh,
084renewals and increases. So, it's reducing our ability to to go out and ask for new tax dollars. If you go to the next slide, uh, the real impact for us, like I said, it takes a couple things out of our toolkit. So, we can't do fixed sum levies, we can't do substitute levies. So, really looking at uh, fixed rate levies and school district income tax going forward. Um, so impact on this November, as you know, we're going to have the $48 million levy on the ballot in November. We get one chance to pass it. So, so if it doesn't, if it doesn't pass this November, by the time the next election comes up, uh, we'll have to do something different. Likewise, we'll have to make decisions in the future on two other uh, fixed sum
085levies that we have that are in November 29 and November 32. So, one thing that's interesting about um fixed sum levies and I treasure Wagner and I were looking at the data today. Someone sent over the data. We are actually the largest by dollar amount school district in the state for fixed sum levies by about three times. We bring in about three times as much as the next highest. Um and by millillage, I think we're fifth or sixth. So, so we are one of the biggest users of this t of this taxing tool. Um the other long-term change is by getting rid of fixed sum levies, you're going to start to do some of the 20 mil floor stuff because fixed fixed sum levies aren't part of the 20 mil floor, but fixed rates leveies
086are. So as these conversions happen, we'll start to see some impacts to our 20 mil floor. And this will be years down the road, but it's something to note. All right, Rob, next slide. There's also the governor appointed a property tax uh reform working group. So they have a deadline of September 30th to come up with some property tax reform ideas. You can see the members there, a couple of folks who are well known to to this board in this district. So So hopefully they'll come up with some great recommendations for us. >> Treasures in there. >> Yeah, there were no school treasures in there, which is interesting, but but hopefully other folks can represent us well. Um, so next slide, Rob, we'll go on to the um federal grant stuff. So if you keep
087going, just a reminder to everyone, we get about $47 million a year in new federal grants to spend. Um, and generally those are available on July 1st and then we have till September 30th for the next year to spend them. Keep going. No. So, and and you know, as we discussed with the lawsuit, um on June 30th, you know, the US Department of Education came out and said, you know, that they were going to do some additional review and weren't allocating titles two, three, and four funds um to the state. Let's keep going, Rob. So, this is kind of, you know, review from our last meeting that was about $5.2 million that would have been in jeopardy. And if you go to the next slide, here's a new information. So, um, since our last board
088meeting, ODW released a state portion of adult ed money. So, that helped us out a bit. That was about 350 grand. Bless you. On the 16th, um, ODO, high department education workforce extended the grant period by three months. So, it actually allowed us to keep keep kind of operations going. That was a nice thing. Uh on July 18th, the title 4B, which is a 20 21st century grants released to the state, is not something that CPS directly benefits from, but a lot of our partners do. So it definitely helps our kids. On July 21st, we filed the lawsuit against the US Department of Education. And on July 25th, the US Department of Education announced the review had been completed and funds be released to the state. So that was good. And then the breaking news,
089so there's always late breaking news, right? So the breaking news was that we heard from the state on Friday that as of July 30th, the state had received their allocations for these funds. So now we're just waiting for the state to take statewide allocations, divide those amongst the districts and give us our numbers. Other thing that is nice is the state is going to take what's called the substantially approved date, which is our official first date to start spending, and they're going to move it back to July 1st. So all of those are very good pieces of news for us. So couple other oh couple other things here. Um just another slide just to kind of show you what the grant extension does. It just gives us an extra three months to spend the money
090or carryover. And then I think the final slide in here, keep going. One more final slide here is just talking about going into the future. So we still anticipate um in the next fiscal year, you know, elimination of title three, some sort of combination and block grant of title four. And I think it's also important to to point out as I think as I think we have that strategically uh we've been trying to reduce t reduce grant spending carryover year over year, you know, to avoid the the the sweeps the nasty word of sweeps. So, you know, as you spend your carryover, you just have to remember you don't have it for future years. >> Thanks so much. Um, almost treasure. Um, can you go back just a couple slides for a second to this
091one? Yeah. Yes. Um, you said the good news is that the uh Trump Fance administration has decided to follow the law and they're going to send the money that the law says they have to send to Columbus and that's good and that we're now waiting for the state to send the allocations out to the districts. Am I right that those those are by formula? Like this is not an opportunity for the state to mess with this and send us a different amount of money like this is in the federal law that was passed. Um it's it's going to be a fixed amount based on how that law is written. >> This is very much a formulaic thing. Yes. >> Great. So like these will be the numbers. It's not we're not waiting or plus or
092minus a negligible amount. >> Yeah. We we always budget right around 95% a prior year. That's always worked well for us. Um it does fluctuate based on your number of students versus the state's number of students and those sort of things. But >> 95% is great. Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. I'm sorry, Bo. President forgot our duties here. Just relaxing. >> I was zoning. >> Um, so so two things. One, and I think you hit it uh pretty right on the head for me with regards to the potential implications of moving away from fixed sum levies. And I think this is something that we as a board have to really be thinking about because it may result in us also needing to readress how we communicate and how we think about our levies
093in the future as we transition because if we are going to a the same amount will get you actually less, right? As we kind of move from a fixed sum into a fixed rate, right? So like in theory you would get put the same amount of money on the ticket, right? looks the same other than changing the name of it, but it in fact affects us. So, we would get a less potentially less revenue from those dollars. >> Yeah. I mean, part of the issue is we are at the 20 mil floor and so depending on how that changes that's another that's another complete you thing we have to deal with. But you may have to ask for more millage to get above the floor because other other older levies will adjust down. >> And
094I think this is something that we will have to find a a great way to communicate to the public because what they're going to hear is you're asking for more money when in fact you're actually getting the same amount if not some cases less. Right. Um, so that's that's something for us as a board to be thinking about and how we communicate and talk and and certainly still advocating with our uh with folks in the Senate to to ensure that you know maybe there's a possibility they don't pass it. Um, but the other part to that is they could wait to pass it to much later and that potentially puts you in a position where it would still go back to uh it depending on when they would pass a veto could go back in
095period of time. So like if we made decisions for next year in that process we could be in the middle of doing something next year and that would be affected by something that could get overturned at any point during that process, right? Um so like if for instance if we said we wanted to go and grab new money next year and in the midst of that they did the veto then or overturn the veto then that again could have an implication on what that looks like. And I think this is just something it's a small it what what otherwise looks like a small change can have such a dramatic effect on how a district uh brings in revenue. The other thing that I I think is worth noting is the idea or at least the
096proposal that's being pushed out right now in the federal government with regards to title two and title 4 and this idea of block granting which we all know means cutting u because invariably you're going to give less money and then ask people to fight over it in some type of you know hunger game style battle for resources that are absolutely needed. Um, the logic though that's being offered for getting rid of title three is that it can be incorporated into title one. And I think this is a really fallacy of arguments to this idea that you can still support students because we're going to give you title one dollars still, right? So you just move those things into title one. And like again, we don't get a huge amount, but like maybe speak just a
097really briefly on what the differences that we use those resources for. that makes it not as simple as we'll just put it under title one and you'll be fine. Yeah, that's I mean that's a great question and I will tell you and luckily luckily we had to do it but um Nan Hagen who's our manager of state and federal grants um Lisa Bryant who's our budget and county manager and I we spent the better part of a week working through contingency plans and and one of the parts of that was if these funds go away how much of those things can be moved to title one and and it's not a 100% move for sure yes there there are some overlap between the funds but there are some things that certainly aren't uh one of
098one of the biggest not to get too far in the weeds but one of the biggest challenges of title one is it is a school-based allocation. So so once we get our district allocation from the state we have some very specific ways we have to allocate that for schools and it can only be used at title one schools. So that all so right there that takes five or six schools off the list that can't get the can't access those funds at all. And then you have to look at the number of kids, the percentage of kids that are economically disadvantaged. And it c it would create some really really weird numbers. You would find schools that have huge amounts of money they can't spend and then schools that still don't have enough just because the
099population is not there. The overall population is not there even though the population served by title three would be. So, so these aren't these grants aren't mix and match, you know, they're all they're all things that help. And then the final thing that you have to say is moving it to title one just means you're moving something else out of title one. So, so you're saying so saying yes to these things in title one means you're saying no to some other program that could be equally or more beneficial to the students we need to serve. >> Yeah. And then the last thing I will say and I I I will echo some comments I overheard being made here. There's only one treasurer even listed on the lists of folks who are going to be working
100on uh this tax reform group. she's a county treasurer. >> So, I just think it's worth noting that uh you know, again, there's some folks who we know who've been supporters who have been advocates for things here, but it these things are monetary policy. This is really talking about how do these little changes here and there change how much people pay for taxes, how we collect taxes, the purpose of how we use taxes. And we might want to have folks who actually spend time all day long working in finance, who might actually be able to understand these dollars and have dealt with these dollars on a regular basis, being a part of committees like this more so than just political figures. But again, I will take the folks we have and hopefully they'll come up
101with something that will not gut how we fund public education. Uh but I just again I it's just worth noting that we have very little of folks. We have an abundance of folks who are political figures more so than we have folks who do the day-to-day work with the finances that are that are the result of these taxes. And so, um, it would be great if we had it reversed. That's all I'll say. >> So, I will say to that, um, Commission Hamilton County Commissioner Denise Dhouse is listed here and she's coming to our legislative lunch on the 18th. So board members, we can bombard her then about the benefits and the the disadvantages to CPS, but she's we're also trying to get her to come to these joint meetings, too. We were trying before
102that before she was there. But to your point, how do you make decisions about educators, education without educators at the table? So it does not surprise me that they're making financial decisions about districts without financial people at the table. Vice President Bolton, >> I do think it was a a a good political stroke on the part of the governor to create this committee because I think it dampened the fires uh in the legislature for a little bit anyway. Give everybody some time. I have I have confidence in uh in the folks that are coming out of our community uh the commissioner and certainly uh Mr. sites who a former board member of Cincinnati public schools and also is a graduate of Cincinnati public uh schools. I think he is a West High boy if I
103recall. So uh there's some issue there I think to be excited about. We have to pass the $ 48 million one. Uh we all know and we've been telling people been telling the public it's obvious that we need more money as early as next year that we will probably be going back. I mean that's it's not going to be a surprise. Uh and we've talked a lot about it being about facilities and the reality is a lot of it's going to have to be about operations. What kind of if if we don't have the emergency type or whatever, what are the options that would be open to us in 26? As I look at two people, it looks me like I'm playing a tennis game here, watching a tennis game. What what kind of what
104kind of tax uh requests would we be able to make >> in 26? >> I mean, based on based on the law, there's two choices. We can either do a fixed rate levy >> um for an fixed state levy and then we have to decide the millillage um or we can look at a school district income tax. We could also do um a permanent improvement levy just for the facilities part of it which which that's a that's a fixed rate as well. >> So you repeat those three for my benefit. >> Sure. So we so we could do a fixed rate levy um for operations and actually permanent improvements. You could do both. You could do a permanent improvement levy or you could do a school district income tax. >> Thank you. That helps. Appreciate
105it. >> Any other questions? Board members. Board member Matt. Uh board member Bolson pretty much asked my question. Um, but also I guess to that point, so what other alternative strategies outside of the levies would we be able to do to generate revenue for the district? So since we we have those restrictions um and we only have those particular type of levies, are there other alternatives in addition to what those options may be that we would possibly be able to um generate revenue? >> Um I mean your levies are going to be your biggest your biggest chunk of revenue. Obviously state funding is kind of formulaic and set. So, so you know there I mean you know obviously in increasing our enrollment helps our state revenue you know making sure we're coding things other things
106we can do uh are you know like we can there's so you can make some money on building rentals you can make some money on things like that but there's not there aren't significant you know revenue streams outside of outside of the tax levies >> and I'm sure that's by design as well. Any other any other comments or questions? That's the nicest thing I could say. Board member Craig, >> I I think maybe a a thought process also onto the point that uh board member Matt was kind of asking questions about is there are very limited ways in which districts are funded for any substantial portion of their budgets. And so these changes at the state level are not just hitting us, they're also hitting a lot of the other uh districts in ways that
107may not necessarily be the understood responses. And so I think this is one of the reasons why us being one of the larger districts, we have to figure out ways to lead those conversations because I I know when we were talking about this before, suburban districts were getting hit, rural districts are getting hit in ways that they had not necessarily been hit by past changes, right? Like in the ways some folks think about how they pay for certain things in their district. are much more on the cusp of, you know, like one failed levy like we see in some of the districts around us means, you know, you got no buses, right? Like one failed levy means a building closes and all the teachers are removed from that. Whereas we have a little bit of
108more flexibility to then strive again, not much based on the way we're now looking at with some of these different things. So I just think it it really does push people to the edge in public funding of education. And that means when those students no longer go to public school, there ain't going to be a bunch of charter schools and private schools accepting those students, they're going to get shipped out of their district. They're going to get moved further away. That's the real problem with some of this stuff is that that the unintended con consequences are going to hit places like the rural districts in a larger way. And I would love for us to be having a better having more of that push or that argument for those areas as well to support the
109same stuff that we're arguing for in the public school districts. Um because I do think to your point, if you can only use two two or three ways to raise revenue, your community eventually at some point is going to say enough is enough. And so, uh I just I think it goes to why we play such an important role in the larger conversation, especially with some of our rural and suburban partners. >> Thank you, Superintendent Murphy. Please update the board about school opening challenges, strategies in enrollment, staffing, transportation, and security. Yes, ma'am. So, uh, Rob, on the school opening deck, if we can flip to page nine, I'll start with enrollment, and then we'll also have, um, Chief Burkhart come to talk about transportation and Miss Indilacio to talk about staffing. And then we have
110a piece from the deputy on uh our security. Uh where we are with enrollment. Um we feel like we're in a really good place. Uh throughout the summer we have had some popups uh where we've been able to talk about Cincinnati public schools with the community and it has resulted in some uh enrollments. You know that we have transitioned to using our centralized enrollment and so the front of the building has been very busy. uh the last several days, but they are fully staffed in that office. And so, while they are doing a little bit of training with the new staff, uh we have also been able to take advantage of educating our families around the corridor model, for example, during this transition to um centralized enrollment. And so on the next slide, you'll see
111where we are in terms of enrollment. And this was probably as of last Wednesday. Uh Jeremy Galahghue did inform me uh there is an increase of about 350 just since last Wednesday. Uh we feel really good about where we are. Grades 1 through 12. As you can see, our enrollment is slightly higher than the projection in all of those grade levels, but where we are a little lower is preschool and kindergarten, which I understand is pretty typical uh at this time of year. We'll continue with the presentation with uh Miss Indillesio giving an update about staffing. >> Good evening. So, in terms of staffing um as you are well aware um we had a riff this summer and we had some surplusing um related to the budget um um shortfall. And so what we did
112um was do a lot of work that was very much um tied to personalized one-on-one communications with individual staff members who were affected. Um we worked right alongside with CF CFT with all of that work. So in no case and I want to really thank CTF for their work in collaborating with us in that difficult work but we got it done. Um most all of our rift teachers have been offered now positions in their lensure area. So the first thing that we did is we ripped them then we offered them jobs in the reverse order etc. We met with CTF and then offered them a position outside of the area but since then we've had um a number of openings that have allowed us to get them back into their lensure area. So we're very
113excited about that to be starting the year with fewer um subs and folks that are not licensed in their areas. We continue to have another challenge. We continue to have the shortage of traditionally hard to staff positions and we this year have some specialty positions that are were shortened. Um so if you know someone interested in um teaching Korean or Arabic, we have position openings and those are a little bit tougher to fill of course. Um we have the when I say traditionally hard to staff, we are talking about things like mathematics, high school science, um intervention specialists in those areas. And so we continue to recruit. We're looking at our pipeline programs carefully. So, we are very proud to say that we had 13 new teachers graduate from UC's Shine program with a master's
114degree in special education and we were able to and there are employees that were pairs that went through the pipeline and we've hired all of them back. So, that's even fewer people that we need to hire um externally or to use subs for because now we have our own people that are licensed teachers. So, really nice to see those pipelines working. Um, we've had some clerical staffing shortages. Um, we of course have to follow the civil follow the civil service commission rules. Um, offering tests first. We're working very closely with CFO. They've been wonderful. Um, Miss Fenny has been great in working with us and thinking about and being creative about how to get positions to schools first so that they really will be able to start school feeling feeling fully staffed. In the event
115that they're not, we have clerical resource team that can train any new employees and we have a clerical sub team that will be deployed to those schools where there are vacancies. And then as we've talked about earlier in the summer, there are pair professional shortages on par with what we've seen in the past. And as we stated, we prioritized filling those compliance pair professionals first. to those that are in units that are serving one-on- ones that are in um that are ESL, those kinds of positions we prioritized. Um and so not until those positions are filled are we having um uh folks fill any new vacancies in the overloads. So that's that plan seems to be working out, albeit we are still struggling to get enough pair of professionals um as we usually are. And
116so if anyone again we're we're still happy to take um applications and leads for anyone who is interested in pair of pros. Our welcome back fair on um Saturday yielded a few people to add to our parapro rank. So that was exciting um for us as well. The next slide kind of shows where we are in terms of staffing data. Again this is last week's data. So things change very quickly. I know we've done a ton of hiring today. Um and so our K3 teachers were down one vacancy. who really probably have filled that by now because we've reached out to the Rift teachers and then we've gotten some new folks in. Um, and you can see the rest of the day there that is not they're not surprising numbers. Um, they are a little
117lower um than we've seen in the past, but then we would expect that because we also lowered the number of teachers we had overall a little bit. Um and we are going to be paying very close attention to those seventh eighth grade um buildings because those have some vacancies in them and we want to make sure that there are new junior highs that we've been focusing on um hiring for middle schools and junior highs um have a good shot of um being very successful in in this exciting endeavor. So we're very excited about all of that. And then lastly, you can see that that data related to pair pros in that we still have quite a few vacancies in that area that we continue to work on and hire um every day. There is a
118link there to all schools data. So if you want to drill down by school, that is available for you. Um thank you. >> Good evening board. Um I'll be talking to you about security. we are in a better place than we've been in a while. Um, always we want to make sure that all of our schools are safe, that we've trained all of our security and that they're all placed in the appropriate place. We make sure that they've been trained um as you can see up here with all of the training that we provide to them so that we can ensure that they are um prepared and ready to deal with our young people. So, here's our security by the numbers. See, high school we have 99. And I won't read the chart to you,
119but we have about um we have about 15 vacancies. We are interviewing daily um and really trying to push those people through to make sure they get what they need. Normally our problem is um when we do our background checks, if they don't come back quickly, then we knew there's a problem and we need to probably move on to the next person. But as you can tell, normally um we um make ensure we we try to make sure that we look at the law, how the capacity of the building. Um we look at how many doors, how many entrances they have. We look at the discipline in that building. We also look at if they have a health um healthc care center there where there are people that are coming outside of the community into
120the building. That's why you see some schools have more than the others because we want to ensure that that that can be done. Um, you also have the positions by school and a link up there if you would like to see that. But we are working very hard to ensure that we have enough security so that our school that our students feel safe when they come into a building. We know that is a big piece of the work is feeling safe. >> Good evening. everybody's favorite uh subject, transportation. Happy to uh talk a little bit about the challenges uh going into this year. We've had eight additional uh non-public uh and charter schools added to our roster in late June. Um and that goes with House Bill 110. House Bill 110 says that uh when
121a non-charter or public school gives us information for the start of school year um we are required to make every effort to transport those students on the first day of school. So um also with House Bill 110 it also says that we uh have the window of dropping them off no more than a half hour before the start of the school day and no uh we have to pick them up no quicker or I'm sorry no longer than 30 minutes after the school day is over. So, as we had our transportation plan already set and in place, uh we've added those those six or I'm sorry, those eight schools to our um docket. And we have all the students as of right now, all the students in our um enrollment are all routed as of
122August 1st. And that has not happened in quite a long time. So, uh kudos to the transportation team for for making that happen. Uh and then finally, the other challenge is the transportation centers. We have a a meeting with all the partners, meaning the city of Cincinnati, uh Metro, CPS, and uh Iris Roley and her team. Uh we're having a meeting next Wednesday in relation to how do we continuously make the transit centers safe and feel safe. Um some of our strategies throughout this entire plan was uh working with communications to develop a uh outward and in inward-f facing communications plan. Obviously a lot of collaboration with Metro uh having a lot of collaboration with those middle school and those seventh and eighth grade schools that will be moving to Metro and making sure that
123all those questions are answered. making sure that we are also looping in uh customer care, JFS, Project Connect, and communications and marketing through all of those different avenues to make sure that everyone knows what the plan is and and what they can expect when school starts on the 20th. Uh we've had regular meetings with the yellow bus vendors as well as our white fleet. And the white fleet are those um vans and short buses that um are specialty transportation for all of our schools. So, we've had those meetings as well. Um, as well as making sure that we have a presence at all the popup enrollment sites that we've had over the summer. And then obviously, uh, having the transportation at the middle school principal meetings and any other middle school or junior high school
124meetings that happen. We want to make sure that we're we have a presence there, not only for us, but with Metro so that parents can get their questions answered. Just a slight note on the security and transportation. We will have a plan to have security at the transit centers at least uh through August start in the end of September. >> Great. Um I have a question. Can you go back one slide, Rob? with regard to um when when did the transportation director present at the middle school principal meetings or has that happened or is that going to happen? >> Yes, that has already happened when the um when there were uh the middle school principal meetings that happened I don't know June. Thank you. um and they got together. We um listened to some of
125the concerns, made sure that we were making sure that those folks on the front lines had the information about what middle schools would look like and what that transportation partnership would look like. >> Is there a plan to continue that for August? Because things change from month to month. So presentation in June looks different after students can actually access the metro information with the regular timing of the routes etc. >> Yeah. So we have a partnership with Metro that at every open house that we are having across the district regardless of um the grade level obviously 7 through 12 that we have a presence from both CPS and Metro at each one of those to be able to answer questions. We also are developing um frequently asked questions. We have Tik Tok videos. We have
126an extensive communication plan to make sure that there's multiple avenues where folks can get their questions answered. >> That would be great and I'm I'm looking forward to getting that information as well. Another question. We've received an exorbitant amount of contact as a board and I've seen them reply all to the board members around Hide Park and I know that you made some adjustments about a a Hide Park stop to the rec center. I guess the rec center at Hide Park. Can you talk about that? Because I've I've been very um diligent in letting parents know we don't hire the rec center staff because they've complained about the um the limited number of spots, but they also have complained about the availability of a stop being added and I think you addressed that and I
127wanted to see if you would talk about that a little bit. >> Yeah, that's a great question. So we look at routes every year obviously and our number of students going to every or different locations that are that are not home to school for example Ebisen flows so I believe that that was a stop in previous years um I don't know what the history has been for that specific stop but it was taken off I'm assuming for non-rership um so the request was made we looked at it was already a stop and so we added it back in we will continuously look and see if there are a number of students who are continuously riding. If that drops off, we might have to look at that again. But obviously, we want to make sure that
128at every step along the way that we're providing the service uh through a deviated stop or adding or subtracting a stop as needed. Um, and we've done that for not only Hide Park, but there's been a couple of others that we've looked at very diligently. The answer isn't always yes. It depends on if we have a route going, you know, past that uh location or to that location as well as how many students are actually riding it. >> And my last question is around um an an additional significant increase in communication around um siblings and Spencer. And um I I asked the superintendent to kind of expand on this a little bit. So, we've got a scenario where your sibling is in the third or fourth grade, but you your other their their other sibling
129is seventh or eighth grade. So, what remedy or what is this what what is the what do we tell the parents with that scenario where you one is scheduled to ride the metro, the other is scheduled to ride the yellow? >> Yeah. So when we um when the request was made to look at siblings riding um yellow bus with with their um sibling counterpart, we did a uh data search across, you know, all of those uh schools that would be affected. We found there were over 600 and I don't know what the exact numbers, somewhere between six and 700 students that uh have siblings that ride. If we were to add those students back onto Yellow Bus, most of the savings that we thought that we would get by moving seventh and eighth graders to
130Yellow Bus would be non-existent. So, we would be going back and um adding that cost back into our budget. Any other questions? >> Vice President Bolton. >> Yeah. Um, do we know uh how many seventh and eighth graders and what percentage of our seventh and eighth graders have opted to uh go metro, therefore need the card? Meaning, I mean, how many of our seventh and eighth graders are going to go metro? >> Right now, >> as you've scheduled all of them, I got that. Okay. Do we have any indication as to how many actually what percentage it really will be? >> No. What what we'll do is we will print cards for all of them, right? >> That will be handed out during the orientation andor the first day of school if they're not at
131orientation. During that first two weeks, we'll then know uh and we'll be able to get clicks every single day from Metro to tell us what the wrership is going to be. So we'll know pretty early in the school year how many parents have made other arrangements. >> Correct. >> Or found other ways. Okay. And then my my other question just on a kind of on a percentage when you talk in terms of the 9 through 12s or better yet 9 through 11 because who knows when by 12th grade how they're getting there. Uh but uh what's usually the percentage that opt for metro? Do we have any idea >> how many >> in the upper grades 9 through 12 >> how many opt through metro versus driving themselves or some other >> whatever other method.
132Yeah. >> Yeah. I I have the raw numbers. I'd have to to do those percentages. Okay. I can get that for you. >> If you could look at that I just some sort of predictability. there is some media interest in continuing this ongoing transportation question and and that about confusion and about seventh and eighth grade families and what have you. Okay, >> it'd be good for us to have as many numbers as possible for that particular cohort. And if they're in sixth grade, they're on yellow bus. >> Correct. >> And anything below that. >> Yes. >> Because now there's some confusion about that as well. No, >> sixth grade and below are on yellow bus >> unless they have an IEP and some other transportation which they would be on white fleet or some other
133mode of transportation that we have. And can we ask some about not transportation but about the paras u on the paras I know that when we did the budget uh before uh this I mean this budget there was some organiz some issue about reorganizing paras um we were finding a more efficient way to do that or was it something that CTF had suggested or are we uh I'm hitting you cold on that one. We were working on I think Julia mentioned it too. Oh, hi Julia. But we did talk about prioritizing the compliance. Yes. Parapros. >> Exactly. Right. So I I think what you're referring to is we had um spoken about the different roles that paras play >> um in the school in that um we worked on thinking about if you have vac
134paras if they have a job with us that's great we love them. and we want them to keep their jobs. But if there was a vacancy, how do you prioritize the newest pairs that are coming in into the jobs that we most need to fill that are compliance-based, right? That are that are fulfilling an IEP need. Um, for instance, and so that was that's the reshuffleling that we talked about. It wasn't really reshuffleling. We're not moving anybody. We didn't force anybody into a different job. um we posted positions that are open as we always do, but then when it came to um new positions or new vacancies, we talked um to principles about the importance that we're only going to um post compliance vacancies first to get folks into those positions that we have to
135have um by because of um statute or or regulations >> because I think we were trying to realize uh not just improved service but realize some savings as well and to and to cope with the fact that we were going to have vacancies. And so you think it was the prioritization piece that was >> so part of it is that um and and Mike and Jen could certainly address that um negative vacancies pieces is that we um consider a a position not filled obviously vacant. The treasur's office looks at that, and I don't want to speak for you, but as a negative vacancy or a negative contingency that they budget against. And what we've seen is as we've tried to get the budget tighter and tighter so that we don't have a ton of vacancies,
136that negative contingency decreased. What we were trying to do with Perez really is if we were going to have vacancies, let's not have them in the areas where we're going to have to call um a third party vendor to come in and fill those because if you have an overload pair, if I'm a sixth grade teacher and I've got 32 kids in my room and I have an overload pair and the overload pair doesn't show up, we don't have subs and we don't call um we don't call an agency for that. If I am a one-on-one and this kiddo needs to have their parah there and the parah doesn't show up, then we have to call an agency and call someone in. And so for us, the need to meet those IEP goals and and
137demands is is critical um for the well-being of that child and for their educational experience. And so it was important for us to prioritize that work. It's all important, don't get me wrong. It's all important, but we are not we are not calling agencies to fill overload paras as we are with um DSS. >> Thank Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> One for the deputy. I could real and you don't need to come back down, but the staffing seems good. And it's it's do we have the all the equipment and the technology and the cameras and the I don't know all the stuff that the paraphernalia that goes with providing security at each of these buildings. >> Everything's been ordered and that's coming in. It's being placed in the building. make sure we have all of
138the walk through I mean all the things needed to make sure that they're safe at the junior high school we'll have all that and any added things that we have we have ordered those things >> great and we have the kind of the communication system set up I know it's actually pretty cool where we got the radios and whatever else to communicate throughout the building even if you're not even in the building. >> Um, they definitely love that feature. >> Okay. >> And if we need to do those things, the resource team has went out and checked everything to see whatever we needed. But, um, I will have an update on whether all have come in and whe >> Thank you very much, >> member Craig. Um so two things really quick. Um one is
139with regards to enrollment and I know we have numbers for total enrollment but I do think one of the challenges and again this is something we were starting to see a little bit of and that's why some folks have been working hard at is is that you may have one school that has an overload of folks in a particular grade level and another school who's still trying to get people in at a particular grade level. And so I just think it also may be helpful in the future conversations, not just the total number of enrollment but maybe a little bit of a breakdown in schools. Um the other thing in enrollment actually uh really quickly is also the PK the uh PK and kindergarten. And I think this may be something that we work a
140little bit better with Preschool Promise and some of the other vendors around is establishing more dedicated pipeline work to grow the number of kindergarten and also the folks who are coming in kindergarten ready because I think we have a great story about how they are more kindergarten ready. We had a wonderful video we presented uh a year ago that talked about all the great things that preschool promise was doing to and then the efforts that you know our funds have been generating quality educational resources for the students but if they don't make it to our door you know there's an argument to be made that that's a lost opportunity um for staffing and I think I think it's really helpful to see how we're getting very much online with how we're thinking about getting uh
141positions filled and these type of things. I do think maybe one of the conversations we can have as a next fiscal year, next school year conversation is what are the needed resources and needed staffing uh skills in each building because I do think that's the other part of it is that we've never really touched to what is a person what what all of the things we need to have done in a building and who does those who does that work right and I think some ways we've talked about this in in a community that was one of the difficulties and doing school audits is because you would say okay whose task is this and in each building it might be somebody else's you know it might be someone different's task or who is charged with
142doing why and it could be no one has that responsibility because we've just never refilled a role and dedicated other people to do other things right and so I think it just be helpful to maybe do some type of audit in that sense not necessarily of a position audit but like a what is needed in each building what are the jobs and the tasks that are needed, right? We know we need teachers. We know we need paras. We know we need food service workers. We know we need security, but like how much of that is dedicated to only this much of it is needed, that much is needed. And that would be really helpful as we rethink future budgets because again, as we were just talking about, it's not going to get easier. It's not
143only going to get tighter and we don't want to lose out on the things that we're doing for our children to be successful, but we also maybe really need to rethink how some of those are offered. And I applied I give one more uh thought to all of this which is I do think we need to re at a at a much later date again also think about transportation in a way of also recognizing some of the changes that we've made as a district is going to also have a pro have the effect of increasing some of our transportation costs. And so looking at that for this year is another thing that we can certainly look at as a way to potentially rethink maybe certain things that we made as far as changes. Um has
144it had a a uh certainly a beneficial aspect in some ways of increasing enrollment in one building, but maybe we're also increasing cost when it comes to transport transporting students or further the distance or moving students out of the one mile or what I think we are one and a quarter mile radius or whatever that we don't provide transportation for. Um, and I recognize that because we have certain I've seen individual examples of this where a student could go to the school right next door to them, but that's not their neighborhood school. And we did a lot of effort to change that in College Hill and that that part, but I think we also created a little bit of it in other areas. And so I think that's just something for us to pay attention
145to and examine as we go forward. >> Member Matt. >> Uh, yes. I want to say first that uh board member Craig, you articulated my thoughts about the enrollment um precisely. So, thank you for that. I do have another question about enrollment as we're looking at 9th grade. There is a decline there and I I don't know if this is pretty typical to what we see. Um but if there's trend data to kind of reflect um what happens with nth grade, obviously we want to make sure that we're seeing retention with our students, especially as they're metriculated into high school. And so, um, just wanting to maybe have follow-up information about that. And also just wanting to inquire, do we have, um, conversations with our families or how do we engage our families to, um,
146understand their decisions about, um, retention within the district? Um, and how we can further maybe um, you know, capitalize on that so that we are able to retain our students. And obviously we know that that helps with our revenue stream, right? So, um just maybe providing more clarity around that. And again, do we have an engagement plan um with our families where we talk about enrollment or have those in-depth conversations with families? >> We'll put something together and make sure. I think engagement is coming up in a meeting or so. >> The last meeting. >> Okay. All right. Um and then for Chief Birkhart, you spoke about um students are able to receive their metro pass on the day of orientation or the first day of school. Is there opportunity before the first day of
147school to receive that orientation card? So maybe if it's at the school, families can go and pick it up because obviously they would probably have to pay or find other means of transportation if they're um they don't have their car. >> Yeah. So the the um schools will have their cards. Um I think uh some of them are being delivered right now. Um so it's a matter of um I don't want to speak on behalf of all the schools standing up here because the second that I do that I will have 67 emails tomorrow morning but uh yes they should be able to go to the school and pick up the card. >> Okay, perfect. And then last question around transportation. Do families I know that some families have been trying to reach out to
148maybe change their uh child's transportation options. So, say they were a car rider, a walker, and they need bus transportation. Now, do they need to contact the district uh central office or can they make those changes uh at their school site? >> Um they can either contact the centralized enrollment or the school. Um centralized enrollment is probably the easiest, quickest way um to do that. >> Okay. And typically how long does it take for them to receive you know information communicating their their transportation changes? >> So um a garden variety i.e. they aren't moving. For example, if they move there's also a um they have to verify the address. So there's that piece of it which typically takes a day or two. Um but when we do the transportation we will do a weekly reroute.
149So typically if um the information is in by Tuesday um for the following Monday is when that when that rolls over. We are trying for the beginning of school like we do every year to try to do that almost in real time. And I'll say that a couple times almost in real time. So, if you register your student, you know, on Tuesday and school starts on Wednesday, we're we're not able to turn around that quickly, but we're doing everything in our effort to get those students, you know, onto a bus as quick as possible. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> Don't leave. I have a question, a couple questions for you, and you may not be able to answer them now, but um perhaps by the beginning of school or
150by the our student achievement committee of the whole, you can. I'm very interested to see how many siblings and I know this that you're probably like she's beating a dead horse, but >> there are siblings that live in the same home and have a younger sibling and then another sibling. So, the stop is already established for the younger sibling. And I remember in the past we did something like we I don't I don't remember if we allowed the one to go to the metro or if we allowed the metro to go to I don't remember but we had a significant number of families that had that they typically were at a specific school but but it was significant meaning like over 10 or 15 a couple years ago. So can you give me some data
151and I know you don't have that part now but >> No, we we do. I think it's I think there was a board request and I believe that we added that to the board request. So I I don't know if it has all the data you're looking for but there is some data broken out by school on each one of the siblings. I'm interested in the school because we've been contacted by a specific school which I won't say but um and we've received 10 15 emails and so I'm wondering is there a cost savings loss if the bus is already going there so you're just adding a student or is it per is the cost per student or is the the cost per that bus going out? >> Yeah. So that's that's the the issue
152that we wrestle with a lot because adding one student obviously in in one scenario doesn't increase our cost at all of course because let's assume that there's room on that bus for that one student going from point A to point B. But we're talking about over 600 students. If we look at our average bus capacity um rate right now we're looking about 35 students per bus. So, wait a minute. You're saying 600 students have a sibling and they're living in the same address going to the same space, but we're putting one on a metro >> and one on a yellow bus. >> Correct. >> 600 students for the entire district. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. And so if we were to do that for all of those 600, we would just add back that
153savings. Not saying that we can't do it, >> but it would just add back that savings because we're now increasing the number of buses on the road. So, what we're trying to do is when we took those students off of our roster to route, now we're able to be um a little bit more flexible. We're able to capture a larger number of students in a larger uh geographic area and get those students to the school, which also gives us the ability to do that with less number of buses. So when you consider that for every bus that's on the road, for example, if you consider that to be roughly, and this is this is just kind of a a food for thought, is that each bus cost us roughly $100,000. So for every bus we
154add on to our route, for example, the eight schools that came up and and we can't pair those with any other schools, that's an additional $800,000 that we're adding to our budget literally overnight. So we're always doing working with those complexities of how do we transport all the students within Cincinnati to the schools that they want to go to with the least number of buses possible. >> Okay, thank you. I'm still very interested in the data. Okay. By school. That'd be great. >> And and if the report doesn't have what you what you're looking for, we're happy to run some other uh analysis for you. >> Thank you. My my my additional question which um board member Craig started with was the enrollment by school. I'm very interested in the enrollment by schools, specifically the
155middle schools and the engagement plan for those. We did not engage those middle schools adequately last year and um I want to see what the enrollment numbers are because right now we're just looking at seventh graders, eighth graders or sixth, seventh and eighth graders. Um but I'm very curious to see how full our middle schools are and um by school and by corridor um and then uh those costs there as well. So looking forward to that. And then also I'm very interested to see the engagement plan if we're going to be talking to the parents around transportation and that's planned out. Um what are the openhouse dates and let's list that as well so that we can get that information um very very populated so that parents know what that is. Um the last thing
156that I'm interested in, but I'll make it an assignment um around um third when when are we seeing that drop off to board member Map's point around the third grade, but I'm interested in those preschoolers that started three years ago or kindergarteners that started what what is their um pro third grade proficiency? So, did did preschool help them? Does does kindergarten help them? Like what what are we looking at the data and taking it off the page? So, okay. Ben Lindy, >> thank you very much. Um, I really appreciate the entire presentation is a incredibly busy time of year. Um, I feel like folks, um, don't get much of a chance to take a breath over the summer with the fact that less than a month ago, we were finishing this budget and schools are
157opening their doors very, very soon. So, I want to start by saying thank you. Um, it's exciting to see the staffing coming along, exciting to see transportation in a good place. Um, as a dad, I'm looking forward to the beginning of the school year. Um, for lots of reasons. Um, uh, and self-interested in otherwise. Um, but but excited and and grateful for all the work you all are doing. Um, I have three questions I wanted to ask about. Um, the first one, uh, I wanted to return to a topic I raised during the budget, which is, as classrooms are starting back up again, how are we as a district supporting educators in the use of the curriculum that we've purchased? Uh I really appreciate what the superintendent recommended and what our board passed in the
158budget. Um and so my first question was in this work to use the uh instructional coaches, the district-wide mentors, and the lead teachers to support educators on curriculum implementation. Um what's been done so far? What's going to be coming up in the next four to six weeks? Um could we just hear a little bit about where that work is? >> Yes. So, we were super pleased uh about the conversations we had during negotiations and uh Julia can talk a little bit about how we're going to pivot with how we have traditionally used our district-wide mentors into this role. And then the other thing I would want you to know is we do have an RFP out right now for professional development in this area for both teachers and administrators. And I believe that window closes
159on the 12th of August. Well, Julie, will you share conversations about this mentors? >> Absolutely. Um, first of all, um, today was the first day of, um, device pickup for new teachers. And so, it was really an exciting day at Woodward this morning because we got to see and meet some of our newest educators and that will happen all week. And this Thursday will be the day dedicated to curriculum for new teachers. So those teachers that are newest to us will learn will spend all day on Thursday learning about how to access the curriculum using their devices, how how to get into it, how where are all those materials found and then on Friday they'll work with um the positive school culture and how is it that they engage with the curriculum and the culture
160using with the help of the districtwide mentors. So we've got some exciting stuff coming up for the newest teachers. Um with respect to district-wide mentors, I I just want to really give them a shout out. They're some of our finest instructors um in the district. And so we're really pleased about that. And so I took some time um this last week and met with Emily Campbell and she and I sort of put our brains together thinking through what is instruction from an instructional coach look like versus instruction from a district-wide mentor look like and how do we overlap those and make sure that they're both engaged and using the our curriculum as a jumping off point. So the first thing we said is what we need to make sure that the district mentors have access
161and know exactly because sometimes they don't know what their case load is, right? So they they may be they may have taught um nth grade science for a long time, but now they're going to get work with a seventh grade science teacher and so they haven't accessed that that part of the curriculum as often. So, what we're going to do is work with the um districtwide mentors um later in August, just a few just in about two weeks and a and Emily is going to speak with them and give them a needs assessment um for them to say, "Here's some areas I don't feel as equipped that I don't know as much about and these are people that are on my case load, so I really want to know more about this." And then she
162will come through with instruction with the instructional coaches and work with the district mentors on the areas that they know that they need support in. So that as ever as they are helping teachers as the instructional coaches do, they will they will use the curriculum as their jumping off point. So if a teacher is having trouble, for instance, maybe a district-wide mentor watches them um teach and they see that oh the next instru the next the next lesson really needs to have more studentto student engagement. Instead of just coming up with an example for how to do that, we can say look let's look at the curriculum and see what your next lesson is and how in fact could we include more studentto student engagement in that lesson. So really using that curriculum as a
163foundational piece for how we support teachers makes a lot of sense to us and we just want to make sure the DWMs are equipped to do that. They are phenomenal with instructional strategies. I have no doubt. I just know that the breadth of what they need to know because the case load there only nine of them and if they're supporting all new teachers, they may be teaching in some areas that they're less familiar with. And so in those areas, we do want to make sure that that that happens. As we talked about um this summer in negotiations um we were able to work very closely with CTF to um bring back um some of the evaluative roles of uh the districtwide mentors and so we're actually meeting with them tomorrow to talk with them even
164more about that. I'm sorry the districtwide mentors tomorrow. Last week um Julie Sellers and and um Kendra and Travis um Rally and I met and we really talked through what what does that look like? What does that start to look like? um this idea of I'm supporting you. I'm supporting you and now I'm going to evaluate you on what I've been supporting you on. So that that support and accountability lever really is are two two parts of the same teeter totter essentially. I'm going to support you a lot then I'm going to just sort of see what the accountability for that support looks like. And if it's not quite where it needs to be that I need to support a little bit more before I just hold accountable. So this is not a gotcha. This
165is not any of that. This is more about thinking about how do we continue how do we have a continuum of services from that same person using the curricular materials that we have and the resources as the instrument to do that. >> I really appreciate all of this and I I think I'm I'm going to try not to ask a bunch of questions. I'd love to ask uh a ton of followup but I want to be thoughtful about the hour and our collective efforts to get out of here at a reasonable time this evening. Um I think here's my request. Um, would it be possible uh, and doesn't have to be tomorrow? There's a lot going on, but but let's say sometime in the next couple of weeks, would it be possible to get two
166things from the administration? I'm happy to make this um, as an assignment now or or later, but this can be very short, but I I I never asked in past years about what the instructional coaches were doing, what the district-wide mentors were doing, what the lead teachers were doing. It would be really helpful for me just to have even just one page, here's what last year looked like. Here's how this year is different given the way that we're focusing with these folks on curriculum implementation. That was request one. And then request two, um, as we go through the year with this strategy, I'm really interested in what you all are looking at to know whether or not it's working. So, I'm assuming that that we want to get some information um not at the end
167of the year, but you know, maybe in I'm making this up. Octo whenever it is. Sure. Like what what is it that you all are going to be looking at that will tell us whether or not the strategy is doing what it's supposed to be doing. And I think if with that information, I'll I'll think I'll think about it. I might follow up with folks who have questions, but it'll save us some time tonight. Um those were the the sets of things that I wanted to ask about. And superintendent, thank you for you answered my next question. um which was about uh the $350,000 investment. Um and the RFP is posted. >> Yes, sir. >> Um I am not in the habit of looking at RFPs because I don't submit bids to them, but if
168if if I want I I'd like to send this to some groups um so that we get the most competitive best bids from everybody. Uh if I want to look for it, where do I look for it? >> We we'll get it to the whole board in the morning if not tonight. >> Okay, it is public though, like if somebody wanted to find it. Okay. >> Okay. Um I think um I I said three that was two. That's my very last question. Um some meetings ago we had a number of folks come to our hearing of the public to talk about how challenging a time this spring was for students whose families are immigrants to this country. And one of the assignments I asked the board to make was that the the administration put together
169some kind of uh working group, task force, something um wi with folks inside of the district, outside of the district to come up with ideas for how we could be as supportive and as helpful as possible. At some point, uh if there is an update tonight, great. It can also be at the next meeting. I would just love an update on where that is and how that's going. I can uh we definitely can do a much more detailed report but uh what we would want everyone to know is the board has made a huge investment in this area already um in the form of there's an entire uh group of people who work with our immigrant population anywhere from family and community engagement for example the group was at uh Saturday's uh back to school
170fest doing a great job uh we do have support at our enrollment sessions not only the pop-up enrollments but also in the customer care center so that if there is a need for interpreters, we have that available to our families as well. We provide our staff with professional development. They do a conference every summer that also happened this past summer and so we can give you a much more detailed look at the scope of the work and the investment that's been been made. >> Uh I am genuinely glad that we are doing all of those things. I think that is different from the question I was trying to ask and I'm not totally sure I also I could be wrong. Okay. >> Um I what I heard you describe were a series of things that
171CPS has done in the past to support immigrant families. I'm glad we're doing it and we should keep doing it. I think what I was hearing from some constituents was we should do more. Uh and I don't always know what that is. This is very quickly outside my expertise. And so what I think the assignment was was to pull together a group of people inside CPS and also outside CPS to try to think outside the box and try to come up with what are things we haven't yet done that we might do. Um and so I'm happy for that to get checked against what the assignment was. If I'm wrong, let me know. But but I think we should keep doing the things we have done. I'm also interested in what new things what what
172big ideas do people have about what we might do that might it might require people outside of CPS because we can't do everything. Um but also please colleagues too if I'm if I'm getting that old assignment incorrect please let me know. No, you're not. That that it was the request from the community was to do something different in in addition to so that was that was definitely but we do have board assignments listed. The superintendent posted them like the list. So go back through it should be there. Go back through and see that and I'll go back and look as well to to double check. But I remember multiple I've been stopped multiple times by many of our teaching staff and our support staff that they would like to have that started. So um for
173sure that I um with regard to the professional development training I am asked I'm wondering why we could we do some of that in-house because I think it's great to have um people bid on it to come in and there may be facets of it that need to be but I'm wondering do we have the capability to do some of that ourselves with our own team like we're we're talking about a monastery program and being able to train our own staff so I'm looking at some of our own best practice practices as well and being able to offer some of that to um better our staff and and build that pipeline. Any other questions, board members? >> Mr. Crosset, >> this is anecdotal, but to Ben's point, I was a few days ago, I was
174walking into the building here and there was a family coming in and they didn't speak any English. Came in the front door. I I helped them get in the guest store. They went right to customer care. and the Spanish-sp speakaking folks in that department took care of them right away. It was pretty impressive how smooth they got in and how well they were cared for. For whatever that's worth, I observed that myself. >> All right. Thank you very Oh, wait. I'm sorry. >> No, I just I wanted to make sure I didn't misinterpret or mishar what you were sharing, superintendent. Like you um there's a lot going on. My memory is imperfect. did and if I mischaracterized anything you were saying about the immigration piece, please tell me. Um, and I appreciate all your hard
175work. >> No, you have not mischaracterized anything. >> Okay. Thank you. >> We have a we have I'm sorry. Okay. We have various topics for board matters this evening. Many of them we've already covered, so this should be pretty quick. Uh, a reminder to everyone in the public and the board members that we do have a joint city CPS meeting this Wednesday in 2 days at 5:30. This time it is at city hall. Um, I think parking is directly across the street. For the public, you're welcome to come. That agenda has already been posted. Miss Phyllis confirmed those that could attend. If you said that you couldn't, but now you can, please um, let us know so that we can make those accommodations. We have now appointed our CPS uh preschool promise volunteers to the
176board of managers. And so congratul >> Oh, we didn't do that. Oh lord, I'm I'm trying to get us out of there. Um for the CPS appointment to to the preschool promise. I was just trying to rush us. We had a goal, guys. I'm sorry. Um, we will reach out to finalize that a little bit further. We've gotten um one self-appointed request and then another um nomination. So, I will reach out to the NAACP for clarification and report that back by the next meeting. Choosing a date for the Roberts Health Center opening. Board member um Bolton, this has been your drive. >> Thank you. Yes. And I'll do this as quickly as I can. Uh as many of you know uh uh community has raised a significant amount of money and we have already opened
177a wonderful uh health center uh at Roberts and as you know we also have had the soft not opening but the soft dedication if you will to thank the funders basically. Uh that's what that event was and about a hundred people came to that and it was a great event. I know uh the superintendent of course was there and the deputy and the president was there and I was there and I think somebody else came in uh from from board as well if I recall. Um what we want to do now though is have a rather large uh more public uh dedication of the uh center that we as you know as a board decided to name after uh Darlene Kayine and we wanted to kind of fit that in uh to our celebration uh
178of the opening of school the first quarter or do something and so we're trying to find a date that fits fits within the school calendar that would also fit within the wider Cincinnati community calendar, which by the way, as we all know, is an election year, not only for board members, but and and a renewal, but more particularly, it's a city council election year as well. So some of the dates that have been suggested first and foremost were to be cognizant and be aware of the uh Jewish holidays that are uh that occur during the first quarter of this school year. Uh Roshona uh starts uh on the 22nd uh and goes for a couple of days to the 24th and I hope I'm saying that right. And then we also have Yamapour in uh
179the first, second, and third or so of October. It's been suggested to try to um think about dates and uh have the administration determine what dates those might be. And those dates could be also associated with the end of the first quarter uh which uh comes uh along in um on the 17th of October. Uh and we could also go earlier and try to be there before um Roshana on September 22nd. So, it's it's an attempt to uh highlight the fall and celebrate excuse me the uh naming and the dedication of that facility. So, if the board members have some interest, uh I would assume we'd all be there. Uh there are some dates that work in the week of uh the 15th of September. Uh there's some dates that work as well uh in
180the week of the 6th or the 13th of October. So those are three weeks. And of course, if the administration can find a better week, uh that's perfectly okay, too. uh but we wanted to try to fit it within the district calendar and uh testing and whatever else is going to be in the way but be very cognizant of those two Jewish holidays particularly as kind of book ends or starting points for selecting a date that's what I have if board members have anything they'd like to share. So just you said September the week of September 15th, >> the week of October 6th and the week of October 13th, right? >> Those right now are the ones that had been suggested that seem to be the most open and you know doing it uh uh
181during the school day, doing it after the school day, however it works, whatever we have, you know, been traditionally doing. It should be a rather large ceremony because I think too we need to be celebrating one of the things we do best which is the uh school-based health centers uh throughout the district. We continue to be the leader in this state and frankly in the country for those and this is going to be a with the tremendous work and I've been reminded any number of times that virtually all of the work was done in house and that we have been we've benefited in the uh million-doll club or more uh for the the uh service and the facility. in a wonderful building anyway, but now it's very exciting with a separate entrance and everything. >>
182So, that's really kind of an assignment that you're giving them to of those three weeks, pick one. >> Hopefully, the administration can find a date that works. >> Okay. >> Yes, ma'am. Thank you. >> All righty. Um, any other comments? So, we've got the CPS foundation memorandum of understanding. We did discuss that. board member Crosset is the appointed person has a list of things that he's working on and he's going to get us that back for the next meeting. Uh the 90day with I'm sorry just quickly I didn't get a chance to share. So I know that with the um CPS foundation we are working through navigating that transition in terms of foundation piece, vendor piece but I do want to highlight I do appreciate their willingness to support our students with having the arts
183available. We know that um that is critical to our students overall wellness. So I do want to stress that I greatly appreciate that. >> Thank you and thank you to ABC/Foundation for continuing the work to support our students. We've got next up the 90-day withro and Taft LSDMC principal selection engagement plan. Superintendent Murphy, you've got a team that's going to address that. Yes, ma'am. I can get get it started and there are others who are available if there are any specific questions. So, what you do see before you I projected on the screen from Rob, we were charged with ensuring that the district's policy around principal selection aligned with our practices and our strategies. And so, I'm very grateful for everyone, including board members who participated and shared uh their thoughts and suggestions. So as
184we scroll down it this starts with the composition and the representation. Uh then it talks about the different uh steps whenever there is a principal vacancy in terms of notification in terms of an initial LSDMC meeting what the posting for the principal ship would look like as well as how candidates will be vetted. Step four talks about the interview process, planning, and the execution of those interviews. There's a great conversation about quorum, the requirements of a quorum, what that looks like, sounds like, feels like. Uh and then we broke it also down into some particular special circumstances that the administration may have to address. Whether there are interim principal placements, whether there is a school in a consolidation, a merger, a restructure, and possibly a redesign, as well as what those communication protocols will look
185like. And then finally the transition and onboarding uh for that new principle. And then you see a list of some key principles we use to create this work. And then there is a suggested timeline that is very broad uh listed here over a course of a 10-w week period of time. And then I also would want to draw your attention to page seven in that same deck. Rob, if you don't mind, because we were specifically asked uh for an update where we are with uh the withro and Tafted uh LSCMC principal selection process. Um you are already aware that we did uh create the posting for the position on July the 1st, again, page seven. um on July the 1st and we left the posting up for the standard 10 days. Um back Yes, sir.
186Thank you. Uh and then on July the 28th, human resources department reviewed the candidates and uh are providing recommendations uh to in this case, assistant superintendent because she handles the high school. There have been conversations with the chairs, LSCMC chairs for both of the schools, both Taft and uh with Row. We are looking at where there are vacancies. Um previously there were parental vacancies for both LSDMC's and then uh the engagement with the stakeholder groups will take place August the 18th through the 27th. We will restart the needs assessment um with each of those LSDMC's and we plan to conduct interviews September the 9th through the 15th with September 16th and 17th um candidates being recommended to me for conversation and then my uh recommendation will come to you. The plan is either during the
187September 22nd board meeting or the October 4th board meeting. Are you done? Yes, me. Okay. Board members, do you have any questions? And this has been shared with all of the LSDMC's particularly those that are in questions that Taff and with Rome. Yes, ma'am. The timeline has Okay. >> Sorry, I just don't want to miss I don't want to like have someone like say, "Oh, I didn't get the timeline." Um, so I actually met with both LSDMC chairs last week. Um, I have a meeting tomorrow, an LSDMC meeting with the W with row and we are going to review this. We didn't want to get ahead of this meeting. Um so we'll review this and then Miss Kidd from Taft is scheduling the LSDMC meeting. So once we went through this um I shared this
188with both chairs but this has not been shared yet with the whole LSDMC. >> Okay board member Matt. So thank you for um the collaboration on um developing this framework. Um I think I hope that is helpful um to the administration as well as to uh the LSDMC's moving forward with the principal selection process. I just want to make sure so I know that some of this is kind of generally stated here or broadly stated but it will adhere to what the framework is that has been developed. >> Yes. And I shared the framework um we went more in depth with Mr. Bloxom um because we had a very longer and um in-person meeting. Um Miss Kidd and I have another meeting set up. We're trying to get the whole LSDMC together Friday, but if
189not, her and I are going to touch base again to review a little bit more in depth that document. Um our time together was a little shorter. >> Okay. Thank you. And then just finally, one uh question, not so much about the WRO or TAF selection process, but the process overall. Um I do know that there is um the circumstances in which um an interim may have to be in position. Could you all provide or maybe just incorporate within that section some language in terms of like how long that could potentially be or and it doesn't have to be um specific but our policy does state with the principal select or selection of principles. it does state that the appointment should be as short as possible. So could there be some language pertaining to that
190in those um you know those type of examples for uh the selection of an interim. >> Yes. >> And that's that's all for me. Thank you. >> Great. The only other question that I had is that I think I want to say it was was one of my colleagues made a comment that um the interim should not be involved. Does that say that in the selection process? Does that say that in here anywhere? >> The you mean as the principal? >> Yes, the interim principal. My apologies. >> We can write it as a statement. Typically, the principal is not at all involved in the >> Well, the the principal in general sits on the LSDMC, right? >> But not involved in the principal selection process. >> Is that what you're >> Yes. Yes. Well, which
191also included selecting the members to sit on the LSDMC um as as if it needed to be built out. >> Does that make sense? >> Say it one more time. I'm sorry. >> So, some LSDMC's did not have their full complement and the principal needed to select people to be on the LSDMC. In the event that that principal was an interim principal, it was suggested that they not be involved in selecting people to sit on an LSDMC that would potentially pick them as the person. >> Sure. And I did share um with the policy does say that the stakeholder groups really should be the ones selecting no matter what, whether it's interim or a normal principal. So last year um specifically like we needed a non CFT rep at the school. So we walked through
192the process because it was a newer principle and I you know shared with them the process around making sure that they send out an email they ask you know who's interested and then they do a vote. Same thing with CFT members they should be voted on by ILT. So we have I mean I've reviewed that. So I do that is in >> the process but I think a little maybe differently than what you're saying but that really is how it should be is >> it should I think there was a comment that we wanted to ensure that these interim positions did not have a potential conflict of interest by selecting people that advocated for them. you know, it was a truly um authentic process is what I'm thinking. And I just >> I I haven't
193I've read this, but I haven't gone through the to the comb. I just wanted to ensure that that was reflected. >> In both of these specific cases, I specifically have been working with the AP and I've been copying the LSMC chair to say you're going to need to be the lead as you're the AP listed on the the document. And so they're the ones that are like sending out a communication to all the parent >> and then sending it back to the LSDMC to say this person said they were interested. This person said they were interested. >> Sure. Thank you, Vice President Balden. >> We I want to be really clear about that. The the board I don't I can't recall frankly if it was a motion. I think it was a motion, but it
194might have been a resolution. I cannot remember about this specific topic. Yeah, if a principal is up for the principal ship, they do not participate. And that's been practice in in policy, I think. And we specifically said if there is an interim principal and they are up for it, they have they are do not participate. I mean it. So it was very direct and I think that you all you agreed to that and it was under that was understood but it was it was very clear that that would be the case for the interim as well and I I think it was some kind of motion that we passed and it was a result of a little bit of discussion. >> Yeah. >> And trying to find some consensus. So the if there's an interim
195that's up for it obviously they cannot participate in any way shape or form and try to do anything since they're up and they would be excluded anyway. But we wanted to make that clear >> and I I think it's it is understood but it was definitely enforced by the board that that needs to be a point of contention that the administration needs to abide by. Um >> any other question board? >> I just wanted to affirm what you all are saying. It is in there uh is under step three position posting and candidate vetting and it is directly referencing the conflict of interest policy. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you. >> We are cooking with grease, everybody. Was that the end of your presentation? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Uh board
196members, were there any extra assignments that we had? >> Board me vice president. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Board member Lindy, >> I'm agnostic as to order here. Uh I I have nothing new. I just wanted to recap the ones that I had shared before about those three pos positions last year versus this year. Um what are we going to look for to know whether it's working or not and then an update on internal external working group to think big about how we can support uh students from immigrant families. Um I don't want to assume there's majority support for that. I want to check to see if there's majority support for that. But those were the assignments that I was requesting. I have very simple one u and it's it'll sound uh strange but I would
197like uh the board to have a list of the schools in Cincinnati public schools and the actual names and IRNs that they go by that is registered or accepted by is it the Ohio department folks or the state of Ohio. We periodically we have to do this because we change names or we change programs and uh I think we're in that phase right now especially with the middle school coming online. So whatever is because what we call some schools is not necessarily what the the state calls them and I would like to see what those two lists are. Thank you. board member M. Yes. Uh just the assignment about the trend data for 9th grade and what our engagement plan is um for retention with our families. I think I gave my assignment, but I'm
198going to reiterate it that I wanted to um get some data around the third grade proficiency and the effectiveness of preschool. So those students that participated in preschool, how did they if we if we can get that data, how did they do on their third grade proficiency? I like the enrollment by schools, specifically the middle schools and an engagement plan for the middle schools and the transportation by um building for those families that um um and then I'd also like, this is an interesting request, but the superintendent made a list of the administrative priorities to the foundation. I'd like for you to show us that list or share that list with us about what you you listed were the priorities that you wanted the foundation to work on and I was at the meeting where
199you shared some of that. So, um I'd like that um and just just to be presented to the board as things that you felt the foundation should be working on. That's it for me. I do have a question. Um, with regard to Bramble Monastery, do we happen to have a principal for that facility? >> Yes. Did we choose someone on the inside or did we choose someone on the outside? We uh assigned the principal who was previously at the lab school at Xavier as part of that staffing piece where the entire staff would come over. So did we give our current people an opportunity to apply for that or I felt like it I feel I I have felt like Bramble was sometimes a little separate. has been treated a little separate and I know
200we talked about were we um we talked about that a little bit but did we just not give our own people? did not. And you may recall part of the proposal was that their entire staff would be able to come to be a part of our new Monastery Lab School >> from >> and I know that there was a concern about credentiing so of their particular staff member, their particular principal that has been resolved. >> She does have a principal license in the state of Ohio. >> Okay. I just am a little concerned that our own staff weren't weren't part of that, but that's it's okay. Um >> well, I I guess to that point is on the slide, right? I mean, we just work worked through um the principal selection process and we have
201special circumstances that I it didn't it doesn't align with what we just worked through. So, I guess I'm curious to know um was there thought around having uh a special LSDNC convene or uh should that be added to I mean because it's saying right here under a consolidation merger etc. and that would fall under that example. So, I guess I'm looking for clarity on that. Well, moving forward, they will have an LSDMC, but uh in terms of this process with selecting a principal, it was determined by the board with your permission and your support that we would take the entire staff and our HR department worked through on boarding all of them who had an interest in joining Cincinnati public schools. So, the teachers, the pair professionals, and including the principal Okay, just one final
202question. I mean, and I don't recall how the proposal or theou looks, but in taking on the entire staff, does that mean that they would then still serve in the same capacity as they served at the previous school? >> They are. Yes. >> Okay. So, I'm going to just share that I have some concern about that because that well, I have some concern. Um, I know there was a credentiing issue um and and that may have been resolved, but I wonder what we're what we're telling our own team. Um, and I I'm all for hiring and bringing them on board, but I'm just wondering what are we what are we telling our own um around that? And what are we saying around the policy when that should be considered a special circumstance based off of
203what we just got a presentation for? Um, I'm going to I'm just a little concerned, but I'll vote accordingly. Anything else? Any other assignments? Vice President Bolton, I >> I just I don't want to leave it there. I We already have at least two schools where the principles aren't in place yet and, you know, we've kind of given the impression that we're concerned about that um this whole selection process. I've been here a long time and we've never lifted a whole school. So, it is to your point, it is a special circumstance. So I could see where we would add that under certain special circumstances >> u I mean the closest we can come to I think it may be hide park maybe leap but even that was sort of an internal it wasn't a
204it was an external school coming into our system coming into our inventory so I think a reference to special circumstance somewhere in there might be because I'm going to tell you a lot of school districts in this county aren't going to survive and uh because of this property tax issue and this may not be the last time that there are schools available uh that would be of interest in joining us be they private or public. Well, I just want to let me just clarify. I am not I don't ever want to diminish the value of what people bring to our students. I think we found there's value everywhere. The board is charged with policy. Policy includes an LSDMC formation that includes a principal selection. So the process of that. So if we spend time clarifying
205what is the what what are we saying about the policy that we're not even following. Although there are special circumstances, there still should be some consistency there, which was the whole entire purpose of us having this concern around two schools is the lack of consistency in the selection process. Um, I'm not doubting the value of what is being brought to the table. I don't want to diminish the value of what we already have um within our buildings, within our district, and um also within the process that we've already outlined and spent an excessive amount of time talking about because it was challenged at the community level. So, um again, I'm happy to vote accordingly. Um I do want it to be said that I think that there's inconsistencies, which is exactly the reason why we
206were here in the first place. But does anyone have any other assignments? Board member Craig. >> Um, so one just a revision of a review of the assignment I gave and then one just a thought real quick. And I think this is another reason maybe a a a assignment to the board that we take a little bit more time with some of these things as we're voting on these things because I think quite honestly we voting on stuff and then after the fact we're coming back and asking why do we do why do we do why do we why do when it was stuff that was plainly seen at the time that we voted or could have been plainly seen at the time that we voted. I think this just gets again to a need
207to slow down sometimes when we're making these substantial changes or making these substantial moves um because we are busy. Um with that in mind also I just wanted to reiterate um part of an assignment that I gave at our last meeting in July about creating the template. And I think this is part of the reason I want us to do these things in this uh fashion is because I think we need to take the necessary time for some of these things that are more complicated and harder decisions. And if we give the authority over to the superintendent or to treasurer or whoever to make certain decisions, it really is it puts us in a bad situation if we then come back after the fact and say, "Why did you do X when we told you
208to do X, right? Or why did you do Y when we told you to do Y?" And so I would hope that as we uh approach some of these additional things that will there certainly be coming up um that we can take a little bit more time to to review some of those things and and truly dive into those questions at the time as opposed to after. Um, and I hope that this also by giving the superintendent, the treasurer, and the team of folks time to put together materials and resources that that will also allow us to be able to make those decisions in a in a more timely manner um with the time necessary to review, the time necessary to discuss, the time necessary to um understand the the the uh the effects of
209the decisions that we make. So uh I just wanted to reiterate the uh the the assignment that I gave last time and just again I think this is something an example of some of the discussion we had today about the need to have a real good framework for our budget as we go forward. Uh because I am terrified of what we will get out of our state legislature coming up. But I'm also terrified of the fact that uh to maybe vice president Bolton's point there may be some school districts around us and some schools period around us that you know we don't want we don't wish ill on any other place around us but we know that there are things that they may be needing and assistance with or may be falling because of state
210funding and so we should be in the best situation to be prepared to absorb as much as we can as we go forward. will never cross it. >> Yes, I I think this uh I do I do see the Bramble School as sort of a special circumstance. It was unusual for us. I think not tonight, but maybe we think about it in the future. It could be that we go back to the policy committee. We may need to create a whole separate policy for when we absorb a new school rather than just have it try to fit into our normal policies and use this as a learning experience. Maybe create a checklist component of that policy of And that way, especially if we might have other opportunities coming in the future, it might be just
211an a just put something together that helps special circumstances. So, just a thought. >> Thank you all for sharing. I do think that um we definitely have some work to do that we can make some adjustments and I'm going to also invite the administration to make some adjustments as well when you know that things are coming up that may put us in an awkward situation like this particular situ to this particular one so that we're not talking about it here kind of give us a heads up that would be most helpful to me I know we did talk about bringing all of Bramble staff on that was one thing but we never went back and revisited that at all and I know there were some concerns concerns around credentiing um for some of that particular
212um piece of it. So, it would have been really nice to kind of have some updates along the way so that it's not um it's not right here in this moment. Um and that's definitely something that we can we can work on as well. Any other assignments? A proposed consent agenda has been distributed. Do board members, the superintendent or the treasurer have any exception items to the consent agenda? War member M. Uh yes. So I would like to uh or I have exceptions for the superintendent report on page two uh section D line item one that is uh a no and under the treasures report can you hear me? Okay. under the treasures report. Page five, line item seven, page 14, line items three and four, and page 21, line item two. >> Um, point
213of clarification, please, on the treasures report, you're abstaining from those things, >> correct? >> The superintendent's report, did you say no? >> Yes. I would like to so I'm in support of the rest of the recommendations for the superintendent report. >> So Dan >> Dan on a consent agenda item specific line item a no vote does she just vote against the consent the consent in hold >> like I'm >> sure we've done this before we've done abstensions before but not no that I know of. Anyway, >> you're right. I think she can vote no. Uh board member map can vote no or ask to take it out for a separate vote of the full board >> on a specific line. >> I think so. Okay. >> That's that's what we've done before is taking it
214out. >> Do you want to take out the recommendations or do you want to just vote no on that? >> I'm just voting no on that. >> So I'm I'm asking to take the recommendations out. um because I asked for a specific clarification on um one section that the superintendent was going to verify and I would like for that to be verified around um an assignment. I asked for clarification about that one. >> So you're referring to the treasures report and the ABC contract. >> No, no, I'm talking about the superintendent's recommendations. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> I asked for specific clarification around a change in in the assignment. um >> the change in assignment. >> Yes, ma'am. The one that I asked you about earlier. Do you remember page 14? >> So, you're pulling
215the superintendent. >> There's a request to pull it. >> Yes. >> By one member. >> Yeah, I got I was just clarifying. >> Thank you. >> But I'm ready to vote on the rest of it if you want. Oh, you're pulling that section or the entirety of the superintendent's report. >> Well, I can pull that particular section because that's the only thing I'm asking about is that particular section of that report because I needed clarification about it. >> And for the public, what is that section? >> That particular section is change in assignment from an interim to a manager. Section E. I'm sorry. What page are you on? >> 14 >> section E. Thank you. >> And you're voting no. Are you asking that to be pulled? >> I'm asking that to be pulled for
216the further information that I requested earlier. >> You pull it. >> So, it can be pulled from the consent agenda, but I think the board would need to vote on whether to move it to a later move the vote to a later date. >> Okay, that's fine. So, is there a motion >> to pull the superintendent recommendations? >> He said we have need a motion to >> No, he said it could be another date >> just that particular item or the entire recommendation. >> Okay. What's the roll call then? >> We haven't gotten that far yet. I think we're voting on the consent agenda, right, Dan? And then we would vote on that particular part portion of the superintendent's recommendations. So, can we vote on the recommendations in totality and then that particular section or
217Okay. So, let's vote after the vote. >> Let's vote on the consent agenda minus the superintendent recommendation. No, my understanding is that you're going to vote on the consent agenda with that item pulled out. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Right. >> Do we have a motion? >> I just wanted to make sure she was clarified. Okay. >> Is there a motion to for accept the consent agenda minus that particular line item of the superintendent's recommendations? >> So moved. >> Second. Jen super or treasure w >> Mr. Craig >> yes >> Mr. Crossson >> yes >> Mr. Landing. >> Yes. >> Miss M. >> Yes. >> Vice President Bolton. >> Okay. We didn't have any discussion. Uh but uh I'm going to say no because I'm worried about the loss of the consent agenda generally right
218now. >> President Moffett. >> Yes. >> Folks, we're going to have to go back to just not having a consent agenda at this point in time. Well, I'm not exactly sure why he would say that because the consent agenda has all of those things in there that we don't need to vote on individually. >> But but the concept is have we'll have to clean it up before it becomes the consent agenda or or it's not we just have to we have to figure out some prior way of doing it. I'm not I'm not saying we shouldn't do this. I'm just saying we need a we need a pre-step >> before we create the consent agenda. >> If we know something's going to require some discussion, if we know that it's an issue, it's just we
219we'll create a pre-process. I think the process could be just utilizing pulling some this the superintendent can pull something when a board member ask a question or the treasurer can pull something if there's been a question so that we don't have to do that on the floor they can clarify it later um and then the consent agenda can be approved but if there is a significant question around specific things that can't be answered immediately I think it would be prudent to just pull those things >> and and practice has occurred uh that that individual or group of members ask the superintendent to do that prior to the meeting if possible and then the superintendent can say yes or no and maybe that all happened. I know a couple times I've asked especially with superintendent right
220she would be very pleasant and say sorry and then I would just vote against whatever it was because I didn't want to pull stuff that was there. But I I think this is this is good. We're This is We're still in our first year of consent agenda. >> So, and it's getting a little bit more complex than it's supposed to be. >> Okay. Well, I don't think it's complex, but we can definitely finish discussing it. Now, we need a vote on the particular line item that we pulled from the consent agenda. And Dan, is that a motion or do we just discuss why I'm wanting it to be pulled or what do we do? to table it. >> So the the item that was pulled is now on the floor. It could a member could
221ask for it to be voted on this evening. A member could ask for it to be tabled, but you pulled one item from the consent agenda. >> Okay. So, I pulled that item because I wanted clarification around the qualifications of going from a non-manager position to a manager position um with regard to union involvement if there are any other specifics um that could cause us some concern later. And I asked about that because it has come up in other positions and I wanted to make sure that we're being consistent. So I just asked for a little bit of time and clarification so that we don't have any um any any any problems later and that couldn't be confirmed at the time that I asked. So that's why I asked to pull that particular part. >>
222Madam Chair, then based upon what you just said, I would like to make a motion that we table that item for a later date until there is clarification. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I second that. >> Thank you. Um, do we need to do a vote for that? >> And Treasure Wagner. >> Mr. Craig, >> yes. >> Mr. Crossen, >> yes. >> Mr. Lindsay, >> yes. >> Miss Matt, >> yes. >> Vice President Bolton, >> yes. >> President Moffett, >> yes. So, um, there's no more assignments. Everything's good. The chair will entertain a motion for a journment. >> Oh, wait. I'm sorry. >> Do you have anything else? They looked really confused. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Okay. Second. >> It was second. Second. >> Second. >> All right. Well, we are unanimously agreeing that
223it is a I come.