001The April 21st, 2025 regular meeting of the Chardon Local Schools Board of Education is called to order. This meeting is being held in accordance with Section 3313.15 of the Ohio Revised Code. Deb, would you please call the roll? Mrs. Blankenship? Here. Mrs. Clark? Here. Mr. Albright? Here. And Mr. Medjot? Here. Welcome to the April 21st, 2025 regular meeting of the Chardon Local Schools Board of Education. Prior to this meeting, each board member received further review and consideration of the agenda and materials associated with each agenda item for the board's consideration via the Electronic Board of Education Agenda System Board Docs. The public can access the agenda through the school district's website one day prior to the board meeting. Pursuant to Board of Education Policy 0165.1, this meeting is a meeting of the Board of Education
002and public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There are two opportunities for public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda items designated as public participation. Board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and chief financial officer for information concerning agenda items and to request, if needed, additional information. Upon request of the superintendent, the district shall make reasonable accommodation for a disabled person to be able to participate in this activity. This meeting may also be replayed for later viewing on the GTV network and video on demand site. The Chardon Local School District is not responsible for the video and or audio quality or future availability of such recording. We're permitted to, I don't know why we got that in there,
003sorry. Next is the adoption of the agenda. The board will consider a motion to adopt the agenda as presented. Do we have a motion and a second? Make a motion for that. Second. Any questions or comments on the agenda? Nope. Deb, would you please call the roll? Mr. Medjap? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. And Mr. Albright? Yes. Okay, that brings us to the Pledge of Allegiance. Tonight, the Pledge of Allegiance will be led by our second grade Park Elementary student, Lydia Lesniak-Harper, who will lead the Pledge of Allegiance. Lydia? Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Nice job. Stay up there, Lydia. That's okay. Okay. Great job, Lydia. Thank
004you for coming tonight and doing that. So in recognition of second grade Park Elementary school student, Lydia Lesniak-Harper, your contribution and commitment in serving as the Board of Education's Pledge of Allegiance leader on this 21st day of April 2025. Thank you. Let's get a picture. One, two, three. All right, here we go. Mr. and Mrs. Chardon, local school district, we commit to high achievement for all students. Okay, so that brings us to the first hearing of the public. We have Brandy Giddings. Just want to go over a few things. Please state your name, where you're from. We need to turn the mic on on the podium. And you'll have three minutes. You might have to hold it down. Hi, my name is Brandy Giddings. I am a high school secretary. I'm currently the guidance secretary
005there. I've been there for four years. Prior to that, I was a lunch lady for eight years. I've also been a parent in the district for 20 years. My son graduated in 2017 and my daughter graduated last year in 2024. But today I'm here to speak on behalf of the Athletic Secretary position and to strongly advocate against its elimination. This role is not just a title on a paper. It's a vital functioning part of both the main office and our athletic department. The Athletic Secretary supports our schools in ways that often go unseen but are absolutely essential. This is not a position that can simply be absorbed or dismissed without consequence. The Athletic Secretary handles transportation, communications, awards, eligibility records, and more. These are time-sensitive, detail-heavy responsibilities that keep our athletic programs running smooth and
006our student-athletes supported. Eliminating this position without a plan to replace it shifts an unsustainable burden onto our office staff. These duties won't disappear. They'll fall on others who are managing full workloads of their own. This isn't just unfair. It is inefficient. When we overextend staff, mistakes increase, morale drops, and productivity suffers across the board. I ask you to consider the broader impact. This is more than just one person's job. It is about protecting the balance and quality of support we provide to our students and family and staff. Without the dedicated oversight this position provides, we compromise the organization and the success of those programs. Removing this position may seem like a cost-saving measure in the short term, but in reality it will cost much more in loss of productivity, increased staff burnout, and a decline
007in program quality. Please keep our support system strong and continue to value the roles that keep our schools thriving. Thank you. Thank you. So that's all we have for agenda items. So that takes us to the consent agenda. Yes, moving on to consent agenda. We have several items for the board to consider this evening. First item is item 3.1, approval of minutes and the 412 certificates as detailed in the associated enclosures. The next item is item 3.2, approval of the warrantless check pay report as detailed in the associated enclosure. Item 3.3, approval of administrative certified license, classified supplemental, and non-contractual personnel and compensation related matters as detailed in the associated enclosure. Item 3.4, approval of addendum to agreement with the ESC of the Western Reserve as detailed in the enclosure. Item 3.5, approval of the
008update of student fees for Chardon Middle School as detailed in the enclosure. Item 3.6, approval of the student accident insurance program through Guarantee Trust Life Company as detailed in the enclosure. I'm recommending your approval of these items. Do we have a motion and a second for the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? No. No? Hearing none, then would you please call the roll. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mr. Midgett? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. That brings us to item 4.1, which is our Chardon High School student liaison report. We have a team today. Yeah, we do. I'm Kayla. I'm Abby. I'm Cari. Kayla, Abby, and Cari. Okay, great. So we're currently selling our prom tickets for both seniors and juniors. Seniors had access to it first last
009week, right? April 4th. April 4th. And it just opened up for the juniors Friday the 18th. Our prom court consists of Avery Vonavicks, Lauren Jackson, Natalie Clough, Alex Silk, and Morgan Slack. And for the boys, it's Alex Ash, Kaden Foley, Dominic Iskra, Logan Webster, and Ryan Zlinski. Okay, and then just past Thursday, we had the Battle of the Classes. Each class had a representative, and we played all these different games and challenges. Like Hungry Hippos, mattress racing, pie eating, and then the junior class won again, unfortunately. We've had recent testing in the building. Our high school students are taking the Ohio State Test and other intercourse exams. These included ELA 8, ELA 11, U.S. history, and American government. And then there's some more testing to come in the next week. There's AP testing, which lasts
010from the 5th to the 16th. Good luck to all the AP students. April 30th, we'll test math 8, algebra 1, and geometry. And then May 7th, we'll also have science 8 and biology testing. And then the schedule will be changing starting this week. So we're implementing a new schedule. We're getting rid of block days, which are red and black days. And then we're switching to all white days for the rest of the year. We'll have all eight periods every day. And then there's some more things to come. I think this Friday we're having a Giordano job fair in the gym and cafeteria of CHS from 9 to 1230. There's more testing, as we said. The Powderpuff football game. Annual Powerpuff football game is May 4th. There's a senior scholarship night at the CMS LGIR on
011the 12th. Senior sunset and movie night is the 9th. Prom and after prom, May 10th. And then finals for seniors is the 15th and 14th. And then last day of school for them is the 16th. Thank you. Just real quick, what's the theme for the prom this year? It's Tangled. Yeah. Okay. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, ladies. I can't believe we're talking about prom and graduation. Superintendent's report. Okay, yes. Thank you, Madam President, members, for moving on to Superintendent's report this evening. First, I just wanted to take some time and I put a fairly detailed item in here dealing with school funding and where we're at now that since our last meeting the House has voted out its version of the state budget. There are some very significant developments that are occurring. So
012what are some of the key changes from what is termed the executive budget? That's the budget that the Governor introduced back in February to what we saw come out of the House. First, when we look at the fair school funding plan, the actions of the House basically paused the phase-in of the school funding model and did not update the base cost elements or inputs as they're called. These, if you don't know what the inputs are, these are the costs that it takes to operate across the state of Ohio school districts. When we look at things like the average teacher cost, the instructional supplies and materials that are used, technology, a variety of different things that factor into what it takes to operate, and those base cost elements are used to determine the amount of funding
013that school districts receive. Presently, we're using the fiscal 22 base cost inputs, and with no change by the House, those will stay where they're at, and you'll see later on that actually the House has essentially eliminated the fair school funding plan and put all districts on, basically a bridge guarantee to a new formula in 28. So the House did not continue the phase-in to years five and six of the plan. As I said, the formulas base cost inputs are not updated. So what do these changes mean? Well, basically they undermine the intent of the fair school funding plan as a student-based, predictable funding model for the state of Ohio. It shifts more funding responsibility to local taxpayers, and what you will see is that the state's share of school funding and the Ohio's Constitution calls
014for a sharing of cost between the state and the local. The state's share of funding students will dip to almost 32% of the cost to educate students, meaning the other 68% is coming from local districts, and that continues to drop as a result of what the House is doing. That will create more instability in terms of district planning and staffing, service delivery, and so on. In addition, the House began dealing with tax reform, and one of the things that they are looking at is carryover balances that school districts are carrying, for lack of a better term. And what I think this element represents is really a lack of understanding of how school districts manage money in order to stay away from the community and taxpayers for new tax levies. That was the trajectory that our
015school district was on, but now we're starting to see that need for a levy creeping closer. What this proposed action does in the budget is it limits a district's carryover balance to 30% of the prior year general fund expenditures. It would allow the county budget commission to reduce tax collection for current expenses by that excess amount, even if a district is below the 20-mill floor. And if it went into law in the current form for tax year 25, the budget commissions would complete another review cycle similar to the one that we just went through in February to catch up with the new legislation in the budget. Deb, if you could scroll down. So the bill references basically certifications to determine the carryover, but it doesn't define the term, so there's still some questions that are
016left to be addressed. In addition, the House version of the budget also shortens the forecasting requirements for school district. We have, as the board is well aware, been required to do five-year forecasts for the district. This would reduce that to a three-year forecast, if you will. It's hard to say, but I'm so used to saying five-year forecasts. And it would also limit deficit analysis to the first two years. Interestingly, that coincides with the previous element that I just spoke about with respect to the 30% carryover, because most districts in the first two years will not reflect as much of a deficit, if you will, but then hit the fiscal cliff in what would be years three, four, five of the five-year forecast. So what's the combined impact here? Essentially, by stalling the fair school funding
017plan and capping budget reserves for school districts, districts that have managed responsibly, like we have, may be penalized even when their cash management practices have been guided by board policies and will be affected in terms of those ceilings and floors that are then implemented. Locally approved levies could be reduced before a single dollar has been collected, so basically the question here is local control and what local taxpayers voted for to support their schools can now be adjusted by law by something that's happening in Columbus. And undoubtedly, there will be more frequent levy attempts in all school districts because it will shorten the traditional levy cycle and cause school districts to go back to the ballot more and more frequently. And then there are other questions about things like certificates of participation, COPs, loans, or lease
018purchase agreements and whether those get placed at risk. You know, there's certainly no doubt that, and as you know, I've been very active with school funding in Ohio and the fair school funding workgroup's been very clear to acknowledge that we understand that there's a need to take a look at tax relief. However, what we have also been advocating is to not change the formula at the same time that we are undertaking tax relief because these things will be working basically in opposition to each other with unintended outcomes. Interestingly, final note here is that this 30% cap is being described as property tax relief, but really that relief isn't targeted. One of the things that has been encouraged is what is called a means test for qualifying for that, for property owners to qualify for tax
019relief. And Senate Bill 25 is one, I'm sorry, 22, is one mechanism that can accomplish that. Again, that's been proposed right now, but not, it's one of many tax reform bills that are currently in process and yet to be considered by the legislature. A lot going on. To understand the process, what happens next is now that the House has voted this out, it goes to the Senate, the Senate is responsible for developing its own version of the budget and it may agree with the House or it may do different things and then what happens is when we have a House version and a Senate version of the budget, it goes to conference committee typically late May to early June. They attempt to iron out those differences and then it goes to a floor vote with
020the full legislature and then ultimately to the governor for either signature or the governor has the ability to line item veto any elements of the budget that come out of the conference committee process. So we're really only a third to approaching halfway through the budget process right now. A lot yet to happen, still a lot of activity with now shifting to the Senate, but that doesn't mean that House representatives, that they should not receive our attention as well and attempting to inform them about the process because when it goes to conference committee, that will be a joint kind of discussion between selected members of the House representatives and selected members of the Senate. So we still want to be speaking with reps as well as with senators. Our senator, Sandra O'Brien, our representative, Senator Fowler-Arthur,
021to talk about what the impacts are on our school district relative to the budget moves. Overall, I don't have a positive picture to report about what's happening with Chardon schools coming out of the House and moving to the Senate. So all of that will likely accelerate our forecasting to show a more significant need for local revenue if everything were to come to pass than we were working towards with respect to a budget management process. So I don't know if there are any questions, otherwise. Do we have any insight as to what direction the Senate's going to go in? Yes. Are they going to tear it apart even more? Oh yeah. Tear it apart as in give money back or tear it apart as in take more money? No, read Senate Bill 93. Okay. I'll read
022that to you later. Oh, okay. You're going to get that in the legislative report. So I think one of your points was that the county would have a say over whether or not we collect any levies, collect all the money on levies that have passed. Does the budget commission already have that authority? Well, I think that is a point of contention in Geauga County. They have exercised that authority and the budget commission members, current budget commission members believe that that's the appropriate course of action. I think in other parts of the state there's a question as to whether or not that power rests currently with a budget commission. And it's been tested generally but not specifically in terms of some of the things that we're seeing happening right now. So open to interpretation, let's put
023it that way. I mean, what are a few of the ways that you see shortened schools like directly affected by this in the short term? Do you see that? State revenue continuing to decline at a significant pace. Because we're over the 30% carryover, correct? We are, but we're not in really what I would consider to be a difficult area relative to the 30%. You know, there are some, in fact, a couple of agenda items tonight, which Deb will, I'm sure, address when we get there, are permissible under law and designed to continue to manage that cash carryover balance. 39% already puts us within striking distance. What we've actually, the work group has advocated to the legislature so far not successfully, is that instead of just a hard and fast 30% and kind of at rule
024application, that we see districts below 25% in the fiscal watch, fiscal emergency category, we see districts in like a 25 to 50% range being in the green or safe zone, and then districts above 50% having to present a plan to the Budget Commission to say, this is what our cash management practice is, and they may intend to build a building or do something with those funds. That makes perfect sense, or if you take, for example, a pipeline district in southeastern Ohio that's had a significant influx of cash, but in a very poor, low-wealth community, you know, area, those districts are trying to manage that money for 10 years or longer and not go to their taxpayers. They're carrying 110% cash carryover balance right now, but that's a plan. Their voters can't afford that and are
025in a highly impoverished area, and they want to manage that money for a 10-year period of time. That's their cash management approach to stay away. And so the point being, if we're over, say, 50%, you know, can the district articulate a plan and why their cash position is where it's at? Versus just having hard and fast over 30%, it's cut and not really having room for discussion. Don't we have to have a certain amount, if we were ever to go for a bond or something, don't we have to have a certain amount? To borrow, yeah, they like to see 30% to 50% for your Moody rating for investment purposes as well. So that could hurt us if we were... Well, it would hurt any district. Every district, yeah. If any district needs to undertake significant
026borrowing, their Moody's rating or S&P rating would be impacted by that cash carryover. Their bond rating would suffer, and as a result, the local community would end up paying more interest on that indebtedness than might otherwise be necessary. Well, there's like, if you look at the legislative picture, there really isn't any agreement between the House and the Senate. They actually seem to be like racing each other for what can be accomplished. But like, here, this is a local senator here. He said, I never like fixed percentages of revenues because it goes up and down with the revenues. And this was in a group talk with the Ohio Library Council at the State House. But at the same time, it's supporting imposing fixed revenues and fixed percentages on schools. So you're saying to the libraries who
027need literate people to go there, we want you to have flexibility in what you're doing, but not to schools that make literate people. That's the kind of thing that is continually showing up. I don't get it. I can't make any sense of it, but there seems to be a race actually to hit rock bottom based on what's going on. And so for anybody in here, if you are inclined to write a letter or make a phone call, please do. Because I can see there are some instances where they are actually listening in the dialogue about charter schools where we want accountability. There's talk about making those accountabilities happen. So it's not that they're implacable. Please reach out and then express these concerns. Agreed. Okay. Next item. We have a much more positive note. We have
028a student recognition this evening, Rose Marie McDonald. Would you like to come on up, please? Our students participate in state and national testing, and sometimes you just get the rare occurrence of a perfect score on the ACT test, and it's certainly remarkable and something that needs to be recognized. So, Rose Marie, we're very proud of you, and we know that's a testament to family that's here to support you, your hard work, your teachers, and everyone that supports you in our schools and community. Certainly a commendable accomplishment for you. And with that, I'll leave Mrs. Blankenship to recognize you. Yeah, I just want to say congratulations. I don't remember what my ACT score was, but trust me, I was nowhere near it. I remember mine. Do you? I probably don't want to remember mine. I can't
029believe that perfect score. Yeah, everybody's talking about her. Okay, this is a certificate of academic achievement. This acknowledges that Rose Marie McDonald has been recognized for her exceptional effort, relentless dedication, and outstanding academic excellence in earning a perfect score of 36 on her ACT exam. An extraordinary accomplishment that reflects her hard work and passion for life. So, congratulations. I feel like she's a big choice. Rose Marie, you want to let us know who's here with you supporting you? Oh, my parents and my grandma. Thank you for joining us. You're certainly welcome to hang around for the full board meeting. It's riveting. Thank you. I didn't take the ACT, but my SAT score wasn't perfect. Well, we won't discuss that, but certainly an outstanding accomplishment. Okay, moving forward with superintendents' recommendations this evening, Item 5.2, resolution
0302025-09, implementing a reduction in force of the non-teaching positions as detailed in the resolution. I'll have just a very brief comment following motion and second. I'm recommending your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Seconded. Just very briefly, I've provided background information concerning this reduction of force, and actually the net results of this ends up creating additional positions within our classified bargaining unit. Excuse me, but these are some staffing changes, some necessitated by kindergarten moving to the elementary schools, and therefore the lack of a need for certain positions, and also some reorganization high school athletic department. So with that... Can I hear you say the net result would be additional? It actually is. Can you explain that? Yeah, because of onlining the transportation compound at the Washington Street complex, we are
031also through this creating some vocational job training programs and staffing that internally, which ends up with additional job coaches, which will be classified positions working with our students. So when we have students that are at Heinen's or Solon Manufacturing or other places like that, they have a classified staff member in working with them at their job site, for example, and we're taking on that vocational job training program in the district. So the net effect ends up being an increase in staff. It's just moving some things around. Okay. Any other questions or comments? No, I appreciate all the very thorough and exhaustive research into this. You know, usually these things... To me, my first ride, I was like, ah! But it does. It is kind of, you know, but it wasn't off the cuff, that's for
032sure. No. So thank you. I mean, we had some concern today via email. Right. And someone just spoke. I think that, you know, one important thing here is the data you provided us. It's looking at our district, comping us with other districts in the area, looking at that ratio of students versus secretaries. And, you know, kind of where my head is, I'm looking at that data and I'm listening to you. You know, it seems to be kind of a controversial thing, but it seems to be like something we need to do. Anyone else have questions or comments? No. Then would you please call the roll? Mr. Medjot? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. And Mr. Albright? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, Members of the Board. Next item, 5.4, recognition of student academic achievement. This
033is just a non-voting item. 5.3. Oh, did I skip 5.3? We did 5.4. I'm sorry. Yes, we did 5. Oh, all right. Great. So we're going to 5.3. So item 5.3, memorandum of understanding with Sharpen Association of Classified Employees for a combination position medical assistant, educational assistant position for the 25-26 school year as detailed in the enclosure. I'm recommending your approval. So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Any questions or comments? I can just say my child is not going to be at Sharpen Early Learning City next year, but as a medically fragile parent now, I appreciate having the medical expertise in our schools at all times. Anyone else? Then would you please call the roll? Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mr. Medjot? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, Members
034of the Board. Next item, 5.4, is the student recognition that we did with Reverend McDonald. It's a non-voting item. Moving on to item 5.5, approval of textbook for world language. Now, we have a number of textbook and course of study recommendations here this evening. I see Dr. Klein right there. He'll be able to answer any questions. I'll just give you the backdrop here. This is the culmination of work of various curriculum committees throughout the district that looked at courses of study, as you may recall, earlier in the school year. Dr. Klein presented the different curriculum elements that we were looking at this school year, as well as those areas where textbooks and materials would be adopted. So my intention is to then kind of go through, speed through the rest of these with that backdrop
035and understanding as we deal with each one of these individually. So with that, item 5.5 is approval of textbook for world language program as identified in the agenda item. I am recommending your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments about world language? Nope. Dad, can you please call the roll? Mr. Albright? Yes. Mr. McGat? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. And Mrs. Clark? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Item 5.6, approval of course of study revisions for English language arts, fifth grade and seventh grade, as detailed in the associated enclosures. I'm recommending your approval. So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Any questions or comments? Nope. Dad, would you please call the roll? Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mr.
036McGat? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Next item is item 5.7. This is approval of specific textbooks as listed in the agenda item for English language arts. I am recommending your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Seconded. Any questions or comments? Dad, would you please call the roll? Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mr. McGat? Yes. And Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Madam President, members of the board, item 5.8, approval of course of study revisions for health and physical education, as detailed in the enclosures. Actually, these are not revisions, but new for high school, I'm sorry, for officiating certification and personal training certification, and these, correct me if I'm wrong, tie into graduation seats. Industry recognized credentials, yes. Our students will be able to earn these and then be
037employed. So with that, I'm recommending your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Seconded. Any questions or comments? I'm excited about the officiating one, as we heard. When we came in the CVC, we can't find officials nowadays, so if we can get the young blood in there, that'll be cool to offer that. Yeah, and there'll be credit for it. I'd be excited to see young officials in there. And what was the age limit again on that? 14, isn't it? As far as being able to be an officiant? Depends on the sport, 14 typically. Oh, okay, so it's, okay. Okay, anyone else? Then would you please call the roll? Mr. Medjap? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. And Mr. Albright? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. This is
038approval of courses of study for K-3 science as detailed in the enclosures. Recommending your approval. So Moot? Seconded. Any questions or comments? I actually, I did the take-home readers that the kids get in this program. I think it's really good on that. I don't know if you guys got to see those or not, but they're like, they're like periodicals almost, but I have good illustrations, good topics, so thank you. Any other questions or comments? Then would you please call the roll? Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mr. Medjap? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Item 5.10 is approval of those textbooks for K-3 science that were just mentioned by Mr. Albright. I'm recommending your approval. So Moot, do we have a second? Second. Any questions or comments about
039the textbooks? Then would you please call the roll? Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mr. Medjap? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Item 5.11, approval of courses of study for K-3 social studies as detailed in the associated enclosure. I am recommending your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So Moot? Second. Any questions or comments? Then would you please call the roll? Mr. Albright? Yes. Mr. Medjap? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. And Mrs. Clark? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Next item is item 5.12, approval of textbooks for K-3 social studies as detailed in the agenda item. I'm recommending your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So Moot? Second. Any questions or comments? You should probably ask something because Dr. Klein
040has been standing there. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mr. Medjap? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. And Mrs. Clark? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Moving on to item 5.12. Okay, can I just say something? Sure. Since I was the last one. I'm on the curriculum committee along with Todd, and I just want to say that there is a lot of work that goes into this with Ed and our teachers and stuff, and it's always impressive every time we meet to see not only the hard work, but the enthusiasm that goes into all of this process and how excited they are to get all these new textbooks and curriculum in place. So I don't know if you noticed, Todd, but I think it's important to mention that. So thank you, Ed, and to everybody who's involved.
041Well, you do that, having been here in the days where we had curriculum frozen and no new textbooks or materials, it's great to have our community support the ability to continue to upgrade these materials and provide those to our students. Sorry. Item 5.13, approval of Historic Crew Stadium rental agreement. This is with our varsity soccer program activity that they are doing down in Columbus. I'm recommending your approval. So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Any questions or comments? Then would you please call the roll? Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. And Mr. Magyar? Yes. Item 14, approval of out of state overnight field trip as detailed in the enclosure. This is for the Chardon High School marching band to go to Orlando, Florida in March of 2026. I'm recommending your approval.
042Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? My daughter's very excited because I'm sure other students are. Yeah, my kids was able to do this when they were in school. And it'll be warm. Hopefully. It'll probably be warmer there than here in March. There's a pretty good likelihood. And she gets to fly to Florida as opposed to our 15 hour drives. Just to, like when the football team went to Florida, they did fundraising through the United Iron Club. I'm assuming this will be like parents and similar fundraising for the cost of it. Right. They alternate every other year. They go to Orlando or, help me, what's the off year? Somebody know? Where does the marching band go in the off year? I can't remember. Drawing a blank. Anyways,
043they go to Orlando every other year. Okay. So this is not a new trip. They don't do Chicago, do they? I can't remember either. I guess I better get ready with band kids coming up. I'm drawing a blank. Yeah. Seventh grade. It was a trip chaperone. Is that right? Yeah. In the past, yeah. Any other questions or comments concerning the marching band going to see Mickey Mouse? Sorry. Ted, would you please call the roll? Mr. Midgett. Yes. Mrs. Blankenship. Yes. Mrs. Clark. Yes. And Mr. Albright. Thank you, members of the board. Next item is item 5.15. This is the approval of agreement with Millstone Management for the Park Elementary School Security Vestibule Construction Project as detailed in the enclosure. Just a brief comment following motion and second, recommending your approval. So moved. Do we have
044a second? Second. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. I just want to draw to the board's attention that for quite some time as we've been discussing this project and as a reminder for everyone, Park is the only school that we have not been able to complete the security vestibule at, not for a lack of trying, but for the difficulties with ADA compliance at the facility, the age of the building, and so on. We now have a plan in place to do that. And as we had shared with the board, the projection on that was somewhere in the range of 450,000 or so. This project's coming in at about 300. So pretty considerable amount under what was projected for that project. So we're pleased about that. Any questions or comments about? So the idea
045is to have that done before the start of the next school year? That's the schedule. Yes. It'll start right around Memorial Day and it'll be, again, much like doing the vestibule to build the high school, it will be a tight schedule and a race to get that done and probably more significant than the high school because the office operation will be moving down to that back corner of the building. Any other questions or comments? No. That's good. Would you please call the roll? Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Medjap? Yes. Phase 2.16 is approval of agreement with Millstone Management Group for Chardonnay. I'm not sure why that says CHS Transportation Facility. It should be Chardonnay Schools Transportation. Phase 3, as detailed in the enclosure. This will be the final phase of
046that project to complete the remaining work. I am recommending your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? I'll move. Second. Any questions or comments? It's nice to see that area being transformed. It looks sharp. Yeah, it's coming together nicely. It looks really good. I think it's key to point out, too, this will move our people from Hamden as well. This is that building to do that. Correct. So we can get them all in a central facility, make sure our bus drivers have lunchrooms, our maintenance team has lunchrooms. And we still service not just our fleet but Cardinal's fleet as well, right? We're still servicing Cardinal. So it's technically like a moneymaker for us, the maintenance portion of it. Right. It has a lot of potential. Yeah. Are we addressing the drainage issues that
047have come up recently? Yes. TDA and Millstone and the contractors that Millstone work with and the engineers through TDA have put a plan together for the drainage. Basically, it continues to be a runoff that comes all the way from the old Chase Bank building all the way down through the condominiums and makes its way down there. So really, we are charged with managing stormwater that's not our stormwater, but gravity is making its way to our place. Yes, a plan is being put in place to add some additional yard drains and drainage, underground drainage pipes to the current construction, which will basically be on the condominium property, but we're in talks with them to do the, and I'm not sure why they would have done it, because it's an improvement that will enhance their property too
048because of stormwater management. So long answer, probably more than you wanted, but yes, it will be addressed. Any other questions or comments? Dan, would you please call the roll? Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Mujat? Yes. And Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Next item is item 5.17, approval of agreement with Milstone Management Group for Munson Elementary Restoration Project. I am recommending your approval. So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Any questions or comments? Thanks for taking care of the buildings. Yeah, this is one of those things that... We don't want the facing wall to fall off. Yeah. No, yeah, that's important too. Yeah, so, yeah, it's something we have to... Not pretty money, but money that needs to be spent again. So this will start after moving
049out of the building. Correct. I mean, I guess it could be pretty. Any other questions or comments? Dan, would you please call the roll? Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. And Mr. Mujat? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. I would like to thank the board for the recommendations and the policies on first reading. This is the January update from NEOLA, and the policies that are listed here have been reviewed internally as well as by the board's superintendent-appointed policy committee. And the revisions are being recommended to the board at this time out of that committee. These are on first reading tonight, so they will not be subject to a board vote. There'll be opportunity for community input on the various policies, and then they'll be presented at the May meeting
050for adoption. The... Well, that's what we have. So, again, I don't know if there are any questions that you might have. They're all there with the appropriate versions if anybody wants to take a look at those. Are most of these changes just based on recommendations from law changes? Compliance with law, yes. All right. With that, that concludes my section of the agenda for this evening. Thanks, Mike. Deb? Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. I don't know why I'm not switching. There we go. First on my agenda, 6.1. 6.1 is the financial summary report for March of 2025. I am now creating my AI images in Gemini. I'm getting pretty fancy with the mountain. First report we look at every month is the bank reconciliation. We did receive our final settlement tax payments, so
051our bank balance is up to $35,057,606. We still have a few adjustments. I can tell you as of today we're only 40 cents off, so we're close to being back to book to bank, but we are holding some adjustments on this report. The next report we look at is the cash summary report. We always look at the third column from the right. It's getting close to the end of the year. Everything's looking really clean and pretty. The only places we're in a negative is in athletics, which we know we're going to have to transfer at the end of the year, and then the 400 and the 500 grant accounts, which of course we use first and are reimbursed later. So where are we at with our spending plan? We actually collected $512,792 more than anticipated,
052and we're under budget, $177,000 plus, for a positive effect on our cash balance of $690,000. Reason being is we always, in our five-year forecast, we put $99.32 for collections, and that's what the Budget Commission likes us to do. They actually like $98,000, but we know that we always get more, and they did come in at over 100%. So that's where the extra $500,000 came. It was easy to see. This chart below shows our cash balance compared to last year, and we've been watching it all year. We know we're going to come in less at the end of the year. Can you go over that one more time? The chart? The 99% thing. Oh, the 99%? Okay, so when we do the five-year forecast, so I'm talking with my hands, we get so much revenue from
053our taxes, right? So we can only project the amount of revenue we get if it was a 98% collection, okay? If we projected 100%, we would be projecting that we receive more revenue, but we're actually projecting less, just in case there's some delinquent payments, okay? So some people don't pay. So you plan on 98%. But it always comes, it has, the average is like 100.17 over the last three years. Which seems odd to get over 100%. Yeah, how do you get more than 100? They're collecting back taxes. They're collecting delinquents. And the other reason that Chardon is over 100% is because of our mobile home tax. That is not, it's not in that first chunk, so it's in addition. Okay, okay, because that's, why is that different? It's different that the way that the Budget
054Commission separates it out. If you were to look at our original certificate, they don't include it with all of the other, they include it as a separate item. I believe it has to do with something with the fact that it is a mobile home. Right. Next year it might not be here. Right, it's like rental on the property rather than a home. Theoretically it could not, you know, it could be moved. So they keep it separate. Or maybe they're renting the property and then we'll have zone. The structure might not be there next year, so it's classified differently. Okay, okay. So it might be a vacant lot next year as opposed to having like, they could arguably move their house. Yeah. So I just have a small note in the bottom right corner. If, you
055know, right now it's looking like we're going to finish the year in the 18 million plus range. If we were 30% of 24 budget lakes proposed, we would need to be at closer to 12 million. Okay? So that's really going to throw a monkey wrench into planning. You're talking... I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, no. I'm just saying, if you're looking at the difference there, it's really going to throw, like I said, a monkey wrench into this to like try and figure out where we're going to be and when we would have to go back. Mm-hmm. But we have some options we're going to look at a little later in the agenda on how we can manage the funds and keep the numbers where they need to be. But that's just a big difference. It is.
056It's not, like Mike said earlier, it's not a one-size-fits-all. Right. So our forecast is 18 million. Yes. But you're saying to be in compliance with the proposed budget bill that Dr. Hanlon spoke of earlier, we would not be in compliance. No. We'd have to be down around 12 million. Correct. Okay. Now, it depends. There's some variables that we don't know which expenditure line they're going to use on the forecast. Are they going to use the one after transfers or the one before transfers? I used the most conservative one to come up with that figure, so it might be closer to 14 million. Okay. But I looked at the most conservative one because we don't know which one it is yet, if that makes sense. I can show you. It's a good thing that you're looking
057at that ahead of time. Mm-hmm. So basically what we're saving to bring a levy down the line, they're saying we had this fight with our commissioners, and we're going to the same fight with the State House. They're saying, don't save your money down the line. Run your levy now and spend all your money now. Yes. Basically. So moving forward to March revenue, we collected $8,020,804. Most of that was from our final tax settlement. We actually collected more in the month of March this year than we did in the month of March last year, and that was only because the advances were smaller last year. We got more at the end. The advances were a little bit bigger this year. We got less in the end. But when you see the year, it's a completely different
058picture. We spent $3,527,000 plus. Last year at this time, we spent a little over $3,400,000 higher this year, which makes sense with salaries, purchase services, inflation, more capital, outlay projects. So that makes complete sense. Now we look at the year. We've collected $36,380,700. This is considerably less than we collected this time last year. $2.5 million less. Very easy to explain. If you remember, I was kind of annoying and reporting it all the time with that extra money we collected on public utility. It was a delinquent. And then last year we collected twice as much, and now this year we're back to normal. Well, that's $1.3 million of it. Okay, so next year we'll be comparing apples to apples with a pub collection, but not this year. So they're caught up now. I'm sorry? Are they
059caught up now? It's caught up now, yeah. But we're still comparing to last year where we got the extra amount because we didn't get it the year before. And also you have to remember we moved one mill of inside mills to the PI fund. So we had it in that fund last year. We don't have it in this fund this year. So that explains the $2.5 million less of revenue so far this year. Expenditures, on the other hand, are higher than they were this time last year. We're at $29,316,245. Last year it was a little over $28 million. We're actually less in salaries. And I pointed that out last month. That's where it's really showing where we saved on some of these retirements in the EPC program. But we're more in purchase services and, of
060course, in other expenditures that we're doing through the capital fund or through the general fund. So quick question. Does the 30% also affect the PI levy? No. No. Right now it's just the general fund. Okay. Okay, so salaries, we always look at salaries for the month of March were a little over $1.6 million. We've completed 19 of 26 pays. We spent a total of a little over $16 million and $22 million is the budget. You can see here we are. May is coming up, and that's another. We always talk about the three pay months because we're paid every two weeks. So we're close to the end of the year. So we look at our true days. And we look at our cash balance up and down. And again, this cash balance that we're projecting for
061the end of the year, see how it's $18 million, that's about 39%. Right now our true days went up again because we got a tax settlement amount. So we're up to 163 days, 144 after open purchase orders. But again, we'll see that go down by the end of the year. Food service had a deficit spending month. The deficit spent $12,717. Ending balance of $743.163. I can tell you that we still have not received the federal subsidy money from January. I did check, and it's just they're slow. I had some other schools that just got theirs a 2, 3 behind. So it's not anything to be concerned about other than that they're just slow in getting out the payments. They were counting on that. That's why they're in deficit spending. So as it comes in, it's
062going to... Right. So we might see one month where it's not in deficit spending. Right. And you can see this year's revenue is way lower than it was last year, and that's why, because we haven't received the subsidy money. PI fund. This is the whole picture of revenue and expenditures. And I like this chart because here we are. We're reporting March. We got the first tax advance, a little tax advance, a larger tax advance, and then our settlement. So now PI is out of the negative. We will get another small tax payment. Actually, we just got it in April for Homestead and Rollback, which is the amount of taxes that come from the state for the people on that program. So we project to end the PI fund somewhere around, you know, between $30,000 and
063$100,000. So Steve promises me. Again, revenue all came from the final tax advance, $515,000. We've collected $2.3 million in this fund so far this year. Again, this brown is our Homestead and Rollback that we're expecting in April. We always look at our expenditures. We spent $49,000. This was on middle school entrance stores. We do have to pay the auditor for collecting our taxes, so all those auditor fees came out of this month. And then we bought a new cabinet at the high school for medical supplies. So I assume the middle school entrance stores are part of the mandate that we had those are the last ones that we were waiting for. I think Steve mentioned before. My middle schoolers promptly reported your doors were put in because their classroom was right next door. So they're
064excited. Yeah. And finally, we look at the self-insurance fund, which increased another $76,000. It's up to $2.1 million for the year. As you came down close to reserve, and now we're heading back up again since we started January, and we got past the seed money, and we are collecting more revenue. We have been collecting more revenue the last few months than we're spending. So that's a good sign. Is there any other questions? Okay. Moving on to 6.2. 6.2 are very generous donations as detailed and associated enclosures. I am recommending for your approval. So moved. Do we have a second? Any questions or comments about donations? As always, thank you to our community. It's greatly appreciated every month when we're sitting here accepting these donations. We really appreciate it. Sorry, we're just laughing at the chickens
065down here. They play an important role. A demonstrative science. Right? Right. Anyone else? Then would you please call the roll? Mrs. Bikenship? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Midgett? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Next item in my agenda is equipment disposal. As detailed and associated enclosures, I am recommending for your approval. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments about disposals? I'm blown away that there's a cassette player on there. I see that's a lot of old technology. Those are coming back. Really? A lot of new albums are being released on cassette now. I would say my kid's soccer teammate bought a Walkman that plays tapes on Amazon. It was super, like, they're amused by it. Yeah, they all pass it around
066to practice. If you go to the record den in Minner, they've got a good collection of brand new and shrink wrap cassette tapes. They're just novel. I guess. I don't know. Wow. Next we'll be going back to eight tracks. I'm chilling my head there. Anyone else? Ted, would you please call the roll? Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Midgett? Yes. And Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. The next item in my agenda is 6.4. 6.4 There is approval of resolution 2025-11 to transfer $1.1 million from the General Fund 001-0002 to the Severance Retirement Fund 035-9002. After a first and a second, I have a brief comment. I'm recommending for your approval on this transfer. Do we have a motion and a second? So moved. I'll second. Any questions? Yes.
067I have attached auditor state we're going to hop into this so this is right from our financials that we have filed at the auditor state for 2024's financial statements. So if you notice on the financial statement the amount at the end of last year that we were responsible for for severance was $547,000. We also know that this is the amount because we had PC buyouts. So 498,000 of this transfer is going to be to pay for part of that amount. Now this year we've already had so far we know we have 8 retirements. And I'm going to need about 280,000 for severance for those 8 retirements. So again, if you take that from this transfer it leaves about 300,000 a little over and that's what we need in that fund for future retirements. We usually
068transfer out of the general fund into this fund once every 3 years. And I will tell you this transfer will reduce our general fund balance. And there's still time that there might be more retirements, is that true? Yes, that is true. When do they have? Theoretically July 10th. I mean by long. So you said we normally do this every 3 years? Every 3 years we normally transfer this fund. It was already in the 5 year forecast to transfer to next year. So it's been 3 years since we did this? Well next year will be 3 years. But we had more because of the EPC buyouts. So technically we could be transferring again, depends how many retirements. But as you see we have a $2 million liability for retirements. I actually considered just moving $2 million
069into this fund because I can justify that I need the money for retirements. But not yet. Any other questions or comments? Deb would you please call a roll? Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Midyat? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. And Mr. Albright? Yes. Thank you Madam President, members of the board. The next item on my agenda is approval of resolution 2025-10 is to transfer 1.1 million from the general fund, 001- 0000 to a capital projects fund, 070- 9001. This fund when created has to be specifically used for a purpose. The purpose of this fund would be the final phase of the transportation business compound. After a first and a second, I also have a brief comment on this transfer. So moved, do we have a second? Second. Okay, this amount is this 1.4 for the final phase that
070you just approved earlier, transportation compound. The final phase is 2 million. But 1.4 has already been planned out of the general fund. It's already in our five year forecast. We know this is going to happen in 2026. All we're doing now is taking the money that we know we're going to use for it and putting it in a specific fund for that purpose. Again, what this will do is reduce our cash balance for 2025. And that fund will be exhausted by the end of 2026, we already know that. It's a placeholder to me. Do those accounts get cancelled out after they're vacant for a certain period of time or just immediately? Ten years. Oh, that's a great question. So you move money into the capital projects and you have up to ten years to use
071that money for the specific project. If you do not use it, all the money has to go back to the fund it came from. That's the current law. So we've got ten years to move it off. Any other questions or comments? Would you please call the roll? Mrs. Spankenship? Yes. Mr. Albright? Yes. Mrs. Clark? Yes. And Mr. Mujet? Yes. The final item on my agenda, 6.6. 6.6 is approval of appropriation amendment number 5, as detailed in associated enclosures. Again, after first and second, I have a brief comment. Am I recommending for your approval? Do we have a motion to second? So moved. Seconded. The changes included in this appropriation are the two transfers that the board just approved. So it actually causes, when you transfer money, it causes an expenditure. So I have to increase
072our expenditures to allow for the transfer into the other funds. Also, there's some small updates. There's another 3,000 in Title I, another 20,000 in idea, another 9,600 in idea preschool, improving teacher quality, another 1,400, and then we got some more job coaching funds, 11,400, and then a very small amount in Title IV. Any questions or comments? Deb, would you please call the roll? Mrs. Clark? Yes. Mr. Mujet? Yes. Mrs. Spankenship? Yes. And Mr. Albright? Yes. Thank you. That concludes my section. Thanks, Deb. So it brings us to the board reports and recommendations. We'll start with Andrea with the Shuren Schools Foundation. I did not put it in there, but we had the email go out. So the spring grants, as a reminder last fall, I think they approved either six or seven grants. So the
073same thing in the spring will be due May 9th. So the teachers can submit that one page, and maybe it's one page front and back. Project, we will run it by the district to make sure the district agrees with it, and then the foundation will meet to decide if they want to fund that. Anything from books to robots to you can, I say they gave a little bit of money to PTO for the PBIS, I'm sorry, to the middle school office for their PBIS program. So pretty easy form to fill out. Last fall they didn't even have them come in, I know in the past they used to interview the teachers in person. I think there were enough parents on the foundation that they could advocate for the teachers without the teachers coming in. There's
074a chance of a Zoom interview, potentially. So it's a pretty easy process if we can do anything for the schools. It's also just a great way to ask for what you need and get it in front of Hanlon before them, just you know that you need it, no offense. He doesn't know what he can fund if he doesn't know what he can't fund. So I encourage everyone to do it. I think last fall was super, as a PTO mom seeing this back help too, I was super excited to see everything they gave out last fall and hope people continue to use it this spring. This is another area where it's always interesting to see the enthusiasm when somebody comes in and when they do come in or if they're going to Zoom, come in and
075present what it is that they are asking for money. It's a great thing that the foundation does to help support our schools. Okay, legislative, Todd. So as I promised, I'm going to read Senate Bill 93 as introduced because it's short and sweet but I think kind of establishes the trend of things because most everything that's being introduced is passing. So this is a bill that says to declare the General Assembly's intent to establish a new school financing system that provides a statewide per pupil funding payment to public and chartered non-public schools based on a single statewide property tax and increased state sales tax. So Section 1A aims to do the following. Eliminate each school district's ability to levy property and income taxes, which seems like taking away local control completely. B, establish a single statewide
076property tax and increased state sales taxes to fund schools. C, eliminate state scholarship programs for primary and secondary students. D, establish a school financing system that calculates a statewide amount of per pupil funding that will be paid to the public or chartered non-public school in which a student's family chooses to enroll that student. That one could possibly sound pretty good. And a lot of this reminds me of the questions that I asked Dr. Hamlin early on, like how come there can't just be a single amount for a student on the complexities, really kind of are staggering, frankly. I would point out to you here, everybody that hears this reads this, the OSBA legislative tracker that's on this board report has a long list of things that probably would be concerning to some people in some
077way. Namely, basically, that if the ability to levy property and income taxes is taken away, then I don't know how a school district could be self-directive in the direction it wants to go for the education of the district's students. That there alone really ought to warrant a lot of phone calls and letters. They talked about replacing the local taxes with a statewide property tax. Yes. Well, so like if you do that, so like what is the sales tax going to be? So sometimes people will make purchases for instance in Geauga County instead of Lake County because the sales tax is less. If you take that across the board and apply a flat rate sales tax, what is it going to be? And there seems to be like on one hand, like look, we're going to
078reduce income taxes, but we're going to increase sales taxes. So there's kind of like a house of cards act going on really that is interesting because for everything they claim to be doing to relieve taxpayers, there is something else that has an unknown quantity that will not be a relief more than likely and probably will affect the economy. But the amount per student, the flat rate amount per student implies that every student requires the same amount to get. I will call it, I'm assuming they're looking for excellence, which just is not the case. There's differences in my children, her children, your children, his children just here alone. Your grandchildren and if the desire to do make all these decisions apart from or actually intentionally ignoring experts in this field is really what's the most startling
079because the work they put into this, the Fair School Funding Act is not is a long winded endeavor. I mean it has been going on for some time and to totally scrap that despite what everybody's saying is not good. So I'm going to just I could read you like probably 20 different proposals that are no good. But I'm going to spare you all that and move right on to Auburn Career Center. Before I do that though, I do want to again point out the OSBA Legislative Tracker which gives you who proposed what, conveniently shows you that they assume that none of these things will have any economic impact even though they all pretty much will. And how to reach those people generally speaking. I would encourage you to do that. Todd, just real quick. So
080if this passes, when are they looking for something like this to go into effect because to go back and pull everybody's current funding and then turn around and make it a state tax that's got to take some time to figure out I would think. Yeah, so the statement that has been made a couple times by a couple people who I have high regard for is that education is a huge, huge organization that takes time to make changes that have impacts and it's hard to tell what those impacts are going to be until they've already happened and if they're negative, doubling back to fix those problems, you might miss a whole cohort of students before you fix that problem. So what is the impact to the future of the students of Ohio is profound potentially. But
081if you look at all of these things basically, so the bright side is that people apparently are listening because they want charter schools to have to be accountable which is good. I believe that should be the case. If tax funds are going to charter schools, there should be some accountability. Frankly, it should be equal to public schools if you're asking me. So somebody's listening in that regard. But if you were to just generally look at what legislation affects revenues, almost all of it is aimed at reducing our right to vote on what we want to spend on students, what we view as important and give it to the state. And it cannot, you cannot help but say that it is at the very least ill advised, hasty, and unplanned. Because what Congress is doing tends
082to be mirrored by something a little more extreme than the Senate. And they're like racing each other to try to get things done that they're almost like they're not talking to each other. It's like the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing so they're both schools you know. Yes. Go ahead. I would say Dr. Hanlon said through a bunch of bills before, is this pretty normal for the Senate and the House to be so running so far apart in opposite directions so to speak? I would say it's terrible. Would you say though that there is a definitely an adversarial or at least what appears to be negative in the House and the Senate trying to get certain things done? One of the things that is reported is that there is almost I
083think it was nearly half a billion dollars in extra revenue collected at the state level. There's a state level budget commission. It doesn't appear to be saying you've got to give this money back. But we have these endfalls. It doesn't matter at the state level but it far away is dating to fill this gap. The things though that I agree on as a board is on that final round of interviews the partner businesses were in process of an individual and the students will be ideally if this can work out a time frame showcasing their accomplishments to the businesses. Including the catering this essentially for these businesses. Which is I think a really good thing. It shows the good leadership that's there and I hope that the individual that's chosen carries that trend forward. Student and
084staff please on report. James? Before I start thank you so much to Mason Cole and our communications department for preparing the stories and the pictures in this report. They do an amazing job. If you're interested in stories like this you can find them on our social media, Facebook, Instagram and our website. Starting off tonight at the high school, the Chardon High School athletic academic decathlon team is competing in its first national competition since 2017. The team's bid to the United States academic decathlon online national competition comes after its successful showing at state competition at John Carroll University back in March. At that competition the team came away with 16 medals including a silver and three golds in interview and two golds in speech. Highlighting Chardon's long tradition of strength in the interpersonal events. The national
085competition began on April 16th and her hilltoppers will be competing again on May 2nd. Congratulations to the team on all their success and good luck as they continue the national competition. At the middle school, Chardon Middle School's builders club recently visited Rescue Village as the final parts of their paper towel drive this past week. The builders club recently began collecting donations of paper towels to benefit Rescue Village. The students were able to collect 330 rolls of paper towels and drop them off as part of their facility visit and tour. During the visit students learned more about Rescue Village and its important contributions to our community. These students have done a fantastic job supporting their local community. And again at the oh wait wrong way yeah okay still the middle school 13 student scientists from Chardon
086Middle School showcased their projects at the regional science fair at Kent State University on March 22nd. This was the most scientist CMS has sent to the regional fair since students have been competing. Of the 13 scientists 9 received excellent ratings and 4 received superior ratings and are moving on to the state science fair on May 10th. This is the most scientist CMS has ever qualified for the state science fair. The students who will be attending the state science fair are Katie Brinkley, Eden Hegfield, Michael Mealy and Ryan Wolf. Eden Hegfield was also awarded a scholarship for a science summer camp. Congratulations to these students and all of their success. And back at the high school congratulations to Chardon High School ELA teacher Holly Mahalik on her recent nomination for the part-time faculty excellence in teaching
087award at Lakeland Community College. In a petition submitted to nominate Mrs. Mahalik for this honor she is praised for her efforts to reach all types of learners and enliven lessons as well as her ability to engage students in the learning process and engage critical thinking all while showing enthusiasm and passion for teaching and working with students. And finally this evening at the Chardon Early Learning Center, throughout the month of April, Miss Dolan's class at Chardon Early Learning Center has been exploring the incredible world of eggs. From witnessing the magic chicks hatching to crafting their own egg themed masterpieces, the students have enjoyed a variety of exciting activities that have brought learning to life. That's my report for this evening. Thanks James. Okay, I do not believe we have any new business tonight. Okay, so that
088brings us to hearing of the public for non-agenda items. I just want to remind everyone that on your seats is the public participation policy. Once again we'll be calling everyone up. Please state your name or your phone and you have three minutes to say. So the first one is Aggie Isler. Okay, Isler make sure. If you could please come up. We need to, if someone could turn the, Craig could turn the evening. I'm Aggie Isler. I've been sharing all my life. I want to comment on this article in a local newspaper about the sexual assault allegations involving a male student at the middle school. I would like to thank the school district for handling this situation in an appropriate manner. There have been false accusations against this young boy. I question if the school district
089will be pressing charges against the students for the lies for the bullying for the character assassination that is a deliberate and sustained effort to damage someone's reputation. Are false accusations that are proven false treated as bullying and harassment and punished as such? I do not know this boy personally, but I cannot imagine how an 11 year old boy is being haunted by these false accusations. My heart goes out to this boy and his family. And I want to thank the school board for all the work that you've done, your hardworking group here. Thank you. Okay, now we have Nate McDonald. Nate McDonald from Munson. I'm a parent. My I think fifth generation graduate of Chardon. I have three kids here now. A senior, a junior, and a seventh grader. But I'm a Munson Township Trustee
090as well. And probably the most important thing though is I'm Rosemarie's dad for tonight. And I wasn't planning to speak, but I just was moved in that direction because I have been concerned about school funding for years and years. And I really appreciate and support the efforts that you guys are making in that direction. Mr. Albright, I appreciate and agree with everything you've said. And I think it's really important that your efforts continue on this and that we as a community support those efforts. I will take your challenge and I will call my representatives tomorrow and make these points. There is nothing more important to a community than the local public school. My family is living proof of that. My mom was sitting right there. Both my grandparents are graduates. Their parents were graduates. And
091you know, now our kids are graduating. That is what makes a strong community, is having a public school that allows that to happen for any person who is in the community. We aren't the wealthiest family. We need the public school. We have always needed the public school. I see people in the room that I know who have also been here. And it is vitally important. And Mr. Barrett, I really appreciate your pointing out that the logic of all of this is incoherent. You gave the phrase ill-advised, hasty, and extreme. I'm adding incoherent to that. Because this doesn't make any sense. It's not school funding should not be a partisan political issue. There's no reason for that to be the case. We just need to move past that. And I really appreciate your efforts in that
092direction and I support them. And thank you. Thank you. Okay, so that's all for public participation. So that brings us to number ten, meeting adjournment. So our next regular board meeting will be meeting meeting C. Do we have a motion and a second? Move. Second. Okay, then would you please co-roll? Mr. Albright? Yes. Mr. Mediat? Yes. Mr. Paternetti? Yes. Mrs. Blankenship? Yes. And Mrs. Clark? Yes. Meeting adjourned 7.07 PM. Thank you. Thank you everyone.