001[music] All right, we'll go ahead and call the meeting to order. Before we stand for the pledge, I want to introduce our three students that we have tonight uh leading us in the pledge. They're all from Lutz Elementary and they all represent the Eagle TV Club at Lutz. We have Noah Ferguson and Levi Wheeler who are both in the fourth grade at Lutz and then Vinnie Webb who is in fifth grade. So Eagle TV Club, just for people who don't know, at the elementary schools, they have a TV club. They put on a newscast. They have an anchor. Actually, Vinnie is an anchor, one of the anchors there. Um, they talk about news in the school. They talk about lunch menus, the weather, sports. Um, they use teleprompterss, they use smartboards, they uh video. It
002goes out to all the classrooms. So, great thing to do at the elementary, get them involved and and new learning experience for them. So, so anyway, with that, if you three gentlemen would like to come up here, I'm going to bring the mic over here. And if we could all stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. Aliance 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. [cough and clears throat] All right. Thank you to those three gentlemen for coming in tonight and their families to bring them in and lead our uh pledge of allegiance tonight. All right, Megan. Uh, roll call, please. >> Mrs. Bloom here. Miss Layman here. Miss Lewis >> here. Mr. Nally, >>
003here. >> Mr. Price, >> here. [clears throat] >> Can I get a motion to approve our minutes from the regular meeting held on October 13th, 2025, please? >> So move. >> Motion by Miss Layman. Could I have a second? >> Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Layman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Bloom, >> yes. >> Miss Lewis, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Ny. >> Yes. >> Mr. Price. >> Yes. Motion's approved. >> Moving on to our legislative report. Don, >> a couple things. Um, this at noon today, I had a U webinar with the legislative leaison um, representatives from OSBA and took a lot of notes. And then as I went back and compared them to the uh document and information that Megan had sent out, they're they're pretty much
004the same. And so what I'd like to do, and I talked to Megan ahead of time, um like to just kind of go over a couple of the um uh House bills that are being proposed and Senate bills and and if you know, if you wanted to pull it up on your computer for board members and then for everybody else, I'll I'll kind of share a few things. Um, one of the House bills that we've, you know, continued to monitor and OSBA has continued to monitor is the House Bill 186, which talks about uh property tax credit uh in the 20 mil floor. Um, one of the things that uh this particular bill does is caps property growth for districts at the 20 mil floor to inflation. Uh, and it has uh passed through the
005house and will head to the senate. And one of the things, and I did not talk to Megan about this, that it talks about that providing uh $360 million additional to backfill to schools based on some of the changes that are going to happen here. And apparently this past year, the uh expanded sales tax holiday for the state ended up being kind of um successful because people didn't take advantage of it as much. And so it ended up where the state was able to collect taxes during that period of time uh on the sales tax. And so what they've kind of looked at is next year um I think they're proposing or the house is proposing not to have that uh sales tax um holiday. And what that does is put 400 uh 360 plus
006million dollars back into our schools. And you know the formula as to how that goes out and who gets what um you know is probably still yet to be determined. Uh but it will get back to our public schools and it's very much uh centered on that. Um the other thing is how this affects our districts in terms of uh some will look wealthier than others. Um and uh talking with Megan um that this will not necessarily impact us for a few years. It'll probably catch up with us. Uh so um we're in, you know, better shape with that particular bill. Um the other one that uh deals with inside millillage, House Bill 335. Um it's passed the House and moving on to the Senate. Um and again that deals with inside millage limits um
007and would not necessarily impact us at this time. Um, House Bill 129 talks about existing um, emergency levies and we talked about that a little bit at the last meeting. Um but uh that particular bill again should not have an impact on us because we don't have emergency levies on our um and and then uh the final one that I would mention would be House Bill 309. And basically the status of that is it passed the house and is going for first hearings with uh the Senate Local Government Committee. And it's interesting the one thing that you know as as you would note on your your papers um they're trying to define uh well I'll read the one sentence gives um CBC's authority to reduce any voter approved levy except debt if deemed unnecessary or
008excessive. They put down um definitions of those two words unnecessary and excessive. But there's still a lot of discussion going on out there as to how you know everybody has a different version of what's unnecessary or what's um excessive. [clears throat] Uh, so they're still working on definitions and I think that'll get cleaned up with the Senate side. Um, and again, House Bill 309 allows county budget commissions, when I said CBC earlier, the county budget commissions to override voterapproved levies and the fiscal decisions of elected school boards. And that's kind of where I think OSBA is kind of throwing back the question and saying, you know, if the board here has said, um, we need to go for a levy based on all the information determined from, uh, our administration and and our needs. and
009it goes through the uh county commissioners and then it, you know, um gets on the ballot and approved. You know, should a county board uh or county budget commission be able to reduce those after we've had um uh our voters approve it. And so there are some different um kind of stop gaps in there. for example uh on new levies uh they cannot be reduced for the first 5 years. So if that particular uh levy is renewed and then the budget commission views it as unnecessary or excessive then at that point in time they can um make recommendations and they can actually take action to reduce. But um knowing our strong administration here, they couldn't get past them. So uh um they'll you know that's going to be going on. Um and one of the
010things they mentioned uh there were three different areas. I wrote down two of them. uh the leg legislature between now and Thanksgiving are hope, you know, hoping to be done by Thanksgiving and then come back after the first of the year. And one of the things that um the two areas that they're working really hard on is property tax uh initiatives. And and I think a lot of it with the property tax initiatives that's kind of kicked that into gear is, you know, the um collection of uh individuals signing on to get rid of all property taxes. And we've talked about that before as to what happens when um or if property taxes were eliminated, what is the mechanism to continue to fund our schools? And you know, is it sales tax, is it uh
011income tax, or is it we just allow the schools to fail? and you know and that obviously that's not an option. But I thought was interesting was the the one of the three areas that um they're saying that the legislature is really concentrating on are the marijuana laws. So it's property taxes, marijuana, and that unknown third uh category. So those are the uh kind of the areas. Um I really appreciate the This is so much of this is moving so quickly and you know and that's why I called Megan to make sure that we didn't get another version today that said throw this out the window. So that may happen tomorrow. But um you know so she's she's been really good about keeping up on that and you know and obviously working with Denise. Um,
012the other thing I wanted to mention is we all received a a an um email and it was a uh talking about a zoom that's called at a crossroads the federal budget um education funding and the future of US Department of Education. And on November 6, there's a uh seminar or a webinar that we're able to participate in. I think it's at 2 in the afternoon. Uh so, you know, I would just encourage um board members and, you know, to get registered for that. There's not a cost and and I think hopefully they'll be able to answer a lot of the questions that that we had. or have um you know with the information and again you know who knows how quickly that all those topics are going to move and and then uh the
013final thing is I think I mentioned at the last meeting I I made a uh incorrect statement that um I think it was house bill 66 um was being approved by the senate at that point in time it had not been approved by the Senate, but I think it's already now has to that point where the the House and the Senate have improved. So, I told Megan if I ever make a wrong statement like that, she's supposed to tug on her ear or say something to me. [laughter] So, that's all I had. I don't know if anybody have any questions. My biggest question for our legislators would be to define the provision that they're trying to say they give a provision out for a CBC to override what local voters voted on. >> Um because
014whether it's on taxes or not, where where is that provision in our state constitution that they can override what voters vote on? because you start here and all of a sudden it becomes that slippery slope of well then we can do this and then we can do this and it doesn't always have to be about taxes but where does it end? Um if the voters vote on it that's what it is. >> That's what voting is and that's our right. They shouldn't have given a provision for I wouldn't want to be on a CBC to make that decision where voters are saying well wait a minute we approve this. How are you changing it? you know that that's a hot mess for your local community. But yeah, our legislators need to uh find that for
015me because I've never seen that any >> Well, and along with that, you know, to kind of push that down the road a little bit, you know, there was that discussion about um trying to move some of the ability of us as voters to instead of it being 51% to kick it out to 60%. Right. Well, we all know that, you know, levies fall in that 50% range and and it [clears throat] takes a lot of work to get out and sell our case and and you know, you throw a 60 or a 70% out again, you're back into fail and we're not we're not into failure. >> And again, it's still it's a vote. It's on our ballot. So, so does that mean now the next candidate has to win by 60%. >> Mhm.
016>> I I mean, why is it for one thing and not everything across the board? >> Exactly. >> When it's a public vote, it's a public vote. Majority wins and that's how it's always been. So, I don't know how we can change that. >> And that's not one of those things we want to change >> for anybody or anything. No. >> Right. >> Yep. >> All right. Thank you, sir. >> Um, no. walk-on items tonight? >> No walk- on items. >> Okay, moving on to the community portion. If anyone would like to address the board, they can come to the podium. We just ask for name and address for public records and um you can talk to the board about anything. Good day. I'm coming through. >> Okay. I'm David Pash, uh 5304 Napoleon Road,
017uh actually Helena, Ohio as the address. Um I uh graduated um from Ross, class of 58, the only class that uh uh never lost a football game in their entire career, high school career. So I got to get a plug for that. [gasps] Uh I I interested in the uh the pledge of allegiance the boys did. I always feel lucky when I I don't do that too often because I don't go to meetings that have a lot of that. But I always feel lucky because u uh I was not under God for 14 years and somehow I made it, you know, because they back in 1954, Eisenhower uh signed it into law um lobbyed by the Knights of Columbus um hardly and they found somebody who would sign the law for him. So we put
018it under God. So, uh, I was about 16 days short of of not being under God. So, it was kind of interesting. Anyway, what I'm what I'm here for is first of all, I want to commend this uh board of education superintendent uh for um taking on the job that has been taken on for many many many many thousands of years by people who want their children to be educated. I commend your time and your uh all your efforts uh to do that. I have just uh uh one of your things you're trying to do of course is eliminate ignorance. And ignorance is is not knowing. That's all ignorance means. You're not knowing. I come with a lot of ignorance. A lot of things I don't know. Uh but a couple things I need to
019know. I would like to know. And I'm going to direct this question because I only have what five minutes or something. Right. Okay. I'm going to direct this question to the superintendent. uh lifewise program. Um I I sort of need the stats on that. Is it possible to get those stats from last year's from like kindergarten to sixth grade? How many how many were involved? How many were involved from 7th grade to 9th grade? Then how many were involved from 10th grade through 12th grade? Uh that's really what I would like to find out. Um life was kind of a new program. We uh of course back in the 1958 and those areas we we didn't have that we we reckoned that uh u catechism on Saturday and and the church on Sunday uh would
020keep us from going to hell. So uh this is quite different for us to see this. But anyway, the other thing I wanted to would probably talk to the superintendent about is your because I've been a science teacher as some of you know for a million years at least 43 almost next year it'll be half of my life. Uh 43 years in the area and I also taught uh high school for 5 years in Australia Australian high school. So I've been around a little bit. Um I'm wondering about your um biology uh specifications. Um the biology is pretty much uh as a pillar of biology, you have the theory of um uh um of um uh getting uh when you have evolution, you have a theory of evolution. uh and uh theory of course is
021the best thing you can say because uh it's not a law uh it uses laws in order to make the theory but theory is the best you can do about anything like the theory of the sun centered earth you know it's the same it's the same thing it just has theory has a lot of of uh facts and a lot of information that pretty much explains why it's the theory so I'm wondering do you have in your biology ology classes you do use as a pillar the the uh uh evolution the theory of evolution as a pillar in your classes because it's required by state to do that you do >> we are you okay >> yeah go ahead >> um Mr. P, thank you for your questions and I will be happy to pull
022some of this information and get back with you. Great. >> Um, I can tell you in Fremont City Schools as well as in the state of Ohio, we do follow those science standards. Good. >> And so all of those pieces would be part of that. Um, there is a very slight difference between the national science standards and the state of Ohio science standards. Um, and we do follow the Ohio standards, but I'm I'm happy to go back and find where that's listed for you and and give you some more information so you have a list. I've gone through the list. I'm just wondering if we're following it. Also wondering if you have students sometimes sometimes uh for for sometimes religious reasons, people don't want to have their children be exposed to the theory of evolution.
023And do you uh let's say do you have people who who can get out of that uh class and even though they missed that part of the class, they still can graduate with uh that certificate. >> That that is accurate. We would have we do allow within the district some opportunities for some exemptions from some of the learning components that take place. they are kind of sprinkled throughout um K12 and a variety of topics and concepts. Um and we have a process in place where parents can notify their school building their principal. Um and then when we when that comes up, we do try to substitute that time, meet those standards in a way that's appropriate. Um because ultimately we want to make sure that we're preparing our students in the best manner that we
024can >> for completion of um of those those uh that credit for that's assigned to that class. And yes, there are times that some of those things are tied to state level assessments um and biology would be one of them. So we would really want to make sure that our students are receiving all of the instruction necessary so that they're have the best chance of being successful. Great. Well, thank you. I I think that's all I need to know. Uh um I appreciate your time and and uh hope you continue your uh um work uh of uh getting rid of some ignorance, [laughter] which education does. >> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Right. [clears throat and cough] There's no one else that wants to address the board. We will go ahead and move
025on, Denise, to the superintendent report. >> Thank you, Mr. Price. Good evening, everyone. Um, we do have a couple of committee meetings that we will share out this evening. Um, as well as we have, um, a highlight of our strategic plan. I would like to take a moment to give a shout out before we get going to we have two individuals, two student athletes from Fremont Ross High School that will be representing all of us at the state cross country meet um that coming up next weekend. They qualified this past weekend. So, a big shout out to Bentley Lopez and uh he's a 10th grader and to Lily Kaiser who is a ninth grader and both will be representing the community of Fremont at the state uh cross country meet. So kudos to them. Also,
026just a little plug um that our we tomorrow night will be hosting our Rosco's roundt at Ber Public Library at 700 p.m. So an opportunity for the community to come together and um have some chat about our strategic plan and ask questions, get some information, and um hopefully have some some information going forward. We have set those dates and those informations have been shared and are on our district website. We I have tried to vary the time frame and the location for those Rascos round tables. So the last one we did at 9:30 at one of our coffee shops downtown and tomorrow night will be at 7:00 p.m. at Burchcher Public Library. So hopefully that helps our community to get behind us and come alongside of us in in the work of our strategic plan.
027Um if it's okay I'll jump to Mr. Anway first since I'm just talking about the strategic plan and then I'll come back to those meeting minutes. Um so this evening one of the things that we had decided several years ago actually is that the second board meeting of every month would be a work session. Um which kind of goes right along with what Mr. Pash was saying earlier. It's an opportunity for us to to educate um our board members, our community members, our staff, anyone that's listening and to highlight some different components of the district. So, in the last couple of years, we have learned a ton. We have seen instruction in action. We have seen um students perform. We have heard from staff members and administrators that can take a moment to share some
028things that are happening in their building. Since we have a new strategic plan this year, we've decided that uh these work sessions would be an opportunity to highlight um how that strategic plan is being implemented in our buildings and you guys get to hear from me all too often. So when these work sessions come up, I will be inviting building administrators to come forward and to share a component of the strategic plan and how it's working and looking in their building. So I'm excited this evening to introduce Mr. Steve Anway. He is our one of our assistant principles here at Fremont Middle School. He is going to talk to us a little bit tonight about our um strategic our common uh component of serving the community. The strategic objective for this is the cultivate reciprocal
029partnerships that enhance positive relationships and strengthen district pride. So we have two action steps underneath that strategic objective. The first one being to promote community partnerships by publicizing staff shoutouts on social media. We wanted to do better at communicating through social media and letting our community know these are some cool things that are happening in our buildings. Our second action step was to actively engage and acknowledge community members for their donated time, talents, and resources. every month we or every meeting we sit here and we talk about the generosity of our community and how much they their support benefits us. Um so we also wanted to try to really take an honest initiative to that and and give back where we could and acknowledge where we could. >> So Mr. Anway, thank you for joining
030us this evening and tell us how community looks in Fremont Middle School. >> My pleasure. And as a bonus, whether I was supposed to or not, I think this also will talk about the [clears throat] student component as far as encouraging leadership, innovative choices, and perseverance, and um to practice employability skills. So, >> fantastic. >> Um, [clears throat and cough] excuse me. What I gave you before the meeting started is just a picture out in the cafeteria. And hopefully all of you have seen it. Maybe it uh struck a chord, maybe it didn't, meant something. But I'm I'm here tonight to kind of tell you where that came from. And then this was four years ago, so how it does tie to our strategic plan in 2025. Uh back in the summer of 2021, I
031attended the uh Sunduski County manufacturing boot camp. [clears throat and cough] And at that boot camp we toured Century Die um auto kineton on a autokinaton in Belleview Whirlpool Progress TAC whose president is a is a Ross graduate it's in Clyde ABC Inowak and motion controls and what we heard and when I say we this was um educators counselors administrators teachers from all over Sunduski County Gibson uh St. go um all over Sunduski County. Clyde, what we heard by and large, and I'm sure you've heard the same thing uh from at all of these places, what they're looking for. Show up on time, good attitude, work hard, and do what you're asked to do. Really not that hard, but that's what people were looking for, and I think that's what people are still looking for.
032And I I put those under the leadership, innovative choices, and p perseverance is what these uh companies were looking for. And also, Mrs. Hurt has us reading a book. And I say has us because I was going to buy it when we were at the seminar to do it, but it's called answering why. And I don't know if you've discussed that as a board or not, or maybe you even have the book, but um I'm taking some things uh you've probably heard the term soft skills, but he calls them, the author Mark Pera calls them professional skills, and a lot of that is just knowing how to shake hands like the young people who gave the pledge. I saw Mr. Price doing that. you know, there there's a lot of teachable moments to do things
033like that. So, I went to this in 2021. It's something I really enjoy. Um, I was in the private sector for a period of time, saw a lot of different factory floors, the big three in Detroit, different things like that. So, this is something I really enjoy and kind of have a passion for. So, we did this. um we had to do a final project and I can't remember exactly what my project was but I came back and I looked and here at the middle school three grades we have three teams in each grade so we have nine teams here and I thought and part of my project was what if we could get a business as well as to have Ohio University and Capital and Tiffen University and H Highleberg BG um Cincinnati what
034if we could have a business that went with each of those teams as well so uh went out, knocked on some doors, made some phone calls, and found nine businesses who were willing to partner with us. What we did with that, their only cost was we asked them to pay the $30 to have their decal put up on the college decal, which is what you see in the picture in front of you. I didn't want this to appear to be a money grab of some type or, you know, for $300 you can do it, whatever. Didn't want that to be the purpose of this at all. Uh quite honestly, it wasn't hard to find nine businesses. Um so we went out or did this um some of them provided like a golf shirt for all
035the teachers on their team, others pencils, different types of swag, different things like that. And we asked and I asked them to come in as often as they'd like or as few times as they'd like to come in and talk to their team. I told them each team would be about 100 kids. talk to them about those soft skills or professional skills. That was the goal of this was to plant that seed with our kids about those professional skills as well as what they do at their factory, whether it's Green Bay Packaging, Crown Battery, ABCAC, whatever it might be, what they do at that factory. So, uh they've they agreed to do that. It has been it has been successful. Um there have been challenges along the way. Uh there are company changes, changes in
036ownership, there's been buyouts. The people that I talked to when we first started this four years ago are no longer there. We lose contacts. So that's that's been a challenge. Uh HR is who we typically deal with. Uh those people change and we learn as a school that we are not the top priority of everybody because we want you to come in and talk for a period. Um that's not necessarily their priority. So, not getting phone calls returned and they're busy and we know, we absolutely know that and recognize that. I think it is eye opening to some of our staff that I I've left three voicemails for them and we can't get a call back, but eventually we have and sometimes it takes a little bit more work than it's taken with others. So
037currently we have ABCAC, Crown Battery, Green Bay Packaging, Moser Construction, uh BMG that used to be the Freeman Company, Style Crest, Whirlpool, Unaloy that used to be Century Die, and Motion Controls. Those are the ones that we deal with right now. By far, Green Bay Packaging has been our most successful endeavor in this. Um I think even before school started, they already have four dates. um one in each quarter where they will come in and talk to our kids. Uh they have brought cookies in, pencils, little pine trees all sign, well not all but the pine trees significant of because they have the cardboard to to excuse [clears throat] me to grow plant more trees to regenerate more trees. Uh that was also their HR person had two kids who who were here in school
038or have gone through school here. uh her youngest is a freshman now. That has gone really really well. So when we talk about cultivating reciprocal partnerships, uh this has certainly worked out well. Motion Industries has been very good. Crown Battery has been very good. Um uh Whirlpool was good. We've kind of fallen off a little bit with them. Uh ABCAC has now changed um to Arya, which is out on the south end southwest corner of town out there. So we keep bringing teams in as some show not a lot of interest and again nobody's at fault when they don't have that interest. It's just priorities change things change. Mosher construction has not has not panned out the way we thought but nobody's fault certainly. Um it's just a matter of finding the people who want
039to do that. We've also had successes [clears throat] as I said Green Bay Packaging. Um probably the best success happened and Mrs. Parker relayed this story to me not too far into the school year. She was, I believe, at Kroger, um, Walmart, doesn't matter where, but, young lady who she recognized came up to her who had graduated and was working at BMG, which used to be the Freeman Company. Um, and I don't know how it came up in their conversation, but she actually remembered when they had come in in the eighth grade and talked to her class and she just remembered what they did and she was looking for a job and that's where she ended up. So, it I I guess it was the first time that we really bore fruit out of this
040endeavor where we got somebody who was doing it. So, felt pretty good about that. Um [clears throat and cough] probably the other and I don't want to take too much time here but um in the book Mr. Pera talks about filling an awareness gap and the difference between going to going to college for the sake of going to college and then all the opportunity that's out there for young people now and exposing them to Vanguard and again exposing them to all these businesses where you don't have to be a college graduate. If you are, certainly if you're an accountant or um certain things, you need a college degree for that. But there's so many opportunities and quite frankly opportunities to make a lot of money uh without a college degree. If you just have those
041professional skills, showing up on time, good attitude, work hard, maybe they'll pay for your college, they'll they'll if you want to make them keep you, they'll find a way to do it and show you things to do. Um, I would entertain any qu I had some personal I I I I will share one personal thing and this literally happened yesterday. I was sitting having dinner somewhere and got to talking to the guy next to me. He is in the carpenters union out of Toledo. [clears throat] They are his his company is doing the demo portion of the Toledo Museum of Art, which I didn't realize they were adding on, I believe, 130,000 ft wing or new edition. >> Oh, wow. his company is doing the demo part of that. He said his or the carpenters
042union will start people at $55 an hour which is about $110,000 280 hours in a in a year. So a little over $110,000 and with benefits it's worth about $90 an hour. And he said I put in quote he is starving for workers and and that just shouldn't be. So, I'll I won't get on an editorial about this, but [laughter] I do have a passion for this. I think I also have a passion for [clears throat] some of our kids who who don't have an example of a teacher or an accountant or a professional person in their life. And that doesn't make them bad parents or anything like that. I was a first generation. I'm the first one from my family to graduate from college. Um, I just think this is an opportunity when we
043get these kids in here who are lost. And yes, they're only they start at 11 through 13, they leave here at 12 to 14 years old to at least plant that seed with them, what's out in the community, and regardless of whether it's here or Clyde or Toledo or Columbus or wherever it might be, what they might need to be successful. So, so that's our goal and that goes to the students and on the encouraging leadership, innovative choices, and perseverance. So, I would entertain any questions if anybody has any. >> Mr. Anway, >> I appreciate you saying all that and I've said from day one, it's like, you know, you've got the kids that, >> yes, they've got scholarships coming, blah blah blah. You know, they've been in sports. It's the kids that are the
044lost ones, the ones that doesn't have the family support. You just, you just hit it all on the head. Those are the ones we have to get to. And we got to show them all these steps and it's easy steps to get there. You know, it's the hard work. It's the showing up, all that. You just got to do that. We got to get back to normal. We have to get back to how it used to be. We have to get there somehow. And we need them to get motivated. We need to show them somehow. We got to get to the root of these kids and let them know the importance of all this because this is real life stuff. This is real life stuff. We're in school and that's fine. You're going to get
045older and older. there's a day you're not going to be in school anymore. What are we going to do about this? You know, and and to me, that's one of the most important things about school is is what's the finished product that comes out of here? What do they know? What are they taking away from Fremont City Schools? >> I that means the world to me of what you're doing right now. Honestly, >> I tend to agree, but that's my obvious [laughter] shared opinion to some extent. It frustrates me to no end when and I sit in a lot of IP meetings and different meetings, but what would you like to do? That's always a question. What future planning and well they want to be an NBA, MLB, NFL player, uh they want to be
046a gamer, >> but it almost frustrates me as much when some when they say go to college because it's just been ingrained in our students, I think. And quite frankly, it was with me. I got good grades. So my mom and dad said I was going to go to college somewhere. I grew up on a farm and dad said you're not there's not enough land here to make a living doing that so you're going to go to college and it didn't go real well at first but uh [laughter] you know but went through it but there's opportun so many opportunities for kids and there are yeah for the BCD kids not the straight A kids there's opportunities everywhere for these kids if we can get them to think that way that through vanguard through electrical
047trades welding HVAC whatever it might There's some huge opportunities there to literally come out with no debt and make $50 $60,000 a year. >> Mhm. >> In your first year. >> Yeah. >> Well, I know a gentleman, he's 27. He graduated from Okar and he was at Sentinel and he went through that and he did the um the what was it? carpentry >> and he was a senior in high school and he's making money working >> and going to seniors in high school. >> They wouldn't let him play on the baseball team cuz he didn't have enough classes. He said, "It's all right. I have a job." >> Now he works for It's the company OCP. They're out there doing the commissioners building. >> Mhm. >> He work He's doing that. They're they're making I
048mean they've got a lot of jobs coming in. So he's not without work at all. And he didn't have to pay for they paid for him to go to school, >> right? >> Yeah. >> One of my most one of the most proud moments I've had I've been doing this for about 32 years and about 25 of an in administration was actually I was at Old Fort, but asked the [clears throat] student what he was going to do and he knew he was going to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Toledo. He knew he was going to do a four-year apprenticeship. He knew he was going to make, I believe at that time, 30 $35,000 a year. And when he finished that apprenticeship, he was going to make whatever it was. And he was
049a BC student, the most unassuming, about 6'4, 110 lb soaking wet. But he knew exactly what he was doing. >> So, >> but you got [clears throat] to hear that from somewhere. Do you know what I mean? You have to have >> absolutely >> people in your environment and people around you encouraging, you know, encouraging that. >> Yeah, >> absolutely. I was I was privileged last year um when um Green Bay Packaging was doing a presentation here with [clears throat] students and I got to be able to see that in action and and truly it was just amazing all of the kids sitting in the studio all just captivated by being able to learn something different as far as those options after high school. Um, you know, and in growing up in Fremont, you think,
050oh, everybody knows what Green Bay does or what they make or, you know, everybody knows what Motion Controls does or and they don't. And so unless they were tied to that, unless they had a parent or, you know, a family member of some sort, they really didn't have that information. And once that was shared, it was the coolest thing because you just kind of saw that whole little light bulb come on these faces, these middle school kids thinking, "Oh, that's different than I thought." Or, "Oh, I that I could do that." Or so just making the opportunity for those connections um for all of our kids and then allowing them the options and putting opportunities in front of them and helping them make those connections. And and when you talk about cultivating reciprocal partnerships, they
051come in and see that all of our kids are not the 2% that are in the paper for vandalizing or graffiti or whatever. They see that our kids, they stand in front of 90 kids who maybe there's a giggle here and there about something, but they behave. And it and it works both ways. I think they leave >> here impressed with our kids as well. having $90 an hour I could be on retirement. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. [laughter] >> But I think too having all these companies come in, it shows even if you are that straight A student and you're planning on going to college that how many college degrees are being used at these nine companies, you know, whether it's HR, whether it's administration, whether it's engineering, whether it's, you know, motion control, there's, you
052know, robotics. So there's a lot of engineering and science and everything else. So um even for that kid that thinks, well, I need to go to college cuz my parents expect me to or whatever, but I really like this side of it and can get and I can be there are these jobs everywhere, even in Fremont, Ohio, if I choose to >> to come back here after college. There's so many places to utilize that degree or >> Yeah. So >> that's good feeds, little seeds for our middle school kids as as you highlighted for, you know, some of those kiddos that went on to high school, but we are also now we're strongly encouraging those high school kids to get have job shadows and to make sure that they are out in the community and
053they have to come back and report on that and they have to so this way it gives them a little door open and they have a connection to some of those as well. >> Some kiddos have to pay their way through college. So, if I if I'm going to come back here to Whirlpool, >> you know what I mean? If I'm going to work the summer before I graduate at Whirlpool, >> um or any of these, you know, places and have a summer job to help, you know, pay for my education. >> That was me. >> Mhm. >> Even at Whirlpool, you can go in and they'll do journeyman. You can do school through them. You can become an electrician, uh uh maintenance. They they bring you in off the floor. You can do that
054from the floor up if you want to go through that way. >> Y >> lots [clears throat] of options. All right. >> Thank you, Mr. Hanway. I appreciate you sharing this evening. Thank you. >> Um All right. Just to finish up my superintendent report. We have uh CQC Met minutes. Um I'm not sure which of you is going to share, Miss Lewis. That'd be fantastic. Um so we met on September 11th and October 9th um to review different curriculum requests um in September we heard about the um the CKLA [clears throat] um English language arts um update. I I think during that meeting um you know that the teachers were talking about how how awesome it is but how tedious not tedious that's a bad choice of words but just how involved uh the curriculum
055is and it is time consuming um in the best way possible um because it's so involved and in depth. Um again this is the first this is the first year for that. Um so I think there's a learning curve associated um with that curriculum. And I think the message I I gave to the teachers is give yourself some grace. Uh give yourself some grace to to learn something new um and watch kiddos flourish. We had some kiddos using some $ five dollar words um that were all a product of um this CK CKLA um curriculum. So, it's very promising. Um at our October meeting, we heard um from a few teachers from the high school to get various um class changes um to change stats to from a semester class to a year-long class. Um
056which would eliminate trig um but I think that was found to be okay. um just with the number of kids or that do or don't take um that class. Um and and some of those TRIG um the foundations of TRIG are also in algebra 2 and calculus which are still available to our our students. Um Mr. Guestner, our new business teacher at Ross, is on fire for the business program at Ross. He is so pumped, so excited um for all of the opportunities that are before him uh to make some some changes uh and revamp that um department. Um he would like to add QuickBooks to the current curriculum. Uh we talked a lot about how that would be um again when we're talking about skills to to have kids walk out of Fremont Ross
057with uh to be able to run QuickBooks. I think one of the CQCC members is a business owner and um you know advised herself like yep we tried QuickBooks and it is tough um on top of having a full-time job running the store and all those things. So to be able to potentially walk out of um the the business department um with with that skill and that certificate um as something tangible, you know, for our for our students. Um didn't quite approve that yet. We want to there's a few questions and a few bugs to work out. Um so Mr. Gestner um is going to complete the program and then come back to us and talk about um answer some of those questions and work out some of those bugs. Um Miss Bayer from the
058um Ross Science Department um proposed bringing back environmental science uh as an advanced science class option. Um this is just to allow another uh science option for our high school students um again some students are on a trajectory uh career-wise and they're aware of that right now. um to go into the science field and this would just help strengthen uh them at the high school level to be prepared for what they're going to uh encounter at the collegiate level. Um our Ross art teacher, Mr. Scherzer, um requested a name change from advertising design to digital art and design. Um, this would allow an increase in student understanding about what the class is is actually about. Um, one thing that that wasn't necessarily in the minutes, but it was a a huge part of the discussion,
059um, was about marketing classes to our students. Um, we have a lot of students that fit the um, the mold that Mr. Vanway was talking about just kind of that middle of the road student. Um, so it's very applicable to what you just said. Um, there are these opportunities for them, but how do we get them to know that? Uh, something very similar happens at the high school level. Um, again, no matter what kind of student you are, um, and I put my own daughter on the spot during that meeting. um and was texting her and asking her like, "Do you know how to access uh scholarships? She's a sophomore. I we're we're at go time, you know. Do you know how to access um and not all of those responses were what I would
060have hoped they would have been? Um, part of that is her, but part of that is um, she's in the not knowing what you should know yet phase, but um, how do we market classes to to our students um, so they can have, um, a career path? if they have a career path in mind, what can they do in high school to get them best prepared for what they're going to do after high school? Um, as a parent of a high schooler, I don't know, CCP versus AP. We're I'm living in that experiment right now. I don't know we made the best choice, but she made the choice and I'm going to support her and we're going to roll with it. Um, but some some of our kiddos I I think need a little bit
061more education. [clears throat] Um, don't know who does that. Is that a guidance department? Um, cuz that role looks different than what it was when 100 years ago when I was in school. I mean, I can I can nail it on what to do in 1995. I'm going to get an F at what to do in 2025. You know, looks a little different. So, I I think that's an important piece that we need to explore um for all of our kiddos. Um just just giving them a little bit more guidance and a like I said, a trajectory. Um, if you know right now, uh, as a freshman in high school or a sophomore in high school that you want to go into the medical field, what do you do? You know what I mean? Do
062you do you get all your gened stuff out of the way? Do you do that via AP classes? Do you do that via CCP classes? There's so many opportunities, but I don't think all of us know how to put all the pieces together. And that was a huge part of the conversation um that happened at that CCP uh that last CCP meeting and it was kind it came from Mrs. Bear or Miss Beer's discussion on environmental science and adding that back in um because it's been it's been gone and now it's been woken back up because we have zoology. >> It's not zoology, it's zoology for everybody who wanted to know. Um and and th this the addition of this class for a student who is on a trajectory, you know, to work in, you
063know, the sciences like that um makes sense. So I just wanted to make sure that that piece um of the meeting didn't get lost. >> I think >> Thank you very much. Um we also this evening have um we had a finance committee meeting. So we have meeting minutes for that. Mr. Nally, is that you? >> Uh yes. Um a lot of the meeting we had discussion based on what was going on at that point in time uh legislatively. So I won't you know a lot of that's information that I shared earlier that's already been updated. But I would mention um that uh Megan um had indicated that the September financials were a big part of putting together the uh five-year forecast or three-year but she does five. [laughter] So, um was one of the
064areas and then um let's see uh two other quick areas. One was talking about insurance rates, health insurance, and um what those increases are going to be within our district. And uh so that was another area. And then um uh we won't be meeting in November due to the um uh conference that most of us would be attending for Ohio School Board Association and we'll meet again in uh middle of December. And that was pretty much it. >> Fantastic. A lot of information this evening. Thank you very much. You're okay, Mr. Price. I'll continue. >> Yep. Great. Um, I would ask the board's approval beginning with item number one, the donations this evening, beginning with uh our wonderful Laura Layman and down to the Sundeski County Retired Teachers Association. [clears throat] >> All right. Can
065I get a motion to approve item one, please? >> So move. >> Motion by Miss Lewis. Could I have a second? >> Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Lewis. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Bloom. >> Yes. Miss Layman, >> yes. >> Mr. Ny, >> yes. >> Mr. Price, >> yes. Motion's approved. >> Wonderful. Thank you very much. Um, item number two begins some of our staff pieces. Um, starting with a resignation of Lynn Shrader. She has been in the district for, I believe, a little over 26 years. So, we thank her very much. She'll be retiring at the end of this school year. Item number three, we have some appointments beginning with some certified staff. um some new uh a new cook in our district and some support staff substitutes
066as well. Item number four, we have a sub two supplemental contracts uh one for an after school program and one for a varsity assistant wrestling coach for our girls program. We also then keep going with item number five and we have um two more coaches to be added uh middle school boys basketball and varsity another varsity wrestling coach position. Item number six are some special event workers and ending here with item number seven. These are special event workers that would be for um tournament activities that would take place this fall. And I get a motion to approve items 2 through 7, please. >> So moved. >> Motion by Mr. Nally. Could I have a second? >> Second by Miss Layman. Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Nally? >> Yes. >> Miss Layman? >>
067Yes. >> Mrs. Bloom? >> Yes. >> Miss Lewis? >> Yes. >> Mr. Price? >> Yes. Motion's approved. >> Thank you. [clears throat] Um, item number eight may look familiar to you because we spent a couple board meetings ago, maybe in August. Um, it was a big deal because we were waited and waited and waited for these model policies and procedures of the special education world to come forward. Um, and we board approved those. We now are beginning that annual cycle. So now every year, according to um, Ohio law, those will have to be board approved by November. So you'll start to see them after this year. You'll start to see them in every October. So just and there's no changes to what you have previously seen or approved. >> Can I get a motion to
068approve item eight, please? >> So moved. >> Motion by Mrs. Bloom. Could I have a second? [clears throat] >> Second by Miss Lewis. Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Bloom. >> Yes. Miss Lewis. >> Yes. >> Miss Layman. >> Yes. >> Mr. N. Yes, >> Mr. Price. >> Yes. Motion's approved. >> Thank you very much. >> Moving on to report of the treasur. >> Uh, good evening. It's hard to see that um it's almost the end of October. So, I feel like I just closed out September, but um next week, well, this week and next week, we're cleaning up all the bank transactions for the month and seeing what everything hit. Um, so while that's on my the September financials are what I'm reporting on tonight, [snorts] my brain's actually in October. So
069that's kind of where that was at. Like Mr. um, Nelly had said, the 5-year forecast really heavily focused on that those September financials because that's our best information at this point in time. >> [clears throat] >> So that was and whatever was going on legislatively, which as of this afternoon, there's more bills on the um floor of the House and the Senate to change school funding. So can't wait for that. I'm so excited. Um any changes to school funding just makes my world simpler. Um [laughter] >> said no school treasure ever, >> right? Um, [clears throat] you want to talk about an area that needs people to apply for it? Um, employees, I can go talk to every school. I don't know. I can convince them to be a treasure, but can tell you we
070need them. Um, so I somehow closed my financials, so I got to bring those up. I should be better with technology. Oh, I think I can do it. Oh, I printed it off. Look at that. Well, technology is failing me tonight. Um, the biggest takeaway from the financials was just that we have to watch um, did I find it? Maybe. Yes, I did. Okay. So really the only thing that the financials brought up that I did not really talk about in the um the fi first financial forecast of this year is just that um September's a good marker for us to really start seeing those where our salary expenses come just because that's when it starts our staff starts coming back um any new staff that we have hired, all of those um teacher contracts
071start September 1. So that those payrolls really start seeing what our monthly expenditures are going to look like in salary and benefits, which is our main expenditure. So this is a really good starting point for us even though our fiscal year starts July 1, um September really gives us a good look. Staff is back. That's only paid throughout the school year. Um, so that is a September is a really good month to start seeing where we're gonna head with that. So, um, I don't think there's really there's not too much else that I'm going to report on tonight that differs from what I reported on last week. So, that's really unfortunately you don't get to hear me talk too much tonight even Megan. So, our revenues are up >> and a lot of that has
072to do with receiving the um public utility money. If you're looking Yeah. If you look at our revenue lines, the tangible personal property, it looks like it's up almost like 50%. But that just has to do with um real estate taxes um and when that those payments hit. We really don't expect to see tangible personal property be up that high because last year we saw um in January of last year we saw that $2 million hit. So >> or Nexus. >> Yeah. From Nexus from the pipeline >> payment. Yeah. So, Nexus when they started paying when they had the lawsuit finally go through and they started um paying at what was ended up being the decision on it's actually a little bit higher than what they had previously been paying. So, we do see a
073little bit of an increase in that line. Um it's not that we have any more in our public utility world. It's just they're now paying at what they have to pay. They've paid back everything. So once we get the second payment in January, we won't see that large of an increase because that $2 million that came in January of last year, it will kind of even itself out. It'll actually be less than what we received. So that line overall will be less for this fiscal year. Okay. And then we do have a couple appropriations. Um the art club, is it art club? Art [snorts] >> department. >> Art department received a grant from Sunduski County Children's >> Sundeski County Communities Foundation. >> So their youth division of building communities together. >> Um DCT is who
074um honored the grant. It's fantastic for our art department. >> Is that something that the um the educators applied for, the teachers applied for or the students? >> It would um because it is a student initiated um club within the Sessie County Communities Foundation. They ask um for a it to be student oriented um for any of the dollars that they would provide. Um so actually one of our students um who is an avid Ross High School uh art student and is part of art club um actually wrote the grant application and submitted that and was awarded. Um the process with BCT um you have to come before them >> and the students grill you. They u you have to have rationale and they tell you have to tell them the why and they ask
075you questions and um so our student uh Miss Eleanor Boroff is who wrote the grant application um was unfortunately on vacation at the time and so our art department chair u Mrs. Monique Pollock stepped in for her um and told me afterwards what a challenging event that was. Um but they wrote the grant to support some of our displays. Um when we move from old Ross to New Ross, uh we didn't bring all of those materials. Some of them weren't um in the best shape to bring along and so it's been on the list of things to add back in. Um, and what we are hoping to do is on Friday, May, I believe it's the 15th, um, our music showcase that has taken place in our community for many, many years, um, will be,
076uh, transformed slightly and enhanced greatly by now being a fine arts celebration of the district. And so they now have what with this grant um with these grant funds, we'll be able to purchase some displays and some easels and some boards that we will be able to um >> promote our artistic students, our fine art students, as well as our musically um gifted art students. So we're very excited for that Friday night coming up in the spring >> and community. Um >> make you let the cat out of the bag, but that's awesome. >> I know. I'm so [laughter] excited about it though. It's going to be an amazing event. >> And and the group of kids um that are involved are not just Fremont kids >> um in the building communities together. It is
077um a countywide student organization that represents just like the um Sonosi County Communities Foundation. Very countywide based. Um so yes, you have representation from all of the schools, all of the middle and high schools. It's a 712. Um, and we have, I believe, maybe seven students, six students that represent Fremont City Schools between the middle school and the high school. We have a really nice representation. >> That's great. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Megan, for letting me jump into your your moment. >> Oh, darn. You talked more for me than I [laughter] did. So sad. Um, and then also on there, we so we are just wanting to appropriate funds to that so that they can make those purchases. And then we also have um an appropriation change for project attend which is um
078they've found some needs um to spend some additional dollars and they have it available in their cash. So now we just have to make it available for them to spend. So if we can move on to approvals, Mr. Price. >> Okay. >> Um >> so can I get approval for or can I get a motion to approve item nine please for the appropriations? So moved. >> Motion by Mrs. Bloom. Could I have a second? >> Second by Mr. Nally. All >> any discussion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Bloom. >> Yes. >> Mr. Nally, >> yes. >> Miss Layman, >> yes. >> Miss Lewis, >> yes. >> Mr. Price, >> yes. Motion's approved. >> Okay. And then item 10 is the financial report for September. Can I get a motion to approve item 10, please?
079>> Move. >> Motion by Miss Layman. Can I have a second? >> Second by Miss Lewis. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Layman, >> yes. >> Miss Lewis, >> yes. >> Mrs. Bloom, >> yes. >> Mr. Nally, >> yes. >> Mr. Price, >> yes. Motion's approved. >> All right, moving on to board member communications. done. >> Um, the only thing I was uh [clears throat] listening to it during the meeting, I I caught where there was a comment about guidance counselors. I think at some point in time, it'd be good to have someone maybe come in and or one of the counselors come in and kind of just talk about the scope of what they're doing now compared to maybe what they did 10 years or 20 years ago. and you know
080just just a little bit of aformational uh piece and that's all I really had tonight there. Um November 7th through 9th the Fremont Ross High School um is having their fall musical. So, if you are interested in that, um you can contact I would assume Mrs. Moore in the finance office to get tickets. The hometown ticketing app to get um tickets is probably the easiest um way if you are um a friend to technology. Um go ahead and hop on that hometown ticketing um website or app to purchase your tickets. Um, our kids always do a phenomenal job um in their presentations. So, we would definitely encourage the the public to come out and support our kiddos. Um, shout out. We have a lot of student athletes doing a lot of neat things uh playoffbound
081uh football team and beyond cuz I don't always say that. >> Um, like uh Superintendent Hurt said, we have two statebound cross country runners. Um, our JV and varsity cheer squad competed on Saturday. Uh, the JV got runner up. Varsity placed fifth. Um, we had in volleyball. Um, first team, uh, NLLL, Hayden Dirkson, uh, Kylie Kidd and Tiara Parker. Uh, second team to Ria Smith. Um, soccer. I thought this was pretty neat. Our boys soccer team. Um this is the first time that they've made it into postseason play in over a decade. Um so shout out to the to the boys um soccer team. Gabe Wensinger, first team NLL. Um and then for the ladies um Ashton Marseilles and uh Alberto Martinez earned second team honors. So shout out to all of our students, student
082athletes. Um, I hope parents know by now that Gray Cards went home on Friday for [laughter] the high school, middle school. So, um, and I will always do a shameless plug for, um, Progress Book. Um, if you need to know what's going on with your student, um, if you, uh, can get on to progress book, you can see, um, how your kiddo's doing, what things are out there, do um, and how they're how they're performing. If you would need help with that, I would advise that you see a building administrator um, for for assistance with that. Um, and then happy and safe trick-or-treating uh out there on Friday. Laura, >> uh, we had the privilege of feeding the Fremont Ross football team last Friday and my work does it. Um, we usually take the last
083home game of the season and it's just fun. It's fun spending time with the boys. It's fun hearing their stories, um, their goals that they're working on and just their silliness just being in there, you know, it's it's kids being kids. So, um, so I had a privilege of doing that. And then, um, while I was there, I got to meet the new athletic trainer, um, Travis Walker, and he seems pretty very motivated and ready to go and seemed like a pretty nice guy. So, I was kind of the right place at the right time for that. So, it kind of all fell together. Um, other than that, yeah, safe trick-or-treating, everybody. >> Um, well, congratulations to Lynn Schrader on retiring. That's always [clears throat] a good thing when they can get to do that.
084Um, thanks Megan and Mr. Anway. I agree [clears throat] with Mr. Anway. That's I mean, if you can do a trade, it's not it's not a bad thing to do. It's it can be an amazing thing. It college isn't for everybody and sometimes it's just not even something you can do whether you cannot afford it or get a scholarship. It's expensive and sometimes you're I've seen a lot of people go to college and get a degree and they don't do anything with that degree. But a trade is something you can do right from the get-go and it can be something that can build up and they pay you a lot of times to do that. So it's a it's a good thing to get into for all the kids. They're not sure what they want
085to do. Look into my nephew's an iron worker. They're begging for iron workers. If you're not afraid of heights and you like to weld, go climb a building and weld up. And yeah, not for me. But [clears throat] and thank you to all the event workers and the coaches and all the staff and everybody that we have coming on. >> Um thanks Steve for coming in talking about what's going on at the middle school. It's always good to hear about different schools um what they have going on and how they're helping students get through everything in life going on right now. So um thank you to our three students from Lutz Elementary and from Eagle TV. um good job there coming in and doing the the pledge, but also um being a part of that
086TV club at your school. So, um good luck to our two cross country runners. They're running this weekend. Is it Saturday? >> I believe it's Saturday. Um and then good luck to the football team Friday night against Homestead Falls. So, we'll be traveling about an hour east for that game. So, um with that, um there's no reason for executive session. So, could I have a motion for adjournment, please? >> So, moved. >> Motion by Miss Lewis. Could I have a second? >> Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? Roll call, please. >> Miss Lewis, >> yes. >> Miss Bloom, >> yes. Miss Layman, >> yes. >> Mr. N? >> Yes. >> Mr. Price? >> Yes. Motion's approved. Meetings adjourned. >> [music] [music]