001[Music] Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] We can all stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with and justice for all. All right. Roll call, please. Mrs. Bloom, here. Miss Layman, here. Miss Lewis, here. Mr. Nally, here. Mr. Price here. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes from our regular meeting from June 9th, 2025, please? So move. Motion by Mrs. Bloom. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Miss Layman. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mrs. Bloom. Yes. Ms. Layman. Yes. Mrs. Nal? Yes. Miss Levis? I'm sorry. Yes. Mr. Nal? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. Motion's approved. Uh moving on to legislative report. Um just wanted to mention I think I
002the the report that I had sent out to everybody today. Um not a lot of content other than it's um was the fact sheet coming from OSBA. But the key thing as they close in on making a final decision with the legislature, um, who knows how well accepted all the, um, comments from us and leg everybody else in the public school world. Um, but hopefully they're they make good decisions and uh that we see things ending up pretty strong for our schools. Uh I I I think we have a lot of people that are out there fighting for us. Um there are a couple well just really one uh property tax reform seems to still be a very strong component of everything that's going on. Um there's house bill 335 which is property tax relief
003act now now uh proposes reforms including abolishing inside millillage and allowing counties to pursue homestead exemptions. So, you can see there's a lot of things like that that are still in the works. Um, you know, I think our part is just to continue to advocate uh wherever we can for public education and that's really all I had tonight. Okay. Thank you. No walk on items. Nobody here to talk to the board. So, we'll move on to superintendent report. Thank you very much. Um before uh before I jump into the strategic plan, which I'm very excited to show you, um just wanted to give a little shout out. Our summer meal program began today um behind Ross High School and Middle School. It was a very hot delivery day and I do think that the heat
004may have um negatively impacted our numbers. We had a lot of people come by. We'd really tried hard to keep things moving, but um even for individuals that were sitting in their car and waiting in the line to come, um I think that that might have been a challenge for some. We did serve uh 348 um was our count today. Uh and remember that that is five breakfast, five lunch, a bag of produce, and a half gallon of milk. So, a lot of items. Um just a reminder for our community that this will be going on every Monday um from now through August. It's from 11:30 to 1. New this year, we do ask families um it's part of our go government uh backing that they have to register online. That information is on our
005website. Um if they have children in the car with them, um we don't have to take as much time for that registration check and we can just keep things moving through. But for some of our adults, they don't have their children with them. And that's the verification that we need to have. Um, so they need to do that registration ahead of time and just let us know how many children in the household. Um, so that we can provide them the appropriate amount of food items. Um, so went very well today for our first event. Um, so that's exciting. Is the pre-signup, do you see that as being a challenge to many of the families? Um it it could it obviously it could be a barrier I think if some people um struggle with the technology
006piece. Individuals are able if they are not able to pre-register online, they can come into the district office and we can assist them. Um and worst case scenario, they just come through the line and we'll figure it out and make do. So it's it's not a it might be a slight game changer, but it's not a definite no. So, yes, we're very happy with with that turnout today. Great. Um, then I would like to spend a little bit of time um reviewing with you our final draft of our strategic plan. You have a um hard copy in front of you, printed in black and white, madam treasurer. Thank you. um because then I was able to show you um and for all of our viewers at home, they'll be able to see um what it
007looks like in beautiful color. So, just a couple um a couple of pieces. I want to just remind everyone that we spent the year reviewing and revising and drafting. Um we spent a year involving a lot of individuals uh both internal stakeholders to the district, external stakeholders to the district. We asked for a lot of feedback and received a lot of feedback with our um our survey results. There were many many layers that this went through including staff and administration our all the way up to our district leadership team. Um but all of this work started with you our board members in some work sessions um which feels like a really long time ago right now um to feel like that we started way back then. We do have a new format that will allow
008for a little bit easier viewing online um for individuals that want to view things potentially on their phone or on a device and be able to connect with our website. So, I'm excited for that. Um and in this process of all of this review, um just want to remind the community that we maintained our organization. So they will see core components again, they will see strategic objectives again and they will see action steps. Um we determined as a board at this core level that we would keep our core components the same. So we have um our value of students, staff and community. Um and I think that that that speaks volumes for our district. We do have new um mission statement and a revised vision statement. They're very similar to to previous and I would
009just like to read those for everyone. Our mission statement will be Fremont City Schools is driven to provide opportunities to inspire excellence in students, staff, and community. Um and I I strong word there being driven. I think that that speaks uh clearly for our direction going forward and our vision statement to be develop dynamic individuals who will thrive as they make an impact in their local and global communities. Um and again we had a lot of conversation at this level um about maintaining the local and global community piece. We really wanted our students to be successful locally whether that's in their classroom, that's on their team, that's in their building um or their community. and we want them to be successful and thrive for greatness when they leave us and they extend into that larger
010community outside of Fremont, outside of of Fremont City Schools. Um, so I think that that gives us great vision going forward. Again, we will maintain that educating students, supporting and developing staff and serving in the community. So I think that that's um a big positive for us. Just a couple highlights here to draw your attention. Um for students, we all determined that we have the desire for our students to grow and excel to their full potential, their individual full potential, whatever that might look like. Um and then within these action steps, we are highlighting the employability skills that will help our students be successful moving past us. and providing them communication opportunities. We really want to make sure that in the next three years that that's a focus in the district that we are providing
011our students with the opportunity to engage, communicate, speak, practice with each other um and with with members of our community. So, I think that that's a a wonderful opportunity for us to to really sink into highlighting our staff. We really want to look at our professional learning focus. We're highlighting individual learning opportunities as well as team learning opportunities. This is a piece that we heard a lot from our staff um that we really wanted to hear. Staff wants opportunities to learn not only individually but within their team whether that's their content area team, their grade level team. Um we we know we have some new pieces of learning that will take place in our district. our new K5 um English language arts series is going to be a lot of learning for our staff. And
012that was a piece that at our DLT meeting staff were very vocal that they wanted a chance to not only be able to to have conversation within their elementary building, but they would like to have conversation with their second grade peers across the district. Um so that's that's a focus for us. Um, we also very much you'll see action steps really helping our staff and looking at the mental, the physical and the academic professional growth. We want them to have access to a lot of different pieces um that they in turn continue to grow. I think the more we support our staff in those manners, the more our students will benefit. the direct correlation um within the community. We wanted to maintain the reciprocal partnerships. We really felt like that was a very important aspect.
013Um that not only does the district grow when our partners are providing for us and supporting us, but we really want our community partners to grow by having had an impact by our students or our staff. And I think that that mutual component um I think benefits our entire community. So for that to be a focus in the next three years is fantastic. Um we really hope that we can have opportunities to engage reciprocally. So that is that is our focus for those areas. Um also you will see um just a note of thanks again. We had a lot of individuals and a lot of um planning that took place. This was a definitely a year in action um to give us this plan. So, I'm very thankful for that. Tried to mention all of
014our our layers of ter people that were involved. And then at the very end, um we revamped the definition of terms. And I think that this is very important so that our students that are involved with this document, our staff that is involved in this document, um our leaders who are involved and our community members that we're all speaking the same language if we are going to refer to reciprocal partnerships, what does that mean and what does that look like? Um we really played uh greatly with the term employability skills. Um that was a piece that we had a lot of conversation at multiple levels with. Um some people refer to those as soft skills, some people will refer to those as um work skills. Uh we tried to really play with that a little
015bit. These are skills that we want our students to be successful with. They have opportunity to learn from to gain ownership of so that they are more capable in the workforce when they're done. Right? this will make them employable. Um that that is our goal. So it's not just time management but it's an understanding of why that is important. How do I practice it? How do I own it? So I think that the definition of terms it benefits all of us just to make sure that we are all on the same page. Um so there's a lot lot in there. We're very excited about being able to um see that there is an item on the agenda this evening for your approval um of this final draft of the strategic plan. So you have any
016questions or thoughts? I have one. You have one. Please go. um in any um company you work for or agency, if you want the people to buy in, you have to get them engaged with your mission statement and your vision statement. So, I don't I don't know that I have um a question as much as I do just a statement to throw out there. Um, I think it's really important. I can I can see how it would be I don't want to say easy by any stretch, but easier to get the professional staff um on board and engaged. Um, but the the students are a huge piece of that puzzle as you've just described. um that at every level of planning we you know that's been made important. So maybe just a challenge to how
017how do we get our students engaged and bought into um these things in this awesome strategic plan um that we should all be very proud of um for sure. But how do how will we get them engaged in in that? So that doesn't necessarily need a response, you know what I mean, right now, but maybe just some food for thought for all of us. I mean, like how what are we going to do as a district or at a macro level or micro level within the building? like how do we get kids engaged mh in in these things so that they can feel what we feel when we read those terms when we read these goals and objectives um that that they feel like we're really talking about them and we're invested in them so
018they want to be invested as well. So I also think that that goes with the families too the parents it's all of our stakeholders. It is. It's just or I was thinking the same. It's getting all them involved and it's just for them to realize we have a good school system here. We're going forward. What What can you guys do to get serious about things? And half the reason, you know, things go wrong is cuz the parents aren't involved, you know? So, how do we get them serious into the seriousness that Fremont City Schools has to help their kids excel to the best of their potential? Well, and and I want to be careful about, you know, parents not being involved. Sometimes parents are overwhelmed and parents have multiple children and parents have to work
019and parents have a lot of true, you know, things as as well. I I hear what you're saying, but I want to be careful. Definitely, you know, about how we I think you can always, you know, there's you guys get the gist. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, and I think I think to I take that challenge. But I think let's let's really look at how do we get this document into the hands of our stakeholders, the hands and hearts of our stakeholders so that they do get that buy in, so that they do get excited about it and that we do have one common mission and vision. Okay, awesome. Great idea. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think another part for anybody is everybody plays a part. I mean, if you have a body, the
020body needs the body as a whole to work. And even like you were saying, maybe at this point, the part that I can play is the knuckle of my little pinky finger because I've got so much going on that man, if there's something little I can do with that pinky, great. You know, there might be another time a year from now that man, I can be that big leg doing whatever the running needs to be done, you know? So it's even if it's the tiniest little thing of picking up trash when you're at an event that needs to be thrown away, just pick it up and throw it away. It just makes our facility look better and then all of a sudden somebody might see clean facility and it was as simple as picking up
021a water bottle out of the wait room that is left in there all the time. But you know, it's just, you know, so I think, you know, everybody has a little part somewhere. But yeah, give what you can give, but give something just like you said, even if it's something small. Mhm. And then you're being a good example for your child, too. And it just goes so far. But yeah, I hope there's a good plan here. It's got a lot of potential in it. Put it that way. So, it can go as far as we wanted to go. Amen. I think we can do this. Uhhuh. Fantastic. Thank you very much. All right. That is all I had this evening. [Music] All right. You're okay, Mr. Price. I'll continue. Yep. Right. Thank you. Um item
022number one, if you would please consider the approval of many, many, many donations. um we came to the end of the year and we were able to pull together um donations to our PTO's and our boosters as well as you'll see a lot of pieces here that came to our buildings in May um for many specific items. So please many donations beginning to PTO all the way to the YMCA. Can I get a motion to approve item one please? So moved. Motion by Miss Layman. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Miss Lewis. Any discussion? I just have one. Oh, only because since my business is on there, should I abstain? Just to be on the safe side. Yeah, sure. Okay. Mhm. I after I saw that, I'm like maybe just to be safe
023to keep it all. Yeah. Um that that's quite a large donation from the athletic boosters. That is and remember that is for the entirety of the year. Okay. This is for the entire year. Um and as well as with those PTO's um we should be seeing that on an annual basis at the end of the fiscal year, at the end of the school year. um we should have one collective donation from those organizations that that closely support our our institutions. Um and they keep track of that throughout the year sometimes instead of those little things that they might do. Um our PTO's many times uh sponsor individual teachers um with an X dollar amount and so they we don't do that each month. We do it one time at the end. Mhm. Well, just in
024general, it's that's substantial support from those um schools that are being supported by parents and community. Absolutely. Kind of that starting point or ongoing point with our strategic plan to keep people involved. Okay. Roll call, please. Miss Layman, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Mr. Nally, yes. Mr. Price abstain. Motion's approved. Thank you. Um item number two, I would ask that uh you consider the approval of the strategic plan that will lead our district, Fremont City Schools, from 2025 to 2028. I have a motion to approve item two, please. So move. Motion by Mr. Nally. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? just wonderful, wonderful work by everybody involved um in the process. I I I really had to think for a minute like we did start this a
025long long time ago um just with the board, but even you know DT and just the work in the district office and you know the input from the um staff and and kiddos and everybody like just a big thank you for a job well done. Thank you. Thank you. All right, roll call, please. Mr. Nally, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Thank you. Um, item number three, I would ask that you approve to grant a Ross High School diploma to our student, Kersh Patel. Can I get a motion to approve item three, please? So moved. Motion by Mrs. Bloom. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Miss Lewis. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Nally, yes.
026Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Thank you. Item number four. Um, this is the approval for the purchase of grades four and five social studies galloped. Um we have had this for the last I believe four years um that our fourth and fifth grade teachers have been using this as one of their primary sources to meet those social studies standards. Um so this is this will move us forward for another five years. Can I get a motion to approve item four, please? So moved. Motion by Miss Layman. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Nally. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Le, Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Nally, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Thank you. Moving on to staff this evening. And item number five, I would ask
027that you or I'm sorry, beginning with item number five, I'd ask that you consider the approval of the resignation of Brent Parker um as from his teacher contract. Item number six, I would ask that you approve an administrative appointment for Mr. Brent Parker as the communication facilitator for the district. Um the what you just viewed with the strategic plan in its formal states at the end, the digital format that we will see soon when it goes live on our website um are just among some of the many many items that Mr. Parker has brought his expertise to our district um in that communication capacity, but we will be able to put it in purple. Yes. Yes. Just not in draft form. Real purple. Real purple that matches the right purple. Item number seven. Um we
028have some additional appointments here. Um and I do have two changes that I would like to note. um with your blessing this evening. Uh Linda Doring is listed um as step one. We have received all of her items. She is returning to us. Um so if you're okay with that, I would like that to read Masters of Education + 15, step 11, and a different dollar amount 71,324. The second individual, Stephanie Liskai, she's listed there as a step one. That should change to a step six for a dollar amount of 50,209. Um that we will then make that reflected in the minutes, but then we will not need to do a status change. It all just came through today and I am trying to Megan and I are trying to make sure that we're facilitating
029these before that July 10 and and we don't have another board meeting before before then. Um Erica Myers is as uh written and so is Gregory Spores and Gabrielle Wit. Um item number eight uh two-year contract to Corey Jolly. Item number nine, supplemental contract for Samantha Lru King, who is returning with us, um, varsity assistant coach. And beginning with item number 10, we have some additional um, appointments as well. Beginning with Gina Heinline as a district officer manager and ending with Tisa Williams. Those are some of our coaches positions that are in there. Um, some of those are new individuals to us, so we're excited to see some new um, as well as some Deja and Kaylee are returning, and we're happy for those as well. Item number 11 is a very long list um,
030of individuals who are some parents, some staff members, and some are just community members that want to support Fremont Little Marching Giants and our music programs. These are all individuals that would like to be bus chaperones with our students when they go on events, our music students um primarily and that is all for next school year. They're already signed up and ready to go for the 2526 school year. Um item number 12 um and then we'll have a roll call for item number 12, Stacy Naggie, is um just a status change there. we previously already hired. Great. Can I get a motion to approve items 5 through 12, please? So moved. Motion by Miss Lewis. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? I was going to say I'm looking forward
031to seeing the things that you bring on the internet. That's a huge a huge piece that can just take all of our information wherever we want it to go. So, I know I'm a big computer person and that's what everybody turns to these days to find out what's going on. So, I'm I'm looking forward to seeing your magic and see what you can do for us. Yeah. And thank you to all the shaper rooms and everything, too, for volunteering. That's a huge a huge help and a need. That position that Brent's going to be doing has been Yeah, it's been a conversation for most of the years that I've been on the board. So, it's it's been years at least. Yeah. Trying to figure out what it is that we need, how do we do
032it, what's the best way to do it, and now it's finally done. So, thank you. That will be very nice. And I think it's great that we have people that have the talent within our current organization that we're able to bring forward. you know, Brent been involved and done so many things for the district and involved with our levies and just really appreciate the work that you've done uh kind of in that communication area and then also teaching our children. I do want to just give a shout out to former board member Shantel Leair. She was the one who originally kind of brought that up and was the driver behind that. So Shantel, if you're listening at home or if someone could relay this message on to her, uh, thank you. The job finally got
033filled, so she'll be a couple years in the works. Yeah. All right. Uh, roll call, please. Miss Lewis, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Nally, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Thank you. Um, all right. Items number 13 and 14. I'm going to start with um an apology. I should have given you a little bit more information potentially before um I should have had a memo for you last week and I do apologize for that. Um I will give you a little bit of information for item 13 um the revised administrative compensation plan. The only changes there are the two administrative positions that we have added um recently. one being the facility or the uh communications facilitator and the other one being the assistant athletic director. Um so we've had those positions. We
034need to solidify them into that uh compensation plan. So that's that's the difference for that. That's why we're bringing that back to you. Okay. Okay. All right. Can I get a motion to approve item 13, please? So moved. Motion by Miss Lewis. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Nally. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Nally, yes. Ms. Bloom, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Thank you. Um, and item 14 is the personnel handbook um for the nonuni unionized classified employees. So, we do have individuals that are classified individuals that do not fall into the OPC contract. um majority of these individuals are placed at the district level um and work within that capacity. And so there's slight changes to that um there that all do coincide
035with the OPC contract uh such as the addition of Junth um as a federal holiday that wasn't in the original list with last time that was printed. Um and then the addition of the office manager stipen. Um this again I feel like is one of those pieces that we have talked about and talked about. Um was to look at that position um in the district office for the individual that manages the building um is restocking everything is taking care of every person is preparing for different things is pulling things together. um and that there's an a little bit additional stipen to go with that. Um we again talked greatly about what that should look like and is that one person or is that you know could that should that be a standalone stipen so that
036it could be attached to the person that was doing the work. Um and that's really where we ended that and so that's the addition to that piece. So that's the changes that you see um within that handbook. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve item 14 please? So move. Motion by Miss Layman. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Miss Lewis. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Layman, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Mr. Nelly, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion approved. Thank you. Moving on. Finished. Moving on to report of the treasure. Did you say the Megan? Yes. I think I have like nine items for the agenda, but that's year end for you. Um, and we are in the trenches getting ready to close out year end. Huge shout out to
037Pam Godspecker. I know she's currently in it. Um, she got she told me a couple times, leave her alone. Um, she is this is her most stressful time of the year. Budgets get turned in and it's great. Everybody thinks they turned in something perfect. She's in the background making all everything actually perfect. So, a huge shout out to her and how much work she's doing on her end to get this next school year ready and get the close out of this school year ready cuz she's not just working on closing out. She's still got a she showed me this morning. She goes, "This is a pile of invoices that I have to process yet before month end, before fiscal year end, before that." So, she's God bless her. But that's why she's doing that job,
038not me. So, um and then I'm just going to run through kind of a brief breakdown on each of the items I have before, um I go for approval. Our property and fleet insurance is the first um item on here. Yes, there's an increase from last year, but that's a pro that's the insurance um sector just in general. Current market for insurance is not fun when you see the numbers. Um this year we are utilizing a pool. So, we will be in um a pool of other school districts um to purchase insurance this year for our property and fleet um insurance. While dollar amount wise that we're going to spend, it's comparable to what the other quotes came in. Let me rephrase that. The other quote that came in at uh for insurance, it was
039comparable, but what we get with that what we're purchasing is a lot more when it comes to deductibles are much lower than what our um other option was and the caps on um how much we would have for different um insuranceances was much higher. So single instances, we have a higher dollar amount that we could go up to rather than being capped out at a lower amount with this other insurance. So it'll be different for us, but um Paul Hershey at UIS is who we work with as a consultant and he's pretty sure this is a good move with us. Other school districts that they um work with as well are in this pool and he's pretty confident this will be a good change for us. So that one quick question on that one only
040because we've been talking about this on the Vanguard Sentinel board. I think Alex the treasurer there said there are very few districts anymore that can afford to be by themselves. They're all part of a consortium of some sort just because insurance prices are outrageous. Yeah. Um, is there and maybe you don't remember off the top of your head, but I know for I don't know if it's the same group or not, but the one big another thing that changed other than the dollar amount of premiums anymore is um wind damage. The deductible for wind and hail is a separate deductible than anything else so that they're not falling into that. I think I can I can come back and actually give you what they are. Um, it's okay. But it is different though. But it
041is. So last year, I think we were still at 10,000 per instance of a deductible. This year, we were moving up to $50,000. This other group that we're moving to, I think is back down to 10,000. I can come back and let you know what that actually is, but this um we're going with it's I can't remember what it stands for, but it's soursa. S O R A um and we are getting better deductibles. They were all going to go up. We were look, our other option was our renewal with our current carrier and everything was going up. And that's nothing against our current carrier. That's just the industry right now. But since we're going into this consortium, we are able to buy a little better this time. So, and I didn't need the dollar.
042I just wondered if it was the same for us that it was they're really hitting that wind and hail to where they're tired of Yeah, they're tired of paying it. Wind and hail. They're tired of it. That was our last like property claim I think was wind damage. Yeah, the baseball field and everything, tennis court and and I know what a week or two ago they had wind. Luckily the school district didn't have any, but I know people in Fremont that had damage significant damage. Yeah, last week that was wild. Yeah. So, we lucked out. We didn't have any. Thank goodness. But yeah, thank you. I just was wondering just a question. So, sometimes you just pay a little bit more on the front end so that on the back end you see the relief.
043Mhm. So, I think that'll be a good change for us. I was I was bad. They did not get all my financial pieces to Gina on time. Some of it just because it's year end stuff. So, we're waiting till the last minute to get figures and the holiday impacted it. Um, so you have printouts at your seat of all my wonderful reports and they are all in that wonderful gray scale cuz we don't make color copies. [Music] Good model. The treasurer. Just kidding. Um, but I will share those out and you can see them all in pretty color because I'll be honest, a couple of the charts are a little bit tiny just teeny tiny bit difficult to read in grayscale. So, I will make sure you guys get those electronically and make sure I
044hit everything. So the monthly financials, these are just a reminder even though I'm talking about year end, this is just still May's so. So we aren't quite at year end yet. Just gave you a quick recap of this. It's the first page is that comparison year-over-year. Revenues um our interest income has is up for the year, which is good. Um the big thing with re revenue right now is the budget. the state budget, how it's going to affect tomorrow at 3 PM. They are supposed to have language out to us. So, keep your fingers crossed that it's beneficial um to the district. Their projections haven't been released. The Senate's released theirs. It could Lord only knows. Um there's just we've heard so much. Yeah, we've heard so much. I'm I'm kind of in a constant
045state of confusion. I'm a little fuzzy as to where they landed on some of the stuff. The huge thing with the Senate version is they did keep um fair school funding in there, but they did not update the values. Fremont's kind of been not negatively affected by that. So, we are still looking decent for state funding. Um, and we are expecting to see a little bit of a decrease next year due to our C program. We're showing 100% of our students and so we saw a bump up in our state funding this year. But next year with the looking at the e economically disadvantaged dollars and the foundation payments they're going to look at a different number which they should um to better reflect that. So we will see a decrease a little bit in
046that area. So, and then in our expenses, this will be I think you still have one more month of me saying that this just as a reminder, we were able to write off salaries and benefits to Esser last year. So, you will see it's not quite an applesto apples comparison on salaries. Just to keep that in your mind when you see there's a bigger difference between the two two years. Our equipment line was much higher this year, but we invested nearly half a million dollars in some much needed school buses. Yeah. We had a discussion on a bus purchase plan. Yeah. A cycle now. And this was just kind of get us up to where we needed to be and then we can purchase less buses but on a better cycle to keep up with
047sense on a better schedule. We also had nearly 250,000 on student Chromebooks this year, but again that was paid with ESSER in previous years. So this is moving back to general fund last year. But yeah, you know, I love to highlight that. It's important to note because it does look like the teeter totter sways, right? And then just to dig in a little bit more on the Senate's budget, there are a couple provisions that will affect the districts. Um, right now they're the Senate's version had language that would prohibit school boards from paying the employee contributions on behalf of the superintendent and this treasurer only. um our specific school district. We also pay for our administrators, but they are not affected. This is specifically just superintendent and specifically treasure. I haven't heard if they feel
048like that's going to stay in or if they're going to take it out. Rumor has it they were some legislators that got mad that superintendent and treasures were being very v vocal on the state budget and this was their push back. But that's just personal opinion. No, it was the school district's opinion. It was a shot across the bow. That's what it was. We'll call it for what it is. They didn't like it. No. Even though you're constituents. No. No. You know, superintendents and treasurers are still constituents. So, you don't want to hear from your constituents. Sorry if that upsets you. Part of your job. Education is one of the biggest areas of the state budget, but you know, whatever, right? We shouldn't voice our opinions. Um there's also some levy changes. The biggest one
049that is affecting a lot of school districts would be um the emergency levy um as part of calculations. We don't have emergency levies here at Fremont. We are also one of the lowest tax rates when it comes to real estate taxes and income tax a little bit. So the different bills out there that are concentrating on real estate tax relief and kind of shifting things over to income tax, we're kind of in that seat already. So again, don't know what's going to happen. Your guess is as good as mine until tomorrow afternoon. We'll see what they say. And that even can Yeah, I was gonna say if it comes, if they like it, if they throw it out the window, who knows? Then it still has to go before the governor. Exactly. And he can
050do it. He can line item veto whatever he wants to. So Denise and I will be reaching out to him about a certain piece. Just kidding. Um and then of course that lovely carryover balance that I've talked about before, the Senate's threshold increased it to 50%. I've heard rumors that their committee talk is taking it back down to 30. We're sitting at 20. Um, and then there's also on one of my other items is going to be transfers out of general fund because this carryover balance is talking about specifically with that general fund balance. But we have to be able to prepare for the future. We have to be able to take care of the middle school as things come up. We also have to be able to take care of five brand new buildings
051that are all going to have problems probably in a close range of time. So that's what um when you see those we're not trying to hide money or funnel it somewhere else. It's just we're trying to prepare for the future. We have to we don't have a large carryover balance anyways as an portion of our expenses, but we do need to be able to prepare for the future. Um, and then the five-year forecast, it would move from five-year forecast to three-year forecast, which I don't know. I'm kind of okay with that cuz usually as you get in year four and five, we don't I don't know what's going to happen next year right now. So, sure, you know, it might make that document better. I'm not in the thought process of all change is bad.
052So maybe I know this is one of the few things that actually makes sense, right? Nobody can project out 5 years, especially when there's a bannual budget from the state where we get our money from, right? So this makes sense, which is kind of surprising that this is coming out. One of the things actually, yeah, that they actually thought about this and put some thought into it and it works. But the other stuff in the budget there's Yeah. Thanks. I try to keep my personal opinions to myself. I've already voiced too many, I feel like. Um, next in our packet, you will have the wonderful chart that is so easy to read and it's not teeny tiny at all. And that is the permanent appropriations for fiscal 26 which we are basing off of our
053um fiscal 25 expenditures. Um so that document is actually the document for item 17 and 18 where it says C handout just because we're just approving our full expenditures for one year based off of this year. Just a note on that. Those might change a little bit and I will send those out as soon as we close out year end just due to final things with the year- end wrapup. And then I will apologize. You were supposed to have for item 19 a handout that I was going to make sure everybody got and I only hit one copy when I printed it off. So I will just kind of read to you and then if you need to see anything this document is always available um with the board minutes as well. And that is
054our fund transfers for the year. And this is what I was talking about um planning for the future. We're um looking at transferring the bulk of our money to about 4 million $4.5 million from general fund to capital projects fund. Uh 500,000 from general fund to sever the severance fund which we have a lot of um great staff that'll be resigning or retiring in the next couple years. And that's one of the perks of their job is those severance packages, but they can add up pretty quick. So if you have five, six, seven of them leaving and they're long times come to work every day, don't take time off, um, they can take advantage of the severance payments. The one transfer on here that I am going to really highlight, there is a $426,6572 transfer
055from fund from the classrooms facility fund to PI. That is our interest income that we had left over from the project from the building project. That was the last item that um was for the close out was just that interest. So, we're moving it to PI, which we've always said we're going to use for um that leftover money for our building projects in the future. So, that will help with our connector that we're working on and that kind of stuff. And then the last transfer I have on here is from 024 back to general fund. don't remember back in January or February I believe maybe it was March sometime in there we transferred money from general fund to the self insurance fund cuz it was running dangerously low. It looks like we will be at
056a place when we close out to transfer that money back. I will let you know if that does not happen. But we've actually had pretty low claims in June. So I'm pretty com confident in that money getting transferred back. So, like I said, these might change a little bit due to month end or month end, year end, and then we'll send those documents out again just with the finalized numbers. But these are all things that we have discussed regularly as a as a board and with the general public. So, yep. Um every year we have to approve the um participation in federal grants or subgrants. So that is on here for recommendation. That is mainly just to keep everything check all of our boxes. It allows the district to engage with those federal grants when
057they start to give them to us. And just a we also have I will have a conflict of interest statement for all of you to sign off on for those federal grants. That's something we have to do to make sure everything's above board with those federal grants. You've signed it previously. There's no change to the document. Yep. It's what annually has to be done. Yeah. We've used a template from the state actually that they approved. So, um, we will send that out for all of you to sign. Um, we also have on here tonight the services through Golden Gate Financial Services. They help do some of our different processes throughout the year. Um, they also help with those grants. Um and then and with them that's an on as as needed as needed basically. Yep.
058And the contract states that as well. It's not there's not like a set dollar amount or anything like that. It's just per hour as needed. We also have on here tonight the approval of both of our leases with the state of Ohio for the district office. The spaces besides the beside the district office for the BMV and the driver's license bureau or driver's license station. I forget what they have a little bit of a different name. They're not one. There are two separate leases for those spaces. So, we have those on for board approval as well tonight. I think you can finally be done with me speaking as we go over and then those are Yes, I believe that's all I have for my report tonight. If we want to go on for all my
059items for approval. Okay. Yep. Go ahead. Um so the first one is for the fiscal year 26's um property fleet and liability insurance and just this is only a one year every year we put this on. Can I get a motion to approve item 15 please? So moved. Motion by Miss Layman. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Layman, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Nelly, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. And then the May financial report, permanent appropriations, and final appropriations. Can I get a motion to approve items 16 through 18, please? So move. Motion by Mr. Nally. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Miss Lewis. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Nelly, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Miss Mrs. Bloom, yes.
060Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. And then the fund to fund transfer. Can I get a motion to approve item 19, please? I'll move. Motion by Miss Layman. Could I have a second? 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. Then item 20 for federal grants. Can I have a motion to approve item 20, please? So move. Motion by Miss Lewis. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Nally. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Nally, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Item 21, we have contract with Golden Gate. I have a motion to approve item 21, please. So, move. Motion by Miss Layman.
061Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Layman. Yes. Mrs. Bloom. Yes. Miss Lewis. Yes. Mr. Nelly. Yes. Mr. Price. Yes. Motion's approved. Item 22. Yes. That's a separate roll call. The lease. And I don't know. I'll be honest. I don't know which one this is. Says the BMV register. Yeah. Okay. to approve a resolution authorizing the lease. First one's the register. First one's the register. Can I have a motion to approve item 22, please? So move. Motion by Miss Lewis. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? Do you know how long they're going to Are they still planning on that is up in the air. Um we've had discussions with Sunduski County's board of com or their county commissioners. They have
062had setbacks themselves with construction and in the planning which we can commiserate on um of how much things are actually going to cost. So we don't have a timeline as of yet. They kind of had given us one but I've heard that that's no longer the case. So, we don't know. It's still an if, not a when. I would agree. Okay. I can make sure. We'll continue to monitor that. Okay. Just wondering. Y, right? Uh, roll call, please. Miss Lewis, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Nelly, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Then item 23, the other lease. I have a motion to approve item 23, please. So move. Motion by Miss Layman. I have a second. Second. Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Layman, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes.
063Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Nelly, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. All right, moving on to board member communications. So, we'll start down here. Lori. All right. Um, well, thank you for the donations. That was quite the list and quite an amount of stuff. That was it was really nice. And um, congratulations to Trish Patel on the diploma. That's an achievement. And congratulations, Brent. Looking do such good stuff. So, I'm seeing all your stuff and looking forward to it. And then all the volunteers and the chaperones couldn't couldn't take them kids on the bus without some help. That's awesome. I think that's it. I want to give my condolences to the Sue Fuller family. I don't know if anybody up here knows who Sue Fuller is. Um, she passed away a couple weeks ago. She actually
064headed the Feed the Team program before I got involved in it. So, probably it was probably about 11 12 plus years ago. Um, that's kind of when I came in and she had ran it before then. And she was just she was a super nice lady. She was she worked at the village house. Um, it would be nothing like her to have her pot into 10 different things at once. If you could go in the village house, you would be visiting her. She would have roasters of mashed potatoes going and all for the boys. You know what I mean? So she just she put her heart and soul into the whole football team and that's actually when we used to feed them at Stam on Thursday nights. Um they would walk over there after their
065conditioning and we would sit down as a family and eat. But she just taught me so much as a person and just a dedication that she put in and she was just a hard worker and she was you know in a lot of pain and stuff at the time. She had hip surgeries, I believe, and such. And she just never stopped, though. She kept going and going, and I'll just always remember her for that. And she always had a smile on her face and somebody that everybody could rely on. So, I mean, we're I was sad to hear that about her, but like I said, there's good memories there. And I've actually talked to some kids that was from that era, and um they said that they knew about it, and they're definitely going to
066miss her. So, I just I just want to throw that out there that Sue is definitely going to be missed by especially us mamas that worked with her back then and she was just a good staple to us and the boys and coaches. So, that's what I had to say. A s um just a shout out to all of the um sports teams that are hosting the biddy camps. Um it is so fun to see all of the future uh Fremont Ross High School athletes um with the current um athletes. Um just teaching them fundamental things and just being able to hang out. Um we all used to be young once. When you look at a high schooler when you're a kindergartener or first grader, they're like, "Whoa, it's the coolest thing you've ever seen."
067Um, so it's it's really nice that um the athletic department um coordinates that and all of the coaches um participate. Um I know cheer camp is this week and um we just got done with volleyball camp, we've had football camp, all kinds of things. So it's just been really neat to to see that type of um involvement. Um, Brent, congratulations. Um, the thing the thing that makes this really neat to me is when you have somebody who enjoys uh what they're doing, it makes a big difference on the product that you get and you seem to enjoy um what you're what you're doing. Um so much so that you're, you know, doing this and doing that at the same time. So, it really makes a difference when somebody has a a passion for what they're
068doing with the product and output that you get. So, keep up the great work and and we're here to support you as well. I actually have nothing this evening. Oh, I'm going to say good night. Uh well, thanks to the community for all the donations um with the boosters and the PTO's and um boy for a lot of years. We couldn't do it without all those groups of of all those stakeholders that are part of this strategic plan. So, um thank you for that. Brent, congratulations on your new position. Um it's great that we already had the person here and he's already knowing the ins and outs of everything in this district. So that makes that pretty seamless transition. So um and then to the staff that are helping out with the summer meal program,
069it was a hot one today or yesterday or today, sorry. Um so um thank you for all that work and for a lot of our staff. Summertime is their busy time. I know the custodians are going to be hard at it and all the buildings um and everything. And thanks for all that hard work just to keep our buildings looking great and getting ready for next school year, which is I know a bad word at my household. Soon as they started hearing Fourth of July, I've made sure I rubbed that in cuz they feel like half their summer is gone. I'm like, "Oh, it's so bad." So, but anyway, um with that, there's no reason for an executive session. So, could I have a motion for adjournment, please? So, so moved. Motion by Mrs. Bloom.
070Could I have a second? Second. Second by Miss Lewis. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mrs. Bloom. Yes. Miss Lewis? Yes. Miss Layman? Yes. Mr. Dy? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. Motion's approved. Meetings adjourned. [Music]