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 student who's going to be leading the pledge for us tonight. We have Jameson Parkhurst with us. He's a first grade or he finished up his first grade year at Otis Elementary. in Mrs. Freeman's class and his parents are Jacob and Meredith Parker. So, if we could all stand for the pledge of allegiance and Jameson will lead us. I pledge 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. All right. Oops. Uh, roll call, please. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Here. Miss Layman, here. Miss Lewis, here. Mr. Nally, here. Mr. Price, here. Can I get
002a motion to approve the minutes from our regular meeting held May 27th, 2025, please? So move. Motion by Miss Lewis. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Lewis, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Nally, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Uh, moving on to our legislative report. done. Uh yes, there's quite a bit of activity going on down in Columbus right now. Um I had sent out the uh legislative report to all of you and uh that report is available to the general public, anybody wanting it, uh just by contacting the superintendent's office and they can get a copy of the things we're talking about tonight. uh uh with the House activity. Um there's quite a bit going on regards to uh House Bill
003124 passed and that was to modify property t tax sales assessment ratio studies and that's something that uh our treasurer would have to explain to us later um in in terms of some of but that's on to the Senate at this time. a few of the other bills. Um, and I'll just kind of highlight the the topic uh requires character education instruction changes in intra district enrollment policies uh prohibiting cell phone use in schools. Now, that's passed the Senate and and then has to move to the House is is my understanding at this time. And then uh one other is um mandating a moment of silence each school day. And there's a that's our our representative click um is proposing that. Uh he has someone else that's um also part of that. Uh, and then
004there's uh another bill that I don't think I have down on here that's talking about uh enforcement of the pledge of allegiance uh in each classroom uh each day. And and again, we've talked about that before, but that is something that we already are doing. And so it's something that we all grew up with. um you know um reciting also under the Senate Finance uh committee uh they released their substitute version of House Bill 96 for the 2627 state operating budget. Uh and then they are planning on and hoping to pass an omnibus uh version of that uh which is expected next week uh with Senate passage of that from their floor um is anticipated. Um uh another uh house bill technology innovation committee uh is pushing for um development of political subdivisions to adopt
005cyber security programs and we all know that those are you know critical in this day and age. Um, House Bill 309 modifies um, county budget commission's property tax formulas. I think that was the same as um, different than what we had talked about earlier. Um, and then a couple of the real key ones that are going on right now. House Bill 335 aims to reform Ohio's property tax system impacting public school um our public schools very significantly. Um there's an article um from our board uh from the um OSBA journal uh that we had received recently and in there there's an article on school board members guide to property taxes and I would suggest you know reading through that. It's it's pretty comprehensive. There's some pieces that still left me with questions. Um, if you,
006you know, if you have questions, I would suggest contacting our treasurer. She can either give you that answer or find what you're specifically asking about. So, again, I would refer you to that um to read. There's a a couple real screwy things going on uh with that right now. Uh when you look at um the revamping of the property tax system through our legislature, you look at the initiatives that are going on in our state to propose in the future elimination of property taxes. [Music] um the they kind of go against what constitutionally we're supposed to be funding and that was let me see the Ohio Supreme Court ruled a funding formula that is over reliant on local property tax is unconstitutional. Now, you know, it all sounds good. the problem. Uh, and that's why
007there's the effort to maintain the fair school funding plan because that kind of works around the that particular issue somewhat so that we're not totally relying on property tax. However, when we look at the push that we're getting from the state, there's more emphasis on that's going to come on us as a board to seek property taxes when we have shortages because we are not going to be getting those dollars from the state. and and where that really comes in and you'll see that in the uh the third third article here that's from the um equity and adequacy and voucher shirt Ohio uh article dollar for dollar when we because we and the charter schools and community schools are all on the same line. item with the state. If a dollar goes out that is
008unconstitutional in the first place, if that dollar goes out, that's one less dollar that's available to our public schools. And uh and then that's that's what the property tax issue and there's a lot going on. The other thing I would share is uh there's an effort and legislation being proposed that talks about moving all of I'm not sure if it's all just property taxes, but our levies to have a 60% approval for passage. And if that goes through, you know, it's it's kind of a somewhat of a death sentence for us as a public school because it's very difficult to reach those levels. You know, we've we've when in passing levies, we've pretty been consistently in that 50 uh 51, I say 51% up to, you know, into the 50s. But to reach the 60s,
009there's got to be something [Music] um super special going on to ever pass a levy. So um I guess my final comment is uh let's be you know very clear that currently the direction that our legislature at the state level is taking things um is really an attack on our public schools. And you know we we are going to be fighting for our continued existence in the in the very near future. And you know, I I'm a strong believer and I think all of you are strong believers. Um, and you can voice it yourself, strong believers in the public school system. And, you know, to have all the dollars going out into places that really they shouldn't be. Um, assisting with construction, uh, with some of the charter schools. There was uh uh I think
010I think it was initially a million dollars put into a fund to help. It just contradicts the constitutionality of um our public school system. So, um, those are those are the key areas that I wanted to cover, but, uh, if you have any questions after you read through this or if you have any input at this time, uh, feel free to share. No, I think one of the big things is is that sometimes people get the wrong idea for school districts and all they're doing is wanting to take tax dollars or levy money from their community members to pay for stuff. That's not it. It's just we we don't charge tuition to come to school. So the state is supposed to fund us when the state doesn't fund us with regular tax dollars that all
011of us pay. I don't want to pay property taxes. I already I paid a sales tax on when I bought my house and property. Why should I be continuing to pay property taxes for as long as I'm living there or wherever I own property, I have to pay property taxes. I don't like that. Nobody wants that, right? It's just that's how it's set up. So it to me again at the state level they put the cart before the horse and they want to change property taxes which I get because of the valuation of property but figure out where money is going to come to to fund the schools that you're supposed to fund first before you start saying well we can't afford to do this anymore. You know it it's you know it's it's no
012different than the voucher system. Well change the way the system is. Mhm. Don't just well we're going to do this because it works for right now but you're not helping the problem. No. So it just My other question was and then anybody else could talk sorry but on the a moment of silence every day what was the moment of silence for? Or did it does it say I I my guess is that it probably was meant to I I'm just guessing that it was meant to be prayer, but um I believe that um the people proposing that probably know that it would not pass through the House and the Senate uh with that definition. So, but even with even with the definition of a moment of silence, I'm not sure why we I mean, look,
013I pray, but I can do that anytime I want to. I don't need to specify time to I mean, if I want to sit, even if I'm a student, if I'm sitting there before school starts and I want to pray, I'm just going to pray. It's not like I have to pray out loud. You don't have to designate a time for me to have a moment of silence where I do that, but or need permission for that. You know what I mean? Like, you don't need permission. Don't tell me I can't pray. Oh, no. I'm going to pray whenever I want to. For sure. You know, but I was just wondering when I heard that anyway. So, that was just my guess, you know, that it would be difficult, right? But, um, but we can
014kind of find out that answer. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thanks. Uh, no walk-on items tonight, correct? Right. Um, no one from the community is here. So, no one is going to speak to us because there is no one in the audience except for Andrew back there running the show. So, luckily we have Andrew because otherwise this would probably be a hot mess. We tried to last time, but you know, it was all right. But we do have Abby tonight. So, you never know how fast it's going to go off the rails. Um, no pressure, Abby. Yeah. No, none. Now, and on to Abby with the Superintendent Report. report on behalf of Mrs. Hurt, just to um let you guys know, our elementary and middle school summer program started today. We have students at LES
015in grades K to two and then grades three to five at Otis and then we have grades six to eight here. They're they're in for the next few weeks. They're going to work on reading skills and other subject areas and some social emotional activities as well. Um the high school will begin their credit recovery and Ohio State test tutoring next week. Um the elementary and middle school programs will end at the end of this month, but the high school credit recovery will go till August, mid August. Also, just one note for the community as well. Um summer meal distribution starts June 23rd. There's a big change this year and that's families need to register weekly in order to pick up the meals. So, you can go on to our website. We've sent home QR codes.
016Um you can also call the district office. be happy to help you set up, but that will be a weekly thing that needs to be done. So, that's a new thing for this year. We're trying to really get the word out. Okay. Okay. Can I go on the recommendations then? Yes. All right. So, our first one, we have two donors, uh, Mrs. Peton and Jersey Mike. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve item one, please? So, move it. Motion by Miss Layman. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mrs. Bloom. any discussion? Um, just went to Jersey Mike's, bought my sub, made a donation. um you know talk I talked to the one of the new owners and uh very nice person and um he he's got a really neat business business head
017and uh really seem to have seems to have that commitment to our community which is really nice. And obviously um the nice thing too is that um the people in our district went got a sub and made a donation to the um you know to $2,000 plus. So I think that's really neat. So hopefully all businesses try to do that. That'd be kind of a neat thing. Thank you. All right. Roll call, please. Miss Layman, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Nally, yes. Mr. Brace, yes. Motion's approved. Number two is a contract with um No Echo. This is our computer programming system that we use. This is an annual contract. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve item two, please? So move. Motion by Mrs. Bloom. Could I have a second? Second.
018Second by Miss Lewis. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Ms. Lewis, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Nelly, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Okay. Uh, item number three is a contract with Terara State Community College. Um, this last weekend they provided us transportation for our state track athletes. Oh, okay. Nice. Can I get a motion to approve item three, please? Some moved. Motion by Mr. Nally. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mrs. Bloom. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Nally, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Then we have several other items coming up under staff. Um, we have a couple of resignations. We have an appointee for next year, Mrs. Negi. She'll be the Ross health teacher coming in in the fall.
019Um item number six um are some art show stipens for this past current or I guess the current school year and the 2425 school year. Um item number seven um are coaches for next year. Number eight, we continue on to coaches for next school year. Number nine, there are some status changes for Miss Reinick and Mr. Wyatt. Number 10, we have some summer school program appointees and Megan Bibler and Isaiah McDonald. They'll be over at Lutz. Number 12, that was on our agenda. 10 is different than the new position. I apologize. Back up a minute. Okay. So, that was item 11. Item 10 is a new position for communication facilitator. That's something we've been working on for quite a few years here in the district. Number 11 then is going to be our teachers over
020at Lutz. Number 12 is going to be Hannah Rios. She'll be a teacher for summer school over at Otis. Um item 13 will be summer school program appointees for the high school and Renee, Carrie, and Karen. Um also then this next one is going to be summer rec credit recovery. That first one is going to be for our Ohio State testing tutoring. The second part is going to be for Ohio or for the um credit recovery and that will go through August. And then item 14 um are some substitutes for our summer programming. Okay. Going to get a motion to approve items 4 through 14, please. So moved. Motion by Miss Lewis. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Miss Layman. Any discussion? Uh one quick word on the communication facilitator. Like Abby said,
021it's been something probably four or five years now that it's been kind of in the works. It's just there's so much information that needs to be put out there now. And to put that added workload on a current staff member with their current job responsibilities, um most school districts have a position like that. So, um, for our community, for our district, it's going to be so much nicer to have one main person there that collects does all that. So, there's a whole lot of stuff that involves. So, but and then just a shout out to Hannah Rios, um, who's teaching for summer, Fremont grad. Um, she worked for me at the cookie shop, so goes to H Highleberg, is in teaching, wants to come back to Fremont to teach. So good for her to get
022in for the summer program and stuff like that. So good kid. I thought she was a pretty recent graduate. She just finished up her second year at H Highleberg. So two years ago and then she'll be looking for a teaching job. And I said I told her I saw her or talked to her and I said, "Hey, her and her sister both and said now's the time cuz we have a lot of retirees these next few years. So there will be some openings." But just good to see a Fremont grad come back, work in the summer program, want to come back and teach in Fremont. So excited to have her. Uh, roll call, please. Miss Lewis, yes. Miss Layman, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Mr. Nally, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. Okay. Then the last
023item then for Mrs. Hurt tonight is item 15. And this kind of goes on with our uh communication facilitator as well. This is the contract approval of Parent Square. This is a one-year contract. This is a single communication platform. Right now we have multiple platforms that our parents um of our students and our student athletes are communicated with and we're going to including our website. We're going to go to one um common platform. Our communication facilitator will help with this. There's going to be a lot of training involved in it for um some of our staff members. But um this it's built as like a per pupil rate. Um, so that price might fluctuate a tad bit every year depending on on our enrollment, but it will be a one-year contract with them. Okay. And
024more information will come out as we get going with it. Okay. Can I get a mo motion to approve item 15, please? So move. Motion by Miss Layman. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Mr. Nally. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Miss Layman, yes. Mr. Nally, yes. Mrs. Bloom, yes. Miss Lewis, yes. Mr. Price, yes. Motion's approved. All right, moving on to report of the treasur. Uh, good evening. Um, this week we are wrapped up with May and moving on to June. I can't believe I'm saying that. It feels like just yesterday we were starting fiscal 25, but we are now wrapping up fiscal 25 and moving on getting ready to start fiscal 26 in July. So, it's exciting in the school finance world. Not so exciting is all the legislation right now. It's
025very um big state of unknown. Um the professional organizations that we that are very knowledgeable and send us out communication on this stuff all the time. That property tax bill is huge. Um I know they want to revamp the real estate tax system in this state. Um, so yeah. Um, so they are get trying to wrap their heads around it and I will report more on that as we I get my head wrapped around it. It's going to be a lot to there's a lot of ifands or buts because it's not just school districts. It would be all government local government entities, townships, counties, all of it. So each one has their own specific rules. So they have to accommodate for all of that. And yeah, so it will be interesting once we get more
026news on that and see how it all pans out. And then that little small item of the state's budget, you know, that's we'll see what happens with that. Um the Senate is different from the House's budget bill. So now they all get and then also different from the governor. So, everybody's got to now come together and see how they're going to hammer it all out. And that um House bill on the property taxes would also come into play with that. So, it will just be a fun month trying to close out year end and get ready for the new fiscal year and trying to figure out new legislation. It's my favorite thing to do. I'm sure all of you love to do it as well. So, in other words, you have an easy summer this
027year. Oh, yeah. Super easy. going to take lots of time off. Um, so with that, we can move on to my one and only recommendation for tonight. Okay. Um, this is our annual fund transfer for our offC building projects. Every year we have to move um this specific dollar amount from our permanent improvement that we receive per funds into that from our levies for the building levies that we have into the specific um classroom facilities maintenance fund. This fund is very specific. we can only spend it on the six school actual school buildings and they are very specific as to what we can spend that money on um with that. So you know this is we use it to do different service contracts to make sure these buildings are kept up and running appropriately. Um
028you know we built these great facilities so we want to make sure they're kept up and maintained appropriately. Can I get a motion to approve item 16, please? So moved. Motion by Mrs. Bloom. Could I have a second? Second. Second by Miss Layman. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mrs. Bloom. Yes. Miss Layman. Yes. Miss Lewis? Yes. Mr. Nally? Yes. Mr. Price? Yes. Motion's approved. All right. Uh, moving on to board member communications. Uh, Don. Yeah. Um I I had saved one item uh from the legislative liaison report that I wanted to cover under board comment and that is at at our last meeting I had brought up about the fair school funding plan uh the the uh lawsuit that was going on and uh in the state of Ohio uh currently there's there's over 300
029of our districts that are participating uh out of I think there's 600 and some um uh districts in our state. So about half right now are participating in a lawsuit to make the lawsuit is basically to make sure that the fair school funding plan continue in the future because of it being uh a constitutionally acceptable method of um uh funding our schools. And what I wanted to share was I had met with um uh Mrs. uh Miss Parkhurst and um uh Miss Hurt uh and just kind of talked about um where where things are at in terms of doing a um participating in the lawsuit um which would be um probably in that $7,000 range. Uh and Mr. price had caught um at the last meeting that I didn't have my extra zero down on
030my paper and and I appreciate that, but uh there's a cost. Uh two, we kind of want to do a little bit more research um as to those that are participating kind of why and and some of the funding there. and and then also uh what what timing and content do we want to have in our resolution because that resolution really needs to go to our legislators. And so that's something that we're working on and then we'll continue to report back periodically until we get that uh straightened around uh and making a recommendation and discussion for participation uh either in or not in uh the lawsuit. But um it I I talked to uh Mr. Phyllis, who is um kind of the leader of the vouchers Ohio and the um and the equity and adequacy
031um organization and he he kind of anticipates that uh they'll be up to that 500 uh district level hopefully by later this summer. Um um but I think it's something for us to follow and kind of see where where things are going. So uh that that was one of the areas that I wanted to address. Um you know just would encourage all the kids out there on their bikes. I was going down the road today and uh just kind of saw you know a number of kids riding their bikes and just encourage them to be safe. Uh, and it's really not just bikes now. It's scooters, electric scooters, electric bikes. And and I think with kids, they just have to learn early on how to control those. And probably the best place to learn that
032is in a parking lot or their driveway uh before they hit the roads. Um, but encourage them to have a safe summer. The teachers just want to encourage them to relax. and enjoy the summer and, you know, be prepared for our next school year. Um, and working with our great group of kids. Uh, graduation last week was um I thought was a was very well organized. a lot of emotion uh both from students and from uh the the parents and support um parts of our families uh up in the stands. It was really kind of neat seeing the entire uh stands filled with people and so just uh that and and the final thing was um just if Abby I'm not sure who sets up the tables but if you could take back uh the
033suggestion that we just move the tables move our seating up about 5 ft feet. That gets us where we don't have to worry if that light is on or off and and puts us directly under the lights that are in this section. So, just a suggestion, but I'm not sure again if it's the custodial staff or Gina that sets it up. Just a suggestion. And that's all I had tonight. Sarah. Um, first I just wanted to thank Megan publicly for the five-year forecast um from last meeting. Um, I've been on the board for a few years now and I felt like last meeting was the first time I was very a lot more confident in um, understanding things and you gave some just really thorough explanations um, from your perspective of things. So, I just
034wanted to thank you um for that. Um congrats to all of our state qualifying track athletes. Um Fremont definitely left a thumbrint uh down in Columbus. Um neat thing about that I think was that we had a lot of um well the overwhelming majority of the athletes um that participated um not only broke school records but broke into the top five of their um event in in their record books. Um I think that's pretty cool. Um, along with that, uh, I think Lindy Wolf earned 13 varsity letters. Uh, Lindy just graduated, um, last weekend. And I think she is one of two athletes to garner that many varsity letters. And I think both of them are females. I'm just saying. So, they know. I'm just saying. Uh so congratulations to all of those athletes. Um
035just also wanted to thank uh Mr. Bill Bray. He does such a nice job um whether it's on Facebook or just in community relations. Um just letting the general public know like what's going on with our athletes. Those all of those record book type of comments. I couldn't make those without his input on, you know, Facebook. Um, and it's just it's very nice to to have somebody who is invested um not just in the district alone, but definitely in the preservation of the history um of of athletics here in our district. So, just wanted to thank Mr. Bray for what he does. Um lastly, um if your if your kids saying neat things like, "I'm bored. There's nothing to do." Um the Fremont Rec Center has a lot of scheduled um activities going on throughout
036the summer. Um a lot of things you can just walk up and participate. Um, so if you go on the the city of Fremont's rec uh website, get to the rec cent's page, and at the bottom, it says summer fun starts here, and then there's a activity calendar. Um, if you click on the calendar, it just shows just rotating things that kids can participate in. Um, most of the things are at um no cost. um to anybody who wants to participate. Um different churches, sponsoring um events at local parks um or just agency, different agencies or or um businesses around town um got together. This is the first time I've seen anything like this um in our community. And I think it's really cool that you can just click open this calendar and say, "Oh,
037tomorrow we're going to Roger Young to paint me a story at 10:00 a.m." You know, and participate in an activity. So, if you are wanting to avoid the I'm bored and participate in things around our community, that's a great resource. That's it. Okay, Laura. Nice. I'm going to focus on the staff. Like Don said earlier, I hope you all have a nice relaxed summer. Uh get nice and recharged up for the school year. And I hope to the health and wellness you guys are doing your water challenges and then we can move forward and make some other challenges coming forward. Have some good prizes for that. But no, just enjoy yourselves. I know next year's next school season's going to be here before we know it. So, those that are lucky enough to be at
038home, just enjoy every minute you can. All right, Lori. Um, well, thank you to Jameson for his pledge. He did a good job. He's really cute. Um, and the graduation last weekend was really I that's like the highlight going and watching all the kids come down and get their their diplomas and to be able to walk and all the parents how excited and everybody is. And um I also went to Jersey Mike and then I took my grandson out there and we gave our play or gave a donation and I have to say it's I really liked it. I mean it was really good. So and it's nice. It was neat. They were quick in and out. It was quite a few people, but it wasn't overly busy. So, um, but yeah, and to the
039kids and the staff, good, you know, have a good summer, be safe, and, um, come back next year. Um, I'll kind of reiterate, thanks to Jameson for doing our pledge. That's always fun to have a student come and do that, especially in the summertime. Um, of course, his aunt probably forced him here, so I did not. It very nicely. Um, congratulations to the track athletes that participated in state this past weekend. Um, like uh Sarah said, what a great showing for Fremont Ross to be there. What a great season both teams had. Um, so great season for everybody there. Uh, congratulations to our graduates. Um, great graduation ceremony. Perfect weather. We couldn't ask for anything better. Perfect turnout because the stands were full and I think people were standing down without seats. So, um, thank
040you to our community, the family members for all the support that they gave our kids for graduation. Um, and to students and staff, have a good summer. Um, summer weather is hopefully finally here to stay. Maybe, fingers crossed, we don't have 60 and rainy and windy anymore. So, but um no reason for executive session tonight. So, with that, could I have a motion for adjournment, please? So, moved. Motion by Miss Lewis. Could I have a 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. Meetings adjourned. [Music]