001foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] we'll go ahead and call the meeting in order if we could all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please pledge allegiance to the black the United States of America liberty and justice for all okay so we will start our organizational meeting um we'll have a roll call when we get to our regular meeting so um first item up is to nominate a president and vice president for this upcoming calendar year so with that um I'll ask for nominations for president I would like to nominate Tom Price um um any other nominations okay um can I have a motion to close the nominations for president so moved motion by Miss Lewis and I have a second by Lori bloom um okay uh roll call please um Miss Lewis yes Miss
002blimp yes Miss Laird yes and Mr Price yes some nominations are closed so now there's only one nominee but we have to go through um through each one of you um by voice for vote for presidency so Mrs Bloom yes um Mrs spiritu is not here miss Laird yes sir and Miss Lewis yes and Mr Price yes all right so I will be the president this next year so we need to do the oath real quick I'll come over you know come over there doesn't matter oh I need more stuff than today so maybe just a recommendation but our audience can't hear anything that doesn't go microphone I know it's not easy to do but just maybe somebody should at least try it make sure our friends at home the recording can be okay thank
003you you mean I need to talk you need to really loudly Megan unlike your typical normal yeah okay the oath for a board of president or yes do you suddenly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Ohio and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge your duties as president of the Board of Education in Fremont City Schools district Sandusky County Ohio to the best of your ability and in accordance with the laws now in effect and Hereafter to be enacted during your attempt continuance in said office and until your successor is elected and qualified I will okay thank you okay um then moving on uh could I have any nominations for vice president please Chantel later okay are there any other nominations for vice
004president all right uh can I get a motion to close the nominations for vice president motion by Miss Bloom Mrs bloom can I have a second second by Miss Lewis roll call please yes Miss Lewis yes Miss Laird yes Mr Price yes nominations are closed so we have one nomination for vice president miss lairdon um again we'll just go down Mrs Bloom yes uh Miss Laird yes Miss Lewis yes Bryce yes so miss Laird will be our vice president for this upcoming year so we'll do the oath of office for vice president do you soundly swear that you will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Ohio and that you will faithfully and impartially discharge your duties as vice president of the Board of Education of the Fremont
005City School District Sandusky County Ohio to the best of your ability and in accordance with the laws now in effect and here Ever After to be enacted during your continuance and set office until your successor is elected and qualified all right thank you okay so the next items part of this organizational part um I'll just read through these real quick so it's made on record um it's just organizational stuff that we have to do at the beginning of every year so item one fixing the time and place of our meetings we had that as uh um attachment to our stuff so that's all posted or that will all be posted it will be just I clarify that we did adjust around Thanksgiving and Christmas so just so the board knows I think that's kind of
006been typical I just want to make sure that second and fourth is mostly the case but there are a couple exceptions right because of the holidays yep um item two is establishing a service fund for 2022 item three our legislative liaison will be mislayered item four the delegate to osba annual conference will be Miss Lewis the alternate delegate to osba annual conferences Mrs Bloom our student achievement liaison and item six is mislayered item seven the trustee for the learning and Liberty Foundation of Fremont City Schools is Mrs bloom um item eight payment of our annual membership dues to osba and then for committee appointments item nine for the treasures committee appointments audit and records that will be mislayered under the superintendent's committee appointments we have our policy committee uh that will be myself the curriculum
007quality control Council will be Miss Lewis and myself the finance committee for 2023 will be mislayered in the health and wellness committee will be Mrs Espiritu um also on for approval for these items for organizational um purposes the business advisory Council uh date time and location the authorization for the superintendent to act as a representative for Grants item 13 participation in the state and federal programs approving that item 14 the appointment of a purchasing agent which would be our superintendent item 15 appointment for public records training um would be for our treasure item 16 authorization for investment of funds also would be our treasure item 17 the request for available monies um goes through the treasure item 18 petty cash authorization also goes through the treasure um on an as needed basis up to seven
008thousand dollars um item 19 authorization to issue warrants also through our treasure item 20 authorization to pay mileage um 21 authorization or authorize a superintendent to hire our staff and 22 um the approval of Bricker and Eckler to be retained as legal counsel and then also item 23 the last one the approval of Brenda McIntyre and seed to be retained as legal counsel so with all of those we need a roll call for that and I have a motion to approve items 1 through 23 please so moved motion by mislayered could I have a second second by Miss Lewis any discussion roll call please Ms Laird yes Miss Lewis yes Mrs flim yes Mr Price yes motions approved um item 24 um we had attachments space for these tax budget hearings the alternative tax budget
009information division of taxes levied statement of fund activity um voted and unvoted debt outside 10 mil limit in tax anticipation notes um so could I have a motion to approve the item this actually gets approved during the regular meeting oh okay so that roll call is not that's to end the organizational meeting okay got you so the the tax budget hearing we will approve under your partner this is the tax budget hearing right now and then you'll approve the tax budget you just heard it yes that's the text message yes gotcha all right sorry for the confusion you have to come before the other yeah sorry for my confusion sorry so so let me make sure so that roll call we just had was to approve those items and to close the organizational meeting no
010we no no so now I'm gonna this roll call at the top of the page right before our regular meeting we're going to go that'll be a roll call or that'll be a motion and a second to close the organizational meeting okay so then we'll close the organization meeting then we'll call to order our regular meeting so okay okay all right so can I get a motion to close our organizational meeting please motion by Mrs bloom could I have a second so I got my Miss Lewis any discussion roll call please Miss Bloom yes Miss Lewis yes Ms Laird yes Mr Price yes so our organizational meeting is now closed um now we will call the order for our regular meeting um we will have since it is a separate meeting do we need to
011have the Pledge of Allegiance again I I don't think it's fairly necessary but you guys think we should I I mean we're all President we have already it's okay okay so um we'll do roll call for our regular meeting please Mrs Bloom yes MR2 Ms Laird yes Ms Lewis yes Mr Price here okay um next item can I have a motion to approve the minutes from our regular meeting held December 12 2022 please motion by Mrs Bloom could I have a second second by Miss Laird any discussion roll call please Mrs Bloom yes Ms Laird yes Ms Lewis yes Mr Price yes motions approved uh legislative report um I wanted to do a follow-up on the various school choice legislative pieces that are out there nationally I know ours in state of Ohio is still
012in motion we've been keeping our eye on that I thought you might find it interesting that the um Kentucky state supreme court made a ruling on it and um that's not to say that Ohio will see things the same but I think it is relative to the conversation we're having so I just want to read a little bit about that um The Source I'm going to cite Megan is Spectrum One news uh December 15th and I'll have this document for you but um in a nutshell uh those who opposed it and said we simply can't afford to support two different education systems one private and one public on the taxpayers dime and this ruling supports that concern um the decision is proof that the courts continue to serve as an important check against the legislative
013overreach that's how those who present opposition felt about this in Kentucky um and if we go down to Supreme Court ruling it said the Supreme Court ultimately found that the formula violated the Constitution stating we are compelled to agree that the eoa ACT violates the plain language of section 184 of their state constitution said their chief justice um simply stated it puts the Commonwealth in the business of raising sums for Education other than in common schools and we've talked about that as well that ours also references common schools um and it was further stated in the article that lawmakers should now turn their attention away from inequitable and unconstitutional voucher programs I found that interesting that they referred to them as a vouchers in the same way even though the formula looked a little different
014to me in Kentucky but still labeled the same type of program and focused on their constitutional mandate to provide for an efficient system of common schools throughout the state that means providing adequate funding to the many different components of successful Public Schools including skilled teachers up-to-date instructor instructional materials non-academic supports safe learning environments and that's how we ensure that all Kentucky children Thrive no matter their race family income or zip code um so I thought that that was interesting and certainly relevant to our conversation and that's all I have for you tonight unless you have questions thank you yeah thank you thank you okay uh moving on no walk-on items tonight all right um we'll go to the first hearing of the public if anyone would like to address the board they can come to
015the podium just state your name and address for record purposes thank you foreign I'm not prepared to do this my name is k Mooney Cox my address is 2327 County Road 241 Fremont is that all yeah okay um I didn't prepare a response for uh the last meeting I was here in which Mr oh dear the Scottish name spoke uh about giving vouchers to parents for whatever school they wanted their children to go to which seems like a you know it seems like a good idea parents decide what school their children should go to but it's true up to a point at at some point it's not in the interest of the state to send children to schools that are teaching them anti-democratic ideals teaching them inaccurate history teaching them it's a good idea to
016discriminate against lgbtq people and persecute them because their perverts or uh um it was a good thing to bring those Africans over here because we raised them up out of savage rate to civilization or worse things suppose or or teaching them not that science is a bunch of funk or worse things suppose you had a bunch of Islamic extremist uh people who wanted to establish a madrasa and are you going to let parents send their children to that and pay for that so I think it's not always in the interest of the state to support non-state schools that's okay thank you thank you foreign moving on to the superintendent's report thank you very much Mr Price It's good to see you guys had a little time off here um I just want to kind of
017remind you this first semester is done we had exams that last week before a break got through that um we are roaring into our our second semester which is a hard to believe but here we go um I wanted to pass out maybe if Megan could help me this I got it today so um I wanted to bring it as soon as I could you may have heard that the Department of Education was going to send a letter to to me and to you so I was actually curious if any of you had received anything separately in the mail because I got five copies from ode today and I think the assumption is that I would deliver them so here they are this is the um letter that they voted on a resolution the second
018page is the resolution that the State Board of Education voted on uh last month and it basically is that stand against the federal Title IX interpretation through the Biden Administration for Access so this is sort of what's been that that linchpin between sort of the where the state um and our state legislators want to go and where I think the federal government is wants to go so if you remember part of that transgender issue we had was actually being enforced through the um Bureau of Agriculture Department of Agriculture through school lunches right so the school funding could be withheld or school lunches if we didn't follow the Title IX interpretation coming out of the Department of Agriculture you know kind of up through the president actually so the state kind of taking umbrage with that
019has sort of sent this it's so worded very carefully I thought because if you notice that um that last bullet there on the front page says this correspondence is intended to inform schools and districts not to compel them to take a particular course of action so it it to me is like it's kind of a little bit of a legal straddle there and I'm not a lawyer and I I'm waiting because we got it now and we've kind of in my world been talking about what this is going to look like right um so now the I'm sure the lawyers are just chewing on this right now to sort of tell us kind of what this actually means in the where the rubber meets the road right but I thought it was an impressive that
020it says they simply want to tell us that they um are they opposed the proposed regulatory changes from the Department of Education see that that's the first bullet so but they are informing us but not in compelling us to actually do anything about it so it it's uh so there's no penalty right for us where the federal government has said if you don't follow our guidelines then we can withhold some funding through Department of Agriculture because you are not following the federal guidelines on Title IX correct that's right the state is saying we are just informing you that we disagree with the federal guidelines yes but we're not compelling you so the state can't come back and say well and by the way if you don't do what we say we're going to withhold they're
021not saying that that's what I understand like I said I promise I'll find out some more right I'm sure it'll be kind of woven out through the state or are they teeing it up that if courts rule against the state's opposition they didn't guide us to not follow the federal rules yes absolutely because they're not liable then right for us they came up to the line but didn't cross the line right wasn't there a ruling or that that you didn't have to comply with that well that's what this is right so um we have two different from the one attorney that we had we have two different circuit courts in the United States that are saying two different things that's right so that's where she said this will have to go to the federal Supreme
022Court the United States Supreme Court because you have two circuit courts on opposite side of the issue so someone has to make really you can't have two circuit courts saying two different things exactly because then that group of states is under one and the other is under something else so so like I said I'll keep you up to what I hear and hopefully get I'll get some guidance through our attorneys on if this has is what it kind of means to us so I just want to read that and digest it and kind of we can continue to chew on that as much as we need to so that second bullet point there there I I think they're telling us to be cautious here too they're saying in the U.S Department of Education guidance documents
023are are in court therefore they're not enforceable right now this is our position but what we're seeing is not enforceable because it's in court exactly so and that's really what our attorney said it's it's still coming we don't yeah nobody knows it's not settled law I think was her phrase yeah it's not settled right so we've got a long way to go so anyway just wanted to continue Lori some lower courts have ruled and then it got kicked up to higher courts well I know our AG jumped in with a few other AGS and they went to Tennessee and Tennessee said you do not have to follow what they put out yeah I know that's what was ruled through Tennessee and there was a few yeah they said there's 21 other state attorneys that have
024said that the only problem is they're saying you don't have to follow it but the federal government is saying okay don't follow it but we're going to withhold money well they did say that they weren't allowed to do that either they said that was illegal I didn't want to say which there again it's still in the court so what do you do do you say no and yeah not get the money right now I mean what do you you know again schools are caught in the crosshairs of everybody because we're the low-hanging fruit that's right we're the little local person that the communities can be divided on the on the topic and it's easy to argue and it should be the school that you know it's this well it's a school district's fault for this
025no it's their fault for this yet it's really not us we're just following what someone is trying to tell us but no one has a clear answer yet so very true so many um get confused with the role of the school boards you know everyone comes to when they're upset comes to a public meeting and I'm so glad because it is a good place to have the discussion begin right if you don't understand that we're not lawmakers were policy makers when a law is made we're required to write a policy of how we comply with the law in our district so it'd be kind of nice if legislative meetings were a little bit more attended when those laws get passed and I get it this is right in everybody's backyard so this is an easy
026place to do it not everybody wants to drive to Columbus not everybody wants to drive to D.C But there again it's just in my mind the legislators are just leaving everybody else kind of hanging out the dry by not getting this figured out it'll come not just this topic but many others anyway it's fascinating stuff just more more to come get that too soon thank you absolutely um all right I I got a little bit about um board appreciation but we'll um that's a motion so we'll kind of move on if I continue then yes all right oh one thing I'm sorry we did um oh next week just FYI our next board may I mean we're going to bring our gifted program forward to talk about that so that'll be our next uh work
027session okay on the 23rd something like that okay so that's that's coming up okay all right uh item one if I may proceed uh consider the uh following donations we got Faith Lutheran Church Ebenezer Church Saint Paul's Episcopal Church Ali and Joel sabeki and the Fremont Exchange Club all being very generous to the districts okay can I get a motion to approve item one please so moved motion by Miss Laird could I have a second second second by Mrs Lewis any discussion roll call please Ms Laird yes Ms Lewis yes Miss Bloom yes Mr Price yes motions approved all right um item two board I it's still your it's your discretion um but in the past we've surveyed the staff and we present two options to you we gave those to you I think last
028in December um option A was a 60 a 40 winner over option b option A is the longer Spring Break um I think maybe after the last couple years that's understandable so I'm gonna ask if your permission if I could present option A then uh for the board's approval here this evening right all right can I get a message either by the way I'm sorry I didn't mean you're up but 60 40 was a little closer than I thought it would be even so you can tell it's not it's not a slam dunk so well that makes sense too I mean like there's some people think you either want to get out earlier you need that either right to get through the rest of the school year you're right you're so right put your head
029down and go too right if you're sorry can I get a motion to approve item number two stating that option A for the school calendar for 2023 2024 school year please motion by Mrs Bloom I have a second second by Miss Lewis any discussion roll call please this is blimp yes Ms Lewis yes Miss Laird yes Mr Price yes motion's approved all right thank you we're uh I drove bus today and actually I drove a clunker in the morning and I drove one that only had like 4 000 miles on it this afternoon what a difference uh in the in the rides so I'm I'm ready to really uh go to item three but the first part of item three simply allows us to not um the Iowa schools council is a state supplier so
030they don't have to go through the competitive bidding process so they're pre-approved State suppliers so as a part of this uh you'll be kind of saying it's okay to work with them um which is which is legal and appropriate and then that allow us to move ahead on the purchase of five buses which we're very excited about and this is Esser funds so it's no general fund dollar okay um one quick thing on the school buses correct me if I'm wrong there is a limit as to I mean at some point we have to retire a school bus correct well no as long as they pass the highway Patrols um very strenuous inspections we can keep them on the road but it gets very difficult and mostly due to rust the the wheel wells go
031the back doors go the around the tires go it becomes so deteriorated rust-wise that they just aren't certifiable anymore so um it's really we've got one that a night we got a 1996 bus that still runs and it's just because it somehow has just been a great vehicle for us and it's still going um but then I've got the one I wrote this morning was 2006 and it's tired so I think it just depends you know the quality of what they were and so yeah there's no there's no set age as long as you can pass that yearly inspection they can stay on the road I think it's good just for everyone to understand that it isn't that we just go out and buy buses whenever we want to it's if you look make them
032last as long as we can there's there's reports that Megan does on all this stuff the T1 reports and so forth but it evaluates our bus by age and then Compares us to the average age of other districts around the state and we write we we drive an old Fleet and I think that's we're just kind of a we fix it right we just fix it we don't just buy new so no one can accuse us of over purchasing buses yeah for sure yeah right uh can I get a motion to approve item three please so moved motion by Miss Laird could I have a second second by Mrs bloom any discussion roll call please Ms Laird yes Mrs Bloom yes Miss Lewis yes Mr Price yes motion's approved thank you very much moving on
033to students um this is a approval with your permission tonight for us to join again with our Sandusky County Board of DD we do have still quite a few students well I'm not quite a few nine ten 19 I'm sorry I don't remember the number but we did great there didn't we yeah but we still do have students that are fully fully um educated at the school of hope so that's this and I might shout out just publicly that they've not charged us at all for the last two years because their funding situation was so good that they were allowed were able to [Music] pass down to significant savings to us and even this is basically a third I think of it's the amount that they're actually charging us this year is only 33 of
034what the total cost is for them to educate these students and that that 19 actually includes preschool so he might have been closer with nine with the um school age students so he's not a total dummy but uh but some of the students are very expensive to educate so it's very significant amount but anyway their permission will uh approve that contract okay can you get a motion to approve item four please so Move Motion by Mrs Miss Lewis could I have a second second second by Mrs bloom any discussion this would be something that wouldn't be covered with a voucher I'm just gonna throw that out these students when I mean you talk about access and and um even what Mr McIntosh I remembered his name after you it says Macintosh but talked about well
035that that ability to educate every child or that commitment to educate every child is a part of what we do here I'm sorry little soapbox there and I just want to say uh thank you to the board of DD I mean I one I know we have a great relationship with them they're great to work with but for them to pass this savings on to us I mean just shows what great work they do you know for our County and everything so thank you very much to the board of DD for that so uh roll call please Miss Lewis yes Mrs Bloom yes Ms Laird yes Mr Price yes motion's approved thank you very much moving on item five in our Personnel Brenda Fisher um retiring from Ross um 22 years here but she had
036quite a few years at some other districts before she came here she's the one though guarantee you at the gold medal banquet um not gold medal top whatever top 25 yeah top 25 banquet in the Summer where the top students recognize top teachers who have always more than one student two three sometimes picking tapping her as that teacher that has made a difference in them so I just want to wish her well she's uh she serves our students with no there's a also too we have to convince some students not to avoid her because she's got a reputation very tough but just good really really good we have a lot of writers out there who are little giants because of Brenda Fisher um item six uh staff substitutes you got Stacy Proctor and Felicia wise
037and then Part B some appointments Robert artino is custodian uh Melinda Metcalf as a bus driver atop the next page and then Cheryl Shaffer in a quick position also a few more support staff substitutes listed at the end of item six item seven uh supplemental contracts you can see our spring musical I'm very excited to to roll that out again we had such a good time in the last one we're going to try it again um so we've got uh folks that are helping us with that but also a couple Elementary music programs as well item eight um supplemental Duty positions we've got a couple more on the next page uh Kylie Mears uh she's also helping us with our spring theater she helped last fall with costumes item nine special event workers um Mr
038Heinlein is a bus chaperone and I know that that's a volunteer position uh because there approval for the student teacher mentors um those are um all the cooperating teachers who have student teachers you notice there's one there for a hundred dollars because she has two so there you go I have a motion for this Personnel items please okay I'm gonna get a motion to approve items five through ten please motion by Mrs Bloom can I have a second second by Miss Laird any discussion I just want to say real quick about Mrs Fisher uh my oldest daughter Cassidy had her and I had the opportunity to go in and talk to her and she reminded me the best teacher I ever had at Clyde was Mrs Determan Jane Determan was an English teacher also and
039uh did not like that class when I was in high school and I ended up having to have her two years in a row but the best teacher I've ever had yeah hands down yeah and Mrs Fisher just remember from the moment I met her that's who it reminded me of and I'm like whoever takes her class is going to be a better student for that she just I mean we have great teachers and she just was one that stuck out to me that my daughter happened to have so I congratulations to her on her retirement but thank you for all the all the work that she's put in and all the impact that she's made on students over the years so but all right uh roll call please Mrs Bloom yes Miss Laird yes
040Miss Lewis yes Mr Price yes motions approved all right uh item 11. yeah um let me read one off first I've got certificates for you for uh School Board recognition month and also the goodies there those of you no I'm not that nice I think I think Gina Heinlein I'm going to give a public shout out to Gene I guess that's got Gina written all over it um if you're listening way more thoughtful than I am that's for sure that'll taste good for the uh national title game for the college football games right there you go that's right that's right um but anyway thank you for all you do and it's a it's a tough job um the certificate here says certificate appreciation um is presented to and that has one for each of you
041and sincere appreciation for Exemplar leadership and service to public schools and it's presented by Christine varwig president of Ohio School Board Association and Richard Lewis Chief Executive Officer of the house School Board Association and um I passed them I have them pass out here I think I may just um Sarah you're the newest we'll start with the newest I just want to appreciate I think you've already tremendously affected this board your experience and your Insight to the community um and your knowledge of the systems available to students and and due process and I mean just you bring a wealth of information to this board and I appreciate that so I just want you to know that so glad to have you here thank you um Lori Bloom I probably have her head examined because in
042the middle of when the world was absolutely upside down she said sign me up who in the world would walk into this snake pit right now and not go the other way I'm going to ask me if I was crazy yeah right well maybe we should all ask you a little bit but seriously it takes a it takes a person who really cares Laura and we know that we do and you know your family your own children came through and um we just appreciate what your heart for what this school district can be and should be and we know how sincere you are my grandson just loves you so he loves me he's always talking yeah there you go he asked me if you clean very good Mary Alice is not here but you know
043about once a month she'll call me said I need to talk to you and she'll come in and sit down and we'll just talk and she's just so caring about the district and passionate about what happens here so um Miss Laird I know you and I have been at this a little while you're on the group that hired me right so um we've we've had a couple scars too um I'll never forget the day the um the uh the bids came in on the elementary um and I looked at him and they were all like 40 off I mean that they weren't even close I remember Chantelle was president at the time I called her I said I'm going to need your help here um we're gonna have to do some uh some strategorizing right
044so I'll just never forget that and what I've been impressed with is your courage just absolute courage to to say what you believe is the right thing and then do the right thing even when it's not easy appreciate you very much and Mr Price um once again to lead through what you've LED through is is tremendous I think um you've uh you've done it with Grace and and passion for students and always always about students and even sometimes when the board didn't agree you had a good way of bringing things together and keeping us keeping us from being fractured you know I have entertainment and now is me just kind of watching some other school boards on video it's unbelievable how dysfunctional some of those groups are and I I think your leadership has kept
045us from ever being anything like that not that we would but it doesn't happen on accident so I want to thank you for thank you so just want to take a moment to say how much I appreciate you if you want to bring you thank you can I get a motion to approve item 11 please so moved motion by mislayered could I have a second second by Mrs Bloom any discussion roll call please Miss Laird yes Mrs Bloom yes Ms Lewis yes Mr Price yes motion's approved thank you very much moving on item 12. approval of adoption of resolution for National mentoring month or if there's ever been a time for mentors it's now so I was at uh rotary uh meeting today and they have eight mentors right out of Rotary Club working with
046our strive students which are upperclassmen who are at risk of not making it so we've got them moved out to people who can hopefully make a difference so it's just an example in our Ace mentoring program has a 20 when he maybe so these are just one child at a time one adult at a time which we all know is really the way it works so um if your approval will recognize National mentoring month I'm gonna get a motion to prove item 12 please motion by Miss Lewis could I have a second second second by Miss Laird any discussion no call please Miss Lewis yes Miss Leonard yes Mrs Bloom yes Mr pray yes motions approved okay moving on to report of the treasure um good evening I have a couple of things on here
047tonight the approval of the tax budget which we had that wonderful he hearing um and the organizational meeting and then I do want to talk a little bit about item number 14 you're probably looking at this going why are we approving a 500 000 increase to the Appropriations for the general fund um with that um um the approval of the Sandusky County Board of DD there was a bill Associated unfortunately due to when the timing of there was a lot of movement with them on preschool enrollment and then with the state getting them the numbers and cost reimbursements so that they could bill us there was it was a little bit later and it was higher than what we expected so a small portion of that 500 000 goes towards that um we've also been
048running into the increase in utility costs um they've just been we budgeted higher but we're already meeting the top of those budgets so my AP person came to me freaking out and I said okay we'll figure it out so um probably about 250 000 of that is for utility cost increase it's just the propane gas usage has been up and all that so or not I've been up but the cost just greatly and I'm sure you've seen that at home as well and then the rest of that is we also had an increase in our ESC bill that's more special ed funding they had to give their staff wages so that they could be competitive and when they gave us the fall update it was quite a bit higher so we're like okay now we've
049got to come in and increase the budget for those areas as well I don't remember exactly how much higher that was but it's probably a couple hundred grand yeah it was very significant so it exceeded the additional cost that we had built into the budget so I just wanted to give you a little bit because that is a little bit of a why are we needing that much money so all right uh can I get a motion to prove items 13 and 14 please so moved motion by Miss Laird can I have a second second second by Miss Lewis any discussion so the 500 000 increase Megan is that um the projection of those increases how far out does that cover us for the rest of um through June 30th of this year that's for
050the rest of the fiscal year for the rest of the fiscal year hopefully okay fingers crossed I mean yeah at the cost of everything I mean I think this is good for everybody to understand is that um you know everybody who feels it at home I mean I just looked at our utility prices for the cookie shop and it our gas bill went up 125 percent from last year I'm like ah I'm not using any more gas it hasn't been that cold of a winter so far you know so pricing you know everything so just multiply that by how many fold for a school district and all their buildings and you know the one thing that I like people to understand is you know for me as a business I can up my prices when
051my costs go up when wages need to go up or anything a school district we have a set amount coming from the state the state doesn't change that based on inflation or pricing of employee wages or any diesel fuel diesel fuel oh yeah utility prices I mean it doesn't change and we can't up the ante on our call I mean our price of what we're selling our Goods at it's children being educated and they graduate weight so good way to see how we're on a fixed budget yet prices are going through the roof for everything so thank goodness those utility bills are hitting in our energy efficient new buildings and with that or the old high school be like right now and it's just going to say actually if you look at our usage our
052usage isn't up that much in fact it's between that old high school and our new high school that's really but it's just not enough to quite offset the price change right that's a very good point to make though public needs to hear things like that as well I don't know if the the boiler at the old high school would have uh the weather from a couple of weeks ago right and can you imagine what that cost would have been to put a Band-Aid on that thing yeah you know with that weather that we had I mean it that was constantly being fixed all the time anyway yeah right so in the number of leaks we were it it just was beyond yeah taking a major major yeah so okay um oh roll call please sorry
053lost my place Miss Laird yes Miss Lewis yes Miss Bloom yes Mr Price yes motion's approved uh moving on to board member Communications Lori well thank you for the treats and the recognition certificate and for all the people that are buying up to do for the spring Musical and help yeah and for all the teachers and people that are coming forward to sub and I'll help out more and the new buses and um Mrs Fisher congratulations on her retirement awesome that you can I look forward to that day and then hopefully this Mary Alice gets uh gets better her daughter hoping that they can pull this off get better and that's it Gentile um I had to go what she said thank you to everybody in in the district you know it it takes everybody
054we're very blessed in Fremont with terrific teachers faculty staff volunteers uh John and Megan we appreciate you greatly um very uh underestimated roles you both carry there's so much more to the role than people understand um and I know in our time together here we've certainly seen you know that as well and uh you too have let it through difficult times and kept everything's together and it's uh truly appreciated and I have a fun announcement the enrollment in Fremont City Schools is going to go up by one in 2028 for Christmas my son TJ and his wife announced that they're expected so congratulations number three that's all for tonight thank you okay Sarah um I just hope everybody had a safe holiday and had a nice time with to enjoy family and and friends um
055I appreciate um the the school board appreciation I am the new kid on the Block and I've I've learned a lot um and I dance for us new kid on the Block you have plans for it don't tell me when's a good time Mr Price I will so I would just like to express my appreciation um for the opportunity to be able to serve um and I look forward to continuing to be able uh to serve in this capacity because I really enjoyed um things so far even the the more challenging um things that have occurred um I've enjoyed so I look forward to continuing to serve um thank you for all the donations um that people and community members have have given and again like was already said thank you to those teachers and
056administrators and the staff and faculty uh that just kind of go above and beyond um we keep talking about the musical and and um you know clubs and organizations and those are just things that keep our our teachers and our faculty members and um you know here in the building and with kids for a longer you know period of time during the day and I don't know that they get all the thank yous that they should so I just wanted to make sure that you know we could publicly thank them as well um and then just be giant be present and be great thank you um thank you to the community for donations for the volunteer hours um the mentors that come in from our community all those volunteer hours just to help the school
057district out um much appreciated uh thank you for the school board recognition um I don't know as you were talking it kind of got into my head I don't know if this was a different city or a different community in a different School District if I would want to put my name on a ballot to be a school board member because it would just be a hot mess I mean it's for our community and the staff that we have here at this District I I think I mean it's been long enough for me on the school board I think it's pretty easy compared to what some people have to deal with for sure so I appreciate everybody involved in that um the last thing I want to do is I'm going to give a little
058recognition or a little shout out to some students it's a little bit different only because I'm also their boss and they work for me but um I thought it was appropriate only because sometimes our high school students maybe get a bad rap for their work ethic and what they can do um I had quite a few or have quite a few raw students that work for me right now and the amount of work that they did at Christmas our busiest time of the year to Cookie Shop if you're not busy at a bakery at Christmas you're doing something wrong and it's all hands on deck and and man the amount of work that they wanted to do amazed me I have a great group of kids that work for me so if anybody is out
059there saying man these high school kids don't want to work maybe I'm blessed and I have the few that want to or maybe there's just only a few that don't want to and people aren't getting the credit for what they actually do because I'll tell you what these girls um and guys whatever they do later on in life they're going to do well and and I've tried to tell them that so I just want to read off their names I have that opportunity so I thought you know what we're going to recognize students so um the ones that work for me currently right now I have Maddie Poulter Layla Heidelberg Hannah Rios Taylor Rupert Brianna Sims Jackson Smith Macy Wolverton Lily simonowski and Rhys Shanahan um all those kids I just want to say I
060want publicly how much I appreciate all the hard work you do and man if there's anybody else out there that needs some workers look up these high school kids but because they want to work they're they're ready too and I tell them man if you want to work now you are just setting yourself up for Success later on in life keep that mentality of let me work I want to go let's figure this out um because they're doing great so thank you very much for them so if anybody knows them out there tell them thank you for being a worker because that's what we need right now so but anyway nice um so that's all I have um there's no need for an executive session tonight so if I could get a motion to adjourn
061please so moved motion by Miss Laird do I have a second second second by Miss Lewis any discussion no call please Ms Laird yes Ms Lewis yes Mr Mr Price yes motion's approved meeting is adjourned thank you foreign [Music]