2-10-26 Board of Education Meeting

001You want to come on down? >> And here's the Michael son. And >> I pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. >> That was the best one we've done yet. Very, very nice. Very wellision. >> Uh, Mr. Mr. Davis, give us the roll call, please. >> Mr. Marks, >> here. >> Mr. Schwer, >> here. >> Mrs. Sang >> here. >> Mr. Phillis, >> here. >> Mr. Warfl >> here. >> At this point, I'd ask for a a motion to adopt the regular meeting agenda. So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I Mr. Davis, any public commentaries? >> None this evening. >> Very good. That

002we will roll into recognition correspondent and not >> Thank you. So, we're going to start with our month with our monthly video. >> Hi, my name is Ryan and I'm in fifth grade. My name is Oliver and I am in second grade. >> My name is Aliana and I am in first grade. >> Hi, my name is Emma and I'm in fifth grade. >> My name is Fletcher Kushman and I'm in eighth grade. >> My name is Eva Shriast and I'm in eighth grade. >> My name is London Carowway and I'm in eighth grade. >> My name is Devon Daniel. I'm a junior. My name is Ardisha Therani and I'm a junior. >> My name is Aiden Concade and I'm a senior. >> My name is Dr. Melissa Stewart. I'm the superintendent of schools. And

003when we think about the state of schools, who's better to tell us than the students themselves? >> It's so good to see you guys. Hi. Come on. How are you? It's so nice to see you. We got this. Come on. There you go. Are you comfy? You sitting all the way? Are you comfy? Yeah. >> All right. This is going to be fantastic. What do you like most about Indian Hill Primary School? >> I probably like most that I really get to do a lot of my passions. >> It is so special because it it's full of kids who love being interactive with others. >> Yes. And the teachers as well, right? >> The teachers and staff are so nice. They come in with the biggest smile every day. >> When you talk about a

004community, when you talk about acceptance, I felt like I've gone here my whole life. Even some of the people now like they'll be like, "When did you come here?" I'll say, "Eighth grade." I was like, "It feels like you've been here your whole life and you can't really get that anywhere else." >> Indian Hill isn't just like a place we go to school for. It truly feels like you're part of something bigger. Like we always have moments where we just come together as a community, but you do feel it in every classroom, every interaction. >> If you had to say, what's your best learning that you've done so far this year? My best learning was to help kids be brave throughout the school year. >> Oh, to be brave kids and little stuffed animals at

005a felt. >> And that helps people to remember to be brave, right? Right. >> And how how can students be brave in school? >> They got to do stuff that they're nervous about, but they do it anyway. >> That's right. That's right. And there might be students who were nervous to come here and talk, but then you can show them it's not so bad. >> You just got to say a couple words and then you're done. You could not have a better outfit on. Yay, Braves. Right. I think that's like a big difference between elementary and middle school is getting able to do athletics and sports that's like super associated with the school. I think sometimes it takes courage to say, "Oh, I'm going to give this new thing a try. >> I really love

006it. It's such a fun sport. It's two. It's two. Two. Put it through for two. Go Braves." >> What are you passionate about? I play the violin. Like I just started. Okay. >> I really enjoy playing it. It helps in science too because in science you learn about pitch and sound and the violin can help with that. >> You're an ambassador in case people don't know what is an ambassador. >> Basically we talk about things we're doing in class and share them with the community through video. Being an ambassador it's given me a level of confidence that I didn't really have. Gave me the opportunity to meet new people, make new friends. Talk to us a little bit about your role in the unified program. >> Not everyone is going to fit in at first,

007so you just kind of got to help them. We have I think it's like around 120 kids in our >> Can you believe it? It's crazy. >> What a great way to show leadership and also because of your camaraderie with students through athletics and other events. Having students watch you take the lead and making sure that others feel welcome and included is like this subtle form of leadership that's so impactful. There is something that I've heard about that I heard a rumor you were involved with that I'd love to know more about. Braves postal service. >> Braves postal service is anybody in the school can write a letter to somebody else in the school. It can be any grade. You can write it to your brother, your sister, your friend. >> This is incredible. Have

008you ever written a letter? >> Yes. >> And how did that feel for you? >> It felt good. >> Well, I think that being part of Braves's postal service also is a great way to show leadership. How do you be a leader in the middle school? >> Sometimes when the new semester is, some kids don't know how to find their classes. So, since I've been to most of the classes, helping kids find their classes and just making sure that they know that they feel welcome to the new school. >> You have fundraised for Children's Hospital in Dayton. >> It took off with our pickle ball event that we had in August. We raised over $2,500. >> It's incredible. >> So, it was our first like big step towards our $10,000 milestone. I just want to

009say that like your life is full. You participate in a lot of different things. You have hard classes. You're studying. You're doing all of those things. Yet, you found time to start this foundation and to fund raise. It's really impressive. You have made a huge impact on the middle school in the morning. Fridays we stand and like we scream and shout happy Friday and give everyone high fives and just getting them ready for the day. Getting them in a good mood to push through the day so they can have a good day. Good morning. What is the big pitch? >> So, it's a time where like students really get to pitch any idea they have to improve the school, the community, just give students an opportunity to make a change. So, our big pitch was

010the brave bridge. That was a space in the school for students to take a break and just focus on themselves whenever they need it throughout the school day. >> I could not believe just the amount of maturity and like professionalism that you had in your presentation. You're a leader. You're a leader in a lot of different ways. I'm brand new as a superintendent. That means like I'm in charge of the whole district. What advice do you have for me? >> It's okay if you make mistakes, but you can learn from them. >> Make sure you get to know the kids because when I get to know my teachers, it just it feels a lot more comfortable being around them >> by not being like mad at people when they do something wrong. >> What should

011I do instead? >> You should be like, "Hey, you need to work on this." >> Stay positive. >> That's all you got to do. Stay positive. come in with a big smile every day. >> Listening. Listening is a big >> thing for me personally. >> Keep making sure everyone feels comfortable throughout the school. >> Making sure kids are really learning and getting their passion and just, you know, having fun. >> I think that's something special about Nhill, like I said, was is the community. So, just kind of enhancing that, working to just preserve it and like grow the community. >> That's the biggest thing is this is the community. I've learned so much while being here as a as a person, as a human, and then as a student as well. And I mean, you

012can't get a lot of the things you can get here at many other places. >> I think maybe that was our last one. I I mean, I was going to have my own little speech about the state of schools, but what else could I say that they haven't said? I'll see you guys later. Just for the record, none of that was scripted. Like those, they're amazing. Aren't they amazing? We didn't even prep them in any way. We didn't tell them what the questions would be. They just came in. Amazing. They're amazing. All right, I'm going to go ahead and go on and celebrate um the middle school future city team. Again, an outstanding performance on January 12th as they typically have done in the past. Um they received two special awards. the runner up for

013best architectural model and best moving part. We also want to celebrate a student who uh lucky for us was able to make it. Aiden Concaid um led a nonprofit organization called Teens Together who presented 10,000 then $10,000 donation to Dayton Children's Hospital and its growth hormone fund on Friday, January 9th. Um Aiden is here with us to be able to celebrate this. Um it's so Aiden and I have talked about this. It's so impressive because really his life is busy enough that um like how he found time for this I'll never know. Um but it really goes to show and I think it also takes like vulnerability and leadership to stand up say this is an important cause and I'm going to represent it. Oh no, he's the best one for it. >> Yes. >>

014Super fancy being up here. Um I didn't have anything prepared, but um I started my growth hormone um basically nonprofit after my own battles that I had. Um, I know in fifth grade I actually grew up being one of the tallest kids. I was around the 70th percentile in height and over time as I would grow throughout the years I attended I went down and down and down. So I went from about the 70th year I'd go down to the 60th 50th all the way down until about fifth grade when I was in the 30th. And so obviously my mom and I started looking to doctors. We started going to our local clinic showing our growth my growth chart and asking you know what's wrong like he's always been one of the tallest. Why is

015his height suddenly plateauing now? And a lot of the answers that my mom and I got originally were that I was just a late bloomer. You know, it's kind of common in kids to see some people kind of catch height late, but when I started tall and things, you know, started plateauing and it also didn't help. My dad was 411 going into high school. So, me being in fifth grade, um being short, um we got a lot of answers that were you're just a late grower. And so we went from a local clinic then to 20 minutes out and we saw a doctor and then we went out to 45 minutes and we saw a doctor all the way until my mom and I had gone out to Dayton Children's Hospital. Um I think my

016mom found out there were dentists that endocrinology and meeting with an endocrinologist would be the um path that I had to take. And so we went out about an hour and 15 minute drive and um got cleared to do the test. And I'll summarize it. It's a little bit of a a long process, but basically I would sit in a hospital bed. It's a 4-hour test and I would have an IV stuck to my arm and I sat there. My mom was on my right. We ended up playing like cards and stuff for the 4-hour period. And every 30 minute interval, they would draw blood and and test my hormone levels. And after that 4-hour period, um, tested positive for growth hormone deficiency. And this is about after a year and a half of going

017to doctors and asking answers. And so reflecting on what I learned through the entire process is that um one there's not a lot of awareness that goes towards these rare genetic disorders. Um for me it was growth hormone deficiency but there's so many others that I know and um being confused for so long with what my problem was compared to the people around me um really got me going and that's where I started to think about what I could do to raise awareness and um it also adds on that growth hormone deficiency is extremely expensive. it can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $5,000 a month. Um, and that's just for families. So that adds up to, you know, $60,000 a year at like the uppermost boundary. And so I thought, what like better thing for

018me to do than start my own nonprofit to one really spread awareness about not only growth hormone deficiency, but all rare genetic disorders, and then also raise as much money as I can for a fund at the hospital that gave me my support. And that's where, you know, I got to teens together. made we did a pickle ball event was our first one in August and the ball kept rolling from there. Um got so much support from the community. Um I was able to reach I think we got to 10,000 a little over $10,000 which is my original goal that I um set junior year but through like the support I got from the parents in the community. The support I got even after I got the money getting the outreach and the awareness to

019the news stations I know we got covered by way more than I ever expected. So big shout out especially Miss Hen. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Um, but extremely grateful for, you know, this community and everyone that was able to support me and, you know, broke our 10,000 goal, got it donated to, um, Dayan Children's Hospital and hopefully they can do great stuff with that money. So, thank you guys. I appreciate congratulations Okay, thanks Aiden. Um, we also want to recognize and congratulate the high school for earning the College Board's AP school honor role platinum recognition for the 2425 school year. And as I look out, I see that we have AP and AP teacher in our audience as well. Um, schools can earn this by having um a rigorous advanced placement courses

020that students can participate in. Um Andy Gruber, the principal there, credit this collected efforts of teachers, counselors, administrators, students, and families in creating um this as an accessible opportunity for our students to take these courses. Um and thank you to all the teachers who be able to put in so much energy to make that happen. We also want to celebrate that we had our global culture celebration week last week. Um, and during that time, more than 40 different nationalities that comprised our district were able to celebrate it. We had our global fair at the elementary this year, and it was a huge hit. Um, the buzz in the hallway before they got to go in was really significant. Thank you to all the parents who made that come true. We also want to congratulate seven

021Indian Hill High School students chosen as semi finalists in the prestigious Cincinnati Arts Association overture awards including Owen Abasing, Jimny Goo, Rivy Green, Vivian Jenkins, Ely Longrodm, Grace U, and Janisha Rana. continuing to celebrate the the students at Indian Hill Elementary School. Then once again were able to compete against students in middle school and high school and yet win the stock market game. I say every year I need to have them give some investment advice to me. And when they did that, the top performing team included Devon Ath, Hudson Gross, Mary Blair Williams, and Addex Vandermark. The team finished the 10-week simulation with a total equity of almost $110,000 and they will advance to be able to compete in the spring for the grand prize. The grand prize gets to go to the stock market

022in New York City. Um, going back to art, um, we also were able to celebrate Scholastic Art and Writing Awards with 37 awards total for our students. Um in the visual category we had 34 awards including the gold key honors which were given to Razel Green, Miam Key, Kais, Anna O'Driscoll, Amara Raman, Jananisha Rana, Iris Zoo, Clarret Yang, and Olivia Zho. And Olivia Zhao got two of those awards. in the silver key. Libby Smith in eighth grade earned a silver key which also is in literary which is really impressive to win that as an eighth grader. And all of that artwork will be displayed in the art academy in Cincinnati through February 22nd. If you want to go take a look at the entrepreneur center in partnership with the the Brigadier General Charles Young Foundation,

023we hosted the first ever Brigadier General Charles Young student leadership summit. We had over a hundred students attend from 12 different school districts across Southwest Ohio for a day dedicated to leadership, learning, and connection. And one of the most powerful things that happened were to see the connections that happened between students from different schools. And we're going to close out the recognition by welcoming our middle school team that has a wonderful presentation to share with us about um a unit of study that they did. >> Becky, you guys want to come out? Yeah, sure. >> Come on. Good evening. My name is Alex Fes. I'm the assistant principal at the middle school. And tonight I have the privilege of welcoming our guests from both the middle school and the primary school. We have seventh grade

024English language arts teacher Paula Farenamp, seventh graders Adelaide Donnelly and Evelyn Kim. And from the primary school we also have Lucy Strike. And before I turn it over to them to share about their excellent work, I want to take just a moment to discuss kind of how that work came to be. So this work, this incredible work is a direct result of our strategic plan and the high yield strategies, specifically project-based learning and leadership and action. The idea for this project was sparked this summer when Mrs. Fenam's counterpart in seventh grade English, Mrs. Courtney Ward, was leading professional development on project-based learning for Indian Hill School staff. She was working with Mrs. Campa. And while they were collaborating, Mrs. Campa is a second grade teacher of Lucy, also here in the audience. And while they

025were collaborating, the two of them came to the realization that partnering across schools for this work could yield amazing results. I think it's safe to say that they were right. So, we'd like to thank the board of education for its unwavering support and continued support of the district strategic plan. I think it's safe to say that it's yielded um just amazing results for all of our braves across the district. So, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Mrs. Farenamp, who's going to share a little bit more about the learning process behind the work. Thank you. >> Do I just I've actually never used the clicker. Do I just click with the thumb that one do I press that one? liquid down. >> They're down. >> All right. Well, as Alex commented, um

026I was going to start also, first of all, I want to start off by saying thank you. I just am so excited to share this. Um I've been teaching for a really long time and to just see the excitement in the kids. And when I say kids, I mean every kid that participated, the second graders, the seventh graders. It's just like it's hard to put into words because the enthusiasm around it and the learning was really it was exceptional. So, Mrs. Ward, Courtney, my counterpart and friend, and Amy, they just brainstormed together this summer and came up with this idea that our second graders and our seventh graders would collaborate in a project-based learning experience. And I don't know, I couldn't have scripted it better. Like I said, it was just incredible to see the

027depth of learning, but also the way the kids came together and their just joy when they were all there. So, I'm just going to very quickly go through this just how it connects to the standards because as fun as it was and as great as it is, it also connects to our seventh grade standards. So, we start every quarter with a question. So, this is how can sharing our stories help us connect. And we really broke this down into what do we want when we're storytelling and what do you want when you're a reader? And so, what does that mean? What are we looking for? We're looking for emotion and talking and dialogue and depth. And so, that's how we started. And then, oops, I didn't feel good. Right. make I'm actually making it brighter.

028Sorry. I usually just tab. Um, so we in seventh grade, Courtney and I, we spent some time really thinking how are we going to prepare them for this writing for this PBL or project based learning. So we start our quarter off with reading a book 96 miles. And through that book, we teach all of our standards that are really important for literary elements and our reading literature standards. So we focus a lot on our um we explore plot with characters and action and we look at development. We really think about how do our characters motivate each other? How do their mo motivations change? And we spent a lot of time on this plot diagram because we knew that eventually they were going to use this plot diagram to write their own story. And something that

029was really cool is they co-authored, which is why we have two of our co-authors here together today. and they had to really think and collaborate together on how are we going to write this. So some students divided it and wrote half and half. Some did maybe a one event, somebody else did the climax. So they had a lot of freedom in how they did this. But the number one thing I noticed is that everyone wrote and every student supported. We had some groups of three. So that was even more um collaboration and breaking that down. So this is the plot diagram they used to learn and to apply and application, but then also to write their own stories. So we also wanted to make sure that they were learning and so we gave them all

030the requirements that they needed for a successful story. So we really focused on sensory details and figurative language and the impact of those um complex sentences and dialogue and why dialogue is so important in the way it moves plot along. Um we also looked at the illustrator's bio and character sketches which we'll get to because they're so cute. And then we have them at the end show us their proof of learning. So this is how we grade them. We look at the whole story. But it's really important that we know that those um elements that we're really looking for have been met. And then after we went to the primary, the students came back and reflected because again that's such an important piece of their learning and it gives us really good feedback because I

031hope that we continue to do this next year. Um so they just talked through their strengths. What were some issues that they faced as co-authors? That's really hard when you're 12, 13 to write a story together. Um, and then they gave us feedback on what we could do differently. And we asked about the timeline because it was fast. They wrote the whole thing in about 5 days. So, it was it was really quick. Oh, wait. This is an important part. So, they also invited their parents and other people to literacy night at the primary, which was a fabulous event. I had never been in. I will never miss it again. It was so cool. So we have we started with our well our students were doing some things simultaneously the second graders were also doing

032some of these these things. So we had our students write author bios about themselves just where they're from what are their interests just that way when we met them they were able to know each other a little bit and make it you know really comfortable. So, in the meantime, the second graders were writing their um their character there, so their author bios and then they were developing characters that ultimately our students were going to write their stories about. So, you can see they have their characters and their names. So, this is an example of Lucy's. We had a variety of characters. We had aliens and animals and Cheetos that played basketball. And I mean, you name it, we had it. It was so fun. And I think that was one of the things that was

033so neat to see is how our seventh graders took those ideas and ran with it. We didn't really have to brainstorm with them. They really just did it. So they received this and from here they made their stories. So they had books that they'll show you and we have all of our bios in there. And then with our academic advisory time, which is so valuable, we were able to go into the cafeteria with every seventh grader and a lot of teachers and they were able to collaborate together, revise together, make sure their stories were the way they wanted, but was still powerful because they were used to getting feedback from me or feedback from just their partner. And this allowed them to get feedback from anybody in the grade level and different teachers. We even

034had different grade level teachers in there. So that was a really powerful day. We actually did it twice. And then um you can see they were cutting their picture cutting they had to print and put them in their books and decide what their story layout was going to be which again collaboration and thinking together and making sure they had all their elements of the story. And then this was truly one of the best days of my teaching life ever when we went to the primary. I know Amy probably felt the same way. I just couldn't even get over how wonderful this was and I knew it was going to be fun and all those things, but to see and feel the energy of the learning when they were together. They read their books, but then

035our seventh graders went through the plot diagram with them and asked them questions of like what who is the characters and what's the rising actions? They went through the whole thing together. And then you can see they're on the floor. It was so cute. And then they um also worked through problem solution. They worked together then to think about how they were going to illustrate their stories. And then we ended up with these amazing books. We have so many if you want to read them. They're really good. And um this is a picture of Lucy's. That's her starting page and that's her ending page. And then we celebrated at literacy night and it was just incredible. So again, thank you for having me speak. I could talk all night but I won't. Everyone in this

036room who knows me knows that I could just keep talking, so I'll stop. But I do want to turn it over to our seventh grade representatives and girls. You don't need that. It's all for >> Good evening, members of the board, ministers, and committee. My name is Adelie Donnelly >> and my name is Emilyn Kim. Thank you for allowing us to have some of the exciting project-based learning happening in our English classrooms. Early this school year, seventh grade students collaborated with second grade students at the primary school to write, illustrate, and publish a story. We were given an illustrated profile, a picture, and a description of the character the second grader created. With this information, we were asked to write a story that our second grade partners would illustrate. One of my favorite parts was

037taking the characters the second graders created and turning those characters into an actual story. They got to add their own ideas, draw illustrations, and make the story look exactly how they wanted it to. When they drew their pictures, we could really see how they viewed the story, and sometimes their perspective was different from ours, which made it even more thrilling. This project wasn't just fun, it helped us, too. We got to use the sentence structures we've learn we've been learning plus figurative language and other writing elements. Some writers ideas were inspired by the book 96 Miles by JL Esplin and added them into their own writing. This allowed us to think more creatively and apply what we've been practicing in class. When we visited the primary school, we noticed how excited the second graders were.

038They loved getting to talk to an older kid and we found out we actually had a lot in common. They also had a lot to say which made working with them really fun and engaging. At literacy night, the excitement continued. The second graders were so proud to show their parents what they created. And even the seventh graders were excited to share the work they created with their families, too. Seeing the second graders there meant so much to us, especially knowing that we helped them create something they could be proud of. Overall, this project brought all of us together, both younger and older students, and pushed us to be creative in new and exciting ways. Working together made the experience more fun and meaningful, and it showed us how powerful teamwork can be. Everyone contributed their

039own ideas and strengths, which made the final result even better. This project proves that when we collaborate, we don't just complete an assignment. We could create something truly amazing. >> I thought it was fun to partner with the seventh graders. I liked drawing pictures and I and I thought it was fun to see what the words they wrote. Pairing up together helped us show citizenship. I'm excited to share it with the board of education. >> Thank you. >> Wow. Thank you so much for sharing. Um I'm going to turn it over to middle school principal Dr. Jen Teen to uh wrap things up. >> Just real quick, I mean there's not much more that needs to be said. They did such a nice job highlighting, but I'd be remiss if I didn't just kind of

040point out really the return on investment um that this is this school board who has um years ago worked hard with the community to collaborate on a strategic plan and and Dr. Stewart's leadership in that has been so important that I can truly stand up here and say as a leader, there's no greater pride than when you have nothing to do with the good work that's going on. I had nothing to do with any of this. Um, and I think what's important to highlight, and she'll be embarrassed for me to say this, but our seventh grade English language arts teachers are a dynamic team with incredible test scores. Their value added is always shows consistently over years historical trends. their kids learn more than they're expected to learn. And they still said, uh, one of

041my favorite things is from Pat Summit, basketball coach show at University of Tennessee. She always says like, handle success like you handle failure. And they handle success like they handle failure. So even though they're already talented and they're producing great things, they're constantly looking at how can we make it better. And so project-based learning has been a part of that. And to Paula's point, it's not an extra, it's not the fun, it's not the fluff. it's really great tier one instruction that's happening in their classroom that's engaging students in meaningful work and Dr. Stewart's really helped us to usher that in at the middle school and um made just kind of planted the seeds right and so seeds that were sewn years ago planted and tilled in in the soil and now we're getting to

042see the fruit of that hard work and your vision for teacher leadership in the district that um Amy and Courtney were empowered to be PBL champions and that was an idea that Dr. Steuart had like we don't have to keep going outside the district. We've got teachers who can lead this work. So, I just want to say that there's a lot that goes in behind the scenes and the infrastructure that you as a board and as a community have cultivated that we're getting to see and I truly had nothing to do with it, but I'm so grateful to get to witness it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you obviously to all the teachers, but u particularly the students, the seventh graders. What an opportunity to show some leadership. Uh we talk about that a

043lot and those skills you're picking up along the way. You may not even realize it, but um I bet you made a lot of friends in the second grade and that meant a lot to them to have an older kid uh know their name and give them attention. Um so congratulations and thank you. >> I'd like to say one thing. I think one thing that's really important is uh you know from a board perspective we historically the last several years have invested a lot of money in professional development and often um some people in our community are very excited about that others question like is that a good investment and I think um this is a perfect example where we invested early on in project-based learning and other different avenues of teaching then developed internal

044expertise in that and you see all that playing out now. And so I think when you think about project- based learning, you think about being able to do that and yet meet the standards that we're required to meet, right? Elevate the level of engagement that we saw with those three sharp talented young women. The ability for Mrs. Campa right down at the primary to have the synergy and those are all investments that we're making in people here. And if you think about, yes, we did a capital uh improvement project, right, with with uh leadership with Mick and with Jim and figured finances and built this beautiful building. Our most important assets aren't actually the facilities. It's the roughly 300 employees that we have here that are pouring into our kids every day. And so I

045just want to note, one, thank you to our students. Thank you also to our teacher leaders who invest in this, but also know that we're stewarding money very well with those strategic investments in um our most important asset which is um which is our our teachers and our staff here at the district. >> Yeah, I think this is this is just one one of many projects that are across the the the grade spectrums and the different different programs. It's a fine example and if you have any question, listen to what the students just said and look at their work product down there in the end. It's made its way down here. So very very impressive. Well done. >> Before we move to the next topic, Mrs. Campa, do you have anything that you want to

046add as like one of the trainer like you are one of the people that helps all teachers across the district with project- based learning? >> First and foremost, it would be thank you again. Um, as Mr. Rex would say the investment in professional learning provided that opportunity where meets first and um learning about project based based learning. >> Yeah. >> Really and people teachers know that I I see say this all the time. It totally changed my career. um changed the way that I look at how I teach, how students learn, um and how we can work together to engage students for the better. Uh I I teach that's the only way I teach now. And I feel so grateful that I was asked to participate in that professional learning and I I am so

047um such a believer that I will share with anyone. I said we got to come on everybody. Um so just thank you. I it's it's great to see the impact that has on students and just the energy that they have um to be able to share their learning and and collaborate. This is the first time that I'd ever done a project across grade levels and can't we see what is next? Okay. Thank you all so much. other. >> Yeah, it's up to Mr. Davis now. >> Yeah. So, just a little housekeeping. We're about to do a really, really exciting 5-year financial forecast. U recognizing some folks may be here for the earlier part of this. Anybody would like to kind of sneak out, you're more than welcome. We'd love to have people stay. Um, but

048we'll give us a two-minute break and we'll let everybody kind of settle out. >> He's passing through. >> Thank you. I believe there's Spongeb. leg and she looks as they listen really pride. >> It is. It's the no. It's the splash zone, Alex. So, >> that appreciate Oh, but Dr. Gentia. Yeah, absolutely. That's okay. Sorry. Thank you so much. What's classroom? First my place. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Ready? >> We are actually ready for action. All right. For those of you who are big fans of the Mc Davis 5-year forecast, I've got a big treat for you tonight. Normally, um, these are six months apart. If you'll remember, the last one was in October based on some rules that, uh, they changed up in Columbus and barely three and a half months later

049in February, we're doing the next one. Um, that's part of a change they're going to do next year. They'll be in August and February. So, what you'll see tonight is a three and a half month um sort of adventure. You would think in three and a half months not a whole lot would happen, but I think this will probably be mo one of my most impactful five-year forecasts that I'm I'm ever going to have here at Indian Hill. Um as you can see, uh we like to look at the outlook at a high level. Trend direction, not numbers. It's a little hard at a presentation like this to get into all of the numbers. Um, we want to talk about the primary drivers of change since the October 25 forecast. Um, there's a lot of

050them, especially our impact of pending or enacted legislation. Um, we're going to talk about something that could potentially happen in the future that may affect us. And then we're going to talk about some key decision points and some timelines. Normally, I start with this slide. I think it's important to talk about the dates that are coming up that are very important to us from a macro level. Um these dates are the expense of the the expiration of the current expense levy. Um when that expires um it'll fall under we'll talk a lot about the 20 mil floor tonight, but that will fall under the 20 mil floor. The other uh the other uh factors will then increase and get us back to the 20 mil floor. uh the board of education election that'll happen in

051November of 2027. Um December 1st, 2027. Very exciting. It's the final payment of the 2016 bond refunding. Those are the bonds that built uh the high school and the elementary school. Those are going to be uh uh coming due here soon and have our final payment. Uh 2028, we're going to have another um point where we get to the expiration of the collected bargaining agreement. um that was negotiated in July 2024. So at that point, we'll probably start uh looking at a period to note to negotiate the next one and continue on with the uh the wonderful relationship we have with IHPO. Finally, there I put in November of 29. That's another board of education election. All very important when we change over governance or keep the same uh same folks that are already volunteering

052basically to uh continue the governance governance of the district. Um, I always put these in as well. These are two big um two big items that we're going to talk about. Uh, we I put these in there just to give everybody an idea of what these are. These are really two things that will um factor into property taxes and how those taxes are calculated. The first one is House Bill 920 created in 1976. It was the attempt to um sort of level out the playing field, so to speak. So what it does is it creates the ability for as property taxes rise the millillage comes down that's used to calculate it to keep the revenue flat over a period of time with the goal that that school districts and other public entities would have to

053ask for more revenue as they needed it. Okay. It was a it was a start of a tradition in 1976 so that income would not rise with inflation. The second uh item there is the 20 mil floor. very important for our conversation tonight. The 20 mil floor is a mechanism by which school districts are governed that they cannot fall below the 20 mil floor of of taxation. If they do, then that the the calculations then rise back up to 20 mills. What that means is for that situation we had under House Bill 920, as property values went up, the factors went down, created a level of revenue. Once you got to the 20 mil floor, you were actually able to gain revenue with inflation. So as you got to the 20 mil floor, property taxes,

054property tax or property taxes, the valuation went up, factors went down, they fell under 20 mil floor, they would go back up. So the district would actually gain revenue as inflation increased the amount of property property tax valuation. So you're seeing a 3% increase in property tax values. we would see a 3% increase. Okay, under House Bill 920, that was impossible because those factors made it so they would not gain revenue as those property values went up. So, I put this slide together for the October. Um, there was a lot going on in October. I felt this slide is very important because it still um has a lot to do with what's going on with property taxes today. Um, in Ohio, as you know, we've seen growth in in home values up to 30 40%.

055Over a re-evaluation period, uh, for districts at the 20 mil floor, that's an increase of 30 to 40% of revenue. Um, you can imagine when you got your tax bill as a as a property owner, it's here and the next one's 30% higher. Okay. Obviously, some some people were um not pleased with that. They went to the legislators. There's been a lot of talk on how to fix this situation. In my mind, as I said last time, um the only way to really fix this is to go back to 1976 and kind of start from scratch. Well, the the legislators chose not to do that route. Um there's a lot of problems with that obviously. Um, so what they decided to do is through uh the budget bill in the summer, they created a lot

056of ideas to help fix the the situation with property taxes and the rising the rising uh bills that everybody was getting. So, if you remember, Governor DeWine vetoed many of the the line items of that bill that had to do with property taxes with the idea that there was going to be a committee formed and there was going to be a lot of standalone bills that were going to have their own discussion. So, as that happened around August, September, October, and these bills started to really get steam and get through Congress, the problem with with doing it as standalone bills versus all in the budget bill, nobody really thought about what the impact of each bill was with each other. Okay? So, we've got a lot of competing ideas, a lot of ways that they're

057trying to ease the burden on taxpayers, but it makes it difficult as a public entity to be able to figure out your future. So, what I've got here is a graph of three different uh three different futures of our cash balance. Okay. The red one would be what my five-year forecast would look like without the property tax reform that's happening right now. Okay. The green one was my October forecast. Okay. You'll see that's falling below the red line. The blue is the current 5-year forecast. You'll see this delta between red and blue as very significant. Okay, those are the dollars we're going to lose in future revenue. And as we go through my presentation, I'm going to show you the three mechanisms that are going to cause that delta. The most concerning part of this

058in my circle there. For years, I've said the least important part of my 5-year forecast is that fifth year. The numbers are way out there. It's hard to predict. The assumptions change. We get legislation. All these reasons why fifth year is kind of kind of a guess. kind of a not even an educated guess. It's just kind of getting that fifth year done, figuring out what it means. However, the delta between the red and the gray is very significant. Okay? And that's what we're going to talk about in this presentation. How do we get to that gap? Okay. House Bill 1820 House Bill 186 is a 20 mil floor cap. And what this bill is designed to do is to create a number based on inflation that you that a school district is tied to.

059So every 3 years when we do a reappraisal, it's going to go up the the values of of the property in our district are going to go up a certain amount. Could be 10%, 20%, 30%, whatever that magic number is. This bill is designed to create a three-year inflation cap. So let's say that number is 9 and a quarter. Okay? And the district had a 20% increase in property tax valuation. Normally under the old rules, we would be entitled to a 20% increase in revenue. Under the new rules, we're only incre we're only entitled to that that cap that they put on inflation. So if that cap's 9 and a half% that's what's causing the delta between the two old revenue model new revenue model. Okay that's one way this is occurring. The second way

060house bill 335 inside millage cap. Same theory. Okay we have 6.41 ms of inside millillage makes up part of our 20 mil floor. The inside millage cap is or the inside millage has always been designed to increase with inflation. Okay, that's changing with this rule. If you're at the 20 mil floor, they're going to put a cap on your inside millage. And if we use the same example of 9 12 versus 20, they're not going to what they did with House Bill 186 is create a credit on your taxes. This is actually going to work with the factors. So, as we talked about how House Bill 920 property taxes go up, factors go down. Same thing happens here, but with the cap, instead of going back up to here, they're only going to go back

061up to here. Okay? That's going to be done with a factor. So, now you've got a factor on your tax bill based on inside millillage. You've got a credit on your tax bill based on the inflation cap. So explain to me how everybody's going to look at their property tax bill and go, "What the heck's happening?" Again, second part of the delta between those two lines. Okay, third part. So every 3 years there's a reappraisal. Okay, so what that means is we go I'll use 2021 2020 21 and 22 as an example. Okay, property taxes go up, property values go up in 2020, we have two years with no reappraisal. Third year, property taxes go up or property valuation goes up because all our homes are reappraised by the county auditor. So, you can see

062that cycle every 3 years. All right. What they've done at the Ohio Department of Taxation is created this new reappraisal schedule. And it's designed, as you see in the top three bullet points, they had a lot of counties that went in certain periods and they had fewer counties that went in certain periods. They did this to try to even that out. Now, the bullet points don't make a lot of sense because the county auditors are doing all the work in each each of the 88 counties. There's no burden on Ohio taxpayers as far as having this done every three years or having it done fourth year at one point. It's just simply something else they did that nobody expected. So what did that create? This circle over here, you see how we go low, we

063go up flat, flat, we go up, which is the current year we're in. Okay, it'll be tax year 27, which we'll pay on our 27 tax bills, but instead of two years and an increase, three flat years. Okay. The next reappraisal for Indian Hill will be this one over here in 2030. Okay. >> M, are you saying that they want to move to a four-year cycle or it's just a one time? They're doing one-time adjustments for, I believe, 17 counties in the state, but the the update still happens for tax year 26, pay 27, >> correct? Yep. So, everything's still normal here. It's just as we go out. And why that is is important again because this is if we stayed at the 20 mil floor, which means if we don't run another property tax

064levy, we would still be at the 20 mil floor. we would be entitled to whatever that inflationary cap number is should our district have a higher valuation and be entitled to more revenue. Instead, that's going to get pushed out a year. Okay? And again, going back to the delta between the two lines, those are the three reasons why that delta exists. >> You're referencing House bills. These have passed and are now full. >> They That is correct. In October, we were assuming some of these pass. We took a look at what would happen if they did. Those all passed and they're now fully in effect. There's other bills out there that don't affect us as much that they've tried to do some things with. Um, these are the big ones for us. >> You're saying

065that those passed the House and then the Senate came up with their version. They met together. >> Holy law. >> Bully law. Yep. >> All right. So, what does all that news mean? Okay, here is my days of cash on the October 25 forecast. Here are my days of cash on the current forecast. You see, they stay pretty even through 2028. And then in 2029, we start to take a serious dip. 2030 that big delta we go from 49 days of cash on hand on June 30th to 31 days of cash on hand. What does that mean for the district? As we get lower on days of cash on hand, we have cash flow risks. Okay, this is reported as of June 30th, estimated as of June 30th each year. That's not my lowest month

066for cash. the the lowest month for cash for me just finished is January because it's the longest period between our property tax billings. Okay. So during the month of December and January, I try to keep as much as I can investing. I try to slowly pay bills as as I can in order to keep as much of our cash on hand till I get start getting funds in February and get caught up again. So this 31 doesn't even represent where our cash would be in December and January of 2029. Like what's Mick? What's the state recommendation? And obviously there are recommendations and there's like uh you know financial risk, >> right? Putting financial risk. What does that look like currently? I'm sure it'll be adjusted. >> What what what is this in terms of estate,

067right? Like if you you reach a certain point of cash on hand and you're considered in financial risk. >> So it's not really cash on hand that puts you in financial risk. >> Not cash on hand, but I mean um it's b it's based on your expenditures versus your revenue. >> So we never hit that point during our Yeah. So it's the delta between your expenditures and your revenue that put districts in fiscal watch, fiscal emergency, etc. The recommendation for cash on hand, it's about 60 to 90 days. Yeah. So again, we talk about uh some of the risks of getting this low with cash on hand. Obviously, it creates less flexibility. Um what if we need an extra school bus at any year or we have roof problems in a year? That creates flexibility

068constraints because we're no longer able to use the cash we have in reserve because now we're at 31 days. We're going to be worried about things like payroll. Okay. Uh impact on rating agents or fiscal caution flags. That's question you asked Mr. Marks. Uh rating agencies were AAA bonded. Um that few days cash on hand be tough to get AAA rating. Now, the final piece of this, and this is a risk scenario, not a forecast assumption. This is the abolishment of property taxes in the state of Ohio. And this is gaining momentum, not a huge momentum at this point, but what they're doing is there's a group out there who feels like we should no longer pay property taxes. Okay? And it's not that we should pay less. It's not that we should pay our

069fair share. It's nud. Okay. And if property taxes go away, that's about 85 to 90% of our revenue. Property taxes secure all of our bonds that we currently have. Um your fire departments, your local police departments, um the zoo, uh libraries, um MRD services are all part of property taxes. Okay? Those those funds cannot be replaced by the state of Ohio in any meaningful way. And at this point, they have no clue what would happen if this should pass. Okay. Again, risk scenario, not a forecast assumption at this point, but something we need to know about. >> What what when what is that up for next this year? >> So, my understanding is they still don't have enough signatures. They're still collecting signatures, but I think their goal is to have it on the November

070election of this year. So, I always I always close with this slide. It shows little bit of history, little bit of projection about our revenue and expenditures. You can see we're pretty flat on expenditures. You know, they're going to go up with inflation over time, but we're doing a decent job managing those. Our revenues are going up in a in a smaller amount. Obviously, they're not penned to inflation. We did have a great great year this year on construction within the district for residential properties. 38 million in new construction. So, that was a lot more than I predicted. Um, but obviously we don't have the space to continue that growth. That's all new revenue. Okay. So we look out over time and this is that final cash number in 2030 $4.7 million. Okay. So what

071does this forecast mean for our future? We're going to have timing cons considerations for future levy discussions. Okay. Where we talked about maybe getting further and further out. Now, we're going to have to start pushing those conversations back with the understanding of is there a way to get to 2030 and try to get all of the revenue we could get through um inflation through property tax valuation because if we run a a levy before and come off the 20 mil floor, we're not going to get inflationary growth. Okay. Um constraints on expenditure growth. We're going to do everything we can to manage expenditures, find the ones we don't need that aren't exactly um priorities for the district, eliminate those, make those as small as possible over the next 5 years. But again, it doesn't allow

072us for any growth. you know, as we again talk about those capital expenses, you know, talk about things we want to do in the classroom, we're not able to do as much because we're pinned down with expenditure growth. Okay? As we move forward, we got to monitor what they do in Columbus because obviously they've shown their goal is to try to help alleviate this property tax situation by doing these things to avoid the constitutional amendment. There could be more out there. And then finally, we want to make sure we're committed to maintaining our fac uh fiscal stability while maintaining our program quality. This is Indian Hill, folks. We need to have the programs as strong as they are. That's the expectation. Hey Mick, I'm sorry. Quick question. The 21 expense levy that's coming off of

07326, where does that factor into this? So that >> yeah that one is the one who um it had the factors have gone down got swallowed because the 20 >> so yeah so if it expires it'll put us down around 17 ms then we go back up to 20 all the other factors will change we'll get back up to 20 so it taking us back up to 20 would equalize the amount of money we would lose right correct meaning effectively with the current levy in place are we in theory at 21 and we're going down to 17 and we go back to 20 or >> no we are currently at 20. >> We're currently at 20. >> We'll go down to whatever that number is 17 and a half wherever it falls and then go

074back up to 20 using our other levies to even out >> bond that we refinance that you help lead the refinance of the previously from the high school. How much millage is that that that currently that will drop off when we make all that? >> Uh that one is it's pretty small now. Um it's, you know, the factors on that are the same as they are on other levies. Um it's about 8.9 somewhere in that neighborhood, >> But it's not nothing. Well, I mean, I think I think to the public, right? Like the reality is, and I think we've been saying this with the these bills that have, you know, there I'll stated, I think there's an attack on public education in terms of our funding, right? there was an attack on if you look

075at the amount of money that's being allocated towards private school >> it's um a lot and uh I think what this is going to force is going to force us to all school districts public school districts that we're going to have to go back repeatedly to the community frequently much more frequent than we want um because there's costs we can't avoid and can you speak a little bit you share with one of our work sessions but you just talk about a couple things like as an example uh you know we we're we've got a couple buses we're looking at later on, right? Those are now I think 172 or 176,000. >> Yep. >> Will you share top of your head what that was 5 years ago? Also, will you share things like this year, you

076know, the 15% we've negoti negotiated with our health insurance? Can you talk about some of those expenses? >> Absolutely. Um that we're facing. So, you know, inflation hits us the same as it does any home. Okay. We talk about uh some of the examples you've given a school bus for example. Yeah. We we look at 12 years as the life of a school bus. After 12 years it basically becomes what we what we say is a paper weight. Okay. That's how much it's worth. It's worth about the scrap that that you can get for the metal. Um it also starts you know you need new parts. You know even though a bus gets about six seven miles to the gallon new buses are more efficient than old buses. they're more safe. There's all kinds of

077reasons why we continue to need new buses to get our students to school. Uh the last the last invoice I looked at, we had two buses that were delivered um at the beginning of calendar year 25. Um they were on hold. We got four buses delivered right around the same time. Um we approved those at the October 23 board meeting. They were $152,000. The buses we're going to approve tonight, as Mr. Mark said, are over 170. Five years ago, $106,000 for a bus. Okay, think about that in inflationary terms. So, you know, that that's huge. We talk about the the health insurance. We're absorbing a 15% hit. You know, we we talk a lot about health insurance with prescription costs and all of these things that go into it. Those are all very important benefits

078for our staff who works work here. And you know, those are big reasons why staff chooses Indian Hill. You know, we have great benefits. We have one of the best consortiums in Ohio with the lowest cost, but 15% of a low cost is still 15%. So, you know, and and and those things aren't getting those things aren't easy to manage to make them better. You know, it's kind of that world where we're living in where these things continue to hamstring us. Um, what was the third thing you No, just I was those were it. I was just examples. >> Any of those examples? A little bit top of my head. >> I I we we talk about energy cost. You know, it you know, energy costs for gas and electric are all going up. You

079know, we have a brand new beautiful building. Takes a lot to move the air through this bu beautiful building. So, those are all things, you know, we're facing inflationary costs on a lot of things. you know, we we do our best to manage, but at the same time, all these inflationary costs are hitting all the staff who works here who it's fair to them to get consistent raises over time as well. So, you know, those are the things that we're working against to try to make sure we can get as far out on our 5-year forecast as we can and be fiscally responsible, but they're things we face all the time. I think the big takeaway I have every time we do this this 5-year forecast is to remind everybody how little to zero control

080we have over our revenue. Um most entities have strategies they can deploy to try to maximize revenue and we really don't we are at the mercy of taxpayers and right now the state legislature. Um so we can do you know a couple things. is we can complain about it or we can do I think the responsible thing and take a hard look at our own budget our own expenditures and we started that process. I think the commitment from the board now is to thoroughly re-examine that. We we'll talk about it more when we get into the committee work but uh we had a good work session two weeks ago where we laid out really any and every significant expenditure we've got coming down the pike. um and looking at every program, everything we do to

081see how can we maximize the the revenue we have and preserve it for its most important mission, which is our teachers and our programs. Um it's not an easy thing to do. Um but we're committed to take a hard look at it and try our hardest to um control our expenses as best we can in a very difficult climate. Well, the big uh the big issue is this risk outwide risk on this property tax uh legislation. You said that would be potentially this year, right? Could be that would be a huge I mean that would hit everybody across the state, right? that that would be, you know, all those entities I mentioned in addition to public schools would be and the and the state government for >> that's a risk that's out there, but it's

082kind of like the nuclear option, right? Because just reset everything. >> That's that's a good analogy. >> Um, so we just we monitor that. There's nothing we we can really do. >> Well, I I think we can I think it's public, you know, it's PR side of it. We have to make sure people understand when we're at, you know, parties and we're talking about things like this that if their property taxes just go away, that sounds great theory. I would love to pay no taxes, but all the things that go away if you do can't be replaced. >> Dick, I want to know what kind of parties you're going where you're talking about real estate taxes. >> Mayor, I think you've known me long enough that I What else do I have to talk about

083at a party? So, >> and you make a good point, Nick. I mean what what it what should be our role in terms of engaging the community on this issue as it comes up. That's kind of the first thing, right? To mitigate that risk. >> Yeah. And I think it's all the examples we gave of just, you know, knowing exactly what your property taxes do pay for. And I think the other thing that people really need to understand is that there's really no replacement mechanism out there. So when you think of taxes, they all come there there's basically three ways to tax. Property, sales, and income. Okay, that that's really it. And our state, you that slide I showed where that gave the overall synopsis of kind of why we're in this situation is our

084state govern state government has decided that they want to get income tax down as low as they possibly can. So, a lot of school districts who don't have 90% um property tax revenue like we do have seen their local share go up and up and up over time. So now the people in those school districts are living, you know, they're paying more for their schools locally and the state's not giving them as much money as they used to. They're tired of paying property taxes. And we there was an article that I read today. It was sai.com on this issue and they the the discussion in the article was that if this Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. If if this uh should go in place, one one of the potential uh remedies would be that the counties

085or the uh townships would have to incorporate as a city which enable them to um tax income. So we shift from a property tax to an income tax. The bottom line, I think people are smart enough to know you're going to pay the piper one way or the other. And if you don't, your property value is going to go down. >> Yeah. And I I think another great thing to think about is, you know, those one of those other mechanisms are sales taxes. So if you go to Florida and you you're like me, you stop at the grocery store on the way to the condo, you pay a lot in sales tax in in in Florida because they don't have an income tax. Okay? So they're going to get all the tourists coming in. You're

086going to pay the state of Florida in sales tax. That makes up for that not having an income tax. If we increase income tax here, where are we going to go? Kentucky. You know, I'm going to start buying all my groceries in Kentucky and not pay sales tax. It's that easy. >> But Florida's looking at the same issue. >> Yeah. >> Robert's tax. >> No, that's that's the case there. There's other states out there who looking at the same >> Well, thank you, Mick. That's always um formative and a little scary. Um it's tricky. I mean, we did that by the past, but spending is a reflection of our priorities and um we can control as much as we can control and I think our commitment is to make sure we're doing that. >> Okay.

087Um with that, we will move on to the superintendent report. >> Great. Thank you. Um item A is the approval of um our reauthorization of membership of the Ohio High School Athletic Association. This comes across every year. Uh B is impracticability of transportation. C is two overnight field trips. One is an overnight field trip through high school science to Ecuador and and the G Galapos Islands and the other one is for our swim team. Um if we're going to strike D was removed, so we're going on to E. And if we could go to E1A, I just want to make a statement. I say this often and with the most sincerity to know Latif Johnson is to love Latif Johnson and what the energy that he brings every day. And when he came to us

088and said that he was really ready to go back to a position of a counselor, it was hard to accept it at first. You know, you wanted to try to talk him into staying um as the campus life coordinator, but ultimately if an employee wants to go back to a position, we want them to be happy in that position. And I know Latif Johnson will be working really hard to go back as a high school counselor, but we will definitely miss him in that role and want to thank him for all the energy that he's brought to that role. >> Um, that'll be effective August 1st. >> And the next is E2 is approval of supplemental and personal service contracts. Exclusive coverage on the Indian Hill Television Network has been a copyrighted presentation of the

089Indian Hill. And I'm happy to report that um Mr. Jim Nichols did a wonderful job leading the district to hire a new EMIS coordinator, Rehea Anderson. And we're thrilled because she is actually a trainer for other people who are using EMA. So we're we've were able to cap get somebody who's I think going to be a true value addition to our school district. >> Yeah. So EMIS is the system that we use to communicate digitally to the Department of Education and it is very complicated with a lot of different ways that you have to record it. And so we're really thankful the the correct recording of that information impacts us financially. It also impacts us as far as like state reports like the state report card and things like that. So having someone who's really

090knowledgeable will make a big difference and um so we're really excited for Rehea to join us. Um retirements is Jen Anders and if I could just say a few words um Jen Anders has really impacted thousands of lives. She has been here since 1998. She has served as a reading specialist. She served as a classroom teacher and she has served as the media specialist. Um, and she's done so with nothing but grace and sunshine since she arrived in 1998. So happy for Jen Anders. So sad for us. And five is change of supplemental personal service contracts. And lastly, we have tuition reimbursement. >> Okay. Uh do we have a motion to approve the superintendent report? I'd like to make a comment before we go there just coming to item 7B resolution on practicality of transportation

091and not to sort of bully pullpit but I think you know as we come back to Mr. Davis's presentation and we think about expenditures that we are required by either the state or the federal government to take on. I just I just want to shed a little light on that because I think it's relevant which is you know as you shared Mr. told us like we as a board are actively looking at how do we control cost best of our ability without impacting programming yet we have obligations that by law we are required to fulfill such as transporting a child from a public district to a private school. We have students that we are required to provide alternative uh education for. For example, if a student has a substance abuse, you know, we have some

092students that we've contracted for hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide services to them. We have students that we welcome and we're excited to have here that have disabilities that we're required to have an attending nurse to or a pair professional that when you look at and there's fantastic public schools, there's also fantastic private schools that are private schools are not required to do. And when you look at the amount of money that we received from the state in this district of about $300, right, it's it's totally um I think something that people need to be aware of and that as if if it is important for your child to receive a public education, it is important that people start advocating to the legislature to look at the amount of financial obligations that we have

093as a public school district relative to the dollars that are being invested. invested. As an example, there's there's a lawsuit going on right now where you're going to take public dollars and shift those public dollars to tuition vouchers for families that make under $500,000 that they will be able to transfer public dollars to private schools that don't. And again, there are fabulous private schools and we welcome partnering with a lot of those private schools and we do that all the time. But you're transferring thousands of dollars per family for private education and those aren't even dollars that are even comparable to what we receive. And so I just want to bring that up that like I'm we're going to vote on that as obligation and for families to take it um that into consideration and

094use that to no fault of them. They should go after every opportunity. But to just I think it's important to realize the amount of financial obligations that as a public school system we're required to take on that often our legislature is making these decisions that when you look at on balance it doesn't make sense as an example that you would make a half a million dollars and you'd be able to take public dollars and transport them um to for tuition and other things. So, I just want to bring that up before we move on the superintendent report that as families that value public education, they should be aware of what is happening, what continues to happen to the dollars that we are are allocated. So, with that, I'll move to approve the superintendent report. Second,

095>> Mr. Marf, >> yes. Mr. Warel, yes. Mr. Schwaker, >> yes. Mr. S. >> Yes. >> Mr. Tullles. >> Yes. Thank you, Dr. Stewart. Uh, Mr. Davis, your turn. >> Under my report this evening, I have to approve the minutes of the January 13th meeting, organizational and regular. Also to approve the minutes of the January 28th special meeting, approve the financial reports as prepared for the month ending January 31st, 2026. Item D is a resolution to purchase school buses using the Southwestern Ohio Educational Purchasing Council for the bidding process. Item E is to actually purchase those buses, two of them at $170,360 each to approve the uh to pay two now and then invoices, one for uh Soo Fire and Security, the other for Mike Castruchi Ford. Uh item G is to change of appropriations

096as allocated through our permanent appropriations request with the county. There are 11 items that are all increasing. Um they vary in in reasons why. Um some of them are um grants from the federal government that have been increased with a recent allocation. Uh fund 499. Um that's all school safety and security money that has been secured through grants. Um, we've done a very good job of getting $62,397 to increase that fund. U, item H is the approve or the acceptance of donations. We have two from the boosters for discretionary purchases for athletics and arts. U, we have two from the foundation for lacrosse and football, each $25,000. Um, each one $25,000. As always, we appreciate those institutions for their continued um success on gaining those um donations and making sure we have all of the

097uh the programs and supplemental items that we can uh we can have here at Indian Hill. Item I is the approval of the 5-year forecast for uh February 2026. Are there any questions? No, just um just a couple quick comments um on the approval of the minutes. you'll if anybody's still watching uh you'll see reference to the special meeting on January 28th. Uh that was a board work session we had lasted probably two and a half hours where we went through um it was a good opportunity to reset district priorities both from a financial perspective an academic perspective operations perspective really spend time laying out with the administrative help of what are the big issues facing the school what are the opportunities in front of us and how do we want to um get ourselves

098as a board organized and tackle the um the the challenges ahead so that that's what that meeting was that's atypical for us to do it but I I think it was a very good effective meeting. Um, also just a special thanks to the boosters. They had a great event on Saturday night, the casino night for those who were able to attend. Uh, it was very well attended and fun of it. So that's all a motion to approve. Motion to approve the treasures report. >> I'll second that motion. >> Mr. Warfl, >> yes. Mr. Marks, >> yes. >> Mr. Schwaker, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sing. >> Yes. >> Mr. Tolles. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you, Mick. Um, Dr. Sio, policy update, first reading. >> Yes. This is just the first reading of entrance requirements,

099which means the requirements associated with students starting school, preschool, and kindergarten. This is just the first reading, so we'll be able to have a second look at it as well. >> Thank you. Will you just share briefly? There's been a some new legislation in terms of how OD wants us to look at enrollment for kindergarten. Will you just give a >> sure >> 30 second overview because I think some parents might be up as that comes out, right? And you're thinking about enrolling that child and maybe it's your first child or second or third or whatever. There's there's a big difference on what that's going to look like in terms of kindergarten roll. Can you just share briefly on that? >> Right. We we are committed for it to not be a big difference for

100our families. And so for us, we have a start date of you have to turn five by the time that the child is um on September 30th. That is what our policy has been. The new law that went in place said that a child has to turn five by the school district's first day of school. So this is a new way of looking at it. This also means every school is different. So every like you'll have to figure that out. Every year it changes also for the first day. and that um what happens is if that you have a child who's not five by that date then they cannot start school. Um we as a school district have always had an early admission process. We've always had a handful of parents who have said to

101us, can my child start even though their fifth birthday is after September 30th? And we have always had a procedure in place to assess those students and to see if they're ready or not. we are able to track them over time as well to make sure that that assessment is a robust enough system to make sure that those students really are ready. We're going to employ that same policy here. So, if we have a family who wants to start and their child turns five between the first day and September 30th, we want them to please come register. Come register with us and we will give an assessment to that student to show that there's readiness to be able to start kindergarten. Now, I will say one of the confusing parts about that is that there

102was a lot of negative feedback that went to legislators about this new law and how and how problematic it is for schools. So, there are now some clarifications coming with it. So, likely between this first reading and the second reading, there's going to be some changes based on the clarification of the laws that we're receiving just this week. >> Thank you. But please, I would I would like to get the word out if if parents should go to the primary school and register. We can't wait to have you. >> Great. Thank you. Uh last item before a couple other comments. Um we need to make a resolution to change the June 23rd board of education meeting to June 15th at the same time at 6:30. We had a motion to make that change. So moved.

103There second. Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. >> Sorry, that should have been. >> It's your first time back. >> Everybody um just a couple other quick updates for um I mentioned earlier the work session we had. It was a really productive work session. One of our board goals this year is to be a little more proactive with our committee work um and to really assign out the various topics of consideration we address at the board level to the various committees. Um we are I am in the process of doing out some homework to the various committees that'll have in the next week or so kind of a list of a lot of our committees a lot of the topics could honestly go in a number of committees. So, we're looking at

104kind of the appropriate workload to to pass that out. Um, and then hopefully starting in March, maybe, but more likely in April, we're going to be adding to the board meetings. Each committee head will be reporting out to one committee per meeting to the board as to what that committee looked. Um, I think it's a good way to to um expand some transparency into what it is we're doing, have some more discussions at the board level. So, no specific action item on that yet other than to say that's coming and we're hoping that becomes sort of a new norm um a new way to to have feedback from folks, new way for people to be informed as to what's going on. So, topics of consideration will be, you know, a lot of the obvious things

105we talked about. How do we maximize our our financial position? What expenditures can we cut? What programs are working? What programs aren't working? Um the committee meetings are all public meetings. So, folks are welcome to attend. uh they will be notified in the coordinary course of of how we notify things. Uh so just be on the lookout for that. U then the other update is on the superintendent search. Um an email went out to the to the school families Friday. Postcard went out to all district residents. I believe it was sent out today. Is that correct? Um so that should be in the mailboxes here pretty shortly. Um and that will there shouldn't be two. We're sending out a link. Um the the there's two we're seeking public in input to identify the characteristics and

106the profile of the next superintendent that the district wants. Um so there's a survey link that people will be able to complete both school families and district residents. Um and then there's two forms coming up at the end of February that uh Mr. Schweiker is is leading the charge on with our partners at the um Hony County ESC. The the second part of that that's running simultaneously that I'm taking the lead on is meeting with the the teachers, staff, administrators, certified staff. Um, and what I'm most excited about, two groups of students, some at the high school, some at the middle school level. Uh, so a very similar uh survey will be going out. I don't think we're sending the survey to the students, but going out, maybe we should, going out to the uh

107the teachers and the staff. Um, and then we'll be having um Mr. Davis is helping set up the schedule. will be having individual town hall meetings um with myself and another board member u to have direct feedback from the uh the various uh contingencies within the school district. Um so that's going to be happening in February. Um as always, we're happy to take informal comments. Um just reach out. We're all pretty accessible. Um anybody in the community has any input. We received some emails from folks. It's always good for us to hear what people are looking for in the school. um the more we know the the better decision we can make. Uh so that's our updates. >> I think I think to to add on to that I think one it was in a

108email and postcard but we partnered with Hamilton County Educational Service Center right to really help guide that um that uh that practice and the other thing is is as Mr. to shared in the expansion of the committees. A lot of that is to increase the amount of communication as you shared. Also, you know, we're we're facing um some exciting times, which is Indian Hill has always been a destination, but it's continued to be a destination. And as we're seeing new houses being built and we're seeing a change in demographics, we're also seeing an increase in enrollment, which is pressurizing our facilities. um you know the facilities plan that we had several years ago when we went to the community and said, "Hey, we need more money." Um our enrollment and our size back then and

109what we were projecting and where we are now is very different. Uh as an example, if you go down to the primary school, it is uh it's like a family that bought a two-bedroom house, then had two children, and now we've got five and you can make it work, but you're putting kids in bunk beds. And so we're in we're in bunk bed mode down at the primary school. And so those are all important considerations as we think about this committee work and master facilities planning and enrollment. And so just appreciate um the team that we've all committed, the five of us, that we really want to expand that committee work. Um and make sure that we put our families in a really good situation. Um but master facilities, enrollment, um all those things are

110pieces that are going to have to be added to uh what we look at in the next 12 months. And it's worth saying despite the challenges the headwind we have, I'm as optimistic about our future as ever. I've got a committed board. We've got committed teachers, committed administrators, and um we're very fortunate to to be in this community. Um and I'm as optimistic as I could be about our future. So with that um I will ask if there's a motion to adjourn. Go ahead. Please. So move. There second. Second that. All in. >> All in favor? I >> I I >> Exclusive coverage on the Indian Hill Television Network has been a copyrighted presentation of the Indian Hill High School video department.