001It's been on the record for 12 months. Uh, yeah. >> You ready? >> Ready. Uh, good evening. It is 6:30 p.m. Uh, happy new year to everyone. At this point, we will call to order the organizational meeting. Um, Mr. Davis, roll call, please. >> Mr. Zikols, Mr. Marks >> here, >> Mrs. Sig >> here, >> Mr. Sol here, >> Mr. Tullus >> here. At this point, I would ask for a motion to adopt the organizational meeting agenda, please. >> So, move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I uh next on the agenda, >> I'm talking to our helpers over here. >> Yeah. Uh we'll be taking nominations for officers for 2023 for president and vice president. Um, if there are no nominations yet, at this point, I would like to nominate Mr. Summerall to
002serve as the president for the calendar year 2023. >> I would like to nominate Miss Nikki Singh for vice president. >> Just just president. Yep. Just president. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> I second that. >> Are there any other nominations? >> Hearing none, Mr. Davis, can we take a vote, please? As I read roll, could you please answer with the person you want to uh have as the president for 2023? Mr. Marks, >> Mr. Summer, >> Mrs. Singh, >> Mr. Sarro, >> Mr. Sol Mr. Summer, >> Mr. Pelis, Mr. Summer. Thank you. Is there a nomination for vice president? >> Yes, I nominate um Miss Singh for vice president. >> Hearing no other nominations, Mr. Davis, would you take the vote, please? >> Mr. Marks. >> Uh Miss Singh. >> Mr. Singh. >> Miss Singh.
003>> Mr. Summer. >> Mrs. Singh. >> Mr. Tullus. >> Mrs. Singh. Congratulations. And with that, Craig, your turn. >> Okay. Thank you. So, the next item on the agenda is item five, consent agenda. So, Mick, will you take us through the uh consent agenda items, please? >> Certainly. Item A is a resolution to establish dates, times, and places of board meetings during 2023. The regular meetings will be held at 6:30 in the high school auditorium at Indian Hill High School, 6865 Drake Road, Indian Hill, unless otherwise noted. Uh the dates have been listed. We have done two read this will be the second reading of those dates. Item B is a resolution authorizing the signing of all checks by the treasurer for 2023. Resolution authorizing the investment of funds for 2023. authorizing the s treasurer
004superintendent to enter into contracts less than 25,000 subject to appropriations and without further action by the board. Item E is a resolution to establish board service fund in the amount of $2,000 for 2023 to provide for the expenses incurred by board members and board member elects in the performance of their duties. A resolution to approve professional meeting leaves for the superintendent and/or treasurer at any and all regional and state professional meetings and provide reimbursement for expenses incurred upon submission of proper documentation. Item G is the appointment of the treasur to serve as district representative on the tax incentive review council. Item H is the appointment of the treasurer to receive public records training on behalf of board members. Item I is the appointment of the superintendent or his design as board designate for suspension appeals
005and item J is the appointment of superintendent to accept employee resignations upon receipt. Uh those items are traditionally items we present at the organizational meeting. Um that concludes the consent agenda for this evening. Um if there not any questions um I would ask that the uh board members vote on items B uh A through J. Okay, with that, I'd like to ask for a motion to accept the consent agenda as read and then a second. >> I will make a motion to adopt the consent agenda as read. Section five, items A and through J. >> I'll second that motion, Mr. Tullis. >> It's the first time I forgot to do that. >> Okay, roll call. Mr. Tullis, >> yes. >> Mr. Marks, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sing. >> Yes, >> Mr. Summer. >> Yes. >>
006Thank you. Okay, let's move to item six, the 2023 board committee appointments. Let's go through the the board as as we uh the board appointments. They're as follows. So, I'll read through each one of those. Instruction and technology, Mrs. Singh and Mr. Marks. Operations, Mr. Telus and Mrs. Singh, personnel, professional relations, Mr. Marks and Mr. Summerl finance and audit, Miss Iekolds and Mr. Summerlis liaison, Mr. Tullus. Indian Hill Public Schools foundation liaison, Mr. Tullus. Okay, any other questions or comments on that? Okay, let's move to item seven. At this time, we will adjourn the 2023 Indian Hill Board of Education organizational meeting. >> I'll make a motion to adjourn. >> Second All in favor? >> I >> Okay, item eight. We're going to call to order our regular meeting, the January 10th, 2023 Indian Hill
007Board of Education regular meeting. >> Mr. Summer, we have a couple special guests who are with us this evening for the Pledge of Allegiance. If they could join us up on stage at this time, [Music] I think >> I think this is okay. Right over there. >> Okay. Put your hand in your car. You have to. >> Okay. Ready? >> Here we go. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> This is this is our first grader in Mrs. Miller's class, Beexley Marx. And this is a future kindergartener next year, Becca Marks. Thank you. >> Thank you. [Applause] Okay, we'll move to item 10, adoption of the regular meeting agenda. We
008need to adj We need to adopt the agenda. Can I get a first? I'll move to adopt the regular meeting agenda. >> I will second >> that. >> All in favor? >> I >> Okay. Item 11, public commentary. Mr. Davis, do we have any public commentary for this evening? >> I have none. Okay. Thank you. Item 12, recognition, correspondence, and announcements. Mr. Kcki, can we go? >> Good evening, board members. Happy new year. Welcome. Uh congratulations Mr. Summer and Mrs. Singh. Uh January is school board recognition month and we want to take a moment to celebrate our incredible board of education members who dedicate countless hours to the success of all of our braves. We're very proud of you for all the time and effort that you put in. Uh there is a certificate of
009appreciation in your folders uh from the district and OSBA uh that you can take with you. On behalf of all the students and staff, parents, community members, administrators, I'd like to offer you a sincere thank you for all that you do. Uh during this month, we'll celebrate each board member on our social media platforms weekly and within our be brave digital newsletter. Uh and personally and professionally, I just like to say I appreciate all the time and effort that you put in for this community. Thank you so much. Big thank you today was revealed. We began a new staff recognition program. We've asked staff members to nominate deserving staff members for special recognition monthly. Uh and Ken Stegman, the head of our maintenance team, was selected as the very first adult edge hero in the
010district. Uh we're very proud of Ken for all the work that he does. And just a a short story to share. Over the break, we had some uh leak issues as a result of weather at the um old gymnasium at the old portion of our elementary school. Um and Ken and his staff jumped in uh Christmas Day and during the holidays to make sure that our buildings were safe and secure and got cleaned up and addressed the issue. Um, and it's just uh that's the hallmark of Ken uh and all the work that he does for this district and has done over the years. Uh, he's always on top of things and his teammates as well. Want to thank all of our maintenance staff for their tireless efforts to maintain highquality facilities here and keep
011our campus safe and clean. So again, congrats to Ken and the entire maintenance team. Uh, want to give them a big shout out. >> Mr. Connect, I'd like to add on to that, which is um, for those that don't know, Mr. Ken Stegman and his team. If you think back to a couple years ago during COVID, that team was unbelievable. And in addition to your guys' leadership to keep us open, you know, that team worked tirelessly. And it seems like there's always something that comes up to your point. And th that team is unbelievable. And uh if there was ever a blessing to have someone to run maintenance, it's Mr. Segment. He is unbelievable. So, I appreciate you and that makes me recall another story of Mr. Stegman using a comealong to measure six foot
012intervals for stickers on sidewalks that I will never forget and uh he took takes all those things very seriously and we really appreciated that as well. Um, excellent. So, with that, I'm going to get up and move and Mr. Nichols is going to join Dr. Stewart and we have a furniture presentation with our project team this evening. Thank you, Mr. Kcki and board of education members. Um, before we start diving into some of the specifics, I have a little journey that I want to share with you that started over a year ago where we developed a process to guide all of our decision- making regarding our furniture purchases. And that process was guided by three main principles. The first one is we knew that this furniture decision was a huge financial investment on behalf of
013the district, not only for our current students, but for generations to come. knowing so we knew we needed to be very future oriented. So when we planned about what a classroom could look like, we didn't say in ninth grade we're planning just for tomorrow. We're planning for tomorrow and we were planning for what our kindergarteners would need when they eventually are in nth grade. The third one is that we knew it was really important to be as inclusive as possible. So we wanted to have as many voices of teachers and students involved in the process as possible. When we talk about furniture decisions, we're mainly talking about furniture at the high school, the middle school, and the elementary. Though we have a little bit to talk about when it comes to the primary school as
014well. So let's start by looking at some of the numbers that we have. When you think about these numbers, one of the key parts of understanding it is that we very purposely decided to have a journey different than a lot of other school districts. Sometimes in school districts, they have a small group of people who work together and they visit schools or vendors and they say, "Here is the perfect desk and chair for us. Great. Let's order 25 for every classroom and let's move on." We knew because of the three principles that we mentioned, we wanted to have a system in place that actually let us vet how that furniture would work to engage students in instruction. So the idea of pilot classrooms was born. And as you will see it by the numbers, we
015have 11 lab or pilot classroom teachers this year. and we ordered furniture for them in May, which allowed us to actually try the furniture with instruction, which led to 100% of students having input into what worked and did not work for them, and 100% of teachers having input into what worked for them and what didn't. As a result, we had over 1,040 students visit a lab or pilot classroom to have a lesson so that they could give us even more feedback in a qualitative manner about what was working and not working. With that in mind, we've had since December of last year partnership with our vendors. We've also conducted our own research about the best furniture decisions we can make by doing book studies, reading articles. We have visited the vendor sites and we also
016visited schools who've recently purchased new furniture. And here's the key to what we've learned. The environment matters. The environment matters significantly to the success of what happens for students. Not only in things like sitting arrangements, for example, sitting at the seat or sitting at a standing way like a counteriz table, but also in color as well as the type of material that we have for students. Flexibility is key. Flexibility both within the classroom and flexibility of what it looks like from room to room as well. Vertical writing spaces is as important as horizontal writing spaces and spaces beyond the classroom impact the culture and the environment of the entire school. Most importantly, what we learned is that the furniture that we decided on will make a difference on how students view themselves and know themselves
017as learners to get the most ready that they can be for the next environment postgraduation. So, beyond that, let's talk about what's happening at the middle school. You're about to see some images. And as we look at those images, I just want to pause for a minute because we have to give gratitude for the people who helped all of these pilot classrooms take place. The principal, Lauren Gentine, Drew Rener, the assistant principal, and a huge shout out to Ashley Morrison, our innovation coach, who designed and facilitated every visit that a teacher had to a pilot classroom. When you look at that, we also want to acknowledge the co the teachers who raised their hand and said, "I'll be a volunteer. I'll have the new furniture." And yes, it is okay that I get visits several
018times every single week. So, thank you to Kelly Murray, Jessica Brown, Hillary Smith, and Julie Ryan. When you look at the images, what you will see is that in every classroom, there's a teacher's desk and a podium that goes with it. You'll see a variety of seating options for students ranging from individual desks to shared tables. And in every classroom, there's ancillary seating, meaning a seating option out of a choice of three the teachers were given that extends the classroom beyond just a traditional seating environment. Ancillary seating is often considered a soft seating as well. So, it's very different from a traditional classroom desk. The consistency that you will see in every picture is that there is flexibility. All desks, all tables, all chairs are on casters so that the classroom can be very individualized
019based on the students needs or the activity that's taking place. That will allow us to be the most innovative classroom environments that we can possibly create for students. This is the Village Green and a lot of those Same principles applied to the furniture design that we have here as well. Flexible, a variety of seating arrangements. Now, when you look at this, you'll notice there's not a huge IH anywhere, but I want to assure you we are working our graphics package as we speak, and all of this will be branded in the future. Next, you'll see the project lab. This is adjacent to the village green. It's kind of hard to tell in this picture, but over to the left, you kind of see the sliding. Those are windows that peel all the way back. So
020that the village green is an extension into the project lab and the project lab is an extension into the village green. And you'll see it has a space where students can work individually as well as a collaborative setting where students can meet to dialogue. Next, we have the media center. is also adjacent to the village green and it not only serves as a library but it has a space for podcasting, for video editing. There is a reading nook. There's collaboration spaces and you can kind of see it in the right bottom corner. That's a coffee bar. Now, you might be saying, "What a coffee bar?" I don't really have the details because it's not going to be my coffee bar. Our middle school students will design it and run that. to think entrepreneurial like what
021a great opportunity that is. Next is our neighborhood. So in every single one of the grade levels in the midst of all of the classrooms, there is this huge shared space called the neighborhood. And once again, you'll see that it has a variety of seating options ranging from individual work time to collaborative conversation. And it's highlighted by both having digital screens as as well as vertical whiteboard space. Lastly, in the middle school is the learning lab. This is adjacent to the village green as well. This is going to be a shared room for both adults and students for the demonstration of learning. And this is going to be a great space for us to continue our work with pilot classrooms. >> Onward. Yes, >> Dr. Stewart, just a quick interruption. I think it's important to
022note again, we're focusing on the furniture in these slides. As Dr. Stuart said, you'll see all the branding, packaging, and that later. Um, the work that has been done, uh, 100% of students involved to give input in these spaces. I I think again, another kudos goes out. You know, our middle school students have endured a lot of change over the last year and a half. They're separated by buildings right now. Their teachers are in different places. the time and effort the students and staff have put in to help at that level. I just want to give them an extra shout out because it's so important uh what you're seeing here that we're focusing on what students need and teaching and learning first. But they've had to take the time to help us do that and
023they've taken a ton of time and we truly appreciate all the work they've put in. I think what you see here is state-of-the-art middle school uh furnishings and that's going to pay off for generations. All right, moving on to the high school. Again, none of this could happen without the support of a team. So, my gratitude to Jeff Damado, the high school principal, Amy Eper, the assistant principal, and Lauren Richardson is the innovative coach. And again, Lauren was responsible for the design, the facilitation of every single visit that took place to that lab or pilot classroom as well as designing all the surveys that we created for both adults and for students. For a while, there were QR codes everywhere for people to be able to jump into any kind of survey they wanted to
024take. I also just want to thank the pilot teachers um who were so willing to give this a shot and open up their classrooms for so many people to visit. That would be Casey Abrams, Mark Atwood, Michelle Schaefer, and Austin Ser. So, we're so grateful for their assistance through this. When you look at the next two slides, here are some examples of a sample of the high school classrooms. And you'll see a lot of the same principles are there. It's on casters. There's a variety of seating. Now, I want to say when you look at this, when you then go visit a classroom and all this is in place, it's probably not going to look exactly the same. And that's purposeful. We want every teacher to have the opportunity to take the furniture and design
025it in a way that makes the most sense for them. That's the reason we have this degree of flexibility. >> And the next one, >> I'm sorry, just quick question. Is this for every classroom in the high school? >> It is for every classroom at the high school. >> Thank you. >> Can I ask you? So those white white boards, are they uh those white eraser like you can write on it? >> Dry erase boards that you use like with a student. >> Yeah. Mhm. >> That's good. >> This is the counseling office. So as you walk into the high school, there's a portion of it that is out front. It's surrounded by glass. And we want to completely redo that space. The this is the start of that. Again, it's not branded yet, but
026we're really excited for the fresh new look of this that that allows students to come in and work individually, allows them sit in a group. At the back of the picture, you'll notice there's a single door that has like a glass in in like glass portion of it. You might have seen that before as Esther Hall's office, who's our career and college counselor. We're actually going to locate her in a bigger office, which she desperately needs. And this will then become an individually counseling room. So when we have representatives from universities or colleges that want to come in and interview our students, we have a quality private place for those students to meet. This is an example of the neighborhood. So these are the shared spaces that exist throughout the building. This is really um
027important because we gathered all the information about the best way to furn to furnish those neighborhoods is through the students. And they said what we want is we want a variety of places where we can sit and work near an outlet that allows me to work individually that allows me to work with a partner or group. And in every neighborhood we need someplace where we can sit comfortably and relax. So though the neighborhoods will look slightly different, they will all contain those components to it. >> Dr. Stewart, um along the outlet side, are we going to is the plan to have a lot of outlets incorporated into those furniture? Could you maybe sh I know you guys have been thinking through all share a little bit more around that. >> Exactly. So we really wanted
028to avoid cords being across the floor. So for any place where there's going to be collaborative setting, we will make sure that there is either um electricity that's through the table where they can just plug into the table or in the classrooms that there those tables are near a wall. But in the other areas, we've been really investigating through the um expertise of Mark Richardson, our director of technology, about mobile sources of power where there's a charging station and then you can find a mobile device that you can take to your table to charge as well. So, no long cords or extension cords going across the floor. >> Before I turn it over to >> Dr. Stuart, can we just pause just one more second? >> Yeah. >> Just want to remind everybody who might
029be watching this presentation or look at it afterwards. Our high school building is over 20 years old. >> This is a part of this project to furnish this building for the first time with new furniture. Every classroom, as Mr. Talus asked, and bonus spaces that in a typical high school, most people would never use. So, when this building was built, it was built with a vision for the future of teaching and learning, which I really appreciate as an educator. And now we're ultimately going to use those spaces for future teaching and learning. And in a typical high school, you wouldn't see a lot of furnishing put into a space like this, but not at Indian Hill because Indian Hill is not typical. And our teachers trust our students and they work with our students in
030all of the spaces in the high school. And so I'm really proud when I see this type of image and all the work that went in with our high school faculty and teachers uh to work with students to really plan out how they use these spaces. If you walk through our high school every day, you will see these spaces being used. Now, this is going to be even more effective and that's a great thing. So, again, we appreciate all the work they put in and again, this building will have new furniture for the first time. >> Some of our I just want to add to that, Mr. Kcki. Some of our inspiration, especially regarding the neighborhoods, was through the many visits we took to the universities to look at what it will look like for
031a student when they're given choice about a building in a space and where they go for their own learning. We want to give them that opportunity to practice that when they're with us before they then leave us to go to the university setting. Before I turn it over to Mr. ical and he's going to spend some time talking about the elementary and primary school. I want to just give an example of how crucial to our success that we had these pilot classrooms and um it probably would have been a lot less meetings. It probably would have been uh a lot less time if we would have just said here's the 25 desk and 25 seats and we're done. But we wanted to invest wisely and have the students at the center of our heart when
032we were making those decisions. We originally picked a desk that we all fell in love with. And when we ordered them for the pilot classrooms, what we realized is that particular foundation of the desk, the top of it, there was something about it that collected transference from all the papers. So all the ink that would be on a paper, pencil shavings or ink marks or whatever would transfer over to the table and it would created like a dirty environment almost immediately. And we recognized that. And the only way we would have known that is if we had done this pilot classroom type of experience. From that we were able to give that feedback to our our partners at Loth. Um Andrea Akin worked really hard to find a better alternative for us. When I look
033at the cost of ordering all those desks and the thought that all of those desks could have been a huge disappointment for us, in my mind, that's a saving of over $215,000 because we have these pilot classrooms. So, it was really an important part of our process that allowed us to make sure we were making wise decisions. All right. So, let's talk a little bit about the elementary school and the primary school. And uh I hope we're capturing for you the excitement around this. Um you know, we've had the opportunity to see the students come in and see the furniture for the very first time. Their eyes light up. They get so excited and they use the furniture in ways we couldn't even anticipate it. So, we're we're really excited. This is um kind of
034the end of many months where we met every week, sometimes multiple times in a week to have really important conversations about furniture. And so when I think about the elementary, I I'm really so proud of the staff and the students at the elementary school because they have given so much feedback. They've spent so much time um led by Whitney Buell, the principal, and Cash Hayden, the assistant principal, our innovation coach, Betsy Henning. Um, I want to thank Denise Haney, Lisa Shower, and Laura Crabial. They've hosted kids all over the building. Every staff member has had an opportunity to come in, and they're masterful at at having them come in and not interrupt the learning, but yet giving those students and staff an opportunity to see how the furniture could be used. So, we're we're really
035excited. Um, and after much discussion, we've got three spaces we want to share with you. And as you look at these spaces, um, I'm not going to go into detail instructionally on how every specific one, but I think you can see when you look up there that furniture can come together to build larger tables, it can be pulled apart if you need to work in small groups. Um, you can clear it completely out. And again, when we thought about the pilot that we were going through, do we want casters on those? Will the tables move? Well, we do. We want to be able to move those tables around. Much easier to move a chair than it is a table. And so we've we've learned about that. But they've had the opportunity to move all that
036furniture around. And uh I would say if you walked in the classroom today, it doesn't look anything like that because they've moved those tables and chairs all over the place. And what I think you're hearing from us tonight is a theme of flexibility. We don't want to build a classroom that's static. We need that classroom to be able to be manipulated to whatever the students and the staff think it needs to be manipulated to do. >> Mr. Nichols, on on those desks, does it also have the ability to go up and go down? >> Those do. Yeah. So, if you look those legs, you could raise those up. So, another important point, there are some students who learn best by sitting in a seat. Other students who need to stand up. We've got even you'll
037see on the floor there in this particular picture, some lily pads where they could sit on the floor. Those tables are lower. Um so all those different options for students because every student learns a little bit differently. In some cases um again you'll see another iteration of another classroom and again they've tailored it to meet the needs of those students. In some cases, they've designed furniture layouts that I believe those furniture vendors are now using in other schools that didn't exist because our teachers are so creative and uh they really thought about what design would work best for their classroom. So, again, we're really excited that uh these are going to allow great flexibility. So, one of those three variations will be in all of our classrooms at the elementary school. You'll notice a theme
038here of Yeah, go ahead. I'll add an aside that that classroom is what my daughter Sades third grade classroom sort of looks like. Yes. >> And she's given a great great review. She loves the couch. Uh she talks about how they use it all the time and it's it's really been fun to see it in person and it's it's different than what the third grade class looked like when you know we were all in third grade. Um but it was met with tremendous excitement. >> No no rows here and and again the students can manipulate that piece of furniture moves. So it it may look different in any given day. And so you'll see a theme here. We've talked about the village green and again this is another opportunity. And I want to pay special
039attention over here to this wall of windows that completely opens up. So we'll talk about the eyab in just a minute. But this could become one space um if need be, but it also can be isolated for a classroom. And again, when you look at the furniture here, you want our students to be able to crowd around if they're working on a presentation together, or maybe they need to work individually and they move one of these um hexagon um soft seings to another area, or maybe they just lay on the floor and they're working on a project. So, there's great flexibility. You're able to collaborate, work individually. Teachers can come and use this space throughout the day. So, again, we're really excited about what this offers for our students and teachers. And here, if you
040look at our eyab, um, you see this furniture. And I want to comment on these tables. They're they're really important pieces of furniture in these rooms. One, there's great storage. So, if you've ever been in our eyab, you know there's lots of equipment that goes along with it, but there's great storage under here. There's power inside of that. These chairs clip to the table. So, you could clear this entire space out if they need to do something where they just need more room. Maybe they're building something and it needs a lot of space to move around. They again have ultimate flexibility to move those things around in that room and could completely clear it out. You could move one of these tables out into the other area if you need to. So again, this is
041really thoughtful in how they designed this so that the students uh again can use it to the best uh way they need to. This is an art classroom. Again, you see that we've got casters here. These tables are a little bit higher. So, you've got um these chairs over here, which again a student could sit on if they're working on a project. A lot of times in art, though, you need to get over top of something. These tables allow them to do it. You could clear this out. A teacher could sit here and demonstrate for students while they crowd around and uh look at what the teacher's doing and then be able to go back and work on it in their own space. So, we're again excited about this this art classroom. At the primary
042school, you'll notice and and again, I can't wait for you to see some of the spaces there. Um you'll remember we're going to be renovating our cafeteria this year. So there's lots of great student spaces. Tonight we're going to highlight some of the uh more adult spaces, although our students will be entering in their brand new entrance. Um we're going to talk about safety enhancements down the road. But tonight um there's a little bit of furniture that goes in here as we greet visitors into our new office space. Um we've also got here a great example of some of the furniture you're going to see in offices across the district. really clean lines here. It provides a great opportunity obviously to have a workstation for the principal, but it provides great flexibility for them. Um,
043we as a former principal, I certainly understand that you've got parents in there, you've got students in there. Sometimes you need to display something, so you can move that furniture around if you need to. You could bring up more chairs if needed. But again, it gives you a great space. Um, I will just comment again, we're not we're talking about furniture, but they do have an opening here because Dr. Owens and Mr. Gerber work together very closely and so if they need to open that door to be able to work um they can do that as well. >> What about does that will there be window coverings there for privacy reasons? >> Yes. Yes, we will have some window coverings. Yeah. >> So so when my kid gets sent to the principal office, no one
044will know. >> Yes. Yes. We don't need any. >> Correct. Correct. >> Thank you. >> The final space we want to share with you is our clinic. And as much as um students come down because sometimes they have a you know a bump or they need a band-aid, there also is a lot of TLC provided in that space. And so we want it to be welcoming um and feel safe and comfortable for our students. So again, I think that the we've done that through furniture. Mr. Nichols, will you also uh especially for the families that are may have a child in the primary and are going through, they can see the spaces that they know are getting renovated right now currently, right? The office, the auditorium, the additional space. Will you talk through the flooring
045as well so that they understand what that's going to look like next year? >> Yeah, if you're walking in right now, if you come into the bus entry area, you'll see that we've got a new flooring down there. It's a vinyl flooring and there are pops of color in it. It really looks great. It fits the colors of the building. As you walk back a little further, because it was backorded, those pops of color are missing. We'll be able to add those back in this summer. And then if you look down the hallway that has our cafeteria, we've waited on carpet there because there is some construction with our cafeteria down that way that we'll want to um finish before we put in that flooring. And then up on the second floor, we'll we'll have
046tile as well. So, it will match all across all those hallways as they go through. >> There's one more thing that I would add. It reminds me of something that Mr. Mark said earlier reminding us about our time in in the pandemic which is that when we also considered all the furniture including anything that could have a fabric associated with it, we got a fabric that's like a medical grade. So it can be cleaned as much as we want and we don't have to worry about wear and tear. So, we've been doing a lot of work and um while we're doing this work, everybody on the team was was conscious of the budget. We certainly have dreams and we didn't stop dreaming, but we also were thinking about the budget. And over the past few
047months, certainly at the beginning of the project, we set allowances for lots of different things. Furniture was one of those things that we set an allowance for at about $2.5 million. Um, and as we look at the market research of what's going on in the furniture industry, it's not much different than what we're seeing in other industries. Certainly, prices have been going up. You're seeing prices anywhere from 20 to 40% increased over the past two years from what it was. And so, it it was a challenge to make sure that we did not get to that level. So, as we put all of our furniture packages together, we're right about 6% over what we had anticipated. Um, and so even though we wanted to come in right on budget, we feel really good about that
048number that we were able to keep it in, but not compromise any of the instructional pieces that we were really knew were important in the project. So, um, we're we're coming to a little bit over what we had anticipated, but I think still well below, um, what that market research and also freight is certainly one of those areas that we don't have much control as they're shipping those things in. So, we've tried to account for that, too. >> Mr. Nichols, I think it's important also to add a point that working with our vendor partners, board members, um the overall furniture budget that was originally established by our project team members, we worked very closely with MSA and Scansa to think about this plan and to think about how we should budget for a furniture project.
049We started early and we also found as we put our site map together for our building projects uh at multiple sites that there were rooms that needed to be included in the budget that weren't originally included that needed to be furnished. So um when you start to add a budget per room uh that accounts for the difference that you see. I just I'd like to commend the team uh because I think you know obviously we're concerned about money as you all are and the taxpayers and so to be at that cost overrun which is dimminimous relative to the overall budget is huge and I know that you guys did a lot of work vetting our partners and you know that uh schools in and Loth have been tremendous partners in terms of you know adding
050value and you know making sure that we got the most competitive price and but just want to thank the team in terms of, you know, all the work that's gone into to one make sure we've got innovative spaces which clearly we do and at the same time that we're getting really great pricing and so uh thank you to the team for all that work. >> I think also we want to thank Skansa and I think Scansa as a construction partner you know many districts do these projects in different ways and they were willing to allow us to move this from the budget to work with it with our own budget needs and with the project the way we wanted to do this. it wasn't um you know we found the right furniture vendors and partners
051that wanted to do this with us but we also found a construction partner that was willing to do this with us and MSA for spending the time on design with those teams as well. I would just conclude with again I think I'm just echoing what you said but I would thank our partners Loth and schools in they have worked hard with their vendors to make sure that we do keep that pricing. They've locked in pricing for us over the time we've been working with them. So we're really grateful for them and I think the biggest winner of all this is our students. I cannot wait for them to come in next year and get an opportunity to use this furniture and see how it changes learning in those classrooms. and our staff has just done
052an incredible job of making sure that when they arrive it will be amazing. >> Dr. Stewart, our teammates are here tonight. Is that correct? >> They are. >> I see Mr. Kramer, I see the law team over there and Mr. Coker. Great. Um, did Andrea, did you have anything or anybody from the team? Uh, I thought I was Anybody have a comment to make? >> Ben, do you want to come up and make a comment? It should be on. Okay. >> So, I think there's a lot of people we'd like to thank in this process, but our huge thanks is to Dr. Stewart and Mr. Nichols for leading this project. I mean, if we haven't touched on it before tonight, your thoughtfulness for your students, the care you have for your staff, and the passion
053that you have for learning is just unmatched. worked with a lot of schools in my time doing design projects with furniture and I've never met people like you that care quite that much. Um so thanking thank you for trusting us for letting us provide options and for us to all learn together through that pilot process because I thought it was super valuable on all sides. Um this project has been a true gem to work on and it's like not even close to being over because we have the next year of watching it come to life which I think is really going to make us all feel like it was all worth it. So, I just from the bottom of my heart, thank you for being a great partner. >> Yeah, I just have to echo
054that and I've told Melissa this a few times. The obvious, it's so obvious how much you guys care about your students. Every conversation that we've had has been with the students in mind first. And then I can't tell you how rare of an experience that is coming from years of design experience. And Andrew could say the same thing is this surpasses anything that I've seen any other school do. to even higher education. So you should be really really proud and it's been a true pleasure to work with you on this project. >> So thank you. >> Thanks team. Appreciate those comments so much. >> I just want to say something what you guys said is I would second that these guys like I have seen them work with students and I have seen both Mr.
055Nicholson, Dr. Stewart, Mr. Kenny like any conversation they have it's always okay how is it going to impact our students and that's why we really really appreciate them and we love them >> and we are just so lucky to have you guys here >> and you guys have done an amazing job I wish I could be in the school all I can say is that so I can you know enjoy all these furniture and the new exciting uh things that's happening in this district. So, thank you guys. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. I don't think that we could be at this point today if it wasn't for the commitment of our partners. And like I I joke that I'm so used to speaking with them on a regular basis. I'm going to really
056miss them in the years to come. Um but I also want to acknowledge their commitment to us. Um over the winter break, they both used their vacation time to be part of it. When Ben was on vacation, he was working with us while he was at some wonderful vacation spot in some Caribbean island somewhere. I mean, they they are equally dedicated to helping us see this through. >> I did have a quick question on the furniture itself. It looks fantastic. As everyone said, I don't need to repeat that, but I I have a question on the durability versus the furniture that we have now and how this will compare as far as the durability and what we expect the life expectancy to look like generally compared to what we have now. Can anyone give me
057any kind of clarity on that? >> So, the furniture is all from commercially made manufacturers. Uh part of that is that it has what they call a limited lifetime warranty, which moving parts and pieces, so on teacher chairs with casters and cylinders that go up and down, things that move, typically have about a 12-year warranty, um which is very typical to the industry. You've got a limited lifetime warranty, which means any of your the best way to put it would be any of non like manufacturer issues are all going to be covered under that warranty, right? >> And one of the other things with it too is you're probably looking I would say typical furniture is going to get ugly before it wears out, right? So the furniture you've had for 20 years, I would
058expect that you would be able to do the same here and live with this for another 20 years. I know Melissa mentioned the fabrics that we chose being like um hospital grade and really durable, cleanable fabrics and we took a lot of thought and care down to the laminate that we rechose on the desk um and picking a lot of these finishes so they would hold up really well over time. >> I think I think that was something that you all and the team should be commended for because we do have a lot we have a population of students here that and faculty that often have special medical needs, right? that maybe they're more sensitive to the environment in terms of um you know what they keep in contact with not be in contact with
059and so being able to keep those fabric safe and to keep the um the environment you know in a really really clean you know way I think is really important to a lot of our families especially and to a lot of our staff that you know may suffer from different ailments and things. So appreciate you guys you know Dr. Stewart and uh Mr. Nichols and the rest of the team for and and you guys for doing that cuz I think those are the considerations that for a lot of our stakeholders that's the extra piece that really means a lot to them. It means a lot to to to our faculty. So I appreciate that. >> I would just also say that we appreciate both of our vendors here schools in and loft as we as
060we've walked around with them on previous projects as we've worked with them on previous projects when problems arise they're not gone. They don't wipe their hands of us. they continue to work with us and problem solve and it gives us great confidence that if there is an issue down the road that we'll be able to work with them to make sure that it's it's done right for the students. >> So one one story I like to share but I told this often before we actually um went out and asked our asked the community for the uh the bond initiative to do this project. When my own son was in fourth grade, I was invited in for parent teacher conference and was asked to sit on the little blue chair. Okay, this little blue chair was
061obvious that it was older than the elementary school. So, as I was sitting on it and it felt like it was getting harder while I was sitting on it, I asked, "How old is this?" And the reply was, "We don't know. It came with the old building." So, when the new building was built, we moved our old furniture in. So, the durability of that little blue chair is going to be unmatched. But that little blue chair would never we would never be able to create a different classroom with that. We would never have any flexibility with that. So, as we look at the new furniture, is it going to last 40 years? No. But we have to have a smart plan as a financial arm of our our district to prepare when it hits 12
062years, we better start thinking about how we're going to start replacing those. And as it gets to 20 years, we better have a plan 12 through 20 on how we start moving that furniture out, moving new furniture in. Because 40 years ago when that little blue chair got moved into the elementary school, nobody had that plan. And that's why that durable little blue chair is still in that room. And I think this stuff is so great for the students. And I wish my son was going back through elementary school so I could sit in a new chair for a parent teacher conference. So that's that's why I'm really excited about the furniture. I think we've got a great product. I think we've put a lot of research into it and I think it's going to
063have, you know, there's no way to measure how that's going to change a classroom, but I think the look and the feel and just watching the students is going to make us realize it's different. >> And one thing that I'm not sure if this is the time to bring it up, but I know that there's been discussions, Mr. Nicholls and you're always so thoughtful around what we're going to do with the old furniture and repurposing it and donating and so this may not be the time but you know be great for you to be able to share that with the public because I know you've been you and the team very thoughtful around that. >> It's really a multi-layered approach. We we certainly will take any of the furniture that is in our buildings and
064offer the opportunity for other schools, the community. If there are is anybody willing to purchase certainly at a very reduced rate for that furniture which just isn't usable for anyone, we are working with different salvage companies to be able to take that scrap metal and anything we can possibly recycle, we will. Um, so we really do have a multi multi-layered approach, the same one we took with the middle school when we had to to get out of that space. Um, we don't want to add to the landfills if we can help it. So, we'll do everything we can to repurpose and reuse that. >> Vick will take that blue chair for his >> We'll we'll put that in his office. >> As I would echo just the thanks for that and most importantly, I think
065getting the students involved. Um, I got to see it with my own daughter this year and that's incredibly important. Um, and we're obviously making a tremendous investment here to know the students are going to be happy with it and we're innovative and on the front those are the additional things that we do here at Indian Hill that make us uniquely Indian Hill. Um, and that's that doesn't come without a tremendous amount of effort. Thank you. >> Great job. Very insightful and informative. Appreciate it. Mr. Ki has given me permission to say one more thing and then I have to stop talking about furniture. Um I just want to piggyback kind of on one of the things that Mick said and I think it's that when you know better you do better. When you think about
066the furniture at the elementary schools, one sizefits-all. In my time there as a principal I lost track of the number of students who didn't fit under the desk because they were bigger than the rest of them and their knees popped up underneath of it. or sadly students with a wheelchair and they did not fit underneath the desk. We made sure every environment within all the schools planned is accessible for all students. >> Very well said. Thank you, Dr. Stewart. >> Who knew furniture planning could be so exciting? And it is at Indian Hill. Well, these teams will attest to the excitement of our staff. sense because if you look at our, you know, you look at our board photo, there's definitely different sized people all over because I look like Andre the Giant in that.
067So, I appreciate your sensitivity to that. >> Shout out to our communications officer that I can use a new photo, >> Mr. Summer. I'm going to move on to the superintendent report if that's okay. >> Yes, please. Thank you. >> We just have a couple of personnel actions, tuition versus professional meeting approvals tonight. Uh you'll see they're under 8A 1 uh two and three. Uh and if you have a chance to review those board members, uh if there are no questions, I would ask for an approval for 8A 1 through 3D. >> May I have a motion to accept the superintendent report? >> Uh yes, second uh items. I thought you made Oh, yes. I'd make a motion to approve item uh 13A1. >> Sorry, 13. >> I'm sorry. >> 13A through 38. >> Yep.
068>> Second. >> We're going have to go away from Roman numerals or have some supplemental education. Mr. Marks. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sing. >> Yes. Uh, Mr. Tuls, >> yes. >> Mr. Sro, >> yes. >> That was my fault. I did that on purpose to throw you all for a loop. >> Okay, we'll move to next item. Mr. Davis, if you'd read the treasurer's report. >> Item A under my report is to approve the minutes of the December 13, 2022 regular meeting. Approve the financial reports for the month ending December 31st, 2022. Uh there are items under construction contracts up for approval. There are six of them. Uh there are change orders for Scansa that include a uh alternate for the wrestling area storefronts, an alternate for the wrestling area entrance door for the transformers
069for a locker room panel DPG. Uh don't ask me what that means because I don't remember the DPG in that. So I apologize. Uh we have an item for valid validated custom solutions. Uh it's for a new air a new a change to a new air handler at the high school. We have our two furniture orders for schools in and Loth MBI. One for $64,12808 and one for 2,85,93.79. We have an additional contract that's not a construction item. It's for FMX facilities condition assessment software. Uh we talked about this at the last meeting and uh this will help us when we talk about the life of those chairs. All of our assets are going to go into this software and they are going to be able to allow us to project not only the time
070that we anticipate that they will need to come out of service but also the cost. It will give us real time data that we can actually look at from year to year. See where our capital assets are. See where we have bubbles. see where we may be able to push things to further years to get further life out of them. I think this will be a fantastic purchase for the district. >> This is just an addition there. Mick and Jim have done a lot of homework and research on this and I think Mr. Davis has been talking about this ever since before I arrived. Uh in terms of a capital planning tool and when we talk about using software, this is something we're going to be able to use as a tool for the district
071for years to come. Uh it's going to help us do short and long range planning. So, we were very shortsighted with capital planning. We were typically in the mode of what needs to be replaced this year. Um, now we're looking more at the future, thinking about instead of what just needs to be replaced this year, but what it looks like 5, 10, 15, even 30 years out where we can put uh lights for the stadiums, things we don't think of, uh, stereo speakers for the auditorium. Everything that we're going to have as a capital asset in this district will go into the software and we can view in real time when we project those items need to be replaced. So I'm, as you can tell, really excited about the software. >> Mr. Davis, I've got
072a question. If you mind me on letter C, number three, there's no dollar amount attached to that one. That's the only one that's missing for the transformer. >> Chris, did that one have a dollar amount with it? Did I just miss it? Yeah, it was in it was in the attachment. >> Yeah, I just want to Thank you. >> We'll add that. >> Yep. >> I will make sure that goes into the resolution at 42,26423. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> And then finally, under my under my report for this evening, uh we do have two donations. one from the IH Foundation Hatfield Fund. This is a second installment for our esports program. Uh $5,000. This has been a very successful program. Um a lot of excitement generated and I believe we've had some pretty
073good success of that program so far. >> State finalists in our first year last year. >> And then finally, the IH boosters for the competitive writing at the I at the high school, $575. We always appreciate those donations from our community members and the uh the groups that we have that are out there making sure that we can do the things we want to do to keep uh having the best education we can possibly deliver. So with that I'll conclude my report for this evening and there are any questions I will be happy to entertain. >> Okay. May I have a motion to accept the treasures report? I will make a motion to approve item 14 A through E2. >> I'll second that motion. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Summer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Marks.
074>> Yes. >> Mr. Tulles. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sig. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay, we'll move to item 15, the fiscal year 2024 tax budget hearing. Mr. Davis, can you take us through that? >> I will. Um, every year we deliver a tax budget to the county auditor's office. Uh, this is to that the board will approve the resolution to accept the uh the taxes the taxes as levied uh by that county auditor's office and the treasur and the funds delivered by the treasurer's office. Um, this is simply a chance for the community to come forward with any questions. Um, are there any questions regarding the tax budget? I will ask the board any questions about the tax budget. It's pretty straightforward. I just simply take the uh the amounts
075that are going to be levied, put those into revenue, uh project that out for two fiscal year or two calendar years, one fiscal year, and then also take my expenses from the five-year forecast, put that in into the report as well. And they all tie out back to to the five-year forecast. And then uh that's that's pretty much the tax budget in a nutshell. um it's not really that much different than we when we present the five-year forecast. So, if there's no further questions. Okay. Thank you. May we have a motion to accept the fiscal year 2024 tax budget? >> I move to >> I'll move to approve item 15, the fiscal 2024 tax budget. >> Second. >> Okay, Mr. Davis. Mr. Marks, >> yes. >> Mr. Tullus, >> yes. >> Mrs. Singh, >> yes.
076>> Mr. Summer, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Item 16. Any other business by board administration? Is there any other business this evening? >> No, I just like to make a comment, Mr. Summer. I just I um you know, we often talk about we do a lot of praising up here and I come back to Mr. today. It was quite a bit. But um I do really want to say how much we appreciate the work and the forward thinking you have on the capital asset planning. Um you know I go back to before we did the levy and it was to your point it was uh a patchwork reactive dire straits. There's a hole here. There's this missing there versus you know on a scale that we have today where we're you know already
077starting to allocate. Hey, the field turf has a life expectancy of x years and allocating that. But to be able to say, hey, we're going to take virtually everything that we have that's a capital asset and be able to put it in software and plan out. I just think that means a lot to this the taxpayers. I think that as we think about five-year forecasts, everyone in all the school districts does the best job they can to make that accurate. But I think you've done a superb job with your team to really make that really, really accurate. far substantially more accurate than many other districts that are out there. And so this is another example of you and your team and and others taking us financially to that next level. And I think that's important
078to be to be recognized because um I don't know of very many districts that are looking that forward thinking. So I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> I I agree. Thank you so much, Mr. Davis and Mr. Summer. One other uh uh thank you before we leave here. I'd like to thank Miss Ike for serving as vice president last year and Mr. Tullus uh appreciate all your work as president, former president of the board of education of Indian Hill. Really appreciate all the time and effort that you put into that role. Uh thank you for that time. while we're giving thanks. It's been the past year that I've been fortunate enough to be a part of this and I I've seen a lot of different boards professionally and and as far as philanthropically and I
079just want to commend you guys for what you've done and getting to work with you and the amount of work and effort you've given has been second to none and you guys have got a first class organization. I treat this as a business right or wrong but you guys work well. you communicate and you make life very easy and you've got an wonderful institution and school district that I am so proud to be a part of. So, thank you for what you've done last year and moving into 2023. Okay, we'll move to our final item adjournment. At this time, I'd like to adjourn the meeting. Can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Thank you everyone. Exclusive coverage on the Indian Hill Television Network has
080been a copyrighted presentation of the Indian Hill High School video department.