001I will give you credit. I know. >> Had plenty of that while Yeah, I actually prefer this anyway. >> We're live. >> Yep. >> Uh good evening. Thank you for all in attendance and watching online. Tonight uh is what is today? October 18th. At this time we will call the board of education meeting to order. >> Okay. Roll call. Mrs. Eicholts >> here. >> Mr. Marks >> here. >> Mrs. Singh >> here. >> Mr. Surro >> here. >> Mr. Tullles >> here. At this point, is there a motion to adopt the regular meeting agenda and addendum? >> So moved. >> All in fa or second. >> Second. All in favor? >> I. At this point, we will stand for the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of America to the stands nation. >> Just
002a comment, Mr. Talis, before we move into the um public commentary piece on the agenda. Uh noting that there is no executive agenda tonight, we're going to move right into the business portion of the agenda. >> Thank you. Uh Mr. Davis, any public commentary today? >> I've gotten none. >> Okay. On to recognition, correspondence, and announcements. Mr. Kcki. Welcome board members and everybody. We have h a guest here with us this evening who's going to take over this portion of the announcements and recognition and correspondence because a lot of it has to do with Indian Hill High School tonight. So uh welcome Mr. Damado. Thanks for coming and uh really excited to uh hear your comments tonight. You have a lot of amazing things to share and uh I just want to thank you uh
003before we get started here with the board. uh number one high school in the state of Ohio, number one principal in our book. You work very hard with your team and your staff. One of them I see here in the audience tonight, Julie. Uh you guys are doing amazing things at the high school. We can't wait to hear a little bit about it tonight. >> Well, so again, I just want to thank you guys all for just the opportunity to come and uh boast about our kids. uh we don't often get a chance to kind of let some of these recognitions and celebrations sink in and it's an amazing accomplishment each and every day. I do stand in awe of what our staff and our students do each and every day. And for sure to
004start off the day and highlight the fact that uh Indian Hill High School was was once again for the third year in a row for the fifth time in eight years ranked as the number one high school in the state of Ohio. You know, when I shared it with the staff, I said just let it sink in because sometimes we don't. we just bypass it. We're proud. And then we move on to the next thing, which is also one of the things that makes this place so great. But I kind of made them like just let it sink in. 608 schools through the last two years of all of the challenges and still back to back to back. Number one school in the state of Ohio. That is a com a combined effort of everybody
005involved. I have a small part of it. I'm just happy to be part of that ship and help steer it as best as I can. Uh we have a ton of things going on and a lot of things to recognize. So, if you don't mind, I know Kirk said I had 30 minutes, so I'll try to wrap that up within I'm just kidding. So, uh, as you've seen and kind of following the news, some of the things I want to highlight, um, two weeks ago, we got a chance to, uh, recognize and celebrate our na 19 National Merit, uh, semi- finalists, uh, and commended students. We had an opportunity to, uh, again highlight and recognize them at Friday's game, and we're going to have a a celebration lunchon for those folks. I'd love to read
006their names just so they know that we we continue to talk about them and celebrate their effort. Uh we had seven National Merit semi-finalist students. Those students are Connor Kaufman, Elizabeth Consolino, Victoria Gonzalez, Vignya Ivatori, Joseph Kaine, Neil O'Kavi. We have 12 commended students. Those were uh Natalya Byer, Katianis Deal, Giannis Espigel, John Higgins, uh Venet Ivator. They are sisters uh Brian Gia, Preston Marx, uh Joy An Marco Petrabeck, Harishi Vat, Lily Shepard, and Aka Woo. And uh this is a competition. It's kind of an annual recognition of over 60,000 kids uh that take this exam and achieve this level of recognition. And for the semi- finalists, there are also millions of dollars of scholarship money waiting for them if in fact they go and pursue it. And most of our kids go ahead continue.
007and those semi-finalists almost 97% of the time become finalists in that part of that pool. So again, something that for sure that they they have to continue to raise raise their um uh their heads for and be very proud of. Um on the artistic side, not only did we have Midsummer's Night Stream this past weekend and close out that amazing show um and all of the efforts for that, but we had 11 Indian Hill High School students who were selected to perform in the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra. Um, four or five were part of the CSYO Philarmonic. That's Hollis Chan, Isaac Scott, Alex TR, Claren Wang, and Grace Yu. And we had six students who were selected through a rigorous audition process for the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra Concert. That was Ean Gandhi, Josh Nhands,
008Autumn Raldi, Aaron Scott, Arjent Verma, and Vivian Zu. So again, a tremendous opportunity. again, the fact that they're able to still achieve th that level of success in the classroom, on the field, on the stage, it it really it's all inspiring. Um, I'll say a quick thing just about homecoming week. We had a great a great week all around spirit week, the parade, the pep rallies from K through 12, uh, the game, uh, kind of the the level of spirit that is back, the dance. We've I'm more proud of the fact that not only did did these events occur, but we challenged our students to take a leadership role in bringing back some of the spirit that we thought we lost and they continue to knock it out of the park each and every event
009that comes up. On that note, and in continuation of that, one thing I'd love to highlight is is Junior Day. So, Junior Day, we transition from a previous platform where a junior class would go to Camp Kern and they would do team bonding activities and really just have a great day to run around and connect. and we love that. But one of the things we've been talking a lot about is how do we give back? If one of our pillars is service, when do we create opportunities to give back to the community? And so, Junior Day was kind of remodified uh where over 130 of the juniors went out to six nonprofits um across the city and gave half a day of community service back. Uh the juniors did not know where they were going
010in the morning, so we asked them to dress in layers. They got on the bus, then they knew these are the locations you're going to go. Um, and then they spent the second half of that day at 50 West really just connecting, having fun, um, and reflecting on the experience. And to hear the stories of kids who had the opportunity to give back, but more importantly, the number of students who said, "It was such a cool experience. I want to go back." It was fantastic. And that's one of the things that we want to continue to build on. So that junior day will now serve as the model for what's coming up, which is our senior service day is coming up and our sophomore senior service day. we're going to try to build in the
011third quarter and then our freshman service day which we're going to build in the fourth quarter and try to bring some of these really amazing culminating experiences uh to our kids. Uh some other outstanding awards uh senior Joseph Kaine who you you've seen on stage I just mentioned as a national semi-finalist was also recently honored with the outstanding youth in Phil in philanthropy award. uh that award was given to him um and sponsored by the Association of Fundraising Professionals uh in the Greater Cincinnati chapter. And if you don't know Joseph Kaine, before he graduates, get a chance to just talk to him. He's an amazing young man, just a leader all around. Um another young lady I'd like to highlight is sophomore Jolene Gennady, who uh you may not know a whole lot about, but
012whatever this young lady starts to do or build as a young as an entrepreneur, invest in. uh over the summer she got a tidbit from a teacher Mrs. shower said, "Hey, do you want to go to business camp over the summer?" And she said, "Sure, why why not?" And so she paired up with again about a hundred kids across the city. They were put into random teams and her team had an opportunity to build a business idea, pitch it to small businesses here in the city in a competitive almost like Shark Tank experience. Her team won second place. They received a check for $3,000. The students were allowed to do whatever they want with that money. But Jolene said, "How do I take it and build and do something continuing and build it forward?" So
013the other kids have taken it and spring break and other and we actually hooked her back up with a company downtown, a partner called Main Street Ventures who are now taking Jolene under her wing for whatever is next. So again, when we think about our strategic plan, what do we want for our kids in the future culminating experiences in student agency? I just wanted to take a minute and tell that story. Um on that same vein, we think about future planning and what are the visions for uh Indian Hill and the experience. Kind of two areas I want to celebrate tonight and one is student agency. Um we are currently piloting inhouse the very first student leadership excellent cohort and so this is in collaboration with the partner of Frank's Research LLC and it is
014a credentialed leadership program for students. Not only does it can it assist them in a graduation pathway, but more importantly, it's about teaching students how to be leaders, not just electing them to be leaders. And one of the really cool things about this is over the summer, eight of our district employees went through the same certification process. And then myself and another staff member became uh certified trainers. So myself and another sta staff member Nate Iger uh Tuesdays like today we actually get to go into our leadership class and we get to teach this program to those seniors who are currently in leadership. So today, just so you know, like today's conversation was about inspiring a shared vision and clarifying your values and to hear the insights of students who when you ask about leadership,
015the things they come up with, their thoughts when they think about themselves as leaders and future planning and what does it mean, what is their why, I'll be honest, I get goosebumps and I can be in that class all day long. So again, something to celebrate. Um to continue on again on that same vein, we also created this year the very first staff leadership council and that is because last year we piloted the first high school student leadership team. Uh we had about 35 kids that were nominated by their teachers and we brought them together once a month for about four and a four and a half to five months. And really we just asked the kids to give us feedback on your student experience. And we talked a lot of our themes were celebrations,
016recognitions, and areas of improvement. And these students were from all over 9 through 12. Uh students that you know, students that you may not know. It wasn't simply about electing students that always have an opportunity, but electing those that we knew maybe they just needed someone to tap them on the shoulder and say, "Hey, would you like to be part of this work?" Um, and so what we did with that is we we took the feedback from the students and in the late spring and early summer when we had our building leaderships back, we had them meet and talk and share about all the things that they talked about and some of the ideas that they have. not only did you see in our senior homecoming week uh but it also has come up in
017other plans and clubs. Um so they made an immediate impact. The staff leadership council is about building iteration 2.0 of that and really taking that idea. Right now we have about 82 students who've been nominated for that group and in about two weeks the council is going to get back into it. We're going to talk about how we formally uh invite them into that space, make it a great experience, bring some outside leadership experiences for them uh to kind of again cultivate that. And last, because I know my 30 minutes is coming up, uh when we think about strategic plan, one of the things that is near and dear to my heart and I can't tell you how excited I get about uh talking about this and that is in the vein of cultivating career
018pathways and celebrating and highlighting our current uh fledgling Indian hail experience program. You've read about it. We have some folks uh in this room that have been part of that. But we last year when we thought about let's launch this, we had five students and about a dozen community partners who said, "Hey, we're interested and and we'd like to hear it." Well, we just did this the second cohort of applications. We have 40 students right now and we who are all in who are going through modulars about learning success skills, partnering with some of our folks in the PTO Foundation, teaching our students how to write resumeumés, uh interview skills, what it means to be on time, what it means to be in a professional place, um and developing all these success skills before we
019then put them out and and partner with some folks uh in the community. And we have over 42 uh partners right now who have said we're in. Some are active, some are just waiting, some have said, "Hey, I don't know what we can do or we just want to be part of this and let us know." Uh the last two days I connect with four new um um um business partners. uh one in one with Beacon and and the reason why I highlight Beacon is uh not only we are we working on bringing our kids to them, but we're also partnering and creating some what we like to call lunch and learn experiences for our kids where we're going to have some outside individuals and community partners and professionals come in and do kind of
020what we do with staff 30 minute 45 minute lunch and learn opportunities. The first two right now I'm working with Beacon and Dr. cremech. He's going to come in and talk about all the facets of what he does. Everything from physical therapy, physicist assistantships, medtech, uh, athletic training to again light a spark. And then where in the experience program will will they connect? And the other really uh cool one I want to highlight is we're connecting with the Indian Hill Fire and Police Department who are currently piloting drone technology to assess um to assess, understand, and extinguish fires. So talking about, you know, the future of even things like how to fight fires and keep people safe and the technology that's assisting them in that process, it's pretty exciting. So they're going to come in
021as well and do a presentation for our staff and uh we'll kind of see. So it connects our STEM advisory uh goals, our career pathways, and our student agency um possibilities. So um that's just a few things that are going on. The cool thing also about that program, that program is 9 through 12. It's for every single student to have an opportunity to have a real world experience about that's going to transcend the classroom and um that for me myself and and the team that's building that um that's what we hope the future of learning is going to be here in Indian Hill High School. So um a lot to celebrate. I thank you for giving me a couple of seconds to just boast about uh just a few of the things going on. >>
022Mr. Damado, um how many students are involved in experience ships this year? So we have 40 right now total since the beginning that have participated uh is roughly 51 out of the original five and 17 11 of those 17 in the summer were connected and out of those 11 we actually have four or five students that have said well what's next can I do this again and the answer is yeah why would we ever say no absolutely >> so board members I think it's important to know uh outside of the dayto-day uh where Mr. Mr. Damado and his team are cultivating these partnerships and and 42 partners for any school district of any size is incredible in one school year and growing. Uh Mr. Damado has been working directly with Hamilton County, with OD, with
023some of our other partners in the area. Uh he's taken students to Rotary. He's uh become engaged with the chamber. Their team is exploring things that really you've been working on for years. And and I think it's a credit when we talk about five of the last eight years this school uh has been ranked number one. You know all the research in education shows us that the teacher is the most important um person for any student in a school and the research also shows us that the second most important person is the head principal. Uh so kudos for all the work you're doing. Um, I want to remind everybody as well of the other work that was done before we got to this point this school year that I think we kind of glossed over
024last spring as we were kind of getting out of some of our pandemic operations. The high school added a lot of new courses last year that Jeff and the team worked on. signature seminar, screenwriting for film and television, unified physical education, computer apps and digital technology, uh, community- based work instruction programs, innovation lab time, blended learning for health, multivariable calculus. During a time when most people were just trying to be open, this faculty and staff was leading the way and Jeff was also a part of the steering committee with the IH Promise team. And much of the language that you heard again tonight is embedded in our strategic plan and I think it's because our high school leader and faculty were a part of that process. So really appreciate the work that you're doing. I
025don't know about you, but I'm blown away about what's going on in our high school and uh thank you and please tell your entire faculty and staff thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for for letting me speak. >> I just like to commend you on all your enthusiasm and all your hard work. And if you'd give a big thank you to your team, we appreciate all you do and we do not take it for granted. So, thank you very very much for everything and it's a lot of exciting news. >> It is. Thank you. >> I'd like to echo that. One of the first times, Jeff, that we met, you took me on a tour of the building and spent about an hour and a half together and I walked out here thinking, God,
026if I had that much passion for my job that you have for yours, um it would be a whole different animal. Um this is what we're doing here is remarkable. uh with what makes being on the board so much fun seeing this. Uh we're lucky to have you and your team and the passion for all this and um god it sounds like we're talking about a college at times with the programs that are happening for the real world experiences and that's I mean that's going to make a difference in these kids' lives down the road. Um so thank you to your team the whole whole group. Well, I appreciate it and and again, I I've said this before. This team, this leadership team has always challenged me to think beyond tomorrow. And I mean tomorrow
027as in like literally tomorrow. And um uh one of the things I love about Indian Hill is we're never complacent with today. It is truly forward-looking, future driven all of the time. Uh they make me better. They push me into places I don't think I've ever been able to think of myself as. And uh again, yeah, it's a it's an awesome ride. And I'm so proud of our kids. I'm so proud of our staff and the things that they've done. So, thank you again. Thank you for always supporting what we do, even if it's um unorthodox and a bit crazy. >> Before we let you go, I just want to say you are one of the best things that has happened for the Indian Hill High School. like I have been here for 14 years
028and I can say that you had been one of the best high school head principal that I have seen in my kids life. >> Oh, thank you. >> Now you bring that positive energy and the way you connect with your students. It is just remarkable to see how you connect with them and how much they trust you and how much they listen to you. So you know no most yeah yeah most of the time but I think you the positive energy that you bring into this building is what is bringing the change. So I think kudos to you and your team. I think our teachers are amazing and thank you for all that hard work that you guys are doing to make a huge difference in these kids' life. >> Thank you. >> It's our
029pleasure. Thank you guys. Thank you, Mr. Damado. Let's keep the celebrations going for a minute. Uh, next, uh, board members, I'd like to take a moment to celebrate another Ohio Auditor of State award for our treasurer and school district. Uh, on behalf of the hard work of Mr. Mc Davis. Uh, I know that uh, you all don't get to see and and our our public does not get to see the work that goes on sometimes behind the scenes with Mick and his staff. And I know that Mick would be the first to credit his staff members and his teammates as well. However, uh he's got a run of getting these audits clean and winning this award every year. He is a rockstar treasurer and deserves some accolades. So, congratulations and thank you, Mick, for your
030hard work. >> I I'd like to echo that the importance of proper reporting to our taxpayers is it can't be understated. And when we ask them to trust us with the bond levy, with other resources they give us, if we're not being truthful and accurate with them, then we're not going to earn their trust. So, thank you. >> A big round of applause. [Applause] >> Well, I think it's I think it's important to, you know, we have so much to recognize, but you know, there's a true cost to the work that you do, right? So if we think back to the money that we borrow and when we need to borrow money and the fact that we have that AAA rating, right, a lot of that has to do with your stewardship and leadership. So
031we really appreciate it, Mr. Davis. >> And I think I'm the only board member that remembers what it was like before you were here. >> And um so I think it's important for everyone to know that, you know, Mick didn't walk into a situation that was, you know, perfect and he could just take off running. He really had to rebuild. Um, and the the transformation was quick and it was amazing and you've kept it, you know, going forward ever since. So, it's been really fun to watch that. >> Thank you. And congratulations, Mick. I can tell you board members, I've never worked with a treasurer who's been more aligned to the rest of the team on doing what's best for kids and making sure that our vision and missions uh are supported and uh always
032strategically talking to the team about how to use our resources to the best of our ability for students and staff. So, it's it's it's fun to do uh to work with with Mick every day. Next up, uh Mr. Nichols just going to give us some quick operational updates. >> Well, because you're doing a great job, Mick, I'll tell you how we're spending your money. So, here we go. We We've got a lot of good things happening on campus. Uh it's really exciting. It's probably too dark now to see, but we're pouring a parking lot over there, which will be the final parking lot for our middle school. it starts to give you an idea of kind of just how far back the building will sit in comparison to the old building. It really lines up
033very nicely and and truly becomes a nice campus here. So, it is one of the first pieces we finally get to see. Um, if you look at the building structure, you're seeing a lot of steel go up right now. Um, really the frame of the building, our new connector is out there. We'll start to see that get enclosed over the next few weeks. And so that's really exciting because we again we'll be able to get to see that take shape and that main grand entrance that will then lead you into the auditorium and our athletic complex in there. So those things are all happening. Um you might notice that we've got a little extra material behind us. I've gotten a few questions about the uh practice football field out here. When we have the opportunity
034to take advantage of getting some materials and bringing them on campus, we're storing them here where we can. this is a lot of roofing materials I believe and so it really helps us to have that on site and not say well actually we we can't take it yet we're not ready we're able to do that which then we can use it right when we're ready for it so that's why that's there right now and then if we look over at the elementary if you haven't been over there um I would encourage you to to walk uh over there and and come and see what's going on behind but the really the walls of the gym and the core arts building are there the the foundation has been poured And so we're really starting to see
035that building take shape. Um you really get a sense of how grand that's going to be. So we're excited about that. They were doing a little bit of work just a little bit on the interior hallway in the back of the building and that's almost complete. Our elementary staff and students have been incredible over there. They've been working around just a little bit of construction as we tie the existing building into potentially the new building and being able to do that work now keeps us on schedule. So, we appreciate their flexibility um as we work through that. And then if we look at the primary, I encourage you also to drive by over there and take a look at their front entrance. Um it already is looking dramatically different. They've finished a lot of the
036earthwork out in front. So, they're ready to pour the pad for the new section that will go on the front. Um if you were to go inside, you would see the multi-purpose room has the slab poured now. And so, that uh you'll remember there were some tiered steps. We had some accessibility issues. those will no longer be an issue as that will be one level. So, we're excited to uh to see that coming on uh and then they're going to start even laying out walls here over the coming weeks um as they really put together the office and that whole front area and improving our safety and security there. So, we have a lot of great things happening on campus. We've had great weather and so we're taking full advantage of that. But, uh just
037a lot of great progress and and more to come here. >> Mr. Nichols, one quick question for you. I'm not sure if it's in the scope right now, but if not, something we might look consider looking into is at the primary building where the buses come in. It seems like there's a been for a long time some drainage issues and there's like a dip down. So, as we think about sort of scoping the asphalt and stuff. I don't know if that's something we could look at, but >> it is absolutely something we're looking at. In fact, as you drove by LA last week, you might have seen Ken Stegman down in that hole >> working on that drainage. So, it is something we're trying to address right now, but it's Yes, it it's something that
038we're working on because that pond's over there when we get a good rain. >> Yeah. >> I would just uh go ahead. >> I was going to say just just a note for Jim and Chris since you're here. Um we hear a lot from from school community members and I've not heard one complaint yet about disruptions from construction during the school day. Um I was able to navigate both primary school and the elementary school drop off successfully. Um which is saying something. Um, so kudos to your teams for keeping those projects separate and uh not distracting and you know my kids who complain about everything haven't complained about hearing hammers, you know, flying around during the day. So, congrats for that effort. That's a big part of this. >> I definitely compliment Scansa and the
039team over there. They do a great job of even working with the village and reaching out to them. If they think there's going to be any disruption, then they can inform the neighbors and we can have some conversations prior to any of those things happening. Um, we are neighbors here, so we want to be good neighbors uh with all of the surrounding homes. So, they've done a great job working with them. >> I'd like to uh thank all of our partners in the village as well. We had a community village meeting last week and everybody was very positive about our project team and working with them and the responsiveness uh to the village from our project team. I really appreciated hearing that feedback uh from the rest of our uh community stakeholder partners. And also
040just a reminder to anybody and anybody who listens to the meeting that uh it is getting darker earlier. There is a lot of construction going on that is of interest now as people are seeing the outside of the primary school and through the leaves they can start to see the elementary wing when they're driving on Drake Road. We pe we need people to be really careful because people want to look. They they're interested in looking and then that's that's also becomes a concern at times. So the traffic uh knock on wood we've been very fortunate with with safety. We want that to continue and Scansa is always there to help as well with traffic during the school day. But really, it's 24/7. We need people to be paying attention because they're starting to see the
041building projects on the outside. Um, and you know, they're going to see it throughout the winter and next spring. If we can move on to the superintendent report or what first thing up tonight is the second reading of the calendar. Uh, board members just want to make sure that we're clear on uh uh all of the details for that. So again, I've asked um uh Jim and and Dr. Stewart to uh maybe just provide a high level overview of that rationale again um on the school calendar for next school year. >> Well, again, we're able to work with Scansa. Obviously, construction is at the forefront of our mind and making sure the um the areas that we're going to be working on over the summer are ready in the fall. And so, we've done some
042things to prepare. Um there's a couple of areas that we want to get started on just a little bit early, especially over at the primary. Uh their cafeteria is getting a full renovation. and it's going to be an amazing space when we get done, but we're going to work around that a little bit so they can start to clear that space out and we can be ready by the time school starts. Um, so we've we've vetted that start date with them. It's a little it's about a week later than what we normally do, but it it keeps us pretty much on schedule to have a lot of the traditional breaks um that we have through the year. We know that's important to our families and our community that we have some of those um in
043place and so I don't think you're seeing a huge impact on our traditional calendar there. Um, so we're we're able to preserve that. We we talk with our staff. We u consider how many days of uh the staff um are here as well as how many hours our students are here. There's some requirements. We exceed those requirements. We want to build in some additional hours in case there could be a snow day or occasionally there's a power outage or something like that. We want to have some days in reserve. So through this calendar, we're really able to accomplish all that. Just a comment and a question just because it struck me when I first looked at it. Um it's obviously the same number of I think same number of overall days, same number of staff
044days just to make sure because of the difference in the winter break with not having the week off before Christmas we typically do. Make sure we message that out to people who may not be looking at the website that frequently. The rationale I think makes sense. I talked to uh a handful of families and when you explain to them they you know perfectly understood. I think that'll be helpful for families because it is a little atypical to be off the first 10 days of January, but I think it makes all the sense in the world. It's the right thing to do. Um, and I've even had some people say that they may like that going forward. So, this may be an opportunity after we go through this to visit if that makes sense for families.
045Um, just some food for thought. >> Thank you. Other questions or comments on the >> Yeah, one one question and I was just going through it. Um, I think one question I had is the end of the it's got our third quarter, fourth quarter, first quarter kind of marked out is it has our our third quarter ending with 38 days of instruction. Our fourth quarter is at 52 and just wanted to, you know, that might be something for us to look at. And I'm sure there's wisdom and all things that uh Mr. Nichols and Dr. Steuart have worked on but maybe you can walk us through that in case folks are wondering why that that fourth quarter is substantially longer than the third. >> Abs. Absolutely. I think the goal is to try to get
046that to be as balanced as possible and there are a couple of factors that weigh into that every year. Obviously this year is construction. I think additionally when we look at the break up into quarters, the the the school that we have to really worry about the most is the high school and the fact that we have students sometimes taking semester courses. In the world of primary, they're just moving along through every quarter. Anyhow, one of the things that we took in into mind when we created the calendar is also thinking about the fourth quarter being the longest one because there is some time missed instruction when the students are actively engaged in a lot of assessments. So there's the state tests that they have to take that are mandated for us. We also have
047a really high percentage of students who take the AP exams. So all in all, it's the most balance that we could get for this particular school year. >> Okay. Awesome. And then one other question was just the days that we I think one of the values that I really appreciate about our district, Dr. Stewart, is the amount of professional development we engage in. I think many districts across the country don't engage in enough. And I think the feedback we hear from all of our teachers is how much they love that the the additional days that we're putting in in January, you know, and having those like the 8th, 9th, and 10th is that just kind of reworking them. I know we are giving some up at the start of the school year and so just
048I think maybe sharing what the thought process is there again. I know that there's always good reason and >> rational. Yeah, happy to talk about it. Um I don't know that we will see a calendar that looks like this one. January 8th, 9th, and 10th is specifically addressing the fact that our students and faculty will be moving into a new school building. So, we will not be asking our teachers to come in with their screwdrivers and set up classrooms like we're going that's part of um our contingency that we have with all of our partners. However, they do need to come in and set up their classrooms with all new furniture. and there will be things that we need to work out the flow of traffic in the building and how we're going to navigate
049the use of common spaces. So, this 3 days gives our district a chance to recalibrate considering that we're going to have this beautiful new building and it gives our teachers a chance to make sure it's set up for our students with the most success and thought. >> Awesome. Makes sense. >> I think the other consideration with that, Mr. marks is we want to um take a unique period of time when we're moving in and opening that new building to celebrate it with students, staff, and the community. And we expect that there will be some ceremonial things going on uh as well while we're kind of working out the kinks. And um when we weighed doing that before the holidays and after the holidays, it made more sense to do it now. Um, but again, I
050think that calendar will change after this year and we'll work on it with the staff. >> Yeah. I mean, I think the idea of being able to celebrate a little bit makes a lot of sense, especially not only the community, >> you know, have an opportunity to see what they've invested in. >> And then one other just thought might be I know a lot of families plan things out. Uh, I've been through graduation a couple years ago, got another one graduating this year. Is as much as we can get details on the calendar as quick as possible around things like when graduation is because with us going after Memorial Day and I'm not sure how that'll work out. I'm sure Mr. Domo's got a great plan, but just as quickly as we could plug in
051some of those dates because people start thinking through those things >> in advance with grandparents and so forth and so on. after the uh uh anticipated approval of the calendar, those things will all go live uh immediately. And the graduation event, since you brought it up, Mr. Marks, it's a really good point. On this calendar, actually, the faculty had given us some feedback. We didn't need to move the date of our traditional uh graduation. So, it is a corresponding date, which is a good thing, I think, but we'll definitely push out this information this evening. >> Great. Thank you, and thanks for all the effort. I know that this is outside of the high school master schedule. It's the great rubric and I know that um you know our our uh teachers have had contributions
052and things of that nature. So appreciate all the effort. >> Speaking of graduation, did we clear the weather dates, Mr. Domado? >> So we don't have a really good track record on that. Just just throw that out there. actually >> um >> and all of the principles and uh Jim and Melissa and uh Julie and Jen and the RIO leaders have all put a lot of work into this calendar. They do every year. We try to bring it to you by September every year. Uh we expect it'll evolve and change again after we get through the project this year. Um and uh hopefully putting it out in October gives people plenty of time to plan ahead for next year. So, um, that being said, we can come back to, uh, letter A, um, if there
053are no other questions or comments. Okay. Uh, uh, item B is approval of an overnight field trip, um, for our Latin students, uh, in that program for the future. Uh letter C is our typical personnel actions, tuition reimbursements, professional meetings under uh numbers one through four. And also on the addendum you will see um letter C2A that runs through letters JJ. And if there are no questions or concerns, I would ask the board to entertain uh number C uh letters C through 4 A inclusive of the addendum C2J at this time. >> So move. >> I'll second that. >> Mr. Summer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Marks. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Zikols. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Singh. Hi, >> Mr. Tullis. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> On to the treasures report. Mr. Davis for my
054treasures report this evening. Um, I have the minutes of the September 20th, 22 regular board meeting, the financial reports for the month ending September 30th, 2022. We have one contract to approve Best Point Education and Behavioral Health uh for a student tuition, $194 a day. Item D is to approve the following construction contracts. There are three change orders uh with Scansa, one for the elementary school in the amount of $38,76. structural steel for bulletin number two, one for the primary school, electrical update for bulletin number three, 26,511, [Music] and finally uh change order for GMP number seven for the middle school, Westside Access Drive, $51,73360. >> I've got a couple questions on that. I understand it. I've looked at all the attachments, but can you just give me a brief synopsis on each one of
055those? why we're what what the rationale is behind and what we're doing. >> Yeah, let me >> is Yeah, if you just walk us through that. >> So, at the primary school, there are a number of different electron electrical panels that are there currently and what the original plans called for uh to to redo those were to use the conduits that are currently existing there. Um when we actually opened them up, we discovered that they were um insulated in a fabric and there was no longer room to put any more wires to put a ground wire through each of those conduits that led to the electrical panel. So we had to strip all of those conduits of the wires that were in there and then rerun new wiring through it. Okay. Okay. At the elementary
056school, this was a bulletin issued by our structural engineer THP. Um after the design was completed, they determined that columns and additional miscellaneous steel uh needed to be added to the construction and they also put more steel reinforcement into the gym slab. Uh what we found out with this one is that typically um as the design process is going through um we usually find about 2 to 3% of our contingency is then committed to uh what we refer to as errors and omissions. um things that are found out in the field as they're going through the project that weren't included in the design. Uh finally, at the middle school, there's an access drive that the original uh location of that uh conflicted with some electrical gear that needs to be put in out there. So,
057the only way to correct that problem was to add the add to the length of that roadway. And what that what that meant is that we had to use more asphalt. Um there had to be some more storm drainage that went out there. and then also the grading that goes into creating that access road. So that's the additional labor with that. And then also um there are some memorial bricks that were taken out of the front of the high school here when we we started the project. Those are going to be put back in in front of the board office. So we needed to also put those into the change order as well. >> Okay, I'm good. Thank you. >> Yep. Mr. Davis, I know that you've been very judicious around managing our owners contingency,
058talking through that. Um, will you just provide for the public just a little bit of commentary around kind of where we are and how we're on pace with that? share share um you know little details because I think you've managed that along with Scansa and um Holly and her team and everyone but I think that would be good for folks to kind of know just kind of where we are and um that we're on track with really watching that and managing that and observing that. >> So I'm pulling up a handy dandy spreadsheet here which I love to put together and I love to read. This one is was created by Holly so I appreciate that. Um so what it is is we we have um basically three buckets out there right now that we're
059really managing. One is our owner contingency which is sort of the money that we talked about that errors and omissions that that things like that in the project will go to that we have to make the decision on whether we want to use our owner's contingency to to put those items into the project. There's also a construction manager contingency. Um that is a contingency that's managed by Scansa. Um typically what they'll do it those will be things that um they have to really they're responsible to put into the project. Um at the end of the day Scansa is going to make some of that available to us um per the contract. They were gracious in allowing us to keep some of that contingency money as well. So that's why we're we're keeping an eye on
060both of those contingency buckets. The third bucket we're also looking at is what we call allowances. And those are already built into the GMPS, but as we go through the GMPS, some of that allowance money doesn't always get used. So then that goes back into the project pot for lack of a better word as well. So there's three basically buckets we're looking at. Um right now on the contingency part of it for our owner hard cost um we originally had um just under $3 million in the original contingency for owner's hard cost. Um we're right under 2.3 million right now. So we're at about uh 78% left. Um and we're we're at about 80% of the project now that's completed. But we're we're not going to use all that contingency as we go through the
061project because in the beginning are when you find all of those problems that you don't anticipate when the project starts. So we are in a very good place with our contingency. Um we have um within the cons the contingency there's three different buckets. There's an estimated those are things that we that we know need to be done that we need to get out to our subcontractors to vet through get us some prices. There's a pending change in contingency, which means all of that work's been done. It then goes back to all of our partners, MSA, MCS, and Scansa. And then finally to us to make sure that all of those items within that change order look good. And then finally, approve change and contingency. And that's when we go ahead and sign and say these
062change orders look good. Let's go ahead and and sign them. So right now we are at about 2.3 million with all those buckets left at about like I said 78%. We're doing really good in that category. Um we're starting to see some of our as we work through the projects. Some of those allowances are starting to um we're really getting a good idea of whether those are going to be needed be needed in the project and getting a feel on how much of that will be coming back. So there's some opportunities there to um sort of have some savings and sort of make sure that the things that need to get into the project are put into the project. And we really we really used these numbers a lot when we looked at that total
063borrowing number for that final number that we are uh we're working on right now. So M you mentioned it briefly and I think it might be helpful for folks who may be watching at home. Just briefly if you could explain the process for approving the change orders, our owners reps involvement, your involvement. Um I I think that's important people understand so we're not just rubber stamping every last little change that comes out of the the contractor's pro process. >> Correct. So what that what that process is is scansa originally in the field. Um they'll find you know things that need to be done. There could also be opportunities for us to say hey we would like this added to the project. So those are chances to use contingency money as well. And then what they
064do is they'll put that into that estimated pot knowing that hey this is a general estimation. We know we need this change order. Now it's time to go out and work with our vendors being Scansa's vendors to go ahead and put the dollar signs with that. Once they do that, it comes back then to our team which consists of our owners rep which is MCS and Associates, our architect team which is MSA and then Scansa as well reviews those and then once all three teams have reviewed it, it then comes to me for my review and then I look at it and make sure everything's okay, make sure that's what we want in the project and confirm that it's been vetted through the teams. Then it goes next into the the opportunity for us to
065approve those. >> Thank you. >> Yep. >> So, a point of clarification on the contingency. You said uh 3 million and we've used 2.3. Yep. And that's for the owner's contingency and the construction manager contingency or just the first. >> Good question. So, the construction manager's contingency is actually different pots. So, the the numbers I gave you were for our owner hard contingency. >> Okay. that construction manager contingency um exists of originally just over a million dollars and it's now at $986,492. So, we're doing a good job managing that one as well. Um we haven't had any unforeseen situations that Skansa needs to take care of. So, we're at about 96% in that contingency bucket as well. >> Mr. Davis, last thing from my perspective. I know one of the things that you do are
066very judicious about is we have the limited ability to invest funds that we're sitting on >> and to be able to earn interest in a very safe way. And I think the last report was year to date somewhere around 194,000 or something along that line. Will you just share with the public briefly the stewardship that we take with that money to earn some type of income off of it as it's waiting on the sidelines to be, you know, encumbered and spent? >> So your synopsis was was dead on. We have very limited resources that we can invest in. Um, anything that we invest in must have a certain amount of liquidity. It must be u backed by a bank or other other ways to safely have the principle. Um, we typically don't um look at
067we we let everything go to its maturity date. So, we're not looking at the market value of things. We simply look at the cost and then the interest that we'll earn at the end of the u the time. We're actually in a unique time period right now. Excuse me. Because of the way that they they the Fed has has increased interest rates. We're actually getting very good returns compared to what we normally get. So for most of my career, we have seen, you know, 0% to to 25 basis point return on investments. Whereas right now we're actually Star Ohio, which is an overnight money market that uh a lot of the state government entities invest in is near 3%. So we're we're we're doing very well there. Um we do have to be careful that
068we're managing that to make sure we're not making more interest than what our taxpayers are paying on their side. It's it's a lot of arbit arbitrage rules that um but but we do watch those things as well. But it is a good time for us as far as investments because we are getting a good return on those those funds. >> Last question on the allowances. Will we have any anything that will come back that will be accretive for us for the bottom bottom line or is it still too early to tell as far as that third bucket? >> Chris, you want to help with this one a little bit? question. >> Yeah. As far as the allowances, just trying to get an understanding of just what we're dealing with and if we're going to have
069some surplus there that's going to be accretive to to be a good guy back for us for the district. Can you can you >> talk to that point? >> Uh yeah, there are a few buckets where we're anticipating the cost or the expected cost be less than the budget established. So that money could potentially go back to the district. Uh likewise, there's also a chance as we're getting pricing in for some of these uh scopes of work, the price could exceed the allowance, at which point that would go against owner contingency. So on the whole, yeah, it'll it should even out, but we'll see as we gather pricing for the remaining scopes. >> Where do we stand today? Do you have an approximate number where we stand right this second? on number of >> on
070the allowances where we stand as as far as >> would they have to be on the spreadsheet m >> so so the spreadsheet has the original starting value of two and 3/4 million um and then total change in allowance is a reduction of 47,000 for 2.3 remaining allowance so what that would mean is that allow those are allowances we have used to date >> correct >> not any that we have gotten back >> correct yes >> yeah I'm just trying just trying to understand all the allowances and where we are and all the contingencies just so we can look at a global picture. Obviously, it's going to change next week or next month, but where we sit today, I'm just trying to understand how we're progressing through the project. >> Got it. >> Thank you.
071and and some of the things we're keeping an eye on um is is especially our furniture which as you know the cost of furniture is is going through the roof and we made sure we've ordered that but we want to make sure because that's an allowance that we have you know if we need to put more from a different allowance where we do have a savings that can go to that as well as both of our playgrounds at the elementary and primary school. We want to make sure those those areas are very, you know, nice for our students because that's a very important place for them to be during the day. >> So, in in the coming months, uh, board members, of course, at our November meeting, there will be a five-year forecast presentation by
072the treasurer and then we'll also have presentations from the project team where they will dive back into some of this information and share with us interior updates and also design option for the uh, middle school choir room and we will look at the progress on the GMPS. Thank you. >> So, if there are no further questions on that, then the final uh part of my treasurer's report is item E, the acceptance of donations. We had two this month. Excuse me. The IHPTO for the junior class for junior day and the boosters uh for student government. Uh the movie night homecoming, $3,500. As always, we appreciate those donations. It's with those wonderful gifts that we're able to provide a level that's above and beyond what we could hope to produce. So, we're very excited to get
073those donations. And with that, that in concludes my report. I would ask that you approve items A through E of the treasures report. >> Move to approve items A through E of the treasures report. >> Second. >> Mr. Marks. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Iicults. >> I. >> Mrs. Sing. Yes, >> Mr. Summerall. >> Yes, >> Mr. Telus. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Davis. Kirk, you want to go through the policy updates? >> Yes. This is just a first reading board members. So, just uh again awareness it is Neola policy update time and uh items A through R, if you could review those in the coming month. And if you have any questions, please let me know. Most of this has to do with uh safety, health, and welfare uh specific language that reflects current
074legislation or any changes uh in policy and guidelines uh suggested by legal. So, please take a look at that and um we can talk uh if you have any questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um any other items, board members, administration? Uh again, I just want to thank Mr. Damado. Uh again, while Julie's here, the faculty of the high school, I hope you can relay back to us on behalf of the board how proud of we of you we are and everything that's going on. And uh if any of you board members happen to know any uh community business partners looking for experientship interns, it takes one partner for one student and uh we're trying to personalize experiences here and I think the team's doing an amazing job on that. So let's let's keep it
075growing. Thank you all for being here. >> Yeah, I just want to celebrate the high school one more time. my notes as we've been going through this whole board meeting, I see families rolling in >> because we've got our fall choir concert and I just think about all the opportunities that we give to our students and it's pretty darn awesome. Um, so thank you Mr. Domado. Thank you for your work and just want to thank the rest of the cabinet leadership team and all the work that you guys do day in and day out to provide great learning environment for our students and for our faculty and staff. So appreciate you all very much. With that, is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. We get a second. Uh, all in favor?
076>> I I >> I >> Good night. Thank you. Head over there.