001Okay, it is 6:32 p.m. I'm calling the meeting to order. Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Davis. >> Mrs. Eicolds >> here. >> Dr. Hooker, >> here. >> Mrs. Johnston. Roll call. >> I can't hear anything. Mrs. Lewis >> here. >> Mrs. Sig >> here. >> Okay. Can I uh can I have a motion to adop to adopt the regular meeting agenda and add a please? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Dr. Hooker. >> I. >> Mrs. Lewis >> here. >> I. >> Mrs. D. >> We all do that. >> Motion to adopt the regular agenda and addendum. Can you >> Elizabeth? We have a motion to adopt the agenda. >> I can't hear anything. >> Can she hear you? >> Can you hear me? >> I can hear you.
002>> We have a motion to adopt the agenda. >> I agree. >> Okay. Mrs. Sing. >> I. >> Mrs. Eicholas. >> I. Uh, can I have a motion to go into executive session um in accordance with Ohio Advice Code 121.22 to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion or compensation of public employee or official and to prepare for uh preparing for conducting or reviewing negotiations or bargaining sessions with employees. >> So moved. >> Is there a second? Second. >> Second. Roll call. >> Mrs. Lewis, >> I. >> Dr. Hooker, >> I. >> Mrs. Johnson, >> I. >> Mrs. Sing, >> I. >> Mrs. Eicholts, >> I. >> All right. >> Okay, we are back into open session. Uh, let's start with the pledge of allegiance, please. I pledge algiance to the flag of the
003United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay. Um, and we will start with recognition, correspondence, and announcements. Mr. Kcki. >> Good evening, members of the board and our guests who are paying attention online. I'd like to start with a wonderful celebration. Um, people may have seen our release today, but uh, Nich ranked the Indian Hill uh, school district as the best in Ohio. Uh, that became public yesterday and number seven in the country. Um, and while this is something that I think in this district we have heard before, uh, it's always nice to know that uh, others recognize the efforts of our students and families and staff as well as the board of education for running such an
004amazing school district. So, we're very proud of that and of course that went public this week. Um, and Spectrum Cable Television will be running a nice feature statewide uh, on that soon. Um, and I wanted to share that with everybody. So, congratulations. That's great news and really congratulations to our students. That's really I think >> who makes this place the way what it is. >> Yes. >> I just have a question is what's the time frame? Was that from the last school year or how is I don't know exactly what the time frame is. >> Uh typically um out of over 10,000 school districts. There are uh several that are surveyed and evaluated every year at this time. And it goes from the last school year through the beginning of this school year. And then
005they put those rankings out uh at the end of September uh every year. So >> great. >> What what a year to be able to achieve that. >> Very nice. Speaking of excellent students, we've got several others uh that we want to recognize this evening as well as some staff members. Uh first up, I'd like to recognize Sophie Sophie Shabri. Uh Sophie created the Indian Hill High School Corona Care Callers program to facilitate meaningful connections between students, particularly those who are part of Indian Hill's new Brave Virtual Academy, which we'll hear a little bit more about tonight from Dr. Kim Gibbons soon. More than 100 of our high school students have signed up to volunteer their time for virtual meetings with BVA students to help foster connections in our school community during the pandemic. So
006congratulations to Sophie. A tremendous uh creative idea and there are many students who are involved trying to make those connections with their peers. I I thought that was just a wonderful example of service to our community. We'd also like to put a a spotlight tonight on Indian Hill High School teacher, Latin teacher Mark Atwood, who was recently named a 2020 US Presidential Scholars Program Distinguished Teacher. Mr. Atwood was nominated by class of 2020 graduate and current Columbia University student Liz Radway for the prestigious recognition that is only given out to several teachers a year across the country. Uh so we're very proud of Mark Atwood and all the work that he does here and of course thank you to Liz for recognizing him. Uh she was an excellent student and I think he would say
007the same. Uh Indian Hill School District also wants to congratulate all of our Braves who were nominated for a district record setting 25 video programs that were part of the recent 2020 blue chip awards. the Indian Hill Blue Chip Awards. Uh our our team garnered 13 blue chip awards with 11 11 nominated programs earning runner up for the overall 24 recognized video programs. And of course IHTN and Denny Dubs who are helping produce this live stream are a part of that group and they produced all of those wonderful segments with the students uh who work in that program. So, we want to congratulate uh the teachers and the students who are involved. Indian Hill High School also wants to congratulate senior Amatesh Burma and freshman Arjent Burma, who we recently uh featured. They each earned
008the President's Gold Volunteer Service Award. Amates was recognized for volunteering over 270 hours over the last 12 months at various organizations around the Cincinnati area, mainly delivering meals for people during the pandemic who could not get their own meals. And Arjun dedicated his past summer to volunteering with a specific group called Groundwork Ohio River Valley, learning about um invasive species and how to protect the environment. So, congratulations to both of those students for earning the president's service award. I'm going to take just a break here to invite Dr. Given into our meeting. >> I couldn't hear a word what you said. >> We're going to try to fix that right now. Hi, Dr. Gim. Can you hear me? >> I can. >> Okay. We want to make sure everybody can hear you. >> Can you
009hear me? >> Yes. Yep. >> Yes, we can. We can hear you. Thank you for joining us. Uh, Dr. Given Kirk, can you convert that to speakers mode? So, she's the only one. Y'all are teeny. There's a click up in the upper right, I believe. Or >> Yes. There you go. Thank you. Sorry. Does that help? Yeah. >> We want you to see Dr. Gibbon, not me. >> Um, okay. Thank you for joining us, Dr. Given. And, um, you're here to share some information tonight on Brave Virtual Academy with us. So, I'd like to turn it over to you for an overview. and uh thank you for joining us. >> Thank you so much for having me. Um I have to say I am just loving this opportunity to get to um work with teachers
010in a different way, get to start something brand new. Um Grand Virtual Academy I think has been off to a great start for the most part. We're really working hard on um offering a flexible option for our learners. Um, we're trying to help students build some agency and learn how to um, manage schedules and work independently as well as helping them to build some collaboration skills. Um, I think that we've got some unique opportunities in Brave Virtual Academy in that we can really explore how to personalize learning, um, how to help kids connect with an authentic audience, how to help them be creative, and we're sharing those ideas with our face to face teachers. So, um, I feel like overall we're off to a really good start. Um, Mr. I'm not sure what other things
011you would like for me to share about this evening. >> Well, I think what we would like to share with the group and then we can take a few questions is the number of students that we're serving overall and um what you're seeing when you talk about creative work. Some of our teachers have come up with some pretty amazing ways to connect and engage uh with their students. So maybe you could just share a little bit about the enrollment and a couple of those examples. >> That sounds great. So we have about 428 students K through 12 in um Brain Virtual Academy right now. The majority of our learners are in the elementary school, but they're pretty evenly divided between um the uh primary school, the elementary and the middle school, and then the high
012school has um around 80 students that are participating. Um I think as in any case when there is a new situation or sometimes when there's adversity it really helps to that crucible really helps teachers to think hard about ways that we can make better connections with students. So an example in the high school is that we have um Zory Piper is um working on yearbook and not only is she including students in creating the yearbook that are at home with BVA, she is making a whole set of features for BVA students so that they have a chance to take to show what they're passionate about and what kinds of things they're doing at home and that's going to have a part of the yearbook because that is a part of our year as an Indian
013school district. Um, so that's kind of an interesting thing. In the middle school, I just got to see um sixth graders sharing their science projects that they created themselves. So they found their own hypothesis. They tested it. They had um all sorts of data to demonstrate what they had learned. They talked about whether their hypothesis was proven true or not. Um, and to be able to offer learners at that age, um, something that they got to create themselves instead of just filling out a worksheet, I think is, um, a pretty exciting opportunity. I had a great conversation today with Cindy Miller, who teaches first grade, and she's getting ready to launch her first graders passion projects. They get to select something that they're interested in learning um, and kind of do something over the next
014uh, week or so where they get to put something together. she's a little nervous as a teacher just kind of feels like she's taking a risk because she's not taking that for her students. Um, in the conversation we had today, she is so excited to see what kinds of things the kids come out of that. And similarly in the elementary school, Kelly Vaughn just finished up a project where um kids got a chance to share through Flip Grid about something that they had worked on over the week and we're going to be featuring that very soon we hope in um our Indian Hill publication. But what I'm seeing from K through 12 are people who are finding opportunity that the distance that a screen might um pause actually can be um an opportunity can be
015a way for kids to be able to interact with their curriculum. We're not so worried about seat time. We're more worried about mastery. We're more worried about learning. And that looks different for different learners. And in BBA, we have the room to be able to explore that with them. And so that's one of the things that I'm most excited about. >> Thank you for sharing so much of that, Dr. Given. And I know Dr. Stewart here I I'm going to ask to put on the spot for a minute because I think you deserve a big thanks. And I know uh behind the scenes uh that there was a lot of time and energy going into your job, which has changed dramatically this year. Dr. Stewart, could you just talk a little bit about what Dr.
016Gibbon brings to BBA? >> Countless hours of work and energy. Let's start. >> Dr. Stewart, do you think you might be better to use this? >> Yes, Dr. I will walk in front of the camera once again. I'm going to like stand up straight. >> Yeah, >> you're looking great. >> Pull in my tummy. Yeah, here I come. >> Okay. Can you hear me? Okay. >> Yes. Much better. >> Okay. So I would say that I think one of the best decisions that we made was to recognize how important it was that we had dedicated staff members who could focus on Brave Virtual Academy and that includes Dr. Kim Gibbon. And it was a really tough decision for her to leave the classroom shortly before the start of the school year to dedicate herself to
017Brave Virtual Academy because Kim loves what she does and she loves teaching discovery. And when we talked about how we needed to reallocate people so that we can make sure that we could spend the time and the energy necessary to make sure this was a solid, strong program, Kim was the perfect person for us to choose as a district and she's really done amazing, amazing job. And I think one of the things that makes it work so well is that Kim has the perfect balance between incredible organizational skills and followup and how she communicates, but at the same time recognizing the power of agency and freedom for both our teachers and our students. And so really, it's creating something really powerful that is a beautiful combination with what we're offering face to face. And I'm
018really excited to think like what does this mean for our future. So I think that Kim also has the ability to not think only about what we're doing tomorrow and is always enhancing what we're doing and making it better, but she's also thinking long term for our students. So what does this look like in the future as well? So I just it's hard to find the correct words to give Dr. Given the right accolades or to say thank you enough for all the work that she's doing. >> Pretty nice. And again, we want to thank you for taking time with us this evening. Uh board members, any questions or comments before we lock that Dr. Given get back to her meetings. >> I do have one. I just want to um she can hear us,
019right? So Dr. Given, I just want to say that thank you for leading the BVA. I know it is not something very easy uh to take the challenge. We really appreciate all the enthusiasm and all the energy that you're putting into it. We really appreciate all of that. In fact, I just want to tell you that I spoke to couple of my neighbor kids who are doing in person and they talked to their friends who are doing BVA and they're super excited and they're like they would want to join BVA. So that tells a lot about how you know the program is running. uh the only question that I have is when I hear this that more and more students wants to join BBA if our numbers goes up I'm sure UBIS can take the
020challenge but are we ready to take care of all those kids like if the numbers goes up significantly >> well I think that's a great question. >> We've been doing a lot of talking, a lot of planning, a lot of thinking. >> As you know, the model for BBA looks different in the schools. So, K through 8, um, we have dedicated teachers who are leading classes. And then in our high school, we're actually kind of in transition. Um, and we have kids who are meeting with teachers, but more kids are taking online classes. Mhm. >> So each school's ability to absorb more students and when we would bring staff on is going to look a little different. We would love for our class sizes to look similar to what facetoface class sizes look like and
021each building kind of has its own calculus to make a decision about um at what point we'll be bringing another teacher in. Um in some cases we've actually um hired some people in to help us with some courses. So we've got like all things are on the table. We want to make sure that our facetoface learners stay safe and they have the right ratio of class size and that our BBA learners are supported in the phases. >> And so we have some ideas and we think we're ready. >> Perfect. Yeah. I have no doubt that you guys won't be ready for the challenge the way you all have picked up this year. It's just amazing. So one last question. So this is what I'm hearing about the high school. Are high school students getting any
022kind of interaction with the students who are here in school in person? Like are they kind of interacting among themselves like doing some kind of group project or you know uh maybe reading a book together and discussing it? Are they interacting in some ways together or how is that going? Well, right now we have a lot of time and energy spent on looking at our high school model and looking for opportunities for growth. So, when we started was our goal to have not only collaboration between VBA kids but also between VBA and face to face um just as a part of the fabulousness of our district. We actually have a studentrun organization that is making phone calls face to face kids are making phone calls to kids who are in K through eight to kind
023of help them feel more connected. I think having BBA high school students connect with face-to-face high school students right now is pretty casual. There isn't a formal way that that's happening, but we're getting ready to launch a whole new set of um menus and options for teachers and students to be able to interact with each other. And one of those is going to be, you know, how would that collaboration happen? We have um some great learning coaches who are working with us to help be able to make that shift. Um I think one of the things that we um we anticipated, but we did not realize was going to work out the way that it did is that students miss their Indian Hill teachers. And so we're looking for many, many creative ways that we
024can make sure that our BBA learners connecting with those teachers and as a part of that also feeling a part of that Indian Hill High School experience. >> Um Kirk, I have a question. >> Go ahead. >> Um Kim, I I have two questions actually. One is how many hours of teacher time do the kids get in the virtual academy? and two a suggestion because my son is at UC and is taking distance learning not online but virtual learning and one of the things the professors have done is mandated discussions as part of their um their required coursework. So when they hand in something then that has to be reviewed by other kids in the class and there's discussion and I overlook what he does and there's quite lively discussion piece between some of the
025students. >> Thank you Elizabeth. So um you first asked how many hours of class time students have and it's going to vary developmentally K through 12. Um, we wanted to make sure that we provided more structure than what spring looks like. So, kids have certain classes that they show up to each and every single day. Um, but we also knew that having class from 8 to 3 was not going to be good for kindergarteners, wasn't going to be good for seniors. It wasn't great. We needed like room for kids to have some asynchronous time, some time to get outside, um, some time for them to do some different kinds of things. So, um, at the kindergarten level where they attend school from like 9 to 1:30, um, their, uh, time with teachers is very close
026to what is during the school day for face to face learners, except that all of that downtime where kids are like working in groups or working in um, like working at a play table, that would look like maybe offline or small group night rather than all the class together working. Does that make sense? >> Yes. Okay. And then you also gave me a great suggestion talking about how at UC discussion was required. Interestingly, one of the parts of the apex courses is there are discussions with kids who um share ideas with one another as part of that. Um we would like for that to be uh a little bit more robust. And so I think that one of the suggestions we'll be making to teachers is how can you bring in kids like how can
027you have some live discussion but also how can you have some asynchronous discussion so that kids can be talking about the coursework with one another and have the teacher be able to also give feedback on that. >> So Dr. >> Dr. Gibbon thank you uh for answering those questions and sharing with us. I know that I got to talk with Avi Willis in second grade today who's a member of BBA and he is so excited to get to do discussions with his teachers and his classmates and right now they're planning ahead for how they're going to carve pumpkins uh at home as a part of their project with parents prior to the holiday. Um thank you tonight for joining us. I know you have town hall time to think of and we really appreciate all
028the work that you and the staff and BVA are doing. >> Thank you all for this opportunity. It's been amazing. I'll talk to you all soon. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. >> You too. Byebye. >> Okay. Would you like to pick back up with the superintendent report? >> Yes. Thank you. Uh members, um first up tonight, we have a first reading of the 2021 2022 school calendar. There's an attachment there for you. Uh what we tried to do here with this calendar just so that you you're all aware um is stick to our traditional calendar as much as possible and we've also tried to incorporate what I think our staff felt was very valuable time this year. Uh knowing that long-term many of our safety protocols and procedures will be in place. We will
029have students transitioning to new buildings. We may have staff in differing roles. We tried to honor the idea of a staggered start for part of our population over two days during that same week that we would typically start school, hoping that we could all be back in person, right, and get going again in in August like we traditionally would. But having a little more time to work through the safety procedures and protocols and building relationships with students at the start of a year, knowing that next year also might be a little different than what people were used to in the past. And so I think that's the major change that you might see looking at this version of a calendar. And that's the first reading of this uh calendar for this evening. Uh without any
030questions about that, next up are some personnel actions uh for non-certified staff contracts and salaries. Uh these are for aids and monitors. Um also approval of a classified substitute in transportation. And under B number three, we have approval of our winter supplemental service contracts uh moving forward. And then under number four, we have some tuition reimbursements for staff. Uh and if there are no questions, I would ask you to entertain letters A >> B, >> sorry, letter B one through four. I I just have a question with respect to basketball and wrestling or being that they're going to be indoors. Um right now OSHA is saying that all indoor sports are moving forward as planned including wrestling. >> No. Um great question uh Kim. Right now, what we are looking at is no news on
031wrestling or swimming. And I believe that the OSAA executive board is speaking with ODH and the governor's task force to really try to come up with some strong recommendations, but I would expect some modifications much like we saw with football and fall sports, possibly a shortened season. We don't have any hard and firm details yet. However, basketball, they are allowed to have what we would call open gyms and training sessions with a smaller ratio of players. And because of the way the 15% capacity rule has been set for indoor gymnasiums, we are allowed to have teams on a court uh doing some practice with basketball. So, some of that could create some confusion. Um, and as soon as we get an update on all winter sports, we will share an update with parents. But as
032of right now, um, wrestling and swimming, we have no definitive start to a season or a schedule built. And, uh, we're going to wait and watch and see, uh, what news we get, >> but we're approving contracts for swimming and wrestling. >> We're approving contracts as we did with our fall supplementals for all, knowing that we have um, included in those supplemental contracts and language. We've communicated to our staff that if they cannot commence, the contract may not be, you know, it might be null and void or a percentage of a season might be paid. >> Yeah. Much much like we do with the fall. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And but basketball season is as far as we know is the same as >> what the communication has been so far, Nancy, is that
033basketball season uh that there have been no changes to the planned basketball season. That doesn't mean there won't be some, but um we're coming up again to a deadline at the end of October where people want to know. So, I expect we'll get some news in the next week. Okay. >> Okay. So, can I have a motion to approve uh letter B items 1 through 4? >> So, move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Dr. Hooker. >> I. >> Mrs. Lewis. >> I. >> Mrs. Johnson. I >> Mrs. Singh >> I >> Mrs. Eiffols >> I >> thank you. >> Uh moving on to the treasurer's report plus the addendum is under your report I believe. >> Correct. Um under my report this evening I have uh the approval of
034the minutes of the September 15 2020 regular board meeting. The approval of the financial reports for the month ending September 30th 2020. We have two contracts on the agenda. One is a change from last month for Sonia Horton services for student per students individualized educational plan. Um the amount of the contract remains the same. It's a $30 per hour um as needed. Um item two is Stepping Stones Incorporated, the step up program for two of our students. Um that's $14,200 per month. Item D is the approval of the establishment of three student activity accounts. Um, number one is the fix and give club. And I put that on my notes and I put it in six fonts, so I'm having a hard time reading it right now, but I will do my best. It's a
035club focused on gathering computers, refurbishing them, and donating them to underprivileged children to help bridge the educational gap among communities. Um, they need an account for a few reasons. um they would like to purchase supplies for donations. Um they would like to host some events like drives or fundraisers and they are currently going to pay for some storage space. That program the adviser is Lisa Campbell. The second program is HOSA. HOSA is a club for future medical professionals. Um they would like to use this account for competitions and events, fundraisers, etc. That's uh advised by Mr. David Broststerman. And item three is the technology student association or TSA and they will be um getting they will become interactive with technology and then using that uh what they learn to to be in competitions. Um that's
036why they need the uh the account for collecting collecting $25 fee from each member and then turning around using that for competition. Letter E is the approval of now and then invoices. Um, this is the longest now and then invoice section I've ever had since I started here as treasur, but there's a couple of reasons for it. Um, pretty much both related to CO. Um, these first four on the main agenda are for contracts that are renewed annually. Uh, because the all the turmoil in July, June and July, some of our departments didn't get their contracts in in time. So, we got we got invoices before we got the contracts in his purchase orders. Um, item three on that list is Rock for Rockhorn Academy. Uh, there was some part of the CARES Act that
037went out to them um and they actually bought their equipment before um the CARES Act was put into our system. So, we're reimbursing them for what they've already purchased. Um, that's perfectly um okay through the CARES Act. We're just approving that purchase for them. On the addendum, uh these are now from Camel County ESC. And the reason these appear on an addendum is they just came to my office today. Um and I wanted to make sure we get the ESC paid um as quickly as possible as they're one of our largest vendors. Um all six of these items were items that were on contracts from last school year. um they were in purchase orders, but because of uh communication with their office, with people being out, people being out in my office, we thought we
038had everything entered on June 30th, these six these six invoices slipped through and we cancelled the purchase orders that they were on. So, what we do, what we need to do is create new purchase orders and go ahead and pay those. Um you'll see that on those items that uh four of them, the Saint Vincent Fair, Rockworm, Saint Vincent Fair, and All Saints, those invoices are paid through our auxiliary fund and not our general fund. Um and that's actually on a 2-year bienium cycle. So, we're perfectly fine with those. And the other two items will be paid out of the general fund. >> And these are all passroughs, right? >> Uh the four um the St. events of fair, rockorn, and all saints are all passroughs. >> Okay. >> Yep. >> I know that was
039rather quick on those now and then, but are there any questions from the board on that? I apologize for them. >> If not, that ends my report for this evening. >> Okay. Then, um, can I have a motion to approve from the treasures report uh items A through E, including the addendum? So moved. >> Is there a second? Second. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Lewis. >> I. >> Mrs. Singh. >> I. >> Dr. Hooker. >> I. >> Mrs. Johnson. >> I. >> Mrs. Eoltz. >> I. >> Thank you. Okay. Last up, um, we have some, uh, Neiola policy updates. This would be the second reading, so we would need a motion for approval of these policies. And I believe everybody has had time to review them. >> Is there a motion to approve?
040>> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Dr. Hooker. >> I. >> Mrs. Johnson. >> I. >> Mrs. Lewis. >> I. >> Mrs. Singh. >> I. >> Mrs. Eicoltz. >> I. >> Other business by the board or the administration? >> Not at this time. >> Okay. Uh was there any public commentary? >> There was none. >> Okay. No public commentary. Uh so could I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Thank you. Thank you everyone. >> I remember when I was Thank you, Elizabeth. Uh Tim Sharp. Byebye.