00112 6:30 to our first board of education meeting of 2025 2026 school year. An exciting year ahead filled with lots of new opportunities. So with that, can I have a motion to accept our agenda for tonight? >> Second, >> Mr. Davis, >> we actually need to do the pledge of allegiance and then roll call before we set the agenda. >> I think you missed one month and then >> we're all out of practice. ledge to the flag of the United States of America to the stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty, justice for all. >> All right. Can we have a motion to accept the agenda now? >> Roll call. >> We need to do roll call, Mr. S. >> Oh, God. >> All right. We'll get there. >> Let's do the roll call. >>
002Mr. Marks. present and excited. >> Mrs. Singh >> here. >> Mr. Summerall >> here. >> Mr. Tullus >> here. Mr. Warful. Thank you. >> All right. Now, let's move on to accepting the agenda. >> I'll make a motion to accept the agenda. President Singh. >> Thank you. >> I'll second >> Mr. Davis. That can be done with a voice voice vote. >> All in favor? I. >> Perfect. Any public commentary, Mr. Davis for tonight? >> None this evening. >> All right. So, with that, can we move on to Mr. Kenny for correspondence, recognition, and announcements? >> Yes. Welcome back, everybody. We're very excited. Tomorrow is our first day of school. Um, tonight we're going to share our first Lead Now video. This is the debut of our new series this year and uh we're going
003to focus on IHS experience ships this evening. So, if you could turn your attention to the screen for a couple minutes. >> I would say this has probably been one of the most impactful summers that I've had. Internships are an incredible opportunity because you do figure out what you like and what you don't like. I don't see many other schools doing things like this. They don't just want to make us good students, but they also want to make us good leaders. >> You want to take advantage of all of it. You want to try everything that you possibly can. >> We as a district are extremely lucky to have this program. >> The experience program is about creating an opportunity for students to have an experience outside of the classroom. It's creating opportunities for them
004to experience the world of work early and often. So whether it is through a single day job shadow, a group site visit, or a summer internship possibility, it gives students the opportunity to test out maybe what they think they're interested in. This is a grand opportunity for students to explore. Now it's time for them to be able to just see all of the opportunities that are available to them. They're able to get into the offices, into the hospitals, into the labs, and really see what this life looks like. The entire experience program was amazing in facilitating this. There were just so many opportunities this year. There was like a whole spreadsheet of different opportunities, like whatever you wanted to do. They're with you every step of the way. They give you all of the forms
005that you need to fill out to apply for these internships. So, it just really felt like they were there supporting me and kind of shephering me throughout the entire process. Indian Hill is fantastic for this specific aspect. I think not a lot of schools have been able to kind of take advantage of the fact that students need experience outside the classroom. It's just real pre-professional work that most people don't do until they start college. So, not only does it help prepare us for college, it helps us get into college. >> I think it was a very positive experience. You have the opportunity to really explore whatever you want to explore. >> We got three super energetic students who are so eager to learn. I am impressed with their questions and they do great work. When
006you bring a fresh perspective in it, it allows us to see things from a totally different angle. And you know these students here, they've done that and so that was what was intriguing here. We talked to college students who aren't as excited as Indian Hills were. So it's been a great experience. They've really contributed here and the feedback has been very positive and >> I thought it was really eye opening for me to work in a professional environment with all my adult co-workers and of course they were really supportive of me and I as the youngest intern I had to adapt super quickly. >> Starting early gets you ahead of the game. I mean, most employers nowadays want to see some experience under your belt and, you know, coming to the table with that experience
007makes you very differentiated and very unique. >> The more experiences you have, the more you know. I've been fortunate enough to have a couple of different internship experiences throughout high school and each one has given me a little bit more direction as to what I want to go into in the future. >> For us in the startup space, it's just about ambition and willpower. And so for us, we didn't really see any difference between our college students and our high school interns. And then the best thing is if you love those interns and you want to hire them back and they are deciding to go to college, you might have another four years of having them as an intern. I was blown away by the amount of interns I was able to get from the
008program. I would take all of them if I could manage them all. They were very prepared to take on the internship and I was very surprised. It was just about them being brave and and stepping into the opportunity. >> I think it's amazing. I think every high school should offer this experience or a similar experience. I think it's so important that students do have experiences outside of the classroom. >> Building these relationships as early as they can be is very important and we get work done. You know, I can speak for myself and my other two interns at Kinetic. We we really helped Kinetic as much as we could and I really think they appreciated us being >> it's what I've been most grateful for here at Indian Hill. The experienceships program and the entrepreneurship
009center have made my time here so meaningful. Taking that jump was really what helped me because I found what I really wanted to do. >> These are opportunities that no one else has. When I tell people that I'm doing a finance internship downtown, they're like, "Wow, you're in high school." Like I I wasn't doing that until I was 25. It's our job to shape the future and it's one way that we can do that and provide them those opportunities to, you know, decide what they want to do and how they want to play a role in our community. So, yeah, I would encourage all businesses to do it. It takes a village to raise a child, right? And so, it's not just in raising the child, it's in educating the child. I feel like we're
010all working together as a community to raise up the next generation. So, um I know that one of our board members, Mr. Talis, you also helped to work on starting to create some internship opportunities in the legal uh realm. Um when you get a chance to see this and you think about the experiences that are going on there, what's your takeaway? I I think I've said it a number of times here and elsewhere that this program, this new section of our school is focus um is I think the most impactful and innovative thing that we've done in the three and a half years I've been on the board. Um I'm incredibly encouraged by what's to come from this. Incredibly encouraged by what we've seen so far. I think anything we can do that gets our
011get gets our kids and students outside of the district um is just one step ahead of the competition that they're going to face as they get into college and get into the real world. um little things like learning how to just simply dress for the office, how to write an email, how to talk to an adult, how to do all the soft skills that we take for granted that even in our law firm, we see law students come through and they don't sometimes have all those skills. Um so whatever a student's intellectual passion is um or they don't know, the opportunity to to see things, to try things, try things you don't like, um discover things you don't like. now it's that much more of a head start they're going to have when they get
012out of these buildings in this campus. So, I can't wait to see where this continues to go um as we continue to find more and more partners to invest their time into this process. Um it's like I said, it's something that we're doing that is unique. Um and it's it's going to be awesome. >> Thank you. And and I don't want to put you on the spot too much, but Lauren and Jeff, you're here for a reason and we appreciate you being here. Can you give us some data while we're talking about this for a minute? I know we're going to do some strategic plan update, but just maybe a little quick by the numbers from the summer so that everybody kind of understands, we could put some context with this video. >> Yeah. Um,
013>> can you guys do it from the podium just so that people that are home here? Sorry. >> Thank you. as far as >> um so this summer as far as participation um everybody saw in the video we're we're summer participants and summer partners but we had um 58 students participate in everything from elite collegiate programs to job shadows um and internships paid and unpaid. Um they were with partners that were in higher education, nonprofit um startup businesses as well as large um corporations. So we were across all sectors and um in a lot of different um career pursuits for these students. The feedback we heard from everyone was we would take them right this moment. >> Yeah. >> And and it's my understanding, Mr. Damado, that some of the internships this summer were also
014paid. >> Yeah. A couple of them were uh one through in our alliance and another one that was just an independent uh company. So most of the internships and it's important to think about it as well because sometimes we think that kids are going to pursue certain avenues of experience because they're getting paid >> but it's more powerful that they're there for certain reasons that have nothing to do with monetary motivation. It's intrinsic motivation. You know Aguran up there talked about college and their journey and it's not just about college or getting into college. It really is as Mr. Tull said it's just about experience. It's about experience what the world of their future can look like early and often. And the fact that there's more uh opportunity that has nothing to do with, let's
015say, a paid salary is almost even more exciting because they're there for reasons that sometimes you can't you can't coach motivation as we heard from some of our student leaders at our kickoff. Um you can help inspire, but motivation comes from within and that's a huge part of this. So very very proud of the work and of course it's it's a team effort and um as Bear said we are you know we've been getting started we've built a solid foundation but we're really just scratching the surface of what it will be. commend you guys because um I had the chance three weeks ago um a grandparent that both of them had very successful careers and they were talking about their grandson which is one of the 58 and was sharing >> where this individual was
016doing the externship and they were sharing with me the level of work that they were doing >> in terms of the importance of that work and it was I was quite frankly blown in a way that for a first time externship that the company would entrust the kind of work that this student was getting entrusted with. It was really really and I won't say the name of the company but it was very impressive. >> Uh and the and the grandparents were like wow >> very very impressed. Well, can you um just again put a little color to how many partners are now engaged with the district for this program so that we have an idea heading into this school year um and I think last year at this time we were still building that but
017just to give us some context how many business agency nonprofit partners are engaged with the district now >> I would say in terms of site visits job shadows internships we've got about 60 plus um that are very deeply connected in those regards um it with um business at breakfast this past year we were exceeding numbers we didn't have enough space almost to fit how many partners want to be involved so um I would say with our business at breakfast partners specifically that group were upwards of 150 plus that want to be involved and they're telling friends that they want to be involved so >> and your first your first business at breakfast at the middle level for our staff occurred this week Jeff can you just give us a quick synopsis of that >> yeah
018sure so you know first off kudos to Lauren Jentine who's the principal of the middle school because we we talked last spring about how we can kind of join forces and do something unique and special from the entrepreneur center to the middle school. And she said, "What if we did what if we created a way for them to connect and talk to our own staff about the world of work and the journey and what is real in 2025 versus 1997 when I graduated, some graduated earlier, some graduated before that or later than that." And so um we had yesterday morning the first ever staff edition business at breakfast at the middle school. And so over 30 partners came in the similar scenario and similar situation setup that our kids have experienced now seven times in
019the last several years where uh the middle school staff got to interact with partners from all different areas of work and ask them questions about the future, their journey, the intersection between education and business. like why is it taking us so long for the world of education and the world of business to start having conversations about true preparedness for the future? What is it that the world is waiting for for or needing from students? And then how as we as educators are we ensuring that those opportunities and skills and and activities um happen before they graduate. And so already I was sharing with Lauren as we were walking in uh feedback from both partners and and staff. We already had about five different partners who said that the staff members from the middle school have
020reached back out. They're already planning on connecting in the future with programs that they already have established or future connections whether that's um project panels uh or um or um judges for for in within a panel for projects or just to come up with a connection to continue the conversation because the hardest thing about those is shutting it down. So they talk for 90 minutes and they they share stories, but more importantly it really is about having the similar scenario and experience that kids are having with business partners but having for staff because our students as you saw in the video are experiencing things that some of us as well have never experienced. But if that story and that moment stops with the kid with our students as they come back to school, that's a
021that's a that's for me that's a that's a personal issue that that story has to continue with our staff. So what they're hearing and seeing seeing our staff can also reinforce those and join forces to do something really special for kids. >> Well, it's a it was an amazing event. I got to be there for a few minutes. Uh kudos to both of you for the work you're doing. And Mr. Summerl I think you remember about 5 years ago we were having a conversation and um you you know get a lot of credit for this idea of we should do something in this area. What what can we do and and you put the question back to the team and here we are almost 5 years later and I just wonder what you think when
022you see this and you hear these numbers and especially with the partnership piece that we we talked about. Well, it's exciting and I I I'll reiterate some comments I made several months ago that I applaud you both, Lauren and Jeff, for what you've done. I think it's remarkable and I think you're just scratching the surface. It's a very, very cool thing for our school district. It's very unique and it just is something I'm really excited for. And it's not just the the the the kids that are juniors and seniors and high school. It's the middle schoolers and younger ones getting them to think in that mindset, >> which I think is just fantastic. >> And >> go ahead. >> No, I was going to say and and to speak to that, we've got some um
023students on our on our advisory board this year that are going to be working with the middle school administration to set up career speakers monthly. Um and that's going to be student owned, student generator where they're talking to the partners um our student leaders on our advisory board. >> So again, I'm super excited. in two minutes. So, tell me the top two initiatives you have for this upcoming school year. >> Oh, I'll say two things. One, I think as Lauren just mentioned, it is uh something the experience program and a lot of the opportunities that have come from it have stemmed and originated through high school, which is awesome, right? Uh but when you get to see students like Aroi on that video who were freshmen, um the more we do our work, the more
024others coming, not only do they hear about what's ahead, but they also want to be included now. So conversations we always have is about strategic partnerships and also connection of opportunities for middle school students in this world of work. And the other piece just from the entrepreneur center is just thinking to kind of touch on what Mr. Charles was talking about and that is how do we continue to develop students that are ready to lead themselves, prepare themselves, be confident in themselves that they're ready for this >> and that the the benefits of opportunities for asking uh for the ability to talk to strangers and talk to businesses and talk to parents and partners. Um when we think about developing leaders of tomorrow, >> we can we can talk about it or we can do
025something about it. And again, I'm looking really forward to the work we're going to do in that space this year. Um, yeah, I can't wait to talk to you next year and share what we do. >> We're gonna keep pushing you and challenging you, but it sounds like you guys are pushing yourself. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> We're excited to see what uh this year brings, but keep up the great work. >> Appreciate. Thank you, everybody. >> And we wanted to share one other story just as we're talking about, you know, again, serving the younger students. It's also having um some benefits to our alumni. So, one of the students you saw in the video had a sister that graduated a couple years ago and one of the startups she
026was working with actually needed some IT support and IT help. So, she said, "Hey, I've got a sister that's majoring in that at the university level right now." So, she connected those two and he's planning to employ her sister um in an internship capacity this fall. So, what a great benefit for some of our alumni. Again, and just that it goes both directions. I I would love last thing I'll say as as this continues to grow to start tracking >> if we can I don't know how we do it the the five teny year success rate so to speak and what if any of our students end up with a company they didn't experience ship with not to say that's the goal of this program >> but a as an aside I think that'd be
027an interesting fact to to to see. Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. >> Thank you both. Thank you for your time. Uh, moving on, if that's okay, uh, board members, we've got an operations update. We had a busy summer and, uh, Mr. Nichols is going to share a little bit of an update with us. >> Well, thank you very much. Um, we're going to kind of roll through this like a Sports Center top 10 here. So, we've got lots of things that have happened. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. I appreciate that. I need some backup. I do. Um, but we've got a lot of great projects that have happened across the campus. Um, many of those are safety related. We won't get to all of them tonight, but uh, we do have just a few pictures that I
028will share with you. Um, so you can see a little bit of what we've been working on. Great timing as we have been working down there in the EC a little bit this summer. Um we obviously have a lot of people coming into that area and uh currently they have to go through the main office and then all the way through the building um to get uh enrolled in Raptor and be in there securely. Um we are in almost ready. We've added a set of doors there. You can see at the end and uh we'll be able to get a Raptor system down there so we can enter um people down there safely just like we can in our main entrances. So that project is is ongoing and we're almost there. Jim, how would you
029run signage out front down there? Have we put anything out there permanently yet? >> We have been working with our friends at Krux. Um, we've been designing something with them and uh, so we're we're really close, but we haven't put it up yet. Um, but it's, you know, it's we want to really be creative about using the pillars out there and that entryway. So, we've went through a couple of different designs and I think we are pretty close on one we like. Yeah. So, moving on. Um this is just a good example of projects that we continue to do across the district. Um the primary school gym, um the floor was ready to be resurfaced. Um we can get several lifetimes out of a floor by resurfacing it versus replacing it. Uh the primary school
030um did have some water damage over the last many years and uh we were able to get that fixed during construction and over the summer and uh it was a perfect time to resurface that and we added our logo to the middle. So, um, thank you to Mrs. Sweeney, our PE teacher down there, and Mr. Stegman for working together to to create a little, uh, a little better design for that court for us. And then, um, another piece that we're really excited about, um, over the last several years, we have been working hard to, um, increase our ADA abilities across the district. Um, I think the showcase for that are the two new playgrounds we have down at the um, uh, primary school and elementary school. They are the crown jewels, I think, of um
031outdoor play in the city. Uh and so I know a lot of families in our community use it. I'm pretty sure some families coming from other communities like to go in there, too. But what we're doing here is um we've always had some nice space at the top of the auditorium. It's kind of midway up where it was very accessible. But um as we have students progress through the district, we see a need. We want all of our students to be able to participate with all of their peers. And so we've created a space down here and again kudos to Mr. Stegman, his team. Um they've partnered with um some concrete work and some railings that are in and now we're just waiting on some glass. Um but we will now have a landing down
032there where we could use it for students. It could also be used for patrons as well. We do have from time to time some people that just want those first row seats. So we're going to be able to get them a little bit closer. Um, it's been a great project and they've done a good job of working on that all summer. And then again, just a quick example, nothing really special here other than we continue to look at all the spaces across the district. Um, when we did a furniture revamp uh at the high school a few years ago, we hit as many areas we could, but there were a few we didn't get to. The clinic was one of those. So, this summer we were able to outfit it with some new furniture, new
033filing cabinets, um, just renovate the look a little bit. Um, we've got some new CS that are coming in. So, just to make that space a little more inviting. Um, and again, we we're trying to make sure we're touching all of our spaces and keeping them up to date. Um, a great uh, again, another great space. We had a group come and Mr. Gruber and his team came to talk to us in the spring and uh, we've got big dreams for our media center at the high school, but there were a couple of things that we could do this summer um, that will still be helpful no matter what we do in there. We repainted the entire media center, recarpeted, and then Ken Stegman and his team at Mr. Gubber's request built a little stage
034back there in the corner. Um, so now students could be doing presentations back there. We've already seen our high school staff using it during their opening meetings. Um, this looks like BLT here um, last week. So, um, there's going to be many uses for this uh, as we continue to look at that space and how we want to use it in the future. the computer lab. You may may remember last summer we got a good start on this and uh we did a lot of work to it and then as the teachers started using it, they saw a couple of other opportunities in there. So, we're able to turn some of the furniture around, kudos to our tech team and our maintenance team working together um as they kind of redesign this space with our
035partners at Loth um to make this a more userfriendly space for many of the instructional methods that we're using today. So, we really appreciate that. >> This uh Mr. Gruber and I have been talking. This will be our cyber lab and this will house our cyber and AI courses as we move forward along with esports, which will be great. And then again, just a refresh down here in the high school cafeteria. Um some of the uh painting on the walls just needed to be a little bit updated. Sometimes we hang things on them and they get a little little scratched up, but it was it was in need of it. It was time for it. So, we've repainted in there. Um, we did have a little bit of a roof leak that was repaired this
036summer and so we were able to replace tiles and paint the ceiling there as well. Um, I will also shout out our friends at Airmark who've been looking at their space in the uh, serving area. They've got some signage that they're adding. Again, we're always thinking about what could we do to make this more of a collegiate feel from a campus dining uh, perspective. And so, they've done some work in there as well. So, um, again, just a little bit of a refresh there. Uh down at the elementary, we have projects where we like to, you know, it's a really hard to replace every cabinet from a cost and a time standpoint in the summer. So, we do cycles and this summer, we tackled four different classrooms. We're able to update the flooring in there
037as well as some of the cabinetry. So, sure Dr. Stewart remembers that beautiful blue cabinetry in there. Um I'm sure at some point it was fashionable, but I think that time has come and gone. And so, we were able to update that um with some new cabinetry for the teachers in there. And uh we'll continue that cycle over the next several years. And then um this room doesn't look like much, but it's a big deal. And uh our uh students uh you'll remember last spring at Big Pitch um they um pitched their idea of a brave room at the high school. And so they had an area in the back of the counseling office that they thought would be great. Mr. Segman said, "I think I can do better for you." And he actually built
038a room in the high school counseling office. um we had a lot of space for um our administrative assistant in there and she too said I don't need all of this. So again, everybody worked together. They haven't gotten in here yet to uh to put all of the fixings on it yet, but they will shortly. And so we're super excited about that space and uh I'm sure it'll get a lot of use this year. I wanted to throw this up there. Um I just have to shout out this number represents just from August 1st. our our technology friends and our friends in maintenance have seen almost 400 work orders just since August 1st. They've knocked out almost 300 so far. I am sure right now they are still whipping around the campus getting things done.
039Um when staff gets back they certainly see opportunities or things that they need to have taken care of and our team works really hard to get out there um both maintenance and technology to do the best they can to get ready for tomorrow. So they've been doing an incredible job. Again, this is just since August 1st. It doesn't take into account all they've been doing all summer long. And then just a couple other things. We don't have pictures for it, but I thought I would mention is that we did a little bit of work the Tomahawk this summer, the stadium. Um there's some restrooms down there that need some renovation. They're more accessible now. So, our team was working on that. We had a little bit of a drainage uh issue at the primary school.
040You might remember the hallway that leads out to the art uh and preschool classrooms could sometimes get water that would come from underneath. Our team dug that out this summer um and waterproofed it and and put it all back together. So that's that's really making a difference. And there was some small concrete work over there at the primary school that we noticed as we were walking around that had some tripping hazards. So they did a little bit of work to that, too. So even though I said uh this is a sample, it really is a sampling of many of many of the projects we took on this summer. We continue to work on those and we'll continue to get ready to start building a list for summer 2026. So we're excited. want to thank uh
041Jim uh Mick, the maintenance crew, all of our summer helpers and staff uh including a Stuart I believe and uh for all the work that got done this summer. Uh also we've we've had a new company we've worked with the past year on landscaping. I think uh they've been very attentive to our campus as well. As you can see, there's just a lot of work that goes in uh during the offseason. And I think we also attended to things that we heard about from the public and from our staff last year. Really excited about uh how things are looking. And as we continue to think about the high school and elementary school now well over 20 years old, um they're beautiful buildings, but they need refresh. And and that's what you're seeing here all around.
042And this crew does a great job. And I think Ken Stegman actually took one weekend off this summer, which is also a big deal. So we want to thank everybody who worked on this. >> I want to echo that. um say, "Hey, we missed the description of the landscaping, which looks really good this year. I'd just been driving around. It looks a lot better than it has in the past." But I had the chance to lead a tour of the class of 1995 for reunion this summer. And there was probably 15 20 people on the tour and none of them had been in the building in a long time and certainly hadn't seen it in middle school. And it kind of made me take a step back to realize just how fortunate we are to
043have these facilities. um even highlighting things like the the classroom furniture, the layout, the ability to have flexible seings, flexible spaces. Uh they were from all over the country saying their kids schools didn't look anything quite like this. And I know some of their kids went to, you know, very fancy private schools and everything. And we are so fortunate to have this building that we're in and all the other buildings we have. And thank you to to Jim and to our team. It's really something else when you take a step back. Just to reiterate and and build on what Bear said for a minute. We're grateful, Jim, for you and for your continued dedication and support. If you have passed along the thanks from myself, I won't speak for the other members here, but for
044what you guys continue to do each and every day during the summer and the school, we are just so so excited and and grateful for everything. Thank you. I think we can say that on behalf of everybody that you know we really appreciate all the work that goes in to keep our buildings running. So really appreciate all the work that you and your team and Ken is doing. >> So >> and that we see it. Let them know we see it. We know how hard they work. >> Yeah, we will do that. And uh Okay. No, I was just going to say I think this is a good segue, you know, as we continue the conversation around our master facilities plan that that's something that, you know, is a huge team effort that we're continuing
045to go from the finance side with Mr. Davis to Mr. Nichols to the whole team and looking forward to continuing that journey, you know, this year. Um, and then also one thing, Mr. Dr. Kcki, would you mind sharing a little bit? I know it's a little early um just some of the kind of highlights because it's not I think going to be um in your uh talking points, but just around the AI and some of those early conversations with um around curriculum and things that that you and I have talked about with some large companies. >> Yeah. And again, just this I think goes hand inand with some of the operational things. So now that the cyber lab at the high school is ready, uh Mr. Dr. Damado and I have spent a lot of
046time um Dr. Stewart of course looking at curriculum and programming. Uh we've we've done a lot of work over the last five years to at first put in a computer science career pathway that really is evolving into more of a cyber AI uh pathway and looking at partners that we can work with strategically. Uh we're currently in talks with a couple different vendor partners who I think can help us to do the kinds of things Jeff was mentioning micro credentials, certifications, badges for students, um things that may not be what you would consider a full-blown traditional semester-based course in in high school and then what can we do from third grade up so that students can scaffold their learning especially in the world of AI and cyber. Um and then I think the other thing
047we're really excited about um that that you're aware of Mr. marks is on the instructional side providing students hybrid opportunities whether it's on or off-campus asynchronous learning with a dose of uh in-person learning facilitated by people that we invest in who become trainers internally and then train students and adults internally. That's the best return on investment we can get. And uh Jeff is currently working with two partners to develop a firstofits-kind business and leadership module uh to develop those leadership skills. And so really looking at the world of business, finance, private equity this year to build on some things that came out of the big pitch two years ago. We're really excited about those things and of course now we have the spaces also to to use. So um again, thank you to Jim, Mick,
048the team, uh Ken, we'll make sure we pass that along. And this is a great segue then into some of our other academic uh stuff that we worked on. And Dr. Stewart back in full force here is going to give us an IH Promise plan update. I'd like to just pause for a second and just say awesome having you back. >> Thank you >> full time. >> Thank you. >> It's awesome to be back. Thank you. Thank you. >> It's awesome to be back. >> Lead away. >> Awesome to be back. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about the tremendous amount of summer learning that has been taking place. So just as a reminder, we have three high yield approaches that we're really focused on right now in the classroom. project-based learning, building thinking
049classrooms and leadership. And the reason that those things are so important to us right now is because it really helps the students to think differently about their work. So gone are the days of like memorization that you then regurgitate onto a test. We really want our students to be involved in a high degree of problem solving because we know that is what's going to be needed for them to be successful when they leave here. So those strategies that we do as a teaching team allow our students to have that on a daily basis in their classroom. So let's talk about what that looked like this summer. Um there's some real bragging things to happen here. So we had um we had over 565 hours of asynchronous learning that our teachers were participating in. And I
050should just define teaching as more than just teachers. It's administrators. It's aids. It's um building administrative assistance. like everybody is all in. We're all facing the same direction with the same goal in mind. And we had over 396 hours of conferences and workshops that people attended in those areas as well and 189 hours of learning through book study, including one that Mr. Damado led that was really popular on the leader in me. So there's multiple ways that our teachers are participating in learning this summer. So that idea of teachers just being off in the summer is really kind of a myth. It's their chance to really be able to say, "This is a time that I can really spend my own time learning and growing so that I can apply it when I get back
051in the classroom." Beyond that, when we look at what's happening, I think um this really is an opportunity for for me to say thank you to you. Um to put it into perspective, in the past for us to be able to offer very high quality professional learning in the area of project-based learning, building thinking classrooms and leadership, we are having to send teachers to workshops in other states because we didn't have our own expertise. But that is no longer the case. We have built internal expertise over the last three years to the point where we are able to offer all of these courses inhouse. So instead of sending people on a plane to go someplace to learn, they're able to learn it right here with our internal experts. And the great thing about that is
052we can put an Indian Hill spin on everything that we're doing then and really feel like it's connected deeply to the students that we have. Um I want to say also in the form of leadership there's some other opportunities that we have where we are now teaching in-house the four essential rules of leadership seven habits of high highly effective people leadership excellence and lean six sigma yellow belt training. Um one of the best pieces of feedback that I received was from a very veteran teacher who reached out to me to say uh Melissa I hope that you'll do this again and offer these workshops from our teachers next summer. It was the best professional learning that I have ever had in my career because it was so personalized to me. Like they knew me as
053a teacher. They know our students. They understand what's expected of Indian Hill students. And so it just really felt so personalized. On that same vein, I want to give credit where credit's due. Really, we could not have done this internally without some of the teachers who gave up a lot of their summertime to stand up and lead their peers. And so I just want to publicly say thank you to Amy Kanzig, Amy Dunlap, Amy Kchner, Hillary Smith, Amy Campa, Courtney Ward, and Kelly Vaughn. Beyond that, the ideas that we come up with to offer these things in house, I wish I could tell you it was all Melissa Stewart's ideas, but really it's not. There's a committee of people who work behind the scene and meet on a monthly basis to make sure that we're
054offering our teachers everything that they need, not only in the summer, but during the school year. So, I also just want to say thank you to those people and that's Christy Booth, Jennifer Ty. Thanks, Jennifer. Um, Whitney Buell, and Kim Gibbon. And so, the five of us will be meeting. And it would just be um it would be remiss of me not to also just celebrate Whitney. I got to come in and just really be able to reap the benefit of all the hard work that she did last year to get this set up. And she did a really tremendous job. So, thank you to Whitney Buell for everything that she did. And lastly, um, when we look at what's going to happen in the future, so already we've had requests from both the teaching
055team that facilitated the workshops as well as teachers who were involved to say, "We'd like to have a follow-up during the school year." So, we're looking forward to that. The primary school and elementary school are launching into Leader andMe this year. They already have calendar set up. They know the lessons that they're going to teach. and they have teachers who have volunteered their time to be part of the lighthouse team which will guide the work of leadership for our students. And the middle school and high school will be trained in that same way this coming up school year. Lastly, for the last couple years, we've done lab classrooms where we have teachers volunteer to have teachers come through and watch them teach and be able to explain the choices they're making. And I just want
056to say it's probably been one of the most impactful professional learning opportunities as long as I've been here at Indian Hill and it couldn't be done without those teachers and their willingness to open up their classrooms to everybody. So, thank you to all the people who have been involved in that. It's been a really really great summer of learning. Just as a quick followup, um I I want to reiterate for people who aren't aware and maybe people who who might be listening over time at home and kind of hear this this terminology of leader and me, leadership development, all the different leadership offerings. The the umbrella came from the state of the schools uh commentary a year and a half ago that we all made where we made a major investment in commitment. um much
057of what our staff went through at the primary and elementary school this past year with multiple hours of implementation that our teachers went through to learn and get trained in leader me which they'll now start to implement. That was the result of major grants and gifts to the district. Um that was also a major investment of time and and investment of our PPL committee to really wrap their minds around how to make this work not just K through 5, but K through 12. So this year, our middle school and high school staffs will now go through the same experience at their own levels with uh consultants and trainers as well as in-house trainers who will help our faculty and staff. One of the things I'm most proud of which some of you may have seen
058is we onboarded about 20 new staff uh early in August. Jim, is that correct? and of the new faculty members. Um, when you think about onboarding a new employee, it takes them a while to kind of learn the lay of the land and build relationships and meet people and understand what they should be doing with their mentor. And here they are, their first week being trained in the seven habits of highly effective people by Jeff Damado. And they all have this base of knowledge that they could not otherwise have because we can do that in-house. We can do it early. they can feel more effective, more a part of the team. And so when we talk about like recruiting, retaining, uh making talent happy, um boy, that's a great way to onboard new talent and
059then to get them inculcated in the climate and culture that we care about these high yield strategies. New teachers were in these meetings this summer. Uh and our teachers are leading the new teachers and so that mentoring happens right away. that is like magical for us when it comes to scaling up with what we're trying to implement and I'm very excited for the progress we've seen and what's coming this year at the secondary level. Um I think this team is creating a national model for leadership skill development and our teachers are the ones who are going to be leading it which is really really exciting uh for me. >> Uh question Dr. Steuart, I know this was ruled out approximately four years. Wonderful to see that the the the transgression that has been made in
060that time period. Is there anything that has not been able to happen for any reason that should be happening or are you pretty pleased with where we sit today? >> I I'm really pleased at where we sit today. I think that there's some things internally that we could continue to evolve to make sure that the professional learning needs are really meeting the needs of what the teachers need. So I think that's a evolution that continues to happen. We need to survey them, find out what they need, then we need to design around that. We're doing that now. And so the idea that this is a static model that will always look the same, I don't think that's true. I think it'll change based on the needs of the teachers. But I would say on behalf
061of the staff, I feel very supported by the board of education members, by Kirk, by Mick, that we are able to get teachers the training they need because I think that speaking on behalf of the faculty, we feel um a great sense of responsibility that we are raising the next generation of leaders in this school district. These will be the students who go on and lead whether that be in office or in medicine or in business or on the school board or whatever it is that they choose to do. So it it is a huge responsibility to make sure that we're raising the next generation that who can do that and do that well. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Stewart. And again, Whitney and the whole team that has
062worked so hard over the summer. really truly appreciate it. Uh moving on to the superintendent's report if that's okay. So uh under my uh report tonight, board member 7A, we've got another resolution declaring impracticability of transportation. Um letter B there we have again some more um science of reading professional development that we've been working through with staff throughout the last year. Um and then item C lists our personnel actions that uh progress onto the next page there. um from C1 through um 7S all the way down there at the bottom. Um you'll see under tuition reimbursement uh for some staff for summer work. So if there are no um major questions, I would ask the board to entertain 7 A through C7G. >> I'll make a motion to approve 7 A through C7G. >> Second.
063Mr. Sro, >> yes. >> Mr. Warfl, >> yes. >> Mr. Marks, >> yes. >> Mr. Tolles, >> yes. >> Mrs. Singh, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> With that, can we move to treasury report, Mr. Davis? >> Certainly. Under my report for this evening, I've got the minutes from the June 24th meeting. Approve the financial reports for the month ending July 31st, 2025. Item C is an annual item that we must get approved by the board uh disclosing our commercial paper. Uh we did not have any banker acceptances for fiscal year 2025. Uh once this are approved by the board, then there's some additional reporting I have to do with the auditor of state and the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Item D is the approval to pay now and then invoices. There's four
064of them there. Item E is a resolution to purchase synthetic turf using the Association of Educational Purchasing Agents for the bidding process. And then under item F, you will see item F4 is the actual purchase of that synthetic turf replacement uh with the Moes group. That's for our softball field in our softball and baseball complex. Other items under contracts, we have uh one for special education services, a cyber security solution with Forward Edge, more special education services for the Cincinnati Center for Autism, and then finally, uh item with TMCO for the primary, the Indian Hill Primary School. We're going to do some repair to our facade down there at the facilities. Again, we always talk about how these buildings have served us well. We have to make sure we keep up with um all of
065the maintenance and requirements that they need to make sure the buildings are functionable and safe. Item G is an annual item to approve change funds for athletics and cafeteria and then the other other cash cash uh change funds as needed. Item H and I are both annual transfers. 195,000 from the general fund to athletics for general operations and then 140,000 from the general fund to athletic facility set aside for athletic turf replacement. This is the one we talked about uh up in items E and F. Uh this $140,000 transfer was started about eight years ago and has served the district well as we replace turf at Tomahawk Stadium and the uh the soccer field. And now we are looking to play replace softball this year and baseball next year. >> You got a question? >>
066No, I just would you share one of the things I'm proud of of the work that you've done Mr. Davis is the capital asset budgeting and can you share I know we've shared this before but um how we capital assets. So for example talk about the planning we do with field turf >> and how we're holding back money roofing and so forth. Can you just share briefly a little bit about that? Sure. So, one of the one of the things that uh I wouldn't say unique, but you know, most most school districts have what are called permanent improvement levies, um which is an annual levy against your property taxes that uh allows you to fix fix roofs, to buy school buses, to do anything that involves repairing or building a capital a capital uh venture.
067Um our district does not have one of those. So, we must figure out ways to make sure the the footprint that we have here, and I compare this to, let's say, a General Motors or a Ford, they have giant factories where they make their their cars, make their parts, and that's what makes them revenue. Here in a school district, we have a huge footprint. We have many buildings. We have athletic facilities. We have parking lots. We have all those things. But most people don't think about those as they think about um how to run a school district. It's about the curriculum and it's about the students, which it should be. We shouldn't have to think about facilities. We shouldn't have to worry about how they're going to get repaired. Um but is specifically with the
068turf. When I when I got here to Indian Hill about 10 years ago now, we had no we had all these beautiful new turf fields, we had no idea how we were going to replace them in 10 to 14 years when it was time to be replaced. So, uh, about eight years ago, we did some math. We looked at the cost of turf replacements at the time, put in some u inflationary rates, came up with a number and tried to uh purposely set aside money over a period of time so we would be ready for those replacements when it was necessary. You know, most people think of replacing turf as a vanity kind of thing. It's about safety. you know, after about 10 to 12 years, those fields are no longer as safe as they
069were when they were first put in, and there comes a point where we they have to be replaced the same as a rope would be if it were leaking. So, you know, it's it's those kind of things that we have to think about all the time. There maybe aren't really the the things that we think about all the time when we spend money for school districts, but they're necessary. They're required, and we have to make sure we have the money ready to go. I >> I think to your point, too, Mr. Marks, I'm glad you brought this up. Mick has done this not just with athletic turf. The cycle, the idea of cycling and putting funds aside we've been working on now with everything from musical instruments to technology and and having these cycles in
070place uh is so helpful not only for budget and long range planning, but but as Mick said because we don't have that other mechanism in place. >> Well, and Mr. Davis, can you talk about the evolution? I think it was two or three years ago the investment we made in software to really look kind of globally at the capital asset management. Um speak a little about that software and to Mr. Kcki's point, it wasn't just about the field. That was sort of the initial impetus. >> Correct. >> But in the last two, three years, I can't remember when we purchased it. Um, about that software. Can you speak a little bit about that? >> Absolutely. We we we've acquired a a an inventory management system. Um, and what it does is is when I looked
071at the project as we were doing the levy, doing the construction, um, we had an opportunity to start sort of start over from scratch. We had, you know, one building that was going to go up brand new. we had a new building, a new addition to a building and we were touching each building, you know, in some some way that each building was going to get an upgrade. So, at that time, we didn't really have a mechanism that we could go back and say, you know, how many how many um heating units are in this building and what are the what are the replacement period for that? So, we could start thinking about that ahead of time. A great example of of what we're doing and sort of the forward thinking is connecting our high
072school to the central utility plant. You know, 15 years ago when the central utility plant was built, the idea was that eventually this whole campus would be heated and cooled from that central utility plant. After 15 years, it's getting close to coming to fruition. The next step is when the cooling towers at the high school are no longer operational, we're going to need to invest in another another um cooler at the at the central utility plant, but we've already put the pipes in through our last project all the way out to those cooling tower areas. So, they're all ready to hook up and ready to go. And we're going to be able to see the fruition of our our planning 15 years ago to get all the way out and to heat and cool both
073campuses. Now when we talk about that that software specifically that you mentioned um what that has done for us has been able to everything from HVAC equipment to you know how many how many band instruments we have and be able to manage all that inventory and to be able to figure out replacement cycles for all those things and we can talk about those and have good conversations both with the community and as a board about here are the things that are going to happen at the end of 2026. you know, we're looking at these items that are getting to the end of their life. Is it time to uh think about replacing those? And when we're replacing heating, cooling, roofing, things like that, we're talking half million to $2 million projects. Um Mr. Nichols just
074went through and and inventoried our entire every section of roof in the district and we now know what the time frame is that we'll need to put new roofs on or to re to refurbish the roof or do things like that. So, it's going to be extreme help for us as we're planning those kind of things moving forward. >> Well, I think the other thing that's great is I love the symbiotic work between the two of you because with that work, right, it creates opportunity for Mr. nickels to look and say where can we make short-term investments that are long-term. You went through all those projects, right? But having the vision of where we're going to be five years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years, 20 years from now, right? In addition to
075having the five-year forecast gives you an opportunity to collaborate together to think where can we make those strategic investments and so very appreciative of the work, but I think it's also important for the public to know that, you know, the five of us take the financial stewardship very very seriously. Um, you know, uh, Craig and Bear have done a lot of work on the finance committee. There's been a lot of work with everybody in the team, but constantly looking at where are we investing money, where are we going to have to invest money so that we don't get in a position where we were years and years ago where something comes up, there's a roof leak and we're, you know, scrambling to figure out where that money is going to come from. Those days are
076over, right? And so very appreciative of that work. >> Thank you. to echo what what Nolan was saying. I love the forward thinking and proactiveness of what you're doing there and it really helps us from a financial stewardship perspective and the more we can do that which you've come like yours I I appreciate that because it just puts us in a better position to to succeed. So I think that is what you've done there has been phenomenal. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. >> I just want to say is this is something we didn't have this before. It is when we had Mick, that's when Mick started doing all these things. So, great job to Mick as always. You are always a great leader in finding ways how to uh keep us under the budget and
077we really appreciate all the hard work that you had to, you know, do. Not many times we get the opportunity to say thank you and we really truly appreciate you. So, thank you. >> Thank you. Sorry you. >> Not a problem. >> I had to talk about FMX anytime I anytime anybody gives me the floor. >> It's a great update. It really is. It's a great update. >> Thank you. >> Um let's see. We have a couple more items. Item J is the approval for the 2026 permanent approve appropriations resolution. Uh we have a a motion to approve the lunch prices for school year 2026 at the primary and elementary school. $3.50. That's no change from last year. Uh the reason we have to approve the primary and elementary school is because we are still
078on the uh national lunch program. Uh those are federally subsidized dollars and uh that's why we we do that. The middle school and high school are all a cart. they don't really have a lunch price that we need to approve and they're not on the the national lunch program. Finally, item L is an acceptance of donations. Uh we had two of them this time around. Camp 1 LLC, the Indian Hill Indian Hill girls basketball camp received a donation of $650. The Charities Aid Foundation of America uh for the Primary Principles account, $1,174.31. The district is very appreciative of those donations that go above and beyond the things we do here on a daily basis to help us fund things that are great for our students. And if there are no questions or comments for the
079treasures report, I would ask that uh we go ahead and improve approve that treasurer's report for this evening. making make a motion to approve item 8, the treasures report um item 8A through L2. >> I'll second that motion. >> Mr. Tullus, >> yes. >> Mr. Marks, >> yes. >> Mr. Summerall, >> yes. >> Mr. Warfl, >> yes. >> Mrs. Singh, >> yes. >> Thank you. >> With that, is there any other businesses by board or administration? >> Yeah, Mrs. saying, we have a couple of things. Um, first, I'd like to ask the board to entertain a resolution this evening to move our regular October meeting to October 7th. Uh, currently, I believe it's scheduled for the 14th. uh with the changes in the legislature uh that we dealt with this summer, um we now have
080some different reporting requirements that our CFO has to go through publicly, um we're going to need to to change that meeting schedule to October 7th so that we can properly um take care of the new forecast. Um if the board could uh think about that and entertain a resolution, we would appreciate it. Is everyone okay with the >> I I I won't be here that week, but I trust in the four of you that you can handle it. >> Good with me. >> I'm good. >> Okay. >> Somebody make that >> Will we have at least a quorum? >> Yeah. >> I'll make a motion to approve to move the meeting to October 7th. >> Second. >> Yes. >> Mr. Summer. >> Yes. >> Mr. Marks. >> Yes. >> Mr. Warfl. Yes, >> Mrs. S.
081>> Yes. >> Thank you. We don't like to move regularly scheduled meetings that the board approves, but this one is as a reaction to state law. So, we we truly appreciate it. And there'll be a number of changes this year in terms of reporting requirements that we have. Um, and so, uh, we'll we'll make sure we inform everybody as we go, but October will be the first time we will have to do a forecast in a different way. So, this gives us time to do that and notice it the right way. Thank you. Then, also, I just want to mention a couple things before we adjourn. Uh, a couple thank yous. We had our um annual golf outing uh at the beginning of August. Want to thank uh Brian Phelps, Amy Clark, Julius, the whole
082team. Uh, Mr. Damado, everybody who helps with that on our boosters volunteers who help to put on an amazing um golf outing every year. Uh, successful golf outing again. We had another record crowd out there playing. That was wonderful. Um, last Friday night we had hits on the hill. Kirk, before you move on from the golf outing, just want to big shout out to Michelle Coward >> in the athletic office. >> And Michelle Coward as well. Yes. Let's thank every everybody, if I missed any names, everybody who works in our our athletic department and our activities department helps out with this event. Um really appreciate all the help. Um Hits on the Hill happened last Friday night. We'll thank Michelle again for that and Julius and Brian, our coaches working with our youth football. Uh
083it's a wonderful uh tradition and night for our families to come and interact, go through a practice with our coaching staff on the field. Uh if you've never been to Hits on the Hill, it's wonderful. Uh we had that last Friday. Uh and on Monday, I want to thank uh some of our staff members um for helping put on a global welcome picnic. Um that was wonderful. And um again, we truly appreciate our faculty interacting with our global partners to welcome new families to the district. And of course, uh, many of you know that in a couple weeks we'll have our first booster bash at our homecoming, our our home football game. I believe that is August 22nd. Um, and so we're looking forward to kicking off the school year. Tomorrow, the students arrive. Uh,
084um, and then Friday, our new kindergarteners arrive. And, uh, we are very excited to get the school year started. So, thank you all and look forward to seeing everybody around campus. >> All right. So with that, do we have any other businesses or comments? No. So tomorrow is the first day. So just want to say welcome to all the braves to the new school year. Hope you guys have an exciting year where a lot of learning, lot of good memories are going to be built. We are all excited to have you guys all back. And with that at this time, I would like to adjourn the meeting. Can I have the motion? >> So moved. Second, >> Mr. Davis. >> All in favor? >> I thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good night. >> Thanks
085everybody.