9-9-25 Board of Education Meeting

001Hi. >> Hi. All right. Good evening everyone. Welcome to all the guests here. I see a lot of braves. So, it is September 29th. I call the meeting to order. It's 6:30. Can we go for pledge of allegiance and can I invite some of our guests? >> We have some students here. They're going to help us out with the pledge tonight. >> Guys, can come right up here to the where the mic is. if you want. >> We'll start when we'll start when you start >> to the flag of the United States of America and to to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, this was one of the best pleasure we had after a long long time with so many

002of our braves here. Uh can we go to the roll call, Mr. Davis? All right, Mr. Marks >> here. >> Mr. Sing >> here. >> Mr. Tullus >> here. >> Mr. Summer. >> Mr. Warpful. >> We have a quorum. >> All right. Can Can I have the motion to adopt the regular meeting agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. All all in favor? >> I I >> any public commentary today, Mr. Davis? >> There is none. >> All right. So, with that, can we move to Mr. Kenny for recognition, correspondence, and announcements, please? >> Yes. Thank you, uh, Mrs. Singh. Welcome everybody. And, uh, it's been a great opening to the school year. And we're going to start off tonight with our lead now video and our student ambassadors newscast season 2, episode one. And if

003you could turn your attention to the screen, nationally recognized students leading now. Welcome back for another year of our amazing ambassadors program here at Indian Hill Exemptive Village School District. I'm Kurt Kckki, the CEO and superintendent of Indian Hill. In partnership with Campus Life and the IH Entrepreneur Center, the communications department trains, coaches, and mentors a team of student ambassadors in grades K through 12 who share the story of the district. This program, which debuted last year, was honored with a 2025 National School Public Relations Association Gold Medallion Award. And now it's time to meet the team that made that happen. Let's get right to it and throw it over to our student and campus life coordinator, Latif Johnson, and get another year of learning started. Mr. Kcki, I am so excited to launch this

004new school year and I'm more excited to introduce you to our newest second grade ambassadors. I'm on the campus of Indian Hill Primary School, the gateway to our school district. And we have new storytellers ready to tell you who they are. >> Hi, I'm Ella. Hi, I'm Poppy. Hi, my name's Mila. Hi, my name's Addison. Hi, I'm Amea. Hi, I'm Caroline. Hi, I'm Max. >> Hi, I'm Boyce. >> Hi, I'm James. Hi, I'm Ar. Hi, I'm Porna. Hi, I'm Lucas. >> WE CELEBRATE. >> Welcome to the Indian Hill Elementary School. My name is Melan. My name is Luke. My name is Ellie. My name is Dell. My name is Miff. My name's P. My name's Noel. My name is My name is Josie. My name's Ella. My name is Eden. My name is Eva. My

005name is Eden. My name is Teddy. My name's Hans. My name is Rodrigo. >> My name's Tucken. My name's Bernard. My name's Ollie. >> We now pray. >> Hi, welcome to the middle school. My name is Charlotte. >> My name is Charlotte. My name is Lexi. My name is Kieran. >> My name is Hank. >> My name is Damoki. My name's Brady. My name is Pepper. >> My name is London. My name's Axara. >> My name's Alice. >> My name is Jackson. My name is Bryson. >> We celebrate. >> Welcome to the high school. I'm Devlin. I'm a junior. >> I'm Martha. I'm a sophomore. I'm Lily. I'm a sophomore. I'm Maddie and I'm a sophomore. >> I'm Aaron and I'm a freshman. I'm Tyler. I'm a junior. >> I'm Devon. I'm a freshman. I'm

006Ella. I'm a junior. I'm Irvy. I'm a senior. I'm Cameron. I'm a freshman. I'm Marin and I'm a senior. I'm Sophia and I'm a senior. I'm Molly and I'm a senior. >> I'm JC and I'm a senior. I'm Ethan and I'm a senior. >> We >> Thank you, ambassadors. And a reminder to all of our Braves families, our schools will be closed on Monday for Labor Day. And also, we want you to save the date. September 19th is our Indian Hill High School homecoming. More information from schools to follow. Braves Nation, I'm super excited for another epic year. Back to you, Mr. Kcki. This is Leadership in Action. Thank you, Mr. Johnson. Thank you for watching. Braves lead now. As you can see, board members, the number of ambassadors has grown from last year. the

007number of students interested in being ambassadors and the number of students who want to tell stories including their own uh continues to grow and that's really important for us here uh when somebody shares their name and they have a voice that's what we're all about here with the IH promise so we're really proud to hear the stories that are going to be told by that group this year and I want to thank all the ambassadors and Mr. Johnson and Heather Hickden, our CCO. Uh, the National School Public Relations Association provides one high honor every year to public schools across the entire nation. There are many, many hundreds of submissions and Indian Hill won the gold medal for the first time ever. We're really proud of that and all of our students. Moving on, uh, we've

008got an announcement tonight and we have some of our worldclass teachers here to join us. Amy Campa, Becky Stevens, and Amanda Sopco are here. Uh, and I think we have some important news. Thanks for joining us. >> Mr. Davis, their presentation is >> apologize for the technical delay. While he's doing that, I see two friendly faces that my children had that did amazing jobs with my two little ones. So, >> thank you, Mrs. Stevens and Mrs. Campa. >> Thank you. >> Yeah, >> if you have some time there, Dad, use some help. >> Who's bring it over to you? >> Who's Am I looking for an email from you? >> It's from Canva. >> Okay. >> If it's easier, I can just bring my computer to you. >> Yeah. Why don't we plug yours in?

009While we doing that, I see Luke is here, a student ambassador. Luke, do you want to share something with us while we are fixing this? >> How has it been your experience? >> Yeah, >> go on up to the mic, Luke. >> Um, so being an ambassador has been really fun so far. You get to do a lot of stuff and represent a lot of people and I just think it's really awesome. >> Do do you have a favorite part yet? >> Uh, one of my favorite parts of being an ambassador is probably just representing the school in a good way. >> Thank you. Thank you, Luke. Well, my name is Amy Campa and I am a second grade teacher at Indian Hill Primary School and I see lots of familiar faces in the room,

010so it's good to see you all. Um, tonight I'm here with Amanda and Becky to talk about the National STEM Honor Society. This is a new club that um is beginning at the primary school and at the elementary school this year. Um the mission of the National STEM Honor Society is to inspire and recognize students um student excellence from preK to career in STEM, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It was founded in 2017 in response to the growing demand for innovative STEM education and it to um bridge the gap between the need for um STEM careers and students who are able and willing to fill those careers. There are five levels to the program. Um as I said it starts in prek. So prek to 2 is considered elementary, the first elementary stage, and then

011elementary um 3 through 5. There's a middle school from 6 to 8, high school, and then um the college or university level. Um we are starting this in hopes of growing it through um the schools and in our opinion this uh program aligns directly with our strategic plan in helping to provide opportunities for students to be connected um to things that they're interested in in STEM and also allows parents to be connected to what's happening in the schools through this club. Amanda and Becky are gonna give some more details about how um the honor society works. >> They're the youngest. >> Um so down at the primary school um we are going to be having some virtual meetings um more in the trimester um to get families involved and just help guide some of the

012STEM experiences. Um the children are expected to uh obtain 30 hours of STEM activity and that does include things like STEM night here at um at the district level but also our play studio is STEM so they're going to get hours even during school hours. Um they we also um are really excited about connecting what's happening at school with learning about STEM and STEM careers to home. So, we have visions of sending um little STEM family kits home, too, and those will count as ours as well. Um, so we already at the primary school have 50 children signed up who are interested, and so we can't wait to get it running in here about um later in September. All right. Um, my name is Amanda Sapco. I'm the gifted intervention specialist at the elementary school.

013And uh elementary just builds on what primary started. So students at the elementary level to be inducted into the National STEM Honor Society need to participate in at least 180 hours of STEM learning in school which can include math, science, it'll include our ILAB and also any PBLS that they do in all of their courses count towards those STEM hours. So we know they're going to get those. Um and then they'll also need a B average overall um by the end of the year. So in addition to that, there are out of school hours um like the primary. The elementary has those also, but it's 60 hours. And that does include some of the same things like STEM night. any of the STEM related clubs we have at the school will count and field trips

014to like green acres and things like that. Even though that's during the school day, that still counts to those 60 hours. In addition to that, at the elementary school, we will have club meetings at least once a quarter where the students will be leading that and eventually taking on some more leadership roles in STEM within the school community. So, we're really excited about that. Uh so the process of how this organization started is that we applied for our charter um and we're accepted, we've written bylaws and now what happens is we'll hold our first um meetings with students that are interested and they will then um complete hours, log hours through um there's a Google form that parents will help at least at the primary school parents will fill out for their students. Elementary school

015students might be able to do that more on their own. And at the end of the year, um any students who have reached the um specified number of hours will be inducted into the National STEM Honor Society and will have an induction ceremony and they'll receive their official certificate and um in each year the students can reapply to be members for that year. Can you can you talk I know one of the things that we were excited about was expanding opportunities to all children and I know with our gifted services with discovery and certain things like that there's certain requirements the state makes us have in order to get into to discovery. Can you talk a little bit about how this is open to all children that would want to participate that would qualify and

016can you share a little bit about that? >> Yeah. What the beauty of the primary program is it is all of the programs at even at the elementary school are open to all students but the beauty of the primary program is that it is mostly done at home. So parents can participate as a family in the activities that their families enjoy that relate to STEM and things that uh are available to them. That's great. And will you also talk about in terms of the number of districts that are participating in this national honor society in Ohio, how many of those are there and what does that look like? >> I believe we are the only primary school. >> You are correct. >> So there you go. >> Uh just a a comment I guess in

017a question. One, I I love this. Um the more we invest in the STEM offerings, I think the stronger our students will be. Um, but the question is, is there an opportunity to tie this increased effort with what Jeff is doing at the entrepreneurship center? Um, I noticed there are some efforts on STEM careers and I know he's been looking at ways to bring that program into the younger grades. Um, I would love to see if there's some cross connectivity there that could help >> start that earlier. >> Yeah, Jackie. So, um that is one of the slants that we would love to develop and and make bigger as we're in the very early process of planning for these um this year. Um but as a kindergarten teacher whose driving question last year was how

018can we learn about STEM careers in our community and share that information through our play, this is something that's super important for us. So, I've already um been in contact with Jeff about um getting some STEM career crossovers and inspiration from people in our community who can really help model what STEM is um in the workforce. >> That's awesome. >> Thank you. We really appreciate your time this evening and uh sounds like a very exciting opportunity for our students. Great uh grateful for your time and energy in the club. Thank you. Thank you. >> Next up, we have our activities director, Amy Clark, and Dr. Melissa Stewart, who have another important announcement for us. >> Um, good evening everyone. Distinguished members of the board of education, Mr. Kcki, Mr. Davis, and Mr. Nichols. Thank you

019so much for giving me this opportunity to present alongside Dr. Stewart about something that is extremely meaningful to us. Additionally, I do want to take this opportunity to say thank you to each and every one of you for all of the support that you give within the world of the arts and everything that we do here at Indian Hill. So, thank you. Tonight, I am thrilled to be able to present an exciting new venture within the Indian Hill Arts Conservatory. As you know, Indian Hill has a long-standing tradition of excellence in the arts. Our past and current students across the district have such talent and drive, and we want to recognize that talent in a new and formal way. Therefore, we are thrilled to announce the unveiling of an inaugural event, the Indian Hill Arts

020Hall of Fame. This bianial celebration will take place in concert with our cherished cabaret performance which will take place on January 24th, 2026. We will have three categories of distinct honors for this event. First will be the rising star award for those who have graduated from Indian Hill High School in the past 10 years. So those who graduated from the class of 2015 to the class of 2025, those um graduates will be eligible for this category. The next category we have is the distinguished art alumni award and that will be for alumni in 2014 and back. This gives a little bit more time for that alumni to be more established within the art world. Yes. And lastly, we have the legacy art award. This category will honor community members, parents, educators, past and present. Um,

021people who didn't graduate from Indian Hill, but are huge supporters of the arts and the arts community here at Indian Hill, this is the category for them. The arts at Indian Hill are as vast as the gifts and talents of our students. We are elated to be able to celebrate every facet of the arts from Broadway to broadcasting artwork for a Fortune 500 company to the words written in a novel or for the silver screen and from the symphony halls to the artistic hallways in a school. We are so proud to celebrate our unparalleled artists and all they have accomplished. So everybody get out your phones. This is the QR code that you can use to nominate somebody for these awards. And we would love to hear your opinions about who should be recognized in

022this very first event. >> That's all. >> What time? >> Um 5:30. >> Uh I want to thank you both for sharing this exciting announcement. I know you've been working on it for some time. Uh, also can you give us a little bit of background detail on where we were with the arts conservatory a year and a half ago, the work of your advisory and how we got to this. Just so everybody who might be listening understands, there have been some community members involved. >> Yes, I can. Okay. >> Um, absolutely. So um a year ago, a little bit more than a year ago, we started having a conversation about how can we involve um parents, community members in this arts conservatory. So we started the arts advisory council. Um and they have been working

023with Dr. Stewart and I about different opportunities for our arts conservatory. How can we grow it? What does it mean to be an arts conservatory here within Indian Hill? Um, and it's a little different than what the traditional version of a conservatory might be. Um, it allows for our students to participate in everything that they want to participate in. God bless you. So, if that is anything from again wanting to be on the Giuliard stage and that's the direction they want to take, we want to support them. If at that same time they're thinking maybe I want to go to MIT, we want to support them on in that venture. um and if they want to go and be a three sport athlete while they're being a member of premieres, we want to be able

024to support that and we want to be able to support that K to2. So, it's been really important for us to hear that community feedback. Um members of that arts advisory council are um staff members um past and present parents um as well as community members that again didn't necessarily go to Indian Hill but really love the arts. So, it's been a lot of different people. >> Right. I think one of the things that we highlight pretty consistently in these meetings is that to get that caliber of education in the world of arts, you have to choose to relinquish what you would like to see as very rigorous academic content. So to be able to offer both to our students really is something that's very unique and not offered in any other high school. >>

025Dr. Stewart, can you or either one of you, can you speak a little bit to some of the programmatic things that have already happened, whether that's dance or others? Sure. >> Maybe share a little bit about, you know, in the last year and a half, what are some of the um advances that have already been made as soon as we establish the Arch Conservatory? >> Absolutely. We'll bounce back and forth. How about that? So, let's start with the piano lab. For the first time ever, we have a piano lab. Very excited. It's held at the high school and students are actually able to take piano lessons during the school day with one of our teachers, Mr. Phil Clary, who is a master pianist, and be able to get those lessons. and he's able to differentiate

026them from a student who's never put their fingers on the keyboard before to somebody who wants to do this as their major in college. So, having this piano lab is brand new to us and it's really exciting and we're right in the midst of talking about how we can offer piano lessons here on site for our younger students at the primary elementary who might want to take piano lessons and this will save them from having to leave campus. They'll be able to just do it right after school. >> And Mr. Marks, you mentioned dance. That's another um piece that we're thrilled to offer. Um, I think dance is such an important part of an educational experience. Um, understanding movement. Um, not just the technique, but understanding how to hold yourself, whether you're in a job

027interview or anything like that. Um, we are offering that at the high school and we are also offering that at go time at the elementary school. Um, it is a super popular um, moment for our kiddos at the elementary school and they love go time dance with Miss Amy Hiler. She's been an amazing addition to our team. Um, and she's offering three three opportunities at the high school. You can take it as a credit for either beginning dance or second semester. You are able to take e it's like a combo class of hiphop, contemporary, ballet, and modern jazz, which is amazing. Um, for those kiddos that maybe want to continue on, maybe they started when they were younger and they want to continue on with that craft. Um or if they don't have room in

028their schedule at the high school because there are so many amazing opportunities for our students, they can take it during flex. Um they can take one of any of the three options for flex. So when the high school students have that Wednesday chunk of time, it's broken into three flex times. So if they want to come and dance for 20 minutes, they can. If they want to come and dance for 60 minutes, they can. And it's all differentiated by um dance style. Um and uh we also were able to realize last year that in order for us to have the robust schedule for afterchool curriculars related to our drama program, it was too much for one person to be able to do and do as well as we would like it to do. So this

029year is the first time that we have two people that are now helping with our drama programs after school. Um, and that's going to make them be able to have a really consistent program and think about the lived experience for students in sixth grade on. They already had conversations that I have never thought of about like what's the appropriate time to do a Shakespeare because every student needs to do a Shakespeare during drama. And I was like, yes, let's talk about Shakespeare. Um, and so they're working collaboratively together to make sure that if our students want to be in the program for one year, they have a really wonderful experience. And if they want to be in it for multiple years, they're getting the full spectrum of what it means to be within a dramatic

030program. >> Yes, absolutely. And the last thing I would say about that is on in addition to the opportunity on stage, growing the opportunities for our backstage students. So maybe it's a student who loves visual art, how can they help build set pieces? How can they help paint set pieces? Um, how can they sew a costume? How can they put makeup on a student? how can they design what we're going to actually see when a theatrical production happens and understanding for both the cast and the crew the importance of what each other is doing I think is extremely important and with Mr. Samini um and our new members um Stacy Surl and Amanda Mrage Brinkman. It is already incredible and it's been so much fun to watch the process with our students. >> I just

031want to one say thank you for all the effort on this. I love that we can do this. I think this Hall of Fame is candidly long overdue. We've had the athletic hall of fame for a while and that's always a fun night to get together to celebrate and I've already put it on my calendar for this January. I think bringing back the litany of talented musicians and artists we've had over the years. >> It's going to take a while to get that populated. We're gonna have a lot of candidates to pick through. >> But this is just sitting here thinking this is our strategic plan and action. We spent a lot of time talking about it. >> And for anybody who's looking at what we do unique in this district, it's this type of

032investment into something that's not your traditional school hours. And it's the fact we're able to do this and provide these opportunities to students is really exciting. Um, and I'm excited to see just like the entrepreneurship center, I'm excited to see where this goes. I think we are just on the cusp of what this will mean to a lot of students um, and families. And I'm really really excited that we've made this investment and I'm excited to to see it grow. >> Dr. Stuart, were you and this is sort of on the spot, but will you talk a little bit about I know one of the things that you're hopeful for kind of going into this year is kind of a review of looking at all the schedules and the opportunities at middle school. Um how

033sometimes there's a challenge if a student does have a natural tendency to want to be in the arts, but maybe there's conflicts with schedule historically. maybe speak to that as well as historically, you know, students, it's always been a music track, but we may be looking at what that might be to optimize other opportunities. Can you speak a little bit to that work that we've talking about in the instruction committee? >> Uh, it's such a good question, Mr. Marks, and it's ironic because actually Miss Clark and I had a long meeting about this just today to think about what programs we're offering. An example of that would be we've already expanded digital arts. As you can imagine, that's really important right now in the field of arts, but what does that look like in a

034maker space when students are working with woodworking and metal and things like that? So, offering a class like that would be an example. We've also talked about what does it mean for a student who just wants to dabble in art, maybe just for a semester only versus a student who wants to commit to it full year. Those are some of the the conversations we're having right now when we're considering how we look at what our experiences can we offer students including all the way through high school. What would it look like if a senior said, "I want to try choir for the first time. Do we have a place for them?" And to make sure that we also have a place at the same time for that student who says, "I think that I want

035to go in vocal performance at a collegic or professional level." We want to make sure there's all of those opportunities all the way through their career. >> Will you talk a little bit too about, you know, maybe a student who has been exposed to band or playing an instrument and maybe that's not necessarily their vibe, but they're really excited about some other type of art and what that might look like in the future. Um, >> yeah. So, we want we want there to be a wide repertoire of opportunities for our students. So, believe it or not, we've had two students come to us suggest classes. And this is going to really show you like my generation compared to this student's generation. The first is electric band as an example. So, like what happens if you

036know how to play the electric guitar? There's no place right now for that student to come to school and have that experience. So, that was a brainstorm session today. The other one, this is going to really show my age, was DJing. And like the idea that like that used to be something you would just do on the side, but it truly is a career now. And the student was talking about how important it is to understand how you use the computer to talk to their GJ platform and what that looks like. Um, and that way we also want to be able to help students who are very interested in these fields to be able to show what they can do through recording. So right now if a student has to provide recording of their own

037craft they have to go somewhere else to get that. So we would love to figure out how we can have some type of recording studio here where they can work with our professionals to create that before they send them off to a professional organization. >> Thank you. >> Great question. And I think um maybe the other piece is the two of you and the staff have been working on year-round summer activities and opportunities as well. And so stay tuned for what's coming, right? No pun intended. But mo most important October 1st is the deadline to get those early nominations. >> Yes. >> For the first class. >> Yes. >> Thank you for this sharing this wonderful announcement this evening. >> Mrs. sing. I'm going to skip D and come back to it and we're going

038to move on to E. And we have some of our partners here tonight from IHPTO. And I'd like to ask the IHPTO president, Jana Wayburn, to join us at this time for a presentation. Uh, thank you, Jana, for being here and all of our PTO members. >> Thank you for the introduction. I'm Jana. >> Mr. Davis has your um he's gonna cue that up for you. There you go. >> Awesome. I'm Jana Wurn, our PTO president. this year. I want to say thank you for inviting the PTO to come and speak and present and share a little bit more about our organization and what makes it special to Indian Hill. I'm going to start out with we are a unified PTO and this is something I learned only as a volunteer. We are one PTO

039across four schools and we are made up of 15 board members. To give you some perspective, a lot of schools around us have one PTO per school. So multiply that times four and that's the kind of manpower that's typically seen and this is what we are working with. Our membership is for a whole family across four schools. For my family that's one membership across middle, elementary, and primary school because that's where my kids currently attend. our funds. Uh, this little equation right here is going to break down how we generate funds to pay for all of our programming. A big part of it is memberships. That's families joining. Right now, our membership is $50 per family. We have a goal of 900 families. This is ambitious for us. We've historically sat around the 800 to

040850 mark. This past year, we sat more around 740. So, we're trying to get back up to a um I don't know if you call it the postcoid boom. This is just where our data sits. We like to be ambitious. We want to see what we can get to. We also have sponsorships that make up a big portion of our funds. We're really appreciative. These sponsors are individuals up to businesses. And then we also have Kroger awards that I need to shout out. If your Kroger rewards are unclaimed right now, I'd love to show you how to allocate them to PTO. We do generate enough that I would say we put on quite a few field trips with the Kroger awards. So, it's not nothing, but it's also not as significant as our membership and

041sponsorships. And we go about funding this way because our goal as the PTO is to avoid student driven fundraising. It's not to say it doesn't have its place, but PTO believes that all of our programming should be available to everyone regardless of if they could fundra for it or not. And this is the QR code to our website if you haven't already been. And you can also type in iHPTO.com. It'll bring up our website. Could you click to the next slide, please? Thank you. This is the overview of how our organization works. It feels huge. Remember that 15 board member group? Those 15 positions are in these gray boxes here. These are the people that are meeting once a month in this room. And we're also meeting in our schools with these director positions right

042here. We have a director per school. And then we also have a program chair per per school that is making up our cabinet with our administrators and a teacher representative from the school. This cabinet is meeting monthly in our schools to make sure we're putting on inclusive programming that the things we have on our schedule are happening. And then there's also a chance for uh roundt discussion. We can talk about teacher concerns, parent concerns, student concerns. It's a great problem-solving mechanism and having sat at the table for a few years now in these meetings, they're very useful tools. I'm very appreciative I, as a parent, have the opportunity to be in those rooms. A little bit of breakdown of the cabinets. We have a grade representative. It's one person per grade except for at the

043high school. It looks a little different as well as middle school. And that's because these schools operate a little bit differently from our primary and elementary. Primary and elementary is our class parties and our really heavy field trip years. We need a lot of parents showing up. These room parents are working with our teachers to make sure the teacher is not spending too much time finding people to chaperone the field trips. Room parents are the partnership here across our teachers and our schools to get those jobs done. There are more room parents than this. This is just representative. Think of every home room teacher in primary and elementary and that's how many room parents we have. Could you hit the next slide, please? Details. I would love if you could come away from this with

044just one specific detail about PTO that we have funded. Um, our treasurer would love me to point out this whole sentence at the top that 99% of our funds collected pay for programs that support our students and staff. I feel proud of that number. I know all of our other PTO members in this room feel proud of that number. I want our district to feel proud of that number with what are doing with our funds. Some specifics. We do a staff meal across all four buildings three times a year. This is a tangible thank you to our instructors all the way down to our custodians to share how much we appreciate what they do every day for our kids. Field trips are huge. Kindergarten through fifth grade go on so many field trips. It starts

045to lessen as we get to the other buildings, but that's just because their coursework is coming so becoming so specific. There's more opportunities for clubs. Our field trips look a bit different in middle school and high school. They do still exist, just in a different way. This also includes transportation. We have to pay our wonderful bus drivers to drive during the school day to go to cool places like the aquarium or the museum center. Um they're not volunteer in that aspect. Party in the Middle is special for our middle school um sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students. This year we're offering the ticket to Party in the Middle with membership. That is almost, think about it like a social field trip. Our middle schoolers are needing safe places that are inclusive with inclusive activities to

046socialize. We do this through party in the middle. Everyone's invited. It is either during school hours or on school property in some way to facilitate this. There's eighth grade celebration, freshman bridges. These are a bit smaller things that have food and drink ordered for them andor coordinating the actual event. And I have to mention the big behemoth that is after prom that PTO puts on at the high school. This is a lot of vendors and hiring a lot of exciting fun things to do for those students attending as well as having prizes to motivate them to be there. Um, it is really fun. I've been involved as a parent who does not have high schoolers, so I can actually say that it was fun. It was an experience. I'm glad PTO offers a safe space

047for students to go after prom. This right here, expanding programming and opportunities. This is my favorite part about being involved with the PTO is hearing these really creative ideas that come from our teachers and students and they say, "We'd love money to do this. Is this possible? Does this fall under the PTO's mission statement?" These items all have fallen under a mission statement. They're quite frequent or quite recent in that we've done them. The second grade aquarium field trip came from a teacher asking if their students could go to the aquarium to learn more about a PBL that they were studying. They then asked, "Could our whole grape go?" We said, "We'd love for the whole grape to go." We had the funds to do it. We could write the check to the aquarium. It

048is now a regular field trip. It's in our regular budget. It's not a one-off. It is now a part of our routine. Similar story with the third grade Cincinnati Museum Center. That field trip started because of a teacher doing work with their class and wanting to expand it in a tangible, meaningful way. And of course, the PTO wants to send every student to have that tangible, meaningful experience. And this is now a regular field trip for third grade. The stock market game for fifth grade is been expanded to include every student. It used to be only part of the discovery program. And so we see kids, my sixth grader participated as well, come home and talk about the stock market in a way we've never discussed in our house, which is really exciting. And so

049I'm very appreciative that there is an opportunity for everyone to experience these programs. Um, this most recent one for seventh grade, this African penguin nest conservation, wildly cool. They wanted uh specifically Mr. Lee Jimenez wanted meaningful data when the seventh grade is plotting grass for the first time. He said, "We're learning about conservation. We can partner with this organization to get their real-time data for these penguin nests that they're having to make artificially because humans are harvesting their nesting material. So they talk about convers conservation in science class but then they actually use the data that they were getting from the company to plot in their math class. I get so excited about stuff like this. PTO funds for stuff like this is the cherry on top. The core stuff that we offer is what

050fills our is what we budget each year. But all of these extras, when we have a big healthy fund, we are looking for places to put this money to work. Uh, next slide, please. This is my last one. What's next for PTO? We have a general meeting coming up. This is September 17th at 7 p.m. in the high school multi-purpose room. We have invited all of our new families to the district and it is a place for the new families to come along with any PTO members, our board and also our schools leadership team. Not our schools, our district's leadership team to come and have face-to-face meaningful hi, I'm introduce person here. And it also gives you a chance to ask specific questions. You don't have to call or email or set up a meeting.

051It is what we all make of it and I'm really excited. I hope we can make a lot of it this year. Um, and that's just a RSVP QR code. It's nothing important. I'm just a drink order really. That's all I got. Well, ju just a quick thank you for all you guys do. I've seen with my own kids how much work goes into this. Um the the greatest strength of the school district is our families and you guys have figured out a way to organize all the support people want to give. Um it's noticed and and thank you. If there's ever anything we can do as the school board to help support the PTO to help drive the membership count, uh just reach out and we'll do anything we can. >> Thank you, >>

052Jenna. Thank you for coming here and all the other PTO board members past and I know I see a lot of familiar faces. I myself have been a PTO mom as long as I remember I have been in the school district. So I know all the work hard work that it goes in. You said after prom so easily but I know the kind of energy that it takes to put in and those last minute hurdle then clean up. I remember it was a one time next day was a mother's day but still the moms were cleaning up that day. So you know what a PTO does is just simply amazing and we appreciate all the energy that you guys bring in for our students. At one time PTO was called a small fish in a

053pond. I'm sure the older members would remember that. Uh this was when I was on the PTO. Today I see PTO with the membership toolkit and corporate sponsorship that you guys have brought in. It is an amazing idea to raise funds and today I see you guys as the brightest fish in that pawn. Honestly, this is this corporate sponsorship. I think many other uh groups can learn from this. So thank you for all that you guys do. Not many times we get to appreciate you guys but yes and people who are listening please do join PTO. It really helps every penny count. So please do help. >> Thank you. >> Well I think last and then let you go. Um just want to say thank you to everyone. What excites me is when I hear

054expanded opportunities for kids and so, you know, there was a whole list there, but the idea that like now the stock market games available to all children, right? And different field trips are available and and it's about access and opportunities for children to be able to be exposed to things that they aren't at other districts. And so appreciate everybody for for creating those opportunities for kids. >> Thank you again, Jana, and all of our PTO members who are here. Could you just raise your hand if you're out here and you've helped with PTO? There are several people sitting there. Don't be shy. Yes. Thank you. Um, you know, we're going to we're going to transition to another presentation that that Jana knows about, but the idea um that Mrs. Singh just brought up. I just

055want to reiterate and and share one more example. You know, um there is no other PTO like this in the country. And and I can tell you that because I speak to colleagues around the country and it doesn't matter the size of the school district. This is a mighty PTO and you saw that organizational chart. It has developed and evolved as a unified group over time. One of the amazing things this PTO does is they fund raise a year ahead. So I think it's really important and this has been going on for five years now I believe. um our PTO and their budget is sustained annually one year ahead of time. That is so progressive a method and when I ask other people in other districts what their partner organizations are doing, I never get

056that answer. It is a model. So, thank you all. We really truly appreciate all you do for our teachers and our students and all the things that happen in the district. There's a lot of volunteer hours that go into that. We appreciate it. >> Thank you, Jim. >> Thank you. Okay. Um, I'm going to do a presentation that's going to take a few minutes. So, if anybody would like to leave or exit, now would be the time because this next presentation may take a few more minutes. Mr. Davis, can you help me out with the uh slide deck there, please? >> Great. So over the last six months or so, we've been looking at what's going on around the country with partner organizations. This has been driven a lot by our RH promise strategic plan.

057We're going to go through a presentation tonight based on that research. Um and some of you will remember some of this from the past and some of you may not. But um back in 2020 when the home of the braves project was completed which was the result of the first public private partnership for this district um with many of our community members um our foundation leaders at the time asked what's next and it was a really important question and we've been trying to build off of that ever since with our partners and with district work as we launched the IH promise plan. But it's also important to note that the home of the Braves Capital campaign was over six years ago. That's a long time. And tonight we're gonna talk a little bit about that.

058>> Would you grab that microphone just so in case you got a big you got a big voice? >> I'll stay closer to the mic now. So, what's happened since? The district, meaning the school district organization, has developed more than 6.5 million in donations, pledges, and fundraising traditions that are new outside of traditional partner organization budgets in the past six years. And these are some of the examples here uh on the left. Big pitch day of giving. You know about the golf outing now that's become a tradition. And many of these things were in response to feedback we garnered from things like a bond and levy campaign that was historic where the community told us the things that they cared about where we learned from parents moving into the district as our enrollment has been

059growing. We've heard feedback about new curriculum and technology and we've definitely heard from Ohio's legislature about mandates for learning in schools. And of course, we also launched a community survey, which you'll remember board members gave us a lot of important feedback that's helping us to now narrow the focus of where we go as a district and how we determine what's next to meet growing needs for enrollment and facilities. We've also heard three myths about partner organizations, and we're going to dispel them all tonight. First, we've heard we don't do brickandmortar projects. This is a myth, and the research will show us why. We've heard things like donor fatigue exists and while that may be true at an individual level, it's definitely not true at the pool level and the network level. And we'll talk about

060that. And then we've also heard the myth of just because I'm in a school community and I pay my dues to be a member, I must be a champion of that organization. And that's a myth, too. Champions show up in lots of ways. And they don't always give money. Sometimes they share their talents and their time. So, we've done an overview, conducted a study of both public and private school partner organizations from around the country. What I'm going to show you tonight are 15 suburban national public school districts, 16 Ohio public school district facility projects, six private school facility projects, two higher ed foundation models, and two nonprofit funding models. As we talk through this presentation, these are the national districts that we studied. We've heard over and over again that we're really unique here

061on the hill and that's true. Indian Hill is truly a unique place and there are lots of other truly unique suburban public school districts that do lots of amazing things too. And so it's really important for us to benchmark against them. Something we started doing seven years ago in this district and we continue to do annually. These are some of the best suburbs to live in in America. I think we live and work in the best. And these are some of the others. We conducted a study of public and private school partner organizations as you saw. Am I going backwards? There we go. There we go. This is some of the um great ideas that came out of these national districts as we study them. Um, I'm not going to review all of them, but

062when you see some of these titles, um, these are things that these districts, partner organizations do to fund raise and to support their districts. Everything from gallas to legacy lockers to bricks uh, to taste of. There are all sorts of amazing things that go on around these national districts. There's one amazing thing. Did I miss one for you? >> You want that one? Oh, this will be on the website. You can get all of this. Um, there's one thing that comes up in all the research that we're going to talk about tonight over and over and over again. And it is the key impact group in every partner organization, public or private, is alumni. And our district and the board, we have been really acutely focused on developing our alumni association for the past couple

063of years. And it's something we're going to have to continue to do. uh and there's a lot of work to do to grow our alumni association mainly out of awareness and education so that we can give people opportunities to connect. So, we're going to talk about all of these ideas as we move on. Um, one really important thing to note though, there are over 11,000 alumni that have graduated and moved on from the Indian Hill Schools and we don't have enough points of contact with all of them. That's an opportunity and a challenge for our organizations. Looked at 16 Ohio public school district facility projects that have happened in the last eight years. Why you say are you doing all this, Kirk? Well, because we've got to keep up with the Joneses. And there's some

064really important and amazing things that have gone on. While people in our community have been talking about aspirational ideas and things that they'd love to see us do, we've gotten a lot of feedback. people around us in other communities are hearing the same things and doing things. Also, um, of those 16 public school districts the past eight years, 10 of them have worked on athletics complexes or fieldhouse projects that range in budgets from 2.8 million up to $46 million. There's been a performing arts wing added to a school for $5 million. There's been an auditorium budget, you might have heard of, down the street that came from a donor pledge of over $11 million. Um, there's been one stadium renovation budget and there's no money there on that slide for a reason because they didn't

065put a cap to the budget. And um, two track and field project budgets that range from 500,000 to 3 million. So, you can see different districts around us in Ohio working on these types of projects that maybe we hear about as well. Here's what they all have in common. Every one of them was brick and mortar. Every one of them was a combination of private donors and public campaigning. All of them took more than one school year to complete. All of them required at least two or more partnerships to get this done. And many different lead partner organizations were involved. Uh and naming rights were involved in nine of those projects. We also looked at private school projects around the area. So, six private schools who I consider com competition in the region have had

066projects in the last five years. Again, you can see those budgets range depending on what the project is. One baseball complex project budget $5 million. You might be aware of that came from a donor. Uh an athletics complex of $16 million with a budget there and a couple of track and field projects. Again, you can see some of those examples. These are things happening sometimes in our backyard in our school district. Ohio private school projects also have these things in common. They've all been brickandmortar projects. They've all had private donors and public campaigns associated with them. They've all taken more than a year to complete. They've all required multiple partners and two of them have required naming rights. We also uh spent some time working with boards of nonprofits and higher ed. So I want

067to thank u some of the people you some of you may know Nancy Miller who's an executive with one and five is a nonprofit is very uh active in this region uh has a long history. The American uh association of the US Army there's Samuel Woodfell chapter people that I get to interact with uh UC's foundation executives. There's a team of three that work out of their office. We were fortunate to be able to talk to them a couple of times. Um the Ohio State Alumni Governance Board executives, I was very fortunate to be able to meet with a group of five of them and um the Jason Learning Board of Trustees, which is a national nonprofit. These resource partners have provided us with some really interesting rationale and thoughts about what partner organizations can

068do and how they look around the country. So looking at all of these things and all of these other schools, there are some consistent findings that come out of the research. One, all of the staffing models vary. They're all made up in different ways depending on what the community looks like and what the community wants. Uh volunteer boards terms vary. Just really depends on what they've set up historically and what they choose to do. But there's a lot of consistency in their public documents being transparent down to the donor level. In many many partner organizations, everybody knows who fundraises for what and how much they give down to the individual donor level and it's very transparent annually. That's a consistent finding. Intentional, routine, consistent social media presence is also uh something you see as a

069hallmark with all high-erforming partner organizations whether that be a booster, a PTO, an alumni association or a foundation. They all have a presence. Uh they are all web- based or app supported. They have expectations for their board members of time, talent, and treasure or a combination of those three to get on the board and have a seat. very consistent and they use rebranding at intervals in order to keep attention in their communities. They change their logo. They come up with new missions. They have new strategic goals. They publish them. These are things that they do regularly throughout their history. Some of these organizations, much like some of our organizations here, over 30, 40 years old. Here are some other key findings. Capital campaigns are used regularly as a signal. They share a compelling story. They

070sustain strategic growth efforts and facility improvements. They mobilize community members to action. They create a sense of urgency and they create celebrations for the community. Capital campaigns are a regular tool of partner organizations that are high performing all around the country regardless of what type of partner organization. Some other findings, alumni associations are really unique depending on the school culture, whether it's public or private. Um, and sometimes they're standalone and sometimes they're delegated to another partner organization. Um, again, I mentioned board expectations, but for school foundations, they tend to differ around the country. Expectations for foundations tend to be more complex uh with a higher ask. Terms of service, again, unique. The philosophy on published names really leans heavily to transparent regardless of what type of organization it is and that's a philosophical thing that

071the organizations have to decide. Targeted routine collections of money through social media also a very important new thing with Instagram, Snapchat, Tik Tok stories that you'll see with high performing organizations at the parent teacher organization level. Again, we've got the best in the country. So, it's kind of fascinating to do this study and look at what others are doing in other schools. And I was so proud and it just reinforced how progressive our group is, but one of the things that really stood out was work being done on things like scholarships and work being done on renovations or beautifification that might not be brand new facility projects. And so I think of things like Blooming Braves and what our district's been able to do and how do we build on things that we already have

072our our courtyard cleanup at the elementary school that's happened in the past with parent support or gardens. Those are all really great examples. Those happen with these other um partner organizations as well. And of course teacher recognition is a huge part and our PTO just does so much to thank our teachers and recognize them already. Um but in a lot of these efforts I see formal recognized uh teachers every year that's programmatic and they're usually focused around curriculum innovation um and educational programs at the booster level. What we've learned is that established annual donor goals and levels are a regular thing. Um our boosters currently work with a budget. We have a combined booster organization and both Mr. Phelps, our athletics director, and Amy Clark, our activities director. They go to a board meeting, they

073develop budgets, they talk about needs, priorities, and wants. Uh that happens with all of these groups. But many, many booster organizations are also working on endowments and scholarships, which was um something that was consistent with high performing booster organizations around the country. And many of them were working on sustainability with facilities. the hall of fame piece. I think we've got one of the best around and uh many of them are in charge of that as well. an annual report is also something that most booster organizations are providing uh and an opportunity I think for us to to examine and then at the foundation level again you'll see here the word endowments again um class legacy memorials planned giving targets these are the norms with high performing foundations around the country um and curriculum program innovation

074sustainability something that our foundation has helped out with a lot here if you think about the lab at the elementary school for example and how that's funded and supported. That would be one great example of what our uh foundation currently does. Um annual events and an annual report, which our foundation puts out an annual report. If you haven't had a chance to see it, they do put one out every year. Um but really detailed down to the individual level. So, uh, the last big piece of this research is that most of these high-erforming organizations and high-erforming school districts of the 16 public schools I showed you and the private organizations I showed you is that they take an institutional approach to capital campaigns. They do not lay it on the shoulders of one partner or

075one leader. They ask other partners to get involved and form teams. And that's really an interesting thing I think board members for us to think about and uh to consider as we're working to educate and help our boards and our partner organizations in the future for alignment with what's going on with district goals and priorities and those things that we have to work on as a school district organization to meet needs like enrollment facilities and what our partners can help us to work on. really an interesting thing. Annual donor goals and levels very transparent and annual events align to enhance support of the campaign becoming an annual thing with a progress report. These are the hallmarks of great capital campaigns that are done with an institutional approach where multiple partners are leading. You'll also notice

076um corporate brochures that match checking off public versus anonymous donors and fundraising opportunities. um making sure that there are sustained campaigns that people understand will not be over in a year. Many of you who went to college or university understand that many of those higher ed organizations, much like these high performing organizations, they're running a capital campaign that everybody knows will last until it reaches a goal or succeeds and goes past that goal. And it's not something that's going to happen over two months or six months. It's it's going to be sustained. um annual, one-off, defined are different donor levels that really need to be thought about. And the big thing that comes out of a lot of these capital campaigns is a real focus on planned giving and estate planning. And that is a

077generational opportunity that sometimes organizations don't look at closely enough, but these high performing organizations do. So, here's a little synopsis. I'm not going to read through all of this again except to say time, talent, and treasure, something that we think all of our leaders and champions give uh to a great degree. How that works at the foundational level is something that we can continue to talk about. Capital campaigns are a very important tool for high performers. Endowment fund growth is defined and communicated. Another really big theme that came across here. And then SC scholarships, I want to focus on that for just a second. scholarships being cultivated annually, new scholarship opportunities being cultivated annually. This district offers a handful of scholarships, but we graduate almost 160 students every year. The economics of public schools demand

078that we continue to work on cultivating scholarship opportunities for all students. And that is a a great area of opportunity for us to work with our partners. Champions bring the fun. We've got a lot of champions in this room that I see. And one thing that resonates throughout all of the leaders that I talk to from all of these organizations is that if you bring people together for fun and you bring people together socially, more gets done. I think that's common sense, but sometimes we we forget that. So, here are some key recommendations board members. I'm going to ask you and our partners to consider as we move forward. There are 10 of them. It's going to take us time to work through these. It's going to take us time to work on uh collaborating

079together. Some of them are already uh started and some of them we can build on. Um and some of them are a repeat repeat of what I've already said. Um I really think it's important that we start looking at these things. And I'll just focus on the last one for a minute. Every one of these high-erforming public school districts listen to their students and what their students want. every one of them when it comes to projects, student voice is a part of it. And that's something I think we do really well here with our partners and we need to continue to do. So, here's a proposal for us to consider for the future. When we talk about what we mean by a sustained capital campaign, we're going to be working on our strategic plan in

080the next iteration of how we go deeper with the IH promise uh beyond 2026 into 2030. You're going to hear a lot about that publicly. Our board is also going to be working on some of the the work that it needs to make decisions about in 2026. And one of the things I would propose that our whole community think about is how to convene partners together to think about a sustained capital campaign through 2030 for the Indian Hill Schools. I just made up that name, Brave Impact 2030 because I thought it sounded cool, but we could call it whatever you decide in the future. Um, and I think the idea here is what makes sense is that we take our time, we're methodical, and we convene multiple partner organizations to help us rank, order, and

081prioritize what our community wants, and we get it done together. So, there are some examples, board members, we can look at that, digest that, and and talk about that. Let me just finish by saying this. This is something I learned when I arrived at Indian Hill. Uh there are three former superintendents I met with all of whom went through all sorts of different iterations of boards and facility projects and bonds and levies and needs. And these are some of the things they told me and I believe those things. I believe all of those phrases. So what's next? I think we really need to seriously consider how we reset, re-energize, and re-engage all of our partner organizations for big goals, aspirational goals as we move into 2026. Any questions, comments, concerns? >> Can I give you

082a real life example of of what a donation could do potentially for our students in the district? >> Sure. So, last month the board voted on um approving the u the turf for the softball field. Next year we'd like to go ahead and do the baseball field. And the board has been setting aside money every year for about 10 years in order to do our four main stadiums with turf. When the idea of doing the softball and the baseball facilities came up, our uh media group of students came to us and wanted our us as the adults to think about going one step further with that project and putting um putting fiber optics underneath the field, being able to put cameras in both outfields, and being able to do a real live baseball broadcast or

083softball broadcast while they were going on. It's those amazing ideas that continue to come to us with from the student voice. Now, if we thought about this from a donation perspective, um, when you think about turf, we watch we watch all kinds of baseball games, football games. Almost all turf has names on it. You know, it has businesses, it has family names, it has different names. Simply put, if we had we found a donor who wanted to do naming rights for one of those facilities, we could take that money that we've set aside for the turf, reinvested into that other project, and have a much better much better experience for the students, the athletes, and the people who are participating in all of those events. Those are the kinds of things that brickandmortar donations can

084lead to to this district. It's not just simply us wanting the next best and brightest thing. It's what's best for our students and what's really best for the experience while they're here. >> Yeah, I love that example and and maybe Mick and Jim, you could also just speak to in general as uh you've been working with Mr. Phelps to look at the um Tomahawk Stadium renovation as a project versus peacemeal changes and why we are trying to thoughtfully plan to do that as a large project instead of piece at a time with the kind of budget that we work with with our public school. >> So it's it's kind of like uh when you give a mouse a cookie, if you do one thing, you got to do another the other thing. So, when you

085think about maybe something like our lights are at end of life uh on the the football stadium and so you can't we can't find the bulbs anymore. We found a couple more this year. So, we're we're going to get through the football season, but we're out. Um and so to do that project, um you've got to bring in some pretty heavy gear equipment and you would have to take down part of the fencing that goes around the stadium. So, when you do that, this the fencing needs to be replaced anyway. You really need to do the entire fence to be able to get back to the back. If you look at the facilities down there, the bleachers are aging. The press box has maybe seen a better day. I wasn't here when it was, but

086uh there there are just some facilities down there that are in need of a repair or replacement. And so, you know, you can't just do one isolated thing. You really need to look at it as a comprehensive project. >> Thank you, Jim. And I go ahead, Mick. >> Just from a f a financial standpoint, what Mr. Nichols was pointing out, if we did replace the lights, we're going to get cranes down there. We're going to we're going to have a lot of manpower. That's going to cost a lot of money to do that single individual project. If we're going to do it all, it's going to be a lot more cost effective to get it done at one time as opposed to two, three, four separate projects. >> Not trying to put you all on

087the spot, but thank you for sharing that. And then Dr. Stewart, um we we got asked the question again about, well, why did we only build half of a blackbox? Maybe you could just explain again why would we look at some of the facilities ideas that we've heard and saw and learned from the last project and how we're trying to plan ahead. >> So when we think about opportunities that our students would like to have, a lot of them would include a stage. And right now, if you were in the middle school or high school, you are sharing one stage with many, many groups, orchestra, band, all of the shows that we do, all the assemblies that we have. And so we have to say no to students. The black box would give us an

088opportunity for students to be able to have a space where they could go for the ideas that they have about presentation. But be beyond that, it would also allow our students to have other smaller performances that we could do at the same time that the high school is building their set on the stage. We've actually had a student write, it's a recent alumni, a full musical. They have written a full musical. It's so impressive to think that someone who is at the age of 21 has written a full musical and came and said like, I'd like to workshop this at the district. would you allow it? And of course, our answer was yes, we'd love to have you come. We could not find a time that the stage was free at the same time that

089the student could come and provide this opportunity. So, a black box does all of that for us. >> So, we could talk about lots of other examples, board members, many of these you already know, but for people who are listening or who watch the presentation this evening, rank ordering those priorities is not easy. There are a lot of complex decision-m uh that has to happen and our board has to keep a focus on the future based on enrollment and facility needs but then we also have all of this other input and feedback that's really important too and that's where partner organizations become so important for public school districts to help us supplement programming but also um in the case that Mick brought up as an example sometimes supplant some of the things that we might

090want to so that then the money that we have can be strategically used in other ways. Were you going to say anything else there? Okay, board members. Uh that's all we have for this presentation for this evening. But again, any questions, comments? I'd love to entertain before we're doing this. Um >> I guess to the extent anybody's questioning the why we look at these things, >> it's our direction to Kirk and to the team is to always think of what's the best we can possibly do in everything we do. whether it's arts, whether it's athletics, whether it's educational offerings and we, you know, a lot of times I remember when we worked on the levy for the the bond and the operating the campaign for the bond and operating levy, we often asked a question

091of needs versus wants and that's a subjective thing. I I've kind of in my mind have changed that to to looking at just what's the best and then how do we get there? Um, and how do we challenge ourselves? How do we challenge our community to always be striving to do what's best? and we maybe won't always get there, but we're never going to stop trying to do that. And with our amazing groups as we we go to look at kind of the next big things we want to accomplish. Um, you know, we built a beautiful building just four or five years ago and there's already new things we want to keep doing. Um, and our our partner groups help in every single aspect. They help with the the time, treasure, and talent, and all

092those things are equally important. Um, and so it's another way of saying thank you to all of our groups and uh, we're working hard to to think of the next big thing and we're not going to be afraid to ask for some help coming up. Um, so look forward to to the next next chapter here. >> I think the other thing is, you know, I know we won't get into it today, but when we look at over the last eight years, our elementary has got the highest enrollment it's had in eight years. Our middle school's got the highest enrollment it's had in eight years. um there's an eb and flow at the primary um but it's at some of the highest levels it's been as well and so I also think about the programmatic core

093instruction right and what kind of facilities we need to look at too from a curriculum and instruction standpoint you know in terms of our population of students that need um additional academic supports that percentage of students has grown which is also leading us need additional space for academic um intervention, common language tutoring, right? That we uh pull small groups out, pull individual students out. Um we're getting to a place with some of our at the primary where we don't have that space um that we've got to look at, you know, what does it look like for our classroom size, student teacher ratios. Um, and so I'm I'm looking forward to, you know, the board really taking a comprehensive look at not only the the aspirations, right, Barry, that you talked about because we're constantly looking

094to what is the next elevation, but also what are some of the basic needs that we have to have? And so really putting that comprehensive study together, what what are our needs both now and in the future? uh because I think there's there's some some real needs that we have with space um just to meet the basic instructional expectations that we have. Yeah, we won't get into it tonight, but definitely enrollment is top of mind and how we continue to maintain um important class sizes and uh sustain programming and add innovative programming and keep up with the Joneses and um I think there are a lot of opportunities for us to explore which is really the point of this presentation this evening. >> Thank you Mr. Kennedy for an excellent presentation. I think this was

095overdue and I think I just hope the uh partner organizations will take some feedbacks from this and some ideas. I already saw our moms taking notes of it which is great to see that uh yeah you know it is very important that if a partner groups can align together with the vision we have. It is not easy for us to just sit here and make decision. We do need help and you know we are all here to do the best for the kids and I'm really looking forward how we can align together and work for our students. >> Thank you Mr. Kenny for presentation. >> Um if we could uh Mrs. Singh move on. Um uh they're included in the board's agenda are the enrollment reports and the first reading of the school calendar. And

096those are things we can take questions about between now and the next meeting. If anybody has any questions, please let me know. And if it's okay, I'd like to move on to the superintendent report. >> Sure. Please go ahead. >> Under the superintendent report this evening, uh 7A, we've got an annual review and approval of our career advising policy. This is something we review and approve each year. We've also got a resolution for an appointment of our Great Oaks Career Campus governing board member. Um that's an uh three-year term. And uh we've also got some approvals of bus routes and stops. And we another resolution declaring the practility of transportation offering payment uh to parents. Got approval of some overnight field trips and then some personnel actions. Uh, unless the board members have questions, I'd

097ask you to entertain 7 A through F7K. At this time, >> I'll make a motion to approve items 7 A through F at the end of it 7K. >> A second. >> Mr. Tullles. >> Yes, >> Mr. Marks. >> Yes, >> Mr. Singh. >> Yes. >> Thank you. And I would note though, not really relevant, two of the uh chaperrons for the senior trip were two of the chapron my senior trip to Chicago. So, I'm not sure if it makes me old or them old or what, but we won't talk about it. >> I think that trip notice that >> trip might be a lot more fun this time. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> I won't tell you which two. >> All right. With that, can we move to treasure report, Mr. Davis? >>

098Certainly. Under my report for this evening, I'd like to approve the minutes of the August 12th, 2025 board meeting. Uh to approve my financial reports for the month ending August 31st, 2025. There are four now and then invoices we need to get approved. Item D is to approve the following contracts for the 2025 2026 school year. Uh there are two transportation contracts on here. Um if I could just uh take a moment to explain a little bit of why these are on here. Um these are contracts that we use to transport students who um go to other uh other contracted facilities. Um we required under law to to have transportation available for these students. Um the reason we are contracting an outside service is simply because um a we don't have the vans and b

099if we did have the vans to transport the students we wouldn't have drivers. Um it is very hard at this time to find drivers um for these types of services. So we are contracting these outside services to do that. Um Mrs. Leopard and I are working together to try to come up with some ideas to see what time these other students school start and dismissal times are so we could potentially use some of our own employees to drive the vans if available. Um, as you can see, the amount uh per student is pretty pretty high. So, if we could figure out a way to save one or two of these routes um with our own staff, we could we could be able to save some money. But the reason I wanted to bring this up

100is it's it is a sort of preview of my my uh five-year forecast that we'll do next month. Um these are some of the inflationary pressures that we are seeing as a school district. Um that aren't typical in most businesses. Um as you see materials and supplies, they typically rise with inflation. Inflation now is about two and a quarter% per year. um our our purchase services line is much much higher than that and it's because of services like that that involve um contracted services with people who have wages that those wages are much higher than the general inflation out there in the world. So, you know, as we see these kind of contracts, these companies can typically name their price because the services are needed and they're very difficult to find somebody who wants to

101drive, you know, two, four hours a day, whatever that is during these odd times. So, these are these are two contracts you can see that we're paying for students that have to be done. The district has no choice under law. We get the students to where they need to be. We do it through a contracted service. Are there better ways, more efficient, cheaper ways we could do them? Yes. Are those ways available? Not always. But we are constantly researching and making sure we're finding the best ways to get these students back and forth to their destinations safely and for the most the most value we can. Item E, the acceptance of donations. We have four of those this evening. Uh, the OSAA surprisingly was kind enough to donate $1,250 to athletics. Good for the OSA,

102right, Mr. Phelps? Uh, IH boosters uh donated to Athletic for the purpose of discretionary purchases, $28,000. They also donated to the arts for their discretionary purchases in the per in the amount of $18,000. Uh, the boosters donated their third and final van payment, $20,000. Uh we appreciate the all of those donations. >> This is just another great example again of what partner organizations have done that is aligned and that meets the needs of the district. These vans have been crucial. Um the ability to expand our fleet with these vans to help students get to activities is amazing. Really appreciate all all that help and of course these annual donations to athletics and the arts. Um this is a great list for you Mr. Phelps right here. So with that, that concludes my report for this

103evening. If there are any questions, I'm happy to entertain. If there's not, I would ask for a motion to approve the treasures report. >> Make a motion to approve the treasures report. Uh item 8A >> through E4. >> Second. >> Mr. Marks. >> Yes. >> Mr. Tullles. >> Yes. >> Mr. Singh. >> Yes. >> Thank you. Before we move into other business, um I just want to make a statement. Um I saw that Mr. Phelps and Dr. Phelps is and Dr. Phelps are here and uh I just wanted to reflect. I had a great conversation at the away game where we destroyed in a very positive way uh our opponent football team. So there was a lot of opportunity to have a conversation with Mr. Phelps. Um I think we're up 48 or 47 at

104halftime. Um, but I just wanted to share I think a lot of praise goes to our athletic department uh with Mr. Phelps and Mr. King helping support him. You know, in our conversation, I was reflecting on my own high school experience. And my high school, I think in the history going back, had won two state championships. Um, and it was a school that had been around for over hundred years. And I was talking, I'm like, we win a state championship or two every single year. We've got sports that we haven't have been uber competitive in that are going to state semi-finals now. We've recruited coaches that are worldclass coaches and in addition to that building this programmatic structure that's going from high school all the way down to little guys like my first grader. And

105so there's a ton of work that happens between Mr. Phelps, uh, Mr. King, the the assistant team. Dr. Mr. Phelps, you let your husband go away uh a lot. And so I just think it since you're here, I just wanted to recognize uh Mr. Phelps, you and your team um and for all that you all do. It is a lot and it's a lot of hours that it's not a 40-hour work week. It's probably 120 hour work week. Um I I I I think about Dr. Phelps, you being uh a physician and it's like Brian's living like uh you know on rounds and in in residency almost on a consistent basis. So, just want to say how much we appreciate you. >> Um before we go to that other while he's here, Mr. Phelps, there

106was a really important thing that got passed in the Ohio budget this summer and you were talking about the AD's meeting today and you and I have talked a lot about it. Could you just give the board maybe a hint? >> Ohio code says for ice hockey only at this point. If you are a public school, you can offer it to students at other public schools within a 20 mile radius. I think we'll continue to invest ice hockey and I think personally that it is we have a lot of members that enjoy ice hockey. We may have to figure out where we will play. We're working on that. But we think we're going to attract a lot of quality ice hockey players to join our team. And in the long run, what we want is

107to be able to have just our community members and help other schools build their teams to have more teams in the area. So, very few uh teams in the area right now. And um we have the opportunity for change. Thanks for sharing that really important hint and Allison, it's so nice to see you and I was glad you got to see your daughter on screen tonight being here. That was great timing. Um, thank you for all you do. >> Yeah, thank you. I I'll just second what Dr. uh what Mr. Mark said because anytime we put Mr. Fel on the agenda, he disappears. He never come because he just doesn't like us appreciating him. So you know since you're here I didn't wanted to lose the opportunity to say thank you. Seriously the athletic department

108that has changed since you have come I have been here since you know when my kids were here the athletic department looked much different than what it is today. So really really appreciate all the hard work that you are doing bringing all these amazing coaches and doing so much for our kids. So thank you and thank you spirits for coming here and giving him the giving him the time to go out and you know serve our kids. We really appreciate you and him here. Thank you. >> Quickly So, is there any other business by board or administration? >> Yes, I'd like to make a motion uh to move into executive session. Whereas as a public board of education may hold an executive session only after a majority of the quorum of this board determines by

109roll call vote to hold a such a session and only at a regular or special meeting for the sole purposes of considering any of the following matters. In this case uh item G1 to consider item two the employment of treasur CFO Mick Davis. Um, and also item G3, conferences with an attorney for public body concerning disputes involving public body that are subject of pending or imminent court action. Um, can I get a second on that motion for executive session? >> Second. >> Roll call. Mr. Davis. >> Mr. Marks. >> Yes. >> Mr. Tullles. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sing. >> Yes. >> We don't anticipate any further action after this executive session for anybody who does not want to wait around. >> Thank you for coming. The ball was >> just asking the question. Exclusive coverage

110on the Indian Hill Television Network has been a copyrighted presentation of the Indian Hill High School Video department.