001I'm sorry. >> Waiting for the thumbs up. It's like TV production up here. All right. Uh, welcome everybody. If we could start the meeting with a moment of silent prayer, please Thank you. Stand for the pledge, please. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. Call the role, please. >> Mr. Walker >> here. >> Mrs. Davis >> here. >> Mrs. Thomas >> here. >> Mrs. Buard >> here. >> Mr. Benson >> here. >> Notice of the meeting, please. >> This is a public meeting of the board of education for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There's a time for
002public participation during the meeting as indicated in the agenda. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes. Upon request of the superintendent, the district shall make reasonable accommodation for a person with a disability to be able to participate in this activity. Recording shall be made of each meeting of the board administrative aid and shall be preserved as public documents to the board. >> Thank you. There were no additions or deletions to the agenda. If I could get a motion to adopt the agenda. >> A motion >> and a second. >> Second. >> Call the role. >> Mrs. Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ber, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Swagger. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Davis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Benton. >> Yes. >> Thank you. I have Brian Rose up for public
003comment. >> Hi. My name is Brian Rose. We moved to John in 2008. I've had four children go through this school. And when we first moved here, there was still a building called Oregon and a building called Adams. So that's how long ago it was. And I just wanted I thought I should just say thank you to Tim because you guys have been here also. [laughter] >> You've been here for a long time. >> I just wanted to say thank you because you guys have gone through a lot. The school looks completely different and you guys have there was never a doubt in me or my family's mind that your best you had the school's interest best interest in every single movement that you guys made and we appreciate it. Our children appreciate it. You've
004impacted our children's lives. Uh we used to come to these meetings quite often. We got to know a lot of the board members. you guys, a pandemic, two brand new schools, three renovations, several superintendents, a bunch of different principles. I mean, it's just been a roller coaster in and out and you guys have done a phenomenal job and we appreciate it. So, I just wanted to just come up and say thank you. >> Oh, thank you. We appreciate it. [applause] >> Brian, I'd like to point out we still play basketball. you used to play and you haven't been there in a while. So, you need after that Achilles after that Achilles >> All right. All right. >> Hey, those are >> Believe me, I've slowed down. I'm in my mid50s now, so it's definitely slowed
005>> out. Yeah, those are excuses, Brian. I don't know. [laughter] >> This time, >> all right, I appreciate the comments again. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh moving on to presentations. >> Yes. So we have a presentation. Mrs. Wagner will lead it today. Um one of the things while she's getting everyone ready is um a lot of the work the board does to approve programs and you don't always get to see the M results. We try to showcase some of those uh during board meetings. So this will be one of them from the elementary school. >> I'm gonna kind of be an MC, but >> he told me to turn it on. Sorry. I'm going to be an MC and not necessarily the speaker, but um our theme tonight is a story of a legacy.
006And so we want to walk you through literacy. Um obviously this board has many positive legacies and a lot with curriculum instruction. And I've only been here three years, but so impressed with the hard work of the the [clears throat] board, the administrative team, and then of course the staff and students. And so really excited to share that today. So Mrs. Douglas, if you want to come up, too. And my student presenters, if you want to come on up. Today, we're going to tell you a story. >> There's my first one. >> So cute. >> Are you ready? Once upon a time in a central Ohio town on Route 62 there was a board of education dedicated to ensuring lit literacy for all students. as far as it goes. You'll have to move this way,
007guys. But it's not. It is. Okay. All right. You guys hold the paper. I can't. You guys hold the paper. You guys are ready. They worked with the staff of their amazing school district with courage and determination and money to purchase curriculum to help guide instructions and give students the best education possible. During the um 2021 2022 school year, they purchased Foundations materials. Foundations is our core phonics curriculum which addresses word recognition consistent with the science of reading. Foundations provides explicit multimodal instruction and funological awareness, decoding, and site recognition. In first grade foundations, we practice reading and spelling. Every day, we complete different activities including drill sounds warm-up, spelling words on whiteboards and with magnet letters, decoding words, learning new trick words, and reading decodable stories. During the 2223 school year, there was a lot
008of change with building administration. However, the board of education and the staff of Johnstown Monroe was dedicated to making sure that all students were learning and growing. We piloted a using a new tool to screen and progress monitor literacy, Aadian K through three. A cadence is a quick assessment given one-on-one and it directly measures foundational early literacy skills that are responsive to instruction such as phmic awareness, alphabetic principle, basic phonics, advanced phonics and word attack skills and also reading comprehension. It is standardized and we use this in our problem-solving outcomes driven model of decisionmaking. It gives us this data from each individual foundational skill tested and we can use this data to make decisions about instruction and intervention. We give the benchmark assessments three times a year and weekly bi-weekly progress monitoring on each on
009early literacy skills to see if instruction is accelerating progress or if instruction or intervention needs changed. The graphs such what we have here and also in your packet Aadians provide show data on how individual students, classes, grade levels and our school is doing on various literacy components at grade level meetings and building leader leadership team meetings. We use these graphs to jump start conversations, questions, and to reflect upon our literacy instruction. Children who are progress monitored have goals set up with a goal to accelerate their learning and the graphs will show data points, trend lines, and pathways of progress. Um, we have now expanded K through six and also selected students beyond. Marcy Wilson from Licking County Educational Resource Center trained several district teachers throughout K12 and Acadians. We have a district team that benches
010every child K6 and selects students beyond sixth grade to get further information to pinpoint literacy deficits to aid in DR in instruction. >> And in your packet, the first um couple pages are samples of individual student um pathways. Obviously, blue is the top one. So, in the first part, when you're looking at the Acadians data, we want the data points to be above the line. That's their growth line. We're always shooting for above the line growth. And so the different colors stand for well above, above progress, making adequate progress, below progress, and well below progress. And that's how we use that to determine is the intervention working and do we need to change that up. Along with looking at acadians, we also implemented in the 23 24 school year NWA map, which is another assessment
011that we use um to sort students into various groups, but it's standardsbased. So in this chart that you see here, this is overall for first grade. So blue is where we want our students to be, blue, green are the high areas, and then you have um average, low average, and then low. in your packet you have this graph but you also have another one that just shows um the overall student growth for first grade. So and that benchmark is given three times a year. So as we go through we want to see those green and blue become more of the chart. This is an important part of the story because we can instruct all the time but if we don't take measurements to see are we making progress we wouldn't know. And all of these
012things cost money and commitment from the district for resources both financially and in time. And so we have our three our two um benchmark assessments that we use three times a year. A cadence gives us pinpoint foundational skills data. MAP gives us standardsbased instruction. We can look at more holistic. We can look at um listening skills in some cases. And then if you remember in 2425 um we added it was kind of middle of the year last year we added Lexia Core 5 and Lexia Core 5 is a unique program in that we can drill down to individual student needs and then it's an independent um program that they can work on. It's intuitive. So if a student is learning something on the program and they're making a mistake it gives them an immediate lesson.
013If they struggle two or three times, then it will flag the teacher. So, you have in there a class list in which we took the whole the names out. But you can see in the top that class there's four students that need teacher specific intervention. And what this does for us, it helps us when a teacher's pulling a small group, these students are able to continue to work on their skills. There's no downtime. There's no uh loss of instruction because we can have more than one thing going at a time. This just shows first grade. I believe this was the first grade. Yes, first grade. From the beginning of the year when we started the year, we had 3 um 4% of our students working below grade level skills. 50 sorry old eyes. 56% were
014working in grade level and 8% were working at above grade level. The great thing about Lexia is our gifted students sometimes get left out when we're thinking about in um our instruction, our intervention, but this can take them as far as they can go. So they can be working, they can be a first grader working in fifth grade material if that's what their understanding level is. And so you can see now we have 15% of our um building and this is just the beginning of November. 15% are now working above grade level in first grade. 62% are working in grade level materials and then 22% we're still intervening with to get them into grade level materials. And so um it's nice to have the holistic views of the assessments and then it's nice to pinpoint
015right down. And with Lexia we're able to print out specific lessons that can go home. Students can work at home or at school on the program. And um all of these are great gifts that have helped to add to our story but we have more in our plot. [clears throat] All right. The next piece of the puzzle is wit and wisdom. So witten wisdom was developed with the belief that every child is capable of greatness. Uh students are challenged positively and productively and they build knowledge of the world and develop um ELA English language arts skills. Uh students read and study award-winning fiction and non-fiction texts, famous works of art, videos, and photographs. These texts awaken and expand students curiosity of compelling topics. Through their work with these topics and texts, students hone their abilities
016to read challenging texts and to write, speak clearly, logically, and effectively. Witten wisdom builds strong background knowledge and solid vocabulary skills. We talked about that rope last year, if you remember, in the curriculum committee meetings and we talked about foundational skills and the knowledge base and you have to have them both to make a great reader. So, wit and wisdom is organized into four modules and each module is a group of books that have a cohesive theme. Um, and in first grade and in all the other grades too, we love to celebrate when we reach the end of a module. And so, um, you're about to see one of those in action. But at the end of module one um the themes were how do books change people's lives and how do different people around
017in the world get books. So we learned about um remote locations and mobile libraries and how there are lots of different kinds of libraries that bring books to um children in remote locations. Um so uh we have an end of module task at the end of each module. Um, and for this one it was taking a um fictional character that the students made up and putting them into one of the remote locations and um fitting that theme of how they got books in that location. So they wrote a fictional narrative. Um and then we also um had a visit from the Licking County um mobile library. So they got to see the bookmobile and they got to see a real life mobile library. Um, and so that was really fun. And then we also learned
018about packhorse librarians um in the 30s and 40s that brought books to um remote homes in Kentucky to support literacy. So, we took that idea and students did a writing project where they made a foldable book that shared information about different locations and how children in those places get books and then tied it back into John'stown where they got to share how children in John'stown get books. And we had three copies of it and students made their own pack horses. And we went around the school and delivered our books to people in different grades. And we got to share our stories with the other grade levels as well. You guys stand right here. You ready? >> Yes. >> In conclusion, we want to thank you for your commitment to literacy. Thank you for your dedication
019to ensure that we have the resources we need to be readers and leaders. Thank you for the story of your legacy. And now if we could clear the stable please >> you got the moves. I like your horses. >> How are you? >> Thanks. >> Well, thank you very much. >> If I could have all of my pack horses and their teachers up front here for a picture real quick. >> I got it. >> You don't want to get in there. Amanda, you guys should get in there, too, right? Go ahead. Get in there. Would you open? >> This ought to be a wide angle. >> Sweet. >> Stand up. Should we stand up? We won't be able to see the >> You're all right. >> No. >> Yeah. Get Get more toward the middle.
020I'm taller. [laughter] Thank you. [applause] [cheering] >> And to my horses and their families, this is a really good time to hit the barn out back [laughter] here. Now we get into the mundane of the board meeting. So right, >> Benjamin, great job, buddy. >> Sweet. Can't open it. >> Oh my god, they're so cute. >> An ornament. >> I love it. A I love a good ornament. >> Isn't that sweet? >> I don't know how you're going to wear it. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Did you look at it already? >> A Christmas ornament. >> Hang on my tree. >> That's very sweet. I am going to hang mine on my tree. >> I'm glad they gave the curriculum update for me. >> I know. >> That's right. That's when it gets yours, you'll go.
021>> You just saw it. [laughter] >> That was very good. >> Alan, I expect technology to have a display as well. What' you bring tonight? [laughter] >> Alan the dog. We want to see the robot. >> We want to see the robot again. Okay. >> You don't have to report tonight. We don't have one. Yeah. Try to get one ready for you though. >> I don't know. I thought it was great. >> Good job. You want to put it on the tree? Okay. >> You thought it was a necklace. >> No, I wanted >> I think it'd be a brooch if you wanted a brooch. It can be whatever you like. >> All right. >> I love how they No restrictions. >> I mean, they made all the horses. They made the little things to
022go with it. >> I kind of was hoping we get a horse. I know. >> My wife would be jealous of the horse. That'd be the one area that she would really like to All right. Before we head head forward, I want to thank the staff the and the teachers because all we can do is provide tools, okay? And it takes an amazing staff, right, principles and it takes amazing teachers to make it all work and the progress we've made in curriculum. And it takes a curriculum committee, right? We have a committee that gets together and works on curriculum not only in the elementary school but throughout our entire school system. So it takes everyone working together to make it work. And I want to thank everyone. I know everyone has left but I see
023the two administrators are here. So I want to thank you and and all the administrators for making everything work so well. >> I'm glad you said that because curriculum is important and so thankful that you're supporting it. But it's what the people bring to the curriculum. And we tell them all the time scripted curriculums aren't scripted curriculum. You teach iturriculum and those are the instructional moves that we want to have. And so >> it's exciting to see the the results of foundation. And that was the most exciting program I think I've ever seen accepted by this board. And we put the the money where our mouths were. So that's wonderful. >> Thank you for all you do. >> The kids are making books, delivering them. I mean, it's just exciting to see um and exciting
024to see the large work. I mean, the vocabulary that they're learning at such a young age. So, >> it's fun. I enjoyed that they put some somewhat difficult words in there intentionally for the the students to read, which I thought was impressive. So, >> uh, it shows their their, you know, how how they've advanced. >> So, that right, but it's about building those skills, not just reading and writing. So far above what they can actually read themselves, but building of that background knowledge, that conversation. And so writing and oral speaking and conversation are all such a part of this curriculum that it may not be things that you hear about or see if you're not there by day, but we're seeing huge gains in our students abilities to communicate and articulate. >> Excellent. I like,
025you know, and across all the curriculum, a lot of the changes we've made is what I like to see is it meets the student where they're at, whereas we used to have some high performers that weren't getting necessarily the extra to continue on that journey and and continue to be even higher. That's what I like about that curriculum is it does it meets them all where they're at and then so you don't have to wait on the rest of the class to catch up to you and you don't have to and if you have someone trailing behind the teacher can you know work the curriculum to that student as well. So that to me is the more impressive side of it is it allows all spectrums of of the children to move where they need
026to and can and are capable of. It doesn't hold anyone back. And we see the same in the mathematics side now. Uh you know and a lot of that same things where it's allowing our high performers to continue to be high performers and not have to wait on the curriculum to catch up. They can continue on that journey. And you know we've got a lot of eighth graders that are taking high school math now. That's exciting to me because that shows that we've got the curriculum built that allows those students to succeed. So, it's it's really hitting our gifted students as well. As much as we focus on the student aspect of it, the gifted students are even, you know, really benefiting from this. And sometimes that aspect of it gets overlooked because we always,
027you know, we tend to look toward the negative on these boxes when we look at the, you know, how many are below, how many are, you know, how who we trying to bring up. So we often overlook the the high achievers that are now continuing on. So that's what gets me excited in those presentations to see that. And you obviously had two excellent and uh miss you had who? Nestle wrote and uh Hler here tonight. >> So excellent teacher. My son had both of them. So quite enjoyed both of those as teachers. And having this data that does let us know who are the higher performing students at any given moment or three times a year has helped us with our win. We've now anybody in the 90th percentile and above even though they're not
028instruction. >> Yeah, that's excellent. Thank you. All right, moving on. board committees. >> Well, we had quite a few board committees this well last month, I would say. So, first we have the athletics extracurriculars. >> Well, do we are we going we had that whole meeting on the athletics as far as the um we have a couple things on the agenda tonight. I think you'll see you see the overnight uh trip request for softball. >> Yep. >> And then we had the uh band choir. We talked about the band choir girls basketball. that whole uh >> that one we're that one um didn't make it to the final agenda because that one's still in review, but conceptually it makes sense. I talked to the Zerillis and um >> they'll bring it back to the next
029committee >> should be before the next well be and then we'll get the committee and then the board in December. So, >> and I really appreciate they're a year ahead on that. So, we're really looking out softball uh I see Mike here tonight. You know, we're ahead of these and that's what we wanted. So when we're looking at these, we're not as a board, we're not having being forced to make a decision tonight because you're booking the trip tomorrow. You know what I mean? So the idea of getting these things uh on the agenda early uh had been talked about and now we're seeing seeing that uh occurring. Uh the athletic uh renovations over at well at this building in the back of this building uh continue. Uh we've run into a few uh permitting
030uh issues that are slowing some of those things down. So uh that's moving forward. Uh I think we're looking sometime in January to February. Is that still the >> hopefully hopefully late December at the latest early January? But as you said, some of that permitting has pushed us, you know, back from what we initially thought where we initially thought we'd be. >> Yeah. And we've we've spoke to the wrestling teams about that impact and they'll be working out uh where they're going to be at at the JYA facility they've been at until we can move them into this facility. It all has to do with this building. Once you turn it into students, there's a bunch of other requirements under the the building code that requires us to have things that you would not normally
031have to have if it didn't have students in it. So, we have to permit some of those things and get some extra. We have to add a doorway, you know, for a second egress, things of that that nature. So, that's what uh is uh uh working towards on that. But we're excited because we'll have wrestling, cheerleading, baseball, softball, golf, all in this building, all indoors, all at their own facility that we've not had in the past. Uh the fact that we're going to have baseball and softball have indoor hitting uh and not have to worry about who what time, you know, in our building because we're constantly moving around the uh uh the whole area trying to find places to hit indoor. And we're going to try to get a net that's tight enough that
032we can do golf in there as well. So, the golf team wants to hit indoors because the problem you have with baseball, softball, and golf is the weather in Ohio. You know, we start in March and good luck. You know, it might still be snowing and we're certainly raining. So getting practice time in is the biggest deal for us is so this indoor hitting uh along with some other uh facility upgrades should make us more competitive because we'll actually have more practices and more opportunity to get get the the boys and girls out onto the field ready to play. So these all tie into that and then uh we have the uh leaderboards uh that we'll be working towards setting up some these are all the athletic achievements. Uh we've created some leaderboards that'll be
033hung in all the different areas for basketball, football, all the different sports. We're looking at leaderboards, alltime rebounder, alltime leading rusher, those types of things. Uh we'll be unveiling some of those here. And we're setting up a couple of special events uh to actually do those around those uh unveilings. So >> uh anything else we >> No, you just gave the grounds and maintenance report, too. So I just thought I'd listen. >> There you go. >> All right. Well, do you have anything more on grounds? >> I'm speechless. I mean, >> athletics and grounds and buildings have all kind of uh overlapped at the same time because most of the ground building building stuff we're doing right now is faced around the athletic side because that's our that's our biggest glaring uh deficit right now
034that we're we're fixing is the lack of space. Uh, one of the reasons we purchased this building was to get the space and get the land next door because we're building the uh, uh, multi-purpose building next door to this, which will give us some more training space and more uh, indoor basketball, you know, just indoor space. As everyone that's ever coached here will tell you, we don't have enough gyms in this district for the size of this district. So, that'll that'll help with that as well. And it'll give us some more training room for our own staff. Uh, as we grow, we'll need some more room to hold some of those trainings. and being right here on this campus. Uh this this building here in the lot next door or the extension of this property
035will give us that uh room to build those. So >> y >> if you haven't seen the uh new marquee and picture that we have out front of the building that's going to be built. We're very excited about that. It's what he's describing. So if you want to see a picture of it when you drive by, flip your lights and you can see the picture. It'll just be great. >> It's right out front here. >> It's beautiful. All right. >> The only other thing for buildings and grounds I thought about it's been important to the board is we um are coordinating that meeting I think is actually tomorrow with our community partners so that we can make sure that we understand how snow removal and weather is you know roads are taken care of. Um
036that's important for a lot of reasons because whether we delay stay open you know we have 52 square miles so it's one of the things I know the board has been important that we keep that partnership going. So, >> I won't miss waking up at 3:30 to go check the roads. So, that might be your job. [laughter] I drive the roads every morning, call Dr. Wagner, tell him what they look like. So, 3:30 in the morning phone calls of what the roads look like. So, those will go to somebody else next year. >> We did talk about uh the snow removal contract, too, didn't we? >> Yeah. That's something we have to look at with that. Yeah. >> Yeah. That'll come out the bid. Um we have one more year at that extension. >> Yeah.
037But sometimes, you know, just with this whole snow removal, it's we might delay because there's some trucks that are down. We've run into issues about overtime with some of our municipal partners. Um, broke conditions on the side of our 52 square miles are very different. So, I think that meeting is tomorrow. I have to check my calendar. I know it's sometime this week, so we'll get back on top of that. And uh well going into that as we did get our first snow today. I I do want the the public to understand that side of it is often people that live in the village limits here, city limits, the roads will look great, but if you live out in a count county road, the roads may be horrible. So that totality has to be taken
038into effect. How many routes do we have? How many buses? It's not as always easy. And if if Dr. Wagner cancels, people aren't happy. And if Dr. Wagner doesn't cancel, people aren't happy. So it's a difficult position. And so he has to weigh all of those different things and it's not done in a silo by himself. He's talking to our municipal partners. He's talking to our bus garage. He's talking to other school districts. All of that goes into that. Uh so it's not it's not just Dr. Wagner looking out his window determining whether or not we're having school today. >> So and uh it's really the Yeah. the road conditions and the sidewalk conditions. I mean those both play into that that uh uh decision making. So keep that in mind uh as as uh
039we move into the winter months. >> I will the meeting is Wednesday. I just checked. So >> yep. >> Um Amanda did her curriculum update a few minutes ago, but uh do you have anything? [laughter] >> You had the cutest presentation that I could never give. Um couple additional things for curriculum. Um where we are with the adoption cycle is social studies is our focus for for now. So we are starting to ask for materials, get stuffs. Uh teachers will be asked to start reviewing some different uh curriculum options. Board members will soon also start getting materials to start reviewing. And the goal with that is for the 2526 school year to adopt our new social studies uh curriculum. Um, we went through some report card stuff. Um, just for our own benefit to understand
040a little bit more how things are determined with that. Um, and I know they talked about all the different curriculums and things, but they also talked about a lot of good ways we are looking to analyze how students are doing. So, you guys did a great job talking about a lot of them, which means I don't have to. Um but I think the important thing to know is we are always looking at how we can be uh improving and that's on a student level that's on a teacher level that's on a team level um whether that's a a certain subject etc um and we also have some other things that we're doing internally um and have people who are supporting us to help also sort of dig into that data like I said grade level
041student level teacher level just to like make sure that we are doing the best we can to support our students. Um, but also outside of that, some of the things we're also looking at is testing environment and how that's affecting students. We particularly talked about at the high school level. Um, what are what is the testing environment looking like for those students and are there things that we could be doing differently so that we are eliminating um challenges, anxiety, stress, whatever it is that could be brought into those that environment. Um, and then also, um, Ann and I had a really good conversation, and I'm going to give you the credit for this. Um, but each year we've been really intentional about, um, having afterchool tutoring. So, a few years ago we had it, we
042were looking at helping students in the summer and then the next year we were like, let's start looking at it in the spring. So, it was really spring break towards summer. The next year we were like, let's start after Christmas. And Ann's like, "Hey, first quarter trimester is over for students. We already have a really good idea of who we can identify who's needing some support." And so, um, wow, building's got some stuff together so fast and we're so impressed and so excited that we've already seen a plan of at each different, uh, school how we can start even even earlier, so soon um supporting those students who need it in in various topics. So that's really really exciting and the hope is that if we're supporting them throughout the year, they're doing better throughout
043the year. And then maybe in the summer, our numbers for the students who are needing that are going to decrease. >> Recovery reduces. >> Yeah. Trying to be proactive as much as we absolutely can >> and help the students feel successful throughout the school year. >> Yeah. So >> I do want to point out on the curriculum committee, uh, thanks for your guys' work on that because that's a very difficult and timeconsuming. Not that we all don't get it, but like when we're looking at social, we'll get three sets of three different companies that want to give you social studies all the way through and we'll read 8, 10, 12 different books word by word going through to make sure that it meets our community standards. It's not just curriculum standards, it's community standards. So
044you have to read all of those books. Uh we did it through the math program. We do so each of these curriculums as they come through you will you read every single math problem they have every sing and it's it's very time consuming uh but it's well worth it because we do have to pick the best curriculum for our kids and that also meets our community standards. So I appreciate that work because I it's tedious work. It really is. >> Oh yeah. >> But it's the most important work that we have as the board. So that's where I, you know, we have teachers that look at it's not just the board picking curriculum. It's teachers and teacher groups, administr, we're all doing it together and we all have our areas that we're looking at. You
045know, I'm not a math teacher. So I'm looking at content and looking at community stand. I'm reading I'm reading it differently as the math teachers are looking at the actual how it flows K through, you know, everyone's doing their own and then we come back and we assess it and choose choose the uh curriculum we want to go with. So that is a very time consuming and that's why we do one a year because it takes us a whole year to to get through one of those. >> And I will say that the teachers are so committed to that process. They are reading it. They are going online. They're looking at the platforms. They're looking at modules. They're engaging with videos. They're looking at the student workbooks. How are these interacting? They're going to the
046other schools and they're seeing in the classroom what that looks like. I mean, they're really invested, which I think is great. And I think every year we've we've felt really confident moving forward with whatever we decide because those teachers have invested so much time. You guys administrators have invested so much time looking at so many different components. We're looking at does it integrate with our our scores and our testing and our standards there. So, um, and I do think that that is so successful is that we give them the opportunity to really dive in and and feel good about what they're going to have. >> And also with the curriculum, what's not no one nothing's unanimous. Not amongst our teachers, amongst our administrators, amongst the board. Nothing's ever unanimous. So, when we choose something, >>
047it's an 80 85% of the people chose that one. >> I appreciate that the 15% that didn't choose that one still implement and still give everything and still support it. you know, that's that to me is the leadership uh and and that's the more difficult side of it is when you don't get what you want or what you think is best, still just going ahead and going, hey, okay, this is what we have. we're going to move forward because at least when I've been in the curriculum meetings, nothing's ever been unanimous by every single person with one exception we uh had I think everybody at uh chose on the uh math side, but nonetheless, those are a little more challenging uh areas, but uh not uh you know sitting there and complaining about the one
048that we didn't choose. Instead of that, our staff go ahead and they they understand that the greater uh good. And you know, it's nice because you have what K5 likes, what 678 likes, where 9 through 12. It's not the same. And making sure that we're picking the right curriculum for everyone so it blends all the way through. That's the real dance that goes on is figuring out which one marries all the way from K through 12. So, I appreciate the work that they do on that. Anything else on curriculum? Alan, the next one's you. >> Yeah, I guess finance. Well, that's not an exciting one like curriculum, but it's a necessary one. But anyway, um you know, we always look at the five-year forecast and anytime we make a change, whether we spend money or
049we have a issue with uh funding resource sources, right, where we don't have as much money as what we think we're going to get, then we have to change our five-year forecast. and we had to go ahead and submit an annual budget uh to the county auditor to show that we had uh our revenues were enough to meet our projected expenses for the year. The big uh take away from that is that we looked at um uh the the millillage that we were collecting for the bonds for the buildings and we found that uh over the years the the county had collected uh excess to what it actually required for the debt. So we asked the county uh to go ahead and uh make a refund to the property owners within the school district. So
050basically, if you have a home for $500,000 home, you save or get a rebate in 2026 of $122.50. So um basically, um that's that's what we talk about. The one issue that we talked about at at the finance committee and we also talked about it at our work session a couple of weeks ago is state funding is changing. There's a number of bills that are in front of the state legislature. Um that's going to affect uh funding for schools uh we think for next year and for years to come and that's going to have a real impact on our revenue stream. We just don't know which bill uh they're going to actually approve but all of them are negative. Some are more negative than others. So we're hoping for uh the best outcome, but it
051is going to affect our revenue stream going forward and we're going to have to make an adjustment based on a decreased revenue from the state. So again, just another challenge. You know, everything's a challenge. You know, you only have a dollar, right? You can only spend a dollar one one time, right? So you try to get as many dollars as you can. You try to spend your dollars as wisely as possible. And and that's what we've always tried to do is put put our money where we get the biggest bang for the for the dollar that we're spending. So, I want to thank my fellow board members for having a a forward view on on how we can support both curriculum, which is what we talked about, and also our athletics and our facilities. So,
052thank you. >> Well, I appreciate it, Alan, because the main thing you guys do is it's what's best for our curriculum, what's best for our student athletes, and what's best for our taxpayers because they're the ones that support the schools. So, we have those three. everything we decide, we have to look at all three of those. I often have people tell me, "Well, you have to do with what's best for the students." And I always say, "What's best for the students within a budget?" What's best for the students? I'd probably have 1,700 teachers for 1,700 kids. One-on-one teaching, right? That's the best. But we can't possibly afford that. So, there's always that caveat that we do, unfortunately, have a finance uh committee that has to look at those things. So, it's never easy uh when
053those decisions have to be made and remaining fiscally conservative is what we've uh continue to do and and that's the only way that we can do things like purchase those curriculum packages, add those on for uh the the uh any of any of the type of the gifted students or or or the intervention, all those specials, those tutors, that's all by being fiscally conservative. So when we look at some of these decisions, you have to look at how do you, as Allen said, how do you allocate that $1? You can't allocate that $1 three different ways. And and if you do, we'll be back talking to you guys asking for more money. And that's what we have adamantly been opposed to. I think everyone knows when I came on the board, I I uh had
054promised that I'd never ask for another new levy. Uh and we haven't. It's been 13 years now, and we've not asked for another levy. That is the goal. We got the building levies in 13 years ago and we should not be asking if we're fiscally, you know, conservative as we have been. We shouldn't be asking for anymore. The taxpayers are tapped out. I live here and that's what some people don't recognize is sometimes we pay those same taxes as well because we live in your district. And while I want great schools, I also like to make, you know, fiscally conservative uh plans with the dollars. I treat it like it's my house. Uh you have a set limit coming in and you make sure you don't overspend that. So I do appreciate the finance committee
055because those are it's easy to go out and quote spend other people's money but those other people are our neighbors. So we can't do that. Uh so we I do you know appreciate the the tough decision that comes out of finance. And for those that don't understand the committee structure uh the way we work is those finance committees make recommendations back to the board. We're allowed to vote however we want but we have trust and faith in each other. So typically those finance committee recommendations, curriculum committee recommendations, we take, you know, we take it that they've done their homework as board members, we read through it, but we do rely on the committee structure to make sure they're doing what they're supposed to be doing over there. And that's why the trust of the five
056members is critical so that way you can move things forward because if we have to litigate everything out here every single time, nothing gets done. You know, it's just too much work uh if you're going to come here every Monday night and relitigate everything and where we're at. So you have to trust in the other committee members. So finance does an excellent job of that and I appreciate it. >> And the challenge and the challenge that you have is that you often sometimes say no and you'd love to not say no to people about everything, right? You'd love to be able to say yes to everything, right? But in reality, you can't, right? It's it's, you know, we all have family budgets. We all have household budgets. We'd love to do more than what we're
057doing today, but sometimes you have to say no. And and that's a hard thing to do. And it and it does bother us. You know, I can tell you right now it does bother us when we have to say no, but um but we're trying to do the best for the community. >> Alan, I'd like to add one more thing as part of the finance committee >> um that we also look at a 10-year plan. We look at five and we look at 10-year plan. So, this is a real long vision of what we feel we can and can't do. Um and as Alan has said, we'd like to approve everything, but it doesn't work that way. So we've had a great relationship on finance committee and I appreciate it. Thank you. >> And we
058thank everyone. And when she says we looking out a far, we have capital, you know, we have capital requirements, right? We have uh fixed asset requirements, right? You're talking about this building or or upgrading the multi-purpose and we have some other plans for the north campus, but these all take years. You have to save money for years to have the money to go ahead and and move in these directions. And and you know it it takes that foresight as Ruth Anne said to look 10 years out because it takes many years to save up. It's like buying a house, right? You you just can't say I'm going to get married today and I'm going to go out and buy a house tomorrow, right? You have to save. You have to prepare for it. And that's
059what this board has done over the over the last uh many years that we've been all together. So, thank you. >> All right, moving on to insurance. Another fun committee. >> We We don't get the presentation either, but that'll be cool. [laughter] >> Yeah. Another another exciting committee. Ann, I'm telling you, >> first grade is to explain insurance. >> Insurance is like going to the dentist. Nobody looks forward to it, >> right? [clears throat] >> So, we did meet and um we had a good meeting. We have a new representative as well. Um, and we were able to meet them for the first time at the meeting. Open enrollment is going on currently. Um, I think our representatives were on site last week if I remember correctly. They said it was going to be last
060week and um to be with our staff and answer any questions that they had. They're still available um and you can reach out to them. Our PO and we still have high claims on our PO and um the high deductible is is much better than our PO is. We discussed that in the work session, but we've done spousal carveout. We've done all new hires um are being placed on the high deductible as of July 1st uh 2025. We've also done the dependent audit. So, we've really gone through and looked at everything that we can in that respect. Um, so >> it's difficult, I think, for everyone. Everywhere in the world right now is dealing with the health care costs. They're they're they're continuing to rise exorbitantly and but yet we're trying to control those and
061still offer our teachers a good enough, you know, compensation packet to attract the top talent. So, that's that's the balance. That's the dance of the health care. And we're lucky we are in a consortium that keeps our uh prices a little lower because we far exceeded far exceeded our uh if we were out in the open market we would be seeing 40 50 60% increases in our insurance premiums because of the uh consortium we're at capped at what 15% on that. We're seeing less no more than 15 and we're seeing in the 8 to 10 to 12 which is high when you're still talking a budget but it's nowhere near >> the 30 40 50% that because we're a small pool and that's that's the problem with you know the the number of people we
062have we're small in terms of corporations that are in these uh uh consortiums. So it it if you have a few people in your district get extremely sick or have spouses that do they can really jump your rates fast. So those are the things we're we're challenged with. So, uh, the insurance side of this is the one that I say on my personal side concerns me the most when you look at the future budget of the district. That's the one area that can really blow up a budget in a hurry. So, that'll that'll be the one of the major challenges uh, moving forward. >> Our claims on the PO are running about over 150% relative to premium. When you're there, you're in trouble. >> We had capped off, but we're trying. We hit 247% in
063the spring. That's the highest, but it's very high. >> And it not only affects us because we contribute to the insurance for our employees, but it also affects our employees, right? Because they have contribution portion to their insurance. So, so I know the staff has worked very hard to try to educate people to try to make better decisions as far as insurance goes. And and it's an educational thing. And I want to thank the insurance committee for for leading that charge because somehow we need to all work together and we need to not only look at our family but we need to look at the whole the holistic view of the whole organization because we're all paying for the uh decisions that we all individuals make. So, anything that we can do to try to
064shop around, uh, I know we're not used to shopping around for insurance, but that's what we've been trying to educate people on how that has an impact not only at the school, but also their personal finances. All right. Thank you, Ann. Thank you, Alan. Anything else on insurance? >> You have anything you wanted to add? >> No, that's fine. >> All right. Moving on to policy. Um, we reviewed nine policies. Eight of them are from the Neola update 44.1. They're all very miscellaneous things. Sometimes we have sort of common threads with the uh policies, not this time and they are all on the agenda for first reading. >> Excellent. Thank you. And then the other two uh committees didn't meet uh recently. So I don't know if we have anything scheduled for technology or economic
065development. technology that's more of a we probably need a couple times a year and probably won't need one of those till spring. Um the strategic planning, economic development, construction progress, we've kind of covered that through some of our other committees. So >> I think you had nothing on the LPDC. >> I do have LPDC. >> Oh, you do? Yeah. Can I talk about that? >> Yep. Um so the LPD local professional development committee met and those in the last meeting was October 23rd. Those in attendance, Stephanie Stoie, Laura Curts, Renee Britain, Annette Price, Robin Wagner, Abby Fitz, and Brad Weman. Four professional growth uh individual professional development plans were approved for staff. Um they also looked at uh contact hours for staff who were involved with professional development. So they approved those and they had
066requests, I won't read them all, but from all four buildings that includes teachers and administrators. Um we talked last month about an exit report for local professional development um committee members who have left the district. So, they did a revision there on that plan um for one of our former staff. Uh they also we talked about the conversion process. So, they're using the new SSDT uh software as opposed to as opposed to the kiosk. So, they're um working on that transition and um they actually by this time now because it's well after the meeting the October 21st with the transfer date. Um they talked a little bit about school psychologist. There's because it's changes at the state the um psychologist licensing board now handles a school psychologist. That's a little different for schools. So something
067that's being navigated. And then lastly on the committee they talked about the science reading that was covered a lot obviously. Um but they talked about that uh there's a fiveyear anniversary date that needs to be recognized for all the staff. So we're going to have to start getting people that that is going to be here sooner than we think. So, we're going to have to get people retrained, all the staff members on the science readings that's still required by high law. And that's a summary from the local professional development committee. >> All right. Thank you. Moving on to consent agenda. >> Resolution 25-11-227 is approval of consent agenda. >> Can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> I'll second it. >> Alan second. >> Let me go through some of these. Okay.
068Um so the first item be there for unpaid days for staff. We don't talk about the reasons for those unpaid days but we're recommending those are approved. We have resignation uh Debbie Merrill from uh JB girls basketball. You'll see she comes up later on. Uh the next resolution is for supplemental employment. So have to be recognized as resigning from JV basketball and then being approved as the varsity assistant coach for basketball. see some others there including Cow Kegley for that similar position for boys. Um next we covered pupil activity employment. So you can see all of the staff who are there to be recommended um for working in the area of athletics. Um one of the things I did talk to Aaron about is making sure we get this done timely because some of these
069sports have started already and and you know I know I have the authority to hire people before board meeting because board meetings don't always time out but I want to make sure get this done earlier. So, we talked about that sometimes through the background check process and even the state process to obtain their license or endorsement. They need it takes a little bit of time, but we're working on that. So, if you see those coming in a little later, that's that's the reason why. Um, Michael Carr continues to try and attract substitutes for cafeteria and he's done a really nice job and been pleasantly surprised this year. So, we have another substitute for food service there. Um, volunteers, we have different additional volunteers that are listed on the agenda there um for both elementary school
070and then there's some for softball actually. And then um last is the planning for the high school. I think we hit on this a little bit u with some of the tutoring. So you saw plans what I gave to you in the summary was not only what we what the board approved last year but with the expenditures where inevitably we all the students, you know, for various reasons, they can't get into the um into the tutoring. So, I gave you that expenditure report, and this is what we're projecting going forward. Um, part of that also is to cover some missing time for one of our high school teachers that was out. So, you'll see some coverage there. Um, board meeting minutes are in there. She has those ready for two meetings. That would be the
07113th and 27th of October. And lastly, we have a finance report. And I believe that's everything unless there's questions. Any questions on any of that? >> Call the RO. >> Mrs. Barter? >> Yes. >> Mr. Benson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Davis? >> Yes. >> Mr. Swagger? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> And thanks to all those coaches and volunteers and everything else. I appreciate that. >> Yep. >> Because while that we do have supplementals, I think everyone knows you put in way more hours than you'll ever get back on those. So, do appreciate the uh uh pseudo volunteerism as I'll call it. >> Yep. >> All right. Moving on to we had treasurers. >> Recommendation under resolution 25-11-228. >> Can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> I'll second. >> I'm sorry.
072I was looking ahead. Mr. >> Alan first. Y >> resolution is to approve a donation from um roof management in memory of David Denman for $5,000 for the scoreboard. And I will mention this is something we've been getting a $5,000 donation from them >> for I look back at least four years, four or five years in a row. >> Yeah. Dave passed away and in in memory of him that this company that he work ran has donated every year uh the same amount. So, it's it's a tremendous u and for those that don't know, Dave's one that kind of led the charge to get the scoreboard. Not kind of, he led the charge to get the scoreboard and and and funded uh a good portion of it and helped raise the money for the rest
073of that. And when he passed away, the his uh roofing company there has the management company has continued to donate toward upkeep and advancements of that scoreboard. Uh another $5,000 again. So, uh that that just two things. Uh Dave was quarterback of our undefeated team and that's why you see an undefeated scoreboard up there. I think he was the quarterback. I know he was on the team, wasn't he? >> He was on the team. I don't know if he was a quarterback. >> Not positive, but uh >> it's okay. Make him a quarterback. [laughter] >> But he came in and talked to us when they were doing that. So it was it was great that you know this is a guy, wasn't he living in like Denver or somewhere? He was living somewhere else >>
074and I believe it was Denver. Came back into John'stown, helped raise the funds, put that scoreboard up. So that's that's what this community means to a lot of people. That's what I enjoy is you have somebody that graduated in 72 was it? I don't know. He might have been a junior said he might have been the year after nonetheless moves out of state becomes you know >> successful but still comes back to this community to donate and then his company is still donating in his memory. So that to me is a real testament to what kind of guy Dave Denman was and also what kind of community we have here. So, uh, that that to me is, uh, more important than the dollar amount. So, I appreciate the, uh, the roof management limited, uh, to
075continue those donations. >> Well, his grandchildren still attend. >> That's correct. Yeah. >> Family in the district. >> Yeah. Still has some family here in attending. So, that's fantastic. Uh, any other comments on this? >> Call the role, please. >> Mr. Benton? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? Yes. Mrs. Brewer? >> Yes. >> Mr. Swagger? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Davis? Yes. >> Resolution 25-11-229 is early graduation. >> We can get a motion. >> A motion. >> Second. >> Um, you know, there's a lot of work that goes in for students and also staff. So, we certainly would appreciate if you'd approve these two students and then they'll be welcomed back in May for our graduation ceremonies. >> Excellent. Any questions, comments other than congratulations? >> Congratulations. Yeah, that's fantastic. Call the role, please. >> Mrs. Thomas,
076>> yes. >> Mrs. Davis, >> yes. >> Mr. Swagger. >> Yes. >> Mr. Benton? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Booard? >> Yes. >> Why don't you announce who the students were? Should we since they're actually >> I think we should announce them. >> It's Amry and Kayn. >> Yeah. Amry P and Kayn Spice. >> Yes. I just want to publicly say congratulations to them graduating early. Uh, and we hope to see you back here in May. always so careful about protecting student a but I realize it's public you know that's >> any graduation would be right but I'm just always so >> that's why I said that I was like yeah it's a public >> we put them on the entire list that comes to us we don't because we've already approved their graduation >> we've
077already approved they won't be on that further list that's why I was saying we should at least acknowledge them now >> I didn't think of that too right >> but come spring we don't read the whole list [laughter] >> correct we will not read all the >> 22 graduates here at the board meeting we will at the graduation but at the board, meaning we don't uh announce all 122 grads or whatever we're at this year. >> Um resolution 25-11-230's approval of overnight extended student trip for varsity softball. >> If I can get a motion, >> so move. >> I'll second. >> Um this has already made its way through our athletics committee. Um there's more work to be done, but at the init initial phases, um everything looks good. If the board approves this tonight
078and it allows the um softball team to start to make announcements, let you know, let the fundraising begin and and arrangements and then what we'll do is through that committee we'll bring updates about housing and transportation. The good thing is um and you referenced it earlier, we've really streamlined this process and so we have other models to work off of like we used we used last year's baseball. So, this one is really moving along nicely and I think it meets the standards it should at this point. >> What I wanted to mention to parents and future coaches out there, this current board has looked at these overnight trips out of state and we've kind of put the parameters of these of doing them every 3 years at the most. Uh, for several reasons. one, it's
079they're typically over spring break and now you're asking parents to travel on their spring break and and do a baseball or softball or basketball or whatever sport it is uh trip and there's a financial component to that for the parents because obviously they have to pay in. So we felt if we did every three years if you're on that in a sport for all four years of high school at one year of your high school you'll at least get to go on one of the trips. That's kind of the the thought process behind why we did the every three years. That way if you're a freshman and you're on and you don't get to go because it's a varsity that you know three years later you you would get to go to that. But we
080also didn't want out of state trips yearly because it's a quite an expense and burden on the kids to do. It's a lot of fun. It's great team building. I'm all for them. But at the same time yearly uh the benefit tends to uh wear down and it's a it's an extreme financial burden as well for for some of the families. So that's why we would had been looking at the different time frames of how often do you allow it per sport. And Mike, I appreciate your work on this. Uh you, you know, you you understood it, got with it, got all of our paperwork done, and and you know, the the few things out there are just minor details of working out who's going to be there, not exactly how many and that. So
081I uh I'm confident in what we're doing here. So appreciate that work. >> One of the things we're going to do is formalize that process that you talked about, too, because sometimes, >> you know, institutional knowledge is lost at certain points. So we're going to get a process behind it. I talked to our me institutional knowledge. Did you hear that? >> I appreciate that. >> Appreciate that. All right. >> I think that was the collective. [laughter] >> Um anyway, so um but we want to make sure that we have those things documented and I already asked Mr. G, our athletic director, to work on that. So >> yeah, excellent. Thank you. And and I will say that in the meeting that we had the building or um athletics and extracurricular it the committee did discuss
082the burden that is on the parents for these types of trips that when you're in school for school sports you're not thinking that it is going to have a large cost to it to go on trips things like that and also the family time during spring break holidays things like that. So um we want to be cognizant of that. It definitely did not go without notice that we wanted to keep the costs down. I know softball you fund raise um and have some fundraisers planned for keeping the costs lower on that. So, and then I know that we'd like to update that form. We talked about that some of the >> um questions on there just to >> formalize that a little bit better. So hopefully >> not to say that it's antiquated, it's just
083>> yeah, it's that whole >> things have changed and now you know we have We've alluded to it a couple times, but really the aspect of continuous improvement, right? So, we have to sometimes things work five years ago or longer and they don't currently work as much. So, >> we'll get that up. >> Well, and Tim has always said we we encourage students to be multisport. We need it. We require it. That has always been his slogan. And so, um I think that is a good point that when there's multiple sports, we've got kids in sports and in band. Um that can really add up. >> Y great facil. >> Sorry. I'm sorry. >> We have a great facility that we're preparing over here and renovating and possibly we could do something there to have
084the camps there. I realize they play other teams. That's the advantageous thing during the winter time at that time. But um no, I think there's some really creative moms and we could get that uh maybe a camp there in the off season or in the off years that you wouldn't be going out of state potentially. So, >> and we want to thank Mike for doing the fundraising, for making it financially okay for our families. So, that's a lot of extra work that he's doing, right? That's beyond being just the coach for the team. And and that's John'stown, right? Mike's been around for many years, right? Our kids were buddies years ago. >> That's right. >> And um you know, it takes special people to go beyond the scope of what their job is to try
085to watch out for the community. So, thank you very much, Mike. >> Any other questions, comments on this? >> Call the RO. >> Mrs. Ber, >> yes. >> Mrs. Davis, >> yes. >> Mr. Swagger, >> yes. >> Mrs. Thomas, >> yes. Mr. Benton, >> yes. >> Resolution 25-11-230 is a tutoring proposal. >> Can I get a motion? >> I'll motion. >> I'll second. >> Um, I started to morph into a little bit in consent, but I realized we had a separate resolution. So, anyways, um I think we talked about this in curriculum already. Um like I said before, we showed you what was projected last year and what the expenditures were. So, this gives you this is similar last year's a little bit more because of few different student needs, but you know, we'll come
086back and reconcile the board approves this about the program and also the cost. >> Y >> did we include Dr. Wagner's special pizza day at the high school that we discussed in the work session. >> No, I think that was something I was doing on my own. >> Okay. [laughter] >> We talked Well, because it's hard, right, sometimes because we were talking about ways to incentivize students to try to get them >> um you know, difficult with their schedules >> and a lot of commitments, right? >> And desire. >> Yeah. So I I was just going to add again I think Ann did a great job spearheading this idea but that curriculum committee meeting was on October 27th that we brought this up and said hey what can we do to to provide support for
087these students sooner and the fact that it has been twoish weeks and that the administrators have a plan in place at every building and staff who are going to help. I think that that's incredible. And so I just want to thank you guys because that moved really really fast. >> We have a Debbie side. So yeah, but I mean you know Jay Hatfield but you said it that day and I mean I'm just it takes a while. >> They were willing to do it. They jumped on immediately. They wanted >> Debbie and MJ jumped on that and then all the principles you know they turned that probably in about a few days. Well and the good thing is we had a model last year to build off of right. So that was good. Yeah. all
088the principles to turn that quickly, but Debbie and MJ really spearheaded that. >> I have maybe an ignorant question though on this. >> So, we have these study tables, right, during the school day before and after. Do these same tutoring help in those areas or is this different dollars? >> I don't have the answer for that. >> Oh, all right. >> Well, I think they're different dollars. >> Separate at the high school. I just wasn't sure how I know how we do it. I just didn't know if they're separate dollars, separate separate >> speifically uh targeting uh specific subjects where we have struggling kids. Um and it matches up to what we're doing for the recovery in the summer as well. So they would actually be going to the teacher's classroom that would be providing
089that uh additional >> and when does that occur? Right after school. >> Yes. The >> reason I asked this and not to sound we have >> if we have study tables there are certain teachers that are needed at those study tables and I don't want to pull too much away from the study tables at the high school and have that teacher be the tutor and then the study tables now no longer getting the needed. I just want to make sure we're covering it because those study tables you need somebody that can do a lot of different things teaching wise. >> You know I mean you have a kid that may be behind in three different subjects. >> Mr. Shipton's back now. Maybe he could speak to >> I don't want to speak to Mr. Bumbok
090can do everything and what what room's he in? You know what I mean? Like that's I don't know if you you heard my question is is the tutoring after school that we're approving tonight and I'm all for it. It's not that question. Study tables after if we have the tutor and the students are going to their room for just say math but a lot of times that same person was the one that was doing the study tables. How's that work? Are we back filling? I want to make sure the study tables don't suffer by having the tutors separately pulled out. >> Michael, will you come up and use the mic? Sorry. Just because then people won't be able to hear it on the recording otherwise. >> And the good thing is we have last year's
091model to build off of too. So you can talk on >> and I'm just not aware how it worked. That's why I was asking. >> No, that's a great >> I think it's on the mic itself. >> Should be on the mic. >> The tutoring is a separate entity altogether. So we aren't using both or using the same teacher for both. >> So does it occur at the same time though? Does the the tutoring >> they occur at the Well, no. Study table. Well, yes, in the afternoon, but study tables we do an AM and PM. So we do before school for study tables as well as after school for study tables. The tutoring program at the high school this year, just like last year will be after school. So, who's all doing the tutoring
092in the how are you handling study study tables, I guess, would be my question because a lot of those I'm assuming a lot of our tutors are the folks that used to do the study tables as well. Uh, we have in the past our tutoring um teachers that are doing tutoring are the teachers that are in those and of course exams are Ohio State tested areas, content areas. So, biology, um, ELA 2, geometry, and algebra 1. This year, um, most of our study table teachers are not I'm trying to think. We have Emmy, you're one, right? >> Yeah, >> she's >> that's the only one I can think of. Yeah. >> Mindy Thomas. >> But kids can leave the tutoring session. >> Okay. That's my concern. I mean, not to >> count as >> and
093those teachers are not on the same day. So, you know, if Minnie if Minnie Thomas is if she's doing tutoring twice a week, um she would do Monday, Wednesday, but I think her day is Friday afternoon or Friday morning. So, we're they're not the same days. So, that was the expectation. >> You've got a a kid that's at study table because he's failing a math or, you know, got a below grade in math, but he's not going to the tutor. I want to make sure at least one or two days a week at those study tables they have somebody that is math inclined at least being in that room. >> Absolutely. No. And and that we strategically I strate strategically picked our our end of course teachers um or at least offered them first the
094those not all of them accepted but but the majority of them did. Um and we use a co-eing model as well. So we have two teachers in there at one time. So that that helps. >> Yeah. It helps with my >> it helps with that. I have backend data if you want more. I'm just careful not to share specific student. That's good, Michael. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> But what we do this more targeted. So, um Debbie and MJ put this together, but for K3 students, so they're looking at the 60th percentile um at or below. So, they're trying to target there and they're looking at that in their MAP assessments. They also look at through the Acadians program you heard about today. So, the reading intervention plans, they have that. And
095then we're also I I know we talked at curriculum. We still don't have all the state data back. I've never seen it back this late. So it just goes through at every school I have that if you ever want more detail because this is more targeted though is what it is. Nothing in study tables but sometimes you're talking about more >> like general study um executive function type of things. This is actually you know I have more specific I got pages of this. I just didn't give you all the details on this because I didn't know if you want to know this. But again same thing at at the immediate 60th percentile map. They're looking at the rims. Again, that's Aadians middle school. They're looking at um students. They're looking at some of the value
096added data to see who are projected to pass um those students who meet expected growth and those who don't. And they're using the MAP testing. They're also using some of our curriculum testing for ELA and science they've adopted. And then as Michael said, um looking at at um at risk students there, MAP, looking Ohio State testing. And then we also look at um some of the end of course exams. So students at or um less than a 700 proficiency. So, we have more targeted. >> Yeah, >> I I'm all forward. I just I didn't know the nuances of that. And then I did have one more question on study tables. >> Uh go ahead. >> When when I know we do it for our student athletes, >> extracurriculars, what do we do with the students
097that aren't in an extracurricular? You know, I know they send a list down each week to the at the high school. If your your student athletes not meeting those criteria for that week, they'll get so many minutes, you know what I mean, of of study tables. What happens to the non student athlete, the non-extracurricular students? What are we reaching even if we're not mandating it? I know I get it that we can the student athletes are a little easier to catch uh and make them stay after. What are we doing for the non- studentent athletes? That's that's this targeted list. These are the kids we're we're trying to get. >> But is that weekly? Like the study tables are weekly. You know what I mean? Weekly. >> Tell you exactly. So in each of the
098buildings, they have schedules set up. So like at the high schools are starting November 10th. They're going through April 7th after school from 2:30 to 3:30. >> Okay. >> I have schedules. I can share this with the board. They're going to do two days a week. Some of that's contingent upon the staff and their availability. Like you heard sometimes people will double between study tables and this. I'll get you a copy of this. It' be good because I know we mandate the study tables. I don't know that we are we're not mandating tutoring but we're strongly encouraging >> and it's always hardest to try. >> That's and not that >> our kids that are most vulnerable to not passing the ones that are in our athletics their coaches are on them. You know most of
099those kids are going to be pushed. It's the ones that aren't in one of those groups. And if their uh parental backing is not there, let me put it that way. How are we getting them as best we can other than, you know, that's my biggest concern is if >> if someone's not making them go and and then if they don't choose to go, how are what can we do? I want to make sure we're doing everything we can to get those kids the tutoring that they need. Uh because we can't mandate them. We don't have the I don't want to sound like we don't have the hammer of you can't play sports if you don't you know do your study tables. What can we do to make sure they're getting their tutoring? >> Some
100of it in the early grade levels we even try to take some >> other instructional time and dedicate to that and then like so at the elementary they'll do that but then they also can go after school as long as we can arrange you make arrangements with parents so that can be from 3:30 to 4:30. >> Um at the intermediate school they're trying to do before school. that has gone pretty well with some families like we questioned that last year and then parents will drop off on the way drop off earlier. >> Yeah. So, and then sometimes same thing they're trying to recapture um some of the time in the day. So, there could be another 30 minutes there. It's not a perfect science as you know um at the middle school they're um after
101school and then they're also trying to get some of the embedded time if you can. So, if you have an elective maybe we could take some of that time. >> Well, that's what I was wondering. in high school. Do we try to, you know, as you know, I'm I'm familiar with some of the kids that are struggling up there and I was trying to figure out how do we >> motivate them to attend that tutoring. >> Part of the our budget, my budget proposal for uh after school tutoring this year was um incentive based. Um, so we um have actually today we had um a local uh partner uh come in and a local business in town here come in and give us I think 75 um gift cards. >> Oh, excellent. >> Uh to
102use to plus we're also providing uh drinks and snacks as well which again if you have a high schooler teenager uh like I do um you know >> right to them >> right to the stomach. Absolutely. So that's what we do. So th those are little things. I I order Gatorade. We have snacks. We have uh Amos famous cookies. We have all those type of things to try to try to entice them for an hour after school. Um I did send home um formal letters to all those at risk students that we've already identified this first quarter. So for for tutoring. So we'll have a total of 34 sessions. So from now until April. >> So we'll get them. >> I just want to make sure we can get them as many. And this is
103one of the reasons I've been a strong proponent of every kid in our district participating in an extracurricular because that also gives us some extra leverage uh over the academic side. So if we can get every kid to participate in an extracurricular wherever it is, that certainly gives us a little more leverage to to get that child through uh the educational side. So okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Absolutely. And the beauty of the high school is the major I mean I would say in the 90 percentile are in some sort of extracurricular whether it's club or athletics or choir or band or whatever. So >> some of the things that aren't detailed here is we try to get with parents a lot of times too and sometimes we have to have formal meetings
104with them. You know it's a tough discussion but you say based on this current level of performance there's a chance your child may not be able to be promoted to next grade level and those are tough conversations but we try to have a tiered approach to it. >> Yeah. >> Excellent. Do you think it would help if um Craig posted something out there on the Johntown Facebook page of the schedule that they're doing the tutoring? >> Um we could do that. I think what I'm going to rely on primarily be the principles giving it through their newsletters too. But yeah, we can look at we can chase that with some social media. >> Just a thought. >> I have a high school student. I don't know. I don't hear anything. I mean not to if
105it's not in your newsletter every time he comes home and say, "How was school today?" You know what I mean? Like I don't get any there's no feedback in high school. >> At least with my kid and every kid that he hangs around with. >> You're not going to get told any they're not going to tell you that there's tutoring after school. So if I don't see it, I'm not going to know about it. >> And I think Craig does a really good job and he has quite a quite a following out there. I think that would be one way to try to reach um the community. I mean, somebody will see that and >> possibly get their kid to tutoring that needs to go or suggest it. I I was the same way. My
106my never told me when there was extra help at all and uh uh trying to get them to go. If he'd been given anus cookies or anything, he he'd have been there. [laughter] >> I did put out an email. >> Excellent. >> That's great. I appreciate it. >> I know that everybody does their best to get the kids to these tutoring sessions. I do want to mention I was in his office last week and I did not get a famous Amos cookie. Although >> early Mr. Groves had one. I just didn't get one. >> Yes, clearly >> they may be baking them. >> Oh, right. [laughter] Right. All right. Enough on that. Uh, if we could call the role. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Davis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Benton? >>
107Yes. >> Mrs. Buer? >> Yes. Mr. Swagger. >> Yes. >> Resolution 25-11-232 is approval of settlement, waiver, and release agreement as presented. >> Can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> And a second. >> A second. >> Didn't put a lot of detail in there because it's confidential, you know, but I wanted you to make sure that um put that in front of you to vote on tonight. >> Any questions, comments on this? >> Call the RO. >> Mrs. Ber, >> yes. >> Mrs. Thomas, >> yes. Mr. Benton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Swagger. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Davis. >> Yes. >> Resolution 25-11-233 is approval of guaranteed maximum price amendment number three with Robertson construction. >> Can I get a motion? >> So move. >> I'll second. I'll read the whole or larger part
108of the resolution. So, it helps to approve the GMP or guarantee maximum price amendment number three to the uh CMR construction manager risk agreement with Robertson Construction Services Incorporated for the district improvements project and authorizing negotiation and execution of the amendment by the board president, superintendent, and treasur work in condu conjunction with other administrators and legal counsel. >> Any questions, comments on this? >> All the role >> Mr. Venton. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mr. Swagger. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Davis. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ber. >> Yes. [clears throat] >> Resolution 25-11234. Second reading of revised policies. >> Can I get a motion? >> I'll make the motion. >> And a second. >> I'll second it. >> Any questions, comments on any of these? We all received these last week to go
109over. >> I didn't have any. >> Policy committee has gone through all. >> Yeah, policy obviously went through them. Anything additional >> and these are the second readings so they would become official. >> Yeah, these become that's why I was asking more on these. These become official after. Yeah. >> Okay. Call the role, please. >> Mrs. Davis, >> yes. >> Mr. Benton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ber, >> yes. >> Mrs. Thomas, yes. Mr. Swagger, >> yes. >> Resolution 25-11-235 is second reading to resend policies. >> Can I get a motion? >> I'll make the motion >> and a second. >> I'll second it. As a reminder with these, if a policy needs more than one revision, we just resend it and then if it's still an active policy, we'll bring it back in its new
110form. >> I was just going to say that. >> I'm sorry. >> No, that's all right. You were so excited to explain that. >> Man, he really likes the policy committee of [laughter] >> It's an exciting time, is it? >> Good reminder. >> Who doesn't like to miss work with Mr. >> Boozenberg, huh? >> He's got it all organized. >> It's an exciting time. >> He is organized. I will say that. You ever see his dry erase, non-dry erase board? Yes. >> Yeah. There's no eras in that. >> Just permanent marker erase dry erase board. >> Yes. Uh any questions, comments on this? Call the role, please. >> Mrs. Davis? >> Yes. >> Mr. Benson? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ber? >> Yes. >> Mr. Swagger? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Resolution 25-11-236,
111second reading of replacement policies. >> Can I get a motion? >> I'll make the motion >> and a second. >> I'll second it. >> Okay. Yeah, I won't explain this because maybe someone else will want to say something about this segment of the >> What are second reading replacement policies? >> Well, that's a good question. >> Because we rescended the previous four, they were rescended because they had more than two updates that had passed. So, instead of correcting and making all of that, we just uh we just replaced them with new policies. >> So, those aren't going away. They just have new ones. >> Thank you. Any questions, comments? Call the RO, please. >> Mrs. M Davis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Benton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Swagger. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >>
112Mrs. Ber. >> Yes. >> Resolution 25-11-237, second reading of new policies. >> Can I get a motion? >> I'll make a motion. >> And a second. >> I'll second it. >> Any questions on the uh one policy here? >> Call the RO. >> Mrs. Davis? >> Yes. >> Mr. Benton? >> Yes. >> Mr. Swagger? Yes, >> Mrs. Board. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Resolution 25-11-238, first reading, revised policies. >> Can I get a motion? >> Make the motion >> and a second. >> I'll second it. >> Any questions, comments on these? Call the role. >> Mrs. Davis? >> Yes. >> Mr. Benton? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Thomas? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Barker? >> Yes. >> Mr. Swagger? >> Yes. Any uh board comments? >> We're good. Superintendent comments. >> I've got a few things.
113Um tomorrow, Veterans Day and quite a few celebrations. Um it starts in the morning. Calendar starts in the morning. middle school, high school have a combined um event and it'll start at 8 am and then there's a social or get together at 9:00 am um at the performing arts center and then at 10:30 the intermediate school will start their Veterans Day celebration and then at 1:00 we'll have veteran celebration for at the elementary school. Let it go on sometime so if you can't make it um I know everyone's busy and then we'll make sure to capture that. Mr. McDonald always does a nice job. We'll certainly recognize our veterans and how important they are to the community. >> I'll tell you one of the things, this will be our think first time celebrating since we
114got all Purple Star Commission. So, that's kind of nice. There's not a lot of school districts I know in the area that have all four of their schools >> um recognized as Purple Star. So, that's great. Um, football playoffs obviously they sadly ended on Friday, but we certainly want to celebrate our our team. And um, one of the things that will happen is that we will have um in the December meeting, we'll recognize all the fall sports. So, we'll make sure and Mr. G will have that ready for us, okay? Including football. So, >> I did want to mention there on that football playoff game, uh, for those that didn't know, the band had a >> issue there on the way there. The wheel fell off of the trailer. The band instruments were stuck at
115270 and Route Three. The band was there, but the instruments were not. And a lot of parents stepped up, drove back to basically the Kohl's parking lot at Route Three and 270 there. Got all the instruments, drove them out, and got them there just in time so our band could play the halftime show. That's a really, really, really uh dedicated group of parents when we look at the band to drive all that way uh and to do those things. So, >> well, they rented a U-Haul in the middle of >> Yeah, they rented a U-Haul. >> I mean, literally, the kids were running on >> How is the U-Haul place still open? I That's what I thought was amazing. Like, they usually close at 5. I thought that was amazing. >> It was really The
116kids were running on running onto the field. >> I saw that video and parents were putting together the instruments right there. It was the kids were grabbing. >> No warm-ups, but you wouldn't have known, you know. >> No, not at all. >> It's great to be a part of this community. >> I pointed out to everyone, Jesse, that you were supposed to tighten the lug nuts and grease the the zer fittings, but clearly Clearly that work had not occurred. That was my prior job. But you know, >> falling off. >> The wheels are already falling off. Three days into it, the wheels are falling off. Literally, [laughter] >> it was funny if nothing else. At least you get it. Uh, no, it was fun. The team really worked. I mean, right up to the final
117play, we got tackled at the one yard line trying to score. I mean, that's a dedication of our kids. They didn't give up. even though you know that game at the end we we're down 21 points but we're still trying to score right up to the final play. So that's what coach Carter brings to this district is that determination. If you talk to any of those kids I know you know you'll hear how much the football team does this and that and they work and it's 247 but every kid on that team would run through a brick wall for that coach hands down. Every single one of them. That's a that's a coach that has the dedication of every kid on that team. no matter what level they're at, whether they see the field or
118not, they're all dedicated. Uh not just there. I mean, a lot of lot of difference, but we're building character. We're not just building, you know, we're trying to win games. We're trying to win playoffs. We're trying to win state championships, but at the end of the day, we're building young men. That's what Coach Carter brings to it. And that's the that's the dedication that we have there. And it was on display. It really was. So, I do appreciate uh everything that obviously the football team put in, but all the band parents that showed up and and went back and got those instruments. That was pretty neat to see them. I mean, they were running on the field, barely getting their instruments, trying to grab them as are, you know, getting out to do a halftime
119show and, you know, we put on one heck of a show. So, uh, that was good to see the fact that the kids don't panic, that Mr. Zerelli doesn't panic. Yeah, there's a panic inside, but outside they're not showing it. So, uh, that that was great to see. >> Um, varsity shows coming up. It'll be Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We weren't sure about that. Zillies are always well organized, but if we'd have made the playoffs, we would have adjusted for that. They had a plan B, so that'll go as as scheduled. So, we look forward to that annual event. We already talked about fall sports, so I can skip that. Um, can you look at your calendars? Uh the de uh the December board meeting is scheduled for December 8th. And because of our building
120projects um and we need some the bidding process, I'm looking at not even um December 15th, but the week of December 15th. And I know sometimes we've been able to hold meetings on a Thursday. I wonder, checking your travel plans and all, would you be available on Thursday, December 18th at 5:00 PM if we were to hold the board meeting then instead of the December 8th meeting? >> I'm available. >> I already had a hold for that. Yeah, I did too. >> I think we talked about I've got it circled. >> So, we're gonna we're going to to cancel the regular meeting and just have >> we'll postpone the December 6th and move it to the 18th. >> Yeah, the December 8th. Move it to the 18th. >> December 8th. Yep. >> Or the eth
121amendment to the 18th. >> Yep. >> If that works, everyone's schedule first. It's just what what's happening next. Like tonight, you approve the guarantee maximum price as an updated or amendment. Next, we have bidding that's coming in. You know, we're well deep into that process and I want to make sure that we get some cost from the vendors and Robertson will help us organize that. And we that information because there's a a window that needs to be recognized. It won't be um we won't have it ready or won't be ready, I should say, by December 8th. Um, Martha, do you know your availability? >> I don't. Yeah. Good. >> Okay. You'll check. >> I didn't make a phone call today. >> Okay. >> But I can tell you >> everyone else. >> I think it'll
122be fine. >> Okay. We're okay. >> I have a meeting in downtown till 4. >> Okay. >> An hour to get out here should be fine. >> Okay. All right. So, I will move the board meeting, unless I hear differently to Thursday, December 18th. I think it'll be here. I have to check with Theresa on the schedule and all too, but we'll do that. Um, December 18th. So, watch for the I'll send you an invite. Okay. And that's all I have for updates unless there's any questions from the board. Uh nothing any questions for anyone questions. >> Going once. Can I get a motion to adjourn? >> A motion >> and a second. >> I'll second. >> Call the role. >> Mrs. Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Davis. >> Yes. >> Mr. Venton. >> Yes.
123>> Mrs. Blorth. >> Yes. >> Mr. Swab. >> Yes. Motions to adjourn. 6:41. Thank you. >> Are you going to the Veterans Day activities tomorrow? >> I am too. Um, but I wasn't sure I wasn't sure if Alan could go, but >> I can. >> Okay, good. >> I wasn't sure that if Alan could go, but um, he can. Does he need to RSVP to anyone? >> Okay. He wasn't sure he was going to get to go. >> Well, we're politicking. Um, we're politic. Uh, I don't leave till the 22nd if we need to. >> Okay. It'll give him a