001[Music] e e for indivisible andice kind of hard to get back into the swing of things such as wonderful start to the meeting hope I wish we could do that every time um next we'll move on to the adoption of the agenda do I have a motion for that second Mr can miss catburger m hi M hi M hi M hi thank you next we have approval of minutes to have a motion all in favor motion pass next we'll move on to the superintendent report good evening again president president joh board members Mr Z it is my pleasure to invite to the podium our high school principal Jo good evening super with MERS we do have res tonight unfortunately she was not feeling well so um her name is's fantastic so I wanted to mention
002her name to recognize her tonight um so we'll be moving directly presentation uh just to review the building goals of L High School one of the things we're continuing to work on and always want to work on is equity and access to all curriculum for all our students so um we're really focused on our datadriven decision making and how we're offering curriculum and what that looks like for every student in our school and then continuing to focus on our four-year graduation rate um so those are active goals that we're working on we're very proud of where we've gone with both of these things and we just want to continue to um improve those so our vision of a Lakewood Ranger to tonight you're going to hear from two different groups um from the high school
003we have many classes programs Pathways that promote many of the competencies all of the compet competencies of our vision of Lakewood Ranger um growth mindset being one of them collaboration so one of the things that's really revamped this year for us is the Lakewood times um the yearbook they're doing some new and exciting things that we're very excited about um also our music programming and how they are continuing to change and create great students within our schools so we're going to hear from both of them um first I'd like to call up Abriana Hines and she's going to talk about um the Lakewood times in the yearbook hi everybody thank you for for having me um so my name is Abriana and I'm a junior here at Lakewood High School I this is my first
004year a part of the Lakewood times but it's a very special one for everybody that's in it this year because this really is our first year sort of re revamping and revitalizing the program and what it means to us here I say that because well we have a new logo um and aside from that we also have a new adviser Miss katano has taken over the program and we kind of have had some some new things added to that so this is just kind of a slideshow going through it we've done so to start off there's been a lot of opportunity this year within this class um we have two periods during our school day that it's offered so that makes up probably about 40 kids taking it um but from the very beginning we
005were going on field trips so miss Gano found us an opportunity to go to Ken State University and while we were here we attended the Ohio Scholastic media Association conference and in this this setting we got to meet with professional journalists and various people in public media we got to take classes with them and just learn a lot and and spent a day with other student journalists which was really really important for making our our articles here in our yearbook what they are now our second field trip was shortly after that it was um in downtown right near playoff Square it's called the City Club and here we got to meet with other local and public journalists and we had got to have a conversation with them just kind of about the importance of Journalism
006um some areas that it's lacking ways that students can continue to regrow it in the future um especially for those planning to go into a career in journalism so that was very very eye openening and while we were in downtown Cleveland right next door is the idea stream building and so we got to go in tour it um and it was very cool um we got to see some podcast making which I'll bring up later and um a few other really cool media things happening right in downtown Cleveland so moving on from opportunity it was very important for us to set goals early on right because this is a new program it's very very student run so it's important to have um kind of just ways to go by things and really just set goals
007for ourselves so one of those first things was just genuine yearbook creation and yearbook sales we want students to see themselves in this yearbook it's going to be a way for them to look back and kind of have a little artifact of high school it's very important and it's kind of easy to forget about that with so much digital things now right but that physical yearbook is so important and so our goal this year is just to get as many people in it as we possibly can we want we want the whole school right we want everybody to open it up and see themselves in it and with that we want people to get it as well we want people to purchase their own have their yearbook um to keep with them forever another thing
008with that was attending events so um my friend Abby and I actually got to go to one of the um Early Elementary task force planning meetings and there we got to kind of just interview um various community members and and just talk about what was going on which was a really um cool event to go to and write about um and then learning how to podcast so this is something completely new to Lakewood High School we've never done a podcast before as well as the students involved so miss katano got in contact with somebody from the Buckeye flame which is just uh basically like a public podcast in Ohio and one of the guys from that podcast has been coming out every Friday morning helping us teaching us giving us tips things like that so
009it's been so cool to have his help um and assistance and then finally one of our our other really big goals was gaining a following we wanted families in Lakewood to be able to access these articles and these yearbook pages in an easier way um so we're sharing on Instagram Facebook and we have gained a pretty pretty high following so that way our community memb mbers are able to really see this this art centralized in a different place so next up um once you set goals right you got to achieve stuff so these are some of our really big achievements of this year um first I want to point out the awards so back in like the late '90s believe it or not the Lakewood times was winning Awards so our students here they were
010writing amazing articles and pieces that were being featured and highlighted we opened up a cabinet just recently and there was like 10 physical like trophies in there from lakid times students so seeing that like kind of gave us inspiration we were like why can't we be doing that right because we have amazing writers here all throughout so in that picture um that's freshman Roco a wad and he actually just recently won his fourth award um and and that's not an easy thing to do this is through a program called snow it's kind of like an uh Nationwide like school media program for students to submit their pieces to and he's won his fourth piece he does a lot of review articles so that's another thing that I want to stress is l times is not
011just Central Lakewood we allow students to write about things that they're passionate about things that they're focused on whether it be in or out of their community and I think that's really powerful it it can encourage you to to join and write about what you feel important and that's what he's done and he's won awards for it um another one of our really big achievements has has just been publication in general you can see on the right there that's kind of what our Instagram page looks like so we kind of take a screenshot of every article that we publish um those are the headlines those are the big stories and you can see the diversity in what we're publishing we have stories about um westore classes sports like music I mean it ranges from everything
012and then those column like feature stories as well so our publication has been a really big achievement for us and now we're at the point where we're pretty much rolling out an article every day which is amazing um because we're getting that exposure and and we're letting community members see what we care about um cartoons have been a really big thing we have a student um senior Vincent shell he's been uh he's super into graphic design so we're allowing him to take his skills from that and bring it into this area and that's so cool to see um that's Abby and I again uh our first article actually of the whole year for this new Lakewood times was with congresswoman Shantel Brown this was such an amazing experience we got to partner with um the
013women in politics here at Lakewood High School go to their event I believe it was in September or October um and here we got to actually do a super quick impromptu interview with her which was amazing um and so we got to write about that and that was how we rolled out the year and then finally our first podcast release this came out um um and of February and so that was just it was so eye- openening for us um learning how to edit learning how to talk through this podcast meeting with people and I have a little clip for everybody to hear a little sample from um our podcast this is called The Archives the goal of this podcast is to uncover all that little hidden Lakewood history that we have um in the
014high school in the other various buildings and just in the community and so for this podcast specifically we were talking about the L room if you look back you can see that L over there on the wall it's much more than just an L um this used to be in a room that we had here at the high school called the L room before our building was um redone and it meant a lot to the students so this is a a little 30 second clip but against that wall in the new cafeteria is really the only thing left from the L room the L room the L room the L room yeah in fact I'm just thinking now I think the last photograph of me as a student in Lakewood High School was in the
015L room I love the L room absolutely love it I think that's the spirit of the L room was just socializing with your your buds yeah yeah absolutely that's the best memory of it what happened to the [Music] Alum yeah so that is a 30 second clip of actually the hourong episode um it's a bit long for our first one but we had so much to share and actually the music in that was made by Abby Kovach she just kind of made it herself and so you can see like how we're taking aspects of everything thing and turning this into a student run right we we're taking what we're good at and we're kind of putting it all together and it's so beautiful um we're planning on releasing a podcast every month so you can
016expect one at the end of March so next up I just want to share some realities so we set the goals we made the achievements right but we are still seeing these realities happening every day these I just took some pictures from our articles right so our students are going out they are the ones getting the pictures and you can just see the diversity again in what we are covering so we have feature stories we have buildings in Lakewood students are going in and uncovering like what is this building what is it what is it doing in Lakewood why is it important um we have a student that loves traveling and so she writes about the the different places that she's been encouraging other students to do the same um you can see a student
017with a cat I believe her and a friend went to um an animal shelter and and interviewed some people there we talk about what students are wearing we talk about um the music programs just anything that is Lakewood is going to be featured here because we have a little a little piece in everyone that cares about something different and then finally to end it our theme for the yearbook this year is that Lakewood is more right and so taking that idea I think that we can really apply it to the liid times we are more than just a group that's writing we're more than just a group making the yearbook we are trying to bring the community to a space where they can see themselves they can see others that they care about and kind
018of make this this thing work so it's about collaboration it's about learning creating getting to know one another those are some pictures of our staff kind of bonding over making the yearbook um I believe they had like a Thanksgiving little get together meal um that's Abby and I on the bus of one of the field trips and then just some more publication I think that speaking from me personally as a student um I'm so happy to be representing the lake of times tonight it's meant so much to me to be able to work with my my student my fellow like peers on this but also just see all the opportunity in journalism I'm very interested in it and so this has been just absolutely amazing and so in true journalistic fashion I'm going to tell
019everybody to go visit the L of times.net go listen to our podcast um get the yearbook and read our articles yeah that's it thank you well she's amazing um so that is the first half of our presentation and now we will be bringing up our music department members Dr henkins Mr dandron and Miss Brooks hello uh I'd like to start by saying thank you for having us and also happy music in our schools month and a special thank you to Owen Hill and Samantha Perry for singing for us before the music started that was a little preview from our musical we open in less than a month so please come see us and now I'll hand it over to to Mr Michael dandron hello um I just wanted to uh say thank you so much
020for letting us speak today uh we're super excited to share some of the goings on in the performing arts department um so I'm Mike dander and I'm one of the orchestra directors on alongside Dr henkins um I wanted to talk about uh Clint steinbrunner the high school band director uh developed an educational program that we are all using called music Mastery um this has students submitting a recording once a week of excerpts udes exercises scales or completing an assignment like U Theory or site reading Factory uh teachers then can provide weekly feedback to each student um and they they either pass or are asked to try again um or they set up an appointment with a teacher to help work on that skill each assignment assigns with OD standards and we have data on every
021student on which standards they have mastered or are continuing to work on uh this program has allowed us to include new standards in our curriculum uh they're learning about copyright law uh we're comparing art and music uh they get to compose and improvise and improvise um and it includes social and political events in history and how musicians have reacted to those events um in addition to that can I just oh my gosh I'm not talking to this uh Middle School and High School choir had 33 students participate and an honors did I steal your no you're you're doing great in an honors Ensemble uh Orchestra had 17 students who participated in an honors Ensemble band had 15 students uh total there were 65 students who performed in Oma Middle School honors that's our ninth graders
022Oma District 4 honors uh Cleveland contemporary Youth Orchestra Cleveland wind Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra Youth Orchestra so our students are doing some great things yes all right um so next I'm going to talk about our music Honor Society and that is called trim it stands for modern music Masters this is our second official year we did a halfe pilot um three years ago to see if there was any interest at the school um there was quite a bit of Interest because now we have 55 active members right now raging from 9th to 12th grade and the students organize and they perform and they do service and um our most recent service project was in December they performed and organized brought food to a community concert at the Cove Center in Lakewood in December and the
023audience loved it and they said when can you come back and the kids were like all the time they're just so excited to get out into the community and give back through music um we hosted a February recital and they're looking to do two more next year and members are currently planning for a spring beach bash to invite our incoming ninth graders up to the high school as a nice end of the year party where there's karaoke and games and they just kind of get to see the music Wing so it's not so frightening when they're coming up here next year uh there's also Orchestra buddies that happen with fifth graders where they offer free lessons at LHS on Thursday afternoons and they do get um trium credit for that but that is through the
024Orchestra program but it's still pretty cool that they can take the service that they're doing in their programs and apply it to this very important um opportunity I also want to point out the service that um we as directors take part in um I currently serve as the chair for the um Ohio music educator Association diversity Equity inclusion and access committee so that's a Statewide thing um this is my fifth year serving in that capacity Clinton steinbrunner is the president-elect for District 4 Oma and um Beth henkins is the orchestra Affairs chair for Oma and she just completed her service on the um National Association for music education National Orchestra committee so we encourage service in our students but we also try to walk the walk as well as talk the talk I'll talk into
025this because that looked fun um some of the other things that have happened here at Lakewood High School um is we have been participating in a number of master classes and Clinics including a recent performance with a Grammy winner who came to us and asked for this angelene Chang leise a professional Boke Orchestra comprised of Obin and New York City musicians has been coming and doing a chamber orchestra clinic for the whole year as a result we just purchased $12,000 of Baroque bows the marching band uh had a clinic with Dr Andrew Macker and STA and the staff work the mar with the marching band from BW uh Professor from BW Dr Jamie lur L what is it lurcher lurcher uh worked with symphonic mix choir and symphonic trouble choir Cleveland State band director Dr
026Burch Browning has worked with the LHS Ensemble Case Western Reserve Dr Horath worked with the symphony orchestra and the Oma trustee and West Lake band director Hillary patri came and worked our syonic band the department K through 12 as of July 4th will have given 109 concerts this school year9 that does not include runouts it does not include when the string quartet goes to an elementary school or the chamber choir goes to a senior center or the jazz band goes to a business and plays that does not include the dozens of students who have participated in Solen ensembles this is what our students and our directors are are seen and heard by community members and Beyond of how we represent the Lakewood city schools in this music department in addition to these 109 concerts we
027have just in this department raised $38,000 this year alone to help fund our program this is a snapshot of what happens every year at the Lakewood High School music dep department and today we are fortunate to be considered leaders in the state and nationally I thank you for your support and your interest and we look look forward to submitting a thorough report hopefully this can become a yearly thing because it is music in our schools one um to the Administration overviewing our K through2 progress in honor of new Ander School month thank [Applause] you and that's all any questions wow that's W I just want I mean I'm so happy to sorry I'm so happy to see the um re energizing in the journalism program Lakewood has a history of really excellent journalism and you
028moving into there couldn't be a more important time in our country for journalism that tells the truth reflects what's going on so I'm thrilled and we were at Garfield the other day and they had started a newspaper there and they're Enthusiast so you're going to have a good crap coming up so um that and then as far as the um music just seeing that the gifts of the music department and the students here are shared with the community is phenomenal because music brings joy and it's again it's a time in our lives where I think we can use more joy so thank you for that so thank you all wonderful I'm really happy to see the times expanding too um I I'm familiar with the times um I took like it was online journalism at
029the time which like now my God that's all you would do um but it's it's really good to see it going in different facets and I'm very excited to listen to that podcast I spend a lot of time in the El room W uh yeah I was thank you so much for such a wonderful detailed uh report on what you guys are doing I think it agreed with so it's so important I am glad you made a visit to the City Club they do amazing things and I hope that we continue to have uh students from um uh Lakewood High School go there your group and others because um I know they frequently welcome high school students there and it's just a really wonderful opportunity um and uh thanks again to the music department for
030your presentation I was lucky to attend a couple of those Oma concerts and it's really amazing to see what what's going on there's some beautiful performances so uh and I know that's just a drop in the bucket of the 100 I'm not sure how many of as I meant to made it to but there it's just really some beautiful things going on so thank you for all of those efforts really and thank you for the wonderful way this meeting started as I said it would be we would welcome that every all the time okay all right thank you uh and finally I'd like to invite up to the podium our athletic director Mr [Applause] robsa thank you very much um thank you superintendent nids wikii Treasurer Zan president katzenberger vice president Shany and distinguished board
031members I've been invited here again um to recognize the efforts some of our amazing student athletes and the coaches that help them achieve their goals this year uh before I bring the coach up I I do want to say something about Zena on a personal note so Zena has been a salt member with me for the last three years um I've spent a lot of this is going to sound really weird but I spent a lot of time in the white van driving Zena to elementary schools to read to second graders and we get a you know you hear the conversations between teenage students and they're always oh I'm missing such and such in class I'm so excited we get to go get Chipotle afterwards and all Zaya ever talks about is her family uh
032almost to the point where it's like you you can't love your family as much as you say you do but she does uh I hear about her baby sister and then now her her older brother nine-year-old brother is going to be the next heavyweight state champion in wrestling so beyond all the accolades that Russ is going to talk about she's just a tremendous young lady who cares so deeply about her family and in the community so we'll go on now so two years ago when I came into this District the girls wrestling team had a handful of girls but they had tremendous young ladies in terms of leadership and Community they've helped our coaches recruit our hallways and build not only the numbers but the mindsets required for this grueling sport coach Clarity and Coach
033Germaine Have Been instrumental in their development but having leaders like Zay in the program helps to breed a culture of excellence in his two years at the elm Helm coach Germaine has guided three wrestlers to the state championships so we expect a lot more from him in the future with that let me introduce head wrestling coach Russ [Applause] Germain uh two wrestlers to the state Jillian two different wrestlers yes I just wanted to make sure that was clear so thank you board thank you superintendent for having us and uh today is about celebrating Zena she is an incredible young woman uh overall wins I just want to start off with that 129 I believe uh in her four years um I don't have all the history of of Lakewood wrestling but she is a state
034qualifier four times so fresh all the way through high school and a state Placer three times third place a fifth place and a second place this year um absolutely amazing and this whole time with all the if you've never seen a wrestling practice I invite you all down throw some sweat pants on it's like getting into a fight every day for a couple hours and uh it's just amazing to watch the all the girls but Zaya just go at it and work hard this whole time while maintaining a 4.0 GPA um and she's in the health careers program the nursing portion just doing uh incredible things and and hopefully next year we can get her to coach with us a little bit CU I hate to not have a montaser in the room I can
035wait for her brother to come up but i' like to keep her as long as possible but she has done just absolutely amazing things if you haven't seen any of her matches at States you can go to our Instagram and I'm not on it very much so I don't know exactly Lakewood wrestling but uh get on there and watch the matches it's just fun absolutely fun to watch and uh again she is an Absolut amazing young lady and she will be missed this year [Applause] Zena congratulations Zena uh for your athletic accomplishments your scholar athlete accomplishments and obviously for your wonderful family who do you have with you here tonight I have my my mom is here with me tonight yeah well great I think we mom you want to come up oh a lot
036of my my my uh fellow wrestlers are here too y [Applause] maybe all the kids to the other wrestlers want a picture with her up by the Yeah photo opportunity [Music] Mr Jermaine do you want to be yeah coach you should go up there too you know sometimes presentation just kind of fall into themselves but really journalism music and our athletes are our female athletes tonight really truly represents everything you can do at Lakewood High School there's so many opportunities for any path you want to take so um not necessarily planned that way but uh it really does represent like such talented kids that we have in all of our programs and it's really because of the adults that we have in front of them so I thank you all for all that you do
037to ensure that they have these opportunities and um and continue to grow uh throughout their time here at at the high school so thank you all that concludes the superintendant report thank you so much um next we would be uh moving on to the communications portion if people are welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting um after this we would move on to the business of the meeting um but if you have other things to Tender you intend to you're also welcome to to take off okay uh first we'll start with board comments do any of my would any of my colleagues like to to say anything go for it hello um it's nice to have a few people in the audience besides the people who get paid to be here so um
038I am uh very proud to serve as a member of the lakid school board and I am trying to do this job as well as I can I am learning something new every month uh I attended as many meetings and events as possible to increase my knowledge about what's going on what people are thinking and feeling as well as collect my own experiences of the vision of a Lakewood Ranger in current real lifetime I love all these presentations as we travel around the district but it's also great to get those um those experiences on in the in the buildings um and other events I am concerned about this current war on public education being waged by our state of Ohio government and our national government and making it's making all of our jobs in the
039district and all of our staff members jobs very very difficult um it's as if the powers that be are daring us to be effective on a spinning table Ohio has become the test case for privatizing K12 education our entire community and values as a community are as clearly listed in our competencies of a liquid Ranger and graduate are under attack from multiple sources we as a school board school district and a community are working hard to protect reasonable class sizes and highly qualified long-term Educators the state of Ohio is poised to cut at least $800,000 from our district operating budget next year and more each year after that this may change our facilities conversation the current president wants to deconstruct our federal department of education and this will affect our students each year we see
040more and more individualized instruction and accommodations to support our kids learning in a troubled anxiety producing Society there is no single way to gather and share information just as there is no singular best way to advocate for our children our community public education and our democracy find your individual talents please your T talents your time and treasure and commit to strengthening our community thank you thank you kie I guess just to piggy back again um please write email call state legislators um before not just then we talk about the budget Bill a lot there are lots of kind of bills that have been for the last several years now attacking public education and it's really important to continue to be aware to know how you can Advocate just for our students they cannot advocate for
041themselves in these matters I'll just add I appreciate U Mrs Clark Sutton's comments tonight it's a pleasure to serve alongside you and of course the rest of the board um appreciate your your your advocacy and just how seriously you you take the position so thank you uh yes I I appreciate uh your comments and and everything everybody in the district does is doing and we continue to do during this uh challenging time um and what Mrs dman said about um Everybody continuing to Advocate uh there are different uh ways in which this is uh affecting or could affect students in in a lot of different ways and and having uh everybody's voice being heard is so important as we in the district continue to do the jobs that we're here to do for our students
042it's all about our kids and educating our children and keeping them safe and keeping them uh uh protecting their uh mental and physical health while they're in our buildings and so uh everything that our community can do to continue to help Advocate um is of vital importance so we appreciate that um uh and then to uh shift gears a little bit we appreciate everything that uh again our guests here who were saying at the beginning of the meeting um and all the wonderful you know it's easy to get caught up in some of the difficult things that are going on in society right now but it's important to remember the wonderful things that are happening to they you know the lay as the uh school high schools putting on lay as Rob as the um
043musical April 10th 11th and 12th um we have all the spring sports starting Recreation Department program starting um you know there the sun is starting to shine things you know it's it's it's good to remember that uh good things are happening too so um and that's another good way to pull our community together and and get out and about and be together so um thank you for that too moving on to um public comments the first person we have signed up is Cara buttick Cohen um just a reminder as you approach the microphone each uh person who is speaking has uh three minutes to speak um and the unfort you know that is the extent of the amount of time you have um and uh there's no nothing personal about it it's just out of
044respect to the other speakers in the audience um and then we also just also a reminder we don't engage in sort of a back and forth so I just want to remind everybody of that umad so first my name is name is Cara butland Cohen I am a transgender educator and I actually recently just moved to Lakewood um and before I get into the actual comments of what I wanted I wanted to thank all of you on your stance of fighting for our students because it is a very lonely battle um I'm a frequent at the State House I am constantly writing and calling and meeting so I get it so it's means a lot to me to actually see that and I hope also in regards to policy affecting lgbtq students I hope you
045are really thinking very carefully on how to help those students so you know just moving to this area I've been very impressed with its beauty and walkability and I come to find out you know a little later about the whole thing with the closure or repurposing of the schools um this actually happened when I was an educator in Lakewood it was the exact same scenario uh the exact same arguments I understand you're trying to get ahead of the budget cuts um but I just wanted to remind all of you there are solutions that don't necessarily involve closing the schools it can be done and I am confident that all of you if you really weigh all of the facts and collect all sides and I know it's a tough issue um you know we'd be
046losing a lot of the reasons that people move closer to elementary schools I myself I grew up by an elementary school and I walk to school so I get it and it's and I get that especially for the treasur it's a tough job you have to be fiscally responsible but I urge you to really think there are possibilities um what the school that I worked at they actually did some rebranding and they were actually able to keep all their buildings open and keep their funds so it is doable and so that is my challenge to you and I hope to be back again in a different capacity thank you thank you um our next speaker is Sandy teski oh all right um then Elizabeth de Kroger good evening um I will excuse me um I'd
047like to start off by thanking the superintendent and the distinguished board members for your time and for the opportunity to speak this evening my name is Elizabeth D Kroger um I moved to Lakewood with my husband about or almost 13 years ago now um we moved here because we love the feel of Lakewood we love the walkability um and also we were drawn to the wonderful music program in the schools because that's something that's very important to us um we we have really grown to love lakid as a community over the years that we've lived here and now that we have a family and school age children we've discovered so many things that we love about our schools we really love the walkability we love the community that that Fosters um as we walk to
048school with other parents and we wait together for pickup at the end of the day um we love that our older daughter has the independence to go back and forth to school on her own um and liquid is really unique and wonderful and in that we still have this model of walkable Community Schools um all that being said I'm concerned about the process as that's underway to reconfigure the schools and I'm mostly concerned about the lack of transparency and openness in this process I know we had these Community meetings um but it felt like the information that was presented was a little bit old and maybe a little bit curated to kind of send a particular message and that maybe the meetings were set up a little bit more to check a box than to
049really engage us in a discussion about what we felt was important for us and for our families um I'm also concerned that the task force process has been a little bit opaque and that there hasn't been as clear of a um clear and transparent criteria for how a decision on how we are going to proceed with the elementary schools will be made um although I do appreciate that some new information was posted on the website today and I will take a take a close look at that um but I I still worry that without real transparency that some of the most precious things to me and my family about our schools and our community could be lost in this process um I know as Mrs Clark suon um described that this is a really challenging
050time for public education um but this isn't a decision that should be made behind closed doors um at the end of the day these decisions impact all of us and most of all our children and we owe them a process that is open and trustworthy thank you thank you um next is Claude Al oh thank you hello my name is Claude and thank you for hearing me today I uh own and operate a Marathon gas station on Madison Avenue address 14235 Madison and uh this is the second time we receive a letter about increasing the taxes on our building and I'm on a verge of like this is it for us basically I'm just begging today for Mercy to not adopt this decision to increase the taxes on us place is I put all my
051family money in it and this is it so I don't know if you guys remember we used to be Valero gas station and then they switched at to Marathon gas station that switch cost so much money because the people they were in charge of the station it's a company called Mountain Express they went into our accounts and took all of our money and savings and filed bankruptcy and got away with it clean and now we were left just stranded with nothing Marathon came in we brought it in they help us out a little bit but we left with no money basically and now increasing the property tax is is just probably going to push me to the verge of bankruptcy right now so I'm just asking for help and I've been operating there since 2022
052and I love the community I think everybody loved us I see some of our customers there the IT department all of them they're our my customers they all love us and uh I love it I love it here and I just need help that's all I'm asking for thank you thank you uh next we have Britney brocker hello uh my name is Britney broker and uh I'm a parent of uh two boys one of which is at Emerson and uh first I would like to thank you for your public service and uh for all the hard work and passion that you guys put into your jobs uh it truly matters and it truly impacts our community especially our most important members our children uh closing a school or Closing one to two schools would only
053increase class sizes and I understand that there's some logic that um it would decrease the lumpiness of it um but my son is in a class uh for his kindergarten with 23 students and that is astoundingly large um several teachers associations and studies recommend a class size of 15 to 20 and closing a school would only increase it and condense our students into other schools um and from the other parents that I've spoken with there's no support for a centralized prek having prek at each of the school buildings makes it most convenient for parents and makes it more likely for parents to utilize that service which is very special and we should do um it would only decrease our walkability urban planners citizens and Realtors associations all uh champion walkability in our communities it has
054cardiovascular vascular benefits health benefits increases our sense of community and emotional well-being Lakewood already has this and it is unique and special and it needs to be protected and in fact we need to increase it so that way we can be a pillar amongst other communities and that way we can be someone that other communities look to as an example of how to have a wonderful Community the other Solutions there should be other solutions that we are considering that have not been proposed like perhaps we open another Elementary School um and as our elected officials it is your job to ensure that you are um behaving in our interest and just know that we want to invest in in our schools we want this so you have our support to keep our schools open to
055ask more from this to put pre in all of our all of our schools Lakewood is really supportive of our walkability of our libraries and our Crown Jewel our excellent imun education system uh please protect our our schools and help us to be a community leader and in walkability and uh Community Education and I know that you're in this position because you truly care about all of those things so just know that you we support support you and please uh keep all of our schools open thank you for your public service thank you um next we have Molly [Music] fet hello everyone thank you for this opportunity and having us um I'm Molly fet I have a kindergartener at Emerson as well in the same class um as Britney's and then I have two future
056Rangers an eight-month-old and a three-year-old um and my three-year-old does have a disability he has an IEP through um Lakewood um and I've also spent the last 14 years as a teacher in another District um teaching Elementary School students so I understand the challenges you guys face and I know in this current climate um we're all kind of just trying to stay afloat um but I really strongly believe that closing a school is not the right path forward um like a lot of people said walkability it's why we love Lakewood that's why we moved here from Washington DC um in four of the proposed scenarios my family will have to move to another school and we won't be able to walk anymore it um we're like a little over under seven tons of a mile
057now and it'll be like 1.1 miles so between like work schedules and the time that that would take and just walking 1.2 miles with a 5-year-old is is challenging so um it's I would just hate to lose like this is one of the things we love about Lakewood and I know I'm speaking for myself and my story but I know we're not the only ones that would be impacted in this way um these walks have been daily walks have been so beneficial for mental health like it's just Community um this was one of the reasons we chose be in Lakewood and the possibility of losing this is really unsettling for this um so um sorry I'm I don't want to like say the same thing over and over that everyone else has already said but
058um as a teacher I think if you asked Any teacher in the United States of America what would be the thing that would make your day make your time with students more impactful I think 99% would say smaller class sizes at when I was sitting in the lunchroom today asked every single one knowing I was going to be here tonight and they all said I wish we had less students I wish we had less students so we have more time to prioritize individualizing education and anyone that's a parent out here knows when you went from one child to two or two to three that's a huge change like it's huge so imagine having from 21 to 22 to 235 year olds in a room it's it's a lot um and the just you know I
059was looking up some research and um a Tennessee star project found that classes from 13 to 17 students significantly outperform their peers with larger class sizes and the um Nea has shown that smaller class sizes lead to better test scores higher graduation rates and increased College attendance so there's no way around the fact that like if a school closes classes are going to get bigger it's it's just it's math that's and that is a huge concern for me 23 in my opinion is already too big in the younger grades um and I know I went to the meeting in October and I asked is my time up yeah I think we have a little bit of a clock issue oh I think I had asked at the meeting in October about the sizes and I
060was told 20 or less or we say around 20 so it feels like I don't know some things are not thank you am I done yeah I think it was it was probably three minutes a little bit of ago we had a little bit of clock issue but thank you so much that's okay um next we have Monica br br sorry I'm Monica brua lifelong Lakewood resident LHS class of 90 when we did have the Lakewood times and mom of three uh children under 10 I'm also a member of The Preserve liquid schools group and I want to thank the superintendent and treasure uh board president Nora and um board member Lisa for meeting with us last week we found some common ground in the area um several areas and one of them is putting
061uh children lakid children first we believe in their safety and the biggest way that we see this is through walkability to our Lakewood to our neighborhood schools thank you for the clock issue uh we support uh scenario 7 um which um is the redistricting that allows for grandfathering of students at current schools uh with a more flexible open enrollment policy uh for students and their families the superintendent has repeatedly said that this is not an emergency uh there's no dire circumstance we have a luxury of time so we've been gifted time to redistrict to work with the city and others to find creative ways to attract families to promote schools increase our enrollment and then utilization and this conversation is quite frankly old it's been over 10 years ago when the board at that time
062fought with ofcc to let us have those seven schools this um uh keeps our um not only that we fought for them um but 70% of the voters supported the seven School plan put forth by the school board at that time in 2013 and our school district has a history of um not choosing the cheapest option where we spent six figures saving the brick wall in front of Garfield we put extra $ in square footage for locally funded initiatives for different programs at various schools and the city also um spent money to keep uh Lakewood Library separate from the kyoga county system and the voters supported that so when your own survey results come in that tells you that people support walkability and not a repurposed school we need to listen to The Community Values
063so we don't want you to go cheap on us the task force is made up of a variety of individuals with a different perspectives but the task force was given seven scenarios instead of them being allowed to create their own scenario through uh data and discussion so there seems to be a disconnect between the school board and the community priorities we want to see a task force vote on the scenario recommendation and have that done in May as promised and as you promote it on your website we want to um work together uh so we can look forward um as one as a community and really when it comes down to that final decision it needs to come from people who live in Lakewood because everybody uh will have to live um gosh I just
064ruin that line the final decision has to come from people who live in Lakewood because it will be something that we all have to live with in Lakewood and Lakewood is more want to quote this thank you thank you that concludes public comment for the evening and now we'll move on to our consent agenda um do I have a motion to approve the consent agenda I move turn I move the consent agenda B second uh mran can you call the rooll Miss kinberger hi Miss sha hi Miss Clark Sutton hi Mr Callahan hi Miss dman hi thank you uh next we'll move on to the human resources report and with Mrs shy thank you very much much uh we have three resolutions the first deals with certified actions there are total numbers of 69 and
065I would move adoption in that resolution second uh it's been moved and seconded um all in favor I I the second uh has a total of 10 actions classified appointments and special compensation move adoption of that resolution second been moved in second and all in favor I I and the third includes a total of 90 actions all for Aquatics and community recreation and education I move adoption of their resolution uh second it's been moved in seconded all in favor and hi and that means summer is really coming those Aquatics appointments yeah um and that conclud human resources okay okay so that's concludes human resources we'll move on to Other Board business and you still have a foro Mrs sh I have two items the first is an appointment a certified appointment um approval on one
066reading has been requested so I move the resolution second uh it's second the new second uh it's been moved and seconded uh Mr Zan can you call the role Miss catsburg hi m h hi Miss car Sutton hi Mr Callahan hi M do hi thank you okay and the second a total of four actions one for resignation for purpos of retirement three resignations this is for classified employees and again requesting approval on one reading I move adoption in the resolution second uh it's been moved and seconded Mr Zan can you call the RO Miss catburger hi Miss shauny hi Miss Clark Sutton hi Mr calan hi M dman hi thank you thank you uh next item is uh from Miss Clark uh Clark suton resolution to approve filing of a complaint against Real Property and
067we are requesting approval on one reading second it's been moved and seconded um Mr Z can you call the role um miss gburger I miss shaunessy I miss Clark Sutton I Mr Callahan I miss doin I thank you the next item is Mr Callan thank you president kenberg um we have a resolution to approve the renewal of the master electric energy sales agreement between Lakewood Board of Education and NG Resources LLC um this is being requested on one reading Lakewood city schools electricity generation contract with NG Resources LLC expires on June 30th 2025 Ohio schools Council along with a group of other school related buying groups called power for schools is offering a fixed rate of 5.29 cents per kilowatt hour uh this reflects over a 6% decrease in the energy only price of electricity
068compared to the previous contract NG has agreed to hold this rate until March 31st 2025 the board is being asked to approve the two-year agreement to continue purchase electricity generation for its school facilities until June 30th 2027 in order to take advantage of the new rate during this volatile energy Market uh further notes here over the past two years power for schools has provided following benefits to member school districts fiscal year 23 and 24 our dist uh District saved over 37 million collectively advocacy in distribution rate cases have maintained School transportation discounts providing over 3 million of additional annual savings uh Power for schools is one of Ohio's largest energy consortiums providing electricity to over 170 Ohio school districts a collaboration of Bassa oaz uh osba and osc and again we're being asked so I
069move approval there being asked to do so on one reading I second it's been moved and seconded Mr Zan can you call the role uh miss catburger I miss shanesy I miss Clark Sutton hi Mr Callahan hi M dotman hi thank you thank you um that concludes the board business um do we have a motion to adjourn so moved second it's been moved seconded all in favor I I I this meeting is adjurned thank you