001like to call the Monday, June 9th, 2025 regular board meeting to order. Call the role, please. Mr. Ferguson, here. Mrs. Washington, present. Dr. Ballard, here. Mrs. Nazario. Mr. Sergil, here. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Visitors just employees. All friends, first hearing of the public. You can. Anybody want to be public? Okay. I will entertain a motion to approve the minutes of the May 27th special board meeting. So moved. Support. Roll call, please. Dr. Valor? Yes. Mrs. Washington? Yes. Mr. Ferguson? Yes. Mr. Sturgil? Yes. Any old business? Okay, that said, reports and recommendations of the treasurer. I have items 8.01 through 8.03 for approval. So
002moved. Roll call, please. Mrs. Washington, yes. Dr. Balor, yes. Mr. Ferguson, yes. Mr. Sturgil, yes. Reports and recommendations of the superintendent. Personnel matters. Thank you, Mr. President. Actually, we got a couple presentations tonight. One that we've been waiting for for a while. um took a a little longer than we thought to put it together because uh transportation in-house is new to us and when you try to compare um us with the two previous companies everybody measured things differently. Uh for example, you can measure the cost per mile. You can measure it per route. You can measure it a bunch of different ways. So to get apples to apples, it just took a little little bit of time to put together. But again, I thank Julie and Tia and Tony and Mary for putting all this
003together, Barbadrick, uh to make sure that we had accurate numbers before we should. But Tony, can I defer? Good evening. Um, yeah, I just want to say first off that uh it does take a long time. Trying to figure out transportation cost is not exactly simple math. It's very complicated. There's a lot of things involved in it. And I also want to uh you know thank Julie and and Tia and Jennifer and their team uh because it did it took a long time to try to figure out get everybody together and uh try to come up with the right numbers and the accurate numbers so we can see and and compare. Um as you all know we we transitioned into putting transportation inhouse from uh subcontracting it out. Um when doing that what we did
004was uh the one of the first slides I I have here is showing the basic data that we have in our department currently. Uh currently we have 25 full-size buses, five vans, two mini buses, two ortho buses, two orthobes are the ones that can uh comply with the wheelchair and and move some of our special needs kids around. 28 drivers, 24 monitors. Uh the current district routes that we have inhouse are 23 and we contract out 14 of them and those are to Auxilio and those routes are our non-pubs which are all the Catholic schools and charter school students that we transport. Um when you look at uh the district and what we look at from an operations and strategy standpoint, you really got to look at uh the control and oversight over the routes
005that we have. Uh a lot of factors are involved in that, right? Uh when you look at uh the number of students uh versus the number of buses that we currently have uh and what we have to contract out. If we don't have the capacity, then we have to look for somebody else to do that. Um and right now we've been pretty successful at transporting uh our own kids. Uh but currently again we are subcontracting out to Auxilio. So, that's something that certainly is going to need to be a part of the conversation uh coming up in the future. That's something that we really need to make a decision about because that contract is also going to expire uh soon. One more year, correct? Yeah, one more year. And I think based on the contract,
006just so everybody's on the same page, um we have to allow them to provide transport transportation next year. Um but I think we only have to give one route, right? They don't have to have the same number of routes. You just have to have their foot in the door. Are we better off with them? I mean, we'd have to buy more buses. We need to buy more buses. But I think that's the part of this conversation here that I would like to reflect on as we make decisions later. Um, we made an investment when it came to purchasing the original buses, made an investment when it came to purchasing the transportation building. Um, and the question is, and I've had some folks say, is that was it worth it? And I think that the numbers
007you're going to see here pretty soon uh are the fact that the transportation building and buses will all be paid off in about three years. Well, two and a half years. So the question is then now we start saving all that money. Uh but at what point do we reinvest to take up the rest of the routes? But I'm sorry, Tony. Yep. No, absolutely. And and when you look at these numbers here, you could see that uh these are numbers back from fiscal year 19 uh all the way to current date, but that's not getting us to the end of the school year in fiscal year 25. Just keep that in mind. That's uh to the end of April. Uh but you look at back in 2019, we were spending approximately about $3.5 million in
008transportation. That fluctuates but stays pretty steady. in 2022 was the last year with first student. Uh so you see that number when you're looking at that transition into come bringing into Lraine City Schools and working with Auxilio. Uh that's why you see that number. But also remember that there were a lot of uh firsttime costs associated in that number. That's why that looks the way it does. Uh expenses that we're not going to realize in the future. We've already uh invested in those types of things. the buses in in the building. Can you share more? Uh, yeah, I can perspective, please. Thanks. As soon as I pull my sheet up here, sorry. No, that's okay. I have the overall spreadsheet here. Where is it at my paper somewhere? Oh, right here. So, when you look
009at all of your costs associated with transportation, again, you have to consider uh your staffing, uh the number of staffing. You also have to consider payroll taxes, uh benefits, those types of things. You also have to look at your supplies and costs with the supplies that you put not just in-house. Uh the facility that we operate, the fuel costs, all of those things are incorporated. And again, I don't have all of them in front of me. Uh I can No, that's okay. I can share a list of all the things that are incorporated into uh what these costs are associated with. Uh but there are there are some uh costs that outside of just routes uh and again how you route kids. Do you put them on bus stops? Do you put them on community
010routes? Uh what you do strategically to cut your costs while uh fulfilling your obligation to transport is something that is considered. And when you're doing it yourself, you have more control over doing that. Uh, which I I think you know, again, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Barb Medric and her team over there. They they are constantly trying to look for ways to cut costs and and make it make sense. We appreciate it. Yeah. And you know, sometimes there's a lot of push back, right? Because uh, you know, they they have to number one fulfill an obligation and they certainly are uh enormous advocates for our students, but they also have to be advocates for the district as well. So, it's a very very challenging position to be in. And you know, I'd also
011be remissed if I didn't mention Mary Maize is also here to answer any questions. And uh Mary knows how very challenging transportation is. We we say all the time we we don't want nothing to do with that job that they have to do because it is it's it's not easy. Uh and it is costly. in terms of just an example of what you're talking about there where there is push back and we try to do things we think is easy uh because we're not in the transportation world and not only is it not easy it can also be very expensive for example we had a student who wanted to be transported from one side of town to the other side of town um and because we don't have bus routes to go from the west
012side I think it was west side to southside or vice versa um but to add that route for just one kid 60,000 a year uh because we have to have a bus we have to gas, we have to all those different things add up very very quickly. So when people say I want to move my child, but they need transportation, that's why it's something that we take very seriously because we want to be respectful to our taxpayers. And to that point, just recently we had to look at uh because when looking at changes in in the district and Ross and I were talking about this, I just thought it was alarming when we reached out to our partner that we currently uh work with. we had to look at subcontracting out potentially 10 routes in
013the afternoon for preschool. Uh and they came back with a number that was uh about $49500,000 to transport those 10 routes. So again, um not an acceptable number for us. And that's when you look at your department and say and and Barb was the first one to say like that absolutely not ever are we going to do that. We'll figure it out. Uh, and for the record, for the board, and for the community, uh, because we didn't make any changes in preschool, that's not an issue. Correct. And the other issues we're looking to make down the road in preschool, that will no longer be an issue either. So, just want to be clear that that's not something we're asking the board to pay. Yep. And I was just talking purely financial. So, absolutely. But uh
014looking at these numbers again uh fiscal year 23 was first student on their way out auxilio coming in uh and then the cost that the rain city school district uh associated with working on transitioning into in-house transportation. And then you had 24 uh where you're looking at learning city school cost be about 2.4 million. Uh auxilio cost for the non-pubs was 1.5 million. But uh again that number you'll see gradually decreases and uh it will continue to decrease as long as we are able to uh provide the transportation ourselves. So what the transportation department has been trying to do is figure out ways of how we can utilize our in-house buses to start transporting certain routes that are non-pubs and slowly bringing some of those back in-house to cut those costs. uh because we are
015we're at the we're at the unfortunate uh disadvantage of when you have to subcontract out you have to pay their prices uh which again when you see the next slide that I'm going to show you uh this one here and keep in mind when you look at those numbers on the last slide that over the years I don't think people realize the significant increase in special ed and uh McKinty Vento costs right McKenna Vento is our homelessness uh uh students, students that uh are unhoused and you have to provide transportation for them. Sometimes that means you're transporting them to other cities. Uh but it is an obligation if they live in the city uh school district then we have to provide that transportation. And what we've noticed over the years is you know again I
016don't have it in front of me and maybe I do. uh back in we had no no McKenna Vento costs back in 2019. Uh and then we started seeing those costs coming in in 2022 at about $54,000 uh dollars a year in uh providing that transportation and currently we're uh up around $147,000 to provide that transportation and that's only going to increase from what we've seen and the trends showing. Uh special ed, the same thing. Uh when you look at the special ed costs over the years, back in 2019, special ed costs were somewhere around $234,000 a year. Uh we are currently, and again, that number is only special ed that we contract out. Uh this number that you see here, the 1.22 million is what we contract out. There is still a special ed
017cost for in-house transportation that we provide which I do not have that number for you. Uh I can get that for you and give you a total cost and what that looks like. But the point is when you look at this trend and you look at those numbers from 2019 2021 these numbers weren't where they're at today. So that's only increasing the cost of transportation. It's not due to uh increased uh staffing, if you will. It's not due to anything that the district did except for it is an obligation. Uh the the uh special ed students obviously uh we are obligated um to provide that transportation and and a lot of times it's based on their IEP or 504 plan. So when a district looks at students and we have in their plan, it's that
018they must be provided transportation, we're obligated to provide that no matter where they're at. Understand that board policy, as you guys know, is a two-mile uh policy. So anybody within that two-mile policy, they're not eligible for transportation. Uh we we have to stay within that because, and I'm just going to say it because that's who I am. If we just transported our kids, we could afford to do that, right? Every one of our students in this district. But unfortunately, we have to also provide the transportation to private school and charter schools, which is an excessive cost that puts us in a unfair advantage that we can't provide transportation to all of our own students. And that's just, you know, the unfunded mandates that are pressed upon public education. But that's another story. Yes, sir. This
0191.22 22 million. You said that's we're contracting out. Now, where are those students going to school? Uh could be could be a private school, could be a charter school. That's what I wanted to get. They're typically specialty schools and we have a lot of students who have needs that we can't meet here in traditional education. Uh so we have to find a place that meets their their specific needs. And we transport students as far away as mentor. Uh we've got kids in Sandusky, kids in Cleveland, kids in Akran. And sometimes, and again, the costs for some of those students based on again their unique needs are are costly. Uh for example, you've got to pay for the driver. For some students, you have to pay for their aid and the nurse that's on their transportation.
020Uh we've had students that are $1,000 a day. Uh we've had students uh $600 and $700 a day. So, we try to be as um cost-effective as we can be, but there are certain rules we have to play by and we need to make sure these kids get to school safely. Now, another question on the McKenna Vento. If if we have a student who is enrolled in Lraine and becomes homeless and gets placed into a uh long-term hotel in Avon. It's our job to pick them up from Avon and bring them to school. That's not Avon's problem. that you know that's not Avon's cost that is our cost that goes to the last district the student attended correct correct but no actually if if they live in the Avon district I mean temporary shelter and
021vice versa right it's a 50-50 split between the two districts that it impacts if the child or actually the parent chooses the school whichever one they want and we're obligated to my question is how do we moni monitor that how do we monitor as Hotel California once they check in they never check out. Well that's uh part of our transportation department. You have a public master out there. Yes. So the actual district. But is it monitored over time? Yes. hous and if they transition into permanent homes, we still cover out that school year. No. So now permanent housing. Correct. But we get to complete that year that they're in. Okay. Thank you. Is that when you say complete that year? I guess I'm getting two different messages. School year or calendar year. The whole idea
022is stability for the child. Okay. That's so I keep moving the kid around just trying to Yeah. My only fear is like I said once if it went from zero in 19 to 150 here in 30 will be at I think some of it is awareness. Some of it is the fact that things are just worse they used to be. Um but yes, and again the definition of homeless I think people have a better understanding of than maybe they used to. Sure. If I move in with my sister, I'm homeless. My kids are homeless because I don't have my own residence. So there are a variety of ways to define it. And I think as our community becomes better educated, um they're taking advantage. So again, I applaud Stephen for making sure that our our
023families know what their rights are. I do too. And I I support it. I just don't want it abuse as we keep paying that bill. AJ does a great job. She will call every status and she doesn't AJ is all over. Yep. How many families round ballpark figure? Yeah. Okay. 93 comes to mind and I might be making that number up. Yeah. So that might be an old number, but yeah, there's a lot. I mean it just Yeah, we get sheets every day. And I I just I only ask that because I don't want anybody out there that might be watching to think that we're spending $147,000 to transport six kids. I mean it, you know, it is a significant number of students. And SPED is no different either. When you ask, you know, how
024do we make sure that we're checking that we are providing transportation? That's our transportation department. And if we have a sped kid that is going to a school in Toledo that we have to pay for, uh our our transportation department checks to make sure that that child is in school. And what we do is we pay for the days that child is in school. Uh so there is enrollment that is required. So if he's not attending school, then we're not obligated to pay for that transportation. So we do have folks that are on top of it, making sure that we're not getting abused. Um but it's uh again, it's a it's a it's a trend that continues to climb and it's an obligated cost. And now I'm just curious, right? So, do we look at
025alternative methods of delivering those kids like Uber or the transit system within the city or things that would be cheaper than us sending an entire bus around for a single student? Well, a lot again going back to the sped students, right? and maybe even the McKenna Vento kids when we have to subcontract out. Some of them are just using minivans or using normal cars uh to transport these kids. And some severe disabled students, they need a monitor with them. They, you know, they need specialized services that require somebody to come pick them up doortodoor, right? Because we don't always do doortodoor. Um but again, there's a cost to that. And to answer your question, But yeah, there could be. And Julie and I were talk and Mary and I were were talking about, you know,
026solutions. Listen, you could always bring everything in-house and provide the transportation in-house without looking outside. Uh when you look at 1.2 million, I think again hypothetical numbers, we haven't had a time to really, you know, grind into them and come up with an accurate number. But projected number you look at it could potentially let's just say you bring in 10 different vehicles 10 drivers 10 monitors you're looking at 1.1 million itself uh to do it in-house. Uh we're already paying out 1.2 million and that's cost that we subcontract out. So there are solutions but again those solutions cost money. Uh, I did have a conversation a while back with the city. You know, they have the via transportation, right? Man, they're they're only charging folks, you know, $2, $1 a trip. Why can't we use
027them, right? Why can't we? They just don't have the capacity. Uh because they are they are expanded throughout well various cities in in the county. Uh so they don't have the capacity to focus on our specific needs. Uh whether that is a discussion in in the future, I don't know. That's above my pay grade. Uh but there are solutions out there. But you know, those solutions are going to cost money, upfront money, right? Once you get through that upfront cost, you're going to see the savings. And we we looked at uh taking transportation in-house. And we know that it's going to cost us uh 10 buses, right? Uh we know the buses are brand new buses are going to cost us $1.3 million right now. today's cost. Um it would take us two years on
028the return on investment to realize the savings after you get through that upfront cost. So uh there is a benefit to doing it as we know we're we're realizing the cost savings by bringing a lot of this inhouse as opposed to what we were doing in the past. So it's working. Uh it just takes time uh and what we're a few years into it. real quick too to answer your question. Uh I mentioned some students who for example have very high needs. So it's not uncommon. I've got a driver, I've got a um an aid, and I've got a nurse on the bus. Uh we've negotiated with families because as mom or dad, I've been trained on how to meet my my child's medical needs. I don't need an aid because I'm mom or dad
029and I can also drive. So we've negotiated with parents on giving them less than it would pay us or cost us to pay out. Um, so we've done some things to be creative and again I applaud Tia for for working with transportation to make those things happen. Um, it makes not only financial sense but it's also best for the child to be with people who know you. Amen. Yeah, agreed. Thank you for that. And then the next slide just shows your trend. As you can see from based on this conversation, it's been a significant difference uh since 2019. and and uh you know although it it kind of flattens out uh slightly, we we just anticipate it's going to continue to increase. Um but you know uh looking at some of the other numbers, I
030think it's important to also mention the T2 reimbursement report. uh public public schools and non-pubs are required to submit a T2 report that certifies your transportation costs and provides a basis for the funding that you get from the state and federal government for that program. Uh back in 2019, the district was getting a re reimbursement of around $497,000. Uh the last two years that number has uh been over 1.6 million. Uh so that's reimbursement for the transportation cost is coming back to the school district. So that's something again to give credit to uh our staff and what they've done over there to try to you know working with our finance team obviously in that report to make sure that we're maximizing our reimbursement coming back. Um here are just some strategic recommendations. Again, you know,
031we could talk about recommendations all day long, but in my personal opinion, and Mary, you can interject if you like. Uh, in my personal opinion, if we were to bring transportation completely in-house, I think you're going to realize the significant cost savings. Again, you get to you control those costs that way. Right now, we have no control over the costs that our subcontractors are uh charging us. We have no control over uh what those rates are. And they are significantly higher than what our rates are. And again, I'll go back to that last example of the $500,000 cost it would cost us just for 10 routes in the afternoon. That's just 10 routes in the afternoon. Uh you know, again, and I anticipate those costs are going to continue. Um again, driver retention. We don't
032need that. Huh? Tony's just making a point. We don't need that. We don't need a point. It's expensive. Yes, we don't need it. I'm just making a point that when you can't control your cost with subcontractors, that's what you get is is my point. Um, but again, you know, right now we have a hybrid service uh delivery model that we'll have for another year. Uh, but it that is something that we're going to have to have serious conversations about on what that looks like moving forward after uh next year. Um, invest in driver retention programs. I can say with great pride that, you know, our drivers haven't moved. Uh, actually, there are drivers that want to come to Lraine for obvious reasons. Uh, you know, we run a a good operation. Uh, we have the
033best buses on the road in this county. If you look at our buses, you can clearly tell which ones are eyes. Ours are clean. They're they're wellkept. They're just It looks great. It's something to be proud of. So, um, again, upgrading our fleet technology. We've done that with all of our buses. They are equipped with all the technology that uh we need to keep our kids safe on our buses, including cameras. Um and then uh Barb and her team are constantly evaluating our route consolid consolidation potential, what makes the most sense, where the routes, what stops, where these kids homes are at. Uh that is something that is constantly ongoing that they are always working on to make sure that we are maximizing our dollars in um minimizing our costs. Um our fuel costs are
034you know they are what they are but uh you know now we are getting our own uh feel. I don't have the field costs in front of me, but I I'd like to think they have significantly reduced since we are doing it at the rate Barb negotiated a rate that was significantly less than what we were paying in the past. Uh which at the time was unheard of. So uh you know those types of things uh are very helpful in in trying to run a coste effective uh program like uh transportation. Um, any questions? I have a question. Um, I don't know if it's available still or if it was just during COVID era. Um, the Department of Education or whoever they might be now um had some savings for purchasing buses. Is that still
035available anymore? So, uh, no. Uh I say no for us. We looked into it just recently, right? And you're talking about the transportation allowance uh that they would give us per bus. Uh currently our district would not be eligible for that allowance at this current time. Whether that changes in the future, I don't know, but that's something that we'll continue to look into uh to see what uh if it's something that we could utilize for the purchase of buses. When we first started this, there was a number that we said when we got from one point to another point and I believe it was like 1.5. Are we still heading towards that number? Exactly. But the difference what happens is our increase in coster balancing the savings that we're having. If we were contracting those
036out, I would anticipate that we would still be paying much higher than what we were paying in 2019. I mean, that that's that's really the question. I'm not saying that costs don't go up, but do you think we're meeting the savings that that we're getting when we initially start? We projected it. Yeah. I mean I I know that things increase over a period of time, you know, but they would be significantly larger had we not did this. I mean that's that's the whole point. And two points there, Bill. First of all, agree completely with everything you said, but also we did that comparison. We were going to be completely in house. So we're still farming out some of the stuff. If we're to save that money, too, then yes, we are right there. I said,
037are we heading towards it? Yeah, the answer is yes. We just need to we need to recapture the routes that we're still subcontracting on because again they can do it for the same cost we can but their goal is to make money. Our goal is to save money. So we want to save the difference. And if you look at that difference it's more than the 1.5 savings compared to where we were in 2019. Good. Thanks Tony. Appreciate so please don't feel to stick around. Thank you. All right. And we also promised attendance um about six weeks ago. Um but uh they kept getting bumped for different reasons. So I'm gonna invite Dr. Steven Stersel to the table to educate us on what's up with attendance. All right. So what uh Mike Scott sitting here feels
038like. I get to look at Ross. We're both bald, so I guess it's pretty good, right? Can't tell the difference. Can't tell the difference. How many slides you got? Hopefully Mike's listening, so he's getting a little bit of laughter out of this. So, um, he texted me, said he was listening, so that's why I'm cracking on him a little bit. So, um, I'm glad Dr. Graham scheduled these, uh, awesome two topics on the same day, right? Station attendance and a really nice day outside and nice day outside, right? Um, but, um, so let's take um, first of all, as you guys are aware, the reason I'm wearing this shirt is it is um, PTSD awareness month for June. and just want to make sure that we acknowledge that, you know, uh the support that people
039need uh during this month, whether they're veterans or just anybody that you know uh just make sure if you're you're struggling with PTSD that you you get support and there is support out there. I just want to make sure you mention that. So, very important. All right, so let's get into uh the fun topic of attendance. So, I got some good news and not so good news, but we'll get there in a minute. So um we started this process of looking at our attendance process and procedures about two years ago. We put a a great team together. We had our SEOs. Um we had um Angie uh Reynolds emiss we Patricia from restoration Pat Holman. We had uh Ruben and uh Fero Jamie just everybody that that had dealt with attendance or has some type
040of impact on attendance. We and we met, Misty was a part of that and we we met weekly to look at our process procedures and this started back in uh 2023 2024 and so we spent the year just reviewing our process and procedures um seeing what we did right, what we didn't do very good and started to to update these procedures and pro processes. So summer of 2024, we definitely took took time and updated and aligned uh where every school in the district was on the same page. We had the same processes, we had the same procedures and we and we needed this to build consistency uh which was very important for us. So this year uh I just want to say is year where we actually implemented and started to monitor all of our
041new process and procedures. And uh there it's been a I would say um good and bad because we really took some time to train people and um really get good at doing the small stuff which was very important to us, right? We had to get really good at doing the small stuff around attendance and then we're going to expand here for next year. So just last Friday, which we had probably one of the a great meeting with our school leaders, we had our SEO SEOs there, our secretaries, district leaders, and we spent a couple hours and we just again reviewed and updated all of our processes and procedures uh for the school years. Uh we're making uh based on um you know, talking to our school leaders, just just getting better at at what we
042do and coming up with some better documents. So there's four essential questions that we really look at uh throughout the year that drives our our purpose. You know, first is how do we communicate with families that attending school daily is our priority. I think we all could say since COVID it's been a probably a roller coaster ride around attendance. So you know just keep pushing that hey parents coming to school you know on time every day all day is essential. All right so we got to keep pushing that with our families. you know, how do we decrease student chronic absenteeism? What are the trending attendance barriers? And how do we address these barriers? So, I just want to first we're just going to look at the first three. Okay. So, if you click on the
043attendance process procedures, so we have a one-stop shop. Uh yeah, so uh we have a onestop shop for all of our attendance, our procedures. You can see here, we're not going to go through every one, but all everybody in the district has access to this. And this is where all of our documents live. So, anything with attendance is here. Um so whether it be um our board policy uh so whether it be uh board policy and uh anything with house bill 410 compliance uh anything with uh our intervention plans as you as miss you is I'm sorry as Mike is showing um it's all there and you guys be able to you guys will will get this and be ble to see. It's pretty cool. It's pretty Yeah, I know. It's pretty cool because everything's
044there. So, you don't have to go You don't have to go searching. It's It's there. It's on the Google Drive. You just go there, click it, and you have access to all of our documents when it comes to attendance. Uh this was this is was pretty pretty major for us. Allowed us to be consistent across the district. The other two reports, and again, I'm going to give Missy kudos. the 24 25 and actually Ross and Missy because they put this together uh is our uh what we look every Tuesday we meet at 8:30 in the morning and we go over our attendance data. So we look at our PBIS data, we look at our ADA and we look at our chronic absenteeism data for all for the district, for all the schools and then we
045really dive into trends. And you guys could see there uh that uh even on the on the bottom you can see it's by dates and by weeks and by schools and we take great notes and we actually implement uh and monitor what we say we would do. What's Hawthorne? Um the other report is is probably the most critical report. It's called the cross check report. This uh helps us with uh we go into for the schools and allows us to see students with who need um it's more about compliance about house bill 410 compliance and so we look at students who need maybe a D but no A letter students who are missing a B or students that are missing their AIT and we go this with every school and so we really dive into
046the individual student in the in the schools and get down to make sure that we are doing everything we should be doing when it comes to House Bill 410. Speaking of which, could you go over exactly the provisions of HB410 as they pertain to chronically absent and think I because I think I think there's a huge misconception out there that it's some incredible amount of, you know, days before I get there. It's not, you know, it's way before that. It's 10% of the school year. There's pretty much if you miss two days uh a month, which comes out about 18 days a year, you are now chronically absent. And everything goes into it. So whether you're excused um unexcused, you're suspended. Uh tardies count against us because we go by hours and not by days
047and it really affects uh you know how we when students become chronic absent. So you could be tardy an hour every day and you will eventually become chronic absent student. Um so the cross report we also use powers school. We also right now are using our secure data center. Uh and then we also use panorama and as you know I love panorama. I think it's one of the most amazing programs we have uh in the district. Uh we've been training our staff over today and over the next three days and how to utilize it effectively, not just for attendance, but just access to all the curriculum that's in there for social emotional learning, for interventions, uh that we have in there. Um and how uh staff could take advantage of using that information. Uh and
048then uh one of our best partners, uh stay in the game is the Cleveland Browns Foundation. And so we also uh use their playbook as a great source. They are great partners and collaborators with us and we want to thank them for all they do. So this is the not so good news. So, as of Friday morning last week, we were kind of celebrating because we were various percentage points down. And then five minutes later, as SDC updated, we were like, okay, um yeah, May wasn't that great for us a month for uh attendance. So, um it changed within five minutes. And so, right now, uh you know, we're trending definitely in the right direction. We're going down as a district. Uh but right now we have 10 schools who decreased their percentage uh for
049student chronic absenteeism which is great. We had one school right now if that's at the same percentage as last year and unfortunately we had four schools that actually increased uh in percentage for student chronic absenteeism. Um so going back to those four essential questions people are going to say well what are you doing? Well, the first is uh we we're clearly looking at uh cultivating a shared vision, understanding of why we need to be on time uh and be uh all day every day, which is important. So, we do a lot of communication. We do postcards. We do phone calls. everything we need to do to to get to the families and let them know that first of all, you know, building that trust, building relationships with them, know that that we we do address
050their barriers and that uh we need them in school every day and all day. We also do a lot of data trans transparency. We share a lot of our data through Panorama, through Google Docs, and you guys just saw two or or three of those those documents. We started to work with building leaders on clearly defining roles which is huge. Um so now everybody going in next year will know their role uh and what they need to do to help support students coming to school. Uh the second thing is is definitely is building capacity and providing support. uh whether it be through resource allocation, you know, we really go out and try to work with the Browns Foundation, use the Panorama as system of support uh to use our AI AIT process, which is big
051for us. So, no more uh paper and pencil. Uh everything is going to be in Panorama and it's going to make it uh a little bit easier for us to use, but also a a faster uh to get done and to monitor students progress when it comes to attendance. And then definitely collaboration, communication structures. I I really feel like we really do a great job already with collaborating raising money for schools to uh to work around uh incentives for students or uh stuff for them to come to school. The third thing is fostering a positive and supportive school environment. So this is the thing I think matters a lot around students what you know students have said or parents feel about why they come to school uh when they feel welcome and then the environment
052is very inclusive. So, we recognize that. And then we're also looking at celebrating just not good attendance, but man, those those students that are really trying, the families that are really trying to get there, we definitely recognize them, too. So, you know, it's just not those students who are consistently coming every day. Uh, you know, we have families that might have started off not as good, but they're really trying really hard. So, we do a a good job of making sure that they they are um also incentivized and celebrate them, you know, for coming. And some of the things like you've probably seen already. I mean Palm, you know, Palm does a great job. They do what they call fist fist bump Fridays which is pretty cool. Uh the two uh the two principal the
053principal and assistant principal go out there and I think one of the u counselors or teachers teachers do it now too. Yes, I think so. Actually think we invested in that last year because it was a part is their PBS initiative. So I think we got everybody fist gear. Yeah. Yeah. And it's pretty cool. They got these big hawk hands and they're going there and giving kids fist bumps and families and welcoming them. And I think even um I think uh the principal was taped. So every every student that um had great attendance got was um what tape is every duct tape and they they duck taped the principal to the wall. Yeah. Um yeah. So that had that was pretty interesting for for that. So then you have stuff like Stephen Dhannes who hosted
054the end of your year field trip to main event and then a lot of assemblies to celebrate good attendance. Uh I talked about already building strong relationships is probably number one. No matter what when we have that with our families or our students whether it be in the classroom or through the school uh students will want to come and families want to come to that school. Uh big for us implementing clear and consistent policies and procedures. I just talked about that. So but you to make sure that our processes are aligned uh make sure we have some early intervention systems in place and we do a pretty good job of that right now. And then uh the fifth thing is engaging students and families as partners. We spent the last year working with um Ohio
055State on creating a very engaging uh family engagement plan. And we're excited because within this plan uh we have various initiatives and goals to decrease student chronic absentism uh by working with families, bringing them in and being involved in what we do. So I'm pretty excited about where we're going with that. So the other question is what are the training and tennis barriers uh for students and families that you know through um survey data and just talking through families uh you know being in the wraparound department we you know I get me and AJ we we get to see a lot of the uh concerns the issues a lot of the struggles our families struggles our families are are are dealing with today. So um some of these are actually things that we know are
056going on in our community. So just uh one is the definitely the shifting parental attitudes. Um you know we hear this a lot as well. My my my kid didn't want to come to school so I just didn't take them. So there's a shifting attitude about you know accountability when a kid should come to school or not. Um some of the barriers that they they deal with one and this is probably the biggest one and we just had a a nice uh presentation on it but transportation for families not just busing just a lack of personal transportation. um is is a a a issue for a lot of our families. Uh housing instability and homelessness. I did get the answer. About 3% of our entire district is considered homeless. All right. I did get that
057answer. I just want to share that with you. All right. Uh definitely food insecurity. Uh but the great thing is we work with Second Harvest uh to to help us provide and reduce that food insecurity and they've been great partners with us. But also, uh you know, family responsibilities. uh we have a lot of our siblings who take care of younger siblings. Um also big is just the lack of awareness and Mr. Ferguson you just talked about that about what is chronic absentism and then some of it also could be language barriers and communication gaps uh which we're trying to reduce at all times. So what are the trending attendance barriers uh for for families? for for students. Uh we see this now more than ever and we do have a lot of our tier
0582 and tier three supports in the schools and we're always looking for more partners because I don't think you can have enough when it comes to mental health support. Uh so we see a lot of our students with mental health struggles uh whether it be anxiety, depression or trauma uh or reasons why some students are not coming to school. Some of it is disengagement and lack of connection and that's why building trust and building those relationship with students is very important. Some of it is academic difficulties. Uh you know students who who just struggle academically and it's they get frustrated and then they they kind of I won't say quit but you know they give up a little bit and they tend not to come to school. Um we do have a little bit around
059physical health issues. you know, we we put out information when it's when sick is too sick to come to school. Um, you know, if you have the sniffles, we tell people come to school uh because I think it's important. Uh we have uh some awesome health professionals in this district that can provide support. We have QuickMed over at uh Washington that provides uh medical care. Uh so we have a a lot of opportunities for our students to get that that help and support when needed. And I think the last thing is just you know we we look at this but this is true is substance abuse uh which has been big. So how are we addressing these barriers and I put just some big um big letters is the setting stage for successful attendance is
060a continuous effort uh that begins well before the first day of school and we're doing things now to prepare for for next year. So uh you know practically building a culture of attendance equipping everyone with the understanding and tools they need is important. That's what we started on Friday. So, school ended on Thursday and on Friday we are at it uh to really work around providing an updated re revised process procedures for for the entire district around attendance. And then uh just to end, how are we addressing these barriers? So, we're really setting the stage before the school year begins, which is important. Uh we're reviewing all of our policy procedures. We're going to train the staff on panorama and our attendance systems. uh you know we're going to look for strategies around you know
061how can we build and continue to to build that trust and relationships and engagement and then early identification of potential barriers every school you know we meet as a as a team every Tuesday at 8:30 we review the entire district as I said before and we look at all of the schools and uh the individual students to get deep into the data but also uh you know we want our building level attendance team meetings to occur, too. And they've been great. So, I know our our school leaders are really uh really engaged. They get on the meetings with us and they really try to get down to how can we help support our families and our students on getting to school on time and they do a great job on that. And resource sharing um
062you know, how do we how do we provide more resources uh to our families, which is important. Lastly, just with families, just just communicate, communicate, and communicate, which is very important. Uh, we do that. And then, um, getting our families into our to our wonderful buildings, to our spaces, which is going to be important. I know that we have openhouse events coming up, uh, when we get back to school. you know, getting them in there, getting them the information they need uh around why it's so important uh that students come every day, all day, and especially on time. Uh which is very important. That's it. One thing to add too, and I and this just kind of came out recently, another tool to put in our tool belt as it relates to attendance. Not coming
063to school when you should be at school is against the law. Um and our previous prosecutor um didn't our current prosecutor is much more aggressive in dealing with this uh from a legal standpoint than his predecessor not judging his predecessor. Uh but uh there it is again we can now hold parents accountable for their children not coming to school. So when appropriate we'll pursue that as well. So that is the question that I had. That's what I was going to follow up after we've tried all of the incentives after we've handled everybody. when you get down to that final core of they're just not sending their kids because they don't feel like it. What's the consequence or the accountability that we've got in place? I mean, like the old truency officers who used to just
064go and wrap on the door and Yeah, we do that. Yeah, we do that. Our SEOs go out, they knock on doors, we make phone calls, we send letters home. It gets to the point where they're not coming to school and by law pass 61 days past their AIT. We do our packets to the court system and then we go that route. Do we consistently follow up on that? And are we putting teeth into that? Yeah. So our our our uh Yes. And so for now putting teeth into what they didn't historically, right? So I think that's the big difference. Stephen and AJ have been doing everything right, but it came to a screeching halt once it got there. Now they're taking it to the LEO and actually implement or or um holding folks accountable
065with and and even even uh we're going to have our some of our SEOs we actually you're going to approve uh some days for SEOs to work over the summer because they need to be there because we we're not stopping what we're doing around attendance. You know, we did packets and we need them to to go through and and our families to be engaged. So, you're actually approving some days for SEOs to actually um help support those initiatives with the court system, which is important. So, you know, we no Yeah, we didn't stop. We said we're going to continue throughout school throughout the summer because if you're not coming to school now, and if we just stop, guess what? You're not going to come come August, September. No, we're going to continue through the summer.
066We're going to get you in. We're going to get you through the court system and then try to get you to come to school consistently come August, September. Statistically, have we improved in the last year? Yeah, and we have not. We've not made the gains that we wanted to make, but we did. We are trending in the right direction. We're trending in the right direction. Um, could it be said that we could that they they could use a magistrate just to do Lorine the city schools? I mean, is is there that much? Oh gosh. Yes. Actually, yeah. About that for kids. So, you're talking thousands of kids. So I have a question as it concerns the chronically absent and student achievement and I don't know who to look at for this so I'm just going
067to look around. Is is there a way that we can get correlation between we've got it. Do you have an idea you recently were this year's but yeah I mean I mean just kids that missed more than 10 days I just I mean not for me necessarily but but I think it's important for us to get the word out. I think the last time we looked at it might have been during my first tour but it was 10 or 11 days. Once you miss that Yeah. game's over. Yeah. Once you statistically speaking, yeah, you're not going to do it. In our district, it was once you miss 13 days, we did that. It was once you miss 13 14 days, you you're you started to signally uh impact your your gaining in in knowledge um
068in school. So, yeah, and that's why that's what I was asking for is, you know, more about spreading that word with actual data because it intuitively it makes sense. Yeah. But hey, this is this is the reality. We we have to keep revising how we approach it because we have not seen the drop at the level that we frankly need um over the last several years. Yeah, we're we're trending pretty good. We had a rough May, but is there a big difference between the elementarymentaries and the high school? I mean, where did it start in the elementary? Not as big as you would think. Yes. If you're Yeah. Our Yeah. But like our attendance problems start in preschool and kindergarten. It's Yeah. It's it's a systemwide problem. This isn't just a high school problem. When
069when does the law when does the law start? It says do you have to is it preschool or kindergarten years old? Kindergarten. Yep. Kindergarten. I have a question. Go ahead. Um I don't mean to open up a huge can. Yeah, I might. Thanks, Jeffrey. um when we're when you're looking at the schedule and changing and this this isn't mean meant to be disrespectful truthfully but it might be a can um looking at the schedule changes and we've talked about this for many years and Lorraine we believe um and I think it's even in in the presentation that some of our older kids are helping our younger kids get to school and that might be an issue. Why don't we ever try the schedule change to allow that to happen to allow our older kiddos to
070get the younger kiddos to school? Well, there's the extracurricular and work component for after school. Now, our our older students are home for our younger students in the evening, but we can't it just doesn't work to have it both unless atically speaking, you get get them there or get them home. You can't do both because the late the school day it's staggered. What about a staggered schedule or something? I mean, just when we did the research, and I think I know what you're referencing, we looked at, this was during my first tour, um, the comment came up, does it make sense to continue with neighborhood schools or to have K3 buildings and or K2 buildings and 35 buildings? So, we researched that and what our parents said is that my fifth graders get my kindergarteners
071to school, but the the the I don't think it went much beyond that. It wasn't like my sixth grader because the fifth grader and the kindergartener are going to the same school. So, they take them to school and take them home. But, I don't think that the survey data that we had back then said that my seventh grader takes my kindergarter to school, then goes back to middle school. So, I'm not sure if we have data to support that second part. But, I but I get your question. Okay. We could lengthen the elementary day longer, Barbie. And then we could have our high school kids get Well, that's next board meeting. I'm I'm kidding about that. I'm just I'm kidding on that one. Party is going to text me right now. I know. I think
072I have questions about the attendance. Should I ask now or do you want me to wait until the public? We're hearing the public. Yeah. That way Steve can worry about what you're going to ask. word. Or you can just meet with Stephen in the audience and you get him answered for you. I was just going to be like Max Sky and look at Ross and say, "Ross, what's the answer?" You know, come on. Um, the last two presenters got to leave right after they were done, so you could go. No, I'm um I wanted to ask something else. Um, our mental health, we I see we do have more partners um on the agenda. So, that was really exciting. our mental health. Uh, this made me, it probably doesn't have anything to do with this,
073but do we have permission um built into our final forms for our kiddos to see mental health providers? No, but we do have it for um QuickMed. We do have it for Larry County Health and Dentistry, and we do have it for North Coast. Um, for those three organizations, we do have it built in, but we have over 20, probably 20 to 25 organizations that support mental health. There's no way we could get one document to support. And they all have their own documents for specific supports through them as opposed to a generic one that covers all 20. It'd be nice. I because I know sometimes that's a a barrier. So I was wondering part of that goes to how they get reimbursed for their service. They they all need different kinds of data. Okay.
074I'm good. Thank you very much. Dr. Sturgil, appreciate you. Thank you. All right. But don't run away. No, that's exciting. And thank you for all you do, sir. Yeah. Appreciate you. We appreciate you. Excuse me, sir. Who are you and why are you here? Me? Actually, come up and introduce yourself. Actually, this is Thomas Kubak. I'm middle school principal. Got to keep your head on a swivel. Um he is somebody I'm recommending you to you tonight uh to be the microphone. Yep. So folks at home can hear you. Um recommending him to be the principal at Longfellow. Uh I when I you guys ran me out of town the first time I went to Cleveland for a year and I was superintendent of an area and Thomas is one of the principles in that area.
075Um been a middle school principal for now 17 years. Uh the experience was was very clear and we had conversations with him. The one question that came out between the first and the second round was after 17 years, is there still some fire in the belly? And that came out pretty clearly in the second round, but also real quick story when I offered Tom the job on the phone and I've offered many many people jobs on the phone. I'm not sure of anyone more enthusiastic uh than Tom was. You could tell there was fist bumping happening uh and it was uh it was pretty exciting. But I'm sorry. Who are you and a little bit about yourself? I just I wanted to come tonight just introduce myself. My name is Thomas Kubak. I am a
076resident of Lorraine County. Grew up in North Ridgeville. Have been working in Cleveland for 17 years. Spent seven years as an assistant principal and 10 years at Joseph Gallagher as the principal. Was there all 17 years, like I told the interview team, I am itching for something different, something new. I've worked under Jeff, like he said when I was in Cleveland. Thoroughly enjoyed his leadership style. Really enjoyed our interactions and learning from him. And when the opportunity came to, you know, for Lorraine to a position open up that I thought I'd be a good fit for, jumped at the opportunity, I felt bold and emailed Jeff directly and said, "Hey, I'm interested in this middle school position over at Longfellow." And we got an interview in and had a wonderful conversation with the team there.
077And we they, you know, they they they allowed for candid conversations about the building, the building needs, um, how I could help support those building needs, and how we could help move it forward. I know that when I'm leaving Joseph Gallagher, loved it there. Was been there for a long time. Um, new building opening up. I'm leaving there with the uh as the first principal of a school that has led the school to three consecutive OD momentum awards um in this in the history of Cleveland. So, I'm leaving them in a good place. I'm feeling really good about it. Um I haven't been this re-energized about going into a school year in years now, I guess. So, I have a million questions. um mostly about logistical things that to start the year as as we
078start in August 1. So I know that Jeff's going to help me get there before August 1 because I'm chomping at the bit. I've already talked with Andy about getting in and talking with him and you know picking his brain. So I know he's done on the 18th. I met some wonderful people. It's a very warm and welcoming uh district. I it feels different than than I I've have experienced in Cleveland. So, uh, that has been adding to my energy as, as we kind of get ready and get going here. So, I am I'm excited. I'm excited to serve the city of, uh, Lraine. I'm excited to serve the students and families of Longfellow. I'm excited to uh, start a new a new I guess a new. So, I'm I got a lot of experience.
079Like I said, this is my will be my that's how many years, right? Uh, 20 21st year as an administrator. spent three years in East Cleveland as a dean, seven in Cleveland as assistant, and 10 as principal. So, I'm I'm excited. I'm excited to work under Jeff again. I'm excited to to serve serve Marine City. So, I'm appreciate the opportunity. No, appreciate it. Thanks. And again, when uh and and Tom sent me a text said, Jeff, do you think there's a chance I could stop by Longfellow sometime? I said, sure, when? And he said, well, my daughter and I are like driving around it now. Get in there. Yeah. So, in terms of enthusiasm, he's he's excited. Oh. So, yeah. So, we did drop by and uh check it out. What a beautiful uh piece
080of land there that out there in Longfellow and uh got to meet Wendy out there and and the special ed coordinator for middle school and met Ivan out there, the the custodian and Andy and and really uh everyone's been wonderful. You you should be as the board of Lorian city should be really happy with how your employees treat people that come in the building whether when they didn't know who I was was treating me the same as as they found out that I was being introduced as the principal. So you should be really happy with We have great people. You're going to love it. So thank you. Appreciate you. Welcome home. Thanks. Yep. There you go. Appreciate it. Thanks. You want to be approved first? You ready? like the board to consider for approval item
0819.01 personnel matters discussion. I would like to say welcome to Titan Nation. Thank you. Entertain a motion. I'll entertain a motion from my right. So move. Support. Roll call, please. Thought we did that. Mr. Sturgil. Yes. Mrs. Washington. No, that Mr. Ferguson. Are we? Yes. I said, "Welcome, Dr. Ballard." Nope. I have We don't have enough. Oh, shoot. What do you want me to do? Would you like to pull somebody out? All of the above. You don't want to hire You don't want to hire Thomas? Yes. All right. Hire Thomas. So, what do you want me to do? We don't I would entertain a motion to uh hire Thomas re um revoke the action just taken on 9.01. Who want me to support that? Support. Roll call, please. Hey, I was voting no. I'm not
082changing my vote. Yeah. What? Mr. Sturds. Yes, Mrs. Washington. Do you want me to say no now? No, I don't want you to say it at all. Yes. Yes. So, we'll put you on next board agenda there. Thomas. Yes. Uh, Mr. Ferguson, Dr. All right. Now, now we'll re not know what the issue is, I guess I will just uh learn. No, I don't think there was an issue. Go ahead and put it up again. Right. Yeah. We're going to try to vote for Thomas for everyone. Are you a no vote? Is that what I think he's asking? No, you're joking. Voting no on any part. We We only have three votes on this particular item because Dr. Ballard's wife is on it. So, we need three votes to pass. If we need to sort
083someone out of there to get you to vote yes, then we have to do that, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. And my vote is no on all of the above, but I would vote Thomas if we need to to get him started. If that's what you're asking. I'm asking if there is a particular individual that you would like to remove. No, there's not a particular individual that I would like to remove. I'm going to ask for a motion to suspend the order. So move. I support that. Support that. I can support. Yes. Roll call, please. Mr. Surgel. Yes. Dr. Bor. Yes. Mr. Ferguson. Yes. Mrs. Washington. Yes. I would like a motion to enter into executive session for the reason of personnel. A2. A2. So move. Roll call. Dr. B. Yes. Mr.
084Sturg. Yes. Mr. Ferguson. Yes. Mrs. Washington. Yes. Thank you. to come out of executive session to come out so roll call. Dr. B. Yes. Mr. Sturgil. Yes. Mr. Ferguson. Yes. Mrs. Washington. Yes. Now I would like the board to consider for approval item 9.01 personnel matters. So move support. Roll call please. Mr. Sturgil. Yes. Mrs. Washington. Yes. Mr. Ferguson. Yes. Dr. Ballard. Same. All right. The board to consider for approval items 9.02 to 9.10. Personnel matters. Discussion. Okay. We have a motion and a second. some more. That's important. Roll call, please. Mr. Sturgil, yes. Dr. B. Yes. Mr. Ferguson. Yes. Mrs. Washington. Um, I got discombobulated. Can you give me 9.02 to 9.10? A second. All the way up, but not including the summer school stuff. Um, okay. Then I'm going to I'm going to
085vote no on this one. Okay. Call the vote, please. Did you vote? Okay. So, we're good. We have Okay. Mrs. Washington was the last vote. Okay. All right. The board to consider for approval item 9.11 personnel matters. Entertain motion and need a second discussion. Just as I understand this in talking with Mr. Scott, um we hire as many as we think we might need, but we only pay for those we actually need based on enrollment for summer school. So that that While that list looks incredibly long, if we don't have the enrollment to support it, it won't be so much on the payroll end. Yeah. This just gives um us the you give us the authority to pay them if they work. That's all this is. And roll call. Dr. Ballard? Yes. Mr. Sturgil? Yes.
086Mr. Ferguson? I have to abstain on this one. Mrs. Washington, yes. Thank you. Like the board to consider for approval items 10.01 to 10.21 operations matters discussion. I had one qu actually had a question from a couple different board members the same question that the city does a lot of our paving for us. So what is the why first of all why are there um groups companies other than the city doing it and why are there so many different companies? Long story short the city can do basic resurfacing. that's what they have the equipment and the expertise for or of. But the uh when it comes to more difficult stuff, scraping and doing some other things, they don't have that level of expertise or the equipment. Uh so we contract that out. And the reason
087we have several different contractors is because we contracted each parking lot out separately and we took the lowest responsible date and they were different for different parking lots. That's a lot of work. Thank you, Tony and Mary. But yeah, thank you. Appreciate it. question that I will ask is I think I know the answer but we're talking about signage in 10.02 the contract with Sherba Industries. What can it says for the bleacher jersey? Yeah, that's the um it's going to go behind on the Uberland side of the home bleachers. So when you're driving by right now it looks pretty rough. Has always looked pretty rough. There's a jersey and we're still trying to get donations to do it and I think we've got at least a majority potentially covered but not necessarily. The total cost
088I want to say is $36,000. Um, and it's a a big heavy curtain that'll have the Titan logo on it. And if somebody help sponsors it, that group or that company logo will also go on the banner in the corner somewhere. But it's very very classy um um and very appealing to what's going on. It also protects the uh the other side of the the losers and it'll clean it up a lot. A lot. Yep. Yes. Okay. Long overdue. Do we have a motion already? Not yet. I would entertain a motion. So move support and roll call, please. Mr. Sturgil, yes. Dr. Baller, yes. Mr. Ferguson, yes. Mrs. Washington, yes. And in terms of other matters, I am pulling item 9, I'm sorry, 11.01, uh, which is the change in start and end times for
089for our students. And I will place that on the next board agenda. And candidly, the rationale for that is we have a board member who's out who would like to speak to him. Um, and that's how we operate on here. If there's time to give a voice, obviously that's always our goal. So, I'd like the board to consider for approval item 11.02. Uh, other matters. So, move support. Discussion. Roll call, please. Mr. Sturdel? Yes. Dr. Ber? Yes. Mr. Ferguson? Yes. Mrs. Washington? Yes. And that's all I have. Um, okay. Any new business? committee reports and requests from board members. And I think this is an appropriate time for me to mention that I intended a PD session this morning that was very well attended by teachers who were given up their first days off to
090come to professional development. It was very the the session I was in I was very well received. It was on using AI in the classroom and I look forward to seeing another one tomorrow morning. If I could just add to that, it was teachers, support staff, and building level administrators. And we had over a hundred people here today. Again, very first day of summer. Gorgeous outside and no donuts. Well, no, we eventually got donuts until lunchon. But uh but again, it's just a testament to the quality of people we have and how excited they are to sharpen their saws for next year. I was very impressive. And I guess I would just like to get on record and during this portion um as far as when I first came in this today, we had a
091lot of the department leads and heads and and people were significant and that's important to me. And as we going into the new school year, I'd like for the board to consider us hearing more from them so we get more direction going forward. U so we know as well as the community knows exactly what's going on in those particular departments. Uh I would also uh encourage us to even if we're talking to a uh to audience of one which is the camera additional town hall meetings so we can get the community a little bit more involved so they know what's going on because we need them but then they they're not here and we've just got to figure out every way we can to get them more more involved. Um, and then as a board,
092we need uh I know the last working session was more of a let's get to the mic to talk about start times, but I would really appreciate some board sessions coming up this new school year to further develop, you know, what our goals are as a board for this coming year and the three or four things that we really want to drive hard as we help the superintendent and his team do the things they need to do. So, I would just like to have that on record. I I would I would agree with all of that, sir. Yes. Thank you. Um, second hearing of the public. I was going to say, did Steve sneak out? Yeah. Um, Lindsay, Lisha, um, I'm a teacher and a parent of a previous student. Um, I had a lot
093of questions about the attendance stuff that, um, he already answered most of them, which I appreciate. So, thank you. Um the one question I did have though that he wasn't able to answer um have we looked at the students who are intra district um approvals and what that does to our attendance if they're not showing up. Would it make more sense for them to go back to their home school for whatever reason? And was that something that was brought up at all? And we typically don't do dialogue but would you like me to answer it? Well, no. Okay. So, typically what board meetings because it's a board meeting and I'm not a board member. Um but uh actually we've looked at that but um we don't want for lack of attendance to be um to
094punish you by sending you somewhere else. Typically when you're in you choose to go to a school there's a reason for it and if you miss him school obviously you're a vulnerable student. So to take our vulnerable students pluck them up from where they are and then move them across town and drop them off um typically isn't healthy thing to do. So that's not something we've seriously considered. Okay. No, no, it's a conversation we'd have with parents. If that's if the reason for uh your your um absenteeism, your tardiness is because you can't get there, let's talk about a plain common sense to move forward. Um but we wouldn't do it as a consequence for poor. No, that's I was just making sure because I know at our school there's an instance where I think
095that's affecting our attendance and it's just one of those things where put them back at their home school where they can walk across the street. That make might make more sense if that's the issue. That's the only thing. Yeah. When you say Okay. You're talking about students within the district. Yeah. Like a student who chooses to go to one school just because they they want to go to that school but then still aren't showing up when they live across the street from their home school. They could walk across the street. Yeah. Okay. Just for the public, we're not talking about open enrolled student. Correct. That's all I wanted to make sure. Yep. Thank you. Um and then I do have just a comment on one of the things that you guys already voted on. It
096is 10.14. The approval of Victoria Jackson. We love her and I'm really glad that you guys approved that. Um I didn't even know that was something that was on here. So when I saw it, I was really excited. Um she was somebody who worked with preschool this year and like that's the kind of arts that we need for preschool. She is amazing. So um she did our whole graduation and our kids loved it. um literally comes up, you know, with her own songs and beats and everything. So, we are really excited and that makes me really happy. So, thank you guys for that. I think speaking for myself, that's the kind of feedback we love to have because we don't always get it. We hear good things, but that's hands-on feedback. Thank you. Um, the
097next board meeting will be a special meeting on Wednesday, I believe, June 25th at 5:00 p.m. right here at our home. Um, the regularly scheduled meeting on the 23rd will not take place as it's being moved back a couple of days. Um, with that being said, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move support. Roll call, please. Mr. Sturgil, yes. Dr. Bor, yes. Mr. Ferguson, yes. Mrs. W. Yes. Very good. Appreciate it. Thank you.