001Good evening and welcome to the Marlington Local School District Board of Education meeting of Tuesday, April 7th. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance 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. >> Thank you. Call the roll, please. >> Josh Hagen, >> here. >> Karen Humphre, >> here. >> Kathy Krepco, >> here. >> Mark Ryan, >> here. >> Jonathan Swift >> here. >> Reading of the mission statement, Mr. Ryan. In collaboration with staff, community, parents, and students, the Marlington local school district will develop lifelong learners who understand and apply knowledge and demonstrate excellence in pursuing the highest standards with effective intervention to challenge every student. >> Thank you. Additions or corrections to the agenda? Are
002there any additions or corrections? Uh we have a a slight correction which could be considered a typo but under the section D under the treasures report uh under number three revenue and appropriations the exhibit should be labeled I >> instead of F. >> All right. Noted. >> Okay. There's a motion to accept the agenda as >> so moved. Second. >> Call the RO, please. >> Jonathan Swift, >> yes. >> Kathy Krepco, >> yes. >> Josh Hagen, >> yes. >> Karen Humphre, >> yes. >> Mark Ryan, >> yes. >> Special presentation. >> Okay. Good evening. Uh, I'd like to welcome everybody to the April board meeting. Uh tonight we're going to have our high school Elks students of the month being honored. So I'm going to have Mr. Frell, our high school principal, come up and
003our board president to honor our high school students of the month. Good evening. So, I do have the privilege of introducing two of our high school students as Elks Teens of the Month here tonight. I know we only have one in attendance here, so I will um do this one first and then we'll talk about our other student in a moment. Our first Elkine of the Month will be Delaney Marts. Delaney, can you come forward? >> All right. Delaney is the daughter of Todd and Kelly Marts. She's a member of National Honor Society, Rocks, and Sources of Strength. Delaney is a four-year letter winner on the varsity softball team, and in her free time, she enjoys working out, fishing, line dancing, and playing softball. Following graduation, Delaney is committed to continue her education and softball
004career at Walsh University to study criminal justice. Our staff says that Delane's actively involved and demonstrates both leadership and a commitment to supporting others. Her accomplishments in academics and athletics reflect reflect her dedication, perseverance, and a strong work ethic. She's known for her positive attitude and determination, and she consistently sets a strong example for her peers both in and out of the classroom. Delaney is a respected and valued member of our school community and we're confident she'll continue to find success and make a positive impact in her future endeavors. Congratulations, Delaney. Our other student of the month is not here tonight um but his mother is. So, what I would like to do is I would like to uh brag about our other student of the month here for a moment and then welcome her
005up to to get the certificate. So, our other Elk team of the month is David White. David is the son of Rob and Gina White and he's a member of varsity tennis team. In his free time, David enjoys spending time with friends, videography, and volunteering in the community through Washington Elementary School and his church. Following graduation, David plans to attend Youngstown State University to major in multimedia communications with a focus of sports broadcasting. Our staff says that David is very well known for being exceptionally kind and genuinely concerned about the well-being of others while showing empathy and compassion on a daily basis, both in and out of the classroom. His positive attitude and character make him a valued member of our school community. David consistently demonstrates maturity, responsibility, and a strong work ethic, whether that's
006in academics, extracurricular activities, or service to others. We're confident he will continue to thrive after graduation and make meaningful contributions in his future pursuits. Congratulations to David and Gina, if you would, PLEASE. GOOD. OKAY. >> OKAY. At this time, we're about to start the formal part of the meeting. So, if you wish to leave and enjoy your evening, you can do that now. >> You're welcome. >> Okay. Invocation. Mr. Fos, would you please? >> Sure. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that we can be here tonight. We thank you for this school district. We thank you for the opportunity to bless the lives of others. We thank you for the protection that you've shown the students at this school. We pray that you'll bless their lives. And to that end, we also pray that you
007will give the board wisdom tonight. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Bob. >> Okay. Uh, next up, I'd like to welcome Rick Baxter. He is the current president of Alliance Area Development Foundation and the president of our Alliance Chamber of Commerce. He has been uh this will be his fourth appearance here in the LA. He comes once a year. we ask him to come in and give the board a brief update of what's going on in our area and how that can directly uh affect uh Marlington local schools and answer any questions you guys have. >> Yeah, thank you very much for the opportunity to come and talk with you today. So, I wanted to just kind of share a brief update. I won't take too long here
008of your time. We got a lot of things going on, I'm sure, but just want to take you through uh the process and some of the things that we've had happen in the past year or so. So, we can go ahead and Can I click it on there? Here. >> Yeah. >> Oh, perfect. So obviously alliance development side of things, you guys know a lot of the people that are involved in the organization that I I head up there. Uh Scott Robertson, Bill Labry, Doug Schwarz, Steve Young, uh Pat Hedleston, Ryan Jones, Dennis Posie, Todd Pew, a lot of really really good people in the community that help uh kind of be my executive board uh for that the development. So let's talk about what's happening in Alliance. Um as you know, we we were
009able to do a grand opening last year. They've been open almost a year now. uh Chick-fil-A and uh it was exciting time. We had both the Marlington band and the Alliance band there. Uh it was really festive and it was really fun. So was one of the funner grand openings that we've had. They've been doing uh extremely well well. Dan Benstein I know is very involved in some things here at Marlington. Very involved in the community. Uh great family. Uh great uh great place and excited to have them here in Alliance. Also next door is the Take Five oil change uh that was put up there. So, just uh to give you perspective, that that culde-sac kind of dead ends back there, but there's an additional 20 acres back there that will be for future
010development. So, as we continue to look for more retail businesses, uh other businesses that we can expand, uh there's a good space back there that uh we can we can expand and bring more retail business there. And we have a light there, which is good. And State Street is getting paved right now, too. So, that's another good thing. >> Yeah. Well, >> long overdue. >> It'll be nice when it's done. >> It'll be Yeah, it was it would be nice when it's done. It was real rough going through there today. Uh but uh we also obviously have a lot of car washes and we have a lot of chicken in Alliance. So why not add another chicken place? So we have Wing Stop uh that opened up here in Alliance and it's basically kind of
011a carry out uh but another addition to our restaurant uh industry here. And then we also had over in the uh Mount Union Gateway Plaza two uh businesses locally owned Groovy Beans Coffee Shop and then Blooming Beautiful Boutique. uh two nice little additions to that plaza. Uh if you haven't been to Cantina Haliscoco and Pulp Smoothie, those are both next door there. Uh Cantina Haliscoco has some beautiful artwork in there. If you've not been in there, they had a they had a guy that came in uh from Mexico who was a renown artist there and he came in and play painted some just beautiful murals. So if you get a chance to go in there, uh very very nice place uh to to sit down and eat. Um this, as you may remember, used to
012be Tolerton's uh Terry's Tire Town. uh was a warehouse and then converted over to the baseball academy. Um was able to bring in a company out of Lewisville called Salco Machine. Uh they were operating at about a 7,000 square foot facility and uh in talking with the owners and and trying to find space. We were able to get this warehouse for them. Uh one of the one of the things I did work with them, I was able to get them a $100,000 grant through the state of Ohio. Uh they're bringing some manufacturing jobs, engineering jobs. uh probably an additional uh 26 to 27 new jobs that'll be there, not only in the machine shop, but they're also going to be doing some fabrication. Um also coordinated getting them an $800,000 uh loan through the city's
013revolving loan fund. Uh which is a nice tool to have in our back pocket. Uh that's at 2% interest. And that basically is helping to basically turn that that warehouse into manufacturing space. Upgrading the electric, uh upgrading the lighting, the roofing. uh you're going to see this building start to transform over the the next uh few months. Uh but they are bringing some some really good jobs to our area. Uh which is really exciting. Uh obviously you guys know about the expansion over at Robertson. Uh this is due to be done here at the end of December. Um we also worked with the state of Ohio to get them some low interest funding for that too. Uh with some of the jobs and things that they're looking to create. Uh 93,000 square foot distribution center.
01422 no new new loading docks and as I mentioned in December of 2026 they'll be looked to be uh completed with that expansion. Uh Morgan Engineering also has been doing some expansion. Uh they are about 2.5 million in fixed asset investments also and they're also looking at creating 43 new jobs. Uh one of the things we did to work with the state of Ohio to get them some funding. uh we got them about a half a million dollars in funding uh of that $250,000 is specifically for them to be able to use to recruit engineers to our town. So they're actively recruiting people from all over the the world really uh to bring them to Alliance Ohio uh paying you know obviously good paying engineering jobs. So that's exciting and obviously some really good jobs
015at 43 uh new jobs. Mark Fedor is doing some phenomenal things over there. He's doing some stuff for SpaceX. uh he's doing some just really high-tech AI stuff as well. He's he's kind of cutting edge as far as a AI goes. One of the things he told me was um he went down to to to look at SpaceX. They got high school kids that are doing engineering work because of the AI technology. Um one of the things he also said is it takes it used to take eight engineers I would say maybe two three or four months to get a project from start to finish to get it to manufacturing. now they can do it with one because of the AI technology. So Mark's really putting that to full use and it's kind of exciting
016to see some of the things that are happening over there. Um we also, if you remember, had an a place down on the on the east side of Alliance called Tailgators. Uh new ownership Jesus who also owns the Poncho's restaurant bought that building and he's looking to basically bring that restaurant back to life. U but it's going to be called Townies. But if you look at the guy's shirt, uh Tailgators is on the shirt. He's he's working with the owner. uh Adam who used to own it and he's going to try to bring back some of the the same menu items that he had because I think it was very successful when Adam owned it. Uh we're also in downtown Alliance uh just across from my office at the chamber actually diagonal uh if you
017may have heard of of Masa restaurant in Hartville uh the owners of that is going to be open opening up a restaurant called Spicy Bravo. In fact, I'm meeting with them tomorrow. We're trying to get them to the finish line. And I think they want to be open by Cinco de Mayo, which would be a good time to open to have uh margaritas and and some Mexican food. So, we're working with them to hopefully get them open sometime in May. Uh but that'll be a nice addition to our downtown Alliance uh restaurant area. Also, a new one, which I don't have on here. We just got finished. A lot of you know, the Dudley family uh over in Damascus. They have just expanded and bought the old checkerboard cheesecake. Um they're looking to eventually add
018a retail space, but right now it's mostly catering. uh they have about 80 catering jobs between now and the end of fall. So, they're just going to be busy doing catering. So, eventually when it gets to staff up, you'll start to see some retail sales and things going on at their restaurant downtown as well. So, a lot of good things happening downtown. SCES Steel, uh you may have seen on BON, uh they expanded some of their space over there, added an addition on there, some additional warehousing space. They're doing a lot of good things and growing as well. Uh if you've been downtown where there's there's a place called the Carnation Center. Uh the building has really kind of transformed and had added some some really nice little um businesses there. The Zuk Coffee. I've
019been down there. Great little place to have a cup of coffee. Uh really nice environment. They do extremely well. When they first asked me about uh they came to me about where to open, I said, "You're going to think I'm crazy, but if you open up something in downtown Alliance, uh you will uh do it. If you do it right, people will come. Um, you go down there anytime during the during the week, a lot of kids from Mount Union down there hanging out. Um, they've actually almost tripled the sales that they expected. Um, and and they just had celebrated their first year. So, they they've done very well. And, um, a regular down there is Larry Carris. So, I said if you got Larry Carris come to have coffee, you've definitely arrived because he's
020down there almost every day having a cup of coffee. So, a lot of good things happen in that center. Also in the center, a Mount Union graduate. Uh Ally uh Matthysse started a marketing company down there. She's been helping us out doing some stuff with the chamber as well. And also another uh couple businesses, East Main Vintage has has kind of like a little antique shop. And then uh Nailed It Wood Projects by Manny and Monica. They do some really really cool custommade wood products and signs. Uh so nice little addition to that little shop down there. Um also our downtown caboose area. We're going to have concerts throughout the summer starting in May. Every final Friday through May through September, we have concerts going on. Uh we're looking, the city is going to be
021investing into a uh a sta an amphitheater style that'll look something like this. This is just a little rendition uh to add to the caboose stage. It's right now just a parking lot. So, this will add to our entertainment uh piece down in downtown Alliance to give us a little bit nicer facility for the the summer concert series and uh all the Main Street Final Friday events that we'll be having with food trucks and vendors and lots of fun things happening this summer. So, a lot of good things there. Also, a lot of you may remember Tom Miller. We used to be a basketball coach, girls basketball coach here at Marlington. Uh Tom left coaching and decided to take his full uh uh time into his investment into Baller Brand uh which he has done
022extremely well. Uh where he actually bought the old Fastnell building which is just down off of Union across from uh Cassidy Turkal Christian Funeral Home. Um I was able to work with Tom in the state of Ohio uh to get him a $300,000 grant uh that will help pay for this project. It's about a $600,000 project. Uh Tom's going to transform this building and create some considered light manufacturing jobs. Uh where he's producing, you know, shirts and jerseys and all kinds of uh sports paraphernalia for all kinds of uh different high schools throughout Northeast Ohio, colleges, uh doing some really exciting things. So, he's grown quite a bit. Uh he's got some expansion plans where he's going to have a really really cool retail space. Um he said he was going to have a picture
023of Rick Baxter basketball in the short shorts from back in the 80s up there. I said, 'Well, if you do, I'll just make sure I don't come in very often. So, I want to claim that. So, uh, but he's going to be doing some really cool things. Tom's a great guy. Uh, as I said, Marlington guy. So, exciting to see him. As you may also know, the Lion City Schools opened up their culinary arts building. Uh, really, really nice facility. I think that program's taken off. So, we're excited to see it continue to grow. And the hopes for me is to see some of these kids as they graduate maybe starting their own businesses. And uh we'll hopefully see some some new restaurants popping up with some uh some new uh new uh people uh
024from that culinary arts program. Uh so this is at the corner of state of Main Street in Sabberg. Uh if you know where that property is, little corner there uh Columbia Gas. >> Yeah. Right across from Columbia Gas. So Jim Stout owns all that land back there. Talked to Jim. Jim's a very avid YMCA guy. Um said, "Jim, what are you going to do with that corner lot? It's kind of a tough lot. It's only about five or six acres." I said, 'ould you consider donating that to the YMCA so we could maybe have a future site? Uh because our YMCA, I'm on the board there. No, Dan's on the board. Uh the building itself is is just falling apart. There's not a whole lot we can do to it for the future. So Jim
025actually donated that land to the YMCA. And so the future plan here in the some at some point here when in the near future, we'll start to campaign to put a new YMCA hopefully there um in the next couple years. That's that's the goal. So it'll be a nice addition. Also, we're partnering with Altman Hospital. They're looking at putting kind of a uh a clinic in there as well, just for, you know, uh people need to come down to get testing done from some of the local businesses if they just need to go, you know, get a prescription, you know, just a little uh center there from the hospital that'll add to that. And I think this was quick video, but I know you guys are rushed. This is just a a little video about
026our employment promise. Um I don't even know if it'll let me show it, but I'll I'll try. If not, um, nope, that's okay. Our alliance employment promise, just to give you a quick update on that, is basically we're working with the businesses to help, uh, fund daycare cost. Uh, businesses are getting $200 per child through dayare. So, >> that's all going on. >> Well, >> any questions? >> Thanks for the check for >> Yeah, it's just for you. I I that that was that was that that sold it. like five years. >> Better late than never, right? >> Yeah. And they got Dan and his wife Claire. Great. >> Great people. Yeah. Very great people. So, >> yeah. >> What are the plans for where the current one? >> So, that's up for debate. Um,
027we've actually had, you know, the building itself. Um, and just looking at the repairs that need to be done, it would be quite a big investment. But, um, I know Cassidy Churkel is very interested in that space as well because of the the use. We've also um I have reached out to uh Refuge of Hope. If you're familiar with that organization, it can help. Uh they do a lot of work with homeless, which is a big need that we have. Um we we've talked to them about maybe coming to Alliance. So, that could be a possibility. I've also had a church talk about it. I've had a medical facility talk about it. So, lots of different options, but um yeah. So, things happen still coming. I've not heard that yet, but I think that'll be
028that'll that'll be >> Mark's a right. >> So, um I did reach out I don't know if you guys uh saw in Lewisville Don that owned the uh Scratch steakhouse over there. Fantastic food, fantastic cook. Um he they closed a Louisville location. So, I reached out to him and said, "Hey, why don't you come to Alliance?" He's like, "I really have been thinking about that." So, I'm gonna try to bring in give us a little more of an upper scale steak restaurant, which would be which would be awesome. Not Texas House is great, but he's at another level. So, he's a fantastic cook. So, hopefully we can get in. >> Nice. >> Any other requests while we're taking them? >> All food, man. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you very much. I appreciate Rick.
029Thank you. >> Superintendent update. It's coming. >> Oh, >> thanks Joseph. >> All right. Good evening. Uh, welcome to our April board meeting. I am Mr. Swisser, your superintendent. I'm going to stick with where I always am. We talk about every minute, every moment, every memory, but we'll talk about some reasons to celebrate. This was a quick turnaround from our last board meeting. So, we are uh I think uh 11 days is correctly how many school days we've had since our last board meeting, >> you know, due to spring break and >> and so forth. >> Uh so, speaking of Dan and the owner of Chick-fil-A and his wife Claire, um I'm sure you guys saw Jordan Miller did a little coverage on it. I sent it to the board on the thing, but we
030had at Lexington uh last week, a week before spring break. It was called Operation Warm that visited Lexington. So the the the company is called Operation Warm. Uh they basically give out free coats, shoes, and or sports bras depending on your request is the three items that Operation Warmth uh targets uh nationwide. And uh our two family support specialists up there, uh Crystal and Jill, basically went at the application process. Chick-fil-A of Stark County sponsors the event, so they cover the costs. So, uh, you know, so the the actual application goes to Operation Warmth. They they sort through the applications and then they pick a ele school, middle school, high school, whoever that is. And there's a lot of factors that go into it, economically disadvantaged, need, you know, there's different things. So, we were
031very shocked that we were chosen, which was great. Um, so, you know, there's about 400 coats delivered for our students, obviously. Then Chick-fil-A comes and hands out those coats. So the owners of all the Chick-fil-As were there in Stark County. So it wasn't just Alliance's owner and his wife and his mom, but it was also Masslin, Jackson, North Canton, all of those owners were there to participate in the project. Uh so it was just a wonderful time. I was there from, you know, start pretty much start to finish. Um it was just the kids were very excited. Um they really enjoyed it. you know, the the one mom, Dan's mother, that she kind of greeted every kid at the door, the owner of Chick-fil-A, you know, and she came over, I would say, in the
032middle of it, and said, you know, it's just amazing to me how excited these kids are, how nice and polite and friendly these kids are. She goes, what kind of really broke her heart was this kid said, "Oh, I'm so excited for a jacket. I need one." And she goes, "You don't have a jacket." She goes, "Well, he goes, "I do, but that's also my blanket." you know, so it was like one of those like, you know, just it doesn't happen for every kid, but even one or two or more that, you know, we don't see their struggles, but we know those struggles exist here just as much as they do anywhere else. So, it was a it was it was a very very wonderful event that happened that day. We appreciate that Jordan Miller
033was able to come out and uh cover that event. So, there's a few more pictures there. There's a there's a group there on the left. That's the, you know, Chick-fil-A employees and the owners from the Stark County. Those are the ones that kind of handed out uh all the coats and then some pictures of some of our kids and obviously the uh Chick-fil-A cow. So, okay. Uh obviously there in March we had our musical uh which was presented by uh Spongebob. So, we obviously had elementary kids involved in that. We had our our high school kids, you know, so a special thank you our staff for putting that putting together the musical every year. They had a I think on an average night they were roughly in their four nights was anywhere between four and
034500 each night. Um I think their lowest turnout might have been 300 and something but it all averaged out to about four or 500 a night is what they had. So, it was a uh hopefully you got a chance to come out and watch our high school students and our elementary students uh perform this. Uh they did do a preview uh for all our elementary kids, middle school and high school also. So, that kind of got the you know, so that way hopefully then that drew in a larger audience and it did. Anytime we add uh our younger elementary kids, that's also a good pull. Um so, it was it was a it was a good they put a lot of work in. So, if you've never been to one of our music musicals, please
035try to attend. They did nice jobs. There's some pictures. Okay. Uh within the last few weeks, uh as I said, you know, I I said we we try to look and do grants. This was a grant that uh Renee kind of uh spearheaded on herself there, our our curriculum director. And we did get a project lead the way grant for $10,000 to just expand our existing engineering. You know, we kind of revamped like we said a year ago. We we've targeted our our coding side which we revamped and we targeted engineering and tied in with the University of Mount Union. And so those kids have an opportunity to do CTE through engineering or get CCP credit uh in the engineering field. So this was just a grant that's going to actually help support Mr. Denny
036uh allows for some upgrades for some more advanced design prototyping things. So it they hit the real world industry standards and it it flows in line with you know with our ties with Mount and then obviously you know Rick kind of touched on it between SCES and Morgan Engineering and those types of places that are looking for when we if we get good people that are willing to gravitate from here do some experience at those places and then they go to the University of Mount Union or Stark State or wherever there's a good chance a lot of those get hired right away you know and make really really good income. So, we did get that $10,000 grant. So, I want to thank Mrs. Kaye for her uh expertise on that. There might have been some
037AI maybe. All right. So, here we're going to talk about our elementary students of the month. So, we have our elementary students of the month here. So, we have Lexington's fifth grade Quana student of the month, Deari Thomas. So we'd like to congratulate him. We have our Marboral student of the month, Macy Levi, and our Washington student of the month, Ronnie Gmmith. So congratulate to those three elementary quantis fifth grade students of the month. Then our middle school students of the month, we have Palin Keller and Braxton Peterson. Those students were then honored within their own schools. And then obviously the two at the middle school for that. So, congratulations to them. >> Uh, just a quick district update. I mean, we didn't The turnaround was quick. So, we're still in a holding pattern on
038our transportation director. Uh, we did we're we did a third round interview. We're we're down to really making a decision tomorrow between uh a transporta to a transportation director andor possibly another option. So, I'll kind of have that wrapped up because we really need to get get on the move on that. Um, with Sherry's uh looming retirement coming up, uh staffing, we are I want to say 95% staffed at this point. Uh we have some hires um tonight that'll be on the board meeting. So, at Marbor, I think right now we will be fully staffed. At Lexington, I think we're going to be fully staffed. Washington, as of tonight, we'll be fully staffed. High school, we will have uh one position we'll be have to start looking to interview and middle school looks like we
039will have potentially at least one position we're going to have to interview for. So we from there we do have our obviously then some a mechanic to look for and a couple other odds and ends that we'll get to. Uh negotiations, as I said, we have negotiations coming up this year with the Oopsy, which is our classified. That did start the week before we went on um break. So, I did meet with their committee for about two hours. Uh they did their presentation. Uh I'm now reviewing their proposals across the board. Um we will do a follow-up meeting probably within the next two weeks. My goal is to hopefully have a uh potential collective bargaining contract in front of you to review by the May board meeting. Uh esports, as I brought up, we'll probably
040looking at adopting esports in our May or June meeting as an official sport. Uh we are going to have it here at the high school. Um we did meet with uh Mr. Digby. We did meet with two different uh gaming groups that was suggested by the University of Mount Union. Ben and I did uh re uh we chose a company that gave a 5-year warranty and covers everything and kind of sets everything up for us. Um their price was actually better than us trying to put it together ourselves. >> Um and they give logistical support throughout. Um Bob has, like I said, he has set aside money from the um the I would say the larger lawsuits that we were involved in from a nationwide standpoint. Um the vapes and the jewels or some of
041the social media litigation, things like that that have come through, we set that aside. So, um for the most part, the cost is pretty much covered on that end and the rest would just come out of our capital improvement fund for that. So, if you're looking at I think the total cost to probably get the entire program up and running is probably going to be right around 30,000 or under. And then obviously it's not it's not an ongoing thing. You're just using the facility. The nice thing about it when talking with uh the esports um company and talking with uh Lake Local Schools, Alliance City Schools, and a couple other schools, it's a very high-end lab is basically what it is. So, esports is obviously an afterchool program. So, that lab then can be utilized
042for um the daily curriculum part of the day. So if there's things that we need to do from a science end, an engineering end, or something else, we have an additional lab that kids can sit down and use. So it's not just strictly for saying you're going to spend X dollars for a gaming solution. You actually have something that's used on the curriculum side also. >> Where's it going to be housed? >> So the particular room, Mr. Frell, is still in process of finding the appropriate room for me to house it, and he's going to let me know soon. if he let me know. I I don't know if he did. I didn't hear. Okay. >> Uh administrative changes. >> One more question. Yeah. Is that something that the new league or any of the
043leagues we're in all participate in or is it like statewide? How? >> Yeah. I think it's beyond statewide. >> Okay. >> I mean, I think it's more nationally driven. I think they're, you know, like and I think how the schedules from what I'm told are pretty much randomly generated based on the size of your school or the program. I don't even think the size of the school comes into play. I think cuz you choose what games you have or what you're willing to compete in as a group and then I think it's randomly generated through the esports Ohio and you get a schedule. So even though say Alliance and West Branch and Lewisville and Lake and many other schools in our area all have an esports program. We may never it may not be one
044where you ever really can face off as that way. >> Okay. Wonder if there's an option to scrimmage focus >> that I don't know no Ben and I's next step is going to be meeting with Lake in particular they've been doing it for 12 years they got two particular coaches in a large program so they really understand the program itself so we just want to really get a good feel for how that looks how it affects we just have a we have a list of questions and Mr. Frell will be involved in that. How does it affect on the high school side? Does it affect with credits? Does it follow the same format as an OSA support or is there some wiggle room? We don't know. So, those are a lot of just unanswered questions
045that we got to kind of get buttoned up before we go into the fall. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh administrative changes. Uh so, our middle school principal, Mr. Leti uh told his staff Friday before break that uh as much as he loves being a middle school principal, he just really wants to step down and get back in the classroom. He really loved teaching at the middle school level. That's where he feels his heart and passion is. Um he talked to me about this probably a month in advance. Um so we just were kind of working through some logistics. Uh and so he then I did let the our entire district know through an email that that was coming. So Mr. is going to be returning to the classroom. We um have two open spots
046at the middle school. So, one of those open spots he's going to be filling when we when we move that direction. So, we're going to be looking at replacing our middle school principal and uh go from there. So, I'll keep you updated on that. So, that was just actually the Friday right before we went into break. So, uh, I think by law I I I got to talk about this or maybe I just like to tell you I'm not 100%, but you know, it's like either way, you know, I from a safety standpoint, you know, where I pride ourselves on it. Mr. Evanich does, our district has, mostly every superintendent's been here. We just want to make sure you guys understand that, you know, we ha there's a lot that our district has to do
047every year when it comes to safety outside of the amount of safety grants we get and what we do and we put in for our buses and what we do for our windows and what we do for our doors and rekeying our district and putting the fobs. You know, our district itself has to do nine rapid dismissal fire drills per year. Uh um six in a building that has smoke detectors. Uh none of our buildings have smoke detectors, so we do nine. Okay, that's just that's you know, if you have a smoke detector, you don't have to have as many. Uh and then obviously before 10 days, we do do our tornado drills. Uh we have functional three functional drills per year. Um they're conducted with students and or law enforcement. Those are your lockdown
048drills. And then obviously a theoretical drill we do in August. So that kind of changes. Um, so like some years we do a theoretical drill which will be we break off with 15 different sheriffs and we run through different scenarios and what you would do. That's a theoretical. Others would be the actual physically, you know, go to a lockdown and how do you handle that and so forth. Um, so this August again we'll just be doing a different type of theoretical. One might be just a district-wide and then we have a professional come in or a sheriff and review different types of training or what you you know or videos. So those things all have to come into play. And that is it for my monthly update. >> Hey. >> Oh my god. He is.
049>> Okay. Next thing I have to to just to just every year by law I have to give you a notice as a board our annual report for compliance with food and beverage standards. So it's just this has to be submitted to the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. Um this is not something that needs to be adopted by the board. It's just to notify the public and the board that Mington local schools has adopted and enforces all our nutritional standards, the policy and considers the requirements by how high codes 33.14 3.14 and it just governs a type of food and beverages that are sold in our premises. Um, our food service has continued to monitor those standards as necessary changes and revisions which we do. If there's any policy changes, we do we follow
050that and review it. So that is just something that I have to notify the board and the public about. Any questions about that? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Public part I can't say it. Participation. Did anyone sign up? >> No. >> Okay. All right. Old business. >> Okay. Old business. Do we do have a recommendation recommend the motion to approve? Help. See the following board policies from volume 44 number two January 2026 and special update March 26 2026 as listed. >> So second >> what I can say is that we removed two policies from your original lookover um in March. I removed the policy on grading because we did not have a chance to get our elementary administrators together with our middle school and high school on the same page and just make
051sure everything's worded correctly. You know, we were able to get some of our administrators but not. So, we're going to get that done in the next few weeks. That will be on your May agenda. And obviously, due to the uh questions that the board had about our AI policy, I did remove the AI policy off for vote. And um I want to make sure that when I bring that back to you in May, probably June maybe busy meeting um we'll do it in June I will give you something in between there to look at but we do have to have a policy in place be by July 1 or July 7th. So in there so I can take a look. >> Okay. Um call the role please. >> Mr. Ryan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Swift.
052>> Yes. >> Mr. Hagen. Yes, >> Miss Humphre. >> Yes, >> Miss Krepco. >> Yes. >> Okay, new business. We have two items in new business. Item number one, recommend the motion to approve the amended high school program of studies as shown in exhibit B and C. >> So moved. >> Second. >> So you guys already approved the program of study. So, there's a document. You may not have it in there, but if it if it's in your packet, if not, it's opened. You approved it. There's a document there that says the approved. And then there's the new edits. And under the new edits, it just says there's on page 21 and 22, the language about class rank, including the governor's merit, scholarship, and Ohio guaranteed admission had to match board policy. That's that was
053one thing because that's what it has to do. And then page 61 and 62 was the energy. This program came out of an old A6 which is just a a career tech code natural resources energy pathway. It state it stated we had to create a new pathway and move the process. So it's it's more of a naming thing. Is that right Mr. >> Frell? same course. >> Uh and then on page 62 and 64, because of the name changes, we had to change the the name of the electives that's way. So there there's name changes there. Other than that, that's all the new edits available. >> Okay. Discussion. Call the role, please. >> Mr. Hagen. >> Yes. >> Mr. Swift. Yes, >> Miss Humphre. >> Yes, >> Miss Krepco. >> Yes, >> Mr. Ryan. >>
054Yes. >> Okay. And our last and final item in new business is recommend the motion to approve the Stark County Health Department contract as shown in exhibit D. >> So moved. >> Second. >> That's normal. Nothing new. >> Nothing new. >> So I have last year's Stark County Health Department contract here in front and >> what was the not to exceed last year? >> $62,790. >> It's the same >> exactly the same. Exactly. Did >> you just echo Dan? That's it. >> Call the role, please. >> Mr. Hagen, >> yes. Miss >> Sumpre, >> yes. >> Mr. Swift, >> yes. >> Miss Krepco, >> yes. >> Mr. Ryan, >> yes. >> Hey, thank you. Treasurer's agenda. >> I would like to recommend that the board approve the minutes from the March 12th, 2026 board meeting.
055So move. >> Second. Thank you. Okay. Any discussion? Call the roll, please. >> Mr. Swift, >> yes. >> Mr. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mr. Hagen, >> yes. >> Miss Humphre, >> yes. >> Miss KCO, >> yes. >> Would like to recommend that the board approve the financial reports for March 2026. >> Some of second. Okay, >> couple quick highlights here for you. Um, we finished the month uh with total fund balance of 10,60,00084.95 uh of which approximately 7.8 million is in the general fund. 343,000 in the permanent improvement fund. And um let's see the other thing. The capital projects fund with the transfer that we that the board authorized last month from the first half of the pipeline money now has a balance of 1,281,930 in it. And uh just to highlight uh one thing
056too with food service, I mentioned in previous meetings that we're expecting a deficit in food service at year end. It is currently around $132,000 in the red. So very likely we'll need to do a transfer at year end to cover that expensive. Okay. Any questions? >> Hey, call the RO, please. >> Mr. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mr. Hagen, >> yes. >> Miss Humphre, >> yes. >> Miss Krepco, >> yes. >> Mr. Swift, >> yes. I would like to recommend that the board approve the revenue and appropriation revisions as presented. >> So move >> second one, right? >> Okay. Well, there's only one revenue revision that is for $10,000 to fund $499. That is the grant that Mr. Swisser mentioned earlier in his presentation the project lead the way grant as far as the budget revisions
057go. Uh one is related to that a $10,000 increase to fund 499's budget. Um then I also have I'm a request here for the 300 fund $42,87563. uh most of which is related to the esports program startup to be able to uh purchase the materials and expenses related to that. >> Okay. Call the role, please. >> Mr. Swift, >> yes. >> Mr. Ryan, >> yes. >> Mr. Hagen, >> yes. >> Miss Humphre, >> yes. >> Miss KCO, >> yes. I would like to recommend that the board approve the donations for the month. >> So move >> second. >> It we have one donation this month is $1,250 from the Orthodox mission of Alliance and this is for the care team. Thank you. >> Okay. Sorry. Go. Call the role, please. >> Miss Humphre. >> Yes.
058>> Mr. Hagen. >> Yes. >> Miss Krepco. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ryan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Swift. >> Yes. >> Thank you, Mr. Swisser. >> Okay. on a personnel. Uh if the board is okay, I will do read through the personnel, but we would do a consent vote uh for personnel only. Go ahead. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, we have a certified retirement uh one teacher there that'll be effective August 1st. We have a classified retirement um that's obviously our head mechanic. We have a certified resignation. that's a uh teacher at our middle school. Uh supplemental resignation. We have certified staff hires. Um so those are the hires that are replacing the ones that have been left either for a resignation or only a retirement. No additional anything new of one of those teachers is
059actually sitting in the audience right now. Very excited. We have a two certified staff uh rehires. That would be Mr. Hamilton and Mr. Dylan. Both going back to step five per the collective contract and on a limited contract. We have some classified staff hires. We have two custodians that we're adding to our custodial ranks, which is well needed as we're going through the interview process. We wanted to get them on there. Uh we have one summer hire right now. That's June Remy. We have steam camp hires that uh we do every year for steam camp at the middle school. And we have some extended days for a few of our staff members that went quite a bit over for the musical and that were started with our original instructional coach and some supplementals to uh
060that were looking for finish out the spring. >> Is there a motion? >> So move second. >> Kathy. Okay. Any discussion? Call the role, please. >> Mr. Swift, >> yes. >> Miss Krepco, >> yes. >> Mr. Hagen, >> yes. >> Miss Humphre, >> yes. >> Mr. Ryan, >> yes. >> Okay. Upcoming events. So, uh please obviously visit our website for our athletics Uh, I can can the board I can continue to try to send you weekly our weekly updates, but with the weather, I can't promise you anything that you get sent is accurate. So, we try to keep you uh at breast as best we can when it comes to the weather changing with with our outdoor sports. Um, we do have prom coming up on April 25th. Uh, we have Borette on May 21st.
061May 25th is Memorial Day and then on Tuesday is our graduation over at the Civic Center. >> Tuesday. >> Yes. >> No one knew this but me. >> Explain. Graduation's on a Tuesday. >> It is now on a Tuesday. >> Now on a Tuesday where because we end uh this school year will be ending uh you basically look at the last day of school which is Thursday after Memorial Day this year. So you gota you kind of count back x amount of days. That's when the seniors graduate. So, >> but it will be in the future. >> In the future, it will continue to stay uh during a weekday. >> What time? Like evening. >> Seven. I think 7:00 p.m. Mr. Frell, >> Sunday anymore, >> correct? >> I think I thought I was sick.
062>> Okay. >> 6:30. Yeah. >> It's in the evening, too. >> Yes. >> You can do it. You're an adult. >> You can do it. >> You're here. >> I like Sunday. Sunday afternoon was such a nice time for family and friends and you know everyone to get together do a party afterwards. Here it's like what are you going take them to Texas Roadhouse after the ceremony at 9:00 at night? >> No, you have a bigger party and >> they have more time for the party on the weekend. >> Our feedback from our our uh students and parents was they would prefer a weekday and >> that's what AI said. >> That's what that's the AI answer. Bob. >> Bob. Okay, here we go. Well, that's good. >> Not many schools do it on Sunday
063anymore. >> Uh, none that I'm aware of. >> So, most of our high schools in Stark County do it >> during they do it. >> They do it during the week and obviously depending on location or what they have available is where they hold it. So, many of them hold them in their stadiums, many hold them, you know, inside because they might have a little bit more room. It just it just varies. >> What's the uh graduation student? What's the size? Uh I have not got the approval the final list from the high school. You guys will be approving that next month at your May board meeting for the approved the graduating class. Mr. Pharaoh, do you know this senior class number? >> Number 130 150. >> Oh, probably 160. >> 160. >> You have
064the enrollment figures actually in your packet. Mark 165. >> Your monthly enrollment. >> 172. >> Can we go higher? >> If they're all graduating 172, >> correct? >> How do I come? How did I come up with that number? >> Cuz you saw the saw. >> Okay. >> I wanted more. >> 172 graduation. >> He has 149. >> Well, you guys are counting >> 149 >> enrolled out and everything. >> Oh, okay. Yeah, rolled out. before we go before we meeting that say when the next board meeting is so that >> yeah you can do that before you go to exec session just so they know >> yeah the next board meeting will be here in DLZ May 14th at 6 p.m. that announcement >> and at that part of that announcement that next board
065meeting that will obviously be the board meeting where we do honor all our retirees and resignations and then our all our administrators will be here. They will speak on behalf of any of our current retirees and so forth down the line. >> So, >> okay. Is that good? Are we good now? >> Good to go to Okay. Executive session. Um, is there a motion for the Marlington Local School District Board of Education to recess into executive session pursuant to revise code RC 1.22 G1 to consider the employment compensation of a public employee? >> So move. >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? Call the RO. >> Mr. Swift? >> Yes. >> Mr. Hagen? >> Yes. >> Miss Humphre? >> Yes. >> Miss Kco? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ryan? >> Yes. in at 654. Okay. Okay, back
066in at 7:47. Is there a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. Second. >> Any discussion? Call the role, please. >> Miss KCO, >> yes. >> Mr. Swift, >> yes. >> Mr. Mr. Hagen. >> Yes. >> Miss Humphre. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ryan. >> Yes. >> Excellent. Good night. >> All right. Good night.