Medina City Schools Board of Education Meeting 4/15/25

001I'd like to welcome uh everyone this evening to the April 15th regular board meeting here at the uh Garfield U board meeting room. Um I'm going to call this meeting to order. This is a meeting of the board of education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and not to be considered a public community meeting. There is a time for public comment during the meeting as indicated in the agenda. Would everybody please rise for the pledge of allegiance? Mr. Chambers, would you please call a roll when you're ready? Mr. Nichols here. Miss Parkers here. Miss Pritchard here. Mrs. Suyer here. Mr. West here. Thank you. I would entertain a motion for the to accept the minutes from the March 18th special meeting and the March 18th regular meeting. I'll make a

002motion to approve those meeting minutes. I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Nichols and Mrs. Smooyer. Any questions, comments? Anybody? hearing none. Mr. Chambers, when you're ready, Mr. Nichols, I. Miss Syer, I. Miss Parker, I. Miss Perchard, I. Mr. West, yes. Thank you. Um, I would now uh entertain a motion for the approval of the consent agenda. I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda. Second. Any questions, comments, additions? Anybody? Hearing? None. Mr. Chambers. Miss Pritchard. I Mr. Nichols. Hi. Miss Purkerst. Hi. Miss Smooyer. I. Mr. West. Yes. Thank you. Uh we are now on toformational and discussion items. Mr. Sable. Good good evening everybody and welcome on this nice fall spring day outside. Winter, right? I think it was 70 yesterday. Yep. I don't want to hear that. Um, this evening I'm excited to welcome

003our helping hands uh preschool and like to invite uh principal mix up to the front. I've really been looking forward to this presentation because I've been so impressed with the work that's been going on at the preschool level uh with deeper learning and deeper learning initiatives. All right. Good evening. Thank you for having us. I'm Heather Mix. I'm the principal at Helping Hands Preschool and I'm really excited to be here with you guys tonight to share the work that we've been doing um in the preschool with deeper learning. So, a little bit about our journey. Our journey to uh implementing project-based learning in preschool began about two years ago. um we as a preschool team started talking about what deeper learning looked like um in preschool and how we could implement that within our curriculum,

004the assessments and the standards that we have to follow. So the curriculum that we follow naturally allows for students um and that student centered learning as it leans towards really an open-ended learning experiences and it allows for us to meet our standards for pre excuse me for preschool. Um but we really wanted to get moving to the next level. So over these last two years, the preschool teachers and the paraprofessionals have participated in programwide professional development for um with the department of instruction and our state support team. And we have completed 25 hours of professional development through a book study um in-person trainings. We've had collaboration with both the department of instruction and the state support team coming in. We've had classroom visits. Um and the goal that we had was that everybody attempts to

005implement a project this school year. So in preschool project- based learning um is sole solely formed from the children's interest. So the staff interact with the kids and observe during play and conversations to begin determining what the students are interested in and then they provide these various learning opportunities to see where the students are gravitating towards. So once they have an idea of where the students are heading, they begin facilitating an investigation with their students. And so since these projects are so student driven, a project can last anywhere between a couple weeks to a couple of months. And it could also take a turn um in a direction that the staff wasn't anticipating. So our students have been very hard at work this year. And I have some pictures that I'm just going to share

006of some of the projects um that they have been engaged in. So, Christmas at the beach, light in shadows, pets and vets, pizza, a grocery store, building and construction, Santa's workshop, shaving cream, space, families, And then I'm going to turn it over to three of our teachers. I have Miss Wendy Good, Miss Chelsea Mitchell, and Miss Becky Gibson. And they're going to share with you specific projects that have been taking place in their classrooms. Hi, I'm Wendy Good and I'm the busy bug teacher. And um Heather had mentioned that sometimes it takes a turn that we don't expect. So that's what I'm going to talk about first. So, in our classroom in the fall, we were doing fall investigations and we were experiencing, we were going on walks, we were collecting samples and all of

007these things while I was they were having snack one day and I was carrying in some very large pumpkins and I was just trying to use my time wisely and get them over to the carpet for an activity for the next day. Well, when we finished snack and moved into circle time, they all wanted they saw they were heavy. I got some really good ones in Amish country and they wanted to see how heavy they were going to be. So, um, I let them, um, have a chance at it, see if they could lift them and those things. And a little girl sat down as we were doing our closing circle and she goes, "Mrs. Good. I have a question." And I said, "Okay, what is it?" And she says, "Does a pumpkin, can a

008pumpkin squash a hot dog?" And I thought, "Oh, okay. This is what they're talking about in our training." And I was like, "Well, I don't know. I've never tried that. Do you guys want to try that tomorrow?" And so we quickly jotted down things that they wanted to squash and smash and with the pumpkins. So I quickly called my team after work and said, "Okay guys, we're doing this. Who's got this at home? Who's got that?" We brought everything together and then this was the um planning project. So that very next morning, so that one question happened right at the end of the the morning session and we talked it over with the afternoon session and they wanted to join in. And so here's some of the vocabulary we used. We made a plan of

009all the things that we were doing and then they we had um them vote on if they thought the pumpkin would smash it or not. And then um we rigged up a police system in my classroom and um then proceeded with the experiment. So you can see um we tested predictions with uh food and non-food items. There's an apple um a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Um then this is ways that they were documenting on their own. they were sharing with their friends. We were talking about it um at the smashing table. They were taking pictures and then they also worked with our speech pathologist and um charted all the results for the day. The surprise result, which I had no idea. I thought I lost it somewhere. I thought it flew and hit somebody.

010I thought it was on the floor. One of the non-food items a child selected was an acorn. And we couldn't find the acorn anywhere until I looked inside the pumpkin. it the the acorn had actually smashed the pumpkin. So that was a whole another topic of conversation and the answer to the original question was yes indeed a large pumpkin can smash a hot dog. And um there they are. She's showing um uh Mrs. Mix how the p the hot dog got smashed. So here's some of the ways we analyze data in preschool. So they circled the um which of the predictions were correct and then at the end we reflected on the day and I recorded their answers. Um this was one thing that really surprised me. Um I had um received some of these

011um preschool um children ready um cameras. They're digital cameras. And so we just started experimenting with them about two weeks before that. And these are some of the pictures that I ended up um get getting when I downloaded like 500,000 pictures that they took. Um but as you can see, it's really cool to see it from their viewpoint. We don't often get a chance to do that. We're often directing their learning. So this was really them taking ownership of their learning. And then they doc this is how they documented results all on their own. I had no idea they were just taking pictures with their friends. Um, and then these were some fun out takes, people that were not on task at the time. And uh, so I just thought those were uh, fun to

012share. And additionally um, in our classroom, we've done two more um, larger projects u about four to five week projects. One was a box and ship store. They were really interested in how boxes are delivered and how you ship packages. So, we did um and then we also coordinated with the local UPS store and he let me take a video of his store and all the things they have there. And then we just are finishing up our car wash one as well. All right. Hi, I'm Chelsea Mitchell. Um, I teach the Busy Bees class. I'm an integrated classroom and so my classroom has an 8:1 ratio for students to staff and a 50-50 ratio of students with um, special needs and students who are typically developing. So, I can admit that I am kind of

013the resident skeptic. When they first came to us and they're like, "You're going to do everything based off of the kids ideas." I was kind of like, uh, how how? So, for me, what worked for me to get my feet wet first, um, was at Christmas time, I had this old PVC frame that I had used quite a few years ago, precoid, um, to build gingerbread houses with my students. And I thought, you know what? I'm going to try and like bring that back to life. So, when we came back from Thanksgiving break, the students walked into the room and they saw the frame and they were like, "What are we going to do with that?" I'm like, "Well, let's let's think. What are some things we talk about around the holidays?" Um, so, you

014know, we talked about Santa and we talked about Quanza and we talked about Christmas trees. And I said, "Well, I'm thinking of something you can eat." And they're like, "Cookies?" I'm like, "Yeah." I'm like, "Have any of you ever made a gingerbread house?" So, we turned it into a gingerbread house and they had great fun with it. I didn't know my friends liked to paint quite as much as they do and I wasn't sure we were ever going to stop painting. But that was kind of how we got our feet wet. So after Christmas, we came back and I left the frame up for the house, but I took off the lights and the walls and they were like, "Well, what happened?" I'm like, "Well, you know, Christmas is over and you guys don't really

015seem as interested in gingerbread anymore, but what could we do with it next? what could we turn it into? And so he said, "I want us to think about things that we all can talk about." And one of my friends in the morning, he's very motivated by food and he goes, "McDonald's." And all the kids were like, "Yes." And I was like, "McDonald's?" Like, you know, I don't have the same passion for McDonald's that they do. Um, but we did our first webbing and it was really neat for them to just start telling me, "What do you know about McDonald's? What do you do at McDonald's? What's in McDonald's? So, we made our web and some of the things that were really neat is like if you see on the left there, um, a kiddo

016said that they need a generator. And I was like, I would have never thought of a generator at McDonald's. Um, and they were really big on Grimace, the purple guy and the grimace shake. And they even knew that the milkshake machine doesn't work half the time. Um, so that was another thing we talked about. Um, so anyhow, they took the lead and they designed all of the things. So we went through, as a preschool teacher, you kind of become a hoarder and I realized I had far too many food items that in our kitchen area. So we had to sort them. Like what are foods you would actually see at McDonald's versus foods you would not? So we sorted all of that. And then we talked about how the outside of the McDonald's we see

017here in Madina have brick on the outside. So they're drawing their bricks. And a friend made the yellow M. And then they made the menus. And it's one of the first opportunities I had to really create like a word wall for my students. So for them to be able to look at a word wall and go, I can make that. It was really neat to see. So um and then you can see in the block area, I found some pictures of McDonald's from around the world and posted them in the block area. So then they could build their own McDonald's or try to mimic McDonald's from around the world. So McDonald's started to end when they started playing, you know, cops and robbers in McDonald's and pouring milkshakes on each other's heads. Like friends, I

018think McDonald's has, you know, come to an end. We got to find something else. So when they came back then the following week, the structure was gone. And that really threw them for a loop because our project so far had been based kind of around this physical structure. And I really wanted to push them to think about what are some other things we can talk about? Where can we go from here? So, it just so happens that I have in the morning class, I have two students who have families overseas. So, one travels to Jordan and another student travels to India. And one of our students, she was in India for almost three months and they kept asking, you know, when is she coming back? When is she coming back? So, she finally came back

019and we were all excited and she talked about all the airplanes she was on and the friend who goes to Jordan talked about all the airplanes he was on and then friends started talking about the other places they've been. I had a student who went to Hawaii this year and didn't take me with and a kiddo who went on a cruise and all of these great things and then it was kind of leading up to spring break with more travel plans. I'm like, what if we talk about traveling and they all want to talk about the beach? Um because I think that's what their frame of reference is for travel most of the time. So we started webbing again and we even talked about what does it mean to travel? Um, so most of them

020said it means going far away, which going far away for some of them is just a Kalahari, which is fine. And for some of them, like I said, it's overseas. So I didn't want to negate the idea that travel could be so many different things that there are places we go. There are ways we get there. Um, and why we do it. And it was neat to actually be able to talk about some of those things. So the blue letters are what we did initially, and then the kind of pinkish purple is what we've added to it. So, what I had them do is I emailed all the families and I said, "Hey, this is what we want to talk about. And if you have some travel pictures you don't mind sharing, if you could

021send that into us, we'd love it." So, we now have this 3-in D-ring binder that is full of nothing but their pictures from travels. And but we got to learn what a rickshaw is. And I would have never thought to share with my students what a rickshaw is. And it was also really interesting too to have a moment with my students where we were looking at a book about travel and it happened to have India and Jordan in it and one of my little girls just asked innocently and naturally why do the women wear things on their heads and why don't the kids and it was such a neat opportunity for me as an educator to be able to reach out to that student's family and say you know what I told my student I

022don't have the answers for you but you know what I'm going to find them for you and his family was so open and honest with me and said, "Here's a great explanation for kids that I found for you and to give me more explanations." So, for these students to be able to bring things that most of us don't know anything about, especially at 3, four, and 5 years old, to bring that to life was a really neat moment. Um, so then I may have reached out to Tiffany Cosman and said, "Tiffany, I need maps. I need, you know, the old pull down maps. You got to find me some." So they found me the old pull down maps which I may have cut apart. And so you can see we took a day and all

023we did was write our names down and put down all the places we've been. And then we also have the world map and there aren't as many little flags and they're harder to see. Um but it was neat for them to see that like for two of our friends you legitimately go across an ocean to get there. And it was also brought up the idea too that the earth is not flat. There's not a top and a bottom and an end. So then we got globes which were really exciting too. And then that also led to a conversation about with the traveling, how do you get there? And a student asked, "How does the pilot see where he's going?" And I was like, "Oh, I have no idea." So again, I was honest and I

024said, "You know what? I don't have that answer for you, but I'm going to try to find it." So Mrs. Cosman was able to set me up with a pilot who just came yesterday. And as Mrs. Mick said, "Sometimes our projects take a turn." And we're still going to talk about the beach because we just started that. But in my afternoon class, their main questions for the pilot were um how do you fly through a hurricane and a tsunami and tornadoes? And it was like, "Oh, oh, so apparently we want to talk about weather." Um but it was so neat for them to kind of get that real experience. And the pilot we had in um was really he just shared so much information like things I didn't know that you know the windshield is

025heated to 150 degrees so nothing can ever stick to it so you don't have to worry about a snowstorm. Um but for the kids to realize too that this is something you could do one day and he actually became he got his license when he was 14. So for them to realize that some of them have brothers and sisters that are old enough to fly a plane was really engaging. Um, and then we also had our destination day yesterday, um, where I encouraged them all to wear shirts or bring a souvenir from somewhere you've been so we could talk about their travels. And one friend wore his life jacket all day. And today we started our investigation into the beach. So, we took a trip down to the library. We got all of the non-fiction

026books we could find, and they were so enthralled. Um, it's something I've always encouraged parents of young children to do is get those non-fiction books and they're interested like they want to know what do they eat, how do they move around, what is this thing and so I don't have all the answers. So I spent a lot of time googling things with the kids today. Um, and so yeah, so that's kind of where we are is in our investigation phase and Mrs. Mix is going to pass around um, two binders. One documents our gingerbread project, one documents our McDonald's project, and then there are the standards that we covered through the McDonald's project. Hi, I'm Becky Gibson and I am the Bearcups teacher. Um, in my classroom, I'm in a co- co-eing situation, so myself

027and Mrs. Alt are the teachers. Um, when you guys came and visited in the fall, you were in our room to see the Light and Shadows project, which was really fun. Um, and that one took us almost all the way up to Christmas and then we did the Christmas at the beach. Um, obviously beach is a theme through our whole preschool. Um, and then in January when we came back uh we saw interest in building. So we started with uh the building and the construction and one of my students uh asked how can we put this little Tikes car up so I can work on it. So I was like oh I never thought about that. So that gave us all these we tried all these different objects and then um we used some shelving

028and created a mechanic's garage right there and had a scooter board where the kids could slide in and out. Um and so then that started into places in the community that we can go. Um so we had a car wash and we dabbled in McDonald's a bit. Uh, and then the best thing is um recording the kids words, what they're saying. So my students that are just learning to speak are able to tell me things like I fill up. And then other students are telling me that um I want a gas and a Coke. So just these things that are asking or investigating more things that we need to look at as far as like a car needs a new engine. So how do we know those things? Um so that brought us to um

029continuing this whole community piece. So we started with some simple machines uh and um grinding our own dirt uh with the old time grinders and coffee. Smelled amazing. Um and the kids really loved that. And then um bringing in that writing piece. Uh, so we modeled the traffic light for them and then had them draw their own and create their own pictures with that. The one thing that I didn't realize in early childhood to this year till this time with um the investigations that we're doing is how much kids can create with their drawings and how they can show the way that they see the world. And I really like to have the paper out there for them to just write their thoughts and ideas down on in picture form. So then all of a

030sudden um we had some students in the gym wanting to do the teacher's hair. So you know preschool and hair there's a fun topic. So we're like how can we do a hair shop without anyone brushing their hair. So we bought these wonderful wigs and we had goatees for the boys and mustaches and they started their own hair shop. And then we were fortunate enough that one of our parents was a hairdresser. So, she came in and um taught our students about that job. And then we also had a doctor's office that eventually became a veterinarian's office as well. And as you can see, they're really good at fixing us up. And uh we had some real tools in there as far as like a blood pressure cuff, real stethoscopes, just using those types of

031things and materials. And then we used our wonderful um school nurse, Nurse Trish. She did a whole lesson with them and showing them how we use those materials. So then finally, we're still in this community type of project. Um right now we have a bank with an ATM machine. I got IDed the other day. They said it wasn't my ID. Um we also have um a smoothie shop and also um we're working on a fire station. So when we talk about length, this has been from January and now we're into midappril and it just keeps changing and evolving and the kids are still interested in it. So I do feel like one of our culminating events is going to happen um in two weeks. We're going to have the fire department come and visit. So

032um we're really excited about that. And then we'll just kind of we're looking at weather right now just kind of see um where our next steps are going to go. And that's it. Thank you. [Applause] I must excuse me. I must say that uh at the portrait of practice I I did get to see the preschool and I very much enjoyed the uh space theme. Uh it's something near and dear to my heart. And then I saw the Legos too. I think you guys use Legos and again that's very near and dear to me. But um I think these are all great. This is really good because kids kids are sponges and they pick up a lot more than what you realize if you just listen to them and you know you guys obviously are

033listening to them and they are very insightful and intuitive. So the questions about um why somebody wears a wears a a veil or stuff is very uh um insightful and and relevant. So thank you. Yeah, pretty impressive that we're hearing about preschoolers directing their own learning, teachers taking hold of them directing their own learning and then turning smashing a hot dog into lessons about gravity, force. I mean, these are high school physics lessons. Um, and then on top of it, we're hearing about preschoolers analyzing data. So, it's really impressive the work that's going on uh with the deeper learning at the preschool. And I thank you all for coming this evening. I'm going to go a little bit out of order on the agenda uh and come back to the house's proposed budget. So, I'm

034I'm going to save the most exciting information towards the end uh and I'm going to in invite uh Miss Busby up to talk about the upcoming graduation. Believe it or not, it's just a little over a month away and this is a special graduation for us for us the 150th uh commencement. Um so we've been working with our committee uh from the high school uh Dr. Teddona on trying to plan some special things for the upcoming graduation ceremony. Uh I do want to mention that we are going to be doing the ceremony at the stadium outside uh once again uh which we've uh received overwhelming positive feedback uh on holding it in our our stadium. So we have fingers crossed for nice weather. We've been very fortunate uh the past several years. So, thank you

035and just want to share just briefly uh some of the plans that we have um as a committee to celebrate our class of 2025 and certainly our 150th commencement exercises. um as you see on the display is we've kind of come up with a a special logo um which incorporates some of the elements that already exist um with the with the seal for uh the Madina High School. So um these this logo is going to appear um on the program. Um, we're also going to do a special um I don't call it a badge, a ribbon for alumni to take when they come into the stadium um if they'd like to have one. Uh we're also going to have some special graphics that are going to be on the electronic boards um uh on the

036sides of the tent um that kind of host that logo and also some uh a look back in history of our high schools. Um at at the end of the um commencement, there's always opportunity for parents and grandparents to take photographs of the graduates. And we're also going to um have a a banner which much like you see um behind the board here um that's just going to have a special overlay that's going to um recognize our alumni um as well as our our graduates um with the special um logo on it. So um we really have quite a bit planned um for the graduates itself. We're going to do a special ticket. Um, normally we don't have tickets that we collect for graduation, but um, it's just kind of a keepsake for the families

037um, that will have that logo on it. Um, and then we're also looking into and not sure if this is going to be able to happen or not, but um, the logo that's going to be something that we can add to the tassel. So hopefully, fingers crossed we can we can come up with um that and and make that happen. So, uh, graduation as Mr. Sable mentioned is going to be Saturday, May 24th at 11 um at Kenduk Stadium. So fingers crossed that we're going to have a great day for our class of 2025. Any questions? Okay, thank you. As uh I know our entire board knows, uh we had an unfortunate incident uh with a travel bus for our girls lacrosse team uh during spring break uh in West Virginia. uh a lot of

038work has gone in uh to uh support our girls lacrosse team, work with our coaches um and make sure their needs are met in continuing with their season. We also owe quite a bit of appreciation for the support that we've received um not only in donations, which there's many of on the agenda tonight, u but uh also the uh fire department and services uh that provided our students uh with support during and after the incident. And uh Dr. Quallic uh worked closely uh with Dr. Teddona uh as well as Todd Hodky, our athletic director um in working through this whole situation. So, she's going to share an update with the board. Yeah. And I want to start just like Mr. Sable did to thank that Systemville volunteer fire department for their incredible work. There was

039also a gentleman who flagged the bus down. We weren't able to get his name, but in case he's watching this, we want to thank him as well. Uh, I want to also thank the coaches, Colleen and Carly, who their just incredible calmness in a in a incredibly scary situation helped helped the girls tremendously. So, I just want to allow uh or give the community an update. Again, public schools provide an amazing service for our students and it isn't just a service of education, it's also mental health supports. Um, and I think this was a great example of that. I had in my notes here, I wish the media had done a follow-up story, not just about the drama uh and the fire itself, but in the amazing support um and resiliency of our students and

040the lacrosse community. So, you'll see a number of donations on the agenda, not just from Ohio, but from as far away as Exit for our lacrosse students, giving them uh the materials they need, the equipment to play, um because a lot of that was lost in the fire for the girls that were on that bus. So, um, we're providing services, mental health supports for our student athletes and our coaches, follow-up supports just to screen for things like post-traumatic stress, um, but also insurance. So, Mr. Okal, our business department, athletic department have worked with the insurance companies to provide those families because again, the coaches and the girls lost not just equipment, but personal items as well. So, again, I want to thank the Cismville Volunteer Fire Department and just everyone for their amazing work with

041this and just we're all very thankful. uh that for things that could have ended a lot differently. So, and the girls are playing right now in mentor. So, they're out there on the field where where they're the happiest. So, thank you. Uh while Chris was just up here, I I do uh want to recognize uh Dr. Quallic um just last week. Uh and she might give me an evil eye for bringing this up. Uh but just last week uh we had the opportunity uh uh on behalf of the share cluster to recognize uh Dr. Quallic for receiving the community prevention uh award. Um and that award is nominated to one individual per year. uh and it's for uh their service to the community as well as to uh a school district with uh mental health

042services uh anti-drug campaigns. Um, and Chris is truly a go-to for our district in terms of providing guidance uh within our buildings for services not only for uh our kids, but I've seen firsthand Chris also work with staff members uh in helping to provide them with appropriate direction as they face uh challenges. and her work really extends beyond what happens uh in the schools uh but also uh extends to the community. So that's a a vital piece of that um is the amount of organizations she's involved with uh that help bring services into our district uh but also provide support uh outside of the district uh in the community. So, congratulations to her and thank you for that service. I also want to take a moment to recognize uh principal Brian Condit. uh he'll probably

043give me evil eye as well because I think he didn't want me to know he even got this award. But but Brian uh was nominated I I believe by staff in his building u and received the uh administrator of the year award through uh the Ohio Association uh of school leadership. Uh and I think that happened a month or two ago that he uh received that award. But I I think it's a real testament to the work uh that he is leading over at Claget and the appreciation that his staff has for the changes that are h happening within that building uh in leading them towards uh deeper learning uh initiatives. Um, I can tell you walking through that building, uh, it it the climate is just outstanding in terms of the positive energy of

044staff and students. Uh, and there's excitement. Uh, we talked about uh, the portrait to practice and I talked to several of his teachers that were there presenting that were excited about the work that they're doing in their classrooms. Um, and a lot of that starts with uh the building leadership and working with staff to put those kinds of programs in place for students. So, congratulations, [Applause] Brian. Um, and we'll come back to committee update. Well, let's do committee updates. I'll save the budget for last. So, uh, curriculum Tina, good evening everybody. Um, our curriculum committee met yesterday. We spent a lot of the time going over the, um, House proposed budget that you are going to hear about in a couple minutes, so I won't steal uh, Mr. Sable's slunder on that. Um and then

045we also talked we had a presentation from um the high our high school principal Dr. Teddona and um our counselor Carrie Shrek. They talked about um different ideas they had to help our students become uh career ready. And so those are uh ideas. They're very in the very beginning stages right now, but these are things that we'll be sharing with you guys um in the coming months. And then the last thing we did was kind of recap our portrait to practice expo um which was last Thursday. We had about 50 teachers there attending and sharing their presentations. We had over 400 family um members and community members attend. It was a really great night um full of positive energy. So um it was a great experience. Yeah. Any questions? All right. Thank you. facilities. All

046right. I just have a couple things. I'm glad you uh got us in before your presentation. Um so I'm going to spend some money while we still have it. Um I have a couple things I wanted to to do. And uh the first one is something we've been working on for a really long time and it's come to fruition. I'm really excited about it. And I got some people I want to thank. But I uh I wanted to let you know that we've got the Ohio EPA scrap tire grant. So, Jean, you can stop getting tires for me. I don't need those any longer. Um, but I would like to thank Matt Wilson from Vasco that helped me with the project along with Garrett Rip from Liberty Tire and that's where they're going to get

047the recycled material from. uh Maria Barnett from the Ohio EPA along with her team, Corora Staler, Michael Kelly, Chad Cheney, and Nicole Leman. And the group at the high school that helped me work on it that uh is very beneficial was uh Britney Hart Harter, um Mason Harper, Jordan Olsen, and Rachel McCulla. So, I appreciate their help and support. and we will be presenting or we will be constructing the track with help from the Ohio EPA of $300,000. So, uh, real excited about that. Now, the roofing projects, uh, we had the roofing bids come back on Friday, so we met with a consultant. Dave and I, of course, were out of town, so Aaron got the privilege of, uh, opening our bids this time. It's an exciting process. So, uh, glad glad you were able

048to do that. Um we are going to present or I'm presenting to you that uh country roofing we are we'd like to award country roofing with the Ella Canavan project and um PRS with the rec center project. So, is it appropriate if I ask if you have questions about that now? Because I' I know that this you got this kind of last minute and I'd like for you to be able to answer or I'd like to answer anything that you would ask. So, I have a question. Yeah. Um, regarding the rec center, when I look at the schedule, it looks like the PRS is is a little bit more than Sona Construction. Yes. So, um, when we got the bids in from Sona, um, they had a few disqualifying factors that should not have allowed

049them to bid on the project and they bid anyway. They are not licensed to use the materials that we submitted in the bid. And we also require that a bidder conducts 90% of the work. So, in any given project, they're going to run into something that they might not be qualified to do. So, they have somebody else come in. Uh the last time in Canavan on the flat roof we had a they brought another group in that did the welding of a ladder. They had to extend the ladder. So you have things like that that we allow them to subcontract 10%. Well, Sona is a um like a project manager. So they don't do any of the work and they contracted with another roofer that then that roofer wasn't qualified to do the the materials

050that we were presenting. So, we would not have been able to get the warranty that we that we want and that was not a a gamble that I thought the school would be willing to take. We have used uh PRS for the last three summers and been extremely pleased with the work they do. So, it's uh it'll be a win for the district. Both both country and prof um PRS we've used and PRS we've used before. Have we used country before? We have not used uh country before. And uh remember El Cananan is an interesting roof because it's it's slope roof. It's shingles. So uh we had a we had a bunch of different biders on on that slope roof. Um we have not used them. Uh Greg Taylor, our in our consultant for the

051roofing project has reached out to all of their um recommend people that recommended them and they all checked out. He's he's comfortable with it. So, we're we're comfortable to move forward with them. Thank you. The uh skylights from the rec center though you will see on there and we don't know the state of them. They have to lift them to go roof up over the curbs. So, we have on there uh cost to replace them. We're hoping we can do the work, reglaze them, and not have to replace them, but I didn't want any surprises for the board. So, we put the full replacement cost on the on the quote so that you have it. But, uh, yeah, we're hoping that that's not an issue. Thank you. Thank you. I was going to say that's

052smart. I've had experience with uh skylights and they can be very problematic because you just never know what you're going to get into. So, that's that's smart. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Yeah. And uh the the wreck recre is a 50-50 split with the city. So, um I wanted to make sure we got that in there, too. Thank you. Yeah. Just a couple things that uh I wanted to highlight in terms of what Ryan presented. The first of all is the grants a big deal. And we often hear, especially when we're having to go and ask for additional funds, how what we do to try and offset the cost to the community and applying and receiving grants like that um is a prime prime example. And I think Ryan only got one paper cut,

053so they were successfully submitted. Dave, finance. Yes. Good evening. The finance committee met uh two Thursdays ago. Uh we welcomed two new members to the finance committee and um basically the rest of the committee um time we spoke about house bill 96 and the defunding of schools. So um if you have any questions about it, talk to the members on the finance committee and they'll let you know how it goes. Thank you. And last but not least, policy. Uh we met as well. We have over 40 policies that we reviewed. So we will be meeting again next month for uh to hopefully put those on for a first reading in May. And I think that's going to be the new norm for us. Uh there were times in the past when we didn't meet every

054month, but I think we're going to have multiple policies each time. So this next batch will be a large batch of policies. May I ask a follow-up question, Mr. Chambers, about the finance committee? Yes. Um, did you find that the community members were educated about um the legislation or um and did they have any thoughts or feelings about that or um feedback on on their Mr. Sable? I tried to give as much information because House Bill 96 was just passed through the House I believe that morning and so we tried to give as much information as we could at that point. Um the members of the committee were very supportive of schools obviously and um they um um I I would think I could say they were appalled at how the legislation is trying to

055or legislators are trying to push this through is good for public school districts. And to remind everyone, House Bill 96 is the House's version of the budget. Correct. That is correct. Thank you. Well, just just one month ago, I was up here in the same spot uh presenting on the governor's proposed budget. Uh the governor's proposed budget um included the fair school funding plan which has been placed for a number of years which is a nonpartisan uh joint uh plan developed uh with our legislators as well as public school leaders and our state education organizations. uh he was looking at implementing a reduction in funding to school districts uh which I shared last month would have been approximately a $ 1.5 million reduction for Madina City Schools uh in the two years of that budget

056plan. Since then, as as Dave mentioned, and we didn't have a lot of information yet, uh when we had the finance committee, um but the uh budget has uh governor's recommendation has completely been blown out of the water and revamped by the House. Um especially when you look at uh the funding of schools. And so today I'm here to share uh exactly how the house's budget would impact uh Madina City Schools and really schools uh across uh the state of Ohio uh by sharing the key budget changes uh that they have included in the house plan. uh get into some detail uh which was really a lot of work uh to uh figure out the forecasts and the actual impacts uh on Madina City Schools. Uh because the budget although it seems simple on the

057surface is actually quite complicated uh when you start uh looking at the prolonged forecast and also provide information just like we did the last time in terms of uh how our staff and community uh can reach out to advocate for our schools and fair and appropriate funding for public schools in Ohio. So, as I had already mentioned, the first piece is that uh the fair school funding formula uh was completely uh eliminated. Uh so, right now in Ohio with the house's recommendation, there is not a funding formula at all for school districts. Uh what legislators are referring to this time period is a bridge. Um, I can only gather to believe that what they mean by a bridge is to eventually have some sort of a funding formula. However, that is not included in the

058next two budgets. Uh, not having a formula, what does that do to school districts? It creates uh instability, widening disparities, and more uncertainty when looking at a long-term forecast uh because there's not a clear formula that outlines how funding will work for uh public schools. With this plan, uh the legislators promote and talk about two specific things. And the first part is that they are giving an increase to public schools across the state of Ohio. The other piece that they really advertise is the property tax decrease that the school funding plan they are recommending will put into place. So those are two key things that I'm going to talk about today. It's important to know though that the increase uh that we would be receiving here at Madina City Schools is about $100,000. So on

059a $100 million budget, $100,000 is not very much. Uh that's one teacher. Uh maybe one teacher. Um, and that doesn't offset the $13 million in local revenue we would be losing. So when you hear that this funding plan that is put out by the House gives more school more money to public schools and lowers property taxes. There's a lot more to that statement because we're losing local property taxes. it doesn't offset the increase does not offset that loss and we're actually looking uh at quite a dire situation which I'm going to show you here. Another big challenge when you talk about funding overall and we've talked about vouchers before but even with the increase that's being recommended by the house it's about a $250 million increase uh for public schools. So again, for us here

060in Madina, that equates to about $100,000. Now compare that to the $500 million increase that is in the House's budget for voucher and private schools. And then you start looking at the ratios, and I mentioned this last month that 90% of students in Ohio go to public schools. So 90% of all students across the state are looking at half the amount dollar amount of increase compared to the 10% of students that go to private schools. And I'm not even getting into the conversation about whether or how vouchers or private schools should be funded. I'm simply mentioning the disparity in the amount of money that is being budgeted at the state level to support students across the Ohio. Uh and I would even argue that this is a plan that doesn't support students across Ohio. Another

061challenge, and I I did mention this uh last month, but Ohio currently ranks 35th in the state in terms of state funding for public schools. uh out of 50 states. I I think that's embarrassingly low uh especially for the high standards that we have for uh our students here in Ohio. And this proposed plan coming out of the House doesn't do anything to change uh that disparity. The big piece of the uh proposed budget is a cap on carryover spending. Uh there is a feeling in Columbus that Ohio's schools have too much money on hand. Uh there's been a common comparison in Columbus uh to districts carryover funds being the same as rainy day funds at the state level. There are major differences though. Any carryover funds that we have as a public school district

062are budgeted money. So if you look at an extended forecast, and I'm going to share ours with you, that budgeted carryover money allows us to go a longer length of time uh without putting a levy on the ballot. And it also allows us to spread our spending over a prolonged period of time, which is really important for school districts. And I use this example uh with another group that I talked to uh in the past week. Um, but if you look at your own personal budget, and I'm going to use myself as an example. Um, I owe income tax to Rita, the regional income tax service, uh, on a yearly basis. Uh, Madina City Schools does not withhold that amount, um, from employees paychecks in our district. So, I need to work my income and

063my budget so I can pay my quarterly taxes, uh, because they're not withheld. Um, I actually just paid it yesterday because tomorrow's tax day. Um, but an even bigger challenge that school districts have is I can try and balance that budget, and I would advise anybody, this isn't a good way to do it, but I know it happens, uh, by using credit. Um, I can put debt on credit cards. Uh, school districts aren't permitted to do that. Uh, we're not allowed to use credit. Uh, it actually blew my mind yesterday that when I submitted my taxes, I could even charge it to a credit card. Um, so they will even allow you to pay your taxes through debt. Um, but school districts can't do that. We have to have a balanced budget. uh we cannot

064go into a deficit and we cannot utilize uh credit in order to over overcome that. So, if we are at a 30% cap for carryover, that really handicaps the district in regards to having a long-term outlook uh have levies on the ballot less often and make sure that there is cash on hand through that carryover uh in order to pay our future expenses. So, I mentioned that one of the big cells of this concept is the tax relief. And the way I've heard it explained over and over uh from Columbus is that this could be the largest property tax relief that has ever been provided uh in Ohio's history. I would question and argue, is this really a tax relief program? Um, and the reality is, I'm going to share the numbers with you, is

065it is a one-year tax relief. So, yes, it is is a tax relief, but it's not a tax relief uh that will stay into place. The difficult situation we are in as school districts is we recognize and we know and we are experiencing ourselves the dire need for property tax relief that much of is due to the drastically increasing property taxes. The concern is for the largest tax relief, property tax relief in the state's history is completely on the backs of public schools. So the sole responsibility in providing this tax relief and property taxes don't just go to public [Music] schools is from schools providing that tax relief. This provides no support from the state in providing this tax relief. And I again I've talked about uh property tax caps or uh carryover taxes and

066how our carryover is viewed uh similar to rainy day funds. The difference with rainy day funds uh and this is what we have at the state level with our legislators is that rainy day funds are truly rainy day funds. That's why they're called that. So, it's money that's sitting there. Uh, our state currently is at the maximum amount that they're allowed to have by law in rainy days funds, which is over $6 billion. So, it's very challenging to hear as a school district that's trying to manage a five-year forecast uh that the complete backs of the reduction is put on us. What is this going to do to the district? Uh it's going to cause a spiraling effect. Uh it's going to cost cause an increase in levy uh reliance. Um so what we are

067forecasting is we will need to go on the ballot sooner and we will need to go on the ballot more often uh in order to maintain uh that 30% and not have the additional carryover uh that we would typically have. Um this is really going to create challenges in terms of transparency with the community as well as uh providing information simply because of uh our hard to estimate and calculate uh financial situation from year to year. So here's where I'm going to change screens. So I I want to emphasize in the numbers that I'm going to share now uh that these are estimations that we worked on. Um so these are not exact figures but this provides to the best of our knowledge um a really good example of the situation we would be facing

068with the implementation of the house's plan. So what's up top here displayed here is the fair school funding formula. So, it's the funding system that we are currently under as a school district. This includes the 7.5 mil levy uh that our community just passed um in November. If you look at the financial outlook uh at the beginning of this forecast in 24 uh through approximately uh you do see our total cash balance increasing. Um that increase in cash balance is part of a normal levy cycle. Um when a district passes a levy, typically you have a buildup of your cash uh balances and you can see by uh 2728 those cash balances start going down due to deficit spending. We had told the community that when we went out to for this levy uh that

069it was likely going to last us five or six years. So the benchmark that we normally use to let us know, hey, it's about time to go on on a ballot uh in order to have sufficient funds is about a 20% carryover. So, you look at what's proposed by the House, a 30% that's not far off from where districts typically recognize that they need to uh go onto onto the ballot. Now, the bottom part uh of this chart is the plan proposed by the House. So we would be facing uh and this assumes implementation in fiscal year 26. So all of the figures are based off of fiscal year 25 expenditures. So how does the state determine what your cap is? And how they do that is based off of your expenditures from the pri

070prior year. So your carryover is permitted to be 30% of your previous year's expenditures. So if you have higher expenditures as a district, your 30% is going to be a higher number. If you have lower expenditures, it's going to be a lower number. If you have more than the 30% then they have authorized or there's some debate under whether this is even legal uh but they have authorized uh that local uh county uh budget commissions must reduce the amount of millillage that you're collecting to get you to a district to the 30%. So for Madina City Schools, that means in year one of this plan, we would lose over $13 million. That is almost our entire levy that our community just passed in November. That's a difficult pill to swallow because when we talked to

071the community about the importance of the levy, we said it's the community's choice. What kind of programming and expectations do you have for Madina City Schools? If we pass the levy, these are the programs that will be in place. If we don't pass, it would have meant $8 million in reductions and a different look and feel to our district. So, to me, what this is saying right here is state legislators are saying it's no longer our community's choice or decision. you passed the 7.5 mil levy in November, you're going to lose six and a half mills of that levy because we feel your carryover to take you the long stretch is too much. Well, what's the result of losing that 13 millet? The result is having a decreased um revenue the following year because if

072you lose millage you can no longer collect on that millage. So immediately in year two you can see that with our projected expenditures we'd be 11.3 almost 11.4 million in deficit spending. So right now within the language in the proposed legislation it says that we will be given back millillage to bring us back up to the 30%. Um, and in my reading of that legislation, um, I'm a little hesitant with what it exactly says because the language says that budget commissions must remove millage to get you to the 30%. And it says they may give millillage back to bring you back up to the 30% if you fall below it. Uh so to me that language says it's the decision and in the hands of the county budget commission. I have been told though that

073the legislator's intent is that that millillage is rewarded back. So hopefully uh if anything changes that's more accurately reflected in the language. So, we dropped to such a deficit uh in fiscal year uh 27 that we would get almost all of that $13 million back in millillage. So, that's why I said it it is not a prolonged tax break. It is a one-year tax break. So, I think there's a lot of information that's being distributed in regards to what this tax break actually would or would not do. The challenge though for us is because there was such a large reduction in fiscal year 27 in our collection, it is almost impossible and a challenge for us to make up that money that was lost in that collection year. So you start looking down the chart

074in the very next year in fiscal year 28 and we still have about $600,000 that we can get back because we're still not able to make that 30%. We're below the 30%. Even getting that additional 600,000 back. So what does that mean for us as a district? What do we have to do in order to get back up to the 30%? Because we no longer have any voted millage to get back. We're now in a situation of either making reductions or we're in the situation of putting a levy on the ballot. So, in fiscal year 27, we're looking at a levy on a ballot with this 30% cap. With the fair school funding, we were out to about 2030. Still getting our 7.5 mills eventually back. Again, the issue is the hit we take in

075our decrease uh in revenue as the result of that millillage being pulled away for one year. We are now in a situation where we are either making annual reductions or having annual levies on the ballot. Let's talk about reductions a moment. Uh reductions are something historically we've recently made uh quite a lot of reductions as a school district. Uh that is a way to manage a school district's budget. This system complicates reductions even further. And here's why. And I I talked earlier about the potential spiraling effect uh that this could have. If you start making reductions, your 30% starts going down. So you have less money that the state is even going to allow you to have as a carryover as you make reductions. The only way to offset that again is to pass a

076levy. I am very concerned in our community about having annual levies on the ballot and having the expectation of our community to pass those levies. I think that's a huge ask not just for our community but for any community. So with these reductions, the decrease in what the 30% is, I foresee our forecast very quickly and our district heading towards state minimums. What is state minimums look like uh elimination of extracurricular programming or making it so it's self-sufficient, self-funded. um decrease in or even elimination of if state minimum uh uh of extra courses at the high school, the middle school, things like Project Lead the Way, things that aren't mandated, um things like art classes, PE, um we would have a very different educational structure uh in Ohio uh with this going into place. So

077to say that the proposed budget uh and I heard this quote from a legislator, how could you be upset with this plan? We're offering the largest property tax decreases in our state's history and we're giving schools more money. I challenge you though, is that really the case? Is this a property tax decrease? It is a one-year. you look beyond fiscal year 27, let's say our community does say, "We demand we continue to have the programming we have in place because it's great programming and we want our kids to continue to receive these services." So, we actually get a levy pass 27 to 28. Well, what just happened is our taxpayers are now paying more for the same. So, this proposed historic tax break for many communities that expect their schools to continue to have the

078programming in place is actually going to end up being a tax increase. And for our community, it's within two to three years that they're going to see that. So, if you talk about cost effectiveness in funding our local schools, it's right up here where we're able to budget out and be responsible in how we're using our funds to provide the kind of programming that our community expects and needs. So, what can we do about this? Uh, we're already advocating as a school district uh in Columbus, working with our organizations. Um, we are also collaborating as a county. Uh we've already had a meeting with all of our county superintendents and treasurers. Um we're going to continue those efforts to work together on a county level. Uh because a big difference with this proposed plan that's

079currently in place is it impacts every single public school across the state. Uh that is different than the past because with past formulas, even if we didn't like them, all schools were impacted a little differently. Even with the governor's proposed reduction, we were seeing a reduction. There were districts that weren't seeing any reduction. There were districts that may have been seeing a slight increase. That's not the case with this plan. Now, there might be a difference with how soon districts fall into that deficit spending, but eventually all districts in Ohio, I believe, will be on a similar path in terms of uh what their local funding is going to look like. So, there's still time. It was voted through the House. Uh it's going to the Senate. Uh it's important to mention uh that uh

080in terms of reaching out which is what I'm asking you to do uh that uh the Congress people are currently on recess and will be until after uh the holiday weekend. Uh so that outreach uh after the upcoming holiday weekend would be appropriate. I encourage people uh if emails are all you're able to do, email. Uh but we really encourage people to make phone calls and send paper letters uh because those are the things uh tangible things uh that uh gets our legislators attention. Uh the other piece is really focusing on the Senate and our governor. Um our area senator uh is Mark Romach. We've also included the Senate Finance Committee uh which will be the group that's first reviewing this. It's perfectly appropriate to reach out to legislators beyond uh our local representatives. Uh

081the other big point of contact is the governor. Uh the governor does have veto powers with the budget and he has the authority to line item uh veto uh parts of this budget and making sure that Governor DeWine is aware of the impact that this has on our children and our community uh because he does ultimately have authority. So, I mentioned last time this budget needs to be completed by June 30th, um, which seems far off right now, especially as we talk about fall-like days, uh, but it's going to be here before we know it. Uh, so the outreach, uh, is extremely important. Any questions from the board at this time? I I have kind of one question. I know the answer and you kind of hit on it. Um, but I know one of

082the big things that, you know, good old social media, everybody's talking about is, oh, why doesn't, you know, group of treasurers or group of superintendents uh go to Columbus or invite representatives to come and hang out with them? Can you touch on that a little bit for community members? I I can. Uh, several pieces to that. Uh first of all, we're having the very conversation you just brought up about groups of treasures and superintendent uh reaching out. Uh we just had that conversation last Friday uh or the Friday before. Um we are regularly reaching out uh and talking with legislators. That's why I'm down in Columbus, which lately has felt like almost every week. Um that's what I'm doing in Columbus. I'm working with other superintendent and our alliance organization uh to outreach to legislators

083and make sure that they're aware uh of how legislation impacts us and provide recommendations on legislation uh that would be in the better interest of public students uh in in Ohio. Um so we do have those efforts in place for sure. Um, I just wanted to make sure that it's out there and every time we talk about this stuff, the information still being spread out there that nobody is doing anything going from Madina City Schools to Columbus or contacting representatives. And I know that's not true, but I feel like more people need to know and understand that. Um, and then the second thing is more kind of in line with your call to action. Obviously, everybody call your representatives, call the people in the um budgeting committee or finance committee um and you know, reach

084out to people. But I understand we're frustrated, we're angry, taking more money away, creating more expensive just um basic public facilities that are funded by taxes. But be kind. You can be very factual, straightforward, and and you know, if you want, go ahead, be a little sassy about it, but like don't call up, don't yell and scream. And nine times out of 10, you're not going to get to talk to the representative. It's going to be a staffer that potentially maybe unpaid as a college intern that's a polysai major that, you know, they really don't want to get screamed at. Um, so a little bit of courtesy and a little bit of facts and knowledge can go a lot longer than just getting out all that anger on somebody that maybe isn't directly involved with

085that. So, yeah. And and just following up on what you're you're saying, Joe, is uh letting those legislators know how it's going to impact your child or your school district. um our legislators work with a a lot of different avenues. Um and I think it's a job where it's very difficult to be a specialist in any one way. So for us to educate them on the impacts of the decisions or potential decisions that they're making uh is extremely important as part of those communications. And then the second piece will be the communicating in ways we can collaborate to make adjustments to some of these things. Like I said, uh to better serve Ohio's public students. Um and that piece we're working on right now with our local organizations. Uh I'll actually be in Columbus next

086week and I'm hoping I'll be coming back with more information on steps to take to try and have resolutions to these this challenge. Thank you for the presentation. We do appreciate the time that you've been spending down in Columbus and um to bring this attention, you know, to our legislators working with the Alliance for High Quality Education. The what I want to make sure the community members know as well is not only is it a decrease in state funding, but they're really trying to take away the will of the voters. Our community approved a levy in November because they said these are the things we want and we want to keep funding our schools so we can have these services and they're basically saying no. Y and that's infuriating and I think that's something that

087we need to make sure the community members understand and share with the representatives. No, you're absolutely right. And actually just this afternoon um I had some conversation with the alliance leadership to share some of the things we're going to be talking about and presenting tonight. And they said two key things that's important for our community to understand. Uh in our situation is number one, the will of the people, almost the entire levy that our community just passed this school year will be pulled away in one year. And then the reality is if we want to keep programming like it is in our district, our community is going to have to pass another levy and pay more in property taxes than they would have if this option was never even implemented. I and I just want

088to jump on that too. It's not like it's irresponsible spending. This is the state saying, "Hey, we are taking this money away." It's not, you know, we all went on a vacation to Hawaii or something in an all-inclusive resort. No, this is the state going, we're taking it away. It's not not irresponsible spending because we made that that uh promise to the community that we are going to be conscious of our spending just in general, but especially after this levy and that we are going to take care of those dollars and those dollars that come into the community for the education. We're going to get the most out of each and every dollar. Well, yeah. The bottom line is the state wants to People are upset about rising property taxes, which we understand and can

089totally relate to, but our voters approve that. It's local dollars that the state is saying, "No, you don't get to use that now how you want it." And then they can say, "Well, we gave you a property tax break on our backs instead of using the rainy day fund or another way to take, you know, to ease that burden." That's what that's what it comes down to. Um, I asked you this before, Aaron. Um, when we get the updates, you know, from OSBA, I always see like the same people going to speak before the different committees. Um, I and I asked you, why don't you go down and speak? Because I mean, I think Madina is kind of a unique situation. Most of the people that are going down there are either the teeny weeny

090little schools or the real big school systems that are de, you know, definitely going to be impacted. Madina is, I think, very different in the fact that we just passed this levy. And and that's a good point that all the money that the people just agreed to give us is going to be taken away in the first year. The other thing is if I see the Parma superintendent on the TV one more time knowing he's going to another school district and whining about everything I I mean we need to get I think we need to get TV station out here and you know try to get some attention on what's going to happen to Madina because Parma I don't know but um and no offense anybody at Parma but I mean he's he already has

091you know flood that vote, but Madina is really going to be hurt seriously when we lose all that money. And you're right, and then our property taxes are going to go up higher than they are right now. So, I would recommend that you go down and speak sometime. I mean, this would be a great presentation for them to see. And I also would include Mina's presentation on special needs. I don't think anybody down in Columbus understands the cost of special special needs um what it costs our school district or any school district. They're totally oblivious. So anyways, thanks. I have one last question is um this presentation then will be available on their website. How how will people be able to access this? Yes, we're actually in the process of preparing a communication for all

092of our staff and employees. Um, you I anticipate that'll go out in the next day or so. Uh, this presentation will be uh available uh on our website. Um, and in addition, uh, we're going to have a link to the presentation that that I just did. And I'm guessing Amy's going to work with her people to condense that so they don't have to scroll through whole board meeting. Um, uh, thank you very much. It's a a very stark um almost depressing if it comes to pass. So hopefully it doesn't. But um I'm not an accountant, but I'm a numbers guy and I was sitting here doing some yellow pad production sketch numbers. Um if you look at a $500 million increase for private schools and given the number of students that were in private schools

093last year, um that's almost $3,000 a student at a that's a how it averages out. $250 million on 1.8 million public school students is $140. Now, Madina from your own numbers would get a lot less than the but that's an average and it is it's just makes my blood boil that that much money. Um, if you took the now 1.5 billion that they're proposing and divided that out amongst all the public school students, that's we might not have even had to go on the ballot for a levy because it would have been roughly in that ballpark or maybe the levy would have been a lot smaller than what it is. So, these are the number of students are straight off Ohio's uh Department of Education website and the numbers are very publicly available for the

094number of dollars and it's just absolutely striking to me the amount of money that's that we're being scrimped and saved and is being given away. So, it's more of a statement, but um I'm not off that. I'm probably off a little bit, but I'm not off that much. So, um I would encourage all of the public to look at this and really think long and hard because maybe they do get a tax break for a year, but then it's going to come right back, right? And potentially cost more. And and I'm just going to end on a quote that I heard from one of my colleagues this week and they and they said their dad used to say this, but is the fruit worth juicing? So you see that tax decrease in that year and

095it's hard not to pick that fruit but really taking a look at that fruit and down the road and is that juice rotten and I think we got rotten juice here. So thank you. I will add one more number, but $1.5 billion dollars divided out, just being even conservative is almost $8,000 per student going to private schools. And I know we get a hell of a lot less than that from the state. A lot less. And I think it's just atrocious. So, thank you, Mr. Chambers. Informational items. Okay, I got to follow that, huh? Here we go. Um, we ended March, uh, we ended March with a $50 million balance. Um, this is 1.3 million below, um, the end of February. The reason is because we did not receive um much money in March. Uh

096we received most of our monies in February itself from property taxes. Uh if you go on to let's see I should be there. If you go on to the next page, uh total revenues $87 million. This is basically 92% of what's on our five-year forecast right now. Of that 87, we have 63 in property tax. Uh this is 18.3% above last year at this time and that's because last year at this time we did not have the 7.5 mil levy that was passed in November. Uh we started receiving the first half of those property taxes which coincidentally is around $7.5 million. Uh the state foundation it's at $13.7 million. This is 2.9 uh% above last year. Um, and it also includes the $400,000 in casino revenue. Going on to our expenditures, our expenditures are at

09767.2 million. This is 72% of our anticipated expenditures for the current year based on the 5-year forecast. Um, so we're actually below where we anticipate because we would be at around 75% at that point. uh our personnel services, our $41 million. Uh we finally went above last year for the first time in the entire fiscal year. Uh finally went above last year's personnel at 1.7%. Uh but if you notice, it's only 2.5% above two years ago, which was the last time we had 26 pays. And I'm going to refer back to that because we cut uh a number of individuals uh through uh resignations and retirements to begin this year. And you could see that with our benefits. Even though our benefits went up, the premium went up 12% this past year, uh our benefits

098are down 3.7% overall year-over-year. And then we get into our other expenditures at $10 million. And this too is down from last year. get into our investments. Now, what Aaron was talking about here with House Bill 96, that is going to eat in the investments going forward because we will not be investing a lot. We'll be looking at investments that last anywhere between 3 months and probably 9 months, 10 months, 11 months. Uh so we will not have long-term investments. Um uh so I think uh commercial paper might be a good investment because that's a nine-month deal. Uh but our investments will not bring in what they're bringing in right now. And if you look at what they're bringing in right now, we're almost at $1.6 million. This is roughly $300,000 below what a mill

099brings in for the school district. one uh so in investment uh purposes we are offsetting 1 mil worth of taxpayer money on a yearly basis and talking about our true days cash this is this is how our our cash works and if you uh we're listening to what Erin was talking about the levy cycle this is a mini levy mini look at the levy cycle as we go through the year if you look at the red um 2023 you could see our levy cycle. We get our monies in July. We spend down through December and uh January. We get our monies back again in January, February and spend down. And as you notice between the red, the green, and the yellow bars from July through January, you'll notice that we're spending down more and more

100each year. That's because of the levy cycle. Now, the reason that February is gone up is because that's where our new levy starts hitting. But you notice that the February high is not as high as where we were two years ago in 2023. And that's because we've spent down uh into an additional year here. If we would have passed uh last if we would have passed in November of 23, the start of the new levy cycle would be about where uh the 2023 year is and we would be spending down more. Um what else do I want to talk about this? H let's see. Uh you could see where we are right now in March. Uh we are just a little bit uh below February in 2025. What we're looking at is our and this

101is another area that I pointed out to Mr. Sable is June is not our low end of the year. If the county budget commission looks at June, they'll be looking at a higher um ending balance than where our actual def uh lowest balance is on the year. Our actual lowest balance is in December, January. So, what will happen with House Bill 96 is they're looking at a high balance or a mid- high balance and going to be basing the 25% off that balance as opposed to where our lowest uh need is on each year. And um then finally, our website. Uh please visit our website. Our website has all our financial information on it. Our website will have the presentation that Mr. Sable just gave. Uh our website will have our uh new five-year forecast

102which is due next month and um it will also have all the financials from this past year on it. Any questions? Mr. Chambers, do you mind going back to the prior slide, the True Days cash, and can you just explain to the community what exactly that means? True Days CAD. Yes, please. That's taking our balance and dividing it by 365 days in the year. So, what we're looking at here, let's go to uh January. We're looking at we have a two days cash below a 100 days. Meaning that if the state stops the money, we stop receiving any money, the school district could last for a 100 days, 100 calendar days, not a 100 school days there. big difference where we would be at around 85 school days. So, we're not even through a half

103a year. So, thank you. Yes. Anything else? Thank you. All right, we are at the board communication point and I'm going to start with uh Mrs. Parkers tonight, but you can come back if you need to. May I just pass? All right, you pass. Thank you. How about Mrs. and come back? Okay, that's fine. Thank you, Mrs. Smooyer. All right, let's get this thing to work. All right. So, um, my board communication, uh, as I left off last month, I said, "Wish me well because I was going on a trip to Disney with the band." Uh, survived that. But I just wanted to say that the band did an awesome job. They were picked out of many, many, many other bands uh, that apply to march at Disney. And we were selected. Madina was uh

104we got to take a week to go down to uh Orlando and the second day that we were there they got to march at Magic Kingdom. The kids enjoyed it immensely. It was a little drastic change in weather that they are not used to marching in their wool um band uniforms but uh they survived. It was in the 80s that day. Uh it was beautiful, but uh they had a great time and then they got to uh as Mr. Locker says, enjoy the fruits of their labor because they have worked so hard and they do such a great job. This is his way of thanking them so that they can go out and have a great time. They were there in the parks from 9:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. almost every night. And uh as

105I said, they got worn out, which was great. Um, so did I. But we all survived. We had a great time and we on the buses went through West Virginia the day before that lacrosse team did. And I I cannot imagine what they went through. So I am so glad everybody is okay, but I know that they hit the brakes quite a bit in West Virginia. Uh otherwise I wanted to mention that several of our Madina color guard students uh are involved in what's called Rangerettes Wintergard and they earned first place in the state of Ohio on several of their teams. So all four of the Rangerettes Wintergard teams got first place which was fantastic. That was the weekend after we got back from Disney and still recovering from very little sleep. Uh then I

106attended Jasmataz. I feel like I do only band and I do a lot with them but they do a lot. Um Jasmataz was a fantastic event. I know several of the board members were there and uh actually was asked what did you do to bring all these board members here? I don't know but uh you guys he appreciated everybody from the board coming. Um they transformed the school into a jazz festival. It was fantastic. They had food. They had everything. And it brought in a lot of fundraising support for our award award-winning band. Excuse me. Also went to the portrait to practice at Claget. It was awesome. I love going to each and every one of the tables and asking the kids, "Okay, do a presentation for me. What What did you guys do?" And

107these kids, their faces just light up and they are so excited about what they are doing. So, it's fantastic. I feel like I don't have enough time to go to each and every one of them because I don't want to leave them mid uh conversation, but uh they do such a great job. And the teachers also, they are so passionate. You can just see how excited they are and how p what their passion is on that. And I did love um our preschool presentation today. I it just shows this uh deeper learning which I am truly embracing. Um, also went over to Eliza Northrup, um, elementary this past week and the fifth graders did a capstone project and they worked with community leaders with realworld problems that they had. And these fifth graders collaborated together

108in their groups and they worked together to help these leaders in their community work on these problems that they have. And some were just like thinking out of the box that you know you sit there and you you you think one way but these kids even like the uh the uh preschoolers were doing you think out of the box and sometimes as I was told some of these people do use what they uh what these fifth graders are telling them to do. It's amazing. I think Miss Dodie mentioned that. Did your husband use that? Um no. We have a parent that's a rep for Sora, which is like online books. And so she implemented um a suggestion from the fifth graders to add emojis to the searches. Oh, they added emojis to the searches. That's

109cool. So, see this is something that, you know, these fifth graders just think out of the box that we don't even think about. Um and then last but not least, I went and saw Curtains a musical this past weekend. It was a great show. Um, there were so many details to it that I would love to see it again and again just to pick out all the different things that I'm sure that I missed. But the cast did a great job and so did the directors and all the background people, too. So, it is a whole school thing. So, thank you, Mr. Nichols. We'll go with you next. I was just making sure she's not ready yet. Okay. All right. Uh, yeah. the um the one thing that I wanted to point out that um

110I was uh able to do was the portrait to practice like we had mentioned and I'm sure everybody else is going to mention too. Um and yeah, I mean that's it's it's such a cool thing. I'm glad that we implemented it. What was it last year was the first year? Um, but it's it's just really a a awesome display of what the kids are doing in their classrooms, what the teachers are teaching the kids and how they're teaching the kids and the full circle like culmination of like their education throughout the year up until this point. Um, and it's always awesome. And one of the things I know uh Mrs. Parkhurst has heard me say in curriculum is, you know, sometimes we see the kids and we think, okay, they're kids. They kind of can't

111do X or can't do Y or don't have enough direction for these type of things. And like portrait to practice is a perfect example of like if you just give the kids a little bit of a push and let them go crazy like they they can make it work for themselves. They can learn better than almost anybody is able to force them to learn right if you give them uh give them a little bit of run. Um I know I would have loved to have you know a little bit of studentled learning when I was in school. So, it's nice to see that we've gotten to this point. We um we now are letting the kids do their own thing and learn in their own way and uh yeah, incredible results. Mrs. Miss Pritchard. Yeah.

112Before I forget, um the foundation is having the Run for Fund um May 9th. It starts at 7 o'clock. Make sure you pre-register. Um we've had a great streak at the career center. Um we had every student of the month but one and the March student of the month um was Arrow Maynard who's a senior in cyber security and digital forensics. Um the Madina students of the month for April were Alexa Profiti and Chase Martin. Um, senior arts students participated in the art league senior scholarship show. Madonna had five participants. Uh, Jay Malookuski received the Grace Z award of $1,000 and Addison Dressel was third place and received $850. Um the ESC honors one student from each school and Madina's one student was Verun um Rodriguez and his inspiration was his math teacher and cross

113country coach uh Brian Dudick. Um I was able to catch part of the girls lacrosse game last Tuesday with their new sticks. It was pretty chilly and they did kill their opponent. Um, I saw the boys volleyball team play that same night where they defeated Menor. And then I came back and watched them play St. Ed's the next night. The JV played three great sets and they lost all their games like um by two points and then the varsity played um and they also lost their three games just by two points. So, it was really fun to watch them. And I a new rule that I didn't realize that you can actually kick the ball to get it up in the air now. So, that was interesting. Had a couple of great kicks that got

114it up there. Um, Jasmaz, I was there and it was a lot of fun. They did a lot of hard work. Band boosters and the directors had a long day, but it was uh certainly worth it. uh school musical. I went Friday night which was opening night and I think the it the musical was great but I think the fun thing was that the kids were so excited to perform it and you could just tell that in their their um in their performances. Portrait in practice on Thursday was very nice and the crowd um you know nice crowd um and Mrs. Cassidy has now agreed never to do it again during M's week and so that will be very good. Um uh Friday at Northrup um the one uh capstone project that I really liked

115is how they're going to uh the kids came up with ideas on how to renovate uh Jump Park because it needs to be redone and they had some great ideas. Um, I also want to mention that Cannavan was a five-star school. Just uh 10% of the schools in Ohio were five-star schools. And Garfield, the good old building here, uh, also received a momentum award this past year from going from here to here um, this past year. So, um, Mrs. Mciny is here and to all the teachers that were part of that, I just want to congratulate them. And this is the time of year that kids are looking for jobs or playing sports during the summer. And if you need a physical, you can go to the free clinic at the hospital. Just call for

116an appointment and everything is free. So, um or for fall sports. So, don't don't think you have to pay for anything. Just call the free clinic. Thank you, Mrs. Parkerst. Thank you. any of the moment to like after Mr. Sable's presentation. So, we as is evident from everyone that's talked up here, we have great things going on in this district. We have great students. We have great staff. We have great teachers. There's a lot of exciting things happening and we want to maintain maintain that. So, I again am going to ask our community members, our parents, our staff, everyone, you know, a call to action to call your legislators. Uh, we share lots of great things on our website. Mrs. Busby always puts things out on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Um, Kids First is

117here tonight and they put information out as well. Please, when you see that information, share it with your friends and family because they may not be getting that information or following those pages. So please, I encourage everyone to share out that information with everyone that they know. We have some humble administrators. I know that they would they don't do things for kudos. They do it for the students and for the district. But I do think it is important to recognize uh Dr. Quick for her her award as well as Mr. Condent for his I mean administrator of of the year for the entire state of Ohio seems like a pretty big deal. So I but again I know you're humble and it's not about that it's about the kids. Um I do I do appreciate

118that. And lastly I just want to also thank Mr. Okall for the EPA grant looking into that. I know Mrs. Cassidy has always looked for grants wherever she can. Um Mrs. Biz Biza you'll see tonight there's um contracts on our agenda tonight. She tries to get multiple years when she can. Everyone's always trying to get more for less. and I for one appreciate all of those efforts to do what's best for our kids while being fiscally responsible. Thank you. All right, I will try to keep my comments short. Um, couple things. I did go to curtains as well. Um, having grown up with a father who was a band director and a coral director, uh, I am floored by the level of, um, skill that the students have, uh, both singing, acting, choreography, and everything.

119And they absolutely love being up there. So, when these come up, community go. It's totally worth it. Um, excuse me. I also went to the on Saturday I went to the 36th annual Tom Fasco Madino Relays. That's a big track meet. I was there for about an hour. It was cold and then I left. But um with lots of volunteers out there and I saw a lot of people volunteering that didn't have kids in high school anymore. This is the level of commitment that our um former parents and other um in our district have. Um I was approached by uh Mr. Olsen and Mr. Dudac and Mr. Stepppsis and they are excited for the new track and you know to put that uh EPA grant in perspective that's roughly half the cost of the new

120track give or take but that's a huge savings to community. So, thank you to all of our staff that went out there and uh really fought for that. And so, that's a win for this district. Um went to portrait to practice. Uh I actually got to spend the whole time this year and I told Mrs. Cassidy as much. Um last year I only got about a half an hour because of work commitments, but this year I got to spend the whole hour and a half. Um, so I got to see a lot more and it's nice to see um, you know, these some of these things look maybe simple to us adults, but these are skills that you start early and you start building on for all of these things up here on the wall,

121which when they leave school and they go out into the workforce, these are the things that employers are looking for. So, you start early. Um, some highlights for me was, and if I got this wrong, I apologize, but I believe Claget has an American Chestnut Society thing. Um, now for those that don't know, the American Chestnut was the redwood of the East. They were all killed off by um, a fungus back in the early 1900s, and the American Chestnut Society is trying to bring them back. and Claget has like the only middle school club in the country and they're doing stuff with that. So, um I thought that was just fabulous. Um I was also particularly impressed with the the art. Um, some of the high school artists had their works there and these were

122drawings and it I looked it looked like I was looking at a picture that was taken with a camera. That's how good our students are. Uh, writing uh same thing just the passion from all of the different groups and the kids that were there. Um, uh, one was elementary school and they were playing with little uh, programmable robots that would run around on the floor. these little balls and all of those things. I'm looking at this going, "Yeah, that's what I do every day." But I'm at a much larger and much more expensive robots, but they're learning it in middle or elementary school and middle school. Um, and finally, I somebody I want to just mention, I I see him at almost every event I attend is Officer McLaren. uh he's our high school school

123resource officer and he is like at almost every event that I see uh even on the weekends and his partner Nessie is usually with him. Now when the students see him they never want to go see officer McLaren. We want to go see Nessie, uh, who's our, uh, I believe it's a firearms and explosion detection dog, uh, German shorthaired pointer, and that was provided by a grant that the district ran uh, uh, wrote up and then got awarded. So, this is a I talked to him a little bit and he said he's getting calls from all kinds of resource officers now how we did it and they want to do similar things in the schools. So Madina's leading the way in lots of different things. So um and that is all I have. Does anybody

124have anything else? Nope. Okay. We are now at the portion of the uh meeting for public comment. And it looks like I have a couple here. Uh I have a little uh something to read and then we'll get started. Um commu community members wishing to address the board are asked to abide by the following guidelines. Attendees shall register their intention uh to comment in the public portion of the meeting upon their arrival at the meeting. After those that have registered have spoken if time allows, the board president will ask the public ask for public comment from all other attendees. Please state your name, address, and affiliation. Please keep your comments to a maximum of three minutes. No participant may speak more than once on the same topic unless all others who wish to speak on

125that topic have been heard. All statements shall be directed to the presiding officer. No person may address or question board members individually. And we are going to start with uh Tilda Saliny. And if I butchered the name, I severely apologize, but Tilda. Hi. Um, good evening. Hello. My name is Tilda Silahi and I am an exchange student from Indonesia through the AFS program. Um, I am a KES student and I'm sponsored by the US Department of State and I'm currently living with my host parents Bob and Kimmy Cammy Amory and I'm currently studying at Madina High School as a junior. Um, I would like to thank Madina City Schools City School for this huge opportunity and I'm also participating in many fun activities in MHS like encore, theater, key club and ok. I enjoy all

126of my classes that I'm taking and I like socializing with the students and the teachers. It has been a very exciting experience. Again, thank you for this special year. Thank you. Thank you very much. Okay, next up we have Sandra uh Beler. Baylor, I'm I'm sorry. Good evening. My name is Sandra Baylor. I live at 1100 Jefferson Street here in Madina. I am a retired Madina high school teacher in 2013. While I was here, I uh taught the high school um civics and history and at the high school and middle school in special education. I hate to bring up more difficulties that we're all facing, but um I will come back and we can discuss this more in the future, but I wondered with my background what the impact of the federal and state movements,

127signatures, proclamations on diversity, equity, and inclusion is going to have on Madina City Schools. I wondered as a history teacher, would there be chapters I had to skip? As a special education teacher, would there be times that my students would not be included? And variety of other things. Um, I'm certainly not asking for you to answer those questions tonight, but I hope that there's a plan to consider how that's going to impact curriculum and policy and activities of the school district just like the wonderful young lady who was just here and a way to communicate that to the staff. So, I hope that that could be addressed at some point. Unless you have the answer right now, I'll be glad to come back. No. And and I I'd be happy to sit down with you

128and and have a conversation uh if you want to schedule something. I'm not so in much interested in in a personal understanding but more of a corporate understanding and also of course in terms of advocacy because while we're calling about funding I think that perhaps there's some issues there we should be talking to our representatives about as well. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh anyone else? No. Okay. Uh action items G are for the treasurer. Yes, if it please the board. Uh action item number one, it's recommended that the board of education approve the March 2025 treasures financial report. Item number two, it is recommended the board of education approve the following supplemental to the 2425 permanent appropriations. We have the Adams grant. Uh this is addition to what was uh appropriated earlier this

129year. Uh they the the Adams grant uh is for uh drug testing at the high school and uh they appropriated 5,000. They need more money to finish off the year. Uh we have uh speech and debate. Uh this is also addition and the reason for this is they had a number of students who had qualified uh for a upcoming uh debate and they need to uh have more monies for hotels and travel. Uh the class of 2023 and class of 2024. This is to clear out those funds. uh we want to zero them out and that also goes into item number three here. It's recommended that the board of education approve the following fund transfers. If you notice that all of these are coming out of the previous classes. They're going into the principal fund.

130Uh the last one is uh going into the class of 21. That's because the class of 21's in the negative. They over spent at the time. So we're zeroing them all out. Uh, and thanks to Karen Plattz over at the high school who's monitoring all of all of these funds here. So, I will entertain a motion uh on treasurer action items G1, two, and three. I'll uh give you a motion for uh G1 through three. I'll second. Thank you, Mr. Nichols and Miss Pritchard. Are there any questions? Anybody comments? Hearing none, Mr. Chambers, when you're ready. Yes. Mr. Nichols. I. Miss Perchard. I. Miss. Parker. I. Miss. Smooyer. I. Mr. West. Yes. Thank you. Uh, next up are superintendent action items. H. Uh, number one, it is recommended that the board of education accept the

131following uh, donations. Uh, I want to point out the fairly large donation of $3,500 from Mr. Funk uh for the donation of 14 golf bags to replace uh the current bags. Uh and then the second one is uh the whole list of lacrosse uh donations. I do want to point out that uh while we're seeing quite a bit of generosity uh here within our own community, uh there's generosity and donations uh really coming from a uh a vast array of uh locations even outside of our community. And as Dr. Qualicanin mentioned, we're extremely appreciative of that. Number two, it is recommended that the board of education approve the following service agreements. The first service agreement is uh with the career center for the project lead the way uh courses uh that are offered within the

132district. This is an annual contract that we present um in order to share the cost of being able to uh offer those programs. We then have two uh special education contracts. Again, these are both contracts or companies we've contracted uh with in in the past. Um and these are all for services per students individual education uh plan. Number three, uh as Mr. Okle had presented is recommended that the board of education adopt the following resolution for district roofing projects. And last but not least, it is recommended that the board of education approve the following personnel recommendations uh pending the completion and submission of all appropriate and required paperwork uh per our director of human resources, Mr. Shields. Um there are multiple uh resignations for purposes of retirement, which is quite normal this time of year.

133Uh I think this is a good time uh to uh announce that next month in May we're going to be recognizing all of our retirees uh here at the board meeting. Uh the past couple years we've been doing this and principles have been presenting. uh they're retirees that are in attendance and I anticipate we will have some sort of social prior to the board meeting uh where we can actually talk to and meet some of those retirees. Thank you. I would entertain a motion to accept uh superintendent action items H. I'll make a motion to approve those items. I'll second. Thank you, Mrs. Um, thank you to both of you. I've drawn a blank. Mr. Chambers, if you please. Miss Parker, I. Miss Smooyer. Hi. Mr. Nichols. I. Miss. Prickard. I. Mr. West. Yes. Thank

134you. Parkhurst and Smooyer just to help out. It's been a long day. All right. Uh we are now um uh at the point to uh uh go to executive session um for the to consider the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline uh or compensation of a public employee or official. the preparation for conducting or reviewing negotiations or bargaining sessions with employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment. I would entertain a motion to move to executive session. I'll make such Oh, go ahead. motion. I'll second. All right. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Mr. Chambers, if you please. Miss Perkst. I. Miss Per. I. Uh, Mr. Nichols. I. Miss Smooyer. I. Mr. West. Yes. Thank you. Uh we will not be taking any action when we come out of executive. Thank you m

135very much everybody.