Mentor Board of Education Meeting Sep 09, 2025

001My top five. Good evening. The September 9th, 2025 regular meeting of the mentor exempted village board of education is called to order. This meeting is being held in accordance with section 3313.15 of the Ohio Revised Code. Please place your mobile phones on silent mode for this meeting. Mr. Wade, please call the role. >> Miss Hayappo, >> here. >> Miss Jessling, >> present. >> Miss Marchazza, >> present. >> Miss Payne, >> here. >> Miss Cook, >> here. Thank you. And please join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I would like to welcome everyone to the September 9th, 2025 regular meeting of the mentor exempted village

002board of education. Prior to this evening, each board member has received for their review and consideration the agenda and materials associated with each agenda item for the board's approval via the district's paperless board of education agenda system board docs. The public can access the agenda through the school district's website. The agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing the Sunday prior to the board meeting. Board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and chief financial officer for information concerning agenda items and to request if needed additional information. There are two places on the agenda where the board entertains comments from the community. The first hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on agenda items only. The second hearing of the public is dedicated to those

003who wish to address the board on any subject, whether it be an item on the agenda or another topic. To participate in the hearing of the public section, interested speakers must sign up prior to the start of the meeting. Signups are available online, through the school district's website, or on site prior to the start of the meeting. You will be called to the microphone when it is your turn to speak and at that time we ask that you please state your name and address questions to the board president. Each person may speak only once per segment and comments are limited to three minutes. The purpose of the hearing of the public is for our community members to address the board. The board continues to welcome feedback from the community as an important component to conducting

004business. This is an information gathering opportunity for the board and administration so that we can work to best serve the community. If at the end of the public participation we do not make a statement, please know this does not demonstrate a lack of care for comments shared by our community. Rather, we want to be thoughtful in our approach and we will provide a response in a timely manner when appropriate. In an effort to maintain an orderly meeting based on Ohio Revised Code 2917.12 and board policy 0169.1, any person doing any act which obstructs or interferes with the conduct or orderly progress of the board meeting will be warned and or removed from the meeting. This meeting is being shown live and can be viewed on demand on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Menor Ohio. Thank

005you. We do not have any district highlights and recognitions on the agenda this evening. So, we will move on to the approval of minutes. >> So, moved. Second. >> Is there any discussion? Mr. Wade, please call the role. >> Miss Jessley? >> Yes. >> Miss Marchazza? >> Yes. >> Miss Aayo? >> Yes. >> Miss Payne? >> Yes. >> Miss Cook? >> Yes. >> Motions carry 5-0. Next, we have the hearing of the public on agenda items only. And uh before we do this, I'd like to take a moment to discuss something that happened at the last meeting. Um we had a student speak on what they believed was an agenda item about our executive session, employment of a public official. And upon reflection, I really should have gave this speaker and asked them to save

006their comments for the public speaking se session at the end of the meeting on any topic. Um, in in the future, I I promise I will work on doing a better job to end these discussions that are not related to agenda items. Thank you. >> Our first speaker is Kelly Harour. Our second speaker is Jonathan Washburn. What was that last name? >> Washburn. >> Are these for the first part? >> You're right. Correct. I apologize. These are all second sessions. I apologize, Mr. Washurn. You were you signed up for the second session. >> Oh, mine is actually on transportation. >> Yeah, that's on the agenda. >> Transportation on the agenda. We're we're um approving the >> um In le of payments. >> In le of payments. >> Addressing the in le of payments for transportation

007>> or just transportation. >> Is that is that what your items? >> Can you repeat that please? >> Are you addressing the in lie of payments for transportation? >> No. >> So all the speakers then we have are for the second session. I apologize. Um, next we have the superintendent's report and recommendations. >> Uh, before I jump into the consent agenda, just a couple of quick updates for everyone. Uh, starting with the um the SRO's um today, no, yesterday, the city of Menor swore in two new police officers who will be serving as school resource officers in our district. These two officers will be assigned to Memorial and Shore Middle Schools and will start in those buildings on Monday, September 22nd. Over the next two weeks, they will be going through their training with the

008Menor Police Department and we'll spend a day in our district with Officer Skellyy, who is currently serving as the SRO at Menor High School. I do want to thank Chief Gunch, Mr. Philippia, the Menor City Council, and all of our board of education members for their work and support in getting this program started. There are still two SRO positions posted by the city of Menor that uh we are attempting to get filled for this school year. Uh as a reminder, the agreement we have in place with the city and the school district is to hire recently retired officers to fill these positions. There were a couple of candidates that were not quite ready to retire just yet. So that is one of the reasons for the delay in getting the other two positions filled. Uh

009but Chief Gunch and I remain hopeful that additional officers will be available now to jump into those roles. So we will continue to update everyone as we work through that process together. Uh in the meantime, uh we continue to have our extra duty officers filling our scheduling um on a rotating basis at our elementary schools. Uh if the spots are not filled by men or police department officers, excuse me. Uh the schedule is then sent to the Lake County Sheriff's Office to be filled by their deputies. Uh we are working to uh figure out what those fill rates have been here at the beginning of this school year. Uh and I will put that in one of my updates to the board here this week. Uh the men are on the Lake Department uh police

010department continues to offer uh the Lake Elementary School with daily coverage uh with their police officers as well. Uh one other update uh for everyone uh again relating to transportation. Uh we continue to work through the bus driver shortage uh again here this year. Uh so I wanted to provide an update on where we stand uh as we head into the fourth week of school. We had five drivers retire at the end of the last school year and had another driver take a different role in transportation in the transportation department. This year we were able to hire four full-time drivers over the summer, but that still leaves us short by two drivers as we start the school year. We have been filling those routes either by part-time substitute drivers or by splitting routes. So far

011this school year, we are trying to get additional individuals trained, but again, that can be a long process from the time that they apply to the time that they take over a route. Additionally, we have three other drivers that will be taking leaves of absence for extended periods of time later this week and early next week. This will leave us five drivers short for the near future. We made the difficult decision back in the spring to deem our long-standing route to Notre Dame Elementary School impractical due to the lack of drivers available. The families who have students that would attend Hopkins Ridge and Memorial as their home public school are eligible to receive payment in lie of transportation because their official route timings are under that 30 minute threshold set by the state. All other

012schools are over the 30 minute threshold and are ineligible for transportation. We are currently working through the mediation and state chapter 119 hearing process with three of our Notre Dame elementary school families who've rejected the offer of payment in lie of transportation. We are responsible for transporting those students for those three families while we wait for the hearing to be scheduled. In the meantime, we are continuing to brainstorm long-term solutions regarding this route with Dr. Coins, who now serves as the president of Notre Dame schools. Uh we continue to re receive requests from families from all of our public and non-public routes to change bus stop locations. We held off on those the first couple of weeks of school just to make sure that we could get all of our wrership uh numbers figured out

013with our drivers. We have been working through those uh requests over the last couple of weeks with our drivers, our dispatchers, and our administrative team to ensure we have the safest, most efficient routes for our students on a daily basis. Our veteran drivers drove every single route and reviewed every stop to make sure we had safe stops for our students before the routes were even published in early August. Many of the issues with changing bus stops go back to the timing of the routes. If we add stops or make alterations to our routes, we are adding time to the length of the route, which would cause the bus to arrive after the start times of the buildings each morning. We will need to resolve some of the staffing issues in order to have the ability

014to make further adjustments in the bus stop locations. So, we ask for your patience while we work through this process. We are reviewing several possible solutions to address the issues we face with the driver shortage. Here are just a few. We're looking at ways to increase the number of substitute drivers available on a daily basis. We've reviewed our pay rates as they compare to surrounding districts and we remain near the top of the list here in Northeast Ohio. We are looking at drivers from private companies to potentially fill our long-term leaves of that leaves of absence. We are hoping to bring bring back some of our recently retired drivers not only from our district but some of our surrounding districts as well to see if they will continue to be substitute drivers for us. Uh,

015we have a seemingly permanent posting for two full-time drivers that we will keep open until every full-time and substitute position is filled. This will be my annual appeal to anybody that is interested in driving a bus for us in Menor Public Schools. Please visit our website. We would love to have you. We will train you and we'll pay for the training. Uh we are reviewing possible additional incentives to try and fill these positions as well. We're looking at adjusting our high school bus stops uh to more centralized locations to consolidate buses and free up additional drivers. This would be a major shift for us, but this would help us cover the open routes that we currently have. And this will also help us shorten our elementary and non-public routes that would then provide more flexibility

016for bus stop location changes. We are reviewing the state guidelines to identify any possible adjustments that might be made now or that could be made next year to make our routes more efficient. These could include increasing our walk zones, increasing walking distances to bus stops, conducting additional non-public route timings to determine eligibility, and increasing the number of impractical routes. I want to assure everyone that these decisions are not made with any political or religious motive whatsoever. We simply do not have the human resources to provide the same level of service that we had previously. We will do everything in our power to try and get more drivers to work in our district. Until then, we have to make difficult decisions that will enable us to provide the highest level of service to the greatest number

017of students possible. >> Mr. Yes. >> Um, just a some questions on that. So, we've heard how some of our private school students have been impacted. How have our public school students been impacted? >> Uh, our routes are a little bit longer than uh traditionally they have been. Um, we we're very fortunate this year to have the uh is it called my K12? >> The app that is available to parents now. Um, the other nice thing that we were able to do this year is look at the exact timings of our routes in the uh routing system and make sure that we have accurate routes uh and pickup times uh for each of the students this year. So, we we've seen some good things there. Uh the one thing that we haven't been able to

018do, and this is, you know, where we're still trying to make the adjustments, is we have a lot of individuals that are requesting to drive down uh different culde-sacs, especially along Mley Road, I know is one of our our hot button areas right now that we're looking at very closely. There are a couple of others around the district as well that uh have been brought to our attention um where the there's a feeling that there's safety concerns there. So those are the things that we're trying to resolve right now that we currently haven't been able to address just yet due the due to the lack of drivers. >> How have the extracurriculars been impacted at all? Yeah, I so the issue that we we currently have is a lot of our uh especially our middle

019school sports with uh uh with football in particular uh the the athletic coordinators at the middle schools would like those students to leave, you know, in that 3 to 3:30 time frame uh in order to get to their uh away games, especially when we're talking Madina, Brunswick, Lraine. uh we've got long distances to travel to some of those games and uh those requests to leave at 3 or 3:30 just simply aren't possible at this point in time because our drivers are still uh taking students home at that point in time. So, we've been pushing some of those um some of those times back to 4 4:30 at the at the earliest um just to make sure that we get uh all of our students home from school first. >> Mr. Wade or excuse me, not

020Wade, Mr. Heath. Um first of all, shout out for the bus tracking app. As the parent of bus riders, that is a game changer. Thank you so much for bringing that to fruition. I know we've been waiting on that tech for a long time. So, I'm so pleased to see that roll out and roll out so well. Like very few techn technical issues. So, thank you. Um, a couple questions for you. One, just out of curiosity, one of you mentioned incentives for um recruitment, are those any of those incentives possibly like signon bonuses or something? Would would you that be something you would consider? >> We've discussed some of that. Um, again, I think if we were to offer something to new employees, we'd also have to make sure that we're taking care of our

021current employees with that, too. Um, so that's one of the considerations there. Uh, we have been looking, like I said, very closely at the uh the pay rates not only of our uh our bus operators, but our substitutes as well. Um, just to try and get those individuals in. Um, the other thing that we're we're attempting to do for those uh individuals that are uh looking for employment right away is we can bring them in as a bus aid because we're always in need of bus aids and we can go through the training for the bus operator positions while they're a bus aid for us as well. >> Great idea. And just one other question. This one specifically about um the students who I believe they did you say they there there there's a mediation

022in process which I you know can't really talk about that. >> Are you able to share whether or not um Jackie Hines was able to offer them any solutions on her side of things over at NDCL? >> Yeah. So, the the the solution right now is um NDCL uh when we had the initial decision made back in in the in the springtime, um Dr. Hoings ended up working through believe it's Precious Cargo, one of the private companies, and has a bus that's transporting menor students to Notre Dame. Um so what we are currently doing is uh paying for those students that are on the uh going through the mediation process uh that had uh initially rejected the payment of l in lie of transportation. Um and we're keeping them on that bus at this point.

023Um, it's a a more cost-effective solution, number one, and number two, it it it allows us to keep our drivers um here trying to cover all the different routes that we're covering here in the district right now for both our public and non-public routes. >> But those families aren't satisfied with that solution is what you're saying. >> Correct. I I ultimately the the the Notre Dame families, not just the ones that rejected the payment in of lie of in lie of, but I think the majority of those families would like to see that uh that route restored and obviously that's a more cost-effective solution for us as well in the future. Um we just need the drivers to be able to do that. Um, I think once we get the, you know, get more drivers

024in, we we can start to look at some of those long-term solutions again and see if we can bring some of those routes back. >> Thank you, Mr. Heath. I had a couple questions. Um, I had a question about the sign on bonuses. I know we we talked about that a few years back, I think, when we were we had to benchmark and we were a little low in bus driver um average, you know, pay and then we bumped it up and now we're on the higher end of it. But I didn't know, are these other districts offering sign on bonuses? >> They were before, but I don't know. >> Yeah, I we we've heard of a couple that have have done that. Um, and we've actually talked to some of the other people around

025the state to see what an impact that has had >> on them getting additional drivers in, and it hasn't really done much. quite honestly, it's just a lack of people that have that CDL license with the with the school bus endorsement on it. So that that's the struggle right now. It's just people don't have that. >> Are the other districts like Willoughby East Lake and um you know Shardan and Riverside, are they all experiencing very similar issues? >> Yeah, there there are issues across the board. I this is a nationwide thing too. It's not just an Ohio thing. Um, you know, it's just a shortage of of drivers and CDL drivers, period. Um, like Willoughby Eastlake, for example, they they're they do a private company right now, too. And we've actually reached out to some

026of the private companies to see if they have additional drivers available. And a lot of them are like, no. And we could get them. We could bring them up here from out of state. But then, okay, if we were to bring them in from out of state, then we have to pay housing and food and travel and that sort of thing, too. So, could get pretty pricey. But, um, we're continuing to kind of, uh, get out there and and talk to as many different groups as we can to figure out if we can get additional drivers from somewhere else. >> Yeah, that would just be my own only, I guess, suggestion would be to see who's not dealing with this issue and then kind of dive in deeper. I'm sure you have, but um to

027how why are they not experiencing this and you know things that they're doing that maybe we can implement. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Mr. Heath, when you referred to um looking at drivers from private companies, were you was that in terms of like bringing them to us so that they would become our employees or contracting them out >> to to bring them in as a substitute driver in the interim basis? um especially with the uh the the three new leaves of absence that we're working through right now just from a temporary standpoint. >> Thank you. I have a just a couple questions. Um is anybody else looking think it might be worth having adding on to our executive session um with the board with um HR and um transportation? Just I have a lot of questions

028about the process. I want to find out dig a little deeper as to why because I I think there is a shortage but I don't think anything's like at this rate you know that we're experiencing. So are you guys what's the consensus if we can invite them in maybe just 15 minutes at the beginning of our next executive session. >> Yeah. >> I'm I'm not sure what you're asking like what our discussion would be about. >> I Q&A to what's what's to dig a little deeper. I know I have a lot of questions about the our whole process our hiring process. I've heard that um we've had some really good experienced applicants turned away because it was because of some things. So, I don't want to get into it up here or we can, but

029I I think it might make more sense. Maybe they can I'm sure they can answer some of my questions and I don't know if anybody else has questions, but you know, this is costing us a lot because it's like, isn't the NDCL's busing that we're paying for some of those families is two grand a kid? Um, right. >> Yeah, we're not paying that amount. We're paying $10 per kid per day. Okay. Um, major >> that's what uh Notre Dame's charging their families for the transportation. >> I heard 2000 >> that that's what Notre Dame's ch charging their families. Yes. >> Okay. Um, you know, just and and then the safety issues. I mean, I think we we can't I can't emphasize enough the concerns on the safety issues for some of these. Um, and that

030affects me personally, but it's I've been hearing from a lot of families. So, um I just if we can invite them in for maybe the first 15 minutes of our executive session for our special meeting. >> You're you're inviting. I I guess I'm not sure who you're inviting. >> Kathy Bernett and um Jackie Sturm. >> So, HR and our transportation director. >> Yes. >> For executive session. Um what topic would that cover? Because we have to have it under >> question. What would you say, Mr. Wade? Do you think it would qualify for an I guess? >> Yeah, I'd have to I'd have to >> work sessiony maybe or >> I'd have to get a bigger uh a better idea of exactly what we're going to talk about to see that it fits into one

031of the reasons for executive session. >> That's what I was thinking. >> Um and if it did, we would have to definitely limit it to those specific topics. >> Yeah, I I would be open to more conversation on it. just we have received some emails and I've had >> folks, you know, bring up various things in relation to transportation. This might be worth a work session or >> this is not a criticism of how it's being handled for me at all. It's just I think it's this it's we're at a level where we need to I think >> all sit down and talk, >> have some conversation. >> Mr. for me. Could you consult um and see if it it would f it would be better seen as a work session or as a executive

032session? >> Give us some feedback. Maybe >> I'll put it in my Friday update. >> Thank you. We already have a special meeting so we would just be tacking it on to that, right? >> Yes. On the 17th. >> Thank you. Uh, Madame President, members of the board, Mr. Wade, I have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of items 6A1 through 6 A3. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Is there any discussion? >> Mrs. Please call the RO. >> Miss Alo, >> yes. >> Miss Jessling, >> yes. >> Miss Marchazza, >> yes. >> Miss Payne, >> yes. Yes, Miss Cook. >> Yes. >> Motions carry 5-0. >> Madame President, members of the board, Mr. Wade, I'm recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C4,

033all related to human resource matters. >> So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? >> Please call the role. >> Miss Marcha, >> yes. >> Miss Cook, >> yes. >> Miss Alo, >> yes. Miss Jes, >> yes. >> Miss Payne, >> yes. >> Motion carry 5-0. >> Madame President, members of the board, Mr. Wade, I'm recommending approval of agenda item D related to administrative staff recommendations. >> So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the RO. >> Miss Alo, >> yes. >> Miss Jessling, >> yes. >> Miss Maza, >> yes. >> Miss Payne, >> yes. >> Miss Cook, >> yes. >> Motion carries 50. And I'm also recommending approval of agenda item E related to the administrative staff benefits. >> So moved. Second. Is there any discussion? >> Please call the role. >> Miss Marchazza?

034>> Yes. >> Miss Payne? >> Yes. >> Miss Aappo? >> Yes. >> Miss Jessling? >> Yes. >> Miss Cook? >> Yes. >> Motion carries 5-0. >> This concludes my portion of tonight's agenda. Thank you. >> Next, we have the board of education report and recommendations. And the first item under board business is the approval of board member inservice attendance at the OSBA capital conference and trade show. Do I have a motion? So moved. I will second. Is there any discussion? Um I I just wanted to say that I would not be attending the OSBA conference unless I'm reelected in November. I don't think it's a good use of taxpayer funds. If if I'm reelected, I would love to join the OSBA capital conference. I think it's valuable um for board topics, but I I would

035not attend otherwise. So, with your plans for expenditures and rooms and things, I could keep that in mind. I also since I'm not going to stand for reelection, I won't be attending the OBA conference this year. >> Yeah, I would echo that as well. I had no plans on attending >> and we have a certain number of seats that are available to us and we can offer those to uh whoever is elected in the November election. >> It'll be a quick turnaround obviously, but um we do have those available. Would you be able to contact all of the candidates and let them know? Because I know when I was elected, nobody gave me that heads up and I was like elected and then they were like, "Oh, by the way, there's this." >> Yeah, there's

036this thing >> the same. It was a quick turnaround for me to get time off work and things, but I think it's really valuable for even though they're they would not be um sworn in at that time to to have that opportunity. So, >> definitely. >> Yeah. We'll we'll reach out to all of the candidates and let them know. All right, >> Mr. Wade, please call the role. >> Miss Martaza? >> Yes. >> Miss Cook? >> Yes. >> Miss APO? >> Yes. >> Miss Jessley? >> Yes. >> Miss Payne? >> Yes. >> Motion carries 5-0. >> The second item under board business is the appointment of a delegate and alternate to the OSBA annual business meeting on November 17th, 2025. I'd like to point Rose and then maybe the alternate is Miss Marchazza because clearly

037it's they're the only two that for sure um will be you know still on the board. So and I would like to appoint Mrs. Marcha as our legislative leaison and and Mrs. Apollo as our alternate because she is our legislative leaison alternate. Who was it last year? >> Mrs. Marchazza. >> Okay. And the year prior to that, >> Mrs. Ayopo was our um >> alternate. >> Okay. Yeah. So, I would like to just Mrs. Zapo give her the chance this year and then as she's the alternate currently for the legislative liaison. So, just to give her the opportunity. It is it's an interesting thing to be a part of. So, >> it is. >> We have two people nominated. So, I suppose we need to vote. Yeah, I guess when I call your name, uh,

038just >> say who you're voting for. >> I I don't think so. >> Thank you. >> So, we have Mrs. Payne. I'll basically say that you motioned. So, you can go first, Miss Payne. >> Um, I would like to nominate Rose. >> All right. And then, Miss Cook, >> Mrs. Miss Marchazza, >> Miss Ayapollo, >> myself, >> Miss Jessling, >> Mrs. Marchazza, >> Miss Marchazza, >> myself. >> Miss Marchazza has three votes. Miss Apple has two. So that would put Miss Marcha as the delegate and Miss Appo as the alterate. >> And we were just confirming over here that we've not received the OSBA platform yet. So, I assume we'll talk about that at the next meeting. Hopefully, by that time, you'll have received it. >> Ideally. >> Yes. >> You haven't seen one yet,

039have you, Mr. W? >> No, but I haven't been looking either. Okay. >> I have not. And I have been looking haven't seen it yet. >> Okay. Um, we have our last item under board business, the first reading of board of education mola policies. And because this is a first reading, no vote is necessary. Is there any discussion though? >> I'll just uh give everyone a quick update. These are policies that are being updated to reflect the changes and revisions that are needed in our emergency management plans should there be a cyber event that directly impacts a school district. Uh Mr. Woodworth, Mrs. Sturm, and I have been working uh on this. Uh we've already had one meeting uh just to make sure that uh these adjustments are already uh set for us. uh we're

040going to meet again here in a couple weeks to make sure the the plans and our administrative guidelines that go along with these policies uh have everything that need to be covered coming out of House Bill 96. Um I'll also share with the group that uh the Neola updates uh that came at the end of August uh have 17 other policies that uh we are reviewing as well uh to determine if we need to make some uh some adoption and some changes to our manual. Uh so we will have additional policies that will be uh updated at our October meeting as well. >> All right. Um next we have the legislative report. Miss Marchaza. >> Thank you. >> All right. It's been a pretty quiet month or so. Uh but I have a few things

041to report on. For starters, the property tax working group that was gathered by Governor DeWine, they have uh been meeting on a weekly basis, mostly on Thursdays. Uh they have until September 30th, as I've said, to come up with their recommendations. Um and so far they've heard testimony from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce as well as the Fair School Funding Work Group. Um they have discussed all sorts of things including cash balance policies. I agree for right now anyway that 100% would definitely constitute a conversation with the budget commission if there's 100% carryover. Uh the interesting thing though about this group is there are actually no legislators in this work group. So in order for any of these recommendations to really take off, there has to be basically someone from the work group

042that would work closely with a lawmaker to make them happen. Uh so far it's looking like Bill Sites and um Representative Blessing are they have a close relationship. So there's potential there. But we just have to kind of wait and see. Uh they're also discussing the types of levies. They seem to have some kind of consensus that emergency levies should continue, but they're still deliberating. They're also talking about the concept behind HB86, which uh would cap the amount of growth that your district district could bring in, aligning it to inflation. Um that is a standalone bill right now as as well, but it happens to be very similar to one of the ideas they're discussing. Uh they're also considering circuit breakers which I think I mentioned last time. Um it's sort of a refund program

043and it's a way of uh means testing property taxes. Uh I won't get into the details but it is uh one of the ways that seems to have some bipartisan support. Um so uh like most kind of bright line policies however the question of where to make the cut off for circuit breakers would probably be hotly debated and um definitely create some winners and losers in in that situation. They're also discussing the expansion of the homestead exemption, which reduces taxes for certain homeowners by shielding a portion of their home's value from taxes. Um, seniors, disabled Ohioans, and families of fallen first responders get to exempt roughly 25,000 to 50,000 from tax. Expanding that exemption is perhaps the simplest policy change on the table right now. Um, but so far, lawmakers really have refused to do

044it. So, again, we'll see what's what what comes out of that group. Um, we're looking for recommendations again on on September 30. The state house is pretty quiet right now. The general general assembly has remained on recess. The Senate has not announced any plans to return to Columbus to take up a vote on the House's um override of HB96, the one item they overrode. Um so both chambers of the general assembly are slated to return on an asneeded basis um on September 23rd and September 30th. Um they'll resume a regular schedule again in October. Um there's just a quick update on the override. The Senate is working to gather enough votes to come back to override that item um that the House also overrode. They have though until the end of the legislative session in

045December of next year to attempt any overrides. So they have plenty of time to do this if they choose. Uh this override process could be impacted by the redistricting process which um is happening pretty much as we speak. Maps must be res redrawn in Ohio by September 30th of this year. September 30 happens to be a really important date this this month. So keep an eye on the news of coming out of the state house. But September 30 is when the maps must be redrawn. There's a lot of discussion around this in the House and the Senate. Um, basically if they can't agree on the maps, it'll go back to the redistric redistricting commission. Uh, the governor sits on that commission. So, that kind of could um that could have an impact on the override

046and how that proceeds uh since that was the governor's um line item veto there. Then, um I will just add there's been a few new bills introduced. I think uh about 50 to 60 tax reform bills currently sit in the legislature. Um so some of the newer bills actually add to that pile. Uh then separately HB413 was introduced. This would create the Ohio local government expenditure database where schools would have to participate and document all revenue streams and spending there. And that's the end of my report. >> Thank you. Next we have the student achievement report. Miss Jessine, >> thank you. The doors opened on Monday, August 18th for the new school year. There was happy anticipation in the air for 6,454 students. Staff met them with smiles and plans for a great start. We

047know that a smooth beginning sets the stage for success. From preschool through high school, a rigorous comprehensive curriculum is envisioned in mentor strategic plan framework for the future. This ensures individualized instruction to meet student needs. The classrooms of our elementary buildings began with warm welcomes and introductions, and before you knew it, the kids were already settling in for lessons and learning. Shore and Memorial sixth graders anxiously made the big transition to middle school with locker mastery and class changes, while staff kept out an eye to help them join the seventh and eighth graders with smooth assurance. Nervous faces gave way to confident grins as the week unfolded. The same helpful process greeted ninth graders at the high school. As the second bell rang that early morning, more than 2,000 teens were settled in with their

048teachers to begin a year of learning and meaningful growth. Upperassmen have a wide array of curricular choices. These include the newly expanded career technicalmies and hands-on learning across all classes. opportunities and personalized planning support robust student achievement and readiness for life after high school. Expanding and sharpening math skills are essential components in success, beginning with our youngest students all the way through high school. Along with literacy, students at all levels have a focus on problem solving. For nearly two decades, Menor Public Schools has published the annual quality profile to report to our community. Curriculum, achievement, resources, and finances, safety, the arts, student involvement, sports, and more are summarized for all of our stakeholders. The 2024 edition is on our website, mentorschools.net, under about our district. The kindness initiative is central to supportive climate development across

049all grade levels. Each building is actively working to promote positive behavior and respect for all. Mentors Fighting Cardinals marching band provided the soundtrack for the August CityFest parade as groups of mentor students happily showcased school pride, fall athletics, and activities. Community service remains a key component of the high school experience. The annual Kick for the Cure was a great success thanks to our soccer athletes. Through raffles, contests, and a bake sale, they raised more than $10,000 for several mentor families who are dealing with cancer. Seniors from the class of 2026 were also excited to raise money for charity. In exchange, they were allowed to personalize their parking spaces for the first time. Two winners from the Menor Police Department's third grade safety program are Marley K from Ridge Elementary and Elena P from Sterling Morton.

050Our important partnership with our local police continues to expand safety for our district through trained resource officers in our buildings. Our new school year is in full swing. Thank you. >> Thank you. And at this time we have the chief financial officer's report and recommendations. Thank you, Madam President, members of the board. Mr. Heath, uh, this is our regulatory requirement to approve our financial appropriations for FY26. Just as a reminder, our appropriations are the authority that the board is giving the district to spend for the year. Uh it is often confusing to some people that they related to a budget. Um appropriations are more like comparison to a credit card where you have a max amount that you can spend and then obviously that your budgets much like your household budget. This is what you're

051going to spend and how you're going to spend your money. And then we have our cash uh which is what we've actually spent for the year which is what our forecast is based on. Um so when we look at our appropriations we do it from a budgetary model that starts back in the spring. Um we start planning uh for the fiscal year uh as early as late fall early spring when we start talking about staffing and we go through and everything is guided by our principles which is set up by our strategic plan which is on the screen. We then get into from our area from the treasurer's department. We're specifically trying to maximize our district efficiency uh and efficacy uh making sure that we have short and long-term planning to make sure that we're

052utilizing our tax dollars to maximize our educational goals for the district. So we do that by maintaining enhancing fiscal stability through an attention and diligence on short-term and long-term planning. Our appropriations are our short-term planning for the year, which then transfer into our five-year forecast, which we will present at next month's meeting, uh, which is should seem earlier than normal, uh, to everybody, and that's because of House Bill 96. Um, the 5-year forecast is now on an August/February instead of November, May. Uh, this year though, we were given a reprieve uh, and it's not due until October. And we know that our uh decisions are always made within the context of the five-year forecast. We know that there's a decision uh a management decision to every dollar that we spend. We know that we must

053add value to teaching and learning with every dollar we spend. And we must control our largest areas which are salaries and benefits, special education, and the management of our facilities. And we know quality is always cheaper in the long term. So these are the the themes that we use to help us guide our decisions and creation of our budget and then ultimately leading to our appropriations asked for the board. The visual on the screen speaks specifically to our revenue breakdown. Uh this presentation is it's follows a similar model each year is broken up into revenue and expenses. Uh I only share the revenue projections as a reference point. um we are not obligated as a part of our appropriations to get that approved. Uh so it's based on our evaluation of where we think we're

054going to fall from a revenue standpoint. Uh the key here on this slide is that 72.2% of our revenue, that blue piece of the pie, comes from our local tax base. Uh we only receive about uh 15.6 6 in the form of state aid. And then we get reimbursements back from the state in the form of an additional uh 6.6 uh% in the form of homestead and roll back taxes on any levy that was approved prior to 2012. Um new levies that are passed, so our levy in 2016 uh would not have a homestead roll back on it. And then we receive uh a little bit of uh federal fund money in the form of Medicare reimbursements in the general fund. Again, just as a reminder, our majority of our federal funds are restricted and

055are not in the general fund and they show up in other accounts throughout and they are actually you can see them on the uh page of the appropriations that you will approve in the booklet that is on as a example uh of that for you. The average Ohio public funding for the state uh looks drastically different. The pie chart does than in uh compared to mentor. Uh I will say that this data is a little bit uh different because this is for all funds and it's pulled from the cup report from 2024. Um so that would include all federal funds uh which accounts for about 10% of that yellow slice that you see or 10% of the 18. Uh, so if you were to take that out, that would push the local and state shares

056probably closer to 45%. Um, but again, going back to where we stand, we're only getting about 15% 22 23% we include the homestead and rollback reimbursements uh because we're considered a wealthy district based on our median income as well as our property valuations. So where do we land? We're projecting that we're actually going to be about 115.6 6 or $15.7 million in total revenue. Um, if you look at the comparison to the year before, I always like to make sure we point out the the changes here, uh, the major majority of the change is coming in the form of state sources. Uh, House Bill 96, uh, now is projecting that we're going to see some additional revenue and state funding that we weren't projecting in the May forecast. Um, so, you know, we are going

057to see a little bit of an uptick there. uh upwards of totally about $700,000 projected but having a net impact on us of about $300,000 compares to where we ended up last year. Um and we're expecting our intermediate and other resources here to be up and that's if you remember at the end of last year we had to advance out money from the general fund to cover money that was spent out of grants from the state and the federal government that we hadn't se re received reimbursements for. We're now paying oursel back. So this is really just a timing issue. So that expense, as we'll see in some other slides, will show up higher than it really was. It was more of a timing issue because we're cash basis. Uh so we had to front

058the money and then get reimbursed. So you're seeing that reimbursement here uh showing up in the intermediate other sources. Ultimately, I think the important thing from a visual standpoint is you see our revenues remain relatively flat. Um we do see some slight increases in some areas. Uh we know from the trienal or excuse me senial reevaluation in the inside millillage we did see some increases uh on inside millillage. Uh so as we look at the difference from 24 to 25. Uh some of that is because of that and the other portion of that is because of increased interest revenue that we've continued to see. When I first started in 22 was my first fiscal year as the CFO. We received about $460,000 in interest revenue. Last year we received four million. I'd like to say

059it's because of me and my great investment skills. This really has nothing to do with it. Has to do with the fact that because the interest rates have increased over that time frame. Safe investments like ours that we're allowed to by law because we're restricted by law. What type of investments we can't invest in the stock market. We can only do securities, CDs, commercial paper, and the so forth. um have seen those percentage of in you know rates go up. You know we've been right around four to four and a half percent you know dropping a little bit below 4% now uh where they were seeing less than 1% back in 21 and 22. So we've been seeing you know some of a lot of this increase here is more a result of interest earned

060on uh investments that we've had. So when we get into where we're going with regards to appropriations, uh we are in the field of educating students and to do uh that we need educators, we need bus drivers, we need support staff. Um so 85 or 84 and a half% of our budgets made up of salary and benefits. So for us, student enrollment is a huge factor in what we do to make sure that we're appropriating the correct amount uh each year annually. So, we continue to see a decline in student enrollment since uh FY22. And I know I've shared with the board in the community as a whole that decline has started back in 2004 or probably even before that. Uh and we've seen a decline uh from since basically 2004 as has the county

061and as has the region. Um we are down to 6,454 students uh as of the September 2nd update that we got uh from Miss Paige. who sends that to us uh weekly. And so we use that to show this familiar chart hopefully for those of you who come to the meetings regularly as well as the board of education. Um this is something that I started uh when I became CFO because I like to be able to trace my numbers back. Uh so this is all based on EMIS reporting and what we have is our final numbers for FY25. we dropped uh 3.13%. So we went from 992.3 staff members to 975 and we're projecting based on the the decisions that we've made, we're going to be down to 958 approximately. What that includes is a

062reduction of two administrators, 12 certified teachers, one classified position in the as an account clerk uh from our office, one exempt secretary uh as well makes up those reductions. So you will also, if you look at this closely, you'll notice some changes like right here, it looks like we went from 207 to 56.2. But we didn't get rid of all those people. We've just reclassified where they where they sit based on continued refinement of our EMIS reporting. So, working with our new EMIS coordinator, uh we've made some tweaks um and moved some people to where they're at. Um I believe, you know, we've had discussions as a board in my updates or in other parts where I would clean up this data. For example, like administrators, this is the actual number of administrators that are

063currently reported. So we had previously if you were to look at the cup report I know Mrs. Payne and I have had this discussion um you'll see like 52 or 53 administrators depending upon the year that's because the exempt employees were listed in that administrative piece we now have made sure that they're moved. So, for example, the reason why down here in 600s, you're at 12 instead of 11 is because one of our exempt employees is now located in that. And we have two exempt employees now that are put here. And we've put the other ones in the places we feel that they fit as well. Ultimately, the number that matters most for me is the fact that we continue to go down at a rate that's equivalent with the reduction that we're seeing in

064student enrollment. I finally got my favorite graph, but it's already old because this stops in 24. We don't have 25 data yet. Um, for some reason, the state was holding on releasing this data to our analytics team, but you can see that as our enrollment has decreased, which is the uh yellowish orange line here, our staffing has continued to decrease with it. The spike that we see here is because of COVID. That's when we added staff to reopen the schools in uh fiscal year 21. As our ESSER people have fallen off, we've seen that stay in line with that. And I should point back to this. All of the ESSER employees that were paid for out of the ESSER grant have were removed last year and are still not included here. And again, this is

065for all funds. This isn't just general funds. So this includes all staff that's paid for out of any fund that we have. So showing the summary, uh it's important to note that again 84 and a half% of our budget comes from salary and benefits. And again, since we're a service industry, this aligns to where we would expect it. Our third largest uh area is purchase services that we have and then it goes into supplies and then other areas. So, if we're focusing on where we're expecting our total appropriation to spend for the year in the general fund, we're appropriating $17.7 million approximately for the year. Uh last year we spent 119.9. Um that is a result of a couple things is uh just to reiterate to the board and the community at the end of

066the year we had a $ 1.7 million transfer that we talked about. So that was an expense that we saw right here in our 900s in the informative advance and then we transferred out $3.6 $6 million approximately from the general fund to the capital improvement fund uh at the end of the fiscal year to cover costs associated with buses, vehicles, and other capital improvements that we have already budgeted to make sure that those funds were put into the capital fund and weren't sitting in the general fund accounted for. So ultimately, when you look at the year-over-year change, we're down 1.83% in spending. Um, but when you comp kind of normalize everything and take your transfers out and you look from year to year, we we're about a little bit almost a 1% increase. And that's

067just from an appropriation. You know, that's the max authority that the board is giving us to spend. We know that when we always close the fiscal year, when we do the quote unquote continued Mr. Wilson report card, uh, you see that we never really spend what we've ever appropriated. We're we're close, you know, we're within a couple percentage points. We're not very off difference, but it comes to the fact that you have to appropriate you spend what you have actually paid for with cash or check in this case and have received and that's why we have incumbrances and so on and so forth. So when we look at a graphic here again, no surprise that the biggest areas are salaries and benefits. Um, the salaries include the 3% increase that we have negotiated for certified

068and classified staff, the one and a half percent increase for our administrators, and the 0% increase for Mr. Heath and myself. We assume the 6 and a.5% increase on health care as well as the reduction in cost associated with the changes in prescription drugs that we made through negotiation as well as the spousal coordination of benefit. That will all start in January 1st. So, where does this put us? It puts our cash balance budget 5% budget reserve policy at its max of about $5.7 million. And this we're going to deficit spend this year by approximately $2 million. I think it's worthwhile to point out that we've kind of remained relatively flat here over the last few years on expense or deficit spend growth um through the changes that we've made with regards to uh tightening

069our budgets and reductions in staff um which has allowed us to continue to push off and reduce the uh amount of a levy that we would have and that discussion will come back up when we have more data here in October. when we look at the forecast. So when you look at historical kind of since the last levy in fiscal year uh 16 because we passed the levy here in March which means we wouldn't have collected it until January of the following fiscal year. So that's why you see an increase here and a full collection happens in 18. And then we started the deficit spend in and we've kind of maintained that continued deficit spend here reducing our cash balance throughout that process. We're expecting uh that $2 million deficit to bring our cash balance

070uh down to $45.5 million. We're expecting to have our incumbrances at the end of the year for about $3.1 million. That means again just as a reminder incumbrances is money that's already been accounted for. POS have been written but the they service hasn't been rendered or the purchase hasn't been completed. So we know that that money is going to be spent. So we have to budget for it. It's kind of like in your checkbook when you have that well for those of us who used to keep a checkbook now you really don't have to with your online banking but you would put in your little checkbook that that money is spent even though it's still in your account technically. So when you look at our cash set aside policy that we have to have at

071least on top of the five $5.7 million an additional $12.5 million that brings available cash down to $33 million. And because our appropriation should align to our latest forecast, I'd like to show to the board uh where we're at with appropriation versus forecast. But again remembering appropriations are a max amount of spend versus a forecast which is cash basis. So you do expect some variation here. Um and none of the variations that we see are very significant. I know 22.4% looks like a lot but it's less than $100,000 on 117 million. Doesn't it's not a significant material difference. And the last thing that I just want to show um to the board is our five-year spending capital plan that we have. Um and we discussed this in July. I'll only point it out here as

072a point of reference. When we made the transfer at the end of the fiscal year, we removed uh all the values that we had put in for buses and vehicles as well as our other transfers that we had planned in all of our outy years. Um that change reduced about $13 million off of this spending plan as well as transfers that wouldn't be included here for other areas. Um and we have reduced our spending plan by over four and a half million dollars since the levy failure in 23. So this year when we're spending uh the these are the values that we're doing specifically. Uh all the other expenses will then be expensed out of the 070 capital improvement fund having no impact on the general fund. Happy to answer any questions that the board

073may have. >> I have two. Thank you. Um you said we reduce our spending plan by how much? Was it five? Five million almost. this pending plan >> uh by four and a half. >> Four and a half. Thank you. And then my other question was um >> when you first started your presentation, you mentioned the changing of how you're going to report. So, you're going to do a three-year forecast, correct? >> So, we are going to still do a five-year forecast. >> We are. Okay. >> Uh because that's one of our beliefs. Uh we will only send to the state a fouryear forecast. >> Very good. Okay. But the time >> that's that's the new that's the new requirement. So they they basically blocked off a year off of the requirement. We're still going

074to use a five-year forecast because we believe I believe it's best practice. >> Thank you. That's terrific. But the timing of your reporting will change. Yes. >> So is that how is that going to what are the practical implications of that? >> There are many practical implications of that. Um the forecast on some level is going to be less accurate in August uh for a couple reasons. In August we haven't received our tax payments yet. Um we we usually receive those in August, not by the time that we have our board meeting. Uh we will not have staffing numbers done. Um our first pay for the first the new contract doesn't occur till September 5th. it's always a quick turnaround for us to get that data to be able to, you know, to do the

075appropriations. So, we'll still be using a loose estimate on that >> uh as well. So, and then what we'll have in February is probably a more accurate February will become more like November and August will become more like May. >> Okay. on some level, but both will not be as accurate as they are in November and November. >> Unfortunate. And but this is a requirement of HB96 that lawmakers have put forth and it is now law. So you have to comply with it. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> But I there's a I am still probably going to do an informal update to my forecast in November and May. So >> great. >> So So the board will have I won't do a big presentation like we have typically done. Uh but I will continue to

076update those probably you know, we'll do it more frequently. Um, and with the system that I use to be able to do that, it's it's feasible. It's it's not a lot of extra work, but uh it'll allow us to benchmark our tracking for that. I will say though, it more the reason for the board to pay close attention to our monthly reports because remember, we compare those back to the forecast. So when there are large discrepancies that we're explaining those and you have an understanding of why those are the way that they are. >> Okay? >> Because those those discrepancies are more likely to occur because we're making a forecast on data that's not 100% at the times that we're making it where it is now. >> When we do November, I know I mean

077I have July, I have August, September, October worth of data. So I have four months of data to do that. We already have all of our tax uh collections in for the, you know, the second half or our first half collection. Staffing is set at that point. We know where we're at. And then in May, we're basically done. >> Everything's pretty much concluded. We have >> the rest of May and June to close out, but we stop most of our spending outside of salary and benefits in in April. >> Sure. >> So, you know, fluctuations will be important for us to be sure that we're explaining. >> I had a quick question. Um, and I think I've asked this before, but just in case other folks are wondering, I know a lot of this data

078comes from the cup report. Um, and if we look at the cup report, the total operating expenditure per pupil is 17,58. Um, so that's how much it says we're spending for fiscal year 24. And then how much we're taking in is more. So it's 17,212. Can you explain why we end up in a deficit? Because if people are looking at this, they may have that question. The easiest way, that's a great question. The easiest way to explain this when you look at the cup report, that's for all funds. >> Yeah. >> So, that includes the, you know, all the federal money that we get that we approved last month where we had the the brief fivem minute meeting before the start of the meeting and we had all those values for the various forms of

079federal funding that we get. That also gets included in the the cuff report. So, that revenue is part of that. But when we look at the general fund, that's just the money that we receive into our general fund versus what we spend out. >> So some of this the funds that are shown in the cup report are things that we can't use for everything. >> Correct. They're restricted. >> Yeah. >> Y those are restricted federal funds that have and that's why we have to have that special meeting like we did before the August because we have to share with what we're going to be utilizing those funds for. Uh and they have to go into separate funds because they are restricted and they have to be accounted for in a special way. Thank you. >>

080Not that these aren't accounted for in a special way, it's just a little bit more restrictive. We can use general fund basically for any purchase that the board has approved. >> Could you talk a little bit about the population numbers, the class sizes, the birth rate, and how that correlates? I know we've done the um enrollment studies, and you track that very closely. Are you seeing consistency with our numbers and the changes in the birth rate in Lake County? >> So, I can provide a more accurate picture of that in October because I do have some slides that I shared at the citizens financial advisory that I didn't put into here because they're more forecasting. Um, but we are seeing consistent numbers with the county and the region. So what we are looking at from

081our standpoint uh in our projections and as we talked about at the citizens financial advisory uh the state reports live birth rates and has done that for years and until about two years ago they associated it with the the zip codes of the districts. Uh the person retired and the new people coming in weren't doing that as closely or as more precisely as it had been done in the past. So, some of the live birth data that we've had over the last few years is maybe not as reliable. I I just confirmed today that the state has corrected that. We should see updated live birth data here in the next uh couple weeks. Um so that will help make our projections a little bit more accurate because we are using the system through uh the

082analytic software that I have now to be able to do that ourselves. So two things is we're seeing we can look at live birth data versus enrollment and then you can get that percentage and then the other thing that you need to look at when you're making projection is what is your um cohort data as it goes throughout. For us our cohort data stays pretty consistent at about 100%. You know it'll go up and down from year to year or kids come in and out you know but it stays relatively from when you look at it over the course of an entire year or over the grades stays pretty consistent. Where we have to keep a close eye on and we need more accurate live birth data for this is what the relationship between enrollment

083and live birth data is. So we've seen it as high as 104% back in 2019. Postcoid we've seen it uh vary between 100% 94% 85%. So when I do my high, medium, and low, I use 104% ratio for the high kind of trend out. We'll use 94% for the mid and we'll use 85% for the low. So it really kind of depends upon that. But those numbers need to be double checked from the fact that how they're being reported to us is different than it was back in 2019. And the other question I had, could you give us a sense of how the labor contracts from three years ago and the labor contracts from this past spring, how those have impacted those five-year forecasts going forward? I don't know if you could give an estimate,

084but if we had not had those concessions and and modifications that the net benefit to the five-year forecast, and our bottom line, how much we're deficit spending, what our cash balance is, how that's impacted those. >> Well, I think you can kind of see it up on the screen. I mean you're we see here for example the net change if you were to look at the net change of just on salaries you know we have 3% increase from 25 to 26 plus when you account for steps those are usually about another 2% as we've discussed about uh however when you're reducing staffing as a declining enrollment you're not seeing that you know you're not you're not see that's not a 5% change if you Look at if you do the math um and what you

085can see here in healthcare is we actually dropped from 23 to 24. Um that goes to the fact that we did the buyout and we did reductions as a result of that. Um we changed some of the in negotiations because the last contract was 23 24 25. We did some changes that you start to see the full impact in 24 because you know the changes don't go in effect until January of that next year. So you only see half of a year in the first year, then you see a full year in the second year. You see a lot of that in our world, right, with the way things work with timing of how our budgets work. Um, and right now, and this is an appropriation, so this is probably high, too, because this does,

086you know, this is based on what we're seeing, and, you know, it doesn't always necessarily take into account some of the savings that we're going to see. So, we'll really clarify that. You'll see that more clearly in the October update. Uh, but, you know, we're expecting, as we know, about $2.8 million in total savings just from the spousal coordination of benefits in the RX. >> Thank you. And healthcare is a is a crapshoot, right? I mean, the Lake County Health Consortium just saw almost a 20% increase um this past year in in their cost. You know, we're looking, you know, we we're hoping for 6 and a half% year-over-year based on which is a little bit better than trend. >> Mr. The only other question I had is I know we're talking a lot about

087like the aging community, which is clearly the majority of the reason why our enrollment has gone down is from the aging community. Um I know you had sent us some data in June about private schools being up um over the several several years and then homeschooling being up as well. Do we know what that trend is for this year yet or not? No, >> no. Once we get that data and it's probably something that we look at in December when things have settled down and you know we're not getting that because I believe >> Mr. Heath, what is the law now when homeschooling for example has to notify you? >> August 30th. >> So >> another one, >> you know, so we're kind of I mean we're just into that private school numbers we're still

088gaining. Um, and as I've shared with the board, you know, the way that we've collected it in the past, the way we're collecting it now are different. So, you have to normalize those numbers to to be careful that you're not saying that there is an increase. Um, because the interesting thing about that and I don't understand why it's like this. I don't to me it seems like the state would just have a reporting system like they do for everything else. So that >> we have to go and contact all the prochial schools and private schools and then ask do you have anybody that resides in mentor attending >> and then it's self-reported back to us. >> Um >> and before we reported it only in Lake County and then we've expanded that just to make

089sure we're capturing it all. >> So uh we'll look at those numbers and the nice thing is we have that data now. It's >> been re reviewed. I I will review and add it and update everybody on that as well. >> All right. I'm just wondering because of the edge choice vouchers, I think last year we did see a fairly large increase in the um amount of how many folks were using possibly using those and going, you know, elsewhere. So, >> yeah, there's a huge increase in ed choice vouchers, but the interesting thing on that data was is it was it wasn't new students attending those schools when you looked at when you kind of delve into it a little bit more, but more people qualified. So >> yeah, >> if you attend a school

090that accepts vouchers and you qualify for it, why would you not? >> Just something to keep an eye on. Just looking at the data from that you had put in that June update, you had um private school was 796. Last year um and then fiscal year 25 we had 938 and I think that had included a portion of like maybe 40 students that were never reported before. So we really don't know about those 40. But well, it's definitely >> I thought it maybe have maybe would be, you know, a direct implication of the Ed Choice vouchers, but from what you're saying, >> I think it is. I I mean, I think you could >> The hard thing with Menor is we're so big. It's like $100,000 to all of us in this room is a

091lot of people, is a lot, right? Like, but when you look at a budget of 117, $100,000 isn't significant. When you look as many kids as we have, 40 kids is, you know, you could argue any kid that leaves is one too many, right? So, it's just a matter of where our perspective is. I think that will go back to the point where we have to closely watch live birth data versus enrollment >> and then see how see how the cohort exists throughout. Right? So we you know are we keeping the kids here that we have and then if we're not getting kids to come here you know if you start to see that some districts are as low as 70% 60% in their you know live birth versus enrollment. >> Okay. >> Um we've

092been closer to always to 100. you know, we were 85 86 again, but that's with not necessarily accurate birth data because if that's high, you know, if it says 500 should have were were born in mentor and really was only 450 and we only got and we got 400, you can see how that percentage is going to go up on the, you know, the average there. So, and I'll show that more graphically with numbers next month so you can really see what I'm talking about. But those are the things I think we have to watch. cohort survival and then the enrollment versus live birth. >> Thank you. >> Because we are competing for kids. >> Mr. Wade, I'm interested. Do we track um I'm sure we I'm sure we know, but do we track how

093each grade like each graduating class? So, say you know the 2025 seniors, what number were they at when they were kindergarten? >> We have that. We have that data. Yeah. And >> so that's that cohort survival percentage. >> Okay. So, you know, looking at how much did we lose gain over over time for that specific class? >> It's always interesting to me. >> I mean, you're always seeing a gain over if you look at kindergarten versus 12, >> look at them, it I I'd be willing to >> almost unequivocally say there's going to be more students senior year than there were in kindergarten. >> I mean, to me, it's just, you know, it's an interesting statistic to look at. Are the students leaving the district? >> No. And that goes back to why I said

094that the cohort survival rate is 100% for for the district basically. >> Thank you. >> It all kind of washes out. >> Is cohort surv is it like retention another way of thinking of that? Okay. Okay. Well, that's good. >> Thank you. Thank you. Madame President, members of the board, I would ask that we uh approve items B through F and addendums in one motion. >> So move. >> Second. >> Any additional discussion? Please call the role. >> Miss Payne, >> yes. >> Miss Chesley, >> yes. >> Miss Appo, >> yes. >> Miss Marchazza, >> yes. >> Miss Cook, >> yes. >> Motions carry 5-0. We do not have any items under unfinished or new business this evening. So, we will move on to hearing of the public on any topic. Mr. Wade and again,

095Mr. Washurn, I apologize. You are our first speaker. My name is Jonathan Washburn and I'm here tonight to talk about one thing, student safety. This fall, the transportation department moved our bus stop out of our subdivision in Holden Ridge and onto Mley Road, a two-lane semi-rural road where cars fly past from 45 to 50 m an hour. There are no sidewalks, there is no shoulder, just little kids standing at the edge of a dangerous road, hoping cars don't swerve into them. When we raise concerns, I heard a lot of the same things I heard here tonight. The first priority this year is speed and efficiency caused by the lack of bus drivers. I know you are all as shocked as I am to hear that a government government agency claims to care about speed and

096efficiency. But let me be very clear that answer is unacceptable. It reminds me of a former Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly who once insisted on filming practice during dangerously high winds because he wanted a productive practice. The graduate student that he sent up into the lift, Declan Sullivan, tragically died when it blew over. Only after his death were safety protocols finally considered. Efficiency over safety cost a young man his life. The first priority of any school district should never be efficiency. The first priority must be the safety of our children. Period. I'm not willing to wait for one of my kids to die before you stop and consider the safety ramifications of this haphazard decision. We were also told by somebody in the office that hey, kids get picked up on Menor Avenue all the

097time. That comparison is insulting. Menor Avenue is a four-lane road with shoulders, sidewalks, traffic lights, and a 35 mile per hour speed limit. Mley has none of that. On Mley, children are forced to wait in in private yards. And when winter comes, they'll have to choose between standing in a two-foot snow drift or standing on the street that has no s shoulder. But this isn't just about general safety. It's about my family. My son is hearing impaired. He has a 504 plan. The district, this district, Menor Public Schools, has a moral and legal obligation to accommodate him. Yet here you are asking him to stand in a dangerous spot where he literally may not hear a car coming. You cannot say you care about inclusion and disability rights if you are willing to gamble with

098my son's safety. We've given you a reasonable solution. One stop inside the subdivision at a central location where all the kids can gather. It would still save time compared to the old way of going down both culde-sacs in our subdivision. efficiency and safety can be achieved. If any of you board members or even the superintendent would like to join me, I'd be happy to stand with you any morning this week on Mley Road where our kids will be forced to stand this winter once the snow comes and the roads are lined with two-foot snow drifts. If you can stand there on the shoulderless road and feel comfortable and safe, then I will drop this. Until then, I ask you tonight, I plead with you, put the safety of our kids first. Put the children first.

099Fix this bus stop before something happens that none of us can take back. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Our next speaker is Katie Schulen. Good evening. I want to echo um the same thing that Mr. Washburn has brought to your attention that the bus stop for the little kids and they are little. They're kindergartener, first graders, second graders that they are standing in the grass on the side of the road with K cars flying by. And yes, you have to stand on the side of the road because you can't see the bus because there's a median to the to the left. So, they have to stand all the way out to the end of the street to be able to see if the bus is coming or not, which is just not safe. He's

100brought up that very soon, hopefully not too soon, it's going to snow and that they are going to have to choose to stand in the road because they're little. They can't stand in 2 feet of snow soaking wet getting on the bus to go to school. So, they're going to have to stand on the road with incoming traffic turning into our busy because it's the morning. People are going to work in and out, our busy street. And that's just the snow. What about when it gets dark in the morning and they're popping their heads out to see if the bus is coming? This is a problem that was created. That doesn't need to be a problem. Like he stated, the solution is to have a pickup spot in somewhere in the development where the bus

101can easily pick up everybody safely, get on the bus, and they can turn around and go on their way. It's not picking up multiple kids at multiple houses. It's just one stop that they can all safely get on the bus without being worried about getting hit by a car or soaking wet before they have to get on the bus or off the bus. And ultimately it is about safety and not efficiency. >> Thank you. Our our last speaker is Alex Fish Test. Madame President, thank you for the opportunity to address you. Two things I'd like to talk about. First is the is an echo of the last two speakers. I took the bus to and from school when I was a student at Hopkins Elementary and also concerns that the previous two speakers brought up

102when I was in elementary school. I lived off of H Road which is not far from the uh dangerous spot that the first speaker mentioned as it's also as it's a semi-ural road and my bus stop off of H Road also had some of the concerns that were brought up. And um I remember when I was in first grade was it? This is 2010. You're talking a car on a W on turning out of a side street onto H road almost hit us when we were like inches away. So and then the second topic is Mrs. Cook talking of student safety. Do you know when the is if there's any cardinal cafes in September and October on student safety? Do you know when that is Mrs. Cook? Yes, there there is a Cardinal Cafe on

103safety >> the 25th 25th. >> 25th. Thank you. >> Thank you for your responses and have a good night and go-karts and thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Heath, I I just have a short question. Um, does our bus routing software know where sidewalk where sidewalks are? And you know like some of these factors I I know morally I I live on host I it when you don't have sidewalks and the lighting's poor and things like that is definitely a factor. So does our bus routing software know these things? >> Yes. And there are some things that we can actually input based on our local knowledge of the of the roadways as well. But yeah we'll know that. >> Okay. Thank you. Mr. Keith, how how much time would it add

104if we were to do um like we heard tonight, one stop in the development? I I'm off of H as well, so I know Mley in that I have I would if I were a parent with a kid on I would feel the same way. >> So is there like >> and the Mley road stops are the ones that we're looking at most closely right now. Um the the the problem we run into right now is there are several different culde-sacs coming off of Morley that we're trying to accommodate. Um, I I like the idea of looking at, you know, a single stop within that neighborhood. That's, you know, again, that's one of the things that we're looking at trying to do. Um, our one concern right now is that that route gets in at

1058:51 and school starts at 8:55. So, we're real close and real tight on the time. Um, so if we did it for one and then try to do it for the others, it would be over the time. But that's why we're looking at some adjustments, especially at the high school level where we've got a little bit more flexibility that might allow us to bring some drivers down into the southern part of the district at the elementary level to alleviate some of those uh those timing concerns, which will allow us to spread those out. So that's the next step that we're we're considering right now and and looking through what that does to our routing. >> Mr. Heath, for the time being, wouldn't it >> I I' I'd almost consider that they were just a few

106minutes late than >> right >> then unsafe. I think it's interesting to note I'm on I share that concern because I'm on I'm a morally stop so I'm involved. Um, and when we first moved there, we were at the at the Mley stop and it was very dangerous and it ended up at the the second last day of school, I think it was, that um there was an accident with another car on the bus and my daughters were inches from being hit by a car by the car and actually our pole is still they still never fixed the pole at the end of my street and it's very dangerous. So I was very very concerned when I got my bus stop is now back to Mley after two years of safety. And you know a

107lot of these developments they develop the streets large the the culde-sacs large enough big enough so a bus can can get through. And I know we understand the safety issue but I think this is again it's not we're not doing enough if we have to scale back with our older students so that our K through five are safe. you know, they don't they don't always have that that um that understanding that to to you know, not to peek out in front, not to understand that it's cars are might slide when it's wet or when it's it's snowy and they're they're our most precious, you know, I mean, all our students need to be safe, but I think it's I think any parent would be feel better about a high schooler >> um maybe having, you

108know, had to make accommodations over our K through five until we can get this straightened out. Thank you. We will not be going into executive session this evening. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So move. >> Second. >> Mr. Wade, please call the role. >> Miss Payne, >> yes. >> Miss Chesley, >> yes. >> Misso, >> yes. >> Miss Marchazza, >> yes. >> Miss Cook, >> yes. >> Meetings adjourned at 7:30 p.m.