Mentor Board of Education Meeting February 11, 2025

001e e e good evening the February 11th 2025 regular meeting of the Menor Exempted Village board of education is called to order this meeting is being held in accordance with Section 3 313.15 of the Ohio revised code please place your mobile phones on silent mode for the meeting Mr Wade please call the role Miss Appo here miss chling present Miss marazza I'm present Miss Pay Here Miss Cook here thank you please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance iedge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all I would like to welcome everyone to the February 11th 2025 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village Board of Education prior to this evening each board member has

002received 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 District's website and the agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing this 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 who wish to address the board on any subject

003whether 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 Avail available online through the school district's website or onsite prior to the start of this meeting you will be call 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 3 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 business this is an information gathering opportunity for the

004board and administration so that we can work to best serve our 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 2 91712 and board policy 01691 any person doing any act which obstructs or interferes with the conduct or orderly progress of the board meeting we'll 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 you because we do not have any District

005highlights and recognitions on the agenda this evening we will move on to approval of minutes do I have a motion so moved second is there any discussion I had a couple um things so the first one is on the regular meeting on page n it says noting no I think that's meant to say voting no and um the only reason why I have several of these now is because we didn't have enough time to turn it around I think when we got the meeting minutes it was like we had like a day to return them so I just have a few things so page nine it says noting no I think it should be voting no um and then page 15 I just have a remark because it didn't fully capture I feel like what

006um what some of the things that were talked about in reference to the legal fees were so I just wanted to reiterate that um in that meeting I brought out brought up how the legal fees increasing doesn't really include um some of the things that I T on the agenda sorry the meeting minutes it didn't reflect the discussion that said um you know we had MTA MCE Union negotiations which aided in the fees increasing we had superintendent search and that was also aiding in the increasing of fees we had the Neola policy transition and that also increased our fees we had Title 9 changes we had board Retreats going over open meeting act um possible violations and policies that were not in alignment with the law uh such as when we had to stop our

007meeting because our policy said that there was no videotaping allowed from the public and I had suggested that we reach out to Legal we did reach out to legal at that meeting we found out our policy was not in alignment with the law which states we have to allow people to um to videotape so that was a discussion that I had at the meeting I just wanted to make sure that that was noted doesn't have to be in the meeting minutes but I know that it will be reflected in the next meeting for what I for me bringing it up now so to clarify you don't want anything changed in the minutes you just wanted to state that it it's okay if it's not I just wanted to reiterate because it wasn't fully captured um

008that it just said that our fees were increasing and it was missing that part of the the um conversation so I'm okay if the board doesn't want to include it um but I just wanted to state that since those are points that I specifically brought up so um and then I think that's what I had yeah I had a couple things just sometimes the the minutes are very specific on you know so who's you know Miss said or whatever so I just wanted to clarify on the special meeting that it did it did allude to board would prefer it said something like that and I felt like that didn't AC accurately reflect um some of our some of our views because I specifically when talking about avoiding cuts that would impact this said busing class

009sizes and requested um yeah and cl class sizes so I just wanted to and again you don't need to change it but maybe it will reflect um on these minutes that I specifically said I do not want to see cuts on Transportation class you know teachers and um extracurriculars and safety so I just want to make sure that that is stated specifically because I thought it was inaccurate to say the board members or the board and then finally the um the income tax that also it read like the entire board was presenting that idea and that was Mrs um that was um Maggie so I just wanted to make sure that that was accurately reflected thank thank you um to to that point about the cuts I know that I said that as well I

010didn't mention extracurriculars but I did say that I would prefer to keep things out of class siiz you know transportation of course we want to do as less impact to the community but I don't think that it was an inaccurate reflection I would I would just Echo what Rose said and just since we're talking about it I also did make statement um about us not you know having the students and the parents and the families directly impacted as well so um since we're talking about I just want to reiterate that as well so it sounds like maybe the whole board was talking about that it wasn't just Mrs IO or I think I mean I think we all had different suggestions I don't know I can only speak it just the way it reades it

011said the board would prefer and it to me it was like me I was like I my statements were no I do not want to even address it until you know yeah I would agree with that yeah we were I said the same thing like I don't think at all we should touch that yeah um we need to find other Cuts first and that should be a last resort and I think we have areas that we can improve before we go there so okay wasn't that the directive of the entire board so maybe the word prefer was a bad word choice on my part so we should change the word prefer sure requested I think we're all in agreement with that concept yep so we will will amend the minutes um to remove the word

012refer and make it um prioritized requested you know the board requested that we don't touch those things because that was said by multiple people okay thank you so we'll make the amendment to the regular meeting on page nine to say voting no and then on the special meeting from the 29th we'll we'll tweak the word uh prefer to request it that it's solidified that it is that was the marching orders thank you that's how I I that's how I took it not that I you were like hoping that we didn't okay good yeah I see where Mrs Appo was coming with that yeah no I I understand yeah it was it was it was it was a directive it was not a hey can you please not yeah thank you does the board have any

013other edits that they would like to see made right Mr Wade please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss aapo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5- Z next we have hearing of the public on agenda items only our first speaker is Roger juel not seeing Mr juwel our next speaker is Lindsay wall good evening Mr Heath Mr Wade president cook and board members I would like to speak about the agenda item which includes the first reading of the proposed Neola policy regarding the bathroom bill first I would like to thank our board and those who played a role in following federal law and doing what has been best for all students in our district consistently now that this new state law must be implemented I appreciate the time

014and careful consideration you have put into conversations surrounding the implementation of this law president cook as conversations began this evening about how this policy will be followed throughout our district I believe it is incredibly important to remind students and staff around the men are Exempted Village that we see you we care about you all of you While others may try to silence the few and devote a wild amount of time to hollering about someone's simple existence you do matter no policy law or un or uneducated speaker at the mic can ever change that while I find it incredibly sad that our legislators decided to focus on targeting a very small major minority of students to attack with the poorly with their poorly written vague legislation I hope those beautiful human beings know they are not

015alone I have no doubts that we collectively wish for every single student the feeling of safety inside of our schools in my opinion this bathroom policy is not going to change so I asking you to please continue your work for all students and do not let this bill provide any false sense of security if anything I fear this will only amplify the judgment and bullying we already have a significant problem with a different agenda item I would like to quickly touch on is the minutes I was unfortunately unable to attend last month but I watched and president cook I was extremely bothered that two other members on this board actually requested to vote on many pieces of updated policy because of the simplification of wording it was theatrical at best and an attempt to send

016a message well message received president cook I was saddened by your fellow board members decision to publicly display their blatant disregard for public school policy they very clearly put politics over policy and made an issue out of a non-issue what an absolute waste of time there are many wonderful opportunities throughout our community to practice to practice theatrics or take a political stand I hope your fellow board members learn to leave politics and personal bias at the door and find a new outlet for their immature theatrical demonstrations for hate and ignorance final note which is for assistant superintendent Hammond you are a rockar and so appreciated and wishing you nothing but the best please remember once a cardinal always a cardinal thank you our next speaker is Lim Mazika Madame President members of the board Mr

017Heath Mr Wade thank you for the opportunity to address you my first thought when thinking about having police in our school schs is from 64 years ago September 1961 that's the day my Atlanta Georgia high school Northside High was integrated my mother took me to school that first day and when we turned the corner and saw the school all I could see was police and National Guard shoulder Tosh shoulder surrounding the building because there were three black kids joining the student body and the police weren't sure if a riot would break out what has this to do with the agenda items you may ask well there is a memorandum of understanding between the school board and the City of Min to have a police officer in each of our school buildings it makes me sad

018to think that we need to do this to protect our G our kids but I guess it's come to that so I would like to thank the board and the administration for working this out I know it's been a long time coming coming Madam president I remember you campaigning for this four years ago and I know others on the board have worked hard to have this happen thank you for always working to make our kids safe and keep up the good work thank you for listening thank you our next speaker is Susan cednik good evening um I just had a few concerns um from the last meeting uh on January 29th um and it just it looks like maybe the priorities are not where they should be um it was mentioned that we have the

019highest teach teacher and administration salaries in the county our enrollment is down a th000 students over the past few years yet the number of Administrators is up we put money into make sport playing fields and weight rooms and con concessions but we don't have enough money for student resource officers um with the increase in administration it was talked about that you know yes we have less kids but more admin because of behavioral problems and so so my my um concern there is why aren't we really addressing this in an effective way um there's also talk about Ed choice and student retention and my suggestion is that maybe if we tackle the safety issues and address what's important this might change so I would suggest that we actually enforce the zero tolerance policy we stop Resort

020of Justice assign lengthy in school suspensions suspensions for bullying and stop encouraging gender ideology of course it would be nice to hire more SRO speaking of safety I'd like to know what the serious consequences will be for students who break school rules as it relates to the bathroom issue um this is a concern of mine because it's not just a student or a a school rule but it's a a Ohio law and so um there are rumors about that people are looking for loopholes that they're going to boys are going to be using the girls bathroom anyway and and I would just I'm hoping that the school is prepared to handle this not just as you know not something that you're just going to slap on the wrist you're breaking the law and I would

021hope that there are serious consequences thankfully our attorney general is watching over Ohio schools very closely on this issue and now we've been forced also to address the bathroom issue in our policy it's too bad though that we had to be kind of forced into that um we just didn't have the common sense to do it on our own two years ago at um my very first meeting I went to I remember Annie leading the way on this and saying look we don't should not let boys into the girls restroom um she's the only one that voted with safety and Common Sense Maggie and Jenny you both voted to have guys in the girls' bathroom and here all along if we just would have had common sense we wouldn't have had to be forced into

022writing this into policy but I am thankful for that but um I just want to say I think if we prioritize um student safety we might not be losing so many students um we have better things to spend our money on um than our wants not and we should spend on our needs thank you thank you our next speaker is Robin Lopez our next speaker is David Lima board president cook board members Mr Heath Mr Wade I along with Lynn support the memo of understanding to enter into an agreement with the city of of Mentor for the hiring and use of school safety officers it has been long in the making through the efforts of many but especially the efforts of board president Maggie cook and board member Annie Payne theou outlines the elements necessary

023for the promotion of a safe and positive learning environment where it seeks to build a positive relationship between school safety officers staff and students we all know that a positive School climate is a necessary foundation for enhancing The students's Learning Experience and academic achievement the organiz organizational structure and operational procedures as as outlined in theou clearly establishes the role of the SSO and the management of the program kudos to all who have worked tirelessly to bring this important component to life thank you thank you our next speaker is John Sanford I've been told that if I don't speak into the mic you can't hear me so I'm going to try it this way too tall for the mic setup closer a little closer all right Madam president Mr Wade members of the board Mr Heath

024I would like to express strong concerns regarding edits proposed to policy 22 60.02 single gender classes and activities these edits remove both sexual orientation and trans transgender students language from the policy changes to 22 60.02 have been lumped together with the new bathroom policy number 7421 which takes the unnecessary action of converting Senate Bill 104 into District policy the relevant portion of Senate Bill 104 simply tells us where we can pee the the proposed policy 7421 is redundant since Mr Heath and his administration are perfectly capable of ensuring compliance with the law with or without a policy to tell them to do so however since a conservative member members of the board and their supporters clearly do not trust Mr Heath and the administration to take the necessary actions well here we are however removing

025the language from 22 60.02 is not required by Senate Bill 104 the terms in fact do not appear in the bill and is nothing more than a than an effort to slip something fast by us this language is not tied to any action by the state of Ohio and is not required by any action at any level in our funding stream I therefore strongly object to the removal of this language removing sexual orientation and transgender student language from 226 0.02 is discrimination in its worst form not only does removing this language isolate a select class of students but it goes further and discriminates by trying to pretend that these students do not even exist I encourage the board to resist those who would harm a select group of students to further their own religious and

026political agenda and do not remove these words from 60.02 thank you thank you our next speaker is Linda O'Brien let me start by commenting on what was just stated what we have in our pants does not dictate if we exist or not it's what's in our head and in our hearts in the way that we carry ourselves in the intellect that we should be gaining from educational institutions such as this school 5 years ago I came here before the board for the first time asking you to please focus on Basics and get out of these crazy programs that had nothing and no place to be in public school obviously you chose not to follow those that advice your school rankings are terrible the students are leaving in floods and yet you are thinking about going

027back on the ballot from more money and as people are gaining more understanding of how their taxes are pro-rated in proportion to the educational system and your overall bad performance with these children in terms of how what they are learning or not learning is not coming together in a positive way Mentor Schools could and should do better this whole focus of gender dysphoria is exactly that dysphoria you're either a male or a female there's no other genders and that doesn't make you more important or less important nor does the color of your skin make you more important or less important but the fact is by not following common sense and keeping Boys in with boys and girls in with girls you have created an unsafe chaotic environment an environment where children are encouraged to be

028bullied and bullers because of all their focused on all their differences instead of what they can share together in a positive light now I come to you one more time and ask please use common sense you saw the results of last Fall's election 70% of our population over that want good moral ethical Basics the schools capable of it I just wish you would live up to your capabilities thank you thank you next we have the superintendent report and recommendations good evening everyone uh couple of things oh Mr Wade could you please check that who who are you I have you down for both I apologize M McCormick you are correct sorry about that thank you for letting us know tonight we have two key issues to discuss the first is the safety security officer contract

029which I'm pleased to see on the agenda for a vote Mrs pay proposed hiring retired police officers to secure our buildings back in March of 2022 and it's been nearly three years since she initiated this effort I hope the entire board will back this important initiative however I am extremely worried about Mr Heath and Mrs Cook's suggestion to potenti cut this for cost-saving purposes during last month's special meeting regarding the levy let me be clear you cannot threaten Us by removing safety measures while maintaining the highest administrative and teacher salaries in Lake County as Mrs Payne highlighted your administrative positions have increased even as enrollment has dropped by nearly a thousand students over the past 5 years Mrs Payne also identified a $2.5 million savings through a busing reduction proposal which should not have been

030her responsibility to uncover we see through your tactics and we will not be swayed by attempts to manipulate support for the levy the second topic is the bathroom policy which is now law all five of you need to support it historically Maggie cook Jenny gesling and Laura maraza have BL have backed the idea of allowing biological Boys in girls bathrooms and locker rooms prioritizing their politics over safety Annie and Rose align with the majority of sensible Americans who believe this is morally wrong in 2023 Mrs Payne and Tom tunnel proposed a resolution to oppose the extreme changes to Title 9 but Maggie and Jenny and former board president Mary Brer voted against it allowing the chaos in bathrooms and locker rooms to persist once again the state and federal officials had to intervene to enforce

031common sense and safety Maggie cook and Jenny gesling will be up for reelection in November and I believe most will vote them out due to their extreme liberal views the United States is turning to Common Sense leadership remember the majority of Voters who showed up to vote on Election Day in Menor supported Donald Trump and his platform to rid our schools of extreme liberal indoctrination and ideology we will vote down every Levy and actively campaign this time against it until this board changes to align with what the Community Values and that is the opposite of liberal ideology Maggie cook and Jenny Jing remember your votes are Vis visible and you are too liberal for Menor [Applause] the superintendent's report and recommendations good evening again everyone um couple of things that I have on my uh

032report here this evening first of all I know we've mentioned the SSO contract a little bit after about 8 or nine years of uh working with the city of Menor to expand our program of having a uniformed officer in every building uh we have finally reached that Finish Line uh tonight we have the contract on the agenda to approve the hiring of school safety officers to work in our schools one adjustment that I uh will make to that uh contract that we have on there uh is that these will be full-time positions believe in one location on the contract on the first page it says part time so that amendment is made um in the contract that we will end up voting on here this evening um this will allow us also to have a

033consistent school safety officer working a full day in our middle and elementary buildings uh this contract is set up for retired officers or those in the drop to serve in these positions so we want to make sure that that's clearly articulated as well we plan on posting the first two positions one for Memorial and one for Shore in early March with the hope of bringing the first two ssos on board right after spring break the plan will be to add two more ssos in August of 2025 two more in August of 2026 and the final two in August of 2027 to cover all of our elementary schools we will continue to partner with men around the lake Police Department to cover the off-duty time slots at Lake Elementary School 5 days a week as we

034have been doing for the last year and a half now we are very excited to have this program in place moving forward uh the other topic I uh wanted to touch on here is the adog committee that we created at the last board meeting uh just to give everybody some updates uh we held our first meeting of the student discipline ad hoc committee last week to discuss goals and next uh next steps for that group Mr Hammond Mrs Bowser Mrs Payne Mrs maraza and I reviewed the work that I had indicated we would be doing to discuss mean behavior issues in our buildings at our last board meeting we reviewed the individual student data to identify those students who have had the most Behavior incidents in each building we have reviewed each incident to determine

035the type of behavior that was being existed IED we reviewed the description of the incident that took place we reviewed the consequence that was given for each incident and then we met with each principal in each building in our district to discuss each student that had exhibited the greatest number of mean behaviors I came out of those conversations with a couple of very key takeaways one is that every principal knew every student on their list not just their name they knew the family structure the academic ability the friend group The siblings and the backstories of every student they know what motivates them what consequences are most effective for them and which people in the building that each student has as a trusted adult our administrative team is excellent in working with our students families and

036our teachers to address the needs our students have in regards to their behavior the second takeaway I had from these conversations is that the vast majority of students exhibiting the mean Behavior have experienced some form of trauma in their life they've dealt with family issues the tragic death of a loved one drug and physical abuse in the home Criminal activ activities some against that student personally or they've dealt with homelessness food insecurity and financial issues that are no fault of their own many of the stories were absolutely heartbreaking and the main coping mechanism the student has is to act out and exhibit mean Behavior toward other students and staff our administrative team has been looking closely at our student discipline practices for almost a year now to identify what can be done to solve the

037mean Behavior problem we've ramped up some of the consequences for our major offenses like fighting harassment threats and bullying this year we are using suspensions including in school restrictions that was mentioned at our last meeting and we continue to use Saturday schools after school restrictions and lunch and recess detentions to address Behavior issues in our buildings however we must also look at other interventions and supports to truly change behaviors as part of our framework for the future we are reviewing the mental health services we currently have in our district to make sure we are meeting the needs of all students and we're reviewing schedules of our Behavior Specialists to ensure we have our staff in the right locations to work with the right students our committee will be meeting again soon to discuss all of

038the uh these topics with a group of Administrators a group of students and a group of group of parents to get additional input on how to approach student discipline and mean behaviors in our district we'll be breaking down our data again both from a district and building level now to identify Trends over time and we we will be looking at our current structures and Staffing to make sure we are meeting our needs I'm going to repeat what I said last month this is not simply a school issue this is also a community issue we need to work together with our students teachers parents administrators and families to address this issue we as the adults must do better a better job of modeling in the behavior we want to see in our students we will continue

039to brainstorm ways to address the issue of mean behavior in the days and weeks ahead but this needs to start now by demonstrating how to treat people with respect and kindness at all times we all need to be better Madame President members of the board Mr wadey Craig Craig sorry since we were on the ad hoc committee we just I think we probably is it okay if we share a little bit um just because it's new so I figured people might want to hear from us sure um I just wanted to add to that that we're looking forward to this ad hoc committee we met once um I know all of us have referred some parents especially ones who have had some pretty severe bullying problems with their child um where they were you know

040the victim of of bullying or um harassment or the these meme behaviors and so I I'm looking forward to meeting with them and meeting with the principles and I know probably learn as well we're all looking forward to it and I just want to acknowledge the fact that um we know that there is an issue and like Craig did mention when I was sitting in that meeting and I was hearing a lot of the the specific situations in regards to the children and the trauma that some of them have faced it is heartbreaking and it is more than a school issue it is a societal issue um with breakdown on the family and things like that and it is heartbreaking and I think we're trying to find the balance between trying to help some of

041these children while also still having some harsh punishment because when they leave our doors they're going to still have you know encounter some natural consequences to their action so I do think the team is definitely trying to make find that balance and um we're working you know with them to provide some insight there and hopefully the hope is that we can he from different people in the in the public while we've also heard from many of you who have spoken here so it's not like we haven't had any input but the goal is not just to listen the goal is to have actionable items that we can do because we need change and we recognize that we we need change something has to change we have to do something different to make the situation better

042so I just wanted to add that because I I know that we kind of threw some things around and we did have those conversations but just so the public is aware as well I'll just add absolutely agree with what Mr Heath said about setting good examples um I think what I took away from our very first meeting uh one I think that you know we agreed that we wanted to make that distinction between the work that the board has done so far we had one work session about discipline I think that we agreed that was a good thing to continue and and that our work together is really around anti-bullying and what we're doing to really address that that issue um so I wanted to make that distinction um and I also want to just

043agree too that um what I what I think is going to need to happen is a combination of you know consequences and compassion you know these are kids as we've understood from Craig that uh need some support um so that is going to be top of mind for me um The Advisory groups are a really great opportunity for us as board members to listen um not just from parents you know we're working with parents we're also going to meet with staff and very importantly we're going to meet with students so we have an Advisory Group of students who are going to help inform our work I very much approach this as a listening experience um and we're going to meet with all these folks and take some time to learn from them and then make

044some recommendations and some uh about some actionable items that we can offer up um when the work is complete and honestly this work's probably going to continue into next year um because it is such an important issue and it's ongoing and we need to give it our care and attention the last thing I'll say is that we are working on an uh our next Cardinal C Cafe which is a community dialogue opportunity for parents community members kids whoever um that's going to happen I think in March right do we have a date for that yet or we still working on that sorry I caught you off guard but anyway while he's looking um the Cardinal Cafe is an opportunity for us to I think we're talk about safety we'll talk about um the safety officers

045that we'll have in our buildings but we're also devoting part of that to the anti-bullying uh work that we're doing so I wanted to put that on everyone's radar and do we have that date yet March 27th 6:30 so that's all I wanted to add thank you so much thank you and I appreciate your contributions to our first meeting as well I think it's going to be a good exercise for us moving forward now to the consent agenda Madame President members of the board Mr Wade have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of item 6 A1 through A4 so moved second is there any discussion I had a quick question I know we mentioned uh the part-time going finding that error and having it be full-time but I think Mr

046Heath you only mentioned that there was one and I think it was on two different um areas just so when we get there there's theou and then there's also the contract in itself I think they both reference part-time you mean the resolution and the contract got you so just to mention that when we get there that's all yeah so in the first where as on the resolution that will save full-time school safety officers we're not voting on that right now that yet yeah okay is there any more discussion Mr Wade please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss iopo yes Miss yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5 Z okay so now with those adjustments to full-time where it says part-time in the first whereas of both the contract and the resolution

047uh Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I am recommending approval of the resolution adopting a memorandum of understanding between the city of Menor and the Menor Exempted Village School District related to ssos for the district so moved second is there any discussion I just want to say I I know Mrs cook and I have um since we've been on the board we really kind of took charge of this I know we both kind of ran on that and I know we all support you know safety and and this initiative but I just want to say I think this is such a wonderful thing that we're doing and I know I had brought it up in um a few years ago when we were doing the resolution to not allow staff to carry

048and I received a little a little bit of push back for not allowing that but this was my recommendation was for the retired piece I know we had already been working on trying to staff our buildings with um officers but at that point the only place I had to refer to was Beachwood they were doing it now Riverside's doing a lot of other school districts are also hiring the retired um police officers and just to speak to why it's taken so long because when we weren't looking at the retired police officers it would have taken away from our current Workforce with the police um department for mentor and we they they don't have enough staff for us to pull and and have everybody covering our buildings um without looking into retired police officers so I'm

049really excited about this I'm so glad that we're doing it I'm hopeful that eventually in the next few years we'll have all the buildings covered and I think it's great for staff and students so thank you for everybody who's been working on it too and we'll have the kind of the roll out plan for you in the board update this week just so that you can see some of the current thinking that we have with how how that'll work okay awesome yeah I just want to Echo that sentiment it it really has been something that the entire board has been behind and I know that you know you and I have really been focused on that and and pretty relentless on making sure that it happens so I I'm glad that we've all been behind

050that I know that originally we really wanted to have our own kind of Menor police Menor Schools Police Department section and and ideally that that would be wonderful but as as you said it is hard um to find staff for police officers nowadays it's it's a career that's very demanding and there's honestly there's a shortage for police officers so um attracting police officers to Manor and to be able to have enough we did not want to take away from the city so I think that it's an excellent compromise to have retired police officers I think they're going to do an excellent job and I really wanted to take um a moment to thank U Mr Heath for all of his work with that but also for the city of Menor because um when when I

051we started here about four years ago we didn't have the greatest relationship with the city of Menor Council and they weren't really working with us and the city and that that relationship has come a long way Mr flippac uh has been very supportive of this I know this is something that he would have that he always wanted um working with Mr flic working with Chief gunch and and really all of council we needed their support to get behind this too so I definitely appreciate that and thank you for everyone that was a part of that I'm very excited about it and we will have um the next so we'll we'll vote on it tonight and then it goes to city council to vote correct okay and then that's the final say correct so we really

052appreciate them are they are they voting tonight um I don't are they have were they have a meeting tonight or is it next I think they do think they have a meeting tonight okay yeah I don't know if it's on their agenda or not I'm not sure either all right Mr Wade please call the role Miss pay yes Miss AO yes Miss jessing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I recommending approval of the college credit plus partnership memorandum of understanding with kyoga Community College so moved second any discussion missa Mr raid please call the role Miss jessing yes Miss aapo yes Miss marazza yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5- Z Madame President members of the board Mr wayam

053recommending approval of the college credit plus partnership agreement with Lakeland Community College so moved second is there any discussion please call the role Miss pay yes Miss chesing yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5- Z Madame President members of the board Mr W I am recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C4 all related to human resource matters so moved second is there any discussion please call the RO Miss Appo yes Miss jessing yes Miss maraza yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5-0 and finally uh I am reluctantly recommending approval of agenda item D related to administrative staff um I say reluctantly because uh Mr Hammond is on the agenda as uh retiring from the district uh Mike morowski our

054assistant principal at Memorial Middle School is also on the agenda um I feel very very fortunate to have worked with you Tim and I appreciate all of your support over my tenure here um we're definitely going to miss you next year do I have a motion if none of us moves to approve that I asked Mr Hammond maybe we can't get enough votes to let him go and Mr morowski is also an extraordinary educator who's contributed so much um You' never imagined that he was a recent hire in in our district and so I'm I'm beyond grateful for both of their wonderful years of service to this community but I'll say so moved reluctant second any discussion I just I was teasing Mr morowski the other day when I was at Memorial just I said

055yeah we have you on the agenda so we're going to keep you for another few few more years but I I think that you know Manor schools is better for for having both of these administrators on and thank you thank you very much Mr W please call the role Miss JN yes Miss maraza yes Miss aapo yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5 Z this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you Mr Heath I had one question that's somewhat related to that as we have two administrators retiring and we've been discussing looking at administrative positions looking at Cost saving measures does this give us an opportunity to review at all our administrative structure you know with consideration for cost-saving measures and I if so I'd like you to just take a

056look at similar districts and see how their Administration is structured and and see if if this would be an opportunity for us to maybe restructure to to save some money yeah yeah it's definitely something we'll have to take a close look at um you know Tim brings a a very unique skill set to that position um we've had him overseeing all of our principles K8 um depending on uh what direction we might look to go and the person that would be coming into that position they may have a completely different skill set um so I I think this does give us an opportunity to look at what our current structure is um how we might approach things differently um again I've been fortunate enough to work in some pretty high performing districts and and looking

057at how we're structured in those districts compared to Menor may be something that we can uh we can study as well I think the other thing we'll do uh is look closely at some of those uh cohort districts that we have here in the state um the state every year puts together 20 uh districts that are most like mentor and we can take a look at that um structure from some of those uh organizations and see how we might shift things around to make uh make our administrative team more efficient and effective thank you I think we'd all appreciate that if you could pass any recommendations along to us on and you know if if our structure is what's working then that's fine too but thank you right we now have um our first item

058under board business it's the reappointment of the citizens Financial advisory members for 2025 do I have a motion so moov second is there any discussion I just wanted to say what an extraordinary job those citizens provide or do I should say um for our district so for the last 20 years we've had a team of people whose work in the community gives them a special expertise in finance in business so that their perspective helps to inform what Mr Wade does what Mr um well Mr Heath does they're they're offering another outside of Education perspective that I think is incredibly valuable because it as Educators sometimes we get into that very narrow look that's familiar but they're taking a more Global Perspective and it's so important I know Mr Wilson was the the impetus behind forming

059that committee to help Dr hins as they dug out from the financial problems of 2004 and they've just been an indispensable part and as board members they've provided us with that very important oversight perspective because that is generally not an area of expertise for us so I'm just grateful for them and and glad that they're going to continue serving their expertise is very valuable and it is an open meeting so anyone could come and watch if they want wanted to see you know what information they're sharing and questions they're posing it is great oversight for us um and there was discussion at the last meeting that we might have a work session with the entire board and our financial um advisory committee so I think that that would be valuable for us to be able

060to brainstorm with people with that kind of expertise y all right um did we have a motion in the second okay please call the role Miss Payne yes Miss JN yes Miss aapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z next we have a first reading of the Menor Board of Education Neola policies and because this is a first reading no vote is necessary I'll go ahead and get us started with this um just so that everybody knows uh where the language is coming from and how this all came about um I've actually spoken to our uh to attorneys uh gathered in information from the Neola templates and participated in webinars through Bassa which is the state superintendent organization and our legislative experts from the alliance for high quality education of which

061Menor is a part of uh regarding some of the new laws coming out of the lame duck session at the State House in December the language that is included in the three policies we have in front of us today takes the advice of all those organizations together regarding the current state of the law based on the bathroom bill um I I will say that my job as a superintendent as it relates to board policy is to to number one make sure we're following the law number two attempting to keep us from being sued and and third to protect our district from any Financial considerations that may be attached to policy considerations you know whether that's increased legal fees from lawsuits or the withholding of funds from one of our funds sources the the language as

062it is presented hits those three [Applause] criteria is there any discussion Are We There was we're talking about the first ones here the um the 2260 the single single gender classes and then the bathrooms and is this going to just stay as a first reading so I know there was some talk about it being like an emergency vote so yeah that'll be up to the the members of the board here tonight if uh we want to do this as an emergency we can certainly do that um if not it looks like um the this second meeting here in February is going to be on the 25th we could always do a second reading and approval at that point in time so is that a motion no um I'm I want let's say can we have

063discussion discuss on it on it first well we need a motion to have discussion so you could the first reading we're let it yes yeah so right now we're at we're in first reading would you like to have discussion on it so leave it at first reading and then we're voting on it I guess based on my discussion you know it's depending on it'll depend on that if we if we want to go um I so a couple things um on the single gender area um this this doesn't have lot to do with this my question is just do given this new language um do we need to relook I know that we had some issues with the um changing the choir to a certain name is this policy if adopted going to alter that

064and can we go back to the old schooled fashion Girls Choir Boys Choir is that something or is that something that we need to do now because of this no I don't think it would impact anything the way things are structured currently um I think everything is kind of a gender neutral uh choir at this point so uh it shouldn't have any impact on on the names at this point and obviously that'll be something that we'll look into just to make sure um you know because you got four different uh categories there with the the contact Sports and physical education classes the the ability grouping and PE classes the human sexuality and then the courses so we'll take a look at all four of those um once this would pass okay um my only you

065know I don't know how everybody else feels about just pushing this through you know obviously I think it goes in effect on the 24th in our meeting our next meeting will be the 25th so I don't I don't know what if something changed with the original thought that we should make it an emergency but um just to just touch on some of the concerns that I had I feel like the language as it is I mean there's a the beginning part of the bathroom um language is aliance with you know state law but there was some extra the the the portion I have an issue with is the the uh violations portion at the bottom where um I don't know if everybody's looking at it the um all the way at the bottom I just

066feel like it's very weak policy and it's the the the last couple paragraphs verus violations of this policy I don't know that that's strong enough and I I just have some concerned I mean I don't know what everybody's thoughts are on that it sounds to me and it reads like um it's okay if you use the the wrong restroom and you leave and you don't leave will if you willingly use it and you leave if an administrator asks you to leave then you are not going to be um held at any kind of discipline disciplinary action so I just feel like maybe we have to strike out um some of that language just so it holds a little bit more to be it's a little more stri does anybody else I would agree con with

067that yeah I would I would support that motion if you're motioning to strike through yeah that language just because it doesn't um and just so the public is aware of what we're talking about there's three paragraphs at the end that are violations of this policy and it states any student and then it goes into any employee then any other person so they all read very similarly any student who willfully enters a multi- occupancy facility designated for the use by the opposite biological sex for a purpose other than what is considered permissible uh pursuant to this policy and refuses to leave when asked to do so by school Personnel that's what I would like to strike through as well um is subject to discipline in accordance with the student code of conduct and I'd like to

068strike it through for all three of those um the reason behind why I also agree with uh Mrs aapo suggestion on this is because we're not Staffing the bathrooms with school Personnel um we're not Staffing the employee bathrooms with administrators and it's it just reads like you can continue using them if you want and but if you're caught then you have to not refuse to leave as long as you refuse to leave there'll be no discipline and I think that's that part is weak in the policy and I'd like to strengthen that by striking that through um the rest of it I think is pretty self-explanatory um and I know that I talked to Mr Heath about this today and uh I know there was conversations with legal surrounding this and that portion the violations

069of this policy is actually not derived from the um orc so we have the ability to change that portion that's just Neola with their recommendation which is not based on the Ohio Revis code so we have the ability to do that um Rose if you're motioning I'll second it or yeah yeah I mean I'll motion to strike through that and thank you for articulating that had a hard time getting that out um can we continue to have discussion on that are are you okay with that so what what would we have for violations of this policy that would align with the Ohio Revised Code what what does the Ohio Revised Code say what would the violation be if we were aligning to the Ohio Revise Code so Ohio rise code doesn't exactly State what the

070violations are so that's up to us to implement um so this verbiage is strictly coming from Neola they're just like I talked to Mr Heath today and he's like I don't know why they really put it in there but this is their recommendation it's not backed by Ohio Revised Code because the the law is boys can't enter girls bathrooms or locker rooms anymore and vice versa so um some bi sex if someone violates the law because it's it will be a law on February 24th so what is the penalty by law I don't I don't know that I mean I just a point of clarification though that's the the law says it it's the schools who that have the law is about the schools not about the kids if that makes sense right so I

071actually have it up but um what what the law says is that the schools must designate bathrooms and enforce the rules so I just wanted to wanted to be really clear about that and no there is there is nothing there are no penalties on the books Revised Code or in this law about uh what will happen to students who don't follow our rules I mean that kind of goes beyond what the orc is really about but um and then I also had a question before we go any further uh just for for clarification for myself if we alter Neola the policy that Neola gives us um is it is it something that Neola attorneys will be willing to defend it depends on what the policy is but uh if we change something significant um they

072may have an issue with that that's something we can get some clarification from them if we were to eliminate um any language from theirs okay but we did have um our attorney look over it and had that conversation with him um I know Craig had it this morning so as well so that was ran by our not Neola attorney our our district attorney um so of the reasons uh sorry that's one of the reasons we've looked at several different groups in regards to this this is going to be a very complex issue no matter what happens um and there there are a variety of different interpretations as you go around the state and sitting in on the Bassa webinar just the other day which you know talked about some of this but also talked about

073some of the house bill 8 pieces because that'll be the next set of policies that we're looking through um there's an awful lot to consider with those as well and and making sure that we have the correct um policy language in place will be very important to us as we move forward um I think the other part with this too that we need to ultimately identify which we have not brought the uh administrative guideline language to the um to the administrative team yet until we get the policy passed um but that'll be the next step is okay now now that we have a policy what's the administrative guideline for this going to be uh we've had some initial conversations with our principles here today just saying you know we we've got the designations for the

074restroom facilities that are single occupancy that are available to any student that uh wishes to in uh have that accommodation um but when we have a violation we need to make sure that we're we're ready to go with this as well and um again as we've been saying for the last couple of months the the the code of conduct piece that we'll be focusing on will be the in subordination one and then we'll work through our disciplinary consequences with our uh administrative team to figure out how we enforce this policy as we go forward I have a couple questions well first just because it seems like you're you know we kind of want to see where everybody stands I I'm ready to support this policy as written today I I would I would wholeheartedly voted

075in 7421 um I'm I'm fine with voting it putting it in I I do wanted to ask for a couple points of clarification one this go this would not go into effect now because it's our policy because it would because the law isn't to in effect is that correct and then we would possibly be so the law goes into the law goes into effect on the 25th um we've been saying that we will be in compliance by the 24th um so that's like the day before the law would would begin um if we pass a policy obviously we're going to be looking at uh the implementation of this on the 24th we still have some uh communication pieces that we're going to need to send out to parents in regards to this um just to

076make sure that everybody is aware that the accommodation of the single occupancy facilities is available to any student that wishes to use those um and then uh our plan right now is to try and get that communication out next week uh since we would be implementing the following week because it it seems like there's some confusion I know some of the speakers mentioned an earlier what they called a vote and you know current case law allows people to use the bathroom of their chosen gender so when we had a proposal by Mrs Payne a couple years ago and we said no to it it was because we would have given up possible millions of dollars for our school and federal funding and violated civil rights and that would still stand today until this Law changes

077which which is February 25th so it I'm fine with this this is the law this will be the law now I'm fine with enacting this policy but I just want to make sure that we're not enacting it before the law goes into effect and then put ourselves up for Jeopardy with a lawsuit so and that would be part of our communication Mr he can you um sorry were you done Mrs cook I don't want to interrupt um well I just had one other question so my other question is when it says accommodations for special circumstances the board May provide accommodations at the request of a student due to special circumstances so the single stall facilities that were designating will that be open to all students or only students who have gone for whatever special circumstance

078they have for prior approval it's open to all students thank you I had something on the accommodations um do we need to and and I hope I'm not jumping ahead but just because you mentioned that um first of all the the we haven't we've had students that in the past are allowed to use the single stall restrooms that's actually what they were told to do if they were uncomfortable with the open bathroom so and we didn't have they didn't have to officially ask for special accommodations is that correct correct okay um if we do have a student who feels like they want to ask for that do we need because of house bill8 do we need to make sure we we're notifying parents that that is a request they made uh that that'll be a

079good question we'll have to look into that obviously House Bill 8 isn't enforced yet that's going to be later on this summer but um that that will be a question that we can get clarified I had um a couple more points and I'm just going to piggy back off of Mrs cook because I know speakers do bring bring up that resolution the resolution was to match the State Board of education's resolution to support parental rights and push against title n changes to allow proposed changes to they weren't actually changed to allow um males to use the facilities of the female facilities in the locker rooms so yeah I did propose that resolution a couple years ago with Tom tuttle's support and it did fail three to 3 to2 um but just to clarify I know

080there were points made from Mrs cook and a couple other folks like what she had just mentioned but also there was never any any federal funding that has been taken away in like 50 years from any schools so um that it really you know that really didn't put us in Jeopardy of that also I know we have executive orders right now that state you know and kind of back up this um bathroom policy that that we're looking at today and the um house bill that passed in regards to it so I would be okay voting on it tonight but I do believe we have a motion on the floor in a second so I think we do need to vote on the amendment to strike through that verbiage in the policy yeah I just only

081because I think that the way it reads and if anybody app parent student anybody was looking at that it reads as if as long as that student staff member or other person because it's in three sections leaves when asked then there's no disciplinary action so it kind of eludes like an and again you talked about the loophole I feel like that's not that's makes it weak so if we strike that out then I think you know we could I I would be in favor of adding something like how we about disciplinary action um similar to like our tobacco policy that lists in the policy enforcement but if that whether that's something everybody agrees on I think either way striking that um that language to make it a little stronger of a policies and can we

082just go over what how it would read um so if we struck through that it would just say any student who willfully enters a multi-occupancy facility designated for the use by the opposite biological sex for a purpose other than what is considered permissible pursuant to this policy is subject to discipline in accordance with the student code of conduct I think that sounds a lot more enforcable a lot um I think it's just a better stronger policy uh and allows us to actually Implement discipline if need be so if there's a child who's in the bathroom we're not going to have the bathroom staffed we know that like we're not going to have I asked Mr Heath this morning he said we're not that so um we know that that's not going to happen so what

083if you know there's a student in there that does know that there's a biological boy entering her bathroom and afterward she tells the teacher well obviously that other kid's going to be out of there by then and so now according to the policy we can't do anything because we're not the only thing we can do is ask them to leave and if they leave then no discipline is happening and I think that's weak policy so I I see your point I do and and I am not saying that I disagree with you I just would it sounds like you had a conversation maybe with legal that we weren't privy to about that phrase yeah and so did Mr Heath as well so so because we really can't discuss that with attorney client privilege at the

084table I feel like I would like to be I could for you the email can I forward an email from from earlier today because I recap exactly what I our conversation was and then he wrote back and said he went over everything with Mr Heath so you could see what our conversation was if you'd like I I do want to have all that information before I vote to take out language that a legal team wrote for us Mr but I I see your point could you confirm that that portion of the um and that there was a discussion with legal in reference to taking that out yeah we had had a conversation today just to talk through all the different as aspects of the uh language that we have in here um that included all

085three of the policies and um he did indicate that there was a conversation around the phrase and refuses to leave when asked to do so by school Personnel in each of those last three paragraphs thank you so do we are we ready to vote on that can you talk about um oh I I guess I I want to see the email oh yeah here am I able to I just want to make sure that that's yeah it's still protected okay um can I guess from a disciplinary perspective it feels um a bit intrusive in terms of what we're um I don't know it just it feels like we're getting into administrative work so I know that we should stick with policy and um I I don't know could you talk about I guess what what

086um administrators typically do for any sort of insubordination how would they handle an action of insubordination in general uh it depends on what the entire incident is obviously um you know there are things where just failure to comply with a reasonable request could be you know as simple as a warning um but when we're dealing with something that's a little uh a little bit more advanced than we're we're probably dealing with with you know after school restrictions and Saturday schools all the way up to out of school suspensions oh I'm sorry let me U rephrase maybe um could you describe like what happens when a student um breaks a rule in general just any any similar sort of ins subordinative act does that make sense so like what what would normally happen if you caught

087let's let's take the cell phone policy for example right a student's breaking the rules um they've got their phone out they're on on their phone in the classroom how does that normally how would a an administr a staff member handle that uh typically they're going to write up the disciplinary referral the unit principal at the high school an assistant principal at the middle school or the principal at the elementary school would bring that student down talk through the incident what happened uh what was going on um you know where you know just the typical investigation where did it happen you know who are you talking to who else was there uh they'll talk to the individual teacher if additional information is needed and then they'll determine what discipline to to enact in that situation so

088if they they wouldn't start by saying you know you know what the rules are put it away that they wouldn't go that route it would go straight to disciplinary action yeah when we're dealing with something like that it would be the disciplinary referral process which would more than likely lead to some sort of consequence got thank you I think to in subordination is typically with um if you're violating policy or def you know if you're being disrespectful when it's a law it's it's it's not again the law is not for the student it's for the schools right but it's still a law that we have to comply with so it's not the same as you don't have your cell phone out oh you put your you know put your cell phone it's kind of apples

089and oranges I don't know that I agree but I appreciate your input yeah I would agree with rose on that I think that the fact that it's so it was talked so much at the state level and now we know that there's also an executive order to up uphold it um from you know the the presidential orders I I think it would be wise for us to match the strength of our policy with the verbiage that we're seeing happen at the you know the federal level and and the state level and I think this is just too big of a loophole I know we have people in the community who have already tried to Rally other people to use loopholes like this in our system um and I just think it's not safe and um

090we're also just unless we're going to staff every bathroom if we're going to staff the bathrooms fine but um I don't support that spending extra money for that and I don't I think that that's an unwise decision so it'd be easy to just strike that through um and take it from there I do think there needs to be harsher punishment because it is it is a law that we have to abide by and I know attorney general um yast has already issued some pretty you know heavy verbage on schools adhering strictly to this um so I think it would be a wise decision to do that um I have a question for Mr Heath so Mr Heath when you you were privy to this conversation and you didn't make a change so is it still

091your recommendation to keep it in uh I don't really have an opinion one way or the other quite honest um I don't think it if if it's included that's fine we're still going to be going through the insubordination process with this type of situation and if somebody reports that somebody is in the wrong bathroom then that's something that we're going to have to investigate and we've got security cameras we can see who goes in and out we can verify if someone was in there uh and was not supposed to be and we're dealing with the insubordination at that point so if it's included or not included it would still be the same procedure so if we take it out you would also still be going through the same process yeah probably at this point so

092probably isn't for sure and that makes me nervous because I think that we write policy right so that administrative guidelines can be created later and then we have the process but if our policy leaves our policy is the end all be all so if a student is investigated because another kid said that this kid was in the bathroom they're going to point to our policy and say you can't do anything about it because your policy says unless I'm asked to leave by school personnel and I refuse to leave you can't do anything about it and that's the kind of conversation that's going to be [Applause] had that's why I think our administrative guidelines would have to be very clear in that too but the administrative guidelines are are to support the policy it can't override

093the policy so it it can never be unbalanced you know they all have to match and I don't think an admin guideline would match if we put one thing in the admin guideline but here we're saying it wouldn't match okay so if we could just I know we have a motion has everyone been able to do we need to would does anyone like a recess to just look through this email have you had a chance am I missing something I'm not seeing that it says much of anything it's just says I talked to Craig I'm sorry I'm not I don't see anything read my email oh your point of view oh okay no that's that's the email I sent to him first to recap my conversation gotcha and then he said he explained everything gotcha

094thank you if if anyone would like to go into executive session and discuss more we can do that as well I just we could do that as an option I just want to make sure that everybody has all the information so if you can read it and understand we can move on and if not then let me know if you'd like to what is the proposed motion what are we voting on so the proposed motion is to strike if you see Mrs Payne's email that she just sent us she has struck outwards in blue under the violations of this policy and Mrs IO proposed that we it was it was Mrs Right and you seconded Annie is that right yes okay um taking out the words and refuses to leave when asked to do so

095by school Personnel in the last three paragraphs it's written there three times so it I think that Mr Heath's point the administrative guidelines will be very specific and I don't doubt that the disciplinary action will be held but if a parent is looking at this to say let me see what you know I think it's confusing to parent and they don't see administrative guidelines so that's that's one of my concerns wouldn't they see us something in the student handbook I mean I would assume we're going to um this will trickle down into other codes of conduct handbooks Etc right there were a lot of conversations about that during the webinars and uh a lot of the guidance right now is that there should probably be language in a handbook in addition to the administrative guidelines

096um and again it everyone will be able to see the administrative guidelines too because they're in that manual that's right below the policy manual on the website too and I just speaking as a parent I the first thing I would go to is the student handbook so that's really important that we're going to have to have consistent language I do want to say administrative guidelines I don't know that they should match as much as they should support and um kind of flesh out how to enforce the policy so I just want to you know make that clarification um I I don't know I I don't feel that it's necessary to remove it so that's kind of where I'm at at this point I you know I prefer to use the Neola language when it comes

097over as is just because then I know we're double sure that you know neol attorneys find it defendable our attorney finds it defendable I just feel a little more comfortable um with that approach instead so that's where I'm at did Neola or our attorney specify why that phrase is in there that requires confrontation between an administrator and the individual who's violating the law yeah we haven't had an opportunity to ask them that question yet I just found out about this uh language this morning would we be better off to get an answer to that is like it doesn't make any sense to me why that's included so I'd like to you know be strike it or leave it I'd like to understand why it was ever put in there because it I agree with with

098you Mrs Payne it's a very it weakens and seems like a an unnecessary hurdle in the policy so if we get a clarification on that then we can vote at the second reading rather than vote on this now I think we have the clarification that's needed that that whole section is not Ohio Revised Code so we get to do with it as we please because we're deciding what the violations what consequence is going to be associated with the violation so I see what you're saying um but I I know that that section is not derived from Ohio Revised Code so it's going to be up to us regardless but why did Neola put it in there like violations in the first place at all oh yeah no just that section maybe maybe some schools have

099do they all have um monitors in the bathrooms and that was I'd be surprised only because who's got Personnel to do that but I mean if if we don't need this section at all we could leave that off and put it all in administrative guidelines or get a clarification as to why they added that phrase what possible rationale there is and then vote for the second reading to pass the policy so I know um and correct me if I'm wrong Mr Heath in Yolo's update they did say you must you must pass this policy um in their their update because I looked at it and it said this is a policy you must pass by the 25th um so I would I I think you know I understand what you're saying but we do have

100a motion on the table I do feel like we should vote on it I think we're we don't need that extra piece from niola to know what we all think is what we can do um I know niola has done things in the past that I've disagreed with rose has disagreed with with their verbiage to you know get rid of the policy language of his and her which shows a certain bias in it self so I think that as a board we just need to decide um and we did talk to Legal so we do have you know that conversation was already had so I mean I'm seeing your email here and it's you're saying this is this is what I think and he says nothing he doesn't he's trying to say I mean he

101doesn't agree with you he say I told him the same thing I told you like yes so without hearing that piece like I don't can you ask Craig because he had the conversation with him this morning as well and is is what I put in there the what he said to you I don't know do I have the email to yeah I sent it to you okay oh there it is but your question doesn't say why did they put this in and that's what we want to know why like why did they feel like it's odd language why did they feel that that does that protect us does it protect the district in some way against a lawsuit like I just don't I don't understand it quite honestly I I'm with you I don't understand

102the language but I don't feel like the need to rush through a first reading and and also did Neola say we have to pass this because I was under the understanding that we don't even have to have a policy but we as a board decided we wanted to have I could show you where they said that if You' like they may have but it is because it is not required by law to have a policy we on this specific bill or law will now law um there are other districts nearby will it East Lake um North Royalton Cleveland Heights these I and I've checked with them they have no plans to uh put a policy into place right now none well North Royal and they weren't even told that they that niola was saying that

103so cuz I have a member over there that I other districts have been told and they're not ready to do that yet either and in fact they it's not that they don't they won't ever do it but at this time they they have nothing ready to go on February 24th um in fact they you know they might meet with their Neola reps in March or something and and then develop something but I just I just want to point that out that it is not required for us to have it on that exact date we have we have to abide the law not let's get back to well I do think that's an interesting point though because they do have we're saying on one hand we should follow what Neola says and on the other hand

104we're saying well we don't really need a policy even though they're saying we need a policy I'm just saying that we have some flexibility in terms of the timing well wait but the recommendation on the board up was we need to pass an emergency so is well I that was never said at this table but it was set in a board update though correct that that we may have it as an emergency we could do it as an emergency so it wasn't at the table but it was in board update that we could that we could but we didn't decide that as a group that we were passing it through emergency and I mean to be fair I'm fine with passing it through an emergency as it sits today it's just now we have this

105different thing thrown at us and I'd like to get like a little bit of legal background I thinka our board wants a policy our board has decided that we want a policy we don't have to have a policy but we we have said we want a policy and I think we were ready to kind of move forward well we want I want a strong policy you know we want we don't want it to be weak and I just I think this is very confusing yeah it's very confusing to parents it's confusing to students and you know it's We Know by that email I mean that that's that that's this is not something that's going to hurt us to not have it in there it's not Hur it's not going to help us to keep it

106in we can always come back later and if that's if Neola has some major reason why it's in there um I think that they would have given us a major reason I think that's what they do is they make recommendations and so just based on that I think it's it's if we just remove that that portion I think it's strong enough and and we can move on just to clarify so Mr Heath you you don't you don't have a recommendation either way and you would handle it the same way for discipline yeah I we would more than likely handle it the same way no matter what that policy says because we're going to develop those administrative guidelines to make sure we're hitting the intent of the law which is to make sure that the the

107people of the opposite biological sex are not in the male or female restrooms so you would handle it the same way and you don't care if that phrase is in or out again if if it's out it it's a little bit more direct if it's in there there it opens up for more flexibility but again I think from an administrative guideline standpoint I know where we're sitting and I know what the intent is so we're going to make sure that we're following through and the disciplinary pieces to that do you appreciate the flexibility or does it not matter to you well one of the things that a lot of attorneys will share with you is that less is more when it comes to policy um that's the reason some other things have been stricken through

108as well when things get redundant or uh too wordy often times there's confusion um so I would also air on the side of less is more okay then I think I'm ready to vote thank you um so we have a motion on the table um in a second to strike these words is there any more discussion on just striking those words I just had one question for Mr Heath um if it let's say it the amendment gets shot down and we pass the policy as is with that verbage in there in the scenario that a student does report another student and they get investigated and the parent looks at our policy could that be a potential issue if they say our policy says they will only get in trouble if they're asked to leave and

109they don't leave again it's possible and there's not as much risk than the other way if we take that verbiage out of there and leave it as you know with not without the refuses to leave when asked and just that would give us in my my more flexibility to investigate situations that are reported by students um and see if the disciplinary is you know appropriate yeah that that can be something that again we can clarify in the administrative guidelines and also in the communication with our families as well um again if they're in if they're in the wrong restroom then there's a violation of the policy okay is everyone ready to vote Yes okay so we have a a first and a second is we are voting on removing the words three to the three

110different in three different the final three paragraphs the words and refuses to leave when asked to do so by school Personnel yeah School Personnel than the other ones by administrative administrative refuses to leave you know by blank administrative Personnel yeah okay Mr wait please call the role misso yes Miss Payne yes uh Miss chesing yes Miss Cook yes Miss maraza yes okay so now we have we have the word we have the the policy um there was discussion about moving it to an emergency is that I would support it so we do have three different policies in front of us today 22602 2340 and 7421 because we're already talking about 7421 would we like to stay on that one sure okay so do I have um let me look at my notes all right so

111if we want to go by emergency we need to vote to suspend um our bylaw 0131 to allow for the passage of a policy under emergency Provisions so if I can have a motion to I motion to suspend bylaw 0131 to allow for the passage of a policy policy 7421 under emergency Provisions I'll second that motion okay any discussion please call the role Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Miss I uplo yes Miss chesing yes Miss maraza yes so we have passed a motion to suspend 0131 okay so now we have a motion to vote on policy 7421 so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss aapo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes okay we're now going to move on to let's go back up to

112the top we have a motion to do I have a motion to suspend bylaw 0131 to allow for the passage of 2 2 60.02 under emergency Provisions so moved second any discussion please call the rooll Miss pay yes misso yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza we're voting on 22602 we're just V for the Emergency yeah vot it emergency Miss P cook yes okay do I have a motion to vote on 22 60.02 single gender classes and activities so moov second any discussion so on this one this is a policy that already exists it does and so we're just striking portions of it but in otherwise there's nothing change other than the portions that are well the general requirements and overview in green are different than our current policy those are brand new brand new language

113based on the bathroom Bill components so everything that's highlighted in green is the new language so in the policy 22602 as it exists now it does not not have the general requirements and overview language correct the requirements it does have are would cover these things though or would they not again the policy is much more General I this got into more of the specifics with the fizzed classes and the uh human sexuality classes and the chuses but uh those are the only additions that that are in there that just make it more specific is there a reason that it's needed to be this specific in our current course catalog probably not thank you so any more discussion do you have any concerns with how the new language no as I read through the the those

114General requirements and there's nothing that's concerning there's not really anything that applies to us currently so we should be fine we'll we'll dig into our course catalog a little bit more specifically just to ensure that though and did I hear you earlier say that the choruses that were established previous viously are going to be able to continue yeah the course that that we currently have set up is still um still appropriate at this point okay I think what Miss Sao was referring to earlier because I I only Rec remember that because I did vote no on that change it was my very first board meeting um and I think what you were referencing was the the change that we had for our men's and women's choir uh the reason that they changed the names from

115men and women to more gender neutral names was to accommodate those um that were biologically women but identifying as men in the women's choir and that was a change that was recommended by Ohio Music Association so I do remember voting no on that change um so I think your question was like the fact that we did that are we I know at that point when that change was made we didn't have any students that were actually uh biological female on the biologically male choir or vice versa so it was simply a more of a yeah um so now we're just doing it based on vocal range so but we don't have do we have any biological females on the men's well not it's not called Men's Choir anymore because we didn't at that point it

116was just to align with Oma um and their suggestion to be more gender neutral and gender inclusive yeah and I think that's why our course is gender neutral in nature now so it's kind of a mood point so we should that's why it really doesn't apply yeah that's why it really shouldn't apply to us okay Mr Heath what um I'm looking at the law now I am having trouble linking up what is under the general requirements with what is found in the law so I guess where I'm struggling with this one is why is this necessary you see what I'm saying yeah I just I don't know this seems um you're saying it doesn't even early apply to what's in our in our books anyway it's I don't know it seems like we could probably

117go with what we have currently um and and leave it as is in my opinion and less is more as you said they do have um so under the policy update for the volume 43 January 2025 Ohio policy update for niola their verbiage as to why says this optional policy is revised uh to provide additional guidance for implementation and to include clarification suggested by the office for civil rights uh if the district has opted to include this policy the revisions should be adopted to maintain current in compliant uh policy so it says if we have this policy already we should change it to be compliant based on the clarification suggested by the office for civil rights H I don't know it seems over the top to me I'm just saying that's what neol provided and

118again that's the reason we included that sure sure there there's some wording struck in this one that go on that wasn't originally struck when we saw this the first time um and that was not a Neola driven correct correction can you talk about why that was done yeah so based on some of the conversations in our webinars with Bassa and the the alliance um and in conversations with legal councel um because the the policy language reads equal educational opportunities are available to all students regardless of sex a student sexual orientation and gender identity are still protected under the definitions of the 2020 Title 9 regulations and then the bosck vers Clayton County Supreme Court case of 2020 so if they're still protected why are we Crossing it out cuz they're protected by the word sex

119being in there so it's redundant yes and is it also because we don't know um with the executive orders I I know that was kind of a conversation I had too the executive orders could change that definition of sex so if we leave it with the definition of just sex if that definition changes then we don't have to go back and change the policy and that's where the the withholding of federal funds comes into play and so you're trying to protect us by ensuring that we're not putting language in there that could down the road if an executive order passes through or what not makes it where we could get the federal funding taken away so then I'd like to suggest since um first of all the executive orders some some of them have been

120we've seen a lot of lawsuits flying around over the last two weeks so could be changing you know things seem to be changing at a very rapid Pace I think we could all agree um perhaps it's not a bad idea to remove the entire sentence so the equal education opportunities are available to also in listing them all out and um and just remove it and and we or we could just leave it available to all students except as authorized by law of course for age restrictions um so equal so you're suggesting that equal educational opportunities are available to all students period we could do that uh we could also just remove the entire second sentence have you ran this by legal at all well no of course not I don't usually reach out to legal

121but um this is a first reading so we did you know we could take some time to dig into this a little bit more um to understand our options and to ensure that we're following the law didn't don't we agree didn't we just vote to we did true true well then I can't yeah I'm just I guess not ready to vote on this then I would have my vote would be a no okay it's fair enough yeah is there any more discussion all right please call the role Miss pay yes Miss aapo yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza no Miss Cook [Music] no motion carries [Applause] 32 okay so we now [Music] have the third the third one I know we're out of order oh that's right 2340 field and other District sponsored trips um

122do I have a motion to suspend bylaw 0131 to allow for the passage of policy under emergency Provisions what policy was that again 2340 field and other District sponsored trips thank you so move second any discussion please call the rooll Miss Payne yes Miss iapo yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes do I have a motion um to to vote on policy 2340 so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss pay yes Miss aapo yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z okay the last item under business is a second reading and approval of Menor Board of Education Neola policies and let's see let me get to this one are we voting on these all together today or are we separating is this just

123the bylaw because there's two documents can we do the bylaws first there's just like those are just yes couple changes I think those were came out of our organizational meeting one of them I'm sorry I lost my page here give me a [Applause] second so are we going to vote on the bylaws all together is one at a time just I was just there's the other there's three documents and well two the bylaws and then there's the fall 2024 can we just do the bylaws first can we do the bylaws all in a group or would you like to separate them there's only two on this document right so I can on the one document there's only two so there's 0 100 and then 01 0154 can we just do those ones first sure as

124a group as a group yeah as a group okay so we are voting on second reading for both bylaws which is 0100 um which is definitions and 0154 which is motions do I have motion so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss pay yes Miss aapo yes Miss jessing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes those two motions carry 5 okay we are now the second reading of our policies um should we go individually with these is there any that you want to pull out or would you like them all together there's a lot maybe we should just do all together because I don't know you know like last all together so we have zero I'm sorry not all together separately individually yeah individually sorry okay um 0151 organizational meeting so I have

125a motion so move second any discussion please call the role Miss AO yes Miss Cook yes Miss chesing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Payne yes motion carries 5 policy 0152 regarding officers do I have a motion so moved second any discussion I had a quick question on this one um so if we go this one is merging 0173 I believe with yeah yes um and if you go down to 0173 where it's struck out in and it's pink red I don't know um and B it says the vice president shall assume and discharge the duties of the president in his or her absence disability or disqualification but then when it's up in the top um his and her is removed again but it's not removed in the rest of the document anywhere else so I

126didn't know if that was an error that we meant to keep that in or if there was a reason why we were removing that one but not the rest in the document no it's just that's just the way that was written okay because I noticed that you know the the rest of the document there's many his and hers so um are you looking at 0 52 01 5 2 yeah under B so it's just weird that it wasn't pointed out because typically they Point those out to us oh than see so 0152 you're looking at the struck out language that says his and her um I'm looking at 0152 B but I'm looking at 0173 which is now going to be 0152 and 0173 they didn't carry over the his and her so I just

127would prefer going forward if that's going to happen can you just like notify us but it was weird because the rest of the policy all the other policies they kept it in so I don't know if that was a conscious decision or if it was just okay no it's just the way it was written okay because I was happy to see it was the other not you know the rest of them weren't removed so okay so 0152 do we have a first and a second one any more discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss uh cook yes Miss iapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss pay yes committees do I have a motion so moved second any discussion please call the RO Miss gesling yes Miss maraza yes misso yes Miss Payne yes Miss

128Cook yes motion carries 5 policy 0163 priding officer so moved second any discussion hold on please call the RO Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Appo yes Miss Payne yes Miss cook yes motion carries 5 policy 0173 board officers to be clear this would eliminate this one because of the language we just adopted in bylaw z52 do I have a motion so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss maraz yes Miss Jing yes Miss iapo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes policy 41208 employment of personnel for co-curricular and extracurricular activities do I have a motion so move second any discussion yes um when I originally last meeting asked about this um and then Craig you had gotten back to us it sounds like our the MTA agreement says that we have

129to post these openings every year according to their contract but then this policy would conflict with that so do we need to make sure that this aligns those Pol those positions have to be posted if we don't have the individual coming back to us so that language within the the negotiated agreement uh indicates that if if the person is either resigning or we're evaluating that person out of that position that's when we would that's when we would post that wasn't clear on on what you sent us so um you know I just I stand by I think that it's it's really just it's it gives gives other employees an opportunity you know to to have a CH a chance at one of some of these positions and I know that's something that I heard from

130a lot of uh teachers and that they would they would like that opportunity just to have it now I know you mentioned that you know there are a lot of them and that could be potentially a nightmare when it comes to looking at these but but you also stated that it's hard to find good people that want to fill them so I think both can't be true so I don't know if we can go you know just to see how it goes if we do post it and we do if you get inundated um we can reassess maybe change things down the line if it's too crazy that you know after 3 years years of someone in the same position then we can post it but I just think that it's um you know it's

131it's it it's going to allow for the people that are volunteering or that not volunteering because they are getting paid but that are do have those positions it creates a little bit of um incentive for them to you know always do better and we want to always provide the best opportunities for our students and you know we may get somebody that comes in that a new employee that has just would be the you know perfect for this one of these positions and and maybe that someone that's sitting in there is you know indifferent and if they stay or not and if they knew somebody else wanted it that you know so I I just I just think it would be it it just seems you can run into issues when you have the same person

132having more control over keeping that contract year after year um and and obviously it's assuming that they're doing a good job that they they get that again but um you know I don't it was stated that it's not fair to the person in the position but I just think you know everybody that's that's employed is always working at their best to keep really work to keep your job you know and so I don't think it's unfair I think if anything it's unfair to other employees who might want to have an opportunity and if somebody who's already tenured and who's been here a long time that they're not afforded that so um you know I I just think I you know you mentioned in your email that you had after speaking with administrators and then after

133speaking with the attorneys that you weren't recommending it was was there something that the attorneys had stated that made you feel that way no the attorney conversation was about 5131 we didn't talk to the attorneys about 4120 okay oh CU your your emails oh maybe I read that wrong okay okay yeah so my the way I phrased that was after conversations with the administrative team and legal councel we're not not recommending any changes to the language in NE policy um but the administrative conversation took place for 4120 the legal conversation took place with 5131 okay okay you see where I where I Mis that I'm sorry um in the case of the co-curricular and extracurricular activities there's such a an abundance of them and I can fully appreciate where a building administrator trying to find

134good people to fill all those spots is not an easy matter if somebody has an energy and hasn't had an opportunity to maybe do one of the extracurriculars they might have preferred there's always more possibilities to even create something so I and I can't speak to the sports aspect of it because that's not my area of expertise as well we all know but I can say that there's such um there's a learning curve on a lot of those more involved activities um let's you know if if there's something that involves let's say it's a fishing club and and you know you're you're having to arrange field trips and being able to have some consistency and growth in the skill set for that advice ER makes a great deal of sense [Music] so I I can't

135think of any time where I heard anyone annoyed or frustrated that they didn't get an opportunity I heard more often an administrator try to fill key things that kids had an interest in being involved in let's say the drama club for example that's a huge undertaking and and to kind of repost it doesn't um honor the hard work that a person has done to build that extracurricular if the person's not doing a good job regardless if somebody else wants it or not that's the building administrator's responsibility to get involved or guide you know like this this is erratic or doesn't seem like it's going as smoothly as it should or whatever that might be so I just think it creates a lot of additional work for administrators and you might end up with gaps where

136students don't have the full array of extracurriculars that they'd be interested in so I like this just as it is well to Mr Heath's Point there's it's hard to find them so it's not likely that you will get inundated with applications but I just you know teachers have said that that's something they'd like you know and and and you know it it it it prevents complacency which you know I'm not saying that we have any that I'm not you know I'm not highlighting anybody I think I've never heard anybody not doing a great job but you know we you want to encourage performance and growth and you want to encourage we want the best for our students and again somebody might have a position they've been doing it wonderfully for 10 years and then we

137get somebody new coming in and they might add some more value and I just think not posting it is is just unfair you know so and that's just my opinion I I think that and and you know I know I know you talked to administrators on that I don't know if you spoke to teachers but I you know I certainly had been approached a lot so I just think that you know it doesn't hurt to to open that up even if we find a middle ground and say after after three years you know that might be a little bit more fair but you talk about fairness and Equity I think that's that's I think that that's a good um a good idea to make it maybe where after a few years then we post it

138just to keep you know we don't want complacency which we're not saying there is I have heard the same thing from uh teachers as well even in regards to um not just extracurriculars like the um what do you call them what are they clubs like clubs that's it yeah um so I would be happy to support something like that I think a good you know compromise might be that you know 3 years or something like that and then every 3 years we'll post the position just to ensure I mean my I think it's from an HR perspective it's really good to have that problem where there's a lot of people applying for a position because then you can really choose the best person we always want to have the best person um the most qualified

139and and going to be the person who is the best for the job um but I also want to make sure to your point Mr Heath that we are you know that people aren't coming in and then every year we're shuffling them out so that threee might be a something we could look into I have a couple thoughts on this as well um first of all I I don't think we have any complacency and the reason that I don't think that I'm not only because my kids have been involved in many extracurriculars and they've been excellent but your pay is very low when you're doing an extracurricular I mean it is for the hours that you work you're not doing it for the pay you're doing it because you want you can easily step down

140if there are other people that want to do it um you can there are you're doing it because you love it and you want to be with the kids I I've done extracurriculars myself and and you know with your husband coaching it's it's a lot of time it is certainly not for the pay so I I don't think the people are complacent because they just simply would wouldn't do it if if they didn't really want to um I didn't accuse anybody I I didn't accuse anybody of being complacent no and I'm not saying that you did I'm just saying that I don't think we have that at all um when you have a job you don't have to interview for your job every year unless and you're not worried of losing your job unless you're

141doing a terrible job so you know once you once you earn the job you've been interviewed you're you're in the job you're doing a job you don't just constantly interview every year because well maybe there's another better person for this job it and I'm not saying that other people wouldn't have great ideas or refresh it and we even have extracurriculars where people job share you know sometimes you have a person you know similar to like your assistant coaches but you have you know okay I'm going to coach I think our maybe I think our um speech and debate team has two coaches so you know I'm I'm coaching this and I'm not going to take the full stip in I'm going to have someone else that's going to share it with me so there is

142opportunity for people to get involved if they if they so wish and they agree you know that they would like to share it I like the idea of new people and new ideas but when you already have a have a position unless you are doing a poor job and then that's the administrator's job to go to them and evaluate them out I don't necessarily think that the job just reopens and you have to you know plead for this position over and over again sometimes when you are working on a system you're you're doing a lot of work to put systems into place for the future too and it's unfair to the person doing the job and the work that they're putting forward so um I think your point is well taken we have a lot

143of talented teachers and a lot of people that could fill the same roles that we already have filled but I don't I don't agree that it should be posted every time unless your performance is poor and it's being evaluated as such do we have performance evaluations for these supplementals obviously the coaches are evaluated every year um we'd have to look into what the evaluation process is for a club advisor yeah that's a good that's a I don't think we have anything that's a good point because that is the another part we may have to look at too is the negotiated agreement and what's actually spelled out in there too um because a lot of what we're talking about would have to be part of that process um when we actually no I'm not going to

144say that so because that'll be an executive session so the um I I hear a lot um that I think we probably agree on some some things here um obviously we don't all agree none of us agree that there is complacency I don't think there's complacency we're just saying that this is you know having a certain degree of competitiveness is good um my stepdad who I called Dad he's he was a coach for over 20 years uh at Memorial in football so and he was not employed by the schools other than that I know he received a very small paycheck um of like a stien so you know I I get that they're not doing it for the money let me tell you he definitely definitely wasn't doing it for the money um and I

145think maybe a good compromise would be maybe five years you post it because we don't really have a a strong rubric to review these folks in these positions or our club positions even um I've heard from teachers specifically more what I've heard is about the club positions the advisers things like that so um and I can find out that information and make sure we share that with the board yeah do we do a student survey at the end of the the um that might be something to think about I ask that too thank you yeah is there any more discussion on 41208 please call the RO Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes misso no Miss Payne uh no Miss Cook yes motion carries 32 policy 4121 criminal history record check do I have a motion

146so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Appo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z policy 5131 student transfers do I have a motion so moved second any discussion please call the RO Miss maraza yes Miss Payne yes Miss aapo yes Miss Jing yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 policy 52000 attendance do I have a motion so moved second any discussion was that Miss maraza no yes it was her thank you y I have um I just have a concern with the 14 days is that that state um language right Craig the 14 days yeah everything that we've got in this policy is all geared towards the stules for flexibility because my concern is if somebody sometimes these things Retreat or things

147come up um or maybe someone didn't it's last minute there's maybe it was a financing issue and then a student is able to go to some kind of pilgrimage or Retreat and they didn't know you know 14 days from the start of the school day or school you know school year so is there any wiggle room where you could make a special you know decision on that you're talking about the religious expression days yes okay that was my question too I know um at least with my church we have youth events and Retreats and things like that conventions and typically um and we have men students that go to it as well and they would be missing a Friday at least um usually it's Friday sat you know Thursday night Friday Saturday so uh and

148usually don't really know exactly those dates until maybe a month before it's not always the same so if we could accommodate that or maybe that's a question for the weekly attorney conversation that you might have that might be something we could add to the policy if the attorney says it's a go yeah I can check into that one so do you feel that this wouldn't be good to adopt at this time with this language or are you okay revisiting it me I'm I'm okay revisiting it yeah just because we haven't ran it by if if this is all orc but you're not opposed to it right now no no I think looking at the flexibility in the future if there is I would like yeah just like your next we can ask about that that

149you have okay so you don't want to like table it or anything to wait okay all right thank you or postpone it all right any more discussion please call the role Miss pay yes Miss Jing yes misso yes Miss morza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z this is a long one okay um 55 policy 5500 student conduct do I have a motion so moved second any discussion I have a question the um AI because a lot of this talks about artificial intelligence and the use of it I have um heard some concerns from parents and I share their concerns with this especially if we're giving you know the authority that it can be used in our schools for XY andz and that teachers are able to use it if they see fit I

150I would like to see some kind of verbiage in there that says maybe at least K through five if not K through 8 we don't do AI um because those are such foundational years where students are learning how to articulate and how to spell and how to put sentences together and write essays and and we know that a I can can do that for you and I just have really um some reservations about going down that route uh do you Mr Heath can you talk to do we have any plans on implementing it K through e um right now because we've been working with uh with one company uh that's been partnering with the ESC of Northeast Ohio um and I know Miss IO you've asked about school joy as well um they're working through

151some different pieces to that puzzle right now uh right now most of that is at the high school level we're looking at um you know career Pathways uh we're looking at um some things to develop skills out of our students that might add to the artificial intelligence world so kind of looking at artificial intelligence as a career um type of skills so that's one of the areas we're looking at um the other thing that school Joy has done is they um they've been able to utilize some of the artificial intelligence to um to create activities and uh things that are directly aligned and personalized to each student um based on their career interests outside interests um aptitudes those sorts of things uh they have a couple of little survey type things that they're playing around

152with that would allow them to to plug that into their uh their software programs and and spit out a very personalized activity around content standards that are tailored to that particular students interest and that's kind of where the the work is kind of living right now again most of that is at the the 9 through 12 uh level might dip into Middle School a little bit um there's I don't believe we've been talking to them about anything at the elementary level at this point in time though okay cuz I think there's a different a different um differentiation rather between allowing the teachers to use it as a tool for them and teaching AI to students and I'm very much against teaching AI to students in K through ath um because those are the foundational years

153so yeah my only concern was Mis miscommunications or misunder understandings of what is considered cheating with AI so are we is there going to be something that parents are sign that students are going to sign to me so everyone's on the same page because it might get a little confusing I mean there is a line here in um C it's very clear uh that it is that academic dishonesty includes presenting the results that are the product of AI as one's own so on and so on so I mean it's pretty clear there It also says the use of AI tools is strictly prohibited for the completion of school work and I know that our teachers can run documents through Ai and say hey this is plagiarized or you know this is this is AI generated

154so um I think the AI is a tool for our teachers to make sure that we have honesty in our in our work but I think it's very clear to students that they should not use AI to make work and and they have even outlined specific reasons that AI would be okay and that it has to be at the permission and consent from their teacher for specific use so I think if you didn't do that then and you used AI then you would be cheating and plagiarizing so do we have anything on about Ai and our acceptable use policy or or don't we document on the parent sign yeah so we've got the acceptable use policy I'm I'm not sure if that policy is updated yet I know we're we're looking at a a lot

155of the different technology uh policies and this this is something that we took to our technology team to have them review I know Mr Lynch is uh is actively involved in some of the artificial intelligence work that we're we're currently uh trying to to dabble in a little bit just to see where this goes um again Dr glaven is part of that too because we want to make sure that um yeah this is going to be a career field that's going to blow up here in the in the very near future so if if we can teach our students some of the skills that go into developing some of that that AI work um I think that'll be a a good selling point for maybe a CTE program here in the future as well so

156that's kind of where everything lives but um from the from the student code of conduct piece um which I think this is the student conduct one right uh you know that's why letter C is in there to kind of spell out the plagiarism piece and just make sure that AI is addressed in the plagiarism uh policy that's the big thing but do we still sign the on infinite Camp campus during the parent portal with the annual up that's what I mean just I know it's in policy but parents aren't going through that but that makes sure like we're all clear okay correct and then I have some other AI questions but I I'll wait till it gets the next policy but they're all probably similar but I'm good with this one okay is there any

157any more discussion on five 500 please call the RO Miss marazza yes Miss jessing yes Miss AO yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 0 policy 5780 student parent rights so moved second sorry I catch up um any discussion yes hold on I just lost my whole thing um so my my concerns on I mean I'm I'm okay with this policy as it is but with the AI conversation and I know you said it's mostly sticking to high school um is it realistic that uh in the high school a teacher could say okay here's a here's a writing assignment and you're allowed she's giving they're giving permission to use AI um my concern is are they these kids are like have they been trained do they you know is that is the training

158going to come be part of the assignment how are they going to learn cuz I know a lot of kids probably haven't learned it yeah and well the kids probably know it better than the teachers do but uh but yeah that that'll be something if a teacher is going to be incorporating AI into some sort of activity that's going to be part of that lesson as well okay okay to be clear we're we're talking about 5780 right now right student parent rights are you saying Rose are you saying that wait I'm sorry I'm I'm going out of order then which one which which one are you on 5780 student and parent rights cuz the next one after that Rose is 754 just these are out I'm out of order I was wondering if you were

159just on the right to inspect technology provider contract maybe 58 okay yeah no that's okay are there any comments on this one 57 80 before we move on okay let's please call the role Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes Miss AA yes Miss Jess yes Miss moraz yes motion carries 5 Z all right 75403 student technology acceptable use and safety all right let's pick up pick up where you that's it that's I just want to make sure that we're not dumping on correct yes probably our kids know more about it than we do but just to make sure and then you know I just I'm I'm torn because I love AI I think that there's so many good uses but you know I'm a lot older than these kids and I feel like it's going

160to also be a crutch and it could dumb down a whole generation so I'm I'm so torn um you know the writing guidelines too the the way the policy reads that it's going to um it's going to show bias it's going to like that's so subjective so I just are we I don't know if that's an administrative guideline thing but that that language in there kind of makes me a little yeah and I think what I would do is point back to uh our our framework for the future a little bit with this too because that that first outcome where we're generating these student centered learning experiences we talk a lot about wanting to the students to be able to demonstrate their learning um in different ways and and again a lot of that conversation

161I think coming out of the The Guiding Coalition was around trying to combat the the use of AI to to dumb down the you know curriculum or hey I can just Google this and and and find an answer and what we want our teachers to be able to do is generate those learning experiences that are going to demonstrate uh allow students to demonstrate that they've mastered what that content standard is so we'll continue to point to that question a bit with our instructional practice um and our professional development um but at the same time we also want to make sure that we we are teaching students how to use in uh technology appropriately and that'll be a big part of what we we try and accomplish as we're moving forward too okay and and the

162teacher dist discretion in that are they is it I mean there's no limitations in that so do there need to be I mean is it could it be possible that there's you know every do we want to limit it how many assignments are going to be able to they can lean on AI in high school that's a good question I actually we've kind of taken it from the opposite TCH right now where we've been encouraged encouraging staff to at least try one okay um so we're still at that point right now where everybody's just kind of tiptoeing into it you know as we start to figure out how this works works and if people are going a little bit further into it and we need to limit things back then I think at that point

163we can I think we're still at that infancy stage right now we're we're we're still trying to encourage staff members to try and uh utilize some of these tools in a in an Innovative way in the classroom with the support that we have from the technology department and the instructional coaches I have a question about in general about I know you had mentioned School Joy um and I believe we paid that with ESC funds when I don't remember voting on it and it's possible we could have but when we pay with ESC funds do those things come to us for a vote they don't I don't believe those technically come through uh to see um going forward I mean that's probably a separate conversation as well but I wasn't aware that we were using School

164Joy or that we were implementing AI with that program at all and it never came to us for a vote so for transparency purposes going forward if anything that we do provide es use with our ESC funds but are still implementing and are going to affect students and staff if you could bring that to us for a vote that would be helpful I I thought we had voted on school Joy um if it's ESC funds we paid for this with ESC funds right bill or de I don't control ESC funds but I saw an email from Craig to Rose we did right funds and I know historically I was told that we don't vote on things when they're ESC funds correct yeah so just going forward if we could do that um I I would

165like to get more information about school Joy myself because I have the same reservations I think that Rose does um about Ai and like I mentioned K through 8 is like really I just really don't want us to touch that um I'll pull some uh some language for you to let you know again what what they are what they're about and and kind of what so the the the project coming out of the ESC of Northeast Ohio i n probably 10 15 districts right now that are are partnering with them uh with different aspects of what they're doing in their academic program so um I'll work with M Dr glaven and Mr Lynch and and spell out exactly how we're approaching some of that work here um you know I know the will be East

166like for example is doing quite a bit with it in as they're uh developing their own personalized uh classes over there too it's a it's a pretty unique concept so um that's part of the the Consortium piece right now where you know those 10 to 15 districts get together and talk and say this is how we're using it this is how we're using it um the individual that uh kind of runs the show uh is is a pretty Dynamic uh individual and can just technology wiiz and and can do a lot of pretty cool things so um so I'll get uh some of that language and share that with the board thank you so much are we ready to vote vote on this one we we don't have a motion or oh I'm sorry we

167we need a motion is I moved second I I think we had discussion is that you Mo who second I seconded thank you does anyone want to have more discussion on that one okay please call the RO miss a yes Miss jley yes Miss marazza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 policy 9160 public attendance at school events do I have a motion so moved second don't we have 75404 oh I'm sorry I now I'm skipping sorry I feel better about M sorry sorry okay yeah we're on 7540 .04 yes hold on oh it's because it's down at the bottom of the page thank you policies 75404 is that yes thank you um staff technology acceptable use and safety do I have a motion some moved second any discussion please call the

168role Miss Appo yes Miss jessing yes Miss pazza yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z policy 9160 public attendance at school events do I have a motion so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss jesley yes Miss maraza yes misso yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5- Z next we have the legislative report Miss maraza thank you all right I'll try to be fast um I don't have any updates from the state board or from odw today lots going on at the state house though we're in full swing of the general assembly with budget uh work the banal budget um it's from what we understand it's going to be tighter than previous years because revenues did not come in as expected uh especially with regard to

169income tax rates there's also decreased Federal funding um Governor dwine released his executive budget and that includes just I'll do the highlights basically the continued phase in of years five and six of the fair school funding formula um without any adjustments to uh for inflation to the base cost inputs it reduces the fair school funding formula guarantees uh to 95% in the F FY 26 and to 90% in uh fiscal year 27 and it continues State investments in um the school choice programs at levels that are current to the similar ones um so those there's there are several other things um but those I think are the ones that are most impactful for us uh the next step is the budget the executive budget will go to the it's in the house right now but

170the legislative Service Commission is going to turn um the executive budget proposal into budget bills and then the the legis it'll be in introduced into the legislature um the house education committee is also reviewing their own budget priorities so they'll get to work on that um we did have uh however some mitigating factors we touched on this in our Levy convers conversation where we have house Speaker Huffman mentioning that there's potential for cuts to public education by quite a bit um so we did receive some communication from osba and oasbo both about advocating for public school funding um with our legislators and I know that we're putting together some suggestions for our legislators here in the next several weeks um their recommendations though were to urge the complete phas in of the fair school funding

171plan um updating those base cost inputs uh adopting a permanent formula for Educational Service Centers and I thought this was interesting creating a Pupil Transportation working group to kind of really explore the the CH like changes that we could make to transportation to better meet the needs of all Ohio students whether they go to publ or non-public um and see if there's any cost savings and efficiency there um so I thought that was really important and so those are things we can advocate for with our legislators um I know it's really early to consider how this proposed budget will impact our district I maybe Mr Wade wouldn't want to quite do that yet because it is quite early and I know you are optimistic which is terrific somebody's got to be um so I don't

172know that we necessarily need to think about um what this budget means for Menor schools because there's just such a long way to go before July 1st which is when they need to have it done um so I'll skip right over to some new legislation that's been introduced um the first few bills that are introduced are typically like the priority bills that they want to push through the fir and you know the first um Senate Bill three is definitely worth noting um it's one of the first ones introduced and this is the one that will phase down the state income tax to a flat rate of 2.75% over two years um this would drastically reduce the size of the state's budget so that could hit us for sure Senate bill 7 um this one would

173require school districts to provide annual instruction to students in grades K to 12 on short-term and chronic substance use um and there are a couple others I think I'll just mention House Bill three uh which would appropriate excuse me appropriate 25 million to create the school bus safety Grant um at um the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce um and that would help districts with the cost of installing safety features on new and exist existing school buses that would be a great one to advocate for um and it would also help increase the penalties for illegally passing a stopped school bus which I think we can all agree would be would be helpful um so I think those are all there are t literally dozens and dozens of bills but those are those are the

174ones I think that are worth mentioning um it's already been referenced once um a couple of times tonight the um there's definitely a lot going on at the federal level um there was the that that could impact us and I know I've been getting questions and we even got an email before our meeting tonight about how some of these are going to impact us um for starters there's the federal funding freeze which I believe is under litigation at this point what that is is basically federal agencies are were asked to temporarily halt the dispersement of federal financial assistance across all kinds of programs um and they're supposed to stop initi initiatives related to diversity equity and inclusion again this one's on hold right now so I don't know that we necessarily need to evaluate whether

175and how this is going to affect us because it's being litigated um so lots of uncertainty there the executive orders there were three regarding education but only two the the third one was about um High Ed so we don't need to worry about that one one of the executive orders that was issued on January 29th is called ending radical indoctrination in K through2 schooling this one uh seeks to cut Federal funding for schools that teach what the administration described as gender ideology and critical race Theory um the I think that this one with that we have to really pay attention to is the phrase consistent with applicable law I think that kind of gives everybody a little bit of flexibility in terms of like what is legal and what is not um but but basically

176what we have to remember here too is that um I think there were also some mentions about um patriotic education and so on but what we have to remember is that the power for educational curriculum is still with the states um I know there has been talk in the news about um you know returning education to the States but the the power for for educational and curricular control is already with the states and there are multiple Provisions um in federal law that prohibit the federal government from getting involved in state and local decisions about K through 12 curriculum so no executive order can actually overrule um that federal law regulation so I think that's important for us to remember the other executive order is called expanding educational freedom and opportunity for families um this one

177prioritizes school choice um and it could mean additional funding going to um private and religious schools and that could have an impact on our budget the final thing I'll mention and this I think this is the one we got the email about today is that there's an expected executive order on the Department of Education and abolishing the Department of Education of course they can't do that via executive order that's actually um it was created by an act of Congress it needs to be ended with an act of Congress so already there's some confusion around that um they could however decide to um consolidate break up or hollow out the agency again phrases like as applicable and as Allowed by law are probably phrases we could see in something like this um but uh but basically

178you know people are anticipating some political and legal opposition to an order like this it's rumored that it's going to come out in the next week or two but it also might be paired up with the um the nomination of the incoming secretary uh of Education Linda McMahon her nomination hearing so it could be as soon as this week or maybe next um I think this is maybe one we could probably answer in terms of like how if if this happens if this um if the Department of Education goes away as as the person who emailed us today put it what kind of fiscal impact Mr Wade I'm going to put you on the spot could that have on men are schools my understanding is it would be zero impact they would delineate the the

179Monies to different different uh oversights so um I wouldn't expect it to have any impact on us so then it would be would you say different o different agency different federal agencies or would it be like State agencies federal agencies okay so other federal agencies would take on things like Title One or how I understand it okay so we'd be moving things around a bit so from a fiscal perspective we wouldn't see a change that is how I'm understanding it at least as far as we know today okay okay that's the end of my report I had a question about the executive order the KY through2 the gender ideology and critical race Theory one um and Mr Heath maybe you could answer this uh is there any risk of when they put that out there

180of us losing Federal funding if we don't comply with that executive order even though you know it's not that the states are the ones who do the curriculum uh does that make it where we could get in a risky situation yeah that's indicated in the executive order if you read down towards the bottom of it that's where it uh talks about withholding federal funds from districts that promote gender ideology and the discriminatory Equity ideology so that's that's within that same executive order so that could impact us we have to watch that correct okay thank you all right next we have the student achievement report Mrs dling thank you so much and despite some bitterly cold weather in January Menor students continue to be engaged learners ERS benefiting from their teachers guidance and encouragement here's a

181sampling of the opportunities and events from the past few weeks in his annual state of the schools presentation superintendent Craig Heath gave a full profile of the district and all that's been accomplished in 20124 it premiered at the mentor Area Chamber of Commerce meeting with our city officials safety and Business Leaders in attendance he highlighted just a few of the many great initiatives from across the district and the over arching strategic plan framework for the future developed in collaboration with hundreds of our stakeholders time for scheduling for next fall the newly expanded career acmy for 2025 26 will give Menor high students a wealth of new and continuing course options one of the great benefits of this approach is to offer them exposure to an array of career Pathways many if not most of these

182careers will require additional post-secondary education but students can gain essential insight into their interests and aptitudes others help students decide that if that field is a good fit before pursuing a college degree or paying tuition for further training after graduation some coursework offers workplace Readiness to get a student's foot in the door where further education might even be offered by the employer admission to the CTE programs is competitive and students generally must apply early to secure a spot these CTE initiatives along with revamped course selections for our middle school students aligned with the district's strategic plan and the goal of having every senior ready to graduate with a personal road map before investing time and money in postsecondary plans ideally each will choose to enroll to enlist or will be employed as they step out

183into the world great news from our Market marting and business administration programs congratulations to our 32 students who have qualified for the state Deca competition their marvelous instructors Drew mcnight and Laura tant are so proud of these achievements even more impressive 13 of our students took first place in our region all will compete at the state tournament in Columbus on March 11th and 12th Deca is a National Organization that prepares high school students for career in business these competitions give them the opportunity to demonstrate their skills in areas like marketing Communications entrepreneurship restaurant management sports management and professional selling one of our most challenging extracurriculars is mock trial the competition lets students learn about the court process and to prepare and argue a case in front of a real judge last month Menor High's team

184represented the defendant while Paynesville Harvey High represented the plaintiff the students did an excellent job and earned High marks from Judge Colleen falowski menor's team earned the top attorney and the top witness spots in the scoring congratulations and thank you to Mrs Renee denovo for advising the group did you know that Science Olympiad is the Premier stem competition in the nation for 40 years this challenging extracurricular has trained secondary students to tackle standards-based problems with the help of their dedicated coaches Menor has fielded its team of problem solvers to compete for all four decades they recently attended the 18th Annual Kinston Invitational along with more than 1,000 students from 70 teams from across Ohio New York and Michigan Mentor seniors Caitlyn Morris and Emily Gerard were recently featured on a channel 3 news M men

185presented its own science Olympian Invitational last Saturday for 42 high school teams and 32 middle school teams it was the 25th time Menor High has been a regional host of course hosts don't compete at their own sites visiting teams were challenged in 23 events in paper pencil tests and Engineering builds such as catapults helicopters robots towers and bungee drops both Shore and and Memorial placed in several events and Memorial won eth Place overall always a logistical challenge to coordinated competition of this complexity we are grateful to high school advisers Mrs Pew and Mrs Poland and Mr Swagger and Mr batty who are the Middle School advisers for their countless hours of student coaching and preparation needed to help the teams succeed it's spelling be season congratulations to Menor own Sebastian Gil the memorial 7th grader

186won the Lake County Spelling V and now advances to the tri count Showdown on February 28th it's always a treat to visit classrooms to see what our students are working on Mrs Van Curran's family and consumer science classes at Memorial gave seventh and eighth graders a chance to experience the steps involved in job hunting resumé writing and job interviewing skills and there was a special home bake treat as a thank you for each of adult who came to lead the interactive stations our Mentor fire EMT Academy was honored to participate in the Ohio act Career Technical education student showcase at the Ohio State House recently they engage with representatives from across the state highlighting the great opportunities available through our program this pioneering partnership with the city and Leland community college offers dual enrollment at

187Lakeland leading to eight college credits and essential industry certifications February first offered a great show choir Festival here at the Fine Art Center it was a celebration of talented teens singing and dancing their way through a program of fun and familiar music the evening began with two middle schools our own Shoreline singers and the Madison mid Middle School Melody singers and continued with Madison High School's IA the Grand Valley show choir the Perry High School Buccaneers and buck band and Mentor High's top 25 the students were so supportive of one another cheering wildly and enthusiastically for each other's performances it was also a celebration of Menor top 25's 60th season for six decades since its founder and Visionary music teacher Ted heronimus created the top 25 show choir High has had its talented array of

188students performing for our community traveling to competitions and entertaining audiences near and far their presence always fills the stage with talent and positive energy last month Ridge Elementary celebrated learning to sore day to help them Reach expectations and goals each classro traveled to the 10-minute stations responsibility Integrity dignity gratitude and effort using their class passports the day was filled with excitement as they created a classroom Matrix and spent time with their buddy classes students were both respectful and engaged making the event AR rousing success the January Cardinal Cafe featured Transportation as the main topic Mr Heath and our new director of safety and transportation Mrs Jackie Sturm preent presented information on the technology upgrades being piloted in the department this spring new GPS devices are going to be installed on five buses to test the

189new software that will provide a detailed information regarding the daily routes this software will be linked to a parent app that will provide realtime location information for each student's bus so parents can know when their child's bus will arrive at their home the app will also allow for increased communication features with families regarding split routes bus changes and delay information we look forward to having this new technology ready to go for All Buses at the beginning of the coming school year it's scholarship season time for seniors seeking dollars for post-secondary tuition to get their applications in check with the guidance office and get the latest news and information about grants and scholarships by signing into Mentor school.com and joining the scholarship information group there was nervous excitement in the air as vocal and instrumental musicians

190from Menor High competed at the OA district 7 solo and Ensemble event at Madison High School met last month their hard work and the guidance of their dedicated teachers Advanced performances to a very high level our Menor Community can take great pride in the students representing our schools Menor resident and World War II veteran Mr Bob ziville was presented with a proclamation by Governor Mike dwine for his Decades of service to hospice of the Western Reserve and this community we know the amazing Mr zille as a generous volunteer and favorite speaker right here at Menor schools we offer our thanks and wish him the happiest of birthdays families can receive expert tips during two free programs at Menor Public Library's main branch the sessions will look at helping children succeed from the education service center

191of the Western Reserve our family engagement coordinator Mrs TR Trisha zidich will be a part of these programs designed to strengthen school and family connections the topic for the February 13th session is bullying and the February 20th session will discuss chronic absenteeism registration is requested due to limited space it was a great surprise at Shore Middle School when seventh grader Mary McMahon found out that she was the winner of a nationwide contest earning two tickets to the Super Bowl and a trip to New Orleans with some of her family held last weekend Mary created a video entry for kind Lin's kickoff for kindness video contest this contest supported by the NFL foundation and Pro Football Hall of Fame was made possible by the values in action Foundation they Empower students and adults to build communities

192of kindness caring and respect through programs that teach promote and provide skills and tools to enable individuals to make positive values-based decisions every day kindland Nationwide School kindness presentation video was viewed by 273,000 students in 900 schools across the United States on February 6th and here is Mary's heartfelt video [Music] message hi everyone my name is Mary McMahon and I want to talk about something really important kindness kindness isn't just about being nice it's about making someone stay better and showing them they matter in school small of kindness can make a big difference a smile a kind word or helping someone who's struggling can turn someone's day around and the truth is we don't always know what's going on in other people's lives someone may be having a really hard time and your kindness can

193need more than they'll ever know what's really cool about kindness is that it spreads when you do something kind it inspires others do the same for example if you help someone who's struggling they might feel encouraged to help someone else later before you know it that one small act starts a chain reaction imagine how amazing schools could be if everyone chose kindness instead of feeling left out or alone more people would feel included and supported kindness is like a ripple in water it starts small but keeps growing let's all try to start that Ripple because small acts of kindness can mean everything kindness makes me feel love [Music] appreciated included happy [Music] happy winter time is a great season for Learning and being kind thank you Mary and thank you all thank you and at

194this time time we have the chief financial officer's report and recommendations Madam president members of the board Mr Heath uh present the January financials uh our current year-to-date Revenue collections indicate we're about $201,000 uh favorable to our forecast our expenses are about $438,000 almost $439,000 below which puts us about $640,000 better than we were expecting from a cash balance standpoint currently uh the revenues for this past month were uh down just a fraction about $16,900 uh and for the year we're about $1 million more uh at this point than we were last year our expenses uh for the month were up about $58,500 uh paid early so we'd expect it more of a timing issue uh we'll see kind of a decrease going down so uh nothing of drastic concern with us being up um

195but we are down total expenditures for the year uh comparison to last year by about $761,000 so when we look at our uh revenue and expenses um those are extremely immaterial as we all know because we have budgets of $112 million in Revenue approximately and 114 in expenses so being off by less than $500,000 in expenses and $200,000 in Revenue um puts us pretty pretty darn close so um nothing out of the ordinary there um that we're seeing um so you know I think we're trending in a in a in a good spot um we did get our uh FY 24 audit released uh this month um happy to announce that we did receive a clean audit and we will be receiving the auditor of State Award with distinction again this year um and we

196did receive five or excuse me four stars on the uh public record Stars rating um we did see receive a management letter uh we shared this with the citizens Financial advisory as well as the board for a procedural error um not receiving enough quotes for our Safety and Security Grant um myself and our team have created a new flowchart I have reviewed that flowchart with the leadership team across the district um to review that to make sure that that mistake doesn't happen again um but again it didn't impact our audit still being clean and still receiving that auditor uh Award with distinction so we're pleased to announce that again uh for the year and I didn't I was unsure to miss matza's point if I was going to bring this up tonight but then I

197watched the Super Bowl and after the Super Bowl they always have the way too early to rank the teams who's going to be in the Super bowl next year um so I kind of took that and created a way too early analysis of the governor's proposed budget and its impact on the schools um and the reason why it's way too early is the what they call the blue book hasn't been released yet so the governor releases his budget proposal um it's obviously going to then go through the house and the Senate but we don't even really know how the calculations for the Governor's proposal are going to be done yet so this is like the way way too early um but being a part of the organizations that I am and kind of the professional

198development that I'm always seeking out in the Analytics tool that we use we can model what we expect what would happen based if the budget was to go through and the last time that in the big impact for us is not so much the base cost not going up um we are a guaranteed District um so really where we're going to get hit in our wallets would be so to speak would be if the guarantee is phased out to 95% and 90% based on enrollment and the last time that this happened and the only time that I can recall on talking to treasurers who have been around way longer than I have almost as long as I've been alive is when 2018 when Governor Kasich did a similar guarantee um decrease based on enrollment um

199and he initially proposed it I think over five years and it was when it came out at the end it ended up being over a 2-year period so what if we do an analysis over the last two years and we look at that 5 to 10% range that Governor Kasich used uh previously um our enrollment has declined as we all know uh and it's 5.01% over two years so if we apply that and we apply that to a reduction of 5% in fiscal year 26 and then a 10% reduction in fiscal year 27 what you will see is our cash balance what we had in November is the gray line M oops excuse me I thought changed I changed on my screen I didn't change it behind me so we have the Gray Line representing

200what we were expecting in November and we have the black line represents if the guarantee continues but they don't change the base costs for inflation as Miss maraza mentioned we did not plan this for the no we did no not at all coordinate um but also the red line represents what I'm projecting based on his the way it was implemented in 2018 a reduction of the guarantee and not an increase in base cost so the net impact on us and this is what we were discussing last week or two weeks ago when we met and why I think it's important that we wait before we make any determinations on what exactly we're going to do is it could have a net impact of a loss of $3 million in Revenue by the end of 2029

201from a cash balance wow okay so again we don't know exactly how it's calculated we don't know what the house is going to propose we don't know the Senate's going to propose because when we did talk to our legislators two of the three said that they didn't think anything was going to happen to the guarantee one said that it he thought it may I would have banked on the other two and not the one not to throw anybody out of the bus just because of who then the know that they are um so I'm going to continue to Advocate with Senator Sereno uh representative Troy and representative calendar to say hey look this is what happens in Mentor if this goes through because what it does to us and the impact that it has is

202it pushes the burden further on the local taxpayer so the local taxpayer capacity would have to increase as a result and when you change parts of a funding plan and you don't change everything and what I'm saying is they're going to increase we just went through a revaluation so the property values went up by 25% in incomes continued increase in the city in in the men on the lake Concord and curtland Hills that represent us so we are richer quote unquote in that sense and if we don't see an increase in base cost for example that just pushes that burden to be on the guarantee even further but then if we're going to cut the guarantee that's going to push the local taxpayer to have to have a greater capacity right and that's without even

203passing a new Levy so that I mean that's just the way that the funding model works so it just pushes the capacity on the local taxpayer on a district that is way above the state average on how much capacity that we ask them to participate in in local education because we're considered to be a wealthy District so it's very important that we keep our eye on this it's very important that we Advocate uh for the residents of M schools to make sure that the funding model continues to go as it was phased in that it has the base cost increase and that the guarantee is not reduced but happy to answer any questions Mr Wade what what can we do as board members to support I I know you're going to be sending something to

204our legislators but is there anything we can do from a board member I would encourage everybody board members community members and so on and so forth to send something to the local Representatives that we have to let them know concerns that they may have with regards to any change in funding that would negatively impact the district um again pushing the burden on the local taxpayer terrific thank you congratulations on the clean audit thank you it's truly a testament to our team and then everybody throughout the district who has a place in that you know from from where I sit I'm furthest removed from a lot of the day-to-day uh so I'm very appreciative to all the hard work of the administration the secretaries the staff members and our team here in the office to get

205uh continue to earn that award if would you mind we didn't get a print out which is totally fine I don't need a print out but if you could send that presentation to us that would be helpful I will I'm trying to cut back on my Pap totally agree that's fine I just where's Mr Lynch no it's fine I don't mind that at all I just want to copy of the presentation well just that last piece because you sent the other yeah I will definitely do that for surek thank you uh Madam president members of the board Mr Heath I'm asking for the approval of items B through G and addendums may be acted upon one motion so moved second any discussion please call the RO Miss Payne yes Miss Jing yes Miss AO yes

206Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5- Z that concludes my report sorry do you ask for the approval of resolution ranking the top professional design firms so moved so moved second either are Mrs Payne moved and I second thank you please call the role Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes Miss aapo yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Madam president members of the board Mr Heath ask for the approval of the resolution approving the construction management at risk agreement so move any discussion oh I'm sorry second thank you any discussion please call the role uh one second here so miss Jing Miss Jing yes Miss Payne yes uh Miss iapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Madame President members of the board Mr Heath ask for the approval of

207the district liability Fleet Property and Casualty Insurance so moved second any discussion please call the role Miss gesling yes Miss maraza yes Miss aapo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes MO carries 5 that now concludes my section of rep all right we do not have any items under new business tonight so we will move on to hearing of the public on any topic our first speaker is Miss McCormack our next speaker is Zoe Beringer can I move this Podium I still can't I can't see any I'm like really trying to see no that's okay I would have moved it I just didn't know if I was out thank you thank you we didn't it go ahead Zoe all right thank you good evening I'm a Menor high school student and I'm in the 11th

208grade and my name is Zoe baringer and tonight I'm here to talk to you about a pretty heavy topic but I would ask that you stick with me uh did you know that schools in the Menor School District are nearly four times more likely to be violent than girls who do you think is bearing the brunt of this aggression our district is Raising violent boys while creating an environment that enables sexual assault and silences girls here's the reality one in five American women will be raped in their lifetime time one in three women globally will face abuse and every 10 minutes a woman is killed according to the United according to the World Health Organization in 2023 sexual abuse has devastating effects post-traumatic stress disorder depression and increased risks of addiction yet our schools have

209done the bare minimum to protect students they follow the letter of Ohio law but they fail to create a truly safe and equal learning environment most assaults happen in the first two years of high school or college I've conducted an anonymous survey of 50 students from the 23 24 school year I presented this to a myriad of Administrators and received no helpful response when students were asked if they knew how to get help if they were assaulted less than half a kids said they knew how to get help when students were asked if they had a trusted person inside the building that they would tell if they were assaulted or outside the building 28% of students said they would tell no one when students were asked who if they knew someone who reported assault to

210a compliance officer only 177% of students said yes while when students were asked if they knew someone who told no one 28% of students said yes this is a crisis of your children's safety and well-being I have contacted countless administrators but I have received no helpful response yet so I'm here now to ask are your children truly safe and let me tell you this they are not in danger of the specific wording that the board has talked about tonight who is protecting them and teaching them the signs of danger or stopping harm when you're not around the Administration has failed your children because it prioritizes avoiding complaints over confronting hard truths no child deserves abuse and if you think it could never be my kid remember others thought the very same my sister will be

211safe when she reaches this high school she's currently 7 years old and in the Menor school district and I will do everything in my power to make sure she lands here safely and while I have 8 seconds left I would just like to add that there are sexual assault prevention programs provided by the state of Ohio but we do not currently use them thank you for your time and good evening thank you may I ask if we could get that survey um can you send it to the board yeah thank you so much I think Miss mzika left I think Miss wall left Dr Sanford you would be next thank you John Sanford I just wanted to take a quick second and tell uh the previous speaker thank you I uh always appreciate research having

212people at her age starting to do research having been a researcher myself of human behavior that is just flat thrilling I really love it thank you so much for sharing that I really appreciate it if you ever want to help with your PhD you let me know last year during the 2024 organizational meeting Miss sop poo stated clearly that her special relationship with her father state senator Sereno was such that the board should designate her as the legislative lead's a while we are all happy to hear she has a good relationship with her father the suggestion that this relationship would result in the senator G giving her access to better information than other members of the board and that this relationship should shape official board actions constitutes nepotism when this assertion first occurred just minutes

213after being sworn in I attributed it to firsttime Jitters and excitement however during the 2025 organizational meeting Rose doubled down on this assertion and had the active for support of an it was very disturbing to hear two members of the board clearly arguing that a state senator would engage in the unethical behavior of plain favorites in the execution of his duties I therefore requested clarification from the Senator's office and I reced the following response quote Senator sereno's official position is that he treats and represents all constituents equally and does not give special treatment to any one constituent including family members end quote I am grateful for Senator sereno's response Rose and Annie were clearly mistaken in their arguments and may want to more carefully consider their positions in the future thank you I would encourage

214you to go back and watch the video because I didn't say that he would you're missing you're taking what I said and you're twisting it so um I'm not surprised at the response you got from my dad because that is exactly what I would expect from him so I I'm not sure how that's relevant that it's clearly just a nice gesture to let a board member work with their bad and that was all I was saying so and nepotism means would imply he gave me this job and he didn't I the voters did yeah I would I would encourage anybody to go watch that meeting um because I think the meeting would give the whole um aspect of it our next speaker is Adrien stoval all right um so I'm Adrien Stovall uh I guess

215let me say you know the the last thank you from Orchard hollowood to the board was great um I love the theme trustworthy trustworthiness caring responsibility respect citizenship and fairness they're all a wonderful list of traits to Aspire to um I have a great admiration for our superintendent and our board members that embody those traits and I'll say commitment to the success of our Public Schools requires all of those traits especially carrying responsibility and fairness because outside of public schools there's no requirement for any any school to um to take any student that doesn't fit in with their view of what a good student happens to be sorry I'm a little nervous here um the administration and staff that care for our students in public schools have to believe in caring equally for all of

216our diverse student population they have to believe in that regardless of who those students are what faith they follow or don't follow how they look who they love or what they call themselves our community depends on our public schools because it depends on those students um I heard someone at the last last meeting you know I watched on YouTube say that students are now being targeted for immutable characteristics such as skin color but that's not something new while it's awful um it's something that that's happened for you know quite a long time and thankfully because of programs like Dei everybody wants to talk about that kind of targeting is less accepted today than it was in the past and because of those initiatives students today are taught that the differences we have aren't something to

217pick on or belittle someone for recently we've seen you know people who obviously think of themselves as compassionate twist the meanings of the phrases Dei or woke or social justice or CRT right um into things that they can use to encourage other compassionate people empathetic people to stop working on improving public education for everyone to stop working on proving everything for everyone I a parent of four Menor high school graduates three went to Orchard Hollow actually um I know that men public school system isn't perfect but no public school can be CU people aren't perfect I'm not perfect my kids who I love aren't perfect no one in this audit Auditorium is um students parents administrators and teachers are all different and all imperfect so it's not the job of the public schools to make

218them perfect no of book Banning religion censorship dismissal of differences or attempts at turning back the clock to a time when it was even more terrifying to be different will erase those flaws I encourage the board to do what it can to continue to move forward and support all of our students because they all need us and our community needs them thank you thank you we do not have an executive session on the agenda this evening actually is there any no we do not have an executive session on the agenda this evening um so do I have a motion to adjourn so mov second please call the rooll Miss pay yes Miss Jing yes misso yes Miss matza yes Miss Cook yes meeting is adjourned at 9:14 p.m.