001e e e good [Music] evening good evening the May 14th 2024 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village board of education is called to order this meeting is being held in accordance with Section 331 13.15 of the Ohio Revised Code please place your mobile phones on silent mode for the meeting Mr Wade please call the role miss aapo here miss Jing present Miss maraza present Miss Payne here miss cook here thank you and please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America the Republic for which it stands one nation God indivisible with liberty and justice for all at this time please join me in a moment of silence in remembrance of Eric Elias and officer Jacob Durban thank you I would like to welcome
002everyone to the May 14th 20124 regular meeting of the mentor Exempted Village Board of Education prior to this evening each board member has received for their review and consideration the agenda and materials associated with each agenda item for the board's approval via the district's paperless Board of Education agenda system board docs the public public can access the agenda through the school district's website the agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing the Sunday prior to the board meeting board members have the opportunity to call the superintendent and Chief Financial Officer for information concerning agenda items and to request if needed additional information there are two places on the agenda where the board entertains comments from the community the first hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board
003on agenda items only and the second hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on any subject whether it be an item on the agenda or another topic to participate in the hearing of the public section interested speakers must sign up prior to the start of the meeting signups are available online through the school district's website or onsite prior to 700 p.m. you will be called to the mic microphone when it is your turn to speak and at that time we ask that you please state your name and address your questions to the board president each person may speak only once per segment and comments are limited to three minutes the purpose of the hearing of the public is for our community members to address the board the board
004continues to welcome feedback from the community as an important component to conducting business this is an information gathering opportunity for the board 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 29712 and board policy 01691 any person doing any act which obstructs or interferes with the conduct or orderly progress of the board meeting will be warned and or removed from the meeting this meeting is being shown live and can
005be viewed On Demand on our YouTube channel cardinal cardinal TV Mentor Ohio thank you and at this time we have District highlights and recognitions good evening Madame President members of the board Mr Wade tonight we are recognizing several students for their outstanding achievements I'd like to start this evening by inviting Mr Hammond to the podium to begin the presentations good evening mad Madame President members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade this evening it's my great pleasure to recognize our Middle School Science Olympiad students and advisers that qualified for the state competition this year the Science Olympiad state tournament was held on April 27th at the Ohio State University campus Middle School Division ended up with 40 40 competing teams Memorial out of those 40 finished in seventh place overall which is highly commendable
006at this time I would like to read those top finishes they earned a second in forestry a second place in fossils second place in Reach for the Stars third place in Anatomy third place in disease detectives fourth place in fast facts fourth place in micro Mission fourth place in wheel vehicle sixth place in Crime Busters a sixth place in meteorology and a sixth place in Optics advisers are Miss Kim Driscoll and Mrs Lena Mal it's important to point out that what a huge accomplishment this is we're excited to see what the future holds for all of these great minds at this time I'd like to share the names of the team members uh at Memorial Middle School uh at this time if I could have Miss Driscoll and Mrs Malik come up to join [Applause]
007me I would also like the uh Memorial team captains at this time to help us we're shaking the hands of your teammates Owen Medved and Michael Hardy [Applause] lwell if you would we have a a lengthy list so hold your applause until we get all of them through here students when you come up please Shake Miss Driscoll's hand Michael's hand and then come on around and Shake all the board members hands and then end up over this way so we can look at you all at one time okay Max Billings Christian Edwardson shafan Assan Dylan Fedor Isabella Grabowski Kaylee Hall Nolan Harney Cameron low Joey maraza Samantha mcginness Nathan meckler Michael enin Adam Alver Corbin at Kevin Pastor Elizabeth plumbley Jacob prer Brooks Romberg Calvin rice AJ Ritz Gino Ritz Finn Roode Corey sax neelson
008Maria schwier Alex shei Demetrius stratakos Emily Swagger Jack zamansky Smith Everett zamansky Smith Alexandra tamura Mason Wills Charlie yoke [Applause] congratulations you guys may have a seat thank you very much well done [Applause] now on to the high school good evening Madame President members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade this evening it's my great pleasure to recognize our Menor High School Science Olympiad students and advisers that qualified for the state competition they also had 40 competing teams in their division they finished eight overall they had nine top 10 finishes winning medals were state champions in the category of Scrambler silver medalists in the category of write it do it fourth place in detector building fourth place in geologic mapping fourth place in robot tour sixth place in disease detectives sixth place in Optics
009advisers are Mrs Michelle Pew and Dr Michael Horvath and if they would join me at this time [Applause] okay I'm going to recognize our two captains one could not be with us tonight the other one uh first of all the first Captain is afan Saha the second one is Robbie land Robbie can't be here tonight as he's presenting His science research project at the international science and engineering fair in Los Angeles California wow [Applause] awesome at this time I'm going to read off the high school students names Benjamin Billings Ranna Boyd Aiden durany Aisha faruki Parker guer Dugan Zachary Gibson Emily Gerard Kayla Hinkle Abigail Horvath Liam meckler Caitlyn Morris Nathaniel low Ryan Oliver Drew Parker Charles Charles partlo excuse me Charles Mark Pastor Joseph raziz Ria Raina Gavin Rick Jaden Russell Leon Shams Tatiana
010Sai Mali tahan Benjamin yoke anushri Zimmerman I forgot to mention Tayana could not be here tonight she is also presenting at the ISF in [Applause] La students hang tight for just a minute congratulations to all these students who worked incredibly hard as well as a middle school in preparing for the state competition and showing excellent results thank you to our event coaches who are teachers or parents and give up their time each week to prepare students for their event these coaches are a huge factor in the success of our Science Olympiad teams in addition a special shout out to our parents for your support throughout the season thank you all of you contribute in some way and it most definitely makes a difference and speaking on behalf of the advisers and all the coaches and
011team members they would like to thank the members of the board for all your support thank [Applause] you one more item before I relinquish the podium at this time I would like to recognize a member of our Menor Police Department who is helping us one last time in in His official role officer John Walker will be retiring very soon and this evening is his final off-duty assignment please join me in sharing our appreciation for Officer Walker Madame President members of the board Mr Wade at this time I would like to invite Dr glaven to the podium for the CTE recognitions Mr Lynch great guy all right so uh Mrs president members of the board Mr Heath m Wade uh tonight I am here to help recognize our students who participate in our Career Tech education
012programs and qualified to the state competition and in some cases finished among the highest in the state through their participation students are able to gain work-based learning experiences and knowledge about careers and industries that can help guide their decisions post High School through my own personal interactions and and in reality you know the last couple weeks it's been really nice to reflect uh as we kind of close down the year it's just so humbling and I'm so appreciative to have the opportunity to interact with these students and kind of see how these programs are helping inform their decisions as them and their families make this you know the choices for the next steps what they're going to do after high school um I'm honored to say that we have 70 of our students who qualified
013for the state competition in their ctso which is Career Tech student organization this is a true Testament to the type of quality instruction and programming being provided by our instructors now before I recognize these students I would like to ask if uh Menor High School principal Jason Ryan Crow if you can come up here so you can equally shake hands with these students with me thank you [Applause] sir now now what I would say is that now I'm going to recognize students uh by their ctso organization and I would ask um that we go ahead and hold Applause until all students of a ctso are called now if you were to clap for each of those students we may be able to be in the running for the longest board meeting on record I know
014that one it would have to go past midnight but I am willing to at least be here for part of it um so we're going to start with our Deca students where we had over 22 students who qualified for the state competition Deca prepares emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing Finance hospitality and management in high school and colleges around the globe when I say your name I'd ask you to please come up and I'm going to have you guys stay over here we are going to have all of our ctso qualifiers come up at one time so stay up till the end um we're going to start with I see this person quite a bit it's fantastic um uh Robert puit please come on down here and what I'm yeah we can clap and what
015I goe go ahead and what I'm also going to do is I'm going to share with you guys when I call each of these state qualifiers in I'm going to share the category that they qualified in just because I think it's so impressive to kind of see the categories and so Mr puit was in accounting applications on a side note Mr puit has recently been awarded a full scholarship to Cleveland State [Applause] University I had a chance to be with his grandma last week at our other event and she was extremely impressed it was it was funny U for our next person Elena Richards who qualified in apparel and accessories marketing and yeah I'll go ahead I'll say the name and then you guys clap and then I'll say the category that'll work out well
016our next person is Alex aberti Alex qualified an apparel and accessory marketing next student is Jack Johnson and that was in business finance next student is Michael Waters and that is in entrepreneurship we have Tyler spackman he's in hotel and lodging management and then Micah Norris Reynolds I'm just going to turn this so I can shake hands too if that's okay and Micah Norris Reynolds was in human resource management we have Alise Patty which is also human resource management Nathan Wickman that's in marketing Communications Sydney Stark and retail merchandising Dylan Dickerson and that's in sports and entertainment marketing next one is Salvatore marello and business finance we have Dominic Baron and that was in buying and merchandising team decision making we have Patrick Collins that was also in buying and merchandising team decision making Emily
017croen that was in principles of business management and administration we have Jaden Russell that was principles of business management and administration Brian mogna and principles of Finance good guy have Raja Mills [Applause] principles of Finance as well we have Tia McDonald also principles of finance and then Lily Waters principles of hospitality and tourism Margaret hadu which is also principles of hospitality and tourism and then Samuel gasy which is principles of marketing now we do have a a few ctsos our next one I'll be moving on to is HOSA and also FCCLA so HOSA is future health professionals and this is a National Organization of secondary and postsecondary students that support Career Development and Health Professions and Improvement of Health Services delivery to the general population After High School over 90% of Hosta students continue to
018pursue a career in the Health Professions we have 18 students who qualified for the HOSA state competition and in addition I'm going to share our student who qualified in the FCCLA which is the family career Community leaders of America and this is an organiz ation that students in our Culinary Academy participate in so at this time I'm going to start with our family career Community leaders of America and Braden Clarity bradden was in product development and now on to our HOSA our first one is going to be dona sapperstein don't you qualified in medical reading next one is Aaron Iola Aaron qualified in home health aid Miranda Rich Miranda qualified in veterinary science Jillian funk [Applause] Jillian qualified in Pharmacology Rachel [Applause] Hayes Rachel was in sports medicine second I'm getting here and then Harmony
019battle she's in medical assisting we have Natalie [Applause] blatnik Natalie wasn't medical assisting we have Tyson Sadowski Tyson qualified to state in clinical nursing we have Joelle [Applause] Dar Joel was in clinical nursing and then deona Gary and that was in clinical nursing we have NAA vau na was a medical spelling Ryan Rob Robinson medical spelling we have Aaliyah Spielman Aaliyah was in Pharmacology Taylor link also pharmacology Desiree Smith Des very qualified in biotechnology Madison Drake that was home health aid Elizabeth [Applause] Hoy and Julia brusi and that was in photomy which is awesome and now on to our last ctso I'll be discussing tonight which will be skills USA which is our last one but also our largest so okay um skills USA is a partnership of students teachers and Industry working together to
020ensure America has a skilled Workforce skillsusa serves middle school high schools and college post-secondary students preparing for careers in trade Technical and skilled service including Health occupations skills USA empowers members to become World worldclass workers leaders and responsible American citizens we had over 29 students qualify for the state competition our first student is Katie Jackson and that was in the art showcase Savannah Smith also in the art showcase We're not gonna beat that record by [Laughter] running Maya too also art showcase and then we have Scott [Applause] FIS that was in career pathway showcase we have carara cab that was also career pathway showcase and then Megan Meer also career pathway showcase I'll add a tidbit here in one second so Scott Fisk Cara cab and mega merer all achieved silver placement in a runnerup
021state finish in their category so congratulations to them Ari pilsky that was creative sculpture Adriana SE as in engineering we have Shane kie firefighting awesome Nico [Applause] sabatini Kendra prella just in case anything happens she was runner up in the state in first aid CPR [Applause] so Ryan Mitzner Ryan was in Automotive Maintenance and light repair Samuel bradock Samuel was in carpentry and it was amazing what I watched him build in a span of two hours down in Columbus at the competition it was pretty cool um next two students are EMT students we have Ryan s [Applause] also on EMT we have Ryan [Applause] Skelly fun fact Ryan Skelly is the son of our school resource officer Jack Skelly right over there so it is great to see a proud father right there public and
022mother of course ISS well you have a [Laughter] uniform we can clap for Mom we we we also have Jonathan doovic I was in Customer Service we have Lisa guio Lisa qualified in interactive applications in video game design we have William Jones also interactive applications in video game design Aiden swatowski [Applause] Aiden qualified in cyber security so that is fantastic we need that we also have Dominic bernardini Dominic also qualified to the St competition and cyber security we have the next four students that I'm about to announce they were the bronze medalists they came in third place in the state and they have also we recently found out it was yesterday afternoon that they have qualified to go to the national competition that's going to be down in Atlanta Georgia June 22nd through the 29th
023so the next students I'm going to go ahe and first one is going to be Rowan garding Smith [Applause] and they qualified in the entrepreneurship series which is awesome um Tony guen [Applause] Tony's not going to be able to accompany us because he is going to be out of the country uh visiting Vietnam which is awesome just blew my mind Connor fory [Applause] and zultan [Applause] Haren just a few more Griffin lacer that was in web design we also have Evan [Applause] maler not only did Evan qualify for web design to the state competition he also is probably one of the best office AIDS we have at Menor High School I think I think I bother him every day he's eating his lunch but Paxton Warren Paxton was in the career pathway showcase Davon [Applause]
024Davis and then certainly not our our least but last a qualifier Alexander cyer and that was in career pathway showcase as well so at this time please join me in congratulating our 2024 ctso state [Applause] qualifiers guys because I have an iPhone for my photo do you guys mind just condensing a little bit just I mean there's the the the the panoramic like makes it weird weird and skinny hang on all right [Applause] now as they're leaving I hope you do not mind but there is one additional thing that we were going to do really quick um Can the officers of skillsusa please come on up here we just have a uh we received an award and we were going to just do kind of a quick special presentation to you guys of something we
025received from the state which we thought was really great and as opposed to hearing from me which you guys have probably heard enough of I know Mr Wade has we are um going to go ahead and have them come up here and then Rowan will take it from there who's who's coming up with you it'll be all right Mrs president members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade as representatives of the skillsa local officer team we'd like to thank our board for supporting our many skillsa events and activities from a local Regional State and National level this year we applied for chapter of Excellence designation through our events and Industry Partnerships that our chapter engaged in specifically volunteering with the food market little leaders at the jumpyard and information technology events through the Greater
026Cleveland partnership our colors this for you guys our colors which are represented on this flag have meaning the colors red white blue and gold represent the national skills USA organization red and white represent the individual states and chapters blue represents the common Union of the states and the chapters gold represents the individual the most important element of our organization we'd like to award you with this commemorative flag to say thank you for your support we are only one of 13 schools in the state of Ohio to receive this designation and we would like to share this recognition with you what a representative please come forward to accept this flag [Applause] now I'm really done thank you so much I appreciate it I'm sorry Mr Wade I forgot to give Mr glaven a uh time limit
027today now we always love hearing about uh the success of our students so anytime we can celebrate them the better um Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade um actually before I start that if I could have Jenny vicaro please join me at the podium at this time I would like to recognize several staff members from the high school for their heroic life-saving efforts during a critical Medical emergency that took place on Friday March 15th 2024 we had one of our cafeteria workers at the high school that went into cardiac arrest and the Swift actions of our nutrition services team at the high school saved her life at this time I would like to ask each of those members to come forward as I read their name Rachel bjack Rebecca Black Kim bradoock
028Amica condr Deanna feda Samar Ibrahim Terry kti Tracy CI Kathy lardner bernardet martii Dolores Mich Michelle Robinson Ronnie Shimmel Jamie stanik Karen zook and then our materials Handler Tim glowski and our nurse Jeremy golden we are also honored this evening to have joy with us so I would ask Joy ymani to please come forward e [Applause] I'm trying to get away [Applause] Madam president members of the board Mr Wade at this time I would like to invite Miss P to the podium for an O AA recognition thank you I promise I won't take as much time as Mr glaven did if he's still here thanks Joe uh good evening Madam president members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade I'm Melanie P principal of Fairfax Elementary in the district but tonight I'm serving as
029past president of the Ohio Association of Elementary School administrators and I am here to recognize a fellow Elementary School for their hard work to earn the oaesa Hall of Fame award this year I appreciate you giving me the time to recognize the students staff and families of Sterling Marton this evening out of approximately 2500 elementary and middle level schools from across Ohio only seven of them have been chosen to receive this award this year in order to apply schools must be nominated by someone once they accepted the nomination the staff worked through a long 133-page application that provided extensive detail about the Mission Vision programming and culture of the school it then moves to a blind read of all applications by a team of principles from across the state with a scoring component using a
030standard rubric the top scoring schools receive a site visit by a different team of principles who spend at least a half day touring the school and talking with various stakeholders after the visitations are completed the scores from the readers and the visitors are combined and averaged and only the top schools are awarded this Hall of Fame status with no more than 10 each year this is what the visiting team had to say about Sterling Morton Elementary School the staff at Sterling Morton Elementary School like to refer to their school as the best kept secret in the district after spending the morning there our visitors shared that nothing about Sterling Morton should be kept a secret as a true Community School Sterling Morton is clearly the hub for all activities many family events are held H
031each year along with student performances in both performing and visual arts teachers noted that Mr Porter's montra of love them first teach them second has allowed them to truly come together to do what's best for students they proudly described how there is never hesitation if a need is evident they all help out all the students as one staff member said because we are happy the kids are happy at this time I would like to recognize Mr Bill Porter and the Sterling Morton staff congratulations on a job well [Applause] done this is just a an in oh come on down you guys are the reason you're this award you can't hang out back there this is just an in the interim award for right now they will receive a beautiful plaque this summer at our oaesa
032conference down in Columbus at Easton so in June you will have a nice beautiful plaque so you better find a good spot at Sterling Morton to display it proudly congratulations [Applause] [Laughter] congratul conrat my congratulations congratulations and to highlight Sterling Morton even further we have put together a lovely compilation video about the school so enjoy hey hey what do you say it's going to be a wonderful day I really feel so lucky to be part of this school I wouldn't want to be anywhere else there's just such a sense of belonging here um you can see it when kids are walking into our building every morning the teachers are here GRE them so excited to see them it's just a really good way to start our day so clap your hands and turn around give
033a high five and then sit down we have the best students here good morning lovely children happy Friday so we thought we were going to wish our third fourth and fifth graders good luck the other day at an all school assembly we did we just thought it was for State Testing to kind of boost the morale get the kids excited about State Testing our Prin School kind of threw in a little surprise for US state of Ohio as a little did we know that we were getting presented with the Hall of Fame award it was just such a surprise and so exciting um for our building of Fame award is given to schools each year by the Ohio Association of Elementary School administrators and we are fortunate enough this year to be honored as one
034of seven schools in Ohio to receive the [Applause] award this really speaks to you know not just the last year or two of work at the building by the students staff families but I think it's several years in the making because you have to have kind of a culture of excellence and we're really proud of this who still has to finish their writing it's such a good feeling when the whole school is being recognized not just individual teachers but it's really just showing how well we all work together and how we all are so deserving of this award um not just one person but everyone who collaborates and works together in this building all the students everyone in this building played a huge role in this they were very proud of themselves knowing that this
035is not an award that we've gotten before so they are a part of such a big award for our school and such a big award for our district the best schol in the world [Applause] this concludes our recognitions for this evening thank you thank you it's a lot to be proud of at this time we'll take a short break to allow for anyone who would like to leave to exit e e e the next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes some moved second any discussion I do have something I'd like to say we're an educational institution and to attract and retain high quality staff we need a community where good people want to work our role is to prepare the Next Generation to take their places as productive citizens we should model
036the very Behavior we expect of them these monthly business meetings are embarrassing to our town veiled threats rude Behavior intimidation and verbal attacks have turned some of them into a spectacle and what possible good can come from from that our emails come from across the ideological Spectrum it's not lopsided in life that usually means that most people are somewhere in the middle our Board elections show that same span among voters results from this month's survey will reveal more about what our community wants and expects and we take that feedback to Heart the small data sample that the levy Consultants gathered last October clearly showed that at the very least people want us to move on and to focus on other Pro problems that spurred the policy to empower parents to have full control over what
037their children are reading despite the compromise some attacks continue if we emphasize chaos and negativity how will that help us to support the district that we've been proud of for over 100 years social media is the worst offender of all I do sorry point of order is this related to the agenda yes I was basing it on the commentary that's listed there's so small capsule summaries of what folks have been saying okay so we're looking to adjust the meeting minutes then this is discussion before we approve okay okay social media is the worst offender of all we agree that there are dangers embedded in it for our teenagers it holds a mirror up to the sender and brings out the worst in far too many of us and reflects poorly on our town I try
038to attend as many school events as I can that's been my habit since I was first elected and I'm proud to know how many hardworking highquality people are doing everything they can to help our students Thrive we can't let that be overshadowed by the negative Impressions our meetings create is everything perfect of course not a district our size is a complex organization with lots of moving Parts but we're stalled on a handful of topics that are consuming time and money that would be better invested on some of those other issues that we all agree need priority attention each year our seniors become voters what we model for civic engagement can help them to find their voices we've thought about including students as part of our boardsmy protective instincts make me worry that they could become
039targets of the same Venom thrown casually at us most parents would agree that crude and ugly remarks are not what we want surrounding the Next Generation and who could expect a student to sacrifice four or five hours of time on a school night just to be immersed in a ranous atmosphere we listen to all commentary I want to believe that anyone coming forward to speak at these meetings wants only the best for Mentor Schools and whether or not people respect us as individuals it's right and proper to show respect for this setting just as a matter of good citizenship I'm asking that every person who joins us in these seats models the decorum that we would want want to see our children display ugly epithets and coarse language don't send a good message about the
040quality of our community and this weighs heavily on me because mentors kids deserve better any additional discussion Mr Wade please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss marazza yes Miss Appo yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes minutes are approved 5 Z next we have hearing of the public on agenda items only our first speaker is Brandy Shin good evening this is my first time up here so I'm a little nervous um we at support public education in Menor are thrilled about Menor High School's impressive ranking in the US News and World Report we present these numbers as good old-fashioned math on why our superintendent deserves his contract renewal here are the numbers Menor Public Schools ranked 152nd out of 707 Ohio districts ranked that is within the top 22% of all districts in Ohio
041looking at the number of high schools regardless of the district the numbers look even more impressive Menor high school ranked 152nd out of 941 high schools that is in the top 16% of all high schools in Ohio MHS has a graduation rate of 94% Menor schools is not only great but getting better Menor High moved up 19 spots from last year's ranking this is phenominal progress finally let's look at the national numbers MHS ranked 4,224 out of over 17,000 total high schools ranked that is in the top 24% of all high schools in the US a hearty congratulations to our entire School Board Mr Heath Mr Wade and all the teachers and staff that serve Menor high school and the Menor Public Schools as a whole well done as a former student of Mr heaths
042from his first year teaching straight out of Kent State more than a couple of years ago I must say I am so very proud of the educational professional you are I am honored that you are the superintendent of the district that I chose to send my children to and it is my pleasure to speak on behalf of renewing your contract thank you very much thank [Applause] you our second speaker is Linda O'Brien good evening Mr Heath my comments are directed to you I received an email from your office recently indicating that a survey was to go out to our children uh and that if we wanted to opt our children out of the survey that we should indicate so not having a survey to look at I emailed back asking to have the survey sent
043to me I was told that I wasn't allowed to see the survey I pushed back and said that's unacceptable where is the transparency and I was told we don't own the survey so we can't share it with you I pushed back again and said I was an independent business consultant for over 30 years I administered countless surveys when my client paid me the survey was theirs therefore I found less than truth in the statement that you did not own the survey the only option given to me was that I had to be inconvenienced and go to the shore school and see this survey on a computer it was important so I did so and I was disgusted with what I saw I will tell you it was one of the worst worst created surveys I
044have ever seen it was unclear there was a lack of Direction there was confusion about how to respond and to validate that afterwards I talked to some of the students and asked them exactly how was that survey for you and they said we didn't understand it we had to ask our teacher why did they ask us to do this and my question to you is exactly that why did we do that survey and how much money did you waste of our taxpayers money in our contribution on creating that survey because the fact is there was no transparency there was no par parental rights that were honored and this and the situation should never have happened without the parents first being able to review the survey that is what we do when we operate with Integrity
045so I see now that you are up for renewal of your contract and I want you to know as a consultant I vote no Mentor deserves better Mentor deserves a superintendent of Integrity one that has knowledge can can assess value and will take ownership of what they pay for we need deserve better thank you thank you McKenzie mallister good evening my name is McKenzie mccollister and my son is a student in Menor Public School District it is amazing to me that three members in the superintendent continually undermine the rights of the parents at every turn emails go unanswered and concerns from parents and taxpayers get tossed by the wayside it is confusing that I have to stand up at this Podium and beg for pornographic material to be removed from our libraries it is even
046worse to have to worry about a young woman's right to use her own bathroom at school because you allow a biological male who identifies as a female to enter their safe space you as a whole are supposed to vote with of the majority and make accommodations for the minority instead a young woman was told she can use the nurse's bathroom if she felt uncomfortable why is this may I remind you the school board was intended to facilitate local governance maximize parental involvement and create proper accountability for voters and parents however in the recent years these Hallmarks have been lost due to increasingly nationalized woke agenda the school board and its superintendent have become an ideologically driven command center shaping curriculum and pushing their radical agendas you have successfully created a top Down super woke structure
047that is overriding the parents involvement in the children's right to learn the school board has become explicitly political with exclusively political objectives the curriculum change has shifted away from critical thinking skill and started indoctrinating them on what to think there is no reason for there to be instruction on gender gender identity gender sexuality or racial identity in our school system sir if this continues you will not only get a levy that does not pass this district will find itself in a lawsuit you will not win safety in the schools where there's physical violence does not need seal they need a stronger leadership and follow through a discipline which is severely lacking correct me if I'm wrong but I do believe your contract is up for Renewal it is not until next year though we also
048have not seen test scores from this year State Testing let me remind you per Ohio Department of Education math proficiency is at a 48% and reading is at 76% so I'm baffled by our graduation rate of 94% that's for another day though unfortunately it seems the curriculum is so far off that the basics have forgotten to be taught resulting in failing grades for Math and subpar levels for reading unacceptable it is also unacceptable to ask for a contract renewal raise without results why would anyone in good contract even ask for a raise renewal at this point without proven results could it be that a raise renewal will increase your retirement H Food For Thought parents and taxpayers any and all discussion for Renewal and raise should be tabled until June after the results are released
049thank you figures our next speaker is Jacqueline McCormack good evening I'm hoping to get through my three minute speech without Madame President screaming to shut off my microphone that was an awkward moment wasn't it you should all thank Mrs Payne for her guidance on the legalities of re actions tonight's agenda includes discussion and a vote on superintendent Heath's contract and salary it is my understanding that he was hired in July of 2022 on a three-year contract he has not even completed the second year of the original contract but is already asking for a renewal and a raise this usually occurs after a lengthy list of positive actions and improvements on the part of the superintendent while it is true there have been baby steps accomplished there is an alarmingly long list of things that need
050still need to be addressed first of all Menor schools is currently facing some real Financial shortfalls due to the community failing to pass a new Levy last November the outlook for a future Levy is grim is this really the time for the head of that school district to ask for more money in his paycheck top issues facing our school district are academics inappropriate books in our libraries and the overall safety of our kids our students took the state test last month results are expected to be returned by the end of June it is difficult to base Mr Heath's contract on test scores that we have yet to see there should be no contract renewal until those results can be viewed by parents teachers in the community inappropriate books and those that contain sexually explicit content
051remain in our libraries our policy states that we must address these books and that our schools must offer opposing views on controversial topics as of tonight Mr Heath and our school board have done nothing to address this there has been lots of discussion lots of finger pointing and lots of suggestions for Solutions and improvements but not one thing has actually been accomplished in regards to the overall safety of our children sro's in each building seems to be improving somewhat and we appreciate that the Bell to Bell cell uh cell policy also seems to be helping thank you for that however fist fights bullying and overall unsafe situations continue to occur on a regular almost daily basis this needs to stop Administration needs to step up and create meaningful consequences and the general consensus is they
052don't to quote Mr Heath at a previous board meeting we can't suspend our way out of this problem that was an interesting statement there are many areas that need Improvement we need to see sub substantial improvements in your decision Mak and communication skills Mr Heath I would recommend that we address your renewal at a later date thank you thank you our next speaker is Gil martello I apologize um this going to seem bit disjointed I spent the last week um most brutal work week I've had in quite some time I've lost two Senior People due to health concerns their positions cannot be filled good evening Mr Heath Mr Wade members of the board some of you may or may not realize our district enjoys the benefit of heavy industry if we were to lose those
053businesses our tax base would cose apse we all understand Mr Heath's position he's answerable to the board and right now the majority of this board is aligned with basically left leaning ideology and my peers laid that case out quite clearly 60% of graduating high school scho students will go on to further education 40% of those who elect a 2-year associates degree program will graduate within two years 50 of those who pursue the typical four-year degree graduate in four years depending on who you believe by the spring of 20128 30 less than 30% of the current 24 graduating class may have a college degree of some form this is national standards and it probably varies furthermore a study conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis concluded that nationally for every man currently in college
054there are two women where are our young men why aren't we having this discussion I have many young men from Paynesville City Schools Menor City Schools they come to me shoes untied hair unkempt wanting a job and I look at them what skills do you have how have you prepared and I get a Blank Stare now the CT students over here CT students commend them outstanding work how many how many Engineers did you hear how many Precision machinists how many hbac how many electricians how many Carpenters you soon all will be paying doctor's wages for your trades people for every five retiring trades people two are entering the workforce and we argue about restrooms where where is our local industry supposed to get their labor from I ask you Manor been is qualified as a
055wealthy District it's not even listed on the top 25 school districts in Ohio and our role in is in Decline you have to ask why are not young families flocking to the mar the mentor area as they once did in the 80s and 90s a school district's primous Prime function is to serve the community and deliver to it what it needs thank you very much [Applause] Jennifer lad Mr Heath and board members thank you for allowing me to practice My First Amendment right to free speech the reason why I'm here tonight because I think it's quite laughable Mr Heath is not only seeking a raise but a contract renewal as well usually Merit gets you a raise you must earn a new contract what isn't laughable when Craig Heath declared all a male student has
056to do to enter the girls bathroom and say I'm a girl today magically a red carpet to our girls safe spaces shall appear this was according to the March 2023 Schoolboard meeting you see Craig you'd make more you'd more than earn that raise and renewal if you gained your common sense back XX equals girls XY equals boys there is a reason why archaeologists can tell the difference thousands of years later yet you base it solely off of delusions and mental illnesses does it make sense to allow an already mentally unstable male to use our girls bathrooms nope boys are stronger than girls no matter what they do to their bodies just ask that tiny little blonde who was beaten up and battered in the cafeteria at the high school or the two females in Lowden
057County Virginia that boy also said I'm a girl today and school officials had to appear woke enough and subsequently two girls were savagely beaten and they were raped will Mentor become the next Lowden County you surely aren't doing your best to prevent that from happening again do you honestly think that you deserve that raise and renewal at our last meeting a Community member saying your Praises for taking a Calamity day for the solar eclipse but one can't be used to deplete the libraries of pornographic materials yay another parent besides me had offered to gift the schools with proper educational materials for the students I have yet to receive any emails regarding this it is within your policy by the way there is a solution here but when we have three seats being abused by radical
058leftist a solution cannot be met Maggie always says the term allinclusive well just as long as it aligns with her politics so much for allinclusive you can keep Boys in their own bathrooms don't worry about it guys if they don't like it they can use the nurse's bathroom you can get rid of these pornographic and pedophilic books and if you adopt a curriculum that educates doesn't indoctrinate then you shall earn that rais and renewal until then you Craig you get an F I do have good news for you though you do get an A+ for doing whatever the radicals on this board say your super far woke lefter are Mighty proud of you that pension and position as superintendent sure as hell works wonders for completely destroying your moral compass and what parents and community
059members think of you forget about any levies for a long while too if we're going to keep abusing those seats to push your leftist cult-like views thank [Applause] you Andrea Bliss good evening in preparing my remarks for this evening I looked over the district's mission statement vision and slogan our mission statement inspiring students today to reach their potential tomorrow our students love Mr Heath an acquaintance of mine once said that visiting the schools with Craig was like being with a celebrity the students all know him and they are happy to see him Mr Heath also knows the students many by name and he cares about them this Mutual fondness is crucial when it comes to inspiring students our vision ensure a safe learning environment Mr Heath has sat with our board collaborated with local law
060enforcement and research the best ways to keep our students safe both in day-to-day and in cases of emergency provide balanced highquality education Menor schools was recently ranked in the top 22% of all districts in Ohio and near the top of the districts in Lake County this could not have been achieved without Mr Heath's excellent leadership maximize District resources Mr Wade has stated on numerous occasions that he and Mr Heath meet regularly to discuss plans for the district and how to best reach our goals with the resources that we have this is an ongoing task that Mr Heath strives to meet encourage strong Community Partnerships I read an article that was published before the November election and in that article Mr Heath stated that he spends approximately 10 to 15% of each day addressing Community concerns
061he has stated in past meetings that he receives hundreds of emails a day he listens to our community and takes the feedback provided by parents students and taxpayers into communication when making important decisions he is passionate passionate about the strategic planning project and very clearly wants to see our district Thrive with the help of our community our slogan ABC adapting balancing collaborating again Mr Heath has shown countless times that he is able to adapt balance and collaborate with staff students and the community to help us achieve our goals these meetings have shown us that there are a lot of very different people in our district with many different needs Mr Heath gladley listens to the concerns of the community and works to find a balance that will meet the need needs of all students and
062families as much as can be done he would not be able to find that balance without the ability to adapt and the the willingness to collaborate I think Mr Heath embodies each of these characteristics and qualities and has more than risen to the challenge of leading our district what I find most impressive about Mr Heath is how much he so clearly loves his job when he has a chance to speak about the individual schools in their achievements or when he talks about his visit with the students smile on his face shows that he is the right person he is in the right position he attends student events and greets people warmly Craig Heath is the best person to lead our district and I ask that you vote to renew his contract as we are lucky
063to have him as our superintendent thank you Lin Mazika good evening and thank you for the opportunity to uh address you this evening I understand the renewal of superintendent Heath is uh on tonight's Schoolboard agenda and after having attended almost all of the school board meetings since he took office I can confidently say that he is an asset to our schools and community in so many ways his aim of providing the best Ed education for each student recognizing their individual needs goals and talents is commendable Mr Heath has worked with Mr Wade to cut costs wherever possible without compromising izing the quality of their kids education he's part of the solution he's been working with all of the board members to develop a reasonable and Equitable way to provide parental control over the books their
064children are reading from the school library he interacts with staff and students on a daily basis he continues to work with Lakeland to provide a varied selection of Career and Technical education programs he's worked with the teaching staff and administration to improve T test scores and our schools ranking Statewide and all the award-winning students recognized this evening show how impressive our students are under my Mr Heath's guidance and the award as an Ohio Hall of Fame School earned by Sterling Morton there's only seven of those in the state to receive that award there are many other positive in Innovations he has accomplished or started we need not only to renew his contract but to thank him for his dedicated service to our school system thank you thank [Applause] you that concludes the public participation next
065we have the superintendent's report and recommendations just have a couple of things uh coming out of last board meeting that I'll touch on here this evening uh since I know we've got a a lengthy Financial update uh from Mr Wade um not nearly as long as Dr glaven though uh coming out of the April board meeting uh we had conversations that impact several different board policies around curricular supplemental and media center materials rather than trying to talk about these individually over the next few months at our regular board meetings uh we're going to discuss the following group of policies and admin admin ministrative guidelines as part of a board work session on July 3rd at 5:30 p.m. here in Paradigm the 2520 series that we outlined was several options uh presented to the board members
0662240 controversial issues 9130 public complaints 7230 gifts grants and bequests 2210 curriculum development 2270 religion in the curriculum 2131 educational outcome goals 9700 relations with special interest groups and then we will also be looking closely at our library collection development procedures and our library media weeding procedures this will allow us to align the policies that connect to all of the various aspects of the curriculum adoption process the material selection process the donation process challenges controversial issues and our procedures for the media centers across all of our schools in the district so that we can develop exactly what we want to do in the district for the 2425 school year we are following our weeding guidelines for the media center right now and we have put a a hold on ordering Media Center books and materials
067for next year until we get all of this completed and can direct our staff accordingly the other topic I want to touch on uh here briefly tonight and we will continue this conversation is around student discipline one item that we discussed last meeting that we will continue to dig into more as we finish off this school year is student discipline I have a few data points to share with everyone this evening as a starting point but we'll provide additional comparative data at the June meeting as well as of Friday May 10th here are some of the discipline numbers that I have pulled from our data system currently looking just at Menor High School Memorial Middle School and Shore Middle School as a starting point for us during this school year we've had major events indicated
068in our data collection system in regards to student discipline uh with the following in numbers major events just so everybody knows as well we're talking about things like tobacco vaping alcohol uh offenses physical aggression threats gossip uh physical injury and weapons total this year at Menor High School we've had 184 major events at Memorial Middle School we've had 291 at Shore Middle School 302 minor events which are things like attendance disruption disrespect uh technology violations uh the minor events have totaled at Menor high school 1,967 at Memorial 726 at Shore 1,122 again the majority of those things are revolving around attendance issues so anytime there are tardies or uh some truy pieces those are are indicated as minor events that's why those totals are so high in regards to the discipline types um so far
069this year with the out of school suspensions there have been 179 at Menor High School 61 at Memorial Middle School 59 at Shore Middle School in school restrictions 111 at uh Menor High School 2 5 at Memorial seven at Shore Middle School Saturday schools we have 224 at Menor High School seven at Memorial 27 at Shore and then detentions these are anything from after school office detentions lunch detentions uh morning detentions afternoon detentions all told we have at uh Menor High School 969 Memorial is at 361 and Shore is at 374 and again I'll share all those with our board members here this week I have some other numbers that we'll dig into uh a little bit uh more here in June as well um I promise I will have a more of a presentation
070with uh Mr Wade like charts and graphs at our June meeting happy to help and we will include comparison d over the last couple of years along with some more detailed data regarding student discipline I know that a vast majority of the incidents reported are done by a small percentage of the students for example 523 of the incidents at the high school are associated with 20 students that means 523 incidents are being attributed to less than 1% of the student population in the high school what we need to do with this data is identify what needs those students have that are not being met are they in the wrong Academic Program are there underlying factors that need addressed does the student just not work well in a large Comprehensive High School setting would an alternative
071setting or online platform work better for that student whatever it is we need to develop the program of studies that will best meet their needs or find an environment that will support uh provide the supports to help them succeed again I look forward to digging into this data a little bit more as we finish the school year and I will provide updates for everyone in June Mr Heath yes thank thank you for this information that's very helpful for us to move forward um when as you're as you're looking at this you mentioned major events and and that was I can see why they're considered major I just they seem very different from each other throughout that category do you have the breakdown maybe not now but could could you get a breakdown of the major
072events as well yeah we have those things broken down as well we pulled some of that here uh this afternoon just making sure we verify those numbers before we give them but uh we will have those for you here soon can we get information from see maybe seven years back because Co has a sort of an aberration in the way because kids were in school in aering pattern yeah so that that data may not be as reliable so it could be included but understandably comparing it in a different way but if we could go back so that we could maybe see a trend are we looking at something that's level or increasing or decreasing and that's why we want to make sure that we we can pull some comparison data just to know where we
073sit compared to where we were previously um I we'll see what we can pull and how far back that's going to go um we did transition to a new data system here this year but um we'll we'll dig through some of that and see what we can find also um you had mentioned you know looking into different types of uh supports for the students but I'd also like to see what type of discipline some of those repeat offenders have already had because at some point there is a point that we need to get to where if you're you know in that situation where you're repeating that behavior and we've warned you so many times I do think that might need to be looked at yeah I have a question make I just want to make
074sure I wrote it down right so the major events sh had 32 but they had the least amount of out of school suspensions or in school suspensions correct it's why this will be an interesting conversation yeah okay I'll in I'll just finish off with one quick story as well um I had a sixth grade student that reached out to me uh through email and um wanted to sit down and talk um happened to be um a student that I had met last year uh when she was a fifth grader um and she's had a tough transition to to the Middle School this year and um she wanted to talk through some of the experiences that she's had we talked a lot about um discipline and it was interesting to hear her perspective coming from a
075sixth grade mind um one of the things that she she said was we're not Tough Enough From A discipline standpoint and then like two minutes later she said but it really doesn't matter because those kids get suspended and come back and the behavior doesn't change um and that that's the struggle and that's what we need to resolve do we need to be tougher in our our discipline I first glance at the numbers yeah we do um but what are the other factors that we need to incorporate into this as well and that that's going to be an important St uh distinction for us to make um the one thing I will share with you coming out of that meeting and I shared this not not only with that sixth grade student but with her parents
076as well uh reached out to the principal immediately and said hey I I want to kind of get together here and start talking through some solutions um that's going to incorporate both our Middle School principls our high school principal as well and just start digging into some of this data to figure out what's going on um again I think we're talking about small percentages of students that are causing the majority of the issues so what do we do with them what can we do to support them number one but at the same time is is sitting at Shore Middle School is sitting at Memorial Middle School is sitting at at at Menor High School the right spot for them maybe not and there are different ideas that um I've been a part of in other
077districts that I think we might be able to take a look at and and see if there something that we can develop to continue the education of those students because that's very important but make sure that we're not doing it at the detriment of the other students that are in those those classes um so that that's going to be a a pretty big conversation that we're going to have here starting in June um again I'll I'll make sure and break down the the data a little bit further um I will get into the discipline consequences a little bit more as well um I've given you just some high overview things here today the nice thing about this new data system is you can dig pretty deep in some of this um I kind of got
078into the weeds a little bit here over the last few days just as we've been looking at some of this and and again and you know from my past experience I I was data and assessment for many years at a couple of big districts down in the central Ohio area and i i l looking at data so um it'll be good to to kind of sort through some of this really analyze it closely and then start brainstorming some ideas I think one of the things that we can do with this as well is bring this to our our School Safety Committee as well start talking through some of those ideas and and seeing what's resonating with our group moving forward um in addition to some of the other school safety pieces that uh uh we
079just met about here recently as well we won't get into that tonight but um I I think there's some good things here starting right now that we can build off of and figure out okay why does that not make sense Miss iopo exactly what I looked at 302 major events at sure 59 out of school suspensions what's the difference there um so we'll we'll be taking a close look at some of those Mr Heath would you be able and it sounds like you already planned to but um I'd like to see the major events kind of split out regarding you know violence threats of violence as opposed to Tobacco vaping alcohol offenses I just yeah that'd be important to do yeah and they get into specific discipline codes and we've got them all broken down
080by those codes so that'll be an easy uh an easy set of numbers to pull thank you [Music] all right uh Madame President members of the board and Mr Wade I have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of items 7 A1 through 7 A3 so moved second please call the rooll oh can we have discussion I just had a quick question sure um the Menor schools Foundation the uh High School science teacher Leslie she's the um High School fishing club advisor so it didn't say it there normally it says you know she's the fishing club adviser so I didn't know if if that $1,700 is going to her for some other reason or is it going to her for the fishing club it's going to the fishing club that's what
081I figured I just it didn't say it like it normally does so I wanted to verify that's all any more discussion all right Mr Wade please call the role M Jing yes Miss iapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion carry 5 Z Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the AT&T universal Universal extension Amendment do I have a motion so moved second any discussion please call the rooll Miss Jing yes Miss Payne yes Miss iapo yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the class kick re ual subscription do I have a motion so mooved second any discussion please call the role M Jing yes Miss maraza yes misso yes Miss
082Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z Adam president members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the HPC Medicaid school program service agreement second any discussion please call the role Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes misslo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the rental agreement with the city of Menor I moved second any discussion please call the rooll Miss pay yes Miss Alo yes M jessing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z Madame President members of the board Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C5 all related to human resource matters second please call the role oh any discussion sorry is that
083Miss maraza second yes Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Alo yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion to carry 5 Z I'm also recommending approval of agenda item D related to administrative staff so moved second any discussion please call the rooll M Jing yes Miss moraza yes Miss AO yes M Payne yes M cook yes motion carries 5 Z I'm also recommending approval of agenda item e related to exempt staff benefits so moved second any discussion please call the role you miss motion yes uh Miss AO yes Miss Payne yes Miss jessing yes Miss maraza yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z and finally I'm uh recommending approval of agenda item F related to administrative staff benefits Mo second any discussion please call the role Miss chesing yes Miss maraza yes Miss
084AO yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 5 Z this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you next we have the Board of Education report and recommendations and the first item under board business is the second reading and approval of the Menor Board of Education Neola policies a second I'll second any discussion please call the role M Jing yes Miss Cook yes misso yes Miss moraza yes Miss Payne yes motion carries 5 Z the second item under board business is the reappointment of Craig Heath as the superintendent and the authorization of an employment contract so move second any discussion please call the RO I do sorry I do have a discussion um what what exactly are we voting on because there's no contract here in the system nothing was uploaded for us
085to review so if we say yes to a contract it's it's not in there for us to review the the contract was in our board docs was in our it's not under executive content so if you log in right now it's not there so I'm just wondering how is everybody going to vote on something that we haven't looked at yet we looked at it at the meeting we we didn't see a contract a final contract did you Maggie I have seen the final contract and I forwarded it to Mr Heath to have uploaded yeah I haven't I haven't seen one yet have you we looked at it at the meeting that we had during discussion that one we never saw either way the contract is is not the final contract which we should be voting
086on is not in no I I feel like we should read it um I'd like to motion to recess so that you so that we can take a I would like a longer time to review a contract that's like six pages long and really important you know especially given what we've heard from the community I think that I don't I don't want to just recess and look over it I might have questions you know additional questions for our attorney or um there's a lot of legal jargon that needs to be combed through so I I don't feel like a recess in the middle of a meeting is is appropriate I think we should I'd like to motion to actually postpone to a future regular meeting you could do that I'll second that I I you
087like I said with this whole process I'm being the Freshman I I want to make sure I have time to look through that certainly I'm not used to reading through legal Jon we could we could go into executive session and and do that I I'm I'm sorry that you didn't receive it and that you didn't say anything before this time it wasn't just me though nobody else received it so I'm wondering how are you going to vote on something that you haven't seen yet I did see it though you saw the final one so Maggie sent you the final one because we did change some of the information copy that was changed though from executive session you were going back to the attorney to finalize everything and we never saw the final review no nothing
088has nothing has changed from that contract from that contract no I didn't I didn't see it I didn't to look it no I I would like more time than just the night of the meeting I mean I think that we we did talk about the terms at length and I mean I don't know that I would need an entire month to review what we've already agreed to you know what I mean so having an executive session I think would we'd have the chance to confirm does this reflect what we discussed and agreed to so for me executive session is acceptable what do you mean what for when for like to come up with a time a day or you talking about going into an executive session right now going into executive session I I I
089would like more time for that I just I don't I don't I'm a little bit concerned that I mean we that's that's a big deal we should have had it within three days I think that's what our bylaws are and I don't want to feel I don't what I'm not sure what the rush is if I'm a little concerned that we were ready to vote on something we didn't see from our attorney I mean this is this it's a liability I looked at we had it on the table with us no not from Eric no we didn't not a final draft what was the what was the draft that we I that that was the contract I didn't look at any contract I mean the contract his current contract is six pages long I did
090not receive anything that was six pages long during that executive session and either way it's not I mean it's it's not I just don't understand why you waited until today when you why would you vote on something I could ask you the same thing why would you vote on something that is not even in the agenda what what if the contract says he gets $500,000 in 15 years well I I've received the contract but it's not and I sent it for them to upload so I I don't have that issue and the fact that you knew that we were voting and never asked to see the contract until this moment to me is disingenuous that's okay I I understand where you're coming from but I looked at it last night and our BW says three
091days and this isn't the first time this has happened actually last year when we were reviewing Craig with his contract I was the only board member who five minutes before the meeting said hey there's no contract in there for us to vote on and I had asked Bill to upload it and he did so this is the second time it's happened and I feel like we need to do our job and and realize there's no contract in there you're the board president you sent it to him I could say the same thing about you so well I I certainly want everyone to read it and we've talked about the terms at length um we've we've had three meetings now about this and and we spoke about it for several hours and I believe that we
092were all um feeling very comfortable with where we were going so I understand we definitely want you to have the opportunity to read it and um we we'll get that to you we have an executive session to do that well I think we have a motion right now because I motioned she seconded so I think we have to vote on on the postponing part of it and I also motioned for a um recess oh right so I think that was on the well a recess though wouldn't be an executive you'd have to motion I think for an executive session right like we can't just go I I motion for a recess for you to be able to review it on the spot and I understand if that's not enough enough time that's that's fine we
093can we can vote off that but um but that is the motion on the table so so we need to vote on the motion to postpone first is that right do you want to are are you withdrawing the re oh I can withdraw the res that's fine okay thank you so we have a motion on the table to postpone the vote and do you have a date in mind or is this indefinitely Or I don't I don't I don't know I just know that with our work session it took us find a date but I don't know if we want to wait June unless everyone wants to look at things but I know that was difficult to find our work session so yeah I think I I mean I think with a contract it's we
094should do it at a regular meeting um so we also have the other option to go into executive session so that we're not um postponing for so long because as you know our work session we were looking at June so or July actually July um I I would prefer not to vote on I mean I I will not I I don't want to review something tonight that we could have additional questions need to talk to our attorney you know there could be additional questions that arise from looking at the contract because I never saw it during the executive session I just took you know your word for what was being said which is fine but I I assumed we would have something to review well we can we can look at it in executive session
095and if you didn't feel comfortable we could when we come out of executive session we could do that I would like to postpone till because I I I I just I I don't want to feel that I want do on my own like I don't want the whole board I want to look it over myself and come up with what I have have questions on if there are any okay so we have a motion on the table to postpone um and we have who who motioned to postpone Miss pay Miss pay did in in a second could you call the role um Miss Payne yes uh Miss AO yes Miss gesling no M maraza no Miss Cook no motion to postpone fails 32 or 2 three excuse me now we have a motion to go
096into executive session so moved second just call the rooll what are we going in executive session for ex session to discuss the employment of a public official you made that Mo of Mr Cook I Did M Jing you seconded I'm sorry I seconded I think Jenny made the motion I second you suggested we do that I made the first motion you got it you got it okay we have discussion yeah it's a motion that can be discussed okay I I just want to say I in the in in the spirit of not wasting time I'm not comfortable going in executive session and having to page through something I'm a first-timer I want to pay I want to give it the attention it deserves and again quite frankly every one of us should be picking it
097apart it's you know it's a big deal and I think that it deserves the time so if that means anything we we can we can go into it but I I Echo what Rose said any more discussion no okay please call the R I do have a question if if there's a 3-2 vote on Executive session what is the outcome of that we have to go into executive session we just don't want to waste time so I don't think it's wasting time it's something that you feel you'd like to review and I respect that but I'm telling you you're hearing it from me and from Rose that we don't feel comfortable having everybody you know we want to look over it ourselves which we should be given that time for our policy it says three
098days before so so we can go in executive session but that doesn't mean we're going to change our position on that so we don't want to waste time or I don't consider it a waste of time please call the roll Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss iapo no Miss Payne no Miss Cook yes we are dismissing through executive session at 8:54 p.m. we also need to discuss then right that there if there's going to be a vote after exe executive session we have the whole rest of the agenda right so don't we have to announce I thought we had to announce it no no we'll be back after we have to finish the meeting Qui yeah e e e it's now 9:37 we are back from executive session okay thank you for for everyone's
099patience we definitely want to give this important issue due diligence um on further investigation we noticed that the contract was in fact posted to board dos it was posted in a different place that it is normally posted there are two ways to pull up board docs and one if you were to pull up in a PDF version you would have seen the draft the proposed contract that we're voting on tonight we that we have on our agenda tonight for Mr Heath's contract um it was not also in area that our public typically sees the contract um with that in mind we are comfortable at this point postponing the vote um so that everyone has do we want a motion second that and vote so we table it till the date thank you so move to
100table the vote on our superintendent contract pending our work session so we're postponing until the 31st yes the 31st May 31st at 4:30 second who was that Miss app please call the RO Miss Jing yes Miss Appo yes Miss maraza yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes motion carries 0 um let's see next we have the legislative report Miss maraza thank you madam president uh Lots has been going on at the state house uh the Ohio Department of Education Workforce had a meeting they have a few more sessions before they recess for the summer I'm going to spend more time however on legislation because loss has been moving um house bill 250 which was previously the known as the military enlistment seal bill has changed due to um Senator Andrew brener um the CH the
101former chair of the Senate education committee excuse me current chair um he proposed adding some amendments to this bill uh including requiring each public school to adopt a policy governing the use of cell phones by students during school hours and requiring the districts make their cell phone Pol policy um publicly available and on their website I believe we're already in compliance with this uh as Mr Heath told me earlier today uh so this this wouldn't impact us too terribly much um however that's important for us to know about um school districts who don't have a policy on the books will have until July 1st of next year to um adopt a policy at a public board meeting um House Bill 407 uh was is the voucher transparency bill this one's just it's not really impacting
102us but it's just important to know about this would create reporting requirements for chartered non-public schools um other updates uh this although this legislation is already passed and move through a house bill 68 which would require schools State institutions of higher ed and private colleges to designate separate Single Sex teams and sports for each sex um this uh there's a temporary order in place by a judge in Franklin County um regarding its implementation this one has been extended and definately um and really this one's just going to play out in the court so we have to just pay attention and wait for our legal councils advice on this one it's going to take some time it sounds like House Bill 183 this one says that uh schools must designate restrooms locker rooms changing rooms and
103shower rooms quote for the exclusive use of a single sex end quote with sex defined as what is listed on a person's birth certificate this passed the house committee and will now be need to be voted on by the house however this one's in direct conflict with the federal Title 9 guidelines so this mean it could be um eventually making its way to the US Supreme Court again something that's going to play out in the courts and we're we're um likely going to play out in the courts and we'll need to stay in touch with our legal council if and when this one's signed into law House Bill 8 this one would require schools to notify parents about the use of quote sexuality content end quote in class and require quote prec consent end quote
104of parents for any mental physical or Behavioral healthc Care Services um this one was introduced actually in the fall of last year um Pat it's already passed the house there have been some changes to this bill as it's gone through the senate committee um this was going to be voted on but that actually didn't happen um so right now it's just sitting in that committee uh though there have been changes made to it um lots of new legislation's been introduced more than 21 new bills by my account but honestly probably more um House Bill 485 um not all of them are going to directly impact us but a couple might House Bill 485 would require each public school to adopt an Internet safety policy I I think we already have something very similar to this
105um lots of other bills another house bill 520 would permit students to use club sports or other athletic activities to fulfill High School physical education requirements um there's another Senate Bill 259 this one's to do with participation in inter Scholastic Athletics um so lots of Bills moving as usual um there have been some changes in the Committees uh the changes in the house committees specifically speaker Jason Stevens recently made changes to the leadership of several house committees um and namely where this impacts us is um representative Adam bird was replaced um this he's on the house primary and secondary education committee he was replaced by Gail Manning and you know speaker leaders excuse me committee leaders tend to you know have different priorities so we might see some changes as um representative Manning takes over
106the Senate education committee met on May 7th uh they did a few things they amended Senate Bill 208 um which is which has to do with the enrollment policies for um military children they also heard proponent testimony on Senate Bill 219 which would change um The Lure grade bands that educators are um licensed to teach in um and then House Bill 147 that also had a hearing uh with no PR Witnesses present to testify and that one has to do with um teacher lure revocation finally The Joint Committee on property tax review and reform they're still moving along doing their work in they met in April and also in early May in April they uh met and heard testimony focusing on property taxes from the perspective of local government entities so that includes the Ohio
107townships Association the County Commissioners Association the Ohio Municipal league and the Ohio mayor's Alliance um so just you know hearing um from them and and then in May um they heard from Dr Howard Fleer with the Ohio education policy Institute who was uh he testified about property taxes and school funding in Ohio um with particular attention to the impact of House Bill 920 from back in 1976 and how it's um according to his testimony how it unsus unsustainably forces public schools to rely really heavily on um levies for funding which I think Mr Wade um is well aware of uh and and that house bille 920 is the primary reason that Ohio relies so heavily on those local levies and in fact more than any other state um so that's about it lot's going on
108thank you very much next we have the student achievement report Mrs jine thank you a good education means providing many opportunities for students to explore solve problems and meet challenges and most of these occur in the classroom but Menor also offers many activities to support the development of well-rounded successful students ready for their Futures here is a spring sampling this delightful Masterwork was a group effort from the seven Mentor elementary schools Sterling Martin Fairfax Hopkins belflower Lake Orchard Hollow and ridge each art teacher worked with students to create the beautiful oversized painting they collaborated throughout the year to make the Larger than Life wooden 4x8 postcard sending greetings from mentor each Elementary School painted one of the letters and one school designed the background what a great way to celebrate community pride and showcase our
109students Talent on April 10th Menor High School seniors who had already earned the distinction of AP scholar were celebrated many have also merited a Capstone diploma even before their hard work and achievements for their senior year are tallied 64 exceptional students were honored at the breakfast with their families Memorial students have been producing an excellent School newspaper called Memorial rights they have enjoyed producing an AR of content including topical articles interviews letters to the editor reviews sports news surveys and graphs adviser Mrs wager meets with the sixth through e8th grade staff twice a month in a little retr fund the paper is produced in hard copy for school distribution Shores newspaper Club produces the Cardinal journal with a staff of nine students they usually publish once a month the paper is mostly student L as
110Miss Ashley and is their advis the staff comes up with the information that they want to include their digital format is in canva which lets them embed short videos including interviews with staff and students student surveys on fun topics are a popular feature the 2024 military commitment ceremony on May 4th was a wonderful moment to celebrate the selfless commitment of eight of our graduating seniors to the United States Army Ray Jones Simon Summerfield and Gavin Willis to the United States Marine Corps Joe caner and Deana Harville to the United States Air Force Lexi Huntington and Lydia Smith and to the United States Military Academy at West Point Laura Li meury we thank them for their courage and dedication to our nation's safety for the 98th time Menor High has honored students with an induction ceremony
111into the National Honor Society the Menor chapter began in 1927 the candles were lit and the inductees took the pledge upholding the pillars of the organization scholarship leadership service and character the first page of the book they signed listed the signatures from the May 1944 ceremony the awt robobots competition is an exciting dayong contest each School partners with an industry advisor to build their 15-pound combat robot men are's generous sponsor is Libra Industries congratulations to our Menor High robotics team on April 27th after a series of fierce battles they took second place out of 17 high schools in the double elimination contest at the annual Showdown they'll be heading to Pittsburgh for their next battle heartfelt thanks to all the community members and especially the students who played a crucial role in focus groups on
112a recent planning day with the learner centered collaborative through engaging discussions and brainstorming sessions students contributed ideas on curriculum development extracurricular activities and instructional initiatives this feedback will be incorporated into our new strategic plan to ensure that it reflects the needs and aspirations of our entire School Community it was a great team effort Mr capable and our CTE construction students created the raised beds they needed for the planting in the new Mentor High Garden Mr Kaminsky Mrs Willcox and a team of students were then able to plant cold crops it was a great experience for our Cardinal Works team to learn about companion gardening and they're looking forward to harvesting in just a couple of weeks since last June the monthly Menor school's Food Market has met an important need in our community and has
113given our students a chance to get involved as well so far the market has served over 100,000 lounds of fresh produce spread out over 2 300 households helping nearly 3,000 children and 2,400 adults including more than 1,600 senior citizens it is offered another Avenue for students to participate in caring for and about others during the fourth quarter Menor football has had a fantastic nine-week competition among eight teams of athletes that includes grades community service and attendance at school events the aim is to positively represent football and to support our world to make it a better place community service activities can be done individually but at least one must be a group project that includes the majority of the teams members working together these Outreach projects have included cleaning the beach volunteering at the senior center
114Park cleanups Etc each event and service activity earns one point it was a beautiful morning for Shores be the change Club to help Hearts to hands just distribute its 8,000 lbs of food to feel feed 386 people on April 10th Menor high students presented the stick together program at belflower elementary stick together was created by project love and duct tape to help prevent bullying the students have presented it to all of mentors fifth graders the message is staying strong and being there for each other starts with kindness it was a great day for music at Memorial on April 13th the Oma solo and Ensemble event brought students from across Lake giaga and kayaga counties they were filled with nervous excitement as they performed and awaited their ratings any adult can imagine how much Poise and
115courage it takes for a Young musician to do a solo vocal or instrumental performance before a judge what terrific life skills Menor theater's successful 100th season wrapped with the production of Sweeney TI the actors the chorus and Orchestra gave the audience a riveting theatrical experience Mr Green was honored for his 20 years as program director the group is looking forward to its next season which includes the hilarious musical 9 to5 it's always a privilege to honor the Alumni Hall of Fame inductees Mentor wonderful Alumni Association hosted the special dinner on April 25th to celebrate each of the sixth honored for 202 4 they represented classes from 1967 to 2006 it was impressive to see the way their lives were launched through their years attending Menor Public Schools it was also fascinating to note that the
116size of the high school was so many opportunities being available opened up ideas and experiences to help each one find their pathway along with connections made with teachers coaches and advisors it was clear how much the guidance and inspiration from Key staff members help them succeed Memorial ensures 8th grade students travel to Washington DC and gettsburg this month during their Adventure they visited many famous monuments incredible Smithsonian museums and a inspiring memorials the trip is an opportunity for our students to see the places they've been learning about and to enjoy their peers company before transitioning to high school spring brings the promise of more great concert music the Menor High School orchestra presented a rich program of beautiful selections as the culmination of their year of work together you can enjoy the music again for
117this and many of our concerts through the recordings on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Mentor Ohio the Menor CTE and rotary awards were presented at a special luncheon on May 11th Nick Blackburn and Addison lyes received Menor rotary scholarships and the rotary Community award was given to Cameron saborro the top seniors in our Lakeshore compact programs included Ben malbasa Donia sapperstein Adriana SE Evan lindic Brady zunic Addison n Merl Galvin Kelsey Brown Alicia Taft Zoe kofer Kendra prella Robert puit Austin TMA Noah grumach Rowan garding Smith Audriana Reed Emily Burns McKenzie harsh and Dominic p dolphy an exciting even thrilling development has come for our Career Tech Auto Service technology students they can't wait to work on this brand new Mustang GT generously donated by the Ford Motor Company to our program this will familiarize
118them with servicing the brand new high-tech components in a high performance car the belflower elementary group hosted the electric energy art show on May 7th as a special evening of event for their families a related art showcase at Lake Elementary made for a great Hands-On evening openhouse for parents and students to enjoy together it was a spectacular districtwide celebrating show I'm sorry celebrating fine art with students from the seven elementary schools here at Paradigm on April 23rd hundreds of parents and students arrived to enjoy the Bounty of creativity the show even included a blacklight area where students work glowed in neon colors in tandem with the K through 5 show Menor High's art Department shared their celebration of the senior portfolio work in a themed popup event called total eclipse of the heart at the
119Fine Arts Center the exhibition included work from advanced placement Ceramics digital art digital photography drawing metal smithing and print making classes using multiple platforms this year's art students earned a total of over 1 $ 1.2 million in scholarships April 24th jazz festival showcased the jazz bands of Menor High Shore Middle and Memorial Middle School they played a smooth program of Cool Classics sprinkled with solos April 26th completed the 34th season for Shore Middle School's show choir Shoreline singers their delightful concert's theme was friendship and was a hit with the audience at the Fine Arts Center beautiful harmonies and stylish choreography were featured in the top 25 Big Spring Show featur featuring Hollywood Hits the audience offered enthusiastic Applause as Menor High show choir continued its long tradition of great entertainment that started with founder Ted
120heronimus in the 1960s Menor High School artists took the top spot for the fourth consecutive year in the lake Tran design a bus rep contest area students were encouraged to develop a design showcasing the theme building a greater Lake Greener Lake County or lake tr's 50th Anniversary congratulations to first place winner Haley Ambrose and second place winner Evan bordelon Haley's design will be displayed on one of Lake trans dialer ride buses for the coming year and on the right are the previous three years of winners and I saw one of them actually riding one today it was a splendid show of wearable artist Memorial last week so many students were represented in the popup galleries in the media center hallway and art rooms a great turnout filled the building with an enthusiastic audience if you
121missed the chance to enjoy the many art shows over the past month it's not too late Springs Shore spring show is coming up on Thursday evening this week at 6m Shore Art Is My Jam will celebrate all the art students in grades 6 through 8 as each will have work on display and in addition there will be students playing music work from Project Lead the Way and light snacks from the family and consumer science department for many years the annual Shore show has been a huge event that brings the community together on May 3rd our sixth seventh and eighth grade students from Shore and Memorial had a chance to explore assorted career paths over 20 professionals generously shared insights into their occupations among them was a Menor graduate who is now employed at Nasa from
122healthc care to construction manufacturing to entrepreneurship this event was an excellent starting point that lets them talk with Professionals in various Fields our career speaker series is yet another example of our outstanding Community Support finally Menor high school held its first ever senior activity day to celebrate the class of 2024 in the morning seniors attended a picnic and party on the soccer and lacrosse field followed by clap outs at the students middle and elementary schools it was a wonderful day for our seniors in a great way to tie in our elementary and middle schools to their well-deserved Cardinal Pride our class of 20124 is ready to fly and will be graduating on Sunday June 2nd at the Wolstein Center thank you so much for listening thank you very much and I noticed most of those
123pictures are are your own because you are attending all of these events and thank you I feel like a a rowing [Laughter] reporter now it is the moment everyone is waiting for the chief financial officers report and recommendation Madam president members of the board Mr Heath uh we are required by law to uh file a May forecast um so we uh will present that here tonight potentially so if we look back at where we at we were at in November um after uh you know this was presented after the permanent Improvement Levy failed and the emergency Levy passed um we were looking if you look at the ending cash balance with levies we were at about $3.6 million cash balance at the end of 2028 kind of looking at where we're at today uh finalizing
12410 of 12 months uh our fiscal year again ends in June so this is through April uh our current year to date Revenue collections are projecting to be about $765,000 less than we projected um so we are actually going to be collecting less Revenue than we projected in November uh and that is all because the collection on delinquencies was down um not that our delinquencies are up but our collection of previous delinquencies wasn't trending as it has in the past um our current dat expenditures indicate that we're underspending our budget by about $1.8 million um so the net impact is we're going to look at about a million dollars more in cash at the end of the fiscal year than we were projecting so if we look at the overall summary kind of big picture
125simplified financial statement for the board and the community of the May update um I always draw people's attention to the ending cash balance of the last year that has increased now to6 almost 8 million um so we have been working uh Mr Heath and his team diligently to reduce spending post Levy failure as well as making significant cuts um in not only spending for this year but uh into the future to adjust uh so that we could flatten our expense curve so that we could stretch uh our Levy as as far as possible based on some of the recommendations that we had made to you in November and again I use the word we because I'm just the one presenting but this truly is a collaborative document between uh Mr Heath his team and my
126office so um when we look at general fund revenues we you can see that the majority of our Revenue 73.4% comes from local sources we get about uh 20 3% from State sources in the form of uh our state foundation and refunds on property tax reimbursements um and again in the general fund we get very little Federal funding but we get about $8 to $9 million uh in federal funding that's outside the general fund um always like to mention that because it's been a topic of uh it's been brought up a number of times so um when you look at our Revenue you can see that it remains relatively flat um we did project as I shared in November a 30% increase in property EV valuations um because this is a reevaluation year which we
127would see a half collection in 25 and that full collection would occur in 26 so that's why you see about an 8.5 80.5 million to $82.5 million increase because we're expecting it to be a little over $2 million when it's all said and done um which equates to about a 2.3% increase in revenue and if you remember from my March meeting um I wouldn't compare that to the windfall of some of the other local municipalities that we've seen going on um I did also include in 24 a increase in revenue for commercial properties of 20% um we estimate about $8 million a year in new construction growth uh that relates to our historical values uh and then in 27 when we will have another re-evaluation we did see those I did assume those to be
128more into trends that we've seen so uh increases in property valuation closer to 10% and about 1% for commercial um because that's just an update year so usually in our update years for commercial we don't see much of a move and sometimes we actually see a negative decline um so you know we we are projecting those increases that people are going to see in property valuation but again you know that big reminder we aren't going to see a 30% increase in your tax bill because of House Bill 920 because we're not on the 20 mil floor which includes our outside voted millage as well as our inside millage um so we will only see a minor increase uh based on the inside millage which is about $50 per $100,000 in valuation so the average homeowner
129because of the 30% valuation is going to see about $150 increase per year in taxes just for the school standpoint so again that's just another graph that kind of shows that that kind of that flat line that we're expecting I did assume in our state Foundation funding um that we would continue with the implementation of the fair school funding program um so that that that really if as a reminder only goes through 25 because in 26 and 27 we would have a new banian budget so as things change that could have an impact on what we're assuming in our state funding uh policy there as well and again just showing I think I like if you're like me and you're a visual learner you like to see the graphs not because you know what they
130mean but I think graphs often show the general Community if there's any crazy assumptions that are made um you can see if there's any specific color in the you know in our bar chart that seems to be ex you know exceptionally smaller or larger it would stand out and that would be a trigger for the board of the community to go Mr Wade what does that mean why why are we seeing that why are you projecting that and as you can see from this graph from a revenue standpoint our our assumptions I think are pretty realistic and in line with the in the past experience that we've seen and I think it shows that uh we're making Fair assumptions moving forward um so what we also do then based on the fact that we've seen
13110 months you know back in November we're only a couple months into the you know the fiscal year now that we're 10 months through we have a pretty good idea we've collected most of our Revenue so we have a pretty good idea where the actual revenue is going to be for the year so that allows us to adjust our out years accordingly so what you see on here is um a graph that show or not a graph excuse me a chart um that shows the variances from November to May so anywhere where you see red is where You' see a decrease based on our assumptions from the forecast and again I'll point out the the one of 799,000 in you know general property tax and that's because our delinquencies were down um so you know
132we had to make that that adjustment shows up now because that's where where we're trending and where we're collect we've collected all of our property tax for the fiscal year we're not going to going to be getting any more um and you can see some other areas and and again for all of us in this room you know 6137 th000 seems like a lot but when you're looking at $110 million those aren't material changes so they don't have a huge impact on where we're at and our revenues um staying pretty pretty constant to where we thought we were um those are just updates typically because of where we're seeing what we're trending right now currently because we're in the business of educating kids um our district educated enrollment is important for us um you can
133see that we we have seen a declining enrollment since postco um we're starting to see that to flatten out and we're actually going to see a small uptick as we're projecting based on the live birth rates um going forward so the projections that you see um are based on our live birth rates for those years and when the kids would come back into kindergarten and we're still seeing a pretty um close to traditional uh enrollment of kindergarteners based on the live birth rate we were down a little bit last year um closer to 95% where our typical ratio of kids to to coming to school is closer to 98% um so we'll continue to monitor that and update the board as we go through but again on of the one of the pieces that Mr
134Heath and I talk about um that we like with the system that we have is we have kind of ongoing live data that's changing on a regular basis and we we won't have a need to do an enrollment study uh in the near future because we feel this data is pretty reliable but obviously when you're in educating the business of Education most of your cost is going to go back to salary benefits which as we talked about the citizens Financial advisory is probably true of most Industries um so what you see is that about 81% of our budget goes back to salary and benefits so obviously the assumptions that we make there are very very important and that's why student enrollment and keeping in Pace with that is is important because as you see a
135cling enrollment and then you see a flatlining of that enrollment you want to make sure that you've adjusted your staff accordingly to make sure that you're not over staff but you don't want to be too underst staff where you have large class sizes um because obviously that would impact our educational environment and those are things that I know Mr Heath and his team keep a very close eye on and we talk quite a bit about uh to make sure that we're maximizing the education potential for the students you can see the other major portion of our almost 10% of our budget goes back to purchase services and those are services that we purchase again to support either the education of students or the running of the district um and then you'll see our transfer outs
136uh back to normal that red that little red square you've seen it in the past where it's been a lot bigger and it's even surpassed the purchase services but now that we're not making transfers out um because of the the levy failure and and making some tough decisions which we'll get to in a second um that's been uh shrunk quite a bit and again that graph kind of shows to the board and the community last point I'll make on this is that there's nothing really there that seems to be out of the ordinary right you can see that the assumptions that we're making um are are reasonable increases um based on negotiated agreements Staffing so on and so forth and I'll get into a little more detail there but again I just pointed out is
137there's no one color that really has a drastic change that would be alarming for you again that would be a key indicator to the community and the board to say you know why you know if the Blue Line went up by 30% and it was really big in one year why did you do that you know what happened there again we saw a decrease in our year-over-year spend uh this past year went down about 8.21% um again that's because we didn't make a large transfer out one first and foremost and two because of the uh changes in our uh what's the word I'm looking for Staffing thank you you looked at me and I knew exactly what you were thinking uh so looking at the staff some of those changes we made because of the
138retirement incentive and and kind of right size continue to right size Staffing in comparison to enrollment we saw a decrease in I think the thing that's key here and this is an Testament to the work that Mr Heath and his team has done to prepare for the budget for next year as you see a very small growth going into fiscal year 25 I mean a 1% growth when inflation's closer to 3% I mean we're we're going lower than inflation with guaranteed salary increases that we have because of the collective bargaining agreement shows that uh the superintendent and I are working together and he is working with his team to really control costs um and then you see that we have uh a pretty steady growth in the out years um based on assumptions that we
139make that I'll describe here in a second so when we look at kind of the areas again this slide is probably the most important right because if 81% of our budget is based on salary and benefits it's important that we have a good idea of how we're making those assumptions I think the first thing is to in the upper left corner we are projecting that we're going down two certified staff members or one classified staff member or support staff uh for those who aren't familiar with what classified is and our certified stff is our Educators and our teachers um going into next year as we continue to right siize um so is a little bit continued decrease in enrollment that we're seeing it also assumes that next year that everybody would receive the 2.75% increase
140which is in the collective bargaining agreements that we have for our our bargain units for our support staff and our teachers um in the out years what it assumes is our staffing levels will remain constant because we saw if you went back to the enrollment slide enrollment is leveling off so it would make sense that we're not going to continue to um decrease Staffing unless there's a reason that we would need to to do that um and there's no additional staff that is being tentatively planted to at this point and again but those things change based on the needs of the district um having led a small district and much like we have here in kindergarten numbers sometimes you think you're only going to need two sections and then 35 kids show up in August
141and all a sudden you're adding in the section and a half right and like you can't add a half section of kindergarten doesn't work so now you're adding two and those are things that you can't control so you know as you have seen the emails going through or the advertising on the signs to register your kindergartener those that's why that's important for us because that comes into our staffing plan but so we are assuming level Staffing and I assumed a 1.5% increase uh in all out years of the forecast because we do not have a collective bargaining unit uh agreement that extends past next year um so I wanted to put a number in there that I thought was I don't know if fair is the right word but something that represents that if we
142would to go up or below that that it's not going to have a huge impact on our forecast I think it's a reasonable assumption is what I would say um when it comes to healthcare um I assumed less than the National recommendation for a trend I assuming that we're going to go up at Healthcare at a rate of 7% um typically uh our advisers would recommend between 8 and 10 which is the the national average I think that we can do better than that with the work that we're doing collabora with both the bargaining units as well as the uh education and communication that we've been committed to Across The District when you look at purchase services and supplies and materials um through of our other large areas um we have our budgets done for
143next year so what you see for 25 is actually what we're going to be proposing for the board at the end of the June for our temporary Appropriations which is we all know kind of locks into what we finalize in September so when you see all the values in for 25 that's because we've completed our budgets for the next fiscal year we've done our zero based budgeting Mr Heath has met with uh many of the administrative team um Beyond just our district team to to talk to them talked about budget talk about budget cuts as he shared with the board um so we feel very confident that the values that we have in 25 are are really solid um and we know where we're at with our spending now because we shut off spending pretty
144much uh in April for all of our other budgets so we feel really confident where we're at for April and where we're going to be at going into May um when it comes to 26 27 to 28 we look at the economic forecast and most of our assumptions are anyway from 2 to 4 and a half% based on the area for example when it comes to the purchasing of buses um we all know we made some adjustments to that purchasing program but in three years right 27 when we purchased our first bus again because we right siiz that I don't think assuming that it's going to be a 3% increase from where it's at now based on what we've seen Trend Wise It's you know we we try to take that into consideration we know
145gas might go up or utilities may be going up at at a different rate so I don't just put in 3% to each outy year in every single category and just assume that you know we look at it kind of on an individual basis and and we kind of look at it through each of that lens and and we make some uh educated guesses or hypotheses if you will based on what we're seeing from the economic Outlook and with the fact that the economy really is kind of stagnant and we're seeing inflation staying kind of high uh I we're still kind of assuming you know that 2 and a half 3% and a little bit higher in certain areas into the future as well and that's the trends that you see kind of in these
146slides um Capital outlay you see decreases in uh the outy years because of the the assumptions that we have with our bus purchases because that's where usually where our bus purchases came out of um just point out in 24 we didn't really not we didn't really spend what we did theoretically $1.8 million in capital outl but if you remember some of the buses that we had ordered from the prior year didn't come in and they came in at the beginning of this year so in our world you account for it when the cash is spent so that looks a little bit inflated in comparison to oute so that's why it's a little bit of an outlier but you'll see in 25 and 26 that those uh Capital outlays are down and then you start to
147see in 27 28 when we start to purchase buses again based on the uh updated budgeting for that uh you'll see that you know that it starts to go back up the other piece that I wanted to point out is that you know Mr Heath after the failure of the pi Levy had to make some tough decisions um and he spent a lot of time speaking to the safety officials within the city um we had discussions we talked to Mr Vell Director of Business operations and um you know he made a lot of cuts down to we we anything that was nice to have and it wasn't a need was been removed from our Capital Improvement plan um so with that you see a lot smaller transfers in 25 26 and 27 you don't see
148another transfer in 28 and that's because we need money to fund the roofing and Paving projects that we have to to maintain in the district um just for to keep the buildings functional so you know those things have been Contin even deeper Cuts than we had even presented back in November based on further discussions again just to summarize uh as a kind of a logic test you can kind of see those increases based on those rates that we have um kind of staying in line with inflation um we're not adding staff and you see the expenses that we are projecting out so if you look at the next chart um you can really kind of start to materialize the differences and the assumptions that we're making now as we've and and going into the future
149based on where we're seeing our budget finish our budget for next year and assumptions that we're making on decisions for 26 27 and 28 um this shows in cumulation we've going to reduce the forecast by about 9% .8 million because of those decisions if you remember this chart which we've looked at a couple times we're we're assuming it's about $10.5 million based on some of the assumptions we've had um the discrepancy there is really not Material it's based it's probably when when things W come out in the wash we're probably going to be even a little bit higher than that 10 and a half even though we're forcasting about 9.7 it kind of goes to where things are finishing as about right now and where we might have been a little higher and some budgeting
150for next year to be a little bit more conservative um but a lot less conservative than we've been in the past if that makes sense so in November this graph I always kind of show it to you all to kind of use give you a visual reference of you know when we're in trouble from a standpoint of you know cash balance is getting low comparison to our expenditures and when we need to maybe you know we've had the discussion about future levies um as you saw in November we were looking kind of getting close to the red and 27 definitely in the red and 28 uh we showed the graph if we kind of went out into fiscal year 30 Mr Lynch sorry uh you can see that we'd have a negative cash balance beginning
151balance in 2030 of about $15.8 million we all know that that's not legally possible and it's a violation of our policy that we have that says that we can't fall below 15% well now you can see um not a huge difference but you know we've we've moved the dial you know we're we're in a much safer position you know about $13 million as we said in cash balance in 2028 um we've reduced even if we were to take it beyond the forecast which is legally through 28 to 29 I think Mr Lynch can you go back two slides I think the key piece that I want to show here too is this was showing if you remember if you look in the bottom left corner it said that you know the levy millage needs estimator
152down there in the bottom left and if you remember I was talking in 2025 and we were looking at like a five five plus closer to 6 mil Levy Mr Lynch if you fast forward now to the the same slide for May I think the key there is now we're we're in more so the 3.94 to 5.54 mil Levy range um through the cuts that we've made and um as we go to the next slide that shows our just as a reminder to the board and the community you know this isn't an arbitrary discussion on on Levy needs we have policy that has been created off of the best practices for the government for finance Officers Association and the Ohio Association of school business officials that we will maintain a minimum general fund cash balance
153of about 15% which equates to um $17 million that we wouldn't fall below which is you know kind of between the 60 and 90day cash uh numbers that I always refer to which would take us as a foreshadow to our next slide from November we were talking about how you know that kind of by definition you know we'd fall below 90 days in 26 so we were we we kind of know that by policy you know we're in that range of you know no later than 26 to to 27 to be able to do that and I would say that'd be pushing it and that would not probably be the wisest way to do it because we'd be pushing up against it um where if Levy started fail first of all LS would be larger
154based on that estimator that I showed and if it fails then you have to make significant cuts um at that point now you know we've bought some time or or you've lowered your millage right so you can either two ways you can either ask for Less millage or you can wait to ask for that millage um if you remember this slide from November this is a delay on my clicker um what I was showing here is that if we wanted to pass Le and 25 we went through a bunch of scenarios and this is the one I ultimately recommended to the board we'd have to pass a 5.9 mil Levy in 25 and by doing that we would only not be deficit spending for one year in 27 so like even then if all we
155did was ask for additional Revenue did nothing else and if we go to the next slide if you remember I said we can't do that like that's not really going to be that's not going to work we have to continue to reduce spending as well as seek additional Revenue at some point and what what I think is important to note is through the leadership of Mr Heath and his team we were shooting for a $5 million reduction or to get to about $119 Million by 2026 and if you go to the last slide which is my latest kind of scenario you can see that Mr Heath and his team have done that you know we're projecting expenses of at darn near $119 million a little bit over $53,000 um and with that what I what
156what we can actually do and this is what I was telling the board at the time in November that we could likely do is we could reduce the ask from 5.9 to probably 4.9 I I just rode in five Mills here to kind of show this to you um in the magic box so to speak so in my nice little magic box here not only did I assume a 5 mil Levy it was based on a 30% valuation increase so the assuming that the valuation in 25 was up 30% uh because that's what we're hearing from the auditor that we would see is that we would look to be generating about $14.5 million annually with a 4.95 mill Levy um I know Mr Heath and I have talked and we're still committed to trying to
157find additional ways to underspend the budget going into the future and find other cost-saving measures so you know we could even make that look better but what it does as you can see is that would be two years guaranteed of no deficit spending and I would I would argue that in 2028 reducing another $1.5 Million by then is going to be easily achieved with the um decision- making that we have and the things that we're trying to do um so that would I I guess the point being is that if based on where we're at May my recommendation is still to to pass by November of 25 at the latest a at least a 4.9 to 5 mil Levy um which would then put us in a good position for at least 5 years if
158not longer before you'd have to ask for another Levy so it keeps us on a a longer Levy cycle than is typical so key taking ways from this we've reduced our deficit spending in our out years um we talked about back in November we must continue to monitor our spending and find ways to control costs um I.E flatten our expense curve um we have accomplished this you know Mr Heath and his team have been able to do that um through uh the budget planning process as well as uh looking at a variety of ways to reduce costs we did get to $119 Million by fiscal year 26 in this forecast that we're presenting uh We've increased the cash balance from uh to $16 million and we still need to consider General operating dollars by 2025
159and we presented this forecast last Thursday to the citizens Financial advisory committee uh for which they agreed with recommended and approved to bring it to the board and the committee for approval here tonight happy to take any questions I know the citizens Financial committee was very complimentary in how you shared all that was accomplished and what was accomplished so thank you thank you any other questions Madam president members of the board Mr Heath uh I ask that we pass items B through G and add Denims in one motion so moved second any discussion please call the rooll Miss Jing yes Miss maraza yes Miss aopo yes Miss Payne yes Miss Cook yes motions carry 5- Z I don't have any unfinished business that was brought to my attention does anyone have anything I have just
160a quick um update from the safety liaison meeting that we had it was really great I thought um I think that we're taking some really good steps towards hiring the retired police officers as we heard one tonight is retiring so I'm looking at you no I'm just kidding so uh hopefully we'll have a contract available um I know we're still working on that but I was happy to sit in that meeting and and hear that we're taking steps towards you know having a resource officer in all of our buildings so thought that was good news that's absolutely true I think Mr Heath's um coordinating well with the city officials as well as our safety forces made uh a lot of inroads and there was definitely a good synchronicity between their Outlook what they think they
161can accomplish and what Mr Heath was presenting so yes we're very grateful to the city of Menor and the police department for working with us on that Mr Heath would you uh I I don't mean to Spring this on you but I know promised uh folks an update on class sizes and enrollment um back in April when you first reported it out and you did share some updated information with us not that long ago if you wouldn't mind just relaying that in a couple of sentences that's I think would be that would be sufficient for an update yeah and we actually met with our PTA presidents last week and went through things as well with them so that they had uh some clear understandings um again our um we're still waiting on the kindergarten numbers
162to be 100% final uh which will happen probably by October um but uh the the class size averages are still in the 2122 range for uh grades 1 to3 or in the 2324 range for uh grades four and five there are four hot spots if I'm remembering correctly off the top of my head here without the my notes in front of me um fifth grade at Hopkins is at 26 um fifth grade at Lake is at um fourth grade at Hopkins was at 26 as well and ridge fourth grade was at 25.2 if I remember correctly so those are the the four areas that we're looking at right now um the the one thing that we have to also consider is uh the number of students that are um in special education units coming out
163of those numbers um and that lowers that those class sizes a little bit right now all of those kids are included in those numbers um so they're actually a little bit less than that but those are the the four hotspots that we've identified right now that we'll continue to monitor um again kindergarten will be very important to us though um we we maintained our our kindergarten Staffing um at Hopkins uh purposely at four sections um right now it's still trending kind of low um but if there's a possibility uh that it's going to stay at that low level we might even be able to to shift a staff member up into fourth or fifth grade um as we get into the summer that will reduce those class sizes but we'll we'll see how kindergarden continues
164to go thank you and for Fuller context we did talk about some other ways that we might Flor moving some things around to to reduce those class sizes so thanks for staying on that I really appreciate it and it seemed like the PTA presidents were very complimentary with what they were hearing because naturally they're each advocating for their own buildings and know it well so when they were hearing those numbers there was a lot of comfort but in general thank you okay at this time we have um new business to address and have been working on the Strategic plan we have two board members that serve on the guiding Coalition and um we've asked Mrs aapo to give an update on the guiding Coalition tonight okay I will go quick even though it's this this
165deserves time so um just for those of you who aren't familiar this guiding Co Coalition is the process we're doing to create our a five-year strategic plan um when we say guiding Coalition what that means is um a group working together to influence outcomes of specific goals so we had our first one on Thursday May 2nd and U Mrs Jing and I were able to represent um as board members but also as parent and grandparent of current students um the um learner centered collaborative which is the um company that we're using that are guiding us toward this um they're excellent i' I've been really impressed by them so far um they they've made it clear that we are they say we are here to best portray the values and aspirations for students so um the
166first day we had over 35 um you saw that picture um that were administrator staff parents community members um and students we even had some high school students who were very impressive um along with um the facilitators from learner centered Marlin and Britney who were great and will they be there tomorrow both yeah okay um so the process before this guiding Coalition day um last Thursday the 2nd began the process began with Discovery days and that consisted of 17 classroom visits nine student focus groups six adult focus groups and then the looking at the results from two of the the parent and the staff surveys and soon to be will'll be analyzing the community survey um the goal for th for Thursday was to compile the key findings from the surveys and Discovery days and
167start working on creating what we call a portrait of a learner um so the first of all the the framework for the future and um is something that we're using and that provides a Northstar to inform decision- making and prioritization a communication tool to show where the district is headed so what is that the framework for the future um it's it compiles our mission vision and values um our portrait of a learner which we'll talk about in a second and a learning model and then the blueprint um which basically outlines the Strategic plan um so the portrait of a learner it is a visual representation of essential skills and habits aspirational memorable and easily communicated to students parents faculty and staff a point was made um on on that day that most of us didn't
168know our mission and vision to be able to spring it out just like that so they want to make sure that that's a priority and would creating this new one um a definition of what success looks like and a vision for Learners um we the day brainstorming priorities um we had deep discussions about the district strengths and weaknesses and we blew through a lot of posted notes um so I'll explain this this is just an example they were constantly breaking us up into individual groups and mixing us up so that we can we weren't flowing with the same people um one of the things they had us do is um come up with a draft I guess of a portrait of a learner and what skills desired outcomes did we think was important important and
169so we my group this was an example from my group and everybody was pretty similar um we probably had 25 30 maybe more Post-it notes of just these um important skills and desired outcomes that we want for our students and then we were guided to slowly then put those into categories and we broke it down to four um I guess major categories here and what was kind of neat is that um all four groups that came up with their four um categories were almost all the same so you know those might seem a little vague or generic but guaranteed that with the subcategories under those umbrellas were all things that were really important to um that we want to see in our in in our strategic plan um so finally this is what is we
170were left with and that people that attended were editing and we asked to share with community members and teachers and to edit and to get feedback um I like that it says at the bottom I don't know if you can see it that this will change and evolve based on community feedback so if anybody knows anyone that has not done the Sur Community survey please do so um and because this will Morphin change and again it might look a little generic but as I think we work and we have another one guiding Coalition tomorrow I'm sure this will change pretty quick um you know the main goal here is to I you know identify our weaknesses find ways to build in our strength and I think that we're doing that um and making sure that
171this is not a generic plan that this is something that really resonates with the people in this District so and I'm confident in that and I'm excited for tomorrow although I'll be back in this room in less than 12 hours so will you guys so thank you very much thank you um I don't have any other new business on the agenda is there anything that anyone wanted to speak about okay next we have here of the public on any topic M Bon's not here is she Kathy McAdams good evening last year I quietly made a donation to Mentor Schools to pay down the school lunch debt of elementary school children I couldn't pay off the entire $4,400 debt but I paid 10% of it this year I'm doing the same paying down the debt for
172Sterling Morton and Fairfax ele schools I gave the check to Bill earlier it's in a pink envelope in front of him I see why am I doing this because children can't learn if they're hungry children in elementary schools can't mow Lawns for money or earn go get a job to help their families and and the families are clearly having a challenge paying for their lunches I challenge everyone here including the board administrators and everybody in the audience here in at home to make a donation to pay the student lunch debt even if it's just $5 together we can eliminate that debt this is the least we can do for all school children regardless of age many parents in the mentor School District are living paycheck to paycheck having trouble feeding their families and paying their
173bills even though I have spoken on this um uh several in several times in this setting my words simply seem to to be ignored this evening if you're here I'd be happy to if you have it I'd be happy to accept your donations and turn it right over to the schools to pay down the debt or you can send your donation to Mr Wade with a note explaining the reason for the payment 100% of the donations go to the student lunch debt just for elementary schools the debt is over $1,500 for this school year so far that's not the middle schools that's not the high school and my check covered maybe I don't know 20% for parents who are watching if you can't afford food on the weekends please contact and 68 hours of hunger
174and their email is on the website there is no shame in asking for help when you really need it you can also contact your CH child's school for information everything is kept confidential why do I do this because nothing is ever too much to do for a child and we should all be concerned for the children and nothing more thank you thank [Applause] you is Miss mjus did she leave Melanie uh Miss mccormic well this is the first I don't have something prepared I just like to make a few statements first of all uh Mrs Jing's addressing down of passionate concerned parents and their comments at the board meetings I thought was quite disturbing uh accusing them of venomous comments going towards children if children were involved first of all this is a board meeting
175for adults it's for the adults to discuss what is happening within our community it is not for children um and I think that you're here to represent us and you work for us so dressing us down uh is quite disturbing and we won't we won't be forgetting that anytime soon also um as far as you know Mr Heath and his actions um as superintendent it's you know pornographic sexually explicit books in the schools this is a place for minor children okay yeah we have some adult children but they can get those books outside of the school we need to protect the minor children in the school from pornographic material we've asked you to remove it we've given you examples of it Mr Heath has taken it out of curriculum yet kept it in the libraries
176there is no harm done to any children by taking sexually explicit books out of the library there is however possible harm if they're left in the schools so I again beg you to consider taking out any sexually explicit pornographic materials that can be checked out by minors asking the parents to review every single book that their child wants to take out is putting a laborious uh process on the parents and on our library system you're constantly saying how it's too cumbersome to go through the library and take out anything that might be harmful to Children yet you want to instill this new uh checking for the parents' benefit it doesn't benefit the parents the parents what we need is to know that when our kids go to school they are safe in every aspect especially
177when it comes to pornographic and sexually explicit material so please consider that when you uh look at Mr Heath's renewal of this contract thanks Miss Mazika that concludes public participation for tonight as we do not have executive session on the agenda we'll um do I have a motion to adjourn Some Mo second please call the rooll Miss maraza yes Miss Appo yes Jing yes Miss pay yes Miss Cook yes he is ajour at 10:43 p.m.