Board of Education Meeting February 14, 2023

001okay I can never get mine to work do we have a motion to adjourn executive session so father role Mr Wade is that Mary who's seconded uh Miss Dressler yes Miss brighter yes is good yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes executive session adjourns at 703 pm you want me to call roll for that too many folders to the next regular session yes good evening the February 14th regular meeting is a mentor exception village board of education is called order this meeting is being held in accordance with section 3315.15 of the Ohio revised code please place your mobile phones on silent mode for the meeting thank you Mr Wade please call the roll Ms Breyer here Ms cook here Ms dressling president Mr uh Miss Payne here Mr Tuttle here please join me for the

002Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of America [Music] next on the agenda District highlights in recognitions good evening Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade tonight we are recognizing several students and staff for their outstanding achievements I'd like to invite Mr Hammond to the podium to begin our presentations good evening Mr President members of the board Mr Heath and Mr Wade each year our district is honored by the opportunity to participate in the George E Hayward VFW Post 9295 Awards specifically these are teacher of the year Patriots pen for students in grades six through eight and the voice of democracy for students in grades 9 through 12. at this time it's my great privilege to Welcome to the podium Mr Dave Monsour commander of the VFW Post 9295 and Mr

003Bob zonneville chaplain Service Officer Awards program promoter also with the VFW 9295 they will join me in presenting these Awards Mr Mansour and Mr zonnabel are outstanding supporters of our Mentor Schools and we are incredibly grateful to them for their dedication to our community and to our country at this time would like to say a few words good evening we have the Patriots pen this year the subject was I pledged to our veterans under voice of democracy it was for why is the veteran important these are programs that are done throughout the United States by all the vfws and we all have the same one or same problem subject to write on we asked to have them to present these Awards here tonight it will have number one in the voice of democracy and the

004one number one in the Pages Penn read theirs I think too often we don't realize how good a job they do on top of that our program is not mandatory for the school so it's all voluntary they get this kind of support is remarkable it's a credit to the system it's a credit to the students credit parents and so forth but anyway Tim you ready to go thank you Mr zonneville our first student award is the Patriots pen this award is open to all students in grades six seven and eight the competition gives students an opportunity to write an essay expressing their view on an annual patriotic theme as Mr zonville stated this year it's my pledge to our veterans essays are judged on student knowledge of the theme theme development and Clarity of ideas

005a positive approach is recommended to express a student's viewpoint this year we have seven Award winners at the middle school level uh three from Memorial Four for short we're going to introduce Memorial students first students what I'd like you to do as I read your name come on up front receive your award shake hands here and I'd like you to walk across the stage and shake hands with all of our board members our superintendent and our treasurer for Memorial first place temperance megory [Applause] second place Cooper Russo thank you and third place Pari Patel [Applause] congratulations right here at this time the award winners for sure and I'll read these students off we have four of them um adita when I read his name who's the first place winner and I'll read these off one

006at a time he will also stay up here with us he's going to read his essay for us first place from Shore Aditya Patel [Applause] second place Owen LaConte foreign for third place Jayla biandilo and we also she and we also have Ethan Chesney come on [Applause] there you go young man at this time adita will share his essay veterans they've veterans they fight for us so we can be free so we can live our lives but how often do people help them how often do people actually think about veterans wives I send my pledge to Veterans who protected and still protect my country and help them with mental health I've watched to help them in any way I can I promise to respect them to say thank you to them on the streets if

007I see them understand what they've been through turn their honor day into a week I will provide a service dog and in the future drive them places I can provide medical care and deliver groceries to them send them thank yous and gifts suggest them to join a support group as well as create an organization to help them after they return from war volunteer at places that have already started helping these are some ways I can help my veterans but not all the ways most veterans come back from war they still they still they believe that they are considered weak if they ask for help but I can show them this is not the case I will help them get a pet as company when they return and will help veterans who do not have a

008home or anywhere to go I will get involved with the VA as well as the Fisher Foundation to donate money to veterans I will do my best to educate others in my community about the needs of veterans I will help veterans who are now disabled and have trouble with simple day-to-day tasks I will join the PVA who donates 70 of my earnings to help injured veterans in need I will make sure that their acts will not be forgotten not only will I help the veterans but all their families as well seeing a loved one go out of their way to risk their own life to protect the country is no easy feat I will provide them support as well as make sure that they can keep in touch somehow and we'll talk to them and

009have them share their personal thoughts feelings and events I will talk and understand how this changed their lives veterans have done so much for our country now it's our turn to help them [Applause] at this time our second student award is the voice of democracy this award is open to all students in grades six or nine through twelve excuse me each year nearly 40 000 high school students compete for more than two million dollars in scholarships and incentives students compete by writing and recording an audio essay on an annual patriotic theme and this year's theme for the high school is why is the veteran important this year we have two Award winners I'm going to read both their names off if they would come up front first place winner is going to stay with us

010she's going to read her essay um and then when they're all completed of course they'll go through and shake hands with our board members superintendent and Treasurer this year two Award winners first place Madeleine McDowell and second place Ava Hoover thank you yes staying closer they can hear you because that's good why is the veteran important when asked to write this the first thing that came into my head was the flag and why I honor it when thinking about the flag I wasn't really sure why I honored the American flag I honor the flag I just don't know why I interviewed people in my family to see what it means to them tell me better understand I asked each person I interviewed the question why do you honor the American flag my Uncle Mark currently

011a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force said I honor the American flag as a symbol of those Liberties and ideals upon winter country was founded and that we must continue to uphold As Americans I also honor the flag by saluting but when I salute the flag I do it because I am proud of everything it represents and proud to serve our country I know my grandma truly honors the flag too she said I grew up in a very patriotic family my mother was very patriotic because my father was out fighting to protect our beautiful flag later on my brother became part of the Air Force and fought in a war as well my other Grandma who also had a father in The War I honored the flag for several reasons my father fought

012on the front lines and endured many hardships during the Korean War when I was 18 years old a very good friend neighbor and classmate of mine died in the Vietnam War he gave the ultimate sacrifice his life for our flag my freedom and my country's Freedom my nine-year-old great-grandpa a veteran said I wanted to make sure we kept the flag waving and for everyone to have a free country as long as we kept the flag waving we will have a nice life I fought in the Korean War 70 years ago for my kids their kids and then their kids the Stars and Stripes is an amazing thing after talking to everyone I learned some new things but I also figured out why I should honor the flag I honor the American flag because it represents

013our freedom and for us to have our freedom it took a lot of hard work sacrifice and death of the people that honored it to protect this country all the people that fought in wars did it for me for you and for everyone so coming back to the original question why is the veteran important it is important because they represent what is behind the flag they fought for our freedom and sacrificed everything for our lives and Country today thank you so I don't forget they are getting certificates but they also are all getting a check each first place Award winner receives 150 check from VFW second place is 100 and third place is fifty dollars um students if you would make sure those get cashed [Laughter] our last award is for Teacher of the Year

014nominations could be submitted by a fellow teacher a supervisor or a non-related individual teachers were nominated based on Innovative teaching dedication to education they teach citizenship education topics regularly and they promote America's history and traditions effectively teachers who promote civic responsibility flag etiquette and patriotism are prime candidates for this award at this time it's my great pleasure to announce this year's High School teacher of the year award goes to Mr Chris Parsons Mentor High School thank you once again a special thank you to Mr Dave Monsour commander of the VFW Post 9295 Mr Bob zonneville for their outstanding support of this opportunity afforded to our students and to our staff at this time Mr monsoever say a word as we conclude very brief and you know I want to thank the board for allowing us

015to spend this time with the students and the faculty that are present here tonight and any of the family members and Friends uh you know a lot of the words that Mr zonneville stated uh are very true you know the students and the teachers that take their time and effort and put into these essays and and all of the things that they're putting into the community really do matter and as a veteran as Mr zonneville is you know having these young folks do these things as well as the faculty it really does mean a lot back to us and it really is great for the community to see that as a whole so thank you I hope you have a great meeting and thanks for hearing us [Applause] [Laughter] thank you don't don't rush yeah

016if uh we want to take a short moment for people to walk out and then you can do your piece no no I've missed a part of the oh okay so I apologize I don't want anybody to leave because I need the audience I would like to welcome everyone to the January 10 2013 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 items for the board's approval via the district's paperless Board of Education agenda system or tax the public can access the agenda through the school district's website the agenda is available through the district's website for public viewing this Sunday prior to the board meeting board members have the opportunity to call

017the superintendent and the CFO for information concerning agenda items and to request if needed additional information there are two places on the agenda when the board entertains comments for the community from the community the first hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on agenda items only the second hearing of the public is dedicated to those who wish to address the board on any subject whether it be an item on the agenda or another issue to participate in the hearing of the public section interested speakers must sign up prior to the start of the meeting sign ups are available online through the school district's website on site prior to or on-site prior to seven o'clock P.M when it is your turn to speak you'll be called to the microphone

018when addressing the board please state your name and address address questions to the board president each person may speak only once per segment and comments are limited to three minutes the purpose of the hearing of the public is for our community members to address the board the board continues to welcome feedback from the community as an important component of conducting business this is an information gathering opportunity for the board and administration as 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 is no way demonstrates 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 this meeting is being

019televised live and on a delayed basis it will be shown on Spectrum cable channel 10 26 in Mentor and channel 1025 in Mentor on the lake this meeting is also being recorded and can be found on our YouTube channel Cardinal TV Mentor Ohio thank you now if you would like to leave before we get into the board business part you can do so now but you don't have to you can voluntarily please thank you very much [Music] oh you want to do that right now [Music] um [Music] um thank you [Music] all right before we jump into the approval of the minutes there are two topics that I want to share quickly this evening to answer questions from our January meeting and to address some recent uh recent events around school safety back in November

020I shared my thoughts during a board work session about how we can navigate the Pervert preferred pronoun and transgender conversations in our district as a reminder I said that with a preferred pronoun policy discussion we shouldn't have a policy on the preferred pronouns because we still have court cases changes and shifts that are happening often the guidelines that live in Title IX and fall under the purview of the office of civil rights that's where some of this stuff should live Federal guidance can change based on who's in the white house and we don't have to change that way we don't have to change this policy every time a court case or a presidential change happens I indicated at that point that we should be handling some of those things administratively and laid out basically how

021I would like us to approach this and what has been shared with our administrative team and our staff we will not have surveys in grades K through five surveys that happen in grades K through R 6 through 12 are permitted however the survey must be shared with families one week prior to the survey date the family may opt out a preferred pronoun question must have an answer that states prefer not to answer included in it and then communication plan should be developed when appropriate with the student the family the counselor and the principal if the family is not already aware of that preferred pronoun change if a student asks a teacher to call them by a preferred pronoun and grades K through rate the teacher is going to be working with that student principal and

022the counselor to communicate with the family grades 9 through 12 the teacher is going to encourage that student to speak with their counselor the counselor and principal will then work with that student on a communication plan with the family these will all be handled on an individual basis if the student and or family need additional support that our counseling staff is not trained to do we will recommend them to our Crossroads counselors or outside resources as necessary these items were discussed with our administrators and school counselors back in November and December they have also now been shared with our Middle School and High School staff members I know there have been some concerns regarding restrooms recently that we are working through with our high school administrators again this is an area that we have to

023navigate carefully due to the final Federal Title IX regulations under the office of civil rights we have worked with students to identify restroom facilities to accommodate their needs whether it's Clinic restrooms single stall facilities or another Avenue based on the makeup of that particular building our buildings are older and do not have quite as many single stall restrooms as some of the newer school facilities that we have around the area and around the state I've actually spent some time looking at our restroom floor plans to see what it would take to convert some of our current facilities into single stall facilities to provide a safer place for all of our students we will continue to look at all available options to make sure we are compliant with federal guidelines and state laws while keeping all

024of our students as safe as we can we were also made aware of another video that was posted to a Facebook account that showed a man walking out of our high school indicating that he had gotten into the building and no one stopped him we take these issues very seriously and immediately started investigating that video clip we quickly determined that the situation had taken place on September 13th of 2022 and the man was working on the city softball fields next to the high school during the day we quickly identified the man's name and our school resource officers tracked them down within 18 hours of us being made aware that that video even existed the man shared with us that he approached one of the side entrances to the high school because he needed to use

025the restroom and as the student was leaving through that locked door the student held the door open and he entered the building this is incident is leading us to reiterate our security protocols with our students and our staff members we're also looking closely at our school safety audit from the fall to determine additional safety measures that can be put in place to keep our building secure we are fortunate to just have received notice that we'll be getting approximately nine hundred thousand dollars from the school safety Grant funds that we applied for back in October we'll be holding a work session with our Board of Education members on March 7th to discuss the safety concerns the safety plans and the new grant funding to determine our next steps to increase school safety in our district thank

026you Mr Heat thanks on the agenda approval of the minutes so we'll second please call the roll Mr Wade Mr brighter yes Miss Cook yes Miss dressling yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes Mr proof 5-0 next on the agenda hearing of the public there was no public on agenda items for tonight next on the agenda superintendents report and recommendations Mr Heath Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade I have the following recommendations listed under the consent agenda and recommend approval of item six a one through six a nine so moved second the thoughts comments I had a couple um questions well first I just want to say a couple comments um I was really excited to see the girls flag football and boys volleyball as an emerging sport I'm really excited about

027the flag football really wish we had it when I was here we met her the only thing we had was Powder Puff football and that was at Memorial and I did play it it's fun so I'm excited about that um I just wanted to touch bases on the Ohio schools Council governance governance policy change I did email Mr Heath about it because it kind of looks like we're just giving him so authority to make some decisions could you just speak a little bit on that because it looks different than what it is yeah so what they're uh attempting to do is just kind of streamline their procedures um instead of having a two-thirds uh majority they're just looking for a simple majority when they make some changes so anytime there's something that's going on with

028that Ohio schools Council they'll send things through uh through me and Mr Wade again this is the organization that works on providing some of that group electricity Insurance natural gas just kind of the the collaborative efforts across the region and this would help streamline their process a little bit instead of having to have two-thirds of a majority every time they would make a change to to some sort of an agreement thank you District reports and recommendations vote on it oh vote sorry Mr color yes Miss Cook yes Mr brighter yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motions carry five zero Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of the primary service agreement with the educational service center of Northeast Ohio so moved second conversation comments I had um a couple

029comments I guess just talking through it can you explain what exactly the Educational Service Centers do because I think there's a lot of confusion around that um and I know before I became you know part of the board I really had no idea what they did so can you just kind of also explain to you know speak to that sure um so we're aligned with the ESC of Northeast Ohio they provide a lot of our professional development um our curriculum director our special ed director our human resources all utilize their services just to stay current with what's uh what's going on around the state from the superintendent seat I am out at the ESC probably two or three times a month sitting with other superintendents discussing some of the important issues we talk a lot

030about legislative updates budget pieces to the puzzle things that we need to be aware of most recently we actually had the Educational Service Center come out here to this exact location and they met with the lake and Geauga County superintendents and treasurers because they cover a pretty big area originally just Cuyahoga County but they've expanded a lot so they came out here and did a separate meeting just for us to kind of talk about some of the issues that we are specifically dealing with here in Lake and Geauga County um one of the things we we talked about in this first meeting was all about the transportation struggles that we're having um and how we might uh collaborate to try and solve some of those things um some some great service that they provide for

031us the other thing that they will also do because they get a certain amount of funding from the state based on our district enrollment that that money comes back to us and we can use that for different Services either that they offer or different services that we might want to contract with as well so that it's not coming out of our general fund most recently uh the the shift to Neola policies uh that that contract was paid for out of our out of our ese funds so that's uh that's another service that they help provide for us as well um I looked at the monthly costs I believe from the from Bill your report looked like 93 000 is what we paid out last month is that pretty typical and then do we get money

032back like you just mentioned you know how does the funding part of the ESC work for that so it's by student uh state state dictates that to us so we have to align with the DSC so we have to pay that regardless we're with DSC Northeast Ohio if we would have aligned with uh Wilson's formally on the Lake County USC through the style of the Washington Reserve so we are obligated to do that as kind of an agency oversees us from that from a regional standpoint so we pay out per student as well and then as Mr Heath said they give us a percentage of that back that we can utilize to spend on funds as we see fit for a variety of services okay and then the I know you said you use a

033lot of it for professional development a lot of the ESC um contract can be used for professional development do we get to see those courses like do they come across us or no because once as in like if if teachers were going to take a professional development course through the ESC is that something we see or no because it's through the ESC I don't know if we we've actually brought those courses through the board and that's something that we can do um maybe during our curriculum liaison meetings I the majority of things are are for us administratively we don't do a whole lot of teacher professional development out of that group but if there is something you know maybe that's something that we can bring through that uh that curriculum liaison group yeah the only

034reason I'm asking is because I did look at the courses that were offered with Northeast Ohio ESC and then Western Reserve and they were pretty you know comparable uh so things obviously that some of them I don't agree with but that's okay I just wanted to ask that question to see if it does come across you know our desks so that we don't have another situation where there's a professional development and we don't see it and then we get the blame for it so yeah it's something that we can set up for you guys and we use use their ESC iege link Cuyahoga County has provided exemplary services for us as as a board and as a district so the only other thing that I um I guess liked about the Western Reserve versus the

035northeast Ohio ESC is that we vote as community members and taxpayers we vote for their board member so there's one for lake Lake County and one for Geauga County so technically you know taxpayers have a little bit of a say in that but like I said I did research both I just kind of wanted to touch on some of those points to clarify them when it's interesting because I think both the both Mr Wade and I actually do a lot of work with the ESC of Western Reserve as well and since they are in our County um there there are some things that uh that they provide and they allow us to to sit in on their meetings as well um to go to their retreat in the summer um just to kind of they'll

036provide similar type things with legal updates and let it legislative topics that we need to to be aware of um so we we still dabble a little bit with the Western Reserve just because they are still in our County and there are some things that impact all of the districts in Lake County together that's nice to know because I think it looked like Chardon and Riverside and Willoughby East Lake they're all part of the Western Reserve on their website at least the Western Reserve had them listed so I think Western Reserve has us listed too but I didn't see us on there but Chardon Swift chardon's with Northeast Ohio yeah Riverside is with uh yeah Riverside is with Western Reserve but us Kirtland um currently will be easily yeah willoughby's like I think is Shifting

037back to the Western Reserve for next year but again the other reason that we've aligned with the the northeast Ohio is there are a lot more districts that are similar to Mentor in Cuyahoga County as opposed to in Lake County just from a size standpoint from an innovation standpoint so that's one of the other reasons we've aligned with them thank you and then I I'd like to ask a question on the public participation board meetings at first I'd like to read according to law written by Megan grulich a staff attorney for osba we're not there yet I thought we stepped into that no we're still in number one yeah so we had two more for that one sorry foreign do we need to vote on that one first bill we would individually okay please call

038the roll Mr way Ms Jesse yes Ms breiner yes Miss Cook yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries five zero Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade I am recommending approval of the health services agreement with the Lake County General Health District second color or Mr Wade there's pain yes Miss Dressler yes Miss Pryor yes Miss Cook yes Mr Turtle yes motion carries five zero Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade I have the following Board of Education policy on the agenda for her first reading because this is a first reading no vote is necessary I'd like to open that for discussion so written by Megan grillik as staff attorney for osba titled limiting public speech speech headboard meetings uh a frequent and potentially problematic restriction is limiting public

039participation to only District residents by prohibiting individuals from neighboring communities or other communities in the state from speaking a board could probably restrict a non-resident from participating but it's important to consider that the application of that restriction must be applied consistently to everyone in order to be legally compliant the board may also may not restrict may also may not restrict speech content in its careful application of such a restriction prior to adoption boards should consider the Practical aspects of enforcing such a restriction what documentation would be required to prove residency has this type of restriction been enforced in the past the difficulty in appropriately enforcing such a restriction May outweigh any perceived benefits again boards considering applying this type of public speech restriction at board meetings should work with board Council to consider all potential

040legal ramifications is this article from and what's the date on it Capital conference 2018 and who is this who is this article from she was a staff attorney Megan grulich g-r-e-u-l-i-c-h from osba osba who now does work for Western hurt those are has our attorney been asked about this specifically and do they feel comfortable with this change is this is the article that was addressed I think Annie brought this up in an email in Craig responded to it okay yeah our legal counsel has had a chance to look through our policy and the the update that we're making when we were in our board work session we had added the words uh inflammatory aggressive and then the phrase does not observe Regional decorum in the policy and that's what our legal counsel indicated would be

041best to remove from our language so that's what this uh this policy update would be doing is removing those words that they feel are not enforceable I know um the only I guess concern that I had along with the inflammatory and aggressive taking those out would be obscene um I think that's more of a subjective thing and I know that we learned at osba at the conference uh the capital conference that we cannot discriminate based on content so that seems like more of a Content thing than it is at you know time or uh face restriction so I would suggest that we take out obscene as well as the inflammatory and aggressive so that line would then read um interrupt warn or terminate a participant session if they make comments that constitute a threat is

042what it would then be limited to yeah that's what I suggest any objections to pulling the word obscene out okay I would say we were trying to keep it close to what was in the policy what was it Neil right that was based off a Neola policy obscene is in there uh it is currently yes but is it enforceable because from our osba conference um the session I think majority of us were in that that question was pretty much asked you know and they were like very strong on you cannot discriminate based on or at a restriction based on content I think I think the the legal opinion was correct me if I'm wrong Mr Heath is that obscene has been defined legally what are some of the other terms that we were looking at

043haven't necessarily been is objectively defined in a legal recourse so I think of scenes gone through the government so to speak so maybe um just for us so that we're all on the same page could we get that like get the definition [Music] and I can bring that for the final reading perfect yep okay and I think the other concern is we do record and broadcast our meetings as well as often have young people in attendance at our meetings obscenity as Mr Wade said has been adjudicated in the courts so at least in a general sense there's there are some parameters so yeah whatever whatever seems but I don't remember in the osba session the obscenity discussion I I think you're right about content so if you don't agree with a point of view obviously

044that's not enough but obscenities a different kind of thing you know somebody's um using obscene language or whatever um yeah I think just getting the legal definitions we're on the same page because there could be yeah I think that's what like inflammatory excuse me could we talk into the microphone and not everyone can hear them sorry I think that's the point that you were making Miss Payne uh in Miss jessalyn concurred inflammatory and aggressive content can be argued the term scene has been argued and delineated so we'll get that definition of the scene ready to go for the final reading perfect next month I think the only other question I had was um on the second paragraph where it says but in public session the board will not hear complaints of school Personnel nor against

045any person connected with the school system that same letter that Mr Tuttle was referring to and here it also talks a little bit to that and we do have uh it just says to make sure that you have a policy in place for those type of complaints first but that we we can't tell people that they can't bring those kind of complaints um to the board because if it's a last you know ditch effort we have to allow them that the the document that I had sent you guys in an email states that the best thing to do if somebody was to get up to the microphone and state you know an employee name or something like that is to ask that person if they would like to you know possibly go into executive session

046to protect the privacy of the employee so I don't know we might want to and I'll talk more about that we'll not hear complaints because that's very black and white and I don't think that's to you know a for sure thing that we can enforce typically in policy language discussions the word shall will and may are very prevalent Xiao means you have to will means that you will in May means you can choose so in that sense the word will is not as definitive as shall the board could suggest the word may because we do have a policy for complaints against staff members and obviously that goes through the chain of command that has been established in board policy as well so if the person hasn't gone through the appropriate chain of command the board

047could use the words will or may depending upon the length the the degree of strength that you're looking for in the policy having written quite a bit of policy those are two common three common words that you often catch your eye because do you want it shallow you have to always no no exclusion those words kind of make me always kind of nervous because there's always a situation where you may want to make a decision that is different from policy so you want the flexibility so I would encourage the board to consider the words shall will and may to meet their needs as they wish it's a very good suggestion I think May would leave us with enough um gray area I guess option yeah option so that we can decide if that happens or

048based on the circumstance so yeah I mean I would tend to recommend that if you replace will with me Because unless you're legally obligated that you have to then the word should be shall and if I read that article correctly I thought that's what it kind of recommended I've not read the article so I can't speak to that yeah it said basically refer to your make sure you have a different policy in place for those kind of things and this is like a last-ditch effort if you've done that and you can't tell somebody they can't come at that point because of you know Free Speech but we want to protect the privacy of our employees obviously so so that's in the second paragraph of what our original board policy says yeah so we'll change the

049word will to the word may yeah okay and this says to any against any person connected with the school system um so I mean does that mean anybody who's not necessarily an employee because I is it legally that just employees have that you know protection or I don't know the answer to that because I know that's part of our like agreements with um you know ta and MCE right is that we have verbiage in there that would protect them I guess it would associate to school students okay as well which would be purple right yes you want to protect the wow the fact that you know what someone may be bringing to a board meeting maybe hearsay yeah we don't necessarily know it to be true unless it's been investigated and proven it even then

050you really wouldn't want it aired in public session per se right um just as a best practice I would think as a recommendation again uh and it could be anybody that you the board again if you have the word May the board can determine what they feel is their comfort level with that as an alternative what we could do is instead of changing the will to May at the end we could say in public session and then we would hear complaints but it would be an executive session that's not bad I'm just all offering it up so that I like that it's not that we're not hearing it there is still another Avenue um yet we're not addressing it on the floor but that would require a vote right so I like that idea but

051I don't know we would have to vote on that before we go into executive session so I think may just covers I feel like that just covers it all I guess may I ask a question you may the board want that obligation to hear when a person may or may not have went through the chain of command and not allowed the administrative good question Personnel to handle said responsibility it's been delegated by policy elsewhere that should be a part of the process so do we want to do that yeah when do we want that to happen or that discussion happen it would also be very difficult if someone were to come up with a concern to stop them and we might have to well did you follow the chain of command I'm not sure we're

052you know on the spot trying to prove if that what procedure was followed or not I don't want to I don't want to prohibit people from coming forward if they followed procedure and they followed policy and they're at that last point and they need us to hear it I want them to have that opportunity but I also want to make sure that the policy is followed and that we know I have a suggestion too the form that we do for public participation could we add something in there that just says like is this complaint related to you know somebody who's connected with their schools or an employee because then we could have a little heads up on it and maybe contact them and you could it also could lead to a discussion um you know

053the hearing of a complaint does not necessarily have to happen immediately like as in tonight it could be a discussion that happens between the board and the superintendent typically you know could be me as well but I think 95 of the concerns would result back to Craig no offense Craig and then if the board did not feel that they wanted further action they could delegate the responsibility to the board president to reach out to the Community member to initiate that process and if a special meeting is needed you could then hold a special meeting and hold that concerning executive session as well I mean there are procedures and you know policies and things that we could do in place to kind of mediate I mean I think the concern would be to have you know

054defamation potentially of anybody right right even if there's a Community member that's attached to the school you know we've got to make sure that we're not putting the district at risk it would be different too if the only way you could ask for a concern to be addressed was if you had to approach Us in public session as though there wasn't any other Avenue of communication where all of us are available available by phone and by email or even regular letter that this would probably be the least desirable place to air a concern about an individual particularly if you know it would be harmful to someone's reputation so just making it that this isn't the the primary way you would approach that oh good points let me add something else that might confuse it anymore

055this is wordsmithing so in paragraph number one it says have an opportunity to hear the comments suggestions and concerns of the public paragraph two names and says in public session the board will not hear complaints well complaints were not enumerated in paragraph one so don't bring complaints to us in paragraph two that's what it plainly states and if we say may they can bring them right so but it's specifically complaints about school personnel right so is that okay just leave that as is complaints about School personnel it's a negative thing I suppose no need for a change I was just asking posing that um for me I just think that there's other avenues for complaints and if all of those are exhausted I do want to hear them but not in an open session because

056it could make us liable to things like defamation and I I don't think that's appropriate right and we can obviously offer executive session yes so would the would that would having that on the form help us so that we wouldn't even get to the public so that we could address it beforehand that's what I'm writing down right now it's just some things to look into before I mean I know this is we're not voting at it tonight but that's why discussion is good so let me make sure I've got this now so number one we'll get the definition of obscene for the final reading number two in paragraph two we are changing the word will to the word May and then I'm not sure that that we're all have we gotten there yet not yet

057I I don't know that that's Nest I've my proposal is that we keep it as will and add at the end of that sentence in Open session so we will not hear it in Open Session that doesn't mean we won't hear it but we will not hear it in Open Session that we may not hear it in Open Session so we've got two different things and so we've got changing the word will to the word may or changing that or adding to the end of that sentence the words in Open Session those are the two options we've talked about yes I think the May was if we would go into executive session I think that's where we meant to put the May yeah because the way that Mrs cook is reading that we will it

058just says you're saying kind of the same thing in a way just a different way of saying it you're saying you won't hear it in Open Session so it implies it's not as clear but again policy just could be either way so you would get rid of but in public session just start with the board will not and then put in Open session at the end of that sentence is that am I understanding that correctly because it says but in public session the board will not hear complaints about school Personnel nor against any person connected with the school system or do you want to say an open session I'm concerned with saying may not hear complaints no it would gives us the gives us like a judgment call like we may hear it on the

059floor we may decide not to and and I don't know how we would do that In fairness administrative guideline that would dictate when hit me down below I mean I mean to answer your question that's nope that's where that's where it would happen you'd have to create an administrative guideline that would determine the fact that you know the person would have gone through the chain of command so if it was a concern with a teacher that they've talked to the building principal the building principal didn't meet their they go to the assistant superintendent to the superintendent or CFO and go that way because we already have we will and we will have a new policy obviously for through Neola that would explain that and I'm assuming not my area because I'm focusing on the financial

060ones there's an administrative guideline for those that talks about if you have a complaint against a staff member procedures to go through and if it is the superintendent CFO typically in the past in my experience with Neola says go to the board president so if it's regarding something that Craig or I have done that you go to the board president to express that concern with and then investigate from there so this this article um I guess I'll just read it just so you guys can hear it and we're on the same page it says you know some restrictions have the potential to be problematic as notice noted most public participation is geared towards addressing complaints or concerns complaints about employees are a frequent topic anytime a complaint is posed the board should direct the speaker

061to the appropriate board policy or procedure about addressing complaints speakers should follow board policy and procedures which usually require filtering the complaint through the chain of command before ending with the board's consideration as a matter of appeal when restricting a speaker's ability to make negative comments about District business or specific employees impermissible Viewpoint and content restrictions come into play and considering the appropriateness of restricting negative comments boards must weigh the interest of the general public in hearing the complaints against the individual employees right to privacy to further complicate the situation the courts do not agree as to whether a board can prohibit comments directed at specific employees because because courts are split on whether Commons directed at specific employees are permissible any board choosing to restrict public participation in this matter must be willing to

062accept some degree of litigation risk risk so it's it's just like not very clear every other time yeah but that's also five years ago so I don't know if there's been an evolution on this matter but I think if our general stand is we won't hear anything in Oakland session against an individual whether or not it's true isn't even judge but just not against an individual but an opportunity for executive session would allow that person to air their concern and protect the privacy of an individual so going back to our in public session we will not hear complaints you could add something that you know if the chain of command has been exhausted a person has the right to a ask the superintendent or the board president to put it on the agenda for an

063executive session just like we would extreme disciplinary situations where we hear that sure sure I think that's a great solution I hate to make that longer did you get all that all right so we're adding a statement that leaving it as it is in public session the board will not hear complaints about school Personnel nor against any person connected with the school system because obviously that would include students coaches whatever that should an individual have exhausted the chain of command and still want to approach the board that the board president or the superintendent could ask or he would ask that individual to put it on the agenda for executive session so they would be heard it just wouldn't be recorded and open to the public since we're in the process of redoing our policies do

064we want to see what Neola has on this subject I was trying to dig through a couple here quickly and and they do not have the specific language in their public participation policy like that um so my assumption is it's in the complaint procedures and the administrative guideline so I can do some digging into that as well I'm just a little reluctant for us to be changing policy when we're in the process of changing policy right yeah notes to look at when we're going through and updating our policy I think it's probably a good idea because again I think where we may be landing here may already be in the Neola policy from the complaint standpoint not necessarily in the public participation standpoint so give me a couple days I can dig into that and

065and kind of report out in our board update this week maybe that could be the thing that's not in the policy but in the form that people would fill out that it would say you know if your concern is in regard to an individual then refer to this board policy session you know you know yep okay so let me do some digging we'll put something in our board update this week and then we'll figure out what we need to do and March and then we'll change it again in August if if any well if I heard Reiner correctly it would be if anything correct because we may already have policy leading Us in that direction already because the board can make the decision to just I mean if there's uh the the question we'd have

066to get legal opinion on this too though if the question with regards to the words uh an inflammatory aggressive or the the root of it they just wouldn't be they wouldn't tell somebody who's speaking you cannot speak any longer because you're inflammatory or aggressive they'd go back to the question about getting a definition legal definition for obscene and as long as they are able to meet the other applications of the policy you could be okay you want we want to check with Eric to make sure we can leave that in until we get Neola updated right and keep in mind we don't want to stray Too Much from the Neola policies definitely not because that's going to cause US problems and we learned the question that was brought up during the Neola discussion originally it

067was the board's enforcement of the policy that went you know that was not necessarily in line that creates the issue you know what I mean so when you we know that to be the standard we're in the process of that review good discussion to be had the allows definitely helps us make sure as we go through the initial review before the board gets first reading we can kind of look at it that way too all right so we'll do some work just put it out there to remove this couple of words that were the concern leave the policy otherwise don't wait until we're because we're looking at June that would be examining that policy so I mean if it's urgent that's different but we do have policy in place for complaints for complaints so we

068can just refer to what we're doing now solo without a you know a net so to speak right and it's just so in the second paragraph last sentence other channels other policy board of that oh a public participation of board meetings other chances provide for board consideration and disposition of legitimate complaints involving individual employees of the district and that closes the top the paragraph all right so we'll do some digging we'll put some clarifications out some options out and then uh we'll figure out what we do in March awesome and again no vote was necessary on there thank you Mr President members of the board and Mr Wade I'm recommending approval of agenda item C1 related to certified personnel and C2 through C5 all related to human resource matters I am also recommending approval of

069agenda item D that is related to administrative staff so moved second comments hearing none Mr Wade please call the roll Miss dressling yes Ms breiner yes Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes motions carry 5-0 this concludes my portion of tonight's agenda thank you next on the agenda the Board of Education report and recommendations Business Report Mr President members of the board Mr Heath I'm seeking the reappointment of the following citizen financial advisory member for a three-year term expiry in December 31st 2025 Miss Aaron Medved so moved she's comment I'll add to that she is very good very very good adds a great deal to that please call the roll Mr Wade Miss Payne yes Miss jesling yes Miss breiner yes Miss Cook yes Miss Tuttle yes motion carries 5-0 thank you legislative report Mrs breiner

070it's a doozy all right Ohio House begins work on biennial budget the Ohio the house finance committee started work on the fiscal year 2425 biennial budget with testimony from the office of budget management director Kim I apologize mernick's possibly Who provided detailed information on Governor Mike dewine's budget proposal dewine had outlined his proposal at the State of the State on January 31st it included several education related Provisions including the following continuing the phase-in of year three and four of the fair school funding plan providing funding for any public or private schools that want to hire a school resource officer providing 100 million to launch new in-demand career tech programs and interest industry recognized credential programs across the state increasing the eligibility for Ed Choice vouchers up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level requiring

071the Ohio Department of Education Ode to create professional development coursework rooted in evidence-based strategies for Effective literacy instruction and provide funding to schools and districts to incorporate the literacy training in their classrooms also requiring Ode to support up to 100 additional literacy coaches in schools and districts with the lowest reading proficiency continuing funding for tutoring services and providing additional college credit plus funding to provide additional training for teachers to instruct classes on high school campuses members of the house finance committee asked several questions to mernix regarding the fear house Fair school funding plan Ed Choice vouchers and the funding of school resource officers dewine's budget proposal includes the creation of the Department of Children and Youth a new department that will move numerous programs from other departments to be housed under the new Department legislators

072questioned murnix on what programs would fall into the new department and what would remain with ode she stated the early childhood education would move to the new department but the other K-12 would stay with ode the legislative Service Commission has drafted the governor's budget proposal and to build language and the bill will be introduced in the near future the seven subcommittees of the house finance committee will soon begin holding committee hearings to delve deeper into the bill language education related items the bill will be considered in the Finance subcommittee on primary and secondary education chair of the house finance committee Jay Edwards from Nelsonville outlined the proposed budget timeline line in the house with a goal of passing the bill out of the house finance committee by the end of April lastly Edwards made the

073following statement regarding funding for Traditional School Districts question I see I'm CMS members is if there's going to be enough members that want to see that that fully phased in sooner or do we want to just stay in Pace I think there is a will amongst the House Republicans to make sure we stick with the cup Patterson plan Bill 2 reform ode reintroduced in the Ohio Senate during the lame duck session of the 134th General Assembly their proposed bills Senate Bill 178 to reform the functions and responsibilities of the State Board of Education the superintendent of Public Instruction and ode failed to Garner enough votes to pass in the Ohio House SB 178 was a priority in the Ohio Senate and after its unsuccessful vote leaders in the Ohio Senate re-emphasized the bill as a

074priority by introducing it as sb1 it's sponsored by Senator Bill Reineke from Tiffin and largely contains the same language as SB 178 including the following provisions create a Department of Education and Workforce with a cabinet level director appointed by the governor and proved by the Senate divide the agency into two divisions the division of primary and secondary education which would also include preschool and the division of Career Technical education authorize the new Department to be responsible for the rulemaking process and the enforcement of current rules maintain the current structure of the sboe but limit its duties to teacher licensure educator or staff conduct and territory transfer decisions the chair of the Senate education committee Senator Andrew Brenner from Powell has held two hearings on the bill and plans to continue hearings over the months of

075February and March with the intention of passing the bill out of this Ohio Senate by the end of March some recently introduced legislation sb1 introduced by Reineke to reform the functions and responsibilities of sboe the superintendent of Public Instruction in ode sb2 introduced by Senator Kirk schering from Canton to provide a full or partial tax exemption to developers and owners of newly constructed homes within specified areas during the construction period and for 10 years after the home is occupied sb5 introduced by Senator schering and Nathan Manning from North Ridgeville to establish the workforce voucher program that Awards vouchers to students at public and private institutions of higher education seeking degrees certifications or licenses for in-demand jobs to require each public high school including community and stem schools school counselors annually to inform all 11th grade

076students about the workforce voucher program and to promote the program and to require Ode to notify annually each public high school of the requirements sb6 introduced by Schuring to prohibit strs and scrs among others for making investment decisions for the primary purpose of influencing environmental social and corporate governance policies sb11 introduced by Senator Sandra O'Brien from Ashtabula to expand eligibility for Ed Choice scholarships to all students beginning with scholarships sought for 23-24 school year and to increase increase the homeschool School expense tax credit from 250 to two thousand dollars sb14 introduced by senator Frank Hoagland from Mingo Junction to allow school districts to employ veterans that have met from armed forces that have met certain requirements to be employed as teachers without a license SB 17 introduced by Senator Steve Wilson from Maineville to require

077the State Board to update the standards and model curriculum for financial literacy and Entrepreneurship in grades 9-12 to include free market capitalism content sb18 introduced by Wilson to eliminate the obsolete requirement that school districts or school buildings and academic emergency or academic watch submit information to Ode before approval of a three-year continuous Improvement plan to eliminate the obsolete requirements for site evaluations for district districts or buildings in academic emergency or academic watch to modify the type of communication through which ode must distribute required notice of certain events or certain services to allow school districts to meet via electronic means to conduct a hearing for students and parents regarding notice to be Registrar of Motor Vehicles for excess excessive unexcused students absences from school to allow County Township or Municipal Corporation to meet with the school

078district to discuss the terms of in agreements for the creation of a tax-exempt district and to remove the requirement that a school district published in a newspaper of General circulation notice of intent intent to donate property that is not needed obsolete or unfit for the district's use with a value of less than 2500 but maintains requirement of continual posting of such notice in the school district's Board office and permits a non-profit organization to submits electronically it's written notice to a School District Board of its desire to obtain donated District property sv23 introduced by Senator George Lang Westchester to expand political subdivision joint purchasing authority to expressly include purchases for Construction Services SB 27 introduced by Senator Christina roegner from Hudson to ratify the interstate teacher Mobility compact SB 29 introduced by Senator Stephen Huffman of

079Tip City to enact laws pertaining to technology providers of Education records and data and require school districts to make public certain information regarding the technology provider and limits what school districts can access or monitor on a school-issued device SB 43 introduced by Senator Andrew Brenner to extend the homestead exemption for the surviving spouse of a disabled veteran to spouses of a disabled veteran who dies before receiving a qualifying disability rating SB 44 introduced by Brenner requires a state occupational licensing agency to accept electronic license applications SB 47 introduced by Huffman to prohibit a public employer from providing paid leave or compensation for a Public Employee to engage in political activities including lobbying and finally SB 49 introduced by Senator Michelle Reynolds from Canal Winchester to enact the religious expression phase or red act and to

080require School boards to adopt a policy providing students teachers and staff with religious accommodations for up to three days foreign I had one quick question probably for you Mr Heath do we know how many of our college credit plus classes are actually taught at Mentor High right on site on my head I don't know but I can get that information I thought they were doing like basic English composition or something like that at one point but I don't know what the status of that I haven't inquired about that in a long time so since it's mentioned training for teachers to instruct classes it's nice for students if they're taking some of those Basics to be able to have that opportunity right at school without having to travel I'll get that information and have it for

081the next meeting hey you ready for me you ready rock and roll all right student achievement the mentor concert mixed choir our select High School singing Ensemble traveled to Columbus on February the second to perform at the Ohio music Education Association professional development conference The Ensemble is one of three High School mixed choruses selected to perform at the event and it is the first time since the 1980s that a choir from mentor has performed at the conference our choir was received with a standing ovation and their performance will be one to remember from the Sears conference Evelyn meguri a mentor senior in the honors marketing and business administration program has been selected as one of our as one of only five student presidential Scholars CTE nominees in Ohio each year up to 161 students are

082named as presidential Scholars one of the nation's highest honors for high school students Evelyn received a commendation on the Ohio senate floor on February 8th thank you to Senator Sereno for recognizing Evelyn's excellence we are proud to announce that Tia Geisler Orchard Hollow 4th grader won the Lake County Spelling Bee Championship on Wednesday February the 1st she will now compete on Wednesday March 1st at 9 30 a.m in the Tri-County spelling bee the winner of that competition will earn a trip to the National Spelling Bee finals in Washington D.C congratulations and good luck to you on January 27th Mentor High School mock trial team competed at the 2023 oclre mock trial District competitions at the Lake County Courthouse the competition was sponsored by Lake County Common Pleas Court and Lake County Bar Association our team

083faced stiff competition from Andrew Osborne's Academy Kenston Lake Catholic Harvey Riverside and ndcl and our Mentor High School mock trial team one came out on top and is advancing to the regional competitions this Friday Mentor theater hosted their winter play Prelude to a kiss February 2nd through the 4th as a part of the playmaker series the black box theater production sold out each for each of the three performances that they had and gave the students of Mentor High a chance to produce another challenging production in an intimate setting audiences really seem to enjoy the Productions in this format and I know that I certainly did miss Mr Tuttle and I were able to see the play and and Mr Heath as well I don't know if anyone else saw it but this is Justin it

084was very fun well done the mentor School Science Olympiad team held their annual Invitational at Mentor High School on Saturday February 11th this was our 23rd Invitational we hosted 88 teams representing 53 middle and high schools and several Nash 53 middle and high school teams and several national teams we are proud to be able to host such a large Invitational for so many schools and to be able to do so for a 23rd time is remarkable the first College and Career Fair for visual arts took place here in the Paradigm on Monday February 6th during the school day The Mentor High School art Department teamed up with over 50 alumni for Mentor High School members from the local art community and representatives from art related careers to offer 800 current art students in grades 8

085through 12 an opportunity to speak with a variety of small businesses non-profits and industries across Ohio to discuss internships field experiences for the Arts honors diploma senior project and other networking opportunities or career paths alumni and artists served as role models for current students by talking about what they do or what inspired them to enter an Arts related career field event excuse me also featured admission representatives from 20 prestigious colleges and universities who specialize in the education of young visual artists whether they are art schools trade schools or schools with art programs students have the opportunity to ask questions and gather information from these art programs and colleges also helped students with scholarship information and refining their portfolios by reviewing their artwork and helping them prepare for the application process okay excuse me our Career

086Tech Allied Health Program had 14 students qualify for their state competition to the CTE student organization HOSA hosa's mission is to promote career opportunities in the healthcare industry and to enhance the delivery of Quality Health Care to all people students will compete at their state tournament in March and will recognize and we will recognize them at an upcoming board meeting thank you Model United Nations is a simulation of the actual United Nations where young people take on the roles of world leaders to discuss the most pressing issues that face our world last week our Mentor model un team took to Chicago for the annual cim un conference at this conference students played roles such as Robin Cook in the House of Commons the CIA director and countries such as Mozambique in committees such as the

087secret security Council all students faced countless challenges that affected their position that they had to respond to for example during the during the 1982 part of the conference Ronald Reagan was shot and as a result many cabinet and committees had to respond to the news in a matter that reflected their position's stance at the conference students Advanced and learned skills pertaining to word to World diplomacy collaboration and speaking along with this many students showed Excellency in these skills and won many awards during the conference Mentor High School won three best delegates one outstanding delegate and a press communication award overall the trip for model un proved to be a success for the students because they were not a not only able to see the windy city but also experienced the bustling world of international diplomacy

088and finally our Junior and senior students in the CTE marketing and business administration program competed in the regional Deca competition on January the 26th DACA is a non-profit student organization that educates young leaders and entrepreneurs and prepares them for the business world this year we have 28 men are students qualifying for the state competition good luck [Applause] I just wanted to say that the mixed choir was just phenomenal I brought my five-year-old and my nine-year-old and literally as soon as they started singing they could not take their eyes off of them they were phenomenal they're an amazing girl so good yeah yeah Adam has done a tremendous job for sure I was there it's beautiful it was awesome four of us board members were there Adam did you know Adam he got covered so he

089did not go to Columbus for the competition and they still their performance was outstanding they were amazing really good music programs that's for sure Financial Mr Wade thank you Mr tell you're quite welcome I've lost control of my clicker because it doesn't work today so I'm relying on Mr Lynch so we'll see how my timing is tonight but uh I am pleased to announce to the board and to the community that uh on the day of Mr Heath's state of the schools for the mentor chamber we were notified that we received a clean audit this year for the last fiscal year so I'm pleased to announce that and I think it's a testament to all the hard work of our team in the treasurer's office as well as every staff member in the district who

090has a touch on all the things that we do from a financial standpoint secretaries everybody directors you know it takes a team efforts and it's there's a lot of people that are part of that and I'm very thankful for all the work that everybody does on a daily basis to ensure that we are protecting the taxpayer dollars in a transparent manner to make sure that we're being respectful of those dollars that we receive and pleased to announce that not only did we get a clean audit but we also received the otter estate with the distinction award this year and again that goes to the fact that we had a clean audit we've also went through and filed a gap report and we do our annual comprehensive financial report which are not required that but we

091do that to show our community that again that transparency that we have we're also thank you so Mr Wade you've really set the bar really high so that's one in a row that should be that should be the expectation um you know we if we do make mistakes we'll own up to them and we'll make sure we have the corrective actions in place to address those and one of the areas that we addressed last year as the new CFO that we came in and we had the audit on the year prior to my arrival was with regards to an issue with completing some sunshine law training prior to my arrival as well as an issue with during covid um a public records request that was took longer than this otters felt that it should have

092again not normal situations that we had in the district under the prior CFO and his leadership I think it was more a result of the fact that we were dealing with covet and he also retired during that tenure so there's not much we can do for that except for the fact that we we own that as we shared with the community last year and we've addressed it and we're happy to announce that this year we received a four-star rating from the state of Ohio with regards to transparency with public records requests and and address those concerns so Mr Lynch if you go to the next slide there are seven areas that you're rated on you have to get five of the seven uh we had six of the seven um we won't be able to

093get the seventh one until uh we have elections again and we take the training uh for those members uh so again it's not anything that we didn't do because actually in my tenure I took the training for public records request uh in August when I got here then miss Payne and Miss Cook were gracious enough to allow me to take it again in January so um because we had new board members because I'm the designee for the district on that public records training so um we were able to receive the four stars for that because we had six out of seven and our goal is to get seven out of seven as we move forward so uh Mr Lynch if you go to the next slide I'm kind of getting into what we're here to

094discuss kind of our monthly financials um again we we do this every month we've now completed uh 7 12 of our fiscal years we head into the end of January going into February and uh we're still trending uh well we are looking at revenues exceeding what we projected in our November forecast by about 361 thousand dollars and our expenses are trending lower by 178 thousand dollars so overall we're seeing a net impact uh which is better by about 539 824 uh to our forecast um if we look at our collections for our revenues to for the year um year to date collections uh we are appears to be down um and mainly in state revenue by about two million dollars this really isn't down last year if you were all of you were because you're

095all the same people that I talked to every month which I'm so appreciative to so I should start quizzing you all with that you remember last year right in January the state changed their funding model and it was the first time we got that payment in January based on the new model so we got a surplus of money because they didn't calculate it in the prior months so they caught up in January to make up for the differences that we did not receive in the prior months so we got a lot of money that we didn't get this year because they had done it all along so it doesn't really when you look at it from that standpoint we didn't really receive anything different it's more of a timing issue overall year to date we're

096about 713 000 more than we were last year most of that coming in the form of local taxes uh on our inside millage being higher because of the valuations that we received if we look at again overall looking where we're at for the month I've already said 361 thousand dollars there's nothing there that is material out of the ordinary that we see again when you're looking at 361 thousand dollars I can Pat myself on the back and say wow look we're coming in better but when you're looking at 107 million dollars and you percentage that out that's really not that significant it's not material and we could equally be next month 361 thousand dollars less than we projected and again that's goes back to the discussions we have with our citizens Financial advisory one of

097the things that they challenged me on when I became the CFO was they wanted to see us to be as close as possible to our projections both on our revenue and our expense end that we weren't seeing large conspiracy discrepancies or just at the end of the fiscal year where we were four or five million dollars under our you know projected under the revenue that we received in and we were over inflating expenses in our budget so we're trying to do a better job of that we're communicating that out on a regular basis and Mr Lynch if you go to the next slide getting into our expenses our expenses to date for January of this year we're about 617 thousand dollars more with a hundred thousand of that coming in the form of salaries and

098benefits and purchase Services being about 476 thousand dollars of that discrepancy that goes to the fact that we had a billing issue with uh Crossroads where some they changed the format of their Billing Services there's some confusion on those bills being received for years dating back to I believe uh 2020 in 2021 as well as last fiscal year uh so with that we had a catch-up of approximately 300 000 that we paid for this past January uh once we got that rectified with Crossroads um and if you look down at purchase services for the year we're up 732 000 and then salaries and benefits and other expenses we've talked about a number of times each month uh with regards to the transfers out and the increases in our salaries and benefits based on our contracts

099all in all Mr lunch if you go through the next slide we are 178 thousand dollars below what was projected in the forecast and uh that mainly goes to a insignificant material amount each of those areas for the same reasons they explained with Revenue uh even less material because it's 178 000 on 117 million so um we are trending about where we should we continue to monitor those areas and have discussions we are concluding uh the month here soon uh you know obviously February would be in a shorter month so we'll be done with that and then we will start our budget process for the next fiscal year in March and we'll have those budgets done and loaded by our May update tentatively then we will ask for the board approval in June as we

100did last fiscal year as we kind of progressed through just giving everyone a repeated timeline um if you remember I wanted to touch on a few things uh at the November meeting we did the November forecast we had the assumptions that I shared so I won't go into those we were looking at a ending cash balance of a negative 7.5 million dollars based on the deficit spending that we were having at that time we had not finalized the early retirement incentive um so I wanted to update the board and the community on the fact that we have re-run our model getting prepared for the may as well so I've included the early retirement incentive impact on the budget as well as a reduction of six staff members three certified and three classified as a minimum

101as we continue to get ready for the budgeting process as well as when we were looking again at this one of the things that I had inadvertently done is I had included a transfer out in 2026 to fund The Five-Year Capital plan and I have taken that out because we've funded it this year so I've made that correction as well so I'm pleased to announce based on those Corrections uh though they are not material enough to refile our forecast I did want to communicate to the board in the community uh as we continue to have discussions with regards to our finances and potential needs for additional revenue and when those timings would be if you look at the ending cash balance value now with those with the update to the employee severance plan and the

102Assumption of reduction continue reduction in staff to align with our declining enrollments and the correction for the inadvertent transfer out we actually have a positive cash balance of 712 thousand dollars again not enough to fund us as our budgets in the 112 million dollar range currently when you take the transfers uh out of that um but it does put us in a you know net positive position of about eight million dollars of those changes so I wanted to communicate that out um because you know we are doing things to improve our our bottom line we shared that last uh We've approved that in December I believe it was uh to move forward with that so I wanted to reflect that in an update which will then be filed in May which leads me into the

103fact that I think it's worthwhile again to to bring up a few points because uh I do try to stay in tune to the pulse of the committee when I get questions or see things out there so I we we are recommending myself and Mr Heath to the board based on a discussion that we had in November that we should can strongly consider at the board's approval to put a 2.5 mil permanent Improvement levy on my recommendation is that would be a five-year Levy not a continuous Levy as I've heard it communicated uh in other places as well our current Pi Levy is continuous but that's because it was voted in 1988 and I think the district has shown that they have done well with the million dollars that they had I think we owe

104it to the taxpayers if we're going to ask for an additional 2.5 Mills that we prove with the same level of certainty that we have over the last 25 35 years with the current Levy that we should gain that same trust so I think it would be fair to start out with a five-year request for that again that would be my recommendation to the board and it's ultimately the board's decision on how long they want to put that Levy out for that being said if you've taken the correction in the Assumption of the severance plan and you were to then take out all the topics that we discussed back in November and again I think I shared that at the November meeting in my forecast meeting of what a pi Levy is a restricted amount

105of money so they can always spent for specific things that have a useful life of five years so they cannot be spent on salaries and benefits and we are spending about six six and a half million dollars a year on areas that would qualify as permanent improvements whether it be maintenance of facilities and upgrades or purchases of vehicles like buses Vans trucks that we use technology books so forth that also lets the community know that those funds are set aside specifically for those things and they can never then be used for anything else but those specific things so I think it's much more transparent I think it's much more concrete it delineates that and I think we all can appreciate the fact that we all have maintenance and purchases that we have to make regardless

106of what's going on in our own personal homes that being said we also and I will be asking for a special meeting for next week just and again because we need to approve uh the acceptance of a insurance policy and if you've also been paying attention which I again know you all are I had talked about the two percent rule with regards to the permanent Improvement Levy and we said we had a total insured value of 249 million dollars um Mr glitch is getting a little jumpy I mean he's I feel like I'm on the Oscars and he's trying to tell me to stop talking foreign we just got our premiums uh package for our next year and it goes our insurance year goes from March 1st to the end of February so we have

107to approve an updated insurance package by the end of February hence the reason why we need to do that and because um there were some things with that with regards to our total assured value jumped up to 314 million dollars on that which increased our premiums by higher than I had initially anticipated or would have liked we are requesting an appraisal be done by our insurance company to get that back down and we had another bid for lower uh Insurance limits which I don't think is the appropriate move at this point either for about 305 million dollars so we know we're about up 50 million dollars as I'm sure all of us experience those increases in our valuations for our homes but when you're talking not only about valuation what it could be sold for

108in our case it's actually replaced for we all know the cost of materials have gone up as well that means technically if you take that three point three million 300 million dollars and multiply that by two we're looking at you know more than we had anticipated I'm not suggesting we ask for more I'm just saying that that's just the reality that we're all in so when we take that into consideration and we look at if we were to pass a 2.5 mil Pi Levy in 2024 fiscal year 24 which would be November this November of 23. because it would start collecting in you know the next cycle which is the second half of that which would be in the spring collection of 2024. we would then see our cash balance improve to 19 million dollars

109at the end of 27. and then again villaining those funds specifically for purchases of materials or upgrades that have a useful life of five years so that's even a better picture um and what that does is if you're looking at the graph on the screen is the gray line or the bottom line is the line that we had in November with the updated assumptions and Corrections you see the black line which puts us at that seven hundred thousand dollars at the end of The Five Year forecast which does put us in the you know the black not by much and then if we were to pass API Levy in November of 23 that would be our financial position going forward Mr Lynch if you would go to the next slide foreign so we talked about

110again in complete transparency that alone is not going to solve our issue you know we have flat revenues and increasing expenses much like members of our community you know you can look at us we're on a fixed income and we all have to do two things we have to tighten our belts and potentially look for additional Revenue to offset some of those increases to do that we have to go to the taxpayers for additional Revenue so I wanted to lay out the situations that we discussed again in November and kind of share some data with everybody in the board so that as we get closer to the deadline to put something on for November and July we've continuously had these discussions and you know the board has the information that they need to be able

111to make the decisions they feel is best for themselves in the community so obviously if we pass something in 25 it doesn't collect half until 26 and then it doesn't collect the full collection until fiscal year 27. with that you can see on the screen above you that that would put the cash balance at 37 million dollars in the area of uh 27 but if you look above it in the black if you can see it I apologize for those of you who can't this weekend will be online we'll post it with the the documents that I have for the budget there's only one year up there that still doesn't have us deficit spending if we wait till 2025 and we talked about back in November so that shows to the board of the community

112asking for additional Revenue is not enough we could ask for more Revenue right I mean that's always an option I would recommend that once you get about five Mills the flavor for people to pass a levy above five Mills goes down drastically but I'd also say that you know we have to continue to find ways to to cut our costs as we have always done you know we've closed buildings in this District we have thought of ways to decrease cost through Assurance negotiations and a variety of other things that we've done so on the next screen that you see up there again a little bit harder to read because the size of the TVs unless you're closer to them but um you can see that in each of the out years we never stop deficit

113spending and then by fiscal year 29 we spend down that Reserve to about 20.6 million dollars 20.7 million dollars on the very very end I share that with you because we were committed in November and we still would be committed that we have to reduce our current spending pattern so um the top part of this slide is just basically the slide that we just had on the last screen with some adjustments Mr Lynch if you go to this next slide if we were to pass a levy in 2025 the green area um and then that bottom slide shows that we would need to reduce the fiscal year 24 by 2 million dollars we've already reduced it by one million dollars through some of the things that we've done and that's what's demonstrated in my initial

114update to the board on the five-year forecast with the employee severance plan so we still have to reduce it by another million dollars we'd still have to remove another million dollars from fiscal year 25 for a total of two additional million dollars and then for this to work I would suggest that we would have to reduce it by another two and a half million dollars in 2026. just to explain to the community if you're looking at the very bottom of that you see minus 1 million and 24 then you see minus 1 million twice and 25 and then you see twice again at 26 with another 0.25 million being reduced that's because everything has to be cumulative right I can't tell you that I just want to reduce a million dollars and 24 well it's

115going to carry out throughout years so I have to do it again to have the impact that I'm looking for in 25 so that's why you see it on there so it's a stacked kind of approach to that so we have to reduce each year by those amounts and those are pretty significant amounts because we can only do that typically through 80 of it through salaries and benefits with the other 20 be coming from purchase services and supplies materials as we've talked I did assume in those out years based on what's in the current forecast increases in 27 28 about three and a half percent so it wasn't that scientific I just kind of made the Assumption based on the trend that I already had in my forecast that puts us in an even better

116position than the slide above if you look at the this the line above it says uh any balance on the top half 20.7 which it was showed in that other graph that Mr Lynch had on the screen prior to below it takes us to 26.1 so that puts us in a better financial position of where we're at at the end of that and again the key piece is though to me if we're passing at 25 we won't collect until fiscal year 26 the first half you can see that that set Revenue Surplus negative is now down to a negative 105 thousand dollars well I said literally Mrs Bowser's probably timing me probably 10 minutes ago at this point that 105 000 million is not you know it's not Material so really for all types of

117purposes we've balanced the budget for that first year of passing so that means we're not deficit spending most likely that first year when we get the full impact of that new Levy we would not be deficit spending in 27 either because we'd actually have a surplus of two million dollars and then you see we will be back into deficit spending if everything stays as projected in 28 and then we'd be looking to potentially pass a new Levy sometime in 29 or later so unless you go to the next slide so if we looked at the same scenario and that was passing in the calendar year 25 okay so I've suggested a pi Levy in 23. to make it work in 25 you know you have a year off and then we'd have to seek additional

118Revenue with those same assumptions if you were to pass a five mil Levy in you can see that the cash balance here in 27 is a positive 47 million dollars um we would be deficit spending by 2 million and 25 you'd see a positive balance in 26 again not necessarily the material because it's only about four hundred and four thousand dollars and then deficit spending by four million dollars and 27. so Mr Lynch go the next slide and if you go to the next slide after that actually at this point I make the same assumptions where we still have to reduce a million dollars and twenty four two million dollars and 25 and instead of four and a half million dollars I just did four million dollars in 26 no reason why we couldn't do

119four and a half with the three percent increases you can see that our cash balance then is close to 33 million dollars so I share this with the board in the community because we have options it's just going to be what the future looks like after that so there has to be a reduction regardless and this is all predicated on the passing of a pi Levy in 23. because that assumption's built into this because that's what we discussed at the work session so we're not saying that we're not going to need additional Revenue so to be clear on that the additional Revenue can happen either in 24 or 25 for approximately five mils again not recommending anything more than an initial Five Years on that if the board so chooses this would not be anything

120more than a five-year Levy but to make either one of those scenarios work the board and the district has to be committed to reducing costs next year by at least another million dollars another two million dollars and 25 and another two to two and a half millions and 26. so I just share that with the board of the community so you have that information I could run any scenario that the board would like me to look at um but you know this is the recommendation I feel is the the most prudent at this point It's a combination of reclassifying our expenses to permanent Improvement Levy because those funds are restricted but the need will be there still regardless for General operating Levy because we will see increases regardless even things that we can't control much

121like the homeowner any questions on that before we move to my last five slides don't be quick I promise all right so I'll stay in school fees we charge school fees for a variety of things in this District um free and appropriate education does not relate necessarily to consumables so a lot of our fees are on a yearly basis we have a technology fee we have a fee for art classes or chemistry class or anything that has a consumable we're allowed to charge that feedback to the actual student or family who's enrolled in that class that offsets the cost to the general taxpayer because they no longer have students in the district and aren't consuming those fees and when you look at fees and you look at fees being collected you have four D's of

122fee payers we have our dutiful person who is everybody in this room I'm sure who pays all their fees on time so as soon as they get that they pay that fee because they want to have it done and out of the way we may have the distracted fee pair who needs a reminder or two but they also May pay prior to that going to the next level of deep air who's more of the disrespectful person who will hold off on paying their fees until there's a threats that they're going to send them to collections uh by a third party and then we have the fourth payer which uh I'm sure we've all not necessarily experienced ourselves but we know someone who has who refuses to pay the fee until they're sent to collections and

123then that fee gets sent to collections they pay and there's now a ding so to speak on their credit score would like to update the board in the community on how we remind people of their fees when they sign up for their courses at the end of the year they get a fee statement for that they pay their fees and if they don't they'll get monthly reminders until all their fees are paid on top of that monthly reminder they also get three mailings that get sent home they get one uh right at the beginning of the year at the end of the first quarter then we sent another one around this time of year to everybody so we're stunning that fee with additional labor to put those into a mailing and postage as well we

124do offer fee waivers for anybody who's on free and reduced lunch so a family who's in need and is signed up for free release lunch does not by law have to pay their fees so if there's a need based on the the threshold for free and reduced lunch they will get those feed waves and we also have a process through a director of pupil services for hardship consideration for additional support for maybe if you don't qualify for free and reduced lunch but you've had something that's happened or you're just on the verge and you're concerned about not paying your fees you can contact the director of people services and her and I will probably talk and have a discussion and set somebody up on a plan or look at some sort of partial waving of

125those fees based on need and on that basis so I share that with everybody because the rest of this presentation is not very nice we have looked into how to best collect our fees particularly for those fees that are outstanding we've talked to a few companies we've actually used TSI in the past they have a process for collecting outstanding fees Mr Wilson instituted this back in 2012-13 we used it for about four years stopped for a year and when he was going to reinstitute it again when covet hit and then did not and then we didn't have fees for the 1920 or the 2021 school year and reinstituted fees last year um in that time I spoke to TSI in another firm as well as talked to a number of various CFOs and treasures throughout

126the area to see how they go about collecting fees Mr Lynch you switched slides they have a three-phase process they have the accelerator reminder Services which they basically on behalf of you have a five contact system where they use three letters and two phone calls that occur every seven days to remind somebody that hey you have fees so that process goes over 35 days um stage two is the profit recovery early demand stage um what they do is they do five third priority letters so they send it from themselves on behalf saying that they are then contact contracted by the district uh every 10 day and there's also a fee for those services for so for phases one and two there are fee structures based on the number of households that you're sending fee letters

127home to to initiate reminders and to push people kind of the distracted and defiant person to that get them to pay in and then there's a stage three where they send them to collections through their own collection agency and they take about 50 percent of those fees their Minimum Collection is 25 and they have a collection success rate if you go through all three phases of about mid eighty percent so 85 to 87 percent why do I share this with you because we have approximately eight hundred seventy thousand dollars of outstanding school fees we collect about million six a year in school fees is what our fee charges are it's actually about 1.9 million dollars we reduce that by about 300 and some thousand dollars a year based on free and reduced lunch of that

128870 thousand dollars and those fees date back 10 plus years we have 225 000 in fees for students who no longer have an attachment to the district at all so that means they've either graduated or moved away and there's no other member of their family attached to the schools so we presented a plan to the citizens Financial advisory committee uh we meet with quarterly and they unanimously approved that we would do a hybrid of stages one and two because of the fact that we touch our families repeatedly throughout the year with regards to email Communications and mail them home three letters all right already it would not be prudent to spend much more money on the initial stage one five letter or three letter to call campaign because we they feel and I would agree

129that we do a nice job of reminding families that they have outstanding fees so what we would do is the last letter of that and four letters of stage two which is from the third party to everybody who has an outstanding fee each year around this time um so that process would take about 85 days from the initial contact to when we got that three or 60 days because we'd probably go to a 14 days for the last five letters but again we've reminded everybody since the beginning of school with monthly reminders we've mailed home three letters on our own this would be another five additional touches by this company to remind people that they have fees reminding them if they need assistance that they could have you know filed free and reduced lunch or

130they could have reached out to the director of people services if they then don't pay they would be sent to collections and then collections would collect in stage three any outstanding fees again we have fees going back 10 years the auditor and we have those if you're an accountant or you're familiar with financing we have accounts receivable every year in our Gap report that says you know 870 000 so it makes us look inflated because we we're Cash basis and we don't have that money here and to be honest a fee from 2008 I'm never going to get no matter how many times I send a call or an email that person's not going to send that back to me and they probably laugh at this point when they get a letter from the CFO

131stating that you have outstanding fees um so we need to do everything in our power to collect those fees again because we know we have 80 of the people in our district who don't have students in schools and for all types of purposes they foot the bill then on that 870 000 because that student either received those materials or they received that MacBook that they lost or that Crow book or whatever the reason why they have outstanding fees that exists so rather than just saying to the board hey I have 10 years worth of fees that I haven't collected let's waive those fees I think we should put all of our fees on this structure to regularly do our best to get the the most that we can out of that and again if someone

132has a hardship there's things in place to help them get the fee waived or to get assistance from us to set to set something up only then after we've sent through stages that you know all the things that we've done plus the hybrid stages that I'm doing and they've gone to collections then should we consider as a district to then waive those fees because someone gets sent to collections we shouldn't send them to collections every year for something we've already sent Reflections to I think that would be kind of redundant as well and it wouldn't be my recommendation or best practice then we can then as a board waive those fees which would also address the auditor's concern and increase our collection rate because right now we have 800 000 that we we haven't seen

133or won't see so if we do nothing we're you know we don't have that additional Revenue that we're obligated to have from the commitment from the people when they take those classes so with regards to that if you look at signing some math and what it would look at so I assume worst case scenario most conservative if everybody was to go to stage three and we got 50 percent we would get about 435 337 less fees and let's assume we have an 80 collection rate you know we could generate back Revenue that we have not seen of about 315 000 one-time Revenue I would project that we would collect somewhere between 250 to 400 000 because again not everyone's going to be the last level of person correct we have people who are distracted because

134they have a lot going on they may have multiple kids in multiple places or the fact that they just wait to see if we're actually going to collect them and I think we can evaluate the success of this process through tracking longitudinally our collection rate year over year and just you know from looking at what we have in our accounts receivable at the end of each year so it would be my recommendation that we move forward with this process to make sure that we collect the fees that we have outstanding happy to answer any questions are we paying them like a flat fee or do they keep a percentage good question so if we go with the hybrid between phases uh one and two like I'm asking we would pay a fee on that it's

135based on the number of households that you set it to I would project a cost of approximately thirty thousand dollars on that and are we initially and then obviously that fee would subside because we're going to have a lot more uncollected this year than we would in the future years as well and are we doing something to identify like current students where they've got an outstanding balance so we don't keep building that outstanding balance we haven't historically done usually where the person gets caught is and I can speak from experience as the Mentor High School principal they want to leave to go on senior project and they can't go on senior project unless their fees are paid we set reminders though I mean we do identify with the fact that we're sending reminders to families

136that hey you have these outstanding fees that you haven't paid so this is developing a specific process to do exactly I think what you're saying Miss Brian yeah is it that we can try to identify those that are delinquent sooner so that it doesn't continue to build and try to put stops in place I mean we're not talking about food here we're talking about like participation in sports and things right no this what are we talking about we're talking class fees it could be some of it could be food to but typically it's it's more likely some sort of school fee that I had with regards to I took a chemistry class and there was a fee associated with it or I had an art class or I had a technology fee for a specific

137year or I lost a Macbook or I lost my uh charger for my MacBook or my Chromebook and I went down to the Hub at the high school and got another one and said yeah I just build it to my account and then I never I lost a library book so it's a variety of different things correct so if there's the average fee for the fees that we have is about 150 for the students that we have there's any way we can put any kind of anything in place that can try to stop it from building I mean obviously we can't turn students away correct we did talk about some other avenues of you know each grade level as they move from this this will address most of what I think you're saying but in

138the same token you know the reason why we don't have an issue with pay to participates because you don't participate if you don't pay okay so that gets paid that's so that's what I'm like that's a little bit different right so but we do have things that are in excess of what's required at each of the different grade bands that we could consider that you know they do that but then you run into the discussion from an educational standpoint do you want to penalize the student because the parent cannot or choosing not to pay anything and that's I mean again we're not trying to deny anybody in education here don't I just want to clarify that don't misunderstand I mean yeah anybody who has a need we want to make sure that they know we

139have Avenues to address absolutely okay well I would be curious to see how this process is working so if you could follow up with us yes down the road and let us know that'd be interesting to see and what do other districts do uh will the East Lake does something similar um some of the you know some districts don't have to worry about school fees because of the fact that they're free reduced lunch is high enough where they don't have those fees some just continue to let the fees build and then they write them off without doing anything so it's kind of depends on different processes that they've instituted I know Lorraine fendi's change in tax collection and I know that's a different thing but when it was going to go to a collection agency

140it changed the pay rate that was actually brought up in citizens Financial advisory that when the treasurer sold the debt for those outstanding tax payments that obviously that went up their collection rate went up quite a bit and there's also the piece that's that's fairness peace to those families pay you know to make sure that if a device is lost for example or broken although we we don't it's really the loss that is the issue is and if the device breaks or fails we take care of that unless we have a fee structure in place where there's I don't use the word insurance but for lack of better or worse to use there's a there's a they have to pay a percentage because it's much smaller than potentially the cost could the whole thing and

141those devices are necessary you know everybody needs those in order to participate in the school program but you know caring for them and all it's a partnership and so Injustice to those families who do their best follow through and pay for those fees we did talk about that quite a bit at the citizens Financial advisory as well you know there's a fairness piece of this because we do have people who pay their fees and they're they follow the rules they are respectful they pay their fees whether it's on time or a little bit late they're still paying them it is unfair to them that if they are paying their fees that others are choosing not to because they feel that there's no repercussion I mean it's also not fair to the taxpayer who does not

142have students in the district because they end up everybody every taxpayer ends up fitting that bill as an expense you know when you have 125 000 of uncollected fees doesn't mean that that whatever that was used to purchase that doesn't mean that it wasn't purchased because we have to go in assuming that people are going to pay their fees because we need the materials or whatever the resources are that we're doing that so you know when you talk about tightening in your belts and you have an expense of 125 to 150 000 a year of uncollected fees you know this is just one more tool and a tool belt to make sure that we're being fair to all of our taxpayers it's not the most fuzzy thing right I mean no one wants to we

143don't want to be doing this it's not why the board got into being on the board or you know Educators got into education but the reality is is you don't pay me for that you pay me to make sure that we're protecting the taxpayers dollars and it was a big discussion that citizens Financial advisory and some of the things that you know that the point that it's accountability is very important and I think that that's why we need to move forward we need to hold people accountable for paying the fees that that they owe um but you had shared at that meeting in the past that we had actually used this exact company and the return was a lot greater we had our fees paid um on Emmett we had better returns yeah when we

144initiated the uh that's a good point Miss Cook and it kind of touch on that briefly is that when we initiated the initial campaign uh Mr Wilson just did the letter campaign okay and we had it you know it worked well the first year and then in subsequent years when nothing happened beyond the letter people became aware that nothing was going to happen and they kind of lost its luster a little bit um with regards to that you know you think about it too we had more students back in 2012 and 2013 in our outstanding fees were lower significantly lower we you know I think because it covered in a variety of other factors uh we need to just make sure that we're collecting those because the with less students and having a higher uncollected

145rate doesn't fare well for us there was also a large discussion on how many letters or touches we should give and um you know with more touches is is a greater cost so this is a um a point that helps us keep accountability but also isn't the plan where we're just sending 10 letters you know because at this point to your point we the district is already from day one notified people on a monthly basis set home letters so this is an additional point and the consensus at that meeting was five would be unanimous unanimous ten was 10 was redundant on top of everything that we've already done with the associated costs with doing 10 it did not make economic sense to do so no because the cost of postage the time for the individual

146a clerk or whomever is doing that piece of it that that's it adds up well that's that's a you know that's the other Factor too right is we're spending resources and time doing this ourselves so there's a there's there's a cost to that as well would be financially um struggling have already been removed from the equation because of the free and reduced lunch if they have it you know again all they have to do is reach out or you know the more we communicate the more people can let people know to reach out and go through that process as well that concludes my report thank you Mr Wade Mr President members of the board Mr Heath I ask for the approval items B through F and all addendums and this can be acted on in

147one motion still moved second questions comments anyone Miss Payne yes Miss brighter yes Miss Cook yes Miss Jocelyn yes Mr Tuttle yes motion carries 5-0 next on the agenda unfinished business do we have any unfinished business do business I would request that we have a special meeting for approval of the insurance policy that would need to be in place prior to the end of February so that we're covered on Tuesday the 21st at 5 30. or a time that works for the board if possible 5 30. yes if that works for me 21st good for me okay should be quick thank you Time 5 30 5 30. here in paradigm we'll get the special meeting notice out sometime later this week okay thank you and then we'll do the same thing for the safety discussion

148that we'll have on March 7th that I had mentioned earlier as well and we'll get those Sun Sunshine notices out closer to that time that was six o'clock correct six to six yeah six to seven thirty okay let's put that in minutes thank you next on the agenda hearing of the public oh you did I skip new business we just did that yeah hearing of the public our first Speaker tonight is Miss Linda O'Brien good evening I live at 5842 Tanager court and here in Mentor and first I want to tell you it was wonderful to see some emphasis and participation in what I interpret as patriotism tonight at the very beginning of the session we need that and more of that for our students because America relies on patriotic people to continue in this

149constitutional republic of ours um I come here every month and I come here because I know that these students are the future of this country and they deserve the best possible education that this country can provide so when there's an opportunity for improvement I talk about that and when there's something that's done well I acknowledge that and I hope that you hear that um children need the opportunity to be in with not just what you call a safe environment but an encouraging environment one where they feel valued not because of their race or their gender or their heritage um you know not the color of their skin but rather because of their character I mean we talk about that in the Martin Luther King time but then we forget about it and we focus instead

150on CRT and Dei and SEL and all those things are dividing our children they are not uniting them and back from the early days of Ben Franklin he made it real clear with his cut up snake unite or die and it's in your hands as to how these children think and how they will perform to maintain this country and its freedom it's imperative that we help them understand the importance of uniting and coming together with mutual respect and kindness so I go back to the fact that we are not teaching the basics well and you've heard me say that and some of you are tired of hearing me say that and I will continue to pound that drum until it's changed because basics of Reading Writing and arithmetic are what creates a foundation for these

151children to be able to go forward and succeed in this world and America needs to have a Competitive Edge against the rest of the world we know the things that are going on in this world and I can't believe that your timer is correct so I'm not sure what's going on here it's not good I think I'm sure he started it out elsewhere but I haven't all right so so again let me give you an example I mean right now the test scores that came out for the up for middle and high school our abysmal they're below 40 That's failing you know in caps now I'm going to give you the example of true life experience my granddaughter was here through fifth grade she struggled with common core math endlessly tutors were hired I was

152trying to figure it out none of that worked she's now in Texas guess what she went from a v in math to Straight A's and she says to me grandma it must be a miracle and I'm like honey what kind of math are you learning oh it's the kind you were teaching me they don't do common core so I share with you that everybody learns differently time and we must you know we must pay attention to that and Mr Ward to your point of about needing more money if a product is failing my question is why should I pay more for it let's get this school back to being a major success thank you and I'll help in any way I can [Applause] Mr Lynch are we ready for well Mr Lynch Gets Ready chasing

153wall is our next speaker hi my name is Jason wall subscribe We're not gonna talk back to you go ahead what was the thing that you wanted to talk about I don't know what's the problem with your grapefruit okay do you want to be done yes that's Jason brought up the fact that in the morning he likes to get grapefruit in the cafeteria not every day he wanted to suggest an idea do you want to tell them what your idea is for about utensils no I'm proud of him for wanting to speak up he said he wanted to talk about needing better stronger utensils in the cafeteria that don't bend and break so that he could eat his any food any food not just grapefruit butter so I'm proud of you for wanting to speak

154up can you say thank you [Applause] thank you Jason foreign 4680 Homewood drive I have a child at Shore I am actually speaking upon for another parent who is too afraid to come up and speak her daughter who is in eighth grade wants to commit suicide so in regards to that going off the CDC website although these Trends highly highlight Progressive and challenges during the past decade a closer look at 2021 data reveals a subset of students have different experience some better and some far worse across almost all measures of substance use experience of violence mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors female students are fearing more poorly than male students these differences and rates at which female students are reporting such negative experience in 2021 30 of female students drank alcohol during the last

15530 days almost 20 percent of female students experience sexual violence by anyone during the past year 14 had better physical force or had ever been physically a forced to have sex although these numbers are high the rates of poor mental health and suicidal thoughts and behaviors are even higher in 2021 almost 60 percent of female students experienced feelings of sadness or hopefulness during the past year and nearly 25 percent made suicidal plans what are we doing to help these kids mentally we have gslen on the board are on our doors we have pride there we have um safe spaces but what safe spaces do we have for heterosexual heterosexuals people that are just normal children that don't feel safe either at home or in school in front of their peers they're struggling to go into

156bathrooms they have to fight for areas for their safety what are we doing for those Craig Heath you talked about the guidelines my question is is when you talked about the counselor which counselor were you talking about a guidance counselor or the ones that we pay seven hundred thousand dollars for questions to you not going to answer when you spoke about your next next meeting but you addressed it earlier okay so for this I'm going to say this too Craig Heath I think you should resign oh God our next speaker is Kim basin phasing my apologies good evening Mr Heath and Mr Wade and members of the board on the special day first I want to just say that I pray that you stand by your ideas of the potential safety changes that you spoke

157about earlier for the current events that most of the community has been talking about through these current events that just came about and back in September but I wanted to just say that I care about our children's safety you should as well when girls feel violated they begin to yell all because boys are allowed in girls bathrooms locker rooms too these students feel uncomfortable and so should you when certain books are being taught that are falling through their cracks I can assure you that parents will speak up before they you stab them in the back you have websites on doors and keep parents questioning more and all they want is for their children to soar so let's get back to the basics the traditional way or you won't see a Lobby pass that's all I

158have to say listen to the public and hear them loud and clear for their future generations to protect and at the end of the school system in the end of the school systems will be near thank you for listening and what I had to say I hope you listened well Happy Valentine's Day our next speaker is Andy Smith I don't see Mr Smith so I'll go to our next speaker after that Mr Michael Williams my name is Mike Williams 6064 Walden Court um Mr Wade Mr Heath and school board members I have a few questions for you Mr Heath on several occasions you have mentioned at meetings that you and the board were waiting for some of the new Title IX proposals from the federal government to be clarified by our own State Board of

159Education they have now deliberated these new proposals from the bite Administration have rejected them the Shea resolution has been adopted by the Ohio State Board of Education and sent to All Ohio school districts these guidelines uphold parental rights in public education of their children and reiterate that parents are to be notified of any and all gender issues revealed to teachers guidance counselors administrators and staff nothing is to be hidden from parents Mr Heath have you rescinded the language that was sent out in an email August 31st to 6th grade teachers in hub regarding these types of issues gender bathroom issues pronouns and I know you might have answered some of that earlier but um I apologize if you have to repeat but um what now are you advising sixth grade teachers and up to do

160now with regard to some of these issues [Music] anything that takes place in grades k through eight the teacher will work with the student principal and counselor to communicate with the family okay and um have these recommendations you've submitted to them are they put in writing those were mentioned or verbally at a staff meeting will they be put in writing right now no and why not because every time I put something in writing it ends up in the news yeah but isn't that um a goal towards transparency for the parents so they know what the policies are and I would recommend you put them in writing so that we all know what they are I mean so so the parents don't have to guess that would be my recommendation um again do you support the

161Shea resolution that upholds parental rights Mr Heath actually I don't really have an opinion on the Shea resolution right now so you're neutral okay uh any of the other board members wish to answer that question it's cooked do you do you support the Shea resolution that upholds parental rights I need to review it to be honest with you I need to look at this more closely I I'm not willing to go on record at this time okay Mrs cook do you support the Shea resolution oh Mrs brighter I'm sorry do you support the resolution I think time's up thank you our next speaker is Jacqueline McCormick good evening I was able to view the videos circulating online of at least two biological boys in the girls bathrooms at the high school this is not acceptable

162I know that most of you will cling to Title IX as an excuse to continue to allow biological boys to use girls bathrooms and locker rooms however I also know that the State Board of Education provided each one of you with their adapt adopted resolution to oppose the proposed changes to Title IX into affirm parental rights and local control of Ohio K-12 education you can no longer hide behind the veil of Title IX proposed changes what is your plan to address this going forward given the State Board resolution last year this issue arose in our Middle School level and a father was told in writing by a previous superintendent to have his child see the guidance counselor since she was uncomfortable sharing the bathroom with biological boys I don't think the majority of taxpayers will

163support this occurring in our schools when they realize it's happening three out of five of these board members recently voted down the parental rights platform for osba and pushed against print parents rights to know if their child is transitioning in school without their knowledge and seem to stand by the email that went out in September that hit Fox national news because of the school usurping parents rights and Advising teachers not to tell the parents if they had a child that wants to go by another name or pronoun I Revisited the meeting on YouTube from October 27th Where Mrs cook states that we need to have qualified mental health experts as the go-between instead of going directly to parents for students of all ages who want to go by a different name or pronoun this is

164a violation of parental rights the only reason you are having guidance counselors instead of Crossroads be the go-between is because the contract with Crossroads states that parents have to be made aware of any counseling there is surely a political agenda being pushed here and it needs to stop if you think there is only risk on one end please take a look at some of the recent court cases in Hilliard and Bethel local schools and you will see that schools in Ohio are being sued for allowing exactly what Manner is allowing and people are becoming increasingly aware of what is happening for the sake of transparency why not create a policy so that everyone can see what you are allowing to happen in the bathrooms and locker rooms allowing biological boys to be in the girls

165locker rooms and bathrooms violates their rights to privacy and create it's an unsafe environment for both parties from a board member's post supporting sex education in kindergarten to Pride Flags in our classrooms to Pride Ally signs on the doors that direct people to the gsen the gay lesbian straight educator Network website which says click here and I'll delete this from your history so that no one knows you're on this website to silent reading books in our K through fifth grade class referring to sexuality BM BLM police brutality and who can forget the teacher training that talked about systemic racism and white privilege the political agendas need to stop we need we should be neutral until that happens I hope that parents and taxpayers support you the same way you're supporting them by voting no to

166the November levies foreign thank you Amanda alafi okay Ian Anderson how's everybody doing thanks for letting me come Amanda Anderson 5D or 5951 Center Street I'm coming here because of the video that was circulated by adults that have children in the school system and I think that it's horrific that I don't know what I I think that what's happening with these videos is they're being used as tools to fear longer against trans people when I in fact have actual experience with trans people and actually know things about the community because I'm very much involved in the community well let me tell you there aren't any problems with people in the bathroom that are transgender it's usually cisgender men that are attacking girls in the bathroom it's not biological boys in the bathroom it's transgender girls

167in the bathroom this wasn't a thing transgender people have been around for a very long time until it became politicized in about 2016. we didn't hear about any of this why is that why is it now I don't know maybe it's a political agenda not on my side though because I'm just speaking facts look it up there's not any case there's not any rape cases there's not any any of this my daughter is in the bathroom because she's a girl as a lot along with every other transgender person that says this is who I am let's listen to them because when my daughter did transition in 2015 the reason that I had to learn a lot was because there was a girl called Lila Acorn that came out I don't know if anybody ever heard

168of Leela Acorn she was 14 years old she was in Ohio she threw herself off of a bridge because her parents wouldn't listen to her because she was transgender let me read you her note when I was 14 I learned what transgender meant and I cried of Happiness after 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was I immediately told my mom and she reacted extremely negatively telling me that it was a phase that I would never be truly a girl that God doesn't make mistakes that I'm wrong if you are reading this parents please don't tell this to your kids even if you're a Christian or you're against transgender people don't ever say that to someone especially your kid that won't do anything but make them hate themselves that's exactly what it did

169to me so they took me out of public school they took my laptop and my phone forbid me from getting on any sort of social media completely isolating me from my friends this is probably the part of my life when I was the most depressed and I surprised I was surprised I didn't kill myself I was completely alone for five months no friends no support no love just my parents disappointment in the cruelty of loneliness as for my will I want a hundred percent of my things to go to different trans rights civil or trans rights civil organization I don't care which ones the only way that I will rest in peace is one day transgender people aren't treated the way I was treated like humans and vet with valid feelings and human rights they

170want to be treated like people that's it if anyone has any questions about transgender people let me know real real things thank you our last speaker is Lindsay wall foreign [Music] hi Lindsay wall 7250 Beechwood Drive here in Mentor I have two in uh school at Ridge um thank you for letting Jason get up here and uh give his best try at public speaking for the first time um I'd first like to start off by wishing uh Miss Mary breiner a very very happy birthday um also I would like to just really quick highlight again the the students with the speeches um earlier with voice of democracy and um the importance of a veteran I I think that that was just a wonderful example of how incredible our students really are and all of the

171incredible things that our schools have to offer the fact that we even offer a program like that for the the students to compete in is is beautiful and then with with Miss Cooks um a report about you know the spelling bee and and how all of these kids are just coming in first place second place and advancing further in all of these competitions way to go Mentor because how awesome is that right very awesome I wish there was more of that in the news I wish there were more videos of the spelling bees and and the competitions and the choir performances all over social media versus the other stuff I do want to just quickly also speak on the fact that you know I'm so glad Miss Leah over here brought up um statistics because

172a lot of minorities we know the statistics right they're targeted we have we have our our black community we have our lgbtq community we have all of these different minorities that are targeted and we have the stats on how bullying and targeting them creates those suicidal ideations and and just the poor mental health of them all but what happens when we have a group of adults majority of them having nothing to do with the actual District outside of paying taxes when they are targeting all of our students telling them that they're dumb they're not good enough we need to go back to basics because our kids are failing are their grades are so low they'll never make it out in the real world what happens when this huge group of wonderful incredible students that Mentor

173has is targeted as a whole we need to stop telling our kids that they're failing and stop telling them that their grades aren't good enough that they're just not marking high enough on tests and scores we need to just start encouraging encourage the kids encourage them all to be unique different better stop tearing everybody down because I'm going to tell you what it doesn't work it does not work thank you [Applause] that was our last speaker Mr Tuttle sure Mr Tuttle I'd just like to say something if I if I could go ahead so today we heard this is hard um tonight we heard about a couple Facebook posts going around we heard about a man coming into our high school something about a bathroom I haven't seen um and it bothers me and it

174bothers me because we have see something say something if you have a concern about the safety of our kids we don't spread it on social media call us we have reporting it isn't funny [Music] less than two weeks from now I will honor an 11 year anniversary of a shooting at Chardon it is not funny if you think something is dangerous you bring It Forward it's not about social media it's not let's comment and hope someone sees it or make a video these are our children if you truly believe they're in an unsafe situation then I need you to call us immediately immediately call the board office immediately call the principal this isn't something that you post about safety is not a joke thank you [Applause] we didn't wrap up our evaluation the mid midterm

175evaluation of Mr Heath who we're going to return to executive session when we come back we won't have a vote on any anything we're not going to discuss anything that's votable and so if you want to sit and wait for us to come back that's up to you once again when we do come back we're not going to be having a vote on any issue other than wrapping up the closing evaluation Mr Heath okay thank you do you have a motion to go to the executive session please so moved second it's called the role Mr Wade Miss wrestling yes Miss Cook yes that's brighter yes uh Miss Payne yes Mr Tuttle yes portrait carries her exec session at 9 47 P.M [Music] okay I haven't seen thank you