001Uh, good evening everyone. We're going to get started here. Today is May 20th, 2025. We are here for the River Board of Education regular meeting. Mr. Berdine, please call the role. Mrs. Brackett here. Mr. Haidu here. Mr. Malik here. Mrs. Rainey here. Mrs. Stein here. Okay. We do have some, I believe, Richfield Elementary students who are going to lead us in the pledge. So, if everybody could please stand. Or actually, did you want to introduce people? Let's do that. That's okay. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Tara Keyzer, the principal at Richfield Elementary School. We have some pledge leaders here with us tonight. So, if um Ila and Camden want to come on up, I'm going to introduce those and that introduce them along with Mrs. Kennedy. So, come on up, Mrs. Kennedy. Ila, come on
002over. Ila and Camden, you can stand right here off to the side. Um, so Camden is a second grader in Mrs. Kennedy's class, and he shared with me this evening that his favorite part of the school day is math, and he loves everything about math. Camden has been a student for five years at Richfield Elementary School. So, he's super excited to have the opportunity to move on to Bath next year. He's enjoyed his experience, but I'm going to let Mrs. Kennedy, our second grade teacher, Camden second grade teacher, um, share a little bit more about Camden. All right. Good evening. Good evening. It is with great pride that I recommend Camden Potter to lead this month's pledge of allegiance. Camden Potter is a role model within the classroom and throughout the hallways of Richfield Elementary.
003He always exhibits a positive attitude toward learning and accepts challenges with confidence. Most importantly, he has a huge heart and always looks out for his friends and classmates. Camden is a true leader in the classroom who supports his classmates and treats his teachers with respect. I am extremely proud of Camden and all that he has accomplished in second grade. Bath Elementary will be a very special place next year because of Camden Potter. And we have certificates for them. I set them down back there. I see right where they are. So, we'll get them after we lead the pledge here. I also have Ila. Laya is a kindergarten student in Miss Emory's classroom. And Ila is favorite activity at school right now in her classroom. They're doing a balloon pop where every day they pop a
004balloon to count down the number of days in school. And she has 11 days until she'll be a first grader. Ila is a bright these are Mrs. Emry's words. Ila is a bright and confident kindergarten student who stands out as a natural leader in the classroom. She is always ready to lend a helping hand to her classmates. And she possesses confidence in herself to apply problemolving and critical thinking with any task. With her determination and positive spirit, there's no doubt that Leila will achieve anything she sets her mind to. Congratulations to you for being a pledge leader and a leader at our school. as well. At this time, we invite you to join us in standing up for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you, Mr. Connley. I aliance to the flag of the United States
005of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Good job guys. Nice job. And you know we're going to take your picture right over there. that well done. Good job. Good job. One more for you [Applause] guys. All right. Next, we have Mr. Fry and Mrs. Hetman to introduce a couple of our students. All right. Good evening. Yeah, Mrs. Hetman, please come up and join us. At our last meeting, we were able to have three of our voices of Bath come um to be presented to be recognized. And I asked Mrs. Hman to come back to recognize our other three members, but also to talk about their instrumental role in helping to select next year's Voices of Bass. So, it was quite a process
006and the kids did a fantastic job in helping us with that. So, Mrs. Hatman, thank you. Of course. All right. So, it is my pleasure to recognize three more Voice of Bath students. Um, as you may or may not know, um, our video announcement program is relatively new. It actually started last school year. Um, kind of on a whim and it's definitely been a learning curve. We've learned a lot, but at this point, we are I I would say pretty professional, I think. We're using scripts, we're using cameras, we're using uh teleprompterss, we're using editing software, and it's not me doing it anymore at this time of the year. It's it's now truly on the kids. And they truly do bring joy to our entire student body every day. Every day they make kids smile.
007So, um this year, these three, if I could ask for Audrey, Gianna, and Sophia to come and join me right here. These three have gone above and beyond. They have given up time during their lunches, their recess, after school on the weekends and they write their own scripts. They record each other every week and um they have really gone above and beyond to make sure we have upbeat and informative announcements. Um because of Gianna and Audrey and Sophia, we were actually able to interview, I guess, for lack of a better word, 25 kids last week for Voice of Bath. That was out of 75 applicants, by the way. Um, so with the help of these three, we were able to use a rubric system. And so cool that these three actually got to go and
008tell the 10 new instead of six, we're going to up it to 10 new Voice of Bath members that they are welcomed in for next year. So, I couldn't have done that today without them. It was very cool to watch the current pass on the scroll, if you will, to the next generation. Um, I really do want to thank you guys. You guys from the bottom of my heart, you have really paved the future for the voice of Bath. Um, you have helped me grow and I have watched you grow and I cannot wait to see what you are going to do as leaders at River Middle School. So, if we could please give it up for Audrey, Giana, and [Applause] Sophia. Now, we get to be photographed. You ready? Parents and feel free to
009come front and center. Mrs. [Applause] Okay. Okay, from the middle school, we have current principal, Mr. Connley, and Mr. Fletcher coming in and recognize some of our students for academic challenge. Let me introduce one of our seventh grade science teachers, uh, Mr. Ryan Fletcher. He's got a bunch of academic challenge students that he needs to brag about. Come on up. Thank you. Good evening. Um, the highlight of my day is having the opportunity to teach science to the students of Revier Middle School. The highlight of my immediately after school day on Wednesdays is the privilege to be the adviser for our academic challenge program. They would call me coach. I prefer adviser. Um, I'm not going to talk about them individually. I'm going to talk about them as a team because their achievements are as
010a team. So, this is the eighth grade portion of our program. I know a few of them have commitments tonight. They couldn't be here. But come on up, guys. Um, in no particular order, you have to walk this way. Um, Melinda, Ryan, Liam, Nathan, Adam, Nemit, Zoe, we had a great season this year. Um, this team, when I first started with this program, we went to two events a year. We practiced once a week. We went to two events. We still practice once a week, but this year we went to seven events. This is more events than we've ever gone to. Um the students compete at a very high level. We had two teams finish in the top five in the state tournament this year. We finished third and fourth. They ran into each other
011for the third place game. Uh these eighth graders have been with the program for two years now. They've got a tremendous amount of potential going forward. Um, when I think about our vision of a minute man, three really distinct aspects stand out in my mind. All of our students demonstrate a learner's mindset. They're maximizing the opportunities that they are given. We, as I've mentioned, we're going to more events than we've ever had. The students are at a very high attendance rate. They're taking every advantage that they can. They work well as a team. They're doing a great job. No one's trying to put themselves above each other. I'm very proud of this eighth grade group. Uh they persevere and adapt. We at the beginning of the year lost to the same team badly three or
012four times, but we worked better, worked to get better as the year went on. And at the end of the year in the state tournament to get to the state finals, we beat that team from another school pretty soundly because they worked to get better. because they work to improve themselves. And I think the one that's most important to me is confidence and empathy. I can't tell you how proud I am when they win. But I can't tell you how much more proud I am when parents from other schools and readers come to me and say, "Your students are very respectful. Your students are great. Demonstrate great sportsmanship. Your students are just good kids." and that's when I'm most proud of my students. So, this is the eighth grade portion of our program. We've got
013a great group of seventh graders coming up, hoping for some good sixth graders in the near future. Um, we've never had a team have two division champions in the same day until this year. We've never had a team finish two teams in the top five state until this year. So, a lot of that is thanks to this group of students, and I really appreciate the support from Mr. Connley and from everyone else at the middle school to keep this program going and to give us the boost that we need to grow the program. Thank you. [Applause] Yeah, because they're taller. There we go. Students, don't move till we're all done. One more. One more. Don't leave. Don't leave. [Applause] All right. From the high school, Mr. Ferris to talk about some of our students and
014vision of a minute man. All right. Hey, thanks Mr. White. Good evening everybody. Uh in case you have forgotten, we got a little event going on next Thursday. It is open and all are welcome. But we are going to celebrate the class of 2025 in grand fashion. I keep getting people telling me that the weather is looking great and I'm keep reminding them we live in Northeast Ohio and I don't think we can bank on anything until May 30th after the graduation date is done. But with me tonight I have two uh truly incredible young ladies. I'm going to start with uh Clara Hosvar who's immediately to my left. Clara is a sophomore here at River High School. Uh she has an incredible friend group and we get to see Clara often in the halls
015smiling and just engaging in a normal high school experience. She is an active member of the speech and debate team. But what set Clara apart uh is just recently she was selected by the Tourett Association of America to serve as one of its uh youth ambassadors. So she and her family traveled to Washington DC for Tourett national advocacy day in March and met with legislators on Capitol Hill to ensure continued vital support and the funds for the Tourett and tick disorder community. Clara works both within and outside of the river community to raise awareness of and acceptance of those with neurody divergent conditions. So ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to present to you Clara Hosart. And then this outstanding young lady. I'm folding my paper because I just want to speak from the
016heart for a second. Um, there's so much that I could have written and as a high school principal, assistant principal for the past for Kiki's first three years, uh, I just truly had the opportunity to get to know her as an individual and we spent a lot of time together in my office. Not for disciplinary reasons. This young lady has never ever once been in trouble, but because she trusted me and I trusted her and we created a positive relationship. There are kids who go through school and they go through high school and it's relatively easy on the surface. Things are good. They have, you know, strong support. They find their path. And then there are students like Kiki who have an everlasting impact on adults. She might say tonight if I gave her a
017chance to talk that there were a lot of people who helped her, but what she doesn't realize is the impact that she had on us. And it's just one of our one of our vision of the Minutemen competencies is persevering and adapting. Kiki Davis is the definition of persevering and adapting, overcoming challenges, seeing past the immediate barriers, finding ways to break through those barriers, finding ways to get support from people who can offer it. Kiki Davis is a force to be reckoned with. She parents are like, "Uh-huh. Yes, sir. She joined CBCC as a junior. Her path after graduation is very clear. And if you're in attendance next Thursday, I might hold up the line because I'm probably going to hold on tight to this girl in a hug as a sign of how much
018I adore her and how proud I am. And I'm only a small fraction of the river community. for the things that she has done in her time here. And I know Mrs. Simmonelli just wanted one second to talk. So ladies and gentlemen, Mrs. Simelli, who was one of the pillars of support for Kiki throughout her year here. Thank you. Um know both of them. I'm so glad we got a couple more years uh with Clara. So I've got we've got great things for her. But Kiki, thank you for everything. Um meeting a student like you said, Mr. Ferris, meeting a student like Kiki gives you more than you can ever give back. So, um, resilience, perseverance, she's got it all. Um, just a small story. Um, drove every day in from another city to come
019to our school every day. Came in snow, sleep, rain, whatever it took, she was there. Um, and just was there just beating all odds. Um, I know your mom's watching. She's very proud of you. Right. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. Kiki Davis. Congratulations. You're good. You're good. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Ferris. All right, Mrs. Roach here for curriculum presentations. Hey Dan, did you want to invite people now? Dismiss the Oh, yes. For families, um, if you are here for your child, you are free to take a moment and exit. So, um, you have time because we know bedtime gets here early. Front row seats now. Good evening everyone. Good evening. We have a decent amount of curriculum adoptions to talk about tonight. The first is focused on the K to2 math adoption recommendation. I do
020have some Richfield teachers to join me with this recommendation. Um, and then after we're through this, I have quite a few high school adoptions to talk through. So, this one is a little bit longer because it has been a a really beautiful journey, but definitely a journey as we've worked on this math programming. Um, so just some background, we began this exploration and piloting journey in the 21-22 school year and I did put a lot of information on the slides to be able to go from there and then I'll also send these slides in the morning um for further review. So when we started this, we knew we wanted to make a pretty large shift in our math instruction philosophy and that does not happen quickly. Um, so we began as a K to2 team
021working with Bath teachers who were also looking at new programming and we included the math department head for the middle school and the high school. We collaborated on an instructional vision and we ultimately ended up narrowing the K to2 program um exploration down to two programs in visions or bridges. And we did this just really through a process of looking at everything that was green on ed reports which is a a clearing house that we look at for programming and then thinking through what we valued, what we thought was working really well in our programming, what we thought needed to improve. Um that got us to the point the end of the 2122 school year that um we we started thinking we wanted to visit some other districts and see some programming. Bridges is really
022different from Envisions. envisions as the current adoption. So, we wanted to see it in action and we visited some schools um some other districts. We spent some time in um Hudson in kindergarten, first grade and second grade classrooms. They had had bridges at that point I think for eight years, something right around that. Um and then we decided to slow the process down a bit because as you know we've been engaging in letters, professional development. It's about 190 hours of professional development and literacy. So we slowed down a little bit and then we went into the 2324 school year and at that time the professional book circle that we've been running at Richfield, Jenny Hayig has been our leader um in the professional book circle. She's been incredible in bringing staff together for discussion. We
023read this book and you can see former high school English teacher. I have lots of notes but all the teachers books look the same way. We really engaged in great collaboration and conversation. thinking about moving from procedural math instruction into conceptual. So, this book is becoming the math teacher you wish you'd had. Um, starts with tales of just math anxiety that starts for many people when they're very young. And we realized that a goal that we had was establishing students who know that they are math people. Um, so that journey just continued. We did a thorough exploration of both envisions and bridges at that time. had vendors come and present to everyone on the staff who was interested in selecting which program we would pilot. Um, and you'll have access to this, but I just
024include it so you could see what this really looked like. Um, every staff member who participated in those vendor sessions filled out, they gave feedback and and then I took all of their feedback, put it together, shared it with the entire staff. You can see tallying of yes and no for all the different criteria. There's like six pages of criteria that we looked at. So, a lot of things that we considered, we landed on um as a math committee with everyone's feedback. We voted either recommend, recommend with reservation or do not recommend to pilot. Every person on the math committee voted do not recommend for envisions. Every single one. And every person on the math committee recommend or vote it recommend or recommend with reservation for bridges. That led us to this school year where
025we piloted Bridges. Uh we began with our training in the spring. Teachers took time in the summer to get their classrooms ready to add in all the components. Bridges is a it's a labor intensive program for teachers. There's a lot of material prep. It's hands-on. It's not foam manipulatives. It's not things that fall apart that kids are put in their mouths and then we have to go buy new ones. Um it's really great handson playing with a lot of concepts to build at that sense of being a math person. Um throughout this year we had a math coach from the ESC with us each month to help us internalize lessons to plan for each unit with the end in mind. And we knew that that we would have some big challenges. One of those that
026we knew we would have is just teacher time for material prep. And the other is time in the day because this also made us have to have three blocks of math instruction during the day. So that's our bridges lesson, our number corner in our workplaces. Um some feedback from the staff. We did a survey, tried to give as much of the year as possible and um I received 25 responses to the survey I sent out. We have 30 general education classroom teachers and five intervention specialists who teach math. So pretty good response rate. Um 52% recommend it. bridges. 48% recommend it with reservations. 0% did not recommend. Most of the reservations fell or fall into these two camps. Teacher time commitment for material prep. We've really been working on that and um thinking in DT
027about what we can do um and at grade level meetings, how can we protect some time for that prep? And then the need for some supplemental resources to fully meet grade level standards. This is something that's very typical. There's no perfect program. As we continue to work with bridges, if we are able to have this adopted, our goal next year is to look at more support for intervention, more support for enrichment, and then just identifying further what we might need to do for some supplement. So, some more details about bridges and mathematics will come from the teachers. I'll go ahead and turn it over and you can just advance through. All right. So, the first one is number corner. This is our um kind of typical calendar time. And this is a great way to
028incorporate math into that calendar time compared to what we were doing before. During this time, students get an introduction into our next unit that we will teach during our math block. Students have hands-on practice with addition and subtraction, money, time, fractions, and geometry. Every day, we count the days of the school year, and students are given an opportunity to create unique equations that equals that day of school. For example, today's 160. Um, and I got anywhere from like 160 + 10 minus 10, which is a cool way to see them work with numbers. Um, anywhere from like 61 minus one for things like 88 + 72. So, this exercise allows all students to participate. And when I ask for equations, every hand goes up, which is super fun. Um, and that's kind of the goal
029of this program going along with our book is that everyone sees themselves as a mathematician. Another positive aspect of the Bridget Bridges math curriculum is the built-in hands-on games, which is um what we call workplace spins. And um Bridges offers 41 workplace games for each grade K to2. These games give students a fun and engaging way to strengthen their math skills. It's always rewarding when we can offer our young learners the opportunity to learn while making the experience feel more like play and a little less like formal education. So, um, workplace bins have been a big hit this year. Um, just enclosure bridges lessons are very different from our formal curriculum and visions. We as first grade teachers used to stand up and talk at our kids and then there were these big thick notebooks
030and we would be like, "Hurry up, hurry up." Kids would cry and we told Marca that she couldn't believe it. Um they couldn't even hold their two workbooks. Um the lessons are much more interactive. They provide hands-on activities engaging students from day one. We typically begin with like accounting song in first grade, reviewing new and um familiar math vocabulary. We do a warm up warm-up activity like finding a missing number or counting money or telling time. Each lesson lasts about 30 minutes and then we follow it sometime in the day with the workplaces and then had as Tori mentioned the calendar time which is much more intensive than a calendar. Um, one other thing we like about it is the assessments are kid-friendly. Before they would be very wordy and in first grade and and
031kindergarten they can't read for most of part. So are we really testing them on math or on reading? that was always a big concern. Um, so now we feel like students are more confident and best of all there's no one crying over math. They are growing into capable, enthusiastic little mathematicians. So we'd also like to thank Mrs. Roach because she has been fantastic to work with. We've never got to adopt a series like this with this support. So thank you. So quickly just other components of bridges, there's bridges intervention and concept quest and it's just right on the bridges website. So one another thing that's very nice about this program is that you have scaffolds. So those who need intervention, there's resources for that. Our intervention specialists have been part of this the whole way
032and even our intensive needs classrooms have the intervention kits. They piloted those. One piece of feedback I received on the survey was this is the best intervention series that I've ever used from one of our intervention specialists. That made me really happy because it is a place for us to always work and grow when we think about access for all learners. There's also um concept quests which let me just get my arrow. Concept quest is the enrichment piece of bridges and that goes right alongside. So, it's really nice to see a program that's comprehensive and realizes that learners aren't one-sizefits-all and definitely some more work for us to do as we continue to grow and learn about it. But, um, we are very excited about this potential. Um, just overall takeaways, we want all students
033to believe they are math people. We are seeing students engage in math talk that we've not seen before. We want this to continue to grow or continue and grow. And um as they said, it was a tearfree year in math for students and teachers, which is pretty exciting. So um thank you very much. Any questions? I have a Kasha. I know you have. You want to start? Um my son's in first grade, so I've seen this firsthand this year. It's been great. So Bridges will be K2, right? And then will Envision still be three through fifth at Bath? Yeah. So, we are in the middle of our current um programming with with Envision that goes through I think 2029. And just I think it's important to note that just because a program is a right
034fit for one grade band doesn't mean it's always the best fit for the other. So, we see in third, fourth, and fifth tremendous success within vision. And there is that transition as a learner where um there are going to be more words on the page in third, fourth, and fifth grade. Uh but also the teachers at Bath have engaged in a lot of professional development within vision where when you think about math instruction and and conceptual is that understanding of math concepts and procedural will be more of like your basics of the standard algorithm and you know knowing that 5 plus 5 equals 10 and so on. The teachers at Bath have done a tremendous amount of work with the same math coach that we used at Richfield this year to work on math talk,
035have more student talk than teacher talk, engage in lessons that are called let's investigate where it is more of an inquiry focus and then they come in with the instruction. So it's not the envision it's it's envision 2024 and the envisions that we had at Richfield was 2016. So, a lot of changes to that program, but right now we are seeing tremendous success with that. And I think in two years time, if we do adopt Bridges, our third grade teachers will see the result of that for students as they're growing and learning. And then we might look at something different when it comes time for our next adoption. Okay. Thank you. That's what I was just thinking more like the curriculum alignment, right, when they move from second to third. But that makes sense. Thank
036you. I just had a question. I heard you say I know first grade takes up so much of your time. So is it I mean I'm just trying to remember back when I was teaching first grade like three blocks of math plus all the ELA you know it's nice to throw in science and social science here and there. It is there. It's definitely hard to fit it all in. And there is things that Bridges recommends of like if you run out of time, this is how you cut back on certain things as well. But if you do teach a full day of it, it is a lot to fit in with the ELA. Um, is it like three blocks every day or able to do like It is three blocks every day. You can kind
037of play with the workplaces. They said like instead of doing them every day, but try to do them every day. Well, using counter time, but it's fine. You can add a lot of math in there. Well, good luck with that. Thank you. Mine was one of my questions was related just is is there something you gave up to fit that in or you just kind of work around other things? Was there something that had to go? I think in first grade we had to look at heaggerty which is our phmic awareness and see how do we put that in appropriately for students during IE time for those who need it and maybe not as tier one but more as a tier two. In second grade I think we've done a lot of shuffling. There's a
038couple second grade teachers here and I don't want to just put you know words in someone else's mouth but we've done a lot of shuffling with how we fit handwriting in and and what do we do during IE especially for those workplaces. But it definitely has been that was one of the things that we were really most nervous about is how do we have time in the day and I think it's something we're still working with. How do we continue to adapt during the day so we can fit everything in? It is a the elementary day is a full load of instruction. Yes. Um and then my other question was just um I heard you talk about teacher prep being one of the potential negatives when they were reviewing it. So can you just talk
039about like what that looks like? Which part of teacher prep is taking the most time? Is that a first year problem or is that going to be a continuing I see I see Mr. Schwartner shaking your head. So So that was something that as we were going with Hudson and Sugarrin Falls um even those educators kind of told us it it is a lot of work per se on teachers. Um like for example one thing um our calendar with it being the way that it is every single month it's all completely different. So, at the end of each month, you have to take everything down. You have to cut, laminate. This year, cutting and laminating, but um still kind of reutting everything up for number corner. That changes. A lot of the um a lot
040of the curriculum is hands-on, which is great, but it's all coming because of teacher prep time of that's how it's hands-on. Um and there are going to be aspects of that that will never go away. Um, some things we might be able to save and have lasted a second year, but for the most part, most of it is going to be something that we need to do every single year. And that was something we tried to um just get creative with our staff of getting some more teacher time so that way we can do that because a lot of our time now is um giving up lunches. So, not good. Yeah. Okay. Thank you very much all of you. One of the things that we're also trying to work on is how do we take
041some of the pieces that are cumbersome and like the number racks for example are part of instruction and that students build them out of pipe cleaners and beads and you can imagine that they're not incredibly durable. So this year for for next school year, we were looking at purchasing some number racks that are a little bit more durable and then we'll take away from some of that time. So thanks for our PTA. Yes. So we definitely will continue to problem solve. Um one of the things we talked about was we don't want these issues to get in the way of what we think is best for kids. So we want to problem solve that time piece in order to give kids this. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Good job, guys. You're
042not through with me yet, though. Let me just adjust to my next presentation. Okay, very much switching gears now. We're looking at high school programming recommendations and this will flow very differently because the bulk of these are recommendations of an updated edition of a current text that we are using. So I'll walk you through which ones are updated editions and then there's um two that are new recommendations and I've included the notes from the teachers on why they are recommending the text. So the slides are a little bit wordy. I'm just giving you that heads up. um social studies department instructional vision. Just so you can see this was collaboratively developed. Um sixth grade through 12th grade teachers were part of developing this. Students will understand how history and social sciences impact people's lives through
043critical thinking, analysis, and evaluation with the goal of promoting civic engagement in an interdependent world. So that vision really steers the work of selecting the appropriate texts. this. If you remember last year, last May, we were talking about social studies programming. We opted to do a two-year process for curriculum revisions in social studies because there's a lot of different courses and a lot of texts that go along with that. So, the social studies department worked with me on this. We actually still have one course that we're holding off on at this time because we haven't found the text that we think is the right fit and replaces our current text. Well, so for this year, we're looking at global studies, sociology, American government, AP and CCP, American government, AP US history, and AP European history.
044Um, big things that we talk about is um really physical text versus digital text, evaluating, looking at a set of shared guidelines for what we're expecting to see in um what we put before our students. So, first text is our global studies. This is different from the others. it is um a one-year digital only that we would be looking at and that is because this would be a new text to Mr. Rahos um and it's you can see his recommendations here. This is a really hard course to find materials for um that's because a lot of the global studies materials that publishing companies provide are focused on geography only and this is not a geographyonly course. So um this course that's you can see that the this text has current and topical looks at the
045forces driving globalization. Lots of cool engaging concepts. It's an upper level elective and there's many things to look at with international relations. Um all kinds of complex issues that are part of just our entire world. And um this last bullet here, new and updated topics of discussion, as well as many tables, case studies that engage students and add visual appeal. It really helps students as they're developing that critical thinking process and looking at the issues that face our world. So this recommendation is Pearson's global issues, politics, economics, and culture. They will have a physical text that comes out next year and that's also part of why we wanted to look at the one-year digital only. Next text is sociology. I put a star on all the ones that are an updated edition of our current
046text. So you can see that star at the bottom by that red box. So this is a text that we currently use. Mr. Brown uses it in his sociology course and he recommends this text because there's a good variety of assessment questions. the um there's great slides that go along for classroom activities. He's able to adapt them and use them. The author's narrative format helps students gain a better understanding of society and themselves. There is um a box a feature on the text applying sociology to your life. It really helps students to look at the concepts on a personal level. And this new edition offers new coverage of contemporary topics with updated tables and figures and references to recent research. So again, it's an updated the most current edition of our current text. And in
047these I I did link the syllabus for each of the courses. So when you click on those link titles, it takes you right to these are from our high school website when you're able to look at that course catalog, but I linked those just to make it a little bit easier. Okay, next up is American government. We have been using McGrder which is a SAVIS publication for a number of adoptions um over the years for government. So this is not a new text series to us. Mr. Nickel recommends the text because their digital platform is the best of all of the options. He is a teacher who loves a good digital platform. So I always know that when I'm working with him that's what we're looking for. It's easy to access online text for both
048educators and students. There's a wide variety of assessments um to pull from, to generate, and it has a really strong organization of time frames in government and history. And again, it's a recommendation to go to the most updated edition of our current text. Next is the United States Government and Politics AP and CCP course. And um I think I saw the teacher here, but um so if I say anything wrong, he can correct me. Uh Mr. Mr. Milchesky recommends this text for the following reasons. Um, he likes it because it's designed to align well with the AP test. It is the uh there is I'm sorry, the latest version even has an AP test practice. It has practice questions built in. If you have a student who is taking AP courses, you know how critical
049that is. There is so much pressure in preparation for the test and they're always seeking opportunities to practice. That's a really nice advancement in this addition. Many AP classes use this probably because James Wilson who is the author was one of the original designers of the AP test. So he clearly knows what students need to do to prepare for the test that he has designed. Um and then as you know the college board creates that the AP tests and they also provide us with guidance and outlines of what we need to instruct. So they really do give us that curriculum essentially and then we find the right tools to support students to be successful. So another one that is an update of the current text. The most updated edition AP US history. Another one most
050updated edition of the current text. This is the American pageant. It also aligns with the AP US history test created by the college board. And Mr. Fry has indicated that students really like this text because it reads like a story. So, it's more engaging. AP US history is a really fantastic course that can be tough for students. So, to have a text that's structured this way is really helpful. AP European history. Important to note this physical text will not be available until January. The digital will be available at the start of the year. There's also some alignment with the current text. This is another one, the most updated edition of the current text. Mr. Jacob recommends it because the college board has outlined the programming. Once again, it's another AP course and um this text
051aligns with that programming. The end of chapter format has open-ended questions that reflect information require higher level consideration and responses and it reflects 21st century most current scholarly information including the last five years of global size global society and change. So thinking about the impact of COVID on the global society that would not be in the existing text but it will be in this updated. Okay, that was all the social studies. I only have two more, one science and one Latin. Um, science. So, just a shift into the science department instructional vision. Also developed the same way. Collaboration among sixth grade through 12th grade science teachers. The vision of the river science department is for all rivier students to be able to investigate, understand, and explain the world around them using a scientific foundation with
052applicable skills. Here we are looking at biology. The biology syllabus is linked here. And just the process was a little bit different. We have biology, honors biology, and then we also have AP biology. U Mrs. Pedigrew and Mr. Fischer collaborated on looking at resources. Mrs. Pedigrew is one of our gened biology teachers currently, and Mr. Fischer teaches honors, biology, and AP. And one of their goals was to find a text series that they could align the regular biology, the gened biology, and honors. We actually didn't find that. We found that we like our current Pearson honors biology and our current um Savis produces Miller and Levine biology better than anything we could find that was aligning under the same publisher. So we opted not to do that after looking at four different options from four
053different publishers. Um we preferred the content from those current tools best and we wanted to look at some options with their updates. Mrs. Pedigrew and I met with a curriculum support person from SAVIS. We reviewed the digital components of their resource, Miller and Levine Biology, and we were really impressed by the updates. So, she outlined why she preferred this text and what she wants to do with this text going forward. You can see her her information here. Miller and Levine provides educators with quality question banks that can be used in the creation of both summitive and formative assessments. Furthermore, its online platform provides resources for both educators and students in order to enhance the learning process. In the second bullet point, it talks about case studies. They hook students with real world application of biology
054knowledge and then they revisit that case study throughout the chapter. So, she really really enjoyed that. Um, she has found that this has been an effective tool. I agree when I look at our biology data, when I see the output from those courses, um she's been using this tool for the last six years and is very excited to explore the next edition of Miller and Levine. An additional resource we would like to use, they have released biology foundations reading and study guide workbook. Mrs. Pedigrew has been working with Mrs. Dolesuch for a number of years in co-taught instruction and Mrs. Dolesuch has been teaching resource. So, we looked at this as a text we'd like to have when we offer resource biology, which would be every other year. Um, it's really a support tool that
055scaffolds so that all of our students have access to the same tier one programming regardless of whether they have an IEP or not. Um, so this is just feedback from Mrs. Pedigrew and Mrs. Dolesuch on why they value this resource to increase access for all students. Um, all of these resources really also go along with the durable skill work at the high school and support what teachers are trying to do to enhance study skills and note-taking skills. Okay. All right. Last one. I didn't put a good slide in here to transition. I'm sorry. So, this one is going into the world language department instructional vision. So, very much of a shift and we'll actually be going into our classical language that we teach our Latin four and five. This is the world language department instructional
056vision. We as the members of the rever world language community envision the development of students who appreciate diverse cultures and who having developed the ability to communicate, think critically, self- advocate and participate in the target language and culture. As a result, are more able to understand and appreciate the richness of their own language, culture, and traditions. For Latin for um AP Latin, Mr. P has recommended that we add this consumable text. It is the college. I'm I'm gonna mess this up. If he watches, he's going to be mad at me. College, Plenny, and Virgil. I can't remember if it's Plenny or Ply. I think it's Plenny. So, he will correct me tomorrow. um he's recommending this update um because it has an updated vocabulary list to align with AP vocabulary which is a list of
0571000 words. There's um there's mustdo text. So the way that the AP test is the way that that course is structured, there's must do text and may do text or optional text. So, this includes all of the mustd dos, which he already has access to, but it also includes all of these optional additional poem lines and explanations. He believes it will really support our students to be that much more successful when it comes time for their test. The AP curriculum is split over years four and five. So, Latin 4 is really almost like an APA and then that AP Latin is really Latin five. He would plan to teach Plenny in four and Virgil in five. Okay. And the author is Jeffrey Steedman. That link is to his site. Okay, that's it. Thank you for
058your attention. What questions do you have? Thank you. Any questions about these pieces? I would say thank you. I know you saw you in your office. Well, I I have to give that back to the teachers because you can see they are the ones who gave me the explanations and they are so wonderful to work with. So, and I did say Mr. Rahas instead of Rahas. So, I also made a mistake there. So, I apologize Pete if he's listening. Okay. Well, thank you and please reach out with questions and I will send these presentations and have the resources at central office to be reviewed and you'll see that later. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Great job. Public speaks to agenda items. Uh so at this point in time, uh we do give the public
059the opportunity to speak to agenda items. Uh there's two opportunities for the public to talk. Um and the uh second uh is for those items that aren't part of our agenda uh towards the end of the meeting. Uh, one thing I I do want to go over uh because uh I do encourage people to come and participate and offer insight and uh I know it takes sometimes some courage to get in front of an audience and to uh express their opinions. Um, but I want I want to make sure I go over just a summary of our board policy regarding public participation. and it's it's 1.12 and it's just to make sure that we're all in the we're all following the policy and I don't want to have to interrupt anybody or stop anybody. I
060want to be able to listen to whatever people want to offer. Uh so the uh obviously the biggest thing here is speakers may offer such objective criticisms of school operations and programs as concern them. But in public sessions, the board will not hear complaints about school personnel, nor against any person connected with the school system. Other channels provide the board consideration and disposition of legitimate complaints involving individual employees of the district. And you know, a couple of options. I know I get lots of emails. I get phone calls. Um, if there's problems that people have with teachers, reach out to the building administrators. There's problems that people have with administrators. We have Miss Arbaggast who is director of uh our HR. We have Mickey Kron who is our assistant superintendent and we have Mr. White
061who is our superintendent. If there's problems with Mr. White and Mr. Berdine, you contact the board. If there's problems with the board, please contact the board. There are avenues obviously by which you can make complaints about individuals. I just ask that we not single out individuals when you're up there talking. So that being said, I know that Whitney, you would like to come up. Oh yeah. And while those many of us know you, would you mind introducing yourself um to the audience? Yes. And there are so many people here that you guys don't know that I am Whitney Thornton Dunlap and I love policy. Um and I am going to talk specifically on policy today. specifically, why the heck did you do this in a May session? Um, because there are so many agenda items
062today that it is hard to focus on anything. And I think that's really hard. There's a lot of policy that I don't want to get lost in everything else that is going on um in the district. Um, and so I want to say very specifically, I appreciate that in the policy manual there was trackine changes. Um, I thought the cell phone policy was well handled. Um, and I also want to encourage in the future that in each policy that you have, um, to write if it's a mandated policy for our policy manual. That is something most districts do. Um, and it helps with confusion. I also want to say that mandated policies, laws do not mean that they have to be bad policies. So you guys don't have to throw things that are illeible into
063our policy manual. Like we do not need a policy dictated at Native Hawaiian that makes us look really bad in our in our policy manual, if that makes sense. Um so um I am really concerned that there is this lack of transparency against the development process. And in this agenda item, it says that we are settling the Ames case. That is the case where we are sued by just someone randomly because we are not following sunshine laws. So people have to have their minutes, everything. So if we're not following policy, then we're going to get sued again. So I I want to talk to that issue. And then there's a lot of other stuff that I I I've detailed and I'm happy to share with anyone. the email that I sent to the board. Um
064but um I want to talk specifically on 939. Um this is not a policy. This is the policy as it relates to HBO. Um it is a policy about a parent's right um to have access over their education. What we did is we cut the Ohio law pint and parcel and put it into our policy manual. Laws are not policy. You use laws to make policy. So I need I need that to be addressed. Um we don't have to follow. I need there to be provisions that we are not going to out children if there is abuse at home. I need us to have provisions that we have a lot of families, a young families that have two moms and two dads. Their sexual preferences is not sexuality and can be mentioned in class. I
065need that as an exception. And I need there to be um a provision that the exclusion and parents rights end when it obstructs abuse education. I do not doubt I the greatest gift that my parents gave me is that I have never doubted that I was loved. And I it was my Bob it would have been my Bob's birthday today and I think about that. I don't doubt that any of you guys love your kid. But we are making provisions and policies for kids that don't have that. I am the daughter of someone who was abused. She fouled at forgiveness and for herself through reading books and we cannot not protect those kids and as you've passed the policy the policy that you have does not protect kids. Um, I will also say I don't
066trust this board to enforce safe policy because there are board members and I've talked to all of them um that aren't following what I think are the policies of policy 105 and policy 114. Um, so I ask administrators and and board to be really cautious about overstepping certain policies and then not putting thought into other ones. Um, we talked about board members being in the building. There's supposed to be notifications for that. Um, I'm trying to I I have a lot to say, but there is a lot. But um so I want to say actually you know what I want to end on a good night. No, this is a really great school. I went to the kickball game at Bath last week and I have never had such a wonderful experience. Um it's just
067delightful and joy to watch. And there are a lot of people here that are really concerned today and probably not going to send you 10-page emails about policy. But you don't show up at a board for something that feels impossible to fit. I'm up with and something not worth saving. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. Um I'm Dr. Jeff Arkinol. I'm the parent of uh daughters in uh class of 2031 and 2033. I myself graduated in 2000 uh from from River. Um, I'm also a primary care pediatrician. Um, and um, part of my job, um, is helping kids tell their families that they're LGBTQ plus. Um, and, um, other times there's kids who don't. So, sometimes they feel they can tell their family and we talk about how to do it um,
068in a sensitive way. Um, sometimes they don't feel they can tell their parents. Um, I know there's stuff from the state that, you know, I'll leave the legal musts up to y'all um on this one. Um, but I'm concerned about the board's policy that says uh in in 939 that um we're going to notify parents in writing. That that that seems problematic to me. I don't think that's the way to do it. Um, you know, when I have the advantage of this kid that I can talk to and or this team that I can talk to and figure out how are we going to tell mom, how are we going to tell dad, it usually goes pretty good. Um, you know, um, sometimes I tell the I tell the parent, sometimes the kid says it
069himself or herself. Um, sometimes it doesn't go well. Um, even when the parent think even when the student thinks it's going to be safe. And there are times where the parent if they were not in front of a mandated reporter that it would not go well. Um and this is in the advantage this is with the advantage of of the student chooses or the patient chooses it. Um I it's not hard to imagine a a p a parent who gets a letter or an email from the school with this news. You know that that's not easy news for a lot of us to get a lot of people um to get that you know the truth about their kid. Um, and I I I can tell you it's it's not going to go well if
070it comes in a letter. It's not always going to go well. Um, so I would encourage at least as an option, you know, if legal decides that we have to tell the family and that we're not allowed to have exemptions, which Whitney asked, you know, proposed, which I think would be great. I we need to trust our our staff to know when it's not safe, you know, to to tell a family because that's going to happen. But if we say if we decide we have to tell them um then we need to work with the student to figure out how to do that safely. Um I would recommend and this is my bias of doing this in the building with the parent or with the patient. Um I would recommend whether it's meeting with um
071the principal or a counselor or some other staff member that the student selects to help this happen because there are times where that is not going to go well. the parent is going to do something rash. Um, and in in cases I've had, you know, we talk through it and the parent has a chance to kind of calm down and take a breath, but that's not going to happen if it's in writing with an email uh or or a letter. Um, so I would recommend that um little change to the policy there, getting rid of that writing or adding in option to something else. Um, and otherwise, I trust that you'll do what you need to do. Uh the other thing I wanted to mention real quick about the uh policy 605 reading through that
072I saw that language about the racial um uh balance and that just seemed weird. So I looked into it. You know there's that OC 33 uh 1398 and it's got language like that. It's still weird. I I don't know why Ravier needs to have that in there um about maintaining racial balance. I don't think we're going to be getting so many kids uh through this policy that it's going to change the racial balance specifically. And if it does, I mean, so it talks about like maintaining racial balance. I mean, we we we don't have racial balance. So So, so the only way that that that policy needs to be in there is if we think there's going to be so many what? Black and brown kids that it's going to be a problem and we're
073going to have to stop white kids from leaving the district. I guess. I don't know. Um, regardless, um, Hudson and, um, one one minute, please. Thank you. Um, Hudson and Brexville, Broadview Heights, just don't mention it in their policies they put in this year. Um, Wodsworth and Highland in April um, included language about giving our diverse society and the importance of preparing students for education, work, and citizenship. The board is committed to providing students with education, equal educational opportunities, providing educational diversity in the district, da da da. So it at least puts in the why because as it is I mean just reading through the policy I mean it seemed out a reconstruction or something some something that's the some relic that this language is in there and we either need to get rid of
074it or explain why it's there um just to eliminate you know so I dove in I I found the OC 3313.98. I don't think most people are going to do that and that most most of the people I've talked to about this are like what does that why is that in there? So I think it' just be good to tell folks why it's in there or just get rid of it. Either one's fine. Thanks. Thank you. [Applause] Is there anybody else that'd like to talk about policy or any other agenda agenda item? Okay, we'll proceed with our agenda. Uh next up is uh the board of education agenda. Uh and first up is the master agreement uh rear education association which is REA. Uh it's recommended that the board of education approve the three-year uh
0752025 through 2028 master agreement with the river education association. May I have a motion and a second please? Second. Thank you. Um are we doing that one separate then two just number 61 or are we doing 61 and two together? We could actually do them together. Okay. Okay. So, the uh second is uh administrators and exempt support staff salary and benefit changes. So, also recommended the board of education approve the salary and benefit changes for all administrators and exempt support staff for the next three years 2025 through 2026, 26- 27, and 27 through 28 per the terms of the REA master agreement. Do you want to still motion on that? and second. Okay. Thank you. Uh before we vote, first of all, I just wanted to thank uh those who were involved in the negotiations.
076I know negotiations can always be tense um and maybe lively, especially when you're separate and apart amongst your group. So, I know it took a lot of hard work, a lot of days, and apparently one evening. Um, but I uh I know that from the board's perspective and hopefully from everybody else in the community, uh we obviously do appreciate our uh teachers and our staff and are grateful uh that we have all of you and um look forward to uh our success to continue here at River. Uh so anybody else want to say anything? No. Okay. Mr. Bdine. Mrs. Stein. Yes. Mrs. Brackett. Yes. Mr. Haidu. Yes. Mr. Malik. Yes, Mrs. Rainey. Yes. All right. Thank you everyone. Uh next up we have uh an update from Mrs. Burke with uh Chicago Valley Career Center.
077Good evening. Uh at the April 24th board meeting of CBCC, we were we heard a presentation from the transition to work and sales and service programs. Um those programs are actually going to be rebranded together as transition to work. I'll talk about that more at the um next board meeting. Um but what that program essentially is, it's a lot of special education kids who are um being prepared to enter into a workforce. And the thing that sets apart this program is that there's a lot of community engagement. So the students are able to actually go out to businesses and work on site at businesses. And so I brought the list because I thought there were a couple interesting ones that they work with. They work at the init apple ridge which is right up the
078road, winking lizard and heinens and Brexville. They also accept work in-house and so in house they've done work for organizations like Girls on the Run, Bob Evans, the Goldfish Swim School up in Hudson and then they have also done work for the CBC uh C admins. Um I want to note that they are continually looking for classroom work. So assembling mailings, assembling welcome kits, race kits, etc. So any ideas or anything? I'd be happy to connect you to CBCC and that program. Um, in other news, the construction project, the new, um, construction wing that's going up is on target for completion in December of 2025. Uh, Nancy Vandre held a fantastic career day at Bath Elementary. She just puts on a fantastic day every single year. It's a day um, I wish I could take
079more time to enjoy that, but the I enjoy the pictures all over social media for that. And then finally, last week on May 7th and 8th, um I was honored to attend the senior recognition along with Mr. Ferris, Miss George, and Mr. White. Um I did want to mention um those students who are recognized as outstanding students in their program from River. Um so that would be um Benjamin Milbour for electrical systems, Gus McClung for job training, Kyle Yoast for auto body repair and refinishing and Brody Bard for power equipment tech. And I was also very very pleased uh that River was well represented by Brody who is also named CVCC employee of the year. He logged over 2,000 hours of hands-on experience at Imperial Truck Services. And when you do the quick math on
080that, that is a full year of work. So he has put in a lot of on the job education training and really really represented our district well. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Berdine. Treasures agenda. I would propose taking all of items one through seven in Roman numeral 8 as one action item. Please. Okay. So moved. Second. Thank you. the minutes from the two meetings you see listed the financial report in April for April um it was very far off and very favorable but that's all due to timing of tax advances and settlement compared to uh prior fiscal years that the county was a bit speedier this year with that and due to the forecast coming up two items I won't spend any more time on that unless you have questions asset deletions we
081have some uh I believe year circuit 2,000 uh reading materials that uh Marshia curriculum department has submitted for disposal and also we have four school buses that we have kept on site for quite a few years to use as our pull- aart business of our own that our mechanics have used to get parts that were needed and those would all go to scrap with your approval tonight. the five-year forecast. I met with the Treasurer's finance committee to review that. Um it is it continues to be very favorable. Last new operating levy 2011. Um nothing on the horizon that would be foreseeable. Two important items to note in that would be the negotiated settlement is not here just due to timing of when that process concluded versus I have completed the forecast in order to meet
082finance committee. Um so that will be updated for the marginal differences between my forecast estimates for salary and fringe changes versus what actually materialized in those contract negotiations. Also, anybody who follows the state budget process, if you can predict what's going to end up out of that, you're better than me for sure. So, I don't know. Um, I have reduced my expectations from the last forecast due to the governor's funding proposal and the house proposal and a conference call that Mr. White and I had with Representative Romer. I don't anticipate we'll see what was projected to come from the prior current budget bill. Uh it'll be slightly reduced for us, although not as much as other districts are facing. The other um unknown is what might happen. There's been a lot of discussion about budget
083bills that would put caps on cash balances that are possible. The House version of that budget bill would take our roughly $20 million cash balance and literally overnight reduce that to 12 million. That sounds great. Taxpayers would literally get a few bucks in a refund if that materialized. Uh we've expressed our opposition to it. Also, we've expressed our opposition that the legislation only applies to traditional K12 public schools and no other type of school district, no other division of government at any level. So, it seems implicitly unfair in my world, but my world is is pretty narrowly defined, I think, as well. So, um the settlement agreements that are presented there, uh the resolutions speak to those two. Uh the donations Bath Church, $2,300. Thank you. Uh to be utilized for students with needs for
084lunch account balances and fees. I was also given another check tonight. So, we thank them for their continuing generous support of our students. And then, uh, Mr. Ferris may want, is he still back there? He's still there. Mr. Ferris brought Scott and Suzanne Allison forward. I had some involvement. You don't really need to talk, Doug. I'm kidding. But, um, they have a student who is graduating this year. They very generously donated through their company a fireworks display for our graduation on the 29th. Um that will occur, I believe, at 900 PM. Public's invited. You don't have to come to graduation. You can bring the kids just for the fireworks. So, um it should be a really cool evening primarily for the graduation, but obviously this is a nice bonus as well. And and they donated
085that. I put value unknown because I really don't know what a fireworks display cost. I didn't ask. Um but it's super generous of them uh to do that for our school district. And I think I say this almost every month, but eight years for me here now. And the generosity of our community just never ceases to amaze me. It never ends, frankly. I mean, folks, they step up for whatever the need is. Whether it's fireworks, whether it's our need, students with lunch balances, folks are always coming forward. So, thank you for that. I think I have one more. Oh, the purchase orders. They're boring. the out of sequence purchase orders that were required by statute to ask for your approval of those questions. I'd be happy to try to answer whether it's forecast, financial report,
086or anything else. No, just to echo what you said. It's always amazing and um how generous our community is and uh we are truly appreciative of everything that they do give back to the district. Absolutely. Any other questions for Mr. Bdine? Okay. Want to call the RO? Mr. Malik. Yes. Mrs. Brackett. Yes, Mr. Haidu. Yes, Mrs. Rainey. Yes, Mrs. Stein. Yes. Thanks, Mr. Berdine. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. White. Superintendent's agenda. All right. Under Roman numeral nine, number one, we have a the resignation of Abby Castle for the director of student services position the effect of August 1st. Uh, I'll make a motion. U Mrs. Castle here. She did. Thank you so much for all your years here at Reier. Uh we do wish you uh much luck in your
087new endeavor. Um so thank you. [Applause] All right, Mr. Pank. Mr. Malik, yes. Mr. Hyu, yes. Mrs. Brackett, yes. Mrs. Rainey, yes. Mrs. Stein, yes. All right. Letter B. We have uh the resignation of Mr. Connelly from a middle school principal position to director of student services effective August 1st. Uh so moved. Second. Mr. Connley. There you are. So Mr. Connley's been with this district for quite a few years. How many years now? 11. Okay. uh he is uh a true asset to the community uh to our district. Uh this is a great opportunity for Mr. Connley. I know he is uh coming into it uh with a lot of energy. Um grateful for the opportunity from what he's told me and uh I know from my uh personal opinion I I think he's going
088to do great and I wish you all the luck and success. There you go. So, call the roll. Mr. Bang. Mr. Malik. Yes. Mrs. Stein. Yes. Mrs. Bracket. Yes. Mr. Haidu. Yes. Mrs. Rainey. Yes. You're official, sir. [Applause] Congratulations. I just want to tell you my director of student services won't be perfect. Thank you very much. Congratulations. Okay. Letter C. We have similarly a change of employment for Dr. Dan Overberhouser from middle school assistant principal to middle school principal effective August 1st. I'll make a motion. I'll second it. Dr. O, I'm bringing you up. So, how long have you been here now? This my fifth year. Fifth year. So, uh Dr. O obviously is uh also a wonderful asset here at the at River and within our community. He is a community member. Uh so
089that is uh great to know that he has his children here at the at the school and um I'm I wish him all the luck. I think he's uh going to step into this role and do a fabulous job. Uh we thank you for being patient and uh this uh opportunity obviously is in front of you and uh we just wish you a lot of success. Congratulations. Congratulations. Hold on before you talk. Mr. Redine. Mrs. Brackett. Yes. Mr. Malik. Yes. Mr. Haidu. Yes. Mrs. Rainey. Yes. Mrs. Stein. Yes. Thank you. I am overwhelmed with this opportunity. I give my baseball field for a couple hours before I came here so I could coach a group of fourth graders in the district. And it's always been a dream of mine. It's an in where I live
090and where my kids go to school. So, I can always say any truly appreciate the parent involvement that we have here. Some people ask me, "Man, your parents seem involved. You like that?" Yes, I do. We're on the same team. We work together. We can figure it out. And we're raising our kids together. And I appreciate that. I just want to say I met him ago and we are friends now. He has taken my ideas and this is the best district in Ohio to be in retired. So thank you for that opportunity. Okay. Remaining letters D3G. I recommend we do consent. motion. I'll second. Mr. Heidi, was did you move that? He did. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Sorry. All right. In letter D, we have some administrative contract renewals. Um then E is the administrative
091contract amendment. Mrs. Arborghast. Then we have a change in position at F for one of our teachers go full-time for us in English at River Middle School. And G is a list of our new hires. Uh Jill Nulan there is going to be our art teacher at Bath. Jessica Hillbrand will be our science teacher at the high school. Samantha Nett will be our speech language pathologist. And Brett Rogers, a physical education teacher for us. Any questions? There any questions? Okay. Mr. Berdine. Mr. Haidu. Yes. Mr. Malik. Yes. Mrs. Brackett. Yes. Mrs. Rainey. Yes. Mrs. Stein. Yes. All right. Just want to real quick welcome our uh the new hires. There's one, two, three. There's five of them, right? Yeah. Four of them. Sorry. So, welcome to them. Uh who will be starting I believe in
092the fall. Right. Correct. I would just point out to board that while that says new additional position for the speech language pathologist, we actually utilized a point6 FTE this year, three days per week from an outsource contract provider. So it's it's not a it's a new additional position on payroll, but not a full additional expense. So I just wanted to offer that clarification. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Roman numeral nine uh number two A and B is consent. Recommend that. So moved. Second. Letter A. We have a new bus driver being trained, Mark Gartland. So very thankful for that. As we continue to uh do a great job in our transportation department. While the rest of the nation is struggling to find drivers, we keep holding them in. So so thankful for AJ and
093Alena and all their work. Thanks to AJ for that. Great. He's doing wonderful. And then we have a be additional days and hours for some training for one of our food service personnel. Okay. Are there any questions? Okay. Mr. Berdine. Mr. Malik. Yes. Mrs. Stein. Yes. Mrs. Brackett. Yes. Mr. Haidu. Yes. Mrs. Rainey. Yes. Great. Number nine. Roman Roman numeral number nine. It's number three. A through C. recommend we take as consent. Motion second. All right. Thank you. There. A we have a Hazel Health contract amendment to extend it through November 1st, 2025. Then B, extended school year for one of our students in need of that. And we have Katie Laxo who will be teaching that for us. And then letter C, the Summit County Educational Service Center um kids first program to assist
094one of our students in their learning. Any questions? All right. Mrs. Stein, yes. Mrs. Rainey, yes. Mrs. Brackett, yes. Mr. Haidu, yes. Mr. Malik, yes. All right. Number four there, other business. Letter A, we have the revision to the transportation section of our student handbooks to upgrade those at final reading. Any questions on that one? A motion on that? We don't have one. We need I'll motion. I will second. Are there any questions? Okay. Mr. Berdine. Mrs. Stein. Yes. Mr. Malik. Yes. Mrs. Bracket. Yes. Mr. Haidu. Yes. Mrs. Rainey. Yes. All right. Letter B. There we have no actions. first read for our policies. Do you want me to? So, um there's no actions. So, what I would I know that we had a couple people come and talk uh regarding the policies. Um periodically
095we get updates from our legal counsel regarding policies to ensure that we are in line with what goes on at the state level. Uh I I you heard people talk about a new policy that's in front of us as well uh that's called the parent bill of rights. Um we have posted those policies. We're not taking any action tonight. Um this is really an opportunity, you know, we had a couple people come and talk at the beginning, but I would encourage you all to review these policies. They're available online. We're not going to uh come back and circle back to these until next month. Uh so if you have feedback or if you there's something that you uh you know have questions about, by all means reach out to us and we'll do our best
096to try to answer them. Uh I know that I've reached out to the attorneys here recently because I too have some questions um and see if we can make any changes. So um I encourage you all to look at those, review them, and provide us with feedback and um we'll look at that. So um please do that. Uh there are quite a few. I'm Did you want to name I'll go ahead and go over like I'm not going to go. Last week I went over and kind of explained uh and I think Mr. Mr. Shanker you did record that last week. So you all are free to listen to that. Um I'm not going to go over that again. It's because I'll just do the same thing. But the revisions are to policy 1.09 which
097is uh officers of the board of education 4.01 01 employment of substitute teaching staff 6.05 interd district open enrollment 6.06 enrollment of resident non-resident homeless and foreign exchange students 6.26 dangerous weapons in the schools bomb threats and violent conduct 6.60 seizure safety 7.16 extracurricular activities 7.26 college credit plus 8.05 cash and school buildings 8.10 10 uniform federal grant guidance 8.13 procurement with federal uh grants and funds 8.19 inventory uh disposition of equipment obtained with federal awards 9.14 food safe or food sales standards and services and then the new policy is the 9.39 um and you know we do these updates and uh when uh a lot of times when the attorneys uh and policy writers ers provide them to us because of certain things that happen down in the state. I can tell you as
098to the new uh 9.39 uh we have to have it on our books by July 1st of this year. Uh so that's why you're seeing it now. Um so thank you all for listening. Thank you. Didn't mean to take over your No, you're fine. You're fine. So that was very well said. Thank you, Mr. M. Okay. So, Roman numeral 9, number four, C through E, I recommend we do as consent. Okay, I'll make a motion. Thank you. All right. Letter C, we have the Frog Street second and final reading. Mrs. Roach did that presentation a couple months now. It seems like a long time ago since we've seen the frog. So letter D is the school photography agreement with RipCo and then Ripco and then Walsh University College Credit Plus at letter E. Okay. Does
099anybody have any questions? Okay. Mr. Bine, Mrs. Bracket, yes. Mrs. Rainey, yes. Mr. Haidu, yes. Mr. Malik, yes. Mrs. Stein, yes. Okay. Roman numeral 9, number four, letters F through N are the curriculum or first reads that we got a presentation on this evening. Again, those are first reads, so there's no action on those this evening. Sorry. All right. And then Any comments, questions about any of those first readings? Okay. All right. Then in Roman numeral number nine, number four, letter O, in lie of transportation, you need to take action on. A motion. Second. Thank you. And that's it. Okay. Are there any questions? No. Okay. Mr. Bine. Mrs. Stein. Yes. Mr. Heiden. Yes. Mrs. bracket. Yes. Mr. Malik. Yes. Mrs. Rainey. Yes. We're all getting used to this new format that we have for
100our board agendas. So, if you see us flipping through it a lot, I can tell you that my secretary, Mrs. Mole, does not like it. So, it's a lot of back and forth and sometimes hard to read. But, I do believe that brings us to Roman numeral number 10, information, discussion items. It does. Yes. Okay. Uhformational items. Uh the June work session will be held on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, beginning at 5:30 in the Rever admin uh conference room. Uh the regular meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 24th, beginning at 5:30 uh also at the Rever admin building. Okay. Uh so now we do have uh the opportunity uh for concerns of the public and community announcements. So if anybody would like to come up uh please do so. Uh I just ask that
101you keep in mind what I had indicated earlier before our agenda items. So thank you. There there's five minutes per per board policy. So when you hear me I'll I'll notify you at one minute and then ask you to stop at the conclusion of that and and please uh identify yourself. Yep. Thank you. My name is Randy Ruff. Um, I have a son Austin in third grade at Bath and a daughter Kennedy in first grade at Richfield. Um, I am the son, grandson, uh, nephew two times, great nephew of educators. So, I can't express how much I appreciate all of you, all the educators here. Um, you all mean the world to me helping, you know, bring my kids through this school district. Um, my mom, who's unable to be here tonight, uh, I'm reading
102this on on her behalf. Um, she's in Texas on at at my at her grace great niece's graduation. Um but uh this is from her. To those who may concern, I am writing this as a retired educator of 37 years, all of which were spent in elementary school education for Alliance City Schools. I wanted to speak out and share my appreciation for one of the administrators within Rever local schools, specifically at Richfield Elementary School. My grandchildren, who mean the world to me, have been so lucky as to have spent multiple years at Richfield Elementary School. My grandson is currently in third grade at Bath Elementary, and my granddaughter is in first grade at Richfield. I've been to Richfield Elementary over a dozen times the last three and a half years. And every time I leave,
103I am so incredibly proud that my son and his wife found a home here. As a grandparent, you want to know that your grandchild is appreciated by not only their teachers, but also the leadership of the building. I can confidently say that my grandchildren are appreciated by both at Richfield Elementary School. Throughout my tenure as a teacher, I've witnessed great leadership and I've also witnessed leadership where the principles weren't involved with the students. And the atmosphere can be one where students don't all share a positive attitude towards learning. That is not the case at Richfield Elementary School. And I know this because I've had many discussions with both of my grandchildren about the things they enjoy the most at school. My grandson and my granddaughter have different answers about their favorite classes. For my grandson,
104it's math and my granddaughter loves art. But the answers that they both have in common over the last few years are their teachers and their principal, Mr. Pachy, I know that if someone would have asked both of my children these same questions when they were growing up, their answers would have been similar when it comes to subjects and some of their teachers, but I don't believe that either of them would have ever mentioned their elementary school principal. If someone would have asked these questions to all of my students throughout my years of teaching, I believe that only one of the principles I worked with would have received this type of response. I had always seen Mr. Py at morning drop off whenever my husband and I had to watch our grandchildren due to my son
105and his wife being out of town. But it wasn't until my first experience volunteering at the building that I realized why my grandson loved him so much. When I entered the building, I had to check in in at the office and Mr. Pachy happened to be walking back from classroom. He looked at me and said, "Good morning, Mrs. Ruff." When I heard this, I responded, "Well, good morning. And who are you?" I knew who he was because my grandson had told me at drop off, but this was our first formal encounter. He said, "I'm Brian Pachy, the assistant principal. Are you helping with Austin's class?" I said, "Yes." And he then offered to walk me down to the room. When when we arrived at the room, I felt like I was in the presence of
106a celebrity because every kid in the classroom lit up and said, "Mr. Py," my grandson and a few of his friends then said something that made me realize Mr. Py wasn't as perfect as they had let on. They gave him a thumbs down and said, "Boo Michigan." I then thought to myself, "If my grandson loves this man with how my son is raising him, then he must be incredibly special." Every time I've been at a school event since our first introduction, I have seen Mr. Py, and he's always smiling with what seems to be the most positive attitude one could have. The ability to recognize extended family members with no formal introduction prior and then to know which class their grandchild is in is something that cannot be trained. If I had to guess, I'd
107bet Mr. Py can tell you the teacher of every child in that school. Raising children is not an easy task. And getting children excited to go to school every day so that they can receive that oh so important education is also not a very easy task. The last thing children need are teachers and leadership that make school feel like an inconvenience or an annoyance and not a fun place to learn. Knowing all the different obstacles teachers and administrators have to deal with today makes me question if I could have been able to last as long as I did. Having to deal with those obstacles as well as being a positive leader and great role model are skills that only a few special people have in this world. Mr. PY is one of those people. I
108truly hope Mr. Py is valued in the district as highly as my family and I value him. I couldn't ask for a better person and leader to be running the building where my granddaughter is currently learning. Sincerely, Marilyn Ruff. Thank you. [Applause] Does anybody else want to talk? Okay. Oh, yes, ma'am. Oops. Hi, my name is Jane Beal and I'm also a grandmother in the district. Um, my son and daughter-in-law are both at baseball games for first and third grader or fourth grader and had to split, but they've asked me to come and ask a question. Um, I also am a retired educator, uh, retired superintendent, principal, K through 12 certification, teachers, uh, variety of teaching certificates, including gifted, um, and national board certification, but again, retired. Um, my question, and I'm a little hesitant
109to ask it, but um, the question my granddaughter-in-law wanted me to ask is, um, policy-wise with your board, background checks, you do your background checks reveal, um, obviously for volunteers in the school, when you come up with a background check, uh, does it reveal felony convictions? So, so uh your BCI checks are you as far as background checks we do right for volunteers volunteers we have we have it instituted um so in order to volunteer you do have to do go through a background check it's through it's BCI and FBI so right I am not I can't speak to the BCI and FBI I just know that we send it uh for background checks and if it comes back right okay then that's you know what we go and that's what I'm asking when a
110background check comes back if it shows a prior felony conviction is that volunteer allowed to volunteer in the schools by board policy we can respond to you at another time because this really isn't a form for Q&A I have a copy of the process here I can share with you though I know the process for getting background checks I've been checked and and am approved as a volunteer that we and respond to you. If we can give us your email, we'll respond to your question. Because the follow-up question to that is um that my daughter-in-law's concern that she wanted brought up is when a current volunteer in the schools has been discovered to have a violent felony three conviction as a and a in their history and is now a room parent. does that what
111type of oversight or what type of supervision Yeah. is guaranteed to um have those students in that classroom um in a supervised situation for instance on field trips or that type of situation. So that's the concern. No one is in any of our classrooms that's not permitted by statute to be in there. I'm sorry. No one is in a classroom in our district that is not permitted by statute to be there. That's the question. So if a volunteer is has a BCI check and has been approved as a volunteer in the classroom and is a room parent and then it comes to light that that person has a prior felony three conviction on their record, what does the district intend to do about it? So I would restate no one is in our classrooms. It
112is not permitted by statute to be there. Okay. So but we can talk offline or Well, I'll I'll appreciate the answer then to what the district's policy is for volunteers if they have a prior conviction. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] Hello. Hi. I am Jennifer Henry and I have a son in Richfield and I just have a few statements that have unfortunately brought me here today. So what I want to know is what communication are you going to give this community about what's going on? Where is it? There is someone who is I don't care what you want to call it stalking creating an environment. No let me finish please. As I indicated we're not going to talk neighborly about anybody. We aren't here with this. No, I'm asking for a
113plan. That's different. I want a plan and I want a communication. Okay. When when you're asking us to communicate on something that involves uh individuals, right? No, the superintendent and the board. Okay. As far as what expl I mean, we can't we we are not going to get into um I don't care about politics, okay? But there's a lot going on and I think as a parent of this district, I am entitled to know that there is someone on these school premises that is causing mental distress to someone else, especially a principal. This is concerning. I understand that there's a lot of good old boy good friends going on at River. I went to River. I get it. But that's unacceptable to put anyone's safety. I'm not mental health at risk. Okay. I don't believe
114anybody's safety in the schools is at risk. I'm not I am not aware of any. I mean, Mr. White, you have a felon as a room parent. You have someone who has stalked. Ma'am, there is no one in any of our building classrooms that is not permitted to be there in accordance with statute. The background checks are clear to allow that to occur. who has a domestic history a human resource issue and there really is no further comment we'll be able to make that's fine okay I'm really encouraging the superintendent and this board to get together put a plan together and communicate out to the district because this is getting out of hand what is going on it's been going on all year now everyone has under the table the transcript from the restraining order
115that was put in This is not a secret. You owe us some type of communication. I'm not here to say I like this person or I like that person because I don't care. If my son comes home and he's being well educated, that's great. But if I feel like my son's safety or any one of his wonderful teachers or staff is at risk, that's not okay. And that's obviously what's going on. So, I'd really appreciate it if there was some type of communication that came out from the superintendent and the board really soon because it's getting out of control. Thank you. Are there any other u comments? Okay. Um I I guess uh we can have a motion to adjourn. No, executive session. Oh, one second here. Be Roman number 12. Yep. Uh, so the
116board has reason to go into executive session to discuss the employment of a public employee. Also to prepare for conducting or reviewing negotiations or bargaining sessions with an employee. I have a motion in a second. Motion. Second. Mr. Berdine. Mrs. Stein. Yes. Mrs. Rainey. Yes. Mrs. Bracken. Yes. Mr. Haidu. Yes. Mr. Malik. Yes. Thank you. We're in executive session. I don't we will not have any action when we come out. Thank you.