February 26, 2026 Board of Education Meeting

001What does that mean? >> No, it's changed. >> All right, we'll call the meeting to order. >> So, notice of this meeting was given in accordance with the provisions of bylaw 0164B of the Riverside Local Board of Education, which was adopted in accordance with section 1.450 of the OC and the Ohio Administrative Procedures Act. >> Can you take vote for us, please? >> I certainly can. I'm just so used to using technology and not paper. That's I'm very techy as you guys are aware. Um, Mr. Adino >> here, >> Mrs. Grassy >> here, >> Miss Brewster >> here, >> Mrs. Kreninski >> here, >> and Mr. Buyers >> here. Thank you. Can we stand for the pledge of allegiance, please? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to

002the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. On behalf of the board, I'd like to welcome all students, staff, parents, and interested community members to tonight's board of education meeting. I'd like to remind everyone that this is a meeting of the board of education held in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business and is not to be considered a public community meeting. There is time for public comment during the meeting in the public participation section on the agenda. I make a motion to approve the January 22nd, 2026 board minutes. >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? >> Right. Can you call the role, please? >> Yes. Miss Kreninski. >> I. >> Miss Grassy. Mrs. Grassi. >> Hi. >> Mr. Aino. >> I. >>

003Um, Miss Ber >> I. >> And Mr. Buyers. >> I. >> Motion carries follow. And that brings us to our special reports. >> Okay, I only have one tonight. Um I did have we were going to take a tour of CTX, but we had a lot of deliveries. Uh so we had to move the meeting. So we will do that um at at our next meeting hopefully. So kind of wanted to uh talk a little about property taxes. There's been a lot of discussion about property taxes. Wanted to first of all, first and foremost highlight that we did have a presentation um last night. hosted a presentation and panel discussion with Lake County Treasurer Michael Zern and then Panesville Township Trustee Chuck Hillier. So, it was a combination with um the school district, the the

004county uh and then the Panesville Township. We had a pretty good attendance. I think they said about 60 uh maybe a little bit more were there. The presentation was was neutral. um really presented and addressed the recent proposed changes to property tax system as well as we discussed how local government agencies and entities are currently supported by property tax. Really what goes behind that property tax bill and we address and we also discussed how local services could be significantly changed due to property tax. At this point, kind of piggybacking off of that, I do think it's important to kind of share um really the school district perspective um from property taxes and why we are where we are, especially because I know we're all excited that tonight is the financial forecast um presentation as well.

005So, >> so kind of piggybacking on that um off of that a little bit >> really to kind of talk about where we are and kind of why um schools continue to go back to the levies uh for property taxes and just some trends that are there and why they're there. First, a little history. Um in 1991, uh homeowners and farmers paid about 47 so residential and agriculture was about 47% of the school property taxes. of businesses made up the rest. So 53% on average throughout the state in 2023 because of legislation that number has shifted to where residential and agricultural make up 70% of the property taxes that we collect. Um what changed in there is simply legislation. So state legislation has changed to eliminate the tangible personal property tax. That was in 2005.

006They did kind of roll that back a little bit to try to hold us harmless as they would say. Um but we we still feel the pinch. Um, and the state used to cover a 12 and a half roll back on the property tax bill. And for those levies that are still continuous and still voted in, they still do. But for any new levy, they do not. So any new levy is the full freight. And then finally, um, rising home values um, also increase to, um, higher bills for families, not only from the inside millillage, which we'll get into a little bit. I'm not going to go a deep dive into that. I encourage people to go out and watch the presentation. It's on our YouTube from Dr. Zern. uh he gets really into it

007into the weeds a lot but it's it's a good presentation but rising home valu rising home values equals equals higher rails of the property taxes they are based off um the system really kind of what um so the shared challenge and this is this is true we know families are struggling to pay bills we we know that that's the case as property as property values have skyrocketed recently in an unprecedented rise um some of those bills went up now they didn't all go up and I think that's something to say the average property tax um rate went up 30%. But there were some there were some county homes and some houses and some residents in the district that saw a decrease in their property tax even though in if you live in Concord there were

008some homes in Concord that saw a decrease in property tax even though Concord passed an additional 3.9 mil levy and some and some residents still saw their taxes decrease. So it depends on where your schools are valued or where your homes are valued and it it's a whole holistic. So again, one of the solutions that are out there is this amendment to get rid of property tax. That seems like a simple solution for a very complex issue because property taxes just to get into how much it it's worth is incredibly complex. There's a hundred and some page book that deals with some of it that's sitting on uh in front of you. Um it deals with school finance and it's still when you read that you have to read some of those sections two three

009times um one to stay awake but then also really to truly um grasp the grasp the concepts behind it. So, um, we also know that schools, we're we're facing the same and we face the same inflation. It costs us more to turn the lights on. It costs us more to run the buses. It costs us more for healthcare. We've had those discussions and we're struggling to to maintain programs. Um, you know, to keep our safe facilities. We have to pay. We have we have costs now that we didn't have 20 years ago. We didn't have school resource officers and school safety officers in every school. We do now. that that those we have a great partnership with Lake County, but those officers aren't free. So, that that's something that that is an increased cost that

010didn't exist exist prior, but it's something that I would say that our community values. Um, and then also, we also know that the state needs to be a part of the solution and not just say, "Hey, work it out. We've got some ways to make it work, but then, you know, go go figure it out on your way." Because that that's not working either. So, what's at stake? And really and truly and and as you'll see tonight in the financial forecast, I don't want to steal any doctor steal any of Dr. Thompson's thunder, but you know what's at stake really is we are a people industry. So when we go to make significant changes and we you know people are impacted and so we we have to reduce positions at times. Um we have to

011reduce programs, you know, do we reduce some of the things that we cherish in and safe school? What does that look like? Um from a community standpoint, more than just the schools. those schools do take about 60% of the property taxes. Uh but from a community standpoint, police, fire, EMS, uh libraries, and parks, the the um and some of the partnerships that we have um we're fortunate to have Parkside right across the street from Sko Meadow and go and walk in Sko Meadow. Um in in a clean and sk um property taxes to not have that clean is will impact our our student experience. Uh when we we had the issue last Halloween at Riverview and we hit that red button um went into lockdown there. You couldn't everybody came from all all those emergency

012services and all that and they were there um before I was there and I drove pretty fast. You could ask Nick. Uh he rode with me. He'll never ride with me again. But but and I we were there quickly but before we were there we had police from we had the sheriff's office there. We had police from Menor. We had police from Kirtland. We had fire and EMS that all came. All of those are funded by property tax. If that goes away, what happens to those services? One of the things I I I said this last night. I wake up every morning and there's over 4,000 students in our district. And I hope at the end of the night the same amount of students are in our district as they are when they wake up.

013We don't have to deal with the tragedy. And I've had to once every year. And it is it it's an awful experience. And I can tell and and I I know Dr. Thompson has as well. And it's just something you don't want to go through and deal with. It's the it's the nature of it. But the more we can do to keep our students safe, um, you know, we we need to do it and I think that's that's a really important thing. And I think we can't continue to not have reform um for our families to pay more, our local services risk being cut. That's not the answer um from that aspect. So, how do we move forward together? We know we have to be a part of the change, but we need to be

014a part of the the of the solution, too. We we need to be we need a seat at the table and we need to be balanced. this this idea of hey let's just cut it and let the state figure it out um when the state figured out fair funding in terms of equitable facilities uh that's not working out for us very well right now we're sitting we have we have needs that um you know we haven't had issued um we have needs greater than some other schools that have had uh the monies given to them at a at a greater rate because of where we're sitting so I think that that's not necessarily not that I don't appreciate what the state does, but I don't know if I want to put all our apples in

015that basket, let them figure it out. And I would love to have a seat at the table to kind of make some make some meaningful impactful change. So, in lie of this amendment that's coming on uh that that they're trying to put on the um on the ballot, um there has been some impactful legislation. Um some that some that has some sense to it, some that may have been a little bit of a knee-jerk, I think, is a fair um response to it. uh locally um that came out of the state budget that uh what the state budget said is the county can go ahead and double uh and piggyback on the homestead and owner occupied um tax. They can go ahead and do that. And of the of the 80s some counties in Ohio,

016four chose to do that for this tax year. Lake County is one of them. We know that uh Dr. Zer presented last night that that's about an average savings for your average residents about $128 annually. So, a little over $10 a month you save on your property tax. From a district standpoint, we we were faced with a $1.3 million impact immediately or actually $750,000 this year because it's opposite of our tax year. Um, but it's $1.3 million we didn't expect. We have we have always been proactive and looking where we cut over a million dollars in in last year in preparation for deficit spending so we could we could keep our levy cycle off as much as we can. um in a three councilman vote, we lost a million three um coming up that we

017didn't project and we didn't forecast. And again, not to steal any thunder, but you are. >> I'm sorry, but that does impact a lot of what we do. Um House Bill 129 uh came out and it required a lot of fixed sum levies to be included in the 20 mil floor. Every school district has to um generate 20 mills of of property tax um in order to get save funding. So, but what some districts would do and we had one um they would put on emergency levies so they would stay at the 20 mil floor because as inflation rises those all those 20 mills rise with the with the rate of inflation. So this last um this last appraisal as all those values went up 20%. If you're at the floor your income from those

018property taxes rises 20%. In this case for us we we were above the the 20 mil floor and our effective millage. Now granted, we voted 55 bills. We're collecting right now we're collecting 20, but we we were collecting about 25 mills or so. As the appraisal arrived, we got to the floor. Um, so that's why some of we saw maybe a little bit of a bump. 129 says no, that's not how it's going to work. A levy is a levy and it counts. So whatever you're doing, it's impacted a number of districts more than us. for us. Um, we are looking at about a $750,000 impact, but there is some hold harmless language that is coming from they're funding that hold harmless language by eliminating the holiday sales tax in August. So, that holiday sales

019tax reprieve that helps our families out when they go out school supply shopping. That is being eliminated this year to help fund um some of this this roll back language for schools. So, that's where they pulled that from. >> There you go. >> Yeah. goes back to who it impacts. But um after the after the impact of the two years of hold harmless, they do a look back. So if your tax bill went up because of this, they'll credit you back and you'll see a credit on your tax bill. U but then you can lose a significant amount of funds that way. We uh again 750,000 for us, that's a lot of money, but that's not, you know, that's not necessarily a dealbreaker. Like I said, we we cut a million. we can cut our

020way through some of that and reduce um for other districts it was a very significant hit and you may have seen them in the papers recently as well. So so they're reacting to that. Um House Bill 186 is the inflation cap to inside millillage. So inside millillage um is basically you could have 10 mills of unvoted levy. They're they're they're dispersed amongst all of the different public entities. We collect about four mills of inside millet and when inflation rises on that um we get whatever the inflationary rate is. So it went up 30% we would get a 30% bump in those collected mills. Not a lot of money but it is it's it's pretty for us it was about we were looking at about three mill $3 million between 186 um getting to the floor

021and then this inside millillage. Now that caps it to inflationary rates. So it caps at 2 and a half to 3% and that's all you can gain. even if your house value goes up, um we would only see a two and a half to three percent gain. That that's kind of some common sensical language. Okay, we can do this. It makes sense. We can predict that. And for us, it really is about predictions. What can we predict out? What can we see on the way out? We can kind of do that. We understand that. Um to that point, um House Bill 309 expand expands the control of the local budget commission. And Dr. Thompson, Mr. Patre and I got to experience this uh Monday I believe. >> So Monday we got to sit down with

022the local budget commission which is the treasurer, the auditor and the prosecutor and present our school budget to them to kind of show them where we are, where our finances were, how many mills we're collecting and all that. And they vote on those um budgets. If if they see it in abundance of an excess, they can say we're not collecting on a on one levy this year or we're not collecting on this uh or we're not doing that. Um in this case this year we ours was voted through. We showed that we prepared the budget. We said this is what we're spending our monies on. We don't have a huge cash exit access or carryover. And in fact we're you know you our futures looking and all of Lake County was kind of in the

023same. I think Fairport may we did we missed Fairport. I think they have a large carryover for a while but um we we did see some of what that is. And so that's that's 309. That'll be annual thing. Now um Giaga County has done it for a long time. Um and so the Jaga County Budget Commission, they would go and present um and Jaga County Budget Commission would would would take some levies away. In fact, they stopped collecting on the WestG emergency levy last year or two years ago, I believe it was. Yeah, it's two years ago. So So that precedent has been set. This now makes it a countywide thing. And the last one is um House Bill 335, which again limits the inside millage rates to just uh to to just inflation. though

024for all of that. So that's where we're at with the language. To look a little bit about, you know, kind of what we see all the myth verse fact and kind of where we're at with that. You know, the myth is always, oh, schools are flush. We we we mismanage money. We just spend we're we're administrationheavy. We spend we we waste dollars. Um the reality of of it, especially at Riverside, is we've consolidated our services. We've shared resources and we've reduced costs. the bar the the bar graph up there which I know is not really well seen on a PowerPoint screen and all that that is the pure pupil expenditure for every single district in Lake and Giaga County. The highlighted area at the bottom is Riverside. We are the second lowest pure pupil in

025um spend for Lake and Giaga County. Um Madison is the lowest and Madison is um they are in fiscal watch or fiscal emergency. They're they're and continuing to have to they're in watch. They're continuing have to make some pretty decent um cuts. The average I want to say is about 17,000 per student. Um we come in about 16,000 per student um from that. So that's kind of where our spend is. And again, we want to be good stewards of taxpayers dollars. That's what that's what we always continue to try to do uh along the way. And that's why we make some of the proactive adjustments that we do. Um, so then the other part is, and I know this is kind of old business, so I'm going to go into old business a little bit

026and talk about vouchers. There's been a lot of topics about Ed Choice and vouchers and what that is. Um, just to kind of set the stage as to what this looks like and where that money comes from because I think financing from the state is a big is a big thing. So Ed Choice expansion saw explosive growth since uh 2023. The total spending last year on all five of the voucher programs. Now, there are different vouchers. There's the autism scholarship. There's that choice. Um but that total spend from the state is $1 billion is is over a billion dollars um for for last year. Voucher funds are taken from the state line items. So they're not taken from local property tax, but they're taken from the money the state would provide to us through the

027through the formula funding. Um which is a different route, but it's still money that we can have in the the Ohio Constitution. Um just for some some context here and some legal context in article six section two mandates the general assembly to secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the state. It says and it talks about a thorough and efficient system not systems of common schools throughout the state. It requires using taxation and school trust funds while prohibiting religious or sectarian control over public school funds. Um there's been a group that has posed a challenge to the voucher system based on the constitution saying that is that it is con it is unconstitutional. They have five main points um in their argument. The first one is it creates an unconstitutional separate school

028systems. So now there's two systems and not one. And clearly when I said that the language specifically calls for a system um public school funding is reduced because of the voucher program um that they're not funding them equally. The lawsuit asserts lawmakers have failed to adequately fund public schools. Again, that comes back to um the DeWalt decision and that public schools are not funded equitably. Uh they did have or not funded fairly. They did have a um system in place uh to work through that, but that got defunded in the last budget cycle or adjusted. Uh vouchers make segregation in public schools worse by by allowing selection. And then finally, that public funds are illegally going to sectarian private schools because um religious schools can take vouchers. It is is against what the Ohio Constitution

029says. This went to court in Franklin County. Um and in the ruling there was a judge, Judge Paige, found that um the Ohio's Ed Choice program, which uh does violate the Constitution on three of the five cases. Um the first is that it creates one it creates more than one system. So that first one uh it fails to secure a thorough and efficient system because of the funding issues. And then finally it does give money to religious or other sect shall ever have an exclusive right to control of any or part of the school funds that cause um in that clause. So that separation of church and state the voucher system does find that to be um unconstitutional. Where we're at with that just because it was ruled does not mean that it stopped. Uh

030there actually was a stay on the ruling um and an attorney Ohio's attorney general Yoast appealed the voucher decision and it's going to the 10th district court of appeals. Whatever that whatever that ruling is going to be is going to be appealed by either the ed choice or by either the the vouchers uh people or or yos one of them it's going to make it to the Supreme Court. We know that it's just they're going to rule on it. It has to go through the cycle. So they're going to rule on in the 10th and then the 10th district will make it to the Supreme Court and we'll go from there. some recent changes. Uh, Representative Jamie Calendarer recently introduced in February, House Bill 671, um, which the initial language in it was it is

031going to withhold all school funds, so formula funding, not tax dollars, but it would withhold all school fund formula funds um, for any district that's involved in legal action against uh, the state in the voucher program. Um, as you can imagine, there was some push back. Uh, because we do have a we do have a right to legally challenge. Um, calendar then came back and he said, I don't know if he's actually amended the wording or if he's going to amend the wording, but he said he is going to amend the wording to specifically say the only money from the formula that they they will withhold the formula money that's being spent on the lawsuit specifically. So, I think it's $2 a student. So that would be for us if we were to participate 8

032to9,000 we would see less less of with that and for for some larger districts that are involved it's a significant amount especially if they are um state funded to kind of tie it in specifically to the local impact for vouchers and this is from 2425 but really for where the local districts are in Lake County and kind of where our students go. Um these are these are schools that accept vouchers. All schools do not have to accept vouchers. There are some schools that are not part of the edge choice program. They choose not to. But for those choose those schools who tend to choose those um the vouchers that they get in in Lake County, 2451 students participated. They're not all Riverside students, so it's not that they're not all ours. um for $12 million

033of funding to go there or five a little under $5,000 a student that goes to those schools to support a student um on the voucher program for our $4,000 students that we get. We get $8 million. So we get about $2,000 per student if we had the same amount funded. So if we had $5,000 a student, >> Dr. Thompson's fiveyear or fouryear forecast or financial forecast. >> Financial forecast. He may do back flips off the table. Um so to really >> could too. >> Yeah. I So to really look at where that is, it's it's a significant change in in a significant the other part to some of these schools. >> It was 20,891,640. I'll just tell you what that number was >> if we got the same amount. >> Yes. >> Yeah. 20,891,640. That's

034crazy. >> I mean, I would take 20 million. >> Yeah, I'll take 20 million. >> Yeah. And that's so to look at >> and just to point out again, that's state funding. >> That is state funding. That's not property tax. That is state funding. So that's in and so to that point for our ask for property tax would be significantly less. And that's and it's not that I'm not trying to say that that we want these schools to close. We like we need the if these schools close and all these we wouldn't have a place for the students. They would there's there's there's value in choice. I want Riverside to be the number one choice for all students who live in the district. And I want that to be the case. And I know that

035some people choose schools for other reasons and that that absolutely fits. But the playing field to some needs to be level and it's not. And I think that's that's the issue we have where these this voucher system has been expanded so much that families who can normally afford it and and had that in their plan already are still in the school system. And actually when they expanded the voucher system, we didn't see a a a huge influx in students leaving for us to do it. We did see an influx in students taking the voucher, but we didn't see an influx in, you know, students withdrawing to go to the schools that take the voucher. But we did see a lot more vouchers being claimed which does, you know, from a from a formula standpoint take

036from our our back end and I think that's a that's something to kind of really really have that you know talk about. It's it's a it's a challenge and I know um you know just to kind of feed where where that is and that's you know and just to clarify what he said it if it seemed a bit confusing um what he said was what what we have are kids that have never stepped foot in a public school. They have they could be wealthy kids on top of that and now they're taking the voucher. So these are kids that have never gone to a public school and their parents there is no cap. You can go you get the entire voucher at 400% above the poverty line. But that's and it starts to ratchet down.

037But you could be a millionaire and take money from public schools. And these these families still do pay property taxes that go to the schools. And that's that's but in fairness too, the schools are still required to provide them with services. We still bust those students. We still have to provide um special education services if they if they require them. So we still have we still have services that we have to provide to those families who live here in sp the voucher funding going to them. So technically, if you included all of that, the per pupil from the private school technically is somewhat higher if you account for the money we pay to busing and things of that nature. >> I can't put a number to that, but yes. >> Right. But it's about the

038their increase in um some of the private schools increase their tuition as a result. >> Some of the and some of the private schools have increased their tuition to the to the level of the voucher to just below or the level of the minimum voucher. um to that standpoint. So, some of them have done that, but it's also if we cannot bust them because we because the board decid we declare transportation um impractical, we still pay them >> because we can't bust them. So, we give them almost a rebate back to say we, you know, we don't have this, we don't, you know, we can't do it. So, we do payment in lie of and those come out. Um the board votes on that list around I want to say it's June or July. I

039think we we get that in there. um to get those. But so, you know, Mr. Andre goes and looks and goes from there. And in a time when it's really hard to find, and it's not that we don't want to bust them, but to find the people to drive the bus to take the kids is is I mean, bus drivers are, you know, there's a there's a shortage. We know that. So, it's a challenge to do that and we still have to revive them. What is what is so I I understand the um you know like Notre Dame and NDCL and all that but what about like other schools in the county or in the state like we get cuz is it 67 or 76% of our budget comes from property taxes it's one of

040>> it's over 60% it's like 60 I have it on you'll see you'll see it but there's two ways to look at that I'm going to show >> property tax and the roll back monies we get from the property tax so that's state money but it's millions voted it's 80%. >> Okay. >> So if you count the total and 12 and a half% so take that from me it's like 68% >> and again just so people understand the reason we we are going to property taxes for the majority of our budget is because again our funds are um cut based on our how wealthy we are as a district. >> We have been so we have been on the guarantee for a significant number of years and it does not necessarily see a um inflationary

041bump. It doesn't it's kind of here's here's the number you get from the state funding at all times and this is kind of so it's not necessarily impacted by our enrollment as part of that when they get to the fair school funding act if they ever were to you know fund both the inputs and the outputs 100%. Um we may have seen a dip from that guarantee but that would be the expectation is this is when they put that study together this is the expectation the local share versus the state share so that it's equal based on the wealth of the district and all of that kind of combined. So yeah we would um and and at that point as students move in and out enrollment makes a difference. And to put that in a

042number to quantify that, the state average uh per pupil in state funding across the entire state is $6,800 and change. And we we bring in about $3,200 and state funding. And it's that's because they look at our wealth, our property value, and in the formula that decreases your state aid. And then there's other schools that are bringing in 10,000 per student or >> Yeah, there. Oh, sure. For sure. Some of the >> the the you know, the the less they have in property valuation, >> i.e. poverty, the more they're going to receive in state funding >> and federal funding for sure. Yeah. >> Because I know I've seen comments where people contribute the fact that we collect so much property tax that we're mismanaging funds and that's it's it's not the case. It's the way

043that >> I I would go back to say we're the second lowest pure pupil >> correct >> um expenditure in in Lake County and we we always we we we shift between second and third um you know if you look at Fairport's right above us they they inched above us this year but we're right around where Fairport is um from that but Madison and Madison's you know historically kind of but when you so it's Lake but then I also added Giaga because I was like Hey, let's look at Giaga County, too. You know, let's let's let's do both. And wow, that that's when I kind of said, okay, this is the second lowest in both. Um, >> and that those are my special reports for tonight. >> Thank you. >> Does old business. >> So,

044for old business, I know Mr. Drino, you had a topic you wanted to speak about. >> Sure. Thank you. Uh, I wanted to give Dr. Ratino an opportunity to share with the room the progress made since the 2024 2025 employee climates clim climate survey that was taken last year. We know that at least in my job, my employees take a survey every year and it's it's kind of like the flavor of the month for about six weeks and then you never hear about it again until the next survey when people start bringing in donuts. Not that I'm implying that happens here. But I I thought it'd be a good opportunity for him to be able to share with us a few things. Updates on the progress and actions taken since the survey. uh what updates

045have been communicated to the staff and faculty regarding changes made as a result of the survey. And then lastly, a timeline goals for the 2526 survey specific to participation percent because that should be the driving number. The amount of employees that have taken the survey should be looked at first before you look at results and then second any growth that you're looking for year-over-year. So I'll I'll leave it to Dr. Martino to update us on that. in one of these papers here. Put an update together. Got a lot. Um the first is in terms of our participation in the next survey. Uh part of our our discussion kind of comes from the strategic plan as well. They will be doing a a staff survey as well. And so one of the things that always concerns

046me is survey fatigue. So I think we use the strategic plan survey. But we give employees time during the day to take that survey. And then we will give this the the climate survey we gave at the end of last year. our our intent is to give that next year during a professional development day. We have all staff and we carve out some time for them to take that. So, we talked about kind of the timing of of those surveys um to where they're at. So, I think the strategic plan survey now is important for our staff to kind of do that. But to get too many surveys in a row um that are pretty thorough is one thing we're going to, you know, look at for moving forward. So, I think that's that that's

047the low hanging for that. That was the easy one. Um, in terms of what we've done, um, kind of moving forward as as to what themes came about and all that, we did a lot of this. We worked through not only our our district administration, um, we worked as a core team up here and then we also worked through our district leadership team where we broke down results. We had them look at those results individually and take a real look um, for what they can do not only in their buildings and what we can do districtwide. One of the things we did see as a as a huge red flag uh right off the top was the amount of classified participation in in in the survey and and as a part of the process. So

048that's one thing we're going to really target this not only through through the strategic plan work with the survey, but also we're going to bring them into the room in a focus group um and really have some specific focus groups for them so we can hear what they have to say um as well because their voice is incredibly important in in everything moving forward. Um, another one that we saw too that came out was inconsistent student discipline and unclear behavior expectations. That was both from classified and certified. We've worked with our administration to identify some of the roots roots of what the root cause of where this looks at what this looks like um and really worked hard to make sure that we are communicating. It comes down to some communication issues um and and

049how we communicate across the staff on student discipline processes. if something appears to not happen, um there may be a reason as to why, you know, I wrote this and something didn't happen to have those conversations along the way as to what what what was found in the investigation, what came about um with staff to make sure that they they understand that. Um and also protected classes as well. There are some pro protected things that come out in some of that behavior norms um and through our positive behavior interaction sports has to step those up. Behaviors um as much as are expected, they need to be taught in some cases. I'll give you the best example. Um, when we went this year, uh, the board enacted a policy about electronic devices and we said no

050cell phones in schools. That's a huge change for our students and that's a big change for for our adults as well. Um, for the first week, and I only know this because we were attached to the high school, for the first week in the high school, Mr. Hall would get on the um, PA every morning and say, "We're going to practice turning your phone off um, and putting it away." And and they students would practice and put it away. and it was a um gave them a free pass. >> Those behaviors over time, you know, we revert back to the norm. Our kids came off of a break. They came off of a couple of snow days um where they had their phones all to them. So, guess what? This morning again, he was on

051there reminding them to practice, to turn their phones off, put them away, and to kind of get some things back. So, I think after spring break, I I I would bet to hear him on the voice again saying, "We're going to practice putting these things away and and all that because that's a challenge for I mean, quite honestly, it's a challenge for not only our students, but our adults um as well because they are so so having that kind of consistent um processes along the way." So we've we've done uh working with with some teaching the behaviors in terms of um there was a another theme that came out was lack of transparenc administrative levels. Um when we look at what we did with that really working to make sure that the communications and and

052really this this starting in this calendar year um that communications are coming from our office um and not other entities. So our office are making the communications out to our community um reaching out as many as we can. Um, and Nick does a phenomenal job and continues to look at how else we can reach those uh, people. He also started a way to kind of communicate with um, a lot more staff are on it than I thought, but when he started the Instagram page um, with families and community members to kind of get that out, that was a new undertaking this year when we went and said, "Hey, what do you call learning Instagram?" I'll try. Um, but now I mean he's done a great job with it. So to kind of get those those

053out there also talking about I mean I think the one thing that we'll tell you all the time is in whatever we do we don't communicate enough um and you can never communicate too much and it it always comes out you know somebody didn't know from some and we we put it out as many possible ways as we can. So continue to how we communicate across what we want this to look like, what these levels look like. Having a conversation with people, the art of sitting somebody down and when they send you this really long email, say, "Please come see me. Let's schedule a time and making time to meet with them is is a really important thing so that they do feel to make sure that what you're reading um is exactly what they

054mean." Because emails sometimes the tone isn't there. And so to have that face to face to say how what do you really mean when you say, you know, things like that, I think that's a that's a big thing. And then also our administrators have worked to host these informal kind of meet and greets with staff to just come and o open office. If you have some concerns, come and talk. I know that they formed um meetings with both unions to make sure that they're there as well. But to have these meetings in the all staff meetings to really look at um portrait of the portrait of the Riverside Beaver and what those look like and kind of adopting those from adult behaviors as well as um our individual student behaviors and how we how we

055work those in. Um, the next one that kind of came out, we we talked a lot in the BL DLT determined low morale uh in areas where change is felt overwhelming and unsupported. The one thing we say every year in education is the only constant is change. We're going to change like crazy. So, in the district, we overall support uh school community morale show noticeable improvement. Um, I think part of that is just kind of the the the synergy that we feel from the board to the administration throughout the throughout the teachers. Um, and I think we've seen some of that as well as just um, kind of the whole staff coming together in a way that we've never seen before that was unprecedented. Um, so I think that that's we're we're riding some of

056that emotion, some of that positive emotion and kind of really getting together with our with our community. And I think too, um, looking at, you know, now really looking at how do we be proactive in our in our plans and communicating um, you know, anticipated vacancies, transfers, uh, to make those things really upfront. Uh we had some issues last year where the state changed retirement at the last minute and they change I think it was May I was cutting my grasp when I heard about it. So it was like May or June uh when they changed retirement and made it effective immediately uh knocked it down a year. We had some vacancies created that we weren't expecting or anticipating that when we had those we took a hard look at those and really said fiscally

057um we didn't we didn't want to riff but if we could absorb this for attrition even for a year is it is the savings you know are the savings worth it is this a fiscally responsible situation and when we have those um that come up this year we don't anticipate the the state making that change and knocking STS down one so we're having those conversations now we're getting our postings out. Now, we're asking our staff Monday um to fill out a staff survey and kind of have even a plan as to you know, not only the staff survey used to say, you know, are you planning on retiring this year? Do you plan on trying looking for a job in administration or somewhere or some other place, you know, that the other one this staff

058survey has also is do you plan on retiring this year? And then it lists the next four years um because that matches with our fiscal um or our financial forecast. So, we can kind of have some more more data is always good. and to make it easy along the way so we can kind of look at where we're at with that so we can you know have a have plans now we're then um we're going to meet with our administrators talk about the potential openings they have we're going to do that um you know in early March um which is next week actually come to think about it so in the next two weeks um we're going to we're Mallerie and I sat down we're going to have those meetings with our administrators um to

059look at our potential vacancies class sizes all of that and say what are we feeling um you know what what can be you know filled through attrition some of those vacancies what do we have to post for and then we are signed up or I say we like this is signed up um for a number of job fairs I I love interviewing it's one of my favorite things I'll try to make it to a couple we have a number of postings that we're going into knowing these are ones we need to fill uh these are ones that we don't so kind of really knowing where we're at and and letting people know ahead of time this is where we're at I think the other thing um from a district standpoint is we don't you know

060we are out there and upfront with with what we need to do um to kind of rightsize some things. We've talked about you know shifting and you know shifting our boundary lines in and redistricting and what that looks like in a couple years. We're seeing low class sizes at Parkside and I'm going to to shift some you know Parkides Park's enrollment is declining faster than other schools. So how do we shift from that? we're seeing. So, where do we shift people around and redistrict and how does that look? I'm having some of those conversations to get that out earlier rather than later because that's a part of the whole plan u moving forward and it's part of not only the strategic plan but I guarantee in the strategic plan a facilities plan is coming again

061a revamp of that. Um so what does that look like and how can we kind of work both of those in tandem to kind of get all that information out ahead of time especially with the Buckeye project moving forward. So um and then the last one was the feelings of inequity or disconnection among staff particularly in our larger buildings. That's a big one. When you have these large buildings they uh especially at the elementary level they come from these smaller uh they a lot of our veteran teachers were some of our like Leroy and that's a small school that into a school that's three sizes three sizes as large. How do we move forward with that? Um and and how do we have you know how do we have these feelings filter as well as

062um you know the differences between when our staff goes and we do a PD day at Parkside or Riverview and what that looks like and they're coming from you know Melro or Buckeye and I think the board's addressed that with the Buckeye elementary project uh moving forward and I think the district um we've looked at it to do instructional rounds to go get in to see other people go across you get our teachers in other classrooms teachers don't see teachers that often they typically want to close their doors and teach but our instructional Browns practice is get a group of teachers together to go into other rooms to see how other teachers teach to pick up some ideas and to really do that. I think the other thing is really just we do these all

063sharing like staff sharing. There was one at Riverview I was I was at yesterday on just engagement um in this program in engagement and it was one of the best I've seen. It was done by one of our teachers. Phenomenally done um and just a it was a quick seven minute video put together through actually AI. Uh but she took a huge slideshow dumped it into AI came up with a seven-minute video. It was spoton on levels of engagement, engaging practices, why engagement is important. Um, and why most just being a compliance doesn't count like we need to get into actively engaged and what that looks like. And then the cudra was then she tied it to the portrait of Riverside Beaver and what that looks like in all the traits. It was amazing. I

064did share it with all all the board as well because I was so so proud of it. I take seven minutes and watch it and it's it's something that it's it's phenomenal. um it was done by a second grade teacher, but it would carry up to the high school. They may have to change the the Beaver cartoons a little bit being engaged, you know, to be a little bit more fitting for high school. But other than that, um you could take that same project and show it. And that's that's the part of the March 2nd PD is is sharing the great work that's been done this year um across it. So, that's really what we've done to take these steps and continue to kind of have that along the way. I think we're going to

065continue to move forward and and see where we're at and and continue to grow every day. We still hear and I know we have some areas we have to kind of continue to grow on. Um we still hear about communication sometimes. Sometimes it's we had to do it because we had to do it and sometimes it's we we didn't plan it well or it didn't get to one spot or another. So we're we have to work better at at some things. So we're still growing in some areas, I think. But for the most part, we we took the results to heart and really want to make this a place that people want to be. Um, and I think that's been a collective effort through our district leadership team is we all took it as as

066feedback and not oh here they are and and they hate me but this is really what you know because when when you're sitting the surveys about you the first thing you get defensive but it's really looking past that and it's okay but what does this mean and what are they really saying? So getting to the root cause of somebody that that's part of what we did is a lot of root cause work. >> Well thank you for that. Um, so just to clarify, the survey for this year is when? >> So we're going to do the the survey through the strategic plan committee for this year. So it's going to look a little different because it's going to focus on the strategic plan work and getting their impact from a strategic plan. We are going

067to give the same climate survey next year much earlier in the year around November. So we give them some time to get in um and get right before you know you can make a reason to give a survey whenever, but November is a pretty decent time um if you do it right. you know, well before Thanksgiving break, you know, you anytime you come up to any major break, those results can be skewed because there's there's a real or around a full moon. Those two things will definitely skew um results to some extent. >> Thank you. I read every single comment that was typed. Although I wasn't on the board, I was privy to the context and the comments were overwhelmingly positive for the administration. So, I do want to call that out, which was not

068surprising to see. But from building to building, there was a consistent theme there. So, just wanted to call that out for you and your team. But the three things that we know will drive employee engagement in regards to the survey, at least in my opinion, is predictability around the survey. Whether that's every year in November or every year in May, whatever is decided on, the employees are going to want to see, at least in my view, a predictability there. That's one. Second is a high participation number. Personally, I think the goal should be 75% and higher. It's not mandatory. You can't manage who takes it. You shouldn't have a roster of who takes it. It should be anonymous. But the goal should be when the survey is done that you're looking at at least the

06975% participation. And then the third thing, and probably I don't want to say the most important, but certainly very important is that meaningful change comes as a result of that. And meaningful change is only defined by the people who take the survey, not by the people who read the survey or administer the survey. It's only by the people who take it and there has to be ways to quantify whether or not they found meaningful change as a result of the survey and that's going to be through a lot of the things you mentioned sitdowns and conversations and one-on- ones and roundts but there also has to be predictability to that as well. So thank you for the update and that's all I have on that matter. >> Well I know you also had in there

070the list of comments. I think you tabulated like words in there, right? And I know the school board was another one of the comments that came through in that >> um survey and just >> 147 times. >> Yes. So, and we are aware of that and unfortunately last year we were not able to make any kind of traction on that. Um that will be part of our discussion starting with um in our session next week. Um part of that will be walking away with an operating agreement among the board on how we're going to operate which leads to the behaviors that we demonstrate and also how we're going to engage. So that work is coming. Um >> love it. because unfortunately we couldn't get it to take off last year. >> I have tried to

071tie it to the portrait of Riverside Beaver. So I have Mr. Adena. >> I have tried to tie I can't keep it to a page if I do that, but I have tried to tie it to that. So we appreciate that. >> You count front and back, it's one page. >> Okay, we'll take it. >> So thank you. >> And that and it's a draft that I will have to share on the six for your input. Great. >> Um anything else on the climate survey from last year? All right. Belters heard heard Ohio. >> Right. So, I have some additional information that I'm going to pass out that I had sent to administration and it's lengthy and I'm not I tried to summarize. >> I know you did and you did a great job, let

072me tell you. Um I'm not going to belabor and review some of the things that um Dr. Ratino has already covered. However, I did we had previously talked about perhaps joining the lawsuit. Um, this paperwork just gives a little bit more detail about what the voucher programs really are. There are five voucher programs. The one that we are most concerned with is the Ed Choice expansion scholarship program, which is the second one on this list. Just for the public's knowledge, there are five of them. the Ed Choice voucher program started and it was meant to be for students that are in failing school districts. There is an autism scholarship. Um there is a John Peterson special needs scholarship and there is one that is strictly for Cleveland school children. Um and those are, you know,

073without a doubt necessary things that the state should provide for those students. And so those are not the ones that we reference when we're talking about the vouchers to Ohio program. Um, and so just a little bit about the expansion scholarships that those students are eligible for $6,165 in K through8 and they're eligible for $8,47. These are probably last year's figures. I'm just going to tell you this data was pulled last year um in nine grades 9 through 12. Eligibility is determined by household income and it goes based upon the federal poverty level. So those who are at 450% of the federal poverty level will get the whole scholarship. You can go all the way up to 750% of the poverty level and get a phased in scholarship. Um I on the next page I

074I went through just as >> again can I just to be clear on this this again is coming from our state funds right again nothing to do with property taxes. It's not this is purely state funds. the voucher, the voucher and the money that comes to K12 public schools all comes from the education line item in the state budget. So whatever they get, we don't. That's just basically in a nutshell the way it works. Um, so I went through and people will say, well, what is the federal poverty level in 2025? The federal poverty level was 15,600 for a six for a single individual. It's $31,200 for a family of four and $70,200 at $450% and that's $140,000 and $400 respectively for um a family of four. When you think about um what the federal

075poverty level is used for, they use that for eligibility for Medicaid, SNAP benefits, um USDA free and reduced lunch benefits, premium tax credits for health care programs that people get on their tax returns and when they go out to the marketplace for health insurance. And then this voucher program, the state piggybacks off of that that number. That number is used for a lot of different things out there. Um what it really means is that it allows a family um to have a full voucher if they get 450% of the federal p poverty limit. And on a sliding scale, it means that a family making $17,000 as a single and up to $234,000 for a family of four are eligible for a voucher at reduced rates. um that to me is a significant dollar amount of

076income to be eligible for a voucher. Um in the next page that I have, I've gone through and just listed out the numbers of vouchers that have been made available in the state of Ohio. Um, it started out in 2021 with only 25 or 21,873 vouchers awarded and in 2425, which was the latest data that I could pull together, they've given out 43,330 traditional applications to a tune tune of $283 million and the expansion applications at $492 million for a total of $1.90 billion. ion dollar in that school year. So since expansion, I thought this was a significant piece of data. 76,784 vouchers have been awarded since they expanded that program from just um schools that were in failing schools. So what since that time they've awarded an additional 76,784 vouchers but only reported 3,350

077more students in private schools. So I thought that was a significant piece of data. Um, again, I went through and that the slide that you saw that had the dollars that were going to the schools in our area was pulled from a from a large spreadsheet of data that had all of the private schools in the state of Ohio that were getting money from vouchers. Um, and so I was able to sort that information and just pull the information from Lake County in our area. And again, we would be getting 20,891,000 if we were to get the amount of money that they get on average at our local schools that are not K12 here. That was significant. Again, the Ohio Fair School funding plan is the basis for where we get our dollars. That was

078developed a number of years ago. However, it has been abandoned and it was supposed to be implemented over six years in the state budget. Um, they funded the first four and then they abandoned it in the last two years. So, that plan was never fully funded. And now that they've abandoned it, they don't even have it at all. So, there is no plan for school funding at this point in time. So, we'll see where that goes. >> It's it goes back to the way they used to do it where they fund everything else. Now, what's left to give to schools, >> correct? And because because the voucher plans are again funded from the same line item as K12 schools, public schools, what they give the voucher program, the public schools don't get. So it's all

079one line item in the budget. Um Riverside has to transport, which I think Don uh Dr. Ratino already had indicated the law says that we have to transport and that we can't charge folks for transportation to private schools. We have auxiliary services that we have to manage for private schools. Um >> the another those students are eligible to play on our sports teams if there's teams don't offer that sport. >> Correct. >> So we have to hold roster spots for them or we allow them to. So, interestingly, in the last budget process, the speaker of the house indicated that school funding is unsustainable in the manner in which it was supposed to be funded in the Ohio Fair School funding plan. Um, and the lawsuit that the vouchers hurt Ohio folks are saying that what

080is really unex unsustainable is the explosive growth in vouchers themselves. So the lawsuit again has five count challenges which is on this sheet. Um last July I think there was a judge in Franklin County I think it was July um >> voted on that three of the items counts were unconstitutional and so that is now going to appeals and that should probably be heard this summer. I think they're slated for August if I'm not mistaken. It will eventually go to the Supreme Court, I'm sure. Um, obviously that lawsuit, school districts have the right to challenge state law, and in order to do that, that costs dollars obviously to fund that. Um, there's attorneys that have to be paid. There are, you know, there's a lot of cost that goes into that and all this data

081and research that is being provided. It is funded by school districts who are joining this lawsuit for $2 a student. Um I recognize that there is some legislation proposed right now that they would withhold some dollars. I still feel it's important for us to move forward with that and join the vouchers for Ohio lawsuit. Um it's not a lengthy resolution. It's included in your packet. And at the end of this is the list of school districts who have at one time or another been part of this lawsuit. Um, and it it's four pages long. So, I'm asking that this district consider joining this. Um, I don't know if we want to do it today. I was hoping that we could do that today and add this to our agenda. Um, I feel it's important again

082as we are looking and we're going to see the forecast very shortly when we look at the forecast and we continue to see our funding shrinking. Um, I don't feel like we have a choice but to actually join this lawsuit and do something about it and put our money where our mouth is and actually tell folks in Columbus that you can't you can't do that. So, Um you know I I spoke about this a little bit in the last meeting and um I think what is that just to give a perspective to everyone um out of over 600 districts we have what about 300 >> about half of them are signed on with the lawsuit currently >> right and in Lake County it is Wikliffe is the only one >> they are the only one

083in Lake County >> joined um as far as Giaga County I think I read where some additional people joined was originally the only one >> West Giaga is part of it and >> but I think there was one more that I read recently. >> Um and the question is for our enrollment it would be $2 per child. So approximately >> it would be about $8,000 and that would be paid every single year. >> It is an annual f fee >> okay >> to support the legislation the lawsuit. Um, and hopefully hopefully I really don't know how long something takes to go through all the way to the Supreme Court. Who knows how long that can be wrapped up. >> Wow. >> Long time. Um, >> yeah. I guess I my only concern is let's say,

084you know, we don't know what's going to happen in August and then if it gets appealed and goes to the Supreme Court, we could be talking years. And so are we paying $8,000 per year >> until this is finished because we know how fast courts move. Um and I did discuss it a little bit with um Dr. Ratino. Um I don't know. Do you have any >> the board would have to take action each year to your your obligation would be for one year? >> Yeah. And I think a lot of these districts have been part of the um challenge one year or multiple years. some of them not every single year. Some boards did not reup or whatever. But at the end of the day, if we don't if we don't take a stand

085as a board and say this is fair for public education, I I don't know how else to do that. I don't know how else um that we can make a stand. It's not that expensive. And I get it. we're deficit spending, but as we deficit spend, we're also then saying this isn't important enough to put this money towards this lawsuit and try and save off um some of those dollars. If the state has the dollars to fund that many that many dollars to education in general, we should be getting more of it. Um >> question a couple questions if I'm sorry. >> Go ahead. >> Oh, thank you. Is the 8 would the 8,000 be going to the Ohio Coalition for Equity and Adequacy? Is that the group fighting on on this behalf? >> Yes.

086>> And this is not a loaded question, but how do we know that all 8,000 goes to this and not just to the group in general? Meaning, how do we know that the 8,000 is fully vested towards this argument? >> I would imagine you can ask them for that that paperwork. I mean, >> I think that's on their website, as a matter of fact. >> Okay. So, since you're the finance person, I guess I would ask um if um obviously um we have our house bill, our famous house bill that >> leaves us flat. Um so would we collect any more money unless the state changed the way they fund schools, which they've been found unconstitutional since what's it's like a trivia question. >> Well, these are different pots. So, House Bill 920 is impacting

087>> local property tax. >> Vouchers are impacting state funding. So, so they're they're two okay >> separate things. >> So, in other words, if they had more funds available instead of giving them away for this purpose, there may be a solution to funding our schools. Last year alone, um $1 billion dollar was um siphoned off public education for for charters and vouchers. So, it's it's a substantial amount of money. Um it's a obviously it's a political issue uh for sure. Um, I think it's really what the board has to decide in my view is because the money's immaterial. You know, $8,000 isn't going to make a difference at all either direction. Not that you waste $8,000. I'm not suggesting that, but it's not going to move the needle at all either direction. So, it really

088comes down to in my view um what um the district want if the district wants to feels like this is something they should stand for. Um Jamie Calendarer's threats aside, which to me just exacerbate the make makes me want to do it more, not less personally. But um I think that that that's really the question. Um um and of course anytime you get mixed up in this, which I think the board has to consider too, is there'll be some folks out in the community that will not like it. >> Um and we are levy eminent. We're going to talk about that um in just a few minutes. So I think those are the choices you have to make. >> And we're not I don't think I don't think that anybody at this table maybe I

089don't know I shouldn't speak for everybody is saying let's not that people should not have a choice of where their kid goes to school. That's not it. It's just >> we should be fair. We should be funded fairly is I think what the what we're saying. So, >> and again, that's at least that's how I see it. It's not I believe everybody should have a choice where they want to send their child to school. It's just we should get fair funding. >> Agreed. >> Right. When I look at when I look at 20,891,000 versus the 8 million that we get and the fact that half that number of students that we have here at Riverside get $12.2 million. Something about that doesn't seem equitable to me. >> And to put the eight grand in perspective,

090we're seeing a difference in most three grand per student in funding. That's three less than three kids that we're talking one. Yeah, >> it's one >> one total voucher. Yeah, >> I I did find the answer to my question actually by chance. Um section three under the data >> voucher joinery it says >> of the $2 per pupil 50 cents per pupil shall be initially allocated to the payment of coalition operating expenses and then the remaining $150 will be allocated to the support of the coalition's effort to challenge the constitutionality of Ho's voucher program. Okay, that clarifies and me asking this isn't me questioning the efforts here because I agree with Miss Kinsky and Miss Grassy what both of you said. I'm curious though, if if there were five schools, for example, that were signed

091on to this and that's let's say $40,000 would go to them, using the same math for our school district, what does every additional school do for them? Is this increasing their legal counsel? What is it in particular that they gain from this money? And I'm not suggesting that we benefit from the payment of other schools while we sit here on our hands. I understand the value of all of us participating. I'm just curious what the benefit to them financially is adding 8,000 more to their argument. Is it, like I said, is it legal counsel? What is it that gives them the benefit of having more and more schools add on to it? So, just a question for thought. >> I would imagine that they're anticipating a lengthy >> process, a lengthy court case. They they

092actually do a lot of public advertising. Also, if you I know they've been do a number of the workshops that I've been at. They produce a lot of materials for those things. You know, I don't know if that's >> lobbying. >> They they do a they do a lot of work. Most of the people that are working for them, at least that I'm aware of, are volunteer. Um I know that one of the schoolboard members from Cleveland Heights is a very big member of this coalition. Um they've they've gotten Dr. Fleeter, they've gotten a number of individuals, former state representative who have provided them with all of this data who do all of their research. So >> So the um and it hasn't passed yet, but the um if you spend $8,000 at then the

093state could it hasn't passed yet. How does that look for us? >> It goes into escrow. Yeah. And so that's I mean >> so they would hold a >> hold they would hold it in escrow and the the language says they hold it in escrow until um >> until it's resolved. >> resolved or the state or the district disengages, >> which is really interesting because until it's resolved, it didn't say until it's resolved a certain way. It just said until it's resolved. So once it's resolved, you get your money back. >> Okay. So technically, if I'm right, um it would be 8,000 spent and then the 8,000 held. So it's a minus6 in our budget. Is that what I'm hearing? if if it if it were to go through. Um I I don't know if

094you know I'm not going to put Dan on the spot as an attorney, but um >> the legality of that I I certainly hope we haven't >> it is nicknamed the bully. I mean it's >> I read >> bullying. I mean >> that's I mean so >> that has been argued that it will be questioned is how constitutional that is as well. So that's going to get added to it. So, help us all. >> And and you mentioned the political part because I think when I reported on it at the last meeting under legislative um asking why Wickliff's the only school district in Lake County, you alluded to a political thing. So, can you enlighten us somewhat? I don't know. >> I mean, this this is my own personal assessment, but our county is about

09575% registered Republicans. It's a very conservative county. Um, and by and and many many view this as a political issue, Rs and D's. So, do you run the risk of as being a part of this, do you run the risk of um alienating voters that we need to support us down the road? So, I think there that that's a and you can't quantify that. You're never going to know, but but I believe it would have some level of impact. >> Well, what I find interesting is it's the same voters that want to abolish property taxes, a lot of them, right? So, it's like it's it's kind of interesting like we need to do this to get more money, >> right? But so, it's a kind of it's a >> catch 22 >> to get more

096money that's already collected. >> That's correct. >> Which would keep us from asking for new money. >> Correct. Yeah. Um we do have our um board retreat uh coming up um March 6th. >> March 6th. Yeah, that's it. Um so I mean can we have some further discussion at that? >> Uh the the board retreat agenda is pretty set and I think we're going to take every minute that we can. So this would wait until >> there would not be. >> But then we have the next meeting is the 12th. >> March 12th. >> The 12th. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Couple weeks. >> Yeah. because I would like an opportunity to delve into this with some particular people >> in power. >> Not not in power, but I guess I should say people on

097both sides, influence, community leaders, whatever. Um, I know people in um, Giaga County that are involved and I guess I would just say, you know, I mean, if it's $8,000 a year, but then it could be 16 and then you're doing it every year and knowing how legal goes. That's my only concern with deficit spending. >> So, I'm okay to join. I think that we have to take a stance and say we believe that our schools should be funded fairly. Um, and if this is the way we can do that, um, I'm good to move forward. I don't know where >> move forward today. >> I I would be comfortable. Not that everybody is, but that's what the question is is where how do we want to kind of proceed from here >> on on

098face value, I'm I am okay, frankly. Um, I do have just a couple little questions that I need to have answered, but the merit of it and the goal of it 100% support it, but I just feel for me to vote today. I I >> would be comfortable. >> Yeah. I just need a couple more things answered. >> Okay. >> But certainly leaning in that direction to be honest. >> But we had the earlier board meeting in March because of break. Right. >> Yeah. Right. We can we can add it to that agenda >> if that's that's kind of what I'm hearing is to >> yeah I feel comfortable but once a couple weeks I don't >> we will add it to the March 12th agenda. >> Thank you. And at the end of the

099day again I just my personal opinion again is that if we continue to sit back and say let's not do this because we're afraid of what people are going to say. That's the whole reason why this happens in the first place. and we can't stop those kinds of things unless we actually take a stand against some of these things. So, I appreciate at least having the conversation. >> Thank you for the information. >> All right. I think that was all the old business that we had to cover. Um, and there was no new business submitted. >> Mrs. Brewster did bring up Buckeye, the plan for Buckeye. I shared with you the newest um which just came out today um a new iteration of the of a Buckeye in your in your boulders there. Um that

100is a when looking at that we're really excited about what that can provide for our students at Buckeye. I have uh we looked at we we talked a lot about kind of how can we best utilize the space there uh and and have a reduced footprint. So again, that's an even smaller footprint. I think that saves us in building cost of about 5,000 square feet. >> Is that any difference than what we saw? >> Yes, >> it it is. It is. It pushes it up against the building and it takes away the vestibial u between the old build and the new build. Um so we think that's a really good space saver. The other part that is in there and uh I have a meeting tomorrow with TDA. Um, I sent them kind of a

101a sketch of it is in looking at remodeling the original section to utilize some of those there. There the two small group rooms and one's one's actually currently a staff lounge and the other is a small group room to utilize those as bathrooms for the classrooms that are right next to it as kindergarten rooms. Um, so we're not losing space in the classroom, not losing educational space. Uh, when you're adding that many staff, when you're adding 12 staff members, you need a larger lounge anyway. So, this we would need to use a classroom for a lounge and utilize that. So, I'm gonna have um I have I have a meeting with Ryan once I get the that next reiteration back. I will share it back with the board. Um and I know that Roger is

102costing um that look out kind of for the whole project. So, not only inside uh not only the build but then the the scope of the remodel as well. So, >> Okay. And um I know you showed the cluster of four kindergarten rooms you said with bathrooms. So that's what you're doing. >> So they will be we will put those in the original in the original section which actually from a logistical standpoint is closer to the office. It makes a lot more sense and kind of kind of building them out. We kind of had some of those discussions today. Once I get that from Ryan with the like the ar like I drew some lines and kind of said, you know, but once I get that from from Ryan and his architectural renderings and a

103confirmation that it can happen, we think it can. There's there's a sink in each of those rooms. We know sanitary is there. Um but but the spacing wise we I will get it out to the board. >> Okay. And um the one thing um because you are combining you know two buildings um you know one of the concerns that has been in the um existing building has been room for support staff whether it's um you know title reading you know having four people in one room that we're going to have enough room for those people. >> We will have enough room for including creating small group spaces not only in the new space but then also I I did ask for some of that. We also looked at do we need the size of a

104mechanical room on the second floor. That was my other request is if we look at different ways to heat and cool. Can we can we utilize some of that space up in the second floor for a small group room because that's the only change that I would make is in the second floor is right below um right by the TDA. That's the one change. There's no small group room up there. I think I would add a small group room. Other than that though, in terms of office space and all that, we look through and we should have plenty of staff for all for itinerant staff, um support staff, um small groups, all of that. >> Okay. And I know that it was mentioned um initially about where the gym was going to be. So the

105gym would be off of the driveway on the west side. >> This footprint is smaller than the initial a classroom edition, but it is exactly in the same location, >> just not as little lengthy. >> So it is not as lengthy. It's still over by the library or no >> it is the footprint. So it is the same >> the same one that we have. >> It is the same one. Um that is the most um costefficient way to to add into into Buckeye and to add the additional classrooms >> essentially where the trailers used to be is where the gym is going to go right off of that access. We'll have a drive that goes farther down and then a turnaround. We would suggest the turnaround be actually after um the fence that hoses

106the chiller to kind of come around from that that standpoint to add parking. We are doing some traffic studies now. So we send them the number of buses that we are expecting to kind of go there. Um and so Ryan's making sure that everything is kind of feasible and fits along the way. >> Yeah. And when I listened to the business advisory um you know uh meeting um it talked about some kind of retention area to collect water because I know there's a wetland in that one corner. >> It's not that there's a wetland we have to collect the runoff and so we have to put a we have to put a retention area that's in there. They had some um you know they're working with Lake County storm water to see what they have

107to actually collect. They had some variances initially. So would that necessitate a fenced off area like you see? >> All of our retention areas are fenced off now. They weren't prior, but we put fenced. So it would be a fenced off area. The one that is put in the new Riverview space. Um, and at the end of the new river parking lot is actually probably one of the best thoughtout ones in the district. There's a gravel kind of section right before it. And then the retention area. And I say that because the gravel can allow for parking, you know, >> okay, >> at other times, but then also you pile out the snow there and the snow melts and goes right into the retention basin. >> Okay. So they can do that. >> And then

108you did mention, you know, trying to keep the uh specials together. Ryan initially mentioned it. You did too. Um you know, currently where the art and music room are. It was that in the '9s edition, which I was shocked to hear that that's already 30 years old. >> I didn't think of it being that old. >> Yeah. >> All right. So anyway, um, so you know those rooms, I don't know what their footprint is as far as the class size, you know, class space. I know we did have a regular classroom in there and I think there there was one window and the space was different, whether you'd have a full-time class in there or that would be more desirable for a special. >> So I think that's more desirable for for a special. both

109those rooms as we've talked through kind of programming and how this looks >> um and you know music needs to be in one of those um because music is loud um so we want to put those you know put music by the library I think that's a great combination um but >> but but that's one so yeah we've actually talked about what that looks like and kind of keeping those 90s um that 90s edition for library music um and and then the specials >> so the gym would still be away the gym would be away from that. That's the one that when we cut the space back, we can't necessarily capture back is putting all the specials together. You're not going to get everything out of it. But I think we I think this gives

110us a lot for um the best in terms of financing and keeping green space on the property because that was another kind of thing we really wanted to look at is how do we keep our green space, >> right? because we need to replace or keep ball field and again this is a smaller footprint than the original one we're doing which is great so we get more green space out of the deal >> so if you know there is a need for like right now you're envisioning the library staying as it is or okay yeah because um you know the I know it's been said many times trying to you know replicate as much as possible what we're doing at Riverview and Parkside um and you know as far as the gym It's almost very

111similar. Um but then the question became um you know the libraries at those two newer schools are almost like two classrooms if you were going to try to put it in a classroom. They are big and then we are going to be serving more more students. Um what do you see as far because I know we had discussions about this in the past about the current uh gym that's going to be just the cafeteria and some food serving changes. >> So um food service uh Mrs. Gford asked that we look at a combi oven. So kind of why we're tearing it apart to put in a water line into the kitchen to do some remodeling that she would pay for out of her funds. um and revamp the ser the the service line as well.

112Uh in looking at the actual the current gym now, we want to address the floor because the floor's hot. So, we want to make sure we abate that. I don't there's a lot of the areas that we can lay over instead of just abate the whole building. So, that's a cost savings in terms of using the things. But, I think that that gym area and talking with Rich uh actually earlier today, we think it's the best idea to kind of abate that. I would love to um work with that stage. ideally take the stage out if it's costefficient and kind of stretch that out um and put some windows in and get some natural light in from that area. So, I think those are questions that I've asked Ryan and kind of say >> he's

113he's hinted to it and I said, "Well, let's kind of see what what that looks like." Um >> I didn't know if we needed more cafeteria tables. >> We could make it work. Um because you're looking at roughly at the most probably 100 a grade level, which you can fit in that space. I think if you make it a little bit bigger, it might be uh it's it's advantageous. Plus, we're going to need probably a bigger cooler which would be attached to that coming out. So, if you level the floor, you have you can add another egress door a little bit farther down. So, it it does we can make it absolutely work uh within it. We can make it if we can make it better and make it kind of more more of a

114a smoother transition. Um it makes sense. We could also do something cool with a ramp up to the up to the stage and do student dining in two levels. Mhm. >> Um, so I think there's some really neat things we could do from that from that area originally, but actually taking down the curtains and all the rem remnants of the stage because we're building a new one, but use that as some sort of some sort of space. But I I think vital to that is getting natural light into there. >> Would latch key then be in the old gym or the new gym? >> I don't know. I would let decide >> because they have a lot of stuff. >> I think I and that's what storage is added in both spaces. I would let

115Lashki decide uh what works best for their programming. >> Mhm. >> So I think I think they could be I mean they could be in both. >> Okay. >> Um and we can make that work too. So >> Okay. And then this does have an elevator. >> It does. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yep. Two stories does require an elevator and two um >> still cost effective. >> But this is and everyone has said that going with this type of footprint is more cost effective than building in two spaces or you know. >> Yeah. I think that there would be a lot of congestion in the hallway if you had all four specials and kids. I mean, those are skinny little hallways in the existing building. >> Yeah. But Okay. Well, thank you for answering my

116questions. >> So, we do have on the agenda today the bond. >> We do. Yes. And it it doesn't have anything it's it's just allowing us to move forward with one issue and it doesn't have anything to do with the cost yet. It's not it's not we're going to sell now. It's just the authorization to >> we would do the authorization once we authorize the GMP we would sell the next day. >> Right. So okay. And then Mel Ridge, just based on uh um discussion about the space and I know there's isn't there something with um there's a trailer, but you're only using it for storage right now. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um but those are to be removed. >> The board did vote to remove that trailer um this summer and that was I

117think November. And then is the construction company taking care of the Buckeye one or I don't know if that was all part >> that has not been um that would be part of the process is the the one that's we could try to auction it off again >> but I don't think we would get it. It's it's not the not necessarily the cost of the trailer have to move it and that cost is cost prohibitive. >> Well and there were tires removed underneath that so that's a whole another issue. >> Can't roll it up. any moving company would come with axles and tires. I mean that that's a typical for those things. That's not an issue. >> All right. Thank you. Sardino, did you have some questions? >> Well, no. I I was just going

118to add when she had mentioned um the lunches, I was going to just remind us that with us not having gym and lunch in the same place. You could also add an additional lunch which would maybe lessen the need for more square footage of cafeteria tables because you're adding a third lunch, right? I do believe Parkside and Riverview run five lunches if I'm not >> sure. I mean, I think that's I I can I ask there I it is a very challenging schedule for me to read them. Um but I do believe they have a number of of lunches. Um they have more lunches in Buckeye and Mel because of the fact that they have to turn that room over for gym time. So it would be a large and and when it's not in

119use for gym, it's a large gathering space for students. And it it is a really exciting um project that that can kind of have a brand new school walk away from it. >> Am I seeing on here are these additional for team teaching? I don't I don't remember those. >> Yes, we are putting we are putting doors in >> um >> we are putting doors in the rooms where we can for team teaching to continue. >> Sorry, I know you can't see it, but it's showing in the old wings the each classroom only has a hallway door. Now these would have interior doors. Our maintenance department gets requests to knock holes in walls a lot now recently in our legacy building. So, we're going to try to make sure we can get them set up

120so they can teach each guy. >> Real quick, what is on the back end here? Do you know? >> That is the chiller for the air conditioner. >> Okay. And give you the right information. >> It's basically a cinder block wall. It's all outside, right? >> Outside. Yeah, it is a Y. Okay. >> It's your new house. We're going to move you right here. That's fine. All right. Any other questions? All right. So, that brings us to um the board of education committee and liaison reports. First is buildings and grounds and operations committee and strategic plan liaison. Mrs. Graassi. >> Gosh, we've talked about all the building stuff. Um we had a productive meeting this past week. Uh we talked about the Mel Ridge issues that we had where we had a unit that was

121um broke and our staff got that fixed same day which is tremendous work on their behalf. So thank you for that. Um we have a supply line at the John R building that has sprung a leak. It's a hot water line, right? A heating hot water line um that supplies the boilers. And Mr. Lesk kindly brought us a sample of that pipe that was broke and we got to witness that. So that was fun to see. Um just to indicate that some of the things that we don't see that are underground or that are in our crawl spaces are the things that are breaking in this building. Um and things are very old and our original infrastructure is still being used. And so those are the challenges that we are facing. Um, we had some

122heating coils in the media center that had some holes in them, but they also got those running. It's just a fix for now, but those are 32 year old units in those in that uh the media center is 32 years old, and so some of those things will start failing soon. We talked about having a thermal scan of our roofs and our parking lots. Mr. Allesic brought us some information on a proposal that would have an airplane come over and fly overhead and do some digital scanning and show us what the faults are with our parking lots and roofs. that was determined that it would be feasible for us to do and that it would be a advantageous for us especially as we go into the building project with Buckeye. Um there's a discount for

123doing all of the buildings at one time but I think we tabled that for just a little bit. Um >> I think we had some further questions and some re to look at kind of what the report is and also wanted to talk with um you CCI as well as um Roger to make sure that that report would be useful. >> Correct. That was my question if they were in on that. >> Yeah. >> Um, we got some very useful information from Mr. Arlesic about the things that our staff accomplishes when they are here in the buildings and the cleanliness of our buildings. He provided us with some information that came from a report on advanced cleaning. Um, and the different levels of cleaning one, two, three, and four. Um, and what we strive for

124here is the highest level of cleaning that we can provide. Um, and he went through the different buildings in our district and gave us some information on what gets cleaned on any given day. And I think what struck me the most was the fact that we have 25 bathrooms at Riverview, which I thought was interesting because when you think of Riverview as a as a new elementary school, it didn't see like 25 just seemed to be a really big number to me. Um, but they they are cleaning uh overall at the end of this report there are 252 classrooms in the district. They move 6,048 chairs to be cleaned every night. There are over 10,000 pieces of furniture that get cleaned. Um, when you look at Riverside alone, it's 275,000 square feet. They have 89

125classrooms, 37 bathrooms, 92 toilets, 51 sinks, 41 offices, two gyms, four locker rooms, an auditorium, two kitchens, two cafeterias, a media center, 12 stairwells, an additional 5,400 square feet with three classrooms that was added just recently. So, I thought that was very interesting. We do it with a minimal amount of staff and many thanks go out to those folks who are in that department that do those things for us every single day. Um >> I can't even keep my three bedroom clean. So >> I know it's really amazing the work that they do. They they they do an amazing job. Um, and again, I can I can go back and remember when it was 2011 and 2012, and we had one custodian in a building during the day, and we had no nighttime custodians. Mr.

126Allesc wasn't here at that time. Um, and our buildings did not look like what they look like now. And so, it's much appreciated what you guys do. >> Thank you. >> And that was the extent of our meeting and strategic plan update. Sorry. Um we'll be we will be we have an we have an agenda item on our agenda tonight to approve >> to affirm >> affirm impact impact group right um >> they come highly recommended and it's a little bit of a change going with somebody new this year to update our strategic plan and so we're the plan is to be done >> by August correct >> August >> um that's a fairly quick t turnaround on a strategic plan and so there will probably be a lot of work that goes into that

127in the next >> starting on the 6th. >> Y >> and they will right they will be facilitating our board retreat on the 6th and so that will be that will be great. I can't wait to meet them. >> They're they're are phenomenal people and they're going to do a great job. >> That's all I have. All right, that brings us to curriculum and programming committee and the booster organization leaison, Mr. Adino. Thank you. Okay. In the curriculum and programming, Dr. Malikar shared with us a variety of things starting with America 250, the celebration the whole country is having this year for the 250th anniversary. Uh we discussed thoughts on how Riverside can share in this in our own unique way. Plus, in addition to some of the things that the county is doing, more

128to come on that, but that's just kind of the starting point. Interestingly, my youngest daughter was asking me about American 250 because they talked about it in her class and she wanted to know if I remembered the beginning and I said, "I can assure you I would have had one of those big wigs if I >> you and me both. >> You would never have known. I had no error." I tell you that. All right. Uh the second thing we discussed was the camp invention which is for K to6. It's two separate weeks a summer program for elementary/ middle school students. It's STEM related that will take place here on campus. >> Well, we don't know that yet. I don't want to give out information that we're looking into. We're looking into it. Yes. Yes.

129I'm sorry. That was to interrupt you. Yes. Thank you. >> Uh but no cost to Riverside families there. If we go forward with it, it'll be a registration fee. Interest, >> right? Uh so we are confirming logistics and dates. I should have put that at the top of my notes. >> Okay. La uh third item, uh the 3D student agency survey. So the district is right on this one, we are participating in a student agency professional development cohort. A part of that work uh discusses adding the 3D survey which gathers perceptions from students, parents, and educators about learning experiences. It's free to the district and could provide valuable data to our strategic plan which Miss Gracie just alluded to. We also discussed uh the upcoming professional development day on March 2nd. Uh the teachers will

130continue the work specific to their personalized learning established at previous professional development days. They'll end the day with everyone together, both classified and certified staff to celebrate what's been accomplished across this year. Even though there's three months left, they're celebrating a little early because this is the last time that we all be together before the year ends. Also on March 5th is our upcoming 10th grade reality tour, which is new. Uh I happen to be a part of the committee to do that, which I joined preboard. So, I'm kind of there as a businessman, dad. Uh, even though I don't have anyone in 10th grade. Uh, but Dr. Malikar and a small team uh put together an incredible day, a really incredible day. Like I said, on March 5th, the day will start off here.

131We will have 15 entrepreneurs coming in and visiting classrooms in a roundroin style, if you will, uh, sharing with them. The these are entrepreneurs, by the way, that are from Lake County. And the objective here is to showcase to our students that there is a life beyond Riverside here where you can raise a family, you can start a business, hence the entrepreneurs. Then we will go to Lakeland College which we will take a a small tour there and have lunch. Then after that, the students will be divided up via a bus to 15 local businesses also in Lake County, a variety of businesses on the medical side, on the construction side, you name it. and they get to pick where they go and they'll be there for about an hour and a half or so

132um helping showcase all that's involved in each company because when you think of say a hospital it's not just doctors and nurses there's a marketing team there's a finance team there's a legal team and that's kind of the objective at from one business to another and then after that they will come back here and then go home for the day but that team is compromised comprised rather of myself Dr. Malikar, Alyssa Kim, who is one of our guidance counselors here at the high school, and then Jessica Cafia Corlet who's been on the business advisory board with Dr. Martino for a number of years now. But thank you to Dr. Malikar and that team because I'm looking forward to just being an observer on that day and it's going to be pretty awesome. We then discussed

133the strategic plan which Dr. Martino will get more into and uh Miss Graassy also commented on that. Then we briefly discussed the RLEF funds, relief funds, uh which basically at the end of the day has become money that's been donated to the school in a roundabout way. Uh and the objective here is to use the money for think like career experience and exploration instead of school supplies like textbooks. So uh more to come on that as we determine how and when to spend the money appropriately. Moving on to PTA PTO. This was my first meeting with them. They meet about two or three times a year. Ours was last night in this very room. And Jen Kalin, who happens to be my neighbor, she oversees the group. She used to be a PTA president at

134Buckeye for a number of years. And now she's just kind of the organizer of the five schools PTA PTO programs. And we discussed last night their fundraising efforts so far this year, activities for the students, other fundraising efforts for the rest of the year. So that was pretty neat to see. And then we wrapped it up discussing the Easter egg hunt which is coming up on April 4th, the Saturday before Easter, which even though it only lasts a few minutes, it is a lot of planning. We spent a good hour on that, but it it's very wellrun and uh the Miss Kalin and the five PTA presidents do a really nice job in addition to Mr. Caribine who helps out with a lot of the logistics. So, thank you, Mr. Caribine. But I just wanted

135to say thank you to Shelley Sansone Santon rather who is the Buckeye president for PTA. Then you have Elizabeth Lumen at Mel Ridge, Lauren Thompson at Parkside, Becky Silba at Riverview, and then Rachel Mercer at Lamouth. So thank you to the five of them in addition to Miss Kalin because it is all volunteer time and they put in countless hours. And that is my report. >> Thank you. >> Yes. And that brings us to policy committee and legislative liaison, Miss Brewster. >> Okay. Well, policy committee met at four o'clock on February 17th and um um Jimmy Lee Buyers and I um you know went through the policies with Dr. Ratino who and he's going to talk more in detail about it. Um in these policies um which this is the first read tonight. uh there

136is are quite a few that are fiscally related that you you had to weigh in on um as well. So um but um it it's interesting, you know, like for example, we don't know uh with legislation, for example, that's been proposed uh regarding the Ohio High School Athletic Association with um allowing high school students or athletes to be paid for their name, their image, and likeness. That's why it's called NIL. Uh but um there is legislation, but we have to go ahead and act on what we have in front of us. >> Yes. So OHSAA, who's the Ohio High School Athletic Association, um approved an NIL I don't know if it's a policy or a bylaw. I think I think they use bylaws, but they approved an NIL by bylaw for high school and middle

137school students. They are one of I think they're up to 38 or 39 states who have have NIL right now. Um that is that came out of a court ruling ironically that said to OSAA either either you you do it as in the athletic association or the courts will do it for you. >> Um so OHSAA had an emergency vote. Um the members kind of said this is the plan. they are trying to take the burden of running NIL off of the school districts. Um, and it is really more of currently they see NIL as a recruiting tool for universities. Um, and it's not necessarily a district that is paying students, but it's more of a of a university or upper level institution who wants a student who will um pay that student. And it

138is not it is a it is 1% it's of of students if not even less. in the past and I learned this in in the past what they had done for some of our really blue chip basketball players or that they had asked them to hey go to a different state um you know and and move into it you know move to where they have it enroll there and then we'll and then we'll use a vendor there to to pay for it so it it can be NIL to either the athlete or the athletes family because they are under 18. So, >> did you get a chance to put on the um policy for NIL for treasurers? >> I tried. They they said no. >> I'm going to file a lawsuit. >> I I think

139you got one cuz Yeah, >> maybe you mentioned it. Is there a cap on what these kids can take? >> You uh there is not. You have to as soon as you are a part of an NIL agreement, you have to declare with the OSAA, you cannot be photographed in anything that is uh representing your school. >> So, you can't wear the mascot or if you look at even some of the the commercials that are out there, >> it they would wear like black and gold like the colors, but there would be nothing that reflects to name uh the name or the like mascot of the school. So, >> okay. And um I as I said some were job related expenses but you have talked prior about the new entrance requirements. >> We have we

140have put that out at nauseium and we will continue to do that. Uh kindergarten kindergarten and preschool for actually all school requirements must be a certain age by the first day of instruction. So, kindergarten and preschool are three and five by the first day of instruction, which we try to keep the same. Um, which is different than the first day of school for students uh because of some testing and all that. But then first graders have to be six by the first day of uh if they don't go to kindergarten by the first day of first grade. If they are in kindergarten, that age does not matter. >> Okay. All right. And um you gave an update on uh it talked about release time for religious instruction because >> we decided as a committee not

141to adopt that policy was removed because we just pulling it off. Okay. >> Pull that off. >> All right. And uh there was just other things re regarding as I said job related expenses, budget preparation, uh purchasing and bidding, um procurement of federal grants and funds, use of credit cards and procurement of cards. Um use of district tax exempt certificate because that's kind of changed. Uh vendor relations. um what you can and cannot do um as an employee and um and then the affinity rewards and other discount programs, you know, whether you're getting miles. >> A majority of those came from a recent auditor of state ruling. >> Yeah. So it it's it's just clearly defining it so everybody's on the same page. And then do you want to talk about the AI? >> Really

142excited about the AI. So AI policy, we have to adopt a policy by I believe it's June 1st. um our AI policy came it's it's the Neiola template but in adopting that policy we worked with a group of teachers and through our DT technology committee um to kind of see well how are we going to teach AI and we also brought a group of students in and talked with them about AI and that was really telling about how they are um they're fascinated by it and they're scared by it and it's kind of unique and I think that's how everybody when you talk about AI specifically generative AI what they really feel about it. So it was um it is talking about how do you do this and not necessarily um and and really good

143conversations about you know AI is not just used to cheat. Uh we had students who say I use I use AI to put in sample math problems and it takes me through the step so I can figure out how to do it and say give me five more examples like this so I can do it. Um I use it for a sentence starter. One of the things in that policy is if you're using AI, uh, you just say that it was generated from AI and you just you you you're upfront about it. That's there. Um, because it really is it's it's a true game changer. And I think that's something that, um, teaching our, you know, teaching our kids how to use AI in a safe environment is really important. Um and even looking at

144how do we the different platforms that are there and when you go out on an AI um bot how do you filter it because you have to be copout compliant you have to be SIPA compliant from a from a technology standpoint which some of those you know some of the filters that you currently have like we the biggest thing I hear I heard from students too is why isn't chat GPT open chat GBT is my favorite why isn't open the reason why we can't open chat GBT is we use securely as our filter um and securely will not filter on top of chat GBT or Gemini. So it actually sends students out to a number of sources. We are looking at actually replacing the filter with one that will at least filter Gemini. So now

145we can use a more powerful AI filter and that um you know that will be really impactful. So uh Mr. Renwick is trying to stay on top of it and you know keep in his hair um because there's a whole lot to it. So >> right. >> Okay. And then um so this is the first read and tonight and then on March 12th we'll have the second read and about correct and I don't know if the board has any questions about any of that. >> Um anything you want to add Jimmy Lee? >> No. >> Okay. Can I just ask a question because you brought up the uh release time for religious instruction. Can we get an update on how that's going over at Buckeye at at our next meeting maybe on the 12th? >>

146Just brief update now. >> It's going it's going fine. The very first week they were supposed to do it ended up being our snow day week. So, we started a week later. So, I think they're probably only maybe three or four weeks in. Maybe they've had three weeks. They pick We have I think um two students in second grade and maybe two or three in fourth grade at Buckeye. So, it's going fine. They picked the kids up. Yeah. It's there's a good working relationship. you know, they have put it out to the whole um school. That's who we got was uh second grade and fourth grade. They had enough students because they need to have two or they're um requirement is two in a grade level. So, a student isn't going by themselves. So, they

147have they're working those two grade levels. I think they're looking to expand the LifeWise program into other schools, but we haven't even really started those conversations seriously other than I know. >> Right. >> Yes. And that's one of the gets them and then walks them down, they do their thing >> because of proximity to the church. >> Yeah. So, that's the other thing that will, you know, will be a little bit of a hiccup is the other districts are or the other schools are not as walkable as Buckeye is. So, it's going fine. >> Just there's no cost to the district program. No. >> Yep. >> Um and then there was one additional policy that we >> So, the one policy that is added that is not a Neola uh template. It is a McIntyre

148original. Um it it it came from out of our our audit, our federal audit for our food programs. We don't have a specific civil rights policy directed to food service and that was a requirement that we do. So Mr. McIntyre was nice enough to draft one off for us and it is up there for agenda for the >> That's interesting. If we are required to have one, why wouldn't Neola have that's >> I think it's a new It's the first time. I think it's a new >> thing because we asked every school district would need it. >> Every every school district has that. >> Maybe they'll use yours. >> I was going to say, are they going to copy their original? >> They might sell it to >> It's a making history. >> Yeah. Really?

149Your next career. All right. All right. And then as far as legislative leaison on um you know we've talked quite a bit about um you know the vouchers and other uh related legislative things. So at this point there's a lot of proposals at the state level and you just have to kind of wait and see what they're going to do. So uh kind of a curious thing. >> Yeah, they just got back in session again and yeah, >> we'll see what happens. >> So we'll see. Maybe I'll have something to report or more to report. My >> I've got a feeling. >> Yeah. >> OMG. >> Okay. >> Hey, next is the superintendent's business advisory liaison, which is myself. And we did not have a meeting in February, but we do have one in March.

150>> We do. We'll have updates from the reality tour, which is super exciting. >> Yes. So, at this point, >> when is that? >> It's the 11th. You might be um No, it's the 12th. >> It's it's it's the Thursday. >> Got one more day. >> Yeah. See, I give you another day. Um but that's uh Yeah, so we'll have an update on >> Great. And the other event, >> we do have a board. We do have a board meeting. >> I know we have a board meeting. I thought I had >> it'll be the morning of the board meeting. >> All right. Um next is our superintendence report. >> Okay. Um so I'm going to try to go quick because I again, you know, It's five year >> financial forecast. But >> I would

151be remiss if I didn't say uh February we have one of the greatest events that Riverside ever does. Mrs. Red got to experience at this time. I think she had tears in her eyes when she came in to see it. >> My cup was full. >> Um and that is our annual Valentine's Day dance. It's it's a great event. Uh we hosted it a little after Valentine's Day this year. I think I there would have been a snow day and scheduling and oh >> no it was supposed to be scheduled the 13th but a bunch of school >> bunch of schools were off closed >> Friday Monday. So um we did it on February 19th. It was hundreds of students and staff from schools all over Northeast Ohio um come into our our fieldhouse uh

152with our students um and they just it's so much fun. there's lunch. All the volunteers and all the teachers and students working together to make this a a true memorable experience for um all that and everyone who leaves is nothing but praises. Um so thank you to our staff for continuing to put that on um for the for the greater community. That's awesome. Another great thing to be proud of and super happy for is uh Mrs. Cabel. Uh she was the BFW Ohio uh high school teacher of the year. So, it's not just local, it is for it is for the state. She was nominated and chosen by the Leroy Thompson Post 7939 um as well as the district 7. Um she's a high school social studies department chair. She teaches psychology. She's a military

153family leaison and a member of our veterans memorial project committee um who continues to make sure that we have the appropriate flags up that we continue to recognize our veterans for their service um and and provide our families, our military families with with what they need. Um, another great event in February. February is just a great month. We have a spelling bee. Um, as as a personal runner up of a school spelling bee, I can say that it's a wonderful event, which shocks everybody because I'm a horrible speller. Um, but congratulations to eighth grader Amelia Greg for winning the district spelling be on February 3rd. uh she participated against all grade level spelling me champs and I can tell you the B was riveting and continued to go again and again and again with amazing

154challenging words at the end um because you have to spell two in a row and it just you know they were there were some challenges but our fourth grade champs Edison Clark from Buckeye uh Josiah Leel from Melidge Arya Bassich from Parkside who was the runner up um and Logan Marcoot from Riverview fifth grade champs Azim Bkala from Lemouth, Wyatt Profit from Parkside and Giovana Aruba from Riverview. Our sixth grade champ was Dylan Wright. Our seventh grade champ was Manishka Bakula. And the eighth grade and overall champ was Amelia Greg who went on and participated in the Lake County B um and represented Riverside respectfully. They will always remember the word they won on like >> you always remember the word too. >> And if you're a good father like I am, you always harp

155your child for the word they lost on like vitamin. >> So my when when my son was in fifth grade and he was the district champion one of the weasel. >> I remember that. >> Wow. That was an easy champ work cuz I think ours were like serendipitous and things like they were they were >> they were very challenging. I'll always remember that. >> But thank you for filming that because yeah, I couldn't even I was >> another source of pride for the district. We were recently rewarded an $8,100 bus safety grant for their bus safety grant program. It is less than we asked for, but we'll take any money that we can. Uh we're going to use that funding to um replace authorized safety features and kind of up our bus safeties. I believe

156Mr. Andre is looking for some lights, um, some brighter light bars and things like that, especially on the buses that go through some of our darker township roads, um, to really recognize that, hey, this this big yellow thing is a school bus. So, we're we're excited about that and getting that and that will those changes will happen this summer. Um, so for the last time, our girls basketball team was the WRC champs. Um, and it's I say that because the WRC, this is the last year the WRC, but for the third time in the last four years, uh, the girls basketball team was the clinch third or WRC title. So, we are proud of our girls for that. To give an update on our girls, although they did finish the WRC champs, uh, they lost

157to my alma mater last night uh, in the district semi-finals. Um, so kind of upset that they lost to to Nardoni. I wish they would have beat them and then lost to somebody else. But, um, our boys basketball finished the regular season at 14 and 8. second in the WRC. It came down to the last game. Um and they uh will play Solen in the district semi-finals on March 3rd. Um hopefully they'll avenge last year's defeat to Solen and kind of come back with that. Wrestling finished W uh finished second in the WRC and are competing in sectionals. I believe it's today and Saturday. No, just Saturday. >> Just Saturday, not two days anymore. So they no >> they compete in section and good luck to them. Um and hopefully we'll get some people down

158to stakes this year and that's always super exciting. Um, our girls wrestling team will compete in sectionals on Sunday. And again, this is the second year that girls is a varsity sport. Um, we're hoping they do really well. Our gymnastics team, which is another varsity sport, uh, finished second in the WRC. Again, they compete in districts on Sunday. And I know we have some, um, I think we have some people have a good chance to make it out of there and continue to go well. And then swimming and diving. Um, Dan Fleck, Blake Fletch, Blake, I'm sorry, Blake Fetchco, Charles Hart, Liam May, Addison Johnson, Lily Hixon, Phoebe Conway, Maddie Toss, all advanced out of sectionals to the district meet. So, um, great great, you know, fast times in the pool and excited to see

159where they go as well. So, congratulations to those athletes and coaches. Uh coming up is our spring musical and I associate with our spring musical opening night is always a senior citiz citizen appreciation night. Uh this year's musical is between the lines and talking to uh Mrs. Poji. Um they are killing it with the music on there and they've got a really talented task uh cast on there. Um they it is Thursday March 12th at 5, Friday the and Friday and Saturday the 13th and 14th at 7:30. Tickets are available on the website. Um and on March 12th at 4 is the uh semianual senior citizen appreciation dinner um in our cafeteria. >> Okay. And we're still starting the schoolboard meeting at 6. >> We'll have a full agenda. It's going to be >> an

160executive session too. >> Yeah. >> As Mr. Aino mentioned, the RPTA egg hunt save the date is Saturday, April 4th. Don't be late. It starts on the campus front line. We do have a new starting procedure this year. So, the time frame is 12 to 12:02. We think it's going to add a minute to the egg hunt, but that's about it. So, um it's a it's a great event. Hopefully, we won't have snow. We've had that in the past. Uh we'll have the Easter Bunny there as well as the Riverside Beaver, uh for pictures afterwards. Um and I think we're going to try to get some community involvement with some of our we invite our fire, our police and fire to come and help. um and just kind of display their their truck so kids

161can kind of see that. It's it's a awesome community event. So, >> we're also considering having a staggered start for the different grades so that parents, especially single parents, >> if they have kids in different grades, they can go to each of their respective >> a little more. >> Yeah. Last year we walked the bunny through the the megaphone didn't work last year. So we walked the bunny through as the start and I had to actually escort the bunny off from the when when we got to the preschool start because it was a mass chaos and they were pretty scared. So we had to kind of had to take them off and and protect them um as as the bunny handler. And that concludes uh my report. >> But Dr. to be clear that is

162not the budget bunny. >> No, that is not bad budget bunny. >> That is not bad budget bunny. All right. Thank >> Thank you. Um that brings us to treasures report and committee updates. So finance audit and personnel committee and alumni association leaison. Mr. Buyers. >> Okay. I'm going to start with the alumni association update. Uh I attended their February 19th meeting. Um, mark your calendars for the fifth annual alumni association golf outing, which will be held on Saturday, June 20th at Payneesville Country Club. It will cost $100 per golfer and include 18 hole scramble with cart, a hot dog lunch, and a dinner provided by Mission Barbecue. All proceeds go to scholarships and other activities of the alumni association, such as recent contribution of the uh >> scoreboard. >> The scoreboard, the Yeah. new

163softball. Do they pay for it all? No, they paid for a portion of it. >> Um, and >> there'll be uh more details uh coming soon and you can find that on the alumni association website and uh the Facebook page. There is a deadline coming up for the Hall of Fame nomination on on March 1st. Um if there's anyone you feel deserves a nomination, please do that soon. There are only a few days left. Um, you can find links to the forms on the alumni association website, which is riverside alumni.com. And lastly, they're always looking for uh more opportunities and ideas uh to contribute to the school district. So, please reach out if you have any ideas um or see any needs. And then we'll switch the uh finance and personnel piece. Uh there were

164conversations on the negative effects of the expansion of the homestead exemption resulting in a $5.5 million swing to our five-year forecast. Uh which is now the four-year forecast or what I like what I like to call the forecast. Um and I just want to point out that is due to funding changes and not spending. Um, and then talked about the board retreat on March 6. I don't know if you've heard it. Uh, Steve mentioned it, but we are levy imminent and he will propose a few levy options and how to effectively communicate the needs and importance of that levy. Uh, Steve talked about frontline software um, and getting staff trained on how to use it. The software opens the ability to compare how we are doing compared to other school districts in the area. Is

165that is that all everywhere? Like all >> not not it it shows us all the data >> of any school district that uses uh front line which is >> the vast majority of the districts not all. >> Um there was some conversation about exploring some other shared service opportunities but nothing to report on that now. And uh at the last meeting there was some discussion about updating the administrative handbook. Had some conversations with Chris and it's on his radar. Um there was no discussion at the finance committee meeting but he is looking at uh to flush out a couple job tiles before we get to work on that. Right. And that's all I have. >> Great. So that brings us to the riveting um treasures report um and the financial forecast. I feel like that

166was sarcasm. >> No, not at all. >> You sure? >> I I wish I had a draw. >> I I do want before I even start um just want to thank Mike and our department has worked very hard to try to um give the best picture we possibly can in in this forecast. But I also want to make sure everyone's clear, a forecast is a tool. um it's it's a flexible living breathing document um that will change um but it is extremely helpful as we move forward and make decisions it so I think it's a critical piece and the other thing I want to say before I forget is when we talk about Buckeye and renovations at Buckeye I want to be very clear that is not not that's not general fund dollars that's permanent

167improvement dollars So, permanent improvement dollars cannot be used to pay salaries. It can't be used to uh uh there's a lot of things that can't be used to do. It's it's strictly for what it sounds like. 5 years or more long-term improvements essentially of facilities for the most part. So, again, Buckeye does not impact the five-year forecast and you won't see that on here. So, let's just kind of take a look at at where we are. Except it's not moving. >> Turn it around. >> Turn like that. >> Yeah. Down. >> She tricked me. She lied. Okay. So, um I have a feeling I missed something. And let's leave it at that. Um >> sound effect. So, um, so we're looking at right now our current fiscal year. Um, projected general revenue, fund revenue is

168$56 million and change. Okay, there we go. Projected general fund revenue at 57 million and our projected loss for this year. So what we mean by that is that's the amount we are deficit spending. Now what you will see as we move forward when we compare this to the forecast we presented in the fall we were not deficit spending. We we were but there's a reason we are deficit spending and we'll and we'll talk about that and it has nothing to do with mismanagement of funds or uh additional expenditures. It had absolutely nothing to do with that. So the beginning balance um in other words what our cash reserve is uh in July was at 20 million and we um you can see it's made we're cutting into that carryover by $896,000. So where is

169that where where do we get this money? Where is it coming from? What's our revenue? And we were talking about this earlier, projected local taxes at about $37.5 million. Um, that is primarily coming from real estate property taxes. Uh, but we do also receive a public utility tax of about 3.2 million. Now I'm point now I'm lasering things. Um, projected state funding is $12 million. So, you know, earlier I gave you that figure that we're spending about we're receiving about $3.2 million in state funding uh per student. And that's just a simple division of our our math of dividing that number by our total number of students and that tells you how much is coming from the state in terms of those students. The fair school funding plan um which comprises about $8.2 2 million

170of that money. Uh, but it is, and I'm not going to beat a dead horse because we've hit it a lot, but there was so much work done uh by administrators across the state of Ohio and by the legislators themselves to come up with this plan uh to only back out of this plan in short order. So this plan was agreed upon by bipartisan that this is what how we should fund public schools and then when we got to actually making the budget uh changed their minds restricted state funding we receive about 385,000 um and our state share of local taxes is 4.2 million. So our projected all other revenue at 5.8 8 million um gives you an idea of just where all of our dollars are coming from and this kind of quantifies it.

171It was your question or what you mentioned earlier. What is the exact percent? It's 67% comes from local taxes, 23% from state funding and 10% from all other. Don't be confused though. This is just general fund. It's not all funds. This is general funds. So, um, moving forward, where where do we spend it? Well, it's no surprise we spend it on people. We don't make widgets. We're a service industry. And so, uh, you know, roughly 80% of our budget is paying for personnel. Um, salaries make up about 30 million, 30.5 million of those dollars. um benefits which are rising year over year over year. Um sometimes uh what I'm projecting in the forecast, what I embedded in the forecast is 11% year-over-year. Uh keep that 11% in the front of your mind as well as

172we kind of move forward. Purchase services, uh we spend about seven almost uh $7.8 million and all other expenditures there. You can see at 3.6 million and they include things like uh additional things like salaries or excuse me supplies, capital things, debt, other operating expenditures. We've had some advances and transfers which we are working very hard to eliminate. Uh Mr. Patrice told me that moving forward we're going to have almost none. Right, Mike? >> Yeah. >> Yep. Thank you. Spoken like a true assistant. Um personnel cost again which I just mentioned 80% of our of our um expenditures are people which is not a surprise. Um, a lot of times you hear things like, well, actually the state made a move and in um changing some le um built into one of the I think

173it's 186 I think uh where they said uh you cannot spend more than 15% of your budget on administrators. Can't exceed 15%. Where do you think we're at? What would you Anybody guess? No staff are allowed to guess. Well, actually, that's all that's here pretty much. What do you think? What do you think? What do you think percentage wise we spend on administrators? Those fat cats that don't do anything and sit in office. >> Six. >> 6%. Yeah, >> not bad. Pretty close. 7.1%. Pretty good guess. >> So, um, financial forecast. This this graph just kind of really lays it out nicely, um, in terms of just a quick little snapshot. There's our revenue. There's our expenses and you can see what's happening over the course of time. What's also very interesting, look at that

174blue total revenue. It almost looks flat, doesn't it? >> Why is that? >> 20. >> THANK YOU. RICH. WOO. You get a rich out of that instead of a John. >> Yes. >> And this is important for us as we start planning. This is a pivotal uh piece of information or data that we got to take a hard look at when we are at our retreat on March 6th. So, this is showing us what our projected cash balance is. And you can see we cannot we cannot get to 2029. I I'll be real explicit about how they determine what's caution, what's watch, and what's fiscal emergency. But I can tell you fiscal emergency is when you're upside down. You cannot run in the in the red. You can deficit spend, but you cannot have a

175deficit uh without state takeover. So that is very much um at top of mind um as we move forward. Yes, sir. >> No, I miss um does that mean that we're going to have to put a plan of correction in place with the state because we're in negative? >> We will by next year and we'll talk by >> next year. >> Yes. So, >> we have to do it this year because >> not yet. We still have a tiny bit of cushion, but cushion ends in the fall. >> And what was the thing that the state did? I think they kind of rolled this back, but um weren't they limiting how much money you could save so that you could >> There's a cap on how much you can carry over, >> but I'm I'm

176I'm happy to say that we don't have to worry about that. >> We don't. >> Not Not now. Anyway, >> they up it to 40%. >> They did that at 40% cap. >> It was It was 30. >> I I I just want to point out as well as we talked earlier about House Bill 186 and the inflation. If you look at 2026, uh the blue that we actually earned, that's because of the inside mill and inflation, that's coming from the sales tax holiday that's not being holidayed. >> You're stealing my stuff, man. >> I didn't steal your stuff. >> I'm sorry. >> So, average annual change um in these two areas. This is really interesting data. Again, this is where I'm drawing this from is from uh Forecast 5 from Frontline Software. Pulls all

177this data for us really quickly. It's it's really useful. But historically over the years, we've seen an annual change in revenue from year-over-year at almost 3%. Right now, inflation's at 2.5% last time I checked yesterday. Um but this is what this is what we're seeing now. less than 1% increase in our revenue year year-over-year. And again, there's some reasons for it. We'll hit it in just a minute, but um you know, that's that's pretty significant change um over that three-year time period. while our expenses I can tell you again you guys have heard me say this before and I don't know if it how much of it really resonates or rings for folks but being the new guy there are some advantages to being the new guy and part of being the new guy is

178you have a fresh look at it you don't have any bias you don't know who did what you don't know why things are the way they are um in terms of staffing all those things um which can be you combine that with you know asking questions of Melissa for example who's I think been in the district for about what six years now something like that 106 okay that's closer um >> but this place is lean it truly runs lean um and you can see it's even demonstrated here how we're reducing our expens expenses. But look at that compared to our increases in revenue. When you look at healthcare rising at 11%, that's our that's our second highest expenditure rising at 11%. And that's not anybody doing anything uh nefarious or mismanaging. It's just healthc care

179is expensive. And we all we all we all know that. So historically, you know, again, we've seen that 6.4 um and we've cut it. Important slide here, too. As we start to make decisions and prepare for the sixth, we have C, we have policy that tells us that we want to stay at 90 days cash carryover. And you can see those are number of days of carryover that we can eat into and we're if we by policy we should be on the ballot without changing policy or not. I mean we don't have to follow policy and but and it's not and it doesn't directly say you have to be on the ballot. What the policy says is that you must be doing something about it. So, I don't want to confuse anybody with that, but

180you can see in 2027, we're below 90 days of cash carryover student enrollment. Um, again, that you you might see different numbers because it's how it it's how they're counted, but this is how the state counts it. So, this is pulled out off of EMIS and you can see we continue to have declining student enrollment. Is that unique to Riverside? Absolutely not. No. All of North East Ohio, most of Ohio with the exception of Columbus and some of the suburbs around Columbus are booming and growing exponentially. But for Northeast Ohio, you're seeing, you know, I I was really surprised to read and we went to um uh the meeting where we had to present to the um was it the the it was the treasurer and the Coulson >> prosecutor and somebody else and they

181were super friendly and warm. They actually gave Chris and I a hug. But um they were no they were fine. They it was it went absolutely fine. But we got to hear the all the other school districts and what surprised me the most was the percentage of decline in student enrollment and minor will be east lake everywhere. Everywhere >> do you have a do you can you make a slide like this with the actuals though because again like even if you look at this year it's not right. You know what I mean? >> So this this counts. So in in this year's it is It's not butts and seats. >> Okay? >> Because what this represents is for every student that goes to Auburn, they count as a half. >> Oh, >> because they're halftime

182here, halftime at Auburn. Yeah. >> So, what about like CCP? >> CCP, it depends on where they're CCP at. If they're CCP here, >> is it here or is it off? >> Is it fulltime? Are they enrolled somewhere? So, it So, that's it. EMIS is a whole different language, but that's kind of how it it works in that aspect of this specifically represents butts and seats. If it's an online CCP, it doesn't count. If it's a inerson CCP offered on campus, it's coded a different way. So then that's that's how it works. So us increasing our CCP on campus makes sense for a couple reasons. It gives more access to students who they don't have to drive or any of that in a higher quality class than an online class. Um, but then even Auburn

183funds that go away, like those are weighted funds. So the half that goes away is actually weighted and counting paid more than the half that stays here. So if we count some of our classes, um, so bringing in the construction class at Auburn, our enrollment actually will count for those kids as half, but then it's also weighted. So we get more funds for that um for those 12 to 15 students who sign up for that class if we run that. >> Yeah. So that and it does get it does look confusing because you'll see a graduating class that reflects a number that's actually higher than what this chart might reflect. But it might it part of it is because you know maybe 30 of them went off campus for whatever or 40 of them went

184off campus forever. Well, that's a 20 student swing depending on where they went and how long they were there. >> But I think our enrollment is staying pretty flat. >> We are. So I I I thought that too and it's really starting to uh kindergarten and first grade are 250 as a class. Our kindergarten class is 250 students. Our graduating senior class is 320. >> So what's the projected? >> That's what I was going to >> Well, they're they're just one of the things they look at is birth rates um construction. >> Um so casement is not on here. So there, you know, this could be totally skewed in our favor if casement comes to fruition, but that is that's not being picked up by EMIS and that's not reflected in the 5-year forecast. If

185it happens, great. If if it doesn't happen, it's what it's what I I'm not trying to doom and gloom or trying to mislead, but I'm trying to be conservative, but yet as accurate >> as we can. We're on the guaranteed and I think that's but the other part is as you know in forecast five which it does have birth rates out five years but then it also has what they call a cohort survival rate. So the birth rates that are in the area how many of those what's the percentage of those that attend and enroll in kindergarten at Riverside. So you can start to see trends and we're about 90% but you're seeing you're seeing decreases in birth rates. Okay. >> Two, which is a that's a significant and that's a >> that's just a

186nationwide trend. We're seeing >> that is a nationwide trend. >> I think we're going um it used to be 2 point something. I think it's it's decreased from there. >> Yeah. >> You said we're under two now, right? >> I think we're under two is the average. >> Mhm. So, per pupil general fund expenditures. Uh Dr. Ratino talked about where we stand in terms of our expenditures uh as it as it relates to or compares to the rest of Lake County and um Giaga County. If you threw K if you threw Kyogre County in there, it'd even be all these, you know, significantly more districts that are that are out outspending us. Uh for sure. So I I you know at the end of the day you you can cut could we cut more money?

187What do you think? Could we? Yeah we could. But at what cost? You want 35 kids in your in your with your um first grader and first grade because that would be a lot of fun to have 35 first graders and be the teacher. I think a lot of people would volunteer for that. um that reductions come at a cost. Reductions come um at some point that tipping point of impacting your programming and impacting education. And when you do that, what do a lot of parents, if they can, especially if they can, what do they often choose? Something else. When I was growing up, there was no something else, right? You went to the public school, that's all there was. But that's not the case anymore. We're in a competitive market. So, balancing being cost

188effective with providing quality programming and attractive programming, that's the sweet spot, right? And that's not easy to find, especially when you're in deficit spending. Uh we are spending, think about this, we spend $83 every day for your student to be in school every day. So, you know, if they have if they're sick, keep them home. But if they're not, get them to school. We're paying 83 bucks. I'll send you a bill. Um this is a little bit different. We said 67% earlier, right? So, but what we're looking at now, we're just we're just taking residents property or yeah, resident property owners versus what's coming from state business taxes, which would be in the other half of the pieto historically or normally. But what it's showing you is what what's people's I'm a taxpayer. I own

189a house. What's it what's my sh what's my actual share of what we're doing? And it's 54%. Is that across all funds? >> No, that's just across general. That's just general. Those numbers would even dwarf it more are putting the state are putting the um property owners a a little bit less. But d the d case I think four times. Is it four? I believe it's four. The attorney says yes. All right. Four. that the way we fund public schools in Ohio is unconstitutional because of its reliance on property taxes. Um, but to this day, I know of no uh legislation or plan because what meets the needs of one school district doesn't meet the needs of another. Um, and so the districts almost battle within themselves and the legislature can't figure it out. And

190we are we are where we are. So, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on these, but I do want to to really make sure everybody understands this first two bullets because these first two bullets tell you why. Remember I said we're we're deficit spending $896,000. I believe that number is this year when we weren't supposed to. What happened? Retino, did you run off and write checks? I don't know about I mean what happened? >> It wasn't that. >> I just used the credit card. >> Oh, you just used the credit card. >> Bad budget. Bonnie's not going to like that. Um but it it's an inside joke, but we did Never mind. um too hard to explain. So 86 counties in Ohio and every all the county all those counties had the

191ability to double the two existing property tax credits if they chose to. Four of those counties did it. Lake being one. So, I would submit to you this. Is there has there ever been a property tax that was levied by a school district that did not receive the majority vote that ever happened? Answer is no. So, the will of the this to me this is not democratic. The will of the people was to pass a levy. The will of the people in this school district was to say, "Yeah, it's going to cost us some money, but that we're willing to pay this. This is what we want to do." And then three let then three county commissioners took it upon themselves to say, you know, you don't know what's in your own best interest. We're

192going to we're going to double this tax credit. And you know what you're going to get back on average as as a property owner? I would submit to you 95% of the people wouldn't even notice it. Would you notice if you didn't go to McDonald's one time during the month? Would you notice that? Would that impact your bills? $16. The average taxpayer is getting $16 back. Well, how did that impact us? $1.3 million a year. $1.3 million a year. So we could all go to McDonald's one time. >> I got the credit card. >> Thank you. I mean, I just find it Man, I'm at a loss for words. So 186 again, another piece. We've talked a little bit about that already and and 129 all these which um Dr. Ratino covered. So I won't

193spend a lot of time doing that. Um but so what I want to show is where we were in in um October to where we are today. So you you probably heard me say in October at earlier board meetings, while we're levy eminent, I've been shy about saying that we're levy eminent, but we're in better shape than most school districts and we're going to be able to stay off for a few years. Kind of let's let the let's let this you know interest rates I don't know if you know they drop below 6% today. It was announced today. Um, inflation's at about 2 1/2%. So maybe maybe things will stabilize a little bit, but the long and we don't know what's going to happen uh with property tax. Is there going to be a is

194there going to be something on the ballot this November to abolish property tax? I think that's a really horrible idea and so do most people that know anything about money or and finances. But nonetheless, um, and oh, by the way, abolishing property tax, you know who it hurts the most, the absolute most is townships. Townships, their police departments wouldn't have any money. None. No funding for a police department, fire departments. Um, Dr. Tino mentioned there was a a shooting. Was it an actual shooting outside the school? >> A gunshot. Yes. and how quickly law enforcement responded um to that scene. What would if they if they lose all their funding, who's responding? Who who's who's coming out in a township? Why a township versus a city? A city might have income tax to kind of

195offset this at least a little bit. Townships, no. So, this is what we were looking at in October of 2025. Um, you can see this is the probably the most important piece, right? Do I have a No, it doesn't show up on the screen. Um, but you look down at the where it says revenue, surplus, or deficit. Certainly not much. It's a sneeze is all it is, but at least we were not deficit spending. That's important to remember that number. And then you can see we're deficit spending by four million, 6 million, 8 million. See, I got little arrows to help you. Um, and then you can see our cash balances. But what's important here is we stayed black in deficit, but we stayed black all the way through. This is the new forecast. You

196have the full forecast, by the way, uploaded into um >> board docs. board docs. And so you if you can get into all the nitty-gritty all you want, but this is what I think people need to know and be able to digest. So take a look at that. It was $49,000 to the good to $896,000 by a decision made on one night by three county commissioners. This is uh what what we're looking at here is just our ending balance. And look what happens in 2029 instead of being above our you our head just above the water sitting at you know 9.3 or $938,000. We're now staring at $4.5 million in deficit, folks. We cannot cut our way out of this, not without significantly impacting what we offer to the students that go to this school

197district. And do we not have an obligation as educators, even treasurers, to make sure we are providing a solid educational outcome for our students? And I don't know, probably most people in this room are homeowners in this school district. Nothing impacts, three things impact your property value. obviously what you do to it and how you maintain it clearly, but it's parks and wreck, um parks and wreck, emergency services, and public schools. Those are the three things that impact your property value every bit as much as whatever um improvements you make to your property. >> Thson. >> Yes, ma'am. >> So, there was a lot of discussion over the last year about the additional property tax revenue that we were going to bring in, right, with the increase in property taxes, >> but that's not true.

198Thank you for bringing that up. So, some of you might have seen an increase in your property taxes. There was a huge increase overall um percentage- wise. So, it only Thank you for >> spurring my slow mind. Um, it only stands to reason that as a citizen you would just assume the school got more money. But is that true? The answer is no. The answer is no. Um, for those of you that there's some people in this room that can remember, um, most not now, but 1976 uh was a very turbulent time in this country. You remember, don't you? Um, >> we were coming off of Vietnam. Inflation was 2.5%. Now, in 1976, it hit a high of 20%. That's like third world country stuff. Um, so when inflation rises, what happens to at less

199to your property value? Does it rise or fall? >> It generally rises exponentially. So in 1976, you're sitting there and your house is worth all this money on paper, but nobody's going to buy it and all goods are increasing at 20%. It was horrible, horrible time. But how about for public schools? It was our glory days because as in 1976 as your property value went up, guess went up without a vote, your property taxes. So collections, schools were flushed with cash. The state had to do something. Voic was governor, senator. I think he was Cleveland mayor, I think, is where he started. I think um he was a state legislator at the time and he and some others across the aisle. Um penned the most impactful legislation in public school history for the state of

200Ohio which has now been codifi or codified in the state in the state um constitution. And that is that when a levy passes it never collects more money. It stays that way. in perpetuity doesn't ever increase ever. So if your taxes increased, the only way any of those additional dollars are coming to us is because you passed a new levy with one exception, which I'll show you what that looks like that it's inside millage. And I don't want to get too crazy, but we have passed 55 mills past millage on the books. You know how many mills we're collecting? 20 of that 55. Why? Because the state auditor has to ratchet down the millage that he's he or she is issuing to the community to make sure we don't collect more money than whenever it

201was when we passed that levy. If we pass that levy in 2012, it will never collect more money than that. The only exception is what's called inside mills, which for us is 4.8 mills, which is not impacted by House Bill 920 until recent legislation even cap that at 3%. So, um, you know, look at there's the difference. There's the bottom line. That's the flip that we've experienced. And we can we I'm not going to speak for the board. I'm going to speak for myself as the treasurer. I will speak for Dr. Ratino because we've talked about it enough. We have to be on the ballot again and soon. We have to be. It's our only option. It is the system and we need the community to back us. We can't fail. So I I thought

202this was an interesting little graph so to explain what it means. So AC across the top illustrates House Bill 920. That's our revenue. Look at that from 27 to 28 to 29 to 30. It's barely moving. It's moving a little bit. A little bit. That's inside mills. But if you take revenue, so I took revenue, I assumed that this inflation's going to take place at 2 and a half%. So for us just to stay status quo where we are right now, if the inflation stays at 2.5%. We would need to instead of collecting 53 million, we need 57 million, 59 million, 60 million, 62 million just to stay even. We're 3.6 million short here. 4.5 5.5 6.8. That's 20 million over four years. That if we just do status quo, we don't we don't hire

203another person. We don't create another program. Uh um no expensive student moves into the district, you know, with special needs or anything like that. We're 20 million short. If we were a business, what would we do with our product right now? >> Close. >> Well, we might close or we would at first we'd increase the cost of our product. We'd raise the price, but we can't raise our price. The only way we can raise our price is a levy. And if anybody I challenge anyone in this community, those of you out there, there's a few of you out there I know that would I'd love to have a debate with and you know who I'm talking to. Um, we are not misspending our money. We are not being we are not being uh loosey goosey.

204We are not being fiscally unres um irresponsible. These numbers show with beyond a doubt the quandry public schools are in. And did the did the decision of the county commissioners really cause this? No. But they exacerbated it. They sped it. And all for what? So you can have 16 extra bucks in your pocket a month. So cost savings. What have we been doing? we should be responsible for trying to maintain our cost and tell you about it, right? We we have that obligation. The school board has that obligation. The administration has that obligation. So, um without going through each one of these and I have the data to back up each one of these, these are all the things in area of cost containment that we have done over the year to try and cut

205our expenditures. And we've saved 1.6 million doing that. These are So when we get the money, when we have money sitting in the bank, our cash reserves, which we're running out of, which is going to hurt us even more, we don't just leave it in a savings account. We invest it. Those are our two main places we invest through. Redeeree Investment and Star Ohio. Star Ohio is a state program. Redee is a private investor. And this is how much money we've earned from July to January. $814,000. So when you go back and think about how that revenue rose a little bit, mo most of it's our own our own investments, not the state. We are using your money prudently. And I I know that I speak for Chris and the board when I say this.

206When when when I sign purchase orders, when we do things, I I am very much thinking this is my money. This is how I'd run my house. I don't spend it like it's your money. So, um just some up important dates that are coming up. um and some additional information you need, but I didn't want to I wanted this to just be about the general fund so it's not confusing. But in April, we'll come back. Um and again, I love Mike Patrezy. He's the brains of our operation. I'm the I I'm the I'm I'm the marionette. He's he's the one pulling the strings. Don't Don't think anything other than that. So, um, we're going to come back with that 030 account and give you, um, some actuals and forecasts for that. Now, the 030 account

207is where we put the money from the county consortium for >> special financing district. >> Yeah. So, and that is property tax. Um, it's not considered general fund, but I don't want to mislead the board or the community. We use it kind of like general fund. So I think it's important for you to understand where that's tracking because if we lost that money, those people would have to transfer back into the general fund and that would make a substantial impact on our general fund. So we'll give you a a just a mini five-year forecast of that. We'll look at our PI account because we got a lot of decisions to make, right? We're going to get a GMP here soon on Buckeye. Um we're going to be probably somewhere in the neighborhood of about 40%

208of that PI money tied up um in one expenditure which is Buckeye. Uh so well not yeah Buckeye that just Buckeye. So, I'm comfortable with that, but I will tell you that I'm not comfortable with tying up long-term any more PI money. We can't tie up any more PI money because we're sitting in a building that should have been replaced already, quite frankly. So, the the costs of maintaining this building, um, I know that Rich and his team really do do a fabulous job. Um, across the way over here where central office is, um, the men were tortured by a toilet that wouldn't flush anything. And he had his guys come and put a new toilet in. And it's got a heated seat. It lights up and it's got a bedet. I didn't even know

209what a bedet was. Now I do. Now I know. So, um, if you can't find me in my office, just knock on the door. That's where I'll be. But um anyway, they do they do a really good job, but we can't tie up any more money. We can't tie up any more money in PI. PI is not the answer other than keeping our building our duct tape building duct taped. Um then I'm going to we're not required to give an end an end of the year forecast. The next one would be in October, but we're going to come back and give you another forecast in May like you know like we have historically done. I think it's important because we're going to get endofear numbers all of those things. Um and then you're going to

210get a very condensed timeline because of of legislative changes, but we have to do appropriations or the budget. I don't know why they didn't just they don't call it just the budget. Appropriations is fancy. I guess you probably know, but don't answer it. Um, don't you? But you don't know. Okay, good answer. >> Don't answer. >> But anyway, that'll be in July and then we've and we're we made a lot of changes to how uh we're building our budgets. Um, I don't think it was that painful. Um, >> I'm not done yet. Oh, you're >> you better get done, woman. I I'm not putting up with that. No, we're we're we're we're we're kind of all working together to do a process that um hasn't been done here, at least at least the way we're

211doing it as far as I I know. And again, that's no shade on past administration. It's just different. Um, but I think it's really important that if we can shave $500,000 off our yearly expenditures just by streamlining busing for special ed students or software or whatever it might be. And I think we can. I think we will get a little lowhanging fruit there. Then I can come back in May, build that into the forecast, and then easily do our appropriations, uh, which should be a should be a snap. and we'll get better and better at it over the few years as everybody understands it. Um, and the other piece that's important to note is sometimes we've been coding some of our expenditures not necessarily in the wrong in the right under the right um area.

212So that's throwing off our historical look back because we think for example there was x amount spent on paper for example when in fact it really wasn't. Um maybe it was more maybe it was less. Um so it'll just help us tighten things up and um and streamline our processes and hopefully uh save a little bit of money. But um I hope that wasn't too much or too overwhelming, but it's really important. And then on March 6, we're going to start we're going to take some time to uh really try to delve into understanding how all this works. Any questions? >> I just so the board knows I I've asked um Dr. Thompson and Dr. Ino like when they're doing things that maybe will help us understand what they're looking at to try to cut

213cost or what they're considering um to make sure that they do highlight that for us in the Friday packet because I think that's very important as we go into making some of these decisions. Um but I think what I've heard from them is there's not a ton that we can >> there's not >> we can we can cut. the what what I think we need to do and what I I I am confident we want to be able to say straightfaced without any hesitation, we've done all we can do to provide a solid education and opportunities for kids and do it as cost-effectively as we can. Now, you're not you're not hearing me advocating for cutting a lot of staff. We don't have staff to cut. I mean, there's just not staff to cut. So,

214we already have some elementary schools that have some classes that are kind of high in student toteer ratios already. So, that there's not a lot of room there um to do that. But, we need to be able. But, we do think um Camille is um I mean, she's like super great trained from her days in another school district by some dynamic leader who trained her. I don't know who that was, but um anyway, what you look at me like that for. Um it's a it's humor, woman. It's humor. But anyway, she's found some stuff that um some areas where we think we can grab a little bit of money. Again, is it going to wipe out $4.4 million? No. No. Um, but the other thing I would ask anyone who's listening to this that that

215decision by the county commissioners has to be voted on by those three commissioners every year. Now, in the forecast, I assume they do it, but I would I I I I think it's really important if we, you know, if we can get some advocacy on our part and for those county commissioners to really understand the impact that and it's not just us, it's Menor, it's it's Willoughby Eastlake, it's Kirtland, it's it's everyone >> is devastating to Madison. >> Yes. Um and and again, also we can save $16 a month. So, thank you. >> I'd like to point out two important things. One, the point you made about administrative cost, which essentially is seven cents on the dollar. >> So, when you see Facebook warriors saying that we need to cut administrative costs, we're only spending

216seven cents on the dollar for administration. And Miss Graci alluded to this, but Mr. Allesk showcased the two of us earlier this week that that graph that shows you how many custodians and maintenance you're supposed to have per square feet of school property. In some cases, we're operating at 50% of that and yet still running an efficient system where the schools are clean and they're refreshed every night after big events. And we're doing that all at their peril in a way because they're the ones who have the stress, but they're doing it in such a respectful way, in an effective way. And those are two really important parts that I hope that if some of you see things online, just giving you some bullets, if you will, to counteract some of those responses. But seven

217cents on the dollar is pretty minimal in my point of view. And I think something else is sometimes those costs for administration is um brought in other ways like through the ESC I think was one of those and we don't do that. Our administration is right here and >> our administrators are our administrators. They are not purchase services or anything else. We've been very at and >> we are trying to continue to bring as many employees in and make them our own um than contracting services because it's better. Now, when you met with the local budget commission, do they have any influence with the commissioners that made this decision? I don't know. >> I would think they have influence. They have some influence. >> I mean, they I I they don't certainly have any authority.

218So, but but I got to believe they have influence. >> Yeah. I I think too one of the things that that you hear from a school standpoint is consolidate, consolidate, consolidate. You have too many schools and all that. and we have consolidated some. Um, one of the things that Dr. Zern brought up in in the presentation last night is in the analysis that he did consolidation for the first year. Yes, there's a savings. The second year it actually costs more. So, it's a it it it's a temporary savings, but then does lead to more. So, I think that's a study that really you want I mean to look and investigate and see what that is out. Plus, you lose local control. And I think that's a big thing that we've been, you know, kind of

219kind of set on. what what does that local control look like? So, we've we share services as much as we can um with districts and that that are financially beneficial to us. We are looking to always partner um in different ways to bring in um you know revenue that brings us to the positive and it's a win-win if we can bring in and bring in more revenue and access more services at the same time. We are always looking to try to have some of those deals um that that come up with it and we're continuing to form new partners and continuing to look and see what what can that be to the benefit. So, and we're not alone in this. There are other districts who are who are looking as well to kind of see

220what some of those things are um from that standpoint. Well, and with the um you called for the advocacy, but um you know, it does involved every Lake County school district and most of them are going on the ballot. >> We are Yes, we are not alone in in in all of that. We are actually I would say it's fair to say that we are in a better place. >> Um Menor is on the ballot uh this spring >> will be East Lake was on then they pulled it off and now they're going on in November. But they're looking at possibly combining schools. >> Yes, they're they're looking at a number of different changes um for them. Fairport again, Fairport's the one that's that they're pretty much the anomaly. Madison um just made a drastic

221list of cuts as well as they will be on the ballot regardless of of where they are. Perry has the power plant. uh they're the they're the however um they're not as flush as they used to be. >> So what you're seeing in Madison I think is is a is a reaction to their plan of correction that they have to submit >> um which is where we're going to be. And so in looking at the forecast and I looked at all the line items and whatever, I I I do analysis and take a look at some percentages and whatever. And if people look at that, I just want to bring to light that our benefits line is almost 60% of our wages line. But I don't think people realize that we've got millions of dollars

222in other funds. And I've said this before, we only focus on the general fund when we do the five-year forecast, but we have state grants. We have federal grants. Federal grants, I think, are accounting for almost $2 million of wages that are being paid to staff that if those federal dollars get reduced, that goes back into your general fund, right? Um, you have food service, which pays for itself, and those staff, >> those staff are being paid out of the food service department. You have latch key. >> Um, >> Mr. grass food service only pays for itself but they are creative enough to pay for other projects we try to use them correct >> for all kinds of things >> um we have student advised funds we have athletic funds it doesn't include the PI

223fund at all which is collecting property tax dollars but we can't have wages out of that account we have the joint financing district funds which you said and alluded to >> million >> and so if we had to absorb those dollars back into the general fund again we're looking about $5 million and salaries, but all the benefits are in the general fund. And so, so at first I it looked really skewed and I was like, "Wow, what's in there?" Like, "What kind of benefits does this district have? I want to come work here." But then I started to think about all the other funds. So, so it would be helpful for people to remember that there is a lot of other things that we are not talking about here when we talk about the general

224fund, but also in the fact that we're going to have to do a plan of correction. And I would prefer I I know that we say we're running really really lean and that we don't want to make cuts and we don't want to do these things but I think we have got to have a plan that says what those are going to look like in the case because we went 2009 10 11 then we shifted gears and said oh let's do buildings so that was 15 161 17 and we didn't go back on the ballot till 2018 I think and we made just a tremendous mendous amount of cuts. It was not pretty, but some of them got us through to the other side and we actually came out the other side, I think, actually

225better, more efficient. We we we thought outside the box and did different things, but I feel like we need to get there. And if we're gonna start if we're gonna we're approving this as a forecast and we know that we're going to be >> without dollars >> within two years, I would I would suggest that we actually start talking about what does that look like because chances are that it's not going to pass the first time. That's just my assumption based on prior experience and where the community is right now with property taxes. >> I'm keeping hope alive. Well, but I I believe we could come up with some, you know, proactive measures, some tiered measures, and some right, you know, >> like the this is the timing of these things. These are things that

226we are going to have to look at that if we're going to if we're going to have to cut things that these are these are the prioritized ones. These would be the things that would go first and then these things would go next. And depending on how far you down you get into that deficit, I think we have to think about it. And if we wait too long, then then it's There's no time to appropriately plan for that. And and I feel like we should be doing that by by the time we have to approve the appropriations for next year. We really need to think about that because we've got one year >> and it's somewhat of a moving target because we don't know what's going to happen even with the the next legislative actions

227and and there's, you know, things that are going to change and we're also going to know the result of what other districts are doing and will the commissioners reconsider? I mean, there's just so many things that all it does is postpone until there's a major overhaul of how we fund our schools. >> I I would also say, speaking to benefits, one thing that's not showing up because it's not a savings. It's just not as big is when we left the consortium to go on our own from a benefit standpoint, we're not seeing a savings by any means. Our benefit cost rose 11%. Um however the year prior it rose 22% plus we had an additional premium added on at at that time. So we saw a significant increase in benefit costs um by doing that.

228This year had we remained in the consortium we were looking at a 20% increase instead of a 9% increase. So is it a savings? Well, no, because we're still spending money, but it's not, you know, we spent less and that's good. And I think that's in going forward the relationships we have with our staff and our and our unions are really they understand >> um and I think it's because they lived through um the lean years. Yep. >> And so and so they understand, you know, part of it and they are >> they are really um collaborative in this process and they were when we mentioned that we are exploring going on our own. they were very open to it. They were very much let's look at it. They're open to diff new plan types

229and new opportunities um and all of that. So I I think you know where again I'm not saying that healthc care is going to be um flatlined it's not um but I think if the goal is if we can keep the percentage that that the increase to forecasted predictions at least then again we can plan for that and that's the biggest thing for all of us is how do we plan for this um moving forward >> and it's been my experience that the that the way businesses are doing that is by reducing benefits and they they flatline their cost >> or they see a lower percentage increase, but they have you've got to give something up. So again, I'm hoping that by the time that we come together in May and you guys do this

230May forecast update that we have a list of prioritized well, these are the things that these are areas that we're going to that we have to look at that we can look at. These are places that we can reduce if this is what we want our district to look like, right? I I feel like we just we need to go there. Yeah, I think part of part of what we can do is I think a helpful exercise we can have a discussion about is but doing a staffing audit for example um an independent staffing audit the state will do that for us um but we can do it quite frankly pretty effectively on our own with um part of the software that we're we purchase which is called which is that piece of the software

231is called um uh the analytics section of uh that software and we can pull up whatever school district you want to pull up and compare staffing um to student teacher ratios. Uh how many secretaries do you have? How many the across the gamut um to get an idea of um of where of where we are. But but but I but but I can tell you this 30 teachers just just random number 30 teachers is probably somewhere in the range of about three $3.2 million probably somewhere in there. 30 and it doesn't even get you out of the hole. >> Yeah. >> So I do agree with you 100% Mr. grassy that we need to look at you plant. We need a worst case scenario ourselves as well. Um but I can tell you that it's

232just next year when we have to put together that financial recovery plan. It it's going to be it's going to be tough without a levy to even begin to make >> to show that we're digging our way out of that deficit. The first point in the plan of correction is always we're going to pass a levy. We're going to put on the ballot. I mean, that's always the first thing that's in there. But even some of the things if we start thinking about them, you may say >> these would be possible, but there may be some that you come up with and you say we can do these anyway >> that will get us right that will get us out of some of that and it will at least at least make it look better.

233>> Well, that's what that is what we're doing right now. I I my personal assessment on what we've seen so far. a new guy. It's not in staffing. There's just not a lot of, you know, like I don't even have a secretary. I haven't had a secretary, a my own secretary for 25 years. I don't know how to I get lost, you know. I need someone holding my hand, telling me what time to be at the next meeting. Um, so it's it's been an adjustment and we're we're we're adjusting. We're doing it okay. you know, he's operating without an assistant um superintendent. Maybe that'll change, but um but there there's a lot of holes already in in our staffing and we need I agree we got to pick off there isn't a lot of lowhanging

234fruit, I guess, is what I'm trying to But I guess I'm also trying to say that while we look at some of that analytical data from other districts and we can compare that's great and fine, but we as a district have to figure out what we want to look like regardless of what that data tells us. >> I agree. >> Right. And so so we have to find out as a community what we want to accept and what level we as a board decide that we want to be at. And I think that's conversation we have to have agreed >> sooner rather than later. And it's it's time because we're we're there. >> Yeah. And and I think the other piece of all this that's hard, very difficult to quantify as you as you start

235to make these reductions, even just planning for said reductions, you don't know what what unintended consequence that brings. Families leaving in fear of what could be coming. Um, so I think we have to be really cautious about I my personal feeling is run as lean as we can effectively as we can. Go to the voters, be transparent, honest, and ask them to help us. And if they tell us no, well then that now it's a different we're having a different conversation. But I I believe I really do I believe Riverside's going to pass our levy on the first go. I I believe that >> if we were going to be on the ballot, for example, and I'm not telling the public that we are going to be on the ballot. I'm just asking a question.

236If you were going to do that in November and you we're trying to time out when this happens, if we do it if we decide November would be a first attempt, when when do we have to start pass? >> I will get on March 6. I'll backwards PL You'll see it all backwards planned out from boom boom boom boom. You'll see it and I'll give you a couple of options >> also. of of how much millage >> whatever. Yeah, that would be >> if you want to go income tax, >> we'll h we'll have it there for you. >> A lot there's a lot of different strategies now that communities are going with and I think that's the big um that that makes it even more challenging where it used to always just be it's

237a it's a it's a property tax levy and now there are other avenues and there's combined and there's there's there's a number of different things. I think it is a valid um discussion and conversation as to which way we want to go >> right and again it might not be it might not be November maybe it will be May who knows but it's it's coming at some point and >> I I would agree I think those are conversations that we absolutely have to have and >> and really look at what it like like costbenefit analysis almost too >> and they're going to start again the beginning will start in the 6th as part of our working session or as our retreat >> can't wait Super. >> I have balloons for you. >> I'm not gonna

238say. All right. Uh, next is public participation. So, anyone wishing to address the board of education will be recognized by the board president. Speakers are requested to speak from the podium. Today, we do not have a podium. So, from your seat, um, identify themselves and their topic. Comments are limited to three minutes. >> Yes, please. I'm Katie Murray. I'm a parent of two elementary school children at Parkside Elementary. Um I'm calling or I'm coming to talk to you guys about our staffing situation of what I know about it just so that as a new board you guys are aware. Um so first of I want to thank everybody for stepping up and being a part of our board and for all the staff and everybody who's part of the Riverside district. You guys make it

239a great district. I'm happy to be here. I recently moved here from South Carolina. Um, my family and I, we had a choice of where we were going to move. I did a ton of research. I'm one of these people. I'm really annoying. I know it. But I looked up reviews. I looked up what the school offered. I looked up about the sports. I looked up about teachers. I did everything. And we picked this area. We picked a home here. And I cannot begin to explain how much we have found our community because we don't have family here. Our family's my husband's from the UK. His family's still over there. My family's across the US. So, we've found that community and we found our people here and we're so grateful for it. Um I want

240to speak specifically about the rising third grade and the rising fourth grade class for next year. My son is in the second grade. My daughter's in kindergarten. So last year at the May 19th PTO meeting um the superintendent came and he gave he shared what his state of the schools was and it was a great message. We learned a lot about what was going on. But at that meeting we also found out that in our third grade of our four teachers we went down to three teachers. So, it was a big shock to myself to hear that as well as I guess a lot of the third grade parents had been concerned and started to hear that this was going to be happening. So, to hear that this was actually taking place at the end

241of the school year and those class sizes would be growing at such a pivotal year for our children, it was just a lot. So, I wanted to come up today so that I could speak to you guys because I don't want to get blindsided again at the end of this school year where we're finding out either we're not going to be hiring anyone new or that we're going to continue with the class sizes that we have. Um, part of what makes Parkside so wonderful is our amazing teachers and the staff and everybody who's there. We have an exceptional 4.5 exceeding the state ratings. And that's because of the people that we have. And I know that. I recognize that due to losing um one of those third grade teachers last year, the class sizes are

242now 30, 29, and 28 for the three remaining classes that they have. Now, those are with the unit students. So, I'm going to be completely transparent. So, let me see what my numbers are. Like I said, I've done a lot of research here. So, with the general education classes, there's 28, 27, and 26. Sorry, can I keep going? >> Per person. So, what I love I I believe Dr. reached out. Did you have a chance? >> Yep. So, I was going to get to that point, too. >> Yeah. >> So, he did reach out to me. I reached out to Mr. Beers and Mr. Aldino and I let them know this. Um my big concern again is it's a pivotal year with my student with his class size. We have 89 students in that second

243grade class. There's four teachers right now. Next year that means that we would have 30 kids in each of those classes not including anyone who's going to be moving into our district. >> I I very much apologize but I do have to keep it to three minutes because if I don't it'll So I do apologize. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Is there Yes. Um I'm Missy Dawson. I also have student a student at Parkside, a student in eighth grade at stand >> at Riverside. Um to kind of go off of what Katie said, same concern. Um just large class sizes. And I know that you guys say the unit kids aren't in the classes. Um I'm at the school quite often. I've been on the PTO for four years and they're, you know, constantly in

244the classes. And with that being said, it's just an extra person in the room with these kids that have special needs. Um, just making it hard for the kids to not be distracted. Lots of kids. I get that, you know, the funds aren't there. But my question is, and I don't know can answer this right away. What is the the limit? When are you guys going to, you know, say, "Okay, enough is enough. We need to add another teacher." >> So, I don't think we can answer that, but we will definitely take the question and get back to you. Um, and then the other concern is I mean like you guys said a lot of people leaving going to private schools and I know that's a lot of talks right now. You know kids people

245don't want 30 kids in the class and you know they're starting to talk should we go elsewhere should we look at private schools things like that just to consider um as you guys talked about a choice and all those kind of things but it's just a major concern at Parkside and I don't know what the other schools are either. I don't I I know Riverview is like 22, but as far as Bidge of Buckeye and the redistricting, I don't know if that would be something that can be done to help, you know, lower class sizes, but that's Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other public comment? >> Great. Thank you. All right. First up is our consent agenda for finance and audit. >> Okay. Mot motion to approve items listed A through L on the

246finance audit consent agenda as recommended by the treasur. Can I get a motion? >> You heard the motion. >> Oh, second. >> Can I get a second? Sorry, >> I'll second. >> Uh, any discussion? I just want to thank um for the donations. We have $150 from Margaret Kimell to the seventh grade nutrition services balance. If if people are not aware, you can actually donate to the nutrition services department to pay um for kids who don't have funds on their lunch account. So, I think that's always awesome when people do that. >> I would like to just make one point. Item K3, we are paying out of purely out of a legal obligation. We don't have much of a choice. We're paying $36,883 in legal fees to a law firm that ended up being purely

247a social experiment really that lasted about a month. And I just wanted to make the public aware of that. Again, this current board has a legal obligation to pay it, but I just wanted to make you all aware that it is on here and not much we can do about it. But certainly worth noting. >> Uh Dr. Thompson, would you like to read the role? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Krennki. >> Hi, >> Mr. Buyers. >> I >> Mrs. Grassy. >> Hi, >> Miss Brewster. >> Hi, >> Mr. Odino. I >> motion carries 5. >> That brings us to our consent agenda for personnel. >> Uh motion to approve items listed A through H on the personal consent agenda as recommended. Can I get a second? >> I'll second. >> Any discussion? >> I would just

248like to congratulate the retirements that are listed on our agenda. We have Sharon Fields, our English language arts teacher at the Riverside campus, >> and Jennifer Cooper, an art teacher. >> That's a resation. >> That's a resignation. Okay. When's a retirement? >> Uh, and we have uh Michelle Reichi, a special needs assistant as well, retiring, right? Some some of these folks have been here for so long, it's it's really awesome. >> Not that they're retiring, but it's it's awesome to recognize them on their retirement. So, Dr. Thompson, >> Mr. Buyers, >> hi, >> Mrs. Grassy. >> Hi, >> Miss Brewster. >> I >> Mr. Adino, >> I >> Mrs. Kreninski, >> I. >> Motion carries 5 vote. >> That brings us our to our consent agenda for curriculum and programming. >> Thank you. I'd like

249to make a motion to approve the items listed A throughF on the curriculum and program consent agenda as recommended by the superintendent. Can I have a second, please? Second. >> Discussion. >> It's Latchki camp time again. >> Actually, actually got delayed. The signup got delayed by till tomorrow. Um, >> you were talking about camping out if I just snow and all. >> That is one of those >> things that I always tell Mrs. Bioco that if if I could come to Latchki Camp, I would. It's it's really a great bargain for the money. Um they do so many things. So sign up for Latch Key Camp. >> It's that's an amazing >> It's really awesome. >> And that's being held at Parkside. >> It is held at Parkside this year. >> Okay. Because in the

250past it was at Riverview. It was and they had they held it at Parkside last year because of the the transportation and found that because the buildings are built in mirror of each other, actually the setup at Parkside works better than Riverview because they can see kind of all areas from one spot. >> Okay, that's >> and that's the reason it's a student safety issue. >> Mr. Kinsky, >> I >> Mr. Adino, I >> Mrs. Grassy. >> I >> Miss Brewster. >> I >> Mr. Buyers >> I. >> Motion carries 50. >> All right. That brings us to consent agenda for buildings and grounds and operations. >> Sure. We have a motion to approve the items listed on the buildings and grounds consent agenda and is recommended by the superintendent item A. I get a

251second. >> A second. That is our cop's lease purchase resolution. Again, it is not an authorization to go and sell bonds. It's just the authorization to merge everything so that we only have one bond issue um when the time comes. So just to clarify no discussion then let's call the role please. >> Mrs. Graassie >> I >> Miss Brewster >> I >> Mr. Odino >> I >> Mr. Buyers >> I >> Mrs. Krennki. >> I. >> Motion carries 50. >> All right. We have a resolution to approve a revision to the 25 I'm sorry to the 20 26 2027 school calendar. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> And >> we can't count when it comes out. >> Um this because in this is next year. Yeah. Right. Um, our typical spring break falls

252over the Easter holiday and typically we it's a Good Friday and uh and the Monday after are they they count as Good Friday counts as a paid vacation day and since it worked its way into it this year we were actually and sended the school year by a day by overday for contracted um for our teachers. So we had to back it off by a day. So that's really it. Our seniors get out one day earlier they they get out on a Wednesday. Okay. I don't think anyone complain. >> So we look at when we put graduation probably graduation will be the Tuesday of that year. So we'll do it. That's exciting. >> I'll have a graduate >> on a Tuesday. >> Tuesday. Any discussion? Any other discussion? Okay. Can you call the RO? >>

253Mrs. Kreninski. >> I. >> Mr. Buyers. >> I. >> Mrs. Grassy. >> Hi. >> Miss Brewster. >> Hi. >> Mr. Odino. I >> motion carries 50. >> Wonderful. Next we have the 2027 2028 school calendar discussion. So is there anything that we should >> So we can count on this one and this one is a hearing. Um so we will we post this out there. We open it for comment. Uh it is it models the rest of our our calendar path we've gone spring break the last week of March. Um first semester ends at the winter break. Second semester ends right around right around Memorial Day as we best can. Um it's a hearing. The actual vote will be in April because you have to give 30 days. >> And where will it be posted

254again? >> Uh, it's posted on our website. Correct. It will be. >> It has not been yet, but >> but it will be. >> It will be. >> And the PV days I was looking at both calendars are pretty consistent uh at the time and that works out best. >> We uh actually uh we shifted so in 2728 we do have a shifted PD day and we can easily shift those as well. um we shifted the PD days to coincide with the end of the quarter in in the best cases uh possible. So they kind of work there. >> Okay. >> Um so that they and looking at will they be just strictly PD days or can we combine and do PD records days uh again some of our initiatives like MTSS and all that

255which does take some meeting time which is a little more challenging to do when students are in session but >> okay. >> All right. Also we have the first reading of our new and revised board policy on the agenda. There's no action for that tonight. >> There's no action. That will be on the March uh to approve. >> Correct. That brings us to board of education updates. Do we have any updates? >> Um I just again want to congratulate Jenny Cavell on her on her win. Um she will be eligible to be the National VFW High School Teacher of the Year as a result. And so we wish her the best of luck in that. Um, and then I also wanted to extend thanks to the folks who put on the Valentine's Day dance for

256allowing the agency that I work for, um, to have some of our folks come and participate in that as well. And they came and provided some food service because we do that as part of our vocational training programs. And so that was really nice. And they just really, really enjoy it. So, thanks for allowing them to come. >> Great. And I just wanted to um thank Nick for the all the new pictures. I guess you're the one that put them up. >> I did. >> Yeah, they look great. You know, just updating, you know, some of the things that were >> I took them, too. >> We've done recently, including our softball team. And it's funny. >> Have you noticed that almost level? Not 100%. Oh, yeah. Almost. >> Have that issue. When When did

257you put those up? We talked about that, didn't we? >> Uh Monday afternoon. Yeah, because I swear I noticed it right away. >> Don't they? >> Well, the the softball stands out one because it was red and then I was like, "What the I don't think I've seen that one before." So, >> I really didn't think anyone would notice because I noticed they were straighter. >> Well, thank you. >> And then I also wanted to thank uh the administration uh for the board recognition of all of us and thank you for the vests and the t-shirt. So, thank you. >> Student design and turned out great. >> Yes. And they did a great job and they fit well. >> Yeah, >> my medium fits perfectly. >> Yeah. >> Well, I was supposed to get one,

258but medium over there seven-year-old. >> Okay. And and um we were waiting to hear a confirmation on the March 6th the time and place. Do you >> I thought a calendar invite went out, didn't it? >> I we did. Did we send one? It's at the woods and it starts at 8. >> Yeah, there's a calendar and actually that needs to change. I thought I must not hit saved saved. That's a Google habit. the next meeting updates. We do not have curriculum and programming, but we on the 6th, but we do have the retreat and that starts at 8:30. >> Okay. >> Cancelled. >> We did. We decided not to do it so that you guys could do the strategic planning conversations first and then we would meet after that. We thought Sorry, I didn't

259mean to talk over you. >> Well, that Yeah. Well, that and Marlo's son is out, so I have to set up. >> What time is that over? >> Oh, God. >> 3 3:30. >> We have run it till 3:30. True. Right. So, we've moved on to the >> I had one more thing. Sorry. Um the um I know we talked about when we were talking about increasing the um budget for the um uh Buckeye project just um you know surveying in some way, shape or form the Buckeye Melidge parents. Has there been any feedback? Did we send anything? >> We will uh we're getting on that. >> Okay. Yeah. >> All right. And then some kind of traffic study, but I don't know if that's something the people we employ do it. I believe TDA

260is working. >> They're doing it. Okay. I just wanted to check those boxes. >> Right. So, next meeting announcements. We do have our board retreat on March 6, 2026 at 8:30 a.m. We have finance and personnel committee meeting March 10th, 2026 at 7 a.m. And our next board of education meeting is March 12th, a couple a little bit early due to the holidays and that's at 6 pm. Um, at this time we will turn to executive session. So the Riverside Local School District Board of Education hereby recesses into an executive session for the purposes of one considering the appointment discipline and compensation of public employees under revised code 121.22 G1 and two conferring with an attorney for the public body concerning disputes involving the public body that are the subject of pending or imminent action

261court action under revised code 121.22G3 22 G3 and three details of building security protocols. Upon conclusion of this executive session, the board president shall gavvel the board back into open session at this location. All matters discussed in these executive sessions are designated to the public officials and employees as confidential pursuant to revised code 102.03b. because of the status of the proceedings andor the circumstances under which the information will be received in preserving its confidentiality is necessary to the proper conduct of government business. Can I get a second? >> I'll second. >> At least it's not one sentence anymore. Remember? >> Okay. Can I get roll please? >> Mr. Adino. >> I >> Mr. Vyers. >> Hi. >> Miss Brewster. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Kreninski. I >> Mrs. Grassy. >> Hi. >> Motion carries 50.