July 24, 2025 Board of Education Meeting

001Order at 603. Gary, can you take the role? >> Scott Ble >> here. >> Dennis Keany >> here. >> Denise Brewster >> here. >> Grassi >> here. >> Lori Kiski >> here. >> Stand for the pledge. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, welcome everyone. On behalf of the board, I would like to welcome all students, staff, parents, and interested community members to tonight's board of education meeting. I would 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

002during the meeting in the public participation participation section of the agenda. Okay. I make a motion to approve the minutes uh for June 26th, July 1st, July 7th, and July 10th. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Gary, can you take the role? >> Dennis Keiny. >> Hi. >> Denise Brewster. >> Hi. >> Grassy. >> Hi. >> Lori Kiski. >> Hi. Staff >> I motion carried. Make a motion to approve the minutes from the July 15th, 2025 special meeting. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Gary, can you take the role? Disr >> I. >> Belinda Grassi. >> Hi. >> Lori Kiski. >> Stain. >> Scott Fishell. >> I. >> Dennis Keaney. >> Hi. Motion carried. Approval of the minutes for July 17th. I make a motion to approve

003minutes from the July 17th, 2025 special meeting. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Gary, can you take the role? >> McGrassi, >> abstain. >> Lori Kiski, >> abstain. >> Scott Fishell, >> I. Dennis Keane. >> I Denise Brewster. >> Hi. >> Motion carried resolution recognizing the 2025 Division 2 girls championship softball players and coaches. They are here. Congratulations. Great job. >> So, I have Would you like to read that or would you like me to read it? The actual confirmation. >> Okay. Recognition of 2025 Riverside High School softball division 2 state champions. >> Whereas the Riverside High School softball team competed with exceptional skill, determination, and sportsmanship in the 2025 OHSA Division 2 state title tournament. And whereas our team finished the season with a record of 27 wins and four

004losses. And whereas through hard work, dedication, exceptional skill, and collaborative effort, our team advanced through the sectional, district, regional, and state levels of competition to earn the highly esteemed title of 2025 Division 2 state champions by beating Mount Vernon High School 8 to6 on Sunday, June 8, 2025. And whereas our players, coaches, and team staff exemplified excellence, resilience, and school spirit, bringing pride to their school, families, and the entire Riverside community and the first softball championship to Lake County. And whereas the accomplishments of our student athletes serve as an inspiration to younger students because they have set a standard for athletic excellence while excelling academically as Riverside High School students. hand. Whereas, it is both fitting and important for the board of education to formally honor and commemorate this extraordinary achievement of the Riverside High

005School softball team. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Riverside Local School District Board of Education this day of July 24, 2025, does hereby proclaim the Riverside High School softball team as the 2025 Division 2 state champion state softball champions, recognizing their outstanding accomplishments and extending its gratitude and congratulations signed by the board members. Coach, we have uh Thank you. >> So, we have members of of I think all the coaching staff here as well as members of the team. >> Coach Pig's here. Yep. We have come on up, ladies. >> Share a few words about the season and the journey and kind of all of that. >> You can talk. No, it was it was a lot of fun and uh you know the best part about this whole journey was the community coming

006like it was amazing by the time we got to the the state final four u to see how many people that the stands were packed and we got to see other games with some other teams that just didn't have quite the support that we had and by the time you got to this game and the the game the next day for the state championship just seeing people that we hadn't seen in 10 years coming to these events the community coming out um the outpouring when we came back here um the fire trucks the police cars, all that stuff that we got to do when we got back here, including the celebration afterwards, the banner. It's been nothing but uh first raid by everybody involved, and we can't thank everybody enough. >> Ladies, anybody want to

007say anything? >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. >> Here, hold that in the middle. coming in. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Yeah. All theings and stuff. >> Thank you everybody. >> So that's a recognition 75 years in the making, I guess. >> So >> it's a long time coming. Thank you for that. >> Thank you. Uh they've been doing a lot of a lot of significant uh media coverage. Their captains recognize them on Tuesday night. Next Tuesday is the Guardians game. Correct. >> Yes. >> So they're going to the Guardians game recognized there next Tuesday night as well as Concord and both Panzo Township did um individual recognitions as well. >> Leroy as well. So yeah, >> it's been a summer full of accolades for them. >> Great. So our summer break

008starts after >> Nice try. Thank you everybody. But it's been awesome. So great. So congratulations again. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> That was that's my favorite special report ever. Next one. Let's hand it over to Roger Riachi of RFC for a construction update. Some here somewhere. Okay. if I stand over here. >> Good evening. Um, it's been a while since probably a couple months. I just wanted to come up and give you a little bit of an update. Both projects are underway. As you can see, we have uh done all the earth work that's all been completed. Uh, we were very happy to not run into any bad soil on either one of the job sites. We were worried about a little bit on um uh Riverview might run into some unsuitable soils that

009would have resulted into added cost, but we didn't. Uh we're out of the ground. We're laying block on both uh projects. So, I think any any issues with soil are behind us at this point in time. We're still working on some utilities on Riverview uh site, but both sites are up to grade uh up to grade. And then as you can see, we have a block going on. Um, right now we're uh we're not anticipating any delays as far as construction. Hopefully the weather cooperates with us for next few months to get us to uh under roof and then we can uh work on the finishes at that point in time. Um, a couple things that I wanted to mention. When we first came here and and you hired us, I told you that we

010we were going to figure out try and save you some money on the project one way or another. We're going to work diligently on it. Um and as I talked to uh Mr. Fishell and the at the GMP stage when we submitted it, we we told you guys that we're going to still work on um improving on that number. So I could tell you that through working with Cleveland construction there's subcontractors through some of the scope of work that we were we have worked on and through some negotiations to date we have saved on the CTE project about $200,000 and about $250 on the Riverview project. Now those that those dollars were going to the owner's contingency because we did not have an owner's contingency going into the project. We only have the contractor's contingency.

011So, at this point in time, those are going to go into the contingency. I'll give you updates as we go along. There is going to be some things that are going to come up that we're going to have to use some of that contingency, but at some point in time at probably somewhere around 75% completion of the project, we will give you an update as to where those dollars and cents are. And then you can decide if there is some things you want to add to the project or or where how do you want to spend that uh that money at the end of the project. If it's not spent, it'll all come back. it'll be issued as a deductive change order to your GMP to red reduce the total cost of of the of

012the projects. Um, so that's kind of what I wanted to update you on. I'll take any questions if you have any um regarding the project or um the the status, the finances, anything that you'd like to know about. I would just like to add a big thank you for doing your job and u what a great job you're doing. There's already $450,000 of money that you've saved us because of the work you do and we appreciate that. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> One one thing I did want to mention, we uh just Gary and I were talking before, we do have a third party inspection company that's doing inspections on the earthwork, the concrete, the masonry. They'll do it on the steel and we've been receiving all the reports from them. And to date,

013we have not had any any issues with any any of those reports. Uh we had one one low concrete break on a small section of the footer, but this was at 7 days. the 28 days is is looking better, so we're not going to have any issues. Um, those reports will all be compiled into um saved and and emailed at the end of the project for your records. We have to also email them to the county uh for their records as part of the Ohio basic building code. Now, uh that's a requirement to have a third party inspector uh inspect inspection on earthwork, concrete, masonry, and steel. And uh we we get copies of it. The administration get gets copies of it. The design team gets a copy of it as well as the contractor.

014So uh we all look at it. If there's anything that comes up, we'll definitely keep you up to date and let you know. >> Yeah. I just like to mention occasionally I do stop by each site and talk to the foreman there, superintendent, and uh observe the work and everything is going very smoothly from what I can see. So I appreciate all the efforts. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Anything else? >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I have one more um and it's the third in a I think it's three-part series of a pathway to excellence, which is the comprehensive uh plan uh to increase student achievement. So, we've talked about what student achievement looks like, high quality assessments, the instructional framework, uh the rigorous curriculum that went into it and instructional rounds, which

015looks at that, um rigorous curriculum. Today, uh we're going to talk about the last two major pieces, which are MTSS and college and career readiness. Uh when you talk about MTSS, we throw a lot of acronyms around education. Uh MTSS is a multi-tered system of support. The premise is if we identify struggling learners early and we provide targeted support we pre and monitoring of that support we prevent and we lead to greater student success within the general education classroom. We want to make sure that we are teaching at 80% um of what our the expected grade level is or 80% of you know mastery. So the core principles are that that early intervention works best. So when we have and provide early intervention and identify early with appropriate assessments, those high quality assessments which we

016talked about previously, we see a 40% reduction in special education needs. Um and we see higher graduation rates at the end because the students have success early uh in school that they tend to continue on in school and have success throughout school. We also use real- time data. Um anyone who knows me knows that I'm a data nerd uh and I like to use data along the way. We use data and we use data to drive the decisions we make. educationally for kids and MTSS is a formalized process where our teachers meet regularly look at that data and use that data and not just how it feels. Yeah, it feels like they're learning but this is the data that shows that they're learning um and it increases math and reading proficiency by up to 20%

017throughout the year. So we put these interventions in place, we monitor these interventions along the way and then we assess them at a midpoint to see are they really making gains and if they're not we try new or more intense interventions. Um it it works on a continuous improvement cycle. So it never ends. Um it's never we're never ever done. We we identify, we analyze, we implement, then we we evaluate. Then we go back again and we analyze and we implement and we evaluate. Um we identify one, we continue to identify others who kind of tend to struggle, who may have slipped a little bit for whatever reasons. It it is not purely an academic support. It's academic and behavior. So it's under the umbrella of both academics and behaviors and we provide research-based interventions

018within progress monitoring. Um, our coaches have been critical in in implementing this process and providing these interventions, as well as our uh, Caitlyn Caitlyn Collier who is our student support supervisor, special education supervisor, really works with MTSS, have really been critical implementing this in our buildings and it is it is up the ground and we are um, we use a program called branching minds to work and kind of have all this data in one spot uh, and then progress monitor along the way. So, it's a it's a fantastic process when you look at kind of what it is in a graphic. Tier one is at the top of this graphic. And tier one is that that's that classroom instruction. That's where we're hitting 80%. We're working to get 80% mastery um for all students. That's

019both in terms of content mastery and behavior goals. Kind of where we're at. If we see that for the next 15%, we give some target intervention in tier two. Um and those tier two, so those are for some of the students who require more based on the assessments that come up. Tier three interventions are those interventions for the top 5% and that's when we started to look at identification of special needs um IEPs that sort of thing. We again real- time data drives the whole process and it it's focused on that early intervention and continuous intervention and catching it early and and often and that's kind of where MTSS is. So any questions on MTSS before I move on to the last one? We're good with that. All right, good day. The last one is

020one that we've really built out a lot is college and career readiness. Um this is a it's a slide from the infographic on again all this is on our website. We want to be very but it's our it's our career exploration experience activities. So what are we doing with college and career is we are preparing students for their future not our past. And it really is what do careers look like? One of the things we're we are bringing in next year is Lakeland at RHS. Next year, we are going to offer 31 hours of Lakeland Community College credit on campus. Typically, our students will leave or take classes online. The online experience is not as great as an in-person experience. We're going to offer these classes um in person, whether they're taught by a Lakeland

021instructor or whether they're taught by a Riverside instructor who's credentialed. We are working more and more to get our Riverside teachers credentials to teach these Lakeland classes um and really expand them. And we're looking at doing more than Lakeland in the future. We're going to work partner with Lake Erie to do some other classes as well, but it really started it starts with Lakeland the 31 hours there. Um, another thing we're doing is we're offering career electives and this is the the brainchild of Dr. Malacher coming out really it it these courses are ones that kind of introduce students to what career paths are. We talk a lot about trying to, you know, I want to go be an engineer. What does it mean to be an engineer? Well, this is a way that kind

022we have these career paths that show you what that looks like. So if I want to go in education, we have a course for people want to be in education. You get to work with students in a different setting because your your experience as a student in a high school is very different than your experience as a teacher in the same high school. Often we hire a lot of alumni back or hiring some tonight. One of the first things they say when the principal, oh where these kids weren't like that when I was here. Well, they were. You just didn't hang out with them. So things have changed a little bit and and the school doesn't. So it's it is to really offer them what the experience looks like. We offer uh we're offering a

023trans transportation and flight class next year where students are going to be drone certified. Um we offer our carpentry class which once that CTC CTE building is is built they'll be able to build uh really cool structures uh in and outside the building not in a math classroom um in other places. Uh we are looking to expand it. We offer welding uh in our state-of-the-art welding lab. We offer the the medical class uh which is touted by uh I've heard the uh president speak not knowing I was in the audience and actually tops the partnership with Riverside um and how they have this course where Riverside students visit every Friday to try to look at different careers in the medical medical care. Something we're really proud of expanding on that and coming out of our

024business advisories next year is the pilot of the capstone project and really looking at what that looks like. Um, and that's a 250 hour um, experience with a mentorship with a student who wants to I might have taken a career active or I really know I want to be an engineer. So, we're going to partner them with an engineer um, and they're going to go do 250 hours on the job experience. We are piling what that looks like and it really is the ultimate in personalized learning. We're we're going to work some leadership skills in there, some basic career skills, but it's going to be the student is going to come up with a proposal and we're going to say, "Well, this proposal gets you a half a credit or this one gets you a

025full credit and this is what it looks like uh along the way to kind of pilot that through and really kind of things that we're super excited about. We also have our traditional CCP. We have our AP class and continue to expand on our AP classes and excel in our AP scores. Our AP scores are are continuing to to rise. We monitor that um as well. So, that's that's kind of career expiration. And that's the one that we're really pushing and and it really burn um expanded at the high school and we're really excited about what a high school experience looks like. It does not look like the same as it did 10 years ago. And it's very personalized and it is the crux of personalizing to get kids when they graduate. They're ready to

026go take on the world and be successful whether it's the military, whether it's the trades or whether it's college. They're they're going to leave and not just say I have a diploma. Now what? No, they know what they're doing and they're ready to go. They may have two or three options. So it's kind of neat to it's neat to see. So, any questions? >> Can you uh share some of the different companies and entities that showed up to work with the capstone project with the students? >> Oh, not not I wasn't here when we did that meeting. >> We I there was Ohio State Fair was there. Um Ohio State was there. The career was extension office was there. >> Metro Parks were there. We had um >> was somebody from uh uh there because

027we have a good partnership with them. >> Do you have honest I don't remember because I wasn't there that day. >> It was a packed house. I think we have what 13 doing it next year. >> Yes. >> We had uh 1922 the coffee shop. >> The coffee shop. That's correct. >> Well, you were there. was uh doing >> it was University Hospitals, Cleveland Construction, Lake Metro Parks, OSU Extension Office, and 1922 Con. >> Yeah. >> And yeah, Cleveland Construction is another one that's really excited about um doing it. And then our college and our seniors do the career electives typically do their their senior project, which is a much shorter project in the in the career that they did the course with. So, it's it's kind of neat neat to see. We had some

028act two students who did a thing with the playhouse where they did they liked fashion so they did the fashion designs for Fitler on the road. Um I saw some who did construction. They were working with various construction companies for a couple weeks to kind of get that. I think it led to summer jobs. So it was a really neat kind of in the career fair you asked about. So >> that concludes my special reports. >> Thank you for that uh discussion of old business. Does anyone have any old business? Yeah. So, I had sent an email out last night or the day before in regards to the work that LLB resources is doing for us. Um, I guess where I want to start is that, you know, the contract with LLB is with the

029entire board of education, not with just one member. And I want to make sure that any materials that are um developed with them, they are being shared with the entire board. Um according to the invoices and approximately $4,500 worth of work that's been done, there should be some deliverables that have been shared with the board. Um I had asked if anybody had those that they would please provide them to us via email. So we had electronic copies. Um I know the administration does not have them, so I don't know if any of the board members have copies of these materials. Do you have any copies? >> No, >> I do not. >> You? >> No. >> Belinda, do you have any? >> I don't have. >> All right. So, I will reach out to them

030directly and ask for them because according to the invoices, they've been developed. There's been a communication plan developed. Um, there's been consultation with team and brainstorming. Um, email templates developed, threaten test emails. We're not even sure what they're testing. Um, so if nobody on the board has knowledge of that, I think it's important that we do. And um so I spoke to Dan McIntyre, our legal resource, and he said that I can just reach out directly. So um otherwise, I'm not sure what we're being built for, but no one's seen the material. >> Um can I can I ask you a question? Any of the emails that are going I don't know. They're they're developing an email list, correct? >> According to this and um Mr. Carbine, I think you had one conversation where they

031said they were developing an email list >> or email. She was in the process of acquiring 27,000 emails >> via a purchase, I'm assuming. >> I don't know. She didn't go into detail. That was back in May. Um, I have not seen any emails or >> Can can I ask the a question of our administration? Any of the emails that would any email that would be sent, would we see that in advance? Are we sending those from district servers, district email address sending? I'm curious like what that looks like >> when we send in when we send to the to the district. It usually runs through Nick uh Mr. Carbine, he actually sends it out from from the administrator. >> Is that the goal of this >> since we haven't seen the plan? I I'm

032>> so I had mentioned to her that if she were to send me a CSV file with all the email addresses, I can upload that onto the current system we use. >> Are we would we mixing it? from >> it would be a separate list. >> Okay. >> Which theoretically, if she's purchasing emails or acquiring emails from everyone in the district, it have the parent emails we already have would be part of that 27,000. >> Okay. And just from the information that you had forwarded via email in response to Mrs. Kroniski's request. I at least I took from it that there were test emails that had been sent that there had been something that had been sent. I don't know that >> she never clarified. I like I said I had mentioned to her that

033if she sends me a file I can upload on my system. I don't know if she's using a different system or because she had mentioned designing templates. Wouldn't that be problematic to be sending things for district communication not coming from the district? >> Why would it be problematic? >> I don't know. I'm asking our administrators. >> We have not had that come up yet. Um all the communications that we have sent have come through have come through our communications manager. I my understanding was the this work was to come up with that email list and that scope of list and then for us to send out and to push out to all parents as we were trying to reach more with our communications than just the parents that we had with the community members. Um

034I also understand that part of our contract when we finally approved a contract was that we would own whatever was produced. Um, and I'm pretty sure by some of the communication that you had sent that that wasn't going to be the case. That also concerns me. Well, there are some follow-up questions. I did talk to Mr. McIntyre about that also. Um, he explained that if they are um purchased or licensed, there's two different options. And so, when I when I reach out, I will get clarification on that. So, we understand. Um I just want to point out it says April 23rd there was a team call to discuss community strategy that took two hours um a communication strategy again the entire board would hasn't even talked about this I don't I don't believe the administration

035from what I'm getting has had too much discussion um on May 4th there was designed communication plan reviewed RS emails I'm not sure what that is website and social media account um on May 5th call with team to review first draft of CP or communication ation plan. I'm not sure who the team is. Phone consultation with Scott Fishell to ensure accuracy of communication plan. Again, we've never seen the plan. So, I think it's very important that we do get those materials as a board so that we can comment on them. Um, organize and tidy data list for purchased Riverside District contact list. Um, charge for that. On June 2025, it's brainstorming calls and LLB team meetings. I'm not sure who we're brainstorming with. Again, never been discussed at this table. um to discuss an action

036plan. So, I'm not sure what the action plan is for. Uh messaging email campaigns, collaboration with LLB's team to create email template. I don't believe our administration or any of the board members unless somebody wants to say they have has collaborated. We've researched and creation of daily emails based on schoolboard meetings and activities. Um ensure accuracy of information with schoolboard president. Um run test emails to ensure end user engagement. So again, all this work's been done um and we've been build and charged for, but none of that has come back to the board. So I'll ask tomorrow when I reach out um since nobody seems to have that information here so that we can find out what we're being charged for. >> Anything else for old business? >> Thank you for that discussion of new

037business. Does anyone have new business? >> Um I I don't know where this falls. So I have two things. Um and this might be old business. I don't know cuz it's approved but um in regards to the flags and display display policies that um I was unable to attend the meeting because it was called 2 days advance um um you know so I had a lot of questions we also had a property meeting or I'm sorry a policy meeting scheduled for this Monday um that we would have had chance to have some of this discussion if um it wasn't put on the agenda on Thursday versus allowing us to have Monday's meeting and put on the agenda for tonight. I do have questions about the policy and how we're going to enforce it or what

038we're going to enforce. So, I don't know if any of that discussion has happened um since it was approved. Has anybody talked about what we're enforcing or what we're doing with this flag policy? >> Well, it's a simple uh flag policy and uh it's a legal document basically. So, you would want to talk with our board attorney about that. >> He told me I could talk to you guys. I did talk to him today. Okay. >> So, for instance, our football team, they run out onto the field with a thin blue line flag. Is that acceptable now or not acceptable? >> You'd have to ask Dan McIntyre that then. >> So, we don't know how this is going to be um implemented or how we're going to enforce this. >> I think it's self identifiable.

039>> It's not because I'm asking the question and I'm not getting answers. >> Okay. It's it's selfidentifiable. >> It would be it would be a legal answer for our board attorney. >> Is our thin blue. If it's selfidentifiable, then tell me is it allowed? You would have to ask our board attorney >> who who initiated the the submission of this policy in the first place? I I don't believe it was our attorney who who designed the the policy in the first place. And do we have administrative guidelines that go behind it? Because generally speaking, when we pass policy, we also have administrative guidelines that go so that we know how to enforce the policy. And >> we would have talked about that in our Monday policy meeting. And again, that's what that meeting is for.

040>> So, I was the one that brought it forth and our board attorney is the one who made the appropriate changes in it to make it the document that uh he thought would uh stand up legally. And so, if you have any questions about it, I would just suggest you ask him. And if you want to have a further discussion about it, we can do that. But he's going to be able to answer those questions better than >> So, what was the purpose of the policy? Well, we're under we're all United States Americans and everyone is underneath the United States flag. There's a thousand other flags out there and so we wanted to make sure that everyone's unified in this district underneath the United States flag. And of course, the outflow from that would be

041military flags, uh, Ohio State flag, and a Riverside flag. And if you have a visiting team, their school flag. So, it's a very, very simple policy. It just brings everyone together underneath one flag. So, I don't know that I got that from reading the policy. What I got was a list of items, but it didn't say what we were going to do with that list of items. It just listed the items. So, that led me to not really understand what that policy was for. And again, if we already have a flag policy and a policy on display of patriotic information. Um, >> so have you read the other flag policy? >> I did. >> And do you know what it says? I do it. It outlines the type of display that we can have. This

042policy didn't say anything. The one that that was proposed said just gave a list of items. >> So the other flag policy is a matter of law. We have to have that policy because the state of Ohio requires us to have that policy. So that's law. And what that policy is is it describes how you can display the flag, how another flag can't be in front of it and and it can't be lower than other flags and so on and so forth. And and that's just a legal document uh from the state of Ohio that we are required to have as a policy. So this other flag just brings everyone underneath the United States flag. It's very simple. We all want to be underneath one flag, one unified purpose under United States of America underneath

043the United States flag. So simple. >> I I would like to ask again, what does the policy tell us we can or cannot do? So to Mrs. Kroniski's question, >> can the football team come out on the field with their flag that they bring out with them? >> Is that acceptable according to this policy or not? We don't have any administrative guidelines to go behind it. So, >> so there's there's there's a lot of things subject to interpretation. No, I'm asking you because you you wanted to have that policy put forth. So, I am asking you. >> Yeah, we're you can ask the board attorney. >> So, I did ask the board attorney just to say and we are not allowed to have the thin blue line flag brought out onto the field for this

044policy. Um, so that's one thing, but again, I think we need to explain the expectations to our board, to the administration of what we expect and how they're going to enforce this. And that has to come from the board. That's not going to come from our attorney. He will guide us, but it's not going to come from him. So, I guess I would ask, and I'll bring it back next month, for us to think about does the PL policy clearly define which displays are appropriate and which are not. Are there any gaps or ambiguities? How should the district handle requests to display symbols not explicitly mentioned in the policy? What process should administrators follow to approve or deny proposed displays? How do we ensure consistent enforcement of this policy across all schools and buildings? Should

045the board consider updating the policy to explic explicitly address electronic displays or social media? I even question and I don't know if we've asked but all the banners that we have along >> being said we were okay. >> We're good with those. Okay. >> Just covered in what >> the district advertising. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So again, I think the board needs to think about that and it's probably worth again having a policy committee meeting so that we can discuss it and bring it to the board, but everybody should have input into that. >> Okay. Great. And so let me ask you, Miss Krinsky, you're the chair of the policy committee. And how many policy meetings have we had this year? >> We have them when the new policy comes out to discuss or when

046something like this comes up. It was scheduled. >> I don't know, Mr. Official. The point is we had >> zero. >> Wow. >> Okay. >> Are you proud of yourself? But anyways, >> so are you going to call a policy meeting? >> I did call a policy meeting. It was scheduled for Monday to discuss this policy and to address these questions. >> Are you having that meeting? Well, no, because you already approved the policy on Thursday when everybody was not available. There were three board members available to discuss it. >> So, let me understand. You're not having a policy meeting that you called, >> but you're going to schedule a policy meeting in the future. >> Mr. Official, we scheduled a policy meeting to discuss the policy so that we could have a discussion at

047the table. You called a meeting two days in advance where two people were not available and approved the policy. There was no need to have the policy meeting on Monday. But now that we know that we don't know these answers to these questions, yes, I will call another policy meeting. >> Great. So, you'll let us know when that meeting's going to be. >> I let you know when the last one was, but that's okay. >> So, you question. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. >> The other question is talking about scheduling meetings is the fact that recently there's been a lot of meetings scheduled when everybody cannot be available and we need to discuss how as a board that we will ensure we are all elected officials on this board. There's not three elected officials, maybe

048four. There's five elected officials on this board and we need to make sure that we're having discussion about what needs to be constituted a special meeting um like the flag policy that could have waited till today or um when can all the board members be available and that's not been happening. So I want to ask the board how can we ensure that we are working together and making sure that everybody can be available for board meetings. So when a board meeting is called, sometimes there's a time sensitivity to that. And although your job schedule won't permit you to make some of the meetings, sometimes we still have to have the meeting. >> Okay. It's my understanding. >> Excuse me. Excuse me until I'm finished. Okay. >> Sure. >> Thank you. And so when there's a

049time sensitivity to a meeting, it's absolutely necessary to have that meeting. And if all board members can't make it, you still have to have the meeting. There's business to be taken care of in the district. And I know you had said that you change jobs and you have a time constraint with your job and it's difficult for you to make certain times. So we will make every accommodation possible so you can make meetings um and and we'll do everything we can but when there's something that's time sensitive there would be nothing we can do. >> So I'm I'm just going to interject here. This was not timesensitive number one and number two there was no communication at all asking if we could make a meeting on Thursday. There was there was no communication. It came

050out there was a meeting. There was a meeting request. I said I I can't attend a meeting on that date and I sent a message. That was the first I heard of a meeting. There was no asking or polling or nothing. Last Tuesday morning's meeting I confirmed with our attorney was not a um rush. We could have made some different arrangements for that one and I was asked him to reach out and I was told no. Um there was one in regards to construction um that I actually reached out to Roger to discuss. He said again that there was no rush to that one. But each one of these has been displayed as a rush. And when I talk to the people that I'm told say they are a rush, I'm told they're not. So

051again, I'm asking how can we as a board work together to ensure Mrs. Brewster would not like to be dismissed from a meeting. Um Mr. Keany, I'm assuming you like to be at meetings. I do have a daytime job. And so when we schedule a 7:30 a.m. meeting that does not allow the public to come or a board member to come, then we probably should do a little bit better. So I'm asking, how do we work together to make sure that gets done? >> Well, the first question is since you seem to have the most time constraints, when what times of the day and what days can you meet? >> Mr. Fel, my calendar is all different. That's not the point. I'm asking what process. For instance, we used to send out doodle polls, >>

052doodle polls um to everybody so they could say, "Here's my times that I can meet and then everybody would we look for the best time for everybody. >> Can we put that process in the place instead of saying, "Hey, there's a meeting Thursday. Show up." >> So, the board has been executing a lot of business. You know, in the last 10 months, we've done more than this board's done in the last 20 years. Okay? And sometimes you need to move along and take care of business and not put a poll out and wait three weeks for a meeting. I don't think >> I'm asking again when are you normally available during the week. >> Again, my schedule is different. I'm asking for a process so we can try to get the most people here at

053a meeting. You can push back. You can blame the history. You can blame whatever you want, Mr. Official, but this is about boardmanship and the way that you're behaving by not including everybody. You're excluding people. >> I'm asking when can you make it? >> Can you forward me your schedule >> and forget it >> because 7:30 in the morning? Can you make seven in the morning? >> Mr. official. My schedule is different every day of the week. That's what I'm saying. So, if you have a meeting, you need to before say it's going to be on the meeting in two days. Send something out so you can talk to people. That's all I'm asking. >> Would you like me to call you first to say when you're >> Mr. Mr. But you didn't call anyone?

054>> I'm done. >> So, to say would you like me to call you first? That would be great. But you didn't call anyone at all. >> Well, it doesn't look like we're getting anywhere. >> No, there was no communication about a meeting. So, >> Mrs. Sir, can I ask if we scheduled a meeting without you four times, how would you feel about it? >> There were times when the I'm asking how would you feel and I actually made myself available when I was in Florida. I visiting my great granddaughter. >> So if you had to ask for line I pulled off the freeway. >> How many how would you feel available? >> Well, I'm sorry. I have a daytime job. But I I also work and my job starts at 8:00, but I make up

055that time later in the day and um so I work around my schedule as best I can um because I I want to be available. I know we're on some of these um agendas. There were staff um approvals that needed to happen so we could move forward. And I think that it's important when we're doing hiring because I've sat in on several of the especially the administrative um interviews um you want people to um be approved and you they also have to give notification. There are deadlines on when you know they have to let their district know. So um we we just try to work around those dates and then >> So you're going to avoid the question. I appreciate it. there was some kind of um deadline as far as notification regarding the treasurer.

056>> There wasn't. I talked to our attorney about it. >> So, thank you. >> There was also no no rush in passing a policy for flags. >> Yeah, >> that was that could have waited. >> Okay. So, thank you for that. uh board of education committee and liaison reports the buildings and grounds and the uh superintendent's uh business advisory council which our superintendent said we're taking the summer off. >> Yes, correct. >> So So that's taking the summer off for that and um of course when the kids come back we'll re-engage. >> We'll have one. >> Okay. Um we at the buildings and grounds uh Mr. Allesic informed us that all the fire systems were tested in the schools and all is good. The backflows were tested and tagged in all schools. Several failed the

057testing, but the repairs will be completed in several weeks. So that'll be taken care of. The sprinkler systems in the fieldhouse, Riverview, and Parkside were tested and all passed. Fire extinguishers throughout the district were inspected and tagged. Um there is a senior parking space uh painting proposal and Mr. Hall offered a proposal um and it's going to be where where uh kids are painting parking spaces. Right. >> Correct. >> And um and we're also going to try to control kids parking in staff parking spaces. Right. >> Only Dr. Walkers. >> Oh yeah. Well, I'm so busy trying to fix the blinds which did nothing. We all look like natur. >> So you you've been kind enough to offer your space as an overflow space for >> Yes. I want it painted. I I'll let the

058kids paint it. I want my spot painted. >> So there's going to be >> and I was told I can't literally it was just a no. >> Okay. All right. So that's u so that will be going on uh and that'll be in the campus parking lot. Uh varsity uh softball field scoreboard. More info to come on that. We're looking at possibly acquiring a scoreboard and um as Nick very kindly stated, it's often a a business deal, a collaboration to where we can get the scoreboard and the company supplying it will sell advertising over over time and of course our costs will be cut on that and then after it's paid for, we end up splitting the profits uh from those sales. Correct. Correct. >> Okay. So, we're looking into that right now and information

059um will come. Uh there was an approval for a purchase order u a request for approval for a purchase order for 4 $41,000 for $41,474 for gem service for an HBAC and controls contract for Parkside and Riverview. Previously, the contract was with Gardener and their renewal quote was for $44,000. It's about $25,000 higher and uh we're looking at actually developing uh even an even better relationship with Jen Gem than we had before. So anyway, a lot of this is preventive and ongoing maintenance. Um the we had uh CTE wing alternatives. So we're we're building the CTE wing of course. uh thank you for uh acquiring the $2.5 million grant and um and so we're adding about a million and a half to that and with that there is an opportunity to air condition the cafeteria

060and commons area and also the choir and band room. Um there was also >> not the band room just the choir room. >> Just the choir room. Okay, just the choir room. Okay, thank you for that. And then also there was a quote given for the lecture room, but um we're we're thinking that we're not going to do the lecture room just yet. So anyway, the costs are for the cafeteria and commons $135,48976 and the cost for the choir room is $56,551. And these add-ons uh to the CTE wing are are things that make sense because with the construction going on right now, we're touching those areas and it would be less expensive for us to do this now than it would be to do it later. And so um we had discussed that and

061Mr. Keiny was looking a little bit more into the details on that and so we will u probably be calling a special meeting if everyone can make it hopefully and um and we'll we will approve that because the construction we don't want the construction to slow down. Um so that meeting as we talk about it hopefully will be next week and we could talk about that later. Um, okay. So, there was um a dust unit that was um used for carpentry and other things, right, Mr. Keiny? >> In the wood shop. And the exhaust was throwing dust back into the wood shop. Okay. That's being fixed. And uh the motor's being replaced on the exhaust fan and that should be working properly after that work is completed. And then the last item that Mr. Alesc

062mentioned was the CTE and Riverview update. Everything is moving forward and of course Roger gave us that update. And that's what I have for buildings and grounds. Uh policy committee. >> Do you want to hit curriculum and programming first? >> Uh curriculum. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. >> Okay. >> Thank you for that. Curriculum. >> All right. On the curriculum and programming committee, uh we did not have a meeting this month, but we are meeting on August 14th at 7:30 a.m. And um so we will be discussing um current business uh primarily um you know, start of school. Um we're continuing to review our uh test data. It's not finalized yet. And um we'll also be talking about um a little bit about professional development. Um and then also as far as the Buckeye uh

063elementary ad hoc committee um that pretty much is completed because um Ryan Schmidt from then design um just took the ideas from um you know what that that committee came up with and he's incorporating um all of that into a final design. Um there's a two-step process. Um as far as the addition um what that looks like, that was pretty much finalized before the end of the year, but there's also considerations for what the inside of the existing building looks like. Um when we go in the following summer, um what rooms might be divided? Um making appropriate space for support services. uh not using um spaces that could be given back um to you know staff to have a proper bathroom rather than use a bathroom that's located in the kitchen. Um u maybe relocating

064the sensory room that was another consideration. So um that's all still in discussion. Um and then um I am following up with um uh Ryan Schmidt uh regarding a playground. Um, it's my understanding that the existing play apparatus that's out there is going to be in the fenced area. It's an older piece of equipment. It's not advised to move it. Um, it's not cost-effective to do so. And then you come under all these regulations and by the time you add the money, you just go new. So, he is talking with the rep um, and we're trying to find something that to replace that. and the location would be behind uh the library, but that won't be the final overall playground because there'll be other things that are going to be added closer to the building.

065Uh because we are going to uh be going into an area where they had a basketball court, even though the surface isn't the greatest, there there will be eventually an area that's black top once the construction is done for basketball. Um, there's plans to develop some more of the field in the back. And there's going to be some grading off and some drainage so that that's not too wet. And we're going to try to keep the um ball field that's there intact so that the kids can still do that. So, we're I just want to make sure that we're not taking away an area where they can um have a playground during construction. Um and then um as far as the strategic strategic plan leaison um you know we pretty much were working on the

066uh pathway to excellence and uh Dr. Ratino has done a great job of in segments covering all that. Uh and I think that's about it. Um you know we we are monitoring um enrollment and things like that. That kind of comes under several headings. Um, we do have one less kindergarten section at Buckeye, one at Riverview, correct? Uh, with the numbers and they're pretty much holding up. We just >> Well, we have St. We have four views. >> Yeah. >> Right. And we, um, you know, encourage families to please sign up. Don't wait till the last minute so we can appropriately plan space because some class sizes are right there and if they we get a few more registrations they might go to another section. So we we have several that are on watch. >>

067Okay. >> Can I can I ask one quick question because you mentioned the playground equipment at Buckeye quite frequently. Didn't the parent organization at Buckeye purchase that playground equipment some years ago? uh not too not too too long ago and they did all the installation work if I'm not mistaken. Um has any conversation been had with them about their playground equipment that they have purchased? I realize it turns over to the to the school when they donate it, but it may be nice to at least have a conversation with them if they did that. Dr. Ratino, >> I will look I do not know the answer to that. That was before my time. I will look into that get the answer. It may have been while you were right. Like I just don't remember exactly

068when that was. >> We'll see if I can find the answers. >> I do remember that though. So, >> okay. >> Well, that's fine. But, you know, the the newer one because the story was told about, you know, getting when Beachwood put in their um uh brand new uh multi-million dollar playground, they donated um some nice equipment to a school, but by the time they had to go through um A through Z on making it compliant and doing everything, they could have bought a whole new piece of equipment. I don't know if you have anything else to um you know say about that Mr. um because we discussed it in Buckeye committee um about salvaging or using that piece of equipment >> trying to salvage playground liability if you move something put it back it

069fails that >> right okay thank you >> okay thank you for that uh policy and alumni >> um as mentioned we had a policy committee meeting scheduled for July 21st to discuss the policy that was approved prior to that. So, it was cancelled. Um so, no other policy updates. Um alumni association, they had their golf outing and they felt it was successful. They're still pulling all their um numbers together to figure out how much money they earned and they are in full planning mode for the um alumni association hall of fame dinner which is on October 18th. >> That is it. Thank you for that. Uh booster, >> I don't have any current updates, but I am going to ask that the individuals who are in charge of the different PTO's, PTAs, parent organizations, and

070booster groups, if they can let me know who's now in charge of those. I don't know if you have a list currently, Nick, of the people who are in charge for the coming year. >> Right. So, um, if they can reach out to me and let me know who who is in charge of those organizations now because I have old lists from last year, that would be helpful for me. And just a note out to the band boosters, please give me a an email or send me a message or text or call because, you know, I like to work concessions, so I'm looking to get on your list. >> Okay. Thank you for that superintendence report. >> Uh, yes. Thank you. Um couple of different items today. First of all, uh in our there I

071am uh in our crowd tonight, Dr. Steven Thompson is our new treasurer and CFO and he is here. So I want to welcome him to the district and the family. So welcome Dr. Thompson. >> I am short but not that short. >> So thank you and of course thank you for choosing Riverside and joining our Riverside team. We really appreciate that. Um, also, uh, one prior approved and one on the agenda tonight. So, um, I want to bring the board to attention to some new administrative hires. First of all, Courtney Patton is going to be our Courtney, please say we're excited to welcome Courtney home. She's an alum. I don't remember what year you graduated. >> 2010 2010 alum. Uh, we got to bring her back to the Riverside campus AP uh, predominantly in John

072R next year. And, uh, Mr. Tom Riley is a uh going to be the Parkside Elementary principal be and Tom is in the back there. Uh Tom has been at Lemouth forever and is um embracing hugs now at at Parkside. So we're really excited uh for that transition as well. This morning uh Mrs. Aliff was really busy, although it doesn't look like that, but that's cuz she was in the lecture room um with our job fair. Uh we hosted the fourth annual Riverside job fair and it was a great turnout. We had 22 applicants attend the event seeking non-eing and substitute teaching positions. Uh we found a number of uh people who we've already our directors already fighting over uh who's going to fill in the spot as well as substitutes and thanks for all

073who attended to make it a great event and it really was um an awesome event to come in and see just all the people talking and wanting to be a part of the district uh and fill those needed positions. So it was it was great. So thanks to all who were involved with that. Um, some upcoming great community events, meet the teams night. And I believe it's also the band showcase, the fall band showcase this Wednesday, August 20th, uh, on the in the fieldhouse there. I think we're also going to do another recognition of the softball team. I don't think the rings will be in at that time, but we're going to do a ring ceremony as well. As well as the community tailgate party is August 29th. Uh, it's moving a little bit and

074we're still finalizing the details of where it is. think it's going to be on the band practice field u as weather dependent, but it can't be where it typically is because of the construction back there. So, we're going to move the tailgate, but we're still going to have it and we're still going to kick that off. And that is the second game of the season versus Green, I believe that game is. Um, and finally, although they could not be here tonight, I wanted to wish a congratulations, the happy retirement to both uh Mrs. Cheryl Landing, who's our executive director of student services, as well as Mr. Chuck Schlick, the assistant superintendent. Um they are rounding out their years and they have one more week, seven days um to come to work. Um on behalf of

075the district and the board, we will be sending them with the standard um drawings of the schools that are framed suitable for framing. Um so they will receive one of those uh each of them as well. And I can say just to speak personally about both of them, you don't get two better people. And although we did um you know we they're they're irreplaceable. Um Cheryl's been in the district for 26 years, Chuck for 22. Um both of them always have done so much for this district in terms of growing us, getting us to where we are. Um and they are they are Riverside and they're who we are. So they are they are definitely going to be missed. Um and August 1st on that come that Friday, a little feel like long weekend. I

076think the Monday might feel a little different for them. Um so you know congratulations and we wish them both the best. And last but not least uh thank you and best wishes to Mr. Placo um our treasurer who is this is his last board meeting. Uh he is headed off to Orange uh to be the to be the treasurer. Thank you for all you've done in your nine years and 10 years of perfect audience and um really advocating for kids and students along the way and being creative in the way we solve some of our issues um through the good times and some of the not so good times and kind of taking us out of that into where we are today. So, >> thank you and best luck and I believe Mr. Fish has

077something to present to you. >> We have a plaque in recognition and appreciation of your service and dedication to the Riverside local school district presented to Gary A. Plantco, CPA, treasurer, CFO. Thank you so much for your service and the best in all you're doing in your next endeavor. >> Thank you. >> You have to retire to get the picture of the school. So, and uh there is cake for everyone afterwards. But that concludes my report. >> Okay. Thank you for that. Treasures treasures report and committee update finance audit and personnel. >> Okay, we uh held our meeting on July 17th. Uh once again, typical personnel updates, uh retirements, resignations, new hires, uh you know, advertising for new positions or open positions. Uh you'll find a lot of that in the agenda. Um the finance

078uh board agenda review was uh everything needs to be updated as of June 30th. Uh and that's in the process of being done. uh turnover of all um necessary documents and uh resources and everything will transition from the old treasurer to the new treasurer. Uh along with the uh fiscal year 2025 close uh with the state budget um there was a few items that are still up in the air. Uh I think one of those has been uh item 55, 65 and 66 items. Uh I think one of them has been u had the the veto overridden. The other two are still out there pending resolution. Um there's a federal grant update that uh some grants have been frozen at this point. uh they relate to title two, four and three which uh regards professional

079development uh safety, security, tech etc and u English language uh English language u learners >> learners Yeah, right. So, it it's they have to uh there's a lot of that going on there. So, so that'll get resolved somehow or it won't. We'll see. Um there's been some uh new salary compensation uh with a 3% increase uh for certain personnel. Uh assistant principal at Parkside, which uh was mentioned earlier, is coming on. uh is an executive assistant secretary uh position and uh long-term postings are uh also being done. And that concludes that report. >> Thank you for that update from the treasurer. >> All right. Um as always, we'll go through our uh monthly financial reports. Uh so June 2025, June's our fiscal year end. As always, the reports are available in board docs and the

080treasures page on our website. The uh total cash balance for all of our funds are just shy of $37 million. The general fund balance was just over 20 million. The permanent improvement fund uh ended the year at 7.5 million in cash of which just shy of 7.4 millions encumbered committed for our construction projects and other items with 108,000 uh left in the fund at the end of the fiscal year. Uh for June, the revenue from the general fund was 1.2 2 million, which includes about $600,000 in unrestricted state foundation payments and just over $400,000 in threshold cost reimbursement. That's an annual process we go through each year. Uh we report students of of higher costs that are special needs to the state and they have a pool of money they distribute uh to each district.

081Um so our reimbursement was just over 400,000. That's a little bit higher than it's been in recent years, which is good good as far as revenue perspective, but it also means you're incurring more special ed costs if that number is going up as well. uh interest revenue in June was about 95,000 for the general fund we're getting 4.48% instar Ohio and our red tree investment account getting about 3.7% interest so we're overall yield about 4.2 and expenditures for June uh 7 just shy of 7.2 million that's higher than normal because we had the end of the year advance to the career tech fund which was about I don't know $2.2 $2 million in advance and then we had uh some transfers from other funds as well. Uh we also uh we transferred additional money to

082the termination benefits fund because we have a lot of separes coming up uh this this year and those are that money was sent aside just to ensure that there was proposed uh cash balance limitation in in the state budget. We want to make sure that we kind of did that before the end of the fiscal year instead of doing it in July which we typically do with that. looking at where we came in at the end of the fiscal year, comparing our May 2025 forecast that was finalized in late April to where we uh ended the fiscal year. Uh the first two lines, general property tax and public utility personal property tax, those numbers were were known in March, so there's no variance there. Uh our state funding, unrestricted grants and aid came in 36%

083higher than expected. Restricted grants and aid came about $69,000 or 10% higher. uh that was a little bit difficult to predict this year because of all these science reading reimbursements getting from the state for teachers completing that training. So next fiscal year those those numbers will be smaller and will be more predictable. uh state share of local property taxes at your homestead reimbures from the state of Ohio uh came in.34% higher than we projected and then the uh all other uh operating revenues came in 171,000 higher than typical about 5.3% higher higher interest income Medicaid revenue and that line item and then all their financing resources uh which includes the threshold cost reimbursement goes to that line was about 11% higher so overall our revenue came in 351,000 higher than we than we anticipated of

084or 0.67% uh for this year. On the expenditure side, the uh salaries came in.44% higher than expected. Uh retirement benefits came in about 2.88% lower, about $388,000 lower. Uh some of that's just due to uh we didn't typically charge benefits to grant funds in prior years and we've started doing it this year and reallocating some things around. Uh so that number was a little bit difficult to predict this year but still uh pretty close to being in line. Uh purchase services about 217,000 higher or 3% higher than we expected. Supplies coming in just 28,000 higher about 1.49% but then cap out a came down slightly below. And then uh down at the bottom here looking at transfers out, you know, as we said, we we transferred additional money to the ter termination benefits funds. Uh

085that decision was made after the forecast was finalized. So obviously there's a larger variance there. But on the advances out, we didn't have to advance the full 2.5 million because we didn't finalize the furniture purchase or the equipment purchase for the career tech grant. So that advance was lowered. So when it all washes out, our expenditures ended up 83,000 higher than expected or 0.15% when you put it all together. Our cash balance is about 1.35% higher than usual. Um so we're ended the year just over 20 million and we had a little bit higher outstanding incumbrances than normal. Um half of that's due to money we're owed to the men school district for the CARES program that we're finalizing that amount. So that was more than half of that number was was for that Looking

086at interest income for this year on the lefth hand side uh we allocate interest out to various funds through the district general fund about 1.1 million bond retirement fund about 90,000 and we have some other miscellaneous funds uh and then the permanent improvement fund about 339,000 total interest was about just shy of 1.8 8 million. On the right hand side, you can see the uh the history there. You can see back in the early days prior to my coming, interest rates were near zero. We didn't have very good cash balance at the time either, so interest was minimal to none. And then uh in 2017, when we passed the operating levy, that got us back on our financial footing and interest rates had gone up until COVID happened in 2020. So in fiscal year 2021,

087you saw we drop from 307,000 down to 34,000. And then we all know rates have skyrocketed in recent years. So we've been averaging north of 1.1 million and 1.8 million in in those more recent years. Uh state budget update. This is expand upon what Mr. Keane was was planning. The the House did vote on the veto override. uh that was the one to uh eliminate uh new emergency and substitute levies. There's a combined we came to a combined income tax and property tax levy and there was one other type that was also there. Uh it was it passed the house with 61 votes and needed 60 to override but it it still has to go to the senate to be considered u which has not been scheduled yet. Once the senate approves that it'll go

088in effect about 90 days after that. uh the the state legislator still had they still have till December of 2026 if they wanted to override other vetos. The other two that were up for consideration was uh including emergency and substitute levies and the 20 mil floor. Uh they did not consider that one yet, but that one will probably happen at some point in the future. I'm projecting uh Riverside only has one substitute levy of 2.9 mills. We are on the 20 mil floor. So, if that legislation passes, uh, we'd include that in our 2004 calculation. That would not lower anybody's taxes, per se. It would just prevent future increases when values increase in the future. But, you know, we're only about a 10 to 15% increase away from being back on the 20th floor if

089there was no uh new levies if that legislation was put into effect. Any other uh item that was veto override consideration that has not been voted on yet was to uh authorize the county budget commissions to roll back taxes for school districts and other entities. Uh basically that the county budget commission is your county auditor, county treasurer, the county prosecutor. Uh Jagi County does a lot of this currently. Lake County does not uh pretty much uh they've been told not to do anything. There's been a lot of misunderstanding currently about what powers the budget commission has and what if they don't have this uh the item that was vetoed was giving them that explicit power to do that. I imagine with uh 88 counties, you'd have 88 budget commissions doing 88 different things and I

090could see a lot of nuances if that was details supposed to be overwritten. Um, lastly, just it's, you know, being my last board meeting here, I just wanted to, you know, thank the board and thank the central office administration, my staff, and the community for the these past nine years. Uh, we've done a lot of good things in the last nine years. And I I want to just kind of highlight some of the things that we've done because you look back and I think we we did a lot and, you know, I'm proud of it. I didn't do it by myself. Did it with you know, help of everyone here and and Dr. Kay as well when he was here. You know, we we constructed two new elementary schools, Parkside and Riverview. We had the

091the John R. Williams gym converted into the weight room. We had turf installed on our football field. We had an operating levy passed in 2017, which was the first new operating money since 2004. Allowed us to bring back transportation, lower our pay to participate fees, uh bring back elementary specials. Uh eventually led to implementing free all day tuition free kindergarten for all students. we were able to do that. And then probably one of the one of my proudest accomplishments was working with the sheriff's office to implement our school safety officer program to have an officer in every building which you know at Riverview this fall you know it really showed us the need for that and you know the cost of that program while it is costly you can't put a price on safety. We

092also had, you know, a lot of grants over the years. We were able to do the secure vestibule project in all of our legacy buildings. Uh, so we have secure entrances at all of our schools and um, now we have the career tech edition. I'm hoping to come back when you guys do a a ribbon breaking ribbon cutting. They want to see what that looks like when it's all said and done. I know a lot of work has gone into that as well. And just wanted to say thank you. And I'm only a phone call away if there's any questions or anything that comes up because I, you know, being here for nine years, a lot of knowledge up here that may not be in paper and I can tell you a lot of funny

093stories too that's happened along the way as well. So, >> thank you. >> Well, thank you uh Mr. Pleco. Appreciate that. Appreciate your service. >> Okay. Public comment. Anyone like to uh speak? Anyone wishing to address the board of education will be recognized by the board president. Speakers are requested to speak from the podium, identify themselves and their topic. Comments are limited to three minutes. Good evening, members of the board, administrators, and fellow community members. My name is Janette Jones and I'm here tonight because I'm deeply concerned about how our district is using our permanent improvement funds. These funds were intended for long-term meaningful investments in our schools. Please explain to me how we've gone from over $9 million in our PI fund to just under $80,000 all within one year. What happens when we

094drain the fund and we need something in an emergency situation? What will be cut? Will it be busting again? Layoffs, paytoplay, please tell me because that is where we are headed. PI funds are not a blank check. They are taxpayer dollars. We as a community approve these levies in good faith, trusting they'd be used wisely to improve our schools for the next generation. We are witnessing an alarming amount of good administrators and good teachers leaving our district. When teachers no longer feel valued, heard, or given the tools they need, they will leave. It has become increasingly clear that the majority of our school board, the majority of our school board is not acting in alignment with the will of the community in which it was elected to serve. Time and time again, community members have

095shown up at meetings like this to express our priorities, transparency, fiscal responsibility, and decisions that directly benefit students and classrooms. Yet, those voices are being ignored. Whether it's the misuse of PI funds, the lack of accountability in spending or decisions made behind closed doors, the board is not honoring honoring the trusted place it had been by the people who funded who fund and support this district. When input is repeatedly dismissed and community priorities are set aside, it sends a clear message. This board is not listening. Once trust is broken and credi credibility is lost, it's nearly impossible to get it back. That's why protecting your name, your character should matter more than protecting a position or defending a poor decision. At the end of the day, your good name and your character are all you

096really have. Titles come and go. Budgets rise and fall. But your integrity, how you lead, how you treat people, how you stand when no one's watching, that's what defines you. Thank you, M. Miss. Jones, just uh a correction. The permanent improvement fund is used for permanent improvements. Has nothing to do with busing, has nothing to do with salaries, has nothing to do with benefits or daily operations. not a single dollars being used from the general fund for the improvements that are being done. Also, it was a permanent improvement levy which generates every year $2.7 to $2.8 million and then with the investments that the treasurer makes, we end up with about $3 million of usable dollars each year. So, the money will be replenished and then be able to use for future projects. So, it

097doesn't have anything to do with busing or cutting any programs. So what happens when all that all that money is gone? >> It get we get more this next year. 3 million. >> Okay. But we've had we had 9 million. >> I know. So we're using it to create room. You know, I don't know if you're aware of this, but at Riverview, we were what's called minus three classrooms. It was overcrowded to the point of minus three classrooms. So we're building eight. So we'll be able to get those three classrooms back for normal use. And then also there's 1,500 homes being built. All of those students go through Riverview for elementary. So that'll allow for space so that we don't have to buy trailers to put kids in. Okay. And then the CT the CTE

098wing uh we were able to get a $2.5 million grant. We're adding probably at this point a little over a million and a half to that for opportunities for the students. So I just want you to be aware of that. The general fund, not a single dollar is being touched. for the special meetings that you guys have. Is that um do you guys get paid for those every time there's a special meeting? Does that come out of the PI fund or the general fund? >> So when there's a special meeting >> the board is paid out of the general fund. >> So when there's a special meeting >> Yes. And so just so you know the the big dollars we get is $125 only for a meeting. We are not paid for meeting. >> We

099are not paid for committee meetings. Okay? We're not paid for any other work we do. We're only paid for the meetings. So, I just want to make you aware. So, thank >> you still get paid for the special meetings. >> Yes. And thank you for your comments. We appreciate that. >> There's a little bit more to it, but I don't think this is the right time to go into it. And I think if you have any other questions, just feel free to reach out to a board member. >> Okay. Thank you for that. And we have a consent agenda, finance and audit. >> Was there any other public comment? I don't know that >> I'm not seeing anyone else that wants to speak. Do you have any other questions, Miss Kiski? No, I don't. Thank

100you. >> Thank you. Uh consent agenda, finance and audit. >> Okay. Uh I'll make a motion to approve the items listed A through Q on the finance audit consent agenda as recommended by the treasur. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? None heard. Uh please take the role. >> Laura Kiski >> I. >> Scott Mitchell. >> I. Dinany. >> Hi, >> Denise Brster. >> Hi, >> Glenda Grassi. >> I >> motion carried. Consent agenda personnel. >> Uh, make a motion to approve the items uh A through Listed on the personnel consent agenda as recommended by the superintendent. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? Hearing none, please take the role. Scott Fishell, >> Ice Brewster, >> if I can interrupt real quick. >> Motion carried. >> Oh, sorry. Okay.

101>> Now, if I can interrupt real quick, uh, we did just approve our head basketball coach, boys basketball coach Matt Cardina, who is here with us tonight. Congratulations, coach. >> Best of luck to you. Thank you. Okay. Consent agenda, curriculum and programming. >> All right. Um, I make a motion to approve the items A through C listed on the curriculum and programming consent agenda as recommended by the superintendent. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? >> All right. Mr. 5 please call the roll. >> Dennis Keaney >> I. >> Denise Brewster >> I. >> Belinda Graassy >> I. >> Lori Kamiski >> I. >> Scott Bishel. >> I. Motion carried. Consent agenda buildings and grounds. Make a motion to approve the items listed above A and B in the buildings and grounds

102operations consent agenda as recommended by the superintendent. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Any discussion? Gary, can you take the role? >> Denise Bister, >> I >> Lori Kiski, >> I. >> Scott Visual, >> I. >> Dennis Keane, >> I. >> Motion carried. uh board of education business crown of Akran bus under coating resolution to approve a purchase order with Crown Akran for the undercoating of 50 school buses at a total cost of $18,125. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Can I just ask why this is not under the superintendent's recommendation or administrative recommendation section? >> The first K&1 came under business so we kept it under there. Crown is the this is an AAN company that's local that we reached out to to get a

103quote. They are actually going to do a um they have newer equipment so they're going to take them off site and do it that way. >> So did we approve a previous contract? >> We did. We approved it with the board approved it with crown in >> armor lining >> or armor lining. >> Right. What I'm saying is do we need to disengage from that contract formally? >> No. The way Kyle Andre explained it to me was they weren't going to do it uh for the vendor. They've recommended we just do it through acance but it's closer >> and because it was a change in vendor the amount didn't change or anything just the change in vendor that we >> so it's my understanding they're related companies it's like a satellite almost >> I believe

104though the uh one in Pennsylvania is the is the >> main distributor right so okay so um >> is this being recommended by our administrative team >> this is a board item >> any other uh comments. Gary, can you take the role? >> Belinda Grassi, >> Nate. >> Lori Keski, >> Nate. >> Scott Fishell, >> I. >> Dennis Keaney, >> I. >> Denise Brewster, >> I. >> Motion carried, just as a side note, that should uh over approximately 20 years save the district about $6 million taking care of our buses. In the past, what had happened was without treatments, the buses would rust out at about 12 years and almost be unusable or close to it. Uh 5-year Canadian military study showed that you get a $6 return for every dollar you use in this

105treatment process. And so we we started that last year and we're continuing it and uh we would plan to continue this this process to save the taxpayers money. So anyway, >> little info >> just like that too, just to note there's no um I've read up a bunch of different studies. There's no guarantee of that. I have asked our prior. So I'll ask again um to make sure that we're taking a look at how our maintenance costs do decrease to prove out that this is working like they said it would too. So kind of costbenefit analysis at some point. >> Thank you for that attention. And we have uh any board of education updates? >> Um yes, I have something for Gary Plateco. He can come over here and get it. And he needs to

106show the entire public >> what it is. >> We do it after the meeting. >> No, we have to do it right now. >> No, you have to do it now. >> Sorry. >> It's a bag of oranges. >> My daughter, she's like, "You're not going to be a beaver anymore. You're going to be an orange." And I'm like, "Well, they're the lions. They're not just I just want to say a hearty congratulations to Gary Pleco. He has been um an extreme asset to this district. Um there's not a whole lot else I can say about that. I will miss you. And to Cheryl Lanning and Chuck Schlick who are not here, I will miss them as well. >> Thank you for that. Next meeting announcement, finance and personnel, August 7th at 8:00 a.m. Curriculum

107and Programs Committee August 14th, 7:30 a.m. Board of Education meeting August 14th, 6:00 p.m. And I make a motion to adjourn at 7:26 p.m. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you. Gary, can you call the role? >> Lori Christie. >> Hi. Scott Fishell. >> Hi, >> Dennis Keane. >> Hi, >> Denise Brewster. >> I graci. >> Motion carried. Have a great evening everyone and thank you for coming.