001I call to order this meeting of the Stoman Row Falls City Schools Board of Education on Monday, May 5th, 2025 at 6 PM. Roll call, please. East Junkens, here. Merleti here. Sheen Sodonic here. Wind here. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Everything we do is designed to provide a future ready student- centered learning experience for every single child. Our strategic plan for 2021 through 2026 will help us accomplish this goal by considering every facet of a student's learning experience from curriculum to infrastructure to wellness and everything in between. As members of the board of education, we serve as trustees. Therefore, this is a business
002meeting being conducted in public, not a public meeting. We are grateful to serve and engaged and community and therefore encourage and respect input from citizens. We expect that everyone present will behave in a manner consistent with the behavior we expect of our students. We reserve the right to have those who do not comply removed from our meeting. First up, we have our comments from the audience at this time. We welcome any comments and concerns citizens wish to bring before the board of education. All comments should be directed to the entire board and be no longer than three minutes. We will listen to and consider your remarks, but there will be no conversation aside from clarifying questions. If you are seeking a direct response or further information, we ask that you submit your request in writing.
003Please begin your remarks with your first and last name. Marty Simpkins. Okay. I'm here because you have a agenda. You're voting on your tonight for Neonet and the contract and I did a little digging on this and I a little concerned about the price of what we're seeing on this. Uh, right now the contract amount is going out at $324,000 and I checked out the what you've paid out in that for the last year minus April and May's check registry and we're looking at $524,000. So, Neonet has received almost has over a half a million dollars. And I'm really concerned about what exactly we're getting for that kind of money in a in a money crunch crisis here. Um, you know, what the breakdown is, what we're spending it on, and this seems to be
004something that has been creeping up every year quite a lot. Um, that's all I'm interested on the agenda, but I really do have questions about that. Maybe you can address them at the next meeting or something because half a million dollars for a program that looks like it's it seems to me a little excessive. Hi, my name's Ally Ferner. I'm a Stow resident. My child went to Stow uh schools. Um, all I hear from one particular board member with their questions is, "I only want to protect certain children and only from certain things. I don't know about other citizens, but I much rather have a board member concerned for all children from all possible harm, not just what makes the board member uncomfortable." Wanting to get ahead of a case that deems background checks a
005violation of religious programs rights sounds a lot like I'm fine with the possibility of children being victimized as long as it's at the hands of someone who shame shares the same indoctrination I subscribe to. Religious institutions are not and have not been void of bad people that wish to use space to harm children. This really makes me question that particular board members that particular board member and their motives as a woman in America and I can attest to the harm brought on by only being protected if the perpetrator is deemed appropriate i.e. black, brown, trans, etc. While my victimization has been at the hands of white men, religious men, God-fearing men that didn't seem to fear God enough to do no harm to a girl and later a woman. Hi, my name is Evelyn Kremier.
006Lifewise Academy, which provides Bible education to public school students during the school day, has posted on their website that they are quote already in the process of launching Lifewise unquote in the Stone Monroe Falls City School District. I am aware of Ohio's ruling that school districts shall permit release time for religious instruction, but that students cannot be pulled from core classes to do this. I know that in other districts implementing RTRI, students are usually excused from specials classes such as physical education, art, music, library, and technology to attend religious instruction. I want to make it absolutely clear that I respect and support the free practice of all religions as guaranteed by our constitution. However, I am vehemently opposed to religious education taking place during the school day at the cost of students receiving the specials
007class instruction to which they are all entitled. The essential skills that are developed and the talent that is nurtured in our students specials classes are incredibly valuable and no child should be deprived of them. I strongly urge you to limit release time for religious instruction to student lunch periods, thereby protecting all of our students rights to a complete and well-rounded education. Thank you. My name is Bobby Filson. Recently, a board member posted the following on Facebook. After decades of failed equity experiments, it's time for a full-scale cultural shift back toward merit, achievement, and academic rigor at every level of education. I have three points in response. First, if there are examples of this so-called failed equity experiments, I would like that they would be named specifically and the evidence would be provided. It's important to
008understand exactly what has failed and why it's failed, especially when we're talking about the future of our children. Second, I believe this statement misunderstands the core purpose of public education to provide each student with a free and appropriate education. What's appropriate for one child may not be appropriate for another. That's not a flaw in the system. It's a feature of inclusive education. Third, I want to tell you about my grandson, Daniel. He's a junior at Stowe. If you ever see a little guy hustling down the hallway with a rolling backpack behind him, that's Daniel. He spends his mornings studying at the sixth district compact in electronics. He takes AP classes in the afternoon. He takes college courses at home. and he works part-time. Tomorrow he'll take the AP chemistry exam. He has great ACT scores.
009He's wanted to be an electrical engineer since he was six years old, and I'm really excited about the future he's building for himself. However, Daniel is neurodeivergent. He has a 504 plan which gives him extended time on tests, a simple accommodation that helps him show what he truly knows. Without that support, he might have seen been a square peg in a round hole. Instead, thanks to Stone Monroe Falls School policies, Daniel is thriving. Daniel is a living example of what DEI means. Diversity because he's neurodeivergent. Equity because he's been given what he needs to succeed. And inclusion because he's fully part of the school community. For families of students who don't fit the traditional mold, DEI is not a buzzword. It's essential. When schools and parents work together, every child has a chance to reach
010their full potential. Thank you. Thank you. Moving on, our next item of business is a presentation about facilities. So, I will turn that over to Dr. Gold to introduce. Good evening, everyone. We will begin our presentation this evening. Um I will begin the presentation just sharing uh some historical context uh in regards to our facilities and then we will be joined by Mark Tring, director of our operations and also by Cheryl Fischer, a partner that has who is an architect but has been a partner uh with us during the facilities planning. Excellent. I want to start with uh just us putting at the forefront uh our portrait of a bulldog. It is part of our strategic plan and it is the road map of where we want all of our students to attain to uh
011but as we prepare them to be strong capable leaders in future endeavors. When we look at the portrait of the bulldog, it encompasses all of our strategic plan goals. Starting to think about the strength and resilience that we know that a bulldog has, the portrait reflects the district's dedication to helping students preserve through challenges and succeed at each stage in their education. As well as thinking about the bulldog uh the portrait, we want to think about community and loyalty. The bulldog also embodies the community's collective responsibility to nurture, support, and stay committed to the success of every student. It also emphasizes our partnership between the district, the families, and the wider community in achieving this educational excellence. As we think about the guidance through K12, the portrait of a bulldog is truly our road map.
012It repa represents the different milestones a student will reach from kindergarten to graduation with each stage marked by progress development and a strong sense of belonging to our district. So I want us to think about that as we think about everything that we do uh keeping the portrait of the bulldog in front of us in regards to our facilities. the purpose of our facilities committee. Uh we wanted to step back after the uh November election and we wanted to really uh take some time to reflect and what we call hitting the reset button. And so we took a look at the members of our uh facilities committee um and we decided that we wanted to make sure that it was representative of our community. And so some uh new members were invited to the committee
013and uh some members were removed from the committee not because uh they were not um integral in providing a voice but they either no longer worked for the companies that uh they were a part of. They either had moved out of the district or were no longer partnering with the district. And so I can tell you that an invite went to 90 community members to be a part of the facilities committee. When we uh met we in that first meeting that we held in February, we wanted to share with the uh facilities planning committee that here were the key things that uh we wanted to gain from our meetings. We wanted to make sure that um our planning committee was assisting us in assessing our current facilities. So as part of that committee, what we've
014done is we have done a presentation as well as also done walkthroughs at each of the facility um that we have selected. We also wanted to look at some long-term planning uh developing the long-term strategy for facility improvements and Mr. will talk a little bit more about that. We also talked a lot about financial planning because we know in order to maintain, renovate or even rebuild, we have to look at how that will be financially stable for not only the district but also for the community. We all we definitely know that we need community engagement that we cannot do this alone. We need to hear from our community uh as well as uh our internal uh stakeholders as well. In doing this, we need a master plan development. And so that's what we've talked a
015lot about. What does that master plan look for look like for us in the building of new schools and the renovating of new schools? Uh I mean the renovation of schools as well as the maintaining and upkeep of the current schools that we have. And in order to do that, we have to remember at the forefront when we think about our portrait of our bulldog, we want to make sure that they are safe and dry and that we are also in compliance. So, how do we sustain uh anything that we're going to do? So, here is the timeline uh that has happened when we hit that reset reset button. We started in February of 2025 looking uh again at the being very reflective. We asked several questions of our committee and the four reflective questions
016we asked in that particular meeting were what are your current impressions of our facilities? What concerns, if any, do you have with the current plan previously highlighted? In order for a new plan to be successful, we must, that was an open-ended question on purpose to definitely hear from the members that we had on the committee. And then we wanted to know what area of expertise that they have that they could contribute as a member of the facilities committee. As we moved into March 2025, um we heard from our facilities committee about what would it look like if we were to not do all of the schools that were proposed and look at a two or three elementary option and a middle school phase in. And so, um Cheryl Fischer will be sharing more about what
017that looked like for us. In April, we did a lifespan of our current facilities. We wanted to see what was the lifespan that we had. What would it look like as if we thought about 5 years down the road, 10 years down the road if we could sustain the current uh facilities that we had and what the cost with that um what would be the cost. And so now we are here at May 2025. We are doing a board presentation. We'll talk about uh some recommendations for uh some next steps at the end of that and u Mark will share what happened in April 2025. So I'm going to ask that Cheryl Fischer come forward and she will share um information in regards to the two and three-year elementary options and the middle school phase
018in. Thank you Dr. Gold. Okay. All right. So, let's jump back um as Dr. Gold just indicated back to our March facilities committee meeting. Um and that's where we took the feedback uh about you know the the one of the reasons that the um they the committee felt that the plan failed last November was highly due to the cost. Um and it was suggested let's look at some other options that could potentially reduce the overall cost to the taxpayers. And that's what you see above you um in front of you on the screen. We looked at two main options uh doing a two new elementary school for grades PK through 5 and one new middle school. Later down the road uh for phase two it'd be renovations and additions to the high school. And that's
019how it was in the last plan but we did include that too um in the overall plan. And then the sex second option was three new elementary schools, one new middle school in renovations and additions to the high school. Um I do want to indicate two things. Um in both of these plans we've split preK down the middle and and spread them across all the schools whether it was two or three. Um most likely that will not be how it pans out. Preschool um has been identified by the district as a priority to be consolidated. But just for planning purposes and ease of numbers, we equally distributed them throughout each plan in the elementary schools. And second, with option plan uh two, the three new elementary schools, this was the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, the
020OFCC's base plan recommendation based on the number of students in those grade populations. So, just wanted to point that out. So, I'm going to walk you through these two main plants and we actually segmented it into subcategories. This is very data heavy. I'll try to do my best to make the most sense in a clear and concise manner of all these numbers that you see in front of you, but option one was two new elementary schools and a new middle school. A bait and demolition of the existing elementary schools in Kim here when the new schools are built. If you look at the screen, I don't know. Does this have a laser? Oh, it does. Okay. If you look at the screen, really we've bisected it into two parts. Um, up here is the costs
021for the new elementary schools plus abatement and demolitions of the schools that will go offline. And you can see, having a hard time seeing it looks like a total of $142 million. And then the lower portion of the slide, that's the new middle school cost. And it is to do all of this construction, the elementary schools and the middle schools simultaneously all at one time. The students would remain in their existing buildings until the new schools are built. Once um those are fully constructed, we swing the students into the new buildings and the old buildings go away and they're demolished. So you can see we have a total cost of $222 million if this was sequenced in the manner I just outlined. Now, I told you we took those two plans and we kind of
022split them out into um little sub plans. So, this is option one. Same number of schools. Everything that I just outlined. The difference is it's a phased in plan. So, we construct as you can see in the top portion of the building uh of the slide is exactly the same as the previous slide. We construct the elementary schools first, but we wait till later down the road at approximately five years to construct the middle school. So it's more phased in plan when you phase there's more time with time there's it's more money um so less disruption again through all the schools um in the buil in the district u but at a higher cost so our cost jumps up to uh 240 million right I can't see very well $240 million and compared to 222
023million if we don't face so almost a $20 million an $18 million difference simply by just phasing. But this is one of the questions that was asked in the February meeting. You know, what what would a phase plan look like? So, we wanted to react to that and see where the numbers fell. So, now option two, this is the three new elementary school plan, a new middle school and abatement and demolition of the buildings going offline. This plan outlines everything being constructed simultaneously. Uh, and you can see we have a total cost of I'm sorry because the microphone over there is in the middle of the two $234 million. Okay. Again, everything being constructed simultaneously. Yeah, Pat, it's your fault. And then we broke that out and said, well, let's look at this plan for
024three new elementary schools and see if we phase them the middle school later, approximately five years down the road, what would the cost impact be? and it is um $251 million if we wait and do the middle school later. I just want to explain that what we did to project uh for future construction of the middle school, we applied 5% inflation for five years to the original middle school cost to come up with what we could anticipate that cost to be. Nobody has a crystal ball. Inflation's been up and down and around last four or five years, but I wanted to um you know give that disclaimer. That's how we arrived at those costs. So cost-saving considerations because that's how this whole topic came up and revisiting other plans. Um when you build bigger it
025is cheaper per square foot to build. So it's economies of scale just like if you buy in bulk at Costco. Same same concept really. Um so we had really looked at some of the pros and cons um about these plans compared to the previous planet for elementary schools. Um, so there's things that we need to consider about re-examining enrollment projections. There's been a variety of enrollment projections over the last 10, 12 years. Um, they're kind of all over the place, but they all indicate uh pretty much a decline in enrollment. So, we have the option to build from one elementary school uh one uh enrollment projection to another. The previous plan in that went to the ballot in last November was based on 2019 enrollment projections. The last check was done in 2024 of January
026and those were at a uh more of a decline than the 2019. So there's some cost savings if we choose to use um the 2024 projections segmenting the facility plan or not segmenting. Uh we just explained um the cost impacts to that. And then um we could postpone abatement and demolition of the existing buildings. You're not forced to do that even under the state program. you have the ability to choose not to. If you do go um want to sell it though, by law you have to offer it to a charter school before it goes to public auction. That is the state law. Um and then reconsidering locally funded initiatives. We did have um several different uh what these are locally funded initiatives. We called them LFIs are things that we don't get a state
027credit for by the OFCC the commission. An example would be in the middle school plan. We had a new auditorium just like you have now. You have it now. We felt and the committee felt very strong like you didn't want to lose that feature, but you don't have to do that. So those that's an example of some of the things that we could back out um if we consider moving forward with a new bond issue. Thank you. So in April, we um we took a kind of a step backwards. Um the conversation first started with um you know, what does that phased in project look like? Uh the next big rock, the next big question was uh what would it what does it really look like for our our facilities if we uh didn't ask
028the community to kind of weigh in? And so we prepped for this and we kind of went like I said we went backwards and we went into uh we educated the committee on facility assessment basics. Um this is the if you go on our website uh you'll notice that there are there's lots and lots of information about facility assessments. They are challenging to read. They're voluous. Uh they're there there's a lot of data in them. Uh and they can be overwhelming. And so we wanted to kind of remind the committee about why do we have them in the first place? And really the primary goal of them is to help me as the director of operations, you know, establish regular site and building improvement cycles. Uh this has been a very informative uh exercise because
029now what we can do uh is we can we can start to work a road map a road map that like Dr. Gould said five years down the road, 10 years down the road and 15 years down the road. The primary drivers of these these assessments are uh ADA compliance, our local building code, um life cycles of of mechanicals of buildings, uh so on and so forth. And and I think the most important piece is the Ohio school design manual. This is u an overarching document uh that that takes into an account uh a broader uh look at facilities statewide, which is uh quality, longevity, equity, and affordability. um any project that we can do projects that are outside of the Ohio school design manual, but those won't will not be co-unded by the OFCC.
030And so to keep in mind as we start to develop a plan, you know, our local capacity uh for improvements is around $2.9 million. Uh this is our PI fund. Uh this fund uh you have to remember it isn't just our schools, it is every single roof that we have in district. That includes the bus garage, the stadium, Lake View Stadium, the new fieldhouse and central office. And and so our our physical plan of facilities, it is much larger and much broader um than just schools. The other thing is, and what we're finding out is not a surprise, as our facilities age, our maintenance and operation costs will go up. And so, this kind of went into a conversation between TDA and myself about how do we uh develop a what's called a warm and
031safe and dry plan. This is a barebones plan that basically does exactly what it says, warm, safe, and dry. to do this. We we we've kind of called this a priority one plan where we are emphasizing um replacement of existing equipment, uh roof replacements, le uh correcting foundation leaky basements. Uh if you've been a part of the facilities conversations, you've been in the basements and they are quite interesting. Uh upgrading security systems and then replacement of windows. And all of this would allow us to have better better, you know, a better learning environment if we were to make these uh make this commitment just by working a warm safe and dry plan. This is a $28 million endeavor. And keep in mind this is only K to8. As we started to look into a more
032of like that 6 to9year time frame, uh we've labeled this and established what's called priority 2. Uh this is um the these repairs are uh again more equipment based uh technology uh exterior doors, parking lots, and then priority three as we've worked through this, these were upgrades that would require um multiple projects to be done uh that that proved to be costly. So, if you're going to completely redo an HVAC HVA HVAC system, you're going to need while you're bringing down the um the ceilings of classrooms and you're installing duck work, you'd want to re redo the wiring and and redo the plumbing. And so, as you'll see in the next slide, uh our our priority three, the costs uh they they start they really start to scale. And this is when you look at
033it in one piece of paper. Uh one grid. Um, this takes that 200page document online and takes it down into one uh one slide. And as you can see, we have warm, safe, and dry at $28 million. Priority 2 is an additional $27 million. And these are 2032 costs. And then if we were to work a plan like in a complete cycle, so get that priority three work done, that plan would be 183 million for a total of $239 million, almost $240 million. This again does not include updates on central office, if we had to make them. This does not include any type of bus garage. This does not include um vehicle replacement cycles. Um, this this is really addressing our facilities and you can see as you look at uh what Cheryl had presented
034with plan one, plan 1 A, plan two, plan 2 A and now if we worked to a plan uh just what keeping all of our facilities as is $240 million. And so as we kind of wrapped up uh this conversation, uh we are ultimately going to meet again in May and um you know establish um I'm sure try to conquer another big question, another big rock and I'll turn it over to Dr. Gold to talk about that. So at our meeting in May, we'll be here at Kemp. Uh we want to do a collaborative planning session with all of our committee members and we have uh asked them to bring a friend uh at this meeting. We want to tap into their expertise um and actually hear their input and start to think about a
035refining and a development of a facilities plan. If we have a change in our plan, we will have to submit updated cost estimates and plans to the Ohio Facilities uh construction commission for review and also approval. Um that would take place um after the May meeting. And then we want to continue to look for ongoing financial exploration and that to help um not be a burden on our taxpayers um but to also look for some potential sources that could also assist us uh in the uh facility projects. So those are our next steps uh in regards to facility planning. And at this time, I'd like to thank Mark uh Churyl and TDA and all of our facility planning committee members. This has not been an easy task. Um but we are grateful that they have
036come to the table and shared the feedback because it has been beneficial for us as we think about next steps. Any questions? I'll just ask a quick one. The uh and I I think I remember you answering this at the meeting, but just double checking that 240 million that doesn't account for like anything like uh expansions or you know doing thing improvements just that's just facility maintenance. Yeah, correct. that's that doesn't factor in um expenditures like um track replacement or the field replacement at the high school or like in increasing classroom sizes or fixing art room gym room com combinations that doesn't do any of that correct okay just want to make sure correct so if if I'm understanding the numbers correct I just want to say this all together in one sentence in the
037in the next 5 to 10 years we could spend 222 or 200 140 um is or 250 to either replace those buildings all at once or phase them in and get new buildings, new facilities, more energyefficient um operations where we're not paying as much on our utility bills, etc., etc. Or we could um continue to move along with our existing buildings and spend roughly 240 million keeping them up to date and repaired enough to kind of minimally keep things moving along. That's correct. It would the biggest thing to focus in on is for $240 million. We're not expanding the capacity from a square footage perspective of our classrooms. We still have smaller classrooms. We still have smaller bathrooms. And when you look at the porch of the graduate, um you know, really trying to uh
038address and meet the needs of today's learner, do our facilities, if we would if we would invest $240 million of our current, is that the best use of our funds? Thank you. So, where does the money come from either way? Like we know we have a bond issue for building new buildings, but if we're going to put a band-aid on it, what does that look like? No matter what, when we look at when we look at these dollar figures, they're staggering. Um, we would have to eventually either make adjustments in our budget, but there's no way Patrick can Patrick can definitely attest, there's no way that we can find $28 million and continue to operate. We'd have to go back to the community for um for another type of levy that would ultimately address this.
039So, we we're either looking at a bond for new buildings or some other money ask to keep the buildings that we have maintained. But regardless of which direction we go, we're going to end up going back to the voters for some kind of money for our facilities. Correct. It was interesting in the meeting when these numbers were presented and everybody had the realization that either way we need the same amount of money and that if you spend it on the repairs, you still end up with, you know, older buildings that don't meet ADA are not conducive to expansion in technology. ology and you know you don't get the things that you would get if you had new buildings and I think that it was extremely helpful and I appreciate all the work you guys did
040to put these numbers together because we never saw numbers like this before when the levy went on the first time and we're never able to explain to people that either way we're going to be spending this money one way or rather. Yeah, I think it's it's very powerful to see it laid out in front of us. Um I think that's I I'm just really um impressed and grateful that you were able to put all of this together because it's something that had been asked for for years um in the past. So, I mean, I know for myself, I knew that it was going to be expensive to keep repairing our existing buildings. I had no idea that it was this much. So, I really appreciate that reality check. Any other questions? Thank you. Okay, next
041item of business, legislative update. Okay. Um the the only thing that's happening currently right now that's um applicable to us is well is the ongoing budget. Um and so we're still going to be looking at you know what the Senate does with school funding. And um as of now there's two opportunities for public comment. One is May 7th and one is May 14th. And I'm currently working on um testimony and you know I welcome anybody that would like to help or work with me um on that or come with me or submit your own testimony. If you want any information on it, email bowe smfcsd.org. One of us will get back to you um and and and give you information. But, you know, we're still again at the place where where uh the state is
042not going to fully fund um the school schools, public schools if you know, if if it passed as is today. So, I think it's just very important that they hear from our community. um the late the lower we're funded from the state, the more we regardless of, you know, not even talking about the facilities issue, it's still it's just regular school funding. We, you know, and and that that requires asking more from our our homeowners, which is not something that we are anxious to do. So, that's all. Did you have anything, Dr. Gold? Yes. And there was a letter sent out uh by my office uh in regards to legislative advocacy uh that was shared in parent square that gave all the information about uh what is needed in order to um also uh speak
043in Columbus or either write legislators. So just referring back to that. Uh I would also like to uh this evening to share an update in regards to board policy 5223. 5223 is the religious uh policy that uh we have taken a look at um and that we amended in March 3rd of 2025. Uh I'm asking the board to consider a revision uh in that policy. And this is in regards to the trinkets uh that are brought um back to the school that any trinkets that are brought back to the school, materials, snacks, clothing, candies, or any other items for their return to the school will be subject to all school policies, classroom rules, and student code of behavior. I have linked the original policy uh on this slide. So where you see 5223 if you
044click on that link you'll see the original policy. So you can see what the revisions have been made uh for that the recommendation for the revisions. Any questions? Is this um a change in the policy that's urgent enough that um we need to look at potentially not doing our three readings or um can we do our typical three readings with it? Uh you can do the three readings or you can do an emergency uh one. I the reason I brought it tonight um it was brought up at the last meeting. Uh we had uh legal uh actually looking at uh the information and so uh there was a concern about uh lawsuits that were occurring uh because of this particular um portion of the policy and so that's why I brought it forth tonight. Okay.
045Thank you. Do I have a motion to consider this an emergency and wave our three readings? So moved. Second. Any discussion? I don't think so. Sorry. Okay. I I just thought you were telling me my microphone wasn't working. Um I uh lost my train of thought. I think it's important we stay consistent with what our current policies are. So, I I like the change because I mean this isn't anything different than what we're currently doing. Uh, and it doesn't matter who the group is. So, I think this is fair. That kind of mirrors my thoughts on it as well. um that you know we're we're expecting kids to come into the building and either stow the things that they're not supposed to have in the classroom um or otherwise not create a distraction in the
046classroom. And that holds for first thing in the morning when they walk through the door as much as it does if they come come in later during the day such as after a release time uh program. Um, I I think for me, um, since we know that we need to reward those expectations, um, I I'd rather go ahead and make that happen sooner rather than later. Um, since we have the language. Yeah, I actually just I mean, my biggest concern was that legal would be contacted and so thank you for getting with them and that if this is our recommendation, that's our recommendation. Good with it. Okay. I need a roll call on the motion to declare this an emergency and wave our usual three readings. East Jenkins I. Mleti I. Sudonic I. Wind I.
047Okay. Do I have a motion to change the policy um in the ways that we just discussed as displayed? So moved. Second. Any discussion on that part? I think we already said what we had to say, but I wanted to make sure. Okay. Roll call, please. East. Junkens. I. Sudonic. Hi. Wind. I. Thank you. I know there have been some questions in regards to uh LifeWise and I would just like to share um that um we met with Lifewise back in the fall before many of the legislation and policies were in place. Um we do know that Lifewise is interested in working uh with Echo Hills. the principal has already been contacted in regards to that. Due to the fact that there are still some things that are in question uh in regards to what
048that partnership will actually look like, um we have not moved forward with the administrative guidelines that go along with this particular policy because there is uh now new legislative discussion in regards to how many days a week uh exactly when that's going to take place. Um but uh we will be having conversation with Lifewise um to discuss what that's going to look like uh at our schools. And so they are looking at definitely starting in elementary school um and possibly using a uh church that is right across the street from Echo Hill. So uh it will not be any transportation. They would be walking students um just across the street uh to that particular venue. So I just wanted to give an update on that. And I know they're not the only organization that works
049with schools. Um I believe Talmage works with an entirely different organization. Are is LifeWise the only organization that has spoken to us about RTRI so far? So far that is the only program. Thank you. So we were looking at what time of day for this currently they were looking at the lunch hour uh for students. Uh and so we would have to sit down and talk about the lunch hour because the way it is scheduled at the elementary uh students eat at different times. Uh so that would be possibly anywhere between two to three hours of time walking students across the street. Okay. And then would we provide some sort of lunch? Those are logistics that we would have to work out. Um so that was just our initial conversation and so since the legislation
050has been put in place, we'll get more into detail and more people will have to be at the table and you know in regards to child nutrition, those type of people there. Okay. Yeah, this is a complex um thing to work out. When you say lunch, I assume it's lunch and recess that the students would be out of the building for. Yes. Okay. I And so that would keep uh students from u missing what we consider core classes. Okay. Thank you. Anything else on that topic? Uh, next up, committee updates. Um, I Does has anyone had a committee meeting to report out on tonight? We just had facilities, but they covered that in great depth, which we very much appreciate. Um, and I know policy and wellness are both coming up soon. um we had
051a technology meeting um and talked about all kinds of things technology but you know AI is obviously something that's been a big topic um cyber security and just looking at the way that our students use technology in ways that we don't maybe realize it so where we have Google and we're thinking it's just for writing a paper they have figured out sometimes how to communicate that way with each other because you can share a Google doc with a friend never would have thought that but so the new version of passing notes around class as a an open Google doc. Google. Yes. Got it. So, I remember I remember those days. Students will get creative. They figure out a way. Anything else on committees? Okay. Next, um I would like to invite our members who attended
052the board leadership institute that was hosted by Ohio School Boards Association to share a little bit about what they learned, what they want to bring back from that. Sure, I'll start if that's okay with you. Okay. Uh let's see. Our first session we had was just kind of an opening session um presented by um NS Britain, which is another law firm that we do work with. Um and we just they covered um some of what they call like hot topics um uh common legal issues that boards face. Um and um some of the topics they did were uh prayer in board meetings, uh board members replying all by accident in emails, um questions around public comments and exec sessions. And you know, it was just a a highle um overview of some of those things.
053and I thought it was pretty pretty informative. Um, but then my first session was all about strategic storytelling and how that connects with um the strategic plan and being that you know that's something that we have coming up. Um, I thought it was incredibly important talking about um not only do you do you have to have your strategic plan, but you have to be able to communicate it to the public and and the different ways that you can. And I thought the biggest thing that that that I came away from from that was that, you know, you might have your your superintendent or your board or your communications director or all these things, but really everyone every one of us is responsible for communicating, you know, whether it's your principles talking to parents and or
054your, you know, admin when they're presenting curriculum, you know, things like that. we're all um we're all responsible for sharing our vision with the community and and then you know it's just a um good idea to make sure that we're all on the same page and presenting the same information and I think we do a good job of that but it was just interesting. Um the next one I saw was about um student voices, a student board member program they have at Akran public schools, which that was incredible because they had uh students come in from all of their high schools and present and it was just incredible. You know, I'm happiest, you know, in this job, this capacity when I'm get to get to talk to students. So that was really nice. Um there
055was another presentation on visitors in school and some of the security issues around that uh reg and I think I'm going to bring some of that um to the um safety and security committee just talking about signage and policies and things like that. I want to check what we have going on and it was just good information. Another one was um titled community in conflict. And some of the they gave us five hot button conflicts that board members can you know uh experience or districts can experience rather. And one of them was parent student conflicts, um teacher or coach conflicts, social media conflicts, uh rogue board member conflicts or board decision conflicts. Um, and it talked about strategies that the board can use to communicate with the uh the community and just kind of helping,
056you know, shape um whether something's an issue or a crisis, going through that kind of thing, you know, re-educating people on the proper chain of command and things like that. So, I thought that was, you know, very, very educational. And then the last one, um, actually Tina and I went to together. So, I want about the engaging the community. out and you can just do that one if you want. I loved that one. That one was very informative and all the tools that um different school districts use and they they really emphasized that not there wasn't one way that was their favorite or that really seemed to gather everybody. But the fact that they did multiple things and they had a few people here and a few people there and you kind of met people
057where they are whether they're good at technology or not or you know if they just kind of need that personal touch or if you go to them or they come to you. um they there were multiple strategies and we were sitting next to each other. So we were kind of like these some of these things would work for us and some of them wouldn't. So um we did gather some uh very helpful ideas. Uh, I also went to a technology one on AI and um some of the school districts that are currently training the teachers to use AI and how it can be a helpful tool to them to help formulate tests and come up with strategies when students in the classroom seem to be getting answers wrong on a test. Um where maybe somehow
058that concept didn't quite get translated to them and how it was helping teachers kind of come up with different ways to uh present their information. um also gave them tools on recognizing if the students were using AI or not. And um also they really encouraged to teach the students and the teachers how to use it properly because it's here and it's here to stay. So, um to use it as the useful tool that it can be and not to demonize it as um has happened pretty much in the media. uh but that there are several districts that have um purchased various packages that include Ohio's curriculum already in it so that you can easily use it as a teacher to um follow um the curriculum for the state of Ohio and to um find various
059ways to teach concepts since children all learn differently. Uh it gave them some strategies to teach uh in various ways so that everyone can learn um to the best of their ability. So it it really was um a very hopeful presentation on AI um and uh you know something that I think that we probably should look into in the future because like I said it's it's here. So uh we should learn it so that we know how to use it properly. Um I also uh went to uh some of the strategy um building and the a lot of what you were talking about with the portrait of a bulldog was a lot of what um we learned in some of the strategic planning uh parts. very inspirational what some of the um other districts are
060doing. It's really a great opportunity to collaborate with people all around the state who have similar issues and just kind of see how they're doing things and uh you know for me as a new board member it was it was very eye opening. So I really appreciate the opportunity to go. Yeah, that's such a solid point. One of my favorite things about doing, you know, this kind of training is the people that you meet and the the networking that you can, you know, that you gain. So, you just having having ways to bounce things off of people. I mean, that, you know, just since my first one now, I I have a nice network of board members across the whole state. So, it's, you know, you can talk to people who are in very rural
061districts or people in extremely urban districts or people that are just, you know, suburban like us. It's like everybody has different issues but you can find commonality through throughout. One of the common things amongst everyone there was concern about the state budget. Everyone was concerned and in almost every class that I went to. They encouraged everyone to talk to their state senators. So, um, that message was definitely clear and that we need to make sure as many people as possible try to reach out to them. Thank you both for taking the time away from your usual work to do board work. Um, and I'm really looking forward to seeing how this um, helps us because I am very sure it will. Okay, next item is July 4th parade. Yeah, Franco is planning well starting to
062plan the Fourth of July parade that still puts on and just wanted we were just wondering what and if any board members were interested in going this year because I don't think anybody went last year. Um, so just kind of seeing if that's something we should uh pay for or not. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, that was actually one of the re when you know throughout our different um classes, one of the things was just another just be out in that community, do everything that you can. And I know that we've tried uh really hard to start doing that um more this year. Um so that's a perfect one. They said be in all their parades. So let's be in a parade again and let's do it. Okay. And then there was just one request that I'm
063going to ask. Last year we did have if uh the board was going to be in that they purchase their own candy because candy is expensive and given our financial situation, I just don't think it's necessary to spend money on candy. So I will I won't be there because that is my birthday. So I'll be out of the city. Um but I will help donate some candy as well for that. So thank you. Next topic, strategic plan. Dr. Awesome. Strategic planning. So, we've been talking about portrait of a bulldog and now we lead into strategic planning. Strategic planning is the footprint that helps us get to where we need to go. Our current strategic plan will be um up in 2026. So, we need to begin the work in the fall of 25 to prepare
064uh for that. I have had uh two proposals that have come from two different companies and tonight I am recommending the proposal from the impact group and in their proposal they provide for us a uh overview of uh the strategic planning process. They then go into what they call white board meeting and this is a one-hour meeting and can be virtual or in person uh where they uh have a session with the superintendent and designated senior uh cabinet level members uh to discuss um how they will do what is known as a SWAT analysis uh to uh get from the team um what are strengths, what are weakness witnesses, opportunities or threats. Uh this will also be done with the board but in a separate meeting uh to gain that information. Uh this will help
065uh to gain some behavioral expectations that are necessary uh for the district and to kind of see um the leadership thoughts. Uh in regards to phase two of the work, uh the community and key stakeholders will be engaged. They can be engaged through a focus group, a online survey and also phone interviews. So there's three ways uh that they will gather information from uh the community. This also helps with uh setting those core beliefs. Uh starting to think about vision, mission, and some of the key components of the strategic plan. Uh our current strategic plan has 10 um missions. Um that's a lot of things to work on at one time. Uh and so we really want to make sure that we have a nonbiased person who is helping to facilitate uh the process. Um
066so that we really bring about what are those things that we really need to focus in on uh and that will help us build as we start to think about uh goals and objectives which moves us into phase three. uh the statement of that work looks at goals, objectives and creating action steps and timelines. So this is uh not only something for internally that uh will be a baseline and will be measurable for us but it'll also be something that we can display to the community so that they can actually see which action steps we're working on and what those metrics are uh that we are measuring uh to uh come about with uh success. And then the final steps of that uh their plan will be de uh delivered which will have those goals
067and objectives. And then we'll also have large graphics uh of our strategic plan that can be hung out hung throughout um our schools uh and and buildings uh so that we keep it at the forefront. We do not want a plan that we are going to take and sit on the shelf and let it collect dust and just say we have a strategic plan. We really want it to be about the work that is uh needed uh as we think about uh the future of Stomeroll Falls and where we need to go in the uh next five years. And so the cost of the plan uh first of all they have the team in there and they have several references. You can see that they are working with several school districts across uh the state
068of Ohio. Um the investment uh without the imple implementation support is 29,500. With the implementation support uh that's an additional 6,000 and a total cost uh for this would be $35 uh,000. We would use our funds uh that we have at the educational service center uh to support um this type of work. And we are looking at this work to begin uh in August and then go into December. I'm actually looking at this work to start at our cabinet retreat which will be in June uh and then take us to December. Any questions? I just wanted to say um when we when you and I had first talked about it, Dr. ruled. Um I realized that there is no one on the current leadership team who was involved in our current strategic plan. Uh so
069I started to get excited about the idea of of really digging into that and revising it for um where we're at now. Uh, I love the idea of having someone gather all of that community feedback and all of that stakeholder feedback who isn't one of us and then they um I feel like that has a lot of potential to get um really solid information from folks across all of the spectrums of individuals that we have in our community. And I I love the idea of having everyone have input into this as a community. Um and wrapping it up into um with some specific action steps instead of only having pretty words appeals to me a great deal. I think that helps in terms of transparency to the community on exactly what we're working on. Um,
070and accountability to the community of exactly what we're working on. Um, so the and so I I I'm really excited about the potential for us to dig into this and and really work on the the next plan. Um, I also reached out to my network of other board members. Um, and this actually seems like a bargain compared to what some folks that I know have have paid for these types of services to help build the strategic plan. Um, so I appreciate you watching our bottom line as well in this. The other contracts that I uh received um also include uh because you have people who are coming from uh out of state, so you have to pay for their travel, their hotel stays, all of that while they're here doing that particular work. Uh with
071impact being local right in Hudson, that saves a lot of money uh for us. Uh and just to know that um several of the people who uh work at impact are former school leaders themselves. So that that is also beneficial. So they understand the K12 system. Well, you answered my question. I was going to ask what the comparative prices were for other but that was my biggest one. So this is the most costefficient plan. That's Yes. I and and having worked on several strategic plans in other places, uh this is a very economical. Okay. And I was I was Oh, sorry. Oh, I was gonna say and it's not general funds, you said. No, this is coming out of the educational service center. Okay. This is funding that we have with them. Yeah. The other
072the other thing um that I checked out with some of my network was um if they the ones who had used impact group in the past if they were happy with those services um because I knew the name um but I've never worked with them directly and everybody I spoke with had nothing but great things to say and then like you said them being local is a is a very um handy thing for us as well. I think it's important that we have that outside perspective and that we can get an idea of what the entire community is thinking. like you said, uh the one training class that I went to talked about all of this and even with the posters and everything, just making sure that the plan so people see, oh, I got
073that phone call or they asked me these questions and at the end that everybody can see uh the information that we ended up coming up with at the end of it. I think it's very important that the community be fully involved but also see some sort of end result. So, um I think it's important that we have the entire package. Thank you. Okay. Next item, superintendent's recommendation. I would like to recommend the following personnel recommendations. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any questions, comments, discussion? Roll call, please. East. Jenkins. Hi. Reli. Sudonic. I wind I the next recommendation is for uh neonet district technology services and this contract allows us to use the services of neonet for the 2526 school year. Do I have a motion? So moved. second discussion. So I'm I'm
074curious as to why how does this work with the technology employees that we currently have? Yeah. So we all of our tech is outsourced through Neonet and that's why that the amount is is that much. Oh, so we don't have any? Nope. And we haven't for several years. Okay. And this covers how many employees? It covers three full-time and um one support staff, like backend support staff. So Cody over there in the audience, he's one of the wonderful DTS team members we have. Um and I just want to say they do tremendous work given our size for just three full-time FTEEs. Um so think of all the buildings we have, all the technology, all the phones, anything technology driven. Um these guys do a great job. uh getting us working. So uh so this cost
075that you see is salary and benefits for three full-time people. Okay, that that makes a lot more sense than anything else. Roll call, please. East Jenkins. I sonic. I wind. I the next item is the contract uh for services for impact group. This allows us to use the impact group for our strategic planning design. Do I have a motion? So move. Second. Any discussion? I mean we already discussed it. We just talked about I'm just making sure. Roll call, please. East Jenkins. I Merlin I Sodonic I wind I Okay, next up treasur's recommendation. I wish to recommend the board of education approve the Okay, it's buffering but uh the alternative tax budget for the STO library. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All right. And this is just uh since we have a
076local library, the board of education, which I still don't understand why they have to approve their lo their uh alternative tax budget. Um so we just throw it up there for procedure purposes. So if you have any specific questions, you would have to reach out to them directly. Um but they pass it and then we have to pass it and then I send it back to them. One of those weird things that it is what it is. This interesting relationship between the district and our wonderful library. Yes, they they do amazing work over there. They do. Roll call, please. E Jenkins, I. Meridi, I. Sudonic. I. Wind. I. Next is our second reading with our physical science text materials. Uh there's no action with this, correct? Nope. Just second reading. Those books are available for
077someone to see and uh utilize at the central office. You cannot take them with you, but they're up there for anyone who would like to come in and look through them and see what it's all about. The nice big heavy textbooks. And they're present tonight. And I assume they'll be present at our third reading when we vote on this. Okay. Thanks for coming again. I appreciate Thanks for taking the time to put all that together as well. It was a really informative presentation last time. Yeah, I made a comment to Dr. Gold this week that I I'm pretty sure that's the most thorough presentation we've gotten on curriculum to this point. So, very much appreciated all of that preparation. Anything else on that? Okay, that said, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So, moved.
078Second. Roll call, please. E Jenkins. I. Merlin I Sodonic I wind I we journ at 7:13