001I call to order this meeting of the Stoomen Monroe Falls City School District Board of Education on Monday, April 14th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. The Board of Education will vote to call the meeting to order. Those in attendance are reminded that this is a meeting of the board of education conducted in view of the public. Any person while being heard at the board of education meeting may be called to order by the board president or any member of the board for failure to be relevant to the business of the board for vulgarity or for personal attacks of persons or institutions. Roll call, please. East Junkens here. Merleti here. Sheenonic here. Wind here. Please join us in the pledge of allegiance. Everything we do is designed to provide a future ready student centered learning experience for
002every 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, diversity and inclusion and everything in between. As members of the board of education, we serve as trustees. Therefore, this is a business meeting being conducted in public, not a public meeting. We are grateful to serve an engaged 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. Our first item of business tonight is comments from the audience. At this time, we welcome any comments and concerns citizens wish to bring before the board
003of education. All comments must 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. Please begin your remarks with your first and last name. Okay. Seeing none, our next item is the legislative update. I'll turn that over to our vice president. Hello. Um I just wanted to give a brief update on um uh last week I guess or recently I went down to the state house to um advocate for fair school funding. Um, just to give a 5-second recap, this the um Ohio legislature is currently working on their budget, which um that's how our schools
004are funded through um income tax through the state budget. That's the the percentage of it. And however much we get from them will dictate how much needs to come from our community locally. And so I wanted to uh use my voice to go advocate for making sure that we're fully funded so that we can help um keep the burden down on our tax local taxpayers. So I'm just going to give a a little bit of a uh read a little bit of my testimony um that I presented. Um I'm a board of education member at Stoman Ro City Schools and a parent of an eighth grader at Kimton as well as three Stoman Falls High graduates. When the state from I stand before you today to advocate for fully funding public schools. When the state
005underfunds education, local property owners are left to make up the difference through higher property tax. Our buildings are old and crumbling and we desperately need new schools. However, after our bond issue failed, as almost all bonds did across Ohio, it stands little chance of ever passing if a funding reduction goes through. Homeowners, especially our seniors, are terrified of being taxed out of their homes. And many are reaching out to me pleading for action. So today, I ask you to listen. You've chosen to allocate a billion dollars to private school vouchers and $600 million to a Brown stadium in Brook Park. The vouchers alone cause significant harm to public education. In my district, in Stoman Falls, we receive $2,700 per pupil from the state, our state chair. However, if a that same student receives a voucher,
006they would get $8,400 from the state. Would we even need levies in our communities? If we received that much from the state, why are we asking our taxpayers to support funding private schools, private stu school students at three times the amount of our public school students? This is not fiscal responsibility, nor is it putting everyday Ohioans first. If our community is unavail unable to support any levies due to the growing burden of property tax, many districts will face challenging decisions in the future. We should be supporting our educators. Just 5 years ago, they were hailed as frontline and hometown heroes for getting students through the pandemic. Now, our educators are being asked to take on more and more responsibilities beyond traditional teaching, like preparing for school shootings, handling emergency response situations, and addressing mental health
007concerns. Cutting public school funding leads to larger class sizes, fewer resources, and an increased workload for our educators. And that doesn't even begin to cover the potential for jobs or program cuts. Enough is enough. They're still our frontline and our hometown heroes. I ask you to consider my testimony to commit commit to fully funding the fair school funding plan with base with updated base cost inputs. As our costs rise, our buying power is reduced just as everybody else is. Even flat funding our schools is a reduction in funding. Please show our students, educators, and community members that you prioritize the future, recognize their value, and are dedicated to ensuring every child across Ohio has access to quality education regardless of their zip code. There's no sureer way to boost Ohio's economic future than by investing
008in Ohio's children. Thank you. So anyway, I just wanted to make sure uh that I shared with the community that we are working hard to advocate for for everyone, for the students, for the staff, for the teachers, for our community members, and we are uh going to do our darnest to protect everybody. So, just wanted to share that with you. Thank you. Thank you. And Mr. Galano has some updated information for us. Yeah, Mr. Sonic, thank you for going down. It was a really cool to hear from other pe other treasurers and colleagues last week at the OASville annual event of how how well you did. So I really appreciate that. Hopefully one day I get the opportunity to go down there encouraged to go down there to do the same. Yeah. So just a
009couple uh updates of like big topics that happened uh with the vote of the house by the house last week. Um just a quick overview. Um they want to they reduced the three-year for they reduce the forecast from five years to three years. We're not really sure why they anticipated this. Uh does anybody roughly know because I didn't know the answer at the time why uh there is a 5-year forecast. Okay. Most levies are can be a minimum of fiveyear cycle. So it helps show the financial integrity of a district uh given some of those levies which was kind of cool. Nobody in the room of like 200 knew. Actually one person did because like they got it right. So, it's kind of cool to hear. The unforeseen of this is if you're in a
010district who is in fiscal oversight, you know, what's the state going to do when they're going to determine whether you're in watch emergency or so, it'll be interesting to see what comes with the state with that because they look at the first three years and that's going to be the only years on there. So, it'll be interesting to see how many schools probably fall into fiscal oversight given this uh this reasoning. So, once we find out more of I'm curious to find out more of why they they did this because one, it can't hurt to go more. Uh Katie Johnson said it can't hurt to approve a five-year forecast, but the minimum the state needs is three. So, I think you'll see a lot of treasures still show a 5-year forecast, just I mean, you
011could probably do a 10-year, but a lot of things can happen in 10 years. So, um I'll jump on the bandwagon with my other colleagues of what they're going to be doing. So, I think just for a fiscal oversight district-wise wide, uh, it's probably a good thing to still have, but once we submit it, we'll probably just do the three years unless they say we can't do that. Um, and then the House passed, uh, funding amounts, vouchers, and the 30cent cash balance carryover, which is a huge topic. So, I just want to talk about the fair school funding. Uh this is one of the slides that was in the present one of the presentations last week and it kind of shows how the state funded the state share has really decreased since uh fiscal year
0121999. So it's kind of it was fascinating to see how we were at once at 50 45% and now we're dwindling down to 32%. So it really shows the discrepancies uh in the in inadequates of the state versus local Sheridan. It really shows how the tax the burden is really put on our local communities which is unfair. And just for for context for anybody who may not be aware, the deval ruling was um the state supreme court declaring our funding formulas for schools unconstitutional because it was too much uh dependence on the local taxpayers. Um, and I find it wild that we were at 45.7% state share then and we're now at 32 or no, we're now at 38.4%. Um, that we have even less input from the state than we did when those formulas
013were declared unconstitutional, even more burden on our local property owners. Yeah, like uh Modelon said, you know, the the costs just keep increasing. Um and you know, it's always in we never know what's going to happen dayto day right now. So, uh at some point, you know, technology, Chromebook, cell phones, and chips were at a high tariff and now that has gone away, which is kind of good. Um because I know some other districts were waiting to get their Chromebooks and at the time they had a huge increase in price due to the the tariff. So, you know, like I've said before, inflation doesn't hit us. It's still, it's not like it doesn't hit us because it still hits us. So, we're stilling through that those burdens. So, the one thing that you saw a
014jump from fiscal year 18 to 24 is because they did increase the base costs, which was nice and that's what we want them to keep doing because two years ago to cost the price of goods and to cost to educate a student was much lower than it is now. So, if they keep with the increased cost, base cost would really help if they really want to start dwindling down, but they really need to increase the base costs and increase the percentages to get to a fairer school funding plan. Inter could you just explain what that means? Base cost inputs like terms. So, the base cost of how much it costs to educate a student. So, it could be statewide. um you know they look at the statewide average and then it's kind of got goes
015from there and also looks at the local environments as well. So right now our according to the cup report I think our base cost to educate a student was like $14,000. Um I'm trying to I pulling up the cup report so I had to double check that but and every school is different right and so when they don't update it it's using old data past years like costs and obviously were not existing in a time where things cost the same as in 2022 even correct? Yeah. And those those base costs are um based upon actual data from districts. They're not some ideal pie in the sky number that someone just created. Correct. Yeah. Each year we had to update our financial data to the state so they know exactly what and all the EMA stuff
016so they know exactly what each school district is spending, how much everyone's making. So they have a lot of the information to create that data. So it's helpful for everyone to look at. Unfortunately, they some turned a blind eye to it. So this is one of the simulations that went out uh for the House passed bill. the on the left you see that there's a decrease in ADM which is average daily membershipship um so students in the district um from FY22 to FY25 we saw a 5% decrease in ADM and then from FY23 to 26 we saw a de decrease in 6.1%. And then you see the foundation aid, $15 million in FY25, $15.1 million in FY26. And then the changes um coming we were receiving $94,000 additional in FY26 and then in FY27, $47,000
017additional. There were some previous simulations that showed us like losing a ton of money, which um that's not the case anymore. we are receiving more money, just not as much money as we would like. Uh, this doesn't even cover one person. So, and I'm guessing that doesn't even begin to um keep up with the rise in costs. No. No. So, it ends up being functionally a decrease. So, it's nice that it's something um but there should be a lot more for everybody, unfortunately. So, and then some of the cup report information there kind of shows you the share per pupil for our district. And the cup report is really nice and I could bring it up because it shows you your district, state average, and um three other districts average, which is kind of cool
018to see. So, if you are ever bored or have nothing better to do, uh pull up the cup report and just pull some districts. So you could kind of see we're on the low end of educating students and some other districts are on the high end just because they have more resources to do so. Be careful if I pull that up real quick and I can show you where you find it. If you go to our website, it's on the treasures page. If you haven't been to the website recently, it's had some changes. And you could do you can see this for every every school in the state of Ohio. Who puts out this report? The state. The state. Yep. Yeah. So, you would have your school district, a similar district, and the state average.
019And then you could bring in three comparison districts as well. I think the only thing that's not fun about this report is you can't type it in. You have to search it. Scroll down and search. 2025. That's when I wish our district began with an A so we didn't have to scroll quite so long. So it pulls it up very quickly. So you could kind of um see teacher teacher salary averages, how many administrators you have. This is a very quick runthrough of it. I could go into a deeper dive at a later date, but you kind of see the cost, the state revenue per people. Okay. And this is Oh, that's why this is FY22. Sorry, I was like that number is not the same as I put. Just kind of gives you uh
020an oversight of it. And then you could select your uh the other districts you want to pull in, which is nice. I always look at the the county, the chapters, not chapters, the compact districts to since they're our closest in our neighbors just to see. But it is it is amazing once you get down here to see the total revenue per per pupil and the operation expenditure per pupil. So in 22 we were at $12,000 per pupil. a similar district to us was 13 and the state average was 14,000. So we're even below the state average in FY22. There's a lot of information easy to digest and look at. Okay. So now we're going to move on to vouchers. The this is the ed expand the ed choice expansion voucher. All the other vouchers we
021have have have less than 10 students who participate in those ones. Now the one thing that have we've been uh drowned in our head is that 90% of roughly 90% of students who take one of these have never even gone to public school. So it's kind of miscon. So it's hard to ever say like well you know there's a huge increase from this year to each year but most of the time students have never even gone to public school. So, it's not like they're really leaving public schools to go to private schools. Um, and and they just live in our community and which we have to report. So, this um this one goes back to 2018, which was kind of nice. You could kind of see the progression of um which grade they're in. And
022as of FY24, all grades have been being reported. So, there's roughly 480 of our resident students that are on a voucher. can't say whether they've gone to public school or not, but I'm assuming that some students have gone from public school and taken the voucher to go somewhere else. And this was also taken from the state. So, just kind of going into the vouchers and how they work. Um, you know, any students from K to 8, the maximum they could get is $6,000 per student and grades 9 through 12 is $8,400. And this is also just based off of the family's total income. So not everybody who is about who takes a voucher gets the highest amount. The more money you make, the less money you get, which I could appreciate that. Um, so it's
023kind of when people hear that, oh, they get $8,400, maybe not so quite. The let's say the less fortunate get that amount, the more fortunate get less. So I just kind of went off of the ADM. If in a twilight world that the state fully funded it at the highest amount they give to a student, uh the $8,400, that would be around a total of I'm sorry. We followed the guidelines set by the state for the vouchers, it would be a total of $32,000. So that's almost more than double $32 million $32 million. Thank you. Uh that the state would receive. So that that would be a difference of $10 million that we would get if the state funded it the way that they do for vouchers for some people which is kind of nice
024which I believe would be about two like two of our emergency levies would be about what that would be. So it is kind of nice to see and also this would be like the best case scenario if the state were to do something similar to this for funding public schools and you and then on the that chart you can kind of see if you're 751% above the federal poverty level that's how much you get. So somebody everyone gets something. Then we're going to go into the House Bill 96 which was passed last week. So, this would uh require school district to submit a five-year projections of revenue expenditures to the budget county commission. And then if the budget county commission sees you have more than 30% of expenditures of a carryover balance, they are going
025to then draw back your collections for the following year. This, I think, is what's causing a lot of uproar with the treasurers because they they need that cash balance to help spread it throughout the year. You know, we're at our most vulnerable around March and um December through January because we don't know when we're going to get the advances from the county. So, having that balance helps spread the the burden throughout the year. So, a lot of questions were, well, what number are they going off of? Because we might have that much by in June 30th, but then as we as we get our advances and that starts to dwindle down, what's happening by December when we can't make payroll, who do we reach out to? Then we had to take out debt, pay it
026back. So, one of the southern treasurers had some someone come in and kind of like look at it. very similar to my financial report of saying like this is where our cash balances are at each month. What would you say to me when I what do I say to my people when I can't make payroll because of this? He's like, "Oh, that's it." Like the light bulb went off. And so I'm hoping that more politicians could get into in meeting with the experts for this stuff and really see how this could really hurt school districts. And the one thing that Katie Johnson, the executive director of OASPO, was saying was having a cash policy max ceiling and floor could really help with this. So if you are above, let's say 30%, you know, how can
027you draw it down so that you're not at 30% anymore? What would 30% be for us? Um, I would have to look at that. We're at like 12% right now. So it's it's not we're we're not going to be affected by this. So, which good and bad you know, but it will be nice to have a healthy cash balance. That way, you could start investing more in like permanent improvements and having those things that we can't afford right now. So, like I said, we're not affected by this because we're roughly at 12%. If we go to this simulation, it's the same one. Um, but then if you scroll over, you could see as of last year, can you see that it's small? As of last year, we had a cash carryover balance of 8 million.
028Um, which is only 12.2% of our expenditures. So, not great, but we're not going to be affected by this, but many other school districts are who are in much at a healthier standpoint. So, I think this was led by uh Giaga. There's a politician up there who thinks some school districts have way too much money and they want to give it back to the residents. So, the pros and cons, you know, if if you keep doing that, you're going to have to go after you're have to be going to the ballot more often, which I don't think is probably what school districts want. And it's always going to be that constant battle. So, if they think you're residents are getting the money back, well, you're not spending our money wisely. It's like no, we're just
029having to give it back, which will help which will decrease interest earnings and a lot of other things that are kind of scary to think long term about. Well, and those residents voted for whatever levies are supporting their school system and this would be the state kind of pulling back levies that the voters approve. Yeah, it would be the uh the counties having to do it. And I'm I'm sure the counties are on an uproar right now because of how you would Yeah. So, you would collect your all your mills one year. If they deem it's too high, the next year they would readjust all the mills. Um so, then the the residents are paying less, but then it's not like you get that money back. So, you would have to then go back out
030for more money. So it's I think another thing that the politicians aren't thinking about. You know, I think enforcing a feeling in a floor when it comes to cash balances is probably a good first step and then if you're above that then this I think they could have a say but you know it's voted millage that it's collected. So it's kind of sad that they want to now take the burden on the citizens to pay this the share their share and the versus the state and now they're going to draw it back because they're not spending it in time. And one thing I I had heard was that that cash balance affects um your bond rating, your ability to borrow money, how much interest we're paying on any money that we borrow. And if if
031that ceiling is too low, then districts are are paying more to borrow whatever money they might have to borrow, like you said, to to just meet payroll if the tax money is slow coming in. Yeah. And it kind it shows like you're uh not like uh liquid, you know, very small amounts. So there's plethora of other plethora of things that this affects. Um so it it'll be interesting to see how what happens in the Senate about this if it changes or if it get could get worse. But um unfortunately this doesn't luckily it doesn't have it's not affecting us right now but not saying that's a good thing because we need more cash to sustain our financial integrity moving forward. I I just wanted to add to so the the background on the 30% the
032original amount that was put into the bill the sub bill was 25% and when I was down testifying there was actually a treasurer from somewhere near Columbus I can't remember um that went into great depth on the the 25% and how it's you know it it the amount of um again like what you were saying affecting your bond rating in order to get a AAA rating you have to have 25% cash reserves. So if that her testimony as well as the other test people's testimony prior to that and submitted, you know, in writing did influence the legislature to bump it up to 30%. So, you know, there is absolutely merit in making your voices heard on things like this. um because sometimes maybe they just haven't thought it through um carefully and I think there's
033still room to um advocate further as this moves over to the Senate because you know there are you know they they're they're human and they sometimes can change their mind and but you know it's always good to keep working on it. Yeah, thank you for bringing that up. Yeah, so it went from 25 to 30%. Uh which is a good thing. So hopefully they as more people talk about this and in the Senate that they might see the need of increasing it as well. Uh so it's going to lessen the blow to a lot of school districts. But this also has uh you know we do have a um floor but I think it's 60 or 90 days. We are well below that floor which is something we could work on. Well at the numbers
034that they have we were below the floor. So I don't know if we put a ceiling in the last policy update just because we have not seen that ceiling in a long time. So, it makes everyone start thinking about how could they start spending on the dollars wisely to get what they need before it gets taken away completely because once you take it back, we're never going to see it again. Well, that was another thing that came up. And as this uh woman was testifying, they were asking, you know, what or she was asking what happens when we, you know, hit that number? And then then uh one of the representatives asked her, you know, do would your district just try to spend the money down ra you know rather than have it be clawed
035back. And the answer was, you know, like most assuredly it seems like yes. You know, the the money would be not not wasted, but maybe capital improvements that needed to happen or, you know, maybe things that were you were hoping to save that money for. you know. So, I just I don't really understand the the um reasoning behind this because I don't see a lot of school districts actually just letting their money sit there and then be taken back and it could I don't know. I think it just could cause decision making that maybe isn't the like the best in the long term. I agree. Yeah. And going back to the kind of like the rainy days, you know, the healthier the more money you're able to save and carry over year to year will
036help along the need to not always have to go out for new money. So that's going to be something that's going to affect some school districts depending on how this goes. And I would assume early in a levy cycle there's more carryover because that money is worth less as that levy cycle proceeds as inflation happens as costs go up. Yep. Depending on which kind of levy that is put in place. All right. That's kind of my general overview of uh some of this some of the stuff that has happened uh last week. It was uh the mood was pretty uh pretty uh irritated, frustrated once the house voted for what they voted for. So now uh they're on spring break. So reach out to your pol politicians and uh you know the paris school funding
037resolution we passed last month. I did send to the House. Uh I will be doing the same thing to the Senate just so that they know where we stand as a board. So that'll be going out here shortly. And just to reiterate, you know what I just for those not necessarily sure of the process does the bill passes the House now. It does go to the Senate for the Senate to either make their own changes or to concur and then it would go back to the House again. So there's there is plenty of time for advocacy and uh I know all of us are willing to help. So if anybody would like to join in and help advocating, please email us at the boe.smfcsd.org and we will, you know, help try to gather information because
038we are not interested um more higher tax center. I just want to add in I'm really glad that you were able to go to OASBO last week and get the updated information to share with us the um the continuing education is incredibly valuable for the district. Yeah, there's a lot of sessions I've learned uh some updates to the retention policy. So that'll be scheduled here very shortly. Uh so it was kind of it was cool. Some of them could be a lot of uh lawyers do them. So it could be a little uh newsfest but a little dry. Yeah. So they do their best but it is nice because they give the information that we need to keep following policies and procedures. So I was very happy I went to that one. Okay. Next up
039we have committee updates. Um I can start with the wellness committee where you met last week. Uh we covered understanding behavior as communication and the trainings that the um the staff are going through on working with kids to get them emotionally regulated so that they can refocus on work. Um and then we also got some information from nutrition services and I don't know that I've ever met a more enthusiastic department head. Um and right and uh we learned a little bit about the continuing improvements in nutrition like uh moving to die-free foods, continuing to decrease the sugar content. Um continuing to increase the fresh offerings that we're we're giving to kids. um and the fact that nutrition services as long as everyone is paying their lunch fees um is self-supporting which is quite the contrast
040from where I remember it being back when I first started attending board meetings. Um so that is an amazing accomplishment I think. Yeah that uh we are very happy to be in the black when it comes to food service. In the past before co you were struggling to get to the black by the end of the fiscal year. So I kind of I told Angie uh that you know we're going to be audited soon. They're probably going to tell you you have to spend down some of that money. So I know she's been keeping a tight ship and trying to save those dollars but I said buy the wells you need. buy the buy the equipment you need because they're going to force you to do it anyway. So, she's kind of happy here, but
041she does not like to see her balance drain, which I totally understand. Just add one one additional thing to that. Um there was um just a brief discussion on how um tariffs etc could affect the nutrition services as well, just as it affects everything. Uh there's some uncertainty with budgeting. Um but but she's doing a phenomenal job even and and I don't uh have any I mean I have full confidence that she would continue even if she her has to take some hits but that's just a part of everything that's happening here. Other committee updates technology meets tomorrow. Uh so the finance committee met um we did talk about the uh shortfall on the fees for uh lunch but we talked about the possibility of how we clean up the way we collect the money
042and how we get that information out to the parents. Um it was it was shared by more than one parent at the meeting that um they were unaware that they were in negative and um once they found out they paid it. But uh so we looked at various avenues to encourage families to bring their uh their fees up to date. And um obviously our office is willing to work with anybody who um is having a hard time uh doing that or they find out that they're really far behind. Uh they can make payments, they can um do other things if they call our office. So, I would encourage anybody that kind of is surprised by a large lunch bill to uh give the office a call and we will work with anybody to try and
043get that balance uh back to where it belongs. Um our committee did also talk about uh there are other fees uh especially in the high school that um students pay. And um we talked about uh just things like you know if you owe fees then maybe you can't you'll always get a lunch no matter what. but maybe you can't buy ice cream or you can't get the extra things or maybe some of the fun activities. Um they would say, you know, you you might have to sit this out until we get this worked out with your parents. Uh so, uh we talked a lot about that. Um, we talked about uh we did a comparison between other surrounding school districts and the type of fees that they collect versus fees that we collect and um
044trying to um just make us uh similar to the other surrounding schools and what they're doing. Uh we're trying to explore ways to increase revenue because we are looking at possibility of uh being in the negative by the end of next school year, although we don't know for sure until the state finishes whatever they're doing. Uh so we are trying to look for other sources of revenue um and other ways for cost savings. Uh, one of the members brought up uh, the possibility of doing an energy audit for all of our buildings. Um, and uh, so we are looking into doing that. Uh, we really have a mixed mixed systems of heating, cooling, electric technology. Um, we've uh these buildings have been cut apart and pieced together and there's window air conditionings and wires running
045along the ceilings and um as you try to retrofit some of these older buildings to meet our technology needs. Um, and the phone systems have been going out intermittently lately. And so, uh, we want to take a look at all of those things and see if there's ways that we can, uh, save money, um, on that as well. Uh, also, um, it wasn't brought up at the the meeting, but I have a meeting coming up where we're going to discuss the possibility of possibly adding and looking at uh maybe gas wells or solar or uh wind or something that maybe we can bring some revenue in for our um energy costs there. Uh so um we um lightly touched on transportation mostly based on the fact that we have 27 other schools that we transport
046students. Uh that is mandated by the state uh charter schools and uh private schools. Um and that transportation is a large part of our budget. Um, so we'll probably be looking at some of that in our next meeting. Uh, which we will have one more meeting before the end of the school year. Um, and then, um, so once everyone goes back and does their their homework, we'll we'll come back and have another meeting for that committee. 27 schools. You mean that's because of school? Uh, this Okay. Um the the 27th talking about that is like a mandate of busing people for for vouchers for private. Correct. Right. So this is right our mandated we are mandated if we transport um our students we have to transport their students and um I was surprised to find
047out that they do not have to comply to our school calendar. we have to transport them no matter what their school calendar is, which really causes a lot of extra costs because we would be transporting them on days when we don't even have school. Um, and they don't have to comply with our school times either. So, we can't consolidate bus stops. We can't consolidate uh buses. Most of those students don't ride the bus with our students. um and we have to run extra special routes for them to get to school. So, it's really um interesting that I I don't understand what thinking was. I I would think that, you know, we could set a calendar and do some things to make it more costefficient, but we can't because the state won't let us do that.
048We're required to do whatever however they set their schedule. And I just want to touch up on one thing uh that Tina said. Uh some of the students we transport are alternative education sites that we have to transport to as well. So uh just another layer of transportation that's difficult in the state of Ohio. I have a question about the fees. Um so if there's a biology fee, let's say it's $80 at the high school, does the parent have to pay the whole $80 or are they able to pay a portion of that if they don't have the whole amount? Yep. They could pay they could pay $5 a month or what? $5 a day, whatever. They the system let them do that or do they have to send in like a check? I'm pretty
049sure I'm pretty sure the system will let them do it. Um but I could also double check. Yeah, I'll check. I had a couple questions about like I I want to make payments but I I can't I know on the back end I could do that for people. So I'm assuming it it could let the end user do it as well, but we will definitely check on that. Thank you. For the time being, if folks are struggling with that, they just have to call the treasurer's office in order to make arrangements. Yeah. And I've uh helped with payment plans for a couple families, and I'm always there to help and work with families. So, also, I almost forgot, we also had policy. We did have policy. Did you want to talk about that or did
050you want me to? Um, sure. Um I because I found my notes. Uh yeah, a lot of what we talked about with a policy was HB96 that we covered earlier. Um we also talked about some other proposed legislation uh that is moving around the state house that affects schools. Um mandates about teacher training, mandates about what we're teaching our students. um a new proposal about school closures. Um there's a lot out there that is moving right now. So, we mostly just kind of took that deep dive into um all of that legislation. Um and I'm not sure if there's was there anything else that you wanted to talk about? And we just also encouraged our uh committee members uh because we have a very diverse group to uh look at advocacy from their uh lens
051um even with letter writing as well as uh going down to the state uh to speak as well and there was nothing that came directly out of policy that's going to move in uh to the board at this point. Okay. I think that's all the committee reports. Correct. Okay. Safety and security meet. Mr. Sheen had already reported on safety previously. They haven't had a meeting since then. They meet quarterly. Okay. Okay. Next item of business is board scholarships. And since I have a graduating senior this year, I am recusing myself from the entire process of our scholarships. So, I will turn that over to our vice president. I'm sorry. Real quick, I think um student representative is next. I skipped one because I wrote notes on there and I missed it. Thank you for keeping
052me on track. Um the student representative, uh obviously we will be sad to see SUV go, but we need to uh recruit for next year. Um, everybody hopefully saw the application that was attached to the agenda. That was last year's application. Um, I had two things on the student representative. Uh, one, if anybody had any suggestions for changes to that application. I think it worked well last year, but you never know. and to uh to talk about what our deadline should be for applicants to turn in their applications. Um I'm thinking that you know um let's start with any suggestions for changes to the application. I'm sorry I did not see any. I I am happy with it as is. Okay. Um, so then we just need to update the application to the current dates.
053Um, in terms of pushing that out, we can probably start pushing it out uh pretty soon within a few days. I'm thinking we give students like at least three weeks. Um, Subic, do you think that would be adequate? Do you have any input on that deadline? Sure. Uh, turning on my mic for the first time in a while. Um, uh, yeah, I definitely do think that these next couple weeks will be a little bit iffy just because we have OST testing and I know that AP testing is also coming up. Oh, good point. Um, but I just want to touch on that first point that you made slightly biased, but I think that the application was very good. Um, and then for the second point with the deadlines, 3 weeks should be enough. So again,
054do be careful with OSD testing which starts on Wednesday this week. Okay. So just be mindful of that. So and then AP testing is in May, beginning of May. Start starting May 5th and then I think it ends the following week on Friday. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Mhm. Looks like last year they were due May 24th. Yeah. So May 23rd will be two weeks after AP testing. Okay. I I like that idea. I for some reason I was thinking our deadline was end of April last year, not end of May. So, thank you for looking at that. What do we think? That sounds right. It looks like we have meet uh a board meeting. What you said May 20 23rd. It looks like we are board meeting then would be May 19th and then not
055again till June 9th which actually maybe might be moved. But is June the June meeting reasonable to go ahead and make a decision or or no? I guess we'd have to be interviewing at that time. I I think we've typically done the interview if needed, the appointment of the student representative in June. Okay. Um so if we have the applications, if we need to do interviews during that first meeting in June, maybe you know we can appoint then we can appoint toward the end of June. The term starts officially with um I think July 1. Okay. So, as long as we do that in June and have the applications in for June, we're okay. Um any other input? Okay, let's do the the May date then. that's corresponds with last year's date and that way
056um we're not hitting too close to the AP tests and and the testing the OSTs. Yeah, two weeks will definitely be enough time. Okay. All right. So, do Friday, May 23rd is the applications are due. Okay. Thank you everyone. Okay. Now, we are going to turn the scholarship conversation over to my colleagues while I recuse myself quietly. Um, I just wanted to, you know, make sure that everybody has their, um, top three turned into me by, but they I I owe them to Renee. I owe our winner to Renee at schools foundation on the 18th, Friday. So, if uh, if everybody could have their top three to me by the 16th, I can go through them and then um, what the process that we used before, although I was recused the last two years because
057of senior. So, this is actually my first time uh doing it, reading through them all, which there were a lot and a lot of great great uh applicants, which is I'm really a testament to how good our our seniors are. Um but uh the way Nancy had done it before was to go through and then um assign points to to each one based on um everybody's first, second, and third choice and then uh come up with a winner at that point and then it would just be based on everybody's everybody's top three. I have Mike Sheen's already so I just and my own are done already. I just need the two for you guys. I am also going to recruit myself because I'm on this full tonation. Oh. Oh, okay. Yes. You getting those for
058me? Got it. So, just just hang out. I Okay. Oh, okay. And then Yeah. Yeah. just make sure um I'll I'll send it over to Will's Foundation on um Friday and I'll I'll make sure that everybody sees the the winners too and I think probably keeping scanned copies of what everybody's top three is to sub to you know put in a file so it's just kept that sound reasonable okay and the scholarship night is what date do we have that handy we don't nec necessarily have to decide tonight, but someone will May 22nd, someone will need to present our board scholarship at scholarship night and that will not be me and that will not be Miss East Jenkins. I have another engagement that evening. Would you be able to I'll double check, but I should
059be able to do that. It's a great evening. That's really cool. It's It's always just I don't even have words. I c we have so many amazing students. Um and so much recognition and support for our graduates. It's just always a really worthwhile evening to spend. Thanks to the schools foundation for everything putting it together. It's amazing. Right. Okay. Uh so about that June meeting that is our next uh topic. We have two members who are unable uh it turns out to make the meeting on June 9th. So I am hoping that we can change that meeting to June 16th. I'll uh make a motion to change the meeting. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Does that work for you? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Great. Roll call. East Jenkins. I reli. Sudonic. I. Wind. I. Thank you. Uh,
060next up we have superintendent recommendations. Good evening. I would like to recommend the following personnel recommendations. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. East. Jenkins. I. I. Sudonic. I. Wind. I. And next. Next item um for our discussion here is the in light of our uh executive letters that have been received uh from district going all the way back to um January and February. We are looking at removing the words diversity and inclusion uh from the vision statement. And this vision statement is from the strategic plan. The district does not have a vision statement on um the website, but it is part of the strategic plan work that was done um in 22. Do I have a motion? Pull that up. So moved. Second. And here on the slide,
061I'm sharing what the current language is uh for uh the vision statement and then uh looking for revised uh language there. And you can see uh here in the area where it says diversity and inclusion that has been removed. And so the content of the um information is still uh the same. discussion. Obviously, I voice my disappointment that this is uh something that we have to do. As always, we will always be looking out for every single student. No. So, was this a recommendation from legal counsel? Uh this is in um yes, with research that we have to do and we're looking at uh remembering that this is all tied to federal funding. Uh and so um not that anyone's going to do anything different. We will always take care of our students. Uh but
062we definitely want to make sure that federal funding also comes to our district as well because it benefits our most vulnerable students. The Okay. The next item is to we we need roll call. Yeah, we haven't done roll call yet. Um just one one last um I'm I find it incredibly disheartening that we're at this point talking about outlawing words. Um it feels incredibly Orwellian to me. Uh at the same time, we need to protect the funding that benefits our most vulnerable kids and listen to legal counsel on that. Um doesn't mean I have to like it. Roll call, please. East Jenkins, I Suonic. I wind I Okay, next item. The next item is to take a look at strategic goal number nine which is referred to in the strategic plan as diversity and inclusion.
063Uh the current language you can see um and I'm not on my uh left hand side your right hand side um you can see the current language has uh diversity and inclusion there. The proposed uh change is to um change to opportunities for all which would remove the word diversity and inclusion. And then if you go into the actual objective and the action steps uh there and I'll just um read what our current action steps are is that we will create a culture of acceptance, respect, value and psychological safety for all students. The steps there are to ensure all staff members understand the importance of diversity and inclusion. We will gather feedback from students about their educational experience to ensure they have a voice in the education process. And then we will re review data
064for disparities and create action plans to address subgroup gaps in discipline and academic achievement. If you have read any of the uh executive letters uh again um focusing in on and I want to make sure that everyone understands here most of the executive letters focus in on title six. There is no one and I repeat no one who disagrees with title six which talks about discrimination against people. That is something that no school district will do. that is something that we all believe in. There are certain parameters uh in those executive orders that talk about words uh that talk about looking at policies and procedures um that talk about resolutions. And so that is why we're going back to some of the items that um from the executive letters and taking a look at uh
065those this evening in the revised language. Uh I am proposing to the board that we change mission number nine to state now opportunities for all. And to be honest when you think about diversity and inclusion it is woven throughout any work that you that you do. And so when thinking of that you're thinking about an opportunity for all students. So the objective then reads foster a culture where every student and staff member feels valued, respected, and supported. The bulleted points then change to ensure all staff members understand the importance of creating welcoming and affirming environments to gather feedback from students about their educational experience to ensure their voices are heard and reflected in decisionmaking and review data regularly to identify develop targeted action plans to address discipline and academic achievement uh strengths and challenges. And
066so those are the recommendation for uh strategical mission nine. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Discussion. I thank you, Dr. Gold, for the hard work you put into uh staying within the bounds of what we're being asked to do, but also making sure that all means all. Roll call. E Jenkins. I. Merleti. I sonic I wind I next so um moving going back to some policy language that we looked at I want to uh reference policy 2111 and here I'm asking the board to do an emergency uh necessity I'm asking the board to approve this amended policy uh this is linked uh for um community uh and anyone to review. If you click on the link at the top, parent and family engagement is the policy that I'm referencing. In this policy, there
067is um a line that talks about see this is a it's a very long sentence a lot of commas here. The district's plan as well as each other schools plan will provide for annual evaluation with meaningful engagement of parents and families of the plan's content effectiveness and identification of barriers to participation by parents and families with a particular attention to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy or are of any racial or ethnic minority background. The needs of the parents and the family members to assist with learning of their children, including engaging with school personnel and teachers and the strategies to support successful school and family interaction. This causes uh us to look at this and the amendment is the district will ensure that any particular attention paid
068to parents who are economically disadvantaged, are disabled, have limited English proficiency, have limited literacy, or are of any racial or ethnic minority background does not result in any disfavoring of any other families who are not part of these groups. This line is meant only to ensure that the engagement is appropriate for all families. For example, a person with a limited English profic proficiency, we might require a translator to be there. So, this is uh why I'm asking for an amendment to this particular uh policy and I'm asking for an emergency uh amendment to that. Do I have a motion? So, moved. Second. discussion. I think pretty straightforward. I think we all understand that students have different needs and it's the district's responsibility to meet those individual needs. So, the sentence basically just explains that. Yeah.
069We need to engage parents with whatever supports they need in order to help their students and that doesn't take away from anyone else. Roll call, please. East. Jenkins. I reli. Sudonic. I. Wind. I. Okay. Now, next item. I will entertain a motion to enter into executive session uh for the purpose of considering the employment of a public employee or official and preparing for conducting or reviewing negotiations or bargaining sessions with public employees concerning their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. E. Jenkins, I. I. Sodonic. I. Wind. I. There will be no action taken after executive session. We are in executive session at 703. Thank you.