001I'd like to call to order this regular meeting of the board of education. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Mr. M. Mrs. Mr. Borchers here. Mrs. Davis here. Mr. Fox here. Mrs. Becker here. Mr. Ric here. At this moment, I would like to ask for a moment of silence for Sally Adams. Sally passed away on April 6th, 2025 at the age of 76. She taught kindergarten for many years in the Troy City schools at Cooken, Forest, and Van Cleave. Thank you. Um at this moment I am going to ask for board committee reports. Levi, do you have anything from Upper Valley? Uh yeah. So Upper
002Valley um the construction projects uh as of our last meeting uh at the end of March it was 32% complete and on pace uh to target November 1st uh completion date for that project. So excited for that. excited for um the ceremonies that we'll have in December up there at the uh career center in terms of like a um open house type of ceremony. Um also we had a amazing presentation. Uh typically I update us on Troy students, but um this presentation that we had from a student um this last month was Hannah Weldy. She's from Sydney High School. She's a senior in cosmetology and um what Hannah's done, you know, she's she's a senior right now. She has already obtained her associates from medicine and prior to starting her her senior year back in
003September, August, she had already obtained her bachelor's from Franklin University. Um so, uh it was just really impressive. I I don't know any student that's done such a thing like that. Uh that's in addition to uh studying and passing her cosmetology uh boards. Um she no surprise she was the first in her cosmetology class uh this year to also get the boards completed. So um I feel like is she on track or volleyball or something? She's also an athlete. She she was in she was she also did extracurriculars. So she's in track right now. I forget what other sports that she did. Maybe it was volleyball as well. But uh I couldn't imagine how anyone has time to do all of that um from you know 15 to 18 years old. But uh I was
004so impressed I wanted to share that with everyone even though she's not a Troy student. But um yeah that's Hannah Wely from from Sydney. Sarah anything? Um I did get to participate in the Hayner board which is a new thing for me. I've been to a couple meetings and it's it's going really well. It's a very nice group of people, but what they're working on right now is planning out their summer event. So, there's about six or seven of them right now that they're really really working on and they're trying to hone in dates and actual events and what to do. So, that's something we'll probably talk about on Thursday. In addition to that, on um November or in November, they have their 085 mil levy. So, that's been a big topic of conversation and
005the marketing and the signage and how to approach that. When I talked to them, they seemed a little surprised when they weren't quite aware of the fact that I think there's a lot of people in the community that don't really know that they have access to the heer and there's a whole niche of people that could really access the heer and use it. So, I think they're going to go with the theme for their election. It's your building. So, if you start seeing those signs around town and you question what that is, it's it's called it's your building because they're trying to convey the message that everyone in the community can use this. This isn't just a bunch of people that have been here forever and they're using it for whatever they feel. So, that's
006that's primarily what they're working on and we have a meeting every month to try to get that passed. That's it. All right. Anything else? Okay. And so best part of the night, Mr. Ays, would you like to introduce your group? Well, your group. So, we have a few students from some of Forest's finest of our student council. Um, so going to turn over to them. I think it's been student council season. I think you got to hear from most of the student councils this year. And on the rotation, it happened to be the same way for us. So, we're going to turn it over to Sarah Packer is the adviser. Um, she said she just wants to be the clicker. So, we'll let her run the slideshow from the back. If you three want to
007go ahead and stand up and you guys can get started. I'm Piper and I'm a fifth grade representative. We have three third grade representatives. They are Anna, Carly, and Meadow. We have four fourth grade representatives. I'm Lily and I am a fourth grade representative. Tori, Dean, and son are also representatives from fourth grade. We have seven fifth grade representatives. I'm Jordan and I am a fifth grade representative. Liberty, Piper, Xander, Bella, Ariana, and Riley are also fifth grade representatives. We have activities each month. In September, students filled out applications and got voted on. In October, we had our first meeting where we got to know each other and did team building activities. In November, we did a food box drive for the community food boxes. We collected 16 big boxes to donate. In December, we
008sold candy or candy canes. Students bought them and sent them to classmates and teachers. We sold over 720 candy canes in a week. In January, we opened the student store. We have the student store on Friday mornings. Students can buy different types of school supplies and stickers. In February, we helped prep for kindness week at Forest. We organized suckers, pencils with labels, and fruit snacks that we were handing out throughout the week. This month, we wrote handwritten notes to all of the staff at Forest. These will be used for teacher appreciation week at the beginning of May. In May, we'll have our end of the year party and help get it ready for funding. This is a review of all of our monthly activities. Are there any questions? Wow. So, who decides on what the
009activities are? Do you guys? Sometimes it's a collaboration between things student council has done in the past or things like kindness week is something that the counselor typically run. So they kind of piggy back and help join join that. Teacher appreciation week, something they've done for a long time. So that's always the first weekend in first week of May. So student council's always done something there to help recognize staff. Yeah, we we started at the end of May um helping get stuff ready for field day. Mrs. Hwitt just recently student council would be part of the our concert, our spring concert. Instead of her getting up and speaking, they're going to get up and have parts to speak about. That's pretty cool. So, how often do you meet with each other to plan and organize
010your activities? About every month. Every month. What made you want to be on student council? Um, I want to be on student council because I like helping out a lot and I just wanted to help out the school. Um, I wanted to um represent the school. Me too. Awesome. Well, thank you for your time that you spent. I know it's extra time and extra work, but that's great after help helping all the other students like that. Would you be willing to introduce us to who came with you tonight? Thank you. Um, I came with my mom. I came with my grandma. Um, I came with my mom and my little sister. Well, thank you so much for bringing them. Thank you for your presentation and for and for what you do for your school. And
011this is just the community food box thing that they do, too. A lot of schools I think do fundraisers or food drives around November for the holidays and um she had partnered with um was it Maya Dylan her name started the food box things a long time ago. Um yeah so we were able to fill 16 of those. Wow. From donations that came through. So it was pretty awesome that and then they get to see that go in like staff members put those things in or families help and so you get direct input into you know kids see those boxes around the neighborhood. So it's a great thing that they do to support our community. Do do we have one of those boxes on site of forest? We do not. We have a little library
012in out in front of the school. We do not have a community box down, but there's mult how many do you would you say are in in your in your school district? I would say that there's either 14 or 16 in Troy alone and then there I think there's a few in I could be wrong about that. Um, but we definitely had extra to go back and fill a couple of them. Awesome. That's great. And it's great from a parent standpoint. Like we've got to deliver to different I've been in St. Pat's kitchen before and just hearing the stories like they were very grateful for the food. It was great to visit these places. That's wonderful. Well, thank you very much. You are all welcome to stay. You do not have to. It's pretty exciting.
013Enjoy the weather outside. Thank you. Good job, guys. Thank you. Dr. Moore, I didn't do a very good job tonight, though. Anybody in attendance like to address our board of education? Okay. Sorry. Thank you. Um, at this time I'm asking for a motion for consideration of the approval of the minutes of the meeting from Monday, March 10th in exhibit A. So moved. Thank you, M. Second. Thank you, Mr. Fox. Are there any notes on those minutes? Okay, Mr. Price. Mrs. Borchers. Yes. Mr. Fox, yes. Mrs. Davis, yes. Mr. Rick, yes. Mrs. Packard, yes. Um, next, a motion to approve um for the financial reports in exhibit B for March 25, SM2, monthly total revenues, expenditures, balance, um, schedule of revenues, expenditures, five-year forecast, etc. A motion to look at those, please. So move. Thank you,
014Mr. Addict. Second. Thank you, Mrs. Davis. Continue to track um rather well as we head to the finish line of the fiscal year uh 25. We've also been monitoring the activity in Columbus with the governor's proposal and the house approved budget for the next banual budget for the state of Ohio. um with the governor's proposal uh for us as a school district. He his proposal affected us negatively to the tune of uh $2.2 million plus over the two-year budget. The House version as it was voted out benefited us. however slightly to about 157,000 over the banial budget in a positive way. So we are anxiously awaiting what the Senate decides and then obviously I don't foresee them agreeing with the House proposed budget. So there'll be a conference committee and all before it's said and
015done. Um, we will be at the end of June most likely before I was going to ask what it looks like. We know what's been passed and then uh it'll be several days later before um simulation and we know the true details after the May. Yes, after the May forecast. Um highlight a little bit of what the house passed. Um they are also limiting the cash carryover associated with our general fund. Every school district in Ohio would be limited to. What they approved was 30%. Uh we don't know what type of formula that involves what they're specifically looking at or how that could be adjusted somewhat. 30% of what? One year's operating expenses roughly. Yes. Yes. Yep. They also gave that if you are above that 30% they have passed the decision making off to
016the board of revisions at the county level to adjust the next year's tax collections downward to get us back within that 30% carryover. Can you repeat that? I want to make sure I understood. What? If a school district is above the 30% threshold of a carryover, they would adjust the next tax year's collections downward to get the district back within that 30% limit. Well, that is very and that would be decided at the county level. So what they're basically encouraging people to do is spend so that they get the I mean that's kind of stupid potentially. Yes. And we were I was in Columbus last week for professional organization annual conference and all this came about and was voted out of the house. why we're in Columbus. Um the leadership of my professional organization called
017a what they called a super session. We gathered at 3:30 one afternoon following that approval so we so they could give us the highlights and explain some things to us. Um several districts were concerned with the 30% because um depending upon what you spend at various times and where you are as far as tax collections go, if you ask for advances or not, you may be in a situation where you have no cash in hand to meet the need for that month. So with those districts, they potentially need more than 30% carryover at the beginning of the fiscal year in order to meet that those months of January, February till the money starts flowing from the county auditor back to the school district. As far as property taxes go, what do we generally carry over?
018We are currently sitting about 36%. Just above four months. I say that's what we were targeting. Three months. So we're sitting about four months right now. That's what you're target. That's what I was just looking at. The five-year forecast. It looks like carryover forecast is what? Is it the 19 or is it 21? Is it cash balance or is it uh either one? But I just saw and then our expenses were what 57 or 58. So um that's Yeah. Thanks for asking that question and answering four month period where we've tried to be. So, but we won't even know that we won't know how where everything ends up till most likely right excuse me right at the end of June. And when do we set the Don't we have to set the Don't we have
019a June financial closing? That's for Well, that won't affect that. That won't affect that. But we have a five-year forecast that mandator mandatory update in May. That's the May. Thank you. I was getting the June and the May. Thank you. Also with the house um approval of their proposal was reducing the five-year forecast from five years to three years. Yeah, I would have to applaud which helps projection wise a little bit. Have to applaud that as well versus just throwing darts. Yeah. Yeah. But what would be really great if they could be if they could have a formula like they really originally proposed and they would you know what's coming instead of this oh wait it's August or April 14th and I still don't know when my budget next year is going to be ridiculous.
020That's a another component. Um the House although early in the budget proposal made the statement that they were completing the phase in of the fair school funding plan later on in their proposal. It states that they will not fund us according to that formula. feels like it would be illegal for them to so we continue the funding via that formula. So how they are going to fund us, we don't know, which is at this point. So stupid. Pardon my French, but more to come. So So the ball's in the Senate's court right now to come up with a propos they take they are currently on about a two week hiatus. Um but when they come back in session, it'll be in the Senate's hands. And do they take the houses or do they take their
021their last? They typic they typically propose their own and have discussion and adjust and come up with some final proposal to vote on. Okay. Then after the Senate, does it go straight to the governor? It goes to a conference committee. Okay. Because they're not going to all agree. Yes. Most likely they will. I'm not aware that the two groups ever agree at that point. So this so more to come to know. Yes. Thank you. It has to be done by by law by June 30th, but they've been known not to be done by June 30th at times. So time will tell. Thank thanks for that update. That's a very broad Yeah. highlight. It's a good level that you've provided at. Thank you. Are there any other questions or comments regarding the financial reporting? No. Okay.
022Uh, Mr. Price. Mr. Reic. Yes. Mrs. Davis. Yes. Mr. Fox. Yes. Mrs. Borchers. Yes. Mrs. Packard. Yes. Um, next, a motion for then and now. These are items that provide that if the prior certification of funds by the fiscal officer was not obtained before the contractor order involving the expenditure of money as described above, the fiscal officer may instead certify. So moved. Thank you, Mrs. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Mr. Price, is there anything on to highlight that list? Um, couple from the athletic department, one from the high school, the junior high, Cooken, and Hayner. Any questions? Mr. Price, Mrs. Borchers? Yes. Mrs. Davis? Yes. Mr. Reick? Yes. Mr. Fox? Yes. Mrs. Packard? Yes. Next, a motion for the bids on partial roof replacement at the high school. We sealed bids were accepted by the treasur
023until 1 on Wednesday, April 2nd, which time they're opened and publicly read. Six qualifying bids were received um and an appropriate bid bond accompanied all. May I please have a motion? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Archers. Second. Thank you, Mr. Reic. We actually utilize a slightly uh different bidding program this time around. We utilize state contract pricing. Um there is a firm that uh has all of the state contract data and they make contact with the state approved contractors. Uh we've had some issues in probably two of the last three years as far as the low biders completing the work in a timely manner and a manner that does not open us up weatherwise throughout the project. Uh we had several concerns with our last summer's uh low bidder uh throughout uh our project last
024year. In fact, we still have not signed off on the project today. I was wondering who it was. I remember it is American Roofing out of Cincinnati Louisville area. Um they are actually the ones that we have had a couple issues with but not enough to rule them out. Um at this point we feel we probably could but we didn't want to go down that road. So we chose this method. Um and we have three very quality uh biders that propose for our project. And uh um we are not adding the alternate bid area for next summer's project. It is the uh this main hallway from this point clear to the main entry to the north of the high school. Um, and it's to the tune of uh just over $349,000 for that section only.
025So that's going to that leaves us with these this hallway here along the gym, the gym roof and the kitchen roof remaining on this structure before that impact entirely taking the stuff down. No, it will not. Nope. A baiting whatever you call it. Uh Jeff, I I think there might be need to be a correction here because I see in the very last sentence right before the roll call it list American roofing. Um but a little higher up I see it list enterprise roofing enterprise roofing. Okay, we'll make that change. So American chose not to bid on this project right now. They are not on the state approved list. So they weren't even contacted. And and this is um previously a few months ago, we rejected the bids, right? Because they weren't competitive. Is this
026the same project? No. No, that was the fuel tank. The fuel tank project last early last summer that we threw out and then rebid later in the summer. Um they that project is still open too. We are waiting on a control board for the operating system and as soon as that's received uh that will be installed, training will occur and we'll be able to use it. But that project was also delayed with tank arrival and the manufacturing of the tank itself. Okay. Sorry, the timing I can't Yes. Keep everything straight from nine months ago. Lot lot of things going on. Are we holding retainage on that American? Yes. Okay. Yep. So, final documentation and I think they still have a couple punch list items. So, so through the of the three enterprise, Kerman and Maxim,
027the recommendation is enterprise. Enterprise. Yes, they are the low bid. Um all our we use Coderman for some roof repair at times uh with our chunko roofs that we've had in the district. Maximum roofing we've had on this facility in the past and enterprise is very reputable. Worked with them in other districts. Don't think they've been in this district for quite some time. Uh, I just want to throw it out there. I've got a a business that does work with roofers. None of these I don't have any relationship. I've never worked with any of these in in the past. I can't say I won't in the future, but uh my votes going to reflect uh that. Okay. And just to point out, this um this project will come out of the permanent improvements fund which
028voters approved the renewal of that last year. And this project in and of itself will come in at just under half of what our annual receipts are. Yeah, we're just under $800,000 annual revenue for that levy and this is 350,000 of that. Y thank you for that additional information. Any other comments? Okay. Mr. Price, Mr. Reic, yes. Mrs. Borchers, yes. Mrs. Davis, yes. Mr. Fox, abstain. Mrs. Packard. Yes. Okay. Motion regarding the superintendence report, please. This is a resolution accepting gifts to the Troy City School District and expressing thanks to the on behalf of the board of education. We have a motion. Motion to approve. Thank you, Mr. Fox. Second. Thank you, Mrs. Stas. Mr. Piper. Second. Second best part of our board meetings after the kids presentations. We get to accept uh the generous
029donations of our community. Uh and you'll notice there's again quite a range here from donations to send kids on field trips to uh providing scholarship funds. So we appreciate all of our donations each month. Uh our April total is $3,8259 and our fiscal year to date is $181,69645. We do have a wonderful community that supports our schools. Yes, Mr. Price. Mr. Fox. Yes, Mr. Reick. Yes. Mrs. Borchers. Yes. Mrs. Davis. Yes. Mrs. Packard. Yes. Next. Um, for everyone in attendance, just for information, um, these are policies that we will be voting on. And then there are two additional policies that will be voted separately. May I have a motion to go over the first set, please, for new reviews policies. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Second. Thank you, Mr. M is there anything? Last month I
030walked us through all the various policies here. I'm happy to answer any additional questions you may have, but I would just recommend you approve them as presented unless there's questions. I don't think I had any questions on these. Are there any questions on these on the first group? No. A lot of good policies. Excited to get these implemented. Mr. Price, Mrs. Davis, yes. Mr. Fox, yes. Mr. Rick, yes. Mrs. Bchers, yes. Mrs. Packard, yes. Next, these are two um policies that we will discuss separately. Uh motion to um review, please. So moved. Thank you, Mrs. Borchers. Second. Thank you, Mr. Reic. Mr. Piper, do you want to start the conversation? I think that's most appropriate to answer any questions that there may be about these policies. We kind of walked through them last time, but
031I'm happy to answer questions. Yeah. So, I I um previously it was 20 I think it was November December 2023 um when we talked about uh policy 5113, the uh open enrollment policy. Um I voted not to approve that one uh at that time. And um due to some of the uh racial language in in the policy um I that language is still there. Um so there are that's why I asked for these policies to be voted on separately. Um the language that I have a concern with uh where it says promoting uh it talks about racial balance and 5120 or 513 I just want to make sure I'm on the right way. I 5113 starting with 5113. Okay. Thank you. Um so, uh what it what it states in here, um and that my
032concern is that the school can tell a child based on the color of their skin that they can open enroll to another school. I don't feel that that's right at all. Um, and I just want to read section uh B3 where it says procedures to ensure that the district maintains an appropriate racial balance in his schools. Specifically, the board reserves the right to object to the open enrollment of a district student to another district in order to maintain an appropriate racial balance. So I read that as saying we could tell in racial balance. Sorry, I should there's a definition of racial balance. It refers to minorities classified as African-American, Asian-American, Hispanic, and Native American students. And balance refers to the percentage of racial students in the school district, classroom, or uh school district program, classroom
033or school. So, I read this policy that says if we if we got to a point in Troy schools where we didn't have, I'll just use quotes, enough African-Americans or Asian-Americans or Hispanic or Native Americans, we could tell that student they could not leave Troy schools and open enroll at another school district. That's how I'm understanding it. If if I'm understanding that differently, please let me know. If I'm understanding it correctly, please explain to me why um everyone would want to accept that policy. This is not intra district from one district to another. This is within our district. Um well, it says inter. There's two policies. I always get these two mixed up. I did as well. And I perhaps two years ago when I voted no was intra. This one says inter. Okay, you're
034right. Um, we can't deny a student leaving us if they're they're able to enroll in other districts and we can't stop that process. We can deny a student coming into our district. Yes. But not leaving. Okay. Um, so this policy has to do with a a child coming into Troy City Schools. Yeah. And just a note on the racial balance thing. Um, this is in state statute, which is why it's in the policy. We're required by the state law to have that in our policy. I think we talked about this oneonone, right, quite a bit in depth. Yeah. Because I looked at this policy, too, and I was like, it's I told him as a parent, I said, "This this policy doesn't make sense to me. I don't understand it from the outside." But then
035when you broke it down a little bit differently, it makes sense because I took it, and maybe I'm saying this wrong as well. I took it the same way you did, like we would move students around to complete racial balance. Is that the way you're taking it, Levi? No, that would be intra district. Yeah, you're correct. And we have a different policy on that. And I think that may have been the one that we talked about a year and a half or two years ago where I also voted no on that. I don't agree with that. This is inter between Troy and Pa or Troy and Master or something like that. And um to me it doesn't matter if it's a student coming into our district that we could prevent them from joining our district
036or that we could prevent a student from leaving our district. Whatever it says in here, I don't think that that decision should be based on race. I appreciate that you shared the Ohio Revised Code that states that that is part of the Ohio Revised Code. However, I'm very happy right now to take a stance that if the Ohio Revised Code says something that I don't believe is right, I'm willing to stand up and say I don't believe that's right and have a and and not accept that policy and us be in violation of of that. uh the same way that uh many years ago people stood up and said that Jim Crow laws were illegal and uh shouldn't have happened and um slavery, you know, 50 or 70 years ago. Um there were laws that
037said that that was legal uh legal and people stood up and said no. Uh, I I don't I'm not trying to compare myself to someone who stopped slavery, but um I don't think that the person the color of any student's skin should dictate what building or what school district they go to, no matter what the Ohio law says. So, so my first my first question is what is the practice? What do we do if we were to ever deny some is are there what are the reasons we would have today and of denying a student to be open enrolled program being full? Yeah, that's what I think. That's pretty much it, right? I think the policy is designed for districts that have um schools with a lot of disparity between you may have like a
038one school with a heavy black population, another school with a heavy white population in the same district. Uh, it's what it's designed for. So, Ohio statute covers all schools in Ohio. We don't have schools like that. Um, as far as the process itself, I can't answer that. I've never seen a student denied because of this issue anywhere. Not saying it never happens anywhere, but it hasn't happened anywhere I've been. So, I'm kind of torn a little bit like a I'm didn't think that was our practice and b I I don't know. I mean, I'm not saying I agree with that. I think I think Yeah, everybody should be able to open roll wherever, no matter what. I mean, that shouldn't be a a factor. Either there's room or there's not. One or the other. Ours
039is just numbers. Yeah. And but I also have a little concern about us violating the I mean I think we I feel like we've been through that part before where I have a little concern about that being the state law and we're violating state law because I'm not exactly sure what the repercussions of that are. Helen, do we know this as that interpretation the spirit of this I'm guessing is to not create an all-white school and an all white Yeah, that's is that the spirit of I'm assuming some things here to to achieve racial balance. Yeah. And then a particular community may decide within themselves somehow to create a school of you know white versus other races if they I don't know how it's to avoid that. Yeah. It's to avoid that but I don't
040know how that happens but I think one of your emails stated did you say they were working on and maybe I misread this that they were working on tweaking this and cleaning this up? That was from Neiola who's our policy rep. Um, they were speculating that that this state statute we're talking about might change. I don't there's no guarantee if it will or it won't, but I think they were speculating that it might in the near future. That's all you got. It's kind of like goes with the budget, you know. You know, you may get it in July or you may get it in August. It's just whenever they so choose, you know, they kind of do their own thing. Well, and then it looks like they tacked on the because I think we can
041all agree about the enrollment of a student of a military family. Yeah. You know, they added that on. So, that makes it difficult to I guess for me, I'm okay with the policy knowing what our practices are. But I get it. I don't know how to how to move that up to the our congressional representatives to say we don't think this is great. But so Mr. Piper, can you summarize or kind of just outline for us just one more time kind of the spirit of what this is, what you have seen in practice? Sure. And what our options are. Um, so the I think the impetus behind this policy changing was a state law that requires us and rightfully so requires us to um move quickly to allow open enrollment for military families. That was
042the driving force behind this policy being updated. Now, like I said before, whenever policies are updated, the team of attorneys at Neola look at the policy language while they're at it um to clean up any other statutes. And I think that's this racial balance statute is one of those that they that found a better way to write it in their mind. Okay. But um I do think this is the the consideration of racial balance is for schools um to have the option to control open enrollment so that they don't have one building with um a heavy white population and another building with a heavy black population, for example. It would give the the district some authority to have more of a racial balance in their schools, not different schools for different races. And that's for
043students trying open enrolling into our district. That's what this this is purely if a student wants to open enroll into our district. Yeah. Well, that's kind of what he said. And there's a second that's their intent. Yeah, that's I just want to make sure that I'm And there's a second policy that kind of speaks to 5120, I think it is, is um more about assignment within the district and giving the district the ability to redistrict for that purpose. Okay. Yeah. So, it's really allowing this to put the power in the district's hands if they so choose. Yes. And we don't choose. We don't have the situation here in Troy where we have right racially racially isolated schools. Yeah. Yeah. I'm happy we don't have that. I appreciate the intent of it here. However, the wording
044I have a big deal about because I'm a big believer if you have a policy, you should enforce it. So, um I'm glad we don't have to worry about enforcing it because we we don't we're not up against any numbers. Uh, however, I can't have my name next to approving something uh at this level that says a kid could be denied one way or another in the future. Um, and that's the 5113, the 5120. Um, it also mentions racial balance. So, right there, it's the same exact reasons that I spoke of for the 5113. However, I do feel like there's some conflict in this policy even if it didn't have uh that I would that I would suggest uh cleaned up in it. Uh if it does get approved, um it says maintain a racial
045balance amongst the district schools, a wholesome and educationally sound balance of student population. The very next point it says, so that to me that's saying you're g you will make sure your schools uh have specific numbers of specific um ethnic classes. And then the very next point says no assignment to the school's attendance or schedule discriminate against students on the base of race or color, national origin, XYZ. So I don't get how you can have two points back toback. One says you will have racial balance and the other one says you you know that means you can choose based on the race and the next one says you will not discriminate against the uh basis of race and color. So um I did you talk with any anyone on on that one? Yeah I read
046that more care carefully and I talked to Dr. Moore. Um, and how we read that is that remember that that E where it says the maintenance of racial balance amongst the district schools um falls under the section above it where it says the superintendent shall periodically review existing attendance areas and recommend to the board such changes as may as may be justified by the following. So what that says is that we may from time to time find ourselves in a situation where we need to redraw attendance zones and this policy kind of speaks to the reasons we might do that and racial balance is one of those reasons. Again I think the intent here would be if we found that schools were somehow segregating themselves naturally by people moving in certain places then we could
047redraw lines to make it more balanced. So if you look at it that way and it's open to interpretation as anything is um but that would give the district the ability to again change attendance zone to achieve more racial balance. Having done so then the next section um students can't be denied based on race. They can't be you can't do it for the opposite effect. Um the purpose here is to achieve racial balance not to achieve racial isolation. So, the district wouldn't be able to draw lines to segregate schools or deny students enrollment um to do to to not have racial balance, but the school is given the latitude to redraw lines. Yeah. I think it's just the the proximity of those two sentences. They are different. It took me a while to kind of
048get there. It's almost like they're fighting gentrification if that's necessary. Yeah. And is that a policy they were also looking at to clean up when you brought that to them or not? Again, Nola is speculating that the state may take a look at this whole issue. And I think that speculation is based on some recent changes we've seen, but speculation speculation. I don't want to say it's going to happen, right? Or if it did when, right? Are there additional discussion? Uh, no. Want to Jeeoff, do you want to go ahead and call the Mrs. Borchers? Yes. Mr. Rick? Yes. Mrs. Davis? Yes. Mr. Fox? No. Mrs. Packard. Yes. Next, a motion for adoption of the 2627 school year calendar. Um, it is the contract between the board of education and TCEA as well as the
049contract between the board and TCSSA. Um, call for the calendar to be negotiated and agreed upon. Um, we have the 2627 proposed calendar in our packets. May I have a motion, please? Motion to approve. Thank you, Mrs. Porters. Second. Thank you, Mr. Fox. Is there anything we need to know about this calendar? Mr. Piper. Couple things I'll point out. First, I want I think Scott's here. Scott's here. I want to thank Scott and Molly Suber sits with Scott and I periodically to talk about the c the calendar. And then uh I see Justin Cruz in here. He was. He was. Okay. So, then Molly sends that to Justin Cruz and the teachers association. and they get feedback from their folks and you know we we sit and talk about it. Um I think sometimes the
050calendar just kind of falls nicely. Sometimes it's a little more difficult. I think this is one of those ones where there weren't really a whole lot of options for how it kind of breaks down given our parameters. Um but it worked out nicely. We have spring break. We have two weeks for Christmas. The one thing I will point out this is the calendar before we anticipate our building project being complete. So this is the last calendar before we move into the new buildings. So, one of the things we did in this calendar, we've traditionally had four professional development days. In this particular calendar, two of those professional development days are the last two days of school. And we did that intentionally because by that time, we will know which teachers are going to be going
051to which buildings. And that would give us an opportunity to get those staffs together for the new buildings and kind of brainstorm about how the procedures, processes are going to work for those new buildings leading into the next school year. So, we feel like that would be a good chance for us to get a a running start for that next year. That's really Scott. Anything else that jumps out to you? Yeah, as you said, everything just came together. Yeah. Any flex time mid year in case we need it. We're not going to need it. Flex time. We're going to be fine. We That's a future problem. Everything will be That's a potential future problem. We'll we'll we'll talk about that later. Aggressive optimism. aggressive. I really enjoy. Thank you. So, one thing that jumped out
052to me was the students are going to be done before Memorial Day this year. Yeah. In this calendar. And when's the last time that happened in Troy? Is it two years ago? Last few. Yeah, that's yeah about every four years or so. Principal happened. Yeah. Throws off when Okay. So, not the last few, but it's been it's Yeah, it's happened within the last few. Okay. I don't I don't remember it as when I've looked at a calendar when Brook started high school. It kind of depends on when Christmas falls. It kind of messes the calendar up. This time it just kind of fit nicely. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a pleasant surprise and uh students and parents will really appreciate that. Um just uh there and then this one there's not a full week off
053for Thanksgiving. Correct. And the calendar that's gonna come up uh this coming Thanksgiving will have a full week off, right? I can't recall. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. No, last week this current school year. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, just there's a lot of I don't know. I think it just moves. It moves. There's a lot of moving pieces that it's hard to have a Here's what we traditionally do here. Um, saying that, uh, I think it's good that we're going a full year further in advance than we ever have done, so parents can can plan for that. So, um, but I appreciate um, both both associations are great to work with and spot's part of that. So, appreciate that. Thank you. There any other com comments, conversation? Okay, Mr. Price. Mrs.
054Borchers. Yes. Mr. Fox. Yes. Mr. Reic. Yes. Mrs. Davis. Yes. Mrs. Packard. Yes. Um, next a motion for the for exhibit E, which is our April personnel items. Have a motion. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Davis. Second. Thank you, Mr. Davis. So, this might be the second highlight of the board meeting, Mr. What do you got? I have some things for you. So, uh, pretty heavy personnel agenda. I really wanted double digits and pages, but best I could do was get on to page eight. So, there's a lot of the new parts in this personnel agenda. Couple of highlights um before we get to the real highlights. We do have some retirements um resations. Actually, some of these are are kind of fun because we have a few people that are in current positions. Um,
055they're vacating those positions so that they can move into a new position, which is exciting for them. Um, I do want to highlight Beth Marshall. She's our director of pupil services. She's retiring at the end of this calendar year. So, we're sad to see Beth go. She's been great to work with. Um, we have that position posted currently. We're uh pretty excited about, you know, that opportunity to go through that process. We just went through another administrative fire. Not stealing any any thunder coming up, but um it's uh it's always an exciting time when you get to see somebody who's been in education have that opportunity to, you know, to to do something next. Um and that's what Beth has. So, we're excited for her. We're excited for for the future for us. Um otherwise,
056a lot of really standard items here. Um, and we'll get to some some new folks that are in the travel with us, but um, one year contracts, four-year contracts. We have a lot of certified renewals, supplemental renewals. Um, there also a slew of nonrenewals as well. Um, and so, uh, the really exciting part is, um, to introduce some of these new people that are with us this evening. So, I was trying to figure out how we were going to go about this. I think we're going to go alphabetical by building name. So, time for your own. All right. This is Barah Ali, and we're very blessed to have her. Um, it was one of those interviews where you sit down and you interview somebody and you're like, I just want to offer a job right
057now on that. So, she is going to be a Wright State University grad here in May. um she'll be teaching ELELLL um at Concord and um she is currently at a school in Dayton public the international school. So she's bringing that experience and she was also student teaching but also she was doing a long-term sub. She was a business teacher there for most of the year in international school. So like to welcome Barack Ali. Thank you. Congratulations. We have we have a lot of acronyms. Just a reminder ELL is English language learners. Okay. What what languages are you fluent in? Arabic and English. A little bit of Spanish because I pick it up from the kids, but not enough. Wow. Welcome to the district. You know all the colorful words in Spanish. He has from
058the kids, Mr. That's right. They're currently teaching an English class where uh with Alfa University. It's an international university in Saudi Arabia. And they're doing a pilot program for high school students to kind of focus on their grammar and their writing English. Their speaking is already great. They're high level speakers, but they want to improve their writing. And if the program does well, the Ministry of Education, their Department of Education over there will make it an annual program for them to bring in more high schoolers to probably even send them to this country to study here. That's great. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks, Dave. Uh, one one more quick thing. You mind telling them who one of your instructors were was at Right State that maybe helped you know we had an opening yet?
059Yeah. Um, Professor Justin Cruz, he was so I was gonna add that at the end. Sorry, still in your thunder, brother. Um, so I will say that going to job fairs. Actually, that's where I met Barack was at a job fair. So, um, had the chance to talk with her, was really impressed. Got back to the office uh that Monday and I I called Dan and I said, "You have to get her in for interview." So, I'm really glad that this has worked out. Uh but one of the things that I have heard consistently is um from students who are coming from right state. Many of them have Justin as a professor. He teaches out there in the evenings. Um and he has been quite the champion for Troy City Schools. The number of students
060that have come up to me that maybe weren't familiar with us just because uh he had them in class and he speaks so highly of the work that we do here. So if you see Justin Cruz, anybody sees him, just be sure to say thanks. It's it's a really nice plug that he puts in. And I I mean RA is a great example of a quality candidate that we're getting because of uh because of that interaction. So it's great. Definitely very appreciate both of Justin and all of his help with the NTPA and student teaching and finding a job. It's definitely been really supportive during this journey for me. Good. I have right here one of your very own. He's been with the district for about seven years, but he was as a maintenance and
061custodial uh person took an interest real um in the elementary students that he was working around and decided to go ahead and pursue this on his time off as a um worker. He would go and work with our kids and use his extra time to help them with small groups and so forth. So he will be taking our fourth grade position at Cooken and the joy and love of his life is his great his daughter and um she's too. So we can't wait to get her over there and um best part of all he lives right down the street from the school. Oh wow. So we just like to um say hello to Shelby Alfred. Awesome. Welcome. That is an amazing story. That's really That is That is so cool. Congratulations. Congratulations. Wow. So, so
062Shelby, another neat thing that that um that J didn't highlight is so Shelby is he's a custodian for us currently um and he was a head custodian at Hook and reached out to me. He said, "Hey, I've got my student teaching come up coming up. Um I'd love to be able to keep working in the district." So, another thanks to Scott and the classified staff. We were able to work together so that um he actually swapped shifts with Giza brother that also is studying. So they traded shifts so that he could do a student teaching during the day and he works for us in the evening still as a custodian. Um and then we were able to hire him as a teacher. Uh I I sat down and interviewed him and realized very quickly we
063we need to get Shelby as a teacher. And Shelby, I'll share this. It may embarrass you. It may not. I don't know. I'll be honest. I don't care because it's something that people need to hear. Uh he told me when I talked to him that he didn't want to be hired because of the work that he did as a custodian. he wanted to be hired because he wants to be a great teacher. And so it um just really resonated with me and he's a phenomenal employee, but he he was very clear he didn't want any of that to to count. He he wants to be a great teacher because he thinks our kids deserve that. So just really impressive and excited to have you join us as a teacher. Just take it easy on whoever
064has to clean your classroom at night. I know you're I know your standards be really high for that. Wow. You had some long days. And he's got a 2-year-old. And a 2-year-old. Yeah. Next up, Mr. Whoa. So, Forest is privileged to get to host the or hold the uh third through fifth grade ED or SEAL unit. Um the K2 students that are part of that programming attend at Kyle was at Haywood for a long time. The whole program was at Haywood for three years and I think this is the fourth year that it's been at Forest. Um it was county run for the first year and then we took it over as a district. Uh the current teacher is uh leaving that position. Uh so had a chance to interview. This is Aaron Davis who
065will be stepping uh into that role. She's coming to us from Warren County ESC where she's worked with um kind of like what the cooperative learning center the CLC is with our county. She's worked with similar programming to what that is. Um I also have another intervention specialist job open when I when I interviewed her. uh she did very well on the interview when I specifically asked, "Would you want to be in an EDS yell room or a more general is?" And she immediately said, "I want to work with the ED population." So, she has a heart for working with students that have struggles and troubles with behavior. Uh knows that building relationships are super super important. Um she also I think you were an aid in the district briefly. Is that correct? No, I
066worked through the Miami County. My husband is an aid here. That was my next thing here. Um, but I knew there was something through the county that you suggested coming out after us. But yeah, so her whole family is here. She's also a new mom. I think that baby in November. Yeah. So there'll be five months this Wednesday. Oh my god. What does Dr. Moore say? We're uh good for business. Good for business. We're super excited to have Aaron join our team and get a chance to work with our students. All right. Thank you. Welcome. Oh, thank you. Pretty neat connection with Ras Tommy does work here in this building. We now have the the whole family. Um, turn it over to senior. Awesome. Welcome to Mike. Yeah. Well, that's so wonderful. So, welcome. Welcome
067to the Tro family. Thank you. Okay. So, I have Brandon right here and I'm I have the pleasure to introduce you to your new athletic director for Troy City Schools. So, yes, we're very excited to have Brandon. It was a um it was a a grueling interview process, but it was just so it was wonderful because um we had uh 121 applicants um for that position. So, it was pretty pretty loud voice there about what we offer here and and the kind of things that we're excited to to be able to do. And so to sort through all that and and make it here this we are excited about Brandon. So Brandon comes to us, one of the things that um really spoke to us is his student centered uh approach to not just athletics
068but leadership and uh and the entire school community. Um so Brandon has some pretty impressive history of fundraising and sponsorship and community connections um along with some really specific student leadership things that he's been doing. Um, so we're just really excited to see where we can grow um under Brandon's leadership. So really excited to have him. Do you want to introduce your wife today? This is my wife Courtney. Hi. And we have two little kids you'll see running around everywhere. They'll be eight and five when they get here. So good news about the home too, right? Yeah. We sold our house last week and uh already in contract with one year. Wow. Move. So congratulations. Excited to be part of the family. I don't think I said from Circleville is already sorry I should have
069left that. So he's currently at Circleville finishing up there and um but from Miami County both originally from Miami County. So they're very excited to be back home. That's great. Happy to have you. Thank you guys. Welcome. Thank you for joining us. So as Alexis said, Brandon rose to the top. I have a lot of candidates and um once we started conversation about family and just the move and those sorts of things, he mentioned that his wife is also a teacher um who also is by the way an intervention specialist. So, um don't be surprised if maybe next month we see her name on the board agenda because I've already had a chance to talk with Courtney and u she's uh she's going to be joining the team. We just uh we need to figure
070out where. So, uh, we're working on that right now, but I'm really excited to have both Brandon and and Courtney here. Um, yeah, mentioned that they they found a home and, uh, Brandon showed up already wearing Troy apparel. How' you pull that that off so quickly and I think it's uh I think we're going to be in in a great position. So, welcome to all of our new hires. Really appreciate you being here this evening. Um, it's a great district. You're going to love working here and I'm just so happy that you guys are all either continuing to be a part of this or joining us for the first time. So, welcome. Welcome. Thank you. Welcome everybody. Thanks for staying through the whole meeting. Mr. Dylan, is there anything else on here? Uh, no other
071highlights? No. There there there are a lot of things in this agenda. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have. Are there any additional questions? Nothing. Okay, Mr. Price. Mrs. Davis, yes. Mrs. Borchers, yes. Mr. Fox, yes. Mr. Reic, yes. Mrs. Packer, yes. Okay. Um, at this point, uh, motion to adjourn into executive session for the purpose of discussing appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of an employer or official and conferences. Um, do we have a motion for executive session? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Fox. Second. Thank you, Mr. Addict. Mr. Price. Mr. Fox. Yes. Mr. Rick. Yes. Mrs. Davis. Yes. Mrs. Borchers. Yes. Mrs. Packer. Yes. This time we will adjourn into executive session. We will not be making any decisions. It is purely a discussion. Okay. Thank you all for
072coming. Thank you everyone.