001I call the Tusky Valley Local Board of Education meeting April 14th, 2025 in the community boardroom to order. Please call the role. Mr. Fischer, present. Mr. Good, present. Mr. Green, present. Mr. Overton, I present. Mr. Bur, present. Agendas have been made available here at the sign-in table, also online. Will you please stand for the pledge of allegiance, followed by Mr. Overton's presenting of the invocation. 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. Heavenly Father, we just thank you again for an evening that we could just come together to do the business of Tusky Valley. And we just pray for a hedge of protection as we go into this spring uh spring break
002time, Lord. Just allow a refreshing time for our students and our staff. Uh let them just be safe and come back refreshed and ready to go uh following Easter. And we just thank you that you would just uh put a reminder in their spirits about what Easter's all about. We thank you for it in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Dr. Veransky, is there any additions or corrections to the agenda? There are not. Okay. Hearing none. Uh move on to on our agenda. The board mission statement and goals are located here for the community to review and any request for public participation. No, not tonight. Starting with item number four. At this time, I'd like Dr. Ransy to share his superintendent report. All right. Thank you, Mrs. Burrier and good evening everybody. Uh I'm going to start
003off tonight by introducing uh good friends of ours now. Uh Mr. and Mrs. Dens and their son Max. Uh and they're here tonight uh on a pro they're going to present a project they've been working on uh for quite a while. Um in memory and in honor of their son Peter uh who passed away in the fall of 2022. Um and many people in this room knew Peter. Um what a fantastic kid he was and his memory certainly lives on here. Um, so I won't take any thunder of what you want to say, but I'll invite them down to share um and and to unveil the bench that they would like to donate to the district. Um from our family just to honor our son and say thank you um to high schools uh the
004amazing staff and also to the board. Um, and we would like to donate the Spanish uh [Laughter] would like to um to the school. Beautiful. Very nice. So, he was an avid student as most people know. He also had a love of the Beatles and Legos. Um, and so we found some solid representations that we were able to have incorporated into the bench. Um, and we just hope that it'll help his friends think of him fondly that are still here at Tusky Valley and just to say thanks because we are very grateful for the school district and we want to make sure that um, Stuart the Monkey is also in there program from the hospital and um, Missy Russell Missy Russell above and beyond. She went above me. I mean during the pandemic he was
005in every school zoo meeting and she took him to the bank when they collected pennies and on vacation when they went on vacation. So you know plane in Colorado. So um just I don't have enough words to express the gratitude I have for the school. Thank you. It's beautiful. Thank you so much. We're gonna get Do you want a picture? Yeah. I I took a picture. Oh, did you? How about a picture? Perfect timing. [Music] There you go. Looks good. Good. Yeah. [Laughter] Even a smile. One more. This little guy. This is Max. Max. Yeah. Mrs. Burer, may I say something? Yes. Well, I just want you also to know and those that are at home that this bench is going to be in the shade of a beautiful tree that they picked out. It's
006called a Japanese elcoa tree. Uh, everyone has heard about the American elm. For years, the American elm was used as a street tree uh in America, a face-shaped habit of growth. And then along came Dutch elm disease. And unfortunately the elms were decimated. However, horiculturists just love the fact that they found this tree called Japanese elova. And again, it's got a vase-shaped habit of growth. It's fast growing. It's definitely resistant to the Dutch elm disease. It's being used in America today in place of the American elm. It makes a beautiful tree, beautiful fall color, wonderful bark characteristic. So that tree and that bench together, people will be able to sit on that bench in the shade of the tree and uh remember Peter. So and read their books hopefully. Yes, he was an avid reader.
007Yeah, I mean he got the whole collection of Harry Potter when he was eight for Christmas. He had all seven books read by March, you know. reading was a thing. That's awesome. Very cool. Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Stens. Again, this will uh the bench in the tree is located at the rear of the elementary school. Uh this has been a long project in the making as far as where it would go and um what space we needed for that. Uh and so I'm excited to get that bench permanently installed. Uh Mr. Penel has been working on getting the concrete poured hopefully in the next week or two if weather uh cooperates and then we'll get that bench out there. Uh but if if you ever want to see it, it's in the back of
008the building. if you can see it back there. I also want to give them a shout out. Um they were instrumental in helping us get a story walk on the elementary playground. Uh and if you if you've not seen that, the story walk is I believe there are 18 panels. Uh and it it tells a story. So each panel is a different page from the story. Uh and they have been donating the books and they come out um throughout the winter and and whatever weather we have and the mud. Uh and they get those pages changed. Uh and the kids really enjoy um seeing those out there. and it's just a piece of literacy uh again in honor of Peter um uh while the kids are out on the playground playing. So, thank you guys
009very much for everything you do for us. Thanks for doing that. That's very nice. All right. Next up under my report, I'm I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Phillips with student of the month. I will mention our athlete of the month was Conor McGuffin and he was nominated for he played football but also um his part in start of the baseball season which I believe they were up 42 because I actually watch softball which they were up two nothing so just are we still 4 and0? Uh, no. I think they lost at least one Saturday. So, I think they're four and one and softball is seven and0. Seven and0. All right. And then our fine artist of the month is Aiden Bower for his outstanding work that he has done in his art
010class. But now I'll invite Nuie up. So, Newie is our student of the month. Um and our theme was school spirit which is pretty awesome since he is clearly not from Valley but he is bought in all in and he definitely enjoys being part of Tesla Valley. So new is a French exchange student exchange student um hosted by Dr. Baransky and Heidi Bransky and is also the son of Olay Pastana and Pascal Miller. Did you say that right? Yeah. I only talked about it four times. I'm sure it's much different. And I wrote it down for me to see better. Um, his activities include here at school football, baseball, and project lead the way. His hobbies include spending time with family, playing baseball, football, also basketball, and he likes to bowl. And after graduation, new
011plans to return hopefully to the United States to earn a degree in finance either at Ohio State, Kent State, or Malone. So, I'm pushing for Penn State. Mr. Goody will push for I don't know if there's anyone. Congratulations. Thank you. [Applause] She's gonna send I'm gonna send it to you. Congratulations. All righty. Congratulations, New That report. All right. Thank you, Dr. Granty. Moving on to item number five. This time, I'd like to ask Mrs. Green to share board member report. Thank you. First of all, um I would like to start off before I give my report with a couple thank yous. We we've had some really blessings this month in our district and so I I just want to call them out right now. First of all, the um Ohio Medals Level Association um has
012listed Derek as the educator of the year and he will be receiving his award later in the year toward the end of the school year um at our retirement banquet. um these last few years have been a trail by fire for him and for us, but um not because of anything he's done wrong, but it's just been difficult and we Derek would be the first to admit that. And he's handled it with grace and strength and um wonder. So, congratulations, Derek. Thank you. And not to steal uh Jason's thunder, I don't know if he's going to call this out or not, but our drama team this weekend performed Little Mermaid. And again, what an exceptional um performance. We have great kids that work really hard and we have a great um staff team that works
013hard to make sure that these performances are high quality. And it was just wonderful. And we even have in our midst, I just recognized one of our in the um pit Crew, Heidi Baransky, and uh I was sitting next to a lady um and she said, "Is that music real or is that?" I said, "No, yes, that is real." She goes, "They're really good." So, just someone out of the out of the audience knew you how good you were. So, congratulations for that as well. And then finally, I just want to thank our staff, our board, and our community for when we called them to action that they called our legislator, our representative, and called and um reached out to other people about House Bill um 96. And while um we didn't get what we
014wanted in my later report, I'll tell you what we got. And it was the best possibility that we thought we could get. And so we are very pleased with it. But I just want to caution you in there that it still has to go to the Senate. So we will be asking for another call out to talk to our senators about some bills that are coming down the pike that will affect us. Um, so with that, um, we talked about COSBA last month, but I just wanted to remind you that at COSBA, um, the president of of OSBA, the CEO, uh, resigned and went to the national level, and she will be leaving July 1, but because I am the past president, I'm one of the three leaders that is leading that search. So board
015members, if you have any thoughts, questions, um, you can come to me and I will help you with that. If you especially if you know what you want in your next CEO. Do you want to be a CEO of No, I'm not. You've been you spent enough time down there. Yeah. No, I am not qualified. Let's just put it that way. All right. Well, all right. I'll be happy to support him, but not qualified. And then the next thing is in May, 1 of May, we're going to have BLI institute and that's for board members only to help them with board governance. I'm very pleased that four of our board members are coming and um I am looking forward to that and it should be fun. but more importantly very educational. I'm looking forward to
016some of our speakers. And then I'm going to pass this around. This is um the National Safety Symposium is in June 25th to 27th. Um I just want to see if anyone's interested in going. I would like to go if no one wants to go. So I just wanted to pass that out. It is supposed to be the top premiere of the nation um safety program. um they've had a lot of um big um things that they do in safety and they're going to be all in one place and so it will be a good um I think this will be a really good uh conference and leading on to that then I am going to go right into my legislation. Um so the bianual budget it passed the house on April 9th and it
017m it maintains the fair school formula which some people had tried to get rid of it but it for the fiscal year 26 27 but it did not provide um the increases that we needed to help um equal the balance of this. Um, what it did do though, it um it did allow each school district to have $20 per student in fiscal year 26 and $30 per student in fiscal year 27. So, that's not much money, but that's the most money we've ever received in the last seven years. So, we'll take it. It also reduces uh they did not help us with the transportation of private schools. Um, unfortunately, um, the big surprise out of this that the House put in that no one knew was coming was they are now requiring the county budget
018commission to reduce school district's property taxes if the district carries over over 30% of from its pre previous fiscal year. What they will do is have the county commissioners then take that money and put it back into the community. The problem with this is is when they take that money out of our savings, that means we have to go back to our people again for money because, as you know, the state is giving less and less and less. So, while this looks good and and I I don't want to be mean about this, but what they're doing, this is a um ploy to say, "Hey, we're helping our taxpayers by putting it back on the burden of the school then to raise the money and be the bad guy." That's what this is about. Um,
019the one that came out that I did not see, but it is important for us to know is it prohibits any district from spending more than 15% of its annual operating budget on administrative salaries. Right now, we are uh we have looked at that, Mark and I. Um, we are very lean in our administration compared to some other school districts in the area and our our salaries are right midlevel and so we do a very good job with that. Um and then um it's still got it in that they want to close schools that are not housing kids in it. So that's one of the things we're really going to work in the Senate to take out. Um it is trying to also uh get rid of the uh Department of Education um which is
020just one more step in that. And then um the timeline for the budget is that next week on April 28th, they'll have a two-e break and return April 28th. That's when the Senate will start up and then they want to finish by June. There is a webinar for all our board members to find out more about this on April 22nd through OSBA and OASBA and BASA. And then next are the property taxes. There's about 30 current property taxes and so I won't go into all of them, but I want to just point out a couple. Um, right now there's one that will cap the property tax uh increase every 3 years. Um, and that one seems the one that we're o um OSBA is more likely to support than the one some of the other
021ones that they've had. Um, we do still have Senate Bill 66, which is going to put the 20 mil floor and then remove all money after that. They'll stop giving us money if we go over the 20 mil floor. So, they're giving us less money and telling us we can't raise money with this with this property tax, Senate Bill 66. So, we'll be watching that really closely. And then finally, energy bill, Senate Bill 2 and House Bill 15. Those are ones that again we're very familiar with. Um, Senate Bill Two, uh, combined another one, and I can't remember what the number was. Was it 119 or something? Anyway, it was about the Rover pipeline and any additional energy pipelines that come through. Instead of being taxed 88%, they will be now taxed only 25%. But
022they did grandfather those who currently have those um, properties in their um, communities. Yeah. That they are still be taxed as they were originally supposed to be. So, that's good for us. We were able to push that through through a lot of um talking with senators. But, House Bill 15 um has some other property things that they want to change in it. So, we're going to be watching to see how they combine those two and then make some recommendations of what we should do. And that closes out my report. Thank you, Amy. President Brier, can I have a question? Sure. uh what is the uh percentage of carryover that they're saying you can't have more than 30% 30 that's what I wrote down but I wasn't sure if that was yes okay so and I
023I I'm glad you brought that up but that again this is still the house bill passed it's got to go to the senate then they got to get together and stuff so there's still chances to uh influence let's see right but we also need to make sure that we have enough money to follow through the school year. Down in Cincinnati, there was a private school that started the school year and then six weeks before the school closed, they closed their school and then all these kids that were supposed to graduate and or complete their programs were out of luck. They basically had to find schools within a couple days to get into and then hopefully be able to transfer credits. Um so it is very important that you can meet our um state budget and
024right now they are the legislature has um passed a bill to say that we will um have an audit um on us and there's 10 points that they'll look at our financial stability and one of them is you have to carry at least 50% of your budget in cash and if you don't you're going to be fiscally irresponsible. So this is a way again of legislation because everyone's going to be now at 30%. So no one will be at 50% that they need. So every school district in the state of Ohio will now go into fiscal um in that one indicator insufficiency to make us look bad like we can't handle our money. So those are things just coming down the pike um to be aware of. Thank you, Amy. Yep. Moving on to item
025number six, new business and consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve items A1 through 23? I make a motion. Is there a second? Um, any discussion? Yes, I have. If you take my thunder out and say, go ahead. Well, under item number six, resignation of Mary Ginsley, uh, I have to say something about Mary Ginsley. First of all, I spent four years with her when my daughter participated in band and I was the primary uh uh driver of the Trojan band equipment trailer going to every football game, parade, and competition available. So, I got to know her and loved her uh a lot. Um our daughter Jessica loved Mary too, as well as a lot of her students have over the years because Mary loved them. She always challenged them and encouraged them to
026always do their best. She always set the goals high, like never accepting less than a one in competition. But in doing so, she really elevated each of her students to higher levels than if they had just been left to play their instruments in the way they wished. She definitely put Tusky Valley Swing Band and the Concert Band on the map in that particular sphere of influence. So, I just want to say I wish her just the very best in her retirement and she will be missed. She will be missed. Thank you. I agree. I had that written down, too. Sorry. All right. So, um I do want to say that uh we are starting to get donations in uh in support for our turf and just want to thank the community for making this possibly
027happen here in the future and for all those that have already started to donate and help with that project. Um also just in our agenda here, we've got new board or new members coming into our school district and so I just want to wish excited for them to start here in August. Yes, they'll be starting in August. We've got a intervention specialist, a first grade teacher, and a new custodian that's already started as well. So, welcome to the district, and we're excited that you're here. Any more discussion? That was all I have. All right, call the role, please. Mr. Fischer, yes. Mr. Overton, yes. Mr. Good. Yes. Mr. Green, yes. Mr. Ber, yes. Item number seven, like to approve a three-year administrator limited contract for Steve Frank's athletic director effective August 1st through July f
028August 1st 25 through July 31st 28 22 days. Is there a motion to approve? So moved. Is there a second? I I'll make it a second. Any discussion? Thanks, Steve, for coming back doing another three years and we'll keep keep those roll. We'll keep that rolling. Please call roll. Mr. Gooding, yes. Mrs. Green, yes. Mr. Fischer, yes. Mr. Overton, yes. Mrs. Burer, yes. Item number eight, approve a three-year limit administrator limited contract for Jason Phillips, principal, effective August 1st, 2025 to July 31st, 2028, 22 22 days. Is there a motion to approve? I make a motion. Second and Oh, second. I'll second. Any discussion? Mr. Phillips, thank you very much for leading our our high school. Please call the RO. Mr. Fischer, yes. Mr. Overton, yes. Mr. Good. Yes. Mr. Green. Yes. Mr. Bird. Yes.
029Item number five. We'll start our leadership reports. And this time we're starting with you, Mr. Panel. Panel. I know. Put the extra L. Panel. I fixed it. It's French. Panel. [Laughter] Um, I have really nothing more to add than we will see some stuff going on in this room. Hopefully by the next time we convene here, we'll be able to drop a ceiling air conditioning in here. Um, clinic is progressing very nicely. There's more projects in this building that progressing very nicely as we report. So, all is good. Is the roof done? I was not clear on that report. So far as the roof, the main part of this building, it has been um extensively worked on and done. Right now, we can keep our fingers crossed in the lease and we're going to start
030on the clinic roof here. Hopefully, they're waiting for a 3-day break in later. Um so, it's they're going to basically redo the roof where the clinic is and and there'll be another additional 15ear warranty on top of that. Okay. So, we will be sure that this one is okay before we start on it. Yes. Just knock on whatever you got. This has been good. Okay. And Mrs. Mackey filling in for Mr. Street today. Anything to add to his report? Uh, I don't have anything to add, but I would welcome everyone. We have our literacy night coming up next Thursday on the 24th. More than welcome to come and should be an evening of fun. It's going to be dynamite. So, it's about this year. Yeah. Okay. And then where is it at? Yep. Um Mr.
031Phillips. Um just that just to point out again that we're doing our National Honor Society induction not as part of the scholar banquet. Um for a couple reasons. Number one is there's a lot of which is great. It's a good problem, right? It is. Um so that's going to be on the 23rd. You guys are more than welcome to attend in the pack at 6:00 and then we have the scholar banquet and well yeah that's just the beginning of the okay we we'll just keep up with what's coming and Mrs. anything just to finish up the after school program we have Lion King Jr. that will be presented on the 8th through the 10th. It's our second through 8 second through 8th grade students that will be presenting that. Got to watch just a little
032bit of the practice today and it's going to be phenomenal. We have a cast member here. It's going to be a phenomenal performance. Tickets are on sale now. I have a question. Mrs. B. Yes. Um, how's our master plan coming as far as curriculum? Excellent. We are putting the finishing touches on our literacy plan which then leads us into the one needs assessment that we're working on right now. Um, OSS is working on completing that. That will help to bring about um any other changes or plans that we need to create or goals that we need to create. Dr. Rancy's already started kind of his dream of what those plans and and goals should be. And the superintendent's advisory board also worked on those last week. So, we've got a lot of moving parts, but
033they should all be solidified within the next month. I just think that's so important uh because that's what we're here for. Dedicate and you've got to have uh you got to have vision and uh uh going for the stars. So, that's good. And I was able Mr. Granny, I was able to sit in on that meeting last Thursday. So there's a lot of good conversation happening and got nice group of people there working on it. Madam President, may I ask a question? Derek, testing. Are we done with testing? I'm kind Is it somebody different every day? So we know it's sort of like back in the day where you did all the testing one day. No, it's it's multiple days per each test that you give. Uh so high school had part one of ELA
0342 today. They'll have part two tomorrow. Um along with was it just ELA 2? Yeah. So we have to run the middle high school on some odd bell schedules um to get so the building is quiet because not everybody's testing at the same time. Um the way the state sets it all up is ELA tests happen first and then math and science social studies happens kind of like in wave two. So third grade have finished theirs. um third through six at the elementary. Yep. And then so now the high school has had middle high school has had day one. They'll have day two tomorrow and that should wrap up our ELA test. Uh and then once we come back from break we pick up with math and science and the histories. Okay. So so it
035is working out with um that was one of my questions you talked about the bell schedule. Does that seem to be working out of you figuring that out? Yeah, I think the the elementary was fine. I believe um we we make this schedule a year in advance. Uh, so we did make a few modifications just based on whatever else was happening in the building. Uh, middle high school is doing theirs a little bit different this year. Um, they're spacing theirs out a little bit more. Um, and I I think that's great. Uh, the plan was well thought out as as to why they needed to do that, but that will really run into the first part of May. Uh, and then they test in and then we quickly turn and then we have AP testing.
036Um, and so it's and then we do our diagnostic test. So then we have our MAT test. So um we try to space that out as much as we can because we're asking our kids to test a lot. That's I wondered if they get tired more by having tests day after day after day. They do. That's why we do our very best to try to break up as much as we can. There are windows. So uh once you start a test in a certain subject, you only have 15 days to get the entire district tested. So we we try to work on that schedule. Like I said, we do it almost a year in advance. So we'll begin meeting in May for next year's testing schedule already. Okay. Thank you for that education. I promise.
037Moving on to item number 10, public participation of non-gen agenda items. I don't believe we have any. And um next announce or announcements. The next regular board of education meeting will be held May 12th here in the community board center room at 6:00 p.m. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. I'll second. Thank you very much. Call the role. Mr. Yes. Mr. Green. Yes. Mr. Bishop. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mr. Yes. Thank you for attending. Thank you for saying that you have lost.