001Uh, good evening. Welcome to March 23rd, 2026 West Claremont School Board meeting. Mr. Romano, please take role. >> Mr. Patton, >> present. >> Mr. Chumley, >> present. >> Mr. Rudy, >> present. >> Mr. Spencer, >> present. >> And we are aware of Miss uh Samborn's absence. For those of you who may not be aware, her mother passed away early last week. Today we're the funeral services and uh we hope she knows that our thoughts and prayers go out to her, her family, and her many friends. >> Thank you. >> Uh please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Next up is the motion
002to adopt the agenda. Would someone like to make a motion? >> Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there a second? >> Second. Miss Spencer. Thank you. Is there any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Rudy? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Spencer? >> Yes. >> Mr. Patton? >> Yes. >> Mr. Chumley? >> Yes. >> Or yes. >> Okay. Next up, we will start with >> Sparkley. Good evening, President Patton, members of the board. Tonight with me is principal Curtis Mason and assistant principal Joe Saul. So they are here today to uh receive the Kluff Pike Elementary Science of Reading Champion Award. Governor DeWine named Kluff Pike Elementary one of 109 Ohio schools as as the 2026 Science of Reading champions. In 2023, Governor Dwine launched the Read Ohio Initiative, a statewide effort requiring all staff to be
003trained in this evidence-based practice that focused on reading and writing proficiently from early childhood through adolescence. West Claremont has been committed to this work districtwide. the selected schools across the state of Ohio being recognized for their work using the science of reading to improve student literacy with an emphasis on student engagement and literacy outcomes. Additionally, it was noted that the awarded schools were a collaborative result of precise and dedicated focus from educators, school leaders, and families. And I really want to point that out that knowing that families are a part of this is so crit critical resulting in notable growth in literacy and the increased number of students who are strengthening their reading skills. Congratulations to Principal Mason and Assistant Principal Stall for their leadership in this work. Curtis is going to say a couple
004of things about this this work. >> Thanks. Yeah. Um, I just want to say that this is this is not necessarily us. This is the teachers in the building that are tirelessly trying to get kids um over the hump, as you might say. Um, it's a lot of hard work. It's a lot of dedication. It's a lot of teamwork. And I just it's a it's a proud moment to be recognized for this. It's something that Kloff has been working on for years, even before I got there. Um, but so I just want to like, you know, say my uh piece about every all the hard work that happened before I even got to Kluff. Um, and just really proud of this moment and thank you very much. >> Shake your hands. >> I don't know
005what to do every second. Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Much better. Thank you. >> Okay. I'm sorry. Next up is the Summerside Elementary School to voice. >> Good evening, President Patton, board members, Mr. Romano, Dr. Folultz, um, and the West Claremont School District. Thank you and for inviting us, um, and our students so that they can share their learning, their leading, and their genius with you tonight. This slide, um, the next one please, captures our district vision, mission, values, and guiding light. And it's something that we keep at the forefront of all of our work and that hopefully you'll hear in our students voice and their presentations this evening. >> All right. And then tonight, uh, we are introducing Miss Achim, our fourth grade teacher that has led, um, these students in a
006lot of what they've done with Leader and Me, and she will go into a little bit more detail as far as what the school is doing um, with the Leader Me principal. >> Good evening. Tonight, we're proud to introduce a group of second and fourth grade students from Somerside Elementary who represent our district's portrait of a graduate and the principles of the leader in me framework. Through leader and me, our students learn that leadership is not a position, but a set of habits and skills that help them succeed in school and in life. These habits such as being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, putting first things first, thinking win-win, seeking first to understand, synergizing, and sharpening the saw are reflected in the students mission statements and vision board you will hear and see
007this evening. Their mission statements and vision boards represent how our students are learning to create the lives they desire and turn ideas into action. They highlight the qualities outlined in our portrait of a graduate include character and integrity, communication and collaboration, innovation and creative thinking, resilience and adaptability as well as academic and life skills. As our students share their mission statements and vision boards, they are demonstrated what it means to begin with the end in mind. To do what is right, even when no one is watching, and to pursue both personal success, and happiness while contributing positively to our community. We're excited for you to hear directly from our students as they share their goals, hopes, and plans for the future, and how leadering me is helping them prepare prepare for the path ahead. >>
008I might try and lower this down after all. Easier said than done. >> We'll use this. Okay, Mariana, I'll let you get started. Let me get back to that. And you can speak in this one or this one. You choose, dear. Okay. All right. I'll try and keep up. >> Mission statement. I will be kind, sharing, loving, confident, loyal, hardworking, honest, cool, brave, and respectful person. I will never give up and make good choices in my life to make my future self happy and successful. >> Hi, I love bugs and some people don't and I get it. But if you do, then you can be an entomologist when you grow. You don't have to be one, but I will because when I was little, I loved bugs. I love looking at them and observing for
009a long time. I love beetles and they're my favorite book. My parents see my passion and I know I will be a good enmologist when I grow older. Um, >> these um, >> do you want to read here? This one. There you go. >> What inspired me to be an entomologist? What inspired me to be an entomologist was nature and the book. Nature inspired me to be an entomologist because I wondered where do bugs live and what is their habitat? My dad's friend told me about bugs and where they live in a book. So, ever since then, I've had I've have bugs. Ways to achieve my goals. I will achieve my goal by staying focused and being proactive in school. I could even start a book club in high school. I will gather knowledge to
010get in college. In college, I will achieve my goal by studying entomology. I could possibly get into the University of Arizona's entomology program. When I am done with college, I will get a job to be an entomologist. I can hold it if you want to hold this. Here we go. >> My mission statement by Kennedy. I am kind, nice, brave, smart, sweet, and respectful. I care about family, friends, and school. I will become a better reader and writer. I will be a leader who is smart and kind. >> Excellent. Just read this. I am a genius because I pay very close attention to everything around me. I work very hard and I am a math mathematician. >> Let's do it over here. >> All right, you got it. My mission statement. I am funny, adventurous,
011and kind. I care about my mom, dad, and friends. I want to learn to be a teacher and principal. I will lead by being a good example, not >> excellent job. My name is Amelia and my mission statement is to be a good person and role model for others guided by God in my faith to lead myself and others down the path of success. I want to go to the college of the Ohio State University because I always wanted to be a judge. I want to be a judge because I want to fight justice because of what happened in my childhood. I also got inspired as a kid by Judge Judy. I have to get a degree and learn a lot if I want to become a judge. I plan to study criminology and criminal
012justice studies. My passion goals in life. My passion has always been on volleyball since I was three. I always wanted to be I wanted to be on the Olympic volleyball team because volleyball was made for fitness and and the power of teamwork. I've always been good at both. I have always loved painting and drawing. I like it because all my problems go away. I used to go around my town selling paintings for money and someone was always there in my head telling me that I should quit and my drawings are dumb. But ever since then, I have never gave up on myself. I started working harder and started making portraits. Strategies and habits to be successful. Don't give up. Believe in myself. Take action. begin with the end. And my mind didn't know my why.
013>> My mission statement. I am kind, funny, help, and helpful. I care about God, Jesus, family, friends, and everyone. I will learn to type on my computer. I will be a leader who helps people on with fear. My mission statement by Sarah. I am kind, healthy, and smart. I care about my teacher, family, and friends. I'll be a I'll learn about technology, math, and reading. I'll be a leader who is a good example for others. My mission statement is I believe hard work, humor, focus, creativity, and miss will help me reach my goals. Education. I'll I'll study and put and play basketball and football at West Car High School. I will attend the University of Tennessee to get my degree in there. I take take acting classes and work with the voice coach. I also
014went to play football for the Tennessee and then this work got cut off. It's supposed to say volunteers. I had to be proactive to accomplish my goals. Career goals. Voice actor. I want to be a voice actor when I graduate. Tom Kenny was the voice actor from Spongebob. He inspires me. He plays the voice of Gary and Spongebob. He is the narrator. So, he inspires me because I like the characters he plays. >> You can do a really good Spongebob imitation over them. >> Go ahead. >> Uh, can I He asked if he could and I said one time >> it's the board. >> He's been practicing. >> SO >> you never thought Spongebob would be in front of the board. >> All right. On my way to accomplish my goals, I needed to work
015hard and focus. I need to be proactive and put first things first. My dad and mom can cheer me on on my way. >> I am funny, smart, and kind. I care about my teacher learning and Lucas. I will learn about my teacher Well, and Bradley. I will be a leader who cleans up the floor. My mission statement by Arabella. I am happy, healthy, and kind. I care about learning, family, friends, and teachers. I will learn how to paint and be a better writer. I will be a leader who is a good example for others. Hi, my name is Paisley Sears and my mission statement is to be creative and do all the good I can do for the world in big and small ways, both right where I am and according to my gifts
016and talents. Going to college is also important to me. I don't know what college I want to go to yet, but I want to find the best college for engineering and softball. I also want to be a pro softball player because I've been playing softball since first grade and I've loved it ever since. My goals if I go pro in softball are hold the record for the fastest pitcher, host softball tournaments, inspire younger girls, make my family proud, make my hometown proud, and get sponsored by sporting brand. I want to be an engineer. And one reason is because my sister wants to be one, too. And I think it will be cool and fun to have two engineers in the family. But what I like the most is that they get to create new things
017that can make people's lives easier. Spending as much time with my family as possible is also important to me. Some people don't get to see their family a lot, and I don't want want that to happen to me. I will invite them to parties and if I go pro, I'll invite them to my softball games. When I go pro and finish college, my goal is to have a house like this. I know I might not get all of this, but to get these things, I will have to begin with the end in mind and put first things first. Thank you for inviting us to share our learning and lead leading in genius. >> Portrait of a graduate in action. Thank you for inviting us this evening. >> We'd like to shake all the kids hands
018if >> All right, boys and girls, come on up. >> I'm going to try not to help you. >> I knew I could. I believe you guys great Great job. Great job. hearts. No cards. >> I didn't check, but okay. Yeah, she taking care of herself very well. >> Okay, so next up is public speaking. I was told there are no cards, so we will move on to the consent agenda. Looks like first up is Josh. >> Good evening. In front of you is the personnel agenda for Monday, March 23rd. It's uh fortunately and also unfortunately, we do not have any retirees to celebrate tonight. Um obviously, we've lost a lot of great teachers the past couple times, so um but they're coming. They're they're they're going to have their time. Do you guys have
019any questions for me regarding the personnel agenda? >> Thank you. >> Next up is Chuck. Chuck, >> good evening. I can't see it, so I'm >> changing. >> Oh, we're changing I'm sorry, I don't have my glasses. We are changing um our fuel card for our maintenance and custodial staffs from BP to Casey's. Casey's has two locations. They offer better service. sale for lower prices. So that's before you tonight. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Better service and lowest price. I like it. >> Everything that I >> Next up, Mr. Roman. >> Item 7.3 is request for approval of the minutes. Those were for the minutes held for the meeting March 9th. It's a regular board meeting. Item 7.04 is request request for approval of donations as made. The donors uh were West Claremont Middle
020School PTO, CC's Pizza, Wamsville PTO, Mercy Health Flex, and Lowe's. Item 7.05 is a resolution amending and/or supplementing FY26, that's this current year, annual appropriations. Uh the the major adjustment there is there was an additional allocation to the uh nonpublic school auxiliary services program in excess of $70,000 and some other minor adjustments to a lot of the school building funds. Item 7.06 is request uh to approve the authorization for the superintendent and treasur to negotiate and execute contracts as presented. There are two of them that are listed. Um, one of them is for a data service and the other one is for learning well KIC. Item 7.07 is request for approval of purpose and budget statements for the current year 2526. Again, those are for uh school building funds, uh the uniform school supply fund,
021the principal accounts, and the athletic and extracurricular accounts. Item 7.08 08 is request for approval of the financial statements, the bill's paid lists and investments for the month of February as presented. So the consent agendum consent agenda is items 7.01 through 7.08 as presented. >> Thank you, Mr. Romano. You've heard the recommendation. Would someone like to make a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Chley, thank you. Is there any discussion? Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Rudy, >> yes. >> Mr. Chumley, >> yes. >> Mrs. Spencer, >> yes. >> Mr. Patton, >> yes. >> Bo, yes. >> Thank you. >> Next it up is Dr. Folz. >> Yes. So, um, back on March 12th, we had our annual state of the schools at
022West Claremont High School. Uh, probably the best attended so far. It was amazing. It was it was a we spread people out, but there was a lot of people there. And uh great positive feedback during that time, hundreds of people. One of the things that I did was a short 15-minute presentation that I'd like to share with everyone today just to kind of get us an update on where we're at there. Um part of this part of the presentation for the city schools is to share all the great things we're doing and then share some of the the things that we need to be looking out for as we go into the near some of our hardships. So, let's start with the best part, which is celebrating the great stuff at West Claremont. Um, if
023you look at the top left quadrant there, you're going to see that um the the x-axis where it talks about uh state average performance index and the state average spending per pupil. Now, what you see here is that West Claremont falls on the top left quadrant. And so what that tells you is that we have uh lower spending per pupil and where we have higher performance than the state average. So we are right in that sweet spot as I like to say where uh this tells us that we're purposefully spending the dollars wisely and that well how we're spending it is getting positive academic growth. So we feel really good about the cost per people and the uh compared to the achievement. So with that was a fun fun great idea. You'll see in the
024small boxes up front, you'll see that this is the highest performance index the West Claremont had since COVID and that this is the largest performance index gap between West Claremont and the state average. So, as as the state's going up, we're we're increasing that gap at a lot of lot faster rate. That's pretty exciting. Also, you'll see the value added growth. We're at the top 13% in the state of Ohio. So, all great things centered around student performance both academically and subgroups. Specifically, I want to take a moment to celebrate the high school. Um, you'll see that the graduation rate is the highest it's ever been. The four-year graduation rate, it's 97.4%. So, we are very excited about that. Our teachers at the high school level are doing amazing things. But, I would also say
025that that trickles down to the middle school and trickles down to the elementary because all of our teachers work very hard to get our kids across that stage. So, we were very excited about that. Once again, we're in the US News and World Report as top 40% of high schools nationwide. And uh this year the West Clear High School won the the momentum award which other districts have won other schools have won that in their district in previous years. But what that means basically is the state of Ohio uh predicts us to to grow a certain amount and we've grown more than that. So we are doing some great things academically in West Claremont. Um I could spend hours talking about our student success but I so I grabbed three just to showcase here tonight.
026of Ricky Fan, which is a se he's a senior. He was recognized as a as committed student by the National Merit Scholarship Committee. That's the top 4% of students nationwide. So, he's in the top 4% of about 1.95 students. You also see in the bottom left Payton Teter. He's a junior. He plays the sac baritone saxophone. Oh, he he was uh the OMA is an all-star band. They select a 100 top band players in the state of Ohio. He was selected. He's the only third West Clemer High School student in our history ever selected to be a part of that. And then if you look to the bottom right, you see Bryce Cousins. He's a junior. He placed third in the state diving division one competition. So this is his third straight year for qualifying.
027So we looked at what we've done in the classroom, what we've done on the football field, and what we've done in the pool. So we're we're really excited with our kids. They are showing exceptional growth academically and uh genius-wise when you think about their their talent and their focus on on getting better every day. I also want to take a moment to recognize some of our staff. We've we've also had a few staff members recognized for their quality of work that they performed in the classroom with their with their colleagues. Lauren Crabiel Bryant was the Southwest Regional Teacher of the Year for the Middle Ohio level association. Luke Newton was emerging teacher of the year for the Ohio Council of Social Studies. Robin Hornberger was the secondary teacher of the year for the Ohio Council
028of Social Studies. And Julia McNeel was the teacher of the year for the Claremont Soil and Water Conservation District. So our our staff is getting recognized at the local and n and the state level for the hard work that they're putting in to help our kids be successful. And to top it all off, we even have the treasures office recognized with some rewards. Um they received the excellence in financial reporting from the association of school business officials and the government finance officers association and the open and transparent government. They received four stars which is the highest achievement level level by the auditor of state. What this tells us is that uh Dan's accounting for the money. Dan and his team account for the money and they know where they know what they have. They know
029where it's going. So that's always anytime you can have transparent rent awards for transparency, transparency and fiscally financial reporting is a good thing as a as a treasur's office. You're going to see this a lot. It's it's we're we're excited to partner with our comm with our community and our families about um growing their child and helping them be successful. And so what we you hear us say is we're preparing our students for anything, not just something. We WC your future has three core promises. First core promise is student learning. Second one is student leading and the third one is student genius. So because learning is active, we promise that stu skills will be built, problems will be solved and opportunities will be created. Because leadership is a skill, we promise that it will be
030learned, practiced, and it will be applied every day. And because genius is in everyone, we promise that it will be uncovered, it will be cultivated, and it will be aligned with purpose. I want to share a quote with you from Albert Einstein. And the quote he said was, "Everyone everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its entire life believing that it's stupid." Our goal as educators in West Claremont is to unlock that genius for every student, whatever that genius may be. And we're going to work to help them learn, help them lead, and unlock that genius so that they're walking across that stage and they're walking out of our schools being successful, feeling successful, and following the path that that will that
031fits who they are. I believe in educating our children as a partnership between the school and the parents. And to keep that partnership strong, we need to be transparent about everything that we can be. And what I was equally as important as showing you all of these great things is that we also have to share the hardships that we're about to face. And so I want you as as our community, our parents to stay informed with uh what's coming at us. I want to start with a quote because I think this frames what we need to be thinking about. We are in a financial crisis because of decisions made by the state general assembly, >> not as a result of any spending decisions we may have made. So, let me explain how that happened. Nearly
032twothirds of the district's funding comes from local resources. That's typically property taxes. So, if you think about 65% directly comes from our property taxes or local funding. Um, the state of Ohio does still classify us, I believe, as a wealthy suburban school district. Um, why is that important to know? In November, the state general assembly passed passed a slew of of legislation aimed at rolling back property taxes. The property taxes were were the last couple years, as Dan would say, was was pretty high. And so they the the district that the state assembly made some decisions trying to lower that. And we understand that, but they did not necessarily understand the impact that it had on schools and specifically West Claremont. I highlighted the top three because those were the biggest impacts. I'm not going
033to go over each one. If you want to learn more about it, all of our all of our um schoolboard me schoolboard meetings are on YouTube. So, if you go back and look at some of the archives, Mr. Romano has gone through each of these and explained them in detail and I encourage you to do that. But I am going to focus on a few. House Bill 186 alone caused a loss in revenue of almost $20 million by the school year 2930. Likewise, House Bill 129 uh caused a loss in revenue with a little over a million dollars by 2930. When you combine all the new legislation, West Claremont is predicted to have a negative cash balance of 53.9 million. >> Did you say 1 million or 11? >> 11 million. >> Projected to have
034a deficit by the by $53.9 million by the 2930 school year. That's over that's about half of our operating the annual operating budget. I show these different pictures for illustrative purposes. Think about the Goldilocks principle. Too hot, too cold, just right. If you look at the picture on the left, that's too rich. West Claremont has never been that district. If you look at the picture on the right, it's too poor. 14 years ago, when I came in this district, we were there. We're at our buses were at a two a two-mile minimum. We did not have specials at the elementary. Um, a lot of it was pay to play. There's a whole list of things I can talk about where we were completely out of money. We spent the last 14 years moving from the
035too poor to the just right. That middle picture, that just right phase and and as we showed earlier, lower people uh per people spending, higher achievement program offerings that we were able to bring back. And now this is all at risk of going backwards. What everyone needs to understand is that the state took money from us that had already allocated to us. The state reduced its reduced and limits the amount of funds we received going forward. And the state limited the school district's ability to get more funds and change the rules for placing issues on the ballot. So what comes next for our schools and community? We need to ask ourselves now that we know this, what we what do we do next? Two ways to keep us in that just right phase is a
036balancing act between reducing expenses and raising revenue. We reduce expenses in a few ways. We have four buckets of expenses in in the district. There's personnel program. I'm sorry I said buckets. I meant pots. These are cooking pots because we're cooking. That's what we're doing. So we have personnel, programs, services, and facilities. Those are our expenses. Uh two, we use two decision-making rules. lenses. When I was I was hired as a superintendent back in August, we pulled these lenses out and we looked through them when we're making decisions on anything. One lens says necessary and one lens says nice. Now you we can argue about what's the definition of necessary. I don't know about you, but I I grew up in the that age of Survivor when the Survivor show just came out and the
037one thing that everyone got is fresh water and white rice. That's necessary necessary to sustain life. We want more than fresh water and white rice for our kids. >> And I know as parents you do, too. So, we have to look at what we have that's nice and start reducing those to those expenses to try to to close that gap between what we will have and what we won't have by 2930. But I must point this out and make it very clear. Every reduction has a negative impact on students and families. It compromises the quality of services we provide and it erodess our ability to completely fulfill our core promises. I want to be transparent with everyone. We've already started making some transitions and reductions for August of 2026. We need to because we have
038to be able to pay the bills. We can no longer afford to have everything we have right now. I encourage everyone to always to watch the board because this is where you're going to find out what that is. This the board meetings are going to where you're going to find out the new information and again um it's all archived on YouTube if you go look for it. Um we talked a little bit about what a reducing expenses are. The other side of that that that seesaw is raising revenue. School districts predominantly raise revenue through ballot issues. The West Claremont Board of Education has not made a decision at this time whether they put an issue on the ballot. But I'm sharing this because that's predominantly how revenue is raised for a school district. So, as
039we move forward, going back to the going back to partnering with our parents to grow our children, what can we do as a community? Well, number one, love and celebrate your children. We saw boys and girls walking in today and they they gave amazing presentations on the state of the schools. Amazing presentations. Love them. Celebrate them. They're doing great. Let's continue to cherish that and cheer them on. Connect with your child's school and get involved. Pay attention. You know, listen to the school. Read the weekend newsletters that come home. Volunteer. Be involved with your child's school. And number one, I I said it probably three times now, watch the board of education meetings. That's where information happens. That's where things get passed. That's where decisions are made. So, if you want to stay up to
040date, pay attention and get involved. Listen. Bless you. Thank you. I'm going to end with this section of again reminding we are in a financial crisis because of decisions made by the state general assembly not a result of any spending decisions we may have made. We were doing well and this was pulled the rug was pulled out from under us. They call me David Downer. So I'm going to end on a part on a high note here. So we have a little video, shall we? All right. Here we go. >> Here we go. get to it. >> It's a two-minute video about some of the the great things that go on in West Claremont. >> I really thought David D would get more of a laugh. >> You want the best for your child and
041so do we laugh with you. There we go. Make it bigger. >> You want the best for your child and so do we. At West Claremont, we help to unlock their potential from kindergarten to cap and gown. Because their future doesn't start someday. It starts right here. At West Claremont, they don't just prepare students for graduation, but at West Claremont, they're, you know, prepared for anything, not just something. One thing I would want parents to know about West Claremont School District is that although it is a large school district, it has a small town feel. So, families who come into our community have the opportunities for a plethora of resources that are offered to our students to help them be successful both academically and behaviorally. However, we still make the connections with the kids to
042make them feel like they are part of a family in a small town community. >> Things that make West Claremont High School sort of special and stand out are a lot of the um elective offerings that we have for students to take and a lot of those electives are career focused and one of them is aerospace engineering and aviation. So we actually have flight simulators in the classrooms and students are able to sit in them and do the work and you know pretend to fly an airplane. Um and then through our WC your future connection which is kind of our career um future planning program we can connect students in aviation or aerospace with internships and job shadows at local airports. >> We call it build it. Um and what that class does basically is
043uh the teacher will pose a problem to the class and say like here's a need. So through the modeling and design process they can then create prototypes through the 3D printing. So, that's a very like hands-on real world activity that our kids engage in that also prepares them again for something that is not just uh another course in the next level or another uh class up at high school, but also prepares them for a real world experience cuz as many know like that's how a lot of jobs work is there's a problem uh is presented. You have to brainstorm and collaborate. You have to model. You have to prototype and you have to try and see if it works. And that's sort of the process we try to follow with all of our classes. >>
044Your child's journey is just beginning. And here at West Fremont, we're proud to walk beside them every step of the way. >> All right, I just want to just wrap up the presentation again. We do some amazing things in West Claremont, K12. And the state of the schools just further showed all these amazing things that we do from kindergarten to 12th grade. And I know that we want to make sure that we can continue to provide as much of those amazing opportunities as we can to to build their learning, to build their leadership, and to build their genius. That's all for me and for that part. >> Thank you, Dr. Folz. Mr. Gart's going to take us to the next one. >> Dan gets up the presentation. So, this will be the transportation minute following
045Mr. Romano. It may be a little bit longer than a minute, but um following the students lead and talking about their mission. You guys gave us a mission. We started talking about this in 24, early 24 about a transportation study. Um and it was apparent that we wanted to get a third party to take a deeper dive into our transportation, our cost, our efficiency, our safety, and the things that we wanted to do in transportation. So, my genius was to go out and find a genius to uh to run this uh study for us and working through some of the our network. Um Doug Palmer is with us tonight. And Doug was with the state when we first started this back in 20 early part of last spring. So that would have been in 25
046and then he decided to retire and so we had to work through that and so then he started his own company. So as soon as we got the company going then we wanted to continue the process of getting transportation studied tonight. So tonight um Doug is with us. He's going to help us through this. I'm going to give him a microphone too because I don't normally do that. Um because I don't like to share the microphone, but I definitely want him to uh to talk as well because he is the expert by far the expert when it comes to transportation. Um he works at the state level and he uh obviously um is an advocate for schools as well and to help us be more efficient um to be fiscally responsible and then safety is
047our number one thing as well. Brian Howard is also here with he's our director from Peterman. He is back here and Brian's back here and so he can add anything that needs to be added as well. Just the background on the transportation just so you know um as we look at this and transportation has been a topic since I've been here in nine years and it has been talked about um in every avenue with our parents, students, staff and so we know the transportation is is definitely a topic that we we've talked about for for a lot of years. And so doing a deep dive into the transportation study, um we currently transport um K to K to 8. Um we transport all of our students regardless of address. Our policy is um 2 miles
048radius. You would not have to transport in two miles, but we have not done that. We transport all students. um we transport out of district as well. Some of them go beyond the 30 minutes and so that will be an audit that will be doing a part of the study as well. Um that if we transport we don't have to transport over 30 minutes. However, we do have some some students that are above that. So we'll be looking at that cost as a cost savings as well um as we look into that. But we we do transport all our students regardless of address. Um so when you look that Dr. Fos talked about um necessarily or nice that is nice that is nice that we do that because that is above state requirements um and
049that's something that we'll need to look at as well. um we have done the study and some of the things that have come out are what we're going to talk about tonight. And so how do we look at cost reduction? So we have a video. We're going to start with the video because it kind of outlines um what we're going to be discussing tonight. And so if you go to the next slide, Dan. >> Oh, I have a clicker. There you go. >> I'm the director, producer, and everything of this video, so it has to work. for our schools. Today, we're going to dig into a simple switch in strategy that could have a huge financial impact. So, let's just jump right in. Imagine your local school district suddenly having an extra million half dollars
050in its budget every single year. Sounds a little too good to be true, doesn't it? Well, it's actually a pretty realistic outcome for districts that are willing to rethink their bus routes. So, how is this even possible? It all starts with understanding the system most of us grew up with. A system that was really built for convenience, but you know, one that comes with some serious hidden costs. This is that classic door-to-door model. The bus literally snakes through every neighborhood, stopping at driveway after driveway and navigating what feels like countless culde-sacs. It's all about getting as close to each student's home as possible. But all that convenience, well, it comes with a pretty hefty price tag. And believe me, these costs add up fast. More driver time isn't just about salaries. It's about the challenge
051of hiring and retaining drivers in what's already a tough market. Weaving through neighborhoods means constant stopping and starting, which just burns way more fuel and puts a ton of wear and tear on the bus's engines and brakes. The whole thing creates a scheduling nightmare that forces districts to have more buses and more drivers on the road than they probably need. Okay, so if the old way is so inefficient, what's the alternative? This is where the idea of neighborhood group stops comes into play. It's a much more logical and frankly way more efficient system. The idea is actually super simple, but it's really powerful. Instead of the bus coming to every single student, a small group of students just walks to a central designated spot in their neighborhood. This lets the bus make just one stop
052instead of say five or 10. And we're not talking about long hikes here. These are just common sense spots that are already part of the neighborhood fabric. You know, a well-chosen street corner, maybe the entrance to a subdivision or a local community center. They can all serve as safe and convenient hubs for students together. All right, so the concept makes sense logistically. It's more direct. It's simpler. But let's get to the part that really makes school boards and administrators sit up and pay attention. The financial payoff. This slide really gets to the heart of the difference. With group stops, roads are just way more direct. This creates something called higher passenger density, which is just a fancy way of saying the bus fills up faster and stays fuller. That dramatically lowers the cost per rider.
053It's all about efficiency. Buses spend less time idling in culde-sacs and more time actually moving on main roads, which cuts fuel and maintenance costs for every single mile traveled. And the impact isn't small. We're not talking about pocket change here. Across a bunch of different transit studies, the data shows a potential cost reduction somewhere in the range of 15 to 40%. For a multi-million dollar transportation budget, that is a game-changing amount of money. But, you know, percentages can feel a bit abstract, right? So, let's look at a real world example from one school district to see what these numbers actually look like in practice. Okay, check this out. Here's the data from the West Claremont district. With their old door-to-door system, they needed 77 separate bus routes. By switching to group stops, they projected a
054need for only 59. That's 18 entire routes. We're talking 18 buses and 18 drivers that they just don't need on the schedule every single day. And what does getting rid of 18 bus routes actually mean in dollars and cents? A whopping potential annual savings of over $1.6 million. And look, this isn't just about trimming the budget. It's about being able to reinvest that money into what truly matters, classrooms, technology, and teachers. A potential $1.6 million savings is pretty compelling, right? But how does a district actually pull this off? Well, it takes a practical datadriven plan. So, here's a pretty clear five-step plan for how to do it. It all starts with data. You have to analyze where all the students live to find those natural clusters. Then, it's about grouping them into zones and identifying
055safe central walking locations, making sure no student has to walk more than, say, half a mile. Once the new routes are all set, the final and honestly most critical step is communication. And let's be real for a second, any change like this is going to face challenges. The biggest hurdle usually isn't the logistics or the mapping. It's managing the human side of the change. Clear, consistent, and early communication with parents and students is absolutely essential for a smooth transition. So, when you boil it all down, all the routes, the budgets, the plans, it really all comes down to one simple but I think pretty profound question about our priorities. And this is really the heart of the matter, isn't it? This isn't just a debate about transportation. It's a debate about how we use our
056resources. It asks parents, students, and whole school districts to weigh a small change in convenience against a significant investment back into education itself. So, what's the right answer? Well, that's a conversation for every single community to have. Thanks for tuning in. So with that, I'm going to ask Doug to come up and talk a little bit about the why, what the transport transportation study entails, and he's going to give us some of his recommendations as he's gone through this. And obviously the doortodoor to neighborhood group stops, comes through with this. That's the financial piece. I'm let Doug talk a little bit about the why and his process. So if you look at transportation as a whole, everywhere in the state, we we're all facing the same thing. How do we do more with less? And
057doing more is making sure more kids are on that buses that we're running. The way we do that is to reduce the route time for each bus uh the travel time. And that that reduction comes through reducing stops. You know, every stop adds a minute or two to a route. you take away 10 stops, you're taking away 20 minutes up, maybe up to 20 minutes. And so finding ways to make the bus run more efficient. There's also ways that we looked at all of the data and and looking at all of the the tiers of the shifts, the different shifts, one shift, the second tier, the second shift, and the third shift, the third tier, and and what schools are being delivered, what what students are riding the buses. And so that that's another uh
058part of the routing study is making sure that your wrership matches each tier. And when you match the wrership to each tier or each shift, you also have to look at is there enough time for that bus to get their work done. And and by going to group stops, neighborhood stops, you you're finding some time. We also found that some of your schools, you don't you don't have a responsibility anymore under the state law to to to provide that transportation. Again, you've been very nice and and years ago it wasn't a 30 minute drive to get to some of these schools, but look how traffic has changed. Look how societyy's changed. I mean, what used to be a 10-minute drive now takes anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes in in areas. And that's just the
059fact that there are more traffic. There's more cars on the road. Stop lights have been added, speed limits have been reduced. I mean, there's a lot of different factors. So, part of my recommendation is to follow uh 332701, revised code 332701 and school districts that live beyond schools that are beyond that 30 minutes of travel. uh you clearly communicate that to your community and to those schools that transport transportation will not be provided any longer to those schools. You have to go back to what's necessary. Um in the 60s when this transportation nightmare began around the uh Cincinnati area, those laws were created then they haven't been revisited since 19 since the 60s. And so we're living in an age where we're operating today in 2026 on 1966 rules and regulations. And we we and
060we have just this practice just comes forward. And it's not anything wrong. It's just that you've been able to do it before, but now I'm suggesting that you uh stop doing what's nice and do just what's necessary. Do you have any questions at all? This also when you reduce the number of buses being operated, you can also increase efficiency payments that the state offers by having more students ride per bus. And that's that's a calculation they do on their own. But we've looked at a way to increase some funding coming back by getting by reducing the number of buses and increasing the number of students per bus. >> I have a question. Is this going to impact the start times for any of the schools? Do we have to change the start times? Would it
061be beneficial for us to do that or revisit that or >> so there are options that we put together and this first option is just a very something that's not it's not easily done but it's the first step in getting to that at this phase I would not recommend any belt time changes for anything that was part of the study we didn't recommend any changes but if you want to change services later on those are options that you can choose used to to put in place. And again, when you're talking about bell-time changes, that changes the whole district. That changes custodians, lunchroom, I mean, buses, teachers, parents, I mean, it changes everything. And so, you need a much larger lead time. Uh the first recommendation can actually go into place for this August coming up.
062So when we were talk when when Doug was talking about the 30 minutes those are schools those are private schools brochio schools that when we need to do an audit on the times that if we have students that are beyond the 30 minutes we do not have to offer that. So that could be a cost savings for us. The other thing that we can look at if they're smaller numbers, we can look at vans, possibly taking a van and utilizing vans because that will not count against us in our ridership so that we become more efficient and we can probably and get more dollars u from the state as we increase our wrership on each of the buses and it's a significant amount of dollars. Talk a little bit about that as far as how
063we can increase efficiency and also get dollars back. So right now the state looks at a target number on your buses and the target number is based on your student density, the number of riders on each bus, but also that buses are only operating on two tiers. That's where the state has come up with that target number. You're already operating on three tiers. So you have three chances to put students on that one bus instead of two. If you can get to the 1.5 target, which should be uh achievable in this district with a rider density and the three tiers, that's an extra 15% of funding on the basis of the transportation level. So if if you're uh you know, if you're receiving $100 for a student, you're going to receive $115 for a student.
064And so it really adds up very quickly. So that's one of the premises of the study as well is to increase the efficiency, increase the writership obviously then we can then get some some dollars from the state as we go through. But to answer your question in this first phase that we're going this is a transition from what we've done in the past to the neighborhood group stops. And so again, the policy has it half mile or approximately 2500 ft. So when we start talking about, you know, how far students would have to walk, we'll be talking about is around it's going to be under 2500 ft. Um sounds a little different than half mile, but that's approximately what it is. And so when we the first phases as we go through this the presentation
065has it has a door to door and has gone through and giving you the rationale um of what door to door does obviously increases driver time more fuel uh wear and tear on the vehicles and u more routes. The data I got from Brian is we have we go into 123 cold sacks which increases your time. It increase it's a safety concern because you have buses that'll be backing up and possibly hit other things, mailboxes, mirrors on cars, things that have happened in the past. And so that would that would be a it would be safer for that. In your board update, I provided you with an audit of schools around if you if you guys took a look at that and you kind of saw what I know anytime that there is a transition.
066It's always like what does somebody else do? What are the other districts do? So I wanted to give that to you as well so you can see what our neighboring districts do and you'll notice that majority of them do not go in the culde-sacs unless it's for special education. um they are doing group stops, cluster stops um and it's all over the board, but I think overall you'll see that we don't just looking at the numbers of the 123 culde-sacs that we would go in and being able to you take out the special edge which I think were about 38 and then the remainder um that would save us a great deal of time. So, you're asking me a question, how do you get the number down from where you're currently down to the 59
067or the 60? That's one of the things that we would do. Financially, it would be more fiscally responsible. And that's what the question said at the end is how the community looks at this, how our parents look at this, and then how we communicate to our parents is obviously going to be very important. So, when you look at the presentation, you'll see this is the this is where we're at today. When you go to neighborhood stops, you're looking at identifying those areas, community centers, small neighborhoods, um curbside points, clubouses, clubhouse. You've heard from club houses before um with our HOA recommendation um from Doug is we work through our parents. So, if there's an issue with an HOA or there's an issue with a clubhouse, you work through the parents and the parents are the
068ones that are going to communicate with their HOA because obviously they are the customers. They're the ones that if there is an issue, the parents can bring that to us. Another recommendation, Doug, is putting together a transportation committee. Talk a little bit about what we put together as far as a transportation. Transportation committees should have a very experienced bus driver, normally an onboard instructor who knows all the rules and regulations, has a good deal of knowledge of the district, a principal, a parent or two from a from someone that's active in your school center um school district like your PTO's or your athletic boosters. I mean, someone that's really active in it. and then uh someone from operations and then of course uh your contractor would have a a a resource on that on that
069board also that committee. It allows different avenues of communication to go back out. Your principles talk to your principles as your parents talk to your parents. Your your bus driver talks to the bus drivers and so it's easier to communicate what's actually going on in the meeting through those different channels. So when you look at the comparison and you kind of say, well, what's this really mean? So when you look at the door to door to group stops, 20 separate houses, maybe five neighborhood stops, decreases your time, creates efficiency, and gets more ridership. And that's what we're looking for. Um there routes, um shorter travel times, and lower cost per rider. So when you compare the two, you have to weigh out what are the benefits. Safety is obviously going to be number one when
070we do this. Efficiency is going to be number two and being fiscally responsible. Those are all things that will come out of this. Again, this is more information on how this reduces the cost. It's going to say, well, how do you get it down? How why is it why is it such a high amount? What's the dollar amount? These are things that happen when you do decrease the number um of routes and why you increase efficiency. I won't go through each of them. We talked about the reduction. This is this is kind of when you got the snake up here when this is that signifies that doortodoor that signifies all the stops. And when you go to uh group stops, these are estimates. Again, these are estimates um you know the 59 routes and 77
071routes as he puts it through his um formulas as well. Obviously, increased enrollment is going to have a factor on this. Um things that can, you know, you've got some new properties, you got some new um developments that'll be coming along. Um some of those are larger um apartments, condos, things that we have. Um but we'll still be able to be more efficient because when you start to look at apartment um complexes or condos, uh what we'll have our stops will be those group stops and the group stops are talk a little about going into private property. So one of the things that I always recommend to school districts is to not enter private property. Uh there are certain conditions that buses have to use when they're on private property. It's uh state law that
072you're not to use your red uh warning lights when you stop on private property. You're off the road. The the road the the highway is the public highway where the private uh property meets the public. That's the designated stop. And when you go into an area that is a private area, you're not on the travel portion of the road anymore. You're on private property. And there's no law that substantiates that you're supposed to be using your red warning lights. Now, how do you stop traffic with just your four-way flashers? And and again, um if you are using your red warning lights, which most districts still do, um lawyers graduate every year from college and they're always looking for something to to pick apart, right? To to try to find some sort of doubt where you're
073negligence in your operations. So again, uh the fewer stops, the less turning around. It it also prevents kids from having to what they call catch the bus. So if a a bus is turning around in a culde-sac and they haven't been ready, that bus taking an extra 30 or 40 seconds to turn around, now they're running to a bus that's that's backing and that's the most dangerous thing a bus can do. The driver's focused on where the bus is. They're not focused on watching the children come towards that bus. And so, you know, I recommend staying out of culde-sacs with school buses. They're they weren't built to turn buses around in. So, when you look at the cost savings and then when we start talking about the communication piece and that's the next piece and
074so we can all sit here and say safety wise don't go in the culax that is going to be the safest things for our students. But we're going to hear some people talk to us about making their students walk 25 under 2500 ft to the bus stop that have been normally have been picked up outside their front door. So we know that that's going to come. So what we have to do is we have to put together first of all a communication plan to let our parents, our students, our staff know um what's coming. This isn't a board action. I'm not going to ask the board for a board action on this. If you recall, for bus stops, bus stops are approved in August. Dr. Folultz will bring those bus stops to you. You will
075then approve those bus stops. One of the things that we'll be doing in the meantime from now until May is identifying those bus stops. And Brian is working on that now. He'll start with the cold sacks and basically in the program will go in and then he'll put in those points of anything that's less than 2500 feet. Students in that area will be assigned to that bus stop. What our parents will what we'll be doing is they will be putting out information about the transition to a different to this model and parents will be opting in for transportation. We'll be doing this through powers school blue stall our our main man conversation with him. We have the ability to do this through powers school. So the information that we'll be getting to our parents will
076be that for transportation for next year from now until May through May they'll be opting in for transportation. Then we'll be identifi during this time we'll be identifying that and then obviously communicating to the parents where their bus stop is. One of the things about the transportation committee is if we do have an issue that is a a sounding board for a parent to come and say this is a problem. This is what we do. This is this is how do how do we fix this so that it isn't going to be a problem. And that'll come from the parents not the clubous but from the parents. And the parents will bring issues to us if we do have issues for that. and then we will be able to do that. So how will we
077communicate all is obviously all the outreach that we currently do? We we are do a really good job with communication and um we've continued that and we will continue that and so the avenues that we'll use obviously the website obviously through our building principles obviously through um social media that we be reaching out to as well. Is everyone going to be thrilled about this? No. But then when you weigh the benefits and really look into it, then I think that those are the things that we have to look at. So we're not going to be asking for a recommendation. Obviously, I've given that to you um as far as preparing for what this is about to review what we're doing right now. We're analyzing addresses. Brian and his group are going through that analyzing this.
078Doug has completed his transportation study. I'll be bringing another contract to you because we are going to hire him as a consultant to help us through this process. He is the expert. He's going to help us work through the process um and help with the communication plan with identifying uh what's in the best interest for our u bus stops all the different things and his vast knowledge. He'll be working with us as we go through this transition plan. Want to note this this transition is this this regardless what happens in the future or what we decide to do for future funding. This is the plan moving forward. If additional revenue comes to the district, it sets us up for looking for extended services through our transportation. So the cost savings that we do have, if
079additional funding comes, this could open us up to additional services um in the future. Not going to say what that is, but those are things that we will talk about. You know, to your question, it could could be something towards that, could be something towards other transporting other students in the district. So, those are things that would be in the next phase if we do have additional funding down the road. And so, but this sets us up for those conversations down the road as well. >> So, so Randy, just if I could pause for just a minute. So, just just to clarify a couple things. Um, one thing for sure, the doortodoor is not going away for the entire district. That's where you're doing the address analyzing to see if it's So, I want to
080make sure that that's clear to the community that we're not doing away. There are some areas in our in our school district that you have to do doortodoor. But you're saying in those areas in those subdivisions that we can make this work, that's where we're going to make it work. >> Yes, sir. and also looking at age bands and certain group stops for age bands are going to be looked at. So, uh, your older students normally it's easier for them to walk and it's in it's in their neighborhoods. These are not foreign, you know, walks. These are not they're they're on these sidewalks. They're they're up and down these streets. It's not a foreign place for these students to walk. And so, you can look at grade bands and so those will also be adjusted.
081Okay. And and the other piece and I I've said this back when Natasha was here and stuff and I always want to be crystal clear, you know, none of these are are because of no fault of our own. Money has come from our district. And so what we have done we may no longer be able to do or we may have to look at doing it. And it's not a punishment piece. It's not a give me this I'll get. This is just reality. And so I assume this is the exact same like >> this is being looking at the issue that Dr. Hol talked about 50 million plus this is being fiscally responsible but it's also still providing that service to all of our students at this time and not going to the two mile
082radius. And so when you weigh that we're still going to be all students regardless of address. However, it may be students have to walk under 2500 ft. I >> I think what Randy said was just to to continue to provide that clarity is this is not state minimum. This is not the what the state minimum requires to have. We're still trying to provide services, transportation services for all of our kids. We just have to make this adjustment allows us to save some money that we have to inevitably cut. And so this is more of of a little happier medium than we can't we can't sustain we can't continue to pay for what we're doing now. It's not it's not state minimums, but it's like we can move shift this way a little bit and save
083some money that we can that could pay down that gap. >> Yeah. You know, I was just going to say, you know, for some of these communities that have larger bus stops and there'll be larger groups of children, you could lean into the uh the leader in me and you could start appointing children to say, "Hey, if you've got a grievance or if there's a problem, I mean, you could move that, filter that down into the bus stop because I think a lot of that a lot of the kids um emotions or a lot of the uh conflict sometimes starts at the bus stop >> when they had a fight with mom and and they get to the bus stop. Now I'm mad at everybody and things like that. And I think a lot of
084it has to do with children's safety. But if we could lean into the challenge of, you know, this is just another avenue that we could le, you know, we could kind of educate kids, you know, this is the way it kind of works. You have to learn to get along whether you like it or not, and it's going to be cold, so you have to be sure and dress appropriately and those kind of things. But children have a lot of challenges that a lot of adults don't really recognize or they won't see. But I think if we could lean into that and say, you know, we could filter this in to, you know, putting that into the children's hands. You know, you guys, you guys are the ones standing out here at the bus stop.
085So, let's try to figure out who is the better suited to kind of solve some of the problems that you guys will have because they'll be have they'll be challenges for sure. >> Definitely. I think increasing expectations and student behavior and all those things come tail as well. I think it's important and we any transition there's going to be some growing things. We we know that. Um but I think that when you look at the benefits and you look at safety and you look at efficiency, we're going to analyze the addresses. We're going to do the group stops. We're going to use those. Um they'll create the schedules and we'll communicate that. And that's something that's going to happen very quickly and as we as we move forward um because we we definitely want to
086move forward. Doug is though it's critical to get the information as far as those that opt in for transportation around May, which means we got to go through these steps rather quickly. Um, and so that we are able to communicate with our parents. Um, and so that we know that and so will affect every child though. Um, but uh I believe this is this is the move in the right direction. This is a cost savings to us that you we will be able to utilize those dollars in the classroom as well. I can't sit here and say where it's going, but it is when we look at making cuts for next year and then be able to take this from this part from operations to be able to not have to take it from another
087area I think is really important. >> I have one more question. I'm sorry. That's all. >> Do I'm sure you guys have some kind of standard like how big how many kids are you willing to put at one bus stop? I mean obviously they they can't have a one bus overflow or whatever. I don't know what is like the standard having 20 kids at a bus stop or 50 or tw 10. Is there a I mean some of our neighborhoods are re relatively large now. They're getting large. Well, again, the the routing program that that is being used identifies all of those things >> and they can look at how many bus stops are needed in a certain area, whether it's on uh what side of Main Street is it? Is it on is it
088on the west side of Main Street? Is there one on the west side and the one on the east side? All of those things will be taken into consideration and that's all done through the routing program. And it's and those routing programs are rather robust and and and I don't want to say it's easy, but it but there's a way to look at it that makes it very clear to the to the routers and to the to your transportation department. So once we get those opt in, this kind of goes to the five-step optin. our our plan is to get those in and then um then develop those as well to the bus stops that have been identified. If then once they opt in if there are going to be more bus stops for a
089particular area then obviously they would add that um as well. But I think that uh moving forward uh as I said and I don't want to keep saying it over and over again this is a cost savings for us um but it's also an efficiency and safety. The only other statement I make is just again commu continue the communication piece. Just making sure that the community understands the logic behind it and the reason behind it and just just the communication piece. >> We'll continue to put it out and I'll keep trying to produce direct videos. Believe it or not people here want learned a new technology, right? So we uh >> Mr. Romano has created a monster with Mr. get part of videos. Everything's a video now. >> He's also creative monster by saying uh
090that was Mr. Romano Minute as well. >> He did teach me something. So, he did teach me how to fish. So, I appreciate that. And uh I've created so many videos they they locked me out. I can't create anymore. So, um but so we'll continue update the board as we as we move forward. Um, I'm sure you'll hear a few things coming from our uh our stakeholders, but uh I think that as we move forward, this this is going to be a move in the right direction for us. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> Uh next up looks like uh Chuck. >> Good job. >> Good evening again. I want to give you an update on the Holly Hill windows. We did an RFP request for proposal in February for bids on
091the windows. We opened the bids March 12th. We had six biders and we were um smart doing it in winter time because it was a much better bidding climate in the winter than in the spring or summer. So we received a um very favorable base bid which includes unit pricing for additional windows. The base bid is 15 windows, the worst windows at at Holly Hill which I think we've talked to you about before. So the base bid is for 15. However, the we also received as I said favorable bids per unit window. The windows at Holly Hill are unique in that they all have window not all but most of them have window air conditioners. So the bottom pane had to be spec to fit for the the current modern window air conditioner unit which
092they were. So again, the contractors that submitted bids recognized that and and gave us very very favorable bidding for those um lower panels. The next thing will be to look at the size and the BTUs of the window AC units we have. We're striving for maximum efficiency. The windows are modern efficient windows and we want the window AC units to also reflect our desire to save money and increase efficiency. So, I'm asking you to approve the uh proposal if you have any questions. >> Thank you. >> You've heard the recommendation. Would someone like to make a motion? So, move. >> Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Spencer. Is there any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Rudy? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Spencer? >> Yes. >> Mr.
093Patton? >> Yes. >> Mr. Chumley? >> Yes. >> Four? Yes. >> Back to you, Dr. Boltz. Thanks. Just a couple comments for tonight. Um, the OASBA state legislative conference is tomorrow. So, Mr. Romano, Miss Samborn, Mrs. Spencer and I are going to Columbus uh for this conference. We'll be meeting with Representative Adam Bird, Representative Jeene Schmidt, and Senator Terry Johnson. We will continue the to discuss the financial crisis that West Clemont finds itself in uh due to the property tax legislation. So, we're going to continue this conversation on Capitol Hill tomorrow. Right, Miss Spencer? >> Yeah. >> You're ready for that? Yes. I got my sign. >> Um, I also wanted to celebrate we had our second citizens advisory commission meeting LA this past Thursday. Great information was shared. One of the things that we
094wanted to do is we wanted to carry their voices with us tomorrow. So, we asked them to what what type of questions or feedback would they like our representatives and state senator to know? So, they gave us some pretty good questions that we're going to bring with us and ask um so that we can make sure their voices are heard. And then finally, um, we have the, um, 2026 Claremont County Educational Service Center of Excellence and Education Awards, which is happening in April. This is the second annual. I just wanted to to recognize Jennifer Hickeyi was selected as the 2026 Excellence in Education Award winner, and Reena Ford was selected as the 2026 educ excellence and educational support award winner. So, um, we both staff have received a surprise visit from us and there were
095a lot of tears and I think their their kids were happy. We did it while they had students and then um they will both be recognized in April. So, I'm excited about having our teachers uh be recognized as some of the best in Claremont County. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Next up, it looks like we'll turn it over to Mr. Romano for his one minute. >> Thank you. Um, item 9.0 01 is a request for an amendment to the property transfer agreement for a portion of the Somerside property. If you'll recall back in August, um there was a resolution the board approved and that resolution uh was for for two parcels of property. Um, again, a lot of this was prompted of the fact that if we have assets that we're not fully
096utilizing or that we um are in excess of or or don't need, then we should look at how do we dispose of that and get that revenue and and put it back to good use. Um, this amendment um is being driven because as um we are working with the township in that effort, there were some uh the way the the property is designed, there's some egress ingress, so access in and out. There were the deeds that had to be done and there was a deviation in the total acreage and so this amendment is to really rectify that so that we can just continue and go forward with it. So no really change in the intent, just cleaning some things up on that total acreage for the summer property. Okay. So again, uh the uh resolution
097is amending the resolution authorizing the sale and transfer of real property to Union Township for economic development, redevelopment, and job creation. >> Okay. Thank you. You've heard the recommendation. Would someone like to make a motion? >> So moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Chumley. Is there any discussion? >> Thank you. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Rudy, >> yes. >> Mr. Chumley, >> yes. >> Mr. Patton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Spencer, >> yes. >> Four, yes. Thank you. Um real short comments just just following up on the superintendent's comments about our um advocacy efforts tomorrow um down in Columbus. the morning starts out. Uh I I think there's a pretty good attendance of board members, superintendents, treasurers um that come together and get an update. And
098then um as scheduled out um we have the opportunity to meet with our three area legislators um Representative Bird, Representative Schmidt, and Senator Johnson. And as the superintendent had noted, I I think that the most important point is um making sure they fully understand the ramifications of the property law changes that took place last year and the impact to this district. There's no question that um the general assembly was going to do something um with the property taxes. Our effort always was is be pro be prospective. Go forward with it. Don't go backwards and pull money that was provided to us um given to us, budgeted, we made decisions on um and so it leaves us in a situation of trying to figure out how to move forward with that. And I know the superintendent
099um already did several presentations with that balance of how do we adjust the budget at the same time seeking additional revenue to really resolve this. We were already going to have a levy somewhere up the road in 2020. We had mentioned that we had we had told the community that it wouldn't be any earlier than 2024. Um because of the safety nets of the 20 mil floor because of the safety nets of emergency levies, we were able to extend that and um those safety nets have been taken away from us and so we're left to uh to develop an alternative plan. So, I think our efforts again tomorrow with the three are make sure they understand our situation. Probably make sure they understand that it's not just us. Seven out of the nine school districts
100in Claremont County um are are virtually in the same category that we are. So, they're also the other there's six others that are impacted too just like us. And there's a host of others across the state. So, um not to put them on the spot. I think it is is more of a question of how do you help us go forward so we could uh provide the right services to our community. >> Okay. Thank you. Moving on with the board business or board comments. Start with you, Miss Spencer. >> Well, I don't I don't have really a lot to say. I appreciate everybody that came out tonight and I enjoy the kids. Of course, one of my one of the kids was my granddaughter, so it was always good. But um and I got to
101go to the school um state of the schools and that was very exciting. I got a lot of good feedback. Um they want food trucks next year. But it was it was well attended and I think it was done very well and tastefully done and I think the kids and I think the parents really enjoyed it and I thought it was a it was a nice showcase for the schools. >> Okay. Thank you. I was at the how the moon with these two gentlemen and um administrators on Friday was very well done and James Collins did his usual job of roasting and harassing everybody he could find. It was very very nice uh event. Very well done. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Mr. Chungley, >> I mean I'll piggyback off of everything that was
102said. I want to I want to thank uh Kluff and Summerside for for being here tonight. And the students, of course, they they seem to have better plans than I've ever had. So, >> they they write and talk better than I do, too. So, um I had I had a fun time at State of the School. Um there was a great presentation that you did. Um and my kids my kids did all right. they can do better than that. Um, I hope everyone has a happy Easter. I don't think we're going to be getting together before then. So, um, hope everyone enjoys the holiday, has a good time off next week, >> and happy Easter. So, >> thank you. Um, first, uh, our next board meeting will be April the 6th, 2026 at 7 p.m.
103and we will be at West Claremont Middle School. So, we will be hosting at the U or West Clarant Middle School will be hosting us again April 6th. Um, obviously they kind of steal my thunder because I go last. So, I I did it joined most of uh with the how of the moon. >> So, you didn't have anything prepared. Well, no, it's um I guess the only the only statement I have is is you know with the transportation and just with our with our financial statuses and with the the things that are out of our hands that are of no fault of our own. I just I continue to ask the community to walk along with us, ask questions, get involved. Um you know, watch our YouTube videos. Again, just get involved and find
104out all of the information on the direction that we're going and how we're trying to get there with what we have. And so again, just be patient, continue to ask questions. We need to continue to communicate to our our stakeholders and our community and um and hope for the best. So, uh that's all that I got. Uh we have no reason to go into executive session. So, it looks like uh would someone like to make a motion to adjurnn? >> So, moved. >> Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there a second? >> Second, >> Miss Spencer. Thank you. I'm assuming no discussion. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Rudy? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Spencer? Yes, >> Mr. Patton. >> Yes, >> Mr. Chumley. Yes. Four. Yes. >> Thank you.