001Okay. Uh, good evening. Welcome to the October 20th, 2025 West Claremont School Board meeting. Mr. Romano, please take role. Mr. Patton, present. Mr. Rudy, present. Mr. Chumley, present. Miss Sanborn, present. Mrs. Spencer, present. All present. Thank you. Uh, please join me for the pledge of allegiance. [Applause] 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. Thank you. Next up is the motion to adopt the agenda. Would someone like to make a motion? Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there a second? Second, Mrs. Spencer. Thank you. Is there any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Rudy. Uh, yes. Mrs. Spencer. Yes. Mr. Patton. Yes. Mr. Chumley. Yes. Miss Samboy. Yes. Five. Yes. Next up is Josh.
002Good evening. I'd like to call for Ricky in the front of the room. West Claremont. proudly recognize the Ricky fans who has been named and commended students in the 2026 National Merit Scholarship Program. This prestigious recognition is awarded to approximately 34,000 students nationwide who have demonstrated exceptional academic promise. Committed students rank among the top 50,000 who entered the 2026 competition by taking the 2024 Preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Please join me in congratulating Congratulations. [Music] Good job. Thank you. Congratulations. [Music] While while Becky's getting ready to take the photo, I just want to take a moment to also congratulate the parents and family for for all the hard work that you've done to help him get to this place. So, I think they deserve a hand. [Applause] Next up, we'd like to bring
003McNeel from West Carmont High School. West Claremont proudly recognizes Julia McNeel, who has been named the educator of the year by the Claremont Soil and Water Conservation District. Julia developed a field biology course that provides students with hands-on opportunities to study and explore the natural world. She also established an internship program connecting students directly with the Claremont Soil and Water Conservation District and initiated a school-based composting program to promote environmental stewardship. Since joining West Claremont in 2012, Julie has continually sought creative ways to expand learning beyond the classroom in strengthening community partnerships. Please join me in congratulating Julia. Congratulations. Our next recognition is a little unique and normally I stand and face you guys when I give it, but I think maybe I should turn around in the crowd. Um, it doesn't feel perfect people
004that are being recognized. But um, West Claremont proudly recognizes the board of education for earning the Ohio Board of Distinction Award from the Ohio School Boards Association. This honor recognizes boards who demonstrate exemplary leadership and commitment to excellence excellent in local governance and supportive quality education. To qualify, each board member must actively participate in professional learning and service activities reflecting a shared dedication to continuous improvement. In addition, the the full board must exhibit collaborative teamwork in areas such as strategic planning, policy governance, and board self assessment that contribute to distinct growth and success. The Westmont Board of Education will be formally recognized at the OSBA Capital Conference in November. Congratulations of education. [Music] [Applause] Okay. Thank you, sir. I can't get up. You're fine. Congratulations. Bring your certificate on every picture. Thank you, Josh. Is
005this part of the wellness? We really do work together. Congratulations. [Applause] Congratulations. Next up is public speaking. I'm told that there are no cards. Moving on to the consent agenda. Looks like first up is Josh. Take your time, Josh. Take your time. Good evening. In front of you, the personnel agenda for October 20th, 2025. On the agenda today, we have the acceptance of resignations for two pair of professionals, one cafe worker. The agenda recommends the hiring of two new personnel, including two pair of professionals. Approval is requested for the trans transfer of reassignment of one staff member. Also presented for approval are the proposed supplemental contract for multiple positions for coaches for winter sports club directors evaluation committee members as well as other positions. We have unpaid leave for multiple staff members for your approval.
006The agenda proposes the hiring of substitute personnel, one district office long-term sub, one cafeteria worker, one custodian, two long-term care professional subs, and one paraprofessional sub. This agenda also requests the approval of an additional position to be added to the exempt salary schedule. The approval of multiple school volunteers across the district are presented with their associated buildings. The agenda lists various additions and subtractions FTEES across this district. This cleans up our FT count to reflect the needs of the West Claremont School District for this school year. On this agenda, we have work beyond the contract, one health clinic assistant, and two teachers. This concludes the review of the personnel agenda for your consideration. Thank you, Josh. Next up is Randy. Uh we have uh as we did last month, we have in addition to our
007in transportation to St. Gertrude. This is an additional two students listed on that. Again, this is the uh payment l transportation. These students is $67.15. Where is St. Orchard? Good evening. Tonight we have items 6.03 and 6.04 which we're seeking approval for two overnight field trips. The first one is for the West High School girls basketball team to participate in the classic in the country um basketball tournament that um takes place to Notre Dame. Yes. and it is like a large yearly competition that we've had our girls participate in over the last few years, but it takes place Saturday, January 17th to Monday, January 19th. It takes place uh at Berlin Highland High School. The second field trip is approval for our high school cheerleading competition squad to participate in a national high school cheerleading
008um competition that takes place um in Disney World in North Orlando, Florida. Um students will be flying for um for this trip and um the information should be in board docs for you. The um exact time of things will be finalized closer to competition, but the dates remain the same. They'll be leaving February 5th and should say 20 26 actually February 5th, 2026. I'm returning on um on the 10th. And again, they'll submit an updated itinerary closer to time. It's usually not until about a week time where we'll know like the exact like information, those sorts of things. Um the cheerleaders are given that the cost of this can be um you know a bit expensive. They're participating in fundraising for this. Um any funds raised as part of their fundraising efforts will be divided
009equally among the cheerleaders um to really try to help offset any costs. Um, but there are 34 cheerleaders and three coaches in total that will be attending that event. So, I don't know if you have any questions about either of those. When you were talking about the basketball classic and you said Berlin RIN High School, is that in Hancock County in that area? No, that's Amish country. I just was a little It is northeast of Columbus, so it could be on. I was just a little county as a point of information because I know that's where the Amish uh there's an Amish area. Yeah, there is a lot. It is called the classic in the country so it's probably out there. Smart. I might want to go with them. You might like the Thank you.
010It might really be worth it. Although that that time of year maybe it's a bit cold too. The Amish always have good food though. It's true. Okay. I'll provide that information at a later time. Any other questions? Great. Thank you. I'm just scanning my items right now because I'm afraid I'm going to be asked a geography question. I can't answer. Mr. Romano, respect, not for your elder. Item 6.05 uh is request for approval of the minutes. Those were for the meeting that took place on October 6, the regular business meeting. Item 6.06, a request to approve the donations as presented. Uh Judy Hanks donated stickers to WHamsville Tabasco Elementary for student incentives. IPM Food Pantry donated school supplies to Wamsville Tabasco Elementary for student use. RJ Cinema donated popcorn to Wamsville Tabasco Elementary attendance awards.
011Merwin PTO donated dinner for Merwin staff for conferences on October 1st and October 9th. And the VFW Ohio Charities donated $5,000 to Merwin Elementary. You'll recall that in prior meetings, some of the other elementary schools had a slimmer donation and I believe the VFW is donating $5,000 to each of the elementary schools. Those were the donations uh through September. Item 6.07 is a request to approve the and have the authorization for the superintendent and treasur to negotiate and execute contracts as presented. There are three of them requested. one to forward edge, one to was uh one to the um travelers insurance for the cyber security insurance and one to sunb belt for staffing services. Item 6.08 approval of purpose and budget statements for the 20 2025 and 2026 school year. Uh those are those as
012listed. Um I believe yeah there's sorry there's three listed um two uh the key club at the high school the national honor society at the high school and the middle school principal's account. Item 6.09 is request for approval of the financial statements the bill's paid list and investments for the period ending September 30th 2025. Uh the documents are listed um in the agenda. So the consent agenda request for approval is item 6.01 through 6.09. Thank you, Mr. Romano. 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, Mr. Chumley. Is there any discussion for clarification? I just looked it up. Yes. It is in the heart of the discussion. So they will have a good time. They will eat well. Is
013there any other discussion? Okay. Thank you, Mr. or Thank you, Mr. Romano. Please take role. Mr. Rudy, yes. Mr. Chumley, yes. Miss Samboy, yes. Mr. Spencer, yes. Mr. Patrick, yes. Five, yes. Thank you. Am I up? Yes. We are. You are up. So, we have a presentation and uh we're going to talk about facilities update. All the buildings are in Claremont County, Jim. So, you have respect for your elder here. Um I have a deal for me. You know, I get uh there is not working out there. Now it is it doesn't work just not um we haven't talked about facilities in a while but I think we go back to the board retreat. We start talking about facilities next steps and what we'll be doing from there. But I just I'm going to take
014it back to journey a little bit on where this all started. I mean, we started this back in 2022 uh when we started talking about facilities and we started to look for input from our community, from our parents, from the board. This started way back in 2022 and we spent two to three years putting the foundation together um talking about facilities, talking about enrollment, talking about our current buildings, our current capacity. Uh we did building assessments. We've done a lot of a lot of things in the community as well um to start to look at the the master facility plan. And I think when you look at the master facility plan um we knew we had a district where we had newer buildings and we have some older buildings and it was kind of half
015and half. And so when we started this way back in 22, it's not working. Oh, all right. So, when we go just as a reminder, you've seen this chart many times as we've gone out and I think is one of the most comprehensive communication plans that I've any district that I've been a part of and I've been a part of several of them um because I went to a lot of these events and so did you. And I think that one of the things about um this administration as well as our board is the amount of feedback um that we had, we asked for. We went to the public. Um we went to our parents, we went to our students, we went to our staff. And as you can see, it's quite comprehensive all the
016things that we've done. We with the 17 town halls, I know went to all of them. Many of you went to those as well and we got a lot of feedback from that. The CAC was started way back um in 22 23 the CAC looked at the start time of the middle school if we remember we did extensive study with our community members with our parents uh with stakeholders um and we went there and we had a proposal and um we didn't go through that because of financial concerns. Um then we moved into the master facility plan which you um approved as well and then we started with the cat. We hired SHP to come in and help us with that. And when we went through the um cat, we had five meetings. And at
017the end of those meetings, we came up with a plan that we wanted to take to the voters. And the plan that you see is just a reminder of what we actually went to the to the poll or what we went to the ballot for. It was for construction. It was for buildings. It was for additions. It was for security. additions to um current buildings, media centers, and then safety and technology was all part of that ballot issue. Um and sometimes we, you know, it uh gets confused a little bit, but this was what this was about. And why do we went to this and why we went to the to the to the voters and asked them what they wanted us to do. I know there was apprehension from the board. I know there's
018apprehension from us as administrators. I know those apprehensions going to the public and asking them for um them to approve this, but we felt that they needed a voice. They needed to be able to tell us what direction that we needed to go as a district. And I know the board uh has some sleepless nights moving through that process as well. Um and I respect that and I thank you for allowing them to voice their opinion. And they overwhelmingly voiced their opinion about new buildings. And I think when you look at the ballot issue failure, um I think one of the things we have to continually think about is they overwhelmingly defeated this ballot issue. Yes, we we know that. But to me, it wasn't it wasn't interpreted as a reflection of what our district
019has done at least in the nine years that I've been here and especially over the last four to five years. um because of many of those meetings and those community meetings that we went to, they weren't opposed to the plan. You heard the feedback. They weren't opposed. They agreed with it, but financially it just wasn't something that they could fulfill at this time. And I respect that. Um and um but we wanted to have them the voice and the board wanted to give them the voice. They didn't want to make the decision for them, but they wanted to give and they gave us a strong voice of no. But it's not a a direct reflection of what I believe is what they feel of the district because of all the positive input that we've had.
020We've had all the surveys that have gone out, all the things that we've done, all the community engagement, um, you know, felt really good about what's going on inside the classrooms as well. So, what happens with the ballot issue failure? Some of the things that we had to look at, um, the older buildings will remain. Um and we'll maintain those buildings as we move forward. Um we know that the enrollment and we're going to get another projected enrollment here soon. Um probably in the next three to four weeks is that we'll get it we'll get it in the next week or two, but we'll be able to bring it back in November for an update if everything follows the schedule. Right. So you'll get a update on enrollment. And remember, one of the things that
021we looked at when we looked at the master facility plan was the enrollment was the aging buildings and the current space that we have in our buildings and we're out of space in the buildings in in many of our buildings right now. Um, and there are things that we'll have to do while that increased enrollment happens and that means putting teachers on cart, being creative. Our principles are already creative with the spaces that they have. They're going to have to be more creative as we move forward. The next thing we talked about were modulars. Uh, and they're having to rely on modulars. You know that we added at Nerwin and this might be something we need to add in the future. We've had questions about modulars. Costs are going to continue to go up on
022those um, and those are things that we have to look at. We purchased the Merwin modulars um, because it then becomes an asset for us if we were to have a building in the future. We really don't know what the future's going to be as far as buildings or what possibly could happen as far as what this district goes. U but are an option for us. Um the sites that we would look at obviously would be the sites that we have green space. Those would be Kloff and Holly Hill. Not to say we couldn't at the newer buildings of Willville and Somerside WT is not a real good spot for for those for for modulars because of the way that the building is set. But we do have some schematics of where modules would be
023at all sites. Um and then we can look at that as we move forward. That will be a part of the assessment that I'll get to um that we'll be uh SHP will be delivering to the board uh in in the future. But what we looked at during the master facility plan was those modulars being long-term solutions instead of short-term mitigations. And so if it has to be a short or long-term um then those would be permanent until something else or a ballot issue or new buildings were to be built. Um and so we would look at those. We would look at probably buying those opposed to renting those. Um and we would move forward with that. If you remember back to the master facility plan, we looked at 2028. I think 2027 28 were
024the years that the projected enrollment where we would have to um act upon modulars. So when you think of 2728, then you would have to think of November 26 is when the board would probably have to make action as far as purchasing modulars u based on enrollment. But I don't want to get too far ahead of that. Let's look at the numbers here next month and let's look we we have time but from the old projections that we had from last October um we we were probably around 2728 where we were going to need modulars to accommodate the increased enrollment. So we still have time for that. The other piece was the OFCC funding. remember the months that we had to have a ballot issue uh approved and uh that would have started in May
025which goes 16 months. We decided not to go to the ballot. So if the board were to decide to go to the ballot, you would still be in that window in the spring. But that would be a decision as you'll get. We'll talk about that in a minute, but that would be something if we were to go for new buildings um down the road. I can tell you the project was 192 million and a couple cents. That's not the cost of it today. You would be well over 200 million now for the same project that failed um in May. And there's increased cost in construction. And the other thing that really came through with the master facility plan was not only the increase in cost, but the time. You know, the high school was built
026in seven days, it seemed, compared to what the timelines are today, and you're looking at timelines now of four years. It's not three years anymore. It's four four years. Um, so that would be after the ballot issue were to pass if you were to move towards building new buildings. So, you have to think about that as we move forward. But right now those are things that um as a planning purposes as we move forward. The next bit uh just to emphasize this this is the old principle in me and I have to do this because um what's happening in the in the hallways in these classrooms with your performance index score and performance index scores is thing that when I came in uh was something that was very very important for us to increase performance
027index because performance index scores in the simplest terms means that every student is growing and so when you look at performance index it's Not just a single group, it's all students. And when you look at all students and the performance of your performance index is increasing, it means we're doing something right. And something right is in the classroom and the resources that you have approved and put into place. You're getting the results. You're getting the results in the classroom. And I couldn't be more prouder to see that graph going in that direction. And as you continually move as a district, then you're going to have student achievements and increase. The next slide is is dear to my heart with the graduation rate. You know, when you look at a 97% graduation rate, you're I you
028can do the math. Not good in math, but I think that's less than 20 students didn't graduate. 20. That is big. And you have to factor in also those students who defer their diploma. And we have those and that's and they should because of special ed. Uh we have students that defer their diploma. I don't know how many were in that class. Remember it was a year ahead or a year back, but there's probably some that deferred. So even though you shouldn't count those in graduation rate, they do. And so you're looking at, you know, probably less than 15 students that didn't make it across the stage, which is amazing. Amazing. So hats off to all teachers, not 9 through 12, but K through 12, even preschool as well. So, uh, really proud of that.
029But moving forward, one of the things as far as the update as far as the buildings go, um, we're going to do a facility assessment on all nine buildings. All nine buildings will have a facilities indepth deep dive into what we're going to do, uh, or actually we're going to assess. Um, and I've given you what we're what the scope of services. The scope of services are a contract that we have with SHP. We will start that this week, Wednesday, with our three older buildings. We have tours um throughout the day on Wednesday where we'll hit Mwin, Holly Hill, uh, in the middle school. And a part of those facility assessments um you're going to look at and I don't want to go through all of them but basically your HVAC electrical plumbing um will
030be part of that. U we'll have an architect uh HVAC um expert electrician plumber and engineer um and so you might ask me about what about roofs? as well. We've already had walkthroughs on the roofs of the middle school uh and Holly Hill and then we will have walkthrough on the roof at Merwin on Wednesday as well. So, uh we'll hit that uh as part of the assessment as well. And what they'll do um they will review the major components of a facility and those areas uh and what those major areas are what are the most cost costly for us to maintain these buildings and we'll what they'll do is give us an idea of you know highest needs moderate to lower and give you some dollars. When we saw the OFCC report, you remember
031you saw the millions of dollars that we looked at uh from the OFCC to replace those particular units, whether it was in a HVAC or a roof um and or asphalt or whatever it might be. What this will do is give us some real-time dollars and real-time estimates so you can have an idea of what it would be. For example, we're still in the hold on Holly Hill on what windows to replace depending on what we do with the HVAC system. So hopefully we'll have more numbers and have more answers for you as we go through this assessment. We didn't want to put windows then that would hold uh window units rather than windows that would be for an HVAC system of central HVAC system. So we're still looking at that. We know we have
032uh windows to replace at Holly Hill. We will do that. Um but we've got to get that HVAC evaluation um as well. So, what we have in the timeline for completion is we're going to focus on our three older buildings, the one we've been talking about for the last three years. Um, we have our first walkthroughs on October 22nd. We have asked SHP to have a uh presentation for the board ready in December to give you uh an analysis and we can do this maybe um in maybe a round table type of meeting that we would have uh so that you can ask questions and you can go through that as well. Um, if you have specific questions once we do the walkth through, if you have specifics, we can set up a time for
033you to walk through with our architect as well and ask any questions that you might have if there's something that comes through at report. So, um, they will provide us with presentations that is part of the contract that we signed with them. Um, I think there's three of them in there, but Charlie will come in whenever we ask him to and we'll answer any questions that you do have. So you have like the first walkthroughs and then the other buildings we would like to have them done prior to January one. I put March. That's that's kind of a little bit fur farther down the road, but I think we're going to have them much sooner than that. But we definitely want to look at those three older buildings and we want to look at the
034priorities and give you an idea what the priorities might be as we move into their summer projects because some of those things will be a part of our summer projects. We want to get that those numbers to Dan so we can then start to plan on what we were going to do for the summer as well. Um so the facility assessment is something that is um you've asked for, you're going to get it, and we're going to continually look at at our current buildings on how we can maintain those buildings, how we continue in those buildings, how we can create space, and how we're going to adjust to the increased enrollment down the road. So, things that you need to think about um as we move forward. First of all, you're going to be looking
035at the five-year forecast or three-year forecast or two-year forecast or whatever you call it these days. So, you're going to continue look at look at that. And as you know, Dan is going to explain that to you. Uh as we move through that, we're going to need to look at updated enrollment, which will be coming. And it's not going to be just this October. It's going to be next October. It's going to Well, it's going to be this October. It's going to be the spring. is going to be, you know, continually look at those. Uh we have new building projects that we'll be talking to you about um that we may have to carve out of where they're currently, even though there's nobody there. You may have to um put them at a different school.
036For example, right down the road, we might have to look at that new construction as uh we have space at Willoughville rather than cloth and that new construction might go there. So, you'll might be hearing a little bit about that as we move forward. Um but the enrollment is something that we look at every day. Um it's something that uh we're cognizant of every single um school and as the principles look at it they are looking at it every day as well. So we'll continually look at the enrollment. We've got to look at those new builds. We've got to look at construction and we got to look at the future. And so those are things that when we have the numbers we'll have to look at that. the facilities report as I told you three
037older buildings first and then followed with the other ones the state you know legislation I know that we're going to be talking a lot about that um some of the things as far as how that's going to impact what we're able to do um and looking at our budget as we move forward um the transportation study as you know we started that u with OSBA with a person who uh was the guru of transportation and then OSBA decided they weren't going to do that anymore and they kind of um that department's no longer there. However, the person who was in that retired, we've reached out to them, talked to him today actually and we'll have a proposal for you um or a contract for you to have that study done as we did before. And
038just pieces of that that study which are really going to impact us are looking at current bus routes, looking at how we are currently designed, looking at how many times we go into a neighborhood, how many times we we're not. Do we look at some type of shuttle service uh meeting as you know shuttle kids from one building to another building to another building and all the cost effective ways that we're able to do that. So we want to have that transportation study for you to look at. Are we the do we have the current schedule of bus routes? Is this the most cost effective for the board? That's what we that's the answer that I want and I want to know alternatives to how we can have cost savings um to those to those
039particular bus routes and ideas just the third party coming in looking at what we currently do and seeing how we can be more efficient and be more effective uh in the areas of transportation. So, um, Chuck and I will be meeting with him this week, um, getting his proposal, reproposal from what he had before, and then we will be presenting that to you, uh, probably in a form of a contract, and I'll have an update on that as well. Um, the facilities, as you know, I I can't say enough about our maintenance department and our custodial staff on how they look because when you walk into these buildings, they look really good. uh what we fear, what Chuck and I, Dr. Folultz, and of course Dan are those day-to-day things that uh you have to
040be prepared for. You have to be prepared for the boilers going down. As you know, that the the heat's going to start here soon. Um and so we just all sit and pray, cross our fingers and say hope they all come on. Um and then as we move forward, we look at those. But uh um I I can't give them more as much credit as I could for all the things that they deal with. As you know, we live in in a in a community we have a lot of water mane bricks and you guys get those as well. And so we do a great job with the things that have happened um out of our control and we try to control things as much as we can in operations, but as you know, you
041just don't know. You don't know. Um, and the best best thing I could say is we want to save every penny that we possibly can so we don't have to divert any money that's supposed to be earmarked for students to go to operations. And so we'll continue with that. You'll have an in-depth assessment on all the facilities and we'll continually move and give you options, ideas, uh, and we'll try to fit all the students that we can in the buildings we currently have. questions. More of a statement, Randy and Dr. Folultz. The issue that I've seen is is trying to get this information out to the community and getting it out to all of the communities. So, from the from people that don't even have kids in our building and trying to get those out.
042I know that we have lots of surveys that that that slide that you put up with all the the things that we did. Um town hall meetings. Um, you know, there's been some we might need to look at revamping how we do these town hall meetings, how we're giving the information out. Uh, it was, um, I know it was designed for us to be able to present them to the information. But, you know, looking at the town hall meetings, because again, some of the stuff that I've heard from the community is sometimes a misunderstanding. um when they look at our district, they they forget that we have, you know, seven elementaryaries and not just the high school that's that's a newer high school or um and and so we just need to make sure that
043we're getting that information out us as board members, you guys as as your your district. And so, how do we go about doing that and trying to revamp that? Because what I what I want to be careful of is the amount of money that we and I use the word wasting that we could be using to build new buildings and to building something versus putting all these modules in and us costing them if I'm not mistaken and I don't know if you were here but I know Natasha's talked before where we were trying to get some new elementarymentaries and we we ended up missing the the big bulk of it and so instead of getting three elementaryaries we got one. Yeah, we're kind of in that window again by, you know, not being able to
044pass. Like I said, we were at 192 to get the same thing is going to be well over 200 now. And so you as as cost go up, you get you don't get as much for your money. And um you know, looking at ways in which you can put buildings right now for school districts, it's very very limited. And I I just want to add that, you know, the high school um was built um and we paid for that. You know, it wasn't free. We paid for that as well. And that's something that um that's a huge misconception. The community I was under the same misconception for three years as a high school principal. I know the community felt believes that we got that building for free and we did not. It was trading of
045property. It was tips. It was just it was that we did not get that for free. We are paying on that every month. And so again, because I I've heard that we'll do what you did to the high school. Well, yeah, that's not an option. I've heard that many many times. And and and we know that we are paying that for that building. It was not free. Um and that building as we paid for that helped us get the other two buildings through that member that coupon that we get from OFCC helped us build Willville and Summerside. And so, uh, so when we looked at OFCC, it was about 20%. So, when you get that 20% kickback, that's what helped pay for those other buildings. And so, um, that wasn't a free building. Um, but
046getting that building has put us in a situation where money, Dan, correct me if I'm wrong, funds that could have been utilized in operations has now been used to pay for rent for the high school. Yeah. So, so again, that that's my biggest, I guess, ask of the community is is we're here to listen. Tell us what it is that you're looking for. Tell us what it is that you're thinking. Again, I know that in past I've always heard um various people say, you know, um look under every rock and every Well, I mean, we've done that. We're selling off property if we don't need it. We're we're, you know, we're not necessarily making cuts, but we're selling off property. We're we're really managing the money. So it's it's again my ask is is the
047community give us some input what it is that you're would be willing to pay would not be willing to pay no go altogether then we'll look at other options that would be my take. Yeah, 2030 is going to be a problem if if if projections come true and you have another thousand students and you're looking, you know, a thousand students is almost two classes. Um, full classes. They're they are coming. And so those are the things that we have to look at. We have to look at rent. We had to go back to look at rental spaces. We got to look at all the things that we can possibly do um to create space for our kids and for our programs. and uh we want to be innovative uh and we want modern learning environments.
048We were very very transparent and we got up here many many times and said not every student gets the same opportunities at every elementary building. And there's not many school districts that say that and be able to be that transparent, but we did. And we got up and we said if you go to this elementary, you're not going to get the same experience or same learning environment as you were to go for this one. and that didn't didn't hold much when we went to the ballot. Um but again that message we continually try to get that out. Um but on the other side of it is I think that our parents are very very happy with what's going on in the buildings right now. They're very very satisfied right uh with what I agree with
049what's going on and it's very hard to create urgency when they like what's happening. Well and like you said like and it's great that you put the numbers up. I mean, our graduation rate is rivaled to any in the state of Ohio really with 97%. I mean, I don't even know one that's, you know, we're doing great there. And and I appreciate you putting in that, you know, when voters went back and they rejected the plan. I don't think they were rejecting where we were going. They were trying to prioritize food, medicine, and the things that people have to do to survive. And I think that when you put that in there, I appreciate that because I don't think that they were saying, "No, we don't like the direction the school's going." What we don't
050like is we cannot afford it. We have to prioritize our money and this is what we can't afford right now. Right now, that didn't mean forever. I just felt like right now. And the district said that. So, moving forward, we are going to have to make some choices and decisions. And I'm like Ryan. I think the new town halls, I think that would be a great option to go back and have it have it focused a little differently, maybe not quite so structured and maybe people just really asking questions to just, you know, really help sure that make sure that they understand like our funding is being cut every day. Dan will tell you we're there's a bill right now that is going to if it passes, we're in a lot of financial issues right
051now. This year, next I mean next year or this year, right? So, I mean, yes, we do have to think about these things and we do want to move forward, but seems like everything is in such flux with the funding. We can keep making plans, but when the state comes down and says, "Well, we're yanking all this money, we're back to square one again." So, yes, but I agree with Ryan about the the um town halls. I think that's a great idea. And I think that the district has said yes, they cannot afford it. They just can't afford it right now. So, the kids are coming. So now we have to think about permanent solutions as opposed to putting a band-aid on a building that it's it's going to be standing for another 50 years.
052So, we're going to have to really think about keeping what we have and I think trying to improve what we already have and try to make that a permanent home and build on get permanent modulars or what, you know, like you said, get real creative on how we're going to have to get creative and hopefully the district and hopefully the assessments give us a little piece of mind that it's not going to be that big of a of a of a cost, but we know it's going to be, but we'll have to prioritize and We'll have to uh uh look at how we can continue to have a modern learning environment for our kids because that's that's the number one thing is we look at this. We want them to have the best opportunities that
053we can. Well, I I would like to add to that if if we ultimately decide and the voters decide that they would want a a new standing structure, we only have we're already on a time clock with that 16 months to get the as Randy mentioned the coupon that that discount or we go back in line at the back. So, so if if if now isn't the time, we just have to be we have to know and now may not be the time, right? But we know we have to go back to the back of the line and start over. So, um I have a couple questions on the the ballot issue failure. Uh screen number four. Um you have on here OFCC funding of the project may no longer be available from the state
054requiring higher local cost for the future improvements. I thought when OFCC was here, and correct me if I'm wrong, that they had already done a complete assessment of all of our buildings and gave you an assessment of what they felt needed to be replaced, fixed, and so forth. So, I'm not understanding why we would need to have uh SHP come in and do the same thing that OFCC has already done. If you if you remember, there's a threshold in which you have with OFCC. you get to a certain threshold and they're going to tell you to replace the building. And so when we look at those numbers, you're looking at total replacements on all those different systems. And so those are those are very very high to replace them. So to look at the numbers
055that OFCC gave us without doing your due diligence and going and having somebody come in and look at it and do a deep dive into those, those are formulas. Those are things that OFCC has um that they put together. A lot of it's based on square footage. A lot of it's based on um the age of the building. Um and they just give estimates, but I don't feel good about the estimates. I want I want something that is going to be a little bit more um a deeper dive and have the experts come in and look at these. Not saying OFCC is not the experts, but they didn't do a deep dive. you know, they look at this and they look at a particular HVAC system or they look at electrical system and they're going
056to say this is what it would cost to replace this system per this square footage. And so when we look at the assessment from SHP is going to give you a much much more detailed and better understanding of what's the highest priorities um today, whether it will be tomorrow and what are going to be the future. And I think that's what the board has to look at as we pri prioritize how the spending is going to take place on what we're going to do. You know, if we look at an HVAC system for Holly Hill that's way out of out of line, we may have to go to window units. We don't want to do that, but we have to do that deep dive in and say, "Okay, what would this mean if we do
057an HVAC system with a different window package that we put in there?" So, it's going to give you much more detail. It's going to give you highest to lowest priorities so that when you guys have to make a decision on what needs to be replaced, you'll be able to see it. And so OFCC is general. It gives you overall um and so they basically just skimmed the surface of the project. It's I don't want to say that because it is more of a deep d not a deep dive, but it is an average. I I I don't want an average. I want to go into what our current systems are currently and what would it mean to uh update or replace our current systems. We need we need to put together a capital plan at
058least in December for those three buildings, a multi-year plan, not just space, but but of those three buildings, what potentially we will need to replace if we need to make these buildings last 5 10 years. Okay, we knew that this was coming up if the levy failed, right? So, we want a comprehensive capital plan. So, the estimates they will come up are almost pre-bid estimates, okay, that they will be able it doesn't mean we're going to do them next summer because we're not we're not going to have all the funding to do it, but what's the priority that both uh Mr. Gart, Mr. Leaf are going to have to put together to say this this these are the things we're going to do in the summer of 26. These are some things we may do
059in the summer 27. Some things may be be preemptive because maybe the boiler may not last and we'd have to shift things around with the other six buildings being done. There is somewhat of a funding source with a OFCC maintenance fund that we can do it. But for these three buildings, we can't tap into the OFCC maintenance fund. It's going to be any excess that we have in our permanent improvement fund. And and and just to clarify the high school debt, the hund00 million debt payment, okay, for 30 some years of the issuance that was done in 2015, I believe. Okay, that's paid for by our inside millillage. Okay, that inside millillage of the 4.2 inside millillage, 3.7 of the mills goes to our permanent improvement fund. The first dollar out of that is to
060pay for the debt for the high school. When I came here in 2020, that fund was underwater. There was not enough money in that fund to pay for the debt service payments, and the board had to do transfers from the general fund to pay the the semiannual payments. With the valuation increases, we're a little bit on the plus side in that permanent improvement fund. There is some excess money. We were using it for some of the capital improvements for like textbooks and uh actually for the for the software, anything that has a five-year life. Now, we're really looking at prioritizing all of that together with what we need in those three buildings. So, you you're right. OFCC did do an assessment, okay, a general assessment of it. Okay. As Brandy described, this is a deeper
061dive so we can give you a multi-year plan of what we're going to do to those buildings. Okay. I was just asking because I just thought that you know that they gave us what we needed and I didn't realize that it wasn't deep enough. No, you're you're I mean that's a good question because I think I mean everybody saw that, right? We gave that to everybody of what what was needed and this is just a layer down more deeper, you know, and it's almost a it's almost pre-bid to what we need to do, right? Before we put construction bids out of doing a roof on the middle school, doing roof on Merwin or whatever we need to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, the roof on the middle school needs to really be looked at because every
062time since I was on the board, even one small section was like $300,000 just for a small section and it was colorcoded each year and then the next section was a half a million. And I'm like, good grief, why can't we just fix the whole roof? Well, it's flat. This was a problem. And it's just it's old and it's flat and it's uh we just replaced the front gymnasium. We just did the He did that again. Yeah. What she projected for that building? You asked a question. The building was going to be gone, right? So they they projected replace the cost. So what SHP roofing experts are going to look at is some of that road underneath the surface. The insulation may be fine, the decking may be fine, others is going to be wet.
063So the what we'll get back is Which section can you replace for 200,000 and which section are you going to have totally rip it off 600,000? So that's what we'll get and then the board priorities what you're going to immediately but you'll have to get bids for those that absolutely but to your point we have multiple zones just on that one building. There's multip I remember the north they had like the north section and the south section. You're correct. And and you're right. Over the years, they've done small sections at a time to the tune of 300 to $500,000 a section. So, we'll probably be right back in that. But the good news is more than I think a quarter of the section. At least once. Yeah. Yeah. At least one time. And we're nervous
064every time we get a big rain, too. Put that out there. They get They get nervous and then I don't sleep. We do have buckets. Questions or anything? Uh, no, I'm good now. I just was asking about that. Thank you guys. Thank you. I got it. I got it. How about that? I know. I just have to stand. You're just going to indicate to me when you want me to flip it. Okay. Yeah. Okay. All right. So, I'm proud to present to you West Claremont's quality profile for the 2024 2025 school year. Um, you should each have a copy up there. This publication celebrates the incredible work happening across our district, including academic excellence, student success, and community partnerships. So, we're starting on page three here. This is a student snapshot for the class of
0652025. I'm not going to read everything, but here are some highlights. Our students were awarded more than $6 million in scholarship money. 53% of our graduates from last year are attending two or four-year colleges or trade schools. 3% enlisted in the US military. 44% joined the workforce. We had 335 uh graduates graduate with a 3.5 GPA or higher. And 59 graduated with honors. This shows that our district is preparing our students for anything, not something. We're also highlighting um several awards from last year. This is on page six if you're following. Uh West Claremont High School made the US News and World Report list of best high schools for the second year in a row. That puts West Claremont in the top 40% of high schools in the country. Our high school was also home
066to State Board of Education District 5 Teacher of the Year, Michelle Dorman. She was also a finalist for Ohio's teacher of the year. At the middle school, teachers Kelly Taylor, Nicole Bass, Samantha Skelton, and Jennifer Lions were honored with the Ohio Middle Level Association component award in training. A group of our teachers represented West Claremont at the 2025 Ohio Teacher Leadership Summit. Willowville Elementary received the governor's science of reading recognition from Governor Mike DeWine's office. Pololly Hill and Summerside Elementary were the latest schools to receive the Momentum Award from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. 28 of our students received the 2025 Ohio Governor's Merit Scholarships. These students represented the top 5% of their class. And last but not least, our supervising nurse Heidi Sandlin was named the school nurse administrator of the year
067by the Ohio Association of School Nurses. So, a big congratulation for all of these wonderful recognitions. Okay. And now I'm actually going to turn this part over to Dan. So, you know, I think part of it is why do we put certain things in the two-page spread that we have on the finances? Um, one is that we we always want to keep raising the bar and what we do in each of the departments that that we work in. I know the whole team does that throughout the district. Um but on the financial reporting and the transparency I think were things that that our office took on and we wanted to continue to do. Um the excellence and transparency award was really from the auditor of state which really looked at not just the um uh
068public records request but the things that we put on the website and make available to the public. Um the biggest thing I I also wanted to mention was the return that we provide on the investment that the community makes in us. Um it's not on the the screen but from 2019 through 20 thou through today the state funding which used to comprise 52% of our revenue in the general fund. Today it's only 33%. the local taxpayers and and other local sources used to be 48% and today it's 67%. So there's a dramatic shift in that and and it's primarily due to the states not giving us any more money. They kind of flatlined us on the total dollars we get. the per pupil spending that we do uh back in 2019 I believe it hovered
069around the 5% singledigit range with it with the relief money that we got from the federal because of COVID it jumped up to the 14 16% we're about 16% today that's the ranking so where do we rank in the state per people spending we're in the lowest 16% right so 84% of the district spend more per pupil than than our district does with it. And I think the third thing that's mentioned on here is we do recognize that because of that valuation increase, our local taxpayers did get a big increase in their tax bills. We need to continually trying to try to find alternative funding so that we can delay as much as possible going back to the voters, you know, for any type of increase with that. So those were kind of the topline
070messages we wanted to provide in the profile. We also uh looked at extracurriculars and where many of our students shined. Uh we had DJ Lack. He was the state runner up for boys track in division one high jump. Bryce Cousins placed fifth at state for diving. We had three West Claremont football players named to the division one all Ohio team including Maddox Seagler, Bo Rickman, and Landon Young. and Laya Hail was named second team all Ohio for girls basketball. Next slide. And then um the West Claremont marching band had its best year yet and ended the season in fourth place at the MSBA championship and Sam Jennings was named one of the best tuba players in the state. In closing, the 2024 2025 quality profile tells a powerful story of student success and dedicated educators.
071And of course, we want to thank you all on the board for your commitment to our students and for making these opportunities possible. Thank you. Sounds wonderful. It is wonderful. Yeah, it is. first superintendent comments. Yes. I just uh the what we heard today was was uh just a snapshot of what we do every day in this district that I'm proud of of leading and um our teachers, our staff, our classified certified staff work hard to provide an opportunity uh for all of our students and we we continuously do more with less and uh which which makes me proud that we're being efficient. But, you know, as as we heard and as we know, the pending fiscal uh decisions at the state are going to really um potentially jeopardize our ability to continue to do
072that. And that's the sad note. The happy note is I just want to again uh commend the board for the Ohio Board of Distinction Award. It it's very difficult to get only a handful a year are awarded this and to to know that that the the the the foundational part of this award is that each one of you decided to invest your time and energy into learning into into advocating into making yourself more knowledgeable and then advocating for public school. And so I I appreciate all of the hard work that you five put into this and I am so was so excited to hear that that West Claremont uh uh received this award and I can't wait to be at Capital Conference when they recognize you officially. Thank you, Dan. Okay. I I almost feel
073like I'm going to be a downer as I do this presentation after all the positive that is there. But what I wanted to provide the board because um there may be a vote tomorrow if it wasn't today. We're not 100% sure what took place but on House Bill 186. Um so as you know there's several pieces of legislation um on property taxes there there's a lot out there. So just within the next I'd like to say few minutes but it may be longer than that. Just want to give the board an update on the current current proposed legislation. um take a little bit deeper dive into House Bill 186 and and not only what's in it, but what does it mean to West Claremont if it were to pass as currently amended to go through?
074Um so it's in the House right now, it would go to the Senate once it passes. And then thirdly, what's our me message and advocacy to the legislators and probably what I should say too is what's our message to the community and to the public with all with all of these bills as we go forward. So, um, and a lot of this has taken, as you know, Ohio School Board Association, Buckeye Association of School Administrators, and the OASO, which is the Ohio Association of School Business Officials, they um I'd like to say weekly, but it's probably a couple times a week, send us updates on all all where all this legislation is. So, a lot of a lot of the material you'll see here is from those three associations giving us summaries of what's going
075on. So, we're going to review these six, but the but the bottom line of it, and I've said this before, is that all of these proposed legislations and the efforts that are going on with property tax do one of three things or a combination of all three. They either are trying to reduce the current tax revenue that we get, i.e. credit back to the taxpayers. Okay. Reduce the current tax bill, reduce some future growth of revenue for us or reduce the future opportunities such as different ballot issues that are there. And so as I go through um these six different um proposals, couple five house bills and then the constitutional amendment on property tax is what you know what's it hitting? Is it reducing the revenue? Is it reducing the growth of the revenue or
076is it reducing future opportunities? So item 66 was the veto veto override um fix some levies and changes in ballot language. Um again I'm going to give you this. I'm just going to highlight some things on it. Okay. What that bill really does okay eliminates the replacement levies, substitute emergency levies, and combined income tax income property tax levies. Okay. The big impact of that is this is there's a 12 and a half percent roll back homestead roll back and so as it eliminates these for in the future if a district were to put it back on the ballot where the state when you approve a mill where the state historically um prior to I think it was 2009 where the state would pay 12 a.5% and the local community 87 and a half% now the
077local community would pay 100% of it. There's no 12 and a half% reimbursement of that homestead roll back. Okay? So that would still go to the taxpayers. Okay? But um we would not get that funding. So the millage amount would have to be higher to make up for that. Okay? So there that bill would reduce current collections or that override reduces current collections and future opportunities. House Bill 129 um fixed sum and emergency levies. Again, that is really looking at um reducing the future opportunities of what we can have. So, if there's an existing emergency levy that was approved before um or approved before this coming January, um you can only renew it once. Okay. to do that. Um, substitute levies, they cannot be renewed after they expire. Ours are a continuation. It ends up
078really be becoming a continuing levy. Um, you'll see in a moment where House Bill 186 has similar features and what that does as far as fiscal distress to our school district of the impact with it. Um the 20 mil floor will change. So right now we have uh a couple different types of levies. We have several levies that were all rolled into um the 20 mil floor. So as the valuation increase the tax rates decrease the decrease can't below cumulative below 20 ms. So we're at that 20 mil floor. We have uh the emergency continuing substitute. That levy um is almost like an continuing levy except it doesn't go against a 20 mil floor. We have the 2020 emergency levy which is set to expire in 2030. It was a 10-year emergency levy. Okay, that
079will also go against the floor. So immediately if this goes through they become the two emergency levies become fixed sum and they will go against the 20 mil floor will be out of the we will not be at the 20 mil floor anymore. I've said this before I'll say it again when I look back historically with this school district what's enabled it what's enabled the district to survive was being at the 20 mil floor primarily because of the inability to pass continuing levies. Okay. And so, and that was really the purpose of the 20 mil floor back in 1977. Okay. 1976, House Bill 920 was put in place. That's the tax equalization. It's valuations rose, rates were lowered. The year after that was done, uh the 20 mil floor was put in place where the
080general assembly general assembly at that time said, "Hey, the community should contribute at least 2% of property tax." That's 20 mills, okay, to do that. So, House Bill 129 red can reduce current collections or revenue, reduces future opportunities. House Bill 309 really expands the authority of the county budget commission. Um uh bottom line with this one is it will provide the county budget commission certain authorities to once we submit information to them to reduce the taxes uh to reduce the millage of the school district. What that in essence mean is the decisions that you make here could be you know elected to make those decisions those could be overridden by county budget commission. Okay. And so part of our advocacy is that do we really want another group overriding uh the decisions that the board
081makes um and then another group of elected officials override that so that can reduce the current collections of revenue. It can reduce our growth. House Bill 186, that is the one that depending on tomorrow, uh they could vote on it tomorrow afternoon, pass it to the House. It caps the revenue growth to the 20 mil floor. But what it also does is there was an amendment put into that which goes back and says for our district specifically um if your valuation increase like we had in 23 collected in 24 the reappraisal year um if it was greater than an inflation rate it actually pulls that revenue back and credits it back on property owners tax bills. So it reduces not only reduces our revenue growth and opportunity, it's taking money that we collected and it's
082paying it back. Okay, I'll show you the impact of that later. But this this bill um is devastating not just to us but probably over half the school districts in the state. Um, House Bill 33 335 is the inside millage growth cap. So, similar to what 186 does. Okay, this restricts the growth to the inflation rate um has a deflator on it. So that where we had an increase for example in uh 2023 um close to 40% it would not allow that uh that growth under property tax bills to come through. Okay. So it restricts it. One of the things to think about about these bills is is it retroactive i.e. pulling money that was already given to us. Is it taking that away where where in essence it reduces the bills so we almost
083have to pay it back or are these bills proactive and they're looking to make changes into the future? Okay. And we'll talk about that and maybe some some messages that we need to provide. So, um but most of these bills are are kind of a combination of of both with it. This is not a a a bill for the general assembly, but something will that will have to be done by the general assembly, but there is a proposed constitutional amendment. They're collecting signatures to do away with property tax legislation with it. So, it would eliminate not just for school districts, but for any political subdivision, okay, county, township, village, library, uh some police and fire um entities. Okay. it would eliminate property tax revenue for them. How would that be replaced? I am not sure.
084My main concern is that um you know constitutionally schools, local communities and the state had a share in funding schools. The share for the local community was through property taxes. If we eliminate property taxes, I don't know if the message that 100% of it is going to be funded by the state and by what means is that going to be funded, okay, to do that. So, there's some questions that come up there, but this effort reduces the revenue on the local property tax almost completely. Not almost, it does reduce it completely. It reduces any potential for growth and it and if you eliminate it, it reduces the future opportunities to do that. What it only leaves is a school district income tax. Okay. For it. All right. So, what's the impact of House Bill 186?
085That's the one that that will be voted on tomorrow or is scheduled to be voted on tomorrow. So, what it does, it caps revenue growth for the 20 mil floor. Um, and two mills to the uh to the rate and two mills is for uh joint vocational schools. Okay. So, we're part of Great Oaks. they get two mills of our property valuation for that um to the rate of inflation beginning with tax year 2025. So tax year 2025 is when the rates are set it's collected in calendar year 2026. Okay. So the bills that come out in 2026 the way the bill stands right now that's what it will impact. Okay. What it also does is claw back okay any uh reappraisal increases that were done in uh 2020 tax year 2023 and 2024. So
086our reappraisals were done for this school district in 2023 was a triannual update. 2020 was a sec uh was the succraal or a full update. as we look in the future 2026 is the next scheduled um reappraisal with the trienal or the update in 2029. So this will and I'll show you the numbers. If this passes and it goes to the Senate and the Senate doesn't change anything, it will pull retroactively increases that were provided to us actual revenue that was given to us uh collected in 24 and collected this current year. Okay, it will cap the reappraisal in 2026. Okay, to the rate of inflation to do that. Okay, how will they do that? I don't know the details of it and I don't know if I'd want to be a county auditor to
087try and figure out how that all comes about, but it will be a credit um on the tax bill. It will be called inflation cap credit. So, it's pulling it back from the past. Okay. The bill also says that there will be no offset in school funding formula. So on this on the fair school funding formula, remember there's a calculation that is done and that of a rate per student and then calculation is offset by the local capacity of of a community to fund its local share. What this is saying is that even though it's pulling that money back, it's not going to update that formula for the local share. Now, some districts that are on the formula or the more students they get, the more money they get. We're not that. We're on a
088guarantee. We are so deep into the guarantee that even if they said that they would um give us that, give, you know, they would fund that through the formula, we wouldn't get any. All that's really doing is reducing the the the depth of the guarantee that we have. I know it's kind of a hard concept to think about, but if if the if we're like nine or$10 million into the guarantee, okay, and they're pulling back and they want to reimburse us, I think the first year $6.9 million, okay, what it would claw back, it would still we would still be under a guarantee status. So it it wouldn't even wouldn't even matter to us as we go forward. This is what it means in dollars and cents. Okay. And I'm going to try and point
089to it with with with the the arrow and cursor here. All right. So these numbers are from Ohio Legislative Services. The actual uh tax year 24 number the 68,847 is close to what we received. So is the estimate for 2025. 2024 tax year is collected in in fiscal 25 tax. So the tax year is always collected the next year. Okay. Ohio Legislative Services would if this bill goes through is saying that the estimated revenue that for tax year 2025 collected in 26 it's estimated at 69.8 million would be reduced to 62 roughly 9 million. We would lose $6.9 million. So again we've already kind of been receiving the 68.8 8 that would be reduced down to 62.9. We'd have an immediate reduction in revenue in tax year uh 26 collected pretty much in calendar year
09027. They they estimated an increase in valuation that would yield us $77 million. I will tell you I did not build $77 million into our forecast, okay? because I I I am not too sure that given all the postcoavid reappraisals that it would go up. That's like going up over 10% like 12 14%. Okay. I think it would be more normal, but but I don't know. I don't know what they're basing their numbers off of. But given that the reduction would or the or the the estimated revenue that Ohio Legislative Services provided was 66 million. So we would we would reduce from what they anticipated 11 million over those two years. That's a loss of $18 million. Okay. Add the 27y year on another $11 million. um it would accumulate up to 29 million. Okay.
091What's that mean on our fiscal years? Okay. So, if this goes into play as scheduled, the first time that they would see the credit would be on the June of 26 bill. So, the current fiscal year 20 or the current tax year 25. They would not have enough time. I believe they're giving the county auditors more time. They would not have enough time to put the credit on the tax bill for uh December, January when the bills come out. Okay? They would not have enough not have enough time to put that on there. It would go on the June bill. So the estimate for this fiscal year, it may not be impacted, but that loss, the $6.9 million loss would also then be combined with half of the loss of the collection from January through
092June of 27. Right? Our fiscal year is July through June 30th. Tax year is January through December. So we would see the full 6.9 million in fiscal year 27 plus half of the 1162 million in tax year uh uh 26 to collect in 27. So our fiscal year numbers would be reduced by $13 million in in FY27. In FY28 it would be reduced by another by an additional 11.16 11.2 2 million. Okay. What's that do if if I were to recast the five-year for the five-year forecast or today's it's called the forecast, okay? Because it's not five years anymore. What's that look like? What's that what does that do to us? So, I I just I I just shrunk it down to our total revenues, our estimated expenses. This is straight from the the the
093forecast that you just approved. Again, I will tell you as a note, okay, this is assumes that that all of it's taken against the general fund. Okay, I will tell you that I did not build in. So there so so the the the negative number is probably overstated. It's it's too high of a negative, okay? Because I didn't build in the increase that they did, okay? But it's not going to be that far off, okay? What does that do if I just use Ohio Legislative Services numbers to us? Okay, if if you go to the fiscal year 26 column, that's this year. Okay, relatively unchanged. Okay. All right. But we're going to need to do if that bill passes, it's going to have to change. Okay. Because we need to change it because of what's
094coming in 27 and 28. The deficit spend number in 27 currently it shows $6.7 million. Mr. Patton, Dr. Folultz, and myself may or may not receive a letter in January that says, "Hey, you're in fiscal distress because of that deficit spend. What's your plans to remedy that? If we don't get it in 26, we will get it in we'll get it in the uh uh we file the forecast again in February, February, March. Okay, it's earlier this year. Okay, because of that change, we will definitely get it then. We'll be in fiscal caution. If they go further down and look at the projected balance, which is the end of the forecast for that we would do for FY27, we would roughly have a balance of $6 million. Okay, that's too low of a percent of
095our revenue to sustain ourselves. Okay, they will tell us, okay, so it's only 5% of of the prior year's revenue. they will put us into um fiscal watch. So it goes caution watch emergency. Okay. Actually even before fiscal caution they'll send us a letter of of because they see where we're headed. Okay. They've been doing that. Okay. Again if the bill goes through as amended with no changes to it. I.e. the Senate would have to pass it too. All right. The projection for fiscal year 28 we're in fiscal emergency. What does that mean? That means that up here at this table, we're not making decisions anymore. State's putting another team in place to make those decisions, okay, with that. A lot of other impacts to it, but that's the bottom line, okay, to do it.
096So, again, we're not the only ones out of 600 school districts. There's probably another 200 and some more that are in a very similar situation, okay, with that. Um, again, I am just using OS's numbers. I can't tell you I know where they got all those, but that's the projections that this bill is being based off of to be refunded. Um, so again, I feel like this is a, you know, all the positive things from the quality profile, all the planning. We want it back. Thanks, Dan. Becky and Randy, we want it back. But that's So, I mean, so you know, this this is where we're at. Okay, I want to go back to one thing, okay? When when we did the forecast, when we looked at the balances, and I know you know, Mr.
097Patton, you got this on early, okay, those balances that we were ending up with the the eb and flow of of school district funding is you pass a levy, you start accumulating a cash balance, and you peak it, and then it starts a spending down. Okay. So, it kind of peaked last year and now we're on the spend down. Okay. With it, that is a normal flow. Okay. It's a a normal thing that's experienced. Um to do that, you try and slow, right? That that decline down as much as possible. Historically, what helped the school district was being at the 20 mil floor. Okay. That that there's no question when I look backwards that was some salvation for the school district. Okay, that was there. That's going away. Not only is is is that will
098that will go away. Okay. What what we need to make sure of is that pulling back and giving the credit for prior years the retroactive payback that that doesn't go. My when Dr. Dr. Folultz and I went and sat with uh Representative Bird and we sat with Senator Johnson. I think my statement was, hey, there there's 600 and some really good superintendents and treasures in this state that you tell us the rules of the game going forward and we can figure things out and it's our responsibility to communicate that to the public, right, to the community. But all of a sudden when you go retroactive and and and money that the community that under the rules that were there, we received those funds and some time in the past the community approved levies. Okay. Pulling
099that back puts us really um in a pretty devastating situation. Okay. And it's hard to recover. That bill passes from the House to the Senate. We're basically with we're in fiscal watch and emergency. That's going to happen. That's what it does to us to do that. Okay. Who thought that was a good idea? All right. So, our, you know, our message is okay. Um, is and it's not Oh, there it goes. Not advancing. Okay. Our advocacy message is eliminate any retroactive, okay, or current reduction in revenue. Be proactive, but allow time for us to adjust to it, to make plans to adjust to it. Okay? And we want to continue advocating um for targeted relief for our taxpayers. Okay? We do know and understand that that was that was a heavy lift that happened in
100in 23 first collected in 24. We recognize that. We've been saying that we've been advocating for that targeted relief, you know, for for t for certain taxpayer taxpayer groups to do that. We know it was a heavy lift for everybody, okay? But there needs to be some targeted relief for that. Okay. to do that and that's what we've been as we meet with our representatives and state senator that's what we've been telling them to do that. Okay. So, so what can we do? Should we contact our representatives and and just kind of ask them for these things? Yeah, I there's there's no question uh for to either call, email, or let you know our representatives know of of what this is doing to it. You're going to be reinforcing what Dr. Folultz and myself, okay,
101when we met with them pretty much one-on-one had talked about to do that. Um I think the other thing is they and Dr. folks correct me if I'm wrong, but I felt that there was a good understanding by them of what this does to our district um to do that. And um I I know that um one of our representatives, you know, uh this was supposed to be acted on probably a week or two ago and and helped delay it to get get more communication to um to the state legislators, okay, to do that. But yeah, I mean, letting them know is there Did you show them this PowerPoint presentation? We can do that. Y, it's a good idea. We'll do that. We'll send that off either tonight or first thing in the morning because
102if they're voting, I want them to see that. I want them. Yeah. I want They need to see this. Yeah. Well, I can't imagine. We're not the We're obviously not going to be the only schools in this situation. So, I mean, I I I'm like you. I understand the zeal to try and get tax relief for the property owners, but yeah, we have to do it a little more responsibly than this, I think. But yeah, as I always say, Dan, I appreciate the way that you break this down and give this because there is there can be a lot of confusion out there with how we're funded and all the these impacts from these new house bills and stuff. And so, I really appreciate the way that you break this down for us to understand
103it and for for everyone to understand it. because this will have a huge impact on our district. And again, for my comments, just congratulations to the board. Um, you know, that that it actually was put together in record time, I think. You know, you just really started it in January, right, to get the board update done and I think Randy worked with the board to to help that through. So, um, congratulations on that and and you know, enjoy the accommodation that comes with the, uh, school board conference. Um, so too, the that school board conference is coming up in November and I think we all have a presence there, which is good. Um, and getting all those arrangements finalized. That's it. Thank you. Thank you. We are moving on to board comments. Miss Spencer. Um,
104well, thanks everybody for being here. I got to be at the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new children's hospital out close to TQL. It was a wonderful ceremony. The facility is amazing. It's really high-tech, very upto-date, very, very nice. I'm very excited about partnering with them. Um, Dana, I did have a question. They're nonprofit, right? Who is it? The hospital, the children's hospital. Are they nonprofit? Right. So they don't pay taxes, right? Um, for the most part, if there So, sorry. Is that a big question? Generally speaking, I think that's true. If there's areas that resemble more profit making than they may, okay, they did. Well, generally generally they are. Okay. Okay. Well, it's a very beautiful facility and they have a really nice they have a wall of con uh contributors with our uh
105logo of the wolves on it and a couple all the other uh schools locally around here and they have a really nice uh look like physical therapy room. Um it was really nice and I enjoyed I enjoyed being there. Our choir got to sing and they were brilliant and it was nice just to be there present. I enjoyed it. Thank you, Miss Amble. Um, thanks for the presentation of all the House bills this evening. It's it gives me pause to think about our school district and where we're where we're headed and with what could happen. U, it puts us into serious situations that we really need to think about what we're going to do, what cuts that could possibly have to be made sooner rather than later. And um so I'm concerned about all of
106that and I know that you'll look at all of that and see exactly what needs to be done and what we can keep. So thank you. Thank you, M. Mr. Ch. I'd like to thank our recognitions earlier um for coming here and let us letting us join in their celebration um including ourselves here. I want to thank Tammy for getting that ball rolling. Um, I hope everyone had a good fall break. Um, I hope the kids had a good time. Hope everyone has a good Halloween. Um, I know we have more candy than we need already. So, come to my house because I'll be passing it all out. Thank you, Mr. Chley. Mr. Ry, nothing. Thank you. Um, again, I'll echo as far as the celebrations today. I think uh we did a great job
107with our celebrations and our students and our staff as always. They continue to shine. Becky, thank you for the quality of the update here on the profile, quality profile. That was again just highlighting where we've been and where we're going and where we want to keep going. Um, is this going out? Did we say that? Yes, it'll be mailed to our community once it's complete, once it's printed. Oh, thank you. Um, I do want to highlight um, next month's board meeting is a little it's it's off and it's a it's a different date and it's a little later in the month. Our next board meeting will be November 20th. It's actually on a Thursday. It'll be here at the Civic Center at 7 p.m. So again, next Thursday, November 20th at 7 p.m. here at
108the Civic Center. Um, I don't think I missed anything. Um, we do not have any reasons to go into executive session. So at this point, would someone like to make a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there a second? Second. Miss Abborn. Thank you. No discussion, I assume. Thank you. Roll call, please. Mr. Rudy? Yes. Miss Sambort? Yes. Mr. Spencer? Yes. Mr. Patton? Yes. Mr. Chumley? Yes. Five? Yes. [Applause]