001You ready team? Yeah. Ready. Okay. Roll from executive session. Mr. Patton present. Mr. Rudy present. Mr. Chumley present. Miss Samborn present. Mr. Spencer present. Okay. All present. Thank you. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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 to adopt the agenda. It is my understanding, Miss Spencer, you wanted some adjustment to the agenda. You wanted something moved out of personel to pull those um the director of elementary and the coordinator of behavior services. So, you want those two positions pulled from the personnel folder file, please. Yes, please. Thank you. Okay. Other than that, any other discussion? Any discussion on the reason
002or anything? Oh, yeah. Sorry. I didn't know I was going to do that right now. Well, these two positions became available because two people they were moved or retired or whatever. And um the positions I just felt like because we had an unfortunately our voters failed the last levy even though it was a bond levy. failed and in hopes that maybe we could readjust our um we could readjust our uh the people that work in the office and that maybe those two positions could have been absorbed because I know that Aaron and they the two that were taking these positions were so good at being principles. I really hated to see them be moved because they were so successful. But the positioning, the positions are the ones, that's what I have more of a question
003about. Not the people. The people were great. Not that at all. It was just a position that moving the principles had been so highly successful in their current schools may not be the best interest of our students or the district as a whole. Strong, consistent leadership is a key to maintaining the progress we've already made and especially during challenging financial times that we are coming up with. So, but I do understand that we have um been able to not uh we hadn't been able to we don't have to fill a couple of the positions uh because of the the the way that the population was this year, which is great and it's going to save money, but those two positions are the positions I felt like maybe could have been absorbed into the district office.
004Okay. Thank you. Someone like to make a motion to adopt the agenda as so moved. Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there a second? Second, Miss Horn. Thank you, Miss Samborn. Is there any other discussion? Thank you. Roll call, please. Mr. Rudy? Yes. Miss Samborn? Yes. Mr. Spencer? Yes. Mr. Patton? Yes. Mr. Chumley? Yes. Five. Yes. I'm sorry. Next. Yes, Dr. Fors. All right. So, um, we'd like to call members of the treasures department for today's recognition. Board of Education recognition. Come on up. Stay next to me. Um, the West Climate proudly recognized the Treasures Department for earning the certificate of excellence in financial reporting from the Association of School Business Officials International. Okay. um for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 2024. This prestigious award received in April reflects the department's strong commitment to financial
005transparency, accuracy, and high quality reporting. We extend our sincere thanks to the treasures team for their continued dedication to re responsible fiscal stewardship and service of our schools and community. So, we are proud to recognize the following members of the treasures department. Dan Romano, Terry Johnson, Michelle Cordez, Tiffany Sua, Cassidy Krooks, Paula Wolf, Daniel Shu, Amy Lmbbacher, and Leslie Colins. So, please join me in a round of applause. [Applause] Josh can do it all. Dan, you going to walk? Walk the line. I want to shake everybody's hand. He's not going to. All right. Thank you. One more time. Thank you. Okay. Well, next up is our WC strong video series. That Imagine [Music] [Applause] [Music] finishing high school just a few courses away from a 4-year college degree. That's the incredible reality for one recent
006West Claremont graduate. Um, I have taken a few courses down at UC in person. Most of them have been online though as I described. But a few of them I've taken down there in person. It's a great experience being able to be around those college students and being around that type of course work and those professors. It's been great. Meet Gageu. He just walked across the stage at West Claremont's graduation this May, but he's also nearly finished with his bachelor's degree in information technology from the University of Cincinnati. How did he manage to fasttrack his education? The answer, a program called College Credit Plus or CCP. It's a program where high schoolers can take college credits and college courses early. Um, and the state pays for it and you get the opportunity to go down
007to UC. You get the opportunity to work with the counselors. Basically, you're just a regular college student. Essentially, high schoolers can earn college and high school credits at the same time by taking college courses. This program is free for students in Ohio who attend public schools, which means there's no cost for tuition, books, or fees. Gage says this is a huge benefit. One of the big reasons I did it was was financial. I mean, I've been listening to Dave Ramsey since I was 6 years old. I mean, I've been I've been on the debtree train for forever. So, having an easy way to do school debtree was a huge one for me. But at the same time, I mean, I've I've always taken advanced classes. I mean, ever since an advanced class was a thing
008that elementary schools and middle schools and all that stuff, I was trying to get into them. So, I've always liked the challenge and the fun. So, what's next for Gage? I think my plan after I graduate is just to survey the job market and see what see what is the best thing out there I can get for my degree. I mean, I'm not looking to make a million dollars out the gate. I mean, I'm I mean, I'm good with an entry- level position and get experienced. And if you are wondering if computers is what Gage has always wanted to pursue as a career, it wasn't. This photo still hangs at Summerside Elementary from Gage as a child when he wanted to be a police officer. I would say those dreams were equal dreams and then
009eventually I branched off in the IT thing. My dad was a police officer for a long time. He worked all in public service. He was a EMT for a while. He was a firefighter and a police officer. So my main big drive as any little boy wants to do is follow in his dad's footsteps and civil service is very honorable. So So what does West Claremont strong mean to Gage? I think the phrase West Claremont strong means to me that West Claremont is a very it's a very strong institution to go to. Um I was only able to do this because West Claremont was so willing to work with me as a CCP student over time. I mean, I know there's districts out there that won't work with students on this kind of stuff, especially
010at the level that West Claremont did. I've had some very good counselors in my corner who've answered very good questions. So, that's what West Claremont strong would mean to me. We are West Claremont strong. What is your WC strong story? Gage and his family are so thankful for um this opportunity. And it's it's becoming more and more rare that we see students walk away with an associates degree, but we're not seeing that many people two classes away from graduating from college and high school at the same time. So, pretty incredible kid. Uh he's very involved in um his church. He's um active in school and has just embraced every opportunity that West Claremont has put in front of him. and I you just you don't meet a more thankful kid than Gage. So, we're very
011proud of him and wish him the well. Thank you. Next is public speaking. Um let me read this. It says, "Visitors who wish to address the board are asked to state their name, address, and school organization. Remarks should be addressed to the board and should be brief, three minutes into the point. Speakers may offer such as objective criticism or suggestions regarding school or operational programs. The board will not hear personal complaints of school personnel or against any persons connected with the school district unless those complaints have first been addressed through the individual department or administration involved. It does look like we have a guest speaker, Jen Schaefer. Good evening. Good evening. Thanks for allowing me to speak this evening. Um, Jen Schaefer. I live at 1180 Creek. Uh, I'm a graduate and my kids go
012to the middle school. Uh, I know I've had the pleasure of meeting and knowing some of you that sit up there. And for those of you that I haven't met, um, I'm a West Claremont graduate, former president of the CAC, uh, former president of the Cluffpike Elementary PTO. Um, I also was involved in the Levy in 2020 and the bond this past year. Um, but the important reason I'm here is for the past five years I've had the pleasure of working at Milford schools and I have been able to work with Jenny Berkeley and Melissa Caraher. Um, Jenny has been my colleague, my boss, my mentor and a trusted friend. Uh, under her leadership the human res for human resources and student services. She's increased employee engagement. She's created and led staff wellness and highlighted
013employee appreciation throughout the district. When you're looking for a student centered servant leader, Jenny is top tier. I think in education, we tend to only hear about the negatives. We only talk about budget cuts and providing higher levels of service with less funding. I wanted to come here today to share the positive impact Jenny will have on West Claremont. I'm so sad she's leaving Milford, but so grateful she'll be leading in a district where my kids attend. And then to add on, Melissa, I just found out this morning, uh, was leaving us to come here. And I just want to let you know that she has led Cypel Elementary for years with a compassionate heart and a student first approach. And you guys are really gaining two amazing leaders in your district. Thank you. Thank
014you. Next up, it looks like our consent agenda the Well, we'll do the um the individuals first. So, David will bring each role uh that we took out of the agenda first and then we'll move to a consent. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Sure. So, with the previous motion, uh we are going to present three different parts to the agenda. The first part is uh pulling out the uh the first action item before you is to approve the person filling the position of director of elementary teaching and learning. The position itself has already been budgeted and approved by the board. So the superintendent recommends that you approve Kevin Jones as the new director of elementary teaching and learning. Thank you. You've heard the recommendation. Would someone like to make a motion? Some moved. Thank you, Mr.
015Rudy. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Chumley. Is there any discussion? Dr. Folks, the the question I have on on any of these positions, these positions have already been um in the budget. They've already been there. These are simply retirements or for whatever not even retirements, just some changes within our district. And these positions are being filled. These are nothing new that's being created. Correct. Mr. Mano has budgeted them in our FTE count and and has budgeted them for the upcoming school years. Okay. Thank you. Any other? I I appreciate that and I understand that. I just again I unfortunately we did have the levy that failed and those positions I felt that maybe they could have been absorbed in the in the district office. So, and I don't want to go down
016too far of a revenue trail, but in order to make those types of of adjustments, that is something we as a board need to set ahead of time because you can't just come in one day and say all of a sudden this person is now going to observe absorb all of these positions because then it changes things. So, as as we move down the road, if the board wants to make a decision to present to soon our new superintendent, Dr. folds then that may be something we want to tuck in the back of our heads but um it it's very difficult on a realm to start repositioning people's positions. So any other discussion and I'd just like to add that Mr. Jones will be crucial to improving uh teaching and learning the elementary and keep
017our report card high. And I know that he will work well with um Mrs. Preston and the rest of the department. He will be missed at Willowville, but I understand because I think you're a little crazy to be a principal sometimes. are here. Sh. Well, I do appreciate his expertise in the being a principal and Aaron did you guys did an amazing job and I I don't feel like I did it on a whim, right? No, no. As far as trying to put positions in that's on Well, it wasn't on a whim and I we I voiced my concern early on. It was just we'll we'll move forward from here, but these positions that that do become available, we may need to start considering how to readjust some of it given that our deficit in
018a year and a half is we're going to be in the deficit in a year and a half. So, it might be something we might need to start thinking about. Okay. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Rudy? Yes. Mr. Chumley? Yes. Miss Samborn? Yes. Mr. Spencer? Um, I'm going to vote no on the position, not the person. Please do not take the person. Mr. Patton, yes. Four yes, one no. Okay, that position was just for the director of elementary teaching, learning. The second position pulled out is uh the action item before you is to approve the person filling the position of coordinator of behavior support services. Again, the position itself has already been budgeted and approved by the board. So, the superintendent recommends that you approve Aaron Parker as the new coordinator of behavior
019support services. Thank you. You've heard the recommendation. Would someone like to make a motion? So, move. Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there a second? Thank you, Mr. Ch. Is there any discussion? Yes, I would like to make a discussion. Um, I have uh looked at Mrs. Parker's u resume and it's a beautiful resume. It talks about her wonderful job that she's done as principal and I commend her for this leadership position that she has taken on. But when I pul had the job description pulled uh that Dr. Folultz gave me, it says that the person has to have uh behavioral health, has to have special needs, has to have a lot of support for behavioral health, and I don't see that in Mrs. Parker's resume. Um she didn't convince me that she has that in
020her resume, and I'm not sure where I'm supposed to look to find that. Okay. Is there any other discussion? I believe she will bring us forward. Also, she's proven herself as a principal. I have not heard one negative comment about her. I uh and that says a lot. The only thing that I'm unhappy about is that she's not going to be the principal of my children anymore. But other than that, I think she's going to I think she's going to be incredible. Thank you. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Rudy? Yes. Mr. Chunley? Yes. Miss Sanborn? No. Mrs. Spencer. I'm going to vote no on the position, not the person. Mr. Patton? Yes. Three yes. Two no. Okay. So, the rest of the the personnel agenda will fall back into the consent part of
021the of the agenda. So, um in front of you is the personnel agenda for June 30th. On this agenda, we have the new retirement of Tracy Ray, our WC, your future coordinator. This is for the end of December of this year. She's been with us for three years. Uh Patty Hornster, the principal secretary at West Clemon High School, has been with us for 17 years. Uh we wish them well on their next adventures. Um this board, this agenda also includes the resignation of one coordinator of behavior support services, one child nutrition assist, one child nutrition um supervisor, two West Claremont High School assistant principles, nine teachers, one school psychologist, two custodians, one pair professional, sorry, six pair professional aids, and one office assistant. The agenda also includes the proposed hiring of one director of human
022capital, one Merwin Elementary principal, one high school assistant principal, one help desk supervisor, 12 teachers, two school psychologists, two full-time pair professional aids, two part-time pair professional aids, and one secretary. The agenda includes salary adjustments for two staff that were placed on incorrect placements in the on the Mayboard agenda. This is correcting those placements. Uh the agenda um also includes the transfer of uh Patricia Hiler from elementary assistant principal to Willville elementary principal, two part-time pair professional aids at Willville to two full-time pair professional aid positions at Willville and Tracy Rener from parent mentor to parent mentor and family support leaison. On the agenda, we have the proposed approval for extended days which allow our support staff to close out this school year and begin the next school year. It also supports any summer work
023needed. Um it also is used as a bridge for those employees coming in who do who can do some work in June and July prior to their normal contract taking effect on August 1st. And uh it included our Jane Lewis who does our C our college career plus coordinator for the 2526 school year. On this agenda we have the proposed approval for supplemental contracts for the athletic contest workers home tutors for extended year mock trial multiple coaches multiple student workers for summer employment in the pack. On the agenda, we have uh proposed approval for multiple unpaid leave of absences, multiple substitutes for next year, and multiple school volunteers and student teachers for next year. Uh we bring our admin and salary exempts uh schedules forward for the board typically annually. Uh this is when we
024make adjustments to job titles that more accurately reflect the work that someone's doing. So those we bring that forward as well. Also, from time to time, we we add and reduce staff based on our needs to support students in each building. There's a long list there. So I added them all up. In total, we're reducing 6.8 teachers and we're adding.19 in our classified staff. So finally, in the work beyond the contract section of proposed approval for payments, we have for curriculum development, Orton Gillingham training, spelling be support, career connector support, enrollment and district support, summer school support if needed, cooperating teacher pay from the universities, and uh new teacher meetings. So, this concludes the review of the personnel agenda submission for your consideration. Thank you, Dr. Folks. I would like to to uh wish the
025two retirees well. Tracy Ray, I feel like I've known her my entire life, even though it's only been three years. Very personable, wonderful. That breakfast this year was fantastic. I just can't say enough about her. She's energetic, peppy, friendly, and it's going to be a little different. A lot different, I'll say, without her. She will be nice. Mrs. Hornstra, I don't know as well, but she's very kind, very nice, and I wish her well. She was my clinic aid at Brandner when I was a principal. Forster was. So, yes. So, I have known her for 13 years, and that is an accurate statement. She would she would do anything and everything for you. Smile on her face. Yes, they both are. Yes. I I could shed tears. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Boltz.
026Next up is Mr. Good evening. Um before you this evening is the 202526 student and parent handbook. Um, this update includes changes in policy uh to reflect those that um we went through during the course of the school year. Um, as well as updates to um more clerical types of things such as who our compliance officers are, student fees, those sorts of things. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, can I ask a question real quick? Yes. Um I I did read I did go through all 113 pages of it, but um it did talk a little bit about the personal uh electronic devices. Is that are they calling that the cell phone or they I didn't see like a cell phone. It it's inclusive of cell phones. Okay. Um I assume reflective of any communication device,
027right? It just didn't say the word cell phone and and the big push last year with the governor saying you have to have a cell phone uh uh what what program in your handbook and I'm like okay it doesn't say cell phone but all that's included in that personal I think it's personal handheld device or something. Yeah. Any personal communication device those those policies do reflect that. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty far in the handbook though. I wish it would a little it's like page 110 or something. I I know our building administrators do a lot as well in terms of how they communicate that to families and um our families largely have accepted, you know, that change and it's worked well within the district. So that's good. That's exciting. I'm glad. Any other questions? Thank
028you. Thank you. Next officer, please. Good evening. This evening, we're requesting approval for the 2526 student fees as presented. Um, I highlighted in red any changes just for like quick review. You'll note that re that there are no increases. The only um places that you'll find red additions are for any new courses that have been um added for next year. if it's okay. I'm going to skip ahead to 805. Um because one thing listed in the student fees is um a student technology like an insurance fee. And so I'm also tonight we're requesting um your approval for what we're calling the Chromebook insurance and option to purchase agreement. And so essentially what that is um what that boils down to is that um Mr. Priest has um created a program where if students and their
029families opt into an optional $35 per year insurance fee and they do they purchase that insurance fee for each of the four years, four consecutive years. At the conclusion of that fourth year, students would then be able to to take the Chromebook as their own. It would be stripped of, you know, any district information, etc. But it's kind of a win-win. It's um an opportunity for par for us as a district to have that added insurance against breakage. Um you know, any other kind of wear and tear. And it's an incentive for for families to know that if they do that uh for four consecutive years, then there's something for them that they get at the end of it, which is the Chromebook itself. So, um we're really hoping that that encourages participation in our
030insurance program and that um families see the value that um that comes from that. So, you'll note that um on 805 are the um the information that we'll be sharing with families as well as um you know the theou um just kind of outlining or the the document. Yeah, the board resolution, excuse me, outlining um the details of that particular agreement. Any questions with either of those? um what if they drop and crack the Chromebook? So that $35 insurance fee covers any of those things. And so it would either be repaired um if it's something that we can repair internally. We have our own internal repair um you know system. Um and if it's something that we're not able to repair, then it would be replaced for them. So that $35 really is um a
031great deal. I mean, accidents happen and um you know, and it's really something that can protect us. It helps us as a district to have that insurance policy, but it also helps the families to know that things are covered. Okay. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Come on up, Jessica. Uh we're going to be asking the board to um approve the meal prices for 2526. And I'm using this as also recognition for Jessica Walker in case you've not met her. She came in, this was her first year. She had big shoes to fill and she did an amazing job um in that first year. And so anytime you bring in new people, they're going to have new ideas. There going to be some things that we changed and she's done an amazing job with
032that. staff um have embraced her and she's a great leader for us. Um and I wanted you guys to meet her. But anytime you deal with student lunches and I know you'll get questions about that anytime you have an increase, I've wanted her to talk to you a little bit about the change that kind of she made from the tier system because of the confusion that it did have and give her an opportunity to talk to the board. So this is Jessica Walker. Hello. Good evening everyone. So, I'm recommending that we do some changes more than not price increases. There is a little bit of price increase. Um, for the elementary, it would be 20 cents um to make it a flat $3 where I think that kind of leads to easier for parents to
033figure out what their weekly cost is. When you say $2.80, I think that I know it's just 20 cents, but it does help to be able to say that's $12 a week versus that's 11.45 45 or whatever. Um, but our middle school and high schools had deluxe. They had tiered pricing. So, all meals that you got, if you were a free or reduced student, you got any meal. You could pick any meal off the line. But if you're a paid student, you had to pay a little bit extra for a tier deluxe price item. Um, and I would like to eliminate the tiers. One, it's confusing for the kids. Two, it's confusing for the staff when they're ringing them up. Oh, it's a spicy chicken sandwich. That's a deluxe sandwich. Well, a chicken patty sandwich
034is a regular meal price. Um, so I just think just to streamline it for staff and students and families. Um, we saw complaints. I would get phone calls, well, how is this one 335 today? But to, you know, yesterday it was 345 or 355. So, I just think that would be better for our families um that we kind of streamline their prices. So, I'm asking for the middle school price to just be a 335 price and the high school meal price to be a 350 price. Um, and the difference in those prices is middle school's calories and items that they can have, high school gets more. Um, so their portions are larger than a middle school or an elementary student. So, that would be why there is that little bit of increase for each one
035of those. Um the other thing that we were asking um is for our charge policy to be um re-evaluated and approved um from what we I had submitted. And based on that is um you know no one wants to talk about the negative charge lunch debt that we have. Um we have a monster that kind of sits on our shoulders in child nutrition when it comes to this. We are never going to take a meal away from a child, but we have every week we're sending letters. Every week we are making phone calls. My head cooks in each building makes a phone call if they're over the charge limit. We are sending mailing personal letters to families. Um we have students that are up to almost $600 to $800 that they owe for their lunches
036um for one student. So when you're talking about 8,500 students, they owe $10 each. That's a lot of money. Um, so we streamlined it this year. We created a policy, which you guys should have, um, where we specifically say once they hit this amount, you're going to get the letter. You're going to get the email. Every time you're over that charge limit, you're getting an email from us at every Friday. Um, we specifically outline that once then they hit $50, we're going to mail you a letter because you get that. Well, I never did. I didn't know my kid owed $250 in lunch charges. Um, so this way we know that they're getting a letter mailed to them. Um, again, they're still getting the emails. Our system can automatically email once they hit a negative
037balance. Um, we are communicating more with our child nutrition website, so there's a lot of resources for them to be able to go on there, easier for them to reach out to us. Um, so we're trying to make sure that we're more, you know, our menus are now digital, pretty, they we're printing them off in the building so that they can see them and hanging up. Um, hopefully with us being able to keep this communication that they're getting now from us where they're seeing the emails every week, they'll reach out to us and I am seeing that. I am seeing them reach out. How can they set up payment plans to pay for their lunches? Um, again, my staff will never deny a child a lunch. So, um, kudos to them because they will make
038sure and if they do see a if we have other things in place, too. If if the head cook's not getting anywhere, then we're talking to the principal. We put in a a little part about having the counselor sign off. um just so that we are reaching out and more than just the lunch staff too that we're getting other administrators in the building to wear for the students. Um once if this is approved by you the end of the semester we are looking at transferring lunch fee balances to the students fees student fee. Um I think we are doing double duty. They're sending out um letters because they owe student fees and we're sending out lunch letters. So, we're not only sending out postage again or making those phone calls, but I think now once
039we get that to the same account, it will be easier for us to make sure that they're everything's getting taken care of at the same time. Um, so at the end of each semester, we will transfer those lunch charges to the student fee and then that will then go to the treasurer's office to um collect instead of child nutrition. Um, and then we do have an angel fund donation account that we've actually added into um the handbook as well that if students at the end of the year or withdraw, they could transfer their money to an angel fund which then those funds will be used to pay for students that have negative lunch charges. Do you have any questions for me? So, how much is the total of your negative lunch charges? Do you know?
040Um, right off the top, it's about 110,000 we're at right now. Wow. Um, when I came in at the beginning of last year, there was 56,000 there already. Um, and that was from 22 23 24 and then this year we have went up to the 110,000. And this is sending letters every week to to families that have negative lunch charges. Um you you mentioned talking to the principles. Have they moved on and said I know one school that I was at, they wouldn't let the kids go to prom if they had anything any kind of balance on any of their accounts or anything like that. They kind of held it over their head. I don't know if once they go into the student fees, then they can start to collect it through student fees. We
041don't do it from child nutrition letters, but once they do the transfer at the end of the semester, then the principles can utilize that for motivation. Okay. I know that that Greg has done that in the past. Okay. Okay. Yes. And that's usually I will be this year when we collect the most of our money was at homecoming and prom because even though it they we can't hold child nutrition. Um they would pay them because they knew that they owed them so that they could go to homecoming and prom. Um but I think this just helps us determine what kids I think it's getting lost too. I mean, we're two separate accounts and without seeing that and if you don't have the, you know, the high school's huge. So, my head cook makes phone calls,
042but you know, there's a lot of kids there. That's a lot of phone calls to make. Um, and I think they're probably the same ones that owe student fees, too. So, I don't know. So, hopefully next year when we come with meal prices, we'll be able to say we had a decrease. So, that's the goal is uh increasing communication, letting parents know. really be surprised how many parents say I give him the money. I don't know why he's not using it. So 13 years I hear that and so we get that a lot. But um just you know um for all the work that she's done um to get this moving in the right direction. So I think it's fabulous. And I will add we serve 30,000 more meals this school year than we did
043the previous school year. Wow. So our participation is up. That's great. But if they're not paying their lunch charges either. But I do think um we've seen drastic changes. Um I've heard, you know, great comments coming um we put fresh salad bars in all the schools. Um and you know the the ones in the back going, "They're not going to eat this. They're not going to eat this." I said, "Just just let's let's just try it." And they will wipe us out of salad every day. So um the healthy meals are out there. We're feeding them. Um and they're coming back. So hopefully we can keep that up. Have have just a question real quick. Have you maybe reached out to the PTO and asked about helping any with the late charges or any of
044the the fees that the kids owe? So, I have not. Well, not that your job's not busy enough. I'm not putting it on. Let me get a little my feet a little wetter. Well, I think you did you it sounds like you've done a great job and I appreciate all the work you've done and the changes that you're going to make. Looks great. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Hello again. One more request. We um are seeking your approval of an agreement that is between Great Oaks um satellite program and the West Claremont School District. And it's for our Oaks courses at West Claremont High School. And this agreement really just kind of um make sure to outline what the oaks is responsible for providing, what the district is responsible for providing, and it
045just kind of solidifies that in writing. And this is a standard agreement that we've entered into um in the past. Item 8.07 is request for approval of minutes. Those were for the minutes of the meeting, the regular business meeting held on May 19th, 2025. Item 8.08. There's also a request for the approval of minutes. Those were for the special meeting held on May 22nd, 2025. Item 8.09 is for the special meeting is the minutes for the special meeting on May 29th, 2025. Item 8.10 is a motion to approve. Request to approve the donations as presented. I'll briefly read them. Uh first is from Jill Robertson donated clothes to Wamsville Tobasco Elementary for students in need. RJ Cinema donated popcorn to Wamsville Tabasco Elementary for field day. Pang Wolf Designs donated five shirts to Amelia Elementary
046for the fifth grade prizes. Smithfield Meets donated 150 hot dogs to Ameilia Elementary fifth grade picnic. Patricia and Donald Wagner donated $25 to Ameilia Elementary student lunch charges for uh for a book by Molly Lynn Dutina. Patricia, excuse me, Kathy and Dave Peterson donated $50 to Ameilia Elementary student lunch programs for Molly Lynn Donita. RJ Cinema donated gift cards to Wamsville Tabasco Elementary for teacher appreciation week and family incentives. Balka Frasier family donated the purple star plaque to Withersville Tobasco Elementary. Jeffrey McKenna donated a Npresso coffee machine to Amelia for staff member use and Mount St. Joseph University donated four hospital beds and eight bedside tables to the West Claremont High School STNA class. So item 8.10 the donations as presented. Item 8.11 are the contracts uh request for approval. motion to approve the authorization
047for the superintendent treasur to negotiate and execute contracts as presented. I won't read them all, but I do want to note the um the renewal for the liability and property casualty insurance. Um it is a very difficult and hard insurance market. Unfortunately, our uh renewal rates or our rates on the quotes went up substantial. Um it was a difficult time in even getting insurers to quote on the business. I think in the board update um the information we were getting is that uh not just as a hard market uh kind of nationally but because of the weather changing patterns and more uh damaging winds and rains moving from what typically was south of us moving to southwest Ohio caused insurers to look at diversifying what they have geographically. This is a This is a real
048thing. So weird. So weird. Yeah. Um that that um ensures we're looking at uh accounts to keep, accounts to let go of. Um our account, plus several others in the area actually were scheduled um to uh not be voted on a bid on. um the consultant get did go back and request that they do it and unfortunately that's that's where the the rise in insurance comes from. Uh the second part of not only the increase in the premium but the increase in the the deductible. So, if you looked at one of the quotes, one of the quotes appeared to be less in premium costs, but when you looked at the deductible for the uh wind and hail damage. Um, and it it really had to take uh some quite a few phone calls with the
049one quoter to understand that the deductible was a percent per occurrence of the building cost. So, it wasn't, you know, just a a small dollar amount. It was a substantial dollar amount per occurrence. If you looked at the the bid that we are taking that deductible went up substantially too per occurrence. Uh but um we do have the coverage. So just I it highlights not the right word I guess for something like that that the increase but I just want to make sure that that you were aware of that because uh that premium increased uh $113,000 on what the last premium was was around 298,000. So that was a substantial increase but it is in our request for authorization of of contracts uh for this period. I don't know if there's any questions on that
050there. It is unfortunate. Item 8.12 is request for approval of purpose and budget statements and these are for the uh FY26 year sub meeting July 1. These are the statements that are completed by principles and the adviserss and sponsors of the different clubs and organizations. Uh the two important things with these purpose and budget statements are a it does contain a budget but just as important it does identify the purpose of of why those funds are being raised and what those funds can be spent on. Um thus that helps identify the public purpose and make makes those expenses um legal and allowable. Item 8.13 is the list of financial statements, bills paid um investments as of May um is at the end of May 2025. Um if there's any questions on those and so the
051consent agenda is item 8.01 as modified through 8.13 um and is request for your approval. 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? A second. Thank you, Miss Spencer. Is there any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Rudy? Yes. Mr. Spencer? Yes. Mr. Patton? Yes. Mr. Chumley? Yes. Miss Sambort? Yes. Five. Yes. Thank you. We're back. We're going to talk about buildings a little bit now. So, we have um part of this report is going to talk a little about what we do for summer and then we're going to start looking at next steps. Um when you start looking at the buildings, I mean, this has been a topic for the last three years. We've talked about this. Um
052as Miss Spencer said, we we did not were not successful in May. um which then puts the onus on us to decide what we're going to do with the space, what we're going to do with our current buildings and how we're going to address the needs of these particular buildings along with increased enrollment. And so we're going to take a look at that as well. Um the board is going to have some some big decisions to make in the next few years. And uh I think that's going to be important. I think one of the things about buildings and capacity and enrollment um we're trying to get ahead of it. We we've done a lot of communication obviously over the last two years to let people know that this is coming. Um we've done pretty
053well with our enrollment. Dave has been within 3 to 5% every year. Um because we still have some naysayers out there say, "Well, they're not coming." Well, we have to predict what our analysis says and we have to have space for our kids. But before we get to that, when we look at our building um process that we do, Chuck and I start in January. So, as soon as we get done with Christmas parties, we start talking about uh what we're going to need in the summer um for your building or even in the spring. And we meet with the principles, uh we develop spreadsheets with the principles, head custodians to start talking about what their needs are going to be. And that starts in January. And then we go through that. and then Chuck
054and I will go through the again um in the spring and then when we narrow it down then we go to Mr. Romano talk about the what what has come forward and we start talking about budgeting that as well usually March and April then we start to look at the POS and we start to get those approved. Um so that's the process that we've used over the last couple years. It works very well. Number one, it gets Chuck and I in the buildings uh meeting one-on-one with the principles. so we can see firsthand what they need um and what they're talking about so that when we do go to Mr. Romano uh with the request we we really know what's going on in each of the buildings. Um this thing never works for me. Dan,
055can you be my uh do that? It's not working for Dan now. There we go. All right. So, we'll start with Amelia. Uh you're going to see a lot of different things. I'm not going to go specifically. I would have sent this to you in the board update. Uh but I was at the beach with five grandchildren that are four and under and I didn't have time to do any of them. So I did send it to you today. Uh you have this uh in your email so when you get home you can take a look at this. We did cut back a lot because when we started doing this process, remember we did this in January, we did this in the spring. We had a ballot issue coming up and I told the principles
056we're going to hold back on a lot of the major things because we got to see what was going to happen in May. Um so the list doesn't look great. U but the need is going to be there and you're going to see where that's at as well. So when as you go through the buildings, you know, you're going to see Amelia, one of the main things you're going to start to see student desk, you're going to start to see furniture. One of the things with our furniture, we work through Ed Furniture. One of the people that we bring in, we get co-op pricing, which means we get the lowest pricing. And so those are the things that we look for anytime that we look at the co-op uh when we start to look at
057these in furniture needs and other areas as well. So Ameilia, you're not going to see a great deal there. Uh when you move into Kloff, um the parking lot, obviously there's some issues there that we're going to be addressing there. Uh some reconfiguration and uh those cabinets, those four cabinets is not 4,432,000. There's this should have been 4,000. I just saw that when I put that there. So, if anybody asks that, those are really expensive cabinets. So, um, are they made of gold? They must be. Um, then we go into Holly Hill. We've talked about Holly Hill for two years about windows. And so, we are we've got it narrowed down and we're working with Dan. We're working with getting quotes on that. We suspect that we're going to do about six to eight of
058the windows that you probably saw pictures of during the campaign. And we'll start with that and we'll start moving to replace the windows at Holly Hill. This is something we work with our architects with. Remember we went back and we had approval from the architects. This is one of the things that we work with our architects as well as roofing. And so I'm going to come back to that because we we're got a request in for them as well. So Holly Hill, the big thing there is obviously going to be the windows. Um Merwin we looked at we had some uh concerns about air quality. We looked at that uh before May. We had it tested before May. We had it tested after May. Um, and we passed everything, but we'll continue to evaluate the
059air quality at Merwin. And obviously, there's a few other things that we're going to be doing at Merwin as we move forward. Some sides minimal as you'll see. Willowville is a big one. Remember the asphalt ceiling that we do in our buildings. We rotate that through all our buildings. I think the high school did it last year. This year Willowville is up and that's where you see that cost um for when you seal in line um each of the buildings. So each of the buildings get that uh in that on that rotation and that's at willville WT very minimal with some carpet. Uh middle school was another big one that had identified earlier on. Uh we have some roofing. We do have the bids in for that. SHP helped us with get those bids. Um,
060and that'll take about a 3-day process. That will be completed uh over the um gymnasium. That's the front gymnasium. And that will be completed before um school starts. High school. Uh one of the big things that we did at the high school, we replaced the carpet on the grand staircase. Uh I think this is the second time that we replaced it. It means it gets a lot of usage. Our kids utilize that area a lot. Main Street is one of the biggest things and one of the highlights I think as far as the architectural that we did at the high school because it allowed a lot of space. Um, and as Jack said, we got a lot of people at the high school and so it gives us opportunity for space also gives us some
061opportunity um, uh, for our students to meet there. District office, we've done a few things here and there. um conference rooms, paintings going on now and then our AED supplies to um to support the policies that we do have in all the buildings. When you get to one to three year, it's like looking in a crystal ball. I can't tell you exactly what's going to happen, but we have aging buildings, we have aging buildings, and we have a older buildings. And so we will continually um look at this this 1 to three and four to five year concerns. One of the things that um Dan would like to do um and has requested and we're going to do this as I've talked to SHP um they're going to do a building's condition in-depth report for
062you. And so one of the things that we will um get them to do is come in and go through each of the buildings. They're going to look at the major areas of HVAC, roofs, asphalt, electrical, um, and all the different areas and give us an estimate, the best that they can from their experts on longevity. A lot of them are at end of life and so we know that uh, and give you some real numbers and that's going to take place in the fall, early fall. And I think that's going to be important is that I'll bring that back to you so that you can actually say, okay, this is it. the numbers that we had from OFCC. Again, those are numbers that came from OFCC. Those are those numbers. They're already outdated. And
063so, one of the things that the cost of these things are going to be going up. And so, I really want to give you guys um dollar amounts and have another set of eyes, third party set of eyes look at these buildings and say, "Okay, this is what we're looking at." We do have rotation on roofs. We know that those are coming up. Um, but I think when we when we really get into it, uh, even our newer buildings in three, five years are going to be 10 plus years old, reaching 15 years. Um, and so you're going to start looking at roofs and HVACs and handlers and all the different things that we're looking at. And so when you start to look at what are the concerns and the board's going to say, what's
064the concerns? I'm going to get a third party to come in, go to every building, and we're going to break down those areas um that really cost us a lot of money. those are the things that we um you know cross our fingers that the heat comes on in December in some of our buildings um and that we don't have to replace things. So that's that's kind of what we're going to look at. Also, when you look on this page, if you click on that 2025 facilities audit, if you could do that, Dan, we're not going to go through this obviously, but there's a link there. I just want to show them so they can look at it. You've seen this spreadsheet before? No. Oh, there it is. Oh, yeah. Yeah, if that opens. Okay,
065so this that spreadsheet that um is not opening. You saw the spreadsheet if you remember two years ago before we went to uh CAC, we had the spreadsheet we showed you guys where we went through a complete audit of all the buildings. If you remember all the red basically in the three older buildings, um that is on there. But what we've done is Chuck and I and Roger and Mark uh our head of maintenance sat down and went through this list again, carried over some of the things that had not been addressed or we still have to to consider and we updated that the best that we can. That's kind of a precursor to what SHP is going to do for us as well. But I wanted to give you guys some numbers on what's
066going to happen in these buildings. What are some of the things that are concerns? And so when you do see us come in and we have something that we have to replace, you're going to see, well, that was on the list. Some of the things aren't on the list that surprises, those are the ones that we don't like to get. So, um, that whole audit is on there for you to take a look at as well. And that goes building by building. It will tell you exactly, um, where our concerns are, what we've identified in our department, and then we will back that up with what SHP gives us as well. So, you're going to get a lot of numbers. It's going to be a big cost um especially in our aging buildings. And the
067only thing else I would say is those unexpected costs that we do get um when a boiler goes down um or electrical or some of the asphalt or some of the things that we do have. Um there it is. If you can remember that that was uh that's been updated for 25. Last time we updated it was 23. And that will give you more specifics probably than what you want, but that will give you some of the ideas as we went through every building and kind of took a look at all the things that we needed. So you have that as well in your email. Next thing we go into um enrollment and I think this is the challenge that we're going to have because we have to separate operations uh what we do operationally
068and what we do as far as space goes in the buildings. Um, and when you look at enrollment, and like I said, David's been very very well with with the um with what we've done in the past. Uh, when we looked at enrollment, if we've been in within 3 to 5% is pretty good. And so, when you look at this, what are we going to do? How's this going to impact the space that we have available? So, when you look at building conditions, you look at utilization, all of our buildings utilize the buildings very differently and are very creative. And I give a lot of credit to our staff, to our principles, to our custodians, to our maintenance, to everyone that's involved by creating spaces within buildings that weren't designed for that particular purpose. And
069so when you look at this and you look at the utilization in the buildings, um we're at pretty much capacity from what we have. We don't have a lot of empty classrooms as we move forward. And when you look at uh the next graph, you'll see where the pluses go and when you can start to add. When you go from 7,900 to 92 um in 3031, kids have got to go somewhere. Um and we're at capacity today pretty much. Now, when we talk about capacity, you're talking about capacity numbers in a building, but you're also talking about capacity with programs. And when you have programs that are going to utilize 20 to 25% of the capacity of the building, that's going to bring your enrollment numbers down that where we can actually serve students in
070classrooms. So, continuing with the special uh programs that we do have, um we're out of space. We're running out of space. We've said it for two, three years since I've been in this position. We continually have to look at what we're going to do about that. the next slide. Um 28 29 we're in trouble. I'm just going to put it out there now. We're in trouble for space. We can get through next year and actually we have to look at 2728. We're going to have to make some decisions there as well. And I'm going to get in that in a minute. But when we start to get to 28 29, I'm telling you today it's 25 in 2025. We will not have space in our current programs with the enrollment if they do stick within
071with we project we will not have space. Um and I know that's a hard reality. We've been talking about this for two years. This is what's happening. So when you look at this when we went through the ballot when we went through the May uh ballot issue we talked about all these uh short-term mitigations that can lead into long-term solutions. And so on this page basically as we talked and this is something we can talk about and we can put on the agenda for our retreat in August. But these are things that we're going to need to talk about as we move forward. First you've got the operational piece of maintaining the current buildings which we just went through that. The next piece is what are we going to do about space and what are
072some of the things we're going to have to do? We spent a lot of time um putting programs inward and upward. Put programs back in, put our specials back in. We need space for that. We don't want to cut specials. We don't want to do things to create more space for um classrooms that we don't have to. We want to continue with the programs that we work so hard to put in, but there's not going to be space available. So, some of the things that we are going to have to do that we talked about, increase class sizes, that's going to happen. It's going to have to happen. Uh, it's not what we want to happen. Um, but those are things some of the things that we do have. We're going to have to put
073some of their programs on carts, whether it be art, you're going to have music, not in a music room, you're going to have programs that aren't in the rooms that they're designed for. That's what you have to do when you have increased enrollment to create space for classrooms. module classrooms. We'll talk a little bit about that. We have those at Merwin. Now, that is a short-term mitigation. But if we don't get the urgency to create space in a new building, what other option do you have? You're going to have modulars or you're going to have to look at renting space. What are you going to rent space for? What programs are going to go into those particular program or that particular building? And so modulars in some districts have become long-term solutions. Is that what
074the district wants? Is that what our community wants? And so we have to put the kids someplace. Um, you know, and I think that those are things that as we look forward or we look to the future and we look to the projections, I think those are things that we're going to have to look at. Do you want sitting at your newer buildings? Do you want modulars to be a place for environment for our students to be in or do you want us to rent space? It's it's pretty simple, but if the kids come, if the enrollment comes, we're going to have to find space for them. The other big decision that that this board is going to have to look at is half day kindergarten. We've talked a little bit about that. It creates
075more space for us, 14 to 15 classrooms. It will create more space for us uh if we do half day kindergarten. state requires the requirement is half day. We offer full day. We want to continue to offer full day. Teaching and learning does not want us to go to half day kindergarten. We've made way too much advancements um academically, achievement, student achievement when we already know that over half of our students aren't ready when they do come to us for kindergarten and we're going to decrease the amount of minutes that we're going to offer kindergarten. That is not a solution. But if you don't have the space, it's going to be something this board is going to have to look at to create more space. 15 classrooms is a lot of classrooms. Is a half
076of a building in some of our buildings as far as um creating those spaces on half day uh kindergarten. The other thing that we have to look at as the board is grade level buildings. Does grade level buildings make sense? And you say, well, why how does it make a difference if they're grade level buildings? When you have grade level buildings, you don't those half classrooms that you have in all the different six different elementaryaries or seven different elementaryaries, it it combines those into those buildings. So, it decreases the number of classes that you would need. So, those half that you have to add and round up, it it does add up that when you do grade level, it does it is it does help us as far as space goes. That's a big change
077for this community. grade level buildings would be a huge change. Um I have numbers. I've looked at them. I'll be able to share that with the board at the retreat on some of the things that what that would look like um if we did go to grade level buildings. But again, that would be a change in um boundaries, that would be redistricting, and that would be a change in what we've done in the past. But that's something that we would look at. Will grade level buildings give us more space? Yes, it will. It will give us an opportunity to do something um in grade level buildings. Not only grade level, but the half day kindergarten. When you combine the two, it looks as though something that we could possibly have a solution for. But again,
078I'm getting way ahead of it right now. But I'm going to put it out there because when you look at the enrollment and we run out of space, these are conversations that we're going to have to have with with our community on what are we going to do when we run out of space. If you want a new building, then we got to create the urgency to bring in a new building. If we don't have the urgency, the urgency of creating a new building is not going to happen. We didn't have it this last time, obviously. So again, you're going to continue to talk about space issues as we go through this. Um, and already talked about repurposing facilities or renting facilities. There's a virtual piece. How many numbers would that pull out if we
079did have some virtual offerings? Um, but again, it's it's something that we have to look at, something we can talk about at our board retreat. But I just wanted to put that on your radar. So ready, if I'm hearing you correctly, and and one's a statement, and I've said it time and time again to Natasha, none of these are threats. This is a reality. We're we're not this isn't well, give us this or we're going to this is just reality. And I've always been crystal clear with that because sometimes our community has felt very, you try to push us in a corner and if you don't do what we want, this is what we're going to do. This is not a threat. This is reality. No, this it's not a threat at all. and and
080and you know me, I'm I'm in operations. I'm black and white. And so I'm going to tell you exactly what's happening is we will not have enough space if projected enrollments reach where they're going. And so we have to create space. Okay? And the other thing that I have learned with my tenure with Natasha is is that when you start to bring stuff to us, that's when we need to pay attention because at some point we as a board are going to have to potentially make these decisions. And so this this particular one slide that I see, this may come a time when we as a board may have to make some decisions. Yeah, we need to pay attention to this this particular slide depending on what the future holds for us. And what you
081can expect from us and from our department is I will give you all the options. I'll give you the options on what the projected enrollment is by years probably through 3031. And then you'll start to look at what's the impact if we had full-time kindergarten opposed to halftime kindergarten. What's the impact if we go to grade level? What are we going to need to add as far as modulars go? I can tell you in the current configuration, the number of modulars that you would need in 3031 is not good. I'll just leave it at that. Well, and that's why the more questions we understand that you have about each of those topics, the better because the team is back there gathering data, researching all the would a coulda, shouldas that this could look like that
082will eventually turn into decisions like you're saying. So, the more we understand that what that you need to help you make those decisions, the better the team can prepare. Okay. And we in being a former principal, the last thing we want to do is affect what goes on in the classroom, what we do as far as why we're here as far as instruction and and getting our students prepared to walk across the stage. Cutting the half day kindergarten puts an impact on us. It puts us behind. I would tell you that right now. And they fought hard to keep it. We want to keep it, but I don't know where we're going to put everybody. Not a threat. It's just current just current reality. Okay, I have a question. Why is the modular classrooms got
083star up there? Because we already have a couple. We do. And then it should be star down there. So, it gives cost estimates. That is the old. Okay, that goes with that. So, that's the old cost estimates. I would guess Dan can correct me or Chuck. I'm guessing they're probably over 400 by now. Have Have we done any research on like the impact of a modula? like have how many I mean I saw one study done on it but that was only one and it was in like 2004 or something. It wasn't good but I was just curious if they'd had any kind of data relating to Are you talking about academic performance or something else? Well that not not that really it was just like the safety and the the fumes. Yeah, I think
084kids it was just and they just they only found one study on it and it was good because they're not in a secure vestibule. So the safety was a big deal. Yeah. And a lot of times there's like weather mitigations that have to be made and just the same securities we have inside the building you we can't replicate. Yeah. Erin and I talk when there's a thunderstorm warning or anything that happens and she she calls me and says I'm pulling them in. Things like that. It does cause a disruption in the educational process. When you do have modules when you are disconnected from the building there's going to be a negative. Well, and at Merwin specifically, there is a disconnected classrooms already that are brickandmortar classrooms. So, I think Merwin's um acceptance of this is
085way different than if you would add a a modular to Amelia or anywhere where they're where they're not used to having outdoor classrooms. I think it would be a totally different ball game somewhere else. So, with all that being said, welcome to the new Merwin principal. I saw a little scuttle back there in the back. So, uh, hey, welcome. Hey, we've not shown her the building. I was going to say if you've not seen, oh, wow. I saw Aaron going, you'll be okay. So, welcome. So, we have our we we we do have our work cut out for us um as we move forward. And uh I think that uh that's something that uh we'll be working through over the next few years. Okay, good. Thank you, Randy. Thanks. Um, my voice. I think it's
086you disadvantaged people. I say I lost my voice. Hello again. Sorry. We're just going to four for four here. So, um, this next is really justformational in nature. Um it's a requirement that districts share with their board the how the student um wellness and success fund money as well as the disadvantaged pupil funds are utilized within um the district. And so the attachment that you have um this evening really just kind of outlines how we partner with local agencies, with um other community providers um to to ensure that we are providing our students with well-rounded um educational experiences and um and also how those funds are utilized. Are you looking for the attachment? The attachment's not on my computer. I don't see it either. Well, I saw it on mine. I don't know where it
087went. Trying to follow directions. Yeah, I was looking for it. I was like, "Okay, where are we? I'm going to log in and see if I'm just Okay. Well, when you are able to access the document, you'll be able to uh read a little bit more information about how we um like I said, how we partner with community agencies or other um educational service centers, um our mental health partners, etc. to ensure that we're providing our students with um well-rounded educational experiences and how we leverage those funds. We um really choose to consolidate those funds to help offset the cost of our counselors at both the middle school and the high school. So eventually you'll be able to read that document for yourself and then you can let me know if you have any questions
088about it. Thank you. Yeah, there's no action tonight. Yeah, there's no nothing you need to do. It's reallyformational in nature. Thank you. Okay, so that takes us to the Blazing New Trails update about this time last year, maybe a little bit earlier. You guys voted on the strategic plan that was inspired, developed, influenced by our citizens advisory commission. the the phrase that most um often really was sticky with the parents that were on the team and the something that that really they were drawn to is that preparing our students for anything, not just something. They didn't want to have experiences where you like decided you're a science kid in sixth grade and then all you were exposed to were like STEM kind of classes or that you you were pigeonholed. Um they they wanted just
089to to create lifelong learners who were adaptable and flexible and could take whatever they were learning and apply it to to any kind of career or postgraduation plan. The Oh, am I going to do this? Let's see. There. Maybe I won't touch it. Dan broke it. The whole thing died, Robert. Well, on that note, I need Oh, and we're back. I'm not touching it though here. The um we we started three years ago with identifying the challenges of the district. We had all had a pandemic that we were going through. We were coming back to school and realizing that there was a time when all of Ohio was very supportive of schools. All of Ohio talked about the value of education in public schools. And just imagine in these quick five years how different that
090that conversation is around our state and the value of public education is being called to task and called on the carpet every day. Now back in this day when we were creating these challenges we had just come off CO and said you know we need to learn from this moment know that a school needs to be different as we go forward and those were the five challenges established um with a lot of community staff student input through our process. We decided well to to address these five challenges we have to look at the four moderns. We have to modernize our learning plan, our model, modernize our workforce, modernize the environments and to modernize our family and community partnerships so that all kids can reach portrait of graduate outcomes. And so that is really this plan
091the the blazing new trails is all about operationalizing that concept. We've I I paused on this for a moment and I actually went back to some documents that Dan and I made years ago on the upward and onward investment plans. This is a slide to kind of to represent that just to remind us of the the many things that were not here five years ago that are tools today we can't imagine uh living without things like curriculum. I was just at a a get together this weekend and I met somebody who used to work in West Claremont and she was um talking about how she worked here before there was curriculum and she she would spend her entire summer and creating things because she really didn't have what she needed. And I was just conveying
092that that is not the story anymore that we've been able to adopt English language arts curriculum, math curriculum, science curriculum and we're working our our way through subject by subject. So something that basic um being in place now has just brought all kinds of fruit. And when I look at the words on this screen, it's it's so symbolic to me and it really reflects it. It's the principles of this school district that have taken those resources and they've made absolute magic happen. They've rolled up their sleeves. They've taken risks. They've um challenged themselves. They've challenged their staff and they have led change in big ways. They did it enabled by these resources. Instructional coaching, the WC or future programming, enhancements of student staff, staff and safety, the behavioral supports. These are all things on this
093screen. And whatever you're seeing up there did not exist five years ago. And that was enabled through the upward and onward investments, whether it was the passing of the oper the the operational levy in 2020 plus the ESSER funds that that gave us $14 million to invest. And Dan was very diligent in the planning to say this is one-time spending. So we what whatever we invest in needs to be something that can last and can scale. And then there are some things that we'll be able to continue. And I I remember working with the the unions at the time. They were afraid. They were afraid for us to make ads into our system because they were picturing that times of the past and all they could picture was well we're just going to have to
094cut all this stuff. And we were like, we will not add things that we will just turn around and cut. That we will make a long-term sustainable plan. And that's what we've done. And you can tie direct impact to our results to these these investments that we poured into people into the programs and services that we offer and the processes that that we have elevated. And although this is not even fully comprehensive, it does create a picture. We've expanded our engagement and really have worked on changing our culture around um everyone having a seat at the table, everyone having a voice, everyone being involved. And I'm I'm very proud of the progress that we've made. But I can't especially sitting here tonight on my final board meeting, I can't not mention that uh it's not
095enough. And this is this is not to um to make anybody feel bad or to to um to be inappropriate, but it it is a it's a it's a plea. It's a uh I'm imploring the families, the community members and the business owners of West Claremont to get more involved in West Claremont. We've made huge strides, but on every feed that I have, social media wise, whatever, public education is being tacked left and right. And people are trying to put a national agenda that's happening out there like far away from us. They're trying to just overlay that and just assume because it happens in a school somewhere that it's happening in West Claremont. And we have done an incredible job to to live the values of this community and to address issues when they come
096up. And it's you you can't just sit there and have an opinion. You've got to get involved. You've got to see things firsthand. And we have wide open doors for that to happen. And you know, I feel especially um I think about our bond issue and I think about kindergarten parents. We always said it's going to be really hard to get the attention of a kindergarten parent to think about their middle school kids experience because that feels so far away. And I I do think it's hard and I think it was a challenge that we we had and that we knew we would. Um, parents are very busy just getting kids from point A to point B. They're um they're sucked into their social media. They're just trying to get food on the table and
097they're trying to do everything right as parents. And it's easy just to think, well, okay, everything's going okay with my kid or things are going okay with school and just to let um these kinds of moments pass by. And I I just I beg parents to get more involved and not let the decisions just to to waste away because it really feels like we're in a time in education where something we've always thought was here, always was available, always standard in a community is at risk. And I don't I'm not trying to be dramatic, but just to say that um we need people to pay attention. And I'll give an example. During the last couple months when we've been advocating so much with the legislators, with our senator, with the representatives, we sent out communication
098to the families of our our district to say, "Please help us in advocating." And I didn't get one question about it. I didn't have one person reach out and say, "Hey, could you help me form a letter or I have no idea if anybody took up the the offer, took the information, and I truly believe not because people are bad or they don't care about their kid or they don't care about West Claremont. Everyone's really busy and What what I'm just trying to call to attention is things are moving fast in the legislature and uh nationally in our state, locally, and as parents. It it's really important just to not miss this moment to really be a part and create what you want for your child because you you really can make an impact, but
099these things are so subtle that you could it's you can be passive and miss them. And so that that's what I'm trying to um convey is that everyone needs to get involved and those numbers um really do need to go up. Okay, I'm off my soap box now. Sorry. This um can I add something to that? Sure. If you if you look at what was going on with the advocacy and if you looked at where things settled at and we can we'll talk about later is is with the bienium bill we will get an increase. This district has not gotten an increase in uh close to a decade. Okay, we've been under a guarantee, but the increase that we got was I believe so I didn't see all the detail yet, but I believe was
100because of performance. That's significant. And so when you know if I go back to slides and you look at everything that was put together, we didn't even know that that was going to be part of Yeah, this was just added really in the last committee. they added a merit-based um based on how how schools are performing. So when you come back and look at what was going on, we again I don't have the detail of it, but when I look at what the inputs they were doing to the formula, it was not those inputs that drove the increase my kind of summation result or deduction is because it was because of that performance. That's these things that we've been doing and and you know what we came about. So, the state's rewarding that the other
101bill that was in place was taking away the lifeline that this district for at least two decades has survived on. It wanted to reduce tax revenue that House Bill 335 to do away with the inside millage $9.4 million. That did not go through yet, but that's still a dark club that's out there. It reduced um our growth of revenue which was the 20 mil floor and it reduced our opportunity to go back to the voters for additional levies. So the the bright side of it is you know we are performing the the hard side of looking at that bright side is you have to we have to continue that to keep getting rewarded. That's what's there. Sorry about the interruption. No that's okay. I thank you for that. This visual is is is a picture
102that the citizens advisory commission um with all of our thoughts together kind of just ended up being a symbol for how we want to see the district progress uh forward. And the the main thing the most important thing for us was that yellow ribbon that represented foundational core learning, strong literacy, numeracy skills, critical thinking, and we we've added leadership to that so that we can fully live out our portrait of a graduate supported by wraparound services with our whole learner network and experiences beyond the classroom with WC or future. And so this again is not meant to be a a check box where you just check off every item, but it's a visual representation of of how we progress. And as Dan mentioned, it's all about academic performance going up and uh students owning their
103learning more. So, I'll go through these quickly. It's just a reminder of who we are. We're a very missiondriven school district. You can keep going. We have um we believe all students can learn and we are the educators who can make it happen. And although that may sound just like a nice word on a poster that sounds kind of catchy, we know every student's name, story, strengths, needs, and we respond. But over the course of time here in Les Climat, those words have become more than words on a poster on a slide. It's becoming the vision that people are leading and that is because of our principles because our principles are the ultimate modelers of this and have been incredible to make this happen and it's the supports around this the the principles that keep
104them going because we were joking earlier saying what did you say about being a principal. You have to be a little crazy. Yeah, you have to be a little bit crazy and and so we've we've got to have a great support system to support that little bit crazy. Okay. you know, our mission, vision, and values. And the the greatest thing that we have seen over the course of the last couple years is that we're not having to say these words as much as students are using these words. Our parents are using these words, staff are using this because they see it living. It's a living vision, not just a poster. So why do we exist? We want to ensure that every student is future ready. And as uh there are changes in the landscape of
105the workforce of of how we learn and play and um how we shop, everything is changing. And so we want to make sure that our kids are the most resilient, adaptable, lifelong learners that we can possibly produce. And that graduation ceremony that we all just came from a few weeks ago, what a testament to I mean, you just saw them all like cords draped around their necks. um just really a very talented class and the highest um graduation rate we've seen and with the largest class that we've had. So what will we do? Our goal is to uh transform teaching and learning where every student graduates with meaningful employment or higher education opportunities. We don't want just um the the you know the least common denominator kind of um access to learning. We want it
106to be rigorous and something that gives real world experience so that kids can rule in things, they can rule out things. And we have three main goals. Pathways of performance is more focus on academics and the development of the whole child. People is all about surrounding our students with the high quality educators and a support system of community partners and family. And then place really is all about the kind of environment we create, the safetiness, the the welcoming environment we have as well as having modern learning environments that that meet the needs of the students technologically um agile uh agility wise and um so that these environments are are are best suited for their developmental appropriate uh needs. So what I want to celebrate here are just the highlights of what has been accomplished and
107again I give all the credit in the world. We always say if we can write it down, we can make it happen. And this is the um it's a lot of text that I I'll just hit some highlights of, but it it is really the work of the district leadership team that is so dedicated to um ensuring that there's a great quality experience for kids here. So, if you'll go back to pathways and performance, I just want to highlight the course of study process. I've mentioned it a few times today, but we're in year three with math, science year two, English language arts year 1. Ellie led the team of innovation course of study. You guys heard about that a few meetings ago. We focus first on PK5 and that will be uh expanded to
1086 through 12 next year. This has really come out of exactly what we hear from students all the all the time. And Ry's mentioned this to you. Whenever you meet with high school students, they say, "Okay, it's great that you're talking to us about this seventh, but you got to get down to the middle school. you got to get down to elementary because we had no idea what kinds of choices to make when we got here to high school. And so this is in listening to them, we we are providing those experiences. So they will link up from elementary all the way to the senior year to help them be more informed about what possibilities are out there for themselves. The modern um literacies that we're thinking, we are putting um reading, writing, listening, speaking,
109and presenting at the core of every single classroom. So, it's not just in the ELA are you going to get these experiences and I and I will tell you it's it's setting our students apart. You you heard it yourself just hearing the graduation speeches how expressive those kids are. Looking people in the eye, shaking their hands, these soft skills that end up being difference makers is is is what we're doing. And and you do that by learning to think critically and express yourself. And and that's what we're providing for our students in the multi-tered systems of support. The big change this year was mental health. For years, we couldn't find more than than three therapists to serve all the needs in West Claremont. And Eric led a huge movement uh a partnership with Mindpiece that
110I think it was at least 21 that we had this year, right? 21 or is it more? About 25. Okay. 25 therapists that we had consistently for the bulk of the year. Before that, mind you, we could we could barely find three. We could barely get three. So, with that partnership, we did not add $1 to the budget to do this. It's all through our partnerships. And it's been an incredible response to get kids to to come to school and and be ready to learn. Okay, next one. Dan, under progress, what I just want to emphasize is how we've expanded our partnerships. Jim mentioned it earlier how um the pie breakfast really we just filled up the entire cafeteria at West Claremont. We cannot do this alone. There there is no there's no doubt in
111my mind that um we can just keep plugging along and and and hope for the best. It it's it's going to take all of us and it it's it's been it's been a huge um change for teachers to open their doors to businesses and to take kids out into the field. But um they are learning lifelong skills by doing this. I also want to highlight the leader in me program. This is a covy internationally known amazing um program that teaches the seven habits of highly effective students. the the leader and me team has been here working with our team throughout all of June and they are blown away by year one implementation levels of of that and how this is u being ex going into our school district ex at scale and I look forward
112to down the road seeing West Claremont becoming leader in me school district nationally recognized where people are coming here for visits because of the high level of implementation and the impact that it's made on our students and in this community. Under progress, we continue to keep school safety as a top priority. Every October, we're doing the survey to find out what what tweaks that we need to make and Mr. Lefat has been great at responding that with his team. We have in in this list uh R Larry has been researching to get a new technology model for the elementary. So he's had several teachers piloting and we're going to be able to bring new technology next year to WT and Amelia who haven't had new technology since they opened in 2010. So it's it's an
113incredible effort that the team has led to to make sure that we are creating the right kinds of environments for our students. And and finally, I'll give Dan and the cabinet all the credit in the world for the 2030 in financial investment plan. There's nothing on this page that we don't vet and work on together to make sure that the resources in place, that the budget is sound, and that we we are not looking just to tomorrow or this week. We are 2030 planners like keeping the end in mind and working backwards to make sure that we are equipped and and prepared for for what's to come knowing that there's lots of unknowns that we are always uh navigating. So, how well do we do this? I have a few district level KPIs I want
114to share with you. Next, next slide. So, we're going to find out more about this as the summer goes on, as more tests are finalized, but you can see in our academics, we went up in our performance index, and we've been able to move our target because of it. Our climate and culture score is um it's it's harder to see on the I guess it's it's better if you get to look at the links and and and dig into it, but you're seeing an improvement from last year to this year. engagement is up 2% and again we've been able to change our targets because we're making so much progress behavior more students are behaving in in appropriate ways across the board more kids are coming to school on a regular basis uh obviously we have
115higher hopes and bigger dreams but we are seeing that incremental progress and probably the most impressive uh metric up here is the graduation rate 97.4% 4% from this year's class and you know just seven years ago that number was 89%. So really incredible work that is a is a district-wide teachers get all the credit for that. The principles working with them um just absolutely incredible because you don't just do this in the senior year. This does not just like end up as something that's responsible for those those teachers. It's it's everything coming together. So moving forward, what are you going to see from the team? We're going to continue to keep portrait of a graduate as our north star and keep going and we're going to click through this quickly. We've kept this metaphor in
116front of you of of the Jeep representing West Claremont. If we're going to have kids blaze new trails and be able to be prepared for anything, not just something, then the district has to blaze new trails. We have to line these four tires and we can't go around with a flat. You know, we we have the um the modern environments. That's the next slide. Um shows we we've got an issue there. We're already out of space in the elementary and the the numbers are what they are and so we we we h we have listened to the community. They have responded. We respect that and now we got to start working on plan B. So you were going to see over the course of the next uh three to six months the cabinet coming to
117you with presentations and they'll they will break down each topic. They will talk about modern learning environments. They'll talk about our partnerships. that talk about the learning model as well as the workforce and bring all the data to you so you can see where we need to put our investments moving forward. You will see a big focus on innovation and continuous improvement because we want to make sure that all of our schools are future ready. We can't afford to have pockets of excellence or pockets of innovation. It really has to be districtwide because this is not educational lottery for our kids. We want all kids to have these great experiences. And so you will hear more and more about that with from Ellie and her team. and you'll see the leader and me framework really
118take off. It's it's at the core. It's a continuous improvement model and it's exactly what we've been after for a long time and that is to connect all of our teams. We want from the boardroom to the classroom to be completely aligned and working together and and the leader and me framework is going to help make that happen. So when you add the instructional model, the continuous improvement mindset with innovation, you'll end up having these WC your future classrooms that um we can be proud of. I I really do see here in the future of West Claremont visits from people all over the nation that will come to see what's what's happened as as the transformation continues to take hold. That's it. Yeah, that's it. So, that is the update from this year's strategic plan.
119We've spent time tweaking next year's goals and next year's action steps. So, David will be bringing that to you guys in in the fall, but we're on target. We've we've met the goals that we needed to this year. You know, certain things we uh did faster than we expected. Some things are going they're a little more challenging than we thought. And um we'll bring that to you. So, well, David will bring that to you. Okay. Up now for my comments. Right. There's Is that where we are? So, what I want to do is quickly review what's what we're hearing from House Bill 96. Um, moved from the conference committee to the governor. I am seeing online that the governor has signed the bill, but there are still points of interest for the governor to possibly
120veto. And so, some of those that I saw in this particular article were related to the flat rate income tax. Um what's being suggested right now it includes a 2.75 flat rate income tax. There's also question in there about the um the carryover. As of right now the the cap on our carryover cash balances was split the difference between you know the Senate wanted 50% the House wanted 30% so they kind of settled on 40%. And there's mentioned in this article that's something that um Governor Dwine is more into the local controlling that and not the state getting involved. And there was also mention of the emergency levies and substitute levies in this article. So under the fair school funding plan as Dan mentioned um the state share for West Claremont will be 35% in
121fiscal year 26 and it'll go down to 32% in fiscal year 27. But we are seeing an increase and and And also as he stated what he believes is true at this moment is that increase is because of our performance. So it's really important that we're always connecting the dots or what were the inputs? What are what is keeping that performance high? What are what are all those things? And we we always ask that in our team like what's the impact? Not just that we're doing a bunch of activities, but what are the results that we're getting? We were successful in keeping inside millillage out of this budget bill. So the inside millillage and our ability to still use that for paying on the high school debt is still um in play, but as Dan
122says, there's because it keeps coming up year over year, it's kind of like a dark cloud that we have to keep a keep our eye on. Trying to see which other ones I need to bring up. the 20 film uh 20 mil floor changes are in place that would take us off the 20 mil floor and that's what Dan was saying earlier is that every three to six years based on the um the updates we are usually seeing some some growth here and because levies haven't passed here traditionally that has been how West Claremont has survived. So, that is one that it'll be interesting to see what the governor does, but that's that's risky business for a school district like ours with a with a levy history like ours. I think those are that's enough
123of the updates. You think? Is there anything else you want to add? Yeah, there's there's a few more things, but it's it's it's um those are those are the high level. And I think it's it's important that this um board as as you've done, you you've all participated in advocacy, you you've met with representatives, you've come to events. I just I can't um you know emphasize it enough that the relationship that we've built with our legislators, we have to continue um to expand and grow because they they are listening to us. They are advocating for us. They are doing the best they can, but there is a a lot under attack and um it's it's They have a hard job just like you guys have a hard job out there. So with that, do you
124guys have any questions for me or any comments that um at this time? Okay. Thank you. All right. All right. There's uh three action items that I have and it is, you know, the items that kind of end this filter here and then move us into the FY26 year. Uh the first is the final amending and supplementing the FY25 annual appropriations. Uh there's three funds that need um some adjustment. There is in the general fund a $326,000 adjustment. That's mainly due to the increase in the retirees projected severance. Um some curriculum materials that basically instead of waiting till next year, we're buying this year that will be taken out of next year's budget. Um and then the um transfer to the athletic funds that is done annually. There is an adjustment to the food service
125fund and that is for some things that we wanted to get done before June 30th rather than wait till the July one budget. Again that'll that'll be shifting from next year's budget to this year. The um agency fund is actually although it looks like it's a significant amount. It's just a pass through account where all the funds pay for the health insurance and that's just passed on. So although it looks like it's adding to the budget, it's just a pass through with it. And so the recommendation on item number 10.01 is amending and supplementing the FY25 annual annual appropriation um as presented. Thank you, Mr. Romano. You've heard the recommendation. Would someone like to make a motion? Some moved. Thank you, Mr. Bur. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Miss Samour. Is there any
126discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Rudy, yes. Mr. Spencer, yes. Mr. Patton, wait. We We have a Sanborn seconded. Sanborn seconded. Yeah. Sorry. Mr. Rudy. Yes. Mrs. Miss Sanborn. Yes. Mrs. Spencer. Yes. Mr. Patton. Yes. Mr. Chumley. Yes. Five. Yes. Thank you. Wake up, Dan. Come on. Item 10.02 is the request for advances and transfers. This is a modification to what we did in in May. Um, actually the the positive of this is the the staff in the office. Um, and additionally working um as they do hand in hand with um this is Preston on the state and federal programs. Um again, we have to spend the money first and then get reimbursement from um the the state from the federal through the state with it. Uh we do those cash requests and that did reduce
127um the amount of money on the advances for this year. I think it's the lowest it's been in in probably since I've been here in five or six years. So that's a positive thing. So the schedule that you see replaces the one that we did um in May. The transfer amount that you see, the the heavy one is that annually we do a transfer that subsidizes the athletic fund primarily for the uh supplemental pay for the coaches um and advisors. And so the request is item 10.02 is to approve the FY25 advances and transfers as presented. Again, it's modifying what we did in May. 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. Thank you, Miss Sandborn. Any
128discussion? Mr. Rudy? Yes. Miss Sambort? Yes. Mr. Spencer? Yes. Mr. Patton? Yes. Mr. Chumley? Yes. Five? Yes. All right. Item 10.03. Uh that is request for um approval of the temporary appropriation measure measure for FY26. Um so as we go forward, this is the spending authority so that we could start um spending out the budget for the next fiscal year. Um because the the way we work with the county budget commission, there is not um an estimate of the revenue done. They bypass the tax budget um which is done and some of those things may change next year, some may not. But um the general fund, the operating fund is at 75% of what we've um projected in our five-year forecast. Most of the other funds are at the full level that we put together.
129We do come back in September to do a full annual appropriation measure. Um I you know we we may submit purpose and budget statements in July and August, but the full appropriation measure um comes back to us in September after we work with the county budget commission um certifying the revenues um back to us. So item 10.03 is a request for the temporary appropriation measure for fiscal year FY26. 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. Thank you, Miss Hamour. Is there any discussion? Thank you. Roll call, please. Mr. Rudy? Yes. Miss Samborn? Yes. Mrs. Spencer? Yes. Mr. Patton? Yes. Mr. Chumley? Yes. Five? Yes. Okay, I'll be brief in my comments. Again, I always compliment the
130staff annually uh for that award of excellence for financial reporting. Um, you know, it it goes hand inand as we do that with our annual audit. Um, and I know the staff was there New Year's Eve finalizing everything and submitting everything so it was done on time. So, very much appreciate their hard work and their excellencies in everything that they do. Um, superintendent gave the update on the budget. Um the initial projection from the bianium bill from the the the conference committee that submitted it um is that we will over the two-year period uh have a gain of about $2.8 million. Um you know that's not additional money that we look at spending. Um that is additional money that we look at offsetting the deficit up the road. You know, as mentioned earlier, we know
131that we start deficit spending um within a year or two and then our cash balance starts to get depleted down. Uh but you know, kind of rest assured as we go forward, we're really looking at that increase to offset um the deficit that is projected out um into the future. We will the the five-year forecast and again that may be that may be part of the bianium bill that gets reduced from five to to four years or so as we go forward. We will be updating that. Um we historically had to do that in November. That may come earlier. I'm not too sure. But we'll get that updated um with the new information that we have in it. It is worth worth mentioning again but um House Bill 335 is the one that had in
132my eyes the three reductions eliminating the um inside millillage which was a direct reduction of our revenue that did not go through yet but is still out there. the reduction in our growth um did go through in the bianium bill and that was the um taking our emergency levies the one that was passed in 2020 the continuing substitute and have them go against the 20 mil floor that brings us off the floor. So our ability to grow revenue with increase in valuation does not continue anymore. Okay. Until the the growth is such that it brings us back down to the 20 mil floor and that will not be for for several years. Well, and I don't think I said or I don't know if you did either. We can't renew the 2020 levy right now
133in 2030. Right. Yeah. As a renewal levy. Yeah. Did you say that something? No, that's the reduction number three. Okay. Sorry. I was just thinking I forgot to say that one. Okay. that is the the reduction of our opportunities, right, to put things on the ballot. Um, so typically that would be a renewal levy, okay, that we could look at doing. So, in other words, not really increasing, but just renewing what we have, okay, and and so that one and others are kind of stripped away from us as we go forward. So, those last two reduction in growing the revenue, the reduction in opportunities did go through. what is still out there and probably will remain out there and be debated is the inside millillage and what may happen with that. So um talking about
134you know momentum and acceleration we can't put our we can't take our foot off of our advocacy and making sure that we keep that revenue that we still have to do that because that bill is still out there in pending and we got to keep performance. We got to do we got to do the performance and you know it is a which is which is a great thing but you know my experience has been as you continue to inform to perform it gets diff it gets harder right as you know to to to keep improving and to maintain where you're at and you know um once you start slowing down with it then you start regressing. So it is really important as the superintendent mentioned that when we go back you know the last five
135years and look what drove performance we need to keep those things in place and and keep adding to that. So because we're getting rewarded for it so that's a that is a very good thing. That's it. Thank you. So we're going to so I thought um that the renewal levy the wording has to be fixed sum levy. Now we can't use the word renewal levy. Correct. It it basically they eliminated I think the word emergencies and really that renewal of that is gone. So if you're going to put anything on the ballot, you're really looking at um continuing or a limited number of years. You're not you're not doing the emergency. And those were things that when you look at our district where we're spending in the lowest, you know, uh percentage wise of the
136state. So 17% you know if you look at the ranking uh the being at the 20 mil floor was a lifeline for us um the ability to put an emergency levy on the ballot which pass you know was a lifeline for us those things have gone away correct thank you Mr. Romano. Um, we do have a reason to go into executive session. I do want to just emphasize that our next board meeting is it's kind of a little out of sequence. It will be July 9th. That's actually on a Wednesday and it'll be at 7 p.m. So again, July 9th at 7 p.m. here at the Civic Center, but there is a need to go back into executive session um for the consideration of the appointment, employment, dismissal, discipline, promotion, demotion, or compensation of a
137public employee or official. I'll make a motion. Do I have a second? Sub move. Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Patton? Yes. Mr. Rudy? Yes. Mr. Chumley? Yes. Miss Sanborn? Yes. Mr. Spencer? Yes. Five? Yes. There is a potential that we will be coming back out to have a vote uh after we're done with the executive session. Okay, thank you. We are back from executive session. Mr. Romano, will you please take role? Mr. Patton, present. Mr. Rudy, present. Mr. Chumley, present. Miss Sanborn, present. Mrs. Spencer, present. All present. Uh, at this point, moving into board business, uh, I personally will make a motion to approve, uh, the employment contract for the treasur as presented. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Rudy. Is there any discussion? Thank
138you. Roll call, please. Mr. Patton? Yes. Mr. Rudy? Yes. Mr. Chumley? Yes. Miss Sanborn? Yes. Mrs. Spencer? Yes. Five? Yes. Thank you. So, is there any comments? I mean, it's getting late. Does anybody have anything they would like to say? I do have Go ahead, Mr. Rudy. Okay. And Natasha doesn't know about part of this. Um, oh jeez. We had a former employee pass away, I believe, in April. His name is Roger Blackburn. He was a pharmacist and then after retirement from that became uh the attendance person at Glenny Middle School and worked until well into his 80s. See he passed away at 94 maybe. Wow. Uh just a delightful man. Love talking to him. The other one is got word today um Natasha made sure I knew because she knows how I am, but
139former superintendent Mike Ward passed away on Saturday from complications from a a heart surgery. He had confided into with me a few weeks ago that he was having the surgery but asked me not to say anything. He uh he has been working I think on 25% of his heart was effective for over 20 years. They didn't expect him to live more than three. So he really did a good uh a long stint. His wife passed away several years ago. Um they were in a car accident and she had effects from that. But Mike was Natasha reincata. He came in the 90s. I guess it was 94. He came from Forest Hills and he uh he paved the way for a lot of things. He was a curriculum person first. He was assistant superintendent for curriculum.
140He brought technology here and we were visited by other districts because of his great plan. He was um I know that he helped the uh elementary schools uh the ad positions to lower their class size. He did he was big on taming the middle school. We were in a a great place because we had a lot of money during the 90s. And um what else did he do? Oh, he was in the small school project. I attended Harvard with him and a group from West Claremont two different summers where we got the idea and then uh subsequently the funding. He was just a wonderful person. I was union president. He was superintendent. We got along. I could call him if there was an issue and he took care of it. I just can't say enough.
141He's a good friend as well as a a mentor and superintendent. So very very sad. He's um they're having a celebration of life on July 12th in North Dakota. He went back to or he moved from Ohio to he previously had been in Washington and North Dakota. He moved from here to Arizona. his wife passed away. He moved to California where he was from originally, Northern California. Then from there moved to North Dakota because his grandchildren wanted him there and great grandchildren. So he was a big entertainer. So he had had a nice house built there. Um Natasha got to meet him last fall. He uh he told me he was coming and in a message and wanted to see the new high school and meet Natasha and it made his day. Those two were
142like I don't know what thick thieves immediately and uh he would ask me about her in our communications. What was so impressive when we walked around the high school and he reconnected with people that he knew. I mean he knew their their dog's name, their grandpa. I mean he he just the connections that he had, the relationships that he built. He wasn't just another you, he was another Jim, too. Yes. It was like second next level. Uh and people I mean just the smile on their face when they laid eyes on him. It was it was very special. So thank you. He kided me about the first time at Harvard there were 88 people there and he said I knew everybody's name and their story in two days. I looked at him and he said,
143"Who do you think taught me how to do that? The king of networking." And if I can if I can add a connection in 1999 2000 when you were doing when the district was doing the small schools um I was working for a company and then we did the community engagement tabletop exercise that was called learning curves which I think you were a facilitator for and uh Dr. award um submitted what the district had achieved with the community engagement to national school boards association and and annually there's one award that is given to one superintendent one school district um and it's a pretty prestigious award um it's called the Magna Award and I remember with that engagement process that I was able to work with him on back then which I didn't know when I
144came back here and and when I came here in 2020 I honestly had forgotten all about that until I picked up a binder and and Dr. Ward's name was in it and there was also another name in it you know of facilitators and the person's name was Jim Rudy and so but it it was it was going back 25 years it was you know great experience being with him and you know the things that he had accomplished for this district and recognized how the district was recognized because of that was great he didn't expect to be called Dr. award. He wanted everybody to call him Mike. He's that personable and brilliant. We're going to put a post out on social media tomorrow if people want to give to his memorial fund. So, all the information
145will be there. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for sharing, Mr. Rudy. Uh, at this point, uh, I would make a motion to adjourn the meeting. Is there a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. Rudy. I'm assuming there will be no discussion. Roll call, please. Mr. Patton? Yes. Mr. Rudy? Yes. Mr. Chumley? Yes. Miss San? Yes, Mr. Spencer. Yes. Five. Yes.