001Good evening. Oh, thank you for attending the October 27th, 2025 meeting at the Westville Schools Board of Education. This evening's agenda will be displayed on the screen above us in the front of the room. Printed agendas are available for our guests um outside or you may find the agenda on your mobile device by connecting to the district's website at www.wcsoh.org. And I should say when I mean outside just around these bends um out front. So you can click on the our district link select board of education and then follow the board docs linked to our current meeting agenda. There will be one opportunity to address the board this evening and agenda item 5.01. There's a sign signup sheet located on the table as you entered the auditorium where those agendas are. Each speaker will have
002three minutes to address the board. A timer will be shown on this screen. And with that, Miss Marshall, will you please call the role? >> Mrs. Alman >> here. >> Mr. Hackleman >> here. >> Mrs. Valentine is absent. Mrs. Leeand >> here. >> Mrs. Meyer >> here. Would you please join us in the pledge of allegiance? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> I'm sorry, I'm >> okay. Next up is district highlights and recognitions, and we don't have any this evening. Um, so we'll be moving along to reports in 4.01. Um, we have the the report card and welcome Mr. Cooper and Mr. Meisner. Oh, >> good evening, President Meyer,
003Vice President Leanne, members of the board, Miss Marshall, and Miss Hamburg. Mr. Meiser will actually be joining me later on here with any questions that the board may have. All right. So, bear with me as we work through the technology here and making sure that we have everything um appropriately shared out there. I did share the presentation with the board. So, if you uh have access to take a look at that um you have the paper copy there as well. So, it's my pleasure to provide this report of um to you this evening on the most recent state report card for Westerville City Schools. The annual report card is one piece of district data that we review each year to reflect and consider any necessary changes and to give us a good measure of how
004things are going for our students and our staff. I do want to note that as we do each year with this report that in many cases the data comes from a specific test on a specific day of the year. While we do consider and reflect on this data, we also collect multiple points of data regarding student progress to ensure our students are meeting state ex state expectations and the standards at each grade level. So the 2526 state report card continues to use the star rating system which took the place of the letter grade system with the 2122 state report card. Six component areas are rated. achievement, progress, gap closing, graduation rate, early literacy, and college, career, workforce, and military readiness. The college, career, workforce, and military readiness, uh, which is oftentimes abbreviated CCWMR, is a
005newly rated component this year. While the component has been on the report card since 2122, this is the first year for it to receive a star rating. So overall, Westerville did receive um an overall three and a half star rating by the state, which means we continue to meet the state's expectations. That three and a half stars overall is down from an overall fourstar rating last year. In reviewing the details of our results on this report card, I will say the margin between our three and a half stars this year and four stars is extremely thin. Um, in the following slides, I'll actually share information with you about each component and just how close the district was to being at four stars um, overall. So, this chart shows the six components that were measured on
006the report card. Calculating the overall score is not as simple as how many stars times the weighted percentage. So, we can see there that achievement and progress are each weighted 25% of the overall score on the report card. And then the other four measures, uh, progress, gap closing, early literacy, um, sorry, gap closing, early literacy, graduation, and the CCWMR rating, um, are all 12 a.5% of the total weight. So, one would think that you just take the number of stars times a certain percentage. Um, and then that would get you to your overall, but that actually is not how it's calculated. So when most within most of the components there are multiple levels within each star rating that correspond to a decimal score that then contributes to an overall decimal score and a final star
007rating. So as you can see here the 2425 results when you calculate the decimals corresponding to our ratings on each of those six measures we have a decimal final score of 3.094. It's not 3.1 stars though. You actually then take that 3.094 and you put that into the chart for the score ranges to then determine the overall rating of the district. And anything between the 2.625 and 3.124 technically is three and a half stars. So when we look at our score being 3.094, we were just shy of that 3.125 that's required for the overall fourstar rating. Um so 0031 points if you're counting at home with that math there u from being as an overall fourstar district. Um moving excuse me [clears throat] moving forward I do want to highlight again the CCWMR is new
008for this year as we look at the the calculations. Last year's overall um calculation was actually done off of the five components with the weighted percentages that are displayed up there. So achievement and progress were 28.601% of the weighted percentage overall. The the graduation rate, gap closing, and early literacy were 14.266% each going into the final. So when we look though at what are rating this year's scores and results with last year's calculations, we would have had a decimal rate of 3.286, which would have been the overall four stars. So if we take our same results this year and were to use last year's calculations, we would have been an overall four-star district. So we would have maintained that four-star rating as a district. So once again, the comparison between the two charts just to
009give you an idea of just how close we were uh with that. Again, we're fully meeting state expectations and I would argue that we're beyond the state expectations as the four stars is exceeding expectations. So three stars meets the expectations, four stars exceeding expectations. We were at three and a half stars final rating. So the first component I want to take a look at here is the achievement rating. The district was four stars overall. We did exceed state standards um with our four stars in this component. Um this component of achievement measures student performance on 20 different state assessments um the ELA, math, science, and social studies areas across the various grade levels uh from third grade up through high school. Points are awarded based on the performance levels with higher levels earning more points.
010Uh the performance levels of limited and basic do not demonstrate proficiency while the other levels of proficient, accomplished, advanced, and advanced plus count as meeting or exceeding the state's expectations. So each student's performance level then contributes to the district's overall performance index. I want to highlight uh with our next slide here, just zooming in on that PI trend or with that performance index trend. So again, all of those results end up going into a formula that creates the performance index. And as you can see here, our 5-year trend that is highlighted on the report card shows that we continue to make progress and improvement moving up on our performance index overall as a district. So in 2021 that report card showed us at a 70.7 followed by an 86.1 87.9 89.1 and now this year
01189.7. So we're very proud of the achievement that continues to move up over time within the next component progress. Again this was an area where we had four stars and exceeded the state standards. Um the progress measure evaluates student growth over time regardless of the initial achievement level. This compares students actual progress to their expected progress. So you may be familiar with the phrase value added within the progress component. The state uses an outside contractor to provide a predictive modeling approach to determine the levels where students should be able to perform based on their previous performance. This is a very complicated measure as you might guess and one that is pretty outside of our control for the expectation of what that measure should be um as we don't know where students are expected to perform.
012The state does not give us that measure of where should they perform at the end of the year. What will you need to get to that value added that's expected or exceeds state expectations. It's simply a measure that the state looks at um after the fact essentially to tell us where we met progress and where we didn't meet progress. Um, but at the end of the day, that progress measure again, we had four stars overall as a district and exceeded that state standard, which means our staff, our teachers, our students are doing a great job with their continual growth year-to-year. I just kind of want to highlight that, Mark. So, this one means that um we are actually exceeding the expected growth for a year. So our kids are growing more than a year in
013a year which is um this to me is a huge measure in terms of because it takes into account where the kids are starting whereas achievement does not. So kudos to our staff for that one. [snorts] On the third component gap closing u this focuses on closing achievement gaps among various student groups that are identified by the state. for example, race, e uh economically disadvantaged students with disabilities and our English learners. Uh points are awarded based on the gap closing performance. This component focuses on closing achievement gaps among various student groups. Um points are awarded based on multiple indicators within this component. So specifically when we look at one of those um areas that are measured within the gap closing component, one example is the comparison of subgroups within the district based on the state
014determined goal and in this case it's English language arts achievement. So the state looks at uh specifically all of our subgroups and the in the English language arts achievement category. The gold circle represents the state's goal and each bar represents a subgroup of our students and where they performed compared to the state goal. So, as you can see there, this graph shows seven of our of our nine subgroups met or exceeded the state's goals for English language art, sorry, English language arts. Um so therefore we got seven out of the nine points in the gap closing measure overall um for this specific measure of English language arts. Another example would be the math achievement. So again you see the same nine subgroups here and uh with this one once again that gold circle represents the
015state's goal and each bar represents a subgroup of our students and where they performed compared to the state goal. So, as you can see, that red bar at the top indicates that um our white non-Hispanic students performed well beyond that gold uh circle, which is the the state expectation. Uh and again, looking at each of our subgroups and uh where they performed. This graph shows eight of our nine subgroups met or exceeded the state's goals for math. So, again, we would have gotten eight out of the nine potential points um in this category. Another part of the the gap closing that I do want to discuss a bit here tonight is um to take a moment to discuss another measure uh being chronic absenteeism. So this is a measure that results in all or nothing
016points. You either earn all five points within this measure or you earn zero points within this measure. And so in the 2324 school year, our students um distributed or sorry displayed a 17.9% chronic absenteeism rate. And I'll go into the definition of that in just a bit. Um but we earned all five points on the state report card in this measure last year. When we take a look at this year um the 2425 school year, but this year's report card, it was at 17.8% 8% chronic absenteeism rate. However, we earn zero points. So, when we take a look at the state's chart here, the state actually has a moving measure on this. And so, there's a goal that by the 203031 school year that the chronic absenteeism rate will be at 5%. So, when we
017look at last school year, that rate was 18.3%. And again, if you look at our result from last year, it was 17.9. So, we met the goal and we got all five points. This year, that goal is 16.4%. That's highlighted there in the orange and we had 17.8. So, even though we did a touch better, we actually scored zero points for this measure. Um, that will continue to change over time. I will note that districts can still meet the expectation. There is a caveat to these rules um as there are many cases. And in this case, if a district reduces their overall chronic absenteeism rate by 3% of their previous year's rate, then you also can meet the expectation, which we didn't decrease by that much either. Um, so with that said, um, I do
018want to highlight a little bit more about this because one point in this area, so just a partial point in this area perhaps saying, hey, the district maintained or actually did better than the previous year. So maybe earning a partial point for this um would have still resulted in four stars in the gap closing component. But as I indicated earlier, there are different levels and different decimals that are earned for the overall and we would have jumped a bit. We would have still been four stars, but we would have jumped into the next smaller decimal um table and therefore would have been four stars overall as a district. So again, when I talk about how close we were to being four stars overall as a district, this is an indication of just how close that
019was. Um just one point out of the five um for perhaps just maintaining our our rate would have uh gotten us to that point. So what is the definition of chronic absenteeism? So chronic absenteeism is defined as students who miss more than 10% of the total school hours. you would think for unexcused absences, but it's actually for excused or unexcused absences. So, when we think about that, we fully recognize that many of our students may need to miss school for medical or illness reasons. Perhaps they have a fever, they can't come to school for 24 hours after that fever has broken. Um, family trips during the school year may also be very excellent educational experiences for our kids. And we know that those are all u reasons as to why a student may be excused
020from school. Unfortunately, the state counts these absences in this measure against us. Um so missing just two school days per month on average results in a student being chronically absent. So this is an area where families I will say can really help the district by ensuring students are in school whenever possible. We absolutely want our students to be taken care of from their health and safety and we want those educational experiences that a family may say, "Hey, I want to take my student to um this country or this state and have them explore the educational opportunities that can be certainly gathered from a family trip like that. Um, but we just want to note that this is one of those areas where if possible in scheduling routine doctor's visits, family trips, um, if those can
021happen outside the school day or during school breaks, that would be a huge help to us in helping specifically with this chronic absenteeism measure. Um, so once again, just want to kind of highlight specifically one of those areas um, and how we did in that area, but how that area impacted our overall score. Looking at another component in this measure um or in the overall report card was the graduation rate. We did have four stars and exceeded the state standards for this area. Um graduation rate assesses the percentage of students who graduate within four or five years. Points are awarded based on that graduation rate. The four-year graduation rate is 60% of the overall graduation rating and five-year graduation rate is 40% of the graduation rating. So those uh are the weighted percentages that go
022together to create that district graduation rate uh rating. We did have a 93.9% graduation rate in the 2425 school year. Um last year that rate was 94%. And these two rates, 93.9 and 94% are the highest graduation rates the district has had in about 20 years. Um, so again, our students are achieving. Thank you. [applause] It is definitely powerful information as to work that goes into supporting our kids every day, our teachers, um, our additional supports, our job coaches, um, our academic enrichment center. So much goes into helping our students to be successful in earning that diploma and being ready for their college career, workforce or military um if so be it that that is their choice. And I'll talk about that measure in just a bit. Moving on to the next component, early literacy.
023This is an area where we were rated two stars and as the state would note there being an area where they uh we need support. The early literacy component is an area um where we absolutely have some work to do and we want to do to improve. I do want to note the very tight margin that kept us from three stars for this component. So the overall calculation when you dig into all the technical documents that the state has when we uh look at the earned calculation of this measure was 67.5%. We earned 67.5%. When you look at our third grade reading proficiency, which was a 40 40% of the weighted measure, promotion to fourth grade, which was 35% of the measure, and improving K3 literacy, which was 25% of the measure. That's how you
024get to the 100% of the overall measure, and we earned a calculation of 67.5. The mark for three stars in this category is 68%. So, it's obvious there's no rounding up happening um with things, but 67.5%. So, we are 0.5% um off of being three stars in this specific area. And as you can guess, that three stars would have knocked us up once again to an overall four stars for the district. So, what is that.5% difference in this area? Um I would like to note that the state did move um in this uh 50% uh sorry 40% third grade reading proficiency. Um when we look at that reading proficiency, there is the third grade ELA assessment. And so it's not the overall English language arts assessment, but they actually look at the subcore of reading.
025So there's a reading subcore within that assessment. And um that benchmark is 50 points to get 50 points to be able to meet the benchmark and be proficient uh in that reading measure specifically. Last year the state's mark was 48. And so once again this is an area where the state has moved the measure for us. Um 44 of our students of the 1121 students that were tested scored a 49. And the most recent results with last year's expectations would have resulted in three stars on this measure. Had 13 students of the 44 earned that subcore. So if they earned one more point, 13 students out of 1121 that were tested, um then we would have m we would have earned that three star rating. So once again, very tight, very close margins of being
026able to um be at that next level. Another item that we are continuing to review in this measure when we look at that improving K3 literacy. Uh I'll skip over the promotion to fourth grade, but quite honestly we earned all 35% there. Um 99.9% of our students were promoted from third grade to fourth grade this past year. Um the improving K3 literacy is another area that we are tracking closely. Um we are continuing to review the assessment that is used for this. So the district chooses its assessment uh for this specific measure. We currently use the I Ready literacy assessment and that measure um is used then that we report to the state for these results of this 25%. So it is a self-reported um measure. There are multiple assessments that can be used for
027this measure and there may be some better options than the I Ready as it is intended to be a comprehensive measure of the grade level expectations. And the point of the I Ready is to help our teachers to identify areas where individual students may need the most amount of support as we go through the year. So in envisioning this, our students come in, let's say first grade. They come in, they're assessed in the first week of school as to where they are on the I Ready and it is measuring their their standards for the entire first grade year. So we're talking about students who are six years old coming in and demonstrating that they have met all the expectations for the whole first grade year. So, it's a great assessment for us from a diagnostic
028standpoint to be able to know where our students are, but it's not so great of a measure to use when we're talking about the state saying, "Hey, we're going to grab that and say, "Oh, all these students are off track." And one would expect that most students are off track coming into first grade, that they're not meeting endofear first grade expectations. Um, there are assessments that are out there that we want to continue to look at. We are talking with some of our similar districts um as well as some of the other districts in the area um that to determine what assessments they are using um not just from a standpoint of hey what assessment helps you to show the the accurate amount of students on track to start their first grade or second or
029third grade year kindergarten for that matter. um but really trying to find a measure that is helpful to our teachers in understanding where our students are and how we can support them to meet grade level expectations. So this is one that you know one could probably argue about the various assessments that are there. Um at the end of the day the uh this measure counts on the district report card based off of our results on this specific assessment. Um, I also want to note that with that as well, um, Miss Tom and Miss Kate Tommo will be presenting information after my presentation here tonight. It'll be a little shorter for you. Um, but it'll be all about MTSS. And so, we use the the assessment results um, for our I Ready assessments to help us
030determine students that need additional support um, in addition to what's happening in the classroom. So more about that on the MTSS measures in just a bit. So what assessments maybe are out there? Um as we consider some assessments to use, there are a certain number of assessments that are approved by the state. I Ready is one of them. Um, we also got word um recently with some state legislative changes and as you can see here a uh note dated from the state's website of September 3rd that there will be upcoming changes to district and school reading diagnostic assessments. I Ready is one of those that we currently use. So, as it states here, beginning in the 2627 school year, that's next year, the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce is required to make significant changes
031to its approved list of reading diagnostic assessments. Under upcoming changes to Ohio law, the department must approve up to five reading diagnostic assessments aligned with the academic standards for each grade from kindergarten to grade three by June 30th of 2026. So with that said, we must wait until the state approves up to five. So it may be one, it may be three, up to five assessments uh restricted there that they will tell us what we can use that then contributes to this measure. Um, with that said, they have until June 30th, so beyond the end of this school year, and the district must implement one of those five approved assessments, if there are five, a few months later to start the next school year as in mid August of 2026. So, this is going to
032be a very tight timeline for us. It is one that we will be exploring various assessments that can currently be used um and anticipate potentially hopefully they'll make that decision well before June 30th. Um we don't always get that time um to consider it but it may be a quick decision if that is a later decision that happens and we'll have to move forward quickly in purchasing potentially new assessments uh for our students. And Mark, how much funding do we anticipate getting to purchase those funings, those assessments? >> Um, I will talk about unfunded mandates later. Um, >> so certainly it is, >> but we have a contract with our current vendor, right? So, I mean, that's a piece of just to point out the types of things that we're trying to deal with to
033make sure we have a good assessment for our students and for our teachers. >> Um, at the same time, we're under a contract and we are expecting zero funding, >> right, to pay for that. >> That's correct. To our knowledge, there is no funding that comes with this potential change uh for school districts. And again, it may or may not be a measure that is helpful for us looking at our students locally and what our students need and what our teachers believe um is useful to them as they work with our students throughout the year. So the final measure as I noted earlier um this is a newly rated component the CCWMR college career workforce and military readiness. Um we did have a two-star rating as our initial rating for this this year which again
034is noted as the state of needing support. This area does assess the percentage of students who meet the post-secary readiness um components. I will say as a district we fully believe in ensuring our students are ready for college, a career, the workforce or the military. And quite honestly, as we look at our portrait of a graduate that has existed and been a big community effort for our students, it exists because of our belief in preparing our students for their future beyond graduation. We also believe that all students who have demonstrated readiness should count in this measure. Unfortunately, many students who were indeed ready for their path ahead were not accounted for in the state's measure. So, as we look here, we do have a um some graphs. The blue graphs are specifically areas that count
035uh according to the state as measures that will qualify a student to be considered ready for college, career, the workforce, or the military. The state looks at 11 specific areas. So the grade out areas are reported but they're not they do not count toward the measure. Um so students who receive an honors diploma, an industry recognized credential, dual enrollment credit, um the ACT or SAT if they're remediation free, which you could see there is one of our highest performing areas for our students. Um they must have a qualifying score on three or more AP or IB exams. military enlistment, apprenticeship with acceptance being 18 years or older, pre-apprenticeship completion, apprenticeship completion, um the achieve proficiency on three or more technical assessments in a single career pathway, and finally the Ohio means job readiness seal along
036with 250 hours of work-based learning within that job. So to talk through a little bit of uh scenarios here. First off, uh military enlistment. I do want to note that there were some concerns across several districts that we've talked with as we did have some students that enlisted in the military. Um with that said, the state requires that we prove uh that the student has indeed enlisted in the military to get their military seal for part of their graduation requirements. Um, however, the state actually requires that we report that in a different platform in a different area um to count for this measure. And so although students absolutely did enlist, they absolutely have the proof of that. Um, we did not have the report in the right place. Um, and again, [clears throat] this is
037a new measure. So, lesson learned on some things from this. Um I will also note here that the the state has as part of these 11 areas the apprenticeship with acceptance being 18 years or older. Um so our students must be 18. They also this is post high school. So this is if they've graduated. So one questions how exactly do you report a measure of students who are 18 and have graduated when you are to be reporting it at the end of the school year. Um so obviously there would be a very tight window um where this would have to be reported within. Um also the apprenticeship completion there to our knowledge is not one student across the state who has made this measure because completing an apprenticeship happens well after high school. Most apprenticeships
038are two or four years and so there is no way for a student to meet this measure. the state has recognized that and they've shared that with our college career readiness um um staff and specifically then um they I hope they make some some changes. I will say Matt Meisner who may be out there now um and Matt has actually um shared with me that they had multiple conversations with the state um multiple college career readiness uh adviserss and directors and supervisors and coordinators. They have had conversations with the state in advance of these measures and did share these kind of uh tidbits of information as to potential changes. Unfortunately, there were zero changes made from the feedback that they gave to the state. Um so now that the results are in on some things,
039my hope is that we certainly uh hear from the state u some potential changes that do occur in this area. Um but I want to highlight a specific scenario that was pretty common as we looked at um students who did not meet one of these areas in particular. Um so one of our students um that we actually had uh in the the district who did not qualify of of being college career ready um had a 3.65 65 GPA. Successfully completed two business pathway courses, but in the state's eyes, you have to have three. Successfully completed two AP courses, but in the state's requirements, you have to have three. And successfully completed two college credit plus courses, earning six college credits, but in the state's requirements, you have to have 12 college credits. So had the
040student taken one more AP course instead of a college course or two more college courses instead of the two AP courses, they would have counted on the measure. So this scenario was fairly common as we reviewed students who did not count on the measure. Um we are hopeful that the state will review these issues many districts face with this measure and ensure that students who are truly ready for their path beyond high school are accounted for in this measure. And I just want to echo what Mark pointed out earlier that we did give this feedback, the superintendent groups as well. I know Matt's group, we all gave this feedback on the front end. Um, we're very fortunate in Westerville to be able to offer college credit plus courses on our campus. And I shared with
041the board previously, we had 4,372 credits earned last year. And so part of the reason that number is so high is because we do have college credit plus on campus, a lot of our kids choose to take a mixture. Whereas in some districts, they don't offer CCP in house. If a kid wants to take it, they have to drive themselves to a college campus. And so they might have more AP classes because that's all that's available. So we're actually giving more opportunities, diversifying those experiences for our kids and getting penalized on the measure as a result. Can can I just repeat that? Um because we're providing opportunities, we got penalized, right? because we have different tracks CCP, AP, [clears throat] IB. So when students are picking and choosing from that menu of options, it actually
042hurts us here. >> That is correct. So because the robust options that are for our kids and the college career ready or um CCP courses are an expectation of the state. Now we do not have to offer those on campus. We do offer those on campus because we believe that it really will have more students who participate and students who can earn college credit to prepare them for those next steps. Um the AP course offerings as well, same idea, some advanced coursework to prepare students for their future. Um but a student who takes a combination as we see with this example, um which was pretty common of our students who did not meet the measure. Um we see here that that actually did penalize us. And at the end of the day, I would still
043support and fully encourage that our students take the selection of courses that fit them and prepare them for the future. Um, even though that may result in a two-star rating for our district in this area, and I have a feeling that some others feel the same way. >> And Mr. Cooper, while you're on that, could you clarify that if this is not weighted on a cumulative score, >> that example you just provided? >> Mhm. >> That for instance is not weighted like as a cumulative score. Correct. >> Um when you say weighted, are you speaking to >> how is how are all those when you're putting that into the rating system, how is that actually weight in comparison to everything else that they're looking at for that student? >> Yeah. So this student would not
044count at all for the measure. So when we look at that two star rating, um this student didn't count in the rating. So if multiple students who were taking combinations, so if the state allowed for two AP and two college courses as opposed to three or four, um if they allowed a combination of a certain amount, that would be one suggestion absolutely we would make to the state. My guess is that we did make such suggestions to the state because we knew that students do take a combination of the courses to prepare them. Um, our hope is that parents in meeting with their students and talking through what pathway they want to take and how parents can encourage their kids to make the right choices of courses and that they meet with their teachers and
045their counselors that we create the best path for that student for that individual student. And so with that said, again, um, it may not meet the state measure, but we're confident that this student is ready for college, career, andor the workforce or military. >> And I know when you have Mr. Meisner come up. He'll probably he's very passionate about this. I'm sure he'll he'll talk more about it. But I know our pathways were designed intentionally to incorporate different types of courses. And so again, we've done what we think is a good thing for our kids, but the state's not recognizing. I would argue that that's a more robust experience than a kid just taking random classes versus in a pathway where they're linked into an interest area to prepare them. So many things um that
046have gone through here, many measures, uh many things learned. Uh we certainly have areas and we will own the fact that we will never be perfect with our kids. We will never be 100% in everything. And so we will continue to strive to improve and support our kids and preparing them for their future. We will work with our families to ensure that they feel that their students have what they need to be successful. Um, but at the end of the day, in closing, I do want to note that despite the many challenges we face, whether that is a continued loss in state funding, whether that is unfunded state mandates that require the district to continue to make ongoing changes to curriculum and operations of the district, or whether we look at the the challenge of
047continually changing metrics on how our schools are measured, that WCS, this district remains a strong district serving our students, families, and community. We believe that all students are capable of learning at high levels and it is our collective job in this community, not just the district but this entire community um to help them, every one of our students to reach their full potential. For some students, it may take some time. It may take more time. It may take additional support or alternative methods of learning. But every individual student in this district is important to us and we want to make sure that they know that they belong here. Our student success is all due to the teachers, the bus drivers, the pair professionals, the secretaries, the food service workers, our custodians, our administrators, and every
048individual volunteer and staff member working with our district and their families to help every student grow and feel like WCS is truly where they belong. And so with that, I'll take any questions you may have. >> Um, thank you, Mr. Cooper. [clears throat] I think um this is really reflective, right, of um how impossible it is to compare where we were 10 years ago to where we are here because of just the changes that they made in just one year, right? And so when we look back and look at, I don't know, 2015, it could look drastically different and it will look different next year, too. So I think it's a really good reminder that this is a a snapshot. It's one data point and I know we're going to talk about more data points
049here in a minute, >> but it's just something that I've continued to hear out in the community is let's look back and why is it not adding up? And so this is really why >> yeah changing metrics, changing assessments. Um again I noted earlier here another assessment that may or may not change because the state will tell us what we can choose from an approved vendor list. Um so tests and um metrics [clears throat] and measurements and expectations and goals they all change over time and so it's very difficult to look back even a few years. Um again that star rating went into place in 21-22 that was just a couple years ago. Um before that there were letter grades. Before that there were certain ratings of components. Before that it was designated as um
050districts with distinction or certain expectations that were met or not met. um the the performance indicators and so if you look back just 10 years within this district um across the state for that matter I should say the report card has changed drastically. >> Thank you. I just have you brought it up again. So, I have a follow-up question to go circling back to this mandate about how we may be changing. We may have five approved assessments. And so, I'm wondering could, and you may not know this, but how much could that potentially cost us if we needed to switch to a new assessment? And I do believe it was already mentioned by Miss Hamburg. I can't imagine we'll actually get any funding to be able to do that, but it could be. uh you
051know it would depend on the specific assessment and so uh right now there are about uh 12 to 15 assessments that you can choose from. Um so again the state will determine which those are and potentially once the state decides which five or potentially two or even one. Um my guess is that those assessment vendors may choose to change their prices as well. And so that's a possibility u a real possibility. So, it is really hard to know what what exactly that number is going to be. >> Thank you, Mr. Cooper. I really appreciated this. I felt like it was very informative and that that was a lot of math and I think very difficult to follow. Um, but I'm going to ask you a very loaded question. So, bear with me. >> Sure. So
052I think just given what you've explained to us when we look at a component area like college career workforce military [clears throat] readiness which we know is new as you've mentioned and we know that our district for example we're only able to give kids these career technical career opportunities because of these external partnerships with Columbus and um Delaware [snorts] and that's how they're able to gain these very important experiences while they're in our buildings. Um would you say that it is I don't want to say impossible because we keep saying it's very extremely difficult um for districts like ours to earn those five stars because of these constant changes to the measures. Um and I think we just wouldn't be fairly rated in a category like this because as you just shared that gold post
053keeps changing. >> Um >> all these factors are at play here. How because I think a lot of times when folks are online and they're seeing they didn't get the five star, they didn't get the four star, but again you have a very specific example like this. This is a new category that was added. We know absenteeism was also added. How can district ours is it fair to expect us to earn a fivestar in these areas when we know that these changes just keep coming down the pipeline? >> Yeah, great questions and I I'll give uh Matt Meiser an opportunity to respond if he has anything to add to this. Um, first off, I would say I think um, you know, for example, when we look at some districts around us, um, some high performing
054districts that may have even had four or five stars in the college career readiness um, uh, component, um, some of those districts offer CCP because they're required to by law, but they don't offer them on campus as we do. And so students who um may be interested in the college course may not take it because they have to drive somewhere to take that course. And so they might take an AP course or additional AP courses because of that. And so they meet the measure because of that. But one could argue is that what's best for the student that they took additional AP courses that may or may not be related to their career path um because really that was their only option that they didn't have the choice to travel off-campus for things. Um, uh,
055another point that you mentioned on there, uh, just overall, is it fair to, uh, to think that districts can get here? I I think there absolutely are measures in place because, uh, we want to continue to improve. I think there's absolutely validity in some of these pieces of data that we want to continue to look at and reflect on and determine how can we get better in serving our students and ensuring that they are prepared for the future. Um, with that said, I think it, you know, there are questions about specifically what those measures are. These are not locally determined measures. They are determined by the state themselves as to what they believe are measures that are important to them. Um, and as we can see, there may be some measures that we say, hey,
056look, we we have certain offerings in our district that we want to continue to offer those options for our kids. And it may come at the expense of having a lower star rating on something, but we believe locally that is what's best for our kids. And so fair question. There are certainly some things we can take and learn from and we will own that. Um I don't think any staff member out here is saying yeah I'm just going to dismiss all that and and we'll just move on and see what happens next year. We are absolutely owning this data and taking it and learning from it and saying what can we do differently? But also at the end of the day some of these measures we might say you know at the end of the
057day that's not important to us because we recognize by doing some of these things that are best for our kids we might not meet that measure. Um Mr. Mr. Miser, I don't know if you have anything else more to add on the career technical piece. >> Yeah, good evening. Um, I just wanted to add, yeah, certainly we can get to a fivestar. I don't think that that's impossible. Um, but I will say just talking to my colleagues across the region, across the state, what we offer in Westerville is sort of like the gold standard, right? A mixture of IB, AP, CCP. um our kids uh second part of that measure uh and uh Mark Cooper and I talked about this is actually following up on where our kids at after they've graduated from high school.
058That does not factor into the report card. That's a report only measure. But we exceed the state average in every single one of those categories. More of our kids go on and enroll in college two years after they've graduated by 15% more than the state average. Our kids graduate with a college degree within six years, which is the measure about 10% higher than the state average. Our kids are enlisted and in attending Ohio technical centers about 5% more than the state average. So, we are sending our kids off to do great things. Um, and that example that Mr. Cooper uh shared, this is a student I dug into. This student right now is attending Ohio State University. They're in a degree program. They're being successful. They're also employed part-time. So that tells you that our
059kids, even though they're not meeting one of these measures, they are going off and doing great things after they graduate from us. And uh Mr. Levan, I wanted to answer your question about the because I think I know where you're going with the how do they factor into the measure. So student factors in once they've hit one of these triggers, they don't count for multiple. So let's say we have a student that gets 12 college credits. They also do a pre-apprenticeship. Um, they also complete um an industry recognized credential. They show up in all the the graphs that Mr. Cooper just showed you, but they actually only count one time on the report card. Once they've hit one measure, that's it. We don't get uh two, three, four points for kids that are factored in.
060So, that student did not factor in in any one of those categories. Therefore, they didn't uh equate on our report card. >> Yeah. >> So, I had a follow-up question to that. So, I see our uh portrait of a graduate, right? And I see social emotional wellness collaboration. And then I turn over to how the state assesses what a portrait of a graduate should be. And I don't see social emotional wellness collaboration. So, you know, I I'm I'm sort of at a loss here when we when we put these things together that the community decides upon that outside groups decide upon this. what makes a solid graduate or this makes one of our graduates sorry college career workforce and military ready these are the things and the state says but we want these things and
061they don't show up on a metric how do we what's our what's our objective to balance that or is it is to my colleague is that just kind of always a little out of reach uh for us because there's no assessment point no data point on here for that >> yeah great question I think you alluded to some of potentially some of the answers and that is um you know really what our board expects for our district. You are the elected officials that help to guide um our administrative team on what you feel um and know that our community wants. Um the portrait of a graduate is a great point that you make here because our community developed that portrait of a graduate. We had multiple business uh members, we had parents, we had staff
062members who contributed to this portrait of a graduate just a few years back. This is still relatively new. And so with that said, we chose as a community what we wanted for our students when they graduate from Westerville City Schools. And so these may not may be some skill sets and I would argue are some skill sets that aren't necessarily measured through an assessment. And so with that said, I think it's really just taking in the results and saying, okay, here are the results. What can we take and learn from these results? in which of these areas do we feel like hey we're doing the right thing for our community and we can just recognize that that may not come through a four or five star um in certain areas but at the end of
063the day we are still performing extremely well um our staff members and our our kids are doing a great job uh and just to shift gears because I know this data doesn't the state looks at this this their objectives in kind of a vacuum and pick out the data points that they like and then they show them to us and we go Okay. Um, but there is one here with a English language arts achievement that I wanted to just touch on real briefly. Uh, I'm sorry, my my chart here is black and white. So, I'm not sure what what sections we're talking about, but it looks like we have two demographics in particular that we they're a little outside of where we wanted to be in terms of meeting those objectives. Um, I'm I'm curious
064if that's a a resource issue, an allocation issue. Um, is it I mean I know our demographic is extremely diverse and I can't see which ones those necessarily are, but I was curious what our plan was uh maybe in particular with these uh English language arts learners to uh close that gap a little bit of what what that might look like. >> Yeah, good question. And actually, as we look at these specific uh measures, so the English language arts, if I'm looking in the same spot as you on that assessment, are you looking at the bottom graph uh the bottom bar? Yeah. So, it looks like this for me and I >> So, I'm sorry I saved I saved on some color ink. Um, but I will note that that specific bottom bar correlates to
065our students with disabilities. And so, they didn't quite meet the mark. They were very close to meeting that that gold circle. Um, and then the other area, that green bar, which is the fourth bar down, um, is our Asian or Pacific Islander group that did not quite meet the benchmark expected for from the state's goals. Um, so our students who are English learners did meet the benchmark that's expected by the state for that area. Um, they are noted, it's a little hard to see, but I believe it's that beige line. Um, third, fourth, fifth, sixth bar down on that list. >> So, our students with disabilities and our Asian or Pacific Islander learners. Um, uh, is that a matter of resources for us? Is it a matter of curriculum? I mean, what are we looking
066at here to help close both those gaps? >> Yeah, good question. I think um from the general education standpoint, I think it may just be looking at where um those students did not show performance. Um I think from the students with disabilities standpoint, we're constantly looking at that measure as to how can we better support our students. Um it is a big job. Um our teachers that do that work um have a very big job in supporting each of our students with disabilities. And I think it's, you know, again, it's very close to that measure. I think yeartoyear we're really looking at um how can we just get them um to that point of being proficient uh in the state's eyes. Um on the math assessment, I think our only area that did not meet
067um also was just our students with disabilities. I say just, but that was the only of the um 11 different categories there um or nine different categories there. And so once again, um, from a resource standpoint, we have seen a growing number of students with disabilities across our district. Um, and that is where we have continually added staff over the last few years. Um, when we talk about an area of staff increasing, you may see an overall reduction of enrollment across the district. But when we see our student population of students with disabilities that show that they need more intensive support, um, we do add staff members. and I believe we've added about 20 to 30 staff members over the last few years specifically in supporting our growing enrollment. Um it has grown by leaps
068and bounds the number of students with disabilities. >> Has the state raised the bar on what is expected of students with disabilities? Is that a part of like us trying to close that gap or has that standard remain relatively the same and we're just we're just trying to trying to have the resources necessary? >> So depending on the assessment, yes, some of those measures are continually changing. So when I spoke to that third grade reading subcore, our students with disabilities are taking that third grade test. And so what 48 was a passing measure last year for the proficiency in reading, um it is now a 50. And so that that benchmark is continually growing. Um and so we we will continue to work to meet that. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Can I
069add one thing, Mr. Cooper? >> I'm back here. >> Oh, sorry. >> In the dark. >> Where did that voice come from? >> I know. [laughter] Um, I'm just going to add one thing to your question about the portrait of a graduate. So, every single day I talk to businesses in our community. We're trying to fill the employment gap. We're trying to get kids um and young people into careers. And no business ever has asked me what the web exam scores are for a student. No business ever has asked me, did you report their military enlistment in two different platforms on the state website correctly? But what they do ask me is, can the kids solve problems? Can they communicate? Can they collaborate? So, I just want to make that point that um hopefully the
070state will also listen because I know our business partners, I've got some of them fired up about this as well, that they're going to be providing input to the state to say what you're measuring is not even what we're looking for. Um if the end goal is that our kids are employed, what are we what are we measuring to make sure that they're ready to do that? It's not their web exam scores. It's not where their military enlistment's gone. It's can these can they do those six skills that we have in our portrait. >> I think that touches on the the social emotional skills, right? Like being able to collaborate with somebody, work in a team and work with difficult people or you know flex when those people um have different learning styles or work
071styles. >> Um I have a question about the um the assessments you know that we have to it's going to be up to five, right? >> Yes. um how will we vet those and make a decision? Can you talk that through? >> Yeah, good question. Um again, this will be a conversation that we have throughout this year as we explore what are the assessments that are out there being used that could be potentially u one of those five or maybe just two or three that are accepted. Um but then from there I we actually uh again Kate Tom will be presenting here in just a few minutes and speaking specifically to our MTSS work and how we you utilize that data. Um but um I'll ask Kate if you can kind of uh speak to
072that in just a bit as well um on the assessment. >> But just so I just want to make it absolutely clear, we're just looking at these other assessments. We're not going to make a decision until we hear back from the state. >> Yes, absolutely. We cannot make a decision until we know what the state is going to approve for those those assessments. Hopefully, again, it'll be well before that June 30th deadline. There have been moments where the decision has not been made until into u past the deadline, I should say. Um, and again, it puts us into motion very quickly and having to make a fast decision. >> And I would just add to probably state the obvious, but it's also an extra stressor on our staff then as they're trying to start the
073year and trying to learn a new system. And so that cramped turnaround time that they've given themselves a very long window to decide what the assessments will be, they're giving us a very short window for our staff to try to do that as they're already busy trying to form relationships and do all the things that we need to do at the beginning of the school year. >> Excellent point. And I think about the professional development that's needed to assess um and learn a new assessment potentially that that staff members haven't been uh using before. So absolutely there are very tight timelines on things um and so we will we will just continue to do what we can to ensure that uh we have measures in place to support our staff so that our staff members
074can can continue to support our kids. So I just want to underscore one other thing you said. Um so excused ab absences also count towards those 10 days right and >> 10 10% just to check that. Yeah. >> Oh thank you 10%. >> But so do unex excused absences count towards those 10 days in law? Right. that um and then you get called into the office to put forward a plan of how you're going to make sure your student so if you're taking a vacation >> and you miss five seven days and then your child gets sick or you have a medical thing whatever it is um that still counts towards those 10 days of being absent. >> Yeah, thank you. you and I sorry I corrected you a little early on that one but
075yes the the 10% and with the measure for chronic absenteeism is 10% and I think you're maybe speaking to some of the house bill 410 from a few years back on the days and the number of hours and so along with that yes to your point um any absence counts as an absence. Um with that said, the state is also looking at um some additional requirements for districts to um put in certain interventions. Um so the reporting requirement to the state um will not have to happen on certain things because the state I don't know if has the resources to support what they need to support. And so more of the expectations are coming on districts of intervening earlier. And so part of the state's expectations to go to that 5% chronic absenteeism number by
076203031 school year um is that they are putting more measures on local school districts to have to intervene earlier. And so we will apologize in advance parents that are out there for the communication coming home. Um in many cases again we recognize if your child is sick we want your child to stay home. Um, if you are ex uh going through a family experience uh for a trip that is truly educational, um we want you to wherever possible schedule that outside of the school year, but we also recognize the value of that and the right for a parent to make a decision on what they feel is best for their kid. Um, in the same um, token, we recognize that we will have to communicate with you more because the state is putting that requirement
077on local districts to communicate more frequently and earlier because they're at risk of hitting that 10% mark on the overall chronic absenteeism for the year. Um just to follow up with that, this is a very specific question, but I'm just um so if a student takes a college visit >> to be college and career ready, >> correct? >> As a junior or senior, that counts towards their chronic absentee statistic. Okay. Yes. >> I just wanted to make sure >> that excuse absence for a college visit does count against them. And again, if they then reach 10% of the school year, so to put that into perspective, about 175 days in service for kids, 178. Um, so if they miss 18 days, Yep. >> worth of hours. So if a student misses a half day for
078a doctor's appointment, that's a half day toward the overall 18 days for the school year. So if you take two days per month on average that would be meeting the expectation um or beyond the expectation to then count um as a chronic absentee student. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um I actually have I think one other question. Hold on. I have to get back to a particular slide here. Um well let me just ask this big question. So, um, private schools, non-public charter schools where, you know, students receive voucher money to go, not the same report card, correct? >> So, there isn't. Yeah, there isn't a report card. Okay. Um, to that point. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Thanks. Um, I might just ask if we're able to I know we post
079the whole board meeting up online, but I'm wondering if we can cut this snippet out and just post it so people can like if they're looking to try to understand the report card and they weren't able to come tonight, they can go straight there and just get the information and listen to this. >> Yeah. >> Oh, great. Thanks. >> Absolutely. And I don't have a question, but I really do just want I because I think a lot of times we get too bogged down on the negatives and the you know whatifs, but I think we really should applaud ourselves that we've been able to make progress and improve on addressing chronic absenteeism since co 19. We know right now the needs of our kids just based on the demographic of our student populations. It every
080child is not the same. And so whether it's putting in place um interventions or working with the parent to meet the needs of that whole child, we're really doing everything that we can as um to make sure that that kid is able to thrive um in the classroom and outside of the classroom. So I just wanted to really let you know I appreciate this presentation, but just in the grand scheme of things, that's a huge accomplishment. I would say a >> lot of things to [applause] Certainly a lot of things to celebrate throughout this and we could certainly cherrypick the data and just want to show you the great things. Um, you know, just as some may choose and cherrypick the data to show the negative things. From our standpoint, we take all things. We
081look at everything. We own the data. We take what we can learn from the data. We also recognize the pieces of data that just don't fit with what we expect for the students in Westerville City Schools. >> Thank you. Really appreciate our continual improvement mentality, too. >> Sure. >> Um if there's no other questions, we're going along to um MT MTSS report, which I'm hoping Miss Toma will also give us the full explanation of this acronym, what it means. probably not. >> Good evening everybody. Uh first I will tell you what MTSS is but I'm going to back up to the question about how will we choose which diagnostic assessment. Um we would do that work with teachers. So, if you remember me coming back um last year with our very short timeline for K
082through 2 grade um ELA required adoption. Do you remember that? I can see some of my friends that were in that work right here. Um we had about this much time to make a really big decision and we pulled it off thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears of the teachers. um we would do the same thing, but it is uh a pretty unrealistic ask for a teacher to be able to turn around and start that in August and know what any of that data means if we have to change system. In addition to that, we no longer can compare what we have because now we've changed it. Um, so I did want to take the time to answer that and obviously as we start researching, which we've already done by talking to other local
083districts. Um, just trying to learn more about what other people are doing and if they're seeing some of those same things. We're collecting all of that. But I try to do as much frontloading so that when teachers come, I've got it all laid out for them to digest it because those meetings happen after the school day and they're tired and I'm tired. And so we try to give them all the tools they need to make the best collaborative decisions we can. So that was that part. All right, I'm going to shift to MTSS. Um MTSS is exactly um what you've been reading about in Charlie Boss's amazing newsletters that she sends out. Um MTSS stands for multi-tered systems of support and it is our way to provide uh support to students who have an academic
084behavioral or social emotional need. So I know you were asking about what does it look like when we're talking about social emotional and behavioral pieces. Um and that's all encompassed within MTSS. So when we see data like Mr. Cooper just presented, we dig into it and we start saying, is there something we can do to support this student in a different way? And so that's what I'm here to talk to you a little bit about tonight. Um, I know Mr. Cooper touched on this, but and anybody that's been in any of my um MTSS meetings always hears me say we're talking about every classroom, every student, every single day. So whether or not they're in one of our formalized interventions or they're just flying into chemistry class, we're still wrapping our arms around them doing
085the best we can to meet students who both need enrichment or possibly students that need reteing and support to understand those standards. Um our um students are reaping the benefits of the collaborative work that we're doing across PK to 12. So we've worked on our educational framework specifically talking about um the safe and inclusive environments, student centered learning and clear evidence and application of learning. MTSS really hits those pieces and parts in conjunction with the portrait of a graduate. That work doesn't stop just because we're talking about um perhaps data and those pieces. It's all combined together. Um, so our work directly connects to those pieces and allows us to monitor whether or not we need to make adjustments to our instruction. Also, you might remember in July of 2024, we shared our strategic plan.
086So, this was a group of stakeholders that came together to kind of lay out where we headed as a district. And part of priority two, which was student- centered learning, was objective 2.1, which calls for us to implement a multi-tered system of support in Westerville City Schools. And so since we um had that charge, we've been working really hard from PK to 12 to say, what does this look like? And um being newer to secondary, boy, have my eyes been wide open with scheduling and graduation requirements and just the complexities of what it looks like to have a multi-tered system of support in secondary schools. And I can't be more excited about the collaborative work at the secondary side of the house because it doesn't really exist. Like you can't just go search that on
087Google and be like, "Ah, here you go. This is great." because it's too complex. There are layers and layers and I would never say we have it right yet, but I will say that the teachers are committed to doing this work. The administrators are committed to doing this work and there's a lot of energy around how do we work together to make sure that we're meeting every student's needs. Additionally, in August, like just a couple months ago, the state released um Ohio's integrated multi-tered system of support. So, um they put out this infographic. There is a web page on ODO's website. Um, it luckily matches everything we're doing. So, yay, we don't have to change anything. Um, so that's always exciting. But it talks about all of the components that go into a multi-tiered system
088of support. And so, most of those things were already underway um, as we started into the year. Although um you'll see in a second I'm going to talk about multi-tered systems of support don't just happen overnight. They take a long time to um fully implement pieces and parts. And I think that we work on a lot of things. We work really really hard, but if you try to do too much, you don't do any of it well. And so we've tried to chunk it into um manageable pieces and parts and then try them and learn what worked, what didn't work. Use data to decide is this something that's benefiting students or do we need to adjust. One misconception that I want to make sure I clearly state tonight is that MTSS serves all students. It
089is not just for students who might be struggling in a classroom. It is truly intended to meet the needs of every learner that walks through our doors. So whether we are extending learning and challenging in a higher thinking way or whether we're going back to basic reading intervention, every student deserves to have what they need in our classrooms and that's what we're here to work for. So when we talk about multi-tered system of support, I really want to make sure that our gifted families know they're included in this. that our students with disabilities, our EL families, everyone is a part of this work and it's our job to figure out how do we make sure that we're meeting their needs. These are our goals for this year. Um again, across PK to 12 by the
090end of this school year, we'll have structures in place to support students at tier 1, 2, and three. So part of um MTSS is kind of using data to decide tier one is what 80% of our students if I go back to this 80% of our students should be successful with just your general tier one instruction. 15%ish should be um probably within tier 2. Those are students that may be um needing just a little bit more support or perhaps um a quick intervention and then they are able to pick up tier one skills. And then tier three is that intensive level of intervention or support. So it's really targeted um to what is what a student might need. So we're working to have those pieces and parts at every tier across PK to 12. We've
091also embedded micror professional development um on universal design for learning. So that's a lot of words to say. Basically what we're trying to do is look at how we've instructed students forever, right? But those students are not the same students as we just talked about all of these um amazing opportunities our kids have, which is wonderful. But students have changed. The world has changed and we have the obligation to respond to that. And so universal design for learning asks us to rethink about our instruction to make sure that we're removing any barriers uh that could cause a student to not be successful in the classroom. And sometimes these are really minor like I forgot my glasses today and now I can't read the text that's in front of me. Thankfully my teacher has a video
092that I can watch instead. Um, or they can be more major things like I'm going to be learning a standard that's three grade levels below where I'm at, meaning grade-wise, so that I can get that unfinished learning and keep going. So, that's what we're talking about with universal design for learning. And then we also have um our elementaryaries kind of moving on to social, emotional, and behavioral supports. And so those meetings happen one time a month and it's a 10-minute micro PD and then time for teachers to collaborate on whatever skill or strategy we just taught. And that's headed up with our MTSS coaches, but a lot of other people are involved in that work. Our department facilitators at the secondary level have done an amazing job getting started with that. We also have um
093it's the next bullet bullet point um MLT which stands for MTSS leadership teams because we need another acronym in education. Um but we have teams of teachers and administrators and counselors uh social workers that come together and they look at data on a regular basis because we're really trying to prevent students from having to struggle. If we can catch it early and we can intervene, we hope that we'll see that progress in next year's achievement record. Um, not achievement record, that's the elementary grade card. It came out today in case anybody wants to get online and see it. Uh, but the states report card. Um, all of our buildings have an MTSS coach that's supporting teachers in implementing those tier 2 and tier three practices because teachers have a lot on their plate, right? And
094they're trying to design instruction for all of the students they serve. So having a coach be able to help with that and to problem solve and have a thought partner to say this is the skill that's not mastered. How can we work together to support? We also have curriculum specialists at both elementary uh and secondary that are working on tier one strategies and support including in our preschool. So preschool was part of the I said the K2 ELA adoption but remember that started in preschool too. So this fall, preschool had to start a brand new curriculum just like K2 had to start a brand new curriculum for ELA. And so our curriculum specialists help support that work as well. And then probably one of my favorite parts is bringing um district teams together. And so
095this past week we had the opportunity to have our um MTSS district teams. We have a secondary team with some rotating members and then some members that come to every meeting. And then we have an elementary team. But right in the middle of the meeting, we come together for an hour. And I feel like that's where the magic happens because you get all these brilliant people in this room and we talk about what does a student's experience look like from preschool to 12th grade and how are we supporting them? things like fifth to sixth grade transition, 8th to 9th transition, um common language across the district, talking about what worked in one area and how could it work in another. Those are the rich conversations that in only two meetings like give me the chills
096to even think about. And if you um ever want to come visit, like that meeting is pretty incredible to see just the ideas bouncing. Um and and just the focused work happening around that. Uh I mentioned this earlier, but MTSS doesn't just happen. I it'd be cool if it did, but it's a very long process where you kind of work on it in little pieces. So we start with academic frameworks because honestly, we're teachers and so what do we know best? we know academics, right? So, that's an entry point for us to say we know how to read data and we know what to do when a student may be um needing more or we need to go back and retach. Then we shift into building social, emotional and behavioral supports. And that is a
097much harder ball game. and I work with Tammy and her team on this side of the house um talking about what are preventative measures that we can put in place to hopefully ward off behavior or discipline pieces that might pop up. And so it's still using data to make decisions about how we support kids, but we're also talking about those proactive relationship building strategies that help students know that they do belong here and we're here to support them. And then finally, that third year of implementation focuses on enhancing supports for our special populations. So, another amazing meeting that I get to be a part of is our uh subcommittee where we break into a team that's focused on English language learners, one team that's focused on special education students, and one team that is focused
098on gifted students. And so we're talking right now in preparation, how do we do a good job meeting those students needs regardless of which setting they're in. And so that work is on the back end in the planning parts right now. Most importantly, how do we measure if this is working, right? So we constantly review data and I kind of break it into two categories. Small data and big data. So small data is progress monitoring of specific interventions. I put a couple examples that we have currently happening in our classrooms. And then big data is kind of what Mr. Cooper's presentation was on. The Ohio State tests, the Oelpas, the AP exams, all those pieces and parts. What we try to do is look at that in conjunction with our teachers and their qualitative data
099andor their grades, their attendance, all the different pieces and parts that go into a student's experience. and we create these feedback loops where we're constantly talking about is it working? Are students benefiting from it? And if they're not, what are we going to do to make it better? We also are working hard to plan visits with students and collecting anecdotal information regarding what the experience of getting these supports is like. I've got a couple examples to share. Charlie Boss also does a great job capturing those real moments where a student just has that like aha just burst and she's lucky enough to be there to capture it in in pictures. Um but we couldn't do this work if it wasn't all of us working together to review data and make changes. So let me end
100with just a couple great moments. Um so how's it going so far? Um, we are definitely focused on unfinished learning. Specifically, a seventh grade student at Genanoa Middle School said, "I finally get division from getting some extra supports and learning math in a different way." Our students are focused on growth mindset and goal setting. And uh, if you've not met Shelley Seabberry and you want to talk about MTSS or multi-tered system of support, I don't know if she's here, but you should talk to her. Uh what she had the opportunity to do was talk to an eighth grader um who was a little bit frustrated that they were going to need some additional support. And here's how she said it. And I think it really sums it up. This district believes in you so much
101that we put these supports in place so that you can do anything that you want to do. And that student has come back multiple times to thank them for giving her the extra support. Also, these really beautiful moments are happening that we don't even think about. So, I had the opportunity to be here at Central and a 10th grade student when we walked in was um working in Read 180, which is a program we're using for reading intervention, and she went, "Ah, now I know what that word means, and it totally changes the meaning of this song that I was listening to." this whole time she thought the song was about X and then she learned the actual meaning of the word and was like, "Whoa, that song's way different than what I thought it
102was." And so we get those cool moments of like that was not what we were out to fix or solve or work on, right? But it's making those connections that that student was so excited that they learned the meaning of that word. And that's what we're here for. So, I'll close with um I had I was preparing for this and I asked the MTSS coaches and some teachers like what do you want me to say? What should I tell them about MTSS? And Ashley Glover, who's an MTSS coach at Robert Frost Elementary, last year she was a first grade teacher at Manurva, France, and she wrote it so beautifully. I know it's a lot of words, but I'm going to try to sum it up. They didn't just learn, meaning her students, that they belong
103here. They learn that they're capable of thriving here. The real triumph wasn't just my students academic growth. It was watching them claim their own success story. MTSS was a promise of potential for every single student. They actively bought into their own path moving forward. They were the ones plotting their skill growth, celebrating every point of improvement. The data wasn't a burden. It was undeniable proof of their effort. I get a little teareyed talking about it. Sorry. This is a really cool moment to see kids finally realize like, yeah, I can do this. I I can do anything. So, that's what I think MTSS is. What questions can I answer? [applause] >> Thank you. Um, are there any questions? I just have uh one brief one. When you talk about the qualitative data and gathering the
104qualitative data, what does qualitative data look like when it comes to our students social and emotional learning? Like what exactly like not to get too in the weeds, but what specifically are we trying to pick up on so that we can we can ensure because we're going to meet them. I mean it sounds to me and I I don't want to summarize too much here but it sounds to me like MTSS is about a lot about meeting students where they are and then uh seeking to advance them through. So how can we figure out where students or they are using qualitative data? >> Yeah, it's a little tricky on the social emotional behavioral side for sure. We're just getting started in that work. We obviously have the data from Panorama which is um more quantitative
105but for qualitative it's it's the stories that the kids are telling counselors. It's the stories teachers are telling us. about the experience students are having. Um, we recently were looking at data from uh behavior observation forms and trying to like I think it's really hard at 1:00 on the last Friday of the month. I mean, we know that already, but we we are tying things to it that make um actionable next steps. And we're also creating resources. This year we launched um the K2 and 35 SEB or social emotional behav behavioral hubs for teachers and listed on there a a wealth of um interventions you could do morning meeting class community building pieces. So it'll be hard to measure to your point like how do you how do you measure that? But I guarantee if
106you talk to our students and our teachers you'll know and I'd be happy to come back too and tell you more about it. >> Okay. Could you hit quickly? You mentioned morning meeting and I'm not sure the board knows what that is. Could you just share a little bit about how teachers are able to use that as a tool to frontload some of those skills? >> Sure. So, at the K5 level, our classrooms start with morning meeting. It's 20 minutes or less usually and it starts with a greeting. Um, so students learn how to greet each other, how to um look at each other, sometimes shake hands, um, and really truly connect with each other to get ready for their day. it moves into an activity and a share. So students get the opportunity to
107share something that's meaningful to them. Um, which can be really exciting in a kindergarten or first grade class. It's exciting in every room, but it's really exciting in kindergarten and first grade when they share their thoughts. Um, the activity is usually a fun engagement like game to get us warmed up, but it doesn't always have to tie to something direct like math. It's just a time for us to come together as a classroom community. And then it ends with a message. And the message lays out the structure for here's what's going to happen today because we know that students do well with expectations and routine and structure. And so that morning meeting structure really helps pull the day together and start student days on the right foot. I mean, imagine if you've had a rough
108morning at home, you come in and you have your whole class there to support you. Um, and our teachers have done a phenomenal job with that. >> Um, thank you so much. It's it's really exciting work. It's a lot of acronyms. I know. Hold on. But um and and maybe that's uh part of my first question is, you know, for anybody who might be watching or those out here, MTSS, if if you could reexplain something, if you could say, this is the biggest misconception. I think you probably hit it at the beginning of your presentation, but >> what do you want people to know if they take just one thing away, like what is MTSS? >> I want them to know that we're supporting students in lots of different ways, probably more than they realize.
109>> Yep. and that it's every student, right? >> Every student every day in every one of our classrooms. >> Yeah. And it's very different um maybe from the way some of us went to school, >> right? >> Um so, you know, I invite people's curiosity about it and um thank you for the presentation and there's just one um specific thing I wanted to ask which is actually goes back to um Mr. Cooper's presentation. So we know that as the state labels them students with disabilities um we've have some room to you know to make improvement and some work to do on reading and math. And I see in the multi-year implementation that the focus in year three is on enhancing supports for special populations. And I know that doesn't mean we're waiting until year three.
110>> Yes. Y >> So can you just talk a little bit about um how we might start to address some of those issues through MTSS? Yeah, we already have. So, you're right. We aren't waiting until year three. It's just that's the focused learning. Um, so that year, all of our micro PDs, for example, will all be on how we can support students within those special populations. But that does not mean it's not happening now. Um so a shift an example would be um students who perhaps were getting reading intervention outside of the classroom previously now might get time with their teacher plus time with a reading intervention teacher. So you're getting that double dip which research says will help you close learning gaps quicker. Um so it's shifts like that. It's thinking differently about our
111schedules and prioritizing time every day for us to be able to support students in whatever way they need, whether it is a student with the disability or not. Um, the goal again is that every student is getting what they need. Um, and that's that's difficult, but we're here for it and we're going to dig in and and keep working on it. >> Thank you for sharing that example. >> Yeah, >> thank you. I I think um so I'm sitting here digesting everything we heard from Mr. Cooper and from you and it dawns on me that the report card really is a snapshot of the district as a whole, right? Just a snapshot in time. >> But MTSS is really a snapshot of how we're doing with each indiv individual student and collective collectively this could
112really um make sure that we are meeting as you said students exactly where they're at and being able to push in interventions as they need them and be creative. I imagine there are times that a teacher might come and say, "I have this really interesting situation. I don't know what to do." And it sounds like, and correct me if I'm wrong, you're able to take it back, the the group is able to take it back and say, "Hey, I'm experiencing this. What can we do to meet this student?" Yes, that's our goal is that when teachers have concerns about a student, even if they aren't maybe a student we identified from some of those big data points, we still want teachers to be able to say, you know, I feel like we need to dig
113in and support this student. And so we're building structures that support that, too. Um, another unique thing we've done this year is uh with MTSS moving into secondary as well, we are taking like full support teams to building staff meetings. So, for example, when Central had I'm just saying because I'm here that today, but when Central had their MTSS staff meeting, um they had the support not only of their MTSS coach, but some members of the curriculum and instruction team were there. There were other MTSS coaches from around the district, plus they had their department facilitators who had already done some pre-work to be ready to engage teachers in that. Now, that was specific to universal design for learning, a strategy we were talking, but the hope is that we grow in what we're doing
114so that you can have more people to talk, hey, let's talk about this students because the data doesn't look like what I thought it would or I tried this and it didn't work. >> Thank you. I love the collaboration. Thank you. >> I just have a question in regards to um application or roll out. I know this is very very new for this district in the grand scheme of things, but our teachers are already doing like a lot right in the classroom. So can you walk us through the process between when educators across the district give you feedback whether this is what's working and this is not what's working, how you capture that feedback and then work towards making sure that they're also getting the support that they need. >> Sure. Um I do it
115in a couple of different ways. I do think teachers are really busy. So I try not to do a lot of surveys because it's difficult like we get we give a lot of surveys. Uh so a lot of times they'll give direct feedback to their MTSS coach and their coach will share that with me. A lot of feedback comes out of the district MTSS meetings. But I would also say that like when I go out and visit a building, they'll they'll stop and tell me how things are going or what we might want to adjust or tweak or change. But what I try to hold myself accountable to is once I take that feedback, I constantly come back in my meetings and say this is the feedback I got last time and here's the adjustment
116that we've made because of it. So an example in secondary would be um our success center period where we're supporting we had students that needed intervention in both reading and math. And so at first we were trying to do it all and we weren't seeing the gains we wanted. And so we shifted to the area that was most at risk or needed the most intervention that was based on teachers feedback and student data. And we didn't wait a whole year to do that. We made the adjustment for quarter two. So that's what my goal is when I take feedback. It's that I actually can apply pieces and parts of it. Now can I apply everything all the time? No. But that doesn't mean I forgot about it. Um, so I I try to make sure
117that when I'm uh out presenting that I make sure to put up this is the feedback I heard and this is what I did with that. >> Kate does a really good job of always talking about like we just need to start somewhere. So this is very difficult and it's easy to put things off because they're hard. >> Yeah. And I think she does a really good job with her team of we're going to start it and we're going to make those adjustments as we go. But we're not going to just avoid doing it because it's confusing and hard. And I hear her say that a lot at the district level meetings and the people that are doing the work are giving that feedback and I just it's awesome to see. I love popping in
118those meetings and seeing the work. >> Thank you so much. >> Well, um I don't think there's any other questions. just really appreciate all the work that goes into this. I I do echo my colleagues comments. I understand that this is a lot of work to to roll out and put in place and just really grateful that um we're doing this work. Thank you. >> Thanks. >> Okay. Um next up we have uh superintendent's comments. Miss Hamburg, >> thank you. Well, I shared um a slide with the board members because I know you can't see the screen and I can't see the screen to see if it's up there yet. Jennifer's getting it. There we go. So, um for the sake of time because we had two awesome presentations tonight and I do want to
119take just a moment to thank um Mark Cooper, Matt Meisner, Kate Toma for all of the information they shared. Um, you know, we we've had a lot going on obviously this fall and sometimes we take for granted that we know all this work is happening, but I think it's really important that we take time to share it with the board because really the stuff that we talked about tonight is a huge volume of what we do on a daily basis. This is our core work. So, there's a lot, you know, we have our ballot issue going on. Um, there's a lot of noise around that. And so, sometimes it's easy to get distracted and forget that all this great work is happening every single day. And so I want to thank them for sharing it.
120But more importantly, I know we have a lot of folks here. Um I see some of our curriculum specialists and coaches and teachers. And so I just really appreciate all the work that um what they just summarized in that amount of time doesn't begin to scratch the surface of all the work that's going on to make that happen. So thank you to all of you who are here tonight that that are really doing the true work with the kids to make that happen. Um so for the sake of time, I'm just going to share at the last meeting. Um Mrs. Meer, you had requested that we kind of review again those reductions that we had talked about. And so, just wanted to pull that slide back up. Um, and we're talking about the um the
121$20 million that we will need to reduce if we're not successful on the ballot issue. And I'll just kind of run through this list and remind you of kind of what is in each of these areas. So, the first area is the co and extracurriculars. Um, this one is a little unique from the other items because it would be about adding revenue in versus um reducing costs. And so we would be looking at again increasing our pay to participate fees for our middle schoolers to $350, our high schoolers to $500 per sport. Our activity fee would go to $50 for high school, $25 for middle school. And again, uh, we currently have a cap on our sports. We would eliminate that family cap and we would anticipate that we would have about a $1.3 million
122swing in the the deficit through the revenues that we would we would be able to raise there. Um, we have looked at we would um, sadly anticipate there would be a drop off in participation. Um, we know that those increased fees would create barriers for kids and families. And so we would anticipate based on what we saw the last time we had to raise fees up, we would anticipate about a 25% drop off in the participation levels for those sports. Next, we have transportation. And with the transportation and um, Mrs. Dennis and her team have looked at uh, what that would look like with reducing some routes. We know we're already running at a shortage. We're already struggling to staff those, but we think we would be able to reduce um at least 14 routes
123through some changes in transportation zones and eligibility, and that would save us about a million dollars. Um the bulk of our our savings would be in staffing. We are a service industry and the majority of our expenses go to all the people that work with our kids and so obviously that do all the work that we were just talking about. Um, so to kind of go through that 12.3 million, we would be looking at, and these are estimates of positions. We would try to do as few as possible depending on the actual numbers. Um, one of the things we talked about last time, we've seen a lot of changes in the state teachers retirement system requirements. So, they dropped last spring um from 33 years down to 32. If we see an additional decrease there,
124that could impact the number of people who choose to retire because they're suddenly eligible. Um, we know people at the higher end of the pay scale, it's usually about two brand new teachers would equal one person at the end of their career. Obviously, as somebody works throughout their entire career, they make more. Um, so with that, we're looking at around 10 positions administratively. And this is in addition to the um 33 total positions we've already eliminated at a district level after the last levy failure. Um seven of those were administrative. So 10 additional ones. [snorts] Um 64 at the elementary level. That would be looking again at our art, music, physical education, and library because those are not required to be offered at that level. We would also recommend looking at our magnet programs and
125reducing the overall length of the student day so that we could give our core classroom teachers their plan time outside of the student day because they wouldn't be able to have their plan time during the specials period. At the middle school, we would be looking at around 31 positions. um we would look at eliminating teameing at the sixth grade level which would pick up some of our core classes and then also looking at those elective classes. I would just note at the middle school with last year's budget bill that passed that we are no longer able to have a waiver for career courses that we offer at the middle school. So in the past um we didn't need to worry about the waiver because we were offering those exploration classes for our pathways. Um, but
126now we would be required to offer at least one of those at the seventh grade level and one at the eighth grade level. So, what we're talking about there would be like our engineering and our health pathways medical detectives course. We would probably still offer those, but we wouldn't have to offer all of our other elective courses at the middle school. And again, we would look at a reduced student day. So previously when we had levy failures back in 11 2011 2012 time frame um my understanding is we had middle schoolers sitting in study halls for multiple periods that becomes a discipline nightmare and I would not recommend that. I would recommend shortening the day and again giving the staff members their plan time outside of the student day. At the high school, we're not
127able to reduce as many at that level as the other two levels due to graduation requirements and college requirements. Um, but we would be looking at around 19 positions. Again, by making bigger class sizes, we would do that through having less offerings. Right now, um, we have very robust course offerings, which we're very proud of. We talked a lot about that tonight with our our AP or IB, our college credit plus offerings on campus. we would look at reducing those offerings so that um we could maximize class sizes across our three high schools. And again, we would not need to offer the CCP on campus, which would be a savings of the money that we're paying to Columbus State to do that. And it would also um we would look at library, which is not
128required at that level either. um throughout the district. Other positions that we would look at more at a district level are people that are serving multiple buildings. We would look at gifted, specialized learning services, curriculum and instruction, student services, technology, human resources, our fiscal office, custodial and maintenance staff. And so across all of those areas, we're looking at about 124 positions. And that would be 12.3 million is what we're estimating. Again, that would vary depending on the actual positions. And then we look at other items to get to our 20 million. We would be looking at the complete elimination of summer school. We've already reduced that after the ESSER funds expired. Uh the ESSER funds, as a reminder, were the COVID dollars that we received that helped us to expand that to help with learning
129loss. We would look at reducing some contracted services across the district, eliminating field trips, eliminating all day kindergarten. As a reminder, half-day kindergarten is the required model. We currently offer a tuitionbased all day kindergarten, but the tuition does not cover the whole cost of all day kindergarten. So, as Nicole ran those numbers and we looked at it, um, that would be an area that we would recommend eliminating. We would eliminate or greatly reduce overtime. right now where we have staffing shortages, we're able to utilize overtime. For example, with the custodial services, if we don't have enough custodians, we're able to pay employees overtime, which obviously costs more um to get that cleaning done. So, we would look at reducing cleaning schedules to minimums. We would look at increasing student fees, increasing facility rental fees. We've
130tried to keep those fees really low, especially for community groups that are based in our school district. we would look at increasing those. And then finally, we would look at supplemental contracts. So when we talked about the first item with pay to participate, we were talking about increasing revenue, but we would also look at areas where we have low participation or lower participation, eliminating some of those supplemental contracts. We also have additional supplemental contracts um that are not necessarily for clubs and activities or sports but are to accomplish different types of work throughout the school day that we would look at eliminating. So that would be um additional 5.4 million and that would put us at the 20 million that we would be recommending to the board if we're not successful next week. I'm happy
131to Nicole, did I miss anything that you want to add? >> No, I think so. Just a reminder that some of those um positions that Angie talked about, sorry, Mrs. Hamburg talked about eliminating would result in larger class sizes overall because of the fewer offerings and what's available. Yeah. >> Thank you. Any questions? >> Yeah. Um have we thought about when we say shorten the school day about how much shorter would it get? I would guess probably about an hour, but we haven't drilled completely down into that. >> I was just thinking as a as a mom, if the if I was a elementary mom of working mom and working parents, I'd have to get additional daycare. >> And so would the I'm assuming the YCA would then also shift too potentially. >> So I've
132had some initial conversations with them. Um, you know, I I would assume if they're picking up additional time, there would probably be a cost, but you know, we're waiting to see if that's something that we and again, all this would go into effect for next school year. So, if we're not successful next week, those would be the types of conversations that we would kind of flush out the details as we move through the next few months. Um, I I think they would be able to do that. It's just a matter of what the additional cost would be for families. But if we eliminate teachers and still keep the kids for the same amount of time without having a place. So what was done previously was there were study hall monitors added to watch them. And
133again when kids don't even have that much homework to do for 3 hours worth of study hall like I just don't educationally recommend that. Um, just as a a reminder, you know, something I've been hearing a lot about out in the community as I'm talking to people is could you just remind us how long it took to bring back some of that middle school programming? And you know, I even heard this week that um by a a a parent of a a student who was in music h how they felt that it wasn't even fully um back to normal from the the past failures. >> Yeah. That the the high school levels are even obviously impacted when we don't have those opportunities at the younger levels. Um you know, obviously I I wasn't here, but
134Scott Reeves and and Ann Baldwin and some of the other folks have given me a lot of that history. Matt Meisner. Um, so when we eliminated all of those opportunities, middle school was hit particularly hard the last time back in the 2011 2012 and really it's only been within the last few years that they've really gotten those programs back to where we wanted them to be and it was done very strategically. So one of the criticisms that that I've heard a lot is, you know, why have we added staff when our enrollment has decreased? And one of the one of the assumptions there is that you had the right staff to begin with. And so our staffing was low after all those reductions were made. And when Manurva Park was open, that is when we
135finally were able to add back and actually have the elective courses to give our kids that experience and that well-rounded education that we're trying to give them. So, you know, we know that our as a former middle school principal, I can tell you and and I I taught 9th grade English primarily and I I got excited to get up in the morning to go to English class, but you know, a lot of kids that's not what they get excited about in middle school. So, we know that just having language arts, math, science, and social studies for our kids is not really giving them that full experience and that full exposure. And so as we added back in the music, the art, the PE, we also were able to add in those career exploration pathway courses
136with medical detectives and the engineering and then add another year of engineering. So I think the program that we have right now is is very exciting for our middle schoolers. It was done strategically and it really just got fully developed out over the last few years from the last time we had to make cuts. And again, as we talk about the staffing ads that were made over the last few years, there are a few main areas. Mark talked about the um the special education ads that we've made because of that growing population. But from a general education standpoint, one of the main areas we've added is middle school, and that wasn't an ad because we were like just trying to layer on programs. That was trying to build back what we had lost previously. >>
137Um yeah, I'm related to middle school. So, I unfortunately remember all of that and going through that. Um, one of the things that was really fought for by teachers and others in the district was the teameming, which you kind of mentioned, but I'm not sure everybody knows what that is. If you haven't had a sixth grader, you know, who's in teameing. So, can you just give the brief primer on teameming? Yes. So, teaming is when at the and it's usually at the middle school level, but it can be at other levels. Um, kids are put onto a team. So, a group of teachers, typically one from each of the content areas, um they all have the same kids. So, instead of kids being scheduled more in like a junior high or high school model where
138they're just all across and different teachers have different kids, get put almost like in a pod where this hundred kids is with the same teachers and then they can meet and look at the kids and really drill down and be more strategic about what their day looks like, where they need assistance. It feeds into this MTSS model really well. And then they have a flex period. So during that flex time, instead of having like a study hall, it's a more targeted period where they can get assistance. They can drill into what each kid really needs. And they're able to do that when they just share a smaller group of kids instead of just having kids spread across the building. [snorts] >> Yeah, thank you for talking that through. And it does really dovetail well with
139MTSS. I think um you know what historically in this district we saw was there was a real need for better transition from fifth to sixth grade. >> Yes. >> Right. Sixth graders are pretty young academically. You know their curriculum is a little more like fifth grade than maybe like seventh or eighth grade. >> And that's a huge transition for them to go from an elementary model to feeling what was more like a junior high without the without the teaming. It's really a junior high. The teaming is what makes it middle school. makes it where we're um really keeping them in smaller areas and really looking at their individual needs and having those conversations. And I know our middle schools have wanted to add teameing at seventh and eighth grade. Um and we've just been trying
140with our staffing levels to maintain what we have at sixth grade for now. I mean, our ultimate goal, and I mentioned I was a middle school principal. I'm a huge proponent of teaming when it's done right. Um I would love to see us have teameing across the entire middle school. I think it can really make a very uh robust experience and it fits into everything that Miss Toma was talking about with how we get in and really try to dig in and look at where the kids are and get them the interventions they need. It it builds that time into the day so that that one of the challenges with MTSS at middle and high school is the structure of the day. And so when we have teaming already in place, it kind of puts
141those structures where we're really ready to jump right into MTSS. Thanks for digging into that. Just want everyone to understand when you said that what that really meant. >> Uh just real briefly, if uh if we were to have to undergo these deficit reductions, what would that mean at a macro level for what we just heard about MTSS? We're talking about losing some teacher time. We're talking Can you sort of just would that would we visualize well we wouldn't be able to do much for two or three years? Would it be like back to year zero? Could like what would that really look like if we couldn't advance MTSS because of the staffing reductions and things that would have to be undertaken? >> Great question. I think we'd approach it from a triage level. We've
142talked about there would be some reductions in the number of coaches that we have. Um I I would really encourage you I know Kate invited you to come into a district MTSS meeting. I would if you're able to do that. I think it would be a great experience. it always fills my bucket just to see the work that they're doing. Um the coaches that they've hired are just really bought into the work and so positive and it's just super exciting to see. Um so I I would hate to see those, you know, and part of what makes it work and I'm a huge proponent of coaching as well again when it's done right is when you have a coach that's in a building and they know that staff and they are able to get in
143and build relationships and then help teachers. I think everybody can benefit from coaching, whether you're a brand new first year teacher or a highly successful veteran teacher. It's just having that thought partner to come in and help you in your classroom to help you when you're struggling with kids. And so trying to share those positions, and I've been in situations previously in my career where those are shared across multiple buildings, it's very hard because they just don't have the relationship. So they're basically just coming in and trying to run those meetings where they're looking at data, but they don't know the kids, they don't know the teachers. And so I think it would be a huge setback in the work that we're trying to do. Um, and it would we would struggle with having the
144staff available to provide interventions because right now we've worked really hard to try to free up periods, especially at the secondary level, for people to be able to do that. Um, and without those supports in place, it would be really hard to move that work forward. Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, next up we have public comments. And so, um, just want to remind everyone the board of education welcomes public comment on educational issues of interest to our school community. The board does not discriminate based on the identity or viewpoint of the speaker during our public participation. However, the board president may limit comments that are obscene, abusive, or harassing. In an attempt to protect the privacy interest of our students, the board asked that speakers not identify students by name during their
145comments. Persons having complaints about district personnel, programming, or operations will be referred to the process set forth on in board policy 9130. And finally, the board reminds speakers that their statement should be directed to the board as a whole and not to individual members. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the board. A timer will be shown on this screen above us and Miss Dennis will call time when three minutes has elapsed. Our first speaker this evening and I I want to thank everyone for writing very clearly tonight is Miss Jana Donnie. Sorry, Dodie. My apologies. All right. Good evening. My name is Jana Dowy and I'm here tonight as a parent and a community member. Our schools are the heart of this community. They're where our children learn, question, create, and lead. They're
146where teachers give everything they have, often spending their own money and their own nights and weekends to make sure every child is seen and supported. There were bus drivers, custodians, cafeteria workers, secretaries, aids, and coaches show up every single day because they care about these kids in this city. So before I go any further, I want to take a moment to say thank you to every teacher, staff member, administrator, and board member in this district. The work you do inside the classroom is extraordinary, but what you've done outside of your regular hours over these last few months have has been nothing short of heroic. But lately, it feels like the heart of this city is under attack. What we've seen from the anti- levy campaign is not just disagreement, it's disinformation. It's the deliberate twisting
147of facts meant to seow doubt and division. People are being told lies about where the money goes, about what this levy means, and about the integrity of the people who serve this district. And that's not civic engagement. That's sabotage of the truth. Some of the loudest critics don't even live here. Some of them send their children to private schools or they might homeschool, which is their right. But they have no stake in the outcome of this levy while trying to tear down a system they no longer rely on or have already benefited from. And that's not fairness. That's hypocrisy. They keep saying we're fear-mongering that these cuts won't really happen. Let's be very clear. The cuts are very real and they will absolutely happen if this levy fails. And the truth is administration has even
148offered to meet with members of the opposition to go line by line through the numbers to answer their questions. to help them understand what this district is facing. But those offers have gone unanswered. When you underfund public schools, everyone pays the price. Even private and parochial schools feel the ripple effect because they rely on our district for things like transportation, special education support, and other resources. This levy is about kids who deserve music, art, counselors, sports, small class sizes. It's about making sure that Westerville stays a place people want to move to, not one where they drive past the four sale signs because the schools have been gutted by cynicism and lies. We are stronger than this moment. And in the final days before the election, I hope every person who loves this city remembers
149one simple truth. Strong schools build strong communities. Weakening them weakens us all. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Next up, we have Mr. Doug Krinsky. [applause] Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Well, I just want to address a couple of things from the last meeting. Some misleading information that supposedly has been out there to the community that we are putting out there as the vote no group. In fact, the information I believe that was referred to from someone on the stage last time was about state funding. It's absolutely incorrect to say the district is getting less money over the last six years. The district, if you go and look at the line items on their own numbers, shows particularly over the last four years, the district has gained more money from
150the state. That's a fact. You can debate it any way you want. Facts are facts. So, let's look at it this way. Since 2020, we've invested 1 billion176 million into this district through our local, state, and federal money. And what's happened? test scores have continued to drop over the last 10 years. And yes, we can look back and we can use that as a measurement moving forward. They have dropped and they have not gone back to those levels. Enrollment from the 2019 projections for the property tax levy that was passed. 265 kids have never appeared into the district. The state has increased their money by 16.5%. Enrollment has dropped. Last year alone, the expenses went up almost $23 million while enrollment was dropping. This will be a permanent income tax of.75%. Renters, homeowners, they need
151to be aware of this. It's on your earned income. And talking about positions, the district has added 171 positions over the last five years while enrollment has dropped. Interesting. board has found $9 million in cost savings after the $20,800,000 levy failed. Before that levy was voted on, we asked them to look at cost savings. There were no cost savings to be found. Yet after they found 9 million, this time they're asking for 24,300,000 after they found 9 million in savings. and now they only need to cut 20 million, but yet they're asking for 24 million. The numbers just simply don't make sense. This would be an increase of 32% more than the property tax levy that was proposed last fall. The board is sitting on over $100 million in cash reserves. They could very easily
152use that money to cover whatever cuts they think they need to make if this levy income tax does go down. We need to keep Westerville affordable and I hope encourage people to go to our website concerned citizensofwesterville.org and vote no. Thank you. Next up we have um Heather Fredo. Welcome. Good evening. My name is Heather Fredo and first and foremost, I'm a proud parent of a Westerville City School second grader. My husband and I also have a 5-year-old and a three-year-old who will soon be joining this wonderful district. In addition, In addition to being a Westerville parent, I've spent my entire career serving this community that I do deeply believe in. However, in 2011, my position was cut along with many other art, music, and gym teachers. The proposed budget cuts are not just a
153threat. it will happen. I was eventually brought back and I am currently in my 15th year as an elementary art teacher. And in that time, I've had the privilege of teaching more than 1500 students. I would love nothing more than to continue doing just that. Not only because I love what I do, but because our students need it, and our community benefits from it as well. Art matters. It fosters creativity, critical thinking, and emotional growth, all while improving academic performance. It gives students a way to express themselves, build confidence, and develop the problem solving and decision-making skills they'll use for the rest of their lives. In today's world, our In today's world, our students are facing more stress and anxiety than ever before. Art provides a healthy outlet, a space to process emotions, build confidence,
154experience joy, and learning. Study after study shows that students involved in the arts report lower levels of stress, higher school engagement, and better attendance. For some children, art class is the one part of the day where they truly feel successful. For many of my students, art is a safe haven, a place where they can truly be themselves, where they feel confident and seen. It also helps them understand the world around them. Through studying different cultures and histories, they gained perspective, empathy, and appreciation for others. Art has captured our history for centuries, and it will continue to shape the history we're creating today. Art doesn't compete with academics. It enhances them. The skills students develop in art class. Creativity, perseverance, critical thinking, and collaboration are the same skills employers look for in every industry. As Ohio's
155economy grows in technology, design, engineering, and healthcare, creativity and innovation are what set our students apart. Cutting art today means limiting the creative capacity our community depends on tomorrow. Art brings people together. School art shows, murals, performances. These are moments where families and neighbors come to celebrate our students. Art gives every child a chance to shine, regardless of test scores or background. For many students who struggle elsewhere, art is where they find their voice. When we remove that opportunity, we risk silencing them. The return on investment in arts education is measurable. I know it's not easy to say yes to one more thing, especially when times are tough and budgets are tight, but education. Thank you. Thank [applause] you. Um, next up we have Mary Jean Butler. Welcome. Thank you members of the school board
156and administration. I'm Mary Jeene Boler, a rest of resident. The Senate just passed a bill that if approved by the House adds a new requment to the curriculum of Ohio schools. It is legislation that is being pushed by the Heritage Foundation that brought us Project 2025. It is their answer to poverty in America. Even as we stand on the precipice of one of the largest cuts in food security in our nation, Ohio schools would be required to teach students what is called the success sequence. That is the proper ordering of life events. graduating high school, get a job, get married, and have children. While all of those life events may hold value, when it comes to poverty, studies have shown that the ordering of those life events do not. The bill would require the Ohio
157Department of Education and Workforce to create a model curriculum for succession sequence for for success sequence for grades 6 through 12 as a requirement for graduation. But the Senate does not speak to the most important issue. Who would teach this new unfunded mandated curriculum and what will need to be dropped from the curriculum in order to satisfy this unfunded mandate? If the school needs to hire additional staff in each high school and middle school, what will it mean for the budget? Will we have citizens complaining as they are presently about the bloat in staff as if the school board does not have its hands tied when an unfunded mandate is ordered? In addition, there are only a certain number of hours in the school day. So what does not get taught so we can satisfy
158the whims of the heritage foundation? I don't think the community or certainly not many of those who are opposing the levy fully understand the strain these constant unfunded mandates from legislators create for an already stretched budget. I'm not aware of a place that Westerville citizens can go to review these unfunded mandates under which our local schools operate so as to consider what it means for our children's education. I know that the board members and and administration members of the administration have their hands full, but I would encourage you to develop some tool that would educate us all about these unfunded state mandates, what it requires in people and funds to satisfy these mandates and how they are affecting the overall budget priorities in our schools. We need to say a strong yes to the school
159levy and a strong no to these legislators who were not working in our school's best interest. Thank you. Um [applause] next up we have Rebecca Gaffrey. >> Welcome. >> I'm excited. >> Not yet. Good evening. I'd uh start I'd like to start by addressing the audience first. If you are a current student, former student, parent, teacher, or of any of the music, arts, language, advanced courses, or athletic programs, or library sciences, please stand. [applause] Thank you for being here. My name is Rebecca Gaffne. I'm an English teacher at Westerville North High School and I serve as the communications co-chair for the Westerville Education Association, supporting the teachers and staff who dedicate their lives to this district every day. I stand before you tonight not just as an advocate for my colleagues, but as an advocate
160for every single student who walks through our doors. The WA is supporting the 75% income tax on the ballot next week. The foundation of Westerville schools is resting on unstable ground because of those who seek to attack, misrepresent, and dismantle public education. Without immediate action, we face the heartbreaking additional reduction of 114 teachers and 10 administrators. This isn't about closing budget gaps. It's about dissolving classrooms, increasing class sizes, and overwhelming staff who remain. Staff our children rely on. [snorts] We are here because of the lack of ade adequate state funding models have forced the district to diversify investments and move away from property tax revenues. We have reached the limit of what we can cut without fundamentally damaging the quality of education we provide. A yes vote is a critical step needed to stabilize Westerville
161schools. It provides a reliable ongoing revenue stream that allows us to budget for the future, not just brace for the next financial crisis. It will not affect retirees or price them out of their homes as the opposition suggests. Crucially, the stability allows us to retain highly qualified teachers and staff. We are competing with surrounding districts for top talent. We when we cannot offer competitive salaries, resources or even job security, we risk losing the experienced educators, the ones who initiate the lifelong musical, athletic, advanced academic and artistic passions, who make profound differences in our children's lives. Passing this income tax ensures that when a teacher is considering where to build their career, they see our district as a secure and rewarding option. This community has always been defined by its commitment to its young people and
162its simple powerful motto where you belong. We cannot claim to be where you belong if we cannot afford the teachers who create that sense of belonging. We cannot be where you belong if we are forced to eliminate programs that serve our most vulnerable students. Students with innate talents who need nurturing to succeed or uncapping the fees to participate in the engaging student activities. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, next up we have Christy Groger. [applause] Welcome. Hello and thank you. My name is Christy Groger. I'm a parent to two Westerville City School students and I'm also a substitute teacher in the district. I've spoken at the two previous meetings uh once to support students in our life skills classrooms and then I've spoke to urge the community to come together to support
163all of our students and to build a stronger community. Tonight I wanted to take a moment to highlight an endorsement for the tax increase from our Westerville Parent Council. The Westerville Parent Council is the umbrella organization for 35 PTAs, PTO's, PTSAs, and booster groups that support the students and staff in our 24 preschool through high school buildings. Collectively, our member groups and their individual volunteers annually contribute more than 125,000 hours of volunteer work, more than $40,000 in graduating senior scholarships, and general monetary support for initiatives that enhance the student experience in the high six figures. As you just heard, to say that the Westerville Parent Council has a pulse on the needs of our students, buildings, and staff is a true understatement. Earlier this fall, the voting delegates of the Westerville parent council elected to
164fully endorse the November 2025 ballot issue proc uh proposing the earned income tax to support our schools. I'd like to share that endorsement with the board. Now, the voting body of the Westerville parent council endorses the earned income tax initiative that has been placed on the November ballot. Securing income or I'm sorry, securing these funds will positively impact students, families, and WPC member groups by sustaining programming, staffing, and operations at a level to which our students and families have become accustomed. Maintaining excellent holistic learning experiences provides for an educational environment that empowered the potential and students and ideal in direct congruence with the mission of Westerville Parent Council. I stand with Westerville Parent Council in supporting this tax levy. I urge all of you also to get out there to talk to your friends. If
165anyone who is against the levy wants to have a conversation with so many of us that are here to support it, I think we would welcome that. I think it speaks volumes that the number of people still sitting in these seats tonight. I believe I don't mean to misrepresent. I believe we all are here to support and anyone who has voted no has already left and does not want to hear our side. So if that doesn't tell [applause] if that doesn't speak volumes to who's willing to come here to sit and to talk to the board last uh meeting I told you I will I will hold you accountable with how you spend this money when it's given to you. And I mean that. I don't know what else the other group has to say
166because they're not here. Thank you. Thank you. [applause] Next up, we have Adam Price. Welcome. Good evening everyone. >> So my name is Adam Price. I speak to you first as a Hold on. first personally. Uh I'm excited to be a Westerville resident now as of two months ago. Very excited. Yeah. Thank you. Um, and then also now a father of a student in Westerville schools as of today. Yes, my son's three years old. He started at the ELC today. Um, very excited. By the way, wonderful experience starting at the LLC ELC and we've loved it. Um, now as a professional, so I'm a business owner. I'm the principal broker and owner of Reach Realy independent real estate brokerage in Westerville. My wife and I chose Westerville as our home. We actually traveled for a
167few years uh before we came back when I was working in healthcare. Um but we chose Westerville because it's a warm, loving, caring community that invests in its future. And a major investment in its future is its public schools. The National Association of Realtors highlights a study done by the Bureau of Economic Research showing that for every dollar a community invest in its school or its schools, home values may rise $20. It's a 20 to1 return on community investment and a databacked connection between school funding and property values. and it aligns with my experience as a broker. Well-funded schools lead to local, healthy markets that are stable and they're good for everyone, homeowners, renters, local businesses. And that's why I'm voting yes on the Westerville school levy. [applause] >> Thank you. Um, next up we
168have Annroyer. Welcome. That was a little hard to follow because he had way more energy than myself. And I need my flashlight because I don't have my readers. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak. Um, my name is Anne Troyer. I grew up in a rural part of Ohio where the biggest land owners and thus the biggest hit for property tax were farmers. I was in overcrowded schools for most of my time there because we could not pass a levy. I went to 8th and 9th grade in a school that had in one that was the building eth and nth grade that had served my grandmother and later Neil Armstrong who had graduated 50 years prior to me. Bloom was an ancient building with poor HVAC, wildly non-compliant with um ADA even for the
169early 90s and a myriad of other issues. I saw the fees for extracurriculars increased dramatically in a rural district where folks could not always afford those fees. We saw courses limited and increasing fees for clubs in an area where other non-school options were not readily available. Again, the rural cows and corn. There was an this was in a district where he it was the center of its community and it suffered without property funding proper funding. We did finally pass a capital funding bill um levy and we were met with the same misinformation before social media. Um we were accused of building a bowling alley in our school. We had an academic bowl team. Slight difference. So So it's always been a thing. Um, now I'm a parent to a Heritage Middle Schooler here in Westerville
170who also attended the 50-year-old Frost Elementary, younger than me. Um, I had the opportunity to volunteer with the PTA scholarship committee for Frost last year and saw the applications of many amazing graduating seniors here. The rubric that was used for assessing the scholarships included points awarded for extracurricular activities and clubs. Most students had an array of schoolbased activities that they were able to add to their application such as marching band, orchestra, soccer, swim team, etc., as well as many varied clubs that we have in our schools. All of these programs will be hit with those fees that we talked about if this ballot issue does not pass. So the very students applying for scholarships to go to college, to go to certification programs will be charged more money just to participate in the extracurriculars needed
171to fill out a strong application. So they're going to get hit double. I have talked to voters in both Franklin Delaware counties and just yesterday met a 30-ish year old woman who talked about all the different extracurriculars she participated in and valued and her diverse opportunities available to her here in the Westerville School District. Our school district is one of the best assets in our great community. I urge my neighbors and community. I'm preaching to the choir, I think, um to support the ballot issue and vote yes for Westerville schools. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Um thank you. Next up, we have Rory How. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much to all of our teachers and to the school board. I just want to um confess that I am a a victim of misinformation.
172I moved here in 2016. We chose the school district to um just because we love the community and we were hoping that, you know, our children could attend schools here. And I honestly thought that um the schools were terrible based off of what I was hearing. Um, but as I enrolled my children in the schools here, I learned how um passionate the teachers are for the children and how transparent the school district is. Any questions so far that I've had about um concerns, I have been able to have that answered. Um, and I have been diligently still trying to research the opposition um, viewpoints behind that. And I just can't come to any conclusions yet except for the fact that um, everything that I am hearing and what um, the schools are doing is just
173simply to serve the children and to serve the community. And we have over 2,000 staff members that work in Westerville City Schools. And um, over 20 different schools is a large diff district. There are um more than 80% of Westerville City School kids that attend this district. Um obviously the others have the choice to do what they want. Um but overall um you know these schools are a safe place for these children. I grew up in a family where the schools public school system was my um safe place and I cannot imagine where I would be without the um opportunities that I had in the public school district. And so we're talking about anecdotal information and um quantitative information or quantitative information in tonight's meeting. But the qualitative reports that you don't see um that
174you don't hear about in terms of numbers and facts like that are the principles giving the children high fives in the morning and all the other things that you see the parents putting and the teachers putting energy into in the school system. um my own my own child thrives through the arts and I can't imagine the school district not being able to offer that to her. Um my own brother through the public school system was able to go on and he now um markets a major band that many people know of. Um, and really, um, I honestly cannot I cannot imagine what our lives would be like if we didn't have the opportunity to attend a public school system. And it breaks it breaks my heart to hear so much um hate being directed towards
175the schools and towards the um administrators and the teachers um simply because they just don't see what's going on behind the um behind I guess from the inside. They see it from the outside. And I appreciate everybody's time and hearing my my um statement. Thank you. [applause] >> Thank you. And next up we have Mr. Kevin Hoffman. Welcome back. >> Good evening board members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening. My name is Kevin Hoffman and I am here as the co-chair of Yes for Westerville Schools. I'm here tonight to talk about the levy that's on the ballot November 4th and to try and clear up some of the misinformation and misdirection that some opponents of the levy are sharing to try and confuse members of our community. I spent some
176time over the last couple of weeks going through the district website and seeking factual information. I would really like to thank you for the transparency that you provide to our community. On your website, I found the district's financial reports. I found awards from the auditor of state and I found board docs with all of the details of all of your board meetings for the last 20 years, including the 5-year forecast that you present that show very clearly the financial situation of the district. And when I looked at all of that information, it made the facts really quite clear and simple. This community approved its last operating levy in 2019. That levy was supposed to last until 2023, but thanks to sound fiscal management by the board and the administration, that levy has lasted through today,
177albeit with some challenges. Since 2019, the cost of living has increased approximately 25%. And as we've heard, state funding to this district has actually gone down. So when you look at those facts, this levy is purely just to offset inflation and enable our school district to continue to provide the services that make our kids and our community successful. It's important that people understand the magnitude of the decision that they're about to make. As you reminded us tonight, if we don't pass the levy, there are $20 million in services to our children that are at risk. that impacts many class offerings at all levels, busing, and significant increases to pay to participate fees, among other things. When we pass this levy, it will cost a person with an earned income of $50,000 a year approximately $15
178per bi-weekly pay paycheck. And if you don't have any earned income, if you rely on pensions, social security, unemployment, or investments to pay your bills, this levy won't cost you anything. No misdirection. No confusion, just the facts. I encourage every member of our community to vote yes on the Westerville schools operating levy November 4th for our kids, for our community. Thank you very much. [applause] >> Thank you. Um, this concludes the public commenting period. So, thank you um all for coming out tonight. Uh, next we're going to move on to uh board meeting minutes. And may I have a motion to approve the amended minutes of the regular board of education meeting held on Monday, September 22nd, 2025. So moved. >> Second. >> Any um comments? >> Yeah, I just want to mention um this
179was an oversight. I apologize for missing the last meeting. I was out ill, but um this was an oversight on my part. We did not add the um extension of the public comment period to the previous minutes. So I need to update those. I apologize for that. >> Thank you. Um I don't think you have to apologize for being ill, but thank you for the and making sure we amended it. Um no other comments. Please go ahead and take the vote. >> Mrs. Leven, >> yes. >> Mr. Hackleman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Meyer, >> yes. And may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board uh of education meeting held on Monday, OC October 13, 2025. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any comments or changes
180needed here? Okay. Will you take the vote? >> Mr. Heckleman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Alman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lee, >> yes. >> Mrs. Meyer, >> yes. And moving along to financials in 7.01. May I have a motion to approve the financial report investments for September 2025? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Miss Marshall, will you talk to us about these? >> Uh yes. Um as you mentioned, this is the month end for September 30th uh 2025. Uh for for the general fund year-to- date receipts, we had 90.8 million in year-to- date receipts. And then for year-to- date expenses, we had 54.1 million. Just a reminder, our tax settlements come in August. So, we have that revenue frontloaded at the earlier part in the year. Um, and we ended up with an unencumbered general fund
181balance of 141.6 million for September month end. And for all funds, we had year-to- date receipts of 112.5 million, year-to- date expenditures of 75.9 million, and we ended with unencumbered fund balance for all funds of 237.8 million. And just a reminder, we're just a few months into the fiscal year so far. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? >> Um I do I mean just technical question. Um for those looking at the report right now, what is the abbreviation LFI stand for by some of the schools? >> Oh, LFI stands for locally funded initiative. So part of the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission where we've partnered with them for the expedited local partnership program and that's where from the bond issue that was passed by voters back in 2019. We've conducted a lot of facilities
182work with that with the bond issue um including the new elementary, new middle school, uh all of the secure vestibules that we've added to all of our entryways and things like that throughout our buildings. So, part of those projects, we have the facilities master plan. Um, we have a state share and a local share. Um, the state's uh portion is 35% of that. We're building credits. We haven't seen any funding for that. We're well over 25 million at this point in those credits. Um, but anything that exceeds um what's agreed upon between the state share and the local share, there's also the locally funded initiative. So it might look like something um like if our building is not large enough um for what their design manual says it should look like for the number of
183students we have in it, the renovations to that might be a locally funded initiative. So when I think about like some of our like our magnet schools for example like Hami and Emerson um those all of the renovations for those were locally funded initiatives because they don't meet that um design manual. Yeah, >> great question. >> Any other All right, take the vote. >> Mrs. Altman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Leean, >> yes. >> Mr. Heckleman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Meyer, >> yes. And may I have a motion to approve the purchases in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 5705.41 9D1 inboard policy 6320. >> So moved. second. >> Will you talk to us about this too, please, Miss Marshall? >> Uh, yes. Thank you. So, we have one, we like to call these then and now
184purchase orders. Um, this is for the Renaissance uh Columbus Hotel here in Westerville. Um, with Westerville Central High School. So, this was actually a deposit for their prom, which was um made at the end of uh last year, the last school year. And so, uh, they did not yet have access to their current year budgets in order to pay that and to get that purchase order open. So, um, they're paying for it out of this year budget and the purchase order was opened at the beginning of the year. So, I would recommend the board's approval as that was planned for just it's just a different year off cycle. That's all. >> Thank you for that explanation. Any questions or comments? All right. Will you take the vote? >> Mr. Aleman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Alman,
185>> yes. >> Mrs. Lee, >> yes. Mrs. Meyer. >> Yes. And I'm going to take personal consent agenda as one. Is that okay? >> Okay. Um, may I have a motion to approve the person personal consent agenda 8.01 through 8.08. >> So moved. >> Second. >> And welcome Mr. Reeves. >> It's hard to see. I'm sorry. >> I know. I know. But thank you. And good evening. and I would like to present to you for your consideration tonight's personnel consent agenda. Along with the regular action items in tonight's agenda, there are a number number of items to be noted. And you'll also note that tonight's consent agenda is actually fairly light. Resignations. We only have two classified and zero licensed resignations for the board to consider this evening, as well as three employees resigning early
186from their supplemental contracts. leave of absences and contract status changes. We have no new leave of absences this evening, only an extension to the possible end date of a current leave. We also have our typical classified contract status changes to accompany work schedule adjustments. Employment. We are eager to recommend the hire of four new classified employees and a retired former teacher as a home instruction tutor. The board will also see the bulk of our winter supplementals to approve. And it's hard to believe, but the winter sports will begin by the end of the coming month. Retirements. The board has two classified retirements to approve this evening. Gabriel Harville will be retiring at the end of February as a secretary from Whittier Elementary School after 36 years of service to the district. What makes Gabby's service
187so special is she served her entire 36 years at Whittier and will be incredibly missed there. Amy Ford has retired after 10 years of service in the food service employment. Amy finished her career as the supervisor of the elementary satellite at Westerville South High School. And we would like to offer her family a heartfelt appreciation for her service to the district and on behalf of the district offer her family many thoughts and support. All told, these two longerving ed uh educators served Westerville City Schools for 46 years. From the end of this school year, their collective service would take us back all the way to 1980. In what became known as the miracle on ice, the US Olympic hockey team defeated the heavily favored Soviets in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics. A few months later,
188we took our medals and went home as the US decided to boycott the 1980 Summer Olympics in Soviet Moscow. America turned to Hollywood and elected a movie star as president. Mount St. Helens blew her top and a certain chief personnel and policy officer who won't be named suffered many days of punishment for stuffing his lunch money in the new game that took the world by storm. Pac-Man, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Oh, thank you. Um, and there are any questions? [clears throat] >> I would just like to know if you use your real initials for your Pac-Man high score or it shows like Ace or something. >> Oh, no. I I wanted SR at the top. So, >> well, thank you. Um, Miss Marshall, will you take the vote? Mr.
189Hawkman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Alman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lee? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer? >> Yes. And tonight there's no old business or new business. So, moving along to recommend an action. Um, may I have a motion to approve the donations um as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> And Miss Marshall, will you talk to us about this very all these very generous donations? >> Yes, we're very grateful. Um, we have a very generous community and appreciate it very much. So the current request value is $79,398.32. Uh that brings our fiscal year to date total to $103,2864. And just to note, prior year total received was $400,37156. Uh the other thing I would like to know is um part of this uh list includes um Blendon Middle School has a large donation of 55,000
190for renovating the gym that has not been received yet. So this is uh approval in advance so that they can start that work. It's projected to be completed over the summer. So they're doing some work >> over Christmas break, I think. >> Oh, wait. You're right. Over winter break. I apologize. Um, the work's projected to be completed over winter break and it's part of the gymnasium, updating the gymnasium with various things. >> Any questions? >> Incredibly generous. Yeah. Thank you. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Mr. Hackleman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Altman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Leeban. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer. >> Yes. And may I have a motion to approve outofstate overnight field trips? So moved. Is that good? And Miss Marshall will Oh, Miss Asher, welcome. Will you please talk to us about these?
191>> Good evening. Uh, tonight I have two outofstate overnight field trips to present for your consideration. The first trip is from the Central High School baseball team. They would like to travel to Cocoa Beach, Florida during spring break where they will play six games. The second trip is open to sixth grade students from all five middle schools. They would like to provide the opportunity for students to travel to New York City in May after the school year has ended. The estimated cost to the districts for both trips is zero and students will not miss any school days. Thank you. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? All right. Will you please take the vote? >> Mrs. Lee Ban? >> Yes. Mrs. Zman? >> Yes. >> Mr. Heckleman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer? >> Yes. And
192this is an exciting one. May I have a motion to approve the early graduate candidate amended from October 13th board meeting who has completed all local and state requirements. >> So moved. >> Second. Miss Asher, will you please talk to us about this? Yes. Tonight I have an amendment to our candidates for early graduation who were approved on October 13th. We have one student from Central High School who is on track to complete all required coursework and meet all state and board requirements prior to his cohort schedule graduation. I'm requesting approval from the board of education for early graduation for this student contingent upon successful completion of all remaining requirements. >> Any questions? >> All right, congratulations. >> Yep. >> Congratulations. Would you please take the vote, >> Mr. Mr. Hackleman. >> Yes. >> Mrs.
193Leean. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Alman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer. >> Yes. And next up we have board comments. Who'd like to go first? >> Um, happy to go first. I just want to um reiterate, we said it earlier, but the MTSS work is so important in our district. Um, and I appreciate us taking time to go through that this evening. Um, and I know it can be a little bit confusing. you know, when I first was hearing about it, trying to understand what does that actually mean for my child in the classroom. Um, so I just encourage families to talk to teachers, talk to building principles, you know, if you're not understanding it, um, talk to your kid about what their experience is during the day. But it is really us trying to meet
194every kid where they are. Um, and so it is hard to summarize and encapsulate in a sentence or two because it means lots of different things for lots of kids. So, um just really appreciative of Miss Toma and um the coaches and our staff supporting this work and our administration supporting this work. Um but please do ask questions about what that actually looks like on the ground because it is a little hard to wrap your head around, but it's I really believe in it and it's really important for our for our students. So, thank you. So, uh, we covered a lot of ground tonight and I want to thank everyone who, uh, uh, from Mr. Cooper and, uh, our MTSS support team on down the line to superintendent for filling us in on a lot
195of information tonight. Um, I think the takeaway that I got from our conversations was there's clearly a, if you didn't know this, there's clearly a disconnect between what the state assesses and what the student needs. Uh, I think that became obvious uh tonight and we talked about MTSS and a student with a disability who needed onetoone time with a teacher in the classroom and then additional external tutor outside of the classroom. Well, that's resources, right? We have to have another teacher in the classroom or an aid to watch over the other five kids if we're going to support MTSS. and then we need another teacher and another aid, right, to take care of that student outside the classroom. So, all that requires funding, right? And the state hasn't done a great job supporting that for
196us. So, uh along that line, I want to thank everyone who showed up uh through these last three meetings to voice their concerns uh about the upcoming ballot issue. Um I think it's easy uh for some people to sit back and say cut this or cut that. Uh but you know what gets lost in there? There's real people uh on the other side of those cuts who are most of whom are taking part in this district not because they seek to make the most income but because they understand what a special place we have here in Westerville in our school system. Um, and what's more, of course, is those cuts will affect all our kids, every student in every classroom. Um, and, uh, they're going to affect those kids the most who are probably most
197vulnerable, unfortunately. Um, and we heard tonight how school was a safe place for some people here, and the last thing we want to do is is detract from that. So, you know, as we close up right before we go to the polls, [laughter] uh, next week, uh, just please take all that into consideration. Thank you. >> Thank you all so, so much. I mean, I think I definitely want to end tonight with a lot of gratitude. We, as you shared, um, got two really insightful pieces of, um, information on various important topics. And so, I really want to thank our district leaders who provided that, uh, presentations um, those presentations. Excuse me. And I really just want to thank you all for sitting through that 2.5, you know, hours. I mean, that's a very long
198time. I know it's Monday. We could all be doing a lot of other things, but just your and many of you have returned. This isn't your first night. So, really, really thank you so much for being advocates um and being civically engaged. I think that that's always um important. Um I want to of course congratulate as always our retirees who tonight we've learned combined are um leaving with 146 years of service. That's incredible. Um, and I want to thank our PTAs. I captured it really quickly, but I think I heard 125 hours 125,000 um, hours of support in our buildings. So, that's just incredible and I'm always grateful for that. Um, and I really just want to, I guess, end with acknowledging that despite our limited resources, challenges, um, facing cuts to vital funding, attack
199on our public education, constant changes to the state measures that we heard tonight, we really are making progress on a lot of these component areas and many areas that just weren't weren't um, discussed tonight. And we're addressing real issues together. And so, I'm very grateful for that. Um and then just finally really I just want to thank our district staff who have spent the past several months literally preparing this data have spent um who have worked really tirelessly to get us very clear transparent information on a reduced um uh reduction list or proposed reduction list that takes a lot of time and I know I found it very helpful even as a board member and I know many people have found that helpful since I've been on the ground and so just really thank you
200to everybody. Well, I won't repeat, so I'll just echo that comment. Um, I just I want to thank um Mr. Cooper and Mr. Meisner and the whole team for breaking down that black box called the state report card. Um, really appreciate that. Uh, and I'm also really excited about MTSS. And I know when um although we need a better acronym for it, I'm just going to say uh but um want to also uh extend my thanks to the staff. You know, I know um the staff is working really hard. There's a lot going on. Um you know, there's a lot on the line, but there's also a lot happening down at the state house, and we heard some of that tonight, too. And I want to remind us that we are here because of the
201state house and because of the fact that they continue to underfund us. 18% of our state funds right now, right? We're only getting 18% state funding, the state share. It will go down to 11%. So we are here because of that and we continue to hear these potential risks from the federal government of of even cutting back more. So it's not like um I would just ask that you take into all of this into consideration too. Um and just really want to thank everybody um in the buildings too. I know there's, like I said, there's a lot going on. Um, and I think the kids feel it, too. But there's a lot of really great things that are happening. I know marching bands just got superiors last Saturday. I know, um, uh, soccer teams, um,
202you know, won their championships. There's so many great things that are happening in our district and I encourage you to go out and just be part of them. What I call those glimmers. So with that, I will um end my comments and just move along to the end. Okay. Um the board will meet in regular session on Monday, November 24th, 2025 at 6:00 p.m. at the Early Learning Center. So we're going back to 936 East Drive, Westerville, Ohio 43081. And I really appreciate all of you staying and coming out. Thank you so much. And with that, may I have a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> And will you take the vote? >> Mrs. Altman? >> Yes. >> Mr. Huckman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Leean? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer? >> Yes.
203>> Thank you. >> 8:46.