001Good evening and thank you for attending the August 11th, 2025 regular meeting of the Westerville City Schools Board of Education. I just want to note that um Miss Hamburg is unable to be here tonight and um Miss Alman had a death in the family, so she extends her apologies. She couldn't be here. This evening's agenda will be displayed on the screens in the front of the room. Printed agendas are available for our guests or you may find the agenda on your mobile device by connecting to the district's website at www.wcsoh.org. Click on the our district link, select board of education, and follow the board docs link to our current meeting agenda. And with that, Miss Marshall, will you please call the role? >> Mr. Heckleman, >> here. >> Mrs. Valentine, >> here. >> Mrs. Lee,
002>> here. >> Mrs. Meyer, >> here. Would you please join us in the pledge of allegiance? I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, next up we have a really exciting part of the night. Uh we have um the district highlights and recognitions 3.01 we are the spring sportmanship awards and welcome Miss Yanni. Good evening. Thank you. Thank you for having us tonight. I'm excited to introduce the spring 2025 award winners for the we are the sportsmanship award. This award honors and celebrates qualities that extend beyond the playing field and into our daily lives. sportsmanship, community, and positive attitude. It emphasizes that while success in athletics is important, the true
003measure of character lies in how we conduct ourselves, support others, and contribute positively to our community. Each season, this award recognizes one middle school student and one high school student whose integrity, respect, kindness, and leadership sets an exceptional standard. Students are nominated by their coaches and then carefully reviewed by a panel of community leaders committed to highlighting those who best exemplify the district's values. Along with receiving a com commemorative plaque, the re the recipients names will be added to a traveling trophy which is displayed proudly within their respective schools. We are especially grateful to the Westerville Education Foundation for their generous grant which makes this recognition possible. Would coach Chassidity Golden, assistant principal Tomba, principal Harris, and Olivia Yanni please join me. In her nomination, Coach Gordon shared that to see a walking example of
004what sportsmanship means, one can look to Olivia Yanni. Whether she is on or off the softball field, Olivia exemplifies good sportsmanship through her positive attitude, good character, and unwavering respect for all teammates, coaches, and umpires. Throughout each game, Olivia can be heard congratulating teammates as well as opponents, recognizing and celebrating good plays, no matter which team made the play, and encouraging all to stay positive during struggles. Whether she is volunteering to set up the field, pick up equipment, warm up the pitcher, or be a partner for someone who needs additional practice, Olivia is a teammate through and through. Her actions both on and off the field, whether viewed by others or solidifying her solid character privately, show that Olivia Yanni is most definitely the epitome of good sportsmanship and much deserving of the We Are
005the Vil Sportsmanship Award. Congratulations, Olivia. We would like to present the traveling trophy on Olivia's behalf to Coach Golden, principal Fred Tomb, and Mr. Harris, the principal of Blendon. Congratulations, Brendan. Next up, can coach Vicky Phillips, coach Maxwell James, and Christian Harkkins join me? Christian Harkkins was nominated not just by one coach, but by two from the Central boys volleyball team. Coach James shared that Chris encourages his younger teammates to not take themselves too seriously, but also push themselves to succeed for the betterment of the team. He was a player that any coach would dream to have, and it's an honor to watch him achieve his goals through the course of his senior season. Coach Phillips similarly added that Christian has been an integral player of the team leadership by illustrating respect for teammates, opponents,
006and officials, has great work ethic, most importantly displays kindness and empathy, always encouraging fellow players, and maintaining a positive outlook even in difficult situations. In addition to his outstanding character on the court, Chris works hard in the classroom, encouraging both classmates and teammates to consistently consist constantly strive for more. Congratulations, Christian. And this traveling trophy will be presented to Christian's coaches and displayed at Central on behalf of Christian's sportsmanship this past season. Congratulations, Central. >> Thank you. Okay. All right. Well, next up we have reports and 4.01 01 personal communication devices protocols and welcome Mr. Reeves, Mr. Cooper, Miss Rilford, and Miss Asher. >> Yeah, we've got the the whole group. We got the whole team tonight. Thank you and and and welcome. And one of the policies coming out of the budget bill this
007summer that's making its rounds around the media in the state and for some schools in Ohio is a big change is a restriction in our personal communication devices, cell phones, and other things in the matter. and we have that first reading of a policy and I'll get into some of the specifics. Um, probably not as much change as in elementary school because we did do uh a pretty much total restriction of personal communication devices last year when we had to to uh amend our policies. But there's some changes uh that parents and students will experience both at the middle and high school level that our team will kind of walk you through so that parents can be prepared as we start school on Wednesday. And just in coming with all these changes, I did ask
008that Miss Cheryl Railford and Miss Monica Asher come up to you tonight to talk about the differences between the elementary world and our secondary world and what parents and students can expect this coming school year. So very quickly, I'll just turn it over to Cheryl at this time. >> Thank you. >> So good evening. The good news at elementary, not a whole lot has changed as Mr. Reeves did share. Um, we at the elementary level have had in place for a very long time now that we ask students to have their devices out of sight, stowed away and turned off. So, you don't usually hear a lot of devices going off at the elementary level. Um, they are also asked not to have smartwatches at the elementary level. That was new for us last year
009with the policies that were put forward. So, those two things won't change. So students will be will continue to be asked to make sure they're powered off and in their backpacks at all times during the academic day. And we understand our magnets have a different academic day than our the rest of our building. So um Emerson and Hami uh the academic day would be the 8 a.m. to 2:25 time of day. Um before and after those times we won't really be monitoring their usage, but it's during their academic day. And for all other other buildings, it's 9:15 to 3:40. and just want to make sure parents understand that that's what we mean when we say their entire academic day. Any questions for elementary? >> I just have a question. Thank you. Um, so if a
010student has a smartwatch, how does that get handled? >> Usually it's the teacher and principal that work with that family to discourage that use during the day. There are times where they a student needs access to a cell phone due to medical reasons, but a typical um interaction is that we ask them to put them in their backpack so that they're not going off during the day. And it's specifically the devices where they are receiving text messages and can play games or things of that nature that that's why they're asked to be put away. >> Great. Thank you. >> Yeah. So, I had a follow-up question about that. So with smartwatches becoming more and more capable for health reasons, next iteration is supposed to be able to do diabetes, sugar checks, blood pressure, etc., etc.
011Uh what is do we have a stated policy already in place for students who need a medical exemption? Is there a form and a process for that? >> There is a formal pro process already in place through our clinics where we establish a medical plan for each of our students and we outline what the care plan will look like. And so that would be contingent upon case by case. Uh it's not a blanket um way of doing it. Usually it's through a phone and as we get the upgrade where they can do it through a watch, we would work that out with our clinic through the doctor's recommendations and the staff meet to discuss. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Okay, I'm going to pass it over to Monica. >> Thank you. >> Really,
012really quick, you will see in our policy tonight, there are some specificities that we have in our guidelines that were also in the budget bill for students who need devices for medical reasons. So you will see that a little bit later. >> Good evening. So we do have um a few more shifts at the secondary level um from our communication policy previously. Um so previously students were not able to have access to their cell phones during instructional time. However, they were able to have access during lunch and study hall. But the new law now dictates that students cannot have access at any time during the instructional day. Um, so we gathered together the middle school principles and high school principles and worked collaboratively to discuss our responses so we had consistency from classroom to classroom
013and building to building. We also looked at maybe some developmental differences with our response to make sure they were developmentally appropriate for middle school and high school. Um, so there will be clear expectations prior to enforcement. So principles will begin enforcing the new state law um after they have class meetings. So that way they have an opportunity to communicate clearly with students. They can field phone calls from parents, from students. Um and there is clear communication just across uh the district and every building. Um, our goal throughout the development of this process was not to punish students, um, but it was rather to protect instructional time, um, and continue to reduce distractions and help students stay engaged in learning. So, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Thank you so much. I
014really appreciate the thorough explanation. And um my question I guess surrounds more like support for our staff and I'm sure we've thought through all these uh nuances, but can you speak more to the training and support that's going to be provided specifically to staff? Because I could assume this is going to be very overwhelming, right? Like what does a day-to-day look like? What should we expect that enforcement to look like in a classroom? >> Absolutely. So um the expectation for students is that they are out of sight um in their bags off or silenced. Um at the middle school um they will receive support from the administration. I think middle school will likely be a warning and then communication with family. Um at the high school those warnings will come in advance at those class
015meetings and then ultimately administrators will work with teachers to remove the devices from the classroom and hang on to them in the office until the end of the day when a student can come pick them up. Uh given that we are not yet one to one uh is there um uh in this policy and I'm sorry mine's not working other I just thought I'd pull it up. Uh is there exemptions in this policy for pulling out devices for research purposes inside of the classroom? I'm assuming that there are but I'm not sure so um in the new state law there are some exemptions for instructional use in the classroom. We wanted to make sure though that that was applied consistently. So what principles have asked their teachers to do is to submit on a Google
016form which was uh designed to be intentionally short so that it does not take up an inordinate amount of time um to give advanced notice to administrators on this day. We will be using our devices for instructional support given that we are not onetoone. Um, and the the reason we opted to go through that formal notification process again was for consistency, clarity for staff, so there was a clear understanding of when it is acceptable and not acceptable within the state law to use that. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> I have a follow-up question about that. So, how far in advance would staff have to give uh have to put that in the Google form? >> Right now, 48 hours. We want to keep that time as minimal as possible. We know that um
017as educators are reacting to student needs in the classroom, they may need to make adjustments to their lessons. So, we want it as close to that instructional time as feasible. >> Okay. >> I had maybe a logistical question about um if we're having to take devices from students if they are repeat offenders. Um is what is the plan for taking those devices? How do you know whose devices are whose? Are they given like a claim ticket at the end of the day? like how does that work because I know we don't want to be responsible necessarily for people's thousand you know brand new iPhones or anything and that is why we decided to have them come to the office as opposed to being stored in classrooms. Um I know there was some discomfort um with
018faculty about hanging on to to phones especially because they are so expensive. Um so we've worked with building principles on how they would store those um and then what that process would look like. So um maybe the first um response or two to an infraction would be the student comes at the end of the day to get their device which would be labeled and stored in the office. Um and if something continues to happen then it's communication with the parent um on what those next steps would be. >> Okay. >> I have a one more question. Um so I I've been like I read the you know the first draft policy and I'm trying to remember if it's I'm thinking about this because I read the first draft but also I may have read it
019in an email. Has communication gone home to parents? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> I just couldn't remember. >> Yes. Communication has gone from home from uh the district and each building principal then will also send follow-up communication if they have not already. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um and then on that note, have we sent that communication out into variety of languages? >> I believe so. >> Okay. Wonderful. And then um my only other question is just surrounding anxiety honestly for the students that may just be very dependent on those devices. What support is available for those kids? Uh school counselors, school social workers are available to work with students. Um and again should there be any medical exemptions um communication with that student's team to provide that medical support
020is available just as it is at the elementary. >> Wonderful. Thank you. >> Thank you. And one last question in terms of student privacy. Uh and in the event a device is confiscated, uh is there a policy to have the student shut off the device, Argo administration cannot see any of the text messages or anything that comes through? I just want to make sure that's clearly articulated on our side that once the device is taken for whatever reason that it's shut down and people can't because I know my daughter has tons of messages on her lock screen. So want to make sure that student privacy is protected here. That is a great question that actually has not come up in conversation. Um, but I will discuss that with Mr. Reeves. Um, I will say our
021administrators are not in the practice of going through student cell phones. Um, uh, but I think that that is an excellent point. >> Thank you. Thank you. And just to highlight one last piece with this, we recognize too that you know with any change such as this where we have many students who bring a phone to school every day, we recognize there may be some changes as we go. So we will have to do our best. We tried to anticipate many issues along the way, but we also recognize with, you know, a little over 14,000 almost 15,000 students that there are bound to be some issues along the way. So we will definitely work through those and we'll keep the board updated along the way as well. >> Great. Thank you so much. I imagine
022it will be a bumpy start to say the least. Um, next up, I think you guys are talking to us about back to school. Am I correct? Okay. So, welcome Mr. Cooper, Mr. Reeves, and Miss Dennis. Thank you for being here and telling us about all the great stuff that happened. >> Good evening. Once again, we are very excited to be able to share some information from each of our departments here. Uh first off, we are very excited to welcome our staff back and we were able to welcome them back uh with our convocation um at the end of last week. It feels like it's still that week, but it that was Friday. And so with that said, uh staff are already on day two and um now in staff meetings and prepping their classrooms
023today and tomorrow and um prep prepping for students to come back on Wednesday. I did also just want to note uh in welcoming our students back that we do have a very specific schedule for our kids coming back. So first graders through fifth graders are coming back on Wednesday. Regular day, regular schedule. We do have our sixth graders and ninth graders only for the middle school and high school levels on Wednesday and then all uh middle schoolers and high schoolers on Thursday. Um regarding our preschool and kindergarten students, they do have a gentle start from Wednesday through Friday. So, we have three days of gentle start and then um all of our preschoolers and kindergarteners will start on Monday. So, we are very excited for all of our kids to come back and also recognizing
024u working through that process to allow some transitional time for our sixth graders going to a new building, our ninth graders as well, and then obviously our preschoolers and our kindergarteners as our youngest learners coming in to um welcome them in a smaller group format. Good evening. On the operations side of the house, we are excited. We've been able to complete a number of capital improvement projects this summer. Uh those include $2.5 million in HVAC work at Cherington, uh Walnut Springs, and Genanoa Middle School. Uh we also had accessible restroom um construction projects completed at Robert Frost, Mark Twain, and um Walnut Springs Middle Schools, too. So, continuing to um complete projects to meet our student needs. Um along with the gym enclosures at Robert Frost and Mark Twain. Um heard from our community and
025were able to respond to that need. And then um we are finishing bond project kitchen work at Whittier and Hawthorne. Really excited. Um health inspectors have been in and given us the seal of approval. So that's exciting. And then um handbes will be an ongoing project um here to be completed in the near future with no impact to being able to s serve our students at this time. So that's really exciting. Additionally, our custodial staff clean and reset over two million square feet of our buildings this summer. So lots of work, but they are uh ready and set for our kids to come in um on Wednesday. Transportation team is routed and assigned roughly 7,000 students to receive daily transportation. You'll have that before you tonight as a resolution to approve the routes for this
026year. And I'll let Mr. Snyder, I don't want to steal his thunder, but uh it's exciting hard work by that team. Our drivers are trained and ready to go. Uh it's going to be a great year. I can just tell. Uh food service again has planned um ordered and received food for deliveries and are eager to feed the kids coming. And our IT team has inventoried and checked our technology equipment and is that's ready for kids as well. So, lots of good things happening on our side of the house. Well, in our world, um, last week we had two amazing amazing days with our new staff orientation on Monday and Tuesday, and we welcome 72 staff members who are filling vacancies due to retirement or resignation, who are excited and eager to start. Several of
027them are Westerville alum and were able to uh as some of you talk about how important this community is to them and why they wanted to come back and be a part of Westerville schools. And thank you to those of you who were able to come and it welcomed the staff even if it was just for a moment. They really really appreciated that. When I think of the events that we host, I can't think of another event outside of new staff orientation where it is truly an entire team effort. From the board's participation, the entire administrative team either help plan it or was a part of uh the orientation of our students. We had WA show up and they have a segment with that. We have our treasurer's office that come and help some of
028these young people. and I'd maybe sit down with my kid um get through some insurance so they can figure it out for the first time in their life. Um we had Thank you to Manurva France Elementary School who hosted the first day and Heritage Middle School who opened hosted the second day. The custodians had those buildings in tip-top shape. They were outstanding. Food service the first day put a breakfast spread out that put Cracker Barrel to shame and they had pancakes and eggs and all of those things. the tech team made sure that everything was in order from the presentations and everything that we did. So, when I say this was a truly team effort districtwide, I can't think of another event where we all come together to really make our new staff feel welcome.
029So, that was a big deal for us. Um, in addition to our licensed staff, we have five administrators and 155 classified employees that will be joining us this year in the last 12 months. So, we're very excited about their energy and and their eagerness that they're bringing in. And we're down to just five licensed vacancies left, and that's all we have. We are actively trying to fill them, but in all five positions, we have long-term subs ready to go on Wednesday. So, students will have some stability within the classroom and a regular face that they'll see every day. So, we're ready to go. Wednesday's coming. The kids are coming and and we're excited. And I think some of the parents are excited. Oh, you see how excited to get them out of the house and
030back in the school building. So, we're ready to start. >> I just want to um say thank you to all the staff that's worked so hard over the summer to get us prepared. I know a lot of work goes into getting these buildings kind of reset and refreshed and making sure we have all the staff. Um, I was privileged enough to attend new teacher orientation and man, they were so excited to be there. Um, so I know a lot of work went into that and especially comication. A lot of work went into that. So, thank you to everyone for all the work that you've done um, over the summer and the past couple of weeks. I know that a lot of work is still happening to get everybody prepared and I just want to say
031thank you and I hope everyone has a really wonderful year. Okay. Um, next up we have public comments. Uh, 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 interests of our students, the board asked that speakers not identify students by name during their comments, persons having public complaints about district personnel, programming, or operations will be referred to the process set forth in board policy 9130. Finally, the board reminds speakers that their statement should be directed to the board as a whole and not to individual board members. Each speaker will have
032three minutes to address the board. A timer will be shown on the screens and Miss Dennis will call time when uh three minutes have elapsed. Our first speaker this evening is Miss Peg Duffy. Welcome back. As I hear reasons to vote against the school board income tax levy, I'm reminded of an expression frequently heard some years ago. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face. This is a metaphor for self-destructive behavior. It's motiv motivated by revenge or anger. Is an attempt to harm someone else without realizing the con consequences for yourself. In the long run, the person taking the action is harmed more than the initially targeted party. In this case, the no voter eventually is harmed more than the district. Let's think about the levy in terms of the cut off your nose
033despite your face framework. Failure of the levy harms the district. Yes, the opponents are satisfied that there are no more taxes, but the district has to continue no matter the outcome. So, with a levy failure, adjustments will have to be made. Reduced or eliminated services affect students. Even if you don't have kids in the district, this is your community. Keep it a desirable place to live. Continue to give our students opportunities. The Ohio legislature is the culprit, not the district. A recent report shows that Ohio has the eighth highest property taxes in the nation. our inert body down there in Columbus. This law lawmaking body has failed to make adjustments in the property tax structure to protect homeowners from the kinds of increases we've seen recently. In addition, the legislature is at fault for refusing
034to update the actual costs that determine school funding. These inactions have forced us into the current Ohio mindset against property taxes, which is frightening. But aware of this mindset regarding property taxes, our district has chosen the income tax route to fund services. But just remember, don't cut off your nose despite your face. >> Thank you. And next up, we have Patty. It's either Dell or David. >> D. I'm sorry. I really thought I'd get one of those. Welcome. >> I just I don't have neat handwriting. >> I don't either, so I understand. >> Okay. Hi everyone. My name is Patty Dow and I am an alum and graduate at all of the Westerville City Schools. I'm a lifelong resident. Um, and I wanted to come today obviously to talk about the levy. Um, so basically
035I graduated from Westerville North High School and I was a graduate of Walnut Springs Middle School as well. Um, and originally I had developed my love for learning and different cultures which was discovered in my intimate classroom setting because I went to Central College Magnet School. So, um, events, we had all of these fun events, like we had a chess club where they managed to get everyone to we had like 40 people show up at 700 a.m. before school started all to play chess or we had a build at night where we had spare parts and learned how to fix things on our own. My personal favorite was our Chinese New Year celebration where each classroom had a different learning component including traditional Chinese character writing and we learned about the holiday and what it
036signifies to other people in our community. But in third grade, I was a victim of a school levy not passing. And as a result, my last two years of elementary school, I had to switch to Hanby Magnet School. Now, Hanby was lovely and I really enjoyed it, but it's important to acknowledge how district school districts cannot succeed without the support of their community. Just like kids always thrive and succeed more in stability. So, without with this change of pace, I definitely struggled in, you know, keeping a hold of all of my passions and it took a long time for me to rediscover those, especially in the educational system. So when we are taking away our funding or not approving more funding, it has direct impact on the children and we all feel it. So here
037I am 20ome years later still talking about my elementary school because I loved it that much and it had that much of sorry that much of an impact on me and I sorry um I still feel it every day when I pass by that empty lot where my elementary school was. So I think it's important to recognize that when we are bolstering the educational funds and the school district, we are bolstering the community as a whole. Because if kids do not feel comfortable enough to come back to their home, the community lacks and the community does not have that support once they get older and once they need the support of their children. So thank you and sorry I started crying. >> You're okay. >> But yeah. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. >> I just really
038>> Thank you. Um uh next up, may I uh is board meeting minutes. Um may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting held on Monday, July 9th of 2025? >> So moved. >> Second. Any changes needed or All right. Will you take the vote? >> Mr. Eckleman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lee Band? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Valentine? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer? >> Yes. And may moving along to 6.02. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the board of education retreat meeting held on Friday, July 18th, 2025. So moved. >> Second. >> Um, we all good. Did I take a vote? All right. Will you take the vote, please? Mrs. Leian, >> yes. >> Mr. Aleman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Valentine, >> yes. >>
039Mrs. Meyer, >> yes. And moving along to 6.03. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the board of education special session meeting held on Monday, July 21st, 2025? >> So moved. >> Second. >> We Okay, take the vote. >> Okay. Would you please take the vote? >> Mrs. Valentine? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mr. Harkleman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer? >> Yes. And then moving along to uh financial 7.01. May I have a motion to approve the resolution to adopt the Ohio Deferred Compensation Roth 457 option? >> So moved. >> Second. And Miss Marshall, will you talk to us about this opportunity? >> Yes. Thank you, President Meyer, members of the board. So, uh, we currently, um, are part of the Ohio Deferred Compensation Plan, and that is an
040option for our employees to contribute pre-tax dollars towards retirement. It's an annuity, um, that they, uh, save for retirement under. Um, it did, I was not aware that we did not have the Roth as an option for our employees until an employee recently brought it to my attention. And so, I'd like to ask the board to consider that. It doesn't add any new administrative costs to us because we're already proc processing um enrollments into the deferred compensation plan. These are the employees own dollars that they contribute towards retirement. Um so I'd like to give our employees this option to have this uh Roth option just means it's after tax dollars um versus the pre-tax dollars option. And we do have that for our 43b, the Voya plan and all that. We just don't have it
041for the 457. Any questions? All right, seeing none, will you please take the vote? Miss Marshall, >> Mr. Heckleman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Valentine, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lee, >> yes. >> Mrs. Meyer, >> yes. And moving along to 7.02. May I have a motion to approve the purchases in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 5705.41D1 and board policy 6320? >> So moved. >> Second. And will you talk to us about these, Miss Marshall? >> Yes, thank you again. So, these are what we call then and now purchase orders. This means that we had a purchase order that was dated after an invoice date. Um, anything that exceeds uh 3,000 $3,000 or above um it requires board approval in order for us to process payment. Uh we have uh five in front of you today. I
042do want to mention as we cross fiscal years from June to July, we do see tend to have a few more of these than we normally would. Um, so the first one we have from the communications department for final site, that's the district's website. That was a the basically the email was going to um a position that we had to absorb as part of the reductions. And so uh that got missed in getting that PO opened, but we of course budgeted for these items. Um it was just a matter of the purchase order date. Special education to the Muskingham Valley ESC. Um the PO was open but uh for the previous like in the previous year but it got closed as part of the carryover process inadvertently. And then operations for Osborne Engineering also had
043a PO open in the previous fiscal year that got closed during the carryover process. And then central athletics um we had uh this is coachcom which is the final installment. So, this was a timing issue and working with the boosters and getting those processed. And then our operations department um had one with SI Technologies for theater equipment. Uh this has been an ongoing thing. This isn't the first uh then and now purchase order we've had for them. Uh but the company was bought out and so as the vendors changed hands, there was a purchase order, but getting all of that transferred over. Um, so it's really just a a compliance piece to make sure that we're um getting board approval on that. >> Thank you. Are there any questions or comments? >> Okay. Would you
044please take the vote? >> Mr. Eman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Valentine, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lee, >> yes. >> Mrs. Meyer, >> yes. And can we take personal consent as one? Okay. May I have a motion um to approve the personal consent agenda 8.01 01 through 8.08. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Welcome, Mr. Reeves. >> Thank you again. I'd like to present to you for your consideration this evening tonight's personnel consent agenda. Along with the regular action items in tonight's agenda, there are a couple of items to be noted. Resignations. We have but four classified resignations. And we only have one licensed resignation, but it is a resignation of a supplemental contract, and that is due to retirement, where the employee must ensure that they sever all employment heading into retirement. We have one
045leave of absence of an elementary media specialist. Onetime pays. We have a one-time pay for two link crew trainers, which help um promote our first day of school for 9th grade, and they were not included in the original approval. So, we wanted to make sure we got them in there. And we'd like to call out that the College Credit Plus incentive payments for new college credit plus courses are a program of the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce as well as this incentive is funded by um the Ohio Department of Education Workforce. We do training, we do materials and all of that that the board funds, but this particular incentive piece is something that's an incentive program of the state um and not Westerville City Schools. So, as a way for them to promote growth
046in the college credit plus program, our contract status changes for classified are really the result of staff changing buildings and the hour adjustments for the buildings that they are headed into. And for employment, you can see a slew of both classified, we have 10 employments, nine teachers in our final push to get all of our positions filled for the start of the school year. And as I shared a little bit earlier, we're down to just a few left. We are also bringing back retired Westerville administrator Juliet Peoples on a limited consulting role to help with the transition of Anne Baldwin in her role in dealing with the complexities of our non-public partners, federal title funds, and any audits that may come from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce. And so she will help make
047sure that the the very important with financial impact transition happens um smoothly. And lastly, we have that same final push for supplemental contracts and athletic support personnel as the fall sports season is now upon us with several of our teams like our golf teams, girls tennis teams, and cross country are already underway with competition. Unfortunately, we have no retirements tonight, so there will be no lesson. But I am happy to answer any question that you may have over this consent agenda. I'm really disappointed about this, but I'm glad to hear that we're not losing anybody. Um, I just have one question. So, we have five vacancies. Where can people go if they're interested in what those vacancies are? >> Well, we have uh careers at Westerville, uh, I think it's our short one, um, wcsoh.org.
048You can go right into where you can look at and apply for our postings that are open and available. Most of them are special education and those with a special education license, um, we'd love to talk to you. >> All right. So, tell your friends. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, we don't have any old business, so moving along. You shouldn't go very far. Um, to new business 10 point Oh, yeah. I'm sorry. We need a vote. My apologies. >> Ready? >> Yeah. >> Mr. Hackleman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Mrs. Valentine. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Levia. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer. >> Yes. Thanks. Thanks, Miss Marshall. Um, so moving along to new business. Uh, we have the first reading of policy 0169.1, public participation at board meetings. Mr.
049Reeves. >> Yes. Thank you. So, we added the following sentence to the policy. If a participant brings an interpreter to assist addressing the board, the participant shall be limited to six minutes in duration, which is double the three minutes we changed to not long ago. And we realized that given our population of English learners, that if an interpreter was needed to address the board, they wouldn't have an equal amount of time bouncing back and forth between an interpreter as a as a proficient English speaker would have. And so for us, this was really um giving them equal time uh as anyone else. So we think it's a very valuable uh change for our community. >> Second policy. Any questions on that one? >> Second policy uh which we >> Yeah, >> I was going to
050say really quickly. I did have a question. So interpreter that includes um >> both somebody who might need English language services for interpreting but also >> also maybe hearing >> American Sign Language or um a device of some sort. Okay. >> And we were intentional in our policy not to qualify the type of interpreter because we know that there are a variety of interpreters that may be needed. So that was a great great call out. >> Thank you. >> Personal communication devices which we just talked about a little bit. So, um, to reiterate, this is something that is required by the budget bill for us and the use of personal communications devices are to be prohibited during the instructional school day with very specific exceptions, as we as we alluded to a little bit earlier,
051if there is a health concern received by a written statement from a physician requiring the use of a phone. And we already have a very um competent nurses department where they are very well-versed in the medical needs of our students um and those that are needing a phone and we know that that'll be a transition for a lot of our pediatricians who parents will come and say hey my child is diabetic or my child has this heart palpitation that we need a device for. So uh we we are aware of of most of those students already because of the relationship that we have with them and their families. And so this we don't find we don't believe that this will be a difficult transition this piece. Um we also a student can also use a
052device if it is a provision within their 504 or uh individuals educa uh individual education plan IEP. And so if a student needs those to meet their IEP goals or their 504 goals that is something that's outlined and they can use there. And um something that was mentioned a little bit earlier as well a teacher or principal can authorize the use for instructional purpose. as Miss Asher shared our process and and the way that we are going to lay that out. I know uh Mrs. Leeban, you had had a question earlier about the preparation of our teachers and in the classroom and the use of that and I will kind of make the point that we did change our policy about this time last year. And so students not being able to use their devices
053within the classroom, that actually is not new. So, our our teachers have had a year to kind of work through that and our our students that part is not as much of a shock to them um not being able to use it in the classroom because we changed that part last year. For secondary, it's more the non-classroom spaces that that we'll work with them on. So, that was um a great point to bring up earlier. And so, uh, devices are to be out of sight in a secured location such as a student's locker, but they can be in a secured location like a student's purse, a student's backpack, or something like that. And lastly, a student may use a device uh to contact their parent or guardian during an active tra active threat or an
054emergency situation so long as the device access does not violate protocols of the district's emergency management plan. For example, we may be in a lockdown situation uh of an active emergency situation, but the student's phone is in the locker and we're on lockdown. To come out of the class during a lockdown to go to their locker would violate our safety protocol protocols and not put that student in a safe that would be an instance where that would be a violation. So there are provisions where the state has put in to allow students and we are enacting those and our principles are working really hard with guidance from their supervisors on making sure that it's as smooth as possible. I would like to say also that last year approximately half of our suburban sister school districts
055enacted what we are enacting now. We chose not to. We chose to do a an incremental um uh prohibition on cell phones. So we reached out to them. What were the hurdles? What were the pitfalls? What were the successes? And so we have a good network to make sure that we are as smooth as possible in this transition. Sorry, just a quick question. Do we have uh English language learners who are using devices uh for translation as a part of the school day? >> We do and and to our to your point made earlier, we're not quite onetoone and we do have programs uh that we are able to use through Chrome and other devices that the EL English language department is utilizing to translate those things. So, um, in the event that we may
056not have enough, that would be to your point an um an acceptable use within the instructional bounds to say, "Okay, let's use your personal device to be able to do things like translate so you can get the lesson and understand it." So, good. Does a student need a IEP to to to engage that service or in other words to have that or is that >> I no I would I would u say that that's clearly within the teacher and the principal's bounds to say this is an acceptable use that we believe is valuable for an instructional purpose. That's one of the reasons a student can use with the permission. I think that would fall very clearly into that that part. >> Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? >> All right, thank you so much. >>
057Um, next up we have recommended action standing business. And this is also a fun part, the night 11.01, early graduates. And may I have a motion to approve the early graduate candidates who have completed all local and state requirements? >> So moved. >> Second. Welcome, Miss Sasher. >> Good evening, President Meyer, Vice President Leven, Treasure Marshall, and members of the board. Tonight, we have three students from Westerville North High School who are candidates for early graduation. Uh, these students are on schedule to complete their graduation requirements prior to their cohort. I am requesting early graduation approval for these students upon meeting all state and board requirements for graduation. me. All right. Well, just congratulations to them. All right. Will you take the vote, please? >> Mrs. Valentine? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lean? >> Yes. >>
058Mr. Heckleman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer? >> Yes. And may I have a motion to approve the outofstate overnight field trips? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Would you talk to us about this, M? >> Absolutely. On August 3rd, the Westerville Central girls and boys cross-country teams attended their team retreat in Mount Gilead. Given the request happened in late July per our board guidelines, the trip was approved by Superintendent Hamburg and I am requesting your review and approval for this trip. >> Any questions? >> So, the request actually came through in between our sessions. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. Um, we take the vote. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Heckleman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Valentine? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer? >> Yes. And may I have
059a motion to approve the resolution for um transportation routes for the 2025 2026 school year? >> So moved. >> Second. Welcome, Mr. Snider. You guys have been busy. >> Good evening, President Meyer, members of the board, Miss Marshall. Uh a little background or understanding. Ohio administrative code states it is the responsibility of the superintendent or designate to determine the location of all school bus stops to be approved annually by the district's board of education. Authority to designate or relocate subsequent school bus stops may be delegated by the board of education to the superintendent or their designate. Bus stops in a time schedule will be adopted and put in force by the board not earlier than 30 days prior to and not later than 30 days after the beginning of the school term. as well. The
060state of Ohio requires transportation services be provided for students in kindergarten through 8th grade who reside more than two miles from their homes from their school. Westerville's service parameters, however, to continue to exceed the state minimum requirements by providing transportation, yes, for students in grades kindergarten through 8th grade. Additionally, grades 9 through 10. And we also offer transportation services for students in the 11th and 12th grades on a space available basis. Westerville City Schools also provides services through the My Van program for students with specialized transportation requirements in grades K through 12. To review for last school year for ending in 2025, we ended the school year with 98 school bus routes to 37 locations, including 25 public schools, eight private and charter schools, and three career centers. for the FY26 or the current 2526
061school year coming up. We'll begin the school year with 96 bus routes to the same 37 locations. We will also start the school year with 22 my van routes which serve students with the identified transportation accommodations through their IEP and eligible students who fall under the McKenna Vento Act and also foster placement. We have approximately 7,000 students, as Miss Dennis referenced earlier, approximately 7,000 students that we'll be providing transportation services for for the upcoming school year. At this point, it is my recommendation that the board approve the designated bus routes and bus stop locations for the 202526 school year. Be happy to answer any questions that you might have this evening. >> Uh, I just had a quick question. 98 routes last year, 96 routes this year. Can you talk about the the reason for
062two routes going away? >> Certainly. Uh the complete routing process takes about six weeks from the beginning of the process itself to this past Thursday when our drivers selected their routes and they were posted. We have an amazing team working with us back at the office. It is not a one-man team by any means, but a multi-person team at the office that um analyzes and reviews rider data from previous year and previous years prior to identifying areas that we may have a lower ridership than usual, compare those to maybe another bus route serving a particular school, working to combine those opportunities and those spaces, if you will, on the vehicles. Um but again it it takes a dedicated team um as well as some feedback from a number of our drivers that will share have
063you thought about doing this or have you thought about making that adjustment throughout the year. So we certainly count on their feedback as well. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? Sounds like a lot of work. Thank you for doing it. >> Thank you. >> Um will you please take the vote? >> Mr. Heckleman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lee? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Valentine? Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> May I have a motion to approve the settlement agreement? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Would you please take the vote, Miss Marshall? >> Mrs. Lee Ban? >> Yes. >> Mr. Heckleman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Valentine? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Meyer? >> Yes. And next up, we have board comments. Who would like to go first? >> I guess I can
064kick us off. Hi everybody. Um, I first want to welcome back our students and our staff, um, educators, um, and congratulate all of the new staff that are coming into the district. Honestly, as we've heard, not just tonight, but over the past few minute meetings throughout the summer, a lot of work has gone into preparing our buildings and our teams. And so, I'm really just proud I'm proud of that work. Um, and I just want to thank um, our custodial staff who I think covered two million square feet is what was shared. That's insane. Um so thank you so much for that. Um I too had the opportunity to attend the uh convocation this uh week and it was very very inspiring. Um so I was happy to be a part of that. Um and
065congratulations to the students who were um Christian and Olivia who were recognized this evening and to our three North students who are graduating early. And so with that I will turn it over to my other colleagues. Thank you. Uh Tedto said very well. Anas, uh yeah, thank you especially to the staff for their hard work through the summer. It doesn't uh seem like a lot's going on if you're on the outside, but inside we know a lot differently that there's just a ton of work that has happened thanks to transportation in particular for keeping our students safe and thinking about the routes and uh and those types of things. So, >> I too want to thank everybody for getting the buildings ready to go. Um, it's a ton of work. I can't believe all the
066transportation routes and miles and how many kids get on those buses. So, thank you for doing the hard work of putting together those jigsaw puzzles to get our kids uh to and from school every day. Um, I did want to make mention for our parents who are out there, there's a lot of information that's coming through between the schedules and what time the bells ring and the transportation and extracurricular activities. If you do have questions, feel free to reach out. Um, we want to make sure that parents and uh, guardians have all the information they need for their kids. And I mean, even as a board member, I have two kids in the schools, and there's a lot of information that comes uh home and through email at the time where they start heading back
067to school. So, please, if you are having any issues finding the information you need, do reach out because um I know that the staff here and the administration is happy to help and as are we the board. Um yeah, it's going to be hopefully a really great school year. And I know my son today I had to share because he had heard that the cell phone policy was changing and we were in the car coming home from a doctor's appointment and he said, "Yeah, we're not allowed to have our cell phones out even at lunch. We're going to have to socialize." I said, "Yes, yes you will." Um, so yay. Thank you for forcing those children to talk to each other. Um, that's all I got. >> I actually had a similar conversation with my
068son. Said, "Can't use it at work." or at um at lunch. Uh you know, I want to just a lot of we've heard a lot of um chatter around uh the payment. Um I'm blinking on the name of it right now. Easy pay. It got switched over >> and there's a lot of chatter about um the the fee and I'm I know that we this is not something that we chose, right? Could you just explain that really quick? I think you explained that to me, but I think it would be good for the community to hear it. >> Yeah. So, Easy Pay was actually being sunset by the company that owns it. So, they're moving the platform to pay school centrals and we found out uh I think it was in May. We literally had
069like a month to transition um to get it up and running in time for the back to school stuff. And uh so yeah, we had no but previously the district had picked up the fee for easy pay um and the easy pay fee wasn't as high as the pay schools fee is now. But since we failed the levy, we had planned on no longer picking up that fee to help offset some of that revenue loss. So um but yes, the shift was not an ideal time at all for anyone. Uh the last thing we wanted to do was another change for back to school, but um we didn't have a choice in that matter. We were required to switch over to Paychool central. >> Thank you for that. >> Yeah. And then just one other
070reminder since my son actually asked me this today too to the parents out there who are wondering their bus route. You can find it on P school but online only. So go to online, get into P school, you can find it there. Um, other than that, I I've already I say ditto and just let's make it a great year. >> Can we put in a plug for the back to school page on the website? I think our comm's team has done an outstanding job. There's like so much information. I know there's like a thousand emails. I'm also a parent. I'm getting the thousand of emails. I'm having a hard time. But every time I go back to that back to school information page, everything I need is right there. So, that's very nice. So, I
071would recommend anybody check it out if you're not sure. >> Thank you for that reminder. All right. Um, the board will meet in regular session on Monday, August 25th at 6 PM at the Early Learning Center, which is here, 936 Eastwind Drive, West Travel 43081. And may I have a motion to move into executive session for the purposes of discussing the employment, compensation, and discipline of public employees. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Great. Would you please take the vote? >> Mr. Hackleman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Valentine? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lee? >> Yes. Mrs. Meyer. Yes. Thank you. >> 659.