May 19, 2025 Board of Education Meeting

001Thank you for attending the May 19th, 2025 meeting of the Westerville City Schools Board of Education. We appreciate you guys coming out tonight. 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 the to the district's website at www.wcso.org. Click on the our district link, select board of education, Follow the board docs linked to our current meeting agenda. There will be an opportunity for public comment this evening. There's a signup sheet located on the table in the back of the room. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the board and a timer will be shown on the screen. This portion of the meeting shall be limited to no more than

00260 minutes. And with that, Miss Marshall, will you please call the role? Mrs. Alman, here. Mr. Apple here. Mrs. Valentine, here. Mrs. Leian here. Mrs. Meyer here. Would you please join us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisibley andice. Next up, we have the fun part of the evening, district highlights and recognitions. And um I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues, Miss Leanne and Miss Valentine, um for this for this award. Yeah. Oh, is it? So, we have we have somebody who is going to present this award. So, for the Civotan, yes, for the Civotan award tonight, Gertie Glass is going to join us and speak about this. Good evening, President Meyer, members of

003the board, Superintendent Hamburg, and Miss Marshall. You know, every once in a while, something begins with a simple email and turns into something much greater than we could have imagined. That's exactly how our journey with the Westerville Area Civan Award began. Back in 20 2017, an email arrived from Miss Donna Dree. It was a warm, thoughtful invitation to explore a partnership. And at that moment, I didn't fully know what Civetin was all about, but I was curious. And I'm so glad that I was. What I discovered was an organization driven by purpose, not just words on a page, but a well commitment to building community, lifting others, and leading with a heart. As I read more about Civet and International's mission, I recognize values that are deeply familiar to those of us in education. Service,

004respect, inclusion, leadership. These are just ideals we admire. They are the very principles we live by every day. We live by every day. Since that first outreach, the Civitan Club has become a true partner, one that celebrate the dedication of our staff and reminds us that the work we do matters beyond the walls of our schools. Over the past eight years, your kindness, encouragement, and recognition have meant so much to us. You have helped us to shine a light on the people who quietly and selflessly make a difference in the lives of students every day. That kind of support is powerful and it's lasting. So on behalf of our district leadership, our board of education and all of our staff, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for believing in educators. Thank you

005for sitting with us and thank you for continuing to be a partner in this shared vision of service. And now it is my honor to welcome Miss Kendi Klein to present the 2425th Westerville area Civan Club Education Professional Award to the school year's winner. Thank you, Gertie. Thanks for giving us um time during your meeting to honor a special young woman. We're here representing the Westerville area Civotan Club. We're a small group locally, about 24 members. But Civotan is an international organization whose goal it is to find ways to help our communities. Part of our mission statement says, "Our clubs are dedicated to serving individual and community needs with an emphasis on helping people with developmental disabilities." In support of that goal, we've organized events such as spring dances and Easter egg hunts at the

006Westerville Community Center, especially for those with such disabilities. Miss Glass solicited nominations from within the district and many individuals were nominated. This is an excerpt from the nomination letter about the person who was finally selected. This individual demonstrates an unwavering commitment to supporting students with diverse emotional and behavioral needs. She approaches her work with compassion, patience, and a strong student centered mindset. Always prioritizing the well-being and success of those she serves. No matter the challenge, she consistently steps in with a positive solutionsoriented approach. Her influence extends across the district and her deep belief in every student's potential continued to make a lasting and meaningful impact. There were many more glowing words in her nomination. We announced on May 15 at Westerville City School District that the recipient of our special education professional award is Miss

007Ingred Fogle. We represented her with a frame certificate at that time. She'll also be recognized at the Westerville City Council meeting tomorrow. Um, at this time we'll present a plaque and small gift as well as a plaque for the district that will also display the names of future recipients of this award. We'd like to thank Miss Glass for all of her help in this process and thanks to everyone who took the time to submit nominations. [Applause] Next we have um 4.01 the superintendent's comments. Miss Yamberg, thank you. Congratulations to Ingred on her award. Got to see her be surprised with that last week and that's always fun. Um I'd like to thank all of our students and staff for a great school year. We are looking forward to next Saturday when we all get to

008celebrate our three senior classes down at the Celeste Center. I did want to advise the public if you are planning on attending graduation. There is information on our web page which can be found on the teaching and learning site including information on construction. So if you're not aware they are doing some construction down there um which does impact parking. There's a map available, lots of other information. So please plan accordingly and you might want to leave a little bit earlier than usual just to deal with some of that. Um, but we look forward to recognizing our our graduates from Westerville Central first at 10:00 a.m. this year. And then we have South at 2 and North at 6. Um, last Friday, I know u Miss Leeben and Mrs. Meyer got to help me uh recognize

009our preschool graduates on Friday. So, it's pretty cool to get to recognize the preschool graduates and then a week later the seniors kind of get to see the full scope of what we do. So, congratulations to them. And again, thank you to all the students and staff and a big congratulations to the families as well. Um, I would like to take a moment to address some concerns and frustrations that we've been hearing from our community about staffing. First, I want to thank everyone for taking the time to reach out and share your thoughts. Um, we've been trying to respond to those as much as as quickly as possible. It's been a little hectic here at the end of the year and we've been getting a lot of emails. So, ask for a little grace and

010patience as we get to all of those. But um it's really important to us that people are paying attention and taking the time to reach out. I've been asked what's different this year compared to other years with moving staff around. And I think there are a few things. Um over the last several years, the district's been in a position to be able to add staffing each year for various needs. And so some of that staffing was related to the following. We had a special education audit where we were given information from that audit that indicated we needed to add some staffing. Um, we restored and added electives at the middle school that have been cut during the recession. We expanded our college credit plus offerings, giving lots of high school students the opportunity to take

011those courses on campus. We opened an elementary school and a middle school to eliminate crowding at those levels. So, with that, we've had several years in a row where we've been adding staff. And now with some shifts in funding, um, we're finding ourselves in a different situation. And so I assure you it wasn't a fun situation to come into as the new superintendent. Um but that's the reality of where we are right now. And so we're trying to work through looking at shifts in our funding or deficit spending. Um we are looking at less overall revenue and and inflationary costs that Nicole's going to talk about during our five-year forecast. We've worked really hard to get our deficit for next school year from 22 million down to 17 million, but we're still bringing in 17

012million less than we'll be spending next year. And so with that, we're looking for um opportunities. So with we have our regular staffing shifts that we do every year. So when we look at like the elementary level, I know we've talked about this, but just to reiterate, um we look every year at where those numbers are across 15 elementaryaries, and we'll watch those throughout the summer. I will say I I would love to see all of our elementary class sizes smaller. We're not in a position to add the amount of staff. We would need to get them all down where we would love for them to be. So, we're trying to operate within our within our contract numbers at this point. And we'll watch this very closely with a preference given to the younger grades

013as we look at the elementary. Um but on top of that, we're trying to look at where can we reduce and combine and we've got a slide to talk about um what we've done administratively to make some reductions. We've also looked at across our high schools with some retirements are there places that we can offer courses less times. Um that's not ideal for kids because you know the more times we can offer a class throughout the day, the more opportunities kids have to get the exact schedule they want. They have to make more choices as we look at not being able to offer things as often. So, we are looking across the district and I know it's there are a lot of emotions that go into not being able to offer as many things as

014we were previously. Um, I'm hopeful that we'll be able to build that back up as hopefully something changes with funding over the next few years, but the reality is right now that our legislators are discussing a provision that would have a clawback of our property taxes. Um, we are already deficit spending. if we were to lose additional funding, then we would be looking at other types of shifts. So, I know we're working on putting together what does that state minimum look like? What could that potentially look like if we don't have the funding to pay for all the things that we're doing? Um, one thing I would point out just to continue at our current service levels without additional funding with inflation, that just doesn't work on the math. So that's the hard thing is,

015you know, we look at what we're offering right now and the things that we've added over the last several years that we believe are good for kids. We still believe they're good for kids, but it's difficult to continue those items without additional funding. So, we've been trying to tighten up where we can. In the meantime, we've been very involved with advocating at the state house to try to get the funding that our children deserve, and we would encourage you to continue to help. Uh, many in our community have done a great job of that, and we appreciate that. Um Nicole is going to be presenting the updated five-year forecast tonight and I'll be chiming in some additional on staffing especially regarding administrative. But at this time I'd like to invite Scott Reeves our assistant superintendent

016of teaching and learning and a couple of his team members. We have Gertie Glass their executive director of specialized learning programs which includes gifted and Cheryl Roofford our executive director of elementary education to come up and share some information. We've been getting some questions about gifted, so we just want to give a quick report about where things are with that program and staffing. So, thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Hamburg. Members of the board, good evening. Um, I had the opportunity last week to share some questions that we had with our parent council um specifically around our staffing and our shifts in sta in staffing, but also um some of the changes within our gifted staffing as we go into next year. And I want to explain kind of what our models look like and what

017the changes are and what the impact for our students are going to be. So within our district, we have as um identified by the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce over half a dozen gifted service models. We have our full-time self-contained which we house at Hanby Elementary School. We have cluster grouping which we have at all 15 including Hanby um outside and in addition to our um self-contained at our 15 middles and all or 15 oh boy we don't want 15 middles at our 15 elementaryaries and all five of our middle schools. A gap that we had in our district service models that we are closing next year is that in grades nine and 10 we had no gifted service model. Having honors courses count as a gifted service model is something we are permitted

018to do. And um next year our honors courses in grades nine and 10 will have gifted trained teachers teaching those courses. And so that will be an additional service model that we have um really expanding the opportunity for hundreds and hundreds of our gifted kids in grades nine and 10 who were not getting a gifted service beyond middle school. We also have students who take international balorate courses within their gifted service area. We have students who are taking AP courses within their gifted identified area. We have kids who are taking college credit plus courses. And of course, we have some students who are great accelerated. All of those are gifted service models that we offer in our district as identified by the Ohio Department of Education. We also have uh at our elementary level and

019our middle school level what we call gifted facilitators. We had two at the middle. We have four at the elementary level and the gifted facilitators provided pull out enriching services to our gifted students. At the middle school level, they did things like future city and really cool things like that. Um, at the elementary level, they provided enriching services outside of the gifted service model that they were receiving in their classrooms. And those were very wonderful. It's kind of like the cherry on top of a already wonderful experience for our gifted kids. But as Mrs. Hamburg said, as we are in the position that we are now, we have to make some difficult choices. And I think I shared this with the board a meeting or two ago is you always start with what you what

020is not required of a student and you touch that very at the very end of what is required and and how you reduce that. And so when you look at the facilitators um they provide enriching wonderful wonderful experiences but their services are not our gifted service model and therefore not required. We did not eliminate our facilitators. We reduced. So we went from 2 to one at the middle level and we went from four to two at the elementary level. So some of those pull out experiences students are still going to have. They're just not going to have them as frequently because the facilitators are spread over more buildings than they were before, but we will still have them. Eliminating or excuse me, reducing our facilitators does not change in any way our gifted service models.

021All of our students are still having their gifted service models in classes in one of those a variety of of uh service models that I explained to you by gifted trained teachers within our district. So that service is uninterrupted and untouched. Just the extra the enriching things are going to be reduced to a degree. Um and another change that is coming um effective July as a result of a change in the Ohio administrative code um also potentially within our district could expand even more the number of students that we could serve in our gifted program specifically around our self-contained gifted program. And I'll have Cheryl Ruffford kind of explain that. And so I'm just going to expand a little bit. um our gifted self-contained program services students at the elementary level, grades three, four, and

022five. And with the change in the um legislation, it will allow us to not have that 20 cap, student cap um that we have per class now. Um it will allow us to make the cap more equitable to the standard numbers at the third, fourth, and fifth grade. um we are having conversations around what that number what that increase might look like but we have to take their superior COG scores into account for um inviting students into that self-contained gifted program. So that's going to just take us a little more time to sort through that. Um Gertie work oversees Gertie Glass oversees our gifted services team and they are pulling that data so we can determine who we can invite into the program to fill those extra spaces. Any other questions for us about gifted?

023I have a I have a question. Um could you maybe expand a little bit more on the communication piece to families to parents? Um I understand um that there is a difference between the uh elimination versus reduction, but could you just kind of help those watching um know more about communication about these changes as we do with all things? So, we are still um looking into things, measuring things, and when we are ready for like when we have the finalized things, we are going to definitely email parents and let them know what it's going to look like because right now we are just still trying to finalize how things are going to look for next year. Yes. And we just learned of the update um as late as th last Thursday. So, that's when we

024learn of the update. So, we uh actually did have a meeting at Henby just to tell the teachers how the law is going to change, but nothing has been sent out to anyone yet. Any other questions? The law does go into effect July 1st and so we have a little bit of time to sort through the increase in the CAT class size for gifted self-contained. Um again, we just it was hot off the press last week. Um but in reference to um communicating around gifted facilitator changes, I think we've communicated that out as far as a collective communication, not so much to that targeted group. Um it does impact all students who have a gifted identification across our elementary and middle school level with the um with the reduction of the gifted facilitator service. Um

025thank you. uh a question um if you could help people understand we're hearing you know Hami uh classrooms are a bit small and so I'm assuming you're taking all of this into consideration too could you talk a little bit about that absolutely so the good news is our magmick program is also housed at Handby and the capacity of those classes right now is 26 and so we would not expect to increase our gift itself contained beyond that 26 because we know that we are currently able to meet the needs of our students up to that 26 capacity and it be very comfortable. So the gift itself contained classes sit right across from our magnet classes and those classes are at 26. I don't envision there being a problem with space because those classroom spaces are

026pretty much identical. Thank you. You're welcome. Um I'm wondering if you can uh Thank you. This is I think helpful information and uh ever changing, right? it is. Um I'm you touched on it, but I'm just wondering if you can just talk a little bit more about the idea that the pull out enrichment is not our service model, right? And I think that's really hard for our families to understand that piece. Um I was a former principal here in the district and lived through what that looked like. Um, oftent times what happens with the gifted facilitators and they are they've been a gift for us for a long time in our district. Um, but what you'll find is um the every classroom teacher who teaches in grades three, four, and five are required to have

027a gifted certification hours so they can provide cluster services for all students in our elementary buildings. And so that happens and we provide PD and support all year long for them to maintain those hours. Um when it comes to the enrichment activities, they were coming every um sometimes it was every other week, every other week. And so when you look at it from that lens, kids were pulled out for an enrichment activity that was not always based on an academic area. It was based upon higher level thinking skills and strategies and it did not take the place for direct instruction in the classroom. It really was an extension or on top of some core strategies that we wanted to teach our gifted learners um to stretch and challenge them a little bit further. But their

028core gifted service hours come from that certified classroom teacher who is forward- facing with them every day throughout the day. and they should be differentiating in the classroom to meet the full range of needs of all of our kids. And I'll share this as well and I because I listed some of them. It it is not for us to create or determine what is the gifted service model. The gifted service model is outlined and very specific. Here are gifted service models as recognized by the state of Ohio and it's in the Ohio um Department of Education Workforce. It's in the Ohio Administrative Code. And I think I've alluded to probably in a work session that one of the things that makes this district so very special is we exceed state minimums. We provide amazing experiences

029for our families and we have amazing educators that do that. The pull out by the gifted facilitators are one of those just like our pathways or international balorate and college pedoplaza. All the wonderful experiences that make this a special place and unfortunately when we have to make reductions those are the the places where you you chip away at. And we were fortunate not to have to eliminate it but we had to chip away at it which would um reduce the number of times that students would be able to interact with them. But that is not one of the identified gifted service models in the administrative code. Thanks for walking through that again. Other questions for them? All right, that is all I have this evening unless you have any other questions for me. I don't

030could you just talk through a little bit um how we when we're switching teachers like what's that process like? I'm going to leave that to when we're moving teachers around what's that process like? Are they just talking process? Are they allowed to, you know, Yeah, I mean there are there are provisions in a lot of negotiated agreements that allow a superintendent to place for the good of the district teachers around. Um we have always found that um educators are better when they have the opportunity to select something that they may want to do. So if we're able to reduce if if we have to say for example the one that's been um in our conscious mostly is Mark Twain in first grade and fourth grade. Um we could say you're we don't need this many

031sections at Mark Twain. There's nowhere else in the building for you to go. We are reassigning you to this building. However, every WA member and and Wessa and all those for that matter when there is an opening they have a right to apply to that. And so instead of putting them somewhere and then forcing them to apply, we give teachers the opportunity to take a look at what the openings in our district are and maybe there's a building, a grade level or a program that may fit their interest and their expertise and give them the ability to do that. But they are they are doing it among all the WA members who also may excuse me share in that same interest in that. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Um, and then when we're looking at

032and I I know we've talked about this before, but when we're looking at the um enrollment numbers and we're looking at them across the whole district and we're making changes because of the needs and some buildings might be going up while enrollment going down in other buildings. Am I Yeah. And here's and I shared this with with parent council as well and here's probably our most extreme uh example. I think Miss Lee Ban, you might have been in there with me when we had those conversations. Our most extreme example is Westerville Central High School. Right before CO going into 18 and 19, Westerville Central was knocking on the door of,900 students and we were continually adding staff there to accommodate their need. Some of the staff came from Westerville North and Westerville South, Westerville North

033specifically who were shrinking in staff. They were down into the high 1300s of of students. Well, that trend has kind of reversed and now Westerville Central is not even our largest building anymore. Uh, Westerville North is. And so over the last several years, staff has have been reassigned from Central as they have lost enrollment to Westerville North or Westerville South or some kind of split between all of them um to accommodate for the growth in one place and the loss of enrollment at another. So that when you look at the ratio of students to kids, math teachers to kids, English teachers to kids, we have a comparable uh resources across our district. That happens with elementary too. Elementary is not as segmented as high school with all the courses and grades and all of that.

034You may have 75 second graders. Well, that's a really neat number. That's three teachers for 25 kids per class. Well, then you have those numbers that are tricky. And do you have really really high class sizes within our bounds or do you have really really low class sizes that um perhaps are significantly lower across the district as you said comparatively. So you take for example Mark Twain. Mark Twain this year has 75 first graders. That's very easy. They have three classes of 25. Well next year they'll have 56. And so you're like, okay, wow, that's 26 27 a class. We have just adjusted numbers and I don't know the updated numbers because we've had now open enrollment and we had our magnet lottery earlier. So there's some kids being extracted from that. Well, you could

035have three, if you maintain three sections, you'd have 16 17 kids per class, which is wonderful. But when you look equitably across our district in first grade or fourth grade, it's that's not equitable at all from the experiences of our other students. and that bubble will move through. And so next year, second grade, we'll need three for these 75 first graders, but two years after that, they'll only have 50 or so second graders. And so you'll have to make adjustments. The biggest um I wouldn't say issue, but but the circumstance of Mark Twain is typically when that happens, there's another grade for that teacher to move to within the same building. and either there through lack of retirement, through lack of resignations in that particular building. There was not anywhere and so the the the

036two teachers impacted had to select something else in the district for them. I mean, they did not lose their their contract. They just weren't able to teach in that building at that grade. That's pretty much the process for elementary, but there's movement of teachers every single year. I think Miss Ralford has something to add, too. And I also just want to add this other piece. I know we're talking about Mark Twain at this time, but we have two other elementary buildings who are being impacted the same way and we don't make this decision lightly. Um, but we do have to take into account those numbers at every grade level so that it's equitable across the entire district. And I'm just going to speak personally as the person responsible for leading us through this process. We

037had a situation this year where we had to make a change in classes mid year. We want to be proactive versus reactive because in the middle of the year, that is not the time to reassign babies. We need for them to know where they're starting at the beginning of the year and stay with that teacher for the duration of the year. But this was the first time in my career as an educator I had to make a decision to move from three sections at one of our elementaryaries down to two because they were sitting at 17 and 18 students um in those three classes. And one of the teachers went on leave and we couldn't fill the position. So, we don't ever want to be in that situation. Again, elementary is a very developmentally it's

038very difficult for kids to adjust midyear. So, we are trying to be as proactive as we possibly can. Um, and again, that was one of the hardest decisions that I had to make, but it was a necessary decision because we would much rather have kids with a certified teacher, highly qualified teacher versus a non-certified teacher. And by making the decisions now for those three elementary buildings based upon their current enrollment, we are ensuring that they start the school year with a certified teacher. But we will make sure to monitor those numbers all summer long. And if there's a need to add back, we will. But right now, the numbers don't justify that at this time. Thank you. Go ahead. Do you have more on that? I just wanted to um ask Thank you. A followup.

039when when do we actually make those that final decision so parents know kind of what to expect? So, um unfortunately we do have families apply for enrollment late into the summer. Um we would hope that we would be able to do it by June, July. Um but sometimes it's later contingent upon how many students enroll. We do have pockets within our district where they're later to enroll. And so I wish I could say it would be done way like now, but it could change even over the summer. Um, Mark Twain is a building where they have a pocket where some of the families enroll quite late into the summer. So it could still we don't want to just have to overflow a lot of students. So again, we'll continue to monitor it. I wish I

040could say um that we would have it done by mid June, but it might be closer to July before we can finalize it. First grade is always tricky because with not having all day kindergarten, sometimes we get kids coming in who attended kindergarten elsewhere. So, that's one that we definitely want to hold out and see where we are to make sure we don't get some late enrollments. And I' I'd say for high school because there are so many moving parts and so many content areas, we know by now by surely what our staff movement is going to be because even if there's an influx of 30 kids to a high school, it's over four grades. It's some in English, some in geometry, some in and you're really talking about one maybe two kids in a

041classroom. So we can lock in high school almost by the start of May so they can build their master schedules. Thank you. And also in the I can speak for the EL department and also for special ed that's something that we do all the time because we cannot have a classroom of teachers sitting with like six kids and if we have like another building sitting at 12. So we are always monitoring like throughout the year monitoring the numbers and around this time of the year that's when we sit down together with the uh department heads and also with HR just to say okay based on this number this is where this teacher needs to go. So this is something that we monitor literally every every every day to ensure that you know teachers and students

042are proportionally you know we have the ratio going the right way for all of our students. So, uh, we'll continue to work on that. Um, I just wanted to Mr. Reef, since you, um, mentioned high school, I just wanted to, um, briefly, uh, talk about the the difference which you touched on there. So, there's a difference in terms of, um, the way teachers are licensed, right? And of course, they're teaching periods. So um you know there might be a teacher who because we offer a specialized program is teaching a very small class one period but they have a very they could have a very large class you know twothirds of the rest of the day and they're licensed in that specific content area. So just the way that we can move teachers at high school

043is very different. Yes. and um the way that you know to look at we try not to have extremely small high school classes but sometimes that happens but that doesn't mean they're sitting with that many kids all day long and it's it really happens within those specialized niches like um some of our AP classes or college credit plus class or international baloria class where the breadth of choices are so great kids are very segmented as opposed to every kid has to take that. And so you have full classes across the board, but by the time you get to the junior senior year, there are literally dozens and dozens of courses students can take. And sometimes you'll have sections that you have the resource for um that is smaller than others. But for a teacher at

044the secondary level, we try to keep them at around 125 a day. That's 25 for five classes, which is a full-time. And there are some that are right at that. There are some that are a little less than that. Some might be just under 100. Um, and it really depends on what they're teaching and what their schedule looks like. So, you're absolutely right. Thank you. It's just totally different. Totally different. And typically, to his point, typically our underclass courses are much higher enrollment. So, a teacher might have freshman and then AP something. So, they've got a ton of kids, not a ton, but a lot more kids in their freshman class than they would AP. The only other thing I just want to say out loud is that any teacher that has been displaced, we

045are prioritizing getting them placed. Um we are only accepting um applications from internal candidates at this time for the vacancies at elementary and we are working feverously to get everyone in a position of their choice because this is that time of choice and in the event that they don't make that choice then we will work with HR to make sure that we get them placed and so it's been a huge undertaking. Um, I'm happy to say that we're dwindling down those numbers. Um, but we just want to make sure everybody's in a in a position. No one is being terminated with these changing FTE. Just to connect those dots. Again, it's easier to just place people, but we're trying to start with choice. We may have to place some people. Any other questions? All right.

046Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. All right. Um, next we have 4.02, the five-year forecast. I'm going to turn it over to you, Miss Marshall. Thank you. Uh, so here we are again. It's May. Yay. Uh so with the end of the school year comes the updated five-year forecast. Um so that's what we're going over this time. So the purpose of the forecast is this is a valuable long range uh planning tool. Uh we use this in most conversations when we're talking about staffing or um you know future program decisions and all of those things. We always refer to that five-year forecast. It also serves as our basis for determining our ability to sign what we uh affectionately call the 412 certificate. So this is Ohio advice code 5705.412 um which is the um our ability

047to enter into contracts based on available funds that we have available and all that. So uh that's the 412 certificate and then it also provides uh the department of education and workforce in the Otter state an opportunity to identify districts that are headed towards financial difficulties. So that's why we do the forecast. So when we look at the requirements of the forecast uh we have to file our initial forecast no later than November 30th in the fall each year. So we're doing this now. We're going to come right back next year in November and have another year added on um with a new forecast in the fall. And then we have to update the five-year projections no later than May 31st, which is what we're doing today. And then we have to our projections include

048the current fiscal year, which is fiscal year 25, and then the next four fiscal year. So for this one, it's fiscal year through fiscal year 29. And we also include three years of actual information for historical purposes. When we look at a forecast structure, I like to look at it in three separate um sections. So, we have the revenue side, we have the expenditure side, and we have the changes in fund balance in the fund balance. Uh just a reminder, our five-year forecast only includes our general operating fund. Doesn't include any other funds. And our fiscal year runs from the July 1st to June 30th date. uh challenges that we have for this forecast and really pretty much every forecast that we do. Um but specifically this time around uh are legislative changes, state funding

049and federal funding. That's an ongoing conversation um at both of those levels. Uh I do want to point out that what we know today is what's in the forecast. It will definitely change going forward. Um we'll continue to get new information as we move forward and you know we keep a working document constantly. Uh so the big changes for this forecast if you remember we were just here in in March updating doing that optional spring update with um some of the austerity measures. Uh so as we're updating it for May we're seeing our expenses for the year coming in under budget. So that's been adjusted for this forecast. We have finalized all of our budgets for the next fiscal year. fiscal year 26. Um we're also looking at allocating for some future needs through transfers

050and we'll talk a little bit more about that. Uh this is just a snapshot of the forecast with the projected revenues. Um so we uh overall have seen a slight uh increase with uh t with property taxes with the real estate property taxes specifically from new construction. um and property value. So, we do get a little bit from that inside millage, the 3.8 mills that we've talked about. And then any new construction, as long as it's not under some sort of exemption with a tax abatement or uh tiff or anything like that. Public utility is down overall slightly. Um and that was uh some change with the a values and refunds. Um we do expect that to bump back up next year. And then uh fiscal year 25 state funding has re was reduced. Um

051we lost about $4 million this year in state funding overall. Uh the the state also included one-time science of reading stipens. Um that's not really part of the foundation formula. It's just a pass through that's going through. And then that transfers um you know we had the capital projects fund that we created to combine with the bond issue last fall. Uh the bond issue wasn't successful. So we transferred back that $30 million. And so that is appearing as a revenue but it's not really a revenue for the fiscal year if that makes sense. I just wanted to highlight that. And then also we have a one-time uh funding for -ate funding, which this is funding we get from the state for infrastructure improvements that they reimburse us for um that uh Stifler and team have

052been working on. Um so we'll have that reimbursement this year. And so that's just a one-time fluctuation that we wouldn't normally see. Revenue uncertainty. So, um, cuts, we saw cuts, you know, during COVID, Governor Dwine came out and immediately slashed all of our school budgets in May. Um, when uh, back in 2020 and those continued into 2021, uh, we got a new funding formula, the fair funding formula in 22 and 23, but it wasn't fully funded or updated. the uh that funding formula continued in 24 and current year 25 still not being fully funded or appropriately updated and we saw a significant reduction in current year compared to last year. Uh we are looking at new bianium budgets for the upcoming year that's what we're talking about now for 26 and 27 and then we

053have another one in the forecast for 28 and 29 that we'll be talking about. Uh homestead and rollback reimbursements are revenue uh that we get and they are continually up for debate with the legislature. I think there's um several bills that are in hearings now that would affect uh ultimately what that revenue would look like for us in the future. Uh for property taxes, the House's current proposal um as it sits today would claw back uh anything over 30% of expenses in our cash balance. And that's based on the projections that we had is about $12 million um overall if that were to become law. And there are several bills um that are in committee have had hearings by the current general assembly which is 136 that will affect property taxes in some way, shape

054or form. Um so lots of things we are keeping an eye on and uh you know I'm sure I'll be testifying a lot this year besides just with the state's budget on the various bills that they're considering. And you know in addition to that there's many bills that are continue to be outstanding. You know we always have a running list of about two to three pages that's a list of bills that will somehow impact either services we have to provide or will chip away at the revenue uh potential that we have. So just something to keep in mind of uh when we are talking about the volatility of school funding. I want to make sure that everybody sort of has a snapshot. So, I shared this with um Kelly Stalker's government class at Westerville North

055High School. Uh they went south Oh, sorry. Westerville South High School. Yes. Thank you. Uh but they her class went down to the state house uh to visit. Yeah. Thanks for going down there with them, St. Uh but this this is sort of just a snapshot of the school funding formulas that we have had to try to plan around um over the last uh couple of decades and a half. So from 1990 to 1998 the dough decision uh where the Supreme Court the first time the Supreme Court ruled the school funding model unconstitutional was in 1997. Uh so after that we started seeing some budget some forms of um budget models that was no longer considered residual budgeting. Uh the it was unconstitutional based on the over reliance on local property taxes and also residual

056budgeting. So from 99 to 2005 we had the successful school models. Then we had the building block models from 2006 2009. 2010 to 2011, we had the evidence-based model that was um Governor Strickland. Uh that wasn't really ever fully implemented because we were going through the great recession at the same time. Uh and then when Governor Kasich came in, uh we uh sort of went back to the bridge formula and then residual budgeting um all throughout that time frame. And then we've had were continued on residual budgeting through 2019 until COVID in which case we uh had frozen and reduced funding during the co years. And so the fair school funding plan the first year of that was 2022. Uh that's what we have now. That's what we're fighting with the legislature to keep uh

057moving forward with appropriate updates to the cost inputs um in the formula. Uh switching gears to expenditures, uh we are anticipating our expenditures to increase with inflation. We've updated everything with our austerity measures. Uh this forecast, which we're going to talk more about, includes a one-time transfer out of $45 million, which is our current estimate for uh what we will need to plan for the future. When we talk about transfers, um I'm going to have ask Mrs. Ferris to play a video for us, maybe. It's a very short video. Can you make it big, Jennifer, before you play it? Oh, State Rep. Thomas says districts can move money from their general funds into specific reserve accounts meant for something like a roof or a school bus. You either should be allocating it towards some future

058purpose for the voter or it shouldn't be. So, uh, that's State Representative Dave Thomas, not the founder of Wendy's. Um, he's up out of the Ash Bula County, and he is a former county auditor, and he has introduced a lot of different bills and things, um, for property taxes uh, the for the property tax conversation. And, uh, so he was interviewed by ABC6 here in Columbus. And so, uh, the idea I think as lawmakers are looking at that call back or that cash cap is that districts don't have plans for the funds that they have. Um, that could not be further from the truth. Uh, so we are working to um make sure that it's very clear the plans that we do have for our cash balances. And so um the first thing that we're

059looking at is there is the terminations benefits fund. So this is we talked about this at the work session at the end of April. Um this is essentially allows us to uh allocate and restrict money for this specific purpose that we know that we're going to have the need for in the future. Um we have uh requirements under state law for severance payments and things like that. Uh we're also um on an irregular pay cycle once every 10 years. We have that 27th payroll. We last had one in 2023. We likely have another one in 2033 unless the pay schedule changes. And so we'll be looking at having that conversation um to ensure that we can help smooth out some of the outer years of the forecast so that we can plan ahead um for

060those expenses that we know we're going to incur. Anything to add to that, Angie? I was just going to say so the idea is these are things we would be spending anyway out of the general fund and so we would be setting this money aside. It's just really an accounting piece, right, at that point so that that money isn't perceived to be just sitting there for nothing, right? And I think that that's the confusion. I think uh people that are making decisions on what our state laws will look like in the future don't always understand how school funding works or um they probably haven't worked in a school district in the past or especially in our roles where they have to plan for the resources that we do have and deal with all the different

061state funding models over the decades and all that. Um, so I think this just helps us make it very clear that we have a plan for what those dollars will be used for. Um, and that's really the recommendation that I'm hearing in some of these hearings about, well, um, we've heard it from multiple legislators. You would have that money allocated if you really needed it. Uh, so the idea is that we're trying to allocate make sure that it's very clear what it's allocated for. uh which we already have different planning documents that already have the things we're about to talk about outlined. We do, but it's just making it from an accounting standpoint a little more solidified. Yeah. So, the capital projects fund. So, this is the same thing that we created last year. Um

062obviously what we did last year was to be combined with the bond issue. So, that's this is not the same thing as that. Uh this is just us taking a look at what those future needs uh might be and planning accordingly to help smooth out the last couple of years of the forecast as we're planning forward. And this includes again looking at things like our school bus purchases that we already have mapped out for the next several years of what we know we're going to need to spend on replacements. Yes. For buses, vans, etc. Yeah. And um you know I think that uh we'll want to come together probably in a work session in June to really kind of go through and solidify some of those plans of what that will look like. Um overall

063at 45 million may not be the number. It may end up being a little bit more than that. um you know moving forward and then we have in the future years we can continue to allocate funds based on what those needs are to help smooth out that forecast if we need to if we have that eb and flow of state funding sometimes we might get a little bit more sometimes we might get a little bit less and I think with everyone's schedules with what we've been looking at maybe looking at our next regularly scheduled meeting just building in some time to dedicate to that trying to keep the rest of the agenda as light as we can and yeah June it would be part of the June regular meeting was what what I was thinking.

064Are there any questions about that? I do have a question before we move on. Um while we're on the topic of transfers, would this mean that we wouldn't have to get on the ballot sooner? Could you kind of talk a little bit more about that? Yeah. So, I don't think that this overall would affect our timing of being on the ballot because it's again just moving where we're paying for things from. So overall, this wouldn't impact the timing of any ballot initiative that we would have. Thanks for that question. That's a good question. I have another quick question. So the terminations benefits fund, I think that might sound a little little funky, doesn't sound a little Yeah. funky to people that are listening. What exactly does that cover? Well, thank you for that because it

065does sound a little funny. That is what it's actually um labeled as in the auditor states guidance and and Ohio Reise Code. Uh but that's essentially severance payments. Um so uh when somebody retires uh they are able to be paid a portion of their leave as a severance payment, their sick leave, their accumulated sick leave. Um and also when somebody um separates from employment, terminates their employment, um there's a vacation payout for employees who uh receive that and that's all under statute. Um, and so this allows us to help plan for some of those future expenses, especially as we're seeing um, large changes in the retirement system. You know, Stirs just recently made another change. They've made a couple of changes over the last couple of years. Um, this will help us sort of help

066plan for future things like Yeah. And just on the both of these may be rescended if needed, right? Just pointing that out. So, for example, we might we have a a plan for money we put in a capital projects fund. Say it's for school buses, right? But then if we get into a real I mean, we're already in a bind, but if if there's a particular circumstance, we could say, okay, we're actually going to delay, right, those planned school bus purchases, and we're going to pull some of that money back, right? Okay. And the capital projects fund has the um the caveat that if those uh plans aren't realized within 10 years, then those monies will go back to the originating fund. Um but either of these funds, they can be rescended in whole or

067in part at any time as plans change or what that looks like. So, um under current law, so I mean that could obviously change going forward. Uh but that's what's in current law now. uh wanted to talk a little bit about austerity measures. So we rescended the capital projects fund that was combined with that bond issue um as we weren't able to move forward with those projects overall. And so uh we reduced our current year budgets by about 4.8 million uh we re we which is cumulative. I want to make sure that that's our new starting point for our budgets going forward. Um and then we reduced our uh projected budgets. So curriculum and technology they have a lot of peaks and valleys with their budgets depending on adoption res uh cycle and all of

068that. And so um with being able to basically defer and delay some purchases, uh we were able to reduce future budgets um by over $2.4 million. We reduced over 30 positions for next school year for a savings of over $3 million. uh we eliminated our annual transfer out to the permanent improvement funds for turf replacement um and said that we could just look at paying for that as needed out of the PI the permanent improvement funds that we have available um as is uh we were able to reduce our next year's budget after finalizing all of those numbers uh going into next year by over a million dollars. So that's an additional savings that we hadn't originally anticipated. You want anything? I would just like to thank all of our principles and department leaders for

069their hard work on that. And really, you know, there are a lot of I always feel the need to say this when we talk about reducing any of these things. They're all things that are that we'd like to have. And so what reductions mean is we're doing without some things that we would like to do or like to have. Yeah. Thank you. for the sorry really quickly for the positions the 30 positions that um have been reduced for next year the bulk of those are those based on retirements and folks going to other positions vast majority are through and that's a great segue into this slide yes so um I did put together a slide to show so we have six different employee groups um so our AS is our administrative approved staff so that's

070all the support staff that supports our district administration. Um and then we have admin which are our administrators, our OC138 are our um cooks, custodians, maintenance workers. Uh those folks and then our OC719 are our bus drivers, van drivers, and mechanics. And then WA is all of our teaching staff and all of our certified professional staff that work with students. And then uh WESA is our educational support staff. Uh, so it's our secretaries, our health aids, study hall monitors. Um, and those folks are in our WESA group. And I'm staring at the people in the back. See if I forgot anybody. I was just going to point out with admin, we do have one more that is a pending retirement that we anticipate. So we've only captured on here what we actually have. So with

071a lot of these positions, it's looking at um as retirements or resignations come in, looking at do we need to backfill. So we we do have one additional one we're not planning to backfill that we don't have yet. And then I also wanted to point out we've mentioned this before but OBC719 with our drivers we already are have a shortage of drivers. So um that is why that job category doesn't show any reductions. Yeah. Yeah. And I do I do want to point out that we are doing everything that we can through attrition like Angie said but we do have a couple of positions that are just being reduced as well um that don't affect our teaching staff. All right, I'm going to take this slide. So, wanted to put together a visual to just

072kind of show our administration restructuring. We do have some items on the consent agenda tonight related to this. And so, this is actually our current structure. We don't have every position on here. We've only put um just to show each of the levels and primarily positions that are um being impacted. So obviously superintendent I'm not leaving because we have to have one by statute but um deputy superintendent then was that next tier and as you all know but for the public's benefit our deputy superintendent Scott Dorne did retire and so we are not back filling that position. The next tier that we currently have is assistant superintendent and that's assistant superintendent of teaching and learning and a business manager. So between the two of them, they oversee the um academic side of the house and

073the operational side of the house. And then underneath that, we currently have an executive director of HR who did report up to the deputy superintendent and they worked collaboratively on all personnel. So the deputy superintendent had a lot of uh the responsibility out of my office for staffing and personnel as well as some other items we'll talk about in a minute. Um the next level is our director level. And so we have a director of state and federal programs and enrollment. That position is um currently held by someone who's retiring. We also have had a we have a director of elementary curriculum and a director of secondary curriculum. So that's currently two positions. And then at a coordinator level, we have a coordinator of student enrollment. Um that person works over at our enrollment center

074which is over at the Ohio Health campus on Polaris. And then um we have multiple coordinators of special education, but we're going to talk about that on as Nicole does a really cool transition. I'll show you what's changing. So just real quick before we do transition, I do want to make sure it's clear. This is not our our total organizational chart. These are just specific positions that we're looking at other than mine is just to show other than yours. That was just to show the tears. Yeah. Yeah. Look at that. Right. This is why I love PowerPoint. This this right here. Okay. So just kind of want to walk through these changes. So again, I already talked about the deputy superintendent retired, not replacing. So if you look at that top green box, it says

075chief personnel and policy offer officer. We are essentially combining deputy superintendent with the executive director of HR. So the responsibilities that our deputy had in personnel as well as our executive director will be in one position. We're putting that at the same tier as assistant superintendent and business manager. and we are renaming them all for clarification. So, we get a lot of confusion. Um, you know, quite frankly, I'll I'll just share Carrie Dennis, who's standing back there, is currently um has the title of business manager and nobody really knows what that means because it's just not consistent with some of our other naming. And so, at one point, the district used the titles of chief. And so, we're kind of going back to that for the three aspects of the district. So formerly again the

076deputy superintendent really oversaw that personnel piece with our executive director. That'll be the chief personnel and policy officer. So Scott Dorne as deputy handled all of our policy. As you know we have lots of policy and administrative guideline changes as the laws continue to change. Um so he oversaw that. Those responsibilities will go to this position. Um, those are the the biggest pieces that Scott had that'll go to this position are policy, the legal, a lot of the legal pieces working with our attorneys, uh, that oversight, and then the obviously the personnel and staffing. And so, um, you'll see on the agenda tonight that that will be Scott Reeves that we're recommending for that position. And then our current assistant superintendent of teaching and learning, that's a spot we've already had. We're just renaming it

077chief academic officer and recommending Mark Cooper for that position. Carrie will stay in her current role. It's just again a renaming so we have some consistency in our naming of chief operations officer. So that will be the tier there. So we're eliminating the deputy tier. Um and we're not eliminating the executive director tier, but we are eliminating that specific executive director and combining those two jobs into that one. And then if you move down to the to the right um with curriculum you can see we had again the director of elementary and a director of secondary curriculum we are um we've eliminated those two positions and created just one director of curriculum as an austerity measure that will be Kate Toma and then if you look over at the director of state and federal programs

078and enrollment we are rolling up the coordinator of student enrollment into that as well. So, we're looking at um on the agenda tonight, you'll see Em Baldwin has applied for that position. And so, she'll still have an office here as Juliet did, but also we'll have an office of space over at the enrollment center as Sarah Burka did. So, she's taking over those two roles. And then kind of the the lone spot out there is um one of the austerity measures that we had announced early on was we would be looking at if we had a coordinator of special education leave that we would be looking to absorb that. And I'll say for all these positions because this always comes up. Well, are we going to be able to continue to serve kids needs if

079we absorb a coordinator special ed? We've been asked that yes, we'll make sure we do. But with any of these things, when we have less people doing more work, the service model may look a little bit different. And so we'll continue to work with our team on making sure that we're we're meeting kids needs. um none of this is being done because it's a preference necessarily, but it is a result of um you know the reductions that we're looking at on the administrative side. I'm happy to answer any questions that you have on that. I do just want to mention these are district administrative positions, correct? That are being reduced. Correct. Um did not add the we didn't add that did we? So I will just mention we are also absorbing one other um administrative

080position which is of so these are all as Nicole just said at a district level and then we have one building level which is an assistant principal. So we do have um Rob Stranges our principal at FA Elementary is retiring that's on the agenda this evening. Um we're recommending Amber Case current assistant there to move into that principal role and we are absorbing her assistant. there's some movement around with the assistance, but we're absorbing that FTE of the assistant principal. So, with the administrative reductions, um the majority are are at the district level, but we do have the one building one. So, this was just to try to reshow or show the restructuring here at our office to give a little better visual. It's kind of hard to follow sometimes on paper without the visual.

081um just in terms of communicating this. So, it's a real balance, right? Because does does every resident of the district really, you know, necessarily care if Carrie Dennis had a title change or so on and so forth, but I think it's important that people know how we're structured overall. So, what's the what's the plan to share? Like I mean this is a significant reduction in administrative positions and you know it's a real restructure and absorbing work in different ways. So how are we going to communicate that so that people understand that chart before that shows we're open to suggestions on that because we have put something out already. We need to continue to work on that. Um that's a great question. Um, one thing I neglected to mention here too, I talked about that chief

082personnel and policy officer picking up um, a lot of Scott Dorne's responsibility, Carrie and Mark and those other two chief folds are also picking up some pieces of what Scott Dorne did. So, I just want to add that as well. Um, you know, I I think maybe the visual would be helpful because we've put it out in writing and we didn't do a good job. So, time obviously it wasn't as clear as we thought it was. So, um, we need to probably put our heads back together and try to figure out a good way to communicate that, but we're certainly open to suggestions. Yeah. Thanks. It's complicated, right? I mean, the visuals help, but we'll have to keep talking about it, I think. Yes, for sure. Thank you. Any other questions? I guess it's it's

083more not more of a question, but really kind of thinking about that piece of how do we continue to um educate people about these changes is just thinking about who um maybe we can work with in the district to have conversations and and they can also, you know, answer questions too. So maybe that might be a good way to I think we definitely need to get at it from different directions. So, we put the initial communication out. Obviously, wasn't very thorough um or understood. So, we definitely need to look at some different ways to message it for sure. I I mean, you know this, but I would just suggest too that like parent council is a great vehicle and those are folks who really actually understand in many cases how the different district is structured

084because they're, you know, they're working with all of you. So, I feel like that's a place where it's just really important for people to understand the changes because they're great at helping to communicate when people have questions. Absolutely agree. Great idea. Um so, as we think about uh expenditures, uncertainty, uh staffing needs and educational needs of students is always on the list. um the economy and inflation, health care costs, and legislative mandates. These are all things that we're continually keeping an eye on uh as we're planning for the future. So, I'm going to have this weird looking graph for a while um overall with those transfers. So, it looks a little uh odd. Uh but um I do want to point out that we had er funds that covered some of our expenses from uh

08521 all the way through 24. Actually, we have a little bit going into 25 as well, just with the way payrolls run, contract years run versus fiscal years. But um so the green line is our projected revenue. Uh the red line is our projected expenses. The blue bar graph represents our unreserved um ending general fund balance. uh regardless of transfers or uh if that was not there um those uh peaks there you would see that our revenues are not keeping pace with inflation. Um I did pull down what was the average annual inflationary rate uh with the CPI for all urban consumers. Um you know it's hard because education is such a very niche um industry but uh just looking at that overall um where the CPI has been. I think it's um helpful to

086see and then as we think about what that's going to look like moving forward, uh you know, the cost of a school bus has doubled in price since we were last on the ballot. Uh and those costs just continue to go up. Our technology costs, um we know that those prices are just going to continue to go up. We're not sure where we will be with tariffs and what that looks like moving forward. um the cost of food, every everything has gone up. Um our utilities were expecting to go up uh next year as uh we're seeing you know rate just rate increases overall as the cost of energy becomes a little bit more expensive. So I think that um you know at the end of the day we have a cash balance policy that

087requires we stay within 90 days of that un for that unreserved balance. Um this forecast doesn't meet that. Some of it is the the transfers out. I mean we wouldn't meet it even if we hadn't transferred the money out even if we don't transfer the money out I should say. Uh, I think that when we come back in November, we'll be able to smooth out the red line towards the end here with being able to use some of those one-time funds to help be a stop gap in those outer years overall. But at the end of the day, our revenues are not keeping up with inflation. Um, so our opportunities are to go back to our community, ask for more money, uh, lobby the state for more money, which we're we're trying very hard. Um

088the state is not going to come through and make up we have a $17 million deficit looking into next year. Um that continues to grow throughout the forecast period. The state will never make that deficit up. Um and we will continue to see increase in costs unless we make some very severe programmatic cuts overall. And I'm talking like closing buildings, eliminating programs completely um without additional revenues. So, Miss Marshall, even if we were to actually have the fair school funding formula with updated costs, we still right would not be able we wouldn't be able to eliminate that debt, the need that. Yeah. So the cost of education is a shared responsibility and when we're talking about updating the fair school funding plan with the appropriate cost inputs and you know doing both sides of the

089calculation and all that that's getting the state to do its part but we will always continue to have that local share and it's always going to be based on what is our community's ability to raise revenue at the local level. Um, so we will have to continue to have that conversation as most suburban school districts in central Ohio do. Um, and Miss Marshall, in regards to the uh ESSER funds piece, for those who might not know, that's the federal share that we got. Would you explain that? I feel like I've talked about ESER funds so much over the years that everybody should know what that means by now. Uh so yes, so these are the CO dollars, one-time CO dollars that we received over a three and a half year period um to help be

090a stop gap for uh revenue losses and needs that we saw during that time frame. Um we got three rounds, I think it was about a little over $32 million in total that we got and we moved expenses out of the general fund that we normally pay out of the general fund into those er funds until those were exhausted and all of those expenses have come back to the general fund. which looks like we had a huge spike in additional expenses and all at one time. Yeah. So, if you look at like 22 to 23, a lot of that was ESSER funds coming back um into the general fund. The expenses the er funds expiring and the expenses coming back overall. And there's the transfers. Yeah. In case that wasn't obvious. Um, so I want

091to talk about when we talk about what can we ask our community for. Uh, there are two different types of levies. Um, I mean there's various versions of a property tax levy. Um, and a couple of versions of an income tax levy, but really our ability to ask our community for new taxes comes from either property taxes or income taxes. Uh, school districts cannot ask for tax for a tax levy on the income of workers. And I want to emphasize workers. So a municipality um when they have an income tax like you know we work in the city of Westerville. We pay Westerville cities taxes. I don't live in the city of Westerville but I work in the city of Westerville. So I pay the city income tax here. Uh school districts don't have that

092ability. We we don't have the ability to um ask our community to tax workers. Uh we can only ask our community to tax themselves essentially. Um so or uh sales that is not an option. Counties have an option for sales tax. School districts do not. Um so when we talk about property taxes, uh property taxes are levied on all real estate located within the district's boundaries that's not exempted. House Bill 920 limits the growth for the opportunities for the growth in revenue um on all voted property tax levies. So that's where it's adjusting those rates down as property values increase. uh municipalities are able to also limit growth or exempt growth on new construction. So our opportunity for growth with new with voted levies is that new construction. Um but for with economic development incentives

093and all those things um sometimes that's that uh ability is limited or non-existent. Uh when we look at income taxes um income taxes are levied on the income of all residents. So, anyone residing within the district's boundaries and so this also includes anyone renting. So, even if you don't own your home, um it also includes if you reside within the district, you would be subject to the school district income tax. Employers are required to withhold that from your um earnings. Just I want to underscore the district's boundaries. The district's boundaries. School district's boundaries. Just that's super clear to everybody. Yeah. And so if we think about it, if we look at our 52 square miles, the city of Westerville is 12. The city of Westerville has an income tax. Uh we also have Genanoa Township.

094They do not. Uh Blendin Township has a Genoa tax for has an income tax for their Jed Z um for work people who work in Blenden Township. Manurva Park has an income tax. City of Columbus has an income tax. Plane and Sharon Township I don't believe have income taxes. So, but it would be all of those boundaries everywhere. Um, and it is separate from this the city income tax. We have we receive no revenue from the city of um Westerville for services or programs or anything like that. So, uh there are two different types. There is a traditional school district income tax and there is a earned income tax for school districts. So it can be based on only on earned income. Uh traditional would look at the same would be the same sort of

095income tax that you would see at the with the state income tax. So on all the modified adjusted gross income. Um earned income only includes uh actual wages. It does not they don't it does not tax retirement or interest or anything like that. Um it also allows for growth opportunity with revenues as incomes grow but it also is subject to the eb and flow of the economy. So if um if income goes down then revenue goes down as it's it's based on a percentage of overall income. So, something to keep in mind. Um, and if we're curious, uh, what school districts currently have an active income tax? So, I will say this is as of fiscal year 24. I'm not aware of anyone that's rescended a local income tax with the school district. But, um,

096so this was from a member brief from the Legislative Services Commission that was released in February of this year. Um, so the light blue represents active school districts um, income taxes. And so I meant to highlight us, but we are get this straight right there. So we straddle Franklin and Delaware counties um, right there in we're like right smack in the middle of the state, aren't we? Um, but that's us there. So you can see everyone that's around us uh that has an active school district income tax. And um do we know if those are the traditional income tax or the earned? Um I don't have anything that distinguishes that for this, but there is a list on the Department of Taxation's website that shows what schools have earned versus um traditional. Okay. And the

097process for uh for the district to gain a income tax looks very much like a levy. It goes in front of the voters to be voted on. Correct. Yeah. So it would be um we would have some resolutions that we would be required to file with the state tax commissioner versus a property tax levy we would file with the county auditor. But the state tax commissioner would um have to certify amounts based on whatever percentage um that would look like. And so, um, and we can talk more about numbers when we talk about when we have a work session to kind of just look at some things, um, if the board is interested in having that conversation. I think it's important for us to weigh out all of our options. When we think about, uh,

098you know, the conversation around housing and, um, you know, we continue to hear that we have retirees who are being taxed out of their homes. Um, and I think that this would help with that conversation if we wanted to take a look at that if we went the earned income route and not the traditional um, income taxes. So, just something to think about as we're having that conversation. And, you know, there's lots of conversations about property taxes going on right now um, overall and what that looks like. It would help us diversify our revenue resources a little bit and maybe with some stability moving forward. And I do want to make it clear that if if we were to have an income tax, I mean, we would be talking about looking at what our current

099operational needs are. Um, we're not talking about eliminating the property taxes that we have and introducing an income tax, right? This would be in addition to um as we still needed another property tax levy, which is why we were on in November. Um, so That's it. Perfect. Time for a question. Yeah, I have a question. Thank you. Um, thanks for putting that together. I know that in order to be on the ballot, we're kind of bumping up to a time frame. Can you kind of walk us through when we need to be um providing that information to the state? Yeah. So, uh, we would So, the deadline for the income tax would be July the 25th, I believe. Um, but it has the same filing deadline as anything else to be on the ballot, which

100would be August 6th if you wanted to be on by the November um ballot issue. Uh, we have um the property taxes. uh we would have a resolution of necessity that we would have to get to the county auditor with enough time for them to certify it then come back with a resolution to proceed and then all that gets filed with the county board of elections. So all that also needs to be filed by August the 6. So we would be looking at legislation in probably the second meeting of June first and the only meeting in July that we have scheduled now if we want if that's something that we wanted to consider for the fall. um to move forward. And I do want to mention just real quick with property taxes, they're very um

101specific about uh tax the tax year collection year, right? So if we passed in uh 25, that would be for tax year 25, collection year 26. We'd see a halfyear collections in fiscal year 26, full year beginning in fiscal year 27. Income taxes are a little bit different. takes a little bit of time for those to get set up as all of the employers have to begin assessing that school district income tax. So the um how soon we would see revenues from that would be lagging a little bit um based on the cycle of when income taxes are paid and what that looks like and gets back to us. I think we wouldn't see that the full collections or that smoothed out until 2728 time frame as it's getting caught up. Um, and just uh

102because not everybody is paying minute-by-minute attention, right, to when the state's budget is expected. Can you talk through the timing of that? Because I know we do. Super convenient, isn't it? Yeah. Um, so the state has to have a budget approved by June 30th in order to operate on July 1st. So when we're talking about if we're looking at legislation at the end of June, um just a reminder, we did the same thing with May, right? We if we uh have to pivot or um what that looks like might be a little bit difficult to do um with that time crunch with the state's budget. And I just want to again underscore your previous point that it is expected to be a shared responsibility. So there is no magical thinking here that the state is

103going to come back with a budget where we don't have to, you know, ask the local community for more dollars very soon, right? Yeah. There is a question of there is no state budget that will come through that will um meet the short the shortfall in revenue that we have. Yeah. um it's just not it's not possible because there's always that shared responsibility. But what we would like to do is make sure that we're asking for a as reasonable of a an amount as we can. So we want to see what the state comes in with and then we have a gap to fill with the local community. So thank you. Thank you. Um and Mr. Marshall, I wanted to thank you for playing that clip with Dave Thomas and him explaining um or recommending

104that we do these transfers. I guess this conversation about not having fiveyear forecasts and, you know, telling districts to put out, you know, forecasts with just two or three years. Um, could you kind of talk a little bit more about the importance at least for our district in having a 5-year forecast? Yeah. So, you know, I will be the first to say fiscal years 28 and 29, as far as revenues are concerned, you can see that we're projecting that green line, right? We're projecting flat and even somewhat declining revenues over the forecast period. Um I don't know what the state's budget's going to look like every other year, right? like it's every two years we go through this down at the state house, beg them not to cut our funding or um I this is

105the first time I feel like we actually have a funding formula that people worked on and we all generally agree that if it were appropriately updated and fully funded would meet the state's responsibility to provide a thorough and efficient uh system of schools uh under the constitution. uh don't know if we'll get there, but um I do think when we're talking about our ability to find to sign that 412 certificate, also uh our planning as we're looking forward uh you know, just an example we use of our copy copier lease, you know, we have five-year copier leases and um entering into a three-year lease agreement versus a five-year agreement is a difference of six figures over that term of the lease. So, I think that um if the state says we don't have to do

106a five-year forecast anymore, we're still going to continue to do a five-year forecast, we'll just submit three years to the state. Um I think that that whole conversation is um again everyone not really understanding um how schools function and all of the inner workings that we have um with certifications and contracts and various things like that. Thank you for that question. All right. I swear that was I was done. Is that the Any other questions? Looks like No. Well, we'll just keep watching, keeping an eye on um what we're looking at. And I do think if we could have a conversation, do some a short work session um in June and we could take a look at what we might think about for the future. Yeah. I think we'll need that. Thank you. Okay. Next,

107we have public comments. Um, 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, we ask 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, excuse me, set forth in board policy 9130. Finally, the board reminds speakers that their statements should be directed to the board as a whole and not to individual um board members. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the board. A timer will be shown on the

108screens and Mr. Reeves will call time when three minutes has elastaped. Our first speaker this evening is Miss Stacy Sayak. Did I say it right? Say okay. Thanks again for having me. It's my second time here. Um so and I have two kiddos emer um so I'm here to emphasize the importance of the public information request of data driving all the school changes um and uh ensuring that it's accessible to all parents um this will help us really understand all the changes beyond the elementary school even the middle and the high school. I do appreciate the timely response to the previous request for this information and the commitment to make that information available to the parents. I appreciate that. Um given the focus on the public school funding challenges at the state level, I appreciate

109you advocating for that. Um and the year end of activities, um just asking if it's possible to get like a target date of when we feel like that might be available information for everybody. Um additionally, um I'd like to well I appreciate the gifted folks information that was provided. I appreciate all the information that was provided, but um if it's possible with that data request, I don't know if we could get a little bit more specific on just the frequency changes of the gifted program. it's gone. It was this, now it's shifting to that. Um, a little bit more information on that. And I'm not really sure where the gifted information comes from. I don't recall ever getting a communication. So maybe if there's a place you could point me to or if it comes

110from this type of email address, I can go back and try to search for that. So I can always kind of keep an eye on that. Um, and then I was also curious about, and we kind of got into this, but maybe being a little bit more specific about, you know, do we ever do an assessment of here are the kids that are going from kindergarten to first grade? these are their personality types, their special needs, who's the right teacher to take these kids on. Um just kind of comparing that just kind of best fit situation and was also after listening to the conversation curious if um you know with say the first grade teachers for instance did we maybe say hey three first grade teachers are any of you interested in taking an opportunity

111at a different school and letting letting them kind of self-pick versus um I'm assuming it's tenure related but you know that we're going to transition one of the teachers who's maybe the lowest tenure to a different school. So like maybe if they want to self-pick or they know they're going to retire in five years, maybe I'll move and let the other teachers stay. Just curious about that. Um and then just reiterating the proactive communication of things going forward. And so I think I talked before about if there was a way that we could kind of develop a communication plan of how to inform the right parties at the right time and then at the end being completely transparent to the you know the community about what these changes are with enough time to ask questions

112and and understand the changes and even if we don't know that's what it sounds like sounds like a lot of stuff is kind of you know we won't know for some time. Maybe there's some sort of communication timing where it's this is what we have but we don't know this. We plan to know it around this time. just something that's more of kind of a consistent communication of here's what's coming up. Um, and I don't know if you know it, but um, PMI, which is project management institute, has a lot of project managers and part of our certification is to um, provide services of ours to the group that goes back to our certification. So, if you need communication plan needs or someone who can help plan the right communication for doing the org chart

113or whatever the case may be, there's folks who were able to do that on a volunteer basis. Thank you. All right. Um, next up we have Miss Nicole Moore. Did I say it right? Oh, I'm really trying here. I even looked up pronunciations. Yeah, it's Nicole Meluri. So, good evening. I'm writing as a concerned parent at Markwin Elementary regarding the recent decision to reduce two two staff positions at the school for the upcoming year. I understand the difficult financial decisions that school leadership must make, but I urge you to reconsider this preemptive move as there is still time and available resources to explore other options. Our children's education and well-being are directly affected by the number and quality of staff in their schools. Staff reductions, particularly at the elementary level, can have a significant impact

114on class sizes, student support services, and the overall learning environment. At a time when many students are still recovering academically and emotionally from the disruptions of recent years, reducing school support feels not only premature, but potentially harmful. This year at Wilder, the fourth grade had only three sections where they had previously had four. This led the class sizes being close to 30 students, which had many adverse effects on students and staff alike. Classrooms were often chaotic. Um, problematic behaviors were on the rise. Academic growth was hard to come by and many children struggled emotionally throughout the year. I ask that you pause this decision and open and transparent discussion with parents, teachers, and the broader community to examine other possibilities. Whether that involves reassessing budget allocations, pursuing grants, or tapping into the reserve funds, it's

115critical that every alternative be explored before cutting essential positions. We all share a common goal, giving our children the best possible foundation for learning. Let's work together to find a solution that keeps the support they need in place. Thank you for your time, your leadership, and will willingness to listen. Thank you. Okay. And next we have um Alisa Raffle. Oh, there. And I didn't look up that one, so maybe I should no longer do that. Welcome. Yeah, tough names today. Okay. Um I'm the parent of a child who has attended the elementary self-contained gifted program for the past two years. Prior to G gifted services, his unique educational and social emotional needs were not met in a general classroom. The shift to a classroom size of 14 students and a more explorative, faster, deeper education

116was that difference. Without this program, I would be homeschooling my child for sure. As I understand it today, the current self-contained room of 14 students will nearly double to 26. three elementary grades, two classes per grade. That's a savings, I believe, of three roles as I understand it. Overall, I'd like to better understand if this is an equity move, a cost move, or driven by new data in the study of gifted demographics. Maybe it's all three. Few questions. Are we working backwards from some data that supports effectiveness? Are we even working backwards from physical logistics data? I've volunteered in these classrooms weekly. two more adults can't fit in these current classrooms. Have we measured that 12 more desks and 12 more students fit? I'd like to understand that. I've gladly heard over the last two

117years from our gifted department what the data tells us about the needs of kids above the old bar. I'd also like to hear about the needs of kids below that bar but now above the new bar. I'd like to understand and confirm that the district supports moving the bar lower and lower until those 26 seats are filled. I have to wonder how low the acceptable score will go until the seats are filled. Take fifth grade. Parents who will receive families who receive a invite will hesitate before moving their child for one year. New student, new classroom schedule, drop off at 8, home by three, new friends, new building. How low will the bar go for next year's fifth grade so all 26 seats are filled? Maybe that's not the goal, but I'd like to understand

118it. I hope that every kid gets their needs met. Let me say that. The right services for the right kids. But I'll take a k a term from the gifted education classes provided to us parents that some students are just highly motivated. They will score high. So, are we actually meeting the needs of those kids by moving them up into a gifted classroom where it's very different? And how are we affecting the kids who are identified and proven to have different needs when you combine them all together? How does that affect everyone's education? And how does it affect the teachers ability to be effective in that new very different environment? I've heard the desire to be equitable expressed earlier. I'd like to better understand how the gifted program can both be effective while pursuing this

119fairness and equality. 26 kids in all the all the classrooms. Is that right? Is that the right? Are we still accommodating a gifted kid's needs just so we can check the box to say we're equitable? Are we supporting the teachers, giving them aids? What are we doing? Also, are there going to be changes? Thank you. Um, okay. We have no more public comments at the moment. And so, moving along to 6.01. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting held on Monday, May 5th, 2025? So moved. Second. Any changes needed? Okay. Miss Marshall. Mr. Hackleman. I. Mrs. Lian? Yes. Mrs. Valentine? Yes. Mrs. Alman? Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Moving along to financials 7.01. May I have a motion to approve the financial reports and investments for April

1202025? Second. Miss Marshall, will you talk to us about these? Yes. Sorry. Let me get my Uh so this month we are going over the April month end uh financials and just a reminder April we still have Mayp May and June for the end of the fiscal year. Um, so year-to- date received for our general fund was $232 million rounded up. Um, year-to- date expended was 187.2 million uh in the fiscal year to date. And we ended with an unencumbered uh fund balance for the general fund with at 2030 200 200.3 million excuse me. And then for all funds we had fiscal year to date of 297.5 million. uh fiscal year to date expended of 289.3 million and we ended with unencumbered fund balance of all funds of 236.9 million. That's all I have for

121that. Thank you. Any questions? Okay, seeing none, could you please take the vote? Mrs. Alman, yes. Mrs. Valentine, yes. Mr. Helman, yes. Mrs. Yes. Mrs. Meyer. Yes. And may I have a motion to amend the fiscal year 2025 annual appropriations? So moved. Second. And Miss Marshall, will you talk to us about these two? Yes. Thank you again. So, uh, this is just an amendment to our appropriations as we've seen some, uh, grant allocation changes. So, we have to adjust those so that we can get those in the budget um, for them to be able to be spent. We do have one that's an adjustment that's a slight decrease in our data communications grants like 200 some dollars but we have to make those adjustments. It's nice to see those grants come in. Absolutely. Any questions

122or comments? Okay, Mrs. Valentine. Yes. Mrs. Le, yes. Mrs. Alman, yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Meyer. Yes. And may I have a motion to approve the purchases in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 5705.441D1 and board policy 6320. So moved. Second. And will you talk to us about these two? Uh so this is what we call then and now purchase orders. Um, we have one from the operations department for uh software for playground inspections and one from Genoa Middle School for the eighth grade in the year celebration. Uh, the operations department just missed opening the purchase order on time. Uh, and Genanoa said that the invoice they had was dated for the actual um, quote date and not the date of the event. So, I mean, I feel like we probably could have gotten a different invoice

123from them, but It is what it is. This is where we're at. So, but they have both these purchases have been budgeted for. So, I would recommend the board's approval. Thank you. Any questions? All right. See, Mrs. Valentine? Yes. Mr. Eckleman? Yes. Mrs. Alman? Yes. Mrs. Leian? Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. And may I have a motion to approve the five year fiveyear forecast? So moved. Second. Um, I know we just had a big long presentation, but anybody have any additional questions? Okay, I'll get this filed with the Thank you. Would you please take the vote? Mrs. Alman, yes. Mrs. Lean, yes. Mr. Heckleman, yes. Mrs. Valentine, yes. Mrs. Meyer, yes. And would it be okay if we did the personal consent agenda as one? Great. May I have a motion to approve um the personal

124consent agenda 8.01 01 through 8.14. So moved. Second. Welcome Mr. Cooper. President Meyer, Vice President Leean, members of board, Miss Marshall, and Miss Hamburg. Tonight's personnel consent agenda includes action items. Yes, I'm sorry. You did a motion for 8.14. It's through 8.20. I apologize. Um, my apologies. I didn't scroll down. So, may I have It's a very long one. this time. But may I have a motion to approve the personal consent agenda 8.01 through 8.20? So move. Second. Thank you. Thanks for noting that. Okay. Try again with that. You know, a lot of people don't recognize that HR season is really now. So throughout the summer, this is our busiest time. My dad always ask me, you're school district, what do you do the summer? This is our busiest time. So you will see a

125little lengthier report tonight and I apologize in advance for that. U so tonight's personnel consent agenda includes action items with regard to resignations, retirements, leaves of absence, contract status changes, change of assignments, one-time pays, and other employment related decisions. Additionally, we have anou with our WA on tonight's agenda, administrative guidelines for your um consideration, and one-year extensions to the current WEA and WESSA contractual bargaining agreements. We'd like to recognize the following staff members for their announcement of retirement on this evening's agenda. Deborah Miller with 21 years in Westerville City Schools. Tammy Domingos with 32 years. Eric Eckis, 34 years in Westerville. Diana Heric, 30 years, and Rob Strange, as as was noted earlier, with 32 years in our school district. We certainly appreciate all these um incredible educators have done for our students, staff, and

126community, and wish them the best in their years ahead. Within items 8.12 and 8.13, it is recommended the board approved the reemployment contracts for the listed staff members. These are annual renewals based on where their contracts are and those that are expiring this year and working onto the years to come as well as continuing contract recommendations for our WA members who applied met eligibility criteria and were recommended by their evaluators. Theou with the WA on line 8.17 extends the insurance benefit to teachers who recently became eligible for retirement with the changes to STRS for those with 32 years of service credit. So per the the WA negotiated agreement, members who provide notice of retirement by March 15 have the ability to be granted health insurance through August 31st. Um with that said, the insurance benefits

127for those that after that date will end on May 31st. With the STRS change occurring on April 18th, which was obviously well after the March 15th deadline, those with 32 years could not have known that they would have been eligible at that time. Um, and so therefore, our administrative team approached the WA membership and leadership to discuss thisou possibility so that these members could receive that benefit. the WA leadership in turn um shared with the membership and that was approved by the union and is now on for your considerations. Next, the current administrative guidelines expire at the end of June. It is recommended the board approve the proposed administrative guidelines for one year. These guidelines include the implementation of a salary scale for administrators and the elimination of the performance-based compensation model. Administrators will be

128placed on the scale based on their current position and salary prior to a 1% base salary increase. The scale then includes step increments equal to 1.5% for each additional year of service and establishes a salary cap for administrators. Lastly for your consideration this evening are one-year extensions of the current negotiated agreements for both the WA and the WSSA. Given your approval this evening, these extensions will provide for a 2.7% base increase for the employees in these groups. At this time, I'm happy to take any questions you may have. Thank you. Any questions or comments? Congratulations to the retirees among other things. Um I realize I remember when Eric Eis started teaching. I was a student so I now feel really old. But congratulations to him. Um and yeah, I just want to um say for

129the administrator guidelines, WA agreement and WESA agreement, tremendous amount of work goes into these and I am just truly grateful to all the people and to the WA and WESA um for the work that went into providing the stability that these three pieces provide us right now. So, thank you. Okay. Mrs. Hman, yes. Mrs. Leian, yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Valentine, yes. Mrs. Meyer, yes. Okay, moving along to old business 9.01. May I have a motion to approve policy 6325, procurement of federal grants and funds? So moved. Second. Any questions or final comments. All right, seeing you. Mrs. Leian, yes. Mrs. Valentine, yes. Mrs. Alman, yes. Mr. Eman, yes. Mrs. Meyer, yes. And may I have a motion to approve policy 8442, reporting accidents. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? All right. See none, sister.

130Yes, Mrs. Valentine. Yes, Mrs. Alman. Yes, Mrs. Leian. Yes, Mrs. Meyer. Yes. And may I have a motion to approve policy 8442.01, workers compensation. So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Okay, seeing none, let me take the vote. Mrs. Alman, yes. Mrs. Leian, yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Valentine, yes. Mrs. Meyer, yes. Next up, we have new business 10.01, the first reading of policy 5780.01, parents bill of rights. And welcome, Mr. Reeds. Good evening again. This is the first reading, as you said, for policy 5780.01. It's a new policy better known as the parents bill of rights. It is reflective of the provisions in House Bill 8, which became effective on April 9. The law requires school districts to adopt a policy by July 1 that enacts the parent bill of rights to include parental notification

131via email or phone conversation on any substantial changes to a student's services including counseling services or uh to a student's health, mental, emotional or physical well-being. Those are defined as a student's academic performance. any sub any substantial changes there. Any significant sickness or physical injury or psychological trauma, any harassment, intimidation or bullying by or against another student, any request by a student to identify as a gender that is not aligned with the student's biological sex, exhibition of suicidal ideiation or persistent symptoms of depression. In addition, the district must ensure that any sexuality content is age and developmentally appropriate. Prior to providing such instruction, parents have the right to review any instructional materials and their students may be excused from instruction that includes such content and may be given alternative assignments. Parents also retain the right

132to inspect any instructional materials as part of the educational curriculum in all presented formats. as well. The district must provide parents and students with an opportunity to inspect a copy of each technology provers's contract. So, a lot of moving pieces and parts uh in the parents bill of rights and actually when you see um connected to a lot of our other policies. Um we value tremendously the partnership that we have with our parents and many of those provisions uh we already do with regard to allowing parents to um opt out. We have a a policy that uh outlines um curriculum parents can opt out of and our um policies which allow parents to inspect our curriculum and our materials and things like that. And so um this just codifies some of those things in questions.

133I do have a question. So, I know the Department of Workforce and Education has a guide for uh like a parental guide for um special education. Um, and because the language here focuses on, you know, wellness and well, uh, health and well-being, is there an opportunity for us to maybe include some language, um, just because I know in my experiences in the community, um, there are a lot of parents that are, uh, misinformed or still have a lot of questions around, um, their their students that are accessing uh, special education services. I can look into that. I certainly can. I know that this the the wording of this policy mirrors the the policy um or the the legislation to see if this is the appropriate place or we do have so we do have some

134policies special education. So um we can take a look at those to see maybe if those address some of the things that you have and if not maybe that's the better place for it. Thank you. You're welcome. You said that this mirrors what um the state legislation was so this is pretty much outlined by the state legislature. Yes, it must be exactly this. Okay. Yes, there there was uh minimal wiggle room in our language in this policy. I figured. Thank you. Um I just want to I mean I know it's covered, but I just want to raise this and have a conversation about it that um you know when we talk about a student's mental or emotional health and parents bill of rights, some children are in precarious situations because of their parents. That's not

135the norm. But sometimes there are abuse situations and I just want to state clearly that we have policies and procedures in place for those types of situations. Yeah. And and sometimes you'll see and her team are amazing in that world. Tammy Santa that sometimes legislation andor policies actually conflict with one another. talk about the safety of a child. Our number one priority is going to be the safety of of our students and and we will follow all the the the tenants of the laws that we have to do that. I mean we are a government organization and we are bound and duty bound to follow the law and the legislations. But at that point that's where it's very critical for our legal team and other resources to say okay we're in a situation where we

136notify the parent but the parent may be the source of what's our what's our recourse within the balance of the law? You raised actually a point that we raised when this first came up. I think that's a good point to point out too as I talk with my colleagues that and and I'm sure Nicole can affirm the same. Um our legal fees as well as many districts legal fees are all escalating because of the influx of all these policy changes and laws that we're seeing. And so we're constantly reaching out to our attorney to make sure we're doing the right thing by the law for our students. And so when those things are in conflict, we do have to call the attorneys more um which has caused a lot of increased costs and legal fees

137for a lot of districts including ours. Yeah. And when you think about administrative costs also um it it is administrators that have to navigate through all of these new policy changes that we have and also help with professional development and whatever that looks like. Um and there has been a whole host of things that have come through that requires a lot of coordination and organization um with new professional development attached to it and all of that costs money um in the long term. And was there any funding allocated to uh help with implementing this bill of rights? Not that I am aware of. Okay, great question. This is just I gota say like a drop of one of many many many things especially next we have 10.02 First reading of policy 7450, property inventory. Miss

138Marshall, will you please talk to us about this? Uh, yes. Thank you. Is it okay if I talk about 10.02 and 10.03 together because they're sort of related. Uh, so policy 7450, the property inventory and 7455 accounting system for capital assets. It's also sort of an inventory um accounting. And so uh these policies are being updated to incorporate the changes in the uniform guidance. We've had a lot of policy updates from that uniform guidance. Uh so the office of management and budgets revisions are intended to improve federal financial assistance management, transparency, and oversight through more accessible and easily understandable guidance. Uh changes in these policies relate to increasing the per unit asset cost from 5,000 to 10,000 and adding a minimum limit limit for group purchases primarily technology at that 100,000 uh capitalization threshold for

139inclusion in the inventory system. Also um some additional language related to assets purchased with federal funds as those are required to be accounted for separately and all that. We're also updating some titles in the policy for who handles what as well. Thank you. Any questions about these two policies? All right, moving along. Um, we have 11 recommended action standing business and 11.01. The a really nice part of the night, too, is donations. Um, so may I have a motion to approve the donations as presented? So moved. Second. And Miss Marshall, will you talk to us about these? Yes. Uh, thank you. So, uh, the current request value is $2,218.70. Might sound a little low right now, but current fiscal year to date is $348,5794. um just a very significant contribution from our community overall that

140we really really appreciate. Yeah, I'll just echo that. Thank you to our community for um continuing to support the schools. Any other Okay, Mrs. Valentine? Yes. Mrs. Lee? Yes. Mrs. Alman? Yes. Mr. Hackleman? Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. And next, may I have a motion to approve student candidates for 2025 graduation from Westerville Central, Westerville North, and Westerville South High Schools pending completion of local and state requirements. So moved. Second. That's the fun part. Um, Miss Hamburg, I was just about to say this is the fun one I get tonight. Um, so you have a list of graduates from all three of our high schools. you are approving each of them to graduate and we know they are furiously wrapping up with our counselors and doing all those checks and making sure all the kids meet

141their requirements. So, just need your approval tonight and then as long as they do everything they're supposed to, we'll get to celebrate them next week or next Saturday. This coming Saturday. Any questions and comments? How many double graduates? Superintendent gonna ask me to do math. How about I give you the ones for each of them? We have 365 at Central, including um we do have some early grads in each of the numbers of people of um later cohorts are able to graduate, 398 at North and 383 at South. It's 1,14. Somebody hopefully use a calculator. I cannot do that in my head. I taught English, but there you go. Thank you. Will you please take the vote? Yeah. Mrs. Velman. Yes. Mrs. Valente. Yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Lee. Yes. Mrs. Meyer. Yes. And may I

142have a motion to approve the resolution for the online day plan for um fiscal year 2026. So school year. Sorry. Yeah. School year. Year. Second. Okay. Huh. Louise is first and um in just a second. my apologies. Uh and welcome, Mr. Reeds. Thank you. Welcome again. Um in in the last I think this is our third iteration of uh the online day plan which red which replaced a few years ago what we know as the blizzard bags. And this is a provision for us if any of our levels are the entire school district because of um uh catastrophic days where we take off terrible winters or whatever where we have to extend our school year because we missed more hours than allowable. This allows us to do this in an online fashion with various provisions

143in there. And so this is something that we bring before the board that we have to do by August 1, I believe, but we try to get it taken care of for the for the next year. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Ree? All right. Seeing none. Thank you. Mrs. Valentine? Yes. Mrs. Lee? Yes. Mrs. Alman? Yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. And may I have a motion to approve the copier lease agreements with US Bank Equipment Finance? So moved. Second. Welcome, Miss Dennis. Well, thank you. So, good evening, President Meyer, Vice President Lee Band, and members of the board. The district's current 5-year lease agreement, which began in 2020, um expires on June 30th of 2025. Therefore, a request for proposals was posted on April 1st of 2025, um for the 2025 copy, lease,

144and maintenance agreement. There were 10 suppliers that submitted proposals in response. Proposals were reviewed and analyzed, and Wood Hall LLC was selected as the most qualified and lowest bidder. The lease is once again a five-year agreement, a 60month term. Thank goodness for this, with an anticipated savings of um over that five-year term of just around $200,000 um in comparison to our current agreement. Therefore, uh we will um see an equipment manufacturer change from Xerox to RICO. This is not unusual as the last time we went from Rico to Xerox. So, we're just going back. The financial agreement will remain um with the same lender, US Bank. Training will be established and provided when deemed appropriate um with the assistance of our team. Um as you know, our staff is off in the summer. Um so,

145when they come back, we need to make sure they know how to use these devices. obtaining approval will allow for those units to be delivered and installed over the summer months to not disrupt the um building um environment. So, it is recommended that the board of education approved the proposed copy lease agreement with Wood Hall LLC. And I'd be happy to answer any questions. Any questions? I just want to thank Carrie and also Bob Blind and the rest of the team for all the work they put into this. And this is an example of something that Nicole mentioned earlier. Um, where because we were able to get our cash balance back in alignment, we were able to do a longer extension and have this type of savings. When we were looking at only being able

146to do a three-year lease, we would have been looking at actually spending more than we currently are. Yeah, potentially. Thank you. We take the vote, Mrs. Almond. So, uh, yes. Mrs. Leian, yes. Mr. Yes, Mrs. Valentine. Yes, Mrs. Meyer. Yes. And may I have a motion to approve the settlement agreement as presented in 11.05? So moved. Second. Will you take the vote, please? Mrs. Lee, yes. Mrs. Zman, yes. Mr. Hackleman, yes. Mrs. Valentine, yes. Mrs. Meyer, yes. And 11.06. May I have a motion to approve the settlement agreement as presented? So moved. Second. Oh, sorry. Will you take the vote? Mrs. Leian? Yes. Mrs. Otman? Yes. Mr. Hackman? Yes. Mrs. Valentine? Yes. Mrs. Meyer? Yes. Um, next up we have board comments. And so, who would like to go first? Sure, I'm happy to. Why

147not? Um, well, just a couple of things. Um, I am so excited for our graduates. It is truly a phenomenal thing to stand up there and shake every single one of their hands. Um, it really is like just a fantastic day. So, just anticipating that and congratulations to them, but also recognizing there's a lot of work left to be done by a lot of students yet this week. Um I know that some uh a person in my own house is feeling very exhausted right now. So just everybody, you know, hang in there. Um and I just want to thank the staff um for just it has been a rough year with all the things swirling around. Um and yet our bus drivers are getting kids to and from school every day and taking good care

148of them. Our teachers, the kids are getting greeted at the door just the same as always. And I always appreciate that. But especially this year with all of these, I'm going to say sort of like things adults have to worry about swirling around that everyone does their very best to make kids actually not notice, right? Um so I am just truly grateful for that to everybody. So thank you for all your work this year. Um I know for many people the work continues through the summer. It never really ends for a lot of folks, but just want to take a moment to say that right now. Um and then just you know I said it um before with the different agreements and administrative guidelines and also the restructuring and combing through different positions. It's very

149hard to look at all this and say well I think we could you know do without this position or combine this and that. It is a tremendous amount of work. So I just feel like I don't know what is this my fifth fifth year on the board or something but I sat out there since probably 2011 coming to board meetings and this is one of the heaviest years in my experience in at least 14 years of watching this district very closely. So I am just really grateful that we are a place that puts kids first and we try to help kids focus on what kids should focus on and adults deal with the rest of that. So, thank you. I definitely echo all of that. You know, I'll say um since joining this uh incredible

150board um in the fall, I've really I've been in awe by the great work done by the administration, done by our teachers, done by all of our incredible employees that make this big machine run. Um, I want to congratulate those 1,146 students that we will see walk the stage, but also the incredible class of retirees that we had the opportunity to acknowledge last week and all the years of service combined uh years of service. Um, I also want to thank uh Miss Marshall and Miss Hamburg really for their leadership. Um, I'm proud of this district's efforts in terms of our advocacy at the state house. um in particular Miss Meyer's leadership for this board. Um and I the reason I'm sharing that is a lot of districts are really advocating to protect public education during

151these crazy times, but I'm really proud of the work that our community has done and the work that we've been able to do together. Um, additionally, I want to also um just I guess remind everybody that, you know, this work continues throughout the summer. So, while this may be our final, you know, meeting um in the school year, we hope that you all stay engaged during the summer. Um, your voices will matter. Um, but then I just wanted to briefly recap some of the great work that we've done. um through austerity measures um specifically through reductions, we have been able to save money. And while that isn't what it's all about, at the end of the day, it's about meeting the needs of uh kids, a lot of hard decisions were made to ensure that,

152you know, ultimately we're doing what's best for our kids. Um we've also distributed a lot of key pieces of information um in various uh different ways um to the community um regarding our advocacy efforts and of course personally I'm always open to receiving feedback on that on those efforts. Um and then just personally wanted to share um that we still need you all to join us at the state house when we're meeting and making these calls to our lawmakers because there's still a lot of convincing that we need to do um ahead of June. And then just finally, I'm so happy to have been able to participate in all the magical moments throughout our schools, whether it was Bistown interviews or, you know, the cultural events, I mean, re reading week, whatever. Um, seeing these

153kids in action really has been so incredible. And so, I just wanted to sincerely say thank you all so so much for allowing us to have such a great year together. And with that, I will turn it over to whoever wants to speak next. I'm going to pile on the thanks as well. Um, congratulations to our award winner uh this evening and to all of the retirees. Yay. Um, I want to say thank you to all the educators, the administrators, the staff. Again, another great but challenging year being at the end of this school year. A lot has happened since we started last August and we are continuing to do our best to get to get to the end of the year and hopefully the kids uh aren't noticing like what Jen said all the

154adult stuff that's going on. Um for the teachers and the staff, thank you for inviting us to all of your amazing events that are happening throughout the year and especially um this month. Even if I can't attend all of them, which I can't, please keep inviting us because we do love to attend when we can. Um, I want to say congrats to the students for making it through another year. Uh, and the parents who are dealing with those students right now wrapping everything up. The end is in sight. And then also all of the advocates out in the community for public education specifically as we are in this fight for state dollars for public ed. I think a lot of um people's eyes have been opened this year as to what has been happening and

155what could potentially um affect the school district and I'm really grateful that more folks are paying attention and are able to try to make their voices heard with our legislators. So, thank you all for all of those things. Gotti goes last. Is that how it goes? All right. Uh I I can echo everything here, but a few special thanks. Um of course the retirees, the staff, the teachers, and when it comes to and the parents, oh my gosh, like I mean you're the ones backing us on all this. So genuinely appreciate it. Um but a special thanks to and uh WSA for working with us through this very challenging time. we're all looking uh to do the best we can and and your willingness to work with us is is greatly appreciated. Special thanks to

156the treasure and our super for guiding us through this very tough year. And with that in mind, um, moving forward with these administrative changes, I'm going to ask the community for just a little, uh, grace and patience because there's going to be some changes that none of us are really all that enthusiastic about, but they will ultimately pan out if we can give each other a little attitude. So, thank you for that in in advance of coming school year. Um, well, I want to say congratulations to all the graduates. It is truly a magical experience. I I know I've said this before. I'm a crier when I'm happy, when I'm sad, when I'm mad. And when they walk in, it like brings tears to my eyes. It's truly a wonderful experience and I'm so humbled

157and honored to be able to experience it. But it has been a really, really rough year. We failed a levy there. Our um funding's unstable. a lot of like we said the the adult stuff, right? Um, and it doesn't go unnoticed the amount of um, leadership and care and compassion that our teachers, bus drivers, our food service providers, the, you know, um, the secretaries, all of um, the administration, everyone that pours themsself into this district to make sure that these kids can reach their true fulfillment in their life. their destiny, whatever that is for them. And so, just a really sincere thank you that um Wow, that makes me choke up actually. Um I did was at the farmers market this past weekend and and was talking to some people and um one of the

158mothers said to me, you know, started talking to me about school funding and all that we're doing. And I I was talking to a few legislators and they were saying, you know, thank you for everything you're doing. We're actually holding you up as a model across the state. This is fantastic and it's really a huge thank you to both Miss Marshall and Miss Yamburg and the and those that on the team that have continued to push this forward and doing all these communications. But it's not over. We need to continue to reach out those other school districts as well, the people that we know there and ask them to go down and educate their um senators and their legislators and the governor. And just a big thank you to all of you, to the community.

159I know the teachers have been down there quite a bit. I know bus drivers have been talking to them as well and the administration has been doing a lot of work. So, just a big thank you. I know a lot is happening right now. There's trying to wrap up the school year. Students are exhausted. Maybe I know mine is sometimes a little grumpy too. And um I know you know you guys are feeling that. The teachers and the staff are feeling that on your end too. And so just a big thank you. And those that are able to take some time this summer, I hope that you're able to rest and relax and have some great adventures. So with that, um, may I The board will meet in regular session on Monday, June 9th at

1602025 at 6 p.m. at the Early Learning Center, 936 East Wind Drive, Westerville, Ohio. With that, may I have a motion to enter into executive session for the purposes discussing the employment and compensation of public employees? So moved. Second. Will you please take the vote? Mrs. Valentine, yes. Mrs. Leian, yes. Mrs. Alman, yes. Mr. Ecklman, yes. Mrs. Meyer, yes. Thank you all for saying Mr. 17. It's 9:22. Thank you. And may I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. Will you take the vote? Mrs. Leean, yes. Mrs. Alman, yes. Mr. Eckleman, yes. Mrs. Valentine, yes. Mrs. Meyer, yes. Still 9:22.