001Good afternoon. Thanks for your patience with us. I'm happy that you're all here. So, thank you for joining us and thank you for attending the April 7th, 2025 meeting of the Westerville City Schools Board of Education. This evening's agenda will be displayed on the screens in the front of the room. Printed agendas are on the back on for our guests. Um, and you may find the agenda on your mobile device by connecting to the district's website at www.wcs.org. Click on our district link, select board of education, and follow the board document to our current meeting agenda. There will be an opportunity for public comment this evening. There is a signup sheet located on the table in the back of the room. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the board and the time will
002be shown on the screen. This portion of the meeting shall be limited to no more than 60 minutes. But before we go any further, we're going to swear in our newest board member, Dwight Huckleman. Raise your right hand. office. Thank you. Okay. Will you join us for the Oh, yeah. And with Miss Marshall, will you call the role, please? Mrs. Alman here. Mr. Heckleman here. Mrs. H. Mrs. Le here. Mrs. Meyer here. Now, will you join us in the pledge of alleg? We do not have any district highlights or recognition. So, moving along to reports 5.01. May I have a motion to approve the district credit card spending rebate? Oh yeah. Could you talk to us about the district credit card spending and rebate, Miss Marshall? Yes. Thank you, President Meyer. So, this is an
003annual requirement. It was a new requirement from the state about oh probably six or seven years ago. Um where we report to the board. Overall, we spent $536,620.30 on the district's credit card. We do only have one district credit card. We hold that in our office. We find it out as needed. Mostly that spend was to pay our bure. We also paid for um some travel expenses for professional development, things like that, hotel, that sort of thing. This is what we've um used this district's credit card for. And we earned a rebate of 1.09% or 5,856 report for any questions. Okay. Next up, we have Thank you. Um I've actually partnered with Nicole. So, we have a lot going on right now with school funding as you all are aware. And I would like to
004thank Nicole for going down to the state house and testifying last week and Jen Alman for accompanying her as well. I know Nicole's been able to testify a couple times. I'm actually signed up to testify tomorrow as well. Um we have a lot of serious concerns about um not only what we saw come out in the governor's initial proposal but some uh very concerning amendments that are coming out with the house substitute bill. And so um Nicole has graciously put together a few slides on that for us to kind of show what that would mean for Westerville and for public education as a whole in Ohio. I'm really glad we have such a great crowd here tonight to see this because um there's just a lot going on and it's a a very concerning time
005with school funding at a state and federal level. So, thank you Nicole for sharing these slides with us. Yeah. So, um like Angie said, this is something that like we all really need to pay attention to and make sure that we are advocating. We talk about the cost of education being a shared responsibility between the state and the local community. Um the state needs to remember that they need to do their part in that responsibility. So when we talk about the state's budget process, we start with the governor's proposal, which we have that as we're going around and having meetings with our community and with our staff. Those projections in that presentation are based on what was in the governor's proposal. Uh we now have the houses introduced substitute bill for House Bill 96. So,
006it has not been voted on by the full house just yet. This is what's been introduced with all the amendments and different things for um the house that they've been having hearings on. Uh they are having another hearing tomorrow in the House Finance Committee looking testify. Um I plan to go down there with her as well, but they're probably sick of hearing from me by now if I'm being honest. Um but uh so I will be down there as well and the they're planning to go to out of committee tomorrow and get it to the full house by Wednesday and so um we're we have some real concerns about the houses what's in the current introduced sub bill version. So but we're still waiting to see where that house then after we do all that
007we get to go visit the Senate um and go through it all over again with the Senate and what that looks like. So then we come to conference committee which is Senate and House. They work out the differences between all of those budgets, lots of closed door discussions during that time. So we really want to be paying attention. Lots of things happen quickly. They want to get it to the governor's desk by June 30th. That's the state's operating budget needs to start July 1. Uh so the governor's proposal um overall would mean $6.9 million less in revenue over the next two years for Westerville City Schools and for all traditional public schools it would be uh $103 million less um under the binding period for the binding period for all schools in Ohio. While doing
008that it also adds several new requirements for all traditional public schools. I continue to tell people I don't know any business that functions by reducing revenues and increasing services. Yet the state continues to ask us to do that over and over again. The House's proposal, they've introduced uh this provision for a call back. And what it does is it would require the county budget commission to call back any general fund balance over 25% of the preceding year's expenses. Um, this would be a reduction in our resources for next year of $121 million if that goes through as it sets in that introduced substitute bill. This would devastate our district. This would devastate public schools across the state if this goes through. Overall, um the House's proposal allocates an additional uh $20 per student in fiscal
009year 26 and uh $30 per student in fiscal year 27 in the state funding formula. So that fall back would be a loss of $121 million next year and that would go through the local tax levies that we have overall for all state uh traditional all traditional public schools around the state. All 69 traditional public schools. would be $280 million plus from the state but over $8 billion fall back from current resources based on the 2020 outstanding allowances that um and again also add several new requirements um for that and when we think about the consequences so we um are required to do a 5-year forecast um we would immediately completely in fiscal watch. Um, and that would require state oversight if that were to happen. Uh, once we go into the new fiscal year,
010we would it would eliminate the district's ability to meet long-term obligations and state required certification. Nicole, can I just pause you for a second on that first point because that might be a little confusing to folks as to why we would be a fiscal watch if we had so much of a cash surplus that they were taking it back. Can you just kind of explain what that means of like the forecast? That is a great question. Thanks for asking it. So the um fiscal watch is what does it look like that third year of the five-year forecast and what does that unreserved balance look like because that cash balance is going away and we are destiting year-over-year by over $20 million a year. Um we would be in a severely negative uh fund balance overall
011the undeserved fund. This is a really important point. I know Nicole talked about in her testimony. I plan to address it tomorrow morning. Um, our associations have been bringing this point up and we had an opportunity to meet with some of our local legislators on Friday and made this point. You can't just look at the first year. We have a a long range plan that includes utilizing that cash as a stock grab and so they're only wanting to look at that first year of the cash and not over the cycle forecast. Even though we're required to do a 5-year forecast, we're required to have positive funds or balances in order for us to meet any long-term sign any long-term contract any long-term obligations that we have. We already have obligations based on the fund balance
012that we do have. Um, we would not be able to meet the current. if they were to fall back that much money from us. Um, it would require substantial cuts in programs and services for all students likely down to their own state and federal requirements. It would jeopardize the district's ability to meet payroll obligations throughout the fiscal year. So, our largest um source of income is are our local property taxes. We receive settlements twice a year um for our local property taxes. So we would be looking at you know mid year would we have enough cash on hand to be able to meet um payroll obligations. The other thing that I think is important for everyone in Ohio to understand is that um overall uh bond ratings for public schools for all Ohio entities really
013when we talk with Moody's and standard importers and their rating and which impacts what our interest rate is when they're rating our bonds. Um, we generally have good ratings on our bonds because of the reliability of our ability to collect revenues through local property taxes because uh, local property taxes in Ohio as they are set in law are an extremely reliable source of income for local governments um, including schools and that's the way the rating agency use them. And as I shared with the House Finance Committee members during the question and answer period that if the state starts passing laws that would drastically change or reduce property taxes revenues in a and not make that a reliable source of income for schools. That would hurt our bond ratings. That would hurt everybody's bond ratings overall.
014Um, which would raise interest rates and we would all basically have junk bonds at that point. And so that's a real issue that I think the state as they're thinking about policy that they're setting um they really need to think about what that looks like. Uh the provision in the house's introduced sub bill um doesn't provide for the next year. So they call back the revenue and then there's nothing that brings it back up in the next year. So that would mean that we would be back to the voters every year with new operating levies. The operating levies would likely cost 12 and a half% more for all homeowners due to the elimination of the roll back. So I'm going to spend a little bit of time here. um in Ohio uh tax law years
015ago um prior to 2013 all voted levies uh for homeowners were reduced by 12 and a half%. So um there was an automatic 10% roll back and then an additional 2 and a half% roll back for anyone who lived in their home. Basically they called it the owner occupying credit. So 12 and a half% every homeowner received a reduction on every new levy 12 and a half% off of that levy. The state reimbures the schools for those levy for that 12 and a half% roll back um for those levies. They eliminated that um roll back for all new levies after 2013. So every levy we have passed since then cost 12 and a half% more than what would have prior 2013. Uh however, the state continues to reimburse us for all of those levies that
016were passed prior to 2013 and we get about um 13.4 million overall um in a year from that roll back. The state has been talking about eliminating that comes up every budget cycle. Uh, so if we're passing new levies, if they're reducing all of our current levies down to this very low amount and then we have to pass new levies to get it back up, that's less reimbursement that state has to pay to the schools. So just rough estimates, it would be about $10.4 million in reimbursement loss to our local taxpayers annually with that. So this is a very real concern for a lot of reasons. I do think that this is something that would require I think when we're talking about changes like this, it really requires a lot of conversation around what is
017the public policy for the state as a whole. Uh the state went through they had a property tax reform and review committee that met for a year's time they heard from all kinds of different experts experts around the state about how property taxes work all these things and they produced a report with recommendations from that committee and this was nowhere on the 25% fund balance back none of that was on there um I don't know where this came from and I shared with the house finance committee that I really hope however this provision came to be in a sub bill was because people don't understand how property taxes and school funding works and not because someone is trying to eliminate traditional public schools. Um because I really just hope people don't understand how this is
018going to effect overall. So they're having conversations right now about what will that final look like tomorrow. So we're asking people to please contact state legislators. These are our state leaders. Governor DeWine Huffman is the speaker house. Rob is the senate president. The house um leader speaker Speaker of the House again. Uh Brian Stewart is the chair for the House Finance Committee. They are the committee that will determine what that final sub bill looks like to the full house member on those. And then um like I mentioned earlier, we'll be going through this with the Senate the end of the month. I think the other day they said they're expected. So, um they'll be hearing so that's the Senate Finance Committee leadership and then Brener is one of our state. He thinks that they'll be
019having Senate Education Committee 2. And then this is uh we'll have this linked on the website, but this is a spreadsheet that shows like how to contact everybody. Um if you go if you go to this, it'll show you like how the it'll show you like the all the members of the house, all their contact information, all the different sheet that I found. And then these are localis. These are the committees that we pay attention to. Um the house finance education conversations process. I do want to thank you. I know we went down and spoke to legislators um proactively setting up senators up there and working to give leadership and trying to be proactive here. We're going down tomorrow to testify. This is really dire. You know, this is the time. Now is the time.
020So, I'm really urging our community to reach out to not just our your representative, but also leadership, chair leader, the committee leadership, Senate, House leadership, the governor, and really express how this will decimate our school district. And there's um a lot of information online on our website. I will say there's a lot of working for I think you know I I tell everybody I've been doing this for 20 years now every few years I go down the state money away from us this feels much I think there is a real push to privatize education in the state at taxpayers expense and everyone is going to have to speak up. I will say um our local legislators have been very responsive. They've been very good um about reaching out asking questions and understanding how this would
021impact us um trying to help offer some solutions to some of this conversation. you just hit. I think it's important to note that it's not just Western schools that will be impacted. It's the vast majority of the school districts that will be just catastrophically impacted by this call back. Um I know you've said it before, but we have a nice crowd. Could you just hit one more time um maybe just share about when you were at the auditor's office and kind of like why do districts carry cash? What is the point? Because we know you know, and I plan on sharing with the legislators. We have lots of needs we would like to spend the cash on. We'd like to buy computers. We'd like to take care of buildings. We're not spending it because we're
022using it to help with again with that deficit that we have operationally year-over-year. Um we're not the only district in that situation, but could you explain kind of why it's important for districts to have that and what the general standard is on cash? Yeah. So, that that's important for everybody to understand. So when we um are on the ballot for an operating levy, it generates a fixed amount of revenue, right? Um so we expect that levy to last us three to five years depending on um what it is. So when I So you can think of it sort of like as a bell curve, right? We expect our balance to go up and it starts coming down on the levy and we are in that constant cycle in this district in this area. Um that's
023just the way most of the Columbus area suburbs have worked. We're subject to hospital. So we don't see a lot of growth in our revenue with property taxes. The state's continuing st wealthier. So we see our state chair decreasing and that's where we are in this space. Uh I worked for the auditor's office from 2005 to 2012. Um I think everybody remembers the great recession in 2008 to 2011. And I worked with school districts and other local governments um who didn't have adequate cash balances uh and they were criticized for not having adequate cash balances and they were in fiscal watch and fiscal emergency. That was my job. I worked on those projects. Um that required a lot of state oversight. We told them what they could and couldn't spend their money on. Uh we
024had commissions that were formed. They had to approve various things. And um you know now uh listening to state lawmakers criticizing school districts for being good fiscal stewards of funds and not getting into a position where we have to make severe programmatic cuts for our students because we do have adequate cash reserves and trying to follow plan on how to spend those onetime things and not create new cumulative growth and expenses with it. I'm just it's really surprising to me when we think about what is good public policy, right? Um I think u we are continued we continue to be asked to do more with less create efficiencies. Um all of those things and you know for the state to just say we you know you shouldn't have so much cash balance on hand when
025not in this space and understand how this I mean most of them don't understand the first place much fun right um but for them to have an opinion on what that looks like when our locally elected officials have adopted a policy after working with our community and our finance committee and our groups to develop what is an adequate cash balance for our school system and we've created this repeat plan about how I take issue with the state that's their decision and not our local decision. Um I think it's our community's decision elected officials decision. I don't think that this is I know you kind of alluded to this but who serves on what kind of people serve on that finance? Oh uh so we have um we have staff we have parents always looking for
026volunteers. If you're interested, feel free to reach out. But yeah, I mean, we worked a long time to develop that cash balance policy in place that we felt in November. We know we're going to have to be on the ballot again. The only reason we're not on the ballot for this May is because of comments made by some of the state leaders saying that they want to cut funding for public schools to dedicate our time right now. Thank you um for the presentation and I I just have to say having been there I I cannot express how lucky we are to have Marshall up there explaining this to people explaining this legisl Thank you for doing that. You did an amazing job. Everyone can watch testimony and and get to understand it better. Um I'm
027gonna make an analogy. It's not going to work. Um okay. So you have to help me work through where it doesn't work here. Okay. So I'm going to imagine somebody we're just going to pull a number out. They make $50,000 a year. Okay. New job. You know you're going to make $50,000 a year for a couple years, right? Your expenses might be 4,000 years. you put some money away knowing that your expenses are going to go up the next year most likely because of inflation. Okay. Then you get to the third year and they say, "Oh, guess what? You're still going to make $50,000 a year." And yeah, there was that inflation thing, but we're actually going to ask you to do more at work now. You're still getting 50,000. Okay? So, you might start
028to eat into some of that money you put away in year one and year two, right? and then you know you might get a chance for a salary increase in like year five essentially that's sort of like you know the levy cycle. So it's logical that it's smart in those first couple of years when you know you can bring in a little bit more than you're spending right to put it away because you're not going to be able to make it in year three four and five. So it's a bad analogy in a lot of ways but I'm just trying to like help people sort of think about these different cycles, right? You've got So then if at the end of the first year somebody came in and said, "Okay, well, you're holding more than
02925% of what you spent last year, so we're we're going to not give you as much. We're going to like, you know, reduce the amount we're funding you, right?" So your ability then to stretch that out over those three, four, five years completely evaporate because of these different cycles. You've got your fiveyear forecast, you've got your your bianium. You've got your, you know, funding formula might change every two or the whatever the state funding is might change every two years and it becomes impossible to predict. Well, our property values are right a lot of our employment contracts are about um like those are the things that we have to be able to plan for and what that looks like and certify those things if we don't have the adequate place to cover them when we
030don't know what um I think you know just when when I just think about how that might work practically I don't see how it works in any way because we don't see growth on those levies and we do see growth in that you know 10% of our mill for inside mill but it's a minimal amount not anything near what needs to be kept up inflation, but that only happens in that every third year with the appraisals or the updates in values. So, I mean, it's almost like, you know, the old treasurer said it in our meeting. It would almost be like we have to do like micro levies every single year. We would be on the ballot every single year and we wouldn't have, you know, for our homeowners like that 12 and a half%
031roll back would be from the state anymore. And so it just doesn't it doesn't make sense with how we are required to do things. And you know, and I have shared with a lot of people, there are so many different laws about um fund balances and certifications and all those things. I'm not sure that the state has enough time to adjust all of the laws that would be required to be adjusted in order for us to in order for them to be able to make that change. The other thing too is at the same time the auditor is working on a um a system. I don't even know what they're calling it, but basically it's a test to determine whether a district is experiencing fiscal distress. And of course, it's schools, right? It's not everybody,
032you know, schools, public schools. Um but and they're looking at like some 16 different markers about uh you know how much our revenues are, how much our expenses are, what that looks like and what the trend is year over year. Um and so they're working on that at the same time that the state is wanting to drastically reduce all of our funding. I just I can't reconcile it in my head especially with I mean there's statute around fiscal watchd there statute around fiscal emergency fiscal caution like those different designations from a state level that require the state to oversee how we use our funds basically I just there there's so many different things in law I don't know how they could um make this work I It's very frustrating because and this is kind too,
033right? Like this is all the time we have to spend um trying to make sense out of all of this. And this is like a roller coaster that they go through with every binding budget, but we have to know how it's going to impact us so that we can help educate the legislators. And what I do like to remind people is that um the people in the legislature, they're not They're not necessarily experts in school funding and in fact most of them are not experts. I doubt any of them are honestly. Um I mean you might have some that have had some experience in the space have learned along the way and not familiar with it but this isn't just like the state budget in regards to education. This is the state operating budget. So
034it's everything. So they have to be thinking about Medicaid and the prison system, you know, all of these things. Um, and so I view our job is to help educate them. Hey, you might not realize this, but when you're thinking about that provision of that bill, this is how it's going to impact our community. And like as long as they understand that, um, I I think it's helpful if we're just kind of reminding them of what this Some of them don't know. Some of them aren't. They still work in the states and you know they have their ser, but want to get your um your weigh in on it. So, this is kind of the budget piece and what's happening with public ed. What's going on with the vouchers? That's a great question. Um, so
035the vouchers are um estimated to grow even more. So they're cutting funds from the public ed side, but they're adding to the voucher side, which goes towards private and charter, expanding on that. Okay. Um, Nicole, thank you for the presentation. As Jen said, this is super helpful. I think one of the things that I want folks to come away with from this presentation and what we're talking about is that the state of Ohio legislators are making choices. This is a choice. The money is there to fund this. They are making a choice to put it elsewhere. I think if my notes are correct from the meeting that I was in within for Ohio kids, $530 million more this year for voucher private charter school education that does not need to go to private charter school
036education. That is a choice that they are making. So we're talking about educating our legislators on how this is going to decimate public schools. you know, 90% of Ohio's kids go to public schools. Um, we already, you know, gave a billion dollars to the voucher program last year and we're going to throw another 530 million on top of that while at the same time defunding the schools that the vast vast majority of our children attend. It makes no sense unless either A, like you said, they really just don't understand this, or B, and this has been Matt Huffman's fever dream for a long time, they want to privatize education. They want it private. They want somebody making money off of it. There's no other explanation for how you get to this point unless that is
037your goal. So, it's extremely frustrating. I want to thank, you know, you guys for going down to the state house and testifying and for everybody else in the community who has been doing this because if nothing else, we need them to know we're paying attention and we know what you're doing. Super frustrating. Just add though, I think Nicole made a good point that they are listening. So, they are starting to we've had some of our representatives reach out say how can we what can we do? What kind of amendments can we put forward? They're being locked out of the room at the moment. We need our community members to also reach out to people they know in Ohio um in rural areas in suburban and urban areas and make a point to help educate them
038not particularly on how it will impact us here in Westville but across the state. I you know like I told the legislators my husband and I intentionally picked um Westville City Schools to raise our children. I am a of it. My husband local and our children are being penalized because when he chose public schools, it's just my last ditch effort for there's nothing else then we can move along to public comments. Thank you again for all that you've been doing. Appreciate it. Um, okay. So, moving along uh to 6.01, public comments. 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 um during our public participation. However, the board president may limit comments
039that are obscene, abusive, or harassing in an attempt to protect the privacy interests of our students. The board asked that speakers not identify students by name during their comments. Persons having public complaints about district personnel programing or operations will be referred to the process 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 board members. Each speaker will have three minutes to address the board. A timer will be shown on the screens and Mr. Doran will call time when three minutes has elapsed. So our first speaker this evening is Mr. Tobias Gordon. Welcome my name. I'm a concerned parent with child school district and three younger at the center. Uh I've spoken here several times with regards to
040the policy. I realize the board has existential concerns with proposed state laws. I ask regarding the policy as we now must by law have policy enacted. I'm here to request that we make some changes to policy various concerns previously mentioned particularly regarding disruption for students, staff and faculty as well as safety concerns for our students. I could go into more detail but I appreciate your efforts. This is another item that is over the last year. I worry that we are going to our students safety as well as additional cost. And the welcomes back. I really hate coming behind sites. I know you guys are overwhelmed by greater things and we've talked this into the ground. Um, but the current proposed policy still remains very vague. Before you pass this policy tonight, please consider adding things
041that strengthen this policy. I worked with Senator Ingram's office to get amendments added to this bill. There was only one that we were successful in adding. I'll read it to you. A school district board of education may include in its policy a requirement for a criminal records check of any instructors or volunteers of a private sponsoring entity providing release time. religious instruction to the board's students under that policy. The school board of education shall determine the manner in which the criminal records checks of the instructors and volunteers of the private entity are conducted. Please require any RTR program to have the same level of background checks that would be required for any school district level to volunteer. There remains concerned with the lack of true parental consent attending these classes. I sat in all the
042hearings. I spoke with multiple senators who supported this bill. That was very difficult. They all kept saying there was no rule about what has to be in the policy, just that there has to be one. And the policy can be that it's allowed only one day a year. The policy that you make today is not the one that has to be the permanent policy. You can make a policy around RTI today that makes the legal requirements to have one on the records by Wednesday and still yet come up with a more firm, cohesive solution to implement a stricter polic policy later. Policies are made to grow and change as we need them. Don't implement such an open policy when we know there needs to be a stricter one. If the administrative guidelines I noted on
043the agenda have strengthen this policy, can you please share them with us? So 01 motion to approve the minutes of the regular board of education meeting held on Monday. Mrs. Mr. Valentine. Yes. Mrs. Yes. Mr. H. Yes. Mrs. Le. Yes. Mrs. Meer. Yes. May I have a motion to approve the minutes of the board of education special session held on Thursday, April 3rd, 2025. Oh, sorry. Um any comment? Um Okay. Yeah. Mrs. Yes. Mrs. Valentine. Yes. Mrs. Alman. Yes. Mr. Mrs. Yes. All right. To financials on 8.01. May I have a motion to amend the fiscal year 2025 appropriations? Yes, so um we are bringing the appropriations back uh to update after the 5year forecast that was approved on March the 17th. We had already made some reductions previously in appropriations, but this just finalizes
044those reductions um that we've made through austerity measures. Uh we also have a couple of changes with some grant allocations and a couple of building budget requests for the principal funds um in this. So I do recommend those based on what they raised during the year that shifts a little bit. Any questions? Okay, I just wanted to confirm we haven't heard about any changes in federal I mean, I don't know that I would say anything differently, but um we know that there are some things coming and there's a lot of vagueness around that right now. There's a lot of talk about block grants that the states will be receiving in lie of the specific title funds that we have typically gotten as a flow through from the state from the federal government. Um and that
045is another area where we have a lot of concerns because um I did ask one of our legislators if we would anticipate getting the same amount which is over $7 million that we currently get and his answer was we need to look at that. There's a lot of talk out there that um you know is that another opportunity to decrease public funding and increase the voucher program. So we are we don't know a lot right now but we are definitely very concerned about that. Yeah. That's what I want. That's why I asked the question see there are no changes on here yet but we are anticipating some changes that are still in Mrs. Alman, yes. Mrs. Mr. Yes. Yes. Mrs. Yes. And may moving on to 8.02. May I have a motion to approve the
046purchases in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 5705.41D1 in board policy 6320. Yes, thank you again. So, this is what we call um then now purchase orders and what that means is that we had a purchase order that was opened after an invoice date. Uh so in this case, we actually had a purchase order open prior to the invoice date, but the company's changed. So the company was bought out, so it's now a different under different ownership. And so technically, it's a then and now. Um but we have the open. It's just change the name of the company. So, uh I would we had the funds budgeted. I would recommend this purchase. Anything over $3,000 worth? Yes. Mrs. Mrs. Valentine? Yes, and is it okay if we take personal consent to agenda as one? Okay. May
047I have a motion to approve the personal consent agenda 9.01 through 96 and welcome Mr. President of the board from tonight's Now agenda includes action items with regards to resignations retirements of absence contract changes on times and other decisions. Additionally, there are recommendations for reduction of course within educational support staff association and administrative assistant staff as well as red. We have several staff members who announced retirement on this evening's agenda. These individuals include, it's a long list, so bear with me. Kurt Glazer, 25 years in West Coast City Schools. Pamela Pora, 34 years. Byron Man, 12 years. Barbara Mason, 25 years. Bruce R 23 years. James Brady, 28 years. Jane Burton, 28, excuse me, 28 years. Lori Marberger, 25 years. Jeff N 25 years. And Scott Walberry, So, a lot of experience being retired this
048coming year. Certainly, we appreciate all that they've done for our district. Thank you for this time. Congratulations retirees. It's always bittersweet. A lot of experience and care for students and knowledge. So wish them all the best and um I'll just say yes Mrs. Alman. Yes Mr. Yes. Mrs. Lean. Um, Mr. Mr. My vote is now. Yes. Is it okay if we take all so may I have a motion to approve 10.01 through 10.04. Is there a second? Second. Is there any comments or questions? Yeah, I mean I'll just say all the things. Um, so on uh policy 5223 released to have religious instruction during school day. Um, I'm just going to say this is one that I expect us to continue. Yeah, I just want to know and I appreciate the the comments that we've
049had over the last several months from the community on many aspects of that. um that we have worked very closely with our attorneys on what they recommend in terms of the district's liability and and what's included there. And we'll continue to work with them on the administrative guidance as well. Yes. Yes, we have new business 11.01 The first reading policy 5751 parental status of students. Welcome language that students who are pregnant or parents may request more support. Next up is 11.02 the first reading of policy 6110 grant funds Marshall talk to us about this talk about the first three there. So controls, cash management of grants and cost principles. So these are all being updated to incorporate changes in the guidance which is a framework for grants management requirements for federal awards. These are related
050to our federal federal grant programs. Um the um uniform guidance outlines administrative requirements, cost principles and audit requirements that all grants advance to when managing federal funds, federal office of management and budget revis. And so these all of these policies are there any questions or comments? I'll just say that some of this really is hard to swallow. So 11.06. So this is being updated to reflect our current also became a fine to add to allow the district to charge for 11.07 7 first reading policy 8500 food services. Welcome Mr. Good evening President members of the board. This particular policy has been revised to include the option from House Bill 8 to provide a school lunch for students participating and release time for religious instruction during the school day during the lunch period. And then also
051under new recommendations from the there's some additional language changes that have been made to this polic non-discrimination laws and information about me substitutions and about bad debt collection. Um, Mr. Dorne said he would welcome hundreds of questions on this because I'm just kidding. Sorry. Any questions or comments? Sorry, I do have a quick question. Um, so you mentioned um students participating in release time for religious instruction um having meals. So is that a requirement that they are to be provided a meal before leaving for their release time? Just a provision to make sure that they are able to have Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Next up is 12 recommended action standing business on 12.01. May I have a motion to approve a resolution for impracticality of transportation? Second. Good evening, President Meyer, members
052of the board. Mr. Heman, welcome to the board of education here in Westerville. Before you this evening is a a resolution declaring impracticality for transporting identified students before you as Ohio law allows for public schools to determine the impracticality of transportation after considering several factors such as the cost of providing the transportation and the number of students being transported. This past December 16th, the board passed a resolution declaring 14 students in practical for transportation. for you this evening is a list containing 53 additional students deemed impractical transport for the 202425 school year. The department of purchasing and logistics has evaluated each listed private school student non-public school student further requirements of section 3327.02 of the Ohio Revised Code and declared the listed students in practical to transport. Therefore, approving the 53 students this evening would
053allow the district to offer payment and rule of transportation in the manner provided per the Ohio Revised Code where the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce determines the payment and amount to be paid. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Mr. Sler. I just want to remind our community, and I I know you said this too, that we're required by law to transport any student in our district um to a private or a nonpublic school. Um and so this is just saying that we are able to do that um but in giving them a financial monetary amount of money to be able to do that for themselves. I just want to It's within 30 minutes, right? From their home school. From their home school. Yes. Uh eligibility is within 30 minutes of
054the students. What will be their assigned home? And what is the cost for each of these that we have to give to the parents? Certainly. The cost um as identified by the Department of Education and Workforce this school year is $583.86 per student. Thank you. By May, it's worth noting approximately 10 years ago, the state used to reimburse the district for these funds. Approximately 10 years ago, they reduced it the first time by half and then reduced it to zero. So since that time the local district has been burdened or responsible for the entire thing. So on top of a student going to a nonpublic school are further resources or drain by having to to send them there or to provide them. Any other comments or questions? Thank you Mr. Mrs. Yes, Mrs. Le. Yes,
055Mr. Yes, Mrs. Valentine. Yes, Mrs. And may I have a motion to approve the out of state overnight field trips? So, moved. Second. Welcome. Good evening. Again, we have two overnight field trips for the board to consider this evening. The first of which was for our boys basketball team at West ship at University of Dayton and that did take place that trip and then the next trip is for lacrosse team. Just additional congratulations to the North basketball team and good luck at regionals. Yes, Mrs. Le. Yes. Mrs. Yes. Mr. Pre. Yes. Mrs. Meyer. Yes. And may I have a motion to approve this the early graduate candidates who have completed all local and state requirements. So move second. Good evening. Again, we have several of our students that'll be completing their graduation requirements prior to
056their cohort graduation and this provides an opportunity to graduate from Mrs. Alman. Yes. Mrs. Val, yes. Mrs. Le, yes. Yes. Yes. And may I have a motion to approve the resolution awarding contract to Lewis R. Holster Company for the Genanoa Middle School walk-in cooler and freezer replacement project. So move second. Welcome Mr. Spitz. Thanks President members of the board. So again, this resolution as it says is to award a contract of Willis Rolster in the amount of 124,000 even to undertake the full replacement of the existing and original I'm going to talk about in a second walk-in cooler and freezer at Genoa Middle School. What's important to note there, and I want to celebrate our maintenance and food service folks, uh these units are over 20 27 years old, well beyond the predicted useful life
057of 20 to 25 in the industry. So I want to thank our our maintenance folks both past, present, and future because I want to replicate this in the future. So, you approve it, we'll be moving forward is a summer 2025 project. The substantial completion scheduled is August 2nd, 2025. And a particular note, you're used to me standing up here and talking about permanent improvement or bond funds. This project is 100% funded from food service dollars. Essentially, the facilities department is managing the project for the food service. Happy to answer any questions. questions department. Yes. Mrs. Mrs. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Yes. And may I have a motion to um approve the resolution proposing the dismantling of the federal department of education? Second. So, I um have asked this to be put on the agenda. As we
058know, Trump signed an executive order directing our education secretary to dismantle the department um and complete the elimination. A complete elimination would require concret Oh my goodness. Congressional approval. So, we're very hopeful um that they will uh you know, cooler heads prevail. Um but just to give you a little bit of an understanding of what this would mean for us, we receive over $7 million annually from the feds. And these dollars support over 50 positions in the following areas. Reading intervention, teachers who support students individualized needs for reading intervention. Special education teachers and other related staff who support students in line with their individual individualized educational plans are also known as IEPs. English learner supports teachers supporting classrooms in working with English learner uh students and families. um safe and well-being, mental health staff and
059school counselors, professional development, teachers who support classrooms with instructional coaching to provide our teachers with the necessary strategies and tools they need to enhance student outcomes. And these dollars are really meant to support programs above and beyond with state and local resources support. So has real implications and I know those of you sitting in the room understand this um all too well. So, I'm asking my colleagues to support this resolution um that we will send to Congress and to ask them to stand strong. Any questions or comments? Do you want me to leave it? It's a little long. Okay. Uh whereas the Westerville City School District in Ohio relies on from the US Department of Education to support essential programs including reading intervention, professional development for educators and special education services. And whereas federal funding
060sustains over 50 positions within the district that are dedicated to support student success and ensuring that access to a quality education. And whereas the funding allows the district to provide services above and beyond what state and local funds cover, ensuring that students receive the additional necessary for their academic and personal development. And whereas reading intervention programs funded by federal resource pro provide struggling students with the necessary support to achieve literacy proficiency, which is foundational for future academic and career success. And whereas special education funding ensures that the district can provide mandated services and resources to students with disabilities, fostering an inclusive learning environment for all. And where as dismantling the US Department of Education would create significant uncertainty regarding the future of these critical funding streams and place an undue burden on state and local
061governments to fill the gaps. And whereas the loss of federal funding could result in significant cuts to essential educational services negatively impacting students, families, and the community at large. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Westerville City School District strongly opposes any effort to dismantle the US Department of Education and urges federal policy makers to maintain and expand funding for critical educational programs. And be it further resolved that the Westerville City School calls upon local, state, and federal leaders to advocate for policies that ensure the continued support of public education, ensuring that all students have access to the resources necessary to thrive and be finally resolved that a copy of this resolution be sent to the appropriate federal representatives, the Ohio Department of Education, and other relevant stakeholders to communicate our firm stance in this.
062So, we take the vote, please. Mr. Apple, yes. Mrs. Lee, yes. Mrs. Alman, yes. Mrs. Valentine, yes. Mrs. Yes. And next up, we have your comments to start. Uh, I just want to um thank all of the ties and congratulations. I want to thank uh the staff who put on the cultural immersion um event last Thursday where many of us got to experience what it's like to be a new student in a country that they don't know the language. Um, really appreciated that experience and I appreciated the community groups that um really uh opened up their doors and and helped us understand what they do and took us in and gave us a better understanding of um that experience. Um I want to again plea with everyone to contact your state representatives, your state senators,
063and your congressional members as well. Um and then just good luck on state testing that's coming. Good evening. Um I hope everyone had a really great spring break in Ramadan Mubat to all of our students who observe Ramadan. Um you know this evening uh I just want to share my reason for voting no on um consent agenda number 9005 um around reduction on ESL Paris. I just want to be clear that this is very hard right like we from a federal from a state from a local level we failed our levy it's not an easy decision to let go of staff for me personally I think a couple months ago hearing community members come and testify about why they really to um keep certain um colleagues in their building support students. I had an opportunity
064to go out and observe um you know the impact that's being made in the buildings and so it it's not easy and so I too would like to encourage everyone in this room to please contact your lawmakers right and really help us keep um help us so that we don't have to make difficult decisions like this. It's not easy. Um, but again, I just really wanted to take a couple minutes out to say that our EL students are really, really, really vulnerable students. They are being impacted. Um, and that is something that I care about very deeply. And so, as we are contacting our law lawmakers and advocating for our schools, um, just keeping keeping those communities in mind is incredibly important during these difficult times. Um, I will echo sentiments about all the retirees,
065all the retirements. Good lord, that's a lot of years of expertise and service. So, I hope they all enjoy their retirement, but they will all be deeply missed. Um, I also encourage folks call your state legislators, call the senators, call the Congress people. It may seem like a feudal exercise, like nobody is listening, but they are listening. And even if they're not public about listening to us all, they are talking about it behind closed doors. We need to make them feel uncomfortable. We need them to know that this is not acceptable. This is these are our tax dollars that they are playing with and we want this money to stay in public schools. So, it is vitally important. Um, I also did want to make a note on the RTRI. This was another little goodie
066that they shoved in the budget. Um, RTRI is required weekly. They shoved that in the budget. So, I know that we there was When they initially passed the amendment to the law last cycle, it was just you all decide, but you have to have a policy. It is no longer you all just decide. It is you all decide, but it has to be every week. So, wanted to make that clarification. We obviously voiced our opinion on that whole policy last year and the state legislature decided they only like local control until it doesn't align with what they like. So, here we are. Um, well, on top of the congratulations, the early graduates, I just that's a phenomenal achievement. Um, so I congratulations to them and again, we are going to miss our retirees. That is
067a lot of again a lot of years of of experience and care for students walking out the door. Um, we wish them the best. Um, Mr. Heman, welcome. Glad to have you up here. Thank you for serving. Um it's it's it's a time right now. So, thank you for stepping in to do this. Um and just want to say something about um the reduction in force and especially the EL pair professionals. Um that is not something I want to do. It is not. So, in addition to asking people to contact your legislators, I'm going to ask you to talk to friends, explain to them what's going on because people in our community don't know. Um, a lot of people don't pay that much attention to schools. Um, some people um, pay attention sometimes, like when
068there's a levy on the ballot and not so much other times, but we need you to talk to fellow residents too and explain to them the situation that public schools are in because the decisions, the choices that our legislature appears to be making has made in the past and appears to be making now. So, thank you in advance for doing that. There's some great tools out there. Miss Marshall pointed to some and um continue to add information to the district's various channels. So, um please, you know, please use it not just to contact your legislators, but to educate your neighbors. Thanks. Uh, I'm gonna have to be a little off the cuff because I just found out on Thursday that I would be up here today. So, didn't really have a whole lot prepared. But,
069I did want to thank my colleagues uh for their continuing hard work and for placing their trust in me with this position and superintendent treasur as well. Thank you so much. Um, I mean, I'm here because this is unprecedented times and uh we have to stand in the gap, right? And uh so please, you know, do your best to make your communications clear. This is intentionally obuscated stuff. They make it difficult on purpose for us to understand because they think we're not paying attention. But uh you're obviously here, so you are paying attention. Make your voice heard and help us out. Thank you so much. Well, my apologies. I just got so irritated with the state funding and federal funding, but I wanted to Yes, welcome our colleague. Um, and thank you for serving. Uh,
070we're really excited you're here. Um, so, um, oh, I did just want to say one last thing. Um, I'm going to echo my my colleagues. None of this has been easy. I mean I mean I wish I could tell you how many times I stay up at night thinking about the impacts to this district. So this is not easy and I mean so I'm sorry I'm crying but it really irritates me this is happening and so I agree contact your friends and make it known. Sorry. Just really makes me mad and I'm a crier when I'm mad and happy and sad. So there you go. Um the board will meet in special session for gem awards. Oh, we need some of that. On Monday, April 14th, 2025 at 6 p.m. at North High School, 950
071Line Road and in regular session on Monday, April 21st, 2025 at 6 p.m. at the Early Learning Center, which is here. And that's 936 Eastwind Drive, Westville, Ohio 43081. Um, and now may I have a motion to enter into executive session for the purposes of discussing the employment and compensation of public employees? Second. Mrs. Alman, yes. Mrs. Le, yes. Mr. Yes. Mrs. Valentine. Yes. Mrs. Yes. You're more than welcome to I have no idea when they'll be back. And I imagine you guys are all pretty tired after a long day. You're welcome to stay. So we've returned from executive session and may I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second, Mrs. Valentine. Yes. Mrs. Zan. Yes. Mrs. Alman. Yes. Mr. Apple. Yes. Mrs. Meyer. Yes. Thank you.