February 24, 2025 Board of Education Meeting

001good evening thank you for attending the February 24th 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 agenda printed agenda uh are available for our guests wow words are hard right now in the back or you may find the agenda on your mobile device by connecting to our the district's website at www. wcso .org click on the our district link select Board of Education and then follow the board docs link 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 the timer will be shown on the screen this

002portion of the meeting shall be limited to no more than 60 minutes and with that Miss Marshall will you please take the role Mrs Alman here Mrs Davidson is absent Mrs Valentine here Mrs leean 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 which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all all right we don't have any District highlights or recognitions tonight so moving along to reports uh 4.01 Miss Hamburg superintendent's comments thank you I wanted to um take a moment to address the governor's proposed budget that just was released um in the new budget it shows us receiving decreases in both years of the banum we would be decreased

0036.8% in fiscal year 26 and an additional 3.4% % in fiscal year 27 so that would be 2.8 million in fiscal year 26 and an additional 1.3 million in fiscal year 27 for a total of over $4.1 million loss over the bium so I guess I first want to say that we appreciate that he is proposing the continued phas in of the fair school funding plan as we know there was some concern about whether or not that would happen uh but we do have concern with this plan because it does not show a an update of the cost to accommodate inflation so he has opposing leaving those costs the same so while they are updating the increases to our wealth Factor based on our property value and our resident income level um not correspondingly update

004updating the costs with that so that is what causes us to show those losses um you know and our concern as we've continued to say is that when you're cutting our funding But continuing to add cost requirements that's not I think Nicole was the one to First say it but not a sustainable business model I do want to address there's an article about our district that is on our Senate's website and in that article um they criticize our cash balance so I just wanted to talk about that a little bit we are required to have a five-year forecast by law our legislators only do a two-year banum budget and if you just look at the first two years of our bium then yes we do have enough cash however we're bringing in less money than

005we're spending each year while inflation continues to soar our fiveyear forecast shows that we will run out of money quickly as we continue to pay ongoing expenses out of our cash balance the article highlighted our positive cash balance but it did not address our nearly 32 million negative cash balance in the last year of the required by law 5year forecast period the article also conveniently cropped out the state revenue lines from the picture of our forecast which shows the reductions in our state funding I've asked Nicole to share a little bit of information she has a unique perspective as not only a current treasure CFO but also previously worked for the auditor's office kind of about the recession that we faced previously and where cash balances come into play with the fiveyear forecast yeah thanks

006Angie so um I spent seven years working for the state auditor office in local government services um from about 2005 until about 2012 before I started working for uh karing School District as the assistant treasur there so I lived at the auditor's office all through the recession and the um coming out of the recession in into 2012 and what I did during uh that whole time period was I worked on uh local governments and school districts that were in fiscal emergency and at the time um local governments and school other school and school districts public school districts were criticized for not having adequate reserves to help weather economic downturns and so um just from my perspective hearing all of those conversations and working on those projects back at that time um I find it ironic

007now that we're being criticized for having reserves to so that we can weather these economic downturns that we're dealing with now uh we've seen our funding cut significantly and you know in 2012 this school district actually had to delay payroll from one fiscal year to the next because of cash flow issues because we didn't have adequate reserves to meet cash the required payrolls at the time we had to severely red Middle School programming after a levy failure due to lack of funds and our board policy establishes a 90-day unreserved uh fund balance for every period of the fiveyear forecast period and um this policy ensures that we don't go back and repeat what we did uh the last time in our uh history and also I do want to point out that our cash balance

008is being invested we are very limited with Ohio law and what we we can invest in but we are maximizing our investments and we are generating nearly $8 million a year in operating income from our investment earnings and so as our um cash balance declines so does our opportunity for investment earnings which would be another reduction in our operating Revenue lastly uh we currently are sitting on about $25 million in credits from the state for our school facilities programs we're in the exped local partnership program so far we've aced just over $25 million our turn has not come up yet and so our intent with the cash balance was to help cover some facilities needs in conjunction with a bond issue um as we're sitting around and waiting for the state if we have received

009those those funds from uh the facilities so it's um I'm really disappointed to see something like this posted on our state senate website I think we've been nothing but respectful to our state lawmakers we have a great relationship with them uh I do intend to reach out to the Senate President Rob mcau um and our local Senators here in Westerville um just to try to have some dialogue around uh that article and what it said and just how misleading it was overall I was really disappointed to read that I think the other piece too in the article um he talks about how the average per pupil spending for K12 Public Schools is $1 4,584 but it's a better deal to provide scholarships to private schools um because they're only 6166 or 848 um but of

010course not talking about the transportation special education costs that we incur often for the private schools as well so it's very misleading and it also reads like we're getting that much funding from the state as opposed to what they're spending on vouchers which is not accurate um we're getting just under 3 million per student from the state while they're giving 6166 or 8,48 for vouchers 3,000 per student you said three million oh I'm sorry 3,000 thank you I wish we would have no funding problems if that were the case yes you and there's also a lot of uh conversation around property tax relief at the state also and I can tell I have told anyone that will listen to me that if the state does actually fully fund a funding formula that they have for

011schools that is a form of property tax relief we can see very clearly in the data how the state has shifted um it's share of the cost for Education down to the local communities mostly on homeowners and Farmers um just over the last several decades there's loads and loads of data out there uh that's available to the for the public to view I have lots of presentations on the matter if you're ever interested in seeing any of them so all right we just kind of want to give that update especially in Li of the article that was posted or in light of the article that was posted on the Senate website so that's all I have tonight thank you does anybody have any questions questions or followup um well I just wanted uh for those

012that are maybe tuning in for the first time or haven't been keeping up with everything that's going on right now could you just kind of Nole share with us exactly how much in dollars um this District would expect to lose because the governor's uh proposed budget was recently released yeah so as Angie shared um the first year of the bayum which is 26 would be 2 .8 million and then it's another 1.3 in the second year um which is fiscal year 27 so it' be 4.1 million over the bium period based on the governor's proposal I will say this is just the start of the budget process the governor's released his proposal the uh house will then come out with their version they are currently having having hearings right now there their first uh Hearing

013in the House Education committee is tomorrow at 2:15 and then I think that will have another one on the 26th which is Wednesday and then they're scheduled to have another one on March the 4th and so I have already submitted testimony I intend to go down there and testify I may go tomorrow um they told me they're going to do it based on proximity to the state house so we're a little close so I may be pushed off until Wednesday not quite sure yet um but then the house will have their uh version of a budget and uh then the Senate will it'll go through the Senate's process and then it'll come to conf conference committee uh which is the house and the Senate and they'll try to reconcile the differences between the budget with

014hopefully having it on the governor's desk by June 30th for Signature uh they do have to have a budget in place to start the new fiscal year they've done temporary measures in the past hopefully they'll get a budget in place um I do also want to mention uh I was on a webinar today and listened to all of the additional unfunded mandates um that are also included in the budget bill so I do find it ironic that um any would think that it is feasible to increase services and reduce revenues I don't like Angie said I don't know of any business model that works that way so um but that's where we're at so just the beginning stages of the conversation I would encourage anybody that's interested in this conversation to reach out their to

015their local legislator um and you know just see what their thoughts are on it and I think just my last I guess in closing thought is these reductions are in addition to we already received a reduction this year of about 4 million so as inflation continues to increase our state funding continues to decrease mandates continue to increase so any any help that you can provide on helping to reach out to legislators would be greatly appreciated um I just want to also add and and I don't think I missed it so my apologies if I did but um some of our construction costs like some of our construction dollars for facilities is also being um given to uh private entities to build schools or to expand private um facilities and so that's even on top of

016the I know you had talked about our credit which I think not probably everybody understands um but that's an additional hit that we're taking as well in terms of funding that we could be using to update our facilities yeah so we have been as part of the last Bond project um and some of Westerville South we have been accumulating credits with the state because the state's calculations say that they should fund 35% of our facilities projects um but they don't have the funding available so they basically take turns with school districts it's a rank um schedule that they have uh when I started with the district in 2018 they told me it' be about five or six years um every time I asked them that was you know six and a half years ago every

017time I asked them they tell me it's about five or six years so um I don't know when our number will be up for that but we are accumulating credits and we're uh last during our last uh review that we had with them were're just a little over 25 million um that we haven't been funded from that facilities projects so thank you um if and and I know you said this I just want to make this super clear um to folks who maybe don't work with the state budget every day um that it's a it's a banal budget so the operating budget is a 2-year budget but we have to forecast 5 years and so there's no guarantee after the current budget what the next budget will look like right so in a situation of

018having to forecast out five years we have board policy about needing 90 days of cash reserves on hand but the state budget is a two-year budget so you see the challenge that creates in terms of it it it makes you you know make sure you really have that cash Reserve because you don't know what's going to happen into the next bium well yeah and I I will say this last bium um so our the current bium that we're in now is fiscal year 24 which was our last fiscal year and the current fiscal year which is fiscal year 25 um when we were talking about this um in the spring of 23 coming into fiscal year 24 I had no idea that the state was going to reduce our revenues by $4 million this year

019in the middle of a bay any I didn't expect that um there's a lot of school districts that were really surprised by that uh because the assumptions that were used in the estimates um didn't account for uh true inflationary costs for housing so they look at our local wealth Factor based on our property values and our resident income well property values in 2023 the reappraisals plus whatever our resident income looked like was apparently much higher than what they had used in those calculations and so I was really surprised by that um did not expect that and I'm I continue to be surprised by uh the things that I see come out that either add additional cost to us or try to reduce our revenues in some way or another so that's why we have this

020conversation any other just wanted to add one last thing as for that article that was on the Senate's website is that they the author maintain that our funding model is constitutional the funding model let's be clear is not constitutional it was ruled unconstitutional I believe four separate times and essentially the courts gave up and said we have told you four times you need to remedy this fix it and we just haven't done it so they're flouting the law like they have in you know many other cases here recently but the funding model we have currently is not constitutional yeah I would agree with that and the um I said in a webinar and I'm looking for the numbers now on Friday with the fair school funding workg group that shared a graph and this is

021you know at a macro level just not uh Westerville schools so during the dra decision um the state the state was picking up a little over 42% of the share um in 2023 the state was picking up oh my eyes are terrible almost 40% so under the D decision um by quite a bit and then uh if implemented with the governor's proposal so our current share the state share is 38% for fiscal year 25 and if State aage the state average on average yes this is the total what the state funds for Education across Ohio um and then the 2027 under the governor's proposal would be down to about 32% so quite a ways away from where we were um during the dra decision days you know back when that was ruled unconstitutional four times

022over so yeah I would contend that our funding formula is probably not constitutional um we would need a court to tell us that but I feel like I have a pretty good idea thank you and appreciate that update um next up We Have a scheduling update from Mr Meisner and Miss Harris welcome this is an important time for high school students or incoming high school students so high school and middle school so all right good evening everybody um I'm super excited to be here to give you an update on Middle School and High School scheduling um for those of you that don't know who I am I'm Matt Meisner I'm the director of career and college readiness for the district um and with me tonight is Jennifer Harris who is our district school counselor who

023supports all of this work as well um so we're working with our students and we're starting to develop schedules for our students that is really mapping out all four years of their High School career um we really start with them predicting the future thinking out into the future and our teachers and our counselors ask our students these big questions when they're sitting down with them and helping them choose which courses they're going to be taking uh we really asked them what kind of problems do you want to solve in the world we certainly know there are many problems out in the world that uh need addressed and there's a lot of challenges so what is it that uh they would like to help solve in our world we ask them what sorts of activities they

024like to do what sort of work do they like to do um and then what brings them excitement and joy because that ultimately um is what we're looking for when they enter into a career that it brings them excitement and joy and they're solving problems um we review a bunch of careers with them um we're going to talk about school links here in just a little bit uh which is the tool that we use to help our students explore careers but we ask them what are you interested in what would you like to do when you graduate from high school um many many careers out there we know that there's a lot of positions that are left unfilled and will continue to be unfilled so um really just helping our student students understand what those

025careers are and what brings um interest to them and then uh what sort of Advanced Training or education would you like are you thinking about going to a Ohio Technical Center um would you like to enter app an apprenticeship program like an electrical or Plumbing trades are you looking at a two-year degree from Columbus State or are you looking at a four-year degree from Ohio State or uh University of Toledo go Rockets um graduation requirements I have gotten to say this now um the last couple times I've been here to update you and I'm glad that this continues but we have not had any major updates in our graduation requirements they've leveled off um all of you will remember we went through a period there of about four years where every graduating class had a

026different set of graduation requirements so it's good to have it level off the only thing that now um will fully be in effect starting with um this year's seniors is the financial literacy used to be instruction now it is they have to earn a half a credit in financial literacy so three buckets for graduation credits um none of those have changed Ela Math Science Social Studies health physical education and then their electives the only addition to that permanently now is financial literacy um again that started with the class of 2026 and Beyond after our students have earned their credits the second uh bucket that they're looking to fill is the competency bucket overwhelming majority of our students fulfill that requirement by passing the algebra 1 and or an English 2 Ohio state test with a

027passing score of 684 um if they don't do that they need to demonstrate two career focused activities those include earning credentials um doing work-based learning hours um a variety of different activities that they could do um web exams college credit plus program in order for them uh to meet that requirement or they can show enlistment into the military or they complete uh College course work typically through the college credit plus program so a wide variety of options there to meet competency uh just remember the overwhelming majority do pass it in that first uh bucket and then finally the third thing Readiness um we all know these well by now the graduation seals um there are 12 seals in total the first nine that you see in the dark blue box those are um State defined

028seals they put out the criteria of what those are students must earn at least one state defined seal the other three on the right hand side and the lighter blue box those are locally defined seals those are seals that um we as a district are allowed to to create the parameters of what that would be for a student to earn those um students can earn one foundational and one state or sorry one state and one District approved seal or they could earn two state approved seals they cannot earn two of the district approved seals um we are well on our way into the scheduling process so it actually starts all the way back in January um in January we are busy busy busy in December we meet with our counselors we provide them all of

029the new updates any new courses we're offering any changes to our uh course descriptions High School academic planning guide that goes into their hands in December and then they start disseminating all of that information in January January is like information overload for scheduling um they're in classrooms they're providing presentations to students and families about course offerings they're really just providing them all the information so they can start to think about what sorts of courses they would like to take in February our students start submitting their course requests um it's in green because this is using School links which is our College and Career Readiness platform um we're going to talk a little bit more about what that looks like but we've been really impressed with this it's been a great tool for our students and

030our counselors and has really sped up not just sped up the process but helped have deeper and richer conversations in blue right around spring break time we take all of the information our students have put into school links and we transer that into Power School um in March um we've actually been we're well ahead of schedule at this point but our school counselors meet with every single student and go through their course requests um that's a huge undertaking for all of our our counselors they're having those one-on-one meetings um reviewing those courses helping students um make different choices if they need to or approving their plan if they're good to go and then in August um all of the things happen so right where that big p is that's where all the work happens um

031in power school um our building administrators are building Master schedules and they are prepared for in August is when our students get their schedules of the order of classes they'll be taking what period they have them um so this is a good about eight Monon long process to do scheduling um for all of our students like I said we're continuing to use School links we really really have enjoyed using this tool um the in this tool it allows us to do a variety of things to work with our students they do College Planning in there they get to explore any college in the nation and internationally they get to look at tuition cost programs Etc our High School academic plan guide is live in the platform as well so students can click on courses and

032learn more about those uh students make their course Selections in there for all four years of their High School um academic career they do career Planning by doing a variety of career interest surveys and learning more about different careers and selecting what's of interest to them and then they do the Ohio graduation planning which is um a great big document that they work on where they are building out their four-year course plan that that is tied to their postsecondary goals College uh entering the workforce or joining the military and then what career they ultimately would like to get into um our course Planner on schooling so this is used by all of our students in grades 8 through 11 um it allows our students to map out all four years of their academics again tied

033to that goal that they have been setting for themselves for career um for what career they would like to have once they graduate it allows our students and families to keep updates on their plan progress we really LED this tool that it shows historical grades so as students are going in and selecting next year's courses they get to see how theyve performed in previous courses as well um which has been a very powerful tool my favorite feature of school LS is it translates all of the information that we have in there to a variety of languages every single one of the languages represented in our district um is in schooling so it's a really quick and easy way for our all of our families to be able to access the information in the platform it

034communicates those plans to parents and Guardians and our school counselors so everybody can go in and see what those plans are and what the students are thinking about we use the course planner to facilitate those one-on-one meetings between our counselors and our students um I do want to pause on that for a moment about that one-on-one um meeting so just to give you some perspective each of our high school counselors have somewhere between 400 and 450 students on their case load um so to me meet with them oneon-one every single one of them on top of all the other duties they're doing um is pretty a remarkable task so shout out to our school counselors uh they are busy they're leaving every day busy they are tired um but it's the good work and it's

035the work that they like to do and finally the course planner is the integral part of our of our Ohio graduation plan so students choosing um all four years of their courses thanks for inviting me and thanks for all the work that you do for our students and our staff um and I Echo that our school counselors are doing amazing work with students I am missing them in this new role but I'm excited to be able to give you a glimpse into school links um and and show you a little bit about what students are seeing and what our counselors are doing um so the first step is a little bit deceiving actually because this first step in school L students have been working on some of them for a couple years since we had

036the program um so to tie into what Matt said about you know the long-term goal where are you headed um the students have done all kinds of Interest inventories in school LS to come up with these Career College postsecondary goals so if they've been in there doing work these uh fields are populated if they have not they are not populated but they can at any time go in and click through um information here and get some goals for themselves the next step ties into that first goal um and it shows thanks to school links um it shows education and salary um as well as live job growth in our area um and that is not a School links thing that is a Bureau of Labor and statistics thing that's showing them is this a a

037job choice that is heading in a good direction are you going to have options when you um get out of high school and pursue this as a as a next step step three for are students when they're getting into school links and working um either on their own or with their families or with their counselors we do ask them to think about their uh seals for graduation and we're not asking them to fly solo there is a link in there it's kind of hard to see on on this screen but it does link to the Ohio Department of Education and also to a cheat sheet that we have created about all of the different seals that the students can choose um we ask them to pick two when you ask an eighth grader to do

038that they kind of look at you like deer and headlights um and so we try to break down you know these are some of the more common SEALS or put it in kid language um which two seals sound like you so they do have resources to be able to choose those seals but they're also not locked into those seals um they can change them as they go through school I feel like I've repeated that quite a bit to students lately that you're not locked in you can change your mind 12 times and that's okay we just want to know that you have a plan um ahead of yourself step four is where the bulk of the work is um and that is the course plan for our students they're going to click on that button

039and be taken into a a plan um and I will take you through these four screens here real quick this is an in progress uh course plan and I am impressed every time I work in school links that it is very userfriendly all of this information is in power school but you've really got to dig to find it um I find when you sit down in School links and you can look at that screen and pretty quickly tell that okay red probably something's wrong that needs my attention um so I tell the the students that quite a bit that if it's red it needs your attention we need you to take a look at something there if it's green check mark you're good to go you've met that graduation requirement um so this is an

040example of a course plan that is in progress um each column is a year of school so we've got four columns and then each row are different graduation requirements um and this would be a freshman um who's currently taking classes and I should uh pause to say that these are uh not live students that were showing up here on the screen tonight these are all demo students another cool thing of of School links is when I'm working in uh the background and you know making tweaks to the platform I can immediately go see what this would look like for a kid which is pretty cool um this is kind of a random sampling um but a a four-year view which I think when I'm I'm thinking about an adolescent bir brain I want to see

041how everything fits I want to see where my attention is um and uh red is not good green is good hard to see but there's some yellow there underneath some of the courses those would be courses that are in progress um so this freshman looks like he's taking algebra and assuming he does well that will remain part of his uh course plan then if I were to click into one of those subject areas or one of those uh graduation requirements this is um what that screen looks like um and a really cool part of School links is it is kind of smart software um it's making a prediction about based on the classes that you have taken or are currently taking this is what we think you're going to do next um so it kind

042of takes a big overwhelming course description guide and boils it down um but it the students are not locked into that they can unfilter it and see everything you know if they have a specific course in mind and then this is a no more red um I did everything I was supposed to do I planned out my uh four years and got all of my graduation requirements um this is our first rollover for School links so making sure that classes came over from Power School um I was thankful for Matt's help and for school Link's help that went really smoothly that all of the classes students are doing or even classes that were transferred in are following along with them and also classes that students planned for um in years past are coming over with

043them so the messaging that our counselors are giving is that um you we're asking you to plan all four years next year is the year that really matters because like Matt said that's going to roll over into power school and start making FTE decisions um but we still like for them to look at their plan and and make sure everything's going to fit make sure you're on on track to graduate another cool feature of School links um once you get through all of your graduation requirements there is a place where you can have One-Stop shopping uh a PDF really pretty printed version of what your plan was so if you're a visual person who needs it in paper pencil um you're able to get that um school counselors a lot of them are using that

044they like their their binders they like to have everything you know in front of them as they meeting with students so you'll see that on their desks um and a really powerful tool as they're working with families as well all right and our parents and Guardians get to um check out their students course plans as well um so I'm going to show you two quick screens on how they do that once they've logged into their Guardian account they click on the to do the twoos there at the top and then they select course plans at the bottom and when they do that they get to see their students course plan again this is a demo student I wish we had cyber security and Cosmetology in English uh that's the students very gifted uh in a

045variety of areas but uh parents can go in and see those plans they can also comment on those plans um we do like to caution our parents that a comment is not in any way editing their plan they do not have access to delete courses or ad courses for their student but they can put comments on there that the school counselor can see those when they're meeting with their student um last week at the end of the week my office sent out a reminder to all of our Stu uh families of grades 8 through 11 reminding them that they do have access to their parents account we really do encourage our parents to please create your login please create your account um so you can see what your students doing in school links um all

046of our Guardians are eligible for an account for our students in grades 6 through 12 we have last year we moved the login code to power school so it's a One-Stop shop once parents are in there um their code is their access code is right there um it's very quick and easy to sign up for an account use your personal email address um remember what that email address is because we don't see those on the back side um and then once you're in there you can see everything that your students been doing in there not just their course plan but any careers that they' favored it any colleges they're looking at um there's just a wealth of information in there for our parents to see and Guardians um finally if anybody has any questions if

047you're a parent or a guardian out there and you have questions about helping your students work through this uh the course selection process um we have three wonderful resources the first one C certainly our current teachers um they know best about what courses student should be taking next they know their students ability levels um they're a great resource so please reach out to them if you have questions our eighth grade teachers um are are quickly learning a lot more about high school especially those upper grades um they're a great resource our high school teachers have been doing this um with them for a very long time they're a great uh resource for parents to reach out to online we have our High School academic planning guide all information about career center programming the college credit

048plus um program and a variety of other things so I really encourage families to check out our online resources and then finally our school counselors again uh working very very hard to assist our students with their course plans they're right now in the middle of those one-on-one meetings I checked it this morning and we had over 1,200 plans that were already approved by counselors across the district so uh that's in about two and a half weeks time so that's that's great progress that they're making um so now is the time if you have questions about what courses your students should be taking or what their plans are um certainly reach out to your school's coun your students counselor because they they are a great resource for you and with that we thank you for letting

049us be here tonight any questions I was just curious how frequently is that data um updated from the Bureau of Labor Statistics um it's pretty continuous so as soon as the Bureau of Labor Statistics updates anything on theirs it's automatically updated on schooling so it's a seamless process yeah it's really nice yeah great um I have a a question about um financial literacy this a very specific question but I remember this was an issue when it came up a couple years ago and summer school and the availability of like other ways to take that course yeah are there other ways to take that course and can you talk about that so people know sure yeah yeah we've continued that um from last year into this year so our our students can take financial literacy through

050summer school um they can also do it um online right now if they are planning on going to the career center that's really our Focus because there's not enough room in their schedule um but we've worked out where our students who are in that position can be take can take financial literacy uh to get that requirement met so our counselors have put out a lot of information about that um there's a one pager out there about the different options that students can do yeah thank thank you that really crunched schedules I know yeah thanks um I love schooling oh good I just want to say if you've not used it it's really fabulous tool um you can go out and check out Trends and careers and all sorts of amazing things um I would have

051never known some of those things about those Trends and um I'm just curious though because there's a lot of scheduling that's going on if a class is is not going to be offered because there's not enough students when would a parent or a student um expect to know that yeah uh so we're watching those numbers we pull those twice a week the course selection numbers um right now we're just really in the middle of making all those selections spring break is when we roll that data over into power school and we're really looking at how many sections will we need how many enrollments do we have um so I don't have an exact date but I would anticipate not too long after spring break we would start communicating if something wasn't going to run yeah

052thank you I I will reiterate this is a fabulous tool and also I can tell you if your students overloading themselves like they have way too many credits like my kids continue to we see that they like they're planning a lot yeah thank you any other okay thank you so much thanks for all the work that you guys are doing and the counselors um next up we have public comments um and we have three so the Board of Education welcomes public comment on educational issues of interest to our school Community the board does not discriminate based on the Identity or Viewpoint of the speaker during our public participation however the board president May limit comments that are obscene abusive or harassing in an attempt to protect the Privacy interests of our students the board ask

053that the speakers not identify students by name during their comments persons having public complaints about District Personnel programming or operations will be referred to the process set forth in board policy 9130 finally the board remind speakers that their statement 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 tonight our first speaker is Miss Betsy buyers Spurlock welcome thank you hi I am a first grade teacher at F Elementary School this evening I am addressing the board regarding their possible decision to cut Elementary elll par professionals I intend to inform you of F's unique um population and appeal that you

054can reconsider this action or possib possibly recategorize this position as of 2225 we had 459 students at F 99 of those were elll students which is 22% of our population 61 are Spanish speakers which is 133% of our overall population 42 of those students are considered emergent Andor beginning students the district translator Services cost will significantly increase if Mrs Meyer is not in our building next year um the district currently pays $140 for a translator because a translator gets paid for a minimum of two hours f is in Delaware County so there's an increase of $50 to $80 for a translator to cross the county line so that's about an average of2 $5 per conference in 2023 Mrs Meyer translated for 23 parent teacher conferences saving the district approximately $471 15 she translated for 21

055conferences this year saving the district approximately $435 some of Mrs Meyer's other duties include but are not limited to helping give children a voice when they have a problem or hurt or just need something that they cannot communicate Google translate does not work well for young e students um checking course respondence that goes to families very important translating Bridges assessments to get accurate pictures of children's um capabilities she translates for IP meetings she helps our our speech teacher translate when evaluating our Spanish speakers for speech services she does phone calls home to discuss sensitive matters or behavior problems and the best like that's happened this week to celebrate children's accomplishments to let the parents know she has Clinic phone calls for injuries sick children and when immunization records are out of compliance phone calls for

056the office for families who outstanding lunch money or instructional fees phone calls from the library for outstanding books in the last 2 weeks alone Mrs Myers was absent one day and we had we day she had two parent meetings one of which was an hour long she had 21 phone calls to relay information from a parents or two parents for staff one Clinic phone call she usually handles two to five phone calls a day with an average of $5 10 minutes and if you don't know Marty cost a dollar a minute recent KRA scores indicated that only 35% of kindergarten students are ready for kindergarten Ohio that number drops to 18% for our Hispanic children Mrs Meer is present at all of our kindergarten General start days to translate for students and parents so that

057they know the expectations at school and to help a give a welcoming atmosphere elll students often do not understand what is happening they're scared they cry and when students and families here our elll speak in their native language it provides calmness and Clarity Mrs Meyer was able to spent some extended time in kindergarten this year um to help with the transition thank you thank you next up we have Miss Laura meus emce emit trce sorry this is a continuation of what she did not get to finish so I'm still going to continue to talk for f and we have a huge population here in support of U Miss Gina Meer our par professional who's bilingual and amazing um as a paraprofessional Mrs Meyer has a daily schedule where she pushes into to K2 classes with

058higher emergent beginner ESL population however this position allows her to go wherever she needs to go throughout the day um we recently had a new elll student from Chile and Mrs Meyer helped her throughout the day we were thrilled that Mrs Meyer was available for this student think about you going to a different country and not knowing anyone or their language and to have someone there to support you that is exactly what she did um on a side note Mrs Meyer would actually prefer to work 4 days a week instead of five which would save the district money um us at F all of us here welcome you to come to F please meet our students see the immense impact that Mrs Meyer has in our building and the impact she has for our students

059please come see what we do it's an amazing culture that we have provided for our students and we welcome any of you at any time so thank you for your time and attention thank you next up we have Mr Doug krinsky welcome thank you before I actually say what I'm going to say I think that's another example of why you need to go back to five minutes for each speaker just food for thought uh but my points go back to the original 4.0 since I can't use names somebody was talking about budget dwine blah blah blah so when we did public forums last fall we talked about how poorly the grades were for all the students so now at the Levy's over you've saved $8 million a year annualized transferred back to $30 million what

060I don't understand is why are all the comments about budget why aren't they about getting the grades up for all the kids so I'm sort of missing the whole thing about you were going to put a levy up you're not going to put a levy up now you're talking about state budget I'm confused where do it talk about helping the kids like what I just heard you know the kids need help Let's Help the kids but as long as you're going to talk about budget let's talk about a couple things so you say the state pulled 4 million last year you also picked up 2.7 million which you continue to not bring up that you didn't have the year before based on real estate reevaluations so you didn't just lose four you picked up 2.7

061million um and that'll probably happen again in three years again so there you go also before the levy was voted on you said there was no more cost savings to be found you had done that there wasn't any more to be found interesting how after the levy Was Defeated you found $8 million a year in savings interesting how that happens also why don't we do something like hire an auditor to internally analyze every penny that's being spent in the district and look for duplication overlap of jobs and job descriptions because as I remember from the numbers looking last fall the administrative area went up $4 million in one year during covid so to me whatever was added probably needs to be removed because it was either a one-time thing or there's a duplication going on

062in the admin area so that's another area for opportunity uh the last thing I want to do is point out out that you continue to bring up residents should help you advocate for State funding well I'm one citizen I know none of you like which okay that's fine but I did offer right after the levy Was Defeated that I would help you go to the State House Advocate if we could come up with goals we all agreed to I wouldn't do it if you're going to put another Levy up and I know a couple of you didn't like that that's fine that that's just I don't have I only have so much time I'm not going to do everything so since you are not putting a levy up I would have thought somebody would have

063extended her hand back to me and say Doug could you help us down the state house but the only response I got on my initial offer was read our presentation you figure out what the priorities are because I asked for your priorities but you didn't tell them to me so you asked for help I offered help and yet it didn't happen so I'm confused about what you guys are doing and since my three minutes are up I'm done thanks okay moving along to board meeting minutes 6.01 may I have a motion to approve the minutes of the regular Board of Education meeting held on Monday February 10th 2025 so moved second any comments okay M Marshall will you take the roll call Mrs opman yes Mrs Lan yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Meer yes and

064I'm sorry Louise seconded that I'm sorry I did make a note of it sorry about that okay um next up financials and may I have a motion to approve the financial report and Investments for January 2025 so moved second Miss Marshall will you talk to us about these please uh yes so we have like you said the month end uh January 31 2025 um Financial so for our general operating fund we had year-to dat receipts of 151 .1 million year-to dat expenditures of 132 million and then we ended with an unencumbered general fund balance of 17.3 million for all funds we had year-to date receipts of 194 million year-to dat expenditures of 27.5 million and we ended with an unencumbered fund balance for all funds at 1999. 4 million uh the financial report also includes

065our investments um which I spoke about earlier uh we are expected to generate nearly 8 million dollar this year in Investments uh for our general operating account any questions or comments okay we take the call Mrs Valentine yes Mrs opman yes Mrs leeban yes Mrs Meyer yes and 7.2 may I have a mission to approve the purchases in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 5705 41 D1 in board policy 6320 so moved second and Miss Marshall will you talk to us about this uh yes thank you president Meyer um so this is what we call then and now purchase order so this is where we have a purchase order that is open after an invoice date we have one for this month uh with our food services department uh we did actually have a purchase order

066open uh for this purchase but it was closed in error as part of a payment on a previous invoice um so we had to open a new purchase order and because of uh timing we have to bring it to the board for approval so the funds were budgeted and I do recommend approval any comments or questions okay will you take the vote please Mrs lean yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs yes and is it okay if we take personal consent as one great may I have a motion to approve the personal consent agenda 8.01 through 8.09 so moved second welcome Mr Cooper president Meyer vice president lean members of the board Miss Marshall and Miss Hamburg tonight's Personnel consent agenda includes action items with regard to resignations retirements leaves of absence onetime pay

067P contract status changes and other employment related decisions we have one staff member who has announced retirement on this evening's agenda Wanda Myers will be will be retiring at the end of this school year after 28 years of service to our district and specifically in our HR department so uh we have appreciated all that she has done for our students our staff our community and certainly wish her the best in her years of retirement ahead um at this time I can answer any questions you may have just a big thank you for me yeah all right thank you yes Atman yes Mrs leian yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Meyer yes and may I take old business as one okay may I have a motion to approve old business 9.01 through 9.06 so moved second any

068comments questions okay will you please take the vote Mrs lean yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Meer yes and next we have new business 10.01 our first reading of policy 1422.com back hi thank you um so just noting policy 1422.com from Neola um this policy is in place with regard to policies 31221 as well as 41221 and this is just a policy to uh align those policies together the administrative policy uh with the professional and the classified policies so it is recommended that the board approve this policy thank you any questions okay and I know you're next up again so 10.02 first reading for policy 8142 Criminal history record check for contracted School Services talk to us about this sure thanks so it is recommended that the board approve revision to policy 8142

069criminal history record check for contracted School services this will align with policy 4121 as you may recall we recently made the same revisions to policy 4121 due to the new state requirement for non-licensed employees who rely interact with students within the school buildings um the requirement is to enroll in the state's wrab system we have a process going through that to associate themselves with our district um the same suggested language is recommended to be included in policy 8142 in the operations section of the policy manual thank you any questions from Mr Cooper okay thank you thank you next up we have 10.03 it's the first reading of policy 2460 special education welcome Mr flugy good evening president Meer and members of the board I'm here tonight to recommend that the board approve the update of

070existing board policy 2460 special education to confirm the district's current practice of adopting the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce special education model policies and procedures the existing policy is being updated to reflect the adoption of changes made in 2023 to the Ohio Operating standard for the education of children with disabilities which consisted primarily of language revisions for clarification purposes based on the above I'm recommending that the board approve the updated policy as proposed thank you any questions all right thank you so much next up we have 10.04 the first reading of policy 51360 one electronic equipment Mr St welcome thank you and good evening to the board uh president Meyer vice president leean members of the board superintendent Hamburg and Treasurer Marshall in front of you tonight is policy 51 3601 for electronic equipment

071this is a brand new policy for Westerville but it is a Neola recommendation that walks through um standards for use of student electronic devices including when and where a device can be used the treatment of a device if it is uh confiscated as an unauthorized device uh and accessing and monitoring of school dissue devices per Senate Bill 29 so it is our recommendation that the board approve policy 51 3601 but I'm happy to address any questions you guys may have any questions okay doesn't look like that thank you all right next up we have the first 10.05 uh first reading policy 2340 for field and other District sponsored trips welcome Miss Balwin good evening uh this evening this recommended policy update includes change or includes language that brings this policy into compliance with new state

072legislation is effective February of 2025 that prohibits members of the opposite biological sex from sharing overnight accommodations and is recommended that we accept this policy update to be in compliance with state law and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have any questions all right thank you appreciate that um and then next up we have 10.06 the first reading of policy 5330 use of medication welcome Miss Pinto good evening president Meer members of the board I'm presenting policy 5330 use of medications for first reading tonight this policy update reflects changes dictated by House Bill 70 that goes into effect March 20th of this year requiring public schools to have an over-the-counter medication policy Wester Bill City Schools already has an OTC medication policy in ag that fulfills this this policy also contains updates and

073a new form to align with changes required by house bill 206 going to effect April 9th 2025 allowing students to keep in their possession a drug prescribed to prevent or alleviate a seizure with written approval from a prescribing medical provider and parent or Guardian Additionally the language epinephrine auto injector or EpiPen has been updated to epinephrine delivery device to include the recently released FDA proed nasal spray which is a needle-free option for treatment of life-threatening allergic reactions which is exciting for our students we recommend approving these policy updates to ensure continued alignment with Ohio law do you have any questions so just as a clarification for parents at home that maybe have children with these medications would they just call their doctor and get a written letter and submit it to the nurse what does

074that look like we have forms on our website on our health services website and in the board docs for every one of these um medications for self-caring or to administer a prescribe medication there's also an over-the-counter medication form that a parent can sign um and it just needs parent permission um and none of that has changed okay and just a clarification too so if someone's carrying around and I know this isn't necessarily in this but it's a good opportunity to remind parents um and students that if it's an over counter medication they have to have it in the exact um like the pill bottle if it's a Advil or correct any medication that's brought into school prescribed should be in the prescription bottle with the pharmacy label if it's over the counter it needs to

075be in the original packaging no baggies thanks I had a quick question is there um grade levels for which this applies for them to be able to carry these around um so for the prescription medications that um when they can carry those that is between the the parent and the doctor and then the nurse also Mak sure that the child is capable of um carrying that appropriately for over-the-counter medication um it is the same thing we limit the amount that the younger children can carry to just one or two doses um and this ask parents to just refill that original bottle and then the older um students we ask them not to carry more than like a few doses or week of medication um and then the board the nurses um do speak with the

076parents especially for our younger children or children that may have we may have concerns and um work with them to decide if that's the best scenario for that child okay thanks um I just have a a question about um uh primarily the seizure medication but also like epipens and stuff so um obviously the student the parent and the nurse are aware do we have any um guidelines around teacher involvement in any of that like awareness at least yes so our um in power school we um have the medical condition of the children um in the medical conditions part that a teacher can see it makes an alert for them um and then if they have a medication they have an emergency action plan that is linked to their condition and it's noted on there whether

077they have a medication in the clinic or if they are approved for self carry yeah thank you I I ask it as a question just because I don't remember all the details but I know that teachers can see some of that information and I just um the seizure medication I think is a new additions yes right so that's something else that um just to be aware of right that will start showing up I think correct that will be noted in power school and then we do go to teachers with more complex situations yeah great thank you any other questions thank you so much appreciate it all right um next up we have 10.07 the first reading of policy 5350 student health well-being and suicide prevention ition welcome Miss Martin yeah good evening everyone uh policy

078number 5350 is student health well-being and suicide prevention it is recommended that updates include Comprehensive Mental Health and Wellness initiatives that promote the emotional and physical safety of students and staff the updates also adjust training requirements for students and staff as prescribed by House Bill 33 previous updates to this policy included requirements through House Bill 123 also known as the save students act that continue to be implemented with staff and students on suicide prevention violence prevention and social inclusion any questions any questions it's really important thank you all right that concludes first readings um next upep we have standing business so 11.01 um may I have a motion to approve these amazing donations as presented so moved second Miss Marshall you want to talk to us about just the amazing generosity of our community yes

079we're very thankful um for our community and their continued support of our schools so uh for the current request value we're at $ 23,44 127 that brings the fiscal year to date so starting in July 1st fiscal year to date total um up to $236,300 the valuation of real property for tax year 2024 so moved second and Miss Marshall will you talk to us about this too uh yeah so I just want to make sure it's clear that there are several um resolutions attached to this agent Ida so this is um a newer process within the last couple of years another change in state law that requires more work on us uh this is for where we have values uh properties commercial properties that are valued lower than the county auditor has them but then

080they have sold for a much higher amount and so this allows us to go through the board of revision process where we're asking the county auditor to make an appropriate adjustment to that value uh we work with our attorneys on this um we do only uh file these Board of revision value changes with uh commercial properties we do not do this on Residential Properties um and so this is the first part of that and then it will go to uh the board of revision the board of revision is made up with the county auditor the County Treasurer and a county commissioner a representative from the county uh commissioner and they will review these thank you any questions about this um I do have one miss Marshall can you just explain to people why when they

081look at the addresses yes on here there are some that are you know that is a great question so the the first uh resolution in particular um looks like the owner is a out of Dallas Texas uh but all of those Parcels you see were part of one cell so um not all of those addresses are actually in our school district but they're all included because it's all part of that sale um for the properties thank you that just seemed like it might be confusing it is we had the same question like wait a minute yeah okay yep Mrs leean yes Mrs Valentine yes yes Mrs Atman yes Mrs Meyer yes and next up may I have a motion to approve the amended resolution accepting the mounton rign says determined by the budget Commission in

082authorizing the necessary tax levies and certifying them to the county auditor it's not full so moved second Miss Melle will you talk to us about this too uh yes so we go through excuse me we go through this every year uh so this is we the board approved uh estimated rates in March of 2024 for tax year 24 collection in 2025 uh the budget commission uh for the county has met to go over our amounts and rates and so this is their recommendation and so this is our accepting of their adjusted um rates and amounts so you can see that they did slightly adjust from the what you approved back in March of 2024 as they have actual values for 2024 now um I should note that it includes the full voted rate except for

083um our levies that are fixed some levies so like the bond issue uh those sorts of things those have been adjusted we're not actually collecting over 70 Mills for the operating fund I just want to make sure to point that out um it's a little bit confusing so yeah it can be appreciate that any questions okay we take the vote Mrs opman yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Lan yes Mrs Meer yes and may I have a motion to improve out of state overnight field trips so moved second welcome Miss Baldwin these look really fabulous good evening there's lots of exciting opportunities for our students coming up um I do have one spring break trip and this is for Westerville centrals baseball team to travel to Florida for warmer weather during spring break for practice and

084then the other three trip requests are through uh EF Tours or our students would be visiting different countries as part of this opportunity and then no student uh days will be missed of school for any of these opportunities as well and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have yeah the motion I'm sorry yeah Ana yeah it was Ana and then thank you I'm sorry about that it's okay um any questions about these trips no question but I hope that they have a great um experience yeah okay thank you Mrs leean yes this Valentine yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs Meyer yes and may I have a motion to approve the resolution authorizing 2025 2026 membership in the Ohio High School Athletic Association so moved second and good evening again this is our yearly membership

085request for ohsaa and this will um result in US following up their bylaws as we typically do for extracurricular activities and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have any questions okay thank you thank you this is Valentine yes Mrs leean yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs Meyer yes yes and next up um 11.06 may I have a motion to approve the facility rental guide revisions effec of July 1st 2025 so moved second second good evening members of the board before you this evening are updates to the district's facility rental guidelines these updates include fee increases for the group two and group three facility rental categories and an increase in the hourly rates of the special service fees all have been revised to reflect inflation rates as this program is to remain cost neutral for

086the district the last time we adjusted these fees were in 2018 the fees before you will be effective um July 1st of 2025 it is recommended that the board approve the changes to the facility rental guidelines for July 1st 2025 I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have any questions these are pretty reasonable still so appreciate the work thank you right yep Mrs Alman yes Mrs lean yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Meer yes and next may I have um a motion to approve the 2025 2026 student fee schedule good evening members of the board hold on oh so Mo you are really eager these past couple of meetings I love it sorry go ahead so moved second okay welcome Mr good evening members of the board um I am recommending the approval of

087the 2025 26 student fee schedule I ask the board to take note of the modest increase of approximately 20% in student fees this increase aligns with the cost of living increases we've incurred in expenses since the previous increase which was actually prior to covid for consistency through our system the recommendation is to align the general instructional fee for all school buildings at $40 previously the elementary middle and high school levels each had a different fee which didn't make sense to our families who had students at different levels by aligning this fee there will be a slight increase of $10 for elementary $10 for high school and the middle school fee will remain the same we will continue to not charge a course byour fee and we've not done that for several years now we also

088increased the middle school and high school pay to participate fee and elevated the family cap 20% from $300 to $360 we maintained the incremental fee reduction schedule to encourage students to participate in multiple activities while minimizing the fee to families as a reminder we do not charge instructional fees to students who are eligible for the free lunch under the national school lunch act and charge 50% of the fee amount for students who qualify for the reduced lunch plan however because extracurricular activities are optional we do not wave or reduce those fees for qualifying students which is in large part why we instituted a family cap and diminishing fees for multi-port student athletes and I'll be happy to answer any questions you may have um so we don't love raising fees but it becomes necessary every

089few years um and so I completely understand why we need to do this I it has been several years so was it 2019 2018 something something like before I know that I do just want to mention when we raised the general fee then that was the same time that we eliminated the course fees so in some cases it wasn't an overall it wasn't an increase yeah um and specifically on the pay to participate fees um which are a larger amount so percentage increases you know it's a bigger dollar number if it's the same percentage um I would just you know as a board hope that we can um look at them more frequently so that you know we can deal with it every couple years and have a smaller percentage increase kind of Step them

090up there that's that's my ask so thank you and I and I would note that we are one of the few school districts that have what what I refer to as a diminishing fee so for example in Middle School the first sport you play is $90 the second sport is $60 and the third sport is free um not very many school districts have have that which encourages students to participate and still hold to the family cap so and I I'm sorry I I may add that there are some students that may not be able to pay to play right um but if they are to go talk to the coach potentially a lot of the athletic boosters music boosters theater boosters always find a way to help students participate and so if you're at home

091and you know your students worried about participating I would really encourage them to go talk to the coach or the band director whoever yes and we've had um wonderful support with our programs and and anytime we've had students who may have had difficulty there's been um no shortage of support to help to make sure that student can participate thank you any other all right thank you so much Mrs lean yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Meyer yes um 11.08 may I have a motion to approve an agreement with Osborne engineering for design and construction administrative services for the fy2 Hami Elementary HVAC project so moved second welcome Mr Schwartz thank you president Meyer vice president Leon members of the board superintendent h H Berg and Treasurer Marshall so I'm here in support of

092resolution approving an agreement with Osborne engineering as you said to provide design and construction Administration services for the FY fisc year 25 handby Elementary HVAC project in the amount of $19,300 it's important to note this project is in full alignment with the district's preventive maintenance and repair program so again it's not part of the master plan this is our regular annual assessment of facilities equipment and programs within the district relative to facilities uh the entire project if this contract is awarded if we go successful would be awarded uh in the second quarter of 25 and completed by August 1st of 2025 subanal completion so with that I'm happy to answer any questions any questions comments okay seeing none Miss Marshall Mrs leian yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Meyer yes and 11.09 may

093I have a motion to approve an agreement with Osborne engineering for design and construction Administration Administration services for the South High School baseball and softball irrigation system restoration project almost as hard as type as it was to read thank you trust me hold on one sorry so moved second okay thank you no problem sorry about that that's okay so again very similar to the the previous one this is for professional service contract with Osborne engineering uh specific to that irrigation system restoration project at South High School this is an alignment though with phase one of the facilities master plan so again South High School had a renovation and addition project this is just completing some work relative to that irrigation system if you will uh the entire project similar to the last one if if

094bid successfully be awarded and completed after softball and baseball season's over in other words this summer and come online by August 1st 2025 uh with that happy to answer any questions any questions okay thank you so much Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs Lan yes Mrs Meer yes and next up we have board comments who' like to kick us off I can um first I want to say congratulations to the Westerville North Community they have put together a very wonderful Black History Month show um was was just phenomenal so just congratulations to everyone who did that um and then I just wanted to thank the F community that is with us today um I just want to say that I uh really appreciate you all coming down and sharing your concerns you know it's

095not easy um to uh really just help us board members understand the impact that our e PA professionals are you know that they have in your buildings I believe and I know that they are really the backbones of our classrooms helping students with their learning but also their well-being um and so I just wanted to thank you all for sharing those examples of you know how they're impacting your buildings every single day um and I hope to visit F uh again this week so just thank you um uh just a couple of quick things I want to congratulate um Wanda on retirement right all the many years of great service in our HR department so um she will be very much missed um and um thank you for the presentation uh on school LS and

096scheduling um it's a confusing time right for a lot of kids trying to figure out what they're going to do and how to make it through that so I just really want to Second encouraging parents to be part of that process um and thank you to our counselors I think they're working I know they're working over time um at this time of year so thank you for all the support given to our students and the teachers who are guiding students on what to take my own kid comes home and tells me oh my teacher says we should take this so we really appreciate that help um very much and thank you again to fa we know how important those language services are for students and families so this type of decision you know when it

097happens would not be taken lightly um and you know I yeah we just really appreciate that work because if a child can't understand or family can't understand you can talk all day long and um you're not going to be able to support that child the way that we want to so thank you I'll just Echo what my colleagues have said as well the counselors the sheer number of kids that they are meeting with wow that's a lot so very thankful for the counselors and the work that they're doing I know my own kids came home with their scheduled choices I guess if you can say that for eth grade they're super stoked for Extreme Engineering um so thank you to the counselors and thank you to the fa uh staff who and Educators who came

098out today to support um one of their own we appreciate that well I Echo everything that was said um so I really appreciate you coming out tonight and yeah um I am thankful for the counselors that are helping my children as well as many others um I did want to just State something I want to remind the community I've seen a lot of comments about we should be audited and I want to remind us that we're audited every year by the state in the past 11 years we have gotten awards for a clean audit and I'm pretty sure we'll be getting one again this year um and that's thanks to our wonderful um Treasury Department right they do a fabulous job it's it's a districtwide effort for I assure you um and it's 12 years

099actually we've this will be year 13 I'm so sorry so and I have invited auditor Faber to join us on March 17th I'm hoping he can make it um but we do expect to receive a clean audit award again this year so they waiting for them to release our audit though yeah thank you so this constant conversation about us not needing to be outside audited we are every year um and the other thing that I would like to note is that we heard tonight about $8 million worth of savings and when are we going to start talking about supporting kids that's what we do every day but I want to remind people out there that that $8 million that we cut does impact students because those are people those are those are actual positions that

100touch students every day and so we are doing our best up here to make sure that one our general assembly is actually listening to us and really understanding the needs of public education and we're trying our best to defend public education here and two to make sure that we are fully funded right so we can continue to offer great Services amazing opportunities that I wish I had when I went to school here in Westerville and I had a great education so I just want want to remind the community of those couple of things so just please join us we really could use your voice voice um they are taking public testimony down at the state house if you don't have time to get down there you can submit written testimony call your legislators um or

101just reach out to us and we'll help you get involved so that's all I have I just want to thank you can I um just one thing Miss Marshall can you tell us um if uh private schools that receive voucher funds and non-public Charters that receive vouchers have to be audited they are not audited thank you thank you John very important distinction I'll add one more to yours um there is public testimony being accepted tomorrow and then potentially on the 26th they will also be doing public testimony for the um education committee uh the following week so right 4th Yeah March the 4th March 4th yes March 4th and they will do the Wednesday the 26th the aid for um representative Fowler author just uh yeah so there are a couple of opportunities and again

102for for all of these you don't have to go in person you can submit um virtually yep thank you so much I I would just like to mention if you did want to submit testimony you have to have your your testimony submitted 24 hours in advance of when you would testify if you were to go down and testify sorry and if you want to sign up on the legislator's website to track these committees or the bill they make it really simple now it didn't used to be so simple but they do make it pretty simple now um so with that I just really thank you all for coming tonight um we are going to I'm going to ask for a motion to enter into an executive session for the purposes of discussing the employment and

103compensation of public employees and to consider the appointment of a public official so moved second you take the vote Mrs Alman yes Mrs Valentine yes Mrs lean yes Mrs Meyer yes you're more than welcome to stay but I imagine you we don't know when we'll be back so27 we are back and may I have a motion to adjourn so moved second Mrs Valentine yes Mrs Alman yes Mrs leean yes Mrs Meyer yes 15