001yeah everyone okay down there ready to go are you laughing at me are you ready welcome to this evening's meeting of the Westerville City Schools Board of Education we're delighted to have all of you this evening uh the agenda will be displayed on the screens in the front of the room there will be two opportunities this evening to address the board the first being agenda item 7.1 the first set of public comments is relative to agenda items 8.1 through 12.5 please State the agenda items you are referencing at the beginning of your comments the second opportunity is agenda 13.1 there's a sign up sheet located on the table in the back of the room and each speaker will have five minutes to address the board and a timer will be shown on the screen and
002with that Miss Marshall will you please call the roll Mr Bell here Mrs Meyer here Dr NASA breaker here Mrs Altman here Mrs Davidson here will you please join us in the Pledge of Allegiance of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible in Liberty and Justice girl foreign okay up first on our agenda we're going to head into executive session um may I have a motion to enter executive session for the purpose of preparing conducting or reviewing negotiations with employees regarding regarding their compensation or other terms and conditions of their employment so moved second Mr Bell yes Mrs Meyer yes Dr Master Baker yes Mrs Altman yes Mrs Davidson yes foreign okay we are back from executive session and we're moving along to District
003highlights and recognitions we do not have any this evening which takes us to reports the superintendent's report we have 5.1 Food Service update and 5.2 Transportation update and Dr Kellogg's going to talk to us thank you president Davidson members of the board quickest superintendents update you're ever going to get right so um annually we're required to inform the board that we're in compliance with nutritional standards that outline for us we typically do that at the start of the year we missed it this year so there you go we are doing that still so we're that's the report the second half of it just uh a piece that I think the board be interested in the satellite bistros at Central and North are up and running they're staffed and it's going well and the one at
004South that's part of the renovation of the media center I was just waiting on inspection and that one will be going as well too so that's been a several years pre-covered project getting up and running and the students at superintendents advisory will stop asking me when that's going to happen now because it's up and running so that's all I have for you this evening if there's any questions happy to take them or refer them to Kerry Dennis who knows more about food service than I do oh any questions or comments okay thank you very much uh 6.1 approved the minutes of the Board of Education I'm sorry oh do you oh [Music] sorry Dorne thank you president Davidson members of the board Dr Kellogg and Miss Marshall I am just going to um report out
005quickly this evening about our transportation model for next year and so I've got a couple of slides to show you but if you recall last year during the school year we made a modification to our model to try and become a little bit more efficient and our being able to to bring kids to and from school without impacting our teaching and learning as much as we had been based on a driver shortage and so as an example of today we had Heritage Middle School on remote or I'm sorry on a two-hour early release if this had been last year's model we would have put a secondary building in remote today in remote learning and also delayed in elementary so we did find some efficiencies but we've had a chance to come back and look and
006see if we can make any more changes um but one of the things that we said that we would do last year when we made this announcement was that we would re-engage the community because there was still conversation about changing the high school start time maybe pushing it back further and I think also since we moved to this model this year we've gotten a lot of feedback about the 4 pm end time for the elementary tier two so a couple of things for us to talk about there just so that we're all on the same page about the national driver shortage and how that affects Westerville City Schools um just know that our team Works tirelessly to try and Recruit new drivers we've hired 14 drivers this year and so when you take a look
007at that and combine that with um 35 drivers in our first that are in their first five years of experience you start to see that we are constantly hiring new people so we've been able to maintain that if we hadn't been able to maintain that hiring average we would really be struggling right now but please note that we have 80 drivers more than 80 drivers with 10 or less years of experience so hopefully we'll be able to retain these folks for for their entire career and make us really happy we did put a committee together that committee had Parents teachers building administrators District administrators transportation department executive leadership and board members serving as observers to the Committees not participants the committee's charges were to take a look at the community's preference of the tears high
008school middle school and Elementary School tiering and the tolerance for times of those tiers based on the order we had three meetings and we we surveyed our stakeholders we surveyed High School parents Middle School parents Elementary School parents and all of our staff so now this is very hard to read so um hopefully it's easier to see on your screen but what you'll notice in that top graphic this is our elementary school parents responses the top two sectors are highlighted those are the high school is the preferred first tier preference by our elementary school parents it's interesting to note though that the second largest sector in that graph that blue sector actually as an elementary as a first tier so there are some folks out there who would like to see us have elementary school
009as our first tier um but the majority prefer of the elementary school parents preferred to leave it as high school is first for our Middle School Parent respondents just over half of the Middle School parents indicated that high school should remain as the first tier but one thing I'm trying to highlight up there with those sectors being highlighted that those two largest sectors identify that Middle School remain in the middle of the three tiers so both that first graphic and then the lower graphic where we highlighted the all three of those time frames are related to Middle School falling in the middle of the two tiers or three tiers the majority of high school respondents also thought that high school should remain the first tier is shown in the top graphic the second graphic though
010also supports that with the vast majority of high school parents thinking that high school should start before 8 A.M of the respondents when you take a look at our staff survey responses the staff is actually split pretty closely between high school first and Elementary School first um I find that very interesting but what they were had in common is that Middle School be in the middle so so we took those responses we've had some had some really good discussion um we after the second meeting thought that maybe we were not going to make any changes at all and then some committee members spoke up and asked us to to review it one more time and take a look at elementary school as to what that might look like as the first tier um and so
011we went back for a third meeting and we actually discussed these three concepts so the first concept on the top of the screen is just what our current model is the concept in the middle of the screen in the middle of that table is what it would look like if Elementary School were the first tier so when you take into account all of the factors in the comments um Elementary is a first-tier sounds pretty good to a lot of people but with 8 am as a start time our high school currents start time 7 25 wasn't really a lot of tolerance to high Elementary School up earlier than 8 A.M as you can see back on the elementary school slide so but with Elementary starting at 8 AM that put our Middle School tier in
012this particular model whether it's middle or High School ending after four that did not appear to be desirable and so where we settled in this is that the high school tier remaining the same the Middle School tier being the next level tier in the elementary school tier still being the third tier but a couple of different things that we've pulled out of here one thing to note is that um we have uh we we plan to pull the magnet students the Hamby and Emerson students not just magnet but the the gifted program as well and move them up to an 8 AM start time so we are effectively still going to have four tiers but instead of the fourth tier ending at four this chair is going to start at 8 and end at 2
01330. by doing that we are able to dedicate geographical resources as opposed to our magnet programs do not have attendance boundaries so when we plan for transportation we plan them by geographical boundaries you know what makes sense which students are in the programs this year and how will we route to those we do the same thing with our Saint Paul students and so we are able to dedicate more resources to those two groups if we take them at the same time and they ride buses together so some of you may remember I did not actually remember Mr Snyder reminded me earlier today that we did do this with our Central College Christian Academy students a while back so this is not the first time that we've done this but we are going to and I'm
014going to summarize here so our high school tier no changes 725 to 205. our magnet tier then would be moving them up to an 8 AM start time with a 220 I think that yeah 225 um finish time our Middle School tier still stays in the middle but we've adjusted the middle school time just a little bit so it's 8 15 to 250. and then our elementary school that that large group of elementary schools excluding Emerson and Hamby we move them back into a single grouping and with an end time I think the end times the important piece here of 340 rather than 4 pm so we feel like this is going to be it's a more efficient model in terms of the number of resources we have on the road at any given time
015right now which is just over 90 for this year this will take us down to 88. so we should find more efficiencies that way but I think that this is um this is the best model that represents the the data and the comments that we received one other thing to highlight the preschool we are able to also end our preschool day a little bit earlier I'm going to say that these are tentative dates because one of the things that we have to work out right now are the with the expansion of our preschool program tentative times I think is is that what is what's the order of the just delivering students to either the Early Learning Center or The Point View where we just have to work through that a little bit so very minor
016adjustments there but this is effectively what the preschool schedule will look like okay questions yes I do um and I've shared some of my thoughts with you previously and I'm going to share them again first off I do want to couch this and I understand this is an administrative decision and I'm just sharing my thoughts with you from where I sit I am concerned about separating the magnet schools so extensively from the other elementary schools my concerns and I don't have a solution but my concerns are around several several Arenas one is with an 8 AM start time as we look at our youngest children and the relatively small number of those students when you spread them across the district we are talking about our youngest children being out waiting for the bus Before Dawn
017fully arises you know when we think about Transportation times and so forth in the winter it's it's still dark when a lot of them will be getting on the bus that's one that worries me quite a bit another one kind of relates to that in that whole idea of separating our magnet kids more extensively from the other elementary kids with an 8 AM start time and a 2 30 dismissal time it removes the kids more from the structures of child care that exist within a number of neighborhoods so you know over the years I've known a lot of magnet parents who partner with other Elementary parents within their neighborhoods so the kids will you know stay with friends in the neighborhood in the morning or after school or whatever this time frame makes that much
018less likely to occur which to me is a problem in that informal Child Care structure um and that same regard as regards child care I realize that starting you know 9 30 in the morning isn't optimal for people as they had for work in the morning but as I weigh that against the middle of the afternoon dismissal at 2 30 I worry about that child care approach as well particularly if we have effectively obviated the informal Child Care within the neighborhoods it's not as likely that people coming in from the magnet program an hour before their age peers will find those places to stay in the neighborhood with the other families so that that concerns me as well um I'm also concerned about and this may be a very small concern of the greater greater
019picture the idea of our some of our youngest students sharing bus with middle schoolers on a regular basis I'm not saying that Saint Paul kids have behavior problems I'm not saying that at all but they're adolescents and there there's a difference there we talk about Central College Christian Academy that is ak-5 entity not eighth up to 8th grade entity so there's a there's a difference in maturation there so I have some concerns about that and then a specific question other than just telling you what I don't like are we going to be doing transfers you're talking about the geographic boundaries within this yes so how are those transfers going to work so in other words are we going to be taking kids to middle schools for transfers to other buses so our again our little
020ones you know first second third grade you know the the younger ones will be making those transfers at the middle schools at the same time all of our middle schoolers are rolling in so yes there will be transfers with this program or this model I should say um I would say from our transportation department folks that's the one thing that they would prefer not to have right so they in fact were so excited two years ago when we were able to eliminate the transfers and then now we see ourselves and has nothing to do with transfers but in this this issue with our model and being able to try and reduce our effects on school day schedule changes so it will work with the meeting at a middle school the transfer time will take place
021probably more than 30 minutes though before middle school starts we don't anticipate that traffic being across over traffic so the middle school is going to start at 8 15. the transfer is probably going to be taking place in the 730 to 735 range so I don't see that being um in other words I'm a little more optimistic about that maybe than the other component to this is transfers you get really concerned with small children our concerns were alleviated a little bit knowing that we won't have kindergarteners in our transfers anymore but we did do transfers for several years and kindergarten students were our main concern so if kindergartners aren't part of it then you know you're talking about first graders right because it's not like the concern is going to go away it's just going
022to but we do feel more comfortable with it but yeah in the end we would love to have sufficient number of drivers not to be able to do any of this and just take kids from home school and I understand that we are between that proverbial rocket hard place but I do have a lot of concerns particularly about our younger students for the reasons that I iterated and you know you've underscored that when we talk about the transfers taking place between 7 30 and 7 45 that just reaffirms the idea that we're going to have a lot of little want not a lot we're going to have some groups of little ones catching the bus Before Dawn and they'll be on their own um so that's I am I'm very concerned um I think this
023is a big change for our existing night and gifted families I'm not sure that they're um that they were aware that they were in the spotlight for this um so I I'm concerned I know that changes have to occur I know you're working really hard for the greater good of the district but these concerns weigh pretty heavily on me when I'm thinking of six seven and eight-year-old children thanks thank you um I'm just curious the in thinking of um for the presentation and I'm curious when will the parents be notified about this change so that they can you know line up child care and get their days all in order our communication would start relatively soon I think we've got a couple of different things that we've got going on out here right we've got
024um Magna Lottery coming up I mean all of these things need to be part of a parent's decision so it will be relatively soon our first step though was notifying you and so um I would assume that our goal would have to be to have all of this information out mid-January okay I mean that but and then with follow-up because mid-January is an awful early time when next August is when the effect is going to roll in too so we've got we've got both of those time constraints we want to have people with the best information possible to make decisions and we also want to make sure that they're paying closer attention to this because the impact is so far away from right now I mean the impact is eight months from now sure well
025it definitely gives them more time to line up child care and to make those arrangements so if I had a young child I would appreciate that sooner rather than later um I know you said preschool is tentative I'm wondering when do you think and that is pretty close when do you think parents will know for sure what those times are um well right now as we're making this switch over winter break we're looking at a model where we are we've we've identified the students that are moving the way that we identify the students that we'll attend to two different buildings next year is going to be different because we're going to have time to establish that so if we are able to establish it in such a way where there's separate resources from each other
026than the time you've seen the times but if we have to have a drop off in building a and then then drop off at Building B then one of them is going to be five to seven minutes later sorry thank you um thank you for this um I understand there are no uh easy answers uh to this situation um with the increased efficiencies with this model a couple of things how tight are we with the element with the elementary with all of the elementary buildings going back on the same schedule um in other words what I'm what I'm thinking in my head is are we so tight on drivers and Personnel that if we're missing one driver it's going to have the kind of a ripple effect where now several buildings will wind up essentially
027with uh a later delivery time for students it's a hard articulate a hard scenario to respond to specifically because we have a hundred routes right and if depending upon which let's just say Five drivers are out that changes our need and our reaction right how do we respond to those specific needs what I can tell you is this right now at our highest impact of resources on the road at one time there's 93 Vehicles 93 buses on the road at one time with the magnet students moving to a different time frame that changes to 88 it changes when we have that maximum capacity on the road it changes who we have it with but it reduces the maximum capacity okay um another way of asking asking this let me try it again um what I'm
028trying to make sure we don't do is change the time so now we got everybody back on the same time but what winds up happening in reality is due to Staffing shortages we essentially wind up still with a two-tier system where half of them are going to wind up getting home as if they were getting out at four anyway so in general this is an in general response again because it depends on who's out by not changing the order of the tiers High School Middle School elementary school when we do have issues I think we'll see still the effect more on the secondary but yes we will have more vehicles on the road during our elementary school tier which does create some challenges but it's the same challenges that we've always faced with double backs
029okay um I'm probably going to ask the same question as Jen so have we looked into why programs being hosted in one of our magnet schools you know that's a why program decision and I think they base those decisions on number of participants and so um we would love to have them it's I think that would have to do with whether or not parents wanted to participate so right now they are participating at essentially I think their home school we do some shuttling but it's um certainly doable from our perspective from the Y program I can reach out to Laura Miller and ask her about it um but I think you know if they thought that that was a viable Avenue I don't want to speak for them but I think if they thought it
030was viable Avenue I don't know why we wouldn't consider it could you do that for us absolutely okay um second thing we're there uh were there Magnet or gifted parents on the Committees do you know magnet principles magnet teachers I actually cannot recall if there was a magnet parent or not you share the same concerns that's Nancy's what's that did they share the same concerns that Nancy had I think that the concern about um children being picked up what time they'd be their bus would arrive in the morning for when they talked about elementary that was one of the things that they did talk about and that's why I think there was kind of that in you know walking around the room not taking part of any individual conversation but sort of listening to them
031why you know because we could have ended the end of the day earlier if we would have pushed that start time up earlier than eight for elementary school which I don't think anybody and I think that was probably one of the factors for that So currently how many St Paul routes do we have 12. 12. so would 2014 magnet 14 okay so would 12 buses then be doing transfers I mean I know it would actually increase our number of resources to probably 20. because they're available at that time and what would also help us do is maybe shorten in some cases the actual ride time because we're not going so far to pick up so many kids when we could put more kids and plus kids and more resources right to shorten the time period
032but yes the transfer would still be a component to that that's it for now for me thank you um I did I was one of The Observers at the at the high school table for this so thank you for um letting me be part of that at least to listen to the conversation and I just a couple things because my colleagues have hit on lots of pieces it was a ton of work and I would say if I had to summarize um the feeling in the room it was like this is really hard and you end up feeling backed into you know making a recommendation that I think a lot of people are like well it's not my ideal but this is really hard it's a push and pull between all these different factors so
033I appreciate everybody who served on those because they really dug in and weighed all the the many factors and try to think about you know their position for their level that they were representing but also listening to others too so just really appreciate everybody who served on that because it's not easy to come to a recommendation so I mean I think I heard a lot of the same concerns you know that board members have expressed here um I would I do want to just reiterate reaching out to the why because um the situation now will be that Hamby and Emerson families won't have YWCA Aftercare as an option it literally won't be an option so that is you know something that we need to help try to generate I think for them and um I
034think for now the other thing I'll just say is I would love it if we could um use a different phrase I heard you sort of say it yourself magnet tier might imply to some people that somehow the gift itself contained programs right that is it handy is not included in this but they are so if we just talk about the building names maybe that might be clearer to folks absolutely um it is challenging yeah it is so and I just want to thank our transportation folks I know that during this too you know sort of thinking through what would this mean and developing different uh scenarios it was a lot of work so I see Randy in the back thank you for all the work that you and your team put into just generating
035options um and helping people understand what that might mean so again there's no perfect solution I think those are my main questions and stuff for now thanks thank you okay we're going to really move on this time so uh 6.1 approve the minutes of the Board of Education meeting held on Monday November 21st 2022 as presented may I have a motion so moved second any questions or comments here hearing none Mr Bell yes Dr Nestor Baker yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Altman yes Mrs Davidson yes we do not have any public comments so far this evening 8.1 a resolution to approve the purchases in accordance with orc 5705.41 and board policy 6320 may I have a motion so moved second and whenever you're ready Miss Marshall um thank you president Davidson members of the board
036so this is what we call then and now purchase orders where we have a purchase order that was opened after an invoice date um in this case this is for a project for South phase six and it was just a matter of a timing issue budget was available for this purchase so I recommend that you approve it so that we can pay it any questions or comments hearing none Mrs Altman yes Dr nestbreaker yes Mr Bell yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Davidson yes 8.2 resolution to reinstate osbo four five seven Deferred Compensation Plan may have a motion so moved second thank you again so this is an update actually from the cares act we're a little bit behind with that so we're cleaning up some language in the plan uh we are also adding some
037definitions for the cares act and for the eligible designated beneficiary and we are increasing or decreasing the age for the minimum distribution from 70 to 70 and a half which is under the secures act change um those are all of the changes for the that you for the plan that you have in front of you any questions or comments hearing none Mr Beau yes Mrs Meyer yes Dr Nestor Baker yes Mrs Altman yes Mrs Stapleton yes moving on to the Personnel consent agenda I'm going to pull two items uh 9.8 which is one time pays my daughter is on here for um hosting a volleyball camp this summer and then 9.16 same daughter is back on here she is a tournament worker at South so I will not be voting on those but may I
038have a motion for 9.1 through 9.15 excluding 9.16 and 9.8 so moved second good evening president Davidson members of the board Dr Kellogg and Miss Marshall the items in tonight's Personnel consent agenda represent regular action items in regards to resignations employment and contract status changes however there are several items to be noted on tonight's agenda we have uh two moas with wesa both for language that was previously agreed upon and inadvertently admitted from the collective bargaining agreement an mou with WEA to raise the athletic event assistant rate to meet the state's increase to the minimum wage rate that will be effective in January and then the July resignation of Mr Jeff Larose Who currently serves as a director of facilities Mr Larose has been instrumental in so many inspired and Innovative instructional spaces throughout our
039district but most recently Point View and Amherst Renovations along with the ongoing renovation of Westerville South High School the opening of the new beautiful Minerva France elementary school and in the fall the planned opening of Minerva Park Middle School just to point out a few we'd like to thank the Mr Larose for his creativity and wishing well we have two retirements this evening so please join me in congratulating Miss Christina raslowic retiring from Westworld South with 20 years of service and Carrie Tucker retiring from Robert Frost with 27 years of service we want to wish them uh well also for a very long enjoyable retirement after so many years of dedicated service to our students and community of special interests the board has for its consideration the collective bargaining agreement with a local OPC one
040OC 719 excuse me um that was ratified by their members on November 30th I would be happy to answer any questions that you have fun hearing none Dr nestabaker yes Mrs Meyer yes Mr Bell yes Mrs ottman yes Mrs Davidson yes now I have a motion for the Personnel consent agenda 9.8 in 9.16 so moved second any questions or comments here hearing none Mrs Meyer yes Mr Bell yes Dr Nestor Baker yes Mrs Altman yes I am Mrs Davidson I'll abstain thank you moving on to Old business uh would it be okay if I did all these as one so 10.1 through 10.3 may have a motion for policy 511 policy 6700 and policy so moved second any questions or concerns here hearing none Mr Bell yes Mrs Altman yes Mrs Meyer yes Dr nasserbreaker
041yes Mrs Davidson yes new business 11.1 first reading policy 8600 and Mr Randy Snyder is with us tonight welcome Randy good evening everyone president Davidson vice president Altman members of the board Dr Kellogg and Miss Marshall before you this evening is policy 8600 Transportation which is recommended for review and or updates according to current board policy as well as the Neola recommendations and needed language housekeeping to align this policy with updates to the Ohio Administrative codes and Ohio Revised codes interesting point and a little bit of the spirit of Mr Reeves this policy was originally adopted in December of 2009 and a number of our buses this year are actually scheduled for retirement that have been in service since this policy first okay maybe not um so it was originally adopted in December of 2009
042most recently was revised and adopted in November of 2021 and it's something to call out that westerville's Transportation policies and our administrative guidelines continue to exceed the state minimum requirements that are set before us by the state of Ohio therefore we recommend that the Board of Education approve policy 8600 as revised and presented two short questions okay I'm not going to reiterate Magnet School concerns um as you look at this policy and actually this is not a question it's going forward piece please going forward let's do what we can to put a number of the guideline pieces that exist within this policy into administrative guidelines rather than policy language it's you know it's kind of a function of Neola they like to load up the policy with what a really administrative guidelines so as we
043go forward hopefully not quite as long until we revise this policy let's keep in mind that administrative guidelines are just that and that we should try and put pieces in there where we can second thing is a question in the policy we talk about um not making any transportation changes for private school and Charter Schools mid-year but as I was thinking about history and I actually was talking around about this before the meeting there have been times when we have made changes mid-year with our Public School population here in Westerville City Schools so why is it that we now will be holding a different approach and actually are we still um is it still permissible within the state to make changes mid-year for public schools and if so are we holding public schools and private
044charter schools to a different standard changes to the parameters in which Transportation are set up once the school year begins and I'll use high school transportation as an example if a school district begins a school year with high school transportation being provided the district legally is not allowed to make any changes to that service parameter across the entire operation for both public and non-public school students going one step further into that if we were to start the school year with quarter mile bus stops according to a District's policy we would not be able to adjust that to a half a mile bus stop parameter and again it's about the service parameters that we start the school year with across all the operation across the district whether public for Westerville or non-public schools privates Etc we
045are not allowed to change the parameter of those service levels once the school year begins specifically reduction of service levels thank you that's very helpful I appreciate that thank you anybody else hearing none thank you thank you okay up next 11.2 first reading policy 5335 care of students with chronic health conditions and Tammy and Rachel join us welcome ladies hi good evening president Davidson members of the board Dr Kellogg Mrs Marshall we are presenting two policies these are back to back so we'll cover both of them while we're here um yes Rachel Pinto District nurse is here she is going to better answer all of your questions on these I can give it a shot but this is going to be your person so let's start with policy 5335 the care of students with chronic
046health conditions the updates here are going to be related to the care and management of the conditions as well as the training component you'll see some adjustments there so we would you know recommend approving these updates to just overall increase the the care and the training component and happy to have myself or Rachel answer any questions thank you um I was just curious as to what do we do now in terms of how we care for our students with diabetes do you you want me to answer that now or that is the next one oh my apologies it's okay I mean it does fall under this one a little bit but I can wait okay um I actually had the same question about allergies now what are we doing now to train staff and will
047that look different regarding food allergies and so on yeah we have um we ran a few numbers before this we have uh just over 2 000 allergies at our attention trending forward on that so food is a large majority of that but I'll let Rachel talk a little bit about what those action plans look like and I can talk more about them great thanks what's your question about current training yeah so just about what are we doing now and then will that look different you know or how will that look different moving forward um so our train it really doesn't look a lot different it's just spelled out more clearly um but currently we um all staff will do the Public Works training to some extent that includes some of those medical pieces um and
048then the class the staff members that volunteered to be trained um receive more extensive training so for field trips um when they're accompanied by just teachers or other staff members um then they receive training with the nurses to cover those medical diagnoses if they have something special in their classroom that they need to just know what to do with they do that but all the training pieces are the same the nurses do the training they're the only ones that can teach medical pieces we train our health aides that are in the clinics specific to those clinic and then um for allergies it's for each child that has a diagnosis that we're aware of they get special training on their health care plans that are created and they also receive generalized training for um children that
049don't have medication for our stock up enough for pens epinephrine pens um and they they already receive everything that's already in that policy update it's just more spelled out spelled out clearly okay okay thank you so I'm going to back up here a second did I hear you say they have to volunteer to be trained for oh god um so a couple ways we have our obviously our nurses in health aids clinic staff well trained okay there's the the good news um from there which what we have improved this year is every building principle and assistant principal are fully trained to back up their Clinic that hasn't always been um standard practice for lots and lots of reasons so it would fall to other staff members who would yes volunteer to be trained meaning your
050front office support staff that is something that they have to volunteer to do same with teachers and other staff who would go on field trips lots of places that we go otherwise it would fall to Clinic staff Administration to accompany those pieces so we have Clinic backup plans for every building some have two or three people backed up other people have a lot more a lot less but it is something that you can only require Administration to complete so if you're going on a field trip and a child has allergy to bee stings and needs EpiPen would that teacher be trained so field trips we ask for a one to two week window at least if not more that way the clinic can run it run the allergies run all the medical pieces then we
051would look at who's going on the field trip if it's teachers aides Etc and offer them to be trained on the medical conditions going on that field trip they do have the right to say no thank you I don't like that I really like this Burns me up a little bit so so in certain cases when a lot of people do volunteer um but that isn't always the case so there are times if we know enough in advance or if it's a different medical condition that requires a lot more care then we do our best to sub that out and send the health aide or the nurse on those Trips Again we know where we are with Subs so it's not always easy to do so I know I've gone on the record saying before
052I hate that epipens are kept in the nurses area when they really can't get to a kid in time just kind of want to say that one more time and I would ask and hope that all of our staff get trained if there is a child in need I would just hope they would do that so I'm gonna put my feelings out there I do have one follow-up then after that which is um is that also that training available to cafeteria recess AIDS and there is a minimum training um you know there's kind of different layers so every staff member would go through the public school works of the basics behind allergies um so they would get that level of training and then again the school nurse usually takes it to another layer um of
053different pieces and then from there volunteers can go through more Hands-On training you know specifically which is going to be the best you can do and whatever situation you're in to have that Hands-On training with your school nurse I'm assuming I'm sorry I'm assuming then that if the school nurse or the health aide isn't available that at least somebody else in the building is able to get there quickly because it is just seconds to be able to react to something like that it's very concerning yeah so we've really put a lot of time into the backup Clinic plans so you would have an administrator in the building that would have that next backup tier if there's nobody else that is trained that varies but each building knows their plan and no like the school nurse
054and the principal know hey here are people in our building if this nurse isn't there if the health aide's not there if the principal's not you know there would be kind of this ranking very clear plan of who where when would be ready for those situations I have one more question so what happens if there's a substitute and what are they notified if a child has some sort of medical condition just to be aware of signs I'm a teacher but like a substitute teacher correct yes they would have I mean just like any other roster I would sure hope those subplans have everything that you need to know about gotcha yes okay so it's in writing okay is I'm sorry is there a reason why we don't require everyone to kind of go through that
055training [Music] um I am unsure if Dr Kellogg wants to answer this question probably a conversation with our Association members and their leadership it is outside the scope of a normal teacher's responsibility take on nursing responsibilities um I hear where you're coming from and understand that and but there are limitations to what we can require certain employee groups to do I think um and Tammy alluded to it I think the offer is always made available and I know our staff are just as concerned as the board is in terms of student safety so I would generally believe that if you have a child in your classroom with an allergy that's going to need response depending on what intervention is needed because there's different different intervention needs for different allergies right so the Comfort level that
056person has in terms of being trained to deliver medical support for that student may be dependent upon that and then having the backup pieces I think this is where Tammy's call to bring people forward like Rachel on her side this year this is new post covid as we explore more and more about student health and wellness and how we can respond to that better and have more stronger plans in place to protect our children that's what you're starting to see evolve as they talk about the training the plans those things that happen so I know our staff they are generally um want to support our kids I think the limitation is going to be in terms of what medical intervention a particular child will need and then keep in mind that some of our more
057medically fragile children need a higher degree of medical intervention are going to be protected under idea and 504 plans and so support around that is going to be elevated around those specific plans as well so we continue to want to be better in this space like I said I know a lot of our staff participate in the training there's basic training at the fault that they're all required to do it's the medical intervention piece and how far can we push them and ask them or require them to do training that is outside the scope of their normal responsibilities so I think we're fortunate that we have good people who want to do the right things and protect our kids it will never be perfect you excited it we can train the teacher this is substitute
058in the classroom on that given day and their response may be different so um it will it will never be perfect given the resources we have but it can always be better and we'll continue that effort so and I appreciate I know Rachel's brought a lot of that thinking to the table and educating Tammy as Tammy will tell you and we're learning a lot and I think improving our our health services to our clinics and our staff as they pointed out all administrators now are required to have the training um and so we continue to put that piece forward and I think that is a big growth area for us and we have a lot of Administrators who have never been met trained um right but even today we're talking a principle through you know
059a diabetic situation and insulin and dosing and I mean it it's it is a lot um but you know and there is some level of discomfort there but to be able to go through it and rep through it because you just never know what you're going to be up against and we have we have a lot of needs that are growing so just trying to think through the thoughtful pieces and start with our Administration and continue to work and build from there thank you very much I know you have one more but I I appreciate that okay let me move on yeah so the next one very similar just very specific it's policy 5336 care of students with diabetes so you're going to see um updates on this one with heavy additions and adjustments in
060the training requirement for staff area so similar to the last one but a lot more dense in that area again we're going to require or recommend approving these updates and can take specific questions on the Diabetic Care yeah thank you um I am curious as to what do we do now I mean there are seconds as somebody that has a diabetic in my family um to care So currently when we have our diabetics whether they're new or previously known the nurse does all the training again so once we get doctor's orders we do specific Hands-On training with the health aide that's in the clinic and everyone is trained to every specific diabetic that's going to be caring for them because they're all very different so we also meet then with the teacher so they're comfortable
061with what information they need to know to keep them safe in their class um and then also with the administrators like we talked about um and then also in the office staff that's willing to back up the clinic um so for our diabetics we try um to make sure that everyone knows what signs and symptoms they're looking for what to do when some of our kids have pumps beeping what they're looking for when they're not feeling well when to call for help and then particularly with our low blood sugars what we need to do because that's a true emergency um and then uh layers of training just like before then we try to get at least at least two people three people in the building that are trained to help that child with blood sugars
062injections whatever wherever they're at developmentally and what they need um so I think that's pretty much it and again in the updates with policy again it's a lot of just spelling it out um we have lots of checklists that we go through um and we keep meeting with people until they're comfortable and even then we're talking daily with any of our health aides that have diabetics nurses are talking with them a lot so so then is it a similar in similar fashion like the nurse the health aide the administrators I'm sure the teachers then are told each specific student and how what if they're hypo or hyper and what to look for and have a plan for that in addition we would like our diabetics to spend as much time in the classroom um so
063the teacher receiving that kind of education is helpful as well when it can affect their learning just with the variances in their blood sugars um but also if we can if they're they're comfortable treating the classroom or right outside the classroom and we can say get older especially they're more independent and they can do things and they don't miss as much class so teachers can be a key player in that too in the policy we are using the term treating practitioner and I'm wondering if there is a definition of treating practitioner and if that treating practitioner definition should be included I believe they change it from physician to treating practitioner because now we have prescribing nurse practitioners and Physicians assistants yeah I figured that was why yeah but my mind went to who else might
064um might say they're a treating practitioner and should we have a requirement that a treating practitioner be a physician a nurse assistant you know that kind of thing so that it is spelled out a little more clearly what is acceptable medical help and diagnoses so that was one thing that jumped out at me the other was what basically just dovetailing what was talked about in the prior policy um Tammy you're right this is a growth area for us as regards training that's that's very clear I think in the discussion tonight I fully understand that um requiring people to be trained as outside of what we can do for most of our employee groups but as I'm thinking about our buildings and the um potential that we will be in situations where the administrator and the
065clinic staff are unavailable in the timely enough fashion I am concerned about how we might go about in the future having more individuals trained required to be trained for instance as we look at those positions in buildings that are Beyond classroom positions so that there is a broader coverage of our buildings and our classrooms I realize we can't do that today but I would hope that we can work toward that that's um that's a significant concern because of the trajectory we're seeing on student numbers who have health issues that require care that even you know a decade ago we weren't seeing in the numbers that we see now so that's that's an issue for me as well I'm trying to think if there's anything else you didn't address I don't think so I appreciate all
066this and I will give my same same Spiel that I always give there's a lot in here that seems to me to be administrative guideline and it seems to me that we ought to be looking at streamlining our policies and placing information and guidelines rather than heavily front loading it into policy language so just keeping that in mind going forward too so right now um based off of what you know um do we have do you think we have adequate coverage of trained staff and Personnel in each of our buildings be honest so this is a new area for me right so as I'm learning a lot about our clinics a lot about our acuity I am blown away at our need so you know to a lot of comments tonight I don't have a
067medically fragile child in this District so I've never had to pay attention to stuff like this right we're very upfront with our parents right if you've got a new diabetic to your point of when these people are out what do I do we make sure the parent knows right because that's first and foremost we want to be transparent about the care that we have or don't have you know when there's an uncovered Clinic I lose a lot of sleep right as does you know Rachel and a lot of other people so I think there are a lot of different approaches that we really need to consider to make our clinics stronger and the care for our kids better um so just like most positions we are constantly scrambling to make sure our clinics are covered
068but even when they're covered um is it adequate depends on the building depends on the need depends on all those pieces right so we just need a better model because it's not like you can just have anybody in the building cover that space especially depending on the need so I think our job and our charge is to try and bring forward some better ideas and we have been looking at those options to present to say is this a better way we can look at things in a 10-year focused manner so that it does flow in a more thoughtful manner the procedures the protocols and the safety make a lot more sense as far as what does it look like forward just not right now does that answer your question enough it does because um I
069connected with with what you just shared you don't have a medically a child that has a medical need in the district well I'm the same way and so hearing you know that 2000 of our students has some kind of a medical need or issue that to me that's a big number and so I don't have a feel for you know how we're doing how well we're doing or so it's helping me put the pieces to the puzzle together um but I but I would appreciate if going forward if we look at uh what are some uh better models of providing care I think that's that would help us greatly I I agree and just to clear up the numbers you know the 2000 are only our allergies oh wow okay so there's you know diabetics
070is a different number um just day-to-day medication management you know things we have doctor's orders for let alone slc's that have incredible medical needs you know that's just a whole nother tier um and I also think awareness is it's the first step in arriving at making the situation better um per because perhaps we have more staff members that would be willing to be trained but like me they had no idea how great the need actually is um so having those kinds of conversations at the building level I think could help us also so I wish I would have said instead of be honest trust us and give us the information so we can make better decisions so I apologize for that comment but please there's so much we don't know um I really appreciate all
071this information and it really does help as we plan to move forward um really so thank you um I I do have just one specific and I don't follow up I guess question or maybe I guess just the thought I'm putting out there and that's about um the folks we talk a lot about because they do such an important job which is our bus and van drivers right because when they're on a bus or van along with kids they are truly alone they don't have backup with them so um is all of the same training available to them um that's available to building staff I'm going to have transportation chime in as well so they go through the same public school work so the same minimal training is there you know we've actually embarked on
072quite a bit when we talk about you know just putting students on buses to to go have PE right and then we know they've have some medical conditions and um can you take it from this Clinic to the next Clinic I mean there's a lot of different things that we're learning um and then asking those questions you know does the bus driver know these medical needs obviously they bring thousands of kids to school every day without you know being trained on what what those conditions are but I think it's an area for us to continue to look at even on some of the emergency medications that could be life-saving in a moment's notice so yeah we've had those conversations um have began those and are excited to try and offer that next layer to our
073drivers um to any employee that is going to be working with near kids thank you for that because that's that's just such a place of vulnerability where kids might be eating something they don't normally eat we're bee stings are more likely to happen where someone has a diabetic incident you know I mean we all can imagine so thanks especially for looking into that working with Transportation I would be really interested to hear um what we might be able to do in that Transportation space and again we ask so much of our drivers and appreciate everything they do it it is a moment in a kid's day when they're particularly vulnerable and there is really one adult there for them thanks I'm sorry I have one more question thank you I do really appreciate this I
074am wondering when um a parent tells the school district that there is a medically like an allergy their child has an allergy or they're diabetic do we ever ask would it be possible for your child to maybe share what that looks like with the rest of the class I asked this because when I was in fifth grade a young boy next to me was diagnosed with diabetes and he informed the whole class of what we should look for in case something should happen and it may just save a life someday so and Rachel can try man we don't that's not like a standard practice that we've seen but it is a very common practice um where you know both of my kids have had that chat in their classrooms the elementary level um and usually
075one or two kids are buddied up in that room right because we don't allow diabetic to walk to the clinic if they're feeling high or low you know to get that that care so it is pretty common for not just diabetes but other allergies as well or other conditions that the parent is willing and wanting to share appropriately with that group so it does occur quite a bit I don't know if I could say it's standardized but it is something we would as a nursing team they would ask and offer and you know just anything when we're looking at those health plans and care plans we really just want to say how what is the best way to care for your child given these conditions or or this whatever it might be medically and then
076right that's the point of a care plan is to really try and individualize that for them thank you I can only imagine how many medical things that everyone has to manage on a daily basis it's quite big I I'm sure so thank you for putting these practices into place and continuing to look how we can continue to do better thank you both I appreciate it okay moving on 11.4 first reading financial literacy and Dr Knapp is with us welcome good evening president Davidson members of the board Dr Kellogg and Mrs Marshall under Ohio law students entering ninth grade on or before July 1st 2022 they must earn one half credit of financial literacy as a graduation requirement and I did allude to this and we had some conversation earlier this year the law states that
077the study and instruction of financial literacy shall align with Ohio's financial literacy standards and model curriculum adopted by the State Board of Education in 2018 and 19 respectively now this is what's super interesting um right now it says instruction of financial literacy like that's it it's Loosely defined no one's you know following up we determine what that looks like and you know in fact you don't necessarily have to pass the course right now it just says instruction so it's really interesting that the state has changed has like made a 180 um on this particular requirement um we did have a course that somewhat aligned to this requirement it was called personal money management it did not align enough so um we will not be offering that course moving forward and that was in our business
078department we do um interestingly enough have a college credit plus course called personal finance that does align with this requirement so students will have two options to choose from we do recommend students take this their junior year so really um we could have waited a year to bring this before you but we wanted to allow our students as much time as possible to take this course because um because of the limits and we know some students have super tight schedules we had a meeting with the counselors on Friday and you know as we think about a student who's getting the IB diploma or um one of our you know our career center students they have super super tight schedules so we felt we wanted to bring this before you as soon as it was ready
079to allow as much flexibility in our students when they schedule also this will count as one of the 20 graduation requirements a lot of times when people hear oh we have a new requirement there was some misunderstanding and people were saying oh okay so now we have 20.5 credits needed for graduation I just wanted to get that on the record that everyone was clear that that was not the case it is still within the 20 and I think we used the word last time as a required elective um which is really contradictory and we with those tight schedules we do want to have this offered in the summer probably not ready for this summer but for next summer and Beyond it would be part of our courses um our business and social studies teachers did
080meet throughout the fall to develop this course of study they added vocabulary instructional resources put a pacing guide and added activities this was facilitated by Dr Jill Williams and I do want to have a special call out to Amanda Mosley who has been really really instrumental in this work and she is also was on the board agenda earlier because she will be providing professional development to our staff I am certified to teach financial literacy and I would have a great learning curve I mean I can teach economics I'm not prepared to teach this course so I might attend her PD um and the current requirement of instruction in financial literacy is in our government course because that is a course that is required but it will be phased out over the next few years and
081we will have a new requirement which is student interactions with peace officers so we'll really take the instruction for financial literacy out and replace it with the peace officers requirement and again professional learning will be provided to our teachers so are there questions over this one I am really glad that we are intending to have an online option so my question are there two parts to the question dealing with the online piece one is are we only going to do it in summer and if we're doing it in summer I'm assuming it's part of summer school and thus it would have a fee attached so we are actually looking at our courses right now and determining what our price point is usually for new credit we do have a fee associated with it of I
082believe one hundred dollars if someone was taking it for credit recovery it would be free but I do think that is something I'm glad you brought that up that is something that we would want to consider uh given this new requirement we haven't gotten there yet so thank you for thinking ahead we'll get to that for sure and I think that was part of your question but the other part would be as we would develop that course yes it would be available um to students we would they would still need a teacher of record um and so be my initial thinking is it would be similar to a CFA process but I would have to think through that because we would want teacher support for that course yeah I think that is an option we're
083going to have to be looking at not just for this but for some other opportunities as well just because of the tight schedules of so many of our kids we don't want to cut more of those non-required elective selections that our kids make and also the programming choices that they're making in other arenas yeah thank you for also highlighting that there are going to be two different ways to fulfill this right with college credit plus being one of them so consider this your opportunity to make your college credit plus commercial in the middle of the board meeting if you could just talk about that for a second and what that means because I know um it might be an option that works well for lots of students and college credit plus students can start to
084look at college credit plus when they're in 7th 8th grade right yes and and college credit plus is um a great option for our students and we continue to offer more courses um some that fulfill even high school graduation requirements for example our intro to politics meets our government requirements so not only are you getting your credit for high school as one of your 20 but you're also getting college credit free of cost and it can build we have some students who work toward graduating are getting their associate's degree very soon after they graduate from high school so it's a and you know moving on to start school with a wealth of college credits we have some students will start as a sophomore so I wasn't quite prepared for this is a very long expensive
085commercial if I was you know if this was the Super Bowl um yes but but seriously um it does allow students to earn free college credit and my students are my children are at Junior and sophomore so you know the idea of the expense of college and knowing that you could get free college credits to apply and every college is a little bit different with what they take sometimes you just wave into the higher course sometimes you do actually get the credit so families would want to double check and not assume because every institution of course is a little unique as we like but definitely an amazing opportunity that our students continue to take advantage of more and more yeah thank you for that commercial and and I think you know related to this particular
086course while with college credit plus it's up to the institution right how they bring that credit in for this particular course um it will fulfill the graduation requirement right no matter what happens when you go to college so exactly I wanted to just put that on on people's radar a little bit more to underscore that because you might have a seventh eighth ninth grader right or you're thinking gosh they're going to be really jammed up in their schedule later on maybe they're thinking you know uh Career Center or IB Program well they can already there's a way they can already address this one yes check the box so thank you yes I think that's it thank you so much okay you're welcome okay recommended action and standing business 12.1 resolution for impracticality of Transportation may
087I have a motion so moved second welcome Mr Schneider thank you again everyone before you this evening is a resolution to declare and practicality to transport identified students Ohio law allows for public schools to determine and practicality of Transportation after considering a number of factors such as the cost of providing transportation and the number of students being transported this past October 24th the board passed a resolution declaring 20 students impractical for transportation and before you this evening is a list containing 21 additional students that have been deemed impractical to transport the department of purchasing and Logistics has evaluated each listed private school student per the requirements of the Ohio Revised Code 3327.02 and declared the list of students impractical to transport again for this evening's resolution it is a total of 21 students therefore approving
088this resolution would allow the district to offer payment in lieu of Transportation in the manner provided per the Ohio revised code in which the payment and lieu amount is determined by the Ohio Department of Education therefore it is recommended that the Board of Education approved the Declaration of the listed students impractical for transportation and offering payment in lieu I'd be happy to answer any questions if there are any hearing none thank you Mr Bell yes Dr Nestor Baker yes Mrs Davidson yes 12.2 overnight and out of state field trips may I have a motion so moved second welcome back hello everyone um I am pinch hitting for Ann Baldwin as she is with her daughter at dance and for those of you who know her she's only texted me once to see how it's going
089so I told her to buzz off uh info because Anna did get a picture of Riley so that was cute okay so thank you everyone this evening I have several out of state field trip requests for your consideration including both Westerville North's baseball and softball programs traveling south during spring break to participate in games and their reason because the weather is warm I don't disagree as well as our Middle School's 8th grade trips and um she did want to bring these fourth all in one Fell Swoop to make that a little bit simpler each middle school will be traveling during a different week at the end of April and in May and I am happy to answer any questions or more than likely just write them down and we will get back to you any
090questions hearing none thank you so much thank you Dr masterbaker yes Mr Bell yes Mrs Meyer yes Mrs Altman yes Mrs Davidson yes 12.3 resolution of approving loose Furnishing loose Furnishings bid packages 101 102 103 and 104 may have a motion so moved second and welcome back Mr Dorne thank you the loose Furnishings bid packages refer to the new furniture to be installed as it relates to the construction of Minerva Park Middle School which is Bid package 101 the phase five renovation of Westerville South High School bid package 102 the renovation of Hawthorne Elementary School bid package 103 and the expansion and renovation of Whittier Elementary School bid package 104. bids were solicited in accordance with the Ohio revised code on October 31st we received three bids that were publicly read on December 1st as
091referenced in the bid tab the lowest bid for the furniture package at Minerva Park Middle School was submitted by Zimmerman School equipment in the amount of 1 million 334.65 the lowest bid for the furniture package at South High School was submitted by King Business Interiors and the amount of 89 971.95 and the lowest bid for the furniture packages at Hawthorne and Whittier Elementary Schools was a combination bid for both buildings submitted by educational furniture and the amount of 162 dollars the total cost for all four bid packages is one million 774 468 dollars proving this resolution allows us to maintain compliance to the Project's schedules thus it is being recommended that the board accept the bids from Zimmerman King Business Interiors and educational Furniture as presented any questions or comments hearing none Mr Bell yes
092Mrs Meyer yes Dr Nestor Baker yes Mrs Altman yes Mrs Davidson yes 12.4 resolution approving bid packages bid package one in bitpack H2 at Westerville South High School may I have a motion so moved second bid package one is for the HVAC improvements that include repairs to one boiler and converting it from Steam to hot water replacement of one large boiler with three smaller units that will improve our operating efficiency replacement of two chillers with one new chiller and the replacement of six rooftop units supporting the ox gem Auditorium and the scene shop and the replacement of one locker room air handling unit located on the west side of the building just outside of the commons entrance and that unit will be moved to inside the building in a storage area bid Package 2 is
093for the replacement of the curtain wall on the east side of South High School this wall this will offer the front of South a fresh new look and provide more natural light into the newly renovated classrooms bids were solicited in accordance with the Ohio revised code on November 7th we received three bids that were publicly read on December 8th as referenced in the bid tab the lowest bid for both bid packages was a combination bid submitted by Place services in the amount of three million sixty five thousand two hundred dollars Place Services uh commonly known around here is PSI was the successful bidder for phases 3 4 and 5 at South high school and continues to perform well for us it is being recommended that the board accept Police Services bid as presented any questions
094or comments hearing none Dr nesterbreaker yes Mrs Meyer yes Mr Bell yes Mrs Altman yes Mrs Davidson yes 12.5 you may have a motion to avoid to appoint Von Bell as president pro tem from January 1st 2023 until the election of the next board president January 9 2023. so moved second whoever wants it can have it right Mrs ottman yes Dr nurse Baker yes yeah Mr Bell yes Mrs Meyer yes this is Davidson yes congratulations Vaughn yes um moving on to public comments we still do not have any which takes us to board comments would anyone like to go first anyone have any comments I can go that's fine um so I just wanted to give an update about some pieces of legislation there's a lot that's happening in Lane duck they try to push
095everything through and they caught they create what they call what we call Christmas Tree bills but there are a few that are moving a little bit faster than others so instead of spending two more hours here tonight I will be a little bit briefer um Senate Bill 178 which we talked about last time was introduced by Senator Bill reninki a republican from Tiffin it passed out of the Senate last week and this bill if you recall would reform the functions and responsibilities of the State Board of Education the superintendent of Public Instruction in od ode creating and basically it creates a Department of Education Workforce with a cabinet level director appointed by the governor and approved by the Senate it divides the agency into two divisions the division of primary and secondary education which will
096also include preschool in the division of Career Technical education it authorizes the new Department to be responsible for the rulemaking process and enforcement of current rules and maintains the current structure of the senate or of the school board of education but limiting its duties to teacher licensure educator or staff conduct in territory transfer decisions so essentially not very much the bill was amended to Institute the normal 90-day effective date for legislation while specifying the new structure would be in place by July 1st so it passed out of the Senate it's headed over to the house tomorrow it will have its first hearing and it's scheduled for a second hearing on Wednesday where they will likely vote on it and could vote on the house floor by Thursday so if at all you have some time
097to reach out to the house primary and secondary education committee I would highly recommend doing so we do have a legislator from our district on that committee representative Mary lightbody and the chair is representative Gail Manning hmm and then House Bill 554 introduced by Representatives Mary lightbody a Democrat from westervel in adambird a republican from New Richmond will have its fourth Hearing in the Senate primary and secondary education committee on Tuesday tomorrow opponent proponent and interested party testimony will be heard and there's a possibility of an amendment it would require the School Board of Education to issue two-year temporary educator license to applicants with expired professional teachers certificates and professional educator licenses as long as certain requirements are met also tomorrow House Bill 497 which was introduced by Representatives Manning and Robinson will have a
098second Hearing in the Senate and primary Senate primary and secondary education committee it is in invited testimony only as a reminder this bill eliminates the third reading third grade reading retention requirement other than that just want to say thanks to Jeff Larose and to the other retirees and for other work of the years I saw we also hired some new substitute bus folks it was really exciting and some food service people and just really appreciate the intentionality that we're taking when we're thinking about our students medical conditions so thank you oh I can um well this evening as we close out this meeting this will be our last meeting of the year uh and so around this time of year the close of the year is when a lot of people begin to reflect on
099what this past year has been like and so I spent a little bit of time thinking about some of what has transpired what has happened over the course of the year started off with still quite a bit of uncertainty in terms of what school and what education was going to look like in the midst of a global pandemic that is still with us [Music] but since then we've been able to get students and staff back in school back into the building safely to return back to a traditional mode of learning so excuse me I count that as a victory account that as a win over the course of this year um but I also would like to bring our attention to the fact that I believe public education throughout the course of 2022 is under
100an all-out assault from the Ohio General Assembly from the governor's office to this the Ohio Senate as well as the Ohio House of Representatives over the course of 2022 the Ohio legislature has considered legislation to ban certain books from school libraries has considered a ver an Ohio version of the don't say gay bill has considered uh a ban on teachings of critical race Theory even though it's not a part of that we are aware of any board approved K-12 curriculum right now as Christie has mentioned Senate Bill 178 that is before the legislator legislature will drastically change the way that the State Board of Education and the Ohio Department of Education operates [Music] um the State Board of Education has a resolution right now that it is considering to reject the guidelines that have been
101established to protect the rights of our lgbtq students and I just want to you know go on record in opposition to both Senate Bill 178 as well as the resolution that is before the State Board of Education for for their consideration uh those are just assaults that have been considered there is legislation that has been passed that negatively impacts public education in a very real way legislation has been passed to alter the way Levy language will appear on the ballot legislation has been passed that significantly changed the board of revision process negatively impacting school boards and our ability to challenge property valuations legislation has been passed to allow School personnel with minimal training to be armed the fair school funding plan has been passed but strangely enough it's been passed but failed to be funded
102fully still not exactly sure how that works in the real world I wish I could charge up a bunch of expenses but just not fully fund them um and it's it's amazing to me how legislatures pass a school funding plan uh that negatively impacts public education in this way since fiscal year overall State funding for education has increased by eight percent that's far below the rate of inflation for that period from 2011 through the current budget during that time Community Schools funding has increased by 44 percent and state spending on its voucher programs has increased over 500 percent so who winds up losing in this equation our Public School Systems do we are being forced to do more with less all of this even though study after study has proven and I will use as
103uh just for reference to prove my point a study conducted by the Stanford Graduate School of Education found that there is no evidence that vouchers significantly increase test scores there is an all-out assault on public education and in the state of Ohio it shows no signs of letting up with the incoming legislature being essentially a veto proof legislature so even if the governor was in opposition what whatever he did not approve of could be overridden uh by by the legislature I bring this up because I believe it's important that we have the help and assistance of our families and supporters of public education to become more and more aware of the drastic changes that are taking place public education as we know it today will not exist for very much longer if these kinds of
104attacks continue it is what what I would call Death By A Thousand Cuts it's No One Singular thing that's going to unravel the system but it is the collective of the number of cuts that have occurred over the course of the last decade or more and as a school board as an individual School Board member as a Treasurer and superintendent we cannot do it alone we need the support and the help of our families and supporters in our community to help make our voice Amplified and to be heard public education I believe was established as part of a public good and that education was a public education funded public education was established because we believe it's good for all of our citizen citizenry all of our population I believe it's a right for all of
105us to have an excellent and excellent public education regardless of your ZIP code regardless of the color of your skin and regardless of what country you were born in and that is under assault in the state of Ohio okay that's bad stuff but as we come to the end of the year um those are some of the thoughts that were bouncing around in my mind I know now you're saying boy that's a scary place to be um um but I but I also you know as we come to the end of the year want to at least take a moment to also celebrate some of our some of our victories we received the state Auditor's Award of uh with distinction for 10 years in a row we were able to arrive at agreements with our
106bargaining units and and we have seen that that is not a given that that those kinds of Agreements are able to be arrived at in an amicable fashion we have continued work on our portrait of a graduate and the crown jewel of this year was the opening of Minerva France elementary school so there is a lot of great work that has taken place and so as we as 2022 comes to a close I just want to thank um all of our staff the administration my fellow board members Dr Kellogg Miss uh Miss Marshall thank you for just the way that you have helped uh make Westerville City schools great and to help make Westerville City Schools truly a place where all of our students and all of our families belong so Merry Christmas to everyone
107happy happy holidays however you choose to celebrate the holiday hope you have a great holiday to all of the staff please during the break make sure you um take some time to relax enjoy family and look forward to hitting the ground running in 2023. I don't know how you follow that um I agree with everything you said Vaughn and I too I want to celebrate thank everyone in this always incredibly remarkable School District in the face of all that is happening around us and within us in many ways we continue to move forward we continue to strive we continue to do all that we can do and to look for new ways to do what we can do to educate our young people we have incredible people here and I was thinking this weekend I
108think you and I probably there was like smoke coming out of our our heads that went across the entire Village here but I was thinking about a couple of things one is the long history we have of strength in this school district and standing for public education in this school district we continue to do that the board continues to do that the superintendent does that the treasurer does that so many people in this school district do that but it is a fight that unlike in past years it is a fight that I now worry we will lose I never worried about that before I'm worried I'm scared for public education did you like Christmas Carol movies you know the story right the Charles Dickens story about Ebenezer screw Jesus misogynistic self-driven greedy mean-spirited individual and
109he was it was a character that represented what Dickens saw in so many ways as foundational um reasons for societal ills in the country that he was joining at that time and it resonates with all of us continually through the decades through the generations I don't know about you I I watch classic Christmas Carol movies I think my favorite is probably a Patrick Stewart version but I admit I like the Muppets too but I was watching actually George C Scott this weekend and I was thinking the Ghost of Christmas Past the way I view it now in light of what's Happening Here I view it in terms of what's happening to education in this in this state it goes to Christmas Past I now see it as the ghost of legislation for the greater good
110the creation of public education in this state was about the common good the development of society it was about all of us not just about people with kids in the schools not just about this group or that group it's about everyone and the idea of common schools was to drive that entire message that there is one public system and that is what will drive us into the future with success so I think about some of our legislators if they were having a scrooge moment if they went to visit the ghost of legislation for the greater good what they might see and what Scrooge went to see as regards the Ghost of Christmas present I view as the ghost of good governance I think about what it's like when you look at what's going on these
111bills that are being shoved through the decimation of public education that happens with impunity that's based on click bait and sound bites and is ruining what matters so much to all of us Christmas the Ghost of Christmas future I think kind of stays the same because you think about it what's that about in the Christmas carol it's about the ramifications of actions what happens because of what's Happening Now what's happening as regards what we're doing to what our past tells us needs to happen in the Christmas carol you think about Marley what does Marley tell us what does he say to Scrooge when you know he comes to Scrooge and Scrooge initially tries to dismiss him and he says that he wears the chain he forged in life but he forged it link by link
112what we have here in Ohio is a chain around all of us that's being forged link by link law by law the Thousand Cuts each one of those is a link in the chain that is dragging public education down not down as regards oh isn't this sad and won't we recover down into potential destruction and we cannot let it happen so like Yvonne I say we need help we need people to stand up and say this will not be what matters matters for all of us what matters is not the lies that are told about things that go on and don't go on in schools or in the state board or wherever it may be what matters is not what someone wants to say about what school choice does and doesn't mean what matters is
113public education as a primary vehicle for the protection and furtherance of our society and that's what's at risk as we close out this year in the lame duck session and we see what's happening with the Christmas tree builds we see what's happening as we move forward with the dismantling of one of our greatest institutions so like Vaughn it's it's kind of a scary place to live in my head too there's so much good here so much good we need to protect it and defend it and celebrate it and move it forward and to do that as we have not had to do so much so hard in the past we must stand together and face the enemies that would destroy it that's a great place to end and say Merry Christmas isn't it but I
114do hope that everyone will take a few minutes over break and think about what's at stake and what's been accomplished and what we can do together protect what is so good well I'll very briefly excuse me very briefly add my raspy raspy voice to that um maybe it's an evening for analogies but I keep thinking about how important all of these little decisions are that we make all the time and you know think about um thank you to you know the bus drivers we've talked about Transportation a lot we've talked about how important it is to get our kids to and from school safely how important it is to take care of their health while they're at school all of these things really do matter but I guess I feel a little like right before
115the pandemic came right where there was this talk in the news about a pandemic and we didn't know what it meant and I was worried about like my kid gonna you know get to this on time or that on time or am I going to get the groceries or this thing at work and then suddenly it was gone and all those things did matter in the moment and they matter now all these small things we do but I'm reminded now that all of these little things we do every day are built on a foundation that actually can go away and so I just ask everybody who cares about what happens to kids six or seven or eight hours a day and what that means for the rest of their lives to stand up and fight
116for public education wow it's hard to go last um so I Echo the comments and the concerns about public education absolutely positively then I'm going to switch over to a positive note um Char Smith I'd like to congratulate you on becoming president of 719 we're so excited to work together with you so congratulations we're delighted to have you um secondly uh congratulations to our retirees to Jeff Larose I wish I could say this to you the educational spaces you've created not only are inviting but they're beautiful and I think the kids are so inspired I know I am especially when I look up and think you know like just look at this space here um in hearing it from my own child just the impact that South is making on him so I am in
117deep gratitude to him for that and the team and all the people that surround it I know he doesn't do it alone but I do think he has just a little bit different of imagination that gets us a little bit further so congratulations to Jeff uh I'd like to stay in touch because I may have a bus or two that he could work on in the future just so you know um lastly you know we've talked a lot about tonight transporting our 14 000 kids and all the little components that go with it and we've talked about Fragile Kids and medical needs and when we haven't even and a little bit about you know new curriculum that we're um embarking on and mandates that are handed down to do that and how that's going to
118impact children and I think about each one of these kids in our community and our families and our staff that this impacts and I am so grateful I feel like the staff here is our greatest asset and I just want to say thank you to all of you and to have a great winter break to please go off don't answer your emails I know that'll be hard for a lot of you just saying but really take this time to relax and enjoy your loved ones and I just want to say Nicole and John would you like to say anything as we leave and end out the year um just want to wish everyone a relaxing holiday season I it has been a long year I think for pretty much everybody and everyone's dealing with different
119things and just changes throughout the year but as a parent in this District I so appreciate our teachers our nurses our nurses aides my kids spends a lot of time at the clinic for various reasons the bus drivers I everyone that she interacts with during the day she's had nothing but positive experiences from our staff that work here and take care of her every day so I I really appreciate that thank you so um there's a saying that there's a reason why the rear view mirror is smaller than the windshield right so there's a lot in the rear view mirror for us that we've done as part of our accomplishments challenges we've met a Ms Altman reference covet and all the challenges that came with that lots of challenges we've met and to encapsulate what
120I'm hearing this evening is what we know is we have just a talent talent pool in this District that helps us get through those things so as I look through the windshield in front of me I think about the opportunities in front of us that we're creating for kids and so yes we opened one over France and we're going to open run over Park and we're going to finish up some of these other facilities projects and we're adding new curriculum and we're looking at our ports over graduate the way it changes the way we approach kitchen teaching and learning and the work we're doing in equity to support all of our students and all of our families and this board's focus on families and kids in just the appointed way you look at everything through
121that lens as we saw tonight with your care and thinking about it's been easy to take those policies on diabetes and students with health care and just rubber stamp them through and you didn't you went carefully through particular points that you wanted to understand better to help us guide the district and move us forward and so thankful to have a board of education that does that thankful I have a Treasurer takes care of the finances the way we do and keeps us on the right path thankful I have a leadership team that keeps keeps us all honest and is is working so hard and up and down the line the talent we have and the commitment we have and the community we have of resources Westerville proper um the school district all the people we
122serve what I see in front of us is just great opportunity and excited to embark on that knowing um we're using a compass folks we never we know the direction we're going we just don't know what we're going to hit on the way right so it's easy when you have a road map you know where all the turns are I want to turn it's different when you have a compass you know the direction you're going but you know what you can hit but if you're doing that with people you trust and have have commitment to what you're doing you know you'll get there so thankful to have all that around me as we head into 2023. moving on to 15.1 the board will meet in organizational regular session meeting on Monday January 9 2023 at
1236 pm here at the Early Learning Center and with that may I have a motion to adjourn so moved second Mr Bell yes Mrs ottman yes Mrs Meyer yes okay that's breaker yes Mrs Davidson yes and with that we're adjourned