001Treasure, please call roll. Uh, Good Write, yes. Starcher here. Austin here. KMA here. Klein heads here. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Motion to approve the June 17, 225, 2025 board agenda as presented and amended. So moved. Second. Kleinhens, yes. Koosma, yes. Goodight, yes. Austin, yes. Starcher, yes. Motion. Need a motion to approve the minutes of the May 12th, 2025 work session and May 20th, 2025 board of education regular session. So moved. Second. Good. Wright. Yes. Starcher. Yes. Austin. Yes. Kusma. Yes. Klein Huts. Yes. the report. So yes, so uh we have two reports for you this evening related to our student wellness funds and
002part B IDA funds. Both of these are required reports that we have to submit each year. Um and so Mrs. McMillan is uh and Mrs. Welty both did a lot of work on this and so Mrs. McMillan is going to share those reports with us this evening to uh can be in compliance. All right. Good evening. I'm Diana McMillan. the director of student services and I'm going to go over our idea B funding from the last school year as well as talk about our um student wellness and disadvantaged um pupil impact aid funding. Um so idea B is um funds that we receive for our individuals with students with disabilities act. It authorizes um federal funding that it's designated to support student education services for children with disabilities. It helps us provide tailored instruction, related
003services, and professional development to meet these diverse needs. Um, this year we received a little over a million dollars. Um, which is down, I think like maybe $24,000 uh dollars from last year. Uh, we don't yet know what our projected allocation will be for next school year, but that usually comes around this time. So, as far as our budgeting process, um, we have to follow guidelines outlined by OD. Um, and it's all expenses must align with allowable cost uh, principles. And so, they need to be necessary, reasonable, allocable, legal, and then we're up for an annual audit or at least, um, prone to an annual audit if needed. Um, funds must supplement, not replace existing resources and are subject again, um, for compliance purposes. those audits that could come up. We have um several priority
004areas that we can choose from to spend these funds. Um typically year after year we're using them for the same the same funds and I'll go over those here in a minute, but there's a little snapshot of the different areas that we are able to spend funds in. It allows us to invest strategically where our needs specifically as a district are the greatest. So the largest area that we spend our federal funds on is instruction and that's about 80% of our budget, our allocated budget. Um that's for the employment of intervention specialists, specialized pair professionals. There's also a portion that could go for costs that we have to spend for districts or for students that attend other districts, but we're the district of residents. Also, um instructional supplies and materials can be um used out
005of this fund as well to help with increased um achievement and um outcomes of students with disabilities. The next one is support services and that accounts for about 4% of our funds and that um helps helps u pay for things like uh related services, speech and language, OTP that usually goes to our thirdparty providers. Professional development is 5 and a half% and that's so that we can provide high quality scientifically research-based district-wide PD activities. Um we try to focus on academic and behavioral supports and then we also try to include every year specialized training um for students with autism. Um the last couple of years there's been a big push for compliance as well so that we're writing um compliant IEPs and providing the services that we need to. Non-public accounts for 5% of this
006budget and that's for the um non-public schools that are within Worcester. Um those costs go to providing products, tools, and services to students with disabilities. And that's something that we partner with the nonpubliclix on. So that's not a decision that we necessarily make. They usually make requests and we work on that budgeting together. Governance and administration that helps pay for um a portion of our coordinator of student services. Um our um balance is funded by the general fund. So just a portion of that goes for that salary. Indirect costs are um also used for that position as well. Um let me find my notes. Um and it's um we can have 2% of our budget. And so that's kind of other ancillary things as well that we might need to um pay for out of
007the um federal uh funds that we get. Transportation is 1% of our budget and that's for services that are provided for um students within and outside of our district uh where we're the district of residents um for any transportation costs. And um as Mr. Tutor mentioned, we have to share this information and then we're open to public comment. Um, if anybody has any questions or suggestions, those could be directed to Amy Welty or myself. And then we're going to move into student wellness and success funds. And this is um we've been receiving these funds for a couple of years. And um, let's see. Sorry. Um these funds target our wraparound services um to help students overcome obstacles and that's for learning. Um we try to accelerate learning and prepare for student um success in the
008future. Also for mental health services and um medical services. Our community partners um which are really important to us um are typically um we we're partnering with Inazowl Akran Children's uh we have a partnership with Oh Huddle 180 and then the Tri County Educational Service Center as well. Um as you can see our funding level was a little over $300,000 this year. Um and those um funds went towards um a portion of our service coordinator salary and benefits Anna Mental Health Services and Akran Children's Hospital. Um this these funds don't actually cover the entire fund. So the general fund actually um supplements the rest of that. And then we'll move into the disadvantaged pupil impact aid. And we again received a little over $300,000 for that. And as you can see, we are um using
009that for things like um credit recovery, teacher salary and benefits for the school year, but then also for the summer. Um we have literacy coaches that part of their salary and benefits are taken out of this fund. Um our credit recovery software egenuity comes from there. Um we have a we for structured liter literacy specialists um for dyslexia portion of that comes out our um contract with O'Hle and then also surrogate parent payments and that's when um those services are required during IEP meetings. We don't yet know what funding we'll get um in those areas for next year but we're hopeful that um we're going to be allowed to maintain and build upon the vital services that we're already providing. Does anybody have any questions? When will we know about the funding? Because I mean,
010you're talking for the 2526 school year. We don't know yet. We don't know yet. So, I looked back in my notes for my presentation last year, and we knew what our success and wellness funding was at this time, but we didn't know the um DPIA. Okay. Um so, Amy and I are hopeful that we'll know within the next couple of weeks. We have to start submitting our grant applications. So, that window opens here shortly. Okay. That's all I can tell you. Very soon. I don't Amy, have you seen any projections for when those are going to come? I have not. Um the the federal funds hopefully will hear any day is is what they're saying on the IDAB, but I looked out on the uh state website to see if there's any and they're not
011really showing anything right now except for simulations of like un the unrestricted state funding. nothing on the restricted funds which is the student wellness and DPIA. Are there any expectations of what it'll look like or just Well, the only thing I can say about DPIA, we did see a decrease in that this year because uh there were schools that pro participated in the community provision, community eligibility provision, which we are next year. So, we might get a bump in that um in the DPIA money just uh based on that. But you know what she's referring to, right? The That's the the Oh, that's the free lunch. Yes. Okay. I mean, obviously all these services are are critical for our students. Um I mean, if we don't get the funding, is the plan to just cover
012that from the general fund or do we have to re-evaluate some of those services for our students? Well, I think like every year we need to re-evaluate what we're using and how we're using it and is there a way to adjust. So, I think that um you know, as we look to see what funding we're getting, we're going to have to make those decisions. Some of them are non-negotiables though, right? And so, um, you know, it might be, do we need this more than this? There could be some taking away of services, but when things come to, um, students with disabilities and their IEPs, those those things are binding. And so, it's really critical that we make great decisions at at those meetings and have the right people around the table. Yeah. Are you able
013to use DPIA funds to meet an IEP need ever if they overlap or is that prohibited? Um, I think that you could because sometimes we have mental health services and interventions within IEPs and so as long as it meets the DPIA criteria, I think it could. So, is it fair to say that some of the funding is like a per pupil funding and some of it is a per service funding? Is that how we come to our number? Is that a fair general comment or no? I don't know. Um I think it's more like per pupil. I think it's service related. I mean I think they base it on So would Medicaid money be part of our incoming money on the first part of it for students with disabilities? Does it does any money we
014get back from Medicaid for example show in that figure? Not in these figures but they do show in our general fund. Yeah. So, so for example, private public private schools in Worcester City School District that we have certain responsibilities for. Do we and we are obligated to do that by law. So, is how can I say this politely? Like, does the federal funding cover the entire cost of that kind of service? Because there could be a student in a private school in the Worcester City School District who lives in the Hillsdale School District or the I'm looking around where everybody lives, the West Home School District, etc., etc., etc. Worcester is responsible because that private school is within our boundaries. Does that cost us money to implement that service or is all of that particular
015action covered since they're not our student? Not to sound that I don't want to help them because I absolutely want to help them. What I believe is that the the funds that we get for the non-public portion is what Worcester City pays and they use some of our same contractors, but I believe their tuition covers their other expenses. Okay. But like the cost that we bear to do an action. We we might use some of our general fund money to their district dollars because they're if they're will get that funded fully. Hillsdale Hillsdale has a piece. That's what I was asking. Okay. Thank you. That's what I was wondering. just in terms of the the vast cost of it all based on where they reside, right? Correct. Yes. Okay. And that funding looks a little
016different, too, because as a private school, IEPs look a little different. They're service plans. They're not IEPs. Okay. Okay. Okay. Any other questions? So, it's safe to say that um with the special needs and disadvantaged um we actually supplement that total cost. That's just a portion of our cost to educate that. For sure. Correct. That's what I was asking too in the broader sense for sure. Right. So if a student with on an IP open enrolls to our district separate from the private school situation would that cost go back to we just get this we just get the open roll to money that would come to us from the other district. Thank you. That's where excess cost and catastrophic cost. Yeah. Just Yeah. Just to understand because it's a lot. Thank you. That's very helpful.
017We appreciate everything that's done for our students. Thank you, Miss McMillan. Thank you so much. Okay, we're going to move on to public participation on agenda items. Not on none on agenda items. Okay. Okay. Okay. And we're going to move on then to section five. Um motion to approve the consent agenda for the treasurer. So moved. Second. Okay. Okay. So, uh tonight I have the um fiscal um financial report for um May uh May end of 2025. And um as you remember, you approved the forecast um the update at the last board meeting. And uh we actually came in a little bit uh better in terms of our investment earnings this month. Um and so um we we received some miscellaneous income as well. So even though you just approved it, we have a little
018bit higher income coming in. As far as expenditures, uh May is our biggest uh one of our biggest spending months because everybody we cut people off um from doing requisitions in April and so we're paying everything in May and they're kind of gearing up for um next school year so they have their supplies when they come back. So sometimes I don't always know uh what what is going to be spent. So little bit, you know, we have um a little bit more spend in textbooks as we're preparing for next year and and supplies. Um but overall um impact is is not that different from the forecast. So about 17,000 on that donations. Uh let me get there. I'm sorry. Um so we continue of course to get uh donations. Um, we received $500 um from
019Germaine Honda to help um pay for student tickets um to some of the postseason games. Um we received $2,500 from the community foundation for boys lacrosse. And we received money through the Carol Watson memorial fund for purchase of library books. That's a fund we have with the community foundation. and then we received a fund a um donation for the cheerleading team. So, always appreciative of of those donations. The next thing on the agenda is our contract renewal for Sedexo. So, this is the uh second year or we on the third year. Third. Third year. Yes, we're on the third year of the uh food service contract that we renew every year with Sedexico or um and you'll notice on this contract we um you know we typically put in here what breakfast, lunch are going
020to cost, but you can see that it is free because of the community uh eligibility program. Um so asking for approval on that. And then the last thing on the agenda is um and I apologize this was added today. So, due to our um staff outages in our office, uh we I'm asking for a contract with Tri County Computer Services to assist with our payroll um with an extended leave of one of our staff. Um so that uh agreement is on my consent agenda. All right. Any questions from the board? Just I mean just a a comment. I mean, I feel like we we say this um we've say this almost monthly, but I mean, to have a $17,000 um you know, variance on a $60 million budget is uh pretty impressive. I mean, the
021I mean, the continued level of accuracy um you know, for planning for both revenue and expenditures is is really great. So, thank you, Amy. Thank you. Appreciate you. Good stewards of our dollars. Well, thanks. All right. Okay. Good. Wright, yes. Starcher, yes. Austin, yes. Koozma, yes. Kind, yes. Okay. Move on to We need a motion to approve the consent agenda of the superintendent. So move. Second. All right. Thank you. Um first personnel wise uh couple um leaves um with FMLA that we put on there on the personnel side on certified lots of uh summer school um kind of things to get everything done for that as we continue to offer summer school both for ESY which is the special ed component aligned with their IEP goals and then also some elementary uh summer school uh
022dependent on you know kind of student need and uh really uh all of it builds up to trying to help with that third grade uh reading guarantee test and and providing as many alu uh interventions as we can for them. Um also um we have I'll bring your attention and and she came tonight. Anna Beella is here um so happy to have Anna. Anna is the new administrative intern at Cornerstone Elementary. Uh which is an administrative position for us as she's replacing we've had a lot of movement as you remember in the past couple months. Katie Roth uh was in that position. She's moved to ParkU as the principal for next year as Steve Furlong has moved to the high school. Um and so Anna has been a cornerstone teacher for the last four years.
023Um and uh she came with me from Watsworth. Um and and so and now she is moving into to this position. We're really excited to to have her uh do this. Come down now. Um well, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Come on down. They want to they want to meet you. Hi. Congratulations. Cute dress. Nice to meet you. You're welcome. Glad to have you come into a new role. Yeah. Coming in. And I and I and I think speaking of uh new administrators to meet next me month you'll meet the uh the last one um that I I'm aware of that we have which is Mr. Nash. We've already approved Mr. Nash as the principal at Keen uh but he is literally on the track back from Utah to reside here and yeah so uh so he
024he'll be here next month. Um last thing on my certified there, Molly Wayne took um a TRT or tech um coaching basically position that was uh left open by Kiana Lepla moving back to her alma mater in an administrative role on the classified side. Uh resignations or uh so Ela Bateson is going to take some FMLA right now. Um and Grace How actually is not leaving. We're very thankful for that. She's just moving over to Shannon Federinko's uh communications role. She was working in the treasurer's office and she'll officially move into that new position um on August 1st. So again, summer c uh you know, a lot continues to happen in the summer. Uh you know, our summer custodial staff does a great job for working in our buildings. Uh we also have uh summer
025tech help. Um uh you know, they help with summer school as well. Uh we also feed lots of kids for Boys and Girls Club and the Y and different things through the summer. So and then on top of that um some additional new hires probably more activity on the classified side hiring wise than certified uh just at this nature as you've got um Carl Benchoff there, Laura Brooks, a little layman, Heather Curts. Those are not new employees. They've just moved to insurance positions so that's why they're on there. Uh Roxanne Reed as well. There's your summer cooks. Uh Carrie Hamilton is a new hireer. She's actually been a substitute at Cornerstone for a while. Maria Richardson as well. Um Danica Thomas. Trica Mocha also those are new employees. Diane Hart is actually not. She's just
026a insurance change. Ashley Pete is a new employee. Gina Hansen and Amy Ebie. So uh been busy on the classified side. The good news is we're hiring some really good people and we're, you know, throughout the summer you're always kind of continuing to fight to get fully staffed for the preparation of the year. We're not quite there yet, but we're, I think, moving in a really good direction. Feel pretty good for where we're at on uh June 17th. And uh appreciate everybody uh on our team that has interviewed these people and got them, you know, in front of me and Mr. Madigan to be able to review for for hire. So, um the communications uh coordinator job description, uh it's just tweaked a little bit from when Mrs. Federinko was in the role as that's
027the one that Grace is taking. And so that's why that is on here. Um formally approving the music handbooks for next year. Uh you know, just like we do athletics and um you know, our school handbooks. So this is really for band and orchestra at both the middle and high school level. Um, uh, Ashlin CCP. We have CCP with lots of, uh, different, uh, colleges. Ashlin's the one we do in house, but this is just their yearly CCPOU. Um, LL therapy provides um um, you know, speech, things like that at our thirdparty providers. So, our our students that go outside of district um, will provide that. Um, EA is one of those places where a few of our students based on their IEPs actually do go to and some of the funds that Diana was
028talking about earlier help offset the cost of those, right? We try to keep as many kids as we can inhouse, but for some kids needs on their IEPs, we do um have to send them to a third party provider. EA is one, like I said, EA is one of those, but actually we've had a reduction in number of students that going EA is where our bringing back a few more to serve, which is always our goal. doesn't always mean that it happens as in the end student is first but we we love to do that when we can um Medicare school agreement in order to um um be able to for third party reporting there's additional uh that coming to nursing and things. So that that's what um that agreement is on here for. And
029then the Tri County services a agreement um is just our yearly agreement with Tri County to be our basically our a site which is our our our technology provider and and and server and service and all of that. So um getting a lot of employment but a lot of that on a classified side and a few kind of typical uh approvals for uh this time of year. Any questions for the board? You guys been busy? Um, Kleinhens, yes. Koozma, yes. Austin, yes. Starcher, yes. Good. Right. Yes. Okay, we're going to move into the treasure regular agenda. Okay. So we need a resolution to amend the classroom facilities capital project fund. So moved. Second. So last year uh I believe it was at our May or June board meeting, we created a classroom facility uh capital
030projects fund and the uh limit to that fund was $10 million. So, bringing a amended resolution to you today to increase that amount to $40 million and this is in preparation to um state budget. And what's going to happen with that? Um our plan is uh if if they pass or the cash balance provision policy is a part of that, then we before we close the fiscal year, we will move money into the uh facilities fund for capital projects. Um Gabe and Brian and I are working on uh potential list of capital projects and um we have 10 years to spend that money and and it is it it is a fund that we can actually move money back into the general fund if we need to. So it can go back and forth whereas
031the uh permanent improvement fund which is our O3 fund you can't do that. Yeah, this is really um you know kind of a I mean obviously we're continuing to assess our facility needs and how we're going to meet those, but probably you know the the impetus for increasing the amount uh is is really to kind of respond to whatever the state budget and uh kind of throws at us in terms of what we find out in the next 10 days. um you know, really specifically that cash balance provision that um Amy was talking about, you know, the House the House passed their version uh at 30% uh which would mean that we would have about $35 million um that we would um in order to get to a 30% cash balance that would be vulnerable.
032Uh the Senate's version is at 50% which would be you know closer to around 25 million. Um, so we, you know, bottom line is and then the sentence version actually even acknowledges try to kind of communicates that they want you to kind of spend that money and put that, you know, somewhere to do so. So, um, you know, we're just really wanting to make sure that we're prep prepared for, you know, so that we can respond accordingly. And really that's just a first step, right? So I guess to to roll this out to the community how this works is okay once we get the state budget and we actually know what that is from the state you know uh we'll respond by you know making appropriations to this fund uh to ensure that we you
033know uh keep our our money safe and then obviously from that then we got to continue to work on you know what we'll be using that money for. You can't just put it in there and it it can't just go set in there right and so that's but that's a whole another step. Um, you know, you guys ask a a question to Diana and Amy and you know, just like when you when do you know when this, you know, like with the the funds that they were talking about and we don't really even sometimes know until we get them. Uh, you know, I give credit to um, you know, all the treasures out there, but definitely Amy in this way. Um, there are so many moving targets with uh, you know, our budget. um you
034know and we're try you know every year every two years but right now I think you're seeing at the state legislature level probably more moving targets than typical and trying to just be able to respond to those. So uh many steps to come as we work through this. This is just a first step to ensure that we're protected in that way. And I I mean I think it's fair to say that many districts are doing this right. This is um I mean I know Ryan and I are both on the career center school board and they're doing the same thing. So again just being proactive depending on uh where how the budget's finalized. Yes. And some of the stipulations in it um on June 30th. Yeah. And I I definitely you know because by the
035July board meeting um we definitely won't have it all figured out of what where that goes, but we will be able to I think give a um you know a better explanation of what the state budget where where that all fell out, right? because you know by June 30th they have to they have to figure it out. So okay uh Goodwrite yes Starer yes Austin yes KMA yes Kleinhens yes okay 7.02 02 Ohio School Plan Motion to approve the district's continued participation with Ohio School Plan, which provides self- insurance program for the district's needs for comprehensive property and liability coverage as well as risk management services to member public schools. The premium for July 1st, 25 through June 30th, 26 is $217,694.50 50s and approval of the excess crime policy in the amount of $4,367
036through travelers insurance. So moved. Second. Uh so we've been a part of the Ohio school plan um ever since I've been at the district um and uh work with Whitaker Meyers on that. So the uh property and liability coverage again as you can see is about 217,000. That's about 50,000 more than last year. So um and and part of it is just the market um you know and part of that policy is cyber security and um you know so there's different pieces property liability coverage and then also the excess crime policy um which is part of traveler's insurance um covers any kind of fraud theft and things of that nature and that one only went up a couple hundred dollar. They probably didn't give you any of this information, but are there particular areas where
037they've seen an uptick in claims that we should be concerned about from a liability perspective if the premium increased that much? He he did not talk about that at all. I think it's just, you know, the the nature of insurance right now. You know, a lot of a lot of um things are increasing. Any questions? Kleinhens, yes. Koozma, yes. Austin, yes. Starcher, yes. Good. Right. Yes. Okay. On the superintendent's regular agenda. Oh, no. One more. Oh, no. One more. I'm sorry. Got us on that. I don't like those. I know you don't. I just want to skip right over. Skip right over. Okay. Uh motion to approve the then and now certificates as recommended. So moved. Second. So I have three then and now certificates for you. Um it's uh increase or I'm sorry. We
038had costs related to the Christian Children's Home, tuition costs for students, Wayne County Board of D. Um we did have purchase orders in place, but just went over the amount that they were. And then um Camp Newhop, which was the uh sixth grade trip. We didn't have a purchase order in place uh prior to that invoice. So those are then and now certificates. Questions? Uh good. Right. Yes. Starcher, yes. Austin, yes. Kleinhens, yes. Who's Map? Yes. Okay, we're going to move on to the superintendent agenda. Um, we need motion to approve the school fees for Worcester High School and Edgewood Middle School for the 2526 school year. So moved. Second. Uh so at the high school level there's no change from the the past is we really reduced when I first got here actually credit
039previous administration they were working on that as I was coming in they uh reduced a lot of our fees so we really have minimal at this point primarily in the music area uh with a little bit in art and some other other uh places like that. Um also now this um also moves this this fee for music down to the middle school as well as we talked about last year. Uh the concept behind it is really the two tiers of instruments. Um uh what we would call color and non-color instruments. So in the past couple years, we've actually purchased um I think about $100,000 worth of musical equipment. Um and that's been a great thing. We needed to do that. Um we used some PI funds and some other things to to do that. Um
040however we we still um uh you know we don't provide an instrument for every every student as as many of our students go out and rent instruments right um we also want to make sure that we have um as you remember if you are on free and reduced lunch you do not pay any fees that's state law and we are so glad we have um a lot of students uh with financial needs that are involved in our music program and so um basically the the the the non-color instrument strument fee which are really for your like I'm not a music expert but also like for example a trumpet right like that's like an intro instrument now some people play that forever but that's an intro instrument that um you know uh our our fee is
041about the same as renting it from Larry's or Pellegrino right and so if a if a student wants to and technically probably those instruments are probably of better quality because you know they're for a for-profit place so if you know if a if somebody wants to pay for that they can if not they obviously can use our rental fee or Again, remember those that are free and reduced lunch would not pay that fee and would have the instrument. The non-color instruments are actually cheaper. They're actually more expensive for us, but they're not really fair to ask our people to pay for, right? It's like a think about like the cello or bass, right? Like those are thousands of dollars. You're not going to ask people to pay for those. We're going to provide those and
042keep those in house. So, those rental fees are are less and they're really just to help with maintenance costs to keep those um up to snuff. questions, comments. Okay. Austin, yes. Kusma, yes. Kleinhens, yes. Good. Write, yes. Starter, yes. 8.02. Motion to approve the tentatip agreement reached with the Worcester Education Association certified staff on May 14th, 2025 for the three-year collective baring agreement between the Wester City School District Board of Education and the WA to be effective August 1st, 2025 through July 31st, 2028. The agreement will provide the annual base salary increases to be implemented as follows. August 1st of 25 3.5% August 1st of 26 3.5% August 1st of 2027 3.5%. So moved. Second. So this this spring was negotiations for both our classified and certified staff. Classified uh staff is next on the
043agenda. Um and so you know I guess what I would say from this is that we had a really I think um effective negotiation uh with our um with our leadership uh in the union. Uh went really well. Um had some good conversation and um you know feel that this is fair and competitive. Continues to keep us competitive in the market um but also within um you know the boundaries that we have uh within our our budgeting. Questions? Okay. Good. Write. Yes. Starcher, yes. Austin, yes. Kleinhens, yes. KMA, yes. Okay. So, move on to 8.03. Uh motion to approve the tentative agreement reached with the Worester Education Association classified staff on May 14th, 2025 for the three-year collective baring agreement between the Worester City School District and Board of Education and the WA to be
044effective October 1st, 2025 through September 30th, 2028. The agreement will be will provide annual base salary increases to implement as followed. July 1st 2025 5% July 1st 2026 4% and July 1st 2027 4%. So moved second. So again same thing the one thing I will make comment-wise here is the classified side is a little higher. Um that's our hourly employees that's our support staff. we have more difficulty finding support staff just I think based on the nature of uh you know the market rate for those jobs and things than we do certified. Um I think we've improved that in the last few years. I think the last contract approved a lot of that. Um but uh you know um felt that this was was appropriate based on market conditions. Also the classified just in nature
045based on um the salaries that they have and the number of people that are in the classified union versus the certified union um a percent increase is of u is less substantial on the budget than on the certified side. Um so for the 8.02 and 8.03 03. Um, I think that it's real fair and I'm really happy that you're able to take care of, you know, our wonderful staff and classified staff and certified staff. I mean, I think that's wonderful and you don't have to worry about it for a few years, but um hopefully language came out okay, too. Yeah, definitely. You know, as with any uh we there was some some things that we were looking for that I think gives us some management flexibility at times and um some account accountability pieces of
046things that I think will be helpful for us and at the same time you know some things that they brought that uh um you know I think uh will will be will be helpful for them and allow them to do their jobs well. I think what was really kind of helpful honestly for me um and and Amy and our team um thinking about three years ago versus now it's just that we've been here longer right and so the things that were brought and discussed not that we I mean you know we I thought we you know worked really well together with that first that first year team and learned a lot but at the same time we were all new right and and this year it been three more years and so you know some
047of the things that they brought to discuss we kind of anticipated as well right or we would have wanted to bring to discuss you just just the nature of working together um you know over the last three years that I think were helpful. I think it's that I think it's the um the trust that that certified and classified groups have with the staff and administration too. I mean I think that's a compliment to all of you and I just think that's I think the climate's good and I do appreciate your efforts. We didn't even vote yet, did we? All right. Anybody else? Appreciate your comments, Rick. Okay. Uh, Koosma, yes. Kleinhens, yes. Starcher, yes. Good. Write, yes. Austin, yes. All right. Doesn't look like we have new business. Old business. So, now we're going to
048move on to public participation on non-aggenda items. First one is from Ted Hill Avenue. Thank you. First, I want to be clear that uh I'm about to address the school district as an institution, not any specific individuals. I've come here to deliver two things. The first is praise. I want to applaud the school district for fixing the leaks in my daughter's school, Cornerstone, over the cafeteria and gymnasium. Uh, as I understand it, this is actually a true fix and not just a patch that will degrade over time. The second thing that I've come to bring is a warning. Do not stop there. My daughter graduated from high school this year. When she was in Cornerstone, she dealt with leaky roofs, an aged out HVAC system, plumbing that backed up constantly, windows that do not function,
049and an access elevator that works sometimes. My younger daughter will be going into fourth grade in the fall and will deal with every single one of those issues. And that will happen because the roof was fixed over the cafeteria and the gymnasium but not over classrooms. This is a failure of the school district. It has been a failure for well over half a decade. Eight full classes have moved through Cornerstone knowing nothing but these problems. I recognize that the district has not wanted to waste public funds on a building that it expected to not own in a few years. And that is a rational choice. It's a rational choice that has actively hurt the parents, the educators, and the children of the poorest school in the district for eight long years. We have been extremely
050patient, but that patience is running thin. And I in my estimation think it is gone. With the failure of several levies, the community has told the school district that we are in fact keeping cornerstone. In May, the superintendent had a presentation on HB96 uh that explained that we have money that needs to be spent in order to be compliant. Earlier tonight, we saw the creation and expansion of a fund in order to hold those funds for exactly this purpose. There are $50 million in projected cash reserves for the five-year forecast. That is enough to fix Cornerstone with millions to spare. My message tonight is no more patches. Fix our children's school now. Anybody else? Oh, Barb. The last one is Barb Frtoff, 4457 Woodlake Trail, Worcester. I'm very moist. I don't know about anybody else,
051but um first of all, I'm the parent of two students who had the privilege of working with the high school newspaper. And so I want to somewhat belatedly and publicly congratulate the Worcester Blade newspaper student, staff members, and adviser Christy Heiner on the celebration of their 100th year of publication. Creating 12 bi-weekly issues of a print publication is no easy feat in and of itself, and the level of professionalism of their work is really commendable. I often tell community folks who complain about the lack of local news coverage and print media to check out The Blade, which is um available. They do distribute it to local community outlets. And I do have several copies here if anybody here wants to see one. One of the articles in the last Blade of the Year, May 16th,
052was about an eighth grade student who took it upon herself to create a yearbook for the eighth grade. And I just want to ask that until we get the eighth grade moved to an appropriate middle school junior high building that we give some attention to securing an advisor for that project or that they get included in either the middle school or high school yearbook. And I have a copy of the very first eighth grade yearbook if anybody's interested. And my third comment is in regards to the bianual state budget which has passed through both the house and senate and is now in conference committee. And this conference committee doesn't allow for public comments. So there's not a lot of ask tonight until the end. Um and there's so many moving parts to these budgets that
053I I feel crazy even trying to follow. But I do want to say that neither the houses or the senate's proposed state budget fully fund the next two years of the fair school funding plan which was a bipartisan plan formed in 2018. Nor do they take into account updated educational costs that are using two 2022 cost. Just one example of the inongruencies between what is needed and what is proposed is that in the house's budget um keep in mind Worcester is in state Senate District 31 and Senate District 31 the shortage in the House's budget in terms of the funds that should have been allocated was approximately 92 million28,000. At the same time, there is the proposed increase of public spending on vouchers, 432 million on private school tuition over the next two years. In
0542023 24, Ohio gave out nearly 69,000 new ed choice expansion vouchers while private school enrollment grew by just 3700 students. So, in other words, 65,000 vouchers went to families who were already sending their children to private schools. There is a fact sheet that um I brought for you and all of those facts were taken from um the Ohio Department of Workforce and Education. Thank you, Barb. Can I Oh, can I Oh, is that it? Okay. Thanks. I heard a bell. Sorry. Sorry. I come here with the moisture, I guess. Okay. Um, comments or questions about tonight's meeting? Anything anybody wants to say? Uh, just Well, you're going to talk about pre next board meeting, so I was just going to make sure we talked about that. I just wanted to recognize um not very often
055does school districts anywhere in the state of Ohio get people in the state finals of an athletic event and um I know our lacrosse team just um became runner up in the state and um I think that's pretty neat. That's and our coach was coach of the year and I know we've had great spring sports but I just wanted to make note of that. Yep. Will we recognize them at some point or Yeah. Well, I've got to talk to uh tip typically uh well, we've never had a team get to the state finals. We have typically done individuals uh and then state so I think we will actually that's a probably a good point. We're in between athletic directors right now which is kind of an interesting time to you know we go to the
056state finals and the time we're with between athletic directors but um yeah I think we will do that. I'll make a note of that. Okay. We'll have to make sure we I mean it probably will have to be next I would think we'll do July because they'll be seniors leaving leaving. Yeah. Oh my. Mhm. Yeah. 10 seniors on the lacrosse team. Anybody else? So, our future meetings are uh Friday, June 27th at 8:00 a.m. uh Tuesday, July 15th um at 6 and Monday, August 11th. That'd be the last one probably before school. That's a work session. Um August 11th at 6. Yeah. And that June 27th, we schedule actually at the beginning of the year, like the beginning of the calendar year when we do our organizational meeting. You know, it's for Amy's all appropriations.
057She's got to close the books for this year, open for next year. You know, if the budget looks uh the state budget looks more clear, more clarity, we'll we'll move money into that 070. won't make any decisions at that meeting of what we do with it or anything, but just simply move it based on the um decisions that the state makes within the budget at that time. I want to share just on the public record that I was approached um I mentioned this to a couple people earlier, but I just think it's nice for everyone to know. I was approached by three people um commending the leadership of Worcester. Um, and this is at the preschool level, which is kind of where I always am. Um, and how much leadership Worcester City School District provides
058throughout the county to um, in terms of educating preschoolers. Um, and these are people that, um, I would call them colleagues, I guess, um, not parents, but I know there are many grateful parents as well. And so, I want to publicly thank Superintendent Tutor, Mrs. Richard, and all the staff, transportation, and etc. who work tirelessly with lots of moving parts to help educate our youngest students. Um, and it is being noticed and it is gratefully appreciated. I mean, sincerely appreciated. So, just so everyone knows how many good things our district is doing on behalf of our kids. Thank you, Joy. Thank you. Okay. Anybody else? No executive session this evening. Okay. Okay. So motion to adjurnn. Need a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. Klein Hens. Yes. Koosma. Yes. Starcher. Yes. Austin. Yes. Good. Yes.
059All right. Thank you.