Yellow Springs Schools October Work Session State of the Schools & Financial Update

001Good evening. Welcome to the October 30th work session for the Yellow Springs School Board. Tonight is a a exciting night and something we do every year and that's the state of the school's address where the superintendent Dr. Secretary Holden gives us an overview of the school um in terms of performance, academic performance, vision, working towards that vision, issues facing the school and plans moving forward. So there is a lot to talk about. Uh today we're also tonight we're also going to add to that discussion an update on property taxes and district funding. This is a pertinent discussion at this time as many of you know probably following both state and federal news. um particularly state news. Uh there's been a lot of changes with regards to uh the way the state is funding schools and

002the way that property taxes uh law, property tax law and policy is being changed that could directly affect school funding and treasurer McGrath is going to be talking to us on that issue. So two really important issues to the schools and to the community. So, thank you everyone who is watching and uh who is here this evening. So, um call the meeting to order. >> Okay. >> Yep. Bailey >> here. >> Bouquet >> here. >> Hemp. >> Magnus >> here. >> We have a member Hemp is ill this evening and we all wish her a speedy recovery. So, Dr. Holden, I will now turn it over to you. There are only two items on this agenda and you have the first half. >> Thank you. Um, I want to make sure everyone is aware that

003that QR code will give you access to the presentation and flip book form if that makes it easier for you um to to follow along. So, I'm going to go through um as board president said um my presentation and then treasurer McGrath will take over from there. Um and if you don't mind, I have notes. So, sitting here makes uh can drive and talk at the same time. So, the state of the schools is always an exciting night for me because it's when we get to tell our story. And um I've been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack, so that's in that's in in my head. Um and I think it's important that we do tell our own story because if we don't tell our story, someone will tell the story for us. Um as I

004go through, please feel free to ask questions. There is time at the end of my piece um for questions. So, [clears throat] who we are, this is a snapshot of um our student body. As you know, Yellow Springs is just so unique. Um and that spirit shines through our students. They're confident, creative, unafraid to be themselves, and these are qualities that define our school culture. in FY25. This was the breakdown of our student demographics. Uh a total of 579 students enrolled last year. Um I want to point out two numbers. If you're looking at the screen to the to the right, um 103 students with disabilities that is roughly 17%. Um and then about almost 37% last year of our students qualified for free um or reduced lunch. This year, I do want to give

005you a comparison of where we stand right now. Um, this year, our student enrollment as of today, this afternoon, stands at 680 students. And I will say that our free and reduced lunch rates as of today are at 36%. So, we're seeing some um steady numbers today. our staff equally as unique um as our students and and I think you'll see some fun pictures from both from last year and then as we started this year. So who who are we? These are our staff demographics. Again, I'm going to point out some what I think are pretty important numbers. Um, 12% of our staff are US and then 45% of our staff have 10 or more years of educational experience. Okay. We we did a big thing um the voters did a big thing in November

006of 23. and they approved a significant $55 million bonding for us to embark on our master facilities project. And so on February 14th of of last year, um we had our official groundbreaking. And what is today? October 30th. not too far from that, but it seems like so much has happened. Um, so much of it has taken place, a lot more crowded people. So, for Mill's Lawn that, you know, Mills Lawn is um needs to get some love in this because people still love this building, they didn't want to change it quite so much. Um, but it did need some work. The floor plan will remain the same roughly. As you know, the grade composition is changing. So, at the end of the project, this this building we are in now will be a preK

007through grade 4 building. Here are some pictures. Some of these you've seen before. In the center is the primary hallway with lights and paints. Um to uh to the left is the a picture of a classroom with new windows. Um and then you see some of the concrete going in. Um and then the restrooms up top top right. So, if you've come out front by Short Street, you might have seen where they've laid the concrete for the patio. >> Oh, are they? So, they're making the room [clears throat] more accessible. There is actually a there will be a walkway that goes directly into the conference room. middle school, high school floor plan. You know, this is completely different. This center, if I can get my little pointer works here, but the center, the current gymnasium

008remains. Pretty much everything else goes. So, you can see at the bottom left is the high school wing, the bottom right the middle school wing. And remember, because this building is going to become a preK through four, the middle school high school will be grades 5 through 12. So bottom right, that was really the first thing that happened. The band room um was demolished to the joy of some and the consternation of of others. But um I've been in the new one and it's absolutely stunning. up top you see the new gymnasium and then um to the to the left up top is just an aerial view of of what the middle school wing looks like. Um there's a classroom down at the bottom and then the center bottom is really an aerial view of

009the new office area and the new walkway to get into the new office area. Um what I have for the board [laughter] to look at tonight and the public here we have our color boards for our elementary and middle school. Um we are to that stage of the project and um so at your leisure feel free to take a look and we had our meeting on Tuesday to go over all those. So when I say um we are moving along, we are moving along and both buildings will allow for really modern learning and learning where our children need. Okay, report card. Um this is our report card for the 2425 school year. um there is a overall rating of 4.5 and so that is determined by these six components. So achievement achievement is how did

010you do on the student test progress progress is how much are you growing gap closing how are we reducing the performance gaps whether it's achievement or growth between our student groups. So, are we growing our students with disabilities um as much as our students of color or our white students, etc. Graduation, we get both a four-year and a 5year graduation rate. Um early literacy, that is only grades K through three. And then college, career, workforce, and military readiness. So, even if you knew nothing about the report card, you should look at the stars and the colors to see what is good and what is not. We got four stars in achievement. That is good. Progress in gap closing. That is stellar. Two hardest components on this. Progress in gap closing. Graduation five. Early literacy three.

011Uh not bad, but we'll talk about ways where we're going to get better at that. College career, workforce, and military readiness one. I'm just going to tell you that this is what has caused us to be a 4.5 as opposed to a five. And there is a very real reason for that. And I've asked Mr. Howard to speak to that a little bit later. So I'm not I'm not going to go deep into all of the report card. I'm just going to talk about a few components and and what I think is a good takeaway from tonight. So this is achievement for English language arts. This is just one year achievement. So students who took the test in the spring, that pink line that you can see that goes across, that's the um goal. When

012when your students in a grade level are 85% as a group or more proficient, you have have met that as a grade level. You can see that we only have one grade level at that. Um, so a little troubling for English language arts, which I feel like as an English teacher that should be the best always. Um, but again, this is where we are with the >> I I know that that's kind of we'll talk about later, but I know that's been a basis problem, especially since the pandemic where fell off. >> I think part of it is from I'm going to say I know part of this writing um but there are lots of other things and and you're right things did fall off during the pandmic math um we are actually getting better

013and so this is um this is something to highlight and I want to point out that we have two grade levels that have surpassed the 85% um proficiency level and again this is not I'm not giving you cohort data so I'm not giving you students who were in fourth grade and then in fifth grade but just this is single year but last year in 2324 our grade 5 students performed at 81.4 grade 5 is 90.2 to. So, while it's not cohort data, we can see that we're doing the right things. We also do have new math curriculum. Um, so we have I ready for K5 and for 612 we have Carnegie Carnegie Math. Um, it was time for our regular adoption. So I think that will also support this algebra uh 77 last year was

01470. These are some some big gains. Grade 7 last year in in 23 24 grade 7 37.9%. Dropped to 55%. So kudos to our teachers for really sticking sticking with it. Science, you know, we did three science tests. Um improvement uh in grade 58. Uh biology has been pretty consistent. Again, we're not at 85%. So, um it's something to um reflect on and continue um making adjustments there. Social studies um you know, we're just about there in government and not quite in the US history. I will say these are down for us because historically we've scored in the 90s for these tests because we've had very strong studies instruction. And yes, placement is not in the achievement part of the report card, but I felt like it was important to include in this sequence because

015last year we had 68 students take 125 EP exams. Now, that's a lot for a school our size. And so what you see here are the percentage of students who scored a three or higher. You know you you have to get three as a minimum score to even get any credit for your AP work. um you know it is college dependent but when when we can have a 93% in AP seminar AP art 2D 100% 90% in AP US history we're we're really doing some um quality instruction in our AP courses even the two lowest AP chemistry and AP biology when we have more and half of students score a three or better that's that's good really good for AP progress this again if I told you that gap closing and progress were the two

016important measures if there's one slide that says we should be so proud of our students and our teachers for what they've done it is this one kind of hard to read here but let me explain this tells you how um much growth our students are making based upon past performance. So the highest is the dark color. So you see fourth grade is dark for ELA and dark for math and dark for all tests. So what the dark is um performed better than expected. There's significant evidence performed better than expected. So if it is uh the dark gray or the blue or the green that is amazing. The only two areas where it's pink and that is performed um less than expected significant evidence performed less than expected. That would be an American government and then

017seven. Carrie I had a question. So are they comparing fourth grade uh from this year to the fourth grade last year or they're tracking them third grade to fourth grade to fifth grade? They are tracking them by um cohort. It's evaluated. It's how teachers get their value data for their evaluations. And so what when do you say >> when you say by the cohort you mean uh for instance the class of 2032 you track them from one grade level to the next um this is gap closing. So in the gap closing measure they throw a lot of things in here. They throw achievement gap closing for only for math and LA. Growth gap closing for Min. They throw in chronic absenteeism. This is also where gifted education lives. So I just want to talk about

018growth for ELA and growth for math. So if it's a negative number, um I mean that makes sense. That's you're not growing. in fact you're falling behind. Um but you can see that for ELA um we are growing but not as we should. Now that probably not a s surprise um because we've seen our ELA numbers and so all of this connects and if you can read the student demographics down there. So the white would be all students. Um the the white uh bar math doing much better. Again, if you think back to the a few slides ago and our math achievement and our math uh progress, we're doing better there. Um so we're doing better in closing gaps. attendance. So overall um our attendance as a district was 92 um.9. Chronic absenteeism is reported

019in the gap closing measure. And so what I've given you is a comparison of last year, the last two years. So 232 24 and 2425 the state says you have to be below what maybe 13 12 or 13. >> They set a goal based on your previous year >> kind of that's the ultimate we are we have gotten better in each gap closing category. So, all students, we were at 24, now we're at 21, I think, points. I can't read that far. Nine. Our black students, again, got much better in terms of chronic absenteeism. There were there was only one group, our our multi-racial students that actually um had worse absenteeism in terms of the chronic absenteeism measurement this this past year. So that is good on a whole for me. Um as superintendent what

020I struggle with is that we are the third worst in Green County. So um we should we're a small local school district. We have bus transportation. We have access. Um we should not be the third worst in in county. Again that's a that's just an area for improvement. We have improved. It's an area for more improvement. [clears throat] Okay. Bright spots. As I said, math achievement, advanced placement, progress, gap closing. Um, our grad rates. Many times you'll see a district or a building report card where their achievement they might be four stars and they're gap closing. here too because they they are relying on their high flyers to continue to um perform well and they're not paying attention to all groups and all students. Okay. Um opportunities for improvement. You've seen it a little bit

021from the um previous slides. writing, ELA, science, social studies, early literacy. Um, the one star that was college, career, workforce readiness, and then attendance. Um, I want to say this with report card, and this is our last really report card slide. We could spend probably an entire day because this is so complex, but it's it's also boring. So, um I think we need to take this a piece at a time and really dive into it. Um but but I want um Miss Winston is going to talk a little bit about early literacy and then I want the principles to weigh in um on opportunities for improvement because that's where the work is going to happen and and they are aware and and I just want to chime in and say that I hope this morning

022I feel like a lot of parents don't have it. I think that I mean my experience in sitting in the faculty if I was really comfortable is that I was really proud and felt like the things that I learned in there um just gave me great confidence as a parent and you know as an academic and you know the work that the school puts in um you know its workforce puts in I think these are there's a lot of knowledge here and there's a lot of interest in solving these problems And I think, you know, informing the public about that, you should get every >> I probably wrong word choice. Um, it does tend to get dry and boring in meetings like this. >> We like to dive. >> I think this this data is

023best looked at in a small group setting where [clears throat] you can really dive into it. is complex and I think what happens when people encounter things that are complex that you may not be able to read or you may not be able to see on the front is that they start to tune. So um trying to respect that and that piece but I get that >> okay so like Dr. Holden mentioned um three stars in early literacy is is not bad and it's good but we knew that there was room for improvement. So I think the first thing we need to discuss is what does it measure and it measures um reading improvement and proficiency that is for our kindergarten through third grade students. So when students take their diagnostic test and they are

024considered not on track to be proficient as third graders, they are put on a rim. Um so that factors in to the early literacy component. So it measures how many students did you have on rims and how many students went off of the rims. It measures how many students were proficient on the reading test in third grade and were able to go to fourth grade and how many students were um promoted to fourth grade. So it's kind of like three different measures. They were proficient to go on to third grade. They were promoted to fourth grade. They were on a rim go off of a rim. >> Could you explain it when for us not go A read is a reading improvement plan. So those students have kind of an individual plan for reading um

025support. Um in the early literacy component, we were able to look at these results as a staff over the last couple of years. Again, we knew it was room um for improvement. We could um have some opportunities to get better. So, as a staff, we really focused on implementing the multi-ter system of supports um for students, really looking at the data, analyzing that data, and identifying what um needs students have, breaking them into small groups, breaking them into, you know, one-on-one groups, making sure that they were getting the correct um instruction. and supports interventions for that specific skill. So that's one of the things that we started on. We also started on working um on stamina with students. So you know many of you have students who take the math test. Teachers were giving them

026breaks. Well in third grade they don't get a break on the state test. So, we started increasing the amount of times the younger students were spending on the math tests because they don't get those breaks when they're in third grade. So, if they're used to all of those breaks and then they get to third grade and they don't have a break and they have to sit down and take a 90minute test, that was very difficult. So, we started working on that. We also knew that writing was a barrier. Um, so we adopted a new curriculum. we went to CKLA and the teachers immediately could see how the um rigor increased and how early the expectation was for students to start um writing. And then lastly, I will say part of this with the early literacy

027is in the building project and that is we will be increasing accessibility to the preschool. So, I think that will play a role into um this early literacy. Uh I know Mrs. Huber has a plan, an early literacy plan that she is working on this year. So, I'll let her go ahead and discuss that. >> All right. Thank you. So, really, we were just we're working on building the things that have already been put into place. And then one of the things that we implemented is a each grade level has its very own win time which is what I need time which is focused on intervention and enrichment. Um and that the the time is the same across grade levels. So it allows for flexible grouping so that we can really group students not based

028on their levels but on their either skill deficits or the skills that we really want to help them build up. So that's been really affected with that. um our intervention tutors are also with those grade levels at that time. So instead of having one teacher working with their own 17 to 20 kids, we've got four adults who are handling and intervention across 40 and 45. So that's been really effective. The other thing is we are really really um as an entire school focusing on writing, focusing on that vertical alignment, looking at what exemplar writing looks like in each grade level and understanding really breaking down what those standards are and what we need to be teaching. It's teaching reading can be very daunting. Teaching writing can be very daunting because you want to fix everything.

029And so part of it is really understanding what's my goal for this grade level, what's my goal for the next grade level. So we're doing um two weeks a month we're meeting integrated writing teams and really taking apart that and working on it. >> I will I will also mention and Becky I don't think you would mind me attending this but this topic um both of our dissertations are aligned to this work. So we are kind of working together on this as well. I have a few questions as well. She's not a current grader and um had another one before. I remember how steep yet was once said too. >> It's huge. And what we say is that they go from learning to read to reading to learn and it is a huge jump and

030the expectations of our huge jump. And so one of the other things we're doing is really um preparing them. Miss talked about stamina and so we're taking some of those benchmark readiness assessments and really um there there's a program where you can take the a mock state test and it will grade your writing with the AI the state uses and so part of it is understanding one understanding what great writing looks like but another what does it look like in this instance right you know a great story is a one thing a great opinion piece is something else so how those kids understand that difference And um just to add to that, I know that we've gotten great resources from the teachers to read to our kids and to get our kids to read. You

031actually applied it for sign this summer and it paid off. I'm realizing that um we are at least as I did not get guidance on how to foster writing especially during the summer. So is there something that families can do to support the school effort in improving writing and grades? And that's a good question. Yes, definitely. And that's um and as soon as I put this microphone down, I'll make a note because that's maybe something we need to really address in a literacy night is how do you help your student, right? Um and and the thing with writing is you have to take every student exactly where they are to help push them and to help them learn. >> But you also get you cannot do it. So I think you know I think your

032question is just spot on. I don't want parents to be afraid. Have your children write about anything and frequently because you get better at writing. >> Yeah. And I I would encourage you to include an occupational therapist. I mean, I learned so much um I don't know if they had this experience, but when we were at um the preschool is that they got a chance to spend time with the occupational narrative child and you know, they gave such great tips. Like one of them was um because you guys could see in his writing in his pictures um you know in his drawing that there were so many ideas there that he wasn't getting on because his his skills were underdeveloped. Right. So um but uh and I remember kind of like saying is that when

033they're when they when they act they when the teacher sees something like that one of the things that they would say is that instead of you know because fine motor is about writing small but if you start bigger then involves more of the gross motor skills which a lot of kids which more kids have um for their long development. So including you know simple things like that I think I mean it just really looked in the door for me encouraging my kids to like paint on the windows was so was one of the things that we did after that and you know it's it's something that we still struggle with those lessons I feel like still impacting uh impact our family positively each day. So, um I would really encourage you um to include that

034cuz I feel like those are things that you know those were the lessons that we could easily implement around that. I love that. And it also you don't want to at home try and even that such rigor that your student starts to rebel against you but beating beating strings is a great fighting motor test, right? And it's fun and playing board games increases a lot of that. even conversation that the the the more vocabulary students have. I'm blown away by the vocabulary of our students, the more vocabulary and experiences they have, the better writers they have, right? That topic or both what both board members talked about. Could you talk about the kind of the writing skills that they that they learn? Are they are they learning of course to write by hand? Are they

035learning handwriting? Are they learning typing? So they're they're doing both because it is important that we have both skills. Um and and nothing makes me happier than to see kids proud of their cursive. Um so there's cursive there is handwriting. Um but we also have typing club because one of the things that we noticed with um our third graders and you talk about the stamina and and taking those steps of writing if you're not comfortable typing um it's really it gets in the way of getting your thoughts out. So we are doing um paper pencil writing. We're doing typing and we're doing cursive. Um some classes they're you know kindergarten is making letters with Play-Doh and at the same time doing their writing. So we're trying to make it from a multimodal experience. >> And

036you mentioned using AI to grade writing and I know AI is always controversial topic. I think that could be served as a very good tool for teachers um in in contexts are maybe seeking treat training on how or there tools that are being investigated to figure out how they are and that was um both part of the summer institute with with both Mr. pattern and I um and one of the things we really like about it is um as a teacher you have certain ideas of what kids should be writing and sometimes it's nice to use that AI because there's no bias in the AI I don't want to say there's no bias it takes away the teacher bias or the teacher frequency notions of what the kids should be writing and helps it helps

037to level things out >> yes it also is a English professor writing writing is it you know takes a lot of time and so to in certain areas where AI I could do it effectively to relieve that time from the teachers allows more writing to be assigned. See Dr. Wman's point. Um I'll just make a quick observation as a college professor also with AI that the blue book exam is back and I do not think it's going away uh because of of issues uh with the access to having a answer make the answer for you. Right. Uh so and my students struggle to complete the tests on time because they just haven't gotten that skill down to handwriting. So just passing that on. So I'm really glad you are doing that. >> Yeah, I appreciate

038you doing that. >> All right. I'm going to talk a little bit about college career uh military and workforce readiness. Um, this is the first year that that shows up as a a scored item on our report card. So, the criteria for that was approved last February and last March. I went to my first meeting about it. Um, ultimately to find that they used the data from the year before. So, our report card data that you're seeing is actually from the class of 2024. Um and and essentially there are 11 different criteria that the state's looking for and that is how they are determining if a student is college, career or military or workforce ready. Um, of those 11 criteria, there are four that are very academic, such as a remediation free score in the

039SAT, an honors diploma, um, at least three or more AP um, passing at least three or more AP exams or 12 uh, CCP college credits. Um, then there's one if you enlist in the military. Um, but you also have to have taken the ASDA during high school. So if you enlist in the military but never took the ASVAD, it does not count for school. So there are a lot of different details that we have to pay attention to. And then the last six um are primarily based on um attendance at the career center. So, when you look at um us as a district, historically um we've sent between 68 and 72% of our students to two and four-year colleges when they graduate, which is a I think a healthy number. Um but when you look

040at it in terms of this, a lot of students who go to college and are wildly successful did not have the remediation score in their ACT. And a lot of schools have actually gone test optional now because they're finding the ACT is not actually a predictor of success in college anyway. So, so like when you look at their criteria, they have a lot that supports students who are strong academically and then they have a chunk that support the the students who go to the career center and then their measures um in my mind are somewhat missing for that middle group of students who still have all the tools to be wildly successful but did not fit into one of these um items or criteria from the state. With that said, um we as a district,

041we actually started stuff, if you remember last year, Julie Gunn coming in and presenting on IAPS. Um we have updated how we're doing our senior projects to try to get them to be not just a project, but focused on a career interest. Um this year we added in a new course for our seniors the first semester and our juniors the second semester called the experiential learning practicum. Um which will include a college uh CCP credit with it. Um, it gives our students an opportunity to look at how to apply for jobs, how to create resumes, um, actually how AI is reading resumes in the workforce. So, how to write their resumes so that AI will pick up on key points, um, things like that. So, so we have made kind of intentional changes actually beginning

042last year. So, next year school report card is based on class of 2025 data and we will be three stars next year. So adjusting the work we did last year, we went from one star to three stars. And then um our our goal obviously is to get to five stars, but we as a district, we want to be intentional about giving our kids what they need. Um and sometimes that isn't a perfect alignment with what a school report card will say. So if that makes sense. Um, an example would be it's easier for students to pick up 12 CCP credits than it is to pass three AP exams. Typically, uh, we find AP to be more rigorous, a more rich academic experience for our kids, but it's harder for them to pass it than if

043they would go to, say, a community college and take, uh, three or four CCP courses. So, as a district, we have a lot of AP inhouse. We did not have CCP in house. So, um, the the report card, this item could could force us to say, "Hey, we want to drop AP and add in more CCP." We don't know that that's necessarily the best interest of our kids, right? So, we're trying to balance what is in the best interest of our kids. With their criteria, like one item on their criteria is if the student after high school is accepted into an apprenticeship program, then they are marked as a meeting list. if they are accepted into college, they are not, which seems like a double standard. So, so like really our focus is how do

044we support kids where they need to be and where they want to go. So, historically in this community, we have not had many students go to the career center. So, so that is something we have intentionally tried to increase our students exposure to what they have to offer and tried to increase our students comfort with going there. A lot of students don't go there because of like social reasons more than like postsecary reasons. So, we are trying to to promote that differently and we went um I think last year's graduating class uh two years ago we had zero seniors at the river center. I think last year I want to say we had six I think we have I want to say 11 seniors. So like we have more kids going to the career center

045which I would anticipate will continue to help us grow. So it's it's not that we don't want this to be five stars. We just want to make sure we are doing right by our kids most importantly. Um and and I think we can get to where we are five stars on this and still hopefully have our kids in meaningful things. >> I want to make sure that I understood what you said. You said that one of the 11 criteria was the remediation score. >> Yes. Isn't that penalizing students that are in need of those recommendations and that might be also special education? >> It makes it really hard for a lot of students to accomplish that. Yes. >> That's that's usually problematic, >> right? So So in some ways, yes. And yes, it's very problematic.

046>> Good night. Um I I think I echo what K was saying in that of course this is a new criteria. Right. >> Correct. This is the first year scored and it's it's actually 18% of our building report card and 13% of the district report card. So it's it's weighted relatively heavily too on our overall rating. >> Right. And clearly coming from the state to incentivize certain activities on the parts of the schools. >> Correct. >> So is there and and problematic? I mean I not having gone into the weeds but just with this very effective work overview you just uh provided Jackie it it I already can see all the problems and there probably many more. Um so is there any discussion uh Terry among superintendent to go back to the state and say

047hey just like the one that Dorothy mentioned about you know kid has u extra time on the test because she's dyslexic why why aren't you counting her she could be you know extremely good student um are you are you is there any kind of state discussion at that level >> the superintendent have expressed their concern with this component of the report card because our concern is doing um [clears throat] I will say that I if this component changes in the future I'm just going to prepare everyone it's going to be more workforce items because that is the goal of the department of education and workforce um Ohio is making a real shift into um workforce development. And I'm not saying that I think that's bad, but it's going to make such a case that it's

048becoming the most important thing. Um so I think that's why um if this changes in the future, it will be more force um compliance and fewer academic. Is there anything that the board can do in issuing whatever statement to say like this is not meeting the needs of our students just to reinforce what superintendents have been sharing? I think you can always advocate for what's right for the district um both to you know to the Ohio Department of Education workforce and to OSBA through through OSBA. I think you know you see it you're going to see it in the treasur's presentation. There's just been a huge shift and it's about jobs and it's about which are important. Don't misunderstand me. And it's about jobs and it's about developing. I I could see a district where

049they have a lot of their students going the career tech path getting some recognition for their achievements. Um but it does also seem that some of the categories how they're constructed are are flawed. And and there are other like so so like just in our county if you look at Green View typically Green View sends over 50% of their graduating class to the career center. So their their community composition is much different than ours. It's a very rural district. Um so they send a lot of kids to the career center. They're maybe 85% of their kids are meeting this. You look at Cedarville High School, they have Cedarville College directly across the road. So almost half of their seniors are taking off the afternoon and walking across the street and taking inerson college classes. So,

050so like there are just different structural things that make it challenging. And even like you look at a a Beaver Creek in their size, they can hire a math teacher that has CCP the credentials to teach CCP in house because they have say 15 math teachers at the high school. We have two. So, so like there are just like structural challenges that we faced as well. Um, and kind of echoing what Dr. Holden said, this is coming up at the principal level. Um, and ODW is um they are kind of putting it back on politicians and this is coming from the politicians. We are just having to implement what they are saying. They did indicate that they expect an update on this in the next year or so. Um, but it sounds like it, like

051Dr. Holton said, it's really just going to be on the career side, um, as opposed to capturing. Um, but there are so many different academic achievements that our kids have that in my mind point to long-term success way more than what's on here. Um, that I would love to see those captured as well. >> But I think on a on a positive note, you know, I'm going to talk just briefly about STEM in a few minutes. I think our students with our new uh Python coding pathway, they can earn industry credentials, you earn industry credentials, you then meet this indicator. So, you know, it's not um all bad news. It's just I think the the system is designed um for different different schools. >> It doesn't seem it doesn't seem to be rewarding students that

052are actually improving. That's the thing. which is so counterintuitive about the connection to the Green County Career Center. How do our students learn or familiarize themsel with what is available at the center? >> Yeah, that's a good question. Uh so starting in 8th grade, all of our eighth graders travel out to the career center and they spend an afternoon out there um exploring different programs. And then when they are 10th graders, they go back and as 10th graders, the career center will actually send a rep out to our district. They will go through all the different programs that they offer and then our students get to actually pick and they get to go shadow in two different programs that they're interested in. So they spend half the the their time out in one program and

053then they go to the other program um so that they can make uh really a a um educated decision about it. But it's also something that um like our counselors, our high school counselors, they are spending more time at the career center. So we're intentionally having them go out more often so they're more familiar so they can present differently. Um the career center keeps adding more programs. They just bought 23 acres I believe to add more programs. could be more. >> Yeah. So, so it's I mean from a counseling standpoint, but again, we want to counsel our kids in a direction that matches their skill set and their uh long-term success. And um we always want to counsel our kids up and and not necessarily up into college, but you know, pursuing uh either go

054get a a credential here or if you're not planning on going to college, have you considered a trade school? um something postsecary. Um so so I think a lot of it we are are supporting through those IAPS. We are supporting through that experiential learning practicum that our seniors are doing. Um our senior projects this year they're they're they some of them have been so amazing. We have a a student who's planning on going to early childhood education who spent a ton of time at Milan working in an early childhood classroom just familiarizing herself and making sure that's an informed decision. So we're doing a lot to support our kids and I that will naturally carry over into this >> and the greener green healthy career center also offers summer camps for fifth and sixth graders

055where where students and children gets to go for a week or two and get to know those programs. I believe that it was advertised by the schools last summer. my career stated and it was great and I think it might be also a way to get families to know that part of this is driven by demographics right um in terms I know in the skill trades is that you know is considered an aging workforce and so um there's you know it just doesn't matter policy that growing weight in this direction makes sense and how you know this is like um this is the first or second year that this has been in place. >> It's it's been reported on the report card, but it never counted towards a rating. So, it would show what percent

056were going into each thing, but you never got a star rating on it until this year. >> Okay. So um but you know the the energy so but you know it's obviously just from the name of the um of department of education um the the change that it made there's an increased emphasis on part of this is strictly demographics but also the general expectation that it's a good direction for students to go. Um you mentioned the um the vocational uh uh proficiency exams that the air air force offers. Do you foresee seeing more of those come down, you know, other other choices? Um uh you know just trying to help students adopt to tra. So, so starting last year with our caps, we also did um our different exhibits where we had um an enlistment

057or expose an enlistment expo where we brought all the branches to militarian so our students could learn about it. We did an employment expo, we did um um a college fair, college expo. So, so, um, we did a lot of those and then like with the ASVAB though, um, historically we have not had it in our building. We've not offered it in our building. Um, so students can go like if a student was interested in the military, they could go meet with a recruiter and and they can take it through that recruiter. Um, we are opening it up if students want to take it, we are going to have an option for them to take it in house this year. So, so, um, again, we're just trying to give access. So, like even like our

058our college trip that we took this year, just last month, um, last year when we went, we did not have any trade schools. This year, we stopped at Hawking College, which is a a techn trade school or has a lot of tech and trade programs. So, again, we're trying to broaden that exposure for our students. And >> have you thought about, you know, visiting around um along the way? Is that something that you're talking about? >> Uh we we have not yet, but we would definitely be open to I think it's especially good to see uh around so reserve training for folks who don't know what they um that's how actually they they form my graduate system. So, um I think it's really good to get experience with a wellestablished proxy detachment. Ours was brand

059new and I would not recommend going to one that's brand new because they're still technicians. Um but uh it was still an excellent experience and I I think that it it's but it's a challenge added on top of the other academics students are taking but I think it could be an interesting option for those students. >> Thank you. Um, I'm almost finished here. I just want to tell the rest of our story because our story is not just about our report card and and in the following slides, this is what makes us different. So, you know, the district has done PBL for about a decade. Um, this past August, we had a kind of a refresh and a foundational training for all staff and instructional assistants. and it was um pretty amazing. So I think

060in the future you can expect to see some amazing projects from our um students like any resources that you know might be good to get from the community because those are usually good to refresh your project based learning. you know, there might be some, you know, using the newsletters or the communication to put out calls for that. A good thing to do. >> Um, STEM education, we've really only been formally focusing on it for about two or three years. Um, so it's pretty embedded here in Llon. We have the um coding pathway high school. We also have um our career center um partnership with the engineering sequence. So um again that's important for us. Mr. Hatter and I are in a bridge to STEM cohort as we explore steam designation which is STEM plus the

061arts um for our buildings um in the district. So stay tuned for that. You can see there is such joy uh in our children when they um participate connected to PDL and really our our STEM education efforts are are is our focus on the design thinking process. We kind of grab this from our work with the League of Innovative Schools. And so um we are working on continuing to push this out K12 all content areas and it's really a an iterative process. um it assumes failure, but it's a way to problem solve and and what I like about it and think is good for kids and and the reason it's a good fit for us is that empathy is at the core of this process. And so you attack problems, but the first step is

062I'm going to empathize with those folks for whom this is impacting. Um and so has been working with Mr. pattern on rolling this out um in a meaningful way at the middle school high school that we have then um pushed in performing and visual arts. You know, this is uh part of our DNA. Our students have access to band and orchestra and drum line and combo music and choir and um script analysis and stage um visual arts. They can take oil painting and ceramics and sculpture and digital photography and art history. And again, for a district of our size, um this is truly uh an incredible thing. Um and I I think I would put our arts program um up against uh any others um and say, you know, we really do an amazing job

063and continue to improve on that jump. And I think with our facilities as we transition there, it's just going to make a make a world of difference. We also have what I call unique opportunities here that I know students don't do in other industries around here. Um, so our bike curriculum in PE class to encourage our students to participate in the bike bus. That's our band students. If you don't know what that group of kids are at some museum in Chicago um on their trip to Chicago, bottom right, a college visit. This is when they went to Berea College. Um our safety patrol doing an amazing job there. And then um the PJ costume parade which is tomorrow by the way I think 1:30. And then again, similar to unique opportunities, um this is is

064really what makes us community, courage, change, opportunity. So you see here images of um the Mills Veterans Day program. You see the walk around the village um the historic walk um where they wound up at the wheel of gaunt um statue. You see students reading their essays at the Martin Luther King Day celebration. Um you see images from Hispanic Heritage Month and and Black History Month that are studentled um learning experiences and celebrations. Um this is what makes us Yellow Springs. And then finally, our students um have the ability to participate in a wide array of extracurricular athletics and clubs that you see here. You see our little cheerleaders always a pack night in the winter when they come to a basketball game and then a chess club that goes long and then some high

065school friends. Thank you reminder of why we love this all of us. It's 20% of meals on speech to remind us everyone. This is amazing%. I had a question just to follow up on one area that you may have covered but I just a little bit more detail. Um it was great to see the gap closing. Could you um principles maybe why do you think that that is happening? have you having been kind of drilling down on to uh what is enabling this this gap closing and you you mentioned the math curriculum and this is a big part of that any other point I I think the princess principles can speak best to this but I will say that in both buildings they hold excuse me they live in BLTs where they look at data

066you know they look at how students perform from our informative assessment ments from our map data from our they will use the state data to the degree that they can and say okay what is this telling us and how do we make improvements that way for for all students but also for those unique groups you know how are we meeting the needs of our um students with disabilities. So if we look at math scores and we see that okay these students who are scoring below grade level you know if half or more are students from a certain group then that's a trigger for us like we are we have to back up because maybe doing something instead of I also want to I and the one where I get here I the passion and the

067skill of our teachers pulling students working with students oneonone working them in with in small groups um paying attention to what skills need to be built up paying attention to the other things that students need in order to be successful academically. Probably making sure that their environmental concerns are taken care of. Making sure they feel safe while they're at school. Um I I I can just say it's all about the data. Um but those teachers are passionately working hard every single day too. Very important. >> I want to add on the teacher piece and then also um as a new curriculum. So so we brought in new curriculum throughout the last few years which I think certainly makes an impact. um maybe a year and a half or two years ago, you all improve you

068all approved um courses of study for all of our middle and high school courses where our teachers took a step back and said, "What are we teaching? What order are we teaching it in? How are we assessing it?" So, I think just exercises like that that take you back to the kind of the root of what we're doing and why we're doing it. Um in terms of just the academic side, um I think helps make a difference as well. But our teachers are rock stars and they should be commended. Thank you, Rox. Thank and I really glad to see it. We absolutely agree that that is such an important statistic that speaks volumes to the dedication of our administration and our educational staff. And then I guess my second question was on the um you

069know I think school districts across the state probably in the nation are dealing with that absentism and I know that it especially co intensified that we've kind of come around back from from that but um absenteeism can be caused by so many different factors uh from just you know family hardship but to the sense of safety you're from bullying to uh just endemic patterns with kind of a socializing well my friend's coming late I'm going to come you know um what are you again kind of the same thing what what are you identifying as some key causes of that soon intractable 20% is probably affecting culture that is a I feel comfortable talking about >> thank Yeah, I'll defer to my work. >> I went to the school. >> From from talking with us, I

070have a sense that sometimes we feel that family experiences that happen during school days are more valuable than being in school. I'm I'm hearing a little bit of complacency from families about this. And this is this is something that I hope that will will convince my piece that being in school matters matters a lot and that it's a detriment when we are being [laughter] >> I would add one thing >> extreme absences do not um improve your chronic absenteeism rates. So also sometimes there are reasons that students are not able to attend. If you have a lot of doctor's appointments or if you are ill, even though they are excused even though you have a doctor's note, you still get the note that you are chronically absent. So um [laughter] sometime I I think that

071can be a little bit unfair when you know there's not an ability for the student to attend school. they have, you know, [laughter] you have to go to a doctor's appointment, it still counts against you as being chronically absent. >> Well, that's a good point because I I don't know if everyone necessarily realized that any absence, including for health reasons documented by doctors are also counted into >> I think attendance take another um all absences are counted in chronic absence in the chronic absent days. In a sense, being in school is important. We know there are reasons why students miss school. Our goal is to limit them so that we can do the job that we need to do. Our teachers are amazing. They are rock stars. But they can't be amazing and they can't

072be a rock star with your child if your child is not present at school. I remember that that's true. You were tracking excused absences and non excuses and it was it was it was a part that was for you know excuse for medical reasons and and as a parent I will tell you it's so hard to schedule an appointment after school. sometimes it means delays, months and years of delays versus that means regular appointments. Um but last year the data showed us that it was u it was more like a choice of not and and so this is where I think that there is a communication piece that we need to continue in terms of trying to avoid >> and this came up in last year. Um I remember there was some hope that you

073know especially as we you know have new uh uh digital policies um it's going to increase engagement and um you know and improve the socialization of the students and the um the social involvement of the students. And you know the hope is is that you know there's there's the growth that you have in your family where the people feel like it's family here and that there's value here and there's a place for them here and there's uh you know I I in in line with that is that I'm very excited to see where the school district takes this initiative um because science technology uh engineering and math is you you know, in the first 200 generations, right? But you don't get anywhere that art was interest um to make impact without that creative development, without

074that personal involvement. And so I love the investment that we made in the art and you know you can see it in the buildings you know you can see it in the space that we held and um and the the space on our um in our hallways um and it means that we're making space for students and so um this is going to be you know be you know an area of growth and link thinking that success in art and success in science and math. I mean math and we were talking about this in school today. Um is that you know math is again that first agency and it's a place where you know if you're successful or not math is the thing that can just turn into. So, it's great that we have these

075different areas in academia where students can individually excel at seeing how they support each other. I think is even more. So, I'm excited to see where that head is. >> Thanks. Yes, very exciting. Uh, so I think no other questions the question and so thank you again Dr. Holden for again a very thorough report uh providing both the balance of the strengths and the challenges for the schools. Uh thank you also Miss Winston, Mr. Hatter, uh Mrs. Hooer. It was very very informative and I encourage the the community can always reach out to the school district if you have any uh thoughts or questions uh or concerns. and uh we as always continue to try to address them. Um, do we need a five minute break or do we go straight ahead with your everyone?

076I will go straight ahead unless I see some people saying please a break. >> You good? Okay, then >> Jay treasure, could you take us in a different direction? Unfortunately, one that we may not have. >> Yes, very different direction. uh I've appropriately addressed the occasion [laughter] um >> and I want to thank you for putting this together um because there just a lot of questions that the board has had and the community has had and so really appreciate kind of getting us up to speed what that means all these political changes mean for us here. >> Yes. Um so with the building project and our um substitute Levy uh you know I spent a long time over the past couple years um providing a lot of information to the community about how property taxes

077work. Um I would say I had [clears throat] great amount of attendance you know 20 something people there sometimes. So um for a community the size that that is a huge amount of attendance especially about such an exciting topic um and um now we we are seeing a lot of changes coming our way. So um a lot of the information that I've given out over the past several years is is changing rapidly. Um, [clears throat] and the the news is very focused on a lot of the stuff that's going on with the federal government. But I would say um what really impacts people and families in Ohio, the biggest changes are happening at the state and the state level of legislation. So, um, this is something that, you know, it doesn't get a lot of

078press coverage, but this is something that people really should be paying attention to, um, because it affects us every every day or, you know, as far as schools once a year when a lot of synergies. Okay. um my monthly financial report you guys see and when you do the 5-year forecast or just the the forecasts now um state and local share we we know that the majority of our school's funding comes from local funding and then a large portion comes from state funding as well. Those are the the two biggest funding sources we have. We do get federal money but that's a relatively small portion of our funding. The biggest portion is state and local. Um and and how that works determining how much your state share is how much your local share is the

079uh state looks at actual costs. They collect our financial data every year and that gets inputed into their formula. And then the state cost also does their calculations based on local wealth. That's property values, income tax, um the number of students that you have, specific student needs. Um so those are the factors going in that determine how much the state is going to contribute to your district. [clears throat] Every district in the state of Ohio has their own unique um state share. Yeah, the majority of the state chair comes through um what is called the fair school funding plan. When the state uh and they they approve this every year or every two years in their their bianium budget. Um and when they only update certain inputs, the results are the local capacity for pupil

080um increases. Um and the state share decreases and there we're seeing more schools going on. The guarantee the guarantee is that uh the state looks at your funding and say we guarantee you're not going to get um less money than you did the year before. So um we are reliant on them updating this every two years. If base cost inputs are updated the statewide um base for pupil serves as a counter to increasing local capacity. What would increase local capacity? Local capacity is every 3 years we have our update from the county auditor on property values. And so every 3 years the state that gets factored in and this is going to see you have more local capacity. And then one of the big pieces of the last Wyoming budget was the legislature did not

081update the base cost inputs in the budget bill. This cost public schools approximately $1.8 billion over the um budget. Let me show that on the chart here. So, um started way back in 1999. Um and then, um 2022 was the first year of the new fair school funding plan. Uh I don't know in pop quiz. Does anybody know how many fair school hunting plans there have been since the state started contributing? Four four different plans the state has has said, you know, this the state's been contributing and every once in a while it goes to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court says, how you going state funding for schools is not constitutional. And they say come up with a new plan. So 2022 is the latest rendition of the fair school funding plan. um that

082was using FY18 data. They didn't update that until um FY24. FY 18 data was used because during FY22 we were dealing with COVID and there was a lot of moving parts going on. So they used what they considered the last normal academic school year they had data on. Um then for FY24 they used the most recent data that they had which was fiscal year 2022. this year 2025, it didn't update it. The reason it didn't update is it's a two-year budget. That's pretty standard. So, what you see the two errors are when they they did their update. And then FY26 is when you would expect them [clears throat] to update that data. They have our fiscal year 24 data. They had all the ability to implement fiscal year 2024 data. They chose not to because

083they they said the state said that they could not afford the fair school funding plan. That that is the argument that we have received. I'm going to take a brief minute to look at our history. Let me go back. >> Just note the state share percentage column. from FY99 to FY27 >> and that's for us. >> No, that's for >> that's what the state. Okay. >> So the state share has continuously decreased and when the shakes share decrease decreases the share goes up our >> yes because the lack of uh keeping up with inflation. >> Yes. Um [clears throat] yeah that that is an important factor that city share percentage is the total percentage statewide. We will talk about our local percentage what we get from the state but that is the average. So in

0841999 when they started they were contributing you know almost 50% of the cost of educating students. Now they're they're down to um [clears throat] 35% and going down even further. and some of these other measures we'll be talking about later. The the state is looking to um reduce even more funding that they provide through taxes, property taxes. So I have a long history here of local support and what what we have done locally. Uh all of these I will will say that you know and this is out there this presentation. Um but everything that you see in blue is is passages um by the Yellow Springs community through Yellow Springs schools. PI levy. This is the PI levy that we still have today. Um and we'll talk about why it is so important that we

085remove that permanently later. um 1993 um all the way through. So um continue to renew. You can see our emergency leaves that uh November 2012 that is our last ask for new operating money. So, it has been over 10 years since we have increased property taxes for operating purposes. Then towards the end of this slide, you see this is this is where we get into the building issue. Then November 2023, the this is the the actions since I've been here and since a lot of the board members have been here. Um PI levy renewal that was permanent so we will never have to ask for that money again. Um but it was renewed probably four times and then for that was supporting the project. We will be using part of that for yes our over

086requirement at the end of the project. >> There was a roll back right >> the state um so all levies that were created prior to 2020 or 2014 um include a 12% roll back from the state >> which is no longer available. So that's >> so after 2014 if you passed the new levy that 12% does not come from the state. This was a renewal. So, it included the 12 and a half% and that's why it was so important to um [clears throat] renew that and make it um that we it was a great decision to make it permanent because we'll talk about some of the legal changes um coming up. Um [clears throat] and then at the same time that we did our PI renewal, we had our combination bond and income tax also

087that would not be an option in the future. Um, we failed a substitute in March 2024 and then we passed our substitute last November. Um, since 1993 we've had 20 levies and of those only eight were for new marketing and then the last new operating levy was in 2012. So when they talk about voter fatigue, this is one of the things that they're talking about. You know, I know that's a a long time span, but more than half of the time that the school district has been on the ballot has simply been to [clears throat] maintain the funding that we have. state share continues to decrease. Um the state did not update all the components of the fair school funding formula. More districts are going to receive the minimum 10% of the state chair and

088then the house bill 96 that cut income tax. Um income tax was started in the state. Uh I learned this uh just yesterday back in the 1970s uh when they were going there was also a big time of property value inflation going up then housing crisis and that's when they did house 920 that's when floor [snorts] um [clears throat] and the state also started implementing income tax and a lot of that state the state income tax was to be directed at providing property tax relief. Um so when they did this cut from tax year 2025 to 2026 for the highest income earners um from 3.13% to 2.75 it's $1.5 billion that is not available to provide relief or provide funding for schools. So um not not a constant change for schools. The problem with state

089funding is it is not keeping up with costs. So even that the state can say oh we gave more money to public schools this year than we did the year before. Well, $10 today is not the same as $10 5 years ago. I think everybody knows that the purchasing power goes down every year. So, you can't just look at what is the dollar amount that the state's contributing to public schools. You have to look at the percentage of operating costs. Um, and if you adjust for inflation, uh, state support has only grown by 1% over the last 22 years. So has grown but percentage wise it has gone down which was indicated in the earlier slide. Global share is the portion of the funding that that comes from taxes approved by voters in each community.

090I think this is very important. uh inside me that we every um everybody pays inside knowledge and there's uh 10 inside meals and it goes to all your different local entities. Um but besides that inside knowledge everything that we get from the voters are voter approved collectives. Now uh 20 mil floor makes that a little bit convoluted but we have asked for the funding from from our community. So that is the the voters speaking and voicing that they want to support these initiatives at our school whether that's a permanent improvement budget or a building issue or operating expenses. So um [clears throat] the amount each district asks locally depends on how much the state is willing to contribute. Um our student enrollment the cost of of doing business and then you know whatever the state

091does not cover is what has to be created locally. So [clears throat] that's what dictates how much student is at at the school. We have limited options for raising local money and that's property taxes and we are one of the districts that also does income taxes local funding trends. Um a lot of people and and this is I will say this is something we know it's coming people have been talking about property taxes going down. Um, in 1991, homeowners and farmers paid 47% of school property taxes. Today, they pay at least 7% of school property taxes. We're going to talk about a couple of reasons for that. Effective rates, we've talked about this in the the past as well. Um effective rate is when when when a levy is originally voted on it may say

092uh 9 mills but as property values and basic is set to collect like our substitute levy is set on that our substitute levy collects 1.975 million that is what [clears throat] it's designed to collect and as property values increase whether that is through a reappraisal or in addition to somebody's home. Um the effective rate for the community drops so that [clears throat] the property taxes collected is the same amount. If you pay $100 with a substitute levy and this year you're going to pay $100 or less for for all time until it expires. So tax reduction factors reduce uh the effect of millage so that it doesn't you know don't um like if you're paying $100 this year you pay $100 next year even if your property values go up reduction factors did not apply

093to inside millage you get four inside mills of the the 10 we share that with the city and the 10 we share um and with the library as uh fixed dollar loan levies, bond levies. Um so there's a couple levies that that it doesn't apply to. Um and they just have a couple different rules as functioning. The general operating levies, you say that you want to collect a million dollars, you collect a million dollars no matter what happens, the property values. And then what happens is the uh the 20 mil floor the 20 mil floor was another compliment from the the 70s that um [clears throat] property um effective rates were dropping. So they they did this so that as property values increased people's property taxes would be increased but school districts were you know

094they were on the same level funding and the states that you know they were on about all the time and they they did something about it and then that's when they set the 20 mil floor and this is the bare minimum that state that that school should receive from their local community. The four inside mills are part of our 20 mill floor and that is when you see um reappraisals to affect tax rates and tax rates go up on the 20 operating notes that you have. Now if your property value goes up by 10% that does not mean that your school taxes go up by 10%. Only the 20 that apply to the floor. So, um, [clears throat] the the bonds are substitute levy. They do not apply to the 20th floor. So, it's not

095that all your school taxes go up under reappraisal, just the portion that applies to the 21 floor. And again, this has been bio 197. Yeah, it was a 70s and I don't know exactly schools are limited in the types of levies that we do and they're about ready to get even more limited. We have property taxes, we have income taxes, and those are the types of funding that we can use. To emphasize, the 20 mil floor state law prevents the total effective mill rate from dropping below 20 ms. Um and this is the minimum requirement ensuring um that the local community is providing a baseline of local funding and then once the district reaches the 2004 floor 920 that causes that effective rate no longer applies and then that is when I [clears throat] said

096you see property tax revenue just grow property value This chart here explains why there [clears throat] is so much talking about this, why the state is doing something about it. Um if you these dots represent the increases the the average increase in property values during reappraisals going back um to 1923. You can see that from 1980 to that they were there was never an average increase greater than 10%. And then way over on the right you see the average increase jumped to 20%. So, schools that were operated on the 20 mil floor and and local residents, um, you know, every 3 years to see your total property tax bill go up by two, three, you know, maybe 5% because of um the reappraisal, it's not something that's so alarming, but when people did see that

097their property tax bills were going up 10, 15 20% based on their reappraisal. You know, that's not money that people are you're not getting paid for the value of your home. You do have to pay your property taxes. Um that's when the state legislator said, "We need to do something about this." So, we've known that this was coming. What does this mean for us locally? Our state share is 23 and a2%. Which means that local taxpayers provide approximately [clears throat] 76 12% um of our funding. You saw that uh slides back where the state average is 35%. So are we below the average? Yes. Um, you know, is that fair? Maybe yes, maybe no. But I I will say one thing that is a positive from this is it does um having a higher local

098share does strengthen a district's ability to weather some of these storms um when there's questions in federal funding and state funding. So, so I would say that there's one positive factor. Um we are at the 20 mil floor after the last reappraisal. The latest substitute levy for operating expenses was passed in November 2024. Our cash balance policy requires 60 days of reserves or we have to consider action to to do something about it. Our cash balance is projected to be 7.8 8 million at the end of this fiscal year, which is 190 days of operating reserves. Changes in state um funding. Ohio now ranks 45 and the nation for state funding for public schools. Part of this happened back in 2005. I remember this uh I had been in high school. They eliminated tangible personal

099property tax for businesses. Um so that was when a lot of school districts that had large businesses in their district uh they were using that funding to uh do building projects uh to build things. um this change happened and that funding went away. So businesses started paying less taxes to schools in 2005. The state used to cover 12 1/2% of our property taxes. That PI le you were talking about we did 12% of that from the state. In 2014 they changed that. They were no longer providing roll backs of any less pass after 2014. This is just another way that the city is chipping away at the money that they're going to provide to schools. Um so they're getting out of the the roll back business and then um rising home values is higher property

100taxes for families. further reductions of um of the state share. They failed to update the base cost. There are a couple measures going through that um they're not finalized yet, but we are 99.5% sure these measures are coming and are going to pass in some form of fashion and they have finished. They are capping growth on the 20 mil floor. Um so the 20 mil floor growth that would happen if your home increased by 20%. What they are going to capture is the growth in GDP that had uh over [clears throat] the last 3 years. So we're not going to get all the growth from the property values. This is something that's in uh if my house bill is correct 186 bill 186 >> 186 um [clears throat] caps the growth on the 20 mil

101floor to inflation but they have taken out the language that factors that into the fair [clears throat] school funding plan. So the fair school funding plan that determines, you know, property values that determine how much your local share should be, they're going to give us all the property value growth like we're receiving that money and we're not. And we're not going to get so we're not going to get the growth on the floor and our [clears throat] state share is also going to go down based on the increase in our local property values. So, it's sort of a double whammy right there. Um, I said we we knew this was coming. We we think something has to be done to address the drastic increases of property values, but we don't think we should be penalized

102subtly as a school district. Um, it also eliminates emergency levies with a couple caveons. Substitute levies will no longer be an option. So the substitute levy we passed will no longer be an option. Combination levies, the lev we used and we are using to do our building projects is not going to be an option for other schools. Now you know we have to feel fortunate here that we were able to do it before this but that is something that other schools could could desperately. and then renewal levies. And why renewal levies matter is [clears throat] that 12 1.5%. The PI levy that we renewed and we've renewed and we've renewed and we renewed. Thankfully, we've renewed it permanently because we would not be allowed um I think you get one more renewal of of renewal

103levies and then after that you're not allowed to renew them again. So um by not allowing renewals, the state makes sure that they're not going to pay that 12 1.5% that they've been paying for all those renewal leies. Emergency and substance to levies are going to get rolled into the 20 mil floor. They don't currently count towards the 20 mil floor. So we get our 1.975 million. it doesn't count towards the 20th floor. So, we get the 20th floor. What this is going to do, and this is going to happen in tax year 2026, um it's going to lift us off the floor. So, right now, when there's a reappraisal being on the 20 mil floor, we would expect to see some revenue growth. We will not have revenue growth in property taxes in 2026

104because they're going to add this to our 20 mil floor calculation. We'll we'll say, you know, it was working. >> How how far away from 20 mil floor? That's >> I can't say >> any indicative guess. >> Um when it was passed it was nine mills. >> Yeah. So in three years it will be be between zero and nine mills. >> So pretty far away from >> um it it depends on how quickly property values grow. So yeah, a few years away from being on floor and seeing growth there. Um also current legislation on school funding council bill 186 and 335 cap the growth on the 21 floors of inflation. Um [clears throat] but this does not adjust the value for the fair funding plan. Council Bill 129 eliminates the ability to run new emergency

105levies or renew substitute levies as October the 2004 in tax year 2026. Eliminates roll back on future letters to the state again that they don't want to give that money to schools and you're going to have to come up with it locally. So, as citizens, I would say this is this is your biggest concern because the state are doing these measures and and we all everybody seems to agree some sort of property tax relief, some sort of capital on growth. We knew this was coming and we expected this and um it it is perfectly reasonable. But the state reducing the amount of money that they are giving to schools is a property tax or [clears throat] a tax increase for local residents across the state. Everybody is going to have to pay more to keep

106your schools open. Council Bill 309. Um, this is a a very uh kind of dangerous one. I think it's something uh every year we we do our property or our our budget that we sent to the county budget commission. It will give them the authority to reduce voter approved levies except that um they can override local school boards levies. Uh we we send the amount that we're requesting that the county budget commission collect on our behalf. This is then this is part of our January meeting. We do it every year. You guys approve the budget that I'm sending to the county budget [laughter] commission. It's a very um >> you know, >> so our committee can approve a levy. We vote. passes and then he goes to the county and the county says no you're

107going to get less >> to get into the weeds they are not allowed to touch any new less for 5 years >> okay >> so more than 5 years ago they say no you're going to get less >> they they can say um you know so if you pass an operating le and we'll just say for you know a million dollars um [clears throat] after five years they could look is your operating levy that's collecting a million dollars and the county budget commission could say we don't think you need that money we're not going to collect it for you now there are some restrictions and they have to have a hearing but it's taking something a process that was very uncontroversial this half this that every January I usually get some questions about what is

108this I say this is we have to do this to send to the county budget commission so they're allowed to collect our taxes for It has been running like a welloiled machine the entire time I have been a treasurer very smooth. They they give us information. We give them information. They can collect the taxes on our behalf. Um this is giving them authority to override voters and to override what student. >> Yeah. So these four um bills they are currently sitting in the Senate local government committee. The Senate has passed them and will send them back to the House which will then send them on to the governor and these will be approved by November 19th off. And I can tell you Jay's done a good job of talking about this, but there is so

109much more that is coming. And so why are we talking to you about this tonight? We could have spent the entire evening on the report card and um the amazing things that we're doing here and and we are talking to you about this because we are asking you as citizens pay attention. you will hear us, one of us, both of us at every meeting from here on out speak to this. Um, you know, Jay mentioned uh briefly this piece that's out there about let's just put a constitutional amendment on the ballot in November of 26 to eliminate property taxes. Sounds lovable, right? No problem is is um it would be catastrophic and it would be catastrophic because you would lose village services, roads, you would lose senior services, you would lose library services, you would

110lose school services. There's talk that we can make it up with increased sales tax and income tax. Even doubling that does not [clears throat] make enough money to account for the loss in property taxes. There are also lots of other um what I'm going to call tangential impacts of this. So, I guess Yellow Springs, the Yellow Springs community is a very highly educated community. Um, and honestly, streets smart and I am I am asking everyone, pay attention, ask questions, don't be fooled. I think we need property tax relief. If you if you were on the school's parentswear uh chain, you've seen my letter along with uh my colleagues, my superintendent colleagues in Green County. And on this we are aligned. We need property tax relief, but fal property tax relief and not property tax relief

111on the backs of our students and on the backs of our communities who value value their public schools. We see them as the heartbeat of each place. So, um, you know, you might have questions for Jay, but while we were on this slide, I just wanted to to tell you this is I wish I wish I could say, "Hey, this is it. This is this is this is just the beginning. So, um, pay attention." >> Yeah. So, this this slide has the four that we know are coming. In addition to these four, um [clears throat] there are or I guess including these four, there are over 20 different bills addressing school funding and school operations um and property taxes that affect us at the legislature right now. These are the ones with the most momentum.

112These are the ones that are coming, but there are a bunch more out there. Um now one of the things that uh we had a had a meeting about this yesterday. One of the things that that was discussed was um [clears throat] the legislators looked at like a a doctor with prescriptions about how all these bills interact when you combine them together. And and that is one of our concerns is that a lot of these different bills um you know they impact each other. So they're they're pushing them all forward at once. Um and like I said, you know, taking like a new medication, you wouldn't go to the doctor and be like, "Hey, I'll take 10 new prescriptions and try them all out at once." Because if you have any side effects, you don't

113you don't know what's causing it. Um there are over 20 bills addressing property taxes and school funding and the and the um legislature. >> Just to follow up on Dr. Holden's point, just make some quick math. uh that 1.5 billion that has gone back to higher income earners in the state, if you divide it by the 607 school districts in Ohio, that would send just under $2.5 million to every single school district in the state. Uh so just to kind of put it into perspective that that one kind of tax relief for the wealthy is uh equaling just flat not considering any differences flat 2 and a.5 million for everyone. Can I can I add to what you say? Um I think I think that the presentation here shows that our property taxes are high.

114We know that right? Uh we also see that there are history below for state fundation. Ohio is making 45 in this country right but the state base is to reduce more school funding and we're getting such a raw deal on our taxes because in addition to the billion and that you are talking they're actually $4 billion that are sitting in a rainy rainy day fund at the lecture right now. So when we say that they can't afford it, they have $4 billion out there already where they could help out and they wouldn't have to uh undercut the schools. And also every year the state gives away 12 billion dollars in tax breaks to the wealthy and to the corporations in this country with a negative return on investment. There's studies that came out this week.

115They are not getting their money back for the tax breaks. They are not So the the the the argument that the schools are responsible for high property taxes, that's a fact lie. That's just a lie out there. There's a money out there to support our schools to get the state to support our schools. >> There's a we talked a long time about workforce development, right? So as an educator, I think there's a real connection between workforce development, right? And the quality of the state's public school system and the quality of the state's public school system is partially determined by how much money the state puts into that and and the importance that the state places on that. So if you're attracting businesses, one would think that businesses want to come to a state that values

116education and and places puts financial investment in it. So somewhere I think um down the road in Columbus there's a there's a mismatch. Um I I will also say if you look at the budget bill um there was a considerable amount of money also that went um to a little stadium by a river up north. Um and when I say considerable, I mean 600. >> Yes. So um just I just asked if you you pay attention. >> Yeah. So, one of my job as treasurer um of a school district is to not just um to protect the money that taxpayers give us um and to make sure that it's being spent responsibly. Um so, it is to make sure that the money that that's given us is handled normally, but also um I have an

117obligation to um protect the community's future. And that's one of my concerns is seeing how these changes are going to be an increased cost to the people that have supported us for so long. Um, when you look at athletic history, there's shopping passages. This is a community that supports education. This is a community that supports the schools. Um, and we do our best to make sure that we're being responsible with the resources to give us. Last new operating levy in 2012, over a decade before, we've asked for increases to our revenue for operating costs. I think we all know that the building project was a big asset community and they did support it. So, yes, that is big. We have maintained our operations for over a decade with the money provided to us by the

118community. Um, and there's been some things that have helped. Uh, you know, some increases in federal funding, some increases in the state funding in the past couple of years. The the new fair school funding didn't work for us in the past. This year you you've seen on our forecast that we are getting less money from the state this year than we did last year because and and I would say that would not happen if they had updated the base class. We would have seen growth in state funding this year if they had kept up with the numbers that were required to provide them. they they make us provide our financial numbers and then they say this is important for us to do and then they don't use the numbers that they give them. Um so

119public schools are seeing a loss of $1.8 billion. Private schools are seeing $2.44 billion over the next binding budget going to private schools. That's public tax dollars funding private schools with the school voucher program. And then yes, the the state needs $600 million. Uh they're also looking at the way that they pay school administrators, including restrictions on that. They're giving $600 million to uh an organization. The average salary is $2 million. The average Browns player gets $2 million a year. There's 53 of them on the roster. >> So what can you do about it? Um, yeah. So, we ask you for help. This is where we're going to ask you for your help. Um, if you are concerned about these things, what you can do is you can talk to your legislator. This is their

120contact information. We have Brian Lamp and Levi Dean and Senator Kyle Ker. Here's their contact information. so that you can talk to them about these things. What are some of the things that you could discuss with them? House Bill 186 and 335. We understand the need for limiting growth on the 20th floor. Um but the limitation on growth should apply to the assessed values used in the fair school funding. It's not fair to reduce our local income by limiting property um tax growth, but then include the whole value increase in our fair school funding plan and say that the state's going to give you less because you can afford more. How can we afford more if you're not less tax on that full value? House Bill 129. Um this changes the will of the voters.

121the voters tense the substitute levy. We did a lot of community education on this. We understood well that our substitute levy included growth on new construction. If you eliminate our substitute levy and you include it in the 2004, we are going to lose construction growth. the 12 and a half% that's on our substitute levy right now from the state, we will not be able to remove this. So the state again dialing back their funding through levies approved. So it goes against the will of the voters to eliminate these levies. And again, House Bill 309 is giving this um authority to the county budget commission. It removes the local control of school boards. School boards determine how much funding they need, what they're going to use that funding for, what they're going to ask that their

122community for. Um, Dorothy and Amy have been a part of the levy process multiple times. Think about the number of steps a school board goes through. Three or four steps to get on the map all for a county budget commission to say we don't think you need that money. >> You know, and again taking a process that's rather nonpolitical and making it political. And then one of the most dangerous things and I think um you want to speak to your legislature about this is just um there is this notion going around of totally eliminating all property taxes. They're talking about putting it on the ballot next November and the voters of Ohio could say we don't want to pay property taxes at all anymore. And yes, you know, I I guess I'm one of the

123few people that loves to pay and is proud to pay all of my taxes that I do. It provides the services that we get. Um [clears throat] but the elimination of property taxes is devastating. um dev schools, police, fire, townships, counties, every single government entity in the state relies on property taxes for funding. It is $36 billion a year. It's raised in property taxes. There is no replacement for property taxes. um you know and that should not be a 50% sales tax or something absolutely ridiculous. So if this is a decision that um we make you know it's basically a voted government shutdown and and I think we are all with the federal government shutdown. We all know the challenges that come with a [laughter] government shutdown. This would defund almost every single government entity

124in the state. Um, and besides destabilizing the governments, it would also destabilize many financial institutions in and out of the state. Every government entity has we just issued that. Um, now we use income tax. We use property tax for our bond. We would not be able to make our debt payments. But not just, you know, the Yellowstone schools wouldn't be able to make our debt payments. Every single government entity in this state would be defaulting on their debt payments. Financial institutions [clears throat] would crumble. The so everything in the state would go pretty haywire. I think this is um you know, we said we know that property tax reform is coming. We're asking for reasonable property tax reform. Eliminating property tax is not reasonable. There is no replacement for the $36 billion that it brings

125in. And uh one of the good points of property taxes, especially low global property taxes, is the community all gets a say. The voters get a say and and what they vote for. They they tell us, "We're going to use our property taxes to build a new school. We're going to use our property taxes to operate our schools. We're going to use our property taxes to build a new fire station or to repaint this road." So, you get a big say with your property taxes. Other forms of taxation, state income tax, you do not get a big say what happens to your state income tax. But when you approve a levy for a school, you tell us exactly what that money is for. So it is something that is a big will of the voters

126with property taxes. But it is it is essential. It's a government function, not just schools, but all government functions at the state. Jay, you may raise a question in my mind right away and that is that uh you know we went through um a lot of of you explained to us in great detail about buying the bonds uh for the construction, you know, sell or selling the bonds for for the new construction and such. And I could imagine as investment markets pay attention to this kind of thing, I wonder if that possibility of eliminating property taxes will affect the uh bond credit rating on market and it does it affect us or it are we locked in? Do we ever >> we're we're locked in with our rates? >> That's what I thought. I just

127wanted to institutions would affect our credit. I mean >> and that and that credit rating you know affects like if we have um we used it uh for for maintenance is like >> yeah and I mean thankfully we are over a lot of those humps but um this is something that financial institutions are are going to push back on big time because they are reliant on people paying their debts [clears throat] with property taxes and the elimination of property taxes. There's there's no way, you know, people's communities ability to pay against I [laughter] don't want to I don't want to have us think that this is a a given you know, put a pretty dark mood over this. I just think it's important to pay attention with with the elimination of property tax. It's different

128from calling your legislator. Please do so. But that happens beyond constitutional amenities. And so that would h that would be if enough and you know how how do things get on the ballot for a constitutional amendment? You need signatures. If enough signatures um are are uh secured, then it's on the ballot. That's why education about this is important. Now, it would be until another year, but >> yeah. >> So, I was I was actually curious if even the possibility of it, you know, would impact it impact bond markets in a way that would impact our particular financial position. But it sounds like it doesn't unfair to Glad to hear about that >> if you were going out to borrow more. Yes. Yes. I mean, you know, and if we were trying to issue debt and

129this was on the ballot, we I don't think anybody nobody's going to issue debt to anybody in Ohio if this is going to be on the ballot. So this is just something that you know tell your legislator if you're not interested in eliminating property tax but also you know when you see um [clears throat] on Facebook or other social media and people are talking about this idea of eliminating property taxes you got to explain how devastating that would be because yeah a lot of people go ah the less taxes that's that's great for me you know you know who wants to pay taxes but um they are necessary to the function of the state. >> Well, and I have to say I I greatly appreciate the historical overview that you gave us. What I took

130away from it especially is um and with and we'll research a little more about you know the the trend of state income tax going down um the trend of state property you know local property taxes going up and then hitting a a point where they're they're just it it it's it's out of balance. Um and uh we however act to secure funding for the services and school um that we provide. And it was also, I think, really educational to show how the state in order to maintain this current, you know, their their continued efforts to reduce state income tax have uh kind of go gone against courtmandated policies uh to provide districts with the funding that they need to operate. effect in public schools and I think we all know here that as as treasurer

131McGrath said many times we have a very generous community that really supports our schools. So in facing this crisis uh we're in better in a better position than so many other schools where the funding really has been detrimental to them because of their you know lower property values or not having necessarily the same accesses access to tax funds through property tax as a district like ours. Um, all of this shows us an incredible inequity that is growing. Uh, and an incredible insecurity that is growing. Uh, so I really appreciate you shedding some light in this murky darkness that has just created a lot of anxiety and concern and also a need for real awareness. Right? that this is a time where we really can't be silent. Um to do so is to allow a partisan

132transition to just go unchecked and that's my little shield. I I also know that there's questions and others might have something to say. Um, I just wanted to make the point we we did update we have a website now correct with all of this information. >> Yes. Was that his presentation or on this presentation there's a like an information page. >> Oh yes we did. >> I'm like this was that was last week that was 5 years ago. [laughter] Um yes we do have that >> but in terms of you know finding ways to educate the public interest that this is definitely a part of a larger conversation our school district is definitely not definitely not going to be the only folks who were were talking about this has talked about this quite loudly um

133as a rural school district you know a facilities project is is rare um It's obviously not rated. That's that's a that's a major ask from um for your district. Uh but there's, you know, these larger districts um in both suburban and urban areas have a great deal of infrastructure facilities that are constantly going under under improvement and um renov. So, you know, this is this is going to be impacting a lot of uh schools throughout our state in um immediate and significant ways. So, uh there is there's um you know, reform is not a bad thing in itself, but there's a lot of um there's a lot of momentum against tuning something major. And again, this is this is not going to just impact schools what they're talking about, but governments in general um and

134especially at the local level. So, it's really important for the citizenship to pay attention um and to and to take a wider look around um and not just in our district but in neighboring districts because I know we were having conversations with uh school districts about, you know, how they educate the public on the road and about the options that they put in front of them. you know, just general things you do as a school board to get smart about things that are not every day for you, but I know a little more for other school for other school districts and other school board members is that, you know, it's it's not is there's a lot of experiences out there and a lot of people who will be able to tell you this is how

135it impacts us in real ways. So, um there's a lot of conversation that's um uh going on and brewing uh in the state and uh it's an important time to engage because uh it's going to impact not just our future but our children's future. >> Yeah, sure. I'll just say that uh one of our values in this district is to advocate for history and we have here the opportunity to model it to our students and for the entire state that care about education. >> Yeah. Well, one more. Um so some of the uh last just references um challenges to forecasting legislative items. Um one of the things is uh the movement they they moved the forecast deadline for spring forecasts from May um up to the end of February. This creates a challenge in producing

136an accurate forecast because both income and property tax data for the prior year are not going to be available. So, um, we're working on our February forecast stuff now, um, with our forecast because it takes a while. Putting out a financial forecast is not something that I could do the the day before. Um, one of the last changes I made was when we passed our bond and income tax issue, I had my five-year forecast. I had two forecasts ready to go depending on whether or not we we passed [laughter] or fail. Um, and that's when we had the November forecast. Uh, the February one, our February meeting. So, we I have to submit by June 28. Our February meeting is usually before the 15th. So, that means I've got to have my presentation ready a

137week ahead of time. the state just doesn't have their income tax data out from the year before and doesn't have, you know, property tax information usually doesn't come out until February. So, we have to work before the deadline. Just moving this forecast up is is not helpful and providing an accurate forecast. Um and then you know these bills that are out there what's really difficult is until it's final it's impossible to know what the full impact is going to be and what the changes are and often a lot of the things that they don't um address in these bills is how implementation is going to work. So, one of the things we know about um 186 and 129 is this um eliminating substitute lets enrolling our substitute into our 20 mil floor calculation after 2026.

138on a call yesterday and I had two attorneys and [laughter] a 30-year plus school finance expert and I said, "Okay, how exactly does my substitute let me get rolled into the floor? Are they going to take what our village would have been for 2025 and then put that on the 2026? Are they going to [laughter] update it to 2026 values? And then what about the construction road that's in? Three different people, three different opinions on what's going to happen. [clears throat] And that's because the bill does not speak specifically to that. You know, it says, "Oh, you you'll vote substitute buddies into the 2010 floor in 2026. Doesn't say how how it's going to be done." So, that's something, you know, it it's hard to predict what the changes are going to be. way the

139people writing the rules cannot tell you what the rules are going to be though they're going to figure out implementation after they pass it. Um and then um the what happens with a lot of these things is um you know like the fair school funding plan I brought this up earlier we are on um we're on our fifth version of the fair school funding plan. So way back in 1999, they decided that the state has to do something. Um because schools were funded by property taxes and you had communities that had a lot more wealth than others. Um if you had large amounts of industry and businesses, um if you had like a natural gas well, you know, some of these schools were getting large amounts. I think the other schools had you know relative

140to court committees have almost nothing. So the state said or [clears throat] the court ruled the state has to do something about this. They said it's unconstitutional. You have to provide funding um to schools and we have to do something that makes it equitable. And that's why you see the different state share. Some some schools are getting 90%, some schools are getting 10% of the state share. Um, and we're, you know, suspended at 23 12%. But we're on our fifth rendition of the the fair school funding plan. And what's interesting is the courts will say the way that you're doing it now is not fair. It's unconstitutional. But they don't say how to fix it. So the court just says it's brilliant. you send it back to the legislature and say fix the fair school

141funding plan and the legislature comes up with a new plan. Um and and this is this is a process they've gone through. So um questions there there's questions about you know rolling a substitute levy into the 20th floor. There's laws that behind how substitution relies to work. Those laws aren't negated when this is passed [clears throat] and um says it gets rolled into the floor. It's like well no which law is superior. This is the newest one or is this the original one? Is it what people people voted for this? They supported it and so they understood what they were voting for when they passed it and you're taking away what they had already passed. Um so um that that's a concern I have and and that's one of the things that makes it really

142difficult. These are coming out they're going to change you know uh a lot of times laws are changing. I would say it's like um throwing something sticky at a wall. like what's sick if you throw a monster in the wall, you know? It definitely feels like Michael. >> I will say, you know, my point that this is a rather softer conversation, but uh one of the things um that we do is we we do work with a experienced team of school finance experts on our forecast um to make sure that it's as accurate as [clears throat] possible um with the information that we have in time. uh and what you'll you might see some of the information coming from OSDA or BASA that um that projects what happens to to some of or with some

143of these law changes that the state is coming up with. you know, they're saying this isn't what would happen if we put this growth on property tax to inflation. Um, for those the state is using 20% inflation and I said our forecast we we didn't use 20%. So one one of the good things is when we did our forecast we did do a very conservative forecast. We looked at very small relative property um value growth over the next on that 2026 and the 2021 we we projected 7 and 12% increases and 5% increases for 2026 2029 that's what we anticipated our average growth to be. So, we've applied some of these reduction factors. We knew a reduction was coming and that was applied to our forecast already. So, this is not all doom and gloom

144on top of the forecast that we saw changing. Our our forecast was predicting some of those changes um because we work with people that are in Columbus and um talking to people every day about what's going on at the state level. So, and so one of the things that you know it sounds like Carol is doing is that you're working with those students now as accurate numbers as you can earlier in the academic calendar year. Um I know that we have problems ahead of the last um forecast that we had. So, um I anticipate you know similar issues with the um forecast. So, so yeah just so as I understand it that 20 mil floor 14 mills applies to us 20 mil floor 14 all >> and the total number of mills that we're collecting

145now including the buildings >> um >> I do not have it like off the top of my head >> um there's for the 20 mil floor which includes the four inside house. I think that's 14. Um and then the substitute passed it was nine. It's probably a little bit less than that right now. Um and then the bond we are collecting below 7. Remember the bond and income tax combination at 7.9%. We have an [clears throat] existing bond that we are paying off shortly. Um the but we we're rolling with our new debt is the 719. We said we would never collect more than 71 for the so for that we we won't collect more than 7.9. I I think it was down below seven last year with both um both issues. Uh we do

146have a little uptake after our own debt falls off larger payments on debt and there's 1.2 that is permanent >> and then which is global now actually. So that's about 37. >> Oh yeah. >> So you you don't you can actually go up to the county office >> and find out exactly how much you are paying. And if anybody in the community ever, you know, doesn't understand what their property tax bill looks like, if you want to know how much you are paying for your schools and how much you're paying to the village, um, you know. >> Yeah. And the reason I bring that up is just again to kind of get an overview of a ratio. Uh so that means that about half of what taxpayers are paying in property tax that goes to

147the schools is affected by all of the changes that treasurer McGrath talked about with this 20 mil floor. Whether it's going to be frozen, whether it's going to go up with property values or what not. Um and that is where we have this in you know uncertainty. Yeah. >> So 50% kind of puts it in in the perspective of what we're dealing with. >> Yeah. So you know all of your assessed value growth is not growth economy tax is just the joint floor and the other ones. Um the the dollars stay the same. And you know there's also some growth going on right now in Yellow Springs. So new construction means that your piece of the pie get smaller, right? So >> and you and it's been talked about that and I I'm sure taxpayers

148love to hear that, right? And and we we know that that is kind of the reality with the new school. we invest in this new school but as the community hopefully grows or there's that distribution of of the burden of the school over time. Um so as always can recruit more business that takes on that's probably uh community members support development. >> Are there any other comments? Well, again, thank you, Treasurer McGrath, for a very thorough presentation. Uh, it it has been something that we have been bringing up in our previous meetings and it looks like, yeah, there's a lot of motion. It looks like we're going to be bringing it up in future meetings. Thanks for tracking that, keeping us informed and that um and talking to experts and we understand that there will

149be variance in what to predict as these things work uh through. But just uh also for anyone who is uh following this and sees its significance to our young people in the future of our education and our teachers who obviously as as our uh state of the schools report showed was emphasized by our administrators are doing a tremendous job. Um this is a a real concern and we all need to address it as actively as we can. Um but with that we can adjourn the meeting. >> Oh okay. Got a motion to adjourn the meeting. Is there a second? >> Okay. All those in favor say I. >> I. Okay. Well, thank you everyone. Have a good day. >> Happy Halloween. >> 1:30. these uh these will be >> okay. >> It was my mic

150that did the thing, but I'm also electric. I know that one of these