001Welcome uh this Thursday evening, April 10th. Uh we'll call the meeting to order. I want to encourage all who are here. They're gone. Okay, everyone's found the food. Um we're having our current food service is come today and and shared what they feed our students and it was absolutely delicious. I hope Oh, sorry. Thank you, Nan. And I hope I hope some of you had a a chance to to sample their bears. Okay, we're going to call the meeting to order. And Jay, would you like to do the roll call? Yeah. Potter here. Bailey here. Bouquet here. Kemp here. Magnus here. We have a quorum. Okay. Thank you. Uh, so the first matter of business is the approval of the minutes. Does anyone have any changes or corrections to make to the minutes? We're good.
002Okay. Um, I move that we approve the minutes of uh March 13th, March 14th, and April 2. Thank you. Is there a second? Okay. Okay. Welcome. Yes. Kim, yes. Magnus, yes. Yes. Bailey, yes. Motion passes five to zero. Okay. Thank you. Uh, next is communications, presentations, and reports. Are they ready to talk about the one letter or I can? If you want. Yeah, if you want to go ahead. Okay. There was a letter from a student with regards to proposing a kind of off-campus lunch option and my understanding is that the middle school high school principal has already spoken to the student about that. Appreciate that, Jack. Now we're at the best part of me, the night district honors recognition and introductions where we honor students receiving the awards this evening. Principal Winston Neil School
003will begin Okay, first up we have the Melan Young student of the month, Elanor Skinner. [Applause] All right. Eleanor was nominated by Miss Best and Miss Titus for third grade teachers. Eleanor is highly deserving of student of the month. She consistently serves as a positive role model and leader to her peers, displaying an admirable work ethic and dedication every day. Whether it's the subject matter or the time of day, Eleanor always goes above and beyond. You can count on her to be smiling, staying on track with the group plan, completing extra work, and putting forth her best efforts. Her determination and sweet personality not only inspire those around her but also bring joy to her teachers, making her a truly standout student. [Applause] Next up, I have the Yellow Springs Alumni Association Fine Arts Student
004of the Month. That is going to Riley [Applause] Acres. Riley was nominated by Mrs. Riker and Mrs. Minehart. Riley is an all-around fantastic artist with a creative spirit and highly developed artistic skill. She always puts 100% effort in everything she does and has a model student demeanor. She is always willing to experiment, try new things, and learn new skills. [Applause] Grandma too. Grandma. The whole family. [Applause] Last but not least, I have the Pioneer Orchard employee of the month. This is going to Nan Megan and nominated by myself. [Applause] From sunrise to well after the school day, Nan's impact is felt throughout the entire school community. You'll see her early in the morning behind the wheel of the district school van making sure students arrive to school safely. We call it the nan van. You'll
005find her greeting students at the door each morning in making sure students get into the new modular units safely. After arriving from the nan van, Nan shines in the reading center where she uses her expertise from recent science of reading trainings to deliver high impact targeted interventions. During lunch, she's lending a helping hand and making sure students are following the expectations for the lunchroom. Recently, she's been holding a little dance parties with them as well. Come dismissal time, Nan is escorting students from classrooms to buses, providing a sense of safety during a busy time of the school day. And then long after the school day ends, you can see Nan in this hallway creating inspirational bulletin boards on her own time that brighten our hallways and then donating her evenings to support district athletics, musicals,
006and plays. Thank you. [Applause] I would like to recognize our Mills Park Hotel student of the month, Lauren George. [Applause] Lauren was nominated by Miss Hyatt who said, "I am nominating Lauren because they exemplify several of the student criteria. Lauren shows deep care and empathy not only for their classmates but for the world. They advoc advocate for equity and their actions are supportive of her school and larger community. In ASL 2, Lauren has a wonderful attitude and disposition, never shying away from a challenge. One of my favorite examples of this was when we did the sign song project, and Lauren chose a song they didn't even know had lyrics and ended up learning about the artist and doing a thoughtful analysis of the lyrics to show them visually with ASL. Their curiosity and interest in
007the language is evident every day, which makes the classroom environment more engaging. Lauren's involvement in the community was recently highlighted when they took all of the pictures for the senior vaners downtown, utilizing their talent photography to benefit the graduating class. I have had the privilege of working with more in various classes since their eighth grade and their personal growth and develop in the personal growth and development I have seen from them has been wonderful to me. Congratulations. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Finally, I would like to recognize our trophy sports scholar athlete of the month, Izzy Espinosa. And Izzy is not here today because she's competing with our track team. Um, Izzy is a multiport Izzy was nominated by her coach, Johnny Belchel. Izzy is a multisport athlete who is a coach's dream. She readily listens to
008instructions and then incorporates those directions into her performance. She has a quiet sense of confidence and determination that has left her to success as an athlete on the track. She's an an accomplished curler who currently has the fastest time in the Metro Buckeye Conference. And that in addition to being a hurler, she's also a top flight wall long jumper and a member of the relay team. From elementary school through middle school and now as a high school student continues to excel in the classroom. The same energy that she exceeds as an athlete is the same spirit that she brings to her academics. She is a true scholar athlete. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you, Principal Hatter, Principal Whis Winston once again to see the tremendous achievements our students and staff. I've known Nan for a long time
009and thank you, Nan. You make this school great. Community comments. We have one community comment from April Alter. April, you're up. Throwing candy around. Actually, they're pins. So, which I'll mention here in a second. Um, I just had an announcement to make that me and some other Y Springs U folks including Eric and Julia Clark or Jackie Clark uh Judith has been helping us too are forming a P flag chapter here in Young Springs. We're reforming the P flag chapter as there used to be one. uh and uh the the intention is to provide support for LGBTQIA2S plus uh people in the community in the local area in particular youth and young adults. Um we're going to be um hosting our first community meeting on May 3rd on Saturday at noon. Uh if you're interested
010in that, the location, there's going to be an article in the Yellow Cruise News this week about the group and uh there'll be a link to a sign up form there. We're not publicizing the location for safety concerns. So if you're interested, sign up. We'll talk to people and make sure that they get the location. Um there will be our format. We're going to follow those P flag format for the chapter which means we'll have a presentation by an organization at the beginning of the meeting and then we're going to break out and have a community specifically for young adults and activities for youth as well and then there will be kind of a discussion support group for parents allies and family members of the community. So um so I also have pins here um
011which we got to show support for the community and the village. So if you're interested [Music] [Applause] [Music] in Okay. Uh administrative reports. Okay. Our kindergarten students are wrapping up a unit in our new um amplify CKLA curriculum and this unit focused on farm animals and specifically one of the unit lessons focused on using details to describe sheep and identifying the main idea and key details informational text. So to wrap up this unit, I just happened to be talking to um some some friends who have lambs and and raised sheep and the Pible family immediately um said, "Hey, we we will bring one of the lambs to school so the students can um see them." So Denise and Jim Perl, Denise is the new county treasurer, um, donated their time and their hunky the lamb
012to come see the kindergarteners. And you can see pictures of the kindergarten students getting to ask Mr. Pipal questions. They asked, you know, what do you use the wool for? They asked, how do you feed the lamb? Um, this is actually a bottlefed lamb. So he was actually able to show the students in the classroom. Um so some real hands-on experience that was aligned to their um recent unit. They are also getting ready to go to the learning tree farm in Dayton and they will be able to explore the barns and see more farm animals and I think that's coming up in about a week. So that is just kind of how we are tying community into our curriculum. You got some Freddy Gold kindergarteners on that. Well, those were the kindergarten buddies. They just
013had to I could see them sitting in the back of the classroom and they just they had to come up and pet the lamb as well. Next up, um I' I've mentioned this during meetings prior to this meeting and the Bulldog news is back, but I wanted to make sure that I highlighted it one more time and said thank you to Mrs. Lachman for being um able to get this up and running. She ex um she plans to extend this next year. You can see two students in the upper left hand corner. They always end with the BU LL GS cheer chant. So congratulations to the sixth graders that are participating and thank you. Thank you to Megan Bachmann and Tada Amin for securing that grant to make that possible. So are those recorded for
014the whole students to see? How do does the whole school get to see it? So, they are pre-recorded right now. Yeah. The goal is to live stream eventually. So, we are pre-recording and then the teachers know when to play the recording each week. I just want to say many of you might know Mrs. Bachmann as the former editor of Yellow Springs News. So, she brings that experience to this. So, and then every time April rolls around, I think that, you know, we're going to get a little break and it's going to be laidback. It's a busy time of the school year. So, I just wanted to highlight the Mills Lon calendar. Don't forget that kindergarten registration. Um, that began on April 1st and open enrollment. So, if you know someone who has children outside the
015district, they want to open enroll, that is open. If you know someone who has a kindergarten age student in the village, that is open as well. Um, our bike bus, Mother Nature's not really working with us. We had to cancel it this Wednesday. It just was too cold. But we will continue to have the bike bus on Wednesday thanks to Mrs. Burllo and all the volunteers from the village. State testing for math will be next week and then just fifth grade science the following week. Um the Bulldog Boogie that is tomorrow night. Um kindergarten through fourth grade students and their families tomorrow night. And then because they're just a little bit older, fifth and sixth grade students without family on Saturday night. Then the spring musical begins on April 17th. We have the fastest bulldog
016at the high school on April 29th. That is a 100 yard dash. It's done by grade levels. And then exhibition nights on April 30th and May 1st. So again, it's a busy busy time. Um please make sure that you are checking your calendars. Is is exhibition night split between grades or is it the same exhibition both nights? Yes, primary the first night and then secondary the second night and kindergarten openhouse on the second night. All right. Under thinking boldly, I just wanted to um celebrate the beginning of our our coding and programming pathway. So that is a grant that we received early in the fall. Um and then full implementation really starts next year, but as part of the grant, we were piloting one unit this year. Um so Miss Hartorn is the teacher who
017has gone through the training and will continue to go through the training and she led a pilot with our seventh grade students. So I was able to go in and watch a class of the students having to code and it's really fascinating. I did not know anything really about it. I don't have a background in that whatsoever. But to see the level of detail and the how you get an input and immediate output or you know immediately if you've made a mistake and the problem solving that goes back um kind of in the attention to detail that goes into it was really fascinating. Um we do have the first high school course will be offered the next year and then each year after that we will add in another high school course and so we
018fill out all four of the courses. Um and then once students take two of the four courses they will do an internship and then after they complete all four courses they will do another paid internship. So we are excited for that to to really start in full. Um but it was exciting for me to get in and see our students interacting. Um it's all through a platform um uh provided by TechSmart. Um, so it's just interesting to to see something I had not seen. Um, under caring deeply, I just wanted to point out all the the things that our kids are involved in. So, um, I think one of the real benefits of a small school is access to participation in so many different things. So, we are in the spring sports season and you
019can see um how pretty much every night you have multiple activities going on with tennis, baseball, softball. We had a first home track meet tonight. Um, so I encourage people to come out and celebrate and recognize and support our teams. And then as Miss Winston mentioned, the music man that opens on Thursday. Um, and that will have shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Um, there is not a Sunday show this year. So it typically be on a Sunday show, but also Easter. Um, so please note there will be Thursday, Friday, and Saturday shows for that. And there is a matinea on Saturday. Correct. There's a a matinea on Saturday. Yep. And then under advocating graciously, um I think one of the most important things we can do as instructional leaders to impact our kids is
020to continue to grow ourselves in ways that we can then support our teachers and our teachers can support our kids. So over spring break, Dr. Golden, Miss Winston and myself had the opportunity to go to the spring convenience of Pittsburgh. Um we are member schools as a league of innovative schools and by being member schools, you can send the superintendent and two other people can go from each district. So you can see there um we were there for four days and we were able to tour different schools and have different experiences. And each time you walk into a school, you see an idea of something that you can you can then take back to your school and offer to your kids, even if it's not exactly as they're presenting it, you get these these little
021seeds of ideas that you can then plant and bring back to our kids. Um so so that's something that I think we all found very valuable and a great use of our time. Um, and I just wanted to share with the board what that experience was. Thank you. Thank you. And also I just want to underscore um you're taking that time during spring break to make that trip. They're just jam-packed and full of great ideas. Look forward to seeing some of them manifest here in our district. Okay. The um real PTO, are you here tonight to give a report? I do believe so. No. Do you mind the place is open? I know that the PTO is going to come soon to the community for volunteers for street fair. So please do your your day
022on street fair. We're going to need all the volunteers. That's when the PTO makes um gets the most income and then it pass that money on to the teachers and for school experiences. So think about volunteering. It's a twohour and it's fun. Put some nice I last time I got promoted to collecting money and that's really fun. You're holding a lot of cash in your hand. So I'll go back to directing my lunch. Okay. Yeah, I encourage you all to do it. It is a good time. Um, the YCA, is there a representative? Okay. Okay. So, we're gonna move on to a report from the nutrition group who was generous to feed us tonight. Thank you very much. It was delicious. They're going to talk with us about food service here in the district. And
023um the food service contract is coming up for the renewal. And so we'll follow up with a little bit of discussion about ideas and and thoughts about the future. Thank you and thank you to the board. Please. [Music] Yes. All right. Thank you for the redo the last meeting. Um I am Todd Lucas. I'm the uh regional manager with Patricia Group and also regional manager of the district. She is the onsite manager. Along with that we have Ken Cass vice president with nutrition group answer any questions that you might have. So um we really value the partnership that we've had with springs. It's grown over the last five plus years being with students and staff and are it's been our pleasure and we look forward to the future and any change exciting changes to come
024with the structure. Our mission statement is to satisfy customers and formul trusting relationships one meal and facility at a time. And our tagline is caring people great food. This is my favorite slide and not just because it's breakfast participation. We all know how important the breakfast is in the morning. But this is a good snapshot of the last six years and what we've gone through the co years of everyone eating free and then where the downturn right after 22 23 where we went back to same regulations that were precoid. You can see during the co years of 2021 and 22 years, we were serving food any way we can. We were packing it up. We were putting on buses. So that that slide there alone shows where we're at. So the 2425 school year, I'm
025projecting us to serve about 18,000 breakfasts for the year. As you can see, that's starting to get up to those numbers that we had when they were free. So the staff has done a really nice job with promoting [Music] breakfast. Next one then is you can see is our lunch participation which is pretty close to the same the same snapshot. You can see the year that we started 1920 and then we go into the code years and it's a prey year and then back to 20 2123 where the regulations came back. This one shows car sales. This is the same as you can see during free wasn't any sales at all. It's all free at that time. the regulations hit back up sales machine that is smart snack approved smart snack approved and it also
026includes those things like the peanut butter bites that you have there. The smoothies can be sold off part, but they also are reimbursible meal breakfast or something that those. So that gives you an idea of how sales. Can I ask is that number the number of things sold or the amount of money? This one shows the the property and law statement for the past six years. The dark blue is what we have projected and what we guarantee to the district. The light blue to the left is shows what we actually came out for the year. As you can see, one year that was significant profit was the year everybody. Okay. All right. So, I asked Jessica to come because she actually has sort of her own vision of what the springs looks like. We can
027expect to have a better better chance of homemade scratch cooking, more student options, action stations. You could actually do a walk or some kind of stir fry old station. We mentioned poultry style rolls. We have beautiful fresh fruit and vegetable bars. Nutrition education which Jesse was going to talk about. We've done some of that already. Um it'll hope hopefully help increase the participation. We have plans in place to buy local and Ohio's crowd and do some more special events for the district wellness events that have been done for the staff over this year and past. Oh, and this is my favorite slide because you're one of the first districts to be able to see this campaign. It's a new campaign that a marketing firm has come out with and only because we have a vice
028president here this program but it deals with the uh planet pounds as you can see it's food waste sharing is caring take what you like and lose by some of the programs that we will feature in the future Wellness Wednesday, which is is where we sample things and we try to get students to encourage them things flavors that they've never tried. Along with that's a sticker that also very helpful. They get excited sticker and then take it home to somebody ask them what they tried today. Along with that, we do veggies bringing in different types of vegetables. We brought salads in today to show the salads. We made pre pre-made salads. We also have salad bar available. Fruit Fridays is a concept for fruit on Fridays and it is so popular. It became very popular
029career center. so popular that we actually sent our staff on a field trip to the career center to watch them do Friday there so they can bring back to prison a smaller version right now but hopefully much bigger times and then of course the snack tag there's there's there's many ways snack and students how to and and helpful way to stay on Sure. So, I'm Jessica. I've been with the district for five years now, and it's been very interesting for me to watch how it's changed through co to now. And knowing that we have new kitchens coming is so exciting to all of us. And I think the biggest excitement for for my employees and for us as a nutrition room is to be able to offer the students what they deserve and more of
030what they deserve. We do the best we can now with what we have, but my goal is to be able to have equipment that works properly so we can have food that's staying the way that it should to give them the quality to give them the better better everything. That's my goal to be able to cook our food closer to service time because we'll have the proper equipment to do that to hold the food properly. So going forward, that's what we're very excited about is to be able to do what's better for the kids. Um, one of the other things that I'm really excited about is be able to get the students into the kitchen. At the middle school high school, we did a presentation in Mr. Dillard's health class and it was bringing a
031cart in and teaching food safety on a cart and it worked. We had a PowerPoint, but it would have been so much more impactful to have them in the kitchen to be able to see to see the different equipment and what else goes into it. And the same down here at those lawns, we be able to get the little pull outs into the kitchen and see what we do. And I know Miss Laura would love to have them in there. And I just think going forward that' be something that be so exciting to let them see what we do for them. Um right now at the middle school and the high school, I've put out a comment box for every season and some of the comments that we've gotten from students have been wonderful. um
032just kind of open your eyes to what they do like or what they maybe don't want or something new and refreshing. And I would like to be able to do the same thing down here at Bill's Swan because the students down here, they might be littleer, but they have a good idea, too. And I want to hear them. I want to feed them what they want. And I think we want our goal is for the students to eat and for the staff to eat. Um, especially here at Mills Lawn, having new kitchens and new serving lines will be kind of a game changer. The students will be able to kind of pick and choose what they want, not just, oh well, you kind of have to get it this way. They should be they can
033come through and say they want readings or not. I want to be able to offer them that where they can make those choices like they can at the high school to make it more the same across the board and to be able to have a bigger and nicer salad and vegetable from bar for them. That's that's our goals. Um and to be able to have more events to be able to have space where we can hold events. Right now we do a tasty Tuesday and a wellness Wednesday for the staff. And even just that alone, we're so limited on space. It's tough. And I would like to be able to do something like we did for you guys today more often. Having that space, we can do that kind of stuff. And we'll be able
034to bring more of what we do out. And I think that's one of our goals as well is to share what we do because we love what we do. We love meeting the students here at Yellow Springs. They're wonderful. I think that's all I have. I I'm sorry. I just can't help myself. I just I I didn't mean to come tonight because I know Todd and Jessica had it, but I just wanted to share your listening to them, but the presentations before Springs is such a happy place. And before I even came here, Claudia told me how how great it is and just about the staff and the students and you can just see it here in this room today and listen to the kindness in this room. And we just wanted to thank you
035for having us for allowing us if you do. And we love where people spend money that benefit us. And your beautiful cafeterias are going to allow us to make great food for the kids. And I just I just need to say that. I we just we really appreciate you guys and we we appreciate the school district and how cooperative you are with everything that just wants to try and just wait get better. So, we got a lot to do, but thank you so much. Thank you. and I'll have you stay up there for a little bit because I think there'll be a few questions and I really appreciate your last comments because it was members of the community when they were when we were looking at the plan of the schools that really advocated for
036expanding our food service particularly at Hills Lawn which was supported by the administration and staff and and we made it work. So it's it's a welloiled machine down there right now and they do so well with using what they have. There's so much potential and the kids are so loved just to see them in the hall and how the teachers interact with them. It's just it's a great place. We're really excited to I'll defer to my other board members if you have any questions to start. I I just wanted to say that the um the new cafeteria is this intentionally social place and even has um kind of like an stage. So I'm I'm hoping that that's a space that the nutrition group can you know actively you know use to the benefit of students
037um in terms of nutrition education like I'd love to hear more about um about that nutrition education I think that that's a very good [Music] question the stage had to be mixed on the plan. I'm so sorry. From what I remember, it was a question of course, but also space. And so that platform set aside but the idea it still applies and the commons is a big space where nutrition, education, however, events, kiosk, whatever easy to do. Absolutely. It can be done in the kitchen or in the classroom. We have lots of options and we can tailor them to specific things that's going on in the classroom. So, if one of the teachers has an event going on, they would like us to talk about it about vitamins and fruits and vegetables. We can we
038can do that. So, that would be great. We can work in small spaces. You have been question. So, I know that you mentioned sourcing food in Ohio. Tell me more. Do you want me to talk about that? We just Jessica knows what she gets local what she can get local apples. Yeah, I've spoke with the town about getting some apples for next year like as a starting point with what can you do for us now? And that was kind of what the owner and I talked about was we can do, you know, x amount of apples and just give us a call. You can come pick them up. And I was like, well, that's perfect. what else do you have that we might be able to get from you? So, it's a it's a small
039step, but it's a step in the right direction to getting some local products in. Yeah. Do you have connections with local farms? I know that there are some CSA farms and I'm sure have their own business model, but we're actually trying to get involved through Ohio Crow. They're going to map out because when you purchase, you have to make sure that they are certified by the USDA. There's certain things that we have to make sure we follow. Um, I'm going to date myself, but 25 years ago when I started, if you grew too many cucumbers before Houston, we're not there anymore. We have to make sure everything's where it needs to be. So, a high crowd will actually help us get there. The other thing that we're looking at is to see if we can
040source some local. Um, which would be another great thing to do, but we have to make sure that we follow the process. In about two years, there's going to be grants available for districts on local meat, but they're just not there yet. So, but that would be our goal. We um follow by American as well. So, even if it is not uh necessarily local, we try to stay within the surrounding area. And local sometimes doesn't mean just Ohio. It could mean Pennsylvania or the surrounding area depending on where the product comes from. But our goal would be, you know, we would rather do that. question. Um, I don't have any questions right now, I don't think. But I just want to say thank you for um supporting our staff. Every time I get the emails
041about it, wellness Wednesdays and yeah, Tasty Tuesdays, I I haven't been able to make it to one yet, but every time. So, thank you very much. We enjoy doing it. You should try to come. Yeah, I got two this year. So, I had a couple of questions. Um what is really for me quite stressful and that's for stressing and that is these projected cuts in federal funding to school lunches and school breakfasts. I mean seeing how many students are fed by you for breakfast and lunch. How will that impact how will that impact you? Are you all talking about that? What I'm capturing as well people at home. So we like you can you guys hear me? Okay. I think I have to talk pretty close into it. Hello. Oh, there. Okay. Um, we like
042you are waiting to hear and as you probably seen, things change from day to day. So, I did recently just reach out to Scott Lark. He is um not only the person that comes in and does a lot of audits for us, but he is our lifeline to what's going on. He has told us some of these changes that they're saying are coming that we just need to hold on because although they are being talked about loudly, there are steps that have to follow before that can happen. So it's it's a lot of hurry and wait for us. The good thing is, you know, when you do have the management party, it's our responsibility to make sure that we are being as cost effective as possible. So, we will be out there trying to get
043any grants that we can for you and control your costs as best as possible. Um, as far as the reimbursements, I was actually down at Chesapeake and a representative from the governor came and I said, you know, districts are scared. You know, they want to make sure that kids are fed. What is going to happen um if the federal government decides to cut reimbursements? Uh, and her response was that the governor is very supportive of feeding kids. He wants to make sure the kids are fed. But there was no, you know, it was that circle talk around. So that was the closest we could get to the answer. What I can tell you is as soon as we know, we will let you know and then we may have to meet and kind of talk
044about what that looks like at that time. But our goal is always to be the kids. We never turn a child away. You know, we make sure that they get taken care of. And that will always be our goal for our child. That's been a commitment of the district, too. Absolutely. That there is some comfort in what you say. But what about the use as we um have these more expansive K developed kitchens for um reusable cutlery, dishes, etc. to reduce I know it was great to see the food waste champions. Yay. But how about the you know the waste in general? And that part of that is talking to them about being mindful of what they take because they only have to take three of the five items to make a reimburseable meal. And
045that's kind of the hardship of the elementary now. The way we're set up, a lot of times we have to put the food on the trays because the lines aren't conducive for them to make choices like that. With the new cafeteria, they'll be able to watch or receive probably a lot less waste. When a child can choose if they want to take something or not. The other thing is is the share table where a child takes it, they decides they don't want it, it's prepackaged, they can put it on a share table where another child could take it and have that as well, which is Yeah, we really try to push the share tables. Um, some districts even put little coolers in the cafeteria so that the milk or the juice can stay in there
046and then those kids have the option to take it with them. They need it after school. You just don't know, you know, we don't know what kids go on to a lot of times. So, they can grab that and take it. Um, the other piece of that is we are we try to go strawless as much as we can. that second time. Um, but we try to be strawless. We love our sea turtles. So, um, the the hardship is, and I'm sure you guys have seen this, is that we would love to be able to do the compostable trays, but the cost, you know, when you look at the cost, if we could either do um our trays or the compostable trays, they're triple the price of a styrofoam tray. So, when you look at
047your cost as a district and you're trying to be cost effective, that paper tray that I will also tell you does not hold up well with spaghetti and meatballs. I have a dress that proves it. Um, you can't uh get the same quality with that styrofoam. So, the better route is if you have a dishwasher to be able to wash trays as well. And forgive me, I don't know if that's Yeah. So, that'll definitely be a cutlery savings. you know, savings. And then the cutlery, they do have cutlery out there as well, but again, double the price. You might pay two cents for a spoon. 4 cents may not seem like a lot, but when you start putting all those things together in the budget, they can it can up. So again, that's a district
048choice. Those are things that you would like to look into in the future. We have no problem bringing the plan as far as I understand it is that we're going to have reusable trees in starting after is the renovation of kitchen that was the whole goal that was something that was important to this community to the kids here and then correct me if I'm wrong but the fact that now there will be a service line going into the space because then that will allow the student to have time to choose right And so choice is the best. Absolutely. Yeah. They can pick the fruits and vegetables that they actually want. Um and they can have like if they just want one piece of cauliflower and one piece of broccoli, they can do that. They don't
049have to uh just take what's status quo. So we're we're very excited about it. Plus the choices for entre will be so much better. The the salad is interesting. He said bye. Um, but the choice of salads and just different sandwiches, you know, more vegetarian items. We have a ton of kids that are looking for vegetarian options. And those are all things that we want to do not only at the high school, middle school, but at the elementary as well. Oh, I hear about my daughter. We will turn away. Yeah, it's good to see that the the move towards reusable trays and cutlery will be no problem for you. And then my final question is is that at the last OSBA conference board association conference some really cool presentations about food being grown in the
050schools on campus. Do you have any experience with that or have a couple schools that do that? Some have been very successful. Um, one that comes to mind right now is Noble, which is on the other side of Columbus, but they have the hydroponics lettuce and the cafeteria. We didn't get a lot, but we we did get some lettuce off of there Roma and we actually started in the cafeteria. We would love to do that. you know, they are looking for the future of possibly growing some tomatoes and other items as well. And then what we did, we had one of our people come in and teach the kids serve safe. They certified the kids so they could actually wash the product and then provide it to the cafeteria. So, it was a team effort,
051but um we we love that. So, if you guys are interested, I know a couple schools uh that have gone that route and they actually got a couple different grants like farm farm to table grants I believe to do those projects. We we are actually highly interested in that and we all visited um one of our partner schools in schools in Pittsburgh South um did a grant for a they call it the freight barn freight bar. It's in a conx. So they do the grants, but it's in a conx and there are um movable panels. They were growing lettuce and radishes and they just sold it again this year and they now have a food truck and it's run by the high needs um special ed units. And so those kids those skills and they
052have private approach that they sell to their local. So we would love to find a grant um to actually do that and there certainly would be we talked about it on the high school sites. Yeah. because it's um build and stuff and we used to have a couple of I know it's it's a wonderful thing to see. So we are highly interested in and I will tell you the couple districts that I've seen it they actually purchased the seeds with the cafeteria fun because they grew the product and used it in the cafeteria. So it was like full circle. It was it's such a great idea and just getting to work with the kids. I can tell you we have a lot of districts where we work with the life skills kids in different capacities.
053We love that. Anytime we can do that is a great partnership and so that's powered by solar flower. So this will be a call out to um that company that I know exists in middle school that might be able to provide some flour for us to empower our highly interested. Thank you. Yeah, I have one more question. Um what are parents have about food cafeteria that you would like to spill tonight? So for me, I would say the biggest one is when they tell us their child comes home hungry or they send them a picture of one little thing on their tray because I think parents don't realize actually how much students get that they get five components. And if the child took all five components, I have four kids. I know there are kids
054that are still hungry, but the goal is that the meal is a complete meal with five components. when they only take three, it doesn't necessarily, you know, fill it. Yeah. So, that would be mine. What about you guys? What do you got? Um, I think it's the fact that we we make them real good. We made them teriyak chicken bowls up at the high school one day this week and it's trying different things. And I have a two try rule that at either building we're going to try it twice because we do dumplings. The first time we did the dumplings, nobody wanted them until they started trying them. And then the second time, we can't eat dumplings in the kitchen because they eat them so much. So, we do such a variety. And we really
055try to get the kids to try them. Like, we make vegetables maybe a different way. And they I don't like carrots. Well, these are different. How about you just try just try one? That's all I want you to do. Just try one. And then when they come back and they say it was good, that makes us very happy. Yeah. You know, I'll tell you another one is when um parents will say, "Why do you have chicken on the menu so much?" I tell you that's what their kids eat. We put on the menu what they eat and kids love chicken. So, that is one of the the big things that they they do appreciate. So, yeah, but we love the chance to get from the parents, too. So hopefully when you guys get the new
056cafeteria all done, maybe we can, you know, have some days where they get to see that an open house for kids to do that partner with a to be great. Thank you so much again for having us. Yeah, thank you for coming. Thank you for dinner. I have one question. So, first I I do want to thank them for their partnership with the JC Tuesdays and Wellness Wednesdays. Um, it's also a partnership with our EPC um that gives us the wellness grant. Um, a lot of those cause and require extra participation. you know, the staff gets free and um we did a survey and it's kind of hard to run out as a teacher and get lunch when you only have 30 minutes and uh you have to go into town, especially from the high
057school. So, you know, they either pack lunch or or, you know, try to find something in the country. So, we have that. Um one of the questions I asked our staff was, you know, what would you have eaten today if we didn't have this? and and I got the answer I was looking for and that's nothing. So, um just because they don't feel like they have time or they forgot to pack lunch or whatever. So, our staff highly appreciates it. Um and then my question is uh I saw the the five bite rule and what is the five bite rule? So, the five bite rule is that we ask kids to take five bites to try items before they just, you know, take one and say they don't like it. So we asked them to
058try some different things and you know really give it a try. So we would like to once the cafeteria are open as well do some taste testing because in our eyes we're going to get kids in there to eat that may have never eaten before once they see the food and the choices. So we think that's going to be very important that we showcase what we're going to offer them so they can try it. And and I want to add that my youngest his special education kid. He will not be around other people. So eat in a small group and there is a question of routine and expectations. But I think that if you had the opportunity to look and smell, taste outside of the big round, I think that being these days would be
059just awesome. You know, one more thought about the teachers. Once the cafeteria is done, we have a lot of districts where they uh partner with students that may need community service points for a certain class and they actually deliver meals to the teachers. we can do a Google doc where the teachers could pre-order salads or things like that and then the students come out and pick them up and take them to their their room for them. So just one more thing that we could possibly do to get the kids interactive and that maybe that could be in the system or get a reward. Thank you so much. Um before they go, I just have to say while you're here, Miss Laura, who is um in the cafeteria here at Mills Lawn, knows all the students.
060She is one of the first ones in the building. She is a smiling face. Um if she is missing a student, she knows who she is missing. She knows where she can find that student. So kudos to her and everything that she does for most lawn students. Thank you. [Applause] Okay, our our next item is to approve a resolution for our Ohio Facilities Construction Commission, OFCC. Uh this is the design phase review. Um Terry, would you tell us a little bit about it? Jay's actually gonna take this. Um so this is um this is kind of a a formality of the process. Uh everything it was a large packet that the board members all received to review. Um of course we just have the the resolution here tonight. Um but uh the the packet the
061main there there's only one new piece to it really and those are the OCC comments. Um, a lot of the comments that they make are are repeated comments that we had already seen. Um, just some of the things about uh the square footage difference. You know, the OFCC runs their formula and they say this is how many classrooms you should have. This is how big they should be. This is how many square foot your building is going to be. And we know that we made some changes to that like all schools do. Um, so those were the comments and what you're approving tonight really is the comments that the OCC has all of it is about the limitation of the OSC's budget. You know, they say you get this many dollars for an art classroom,
062you get this many dollars for your gymnasium. So, it's just any of those differences. So, I want to say we've been seeing these numbers since a year ago and you'll recall that anything that exceeds those very narrow standards is a locally funded initiative and so the project incorporates the total price of the project incorporates both the funding for the locally funded part of the project as well as the OFCC funded part of the project. So this in no way indicates any kind of overrun for the budget. Those numbers are exactly the same. Correct. Um so the budgetary numbers that they're referencing is the OFCC budgetary numbers. So and it says forward. I mean, we're we know what our budget is for the project and um they're they're they're giving this is their budget for the
063project and what we know what they so um and then you mentioned the LFIS the locally funded initiative some of the things that they the OFCC does not fund so right so this isn't impacting any kind of change into in the overall budget of the project yeah Um so I know that we've been included that dense before we have phase and then the month after we hashing uh agreement. Um so this indicates that we're on track in our collaboration with total so that we can reach the goal which is to get the reimbursement at the end right the whole collaboration. Yes. Yes. And and I I will say from working on a one of the first LFCC projects in the the state um this process is much improved than it was years ago. So actually
064approving these things and I work with the um the reviewer for the OCC. Um he and I are in contact. He asked me for things. So then we will start our regular reconciliations as the project begins on a lot more regular expenditures. Any other questions? Do I have a motion for the board to approve the resolution for the CD design phase review for the district master facilities project for OSC submission? New York [Music] resolution design. Okay. Um we'll have a roll call vote. Yes. Magnus. Yes. Yes. Bailey. Yes. Okay. Yes. Motion passes 5 to zero. Thank you. So, now we'll go to the master facilities project update. I won't hear things are on time. Yeah, you're gonna actually hear from um Jeff Iron who is involved every day. It's all he does. But before he
065begins, I just want to um tell everyone that we received at the end of last week um something unexpected and it is um the recognition from the general assembly of the state of Ohio and the Ohio Senate from Senator Robert McCauley and Senator Kyle Polar. Um uh congratulations on our groundbreaking um for the project for both buildings um I'll read you the last line that's with great pleasure manual skills on the groundbreaking for facility projects and extend best sheets for success. There is that we will we will put it up in the board office but I did want to mention it come which state representative uh Senator Robert McCaulay president of the Ohio Senate and in our 10th district Senator Kyle Buller who I will receive tomorrow at my [Music] super thanks Thanks for having
066me. Yeah, I feel like I'm living in an episode of This Old House and I can't wait to uh get to Extreme Makeover one day. So, it's been pretty pretty exciting. I I feel I have one of the most exciting positions right now uh watching the construction occur and also one of the most stressful and uh not knowing what's going to happen the next segment of the day. So, it's uh it's been good uh great partnership with Conger and all of our subcontractors. They've been doing a wonderful job understanding the importance of uh safety and keeping our the noise down as much as possible knowing that we are still operating schools on a daily basis. So uh currently if you we're starting those lawn um in our primary hall obviously there is a safety partition
067blocking everything that is happening back there but currently we've done tons of demo from electrical plumbing um HVAC masonry case work the list goes on of items that have been demoed out of their ceilings and our our next steps are we are now doing rough bins that are going to be with electrical um HVAC rough in plumbing rough in all that is happening behind the scenes and uh soon I hope we'll be able to move that wall so you guys can see what's up. So uh so excited tomorrow and we've already uh let Miss Winston know and the staff know we are doing uh a portion of the bathroom demo of our existing bathroom. So that falls loud. So they're they're going to do the best they can to keep things calm, but uh there
068are certain certain things we can and can't wait for and this is one of the things that we've got to be moving on. So um excited to watch progress at those mall at middle school high school. It's a little bit more visible. You just take a drive around the campus. You can see we no longer have our band room. Uh we no longer have any hall. We no longer have a have a a southwest wing that is um burnable because it is completely demoed um ceilings are gone and such. So we are now in the process of doing the same thing with bills on. So it's gradual process of putting rough things in and getting things ready for plumbing and electrical so we can move forward on that. you look down the north side of
069the building, you can see asphalt being removed um yesterday and today uh in preparation to uh start footers and such for the foundations of the new gym moved probably in the next week or so towards the east side of the building so we can begin preparation of the ground for the new room and administrative wing and venture that I mean we're we're moving. We're excited. We're excited. There's a lot of ground work happening in the exterior side too with with the uh uh detention pond and and new pipes that have to go through for the square and such that's near the stadium and the uh the west side of the building as we uh change grade back there. So, a lot going on. I was going to ask you about the impact of the rain
070that you did last week because my following along with the shoe box being taken up, we had a big opening into a front hallway that tends to already flood. So, how did that go? Yeah, it went well. So, thankfully we have knowledgeable subcontractors that understand how to break ground appropriately so that the water could not go up. Yeah. So, we also used a barrier on the exterior of that wall to make sure that no water along with sandbags and walking around to make sure we had no water enter the building. So, along with the rainide, we were going to start um the demo of the asphalt prior to the rain, but they review forecast and said it would just become a major muddy mess. So, unlorable. So, they waited. So that's why they started yesterday
071and were able to get almost all of it exated last two days. Okay. So then in reference to the noise, I know that it matters on state test weeks and days which we just started this week with ELA the last couple of days. Um are what are the construction hours? What hours are the construction teams on site and do they work after the school closes after school ends? Currently, they're doing 7 to 3 4:00. Um, as we get moving into the project, there will be evenings and weekends hours also. But what we did do was share our our our calendar and our schedule so they're aware they have the testing um and they keep keep a close tab on that so they know Tuesday Wednesday for the next two weeks. Correct. That's the reason tomorrow.
072Are we seeing any delays from the weather? No, not necessarily. Most of the most of our um work was interior on these first few week couple months um and they've been able large equipment moving through mud pretty well. So yeah, no delays. Great. Thank you, Jack. Any questions? Can you remind me the the lot high school gravel the temporary gravel lot right in front of the modulars. Is that for parking for families when they need to enter school building or is that just for like delivery? So yeah, we have signs coming actually a little late, but that is going to be used for our bus drop off and drive through, but we also are extending it a bit more. Give us three or four parking spots that will have this temporary parking riding capability. Okay.
073So, so have you worked out the um the turns for the bus? That was an issue. And has that held up? I think there was going to be laying down some additional gravel. Absolutely. So, we do have that ter drive-thru in uh Mr. Hatter and his staff um are out at arrival and dismissal daily um just to ensure safety. Um we've got parent drop off that's working rather well. I mean, it's it's congested at time. It's going to be transparent, but we are making sure we are we are out there keep an eye out the kids understanding routine. So, it's working well right now. I think one thing we'll have to think about and and it seems early but we'll blink our eyes in a minute here and that is graduation. This is the last
074graduation in this gym and I'm just going to say right now we will not have enough. So we will have to come up with a plan which we will publicize probably using the lot. Um, I think we could use Midwest if we had to, but I I think for Rebecca that would probably probably be enough, but I just want to kind of set some expectations. We we will push out a plan, particularly with the parade and so maybe the parade start is not at the high school, but is that I we'll have to figure those things out because it is a little tight for parking. Yeah. Very nice. And they're parking on street right now. Correct. Parking on the street. Okay. Thank you, J. Thank you. And we'll be having those updates regularly each meeting.
075Yeah. Thanks for coming. I'll make sure we have pictures next. Yes. Videos. Yeah. Fireworks. Okay. The superintendent update. I would just want to say pictures the ones that were in superintendent report were were excellent. So was that last month? Okay. for I want to make sure that um we and the public are aware of some um changes that will impact this year um based upon um federal legislation. So if you remember at our March work session, February work session, um February work session, I talked about a dear colleague letter that every school district and and obviously I think higher ed got in um the country from the United States Department of Education um about compliance with um title six and civil rights law. And in part of that letter um said the department will no
076longer tolerate overt and covert racial discrimination that has become widespread in this nation's educational institutions. The law is clear. Treating students differently on the basis of race to achieve net goals such as diversity, racial balancing, social justice or equity is full of controlling the Supreme Court president. All educational institutions are advised to ensure that their policies and actions comply with existing civil rights law. See efforts to circumvent prohibitions on the use of release by relying on proxies or other indirect means to accomplish such as a seesaw reliance on third party contractors, clearing houses or aggregators that are being used by institutions in an effort to circumvent us in place. We talked at the length about that. Um, and we talked about other legislation and yeah, Monday I was at a regional uh meeting in my
077professional association, BAS Buffy Association of School Administrators and and they tend to hold these meetings quarterly and they hold them at different locations around the state. So the Monday meeting was one of the later meetings. So some superintendents had already gone to meetings. Um, at that meeting there was a representative from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce who said, you will receive an email from us today. This email is your we have been told by the federal government late last week which Friday, Thursday, and Friday um that all K12 institutions in the state and also across the country. But um in Ohio had to certify by Thursday today at 5:00 p.m. um that we were following title six um and that all of our policies etc comply with this. And so what that means
078is that um when they say certified that is not you that is me as superintendent. That is my signature. Um, so this was the first time quite honestly all of us were here and and if you were one of those superintendents that had gone to an earlier meeting, you didn't hear it. Um so we had some discussion with with this uh representative um particularly around um when districts have to review policies boards have to be involved and it was Monday the certification Thursday by five and and folks are saying like me how in the world do you think I'm going to turn this around? So, um, came back to the office, actually got my email from the department at just about 2:30 where they had extended the deadline to April 18th um, at 11:59 p.m.
079Um, I have reached out to our legal counsel. You know, the Bassa's legal counsel has weighed in. um BAS's legal counsel happens to be our legal counsel and so they sent a just a general info um document to all superintendents in the state that said here's what we know about the certification superintendents please know that if you if you certify and you are certifying incorrectly you uh will most likely be referred to um professional conduct for the state of And if districts do not certify, they will lose any future any current and future federal funds. So, this is really important because what we're seeing is and and and I'm I'm trying to be objective here because I think if you've been following the news or reading anything, you can see a parallel. What we've been
080seeing is what happens at the federal level comes down to the state level um around this around other equity issues. And so what with this certification I have to look through all of our policies. Now we don't have a single policy that says we discriminate. Um but the question for everyone is is this about things other than that? Um so that's you know I'm in contact with our council. This puts me in a tremendously difficult position along with the other superintendents of the 611 districts in in Ohio and across the country. Um there have been things that have happened since so and I I tried to point this out. Um the AFT, which is the American Federation of Teachers, filed a suit. the National Education Association not long after filed their own lawsuit um on
081the the last week on the 3 where the department federal department asked required all state educa that's state education agency that would be Ohio LEA is local education agency that would be us so when that came out um um you know they were warned about federal funds. So that's when the lawsuits started to come. Two states so far have refused to certify. That would be the New York Department of Edition and sort of Department of Education. That was as of yesterday. Um so I I say this to you to to say pay attention. Um this is very important for us. The focus is on race. the race portion of title six. If you go back and read your colleague letter, I think the AFT and NDA have also filed suit about that letter arguing with
082US Department of Education is not determining the Supreme Court reckoning. You know, that's for the lawyers to decide. I think here in the rural world where we all live uh the implications of this are huge and it is what I said to the um department of education and workforce representing. So, you are putting me in a tremendously difficult spot and I'm concerned about the message that my certification says to my children, to my staff, to my families, to my community. And um so that's kind of where we are. I I try to provide for you just the facts. All of you are intelligent and can make your own decisions. Um and for your opinions. But as of right now, the deadline is April 18th. 15 question. Um, is there anything that a board a school
083board can do in this situation to facilitate the next steps? No, I have You you can't say things, but I think we are well past that point. Here's the danger. You can say in and every community is going to approach this differently, but in the end, I'm going to speak for all the school districts. We all serve students. We all serve all students, no matter what they look like or where they come from, etc. So the the danger is in certifying I'm worried about the message that sends right in not certifying and that would not be me. That would be the board directing me to not certify. We would look at our federal funds and and I had a discussion with the treasur. I know how much money we get in federal funding. And you
084could say this is a hill we're going to die off. We would like Minnesota to get um my fear is that that is not the end of it. I I don't know this and and and to be clear, nothing has been communicated from the Ohio Department of Education and workforce that says anything other than federal funds. So I want to be very clear that if as an educated person I watch the news and I watch the parallels, it doesn't take much to put what might be next. And so then that becomes a real slippery slope when we know there are other budget state budget issues that that the treasury will talk about that are impact. Um, I called the honesty group. Um, I didn't get to call that today. A woman who was a hybrid
085teacher. Um, tomorrow. I think it's important to try to find other school districts that are like mine and that previously try to work together if possible to see where you know because if you're watching what's happening at higher education uh it's important for people to come together different you know institutions to be coming together versus individually so that's why I reach out to them since they have contacts throughout the state, you know. So anyway, I think it'll be important to hear from them. I think they will hopefully that'll be helpful. Yeah, they they might provide um some information and all that that will provide some insight. I think we're in slightly different position than higher ed although this does apply to higher ed as well. Um, I do want to say in another meeting I
086was in last week with superintendent nationally, including some of my colleagues, um, there was a discussion they had received emails from the Ohio Department of Education and of course pulling back money that had already been granted. And what that money is is, you know, gets pretty complex, but all the had from co three series of of funds. Um, districts were were allowed to do what they called late spending funds. Okay. So, these were districts who were granted this money had plans in place to spend this money and they just received emails this week. pulling that money back. So, follow and I'm not going to mention the district um close to us receiving pulling back $5 million of late funding, the late spending money. So, it's that those are the consequences that we face. Now, again,
087that's federal money and I I don't want anyone to misunderstand me. The Ohio Department of Education and Workforce has not mentioned anything about anything right now except federal money. I'm just trying to read the cards in the future that that may be wise or not, but I I would be interested in wanting to speak to a body. So, I will also be wondering how many districts are going to step up because I think um this is what this does is begins to create culture of fear. Um Jay, am I right that a lot of the federal funding that we currently receive is food service funding? Yes, that's correct. The the major well the the largest the largest I guess we get several federal grants um and the largest individual that would be considered our our
088food service and the other one would take special education. Right. So, as I I thank you for that overview, Jerry, and it just reflects the, you know, incredibly difficult times we live in for public education, both at the state and federal level. Um I I think we can also understand by your last comment that even certification is no guarantee that federal funding won't be pulled since federal funding that affects this district is already being considered to be a cut for the cuts. Um and our legal council I think here is extremely valuable as well as it is indeed Terry Terry's Dr. Holden's signature that goes on this paper. So, we are in a position to support the decision that you with the legal council come up with. Um, but I do want to u voice
089a serious concern about the retroactive nature of of this executive order. It's that um we actively pursued in the construction project which we just heard a pro a report on. We pursued contracting with minority owned businesses and womenowned businesses. Uh does is that impact is that an impact because we are in that construction project supporting efforts to even the playing field when it comes to economic opportunity. Um, and I can just imagine in our district there are so many activities that are intersecting with our students and our teachers and what we do in the classroom um, and how we interact with community that could, you know, somehow someway be interpreted as violating this this letter. Uh so as as we consider this I think it's really important to understand that by our very actions as
090a district from the past forward um we do not comply and uh that is something to consider in our our our decision to to certify or not. I think we we talked I think a question for our legal counsel is can a certification be revoked? Um can the decision be made not to certify but if given the cost to the district is so great and the community understands the reason for it certify in the future. I mean is there is there opportunity there? And then my last comment is is that given um actions both at the um primary and secondary level public education and in higher ed education postponing the time to certify to 11:58 p.m. on the 18th is probably important. Oh, just to wait as long as possible if certification is the recommendation
091of the superintendent and and legal counsel um to to delay that as long as possible um in the hope that there would be some kind of stay or there would be some kind of of of halt to the process. Let me provide another clarification. the certification on the surface right now I can say and and I've worked with my principles and legal council we have this year lots of things because we were given categories of things to check and and again our policies do not mention um we are discriminating in some ways our policies for our clubs do not say only certain students are allowed to attend clubs and again it's just not who we are so I feel really confident in these in in saying that we don't buy anything like that but this
092goes a little further than that right now and so for example it says if we had any scholarships that we gave A scholarship for a female interested in science, a scholarship for students of color interested in that would be an exciting to if I were to certify I'm not certifying is a rescue. My concern is just more a professional, moral, ethical concern about what message certification sends, particularly if there's a next step. But I want to make make it clear that we have worked with our council. We are meeting six I'm ready to to address your your judgment on that. Um, may I have a question to you questions which is uh I'm interested in knowing if the board can take responsibility for that. I'm I'm saying no it's in the system that I have
093to go in and sign off. Quite honestly, I mean it it's one of my And look, we things have changed so rapidly since I went to that meeting the other day. It's quite likely things will continue to change rapidly. Um, but if you all of these things are are paralleling what we've seen at the federal level. So we don't want to propose to the board if it does seem why is it necessary to meet as a special special meeting. I'll call that meeting. Okay. Um so I'll move on to the second reading of policies um special update volume 43 number two and we've reviewed this these policies before and if you'll recall Amy and I and along with the treasuring superintendent met with the Neola representative they're the organization we hire to go through these
094policies and make sure that they are part of the district documents of policies and we discussed at that time some of the policy changes that are reflective of new state laws and and inspired by federal law that are addressing these these issues. So we've had a robust discussion on this as already. Um is there any further discussion on any of these policies? Okay. Do I have a motion um to approve the second reading for policies volume 43 number two as a second? I second. Jup. Yes. Magnus. Yes. Yes. Bailey. Yes. Yes. Motion passes. Okay. So, we're going to now move on to the administrative consent count calendar. Do I have a motion to open the consent calendar? Second. I second. Okay. Yes. There are just a few items here. One is um approval of kindergarten
095hours, additional hours for kindergarten screening. That's something we typically have um on the agenda for privilege here at this time. Um the second is to approve the EL education curriculum for grade four in ELA. About a year ago, we approved it for grade five and put a whole curriculum for grades three through five on the agenda for what it did not spell out specifically here for. So, this is closing the root format. um this curriculum began in that middle school and the um fifth and sixth grade teachers and it was done for this sixth grade sixth grade teachers like it so much they wanted fifth grade teachers wanted it and fourth grade because it really was packaged like our severe project and um the themes of the curriculum match and then Um 6.4 board is
096another annual approval and that is annual high school athletic association for there items on okay yes Bailey yes yes yes yes motion passes No. Okay. Now, the financial consent calendar is the motion to open. Second. Okay. Um, yeah, we have the uh January financial report. Um and then we um have the advance in transfers uh asking for an advance from the general fund to our building fund. Um advances are good for up to a year. Um and this is uh something that um we have uh looked at. uh we received an additional amount of uh income tax in the fall and if you remember um it was a large sum for past years um of refiling um and we want to be able to use that money to secure our funding for our project. We
097have a couple large GMPS coming up. Um, one of them being the technology package and a couple other items that we did not solidify yet with the calendar. So, um, as those GMPS come up, we want and then the last one will be our furniture which we are going independently, but it's something that we will have to approve as well and I have to certify that we have the money available. Um, we know that we're using interest and we have been doing very well on our interest so far, you know, not um but until that interest money is realized, this allows me to certify those contracts. And so we're going to advance the money and interest as they do on the financial report. And when we get $750,000 in interest from this point forward, then
098we will advance the money. And um you explain to us about loss between the events and then the reversing respons um if yeah if the interest earnings keep on pace with where they have now you know they'll be larger now and as we get into the project the interest earnings will get smaller because they'll they'll spend down but right now um if things keep at the pace that they're out in advance 10 months and like I said advances are good for up to a year. Okay. I actually have more questions about the January report. So the first question is do you think that we're going to be able to catch up with our financial reports months behind? Yeah. So we are it's one month behind. We we moved it so that Yeah. Um so because
099you can't close March until you get some April and then it's too close to have more meetings. So anyway March would be out of the question. So goal would be next month we'll have February. So I'm I'm looking at this one of course versus but it shows that for revenues you were expecting a 66% benchmark and we're at 50 60% so very specific here. Can you remind us? Yeah. Um so that was and I looked into this as well the um the January income tax payments. Um this has sort of been a a bit of a guessing game with the uh the increase in income tax. Um this was our basically the last quarter. Um so the last quarter of last year is what the January came up was for and those are for um
100elections generally speaking elections those are the people that have opinions of payroll. Um so the January income tax collection what we received from the state was not as large as I would expect it to be but uh I will say I expect uh our April collection that will then be larger because so agreeing with that last year you had pointed out that maybe some years in the district are not updated how much money should be withheld with the new uh the addition Do you have any more information about where we are as in terms of dating? So that is something that we don't get information on the department taxation. Um I said that all of the these payments and there being very few what what they call delinquent payments you know after the the quarter.
101Um it does show that the majority of this were anticipated payments where people make payments on time either through their payroll system or if they're an independent contractor are are making anticipated payments. So, um, some of them end in the last quarter of the year, if your business is tight, then you you might hold on to it. And then once you file your taxes in April or or, you know, tax day coming up after we file, then you see the the catch up on the income. So, doesn't mean that we shouldn't have collected more. It means that we'll receive that. So, as I understand because I I noticed there was a a gap um that has not been uncommon, you know, fluctuates and so you're saying that you see it on track. It's just a
102delay in when we're receiving the money. Yeah. And on my projections for the year, on the cash flow projections for the year, I have um I put the the April was going to be the smallest that I just feel like the the January will probably be the smallest collection this year. I expect April to rebound and like I said, as people file their income taxes this um this quarter that we'll see those being paid in the April payment. might also be the the July payment as well. Depends on when people file the taxes for the state. So when you when you do your Ohio state tax return, that that's the time where the department says this is how much you owe for for school tax. Um and if people weren't withholding enough, that that's the
103time that they have to get caught up. So, you know, if you file in January, then we're going to get that money in April. If they file in April, then we're going to get that money in July. Uh I think you also remember our July payment was was a big payment as well last year and this is where as far as projections we were like okay why was July so big we we can't really say but it it might have to do with the time that board members have any questions about the transfer to the building. Okay. There any objections to items on the consent calendar? Shall we take a vote? David, yes. Yes. And yes. Magnus, yes. Otter, yes. Motion passes 5 to zero. Okay. Now the adoption of the consent calendar personnel. Do
104I have a motion to open? Okay. Hold. Thank you. Um board again, this is a board hiring time. So you see retirements um some more hires, some more employment offers as we fill open positions. Can you give us an update on on the u the hiring to make up for those uh focus positions on our announcement? Um yeah pretty well. We are in the middle of an interview process for elementary principal, special supervisor, tech coordinator um social studies, intervention specialist and then math will be coming and actually secretary specialist to to fill positions for those of I I will say we will do a retirement piece at the end of the year. This is the first year that we've had retirements um in a few years. So with some veterans making their transition, we want
105to be able to say thank you and good wishes. I'm glad to hear that on this retirement uh schedule, we are going to be saying goodbye to some loved teachers. So, it'll be great to celebrate their contribution to the district. Okay. Any objections to any item on the consent calendar? Yes. And yes, Magnus, yes. Conor, yes. Bailey, yes. Motion passes 5 to zero. Okay, so we're moving to board communications. So, Yellow Springs Development Corporation, I I talked with Dr. Holden. She was able to attend a meeting. I I was not. I was at a funeral. Uh there's still this it's time I think transition for the YSDC and we agreed to have a more full report which has been missing the last couple months because of this transition uh from you know kind of an
106organization that was independent to becoming integrated with the village and now a new president of YSDC. So we'll have that update for you at the next board meeting. I just want to ask a question. I know that there was an important question maybe a couple of months ago about what the role will be of the school district to see if you have any clarification on that but for yes we got to figure that out too. Okay, great. Thank you. And now we have um an important leaison report. Yeah. Um so the things that uh leaison council that uh we're looking at is safe gun storage swimming question of swimming as part of the curriculum and then um they have raised um after school care for six to 10 year olds I'm wondering if the village
107could play a role there for the needs of the parents identifying Um, in terms of the state gun story, um, superintendent talked to Chief Bird. Um, they've got, uh, they're handing out guns for free in the police department. Um, and superintendent suggested that we partner with YSPD to get the word out via parent square and coho and co-host a community safety event. um which I think is a great idea um and because I think it's the schools can play particularly but also the community at large an educational campaign would make a lot of sense to kind of put that information that's great but then it be a little more visible in the community beyond just the school district so I So any I'll coordinate with superintendent and figure out how to do that. Um in
108terms of swimming, superintendent put out a survey on parent square gauing current interest in swimming lessons for their children. Um and uh one thing I so the superintendent has said that uh you know typically there's partnership with the wise uh has a way of doing this also plain city local county has a program but they evidently have a swimming pool doing that or is that No, that's correct. Anyway, the question is how do you the students choose and within the context of that school pay plane city is actually a partnership with the YMCA and I believe is funded through an endowment and then the school district provides the busing to the YMCA during this. Okay. Yeah. in Fairborn is a similar thing that they do. They do it for second graders, second graders live and
109have lessons. Um, so I reached out to home school. Anyway, I'm trying to get more information about how they do that. Um so the question still is um you know is this something we could possibly do uh during the summer uh the beginning of the school year maybe when there's still an overlap of the school public school being open and then of course there's the wellness center um and so I didn't try to think about how quick survey results So we got 57 responses and and the greatest responses are really something. So um you know I I think we can pursue something where there will be a partnership and like I said this was working on this and have some thoughts about that and I get some question about I was one of the something
110incredible questions there but um we are approaching summer and we have the only public swimming pool in the uh that offers classes but I don't know I think that's something that we can do as a school district is cannot share the information of when those lessons will be happening this summer to the parents before the school ends so that they can make uh they can sign up and do what they need to do. Something that I will say and it probably should be feedback for the for the pool people that those lessons happen very early in the morning when the water is very cold and it is a deterrent for our kids so cold that we are being advised to buy swimsuits that are padded because it's so cold to be. So if there's a
111way to talk to the village and it hasn't been getting classes to when there's some in the water that will help and I want to say I talked with David about this when I was running for school board uh as a a thing I I campaigned on because the drowning is a major cause of death among young people and even my teenagers had friends who did not know how to swim and they were going the quaries and rivers and and all the rest. So I I'd also suggest that we talk to the village about the pool at Gon Park closes on Labor Day famously. It's a big event, but could they extend for the schools into uh September because the water's a lot warmer than I also had kids that were um on the swim
112team and those early May practices were pretty brutal. They came out blue. So that might be something to consider and and and just on the gun storage is such an important conversation and this is where um it is important also to educate the parents and families about to normalize the conversations around it and whether it's asking are they are not sourcing the house again normalize those questions in exchange I had with exchange I've learned that a family was in need of a glo box that went to that we need them to for them. So there are ways as a community where we can show up for one another here and kind of bridge the gap on knowledge on how to store guns safely which is really easy. And I'll let Miss talk to the library
113after school program that Sure. So on Tuesday, the library offers programming for for students. It varies. Um sometimes it's arts, it's crafts, um sometimes it's cultural, but either way, the students can go um they are supervised, they are provided a snack, but what they are finding is if students come in and and find that it's not something that interests them, that they're getting the snack and that they're leaving. Um, so we are working with the library on a few things that maybe we can help with. So for example, Mr. Fedel and I are walking over on Tuesdays to make sure that the students know that there's this partnership between the library and the school. And then we are also suggesting that we do surveys to see what interests the students that are actually going to
114the library so that they want to stay in that program. And then we've also offered if it gets too busy over there with students who are not going away with the program and maybe um disrupting some patrons that maybe they could then come here and offer the program in one of our spaces on on Tuesdays. But either way, we are working with them kind of trying to figure out what are we doing with the younger students at Mills Lawn after school because they're not old enough to go to the Brian Center, but then some of them have siblings that go to Brian Center which just leaves them to be able to walk over um to the library. So, we are looking for different ways to um partner with the library and offer some after school
115programming for those students. Thank you. Okay, we'll move on to the legislative report. Wait, wasn't firsted? Yeah. Anything? So, I'll start with acting transposition because there are some village updates to that. So, the village has applied for sidewalk grant on bike from rich crest to start. Uh they just applied this week and they should be back. They should be back in June. So everybody crosses their fingers and toes because the last time that the village did that they got awarded a grant but there was a gap of almost $1 million close to make that sidewalk happen which is just too much. Um so we're hoping that this one this one is more favorable and we hope that this one comes through because we do have students that are living in Fairfield. We know that it's
116a narrow road. There's no way to walk or bike on it in safe way. uh and uh thankfully the speeding has been limited with the different bumps and pumps. There is a different technical difference between the two. I forgot what it is for me. Uh so everybody crosses their fingers on that. Uh the next announcement is that the village is also hosting for the third time the safety village that will be uh from July 14th to July 18th and that's for kindergarteners, children entering kindergartener and first grade and communication and registration will come out next week. So I'm sure that it will be communicated to the schools and the schools can include a parent square invitation on that. Uh there is always a need for volunteers but I would say that um they they managed
117in the past to have one volunteer per child meaning that if you have a child with special need to not ignore sleep on the safety village it might be a good fit for you. uh safety village goes through all sorts of safety including gun safety, gun storage, but it's also about uh poison awareness, poisoning awareness, uh some basic traffic um uh traffic rules, but also what do you do when you get lost? So, really good program. I was hearing from my people who lived in fantastic and I'm glad to see that the village is doing that again. Tomorrow the village has their goal meetings that was supposed to happen earlier but I think March 31st but it's been postponed tomorrow. It's an open meeting from 3 to 5 p.m. It will not be public comments
118but you can email your u your village counselors and tell them what goals are important to you. It may be housing, it may be active transportation, it may be whatever you think is important. Um there will be also a biking and a walking audit of the ent college area that will come in May and this is relevant because we're hopeful that at that event there will be an update on the new housing that is supposed to be coming on the entra college and we will need people of all abilities from scrollers to wheelchair to walker to biker to rollers whatever to come and uh look at the ability to walk on Livermore in all the streets that are crossing Livermore from Davis onto probably the wellness center and it's just to uh scout what are
119the next priority that the village needs to consider in terms of grant application for active transportation because you cannot have a democratic community without a walking community that's together and also on May 14th this is National Bike and Walk to School Day and there will be an event that it will be planned in front of me in the afternoon from 2 to 4 with lots of partners including a children, the Green County Public Health, uh fire rescue team um and other partners that haven't confirmed yet, but I will get back to you on that. and uh it's to promote active transportation as a lifelong skill on so that was active transportation. Do you want me to move on to other things now? I know there's a lot to cover. Okay. So I'm glad that we
120got to cover some topics earlier. There's so much that is moving there that I I need to bring up some other topics. Uh first in ter in terms of what's happening at the state level. Yesterday the House pushed the budget proposal to the Senate. This is not the budget proposal that Governor DeWine uh put out on February 5th. It's been a revised and changed uh and not in favor in favor favor way. Uh the good news is that the legislators are taking two weeks off their work for Easter, which means that they should be back in their district and be able to talk to their constituents. And so that gives us time to digest the new iteration of this budget and then reach out to them and tell them to do that. Um because the
121budget proposal that was pushed out of the house is abandoning the fair school funding plan to go back to the previous adult funding system which was declared in institutional by the Ohio Supreme Court. So we go back to the system before that was already failing public education. Fantastic. Uh the project will also direct county official to pair back the property taxes with super schools if a district maintains a balance worth more than 30% of their annual budget. So this is where it's it's kind of squeezing from my understanding correctly but it's squeezing uh public schools to not be able to plan for more than three or four months for public senses. We have a reserves of what 300 something days right now. Um so our our projections um based on our last I report which
122you know we'll be updating as well um is we would have 75% of our expenditures of the so we would have to reimburse 45% we would have to well it so I I don't mind speaking on this [Music] during So, um the revisions to House Bill 96, uh the budget bill, um I I will start with the the good news, the good news is that um the changed the amount of state funding that we were receiving uh looks like, you know, the previous version was a loss for us. Um and now um we we are gaining I think $4,000 next year and then $2,000 additional year after rather than losing money. So total not for student $4,000 $4,000 total over the entire year. It is a uh I want to say a 04% increase from
123what we received this year and then a 02% increase. Um so that's good that we are not losing state funding in this. So that that's some of the that's the highlight. Um this direction um where the county budget commission uh modifies the requirement that the county budget commission reduce school district property tax rates based on the district's carryover balance by increasing the um so the threshold of 30% of previous fiscal year general fund expenditures. Um, and there's multiple reasons that this is not a a a great plan. Um, it is taking the vote out of voters's hands and giving it to the county budget commission. Um, so taxpayers vote on the amount of funding that we receive through property taxes. Uh, there is the 20 mil floor in place. This eliminates the 20 mil floor.
124The 20 mil floor said um this is the minimum amount that school should receive from property taxpayers. Um and if you get down and you're operating on the 20 mil floor, then you get to continue to operate on the 20 mil floor. And that that's the minimum that you should collect from your local pack there. It eliminates the minimum. So, um there are districts that are operating on the minimum right now and they have um almost uh 15 years there there's a district with 15 years of of reserves in this general fund and it's been operating on the minimum for a long time. So, this proposal doesn't even spell out how do you fix that? Um so um it takes the the vote out of voter hands and it gets to the county budget commission
125and yes um it 25% is three months of expenses. They they're saying you should hold on to only three months of expenses. Uh the reason that they went after the five-year forecast is um several years ago as districts got when they implemented the five-year forecast there there were districts that were going into the financial distress basically getting to the point that they they couldn't make payroll and the state was giving out emergency loans to these districts that you had to pay back to the state with interest of course. Um but the state said, "Okay, if if schools are getting to this point where they can't make payroll and they can't keep operating, we we need to put something in place to make sure that they're planning better for that." And that's when they implemented five
126to four test and said, "We want you to have a positive cash balance for five years. We want you to have a f a sound financial plan to at least make it five years. If you aren't positive in your 5-year forecast, what we all know this, we've been through it. Here is where you you have to have a a plan for more funding. You have to have a wedding on coming up on your forecast that says this is how we're going to address our short. Um, and the nature of school funding and the way that it works for you only get new money when you pass a levy means that if we just ask for the money that we need today, next year we're going to have to ask for tomorrow. So schools when they
127do ask for new money, always ask for enough to get through a couple years before they have to ask again. And and so it it's kind of the I call it the the roller coaster of cash balance where your cash when you pass a levy and cash balance goes up and then as time goes by expenses go up your revenue is relatively flat even if you're on the the 20 mil floor and you know historically you would expect to see 2% increases in property tax. You know, we all know that there was a giant property tax um well, property value increase or something. Still don't expect something like that to happen again. Um so this is kind of retroactively trying trying to fix that. Um so then then as expenditures go up and revenue, then
128then your cash balance goes down and then you have to ask for more money. And that's the been the cycle for school funding for a long time. Um, but this is going and saying we're going to reduce it so you only have three months of cash on hand. But but you also have to be balanced. And the issue with that is, you know, unlike businesses when their expenses go up and they can increase their prices to offset the expenses, you know, as prices for them go up, they pass it on to the consumer. We we don't get to do that. We have to ask to increase the prices around here. That's that's why there's so um yeah this um 30% is is better than than 25 but it still is a solution that does not
129really work the way and as I understand it this passed the house and it will be going to the senate. So, just to get for anyone watching, uh, please contact Senator Ker because he is our representative on the Senate. We'll be voting on this and he knows our situation and so and constituencies matter. So, absolutely. and and I would say that of course uh contacting representative Levi doesn't work it's too late for that it's really all efforts on the state senate and and I want to add two other facets of this bill just to understand like the the the direess of this uh of the system is that the Ohio House proposed budget actually increases funding for private schools by $500 million. Okay. But they only gave half of that to private schools. When there
130is was 90% of students are involved in private schooling, right? They get half of the funding that the private schools are going to get with that budget. And then just, you know, just to put the cherry on top of all this, the uh house decided to dedicate 600 million for a stadium in Cleveland for football team that I cannot remember the name. I'm sorry. Programs. 600 millions are going to land, 500 millions are going to the private schools and half of that for public education. Then you add the cuts to the federal for the federal budget for title one and then for school funding and then they understand that the whole system that they're building here is so that the school leaves have to come more often on the ballot with bigger asks every time.
131they are just pushing the school public schools to face voter fatigue. That's the strategy here and and we need to so as individual board members actually as citizens as voters and taxpayers we can contact uh senator just telling that this is not sustainable. This is not sustainable. This is disempowering local taxpayers. Yeah. Um yeah. So one of the big impacts for this for public schools as well is that um for entities to borrow money um and to get the best rate, you want to be AAA rated. Um the only way to be AAA rated is to carry a minimum 25% cash balance. They're going to look at the boards when you go out borrow money. They're going to say, "Do you have 25% for five years?" And so if they do this where they limit
132the cash balance that schools can carry, that's going to mean every time schools borrow money, they're going to have to borrow at a higher rate, which means more taxes. So I I mean to me that's not a great plan. If you want schools to be able to borrow money, which they have to do for any large capital projects, um you want them to be able to get the best rate because that's best way to save your taxpayers money is to get a good interest rate. I will say for us, you know, this is we we we got we lucked out that our project was started. We got a great answer when we did and we weren't facing this. But um and and sort of one of the other parts of this is uh if you're
133only allowed 30 30% of your previous year's expenditures um and we have too much money, one of these solutions would be to spend more money, not because you need to, but because you have to. So I I don't think that's a great plan. I don't like to spend money. We don't have to spend But I I will say that that's one of the solutions is to encourage higher spending. Sort of the old way of looking at things of use it or lose it. And if you don't use it, we're going to lose it. So you might as well use it on something. Not something that is a necessity, but something that you you're not going to be able to keep this money, so we might as well. So I just think it's not a but
134so then then this is where it gets so frustrating because of course taxpayers and community members they want public school to be efficient but we're not given the parameters so that they can be efficient. We are not here and and then I want to add to that you know add to that the dismantling of the department of education and what Governor Dwine said about it. He said uh that he was glad that the power was going back to the state because we can be more efficiently more effectively utilized than here than the money in the state of Ohio. But at the same time, it tells parents um that uh parents should be reaching out to weigh on how much money should go to private schools versus public schools. So is is keeping the door open
135for more money going into private education and less in public education. This is where we really need to speak up on that like the moment if we retire. And then you add to that the federal cuts to school meals. The USD the USDA is mixing more than $1 billion with a B of two programs that helped that helps food banks and school meals uh buy local food including 660 millions for school children. So we really squeeze on all sides and when we say we it's the schools, the families, the community, the taxpayers. I can go on but I know that we have a lengthy conversation about I just hope that the news pick up on the rest because there's a lot more to say here how this is not serving our children and that might
136have a question. One um question is if you don't use it, you lose it, where does it go? So that's Yeah. So So some of some deeper parts of the proposal are um if so if we get to the end of the year and our cash balance is higher than we're allowed to have. Now, um the county budget commission is going to go after the revenue and reduce the revenue. Um, of course they wouldn't be able to do that until the following year. So they wouldn't go in effect until next year. The the cuts that they're doing. Um, and at which point our expenses are going up and um but the uh other piece of the proposal is they're going to say how are you going to spend your money? So then they want us
137to come up with a plan to spend more money um than than we planned on spending. How how will you spend down your balance? is part of it. So, it's not like they it's not like we have to give money back to anybody right away. Um, it's more that they're going to withhold our They're going to Yeah, they're going to cut the the tax rate in the future and then um and then they're going to ask us to to spend our money then. Are we in a situation where actually the timing might be good because we're planning on spending a lot to move the next construction project? So this is talking about general fund amendments. So that's not the O4. Um yes. So what they're really looking at is is your general fund. Now there
138there are some I mean you know within this um you know for yellow springs there is some better news for us. our costs expenditure our cost that is paid out of the general fund which boo expenditures. So that gives us more money to be carried forward but it's also a danger because now we're reducing the amount of money that we're allowed to hold and we have to make our debt payments there. So this is going to impact the care facilities maybe on the long term because we had talked about expecting maybe some uh projects coming up and of course this is too early to discuss. doesn't have projections yet, but we have talked about, hey, we're going to need to redo the parking lots in five years and then we need to plan for I
139don't know new roofs in 20 years, but we won't be able to save. There's no plan that allows us to save up. Um there there are possible solutions, but it it it makes it more difficult. um instead of being able to keep your money in the general fund um where the taxpayers voted to put it. Yeah. Um, and this is something and I I would say as a district that we're fortunate sometimes, you know, a lot of times when we look at the funding that we receive, when we look at our our revenue pie chart and where it comes from, um, you know, I everybody wants to get a larger portion from the state and everybody wants to get a larger portion from the federal government. Um but when you do have more local control
140then this is this is one of the the good benefits does strengthen your education system then when you're you have some I was going to say I mean it's easy to say well this doesn't make sense but it does make sense when you're a hospital publication and that's the They don't want people to be educated. They don't want people to be and I guess it's a good transition to the next section that announcements. Yes, please. Yeah. I I wanted to attach this article um that uh talks about why we should support public education. We should support public education because it's about right because having an educated population makes it safer. It makes it uh just better in general and because this is a better democracy. But if none of those arguments are really resonating with
141the people that they talk to, then there is another one in that article and it says that there have been longitudinal studies that have showed that investing for each dollar that is invested in public education, it pays back to the state uh in terms of economic development. And also reversely if you cut down public education dollars tax dollars uh being invested in public education then it's a disservice on an economic basis to the state. So when we reach out to our senator, especially the senators that uh do not that do not appear in favor of supporting public education, they need to maybe frame it in terms of investment in economic development for the state of Ohio that $1 invested in public education yields more than $1. And there's more details in that article. That's just
142a way to phrase it that I wanted to add to the public uh discourse here so that any person that would want to reach out to their representatives could use that as an additional. Thank you everyone and just want to underscore the tremendous effort our faculty and staff and administrators are making to navigate these difficult times. So thank you very much. Okay. And do I have a mo motion to adjurnn? Second. All those in favor? All those opposed. Meeting adjourned. [Music]