001That's true. [Music] Good evening everyone. >> I'd like to call to order this special meeting of the board of education. It is 6:01 p.m. on September 3rd, 2025. Miss Stocoy, could you please call the role? >> Miss Coco >> here. >> Mr. Gomez >> here. >> Mr. Harris, >> here. >> Mrs. Schaefer >> here. >> Miss White >> here. >> Thank you. Item three is motion to approve the agenda. It is recommended that the board of education approves the agenda of the September 3rd, 2025 special board of education meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Miss Stoy, please call the role. >> Mr. Coco. >> I. >> Mr. Gomez. >> Hi. >> Mr. Harris. >> Hi. >> Mr. Schaefer. I >> Miss White >> I >> welcome our vision. Kyogre Falls City Schools
002the hub of our community committed to a culture of caring. We innovate. We create. We personalize education for all. This meeting is a meeting of the Kyogre Falls Board of Education in public for the purpose of conducting the school district's business. It is not a public community meeting although there are opportunities for public participation. If an individual wishes to address the board regarding a topic found on the meeting agenda, the individual must complete a registration form found inside the attendance notebook and present it to the treasurer. Following the introduction of the topic by the board president, followed by board discussion, the individual will be recognized. If an individual wishes to address the board regarding a topic not found on the meeting agenda, he or she must notify the superintendent and/or board president of the topic
003no later than three business days in advance of the meeting. These individuals may share their comments during the board business portion of the agenda. >> In both cases, the individual will press comments by an announcement of his or her name and address and limit comments to three minutes. All statements should be directed to the board president. No person may address or question board members individually. And now for our pledge of allegiance. Mr. Bis, >> if you please stand as you're able and join me in the pledge. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you, Mr. Gomez. Welcome. Thank you to everyone who is here this evening for this um
004meeting that we're having at your school. Um I just wanted to preface we are going to have later um time for anyone who would like to come up and address the board and I know that a lot of people have been signing in over here. Um there is a sign up and then there are also agenda topic request forms over there that look like this. So, if you're wanting to address the board, these are the forms to fill out and we will be collecting them after Dr. Celico's presentation and then we will call everyone up. So, if you are wanting to address the board, they're over on the table and then can be given to Miss Stoy, our treasurer. Thank you. So, first business this evening is our presentation on elementary school closure. We thought
005it was important um as a board to have a meeting here and then we also had a meeting previously at Preston Elementary. Um the same presentation is being given at both. We know um that there may be people in the community and stakeholders and caregivers and students who maybe have not been able to attend or follow all of our board meetings up to this point. and we wanted to make sure that everyone had the opportunity for this presentation of what has led us to this point um of deciding which elementary school will end up being repurposed and closed. So with that, I'd like to call up Dr. Celico for her presentation and she will go through everything. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Koko. Um good evening. I want to thank you all for coming
006out. Clearly, this is an emotional time, a difficult time for families and we're really aware of that and sensitive to that. So, um, please understand that this evening, what I'm going to do today is give a lot of facts, but please don't think that that discounts the emotional attachments that I know you all have. It is my my job as superintendent to present to the board the facts and figures and um certainly doesn't account for as I mentioned all of the feelings associated with the school closing but I know that they are all well aware of the impact that this decision will have on all of you and our larger community as well. So uh with that one I want to thank everyone for said for not only coming but also the setup um for
007our custodians and principles for accommodating uh accommodating us this evening. All right so essentially as uh what uh president Koko had shared is that I've I've given this presentation before and it's actually a compilation of presentations that we've seen throughout this process over the last few months uh at this point maybe even several months and I want to just again take you back to where we started. I will not um go into great depth in detail, but these presentations are on our website, so you're more than um we're more than happy to share that with you. So, you're able to access those at your leisures, but I'll point out those times uh where those come up on the slides. So, just, you know, heading back to uh the time when we started having these discussions
008about our financial future, uh Miss Stoyco, our treasurer, had given us a report in April of 2025. That's just a reminder for me to tell you that the presentation itself is not there because it's rather lengthy. But essentially we are in uh what is called fiscal caution uh with the state and as a result we had to do a number of things to uh examine our our financial situation and then we uh the su the treasurer and I had to sit in monthly meetings actually probably two a month or at times it felt like more but with uh folks from the state to literally scrutinize our budget and to say to us that in the next uh three years we had to cut $4 million. Is that correct? Right. >> In the last fiscal. Yeah.
009So, $4 million in three years time. And so, that's rather difficult to do. And what that ends up amounting to many times, no matter how we want to uh reduce budgets or uh spending in in other ways, it really amounts to staff and that's the difficult decision. So we had to look at we couldn't nickel and dime our way to $4 million meaning cutting copying paper, pencils, pens, office supplies, even textbooks to some extent. Generally those are larger purchases but what we didn't want to do was impact the students in the classrooms and the and the tools that the teachers need to be successful. So, we had to look at large items. And in those large items included in that list is a reduction in personnel, but also the uh closure of a an elementary
010school. And I'll I'll show you uh how we arrived at that throughout this presentation. But those were some of the big items that we had to consider along with looking at our open enrollment. Uh are also some things that are just really big decisions that we need to to look at and consider. So, that's that's the backstory. We wouldn't be closing an elementary school just to close one. Certainly, that's that would not make any sense. And it is all related really to our finances as well as a decrease in our enrollment. So, I got to point at you, right, Brian? Okay. Well, >> there we go. All right. So um in referring as I mentioned the de the the decline in our enrollment our trends if you look at this is the past uh leading
011up to the the 10 years uh 15 through 25 and you'll see that all our enrollment has decreased and we lost about a thousand students in that amount of time which is about 24% of our student population. Now, people might be saying, well, why? I get this question a lot. Why are we losing students? I can assure you that this is a trend not just in Kyhaga Falls, but throughout the state and it actually stems back to the live birth rate is down. So, that's it's it's again there are numerous reasons for declines in enrollment, but really the the live birth rate itself is down. It gave me Look at the screen. >> He was timing me for three minutes. I get more than three minutes this evening. I'm sorry. Only you guys get three
012minutes, but I get a little bit more. He gave me the three-minute buzzer. I got a lot to say. It won't be covered in three minutes. Um so again as you can see so we've had the decline in um in our our enrollment for again the reasons as I as I cited but obvious some obvious ones certainly our um charter schools and vouchers that certainly has impacted again not just our district but across the state as well. So when you see a decline in enrollment we have to do something when you see that we've lost a thousand students and u you can go ahead while I'll try and see does that work. There we go. All right. So then move looking forward from 25 to 35. Now we're projecting ahead in the future. Uh we
013had a study done when we do our Ohio facilities uh commission that's been working with us to uh put together the 6 through 12 campus. They also work with us and they will work with us in our elementary phase. But in doing that they have to conduct a um an u an assessment and I'll I'll refer to this later on but they did a project a projection for our enrollment and what happens in the next 10 years so they could see and make we can make decisions based off of that. So what you'll see here is that they predict another 350 students over the next 10 years that we will lose. Now is this an exact science? No. But I can tell you that they they've come pretty close in the in my experience. This
014is not the first time I've seen these studies done or in a district I've been in. And actually the last one they did. So approximately 350 students is again what they're showing. Now that's K12. Okay. You're just going to have to do it. It's not working. It's not going to cooperate tonight. All right. So when when we get when we've how we've gotten to this point again. So, we've given a little bit of the history of of the reasons why, right? Financ financial reasons and a decline in enrollment. So, when we got to the point that we were considering um seriously considering closing a school, we have a a board policy that relates directly to that. And these are just the um fact these are the factors listed. This is an excerpt from the policy.
015It's it's longer than this, but I wanted to show you the main points. Some of which many of which we will address and we have addressed and taken into consideration such as age of buildings, the adequacy of the building, the sites, uh are they feasible for the number of students they need, reassigning the number of students, how many will we be displacing, transportation factors, how does that play into all of this, are there any alternative uses for the buildings, cost savings, and then the continuity of our programs. So I can assure you through this when we're talking about displaced students, our main goal is regardless of where students attend that we are going to provide the absolute best education that we can for all of our students. But these are all the factors that we
016have to take we that we take into consideration. Again, they might not all apply, but many of them do in this instance. Okay. So then just kind of teasing out each one of those things that I just described. I'm going to talk a little bit more in depth about each one. These are our elementary schools. And what you see there is a table that states the school, the building dates, so the years in which they were constructed. Some of them have additions. And this again, this presentation will be I know you're trying to see now and I apologize. It's not probably not the best for you in the back. You will have access to all of this, but you can see the age how old the buildings are. And just for those of you who
017can't see, our oldest building is uh Silver Lake at 98 years, Lincoln at 95, uh let's see, Richardson 74, Price 72, Preston 67, Dwit 57, and Chennai, which we'll talk about later, is 63. And it also says the square footage. Uh so when we're looking at this, we take into consideration the age, the physical condition of the building, the operating systems, and uh programming that we have. So, with that said, in the bottom corner, there's a a link to building upgrades from 2018 to 2025. And I'm not going to click and go in depth, but that is one thing if you're interested, you certainly can find online. So, it's all the improvements that we did and things that we might need to do for buildings. So, all the money we've put into the existing buildings,
018money that will be needed as we look out into the future. Another uh uh factor that we look at is the environmental and sight suitability factors. This is in our policy. It's not necessarily directly related to the situation we're in now. Meaning that we don't have environmental problems on any of our sites that we've had, you know, if you have studies done, your suitability. Uh so the way they are and the way they exist now are fine, but the question is what are better future sites? Some are better for future sites in building, some may not be, some have better traffic patterns. I mean, there are just a variety of things that are considered when you're looking at elementary schools. But some questions that came to mind for me were, can we when we go
019to close a building, and obviously other buildings are going to absorb the the students that we're we're going to be displacing, can our buildings and neighborhoods accommodate for and I was a former elementary principal, so the things I'm thinking about are drop off, pickup, lunch. We have lunch in our gymnasiums in many instances. We have specials that uh music, art, etc. Do we have room for them to have their own classrooms? Are they going to be sharing space? These are all things that come to mind when we're thinking about these decisions. Uh also adequate space inside and outside. Is there playground space? You know, do we have enough room for our students to be comfortable in both in and outside of the building? Um schedules. lunch schedule uh are always kind of a nightmare, especially
020in larger elementaryaries. And when I'm talking larger, mine was 750 students. So, we had to really it felt like lunch went on all day long because it pretty much did. But those are things that we take into consideration. Can we fit the number of students in in uh the cafeterias, etc. And then are there any buildings that are too large or too small to close, whether it's physical size or enrollment wise? the other those are also links that you see there where you see each one of the schools listed Dit Lincoln Preston etc. I'm not going to click on those but again those are 70 to 95 pages documents that are were conducted by the Ohio schools uh facility commission and they they went ahead and did a very thorough investigation if you will of
021each one of our buildings and said like this is what needs to be done. They have pictures and corresponding uh descriptions of of the different uh workings inside boiler rooms, air conditioning if applicable. Uh those kinds of things. And then they tell you what state basically in a nutshell your building is. Uh and if it's viable to withstand many years to come or if it will be need to be replaced. And all of our elementary buildings actually qualify to be rebuilt, not renovated if we are trying to get the state's money. So another uh consideration is we look at where our schools are located within our community. This is the map. This is as it currently exists. So you can see that uh each the schools are all listed there and those are our current
022boundaries. This is also again something very important that we will continue to look at. We've examined very closely and we'll continue to even look at as we go uh forward in our process. But there's also a link to the district boundary map as well. So, it's there, but you can also click on it. Okay. Then we're looking at oh my now my eyes are really being tested and I remember to wear my glasses this week. Those of you who were at the last presentation know I was struggling but I remembered them today and they're not working for the slide. So, building capacity uh we were looking at the number of building or excuse me rooms that we have available in our building. So, this literally was an exercise of us walking. I physically and others
023walked the buildings to see what rooms are available and what which which ones are being occupied, which ones would open up. So we looked at how many we and then how many we would need. So if we were to close a certain building, how many like if we close a building of 200 or 300 students, how many rooms does that mean we're going to need across the district in the other buildings? So we have to take that into consideration to even see if this is a viable solution, which we have deemed that it is. we can accommodate a certain amount of students which is why we also had to rule out to some extent our larger elementarymentaries because we wouldn't be able to relocate 400 plus students but that's what this uh is reflecting those
024rooms available. We also have to take into consideration what people don't always remember is how education has evolved over time and so the amount of classrooms that we once needed years ago certainly is not the same that we need today. We have a lot of related services, occupational therapy, physical therapy, we have sensory rooms for our students with disabilities. We have our various specials rooms. Uh we we take up a lot more space than we did years ago. So, we wanted to really make sure that we accounted for that. So, that's what that chart uh reflects. And then the capacity study, there's a link to that as well. All right. Um we also looked at our transportation. This is a rather simplistic kind of a graph, but essentially what we're trying to show here is
025the current number of buses and vans. And shuttle means uh one that goes from one school to to the other. So for example, Bolic and Roberts, they might have like a a practice uh that they have to shuttle students at the end of the day over to the other building, which isn't really relevant for the purpose of this, but we included it. So we have to look at the number of students that are bust, the time, the distance and and also keeping safety in mind here and the efficiency of routes. So that's really critical. So we have a if we have a student that's located on the south side of town, we're not easily going to be able to transport them all the way to a school that might be in the north or any
026pick any direction. And you we so we need to base it on the lo location of where people live in relation to the schools. So that is something that we looked at. I'm going to talk a little bit about transportation. I think I have a little bit more. There's a distance study that's also there. Want to try that? Okay. So, when you're looking at um well, I'll mention it now because it might be in a later slide, but I forget at the moment. So, with transportation, what's tricky about that is that it's more than just routes. It's drivers. It's our fleet. It's our ability to hire people, right? And then of course the the amount of money that's involved in salaries. But really the driving force in transportation right now if you watch the news
027there are many districts out there who have cut high school busing because they cannot get enough drivers uh to to transport students. We have not been in that uh predicament thankfully but it's been very close. So we have our mechanics our supervisor driving buses to sub in for other bus drivers. They are CDL licensed, so you don't have to panic, but they do have to fill in. And so we have those are real problems that people don't always recognize when we're talking about transportation. So those are things that come into play. >> And we have train tracks that go through the middle of our city. >> We do. We have lots of train tracks. >> Yeah, >> we do. And main roads, lots of thoroughways, right? And um so we have to be very careful
028and mindful of those large those big intersections that we don't want our children crossing. So we make a lot of accommodations for students even if they're not within those designated mile markers that our policy states for transportation but because of safety we make accommodations. Those are all things that come into play. So breaking down our cost savings remember the reason we are closing an elementary school. So one of the reasons is financial. So we have to look at what kind of cost savings will there be if we close a school. Generally speaking, the buildings that are of smaller size are going to to uh give us about the same amount of savings because actually whether it's larger or smaller and part of that reason is students have to go somewhere. So we can't just take
029all of our students and displace them and not think that we don't need teachers for them. We do. Now we will be able to reduce some but it certainly would not be a whole staff worth of of teachers or pair of professionals or any of those um other positions. So we did look at that in addition to staffing and salary and benefits. We looked at equipment uh building improvements. We looked at site improvements, textbooks, office supplies. There's the list there. and any miscellaneous expenses that are just associated with operating a school. Your energy savings uh in in closing a school just operationally you can imagine you know what our bills are at home. Imagine what it is with a 30 40,000 square foot building and what those bills are gas electric etc. So there's also
030savings there. So there's a link to the uh elementary operational savings as well. Then we so we come to kind of like I'd say a little bit of a juncture here in the sense that we have we have to look at alternative uses of buildings. And one of the things that I know this board is committed to as am I is not leaving a building vacant. We don't want to do that to a community, right? and we don't want to we we know that that's not being a good a good uh part of the community a good neighbor to people. So we have got to find a place in which or something in which we can do with the schools once they're um once the building is closed. So we have been talking about six
031six elementary schools but one of the things that we really overlooked is a seventh and that is Chennai. So, it came to us, it really came to me um just in traveling and just talking this out and and brainstorming, brainstorming and just this aha moment that my goodness, we have this chenet that we have not spoken about. And those of you who are unfamiliar, we have our new preschool program there as well as our uh family center, our Black Tiger family center and Chneay Learning Center, which is uh provides education for students with other needs. So, it's kind of like a little bit of an alternative education setting for them and their high school students. So, that building is is occupied and to full capacity, frankly. So, it's also not in great condition. It it's
032needs a lot of work. We've put a lot of work into the one wing. It it looks very nice, but when you get to the roof and other major expenses, they're they're there. So, we were talking about the future sites also of new elementary schools. what sites are uh are viable. Some of our buildings that currently exist are not future they're not going to be viable future sites and that's really solely based on acreage. So if you look up here on the right side you'll see that the acreage for example dwit 3.8 I believe they are I can't see it but I think there are 3.8 acres that's not going to provide you enough space to put a new building on right so you we have to keep that in mind. What are some schools
033that would be viable sites? The other thing is we need a future board of education office at some point in all of this in our long-term planning. And then we come to this notion of repurposing an elementary school. So it's a bit of semantics by me saying board instead of closing a school why don't we repurpose a school because to the people being affected it's a close. So if we were to take price for example and repurpose it that's great. It might stay open as a school for preschool and our alternative school and our family center and maybe some other uses for our community. That's great, but it still displaces all of our price students. So, we recognize that. So, while it's semantics in terminology, right, repurpose versus closing, it doesn't address the emotional piece
034and the impact that it has on families. So please understand we've been using the term repurpose because that is what one of the things that I've proposed to the board for their consideration to relocate our preschool the family center and schneay to an elementary school and it can ser we can relocate those students who can come to a nice newer building and then uh we would sell the chenet building because it is in again not in great uh condition. we do believe we can we can sell that property and we can take those proceeds and help offset some of the cost of our deficits that we have. Um the then that led us to um to think about this our youngest learners, our preschool students, many of which have are students with disabilities. In fact,
035about half or more have disabilities. And so then if we were going to consider this option, we needed to have a building that would be um ADA accessible and preferably a one-story building. Hence the decisions then that what we've arrived at uh regarding price in Preston. So that's how we've arrived at Price and Preston exploring this uh looking at this as a real viable option to create some revenue and to um keep the the buildings in existence. that that we would still keep them open and not close one. All right. Uh so that's essentially a lot of what I just described. Again, I've I've mentioned that Dwit, Richardson, Lincoln historically, they have a a higher enrollment and would make it very difficult for us to relocate those that many students. As you know, Dwit and
036Richardson are or I'm sorry, Lincoln particularly are pretty large schools and that would be challenging. So again, the notion of closing schne and the two reasons that I just uh explained >> and we use Richardson as an example. Richardson being the smallest of those three. We used that as an example of like trying to move that around boundary linewise and it just didn't work. So we actually we actively explored that option to see if it would work and it didn't work. >> Right. Yep. Thank you. >> All right. So now again going back to just looking at so now now where where did we land after we've made those discoveries and and considerations that we want to move forward with that now we're looking at redrawing our boundary lines and this is critical and something
037in which whether you're a Price parent here this evening or a parent in another district meaning I'm sorry another school boundary line meaning DWIT name another elementary school those folks may be impacted as well And the reason is when you close and again for the purpose of the discussion this evening, let's say it's price and we close the school. Well, everyone has to go somewhere and you can't all just fit in one space. So that that causes a ripple effect. So students will be dis displaced and relocated elsewhere. But some of those students that you just moved, let's call it Preston because there's they're close, right? And Silver Lake, maybe they're we're going in those directions. those students could potentially be bumped and then that you see a ripple effect that could take place. So
038we don't want people to think that it's only price people or Preston um students, excuse me, that would be displaced. It will be others. Unfortunately, there will be a bumping effect. We just want to be really open about that. So talking a little bit about the redrawing. So considerations going back to the bus and like in how we figure the boundaries. We had a presentation from our transportation supervisor and she came in and spoke to the board and showed them actually manipulated the lines and showed them how the lines can be drawn and how the software which is really kind of cool will just populate students and then you can draw lines however you would like and that will reflect the number of students in each building. So again, we're looking at the time the
039students will spend on the bus. The closest school to homes is our all is our is our goal. It doesn't always probably work out perfectly, but that is the goal to have uh provide uh um the school that is closest to the students house. We talked about drivers. We talked about transportation. I knew it was in here later. I just couldn't remember where. The capacity of the school uh because when we go to transport students, we have to make sure that the school that we're taking them to has enough capacity to serve them. And that's again what I mentioned earlier. And then the location of boundary lines. We talked about that as well. The main roads versus side roads versus um railroad tracks, you know, all those things that we have to contend with and
040then the number of students being impacted. So, those are all considerations that we we took into we took in into consideration. All right. So, um I don't I want to give a disclaimer because I know what people have a tendency to do is we want and I would probably do the same. I would be looking for my street right now and saying, "Okay, where's my child going to go?" Please don't do that because these are this is actually an old draft already because these things change very quickly and with students coming in and out of the district all the time these will change many times probably before we get to a final verdict. So if close uh if we were to close Preston what you see on the left is the current boundary and on
041the right is just a draft. Again, I want to be clear. This is just an idea. When we did when our transportation person uh supervisor, excuse me, did the same did this exercise, this is where she arrived. You can see the current capacity and then what the enrollment would change to should Preston close. So, you can see one of the things we had to look at is can all of those schools could uh take the number of students that are that listed there and the answer is yes. Some are going to be a little tighter than others, but yes, they they are able to do that if we close Preston. Okay. Similarly, the next slide is closing price and what that would look like. And this is the redistribution for price. And again, um we
042can accommodate these numbers. little tight in um probably Preston, but again, we know we have the space, but it's not to say that it wouldn't be it would be certainly tighter than it is today. Okay, we'll go on again. You have access to this. All right, so looking at the number of displaced students, the TBD to be determined doesn't really help us, right? because as I mentioned it's a draft and we do have a pretty good idea of what the number of students that would be impacted just looking at the number of students in each school like if we look at Price's enrollment and I don't know the exact number off the top of my head but if you compare it to Preston's enrollment Price does have more students so by nature of that alone
043it's about 40 or 40 or so students more just by that nature you certainly would be displacing more students but then when you factor in all of those you you know, shifting out the boundaries. We need to determine how many students would be displaced. And we did that exercise the last meeting. Uh there were uh more students displaced at Preston in that exercise, but again, we can continue to refine those numbers. It seems like it I I always I've said to the board many times too that what seems like maybe a simple request by them to our transportation supervisor is hours and hours and hours of work. It it might be just like, oh, let's just see how many students would go here if we do this or this this. There's a lot of work
044that goes into it. I personally went over to the transportation department. I sat and looked over Margie's our supervisor's uh shoulder and watched her do it and I could see that it is. I I don't understand it to the degree she does by I admit that, but I take her word and how much how time intensive it is. So once the board has a pretty good idea of the direction in which they would like to go, we will then work on these to be uh more concrete. So my last slide is really just again everything just a summary of what I've said and these are the things that we look at when we're considering closing a school. So the redistricting, the number of students impacted. We also look at and one thing I didn't really
045hit highlight but we need to look at are we balancing our school socioeconomically, racially, ethnically um are those being balanced? We're looking at transportation and our students and staff class sizes and also uh staff reductions because that is also a very difficult thing to do as well. It's not just students being impacted. Our staff as well will be downsized and that is where a lot of our savings will take place. for example, you won't need, you know, a sixth principal. Um, secretaries, nurses, custodians, like those are all folks that could potentially be impacted. The good news is we think that through attrition, meaning as people leave, we wouldn't we won't replace. We do believe that we hope to land on on our our feet here, meaning that we won't have to that people will not
046lose their jobs. We're hopeful of that. in our early looking at that preliminarily, it looks pretty good. So, we're hopeful on that front. But I also want to assure you lastly that, you know, people talk about class sizes, if you go on social media and you see some things, um, uh, one of our schools when we were making some changes, um, you know, a parent was concerned that and heard that their child was going to have 60 students in their class. Another one was saying 30 in an elementary class. I can assure you there will never be 60 students in an elementary class. If that is not the case, I deserve to be fired because that should never ever happen and it will not ever happen as far as I'm concerned. Um, but we we
047anticipate keeping those averages very manageable. I have been very forthcoming in saying that we have been very fortunate in this district to have to have smaller on the smaller end of class sizes relative to surrounding districts other districts we have managed to have some really honestly low in some areas like and I know we get pockets of it where they're really small class sizes but we are striving to look at 22 and 25 22 24 25 the older you get So in the early younger grades 22 students 24 and then 25 by the time you get to fifth grade. Those are our goals. We really think we will be able to adhere to those numbers. There's all sometimes there's cases where it might be a classroom of 16 or 18 because that's just the way
048it falls and there might be a classroom of 26 for one year or you know we don't want that but we recognize that that may happen. So, I just want to be very truthful about what's to come. And please, if people are saying that, well, class sizes are going to go up to 30. You could say, "No, we heard from the superintendent that that is not the case." That would have to be we'd have to be in a really, really, really, really bad financial place to ever get to the upper 20s in a class. So, but it's it's anything's possible, unfortunately. But, um, and lastly, I just want to again thank you for coming this evening. Uh we have said this every meeting and it it gets old, but it's it's true and it's sincere
049that no one wants to be in these uh in this predicament that we're in right now. I don't enjoy having to present this information to the board. None of these folks at this table want to make this decision. I know that. I speak to them regularly and they are struggling as are I'm sure everyone in this this room. But please know that we are treating it with the highest sensitivity and we will do everything that we can to make the transition to whatever happens that best for you and your your child because that is what's most important to us. So please know that um I'm always available to talk or entertain questions uh email phone call just just please uh don't hesitate to reach out. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Celico. Thank you. I
050just personally wanted to echo what Dr. Celico said. You know, as a board, this is a position that none of us want to be in. And unfortunately, we are. And we understand the impact that this has on our community, whatever decision um is made and for our students and our caregivers. And all of us up here have emotional ties to this community and our district and our schools. We've taught at them, attended them, have students that are up and coming or currently have students in the school district. Um so um we thank you everyone for coming out tonight. Also um this presentation is available on the website and I misspoke at the last meeting so I'm going to make sure I don't do it tonight. it is under the um board of education tab where
051you can click and go through this entire presentation. So I want to make sure everybody knows where you can find that and go through that as well. Um we're going to take a quick fivem minute recess just in case there are other people that would like to sign up this evening to speak. Um the forms are over on the table and be can be given to Miss Stocoy as well. Um, and also if there are those here who have other questions that you want answered or you'd like to speak to us, we know not everyone is comfortable getting up and speaking in public in front of a crowd or to us. Our emails can be found as well on that board of education tab. And we welcome anyone and all feedback and we appreciate when
052we hear from our community. Um, so please know that we want you and welcome any feedback that way as well. Anything else? It is 6:40 p.m. We'll recess for 5 minutes and then we'll begin the um board comments. Thank you. I don't do that very often, but I've been eating out a lot lately. I don't know what's going on. It's the real one. It's 6:45 p.m. We are reconvening the meeting. Thank you. [Music] As we call you up to address the board, if you could please come up and state your name and your address. And a reminder that the comments are limited to three minutes per speaker. Um we will have a timer going for you to watch as well. And according to our policy, board policy BDDH, just a reminder that no specific comments
053um about specific employees is allowed as well. So if Kyle Carney would like to come up, please. Hi. If you could just go to the podium and just speak into the speaker with your name and address in three minutes. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Kyle Carney. I live at 1274 Curtis Avenue um right over there. Uh I'm really really glad to hear that you guys have taken a lot more into consideration than just like what the dollars and cents are of this cuz I mean honestly that's coming into this that's what I thought it all was. It was just about the money. So you guys did address a lot of the things that I wanted to talk about but as a parent it really comes down to two things for
054me. It's the um how is my child going to be prepared for later in life as an adult and the safety of the child. um just in the last 3 years I I've gotten to know um you know a lot of the staff here and you could tell when someone genu genuinely cares about somebody and I definitely uh I definitely recognize that from the staff here that they genuinely care about the students that they're teaching and that's that that's such a nice thing to see. It's it's it gives me a lot of hope for um how my kid's going to grow up, you know, like how he's going to be as an adult. Uh the other thing is, and this is probably one of my primary concerns, is like I noticed that pre uh over
055at Preston for the drop off of the pickup, you're on a main road right there that's just off the highway ramp. And like in this area here, you kind of have the cutout for it. The pickup and drop off procedure here is such a smooth thing. Uh I drive I drive truck in Cleveland and I service a a bunch of schools up there and this just how that whole operation is done is so much better than any school that I have seen. So that's I I think that's my one of the two primary things I wanted to talk about and I just want to commend you guys for like the effort that you put into this cuz it it you guys have a lot more information and like you've definitely taken into consideration a lot
056of uh the concerns that I had before coming here. So thank you for that. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. >> Doug kids, if you would like to come forward, please. >> Hi, everybody. Uh my name is Doug Kits. I live at 1764 Calvert Drive. Uh my family and I used to live here on Myrtle. So our kids started here at uh Price and currently my son still goes here. Uh we've open enrolled him. Uh I kind of kept my notes here to kind of keep me on track and uh I might get a little uh frequent here so bear with me. Uh there's me. There is my uh wife Leanne who uh currently works here as the full-time building sub. My son Donovan is starting his fourth year here. My daughter uh Agatha
057went here all the way through. She's in sixth grade now. Um I'm saying that as a way to kind of let you know that we have a lot of history here. Um I want to talk about the staff because you can't talk about this place without highlighting the staff. And I know I can't say any names, but uh um the name the words that I came up with were caring, dedicated, uh truly have the best interest of all the kids. Um what the gentleman said before me, you can certainly tell when somebody cares. And this whole building cares about the children. Through our time here, we've had 15 different teachers. And that doesn't even begin to include all the intervention specialists, the aids, the administration, um, everybody. Um, every single one of them has made
058real connections not only with my children but with other the other kids here. When we come to family things in the evening, you can see it. You can see the kids run up. You can see you can see the the general caring. Um, uh, thanks to the entire staff here. And I'm going to try to be quick here because I'm going to run out of time. Thanks to the entire staff here, the intervention specialists, the aids, leadership therapists. Uh three years ago, uh my son's starting his fourth year three years ago when we started here. Um he was in the resource room the whole time. Um and I can tell you right now he is in general education classroom full-time, which I don't think we would have ever thought was possible. And it's only possible
059because of the team here. >> Um, basically where does this all bring me and where where it brings me is in sports, in business, and in education. When you have a team that works like this, you can't split them up. You just can't. You're going to lose more than numbers. You're going to lose more than money. you're going to lose more than you're going to lose things in the the entire spirit of the whole educational system. So, um I don't really have anything else to say other than I wanted to speak for the faculty and the staff here and I want to speak for the other students here that I know >> truly have connections here. So, thank you. >> Thank you very much. Nicole Marti. >> I promise you guys are going to be
060able to hear me without having to speak into this. My name is Nicole. Um, I live down here on Stone Street. Sorry, cuz the one thing I'm going to bring up still hurts. I am a mom of three. my oldest who just graduated from Chennai last year. In his elementary years, he's been through several different schools. And let me tell you, this school right here, I wish was his school. He never by the time we moved out here, he was already into the middle school stage. My oldest daughter Al and they're both IEP students. my oldest daughter who's very well known throughout this building and will be able to run to any staff member and hug them. She started originally started out at Tomage and they could not equip her IEP needs came here. And
061I'm going to mention these two people, Miss Patchin and Miss Woff. Thank you. I lost both my grandparents two weeks apart in 2021. My grandmother being 4 days before my daughter's birthday. When I couldn't pull myself out of bed for literally almost a month, the staff here at this school stepped up and made sure both of my daughters were getting to and from school for me and their dad when I couldn't do it. The huge improvement with my daughter, my oldest daughter with the IEP needs is all thanks to the staff in this building. What you have right here in this building, you're not going to find anywhere else. And it's a proven fact. Yes, I will point out my two kids. Proven fact with my two kids. My youngest, who is in fourth grade
062this year, excels tremendously in this building. When my daughter had her bad days with her IEP needs, there was no questions asked. She was allowed to go to any room, pretty much any room that she wanted to go to to let herself calm down. And that woman right there is the main source for everything. You are not going to find another principal as wonderful as Miss Woff. She has taken everybody in this community in as family. >> Thank you. Shannon Pacetti. >> Hi, I'm Shannon Petti. I'm on Stone Street as well and I wrote a little something. Thank you for the opportunity to speak today and for all of your research that you have done. Um, I'm sure that you will and have heard many stories and opinions like mine. Um, I'm fourth generation from
063Price. I have two children that have attended here, K through five. I have one in kindergarten and one on the way to Price. Um, I've dealt with most of the schools in the district and in my opinion, Price is the most inviting and kind. The staff is amazing in all of the ways. longer than 3 minutes will allow any of us to explain. Not a single complaint in the 11 years that I've we've been here. They all work together toward common goals. My older children and I often visit our past teachers. Price is the best in my opinion. for my facts and I know that you've researched them thoroughly. Um I have driven the car line at Preston, Lincoln, Bulick for and for for other students as well. Um and the the car line here,
064the ease of access, it's hands down the most effective, least complicated, and least stressful. far away from the busy roads. The setup, having the staff take your child from your car straight into the school is wonderful us to be able to just watch that. I don't get that at any of the other schools. Watching other students go in. Um, with a small wait time and the parking is very accommodating, the uh placement alleviates the traffic jams that I've witnessed at other schools, increasing the safety for our children. Um, in the event that Price is the school that closes, I know it's a hard decision for everybody, I will be reconsidering all of the options for my children that are going to be going. Um, as the access to the other schools and the issues that
065I have seen happen, I have not um liked very much. Uh, Price Elementary School is an invaluable part of the community and a diamond in the rough. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, [Applause] >> William Richardson. >> Good evening. My name is William Richardson. I live uh 21109 Sunrest Drive just around the corner. Um I don't have an emotional argument to make and a school is going to close and there's nothing that we can do about that. So, you know, I come to Barry Caesar. Um I know that one of the main factors to determine is where are we going to place Schneay? Uh, Schneay enrolls anywhere from 80 to 100 um, alternative education students that drive themsel to and from school. Uh, this property has 42 spaces on the lot. I count it.
066Um, I defy the school board to find a place to put another 50 cars. Um, uh, because 10 of those spaces are for teachers. Uh, I'd also like to ask the board to consider uh uh a long-term plan and an answer to an important question is that uh when we take uh students out of an elementary school, dispossess them of their building and their classrooms, and then spread them out into school classrooms that are already full to teachers who are already overworked. Uh how will that decrease studenttoteer ratio and how will that improve uh the future educational goals for our children? If a school is going to close regardless, then this is the long-term question that is on everybody's mind and it's going to require an answer to the community in the long term. Uh,
067thank you very much for your time. >> Thank you, [Applause] >> Amanda Watson. Hi. Okay. I'm Amanda Watson. I live on 2280 Hillside, two blocks that way. I'm angry about this whole situation. It's been frustrating. Until recently, the communication has been lacking. And as a member of the PTO, people come to us, we're like, "Hey, do you know anything? Do you know anything?" I'm like, "I know nothing that you don't already know." And that is very frustrating. as a mom because not knowing I think is almost worse. I want to know why it's always the teachers in the trenches who are the first to be cut when they give so much for our kids. And I'm wondering about other solutions that the board of education is looking at. Um making cuts versus finding more fundings.
068um what support staff in the district in general are we losing does the BOE have to have its own building all of those things I've also considered the alternative program currently reading space as Shaunie I understand that and the prek being could that be integrated into our existing buildings that we already have the kindergarten in my elementary school was um in the elementary school each elementary school had their own kindergarten Um, would that be feasible for some of our larger elementary schools to accommodate the preschool that way? I'm also wondering how much the voucher program and its buses for private schools from the public funds is affecting our public schools and the funding we're supposed to have. I get where low birth rate and enrollment is down, but not at price. Our neighborhood is strong.
069It's diverse. It's wonderful. and our enrollment's up. Last year alone, I remember that we had 20 kids that just showed up the first day and we had to find places for them. I remember Miss Woff being frazzled that whole first two weeks trying to figure out where to put these kids. We have such a wonderful neighborhood and to cut us in half between Silver Lake and Preston would just be cruel. um you would lose my involvement because instead of being two blocks away where I can come to all the PTO stuff and help run all these wonderful events that we honestly do out of a stream minimal budget with very few people we need more people volunteer. Um I'm serious. It's I'm just wondering what else we're doing to for open enrollment. Are we encouraging
070it? What are the other elementary schools doing who don't have full enrollment to get more kids to get more funding into our you know like if we instead of doing the cut can we get more funding like can we like where can we pull these kids from and if redistricting the schools is it going to affect our open enrollment because I know several kids who are here for open enrollment from other neighborhoods and they want to be here and I'm out PTO meetings tomorrow 5:30 5:30 Thank you. [Music] [Applause] >> Thank you very much for everybody um who came and addressed the board and for everyone in attendance this evening. We truly appreciate everyone coming out um to hear the presentation and to be here. And um one of the questions that I know has
071been asked by many people is when when are we going to decide this? Um we know that everyone wants an answer and that it's we've been talking about this for a while to get all of our data. Um as a board we had made the decision to have that decision made by November. That does not mean that we may not come to it sooner than that. Um, we will make sure that we communicate to everyone the next time that discussion would be on our regular agenda. We did not want to put this on the agenda again for discussion as a board until we had had meetings at both Price and Preston with our community members. Um, so I just wanted to put that there just because that is a question that we get a lot.
072Um, does anyone have anything that they'd like to add? >> No, go ahead. >> Okay. I just wanted to speak a little bit tonight too because this is the building that I attended myself K to I know say long long long time ago but you know it it's special to me. I remember all my grade school elementary teachers. I remember every one of them. In fact my kindergarten teacher recognized me when I was 21 or two working up downtown Pskis. Figure you know you haven't changed a bit. I thought well I hope so. Gez, at least taller anyway. But um I also my children went here. I remember dropping off my first one to kindergarten and sitting on that hill outside and just tears, which you know, we're parents. It's what we do. Our first
073one. It's But I just want you to know that it's a special place for me, too. It's hard. It's a hard decision. I also want to mention that Mr. Gomez, Miss Schaefer went to Preston. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Your children went to Preston. >> Sorry. >> That's fine. But anyway, so this is a very difficult decision no matter what we do. I would like to see Price stay open forever, but I don't know if that's going to be possible. So, um, yeah, it's just really rough. I just want you to know that we all feel what you're feeling. And I think like um Alicia was sorry Koko Miss Koko was saying it's a hard decision and we will try to make it as soon as possible because I think the uncertainty is worse
074than actually knowing. So thank you. >> Thank you. I just want to say I appreciate um people listening to the presentation because I think the facts lay out the situation that we're in and it's a very unfortunate one. But at the same time, I understand that facts don't touch our hearts in the same way that our experiences and our children's experiences and our connections to our buildings do. So, none of us up here um expect any of your hearts or minds or emotions to be touched by the facts because our hearts and minds and emotions aren't touched by the facts either. We have to make a decision um guided by facts at the end of the day. Um, but that doesn't make it easier for any of us. Nor do we expect the fact of
075all the facts we threw at you in that presentation to make you go away tonight feeling any better or feeling um more positive about the situation. And all of us feel that way as well. So, we don't want you to leave thinking, "Oh, they threw all these facts at us to try to make us feel better about it." That's not our goal at all. We know that it feels terrible. We feel terrible about it. We wish we weren't in this situation. Um but there's a lot of things impacting public education um in the state of Ohio that are very unfortunate. Um like the one gentle lady said, um you used to make money when somebody open enrolled in your district and now you kind of lose money when students open enroll in your district. So,
076there's a lot of things that are just changing in the state of Ohio to not benefit public education. That's very unfortunate. Um, the one other thing I want to say is um we do have a board of education meeting um next Wednesday and I want to ask if we could put this as a discussion topic now that we've had both these meetings. I don't want to say that we'll make a decision >> next Wednesday, but I think it would be good for us as a board to go away from this meeting and then to think about everything we've heard and then to come back and have a discussion a week from now. And if we could all agree to that, that way then we have a week to let the community know that it'll be
077a discussion topic next Wednesday to get that information out as well. >> Are we all agreeable? >> I would agree to that, Mr. Yes. Yes. >> And that way we can let the community know over the next week that it'll be a discussion topic as well. >> But that we won't we're committing to not making the decision next Wednesday. I don't I don't think >> I don't think that >> We're there quite yet. But but >> but when we know which meeting we will be making it at, we'll definitely notice that to the community as well. >> Right. >> Yes. >> Thank you. All of our board meetings are open to the public. >> Yeah. >> Yes. Um we're not this isn't the time to go back and forth when we're done with the if
078you have questions um then we can answer questions that you have. But this is the part of the meeting for us. >> No, I I appreciate that. >> Yeah. Thank you. Anything else? Right. Um, after this meeting is over, the board of education is going to take a tour of Price. Um, we did the same thing as Preston as well right after the meeting. So, I just wanted to let you know that that's what we'll be doing. Um, so, thank you again very much for coming out this evening. and motion to adjurnn. It is recommended that the board of education >> adjourns this meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Miss Stokeley, would you please call the role? >> Sorry. >> Um yes, that was Mr. Harris. >> Yes. >> All right. Um Mr. Gomez,
079>> I >> Mr. Harris. Hi. >> Mrs. Schaefer. >> Hi. >> Miss White. >> Hi. >> Miss Coco. >> Hi. This meeting is a journey.