001Good evening. I'd like to call to order this special meeting of the board of education. It's 6:00 pm on August 21st, 2025. This meeting is being held at the Preston Elementary School on Talmage Road, Kyogre Falls. Mrs. Awesome, would you please call the role? >> Miss Koko, >> here. >> Mr. Gomez, >> here. >> Mr. Harris, >> here. >> Mrs. Schaefer, >> here. >> Miss White >> here. >> Thank you. Motion to approve the agenda. It is recommended that the board of education approves the agenda of the August 21st, 2025 special board of education meeting. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Miss Osen, please call the role. >> Miss Coco, >> here. >> M or Mr. Gomez. >> Hi, >> Mr. Harris. >> I >> Mrs. Schaefer. >> I Miss White. >> Hi.
002>> Welcome. Our vision. Kyogre Falls City Schools, the 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 Kyle 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 in the meeting agenda, the individual must complete a registration form found inside the attendance notebook and presented to the treasurer. Those registration forms are on the bas desk and they can be completed and turned into Mrs. Osmond. Following the introduction of the topic by the board president, followed by board discussion, the individual will be recognized. If an individual wishes to
003address 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 no 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 preface 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, Dr. Yes. Please stand. I pledge allegiance 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, Dr. Celico. So,
004we are here tonight at Preston as a board. We thought it was important to have special meetings held at Preston and Price with a presentation um specifically if you haven't been able to be at other board me um and follow along what has brought us to this point of deciding on the repurposing of either Preston or Price buildings. So Dr. Celico is going to give us a presentation on the elementary school closure. If you would like to speak after that, we will have the opportunity for anyone who wants to come speak to come up and speak. Um, please fill out a form in the back and give it to Mrs. Osland and then we will do that following the presentation. So, Dr. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening and good evening board. Um, thank you
005for uh this time this evening and uh thank you to Principal Brown is somewhere and thank you for hosting and getting us all set up for this evening. So, um you know, just stating the obvious, right? Um we're here to discuss um an elementary school closure, which uh we have said numerous times, but I can't start a presentation without saying again at how difficult these decisions are and that they are not taken lightly and we know that these are emotional times and people are very vested in their community and in their schools and so we acknowledge that throughout. So what I'm going to present to you is very factual, but what it doesn't account for is the emotion attached to it. So please forgive me for not I just want to say that upfront, but
006just that I will be presenting very factual information this evening. So uh the board has asked me to to put together I have to point that way. There we go. uh reason uh the reasons uh what led up to the this juncture and why we're discussing a school closure and then in particular why we are looking at Price and Preston. And so uh just to really start from the beginning of all of this, we wouldn't be closing a school if there weren't a if there wasn't a very good reason for that. And unfortunately the reason for it mainly is a financial reason. And uh back in April, our treasurer Christy Stoyo, who's not able to be here this evening, uh presented uh the financial review um we are in what is called fiscal caution and
007we had to put together a financial recovery plan and that is what Miss A or excuse me presented and in that presentation I this is just the the first slide of it. All of these presentations are on our website. So, I'm not going to take the time to delve into all of the financial um statistics this evening, but you certainly have access to those on our website. But what essentially what she was looking at in the recovery plan were were ways in which we we were forced, if you will, to save $3 million, $4 million in three years. So, that's a lot of money to have to cut from a budget. So the question becomes, how are we going to get there? So certainly we can look at at smaller items and reduce a little
008bit here, a little bit there, but it doesn't get you $4 million in a short amount of time. So unfortunately your impact that a oftentimes staff is impacted because it's such a large portion of our budget. So when we were looking at ways in which we could make some reductions, what you'll see um in this uh report should you choose to look at it, we're looking at like our our first starting with our enrollment. We have seen a 25% reduction in our um in our attendance, our enrollment over 10 years. So we've lost uh just about a thousand children. And that's that's a lot. But what we haven't done in Miss Stoycoy's uh presentation you'll see is that we haven't accounted for that in our staffing. So even though we had 5,000 children at one
009time, so I don't recall the number off the top of my head, but whatever that staff number was, fast forward and see that we have uh 4,000 children now and almost the same amount of staff. So we really need to adjust that. So that is one of the things that she examined. We also looked at different ways in which we could save money and some of those reasons that we noted uh include a school closure again which is why we're here this evening. Staff reductions and that's a lot of that is done through attrition. So as people leave us we aren't replacing positions. We did we've done a lot of that over the last three years. So again trying to rightsize our uh staffing and then we're also looking at selling buildings. That's another way
010in which we can generate revenue. We know that once we open our new campus, we will be selling the high school. We'll be selling Roberts, and you'll hear a little bit more about another possible uh building that may be sold as well. And so there's those are some ways to generate revenue. We also will be cutting budgets by 10%, but again, it's not going to get you anywhere near the millions of dollars that you need to save in doing that, but it is showing that we are trying to uh look at every avenue in which we can we can save money. So that's just an over a brief overview of what's in that report. >> I just want to add not everything we were even doing to save money would the state let us count
011towards that $4 million. And that's important to note too because we know the community knows as well that um the high school and Roberts are closing because we have our new 612 building and so we'll be selling those buildings but the state would not allow us to use that those um selling of those buildings towards that $4 million. So we had to then add additional into that $4 million >> to not account for that. So >> that's right. the proceeds can't can't count from the the sale of the building. They would not allow us to do that. So, we had to come up with other ways >> in which we could do that. So, here's just again what I just stated the enrollment trends that you can see over time. This is and I forgot
012my glasses, but this is the past. So, I'm show you here in a few the future slide I believe I have next, but you can see that we are declining um overall in enrollment. And again, these are on the website as well. So, feel free to delve into them a little bit more as I mentioned. Um, again, here's the enrollment that we are predicting. Now, that does say 25 to 35. Am I right? Is that what it says? FY. >> Okay. Thank you. So, it's really bad. The older I get, it's horrible. Um, but nonetheless, this is the next 10 years. You also will see that there's a decline projected here of approximately 350 students. So, you can see over the next 10 years, we also are projected to lose more students. So when we're
013looking at factors to consider, so now heading into a little bit of, you know, some of the reasons um some of the factors that we would consider as a board um reasons why we would close a school, what factors um would come into play to determine which school would be closed. There are a number of things listed there. This is an excerpt from our board policy that actually states things in which you would look at reasons and I'll show you some of them as we go throughout. Most of them apply, but not always all of them. you know, future sites, um the conditions of buildings, how much money it would cost to put into the buildings, transportation, all those uh types of things. So, um historical value, etc. But those are just a list of
014them according to policy. So, one of the things we did um was we looked at our um our schools one by one and wanted to see what uh just kind of mapped out the years in which they were built. You know, how old are they? Um we looked at in some slides you'll see here capacity, how many uh students they they are able to hold, um the square footage, etc. So, we were able to look at all of those factors when we're taking things into consideration. There's a link there. I'm not going to go through every link. Um, but again, it is on the website, but essentially it just is a little bit more detailed information about uh the different information that's on that slide there. It just uh goes a little bit deeper. But
015again, this is the information presented that I've presented over time to the board. And some of you may have seen slides um that I presented these earlier. So we look at things such as environmental and site sustainability factors. So questions we're looking at as we were going around looking at the schools. Are the schools large enough? Are they too large? Um how many students will they hold? Is are if we add more students to these certain buildings? Do they have the capabilities to provide um the schedules that students need as it relates to let's say um art, music, our specials, our capacity in our gymnasiums, in our because many schools uh our gyms will double as a cafeteria in some schools uh but is there room uh in the cafeterias for students etc. So we're
016just kind of looking at all of those things. Really environmental isn't uh a major factor in all of this. where we don't have any um environmental concerns really that I'm aware of that we have to consider when looking at buildings. But what you'll see there are the uh six schools that are listed you those are links again to a study that was done by the Ohio uh schools facilities uh commission and those are the folks that are giving us money towards building our current campus. Right? the state gives us money and so they come in and do uh studies regarding each one of the schools and they look at everything. They'll you'll see there there's pictures of the schools uh in in inside as well as exterior and they will show you the age of
017the roofs and the money that you have to put in for HVAC etc. And then at the end of the day they determine what schools have um what the ratio is to renovate versus rebuild and which is how we ended up building a new high school. The same process would apply for elementary schools. So if it's going to cost more than twothirds of the value to build new and then the they will not the state will not give us money if it's more than 66% to uh renovate and then that's how you end up building new buildings because our buildings are so old. All of them qualify to be uh rebuilt. But those are the stat. They're literally 70 pages 80 pages long. So that's why I'm not clicking on them. but they're all there
018um should anyone be interested. So, we looked at the locations in the community. So, where are our current schools located? I'll just let you take a peek just for a moment here. They're all divided up by um by the different colors you see there. And then when you see the print, those are schools. And I is Chenet on there? Do we have Chana on there? >> No. Okay. Okay. All right. There we go. All right. Again, I mentioned earlier the building capacity. So, what we're looking at here, um, though we have So, what you'll find the Ohio Facilities Commission will do is they'll tell you that you can have X amount of students in a school. Well, those numbers are also rather old. Um, but they're pretty accurate. I did look at them. I don't
019necessarily I I had some question about Silver Lakes capacity, but it's only because over time certainly we have needed more room in our schools because we have students with disabilities that require sometimes their own space um which with that comes some sensory um rooms that that are ne sometimes necessary. We also have tutoring that goes on. So small group instruction classrooms space is needed. our occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech services, psychological uh and counseling services. So, all of those things require space that back then, and I'm aging myself, but you know, we didn't necessarily need all that space because all those services weren't provided, but now they are. And so, it's not as easy of an equation to say if you have 400 students and you want to divide that by 25 students in a
020classroom and you arrive at a number and that's how many classrooms you need. That's not how this really works. But so what we did, we had to look at, we literally walked every school a couple of times. We looked at floor plans and we arrived at how many different classrooms were available in each one of the buildings because we can't relocate stu we can say maybe on paper it looks like oh we should send a 100 students to Richardson. Well if they only have room for 50 we can't do that. So we had to look at how many classrooms were available and that's what you see there. And then there's also a link to a capacity study that digs a little bit deeper as well, but again I I'm not going to um to get
021into that this evening, but that's the gist of what we were looking at there. So transportation factors. Um this is a little bit of a a little bit of a confusing slide, but what we're looking for here, we just we need to be mindful of transportation. When you uh when you close a school, you are relocating students elsewhere, and with that comes transportation. So we need to gauge how much we're going to be spending in transportation. Are do we have the number of drivers we need? Do we have the number uh enough buses in our fleet for example? So those are all things that we have to take into consideration the number of routes all of that. And so we did a a little bit of a study here relative to where buses go, as
022well as vans because we recently purchased vans to save money, which have been really a a lifesaver and a quite a a a good move in terms of savings when you're only transporting one or two students, even four, as opposed to taking a big bus, you're just using the vans. So that we also looked at some of the the routes there. All right. Okay, there we go. Uh cost savings. So again, this was a pretty extensive sheet as well. And again, it's linked for you. This data is a little bit older now up to this point. It's probably a few months old maybe at this point. But these were the things that the treasurer looked at and certainly there are we what we did not do is go down to every little minute detail and
023every single expenditure. We go for the big pockets that cost us money. So, equipment, um, technology, the different things that you see listed there. And she looked at how much, uh, the cost would be in each of the buildings and what we could save should we close a building, what that savings would amount to. And again, that's located in that, um, that link. So, alternative uses of buildings. And by the way, I have no idea what these slides say. Thank Thankfully, I've done this one before. can't see anything other than a few. I can see the first line, so that's good. I'm sort of um guessing. It's terrible. My glasses are in the car. I just remembered. I probably could have gotten them. You know what? Yeah, that'd be great. Thank you. >> Yay. >>
024I can see. >> Mr. Harris saves the day. I know. Well, that's because you're a lot younger, Mr. Harris. Um all right. So, the alternative uses of buildings. So, one of the things we look at uh certainly is what are we going to do with buildings? If we were to close a building, what are we going to do with it? we going to sell it? Is it going to be the future site of a new elementary school? Certainly, we know that that is something in the future we would like to see. Our buildings as we sit in them are uh aging and are in need of uh replacement, frankly. But I know that we that's another phase that we will be discussing. But we have to look at, you know, we don't want to necessarily
025get rid of a school site that we think would be a viable one, right? So, we're looking at those. Uh we're looking at we need to keep in mind a future board office perhaps folded into our next phase. Currently we are uh right up the street which is actually rather nice and we love our space but in the future are we going to fold that into the district and perhaps join a building at some point or not. And then the last thing I want to point out and just spend a moment on um and and pointing out also to you that what you see there are the schools and their acorage. And the reason the acreage is there is because we are looking at future sites. Uh some of our uh schools automatically are eliminated
026for a future site based on the acreage. They're just there's not enough frankly. Uh so some of them were automatically eliminated as a future site. But one of the things that I've asked the board to consider um through this process was we've been examining our six elementary schools, but what we've sort of overlooked for a little bit of time here was that we have a seventh really and that's Chennai. And so I was there, you know, visit I visited um a few times a year. It's not uh currently it's it is our building. It's always been but we've rented it out to the preschool program as well as an alternative program there. And so it's not necessarily our there some of them are students but it's not under the opices of Ka Falls City Schools.
027So I was there visiting and talking with some folks and just just thinking to myself well we're we're sort of forgetting about this building and it's not in great shape. Part of it is our preschool is really well cared for and we just did an amazing job preparing for it, but there's a whole other half plus to that building that is in need of repair. And so I thought to myself, well, maybe we should be looking folding this into the equation as well. And so what we've been doing is talking a lot about closing an elementary school, but I'm going to challenge us to look at repurposing a school. And while that sounds great and it might sound like semantics because at the end of the day technically you would be closing a school as
028it exists. Meaning I'm going to use Preston since we're here as an example should this school close rather than close it. We would repurpose it and take the students that are at Chennai and relocate them here. So you would have preschool here and you would have our alternative uh learning center there uh a separate program that again rents from us. It's not our program but a lot of our students attend it and we would divide the school so it's separate and that's how Chennai currently exists that preschools on one side and the other school they have separate entrances etc are very separate but that is what I've um asked the board to consider and then we would sell chenet. So earlier in my presentation I said we might have another building to discuss that um
029as a possible uh sale and that would be schne. And so therefore you would now generate some revenue in selling schne. So that is a little bit oop excuse me how we arrived at price in Preston. And the reason being is come on there we go. Um the reason being is so Dwit, Richardson and Lincoln have historically been higher higher enrollment number one and two the buildings are rather large. So if we were going to close one of them we would have to relocate a lot of students and I don't know that we would have the capacity as I referred to earlier about putting all of those students into other schools. So then we had to focus on smaller schools. And then we also looked at if we wanted to close Chennana and repurpose a
030school for our youngest learners who many of them have disabilities, our preschool students, we needed to have a handicap accessible ADA, if you will, uh facility as well as preferably a singlestory building. So hence how we then if you were to go along that following that logic that's how we landed at Price and Preston which are both ADA pretty accessible singlestory and that's how we arrived here. So as we went further in our discussion that's that was like kind of phase one of our discussion with the board and then phase two sort of became this um redrawing of the boundary lines and what that would look like. And so, as we know, as I mentioned earlier, transportation is a big uh plays a big role in this. And so, considerations are really what I mentioned
031earlier, so I won't I won't um go over all of this again, but some of them are are new that I didn't mention, which is, for instance, how long will students be on a bus? We don't want them on a bus if we can hold I think I heard our transportation supervisor say 45 minutes. Certainly doesn't want them on an hour. in some instances, rare instances, some of those things may happen, but she works very hard to avoid that. So, how long is a student on a bus? Again, where's their closest uh where's the school closest to their address? Those certainly help with efficiency in your bus routes. And again, back to drivers, some other things that I had stated. And um again, looking at uh one thing I didn't say were the main roads
032versus side roads. So sometimes when you're looking at these lines, you think, "Oh, you could just draw it right here or right here," but not keep not necessarily taking into account a main road, railroad tracks, things that might be unsafe for students. So things that we like might look really easy for us on the surface to just say just draw these lines. It is very involved. And Miss um Johnson, who's our transportation uh supervisor, came and presented to the board and showed how you kind of manipulate those lines and how things are populated. So, it's a little tricky. And then, of course, we look at the number of students impacted, which is also another really big consideration for the board. How many students will be impacted? So, we looked at two different scenarios. Um, one's
033Preston and one's Price. One thing I'm going to caution you on, I said this the last time I presented this is this is not written in stone. This is just one way in which you could draw the lines. I'm sure there are many but again taking into consideration what I mentioned earlier safety of students. So this is just one way. The one on the left is the current boundaries and then if Preston closes what look what it looks like with the new boundaries drawn and then the numbers you see there are the current enrollment versus what the new enrollments would be in each one of the buildings. And what we discovered is each one of those buildings have the capacity to take on the students that you see there. every building can can fit that
034amount of students. >> So when you look at the Preston example, you'll see that the school that gets impacted the most other than Preston obviously that closes is Price's boundaries get impacted the most. And then when we go on the price closing um slide, other than Price that obviously closes in that one, the school that gets impacted the most is Dwit. out just kind of the high level of that. And um we call this draft one because these are very rough drafts. But those two theories will still kind of win the day no matter how we do this. If Preston closes, Price's boundaries will get impacted the most. And if price closes, Dwit's boundaries will get impacted the most. So that's kind of the highlevel truths that are unavoidable just as we're thinking about this
035as well. >> And there's the the price example then as Mr. Gomez was what he was referring to there. So Richardson becomes you could see a lot bigger and wit actually becomes smaller. Their their enrollment both ways um actually lessens in both examples. Okay. And again, these are not written in stone by any means. I just want to keep saying that because I know attempted even as a parent u myself, I might be looking and saying, "Oh, well, I live on Chestnut. Let me see where that falls on this map and and try to figure out where it is. Please don't do that because it really at the end of the day most likely won't be AC necessarily accurate. So, I just don't want to give false pretenses to to trying to figure that out."
036So, that's the disclaimer there. So, those were the two models in which the uh the board looked at. And then the other really big factor that has been uh really talked about and the concern by the board is the number of displaced students through this process and you see TBD which might not be really helpful for the purposes of this evening but if you were to look at the other maps that I showed you you can do some of that figuring and we have looked at numbers in previous meetings and said okay well this many students if it's Price this many if it's Preston because you would take into consideration that if it's Preston that closes again because we're here this evening. All of those students, the 230ish students that are here, all of them
037would be displaced on top of then other students that the bumping effect happens. So, we looked at that for Preston. We looked at that for Price. Didn't really present those to you this evening because again, these are drafts, but that is one of the considerations that the board is taking into um they are taking into consideration and then again striving to uh not try not to displace uh you know to displace the the fewest amount of students if as possible. And then just finally some considerations kind of like in summation. So overall when looking at closing a school the big pockets or nuggets if you will are you know really again the redistricting. So the number of students impacted. So some of you are here this evening. I don't want to make the assumption you're
038all Preston parents. you might be from other schools knowing that if you attend Dwit or Richardson or one of the other schools, you might very well be impacted as well. We just don't know that answer yet. But we know that it's not just Preston or Price students that will be impacted. It's a lot of students and we're not we're not trying to hide that. We're being very transparent and open about that. That uh we'll do the best we can but know that many people will be impacted. And then the demographic profiles. also always should take into consideration just uh how we looking at the profiles meaning soio economics racially culturally you know the diversity and the composition makeup of every school and then the transportation as I talked about this evening again what are the
039implications and costs associated with transportation and not only the cost but we know there's been a short shortage of drivers everywhere right places are school districts are cutting out high school busing they're cutting out routes and uh really struggling and we have been very fortunate and I'm very proud of the fact that our team has worked very hard to secure drivers uh not only through compensation but through the way in which we value them and and treat them. I think that's extremely important. So those things travel time as I mentioned are all very important relative to transportation and then finally students and staff kind of a lot of things that come under there but class sizes and staff reductions. So we're also sensitive to that knowing that when you close a school, it's not just
040teachers that are impacted. It's your custodial, your principles, your secretaries. So we know that that too uh very sensitive to those situations and then trying to and we we will continue to maintain good class sizes. But I will say that we have some especially in the last couple of years some classes when you walk into for a teacher it's wonderful and I would appreciate as a teacher as well you know 14 15 16 17 students but I will tell you in a lot of surrounding districts that's really a luxury that's not that's not really the average and norm that you will see in a lot of districts. So while we don't want to go much higher than that we still set limits for ourselves. So when we did the work, when we did a lot
041of this uh configuring and providing you with stats, we used very reasonable numbers. So we stayed at 22 for kindergarten and first grade. We looked at 24 for second, third uh maybe and then fourth and fifth 25. So those are still very reasonable numbers. And so we're really striving to stay within those. So I want to be clear about that. So we're not going to have classrooms of 30. And I know parents sometimes panic about that. We'll see things on social media that a class has 60 children. That's a true story. I saw that and I can tell you and assure you that there will never be 60 students in one class in an elementary school. Band might be different or you know at the high school level but certainly not 60 in an elementary
042school. So with that board I uh that concludes my presentation. I will be giving the same exact presentation. So if you're more than welcome to come again if you would like on September 3rd uh to Price but it will be the same presentation. and board. May I entertain any questions from you >> or thoughts? >> Thank you, Dr. Salico. >> Thank you. Um, I just wanted to state all of this is on our website. I just wanted to let you know that it's under the treasurer tab on the website is where the presentation is. I know sometimes to navigate through and try to find where things are. So, I want to make sure everyone knows that that is where you would click is on treasurer and that's where you'll find the presentation with everything that
043was presented this evening. Um, I also one of the questions as we get as a board is when when is this going to be decided and as a board we have made a commitment to um have a decision made by in November. Um, that doesn't mean that we might not have it or we might have a decision sooner than that, but we will not have this on our agenda again for discussion until after we have our meetings both here and at Price as well. Um, because we want the opportunity to listen and hear from our community members. Um, which will be giving the opportunity for everyone here this evening. Um, also we know that not everyone is comfortable getting up and speaking in a public setting and you may have questions that haven't been answered
044in the presentation as well. And I would invite anyone to email us. If you t click on the board tab, you will find all of our direct emails and um I'm confident and speaking for the whole board in this that there's we we will return your email. Um, some of us have day jobs, so it may not be immediately when it's sent. Um, but we will return those emails to you as well. So, I wanted to make sure that I let everyone know that. Um, at this time, we're going to take a fivem minute recess. So, if anyone has filled out a form and would like to speak to the board or I'm sorry, did anybody else want to add? Yes, Mr. Gomez. >> I just want to thank everyone for taking the time to
045come out tonight. Um, I just want appreciate that. I also wanted to say um I think the presentation makes a strong case that we're in a very unfortunate decision where this is a reality, but I also know that none of the facts make you feel better about the situation that your kids school is being talked about as possibly closing. So, I recognize that we're in an unfortunate situation where the facts have put us in this place and we've done a lot of things with our budget and our finances. Um, we've stretched a levy for six years going on seven years since we've put a new levy on the ballot. Um, we've worked to be very fiscally responsible. But none of those facts overshadow the fact that your kid's school is being talked about being closed.
046And that's not something that makes people feel good. And so none of that changes that fact. And um all of us on the board have um emotions connected to both Preston and Price. And I won't go through other people's, but I went to Preston myself. I been staring at this mural all night, which was painted when I was a student here. So I have a lot of emotions connected to this place as well as Price and everyone here on the board has their own stories of um why Preston and Price um matter and they have emotions connected with them as well. So I just wanted to say that thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Ver. >> And I would just add too and I I appreciate that and I I wanted to say thank you
047as well and just assure everyone in the room that no matter where your child attends, I can assure you as superintendent that your child will get the best education possible. So please know that uh we are focused very uh we're very serious about bringing equity and bringing the same practices uh and consistency to every one of our schools. So what children are getting in Richardson they're getting at Dwit they're getting at Price etc. So please know that we will do everything we can to provide the the most excellent education for your children. Thank you. Sorry. >> Thank you very much Dr. Celica. We're going to take a fivem minute recess and so anyone that has filled out a form or if you have not had a chance and would like to speak there are forms
048back on the table um if you could bring those up to Mrs. Oslin during the recess and then we will be opening up for um the community to speak at that time. Recess is at 6:36. We will reconvene at 6:41. Thank you everyone. It is 6:41 p.m. >> and we are back in session. If there is anyone else that would like to turn in a form to speak, if you could please bring it up to Mrs. Oslin now and then we will um start calling people forward. Thank you. As a reminder um when you come forward to speak, you have three minutes to speak. We'll ask you to state your name and your address when you come up. And um according to our board policy BDDH um nothing is directed towards um any specific employees
049um in the statements as well. So um first up is Miss Mackey if you would like to come up. Hi, I started my first grade here in this building when it was brand new. So, I have attachment to it, >> but I've been a teacher for over 30 years. >> Sorry. Can you say your name? >> Oh, sorry. Terry Mackey, 1020 Cooper Drive down the road. >> Thank you. >> Um, I'm in my mom's house right now. But anyhow, um, so do I have some attachment to this building? Yes, but I also completely understand as a teacher that we have to make sure we're meeting the needs of the kids as we do this. Am I wrong in reading the statistics? From what I saw, it looks like the rooms here are bigger than the
050rooms in price, the classrooms. When I looked at the data from there, it looked like these are larger rooms. Well, I guess I'm going to say if they are, that's one thing I would take into consideration, especially since the class sizes are increasing. Um, the the other for me, I guess, could be a consideration. I think that probably dismissal and morning starts maybe easier with all the cars and stuff at price than they are here. Um, but when I weigh that stuff out, I still come back to that the classroom size would be an important issue. And this building is in great shape. It's cheerful. I'm not saying price isn't. Um, I just looked at class size. So, that's it. I'm sure the board or not class size, classroom size. I know I have great
051confidence that the board will make the best decision possible. I have faith in that. Thank you very much. And next is Rachel Loa, please. Thank you. >> Please state your name and address. Thank you. >> Yes, I'm Rachel Loza. I live at 768 Talmage Road, which is a little bit closer than Cooper because it's right next door. Um, good evening members of the board. My name is Rachel Loza. I'm here tonight as a mother of Preston Elementary students, as a neighbor, and as the Ward One council person. I want to thank you for the work you are doing to guide our schools through this difficult situation and decision. I have no doubts that the education our children receive in this district, whether here at Preston or elsewhere, would be excellent, and that our students would
052continue to be well cared for. But I would be remiss if I didn't stand here tonight and fight to keep our Ward One school open. Preston is more than just a building. It is a community. It is a home to diverse student body, including many children who receive special education services. These students thrive in an environment where teachers and staff know them personally, where they are seen, supported, and cared for as individuals. That kind of community connection is not easily replicated when students are moved or dispersed. Sorry, I'm very blind. When you weigh in this decision, I ask you to look beyond the numbers on paper. Consider the socioeconomic and cultural diversity that Preston represents. Consider the families whose voices may not always be the loudest, but whose needs are very real. I respectfully urge
053you to keep Preston Elementary open for the good of our children, families, and our entire community. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. I just want to thank everyone again for coming out this evening for the presentation and um reiterate again that any questions that you have um or if you didn't feel comfortable speaking please reach out to us um and as Mr. Gomez stated, "We all are members in this community and we either currently have students enrolled in this district previously have previous t previously taught in the district or have up and cominging students. So, our hearts are in this district and we're here um serving on the board because of that and we understand um the impact that this is going to have on and what a weighted decision it is. So, thank
054you for coming out. Um after this board meeting as a board, we're actually going to be touring this building and we'll be doing the same at Price as well as um part of our decision- making that we know we have coming up in the future. And that brings us to motion to adjurnn. It is recommended that the board of education adjourns this meeting. >> Second. >> Miss Slamlin, please call the role. >> Mr. Gomez, >> I. >> Mr. Harris, I. >> Mrs. Schaefer. Hi. >> Miss White. I. >> Miss Copa. >> I. Meeting adjourned at 6:47