001It's not that complicated. >> We're good to go. >> All right. Welcome all. I have uh 7 o'clock on all of our devices. I'm going to go ahead and call us to order this evening. Uh welcome to the Monday, February 23rd, 2026 uh regular board meeting of the Columbus School District. Um Adam, would you do roll call for us? >> Present. >> O'Brien here. Olsson RPY >> here. Pearson here. Calder here. Rule >> here. Smith >> here. Excellent. All present and accounted for. We have a quorum. Andrea, our meeting was properly noticed to my knowledge. Uh reminder, the mission of the Columbus School District ensures each student is prepared for future success. Um I will take a motion to adopt the agenda. I have no adjustments to it that I'm aware of. >> Some move.
002Second. >> I have a first from John Pearson, a second from Mike O'Brien. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor with an I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, our one item for board business this evening is a business services update. >> Yeah. Uh, figured, uh, tonight warranted a little update with business services. board members for the most part, you know. So, with action tonight, uh we will officially be searching uh and seek in a new director of business services or business manager uh depending on what route we go with the applicant. Uh the posting's been open for about one week and we have more than a handful of candidates and qualified candidates. Uh we're looking to interview first week in March, kind of near the end of the first week, and
003I would anticipate at least two or three rounds of interviews for that. Uh ideally, in a perfect world, the sooner the better. Uh trying to get somebody in place by June 1. Uh this all kind of relates to agenda item E1 and F1. If you look later in the agenda, E1 would give me approval to be a co-signer at farmers and merchants. So, uh, Beth, our old coin business, uh, director, she was the only only signer from the district. A couple of board members are signers. Uh, when I talked to him last week, they said, "Yeah, you should have an administrator as a signer as well." Uh, so in the interim, it makes sense that I would be. There is no single signing power uh for any administrator or board member. I think that's worth
004noting. And then looking down at F1, um until we have the business uh manager in place, my recommendation would be us to accept a bid from CISA 5 for uh director services. Uh they would come on site three time or they would uh work three times a week on site two times a week or one time a week depending which week it was and provide the regular services that we would normally see. uh condensed a little bit. The team's been doing a very nice job of understanding and and uh kind of resetting our systems uh just to make sure that approvals go through. There's been no hiccup in uh in purchasing. There's been no hiccup in oversight. Uh so it's been as smooth as you could say. Uh but really those items E1 and F1
005are going to be key. >> Any questions? For the CISA contract, would it be like one person assigned to us or do they have like a team that >> they have a team but one person will be assigned strictly to us. >> We may see uh the individual at board meetings every now and then. >> Probably the biggest thing for board bills will be delayed uh probably by a month or two uh just at the start here. I think that we had last month to get to you uh yet. So, uh, they have quite a bit of experience. Uh, we sat down on a call as soon as the letter was turned in, uh, and we feel pretty confident. Uh, pretty much I I think we're fortunate there no one around the state >> for
006that services and it just happens to be our CISA. >> So, >> Oh, that's good. >> Okay. >> Uh, and part of that, Martha, with that contract is, uh, we can get out at any point. Uh, so they kind of bill you month by month basis. So, if we were able to fill the position prior to June 1 for any reason, we would be able to um exit that contract without penalties. >> Yep. >> Other questions. >> Would the plan be to have you on the account only until we get a Mrs. Correct? >> Other questions? Okay, thank you, Jay. Appreciate that update. Um, we move into public comment this evening. Uh, do we have anyone signed up for public comment this evening on the signup sheet? We do not. Okay. Thank you. >> Um,
007reminder under public conversation, um, FFA week is, uh, this week, February 21st through 28th. Um, I'm pretty sure, uh, as we know, we are in the middle of that. Each year, FFA chapters around the country celebrate National FFA Week, and it's, uh, a good time to share what FFA is and the impact it has on members. I know we're doing some dress up days at the high school and some other activities. Um, I think, isn't this usually the week when maybe we see some tractors make their way to school instead of cars and trucks in the morning? So, I think I saw a truck contest also happening. So, >> yeah. So, some fun stuff going at the high school for FFA week. >> So, I think we're doing some stuff in our other buildings, too,
008right? >> Mhm. >> We're doing pajama day. We're doing all like the dress up day. Um car heart day. >> Car heart. >> Um >> Oh, yes. And then a career day. >> Um Hunter versus Fisherman. They can't bring anything that would not be okay at school. >> And blue and gold chapter merchandise. >> Okay, very good. So, Um, additionally under uh kind of public conversation recognition um it is uh public school week um this week also. Um so public school week is uh celebrated February 23rd through 27th. Um their uh motto if you will is building stronger, fairer, fairer and more resilient public education systems. uh national week-long campaign to honor educators, staff, and students while highlighting the essential role public schools play in strengthening communities and providing opportunities for all children. So that
009is this week. Also busy week around school districts. Um we have uh several donations to recognize this evening. Uh, first up on our donation list, uh, Chemical Columbus Chemical Industries donation towards, uh, FBLA or Future Business Leaders of America in the amount of $1,000. Uh, we had an anonymous donation to the music department in the amount of $500 and a donation from our local Ace Hardware for glass sheets to the Columbus High School art department in the amount of $100 value. So that means February's donations were $1,600 which takes year-to- date to $53,598.77. So again, that's amazing support from our community. >> Absolutely. All right, up for board action this evening. Um uh first item up is uh as Jake mentioned uh specific uh board approval for superintendent Jake Flood to be the co-signer on
010the farmers and merchants account in the interim while we are replacing the business manager. >> I'll make a motion to approve Superintendent Jake Plug to be co-signer on the farmers and merchants account in the interim. I heard a first from Corey Olsson Rafy and did I hear a second from Karen Smith down there? Thank you. >> Um any discussion? All those in favor with an I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries. Um next item on our agenda is consider approval for OE7 asset protection monitoring report. Um, you know, I think we had some nice conversation about this at our workshop last month. Um, and uh, with your motion, I would request that you identify if it is, um, in compliance or not in compliance. Um, the recommendation from administration was in compliance on OE7.
011Julie, I'd like to make a motion to amend this um to where it says 2026, it should say 2025 because we always are reviewing the past year. >> Yes, thank you for that reminder. Um on the board comments, um it was 2026, it should be the 2025. Uh so a simple clerical correction on that, but thank you John for reminding me of that. So, I have a motion from John Pearson to approve that with uh that amendment that we changed that clerical date to 2025 to correct it. Do I have a second for that? >> Second. >> Is that Karen down there? >> Yep. >> I have a first from John with amendment. Second from Karen Smith. Further discussion on OE7. All those in favor with an I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion
012carries. Could I get that motion in second? >> I'm sorry. That was John Pearson for a first and Karen Smith for a second. >> Thank you, Adam. >> Let me keep track of the details. >> And now we have to vote on it. >> No, we're good. >> Okay. >> Yeah, we voted on with the amendment. >> Said you did it with the amendment right up front. Um and then last item on our um board approvals tonight is consider approval for summer school course proposals as presented at the workshop and reviewed previously. >> A motion to approve the summer school courses as proposed. Second. >> I have a first from Karen Smith, a second from Martha Rule. Any discussion hearing? None. All those in favor with an I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Motion carries.
013Uh that takes us into our superintendent's consent agenda this evening. Uh which includes that business services contract that we were discussing, our graduation request, uh the Neola policy update, and our human resources report. Motion to approve the superintendent's consent agenda as presented. >> Seconded. >> Have a first from Martha Rule, a second from Adam Palmer. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor with an I. >> I. >> Any opposed? >> Motion carries. Uh board consent agenda this evening. Uh we have the donations as previously noted uh as well as includes our January 12th board workshop meeting minutes, our January 26th board meeting minutes, and the February 9th board workshop meeting minutes. >> I have a motion to approve the board consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> I have a first from Karen
014Smith, a second from John Pearson. Any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor with an I. >> I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh board management report. We had a request from uh with everything going on legislatively. Uh the legislative committee has requested opportunity to update us tonight. Yeah. >> Did you want to? >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um we'll keep it simple because I know that we kind we did a really thorough update last meeting and also there's been a flurry of action committee meetings. There's like 21 bills headed to Governor Ivers that um relate to education potentially in the next month. Um but we did want to return to the board and ask if there was consensus for us to advocate um to our governor and legislators. Um I'll read exactly what WB um is
015recommending. Um, so basically the governor and legislative leaders have been negotiating over the last two weeks on a compromise deal that would likely see property tax relief paired with some form of public school aid. Um, so there's recently been a willingness to increase funding for special education to get it to that 45% that they had committed to. Um and then on the other side granting some property tax relief. Um so basically this is a bipartisan consensus. This is work being done across the aisle that hasn't happened in the past or at least in the recent past. Um so WISB is urging their members to use their voice at this crucial time. Please contact the governor and legislators to urge them to work together to reach a compromise that addresses the special education shortfall. Also increases
016general aid and holds down property taxes. Um so what that would look like is us contacting the governor's office and the our assembly and senate reps by phone and then just following up with an email. Um should you all be okay with that. Um, I just think it's worth the voice on our students behalf. This is potential funding compromise that would really help everybody. >> Could we anticipate doing that uh via voice with phone calls or >> Yes. So, we'd call them, probably talk to their staff. It's very hard to get them on the phone, but we would keep it extremely simple, just using the same verbiage that we just used with you guys. Um, and then also just following up with an email stating the same thing. um basically giving them our contact info.
017>> You did see there was an update this afternoon again. >> Uh it I don't think it was anything that >> it wasn't anything really new, but basically they're continuing >> even though they're out in session. They're continuing negotiations >> and hopefully the the Senate will still come back and they said the assembly could come back for select targeted legislation. So, um, unless there's any objection, we would go ahead and do that right away this week. Um, >> I think that's important to us that special ed funding is is tremendously important. >> Yeah. And I think that we as a board have clearly u made statements to support that special ed funding in the past. So, it's definitely within fitting with the work that we have um supported in the past. Um, absolutely. Um, I
018think, yeah, I don't have any questions or concerns with it as long, especially since we have kind of a nice model that WASB has provided with some key talking points that um I think uh they're usually really good about um making sure that they're well written and um >> yeah, concerns about that advocacy from anybody? >> No, happy to do it on behalf of the board. >> Okay. >> All right. Yeah, I think that sounds great. So, okay. Appreciate you guys doing that um work on that that leg work. Yeah. All right. Um anyone interested in um debriefing any portion of our board meeting this evening? It was a pretty short one considering we did a lot of work last time. So, um did a lot of conversation and discussion about several things. So, if
019nothing further, then I would take a motion for adjournment this evening. Motion to second. >> I have a first from Karen Smith, a second from Cory Olsson Rafy. Any discussion? >> Hearing none. All those in favor with an I. I. >> I. >> Any opposed? Same sign. Motion carries. We are adjourned at 7:16 p.m. Thank you all. We had a long night last time, so it's nice to have a short one this evening. >> Three nights. All right. >> 3-hour night and then a then a shorter one. It kind of evens out. the ambulance all