001Thanks for everyone's patience. It is 7:06. Let's please rise for the pledge of allegiance. All right. On to our five principles of cruiser PLC, please. These are the five principles of our professional learning. We focus on collaborate. We take responsibility. We ask the results. We decide what to do next. Thank you so much. On to roll call, please. Mr. Kersner here. Mrs. Dber here. Bar here. M. Gray here. And Miss Walsh here. And madam vice president, do you mind doing the review of police statement of boards, please? No, sir. I not mine. We believe all cruisers are valuable. We will unconditionally serve, support, and inspire. Therefore, every cruiser will maximize their unique purpose, potential, and power to produce the results they want. Our board norms. As leaders of the district, we will always strive to
002support the mission and vision of the district. Be prepared, informed, and ready for meetings, respect one another as elected representatives of the community, be open-minded, and recognize one another's strengths, the value diverse perspectives, and mutual commitment to the mission and vision of the district. Allow members to complete their thoughts and statements before others comment. Allow members to be heard and listen to all perspectives with an open mind. Stay focused on the task at hand and respectfully redirect each other when needed. Maintain confidentiality and communicate per board policies. Ensure trust and transparency in all dealings. After a vote is cast, leave meetings united as as one voice no matter the outcome. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you so much. On to adoption of the meeting agenda. Second. Mrs. Gray as first. Mrs. Dberger has second. On
003to roll call, please. Mrs. Walsh. I. Mrs. Gray. I. Mr. Bower. Hi. Mr. Dollarber. Hi. Mr. Christ. I. Motion passes. On to public participation. We have form for public participation. Um, I'm going to read something real quick and then we'll go to the uh public participation uh portion. All meetings of the board and board appointed committees are open to the public in order for the board of education to fulfill its obligation to complete the planned agenda in an effective and official fashion. A maximum of 30 minutes of public participation may be permitted at each regular board of education meeting. Each person addressing the board of education shall give his or her name, address, phone number, organization represented, and pertinent background information. If several people wish to speak, each person is allotted three minutes until the
004total time of 30 minutes is used. During that during that period, no person may speak twice until all who desire to speak have had an opportunity to do so. Persons desiring more time should submit their request in writing to the board of education office or email public.goisers.org board seven days prior to the voting meeting to the scheduled meeting. The period of public participation may be extended by a majority vote of the board members present and voting. Please remember that law prohibits discussion of specific employees or their job performance at a public meeting. State law does allow for discussions by board members regarding employees and executive sessions of the board. And if I could have Miss Troy Bach come to the uh podium, please. Good evening. My name is Joy Bach. I reside at 3882 Albany
005Chase, um, New Alb, Ohio 43230. And I'm not giving my phone number. Popular enough already. Um, thank you for being here tonight. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. I tonight I'm speaking on behalf of GMLEA and also on behalf of Oopsy. GMLA is 452 members strong and Oopsy is uh we have almost 200 almost 200. So we make up the majority of the staff in this district when you consider we're roughly about 800 and some employees here. Um before us tonight and before this district is a very important issue that affects each and every one of our students. It is bond issue 24. And we are here tonight for the first time ever in my 26 years here that both GMLA and Oopsy have come together unanimously to support this bond issue
006which is a huge undertaking. We have worked tirelessly for weeks and weeks alongside administration coming to events and activities and we're here tonight to ask the board to please do the same. Please put aside your differences. Community, please put aside your differences. If you vote no in on May 6, you vote no against our students. You don't change the administration. You don't change who's on the board. If those things need to happen, that's down the road. But we need you to vote for our students. We need to bring our buildings up to modern-day standards, safety, and security reasons. Our students deserve the same 21st learn 21st century learning situations and buildings that every other community around us has. Hamilton, Canal, Pickerington, and I can go on and on. Taze Valley, the list is endless. Growport
007students and community deserve the same. And they deserve all of us, and I mean all of us, working together to achieve this goal. We hope that you too will come out and support our activities. If you'd like to know more about them, I'm happy to speak to you at any time. But thank you for your time and attention. Have a great evening. [Applause] Thank you. On to item E, recognitions and presentations. Good evening board. I'd like to take a moment to recognize our outstanding awesome art scholars who helped us with the best in art show during the state of the schools. And I'd also like to take time to recognize our art teachers. Let's hear from both of them. [Applause] First, I'd like to say that uh I want to apologize for Mr. Group. He's
008not here. He's at home dealing with a family emergency. We miss him and this is a really great fun board meeting and he is uh real sad that he can't make it. We we love seeing the students and we love these recognitions and he's going to miss it. But hey, I get to take advantage of it. So, uh, I'm going to start recognizing our cruisers and students who did a great job during our art show. And, um, I just want to say that this is a great way for us to showcase, and we say this all the time, we have awesome, talented, wonderful students in our school district. and any way we can showcase that and let people see how talented they are. And these are some of the picks. Uh you'll get the Mr.
009Group superintendent's pick at the end, but these are some of the pics of best of the art show. But there it was a really good art show. Okay. So, how do we want to do this? We just call them up and stay up. So, when we call you up, I'll hand you your certificate and we'll get a picture with the board and stay up here so you can be recognized. Come on. Yes. Go ahead. Come on up. Uh, from Little Cruiser Campus, Kyler Knight. [Applause] [Music] Okay, right off the bat, you can see why we love this. Right off the bat, from Asbury Elementary, Sage Kaiser. [Applause] I'll say from Dunlow Elementary. Naomi Zacharias [Applause] Oh gosh, I love this from Glen Denny Glenn Denning Elementary. Vivian Porus [Applause] from Growport Elementary. Aaliyah Rampazard [Applause]
010from Madison Elementary. Abby Ael [Applause] She's got that handshake down from Sidelia Elementary. Jacob McKe. [Applause] Okay, this one's going to test me. From middle school central, Matia Gillian Batista. [Applause] There you go. Here you go. Oh, and he's been here before. From Middle School North, Joshua Tanner. [Applause] from the high school. Lamaya Grace [Applause] from the Groport Madison High School. Kenya Preston [Applause] from the Groport Madison High School, Porsche Yansy. [Applause] Okay, this is the superintendent's choice award from Growport Elementary. Abby Wii Tones. [Applause] She couldn't make it. We'll make sure she gets her certificate. Okay. Yep. Let's do a group photo. Parents can come up and take pictures also. Not that I was going to keep you from doing it. Say cruisers cheese Spongebob. Congratulations [Applause] Now, we want to recognize our outstanding
011art teachers, and it's with gratitude for your dedication and creativity in making the district art show a shining success. your passion and your commitment to fostering artistic expression, inspiring our students, and enriching our community. Thank you for bringing art to life. From Asbury, Morgan [Applause] Hos from Dunlow. Megan Merritt [Applause] Buer from Glenn Denning. Rachel Blackmore. Blakemore. Sorry. The one that's here. I messed up. Blakemore. Right. Thank you from Groport Elementary. D Spur. [Applause] from Madison Elementary. Ashley [Applause] Welch from Sidelia Elementary. Dana St.S. The hard ones are here. From middle school central, Nicole [Applause] Rice from Middle School North. Stephanie Smith [Applause] Oasisu from Middle School South. Kelly [Applause] Howie from the the Growport Madison High School. Aaron [Applause] Finsel from the Growport Madison High School. Jeremy Miller from the Growport Madison High School.
012Mika Patterson. Yes. And from the Growport Madison High School, Megan Staern [Applause] Miller. Ma, maybe you can give your partners their certificate. We'll make sure they get it. Um, we can do a group photo. Thank you. Congratulations. Real quick, good news. Oh, sorry. I was just gonna say feel free if you would like to leave, you can leave. I know it's a school night. So, thank you again. Thank you for coming. Mr. Grub is going to miss this. [Applause] Okay. Board. Uh, the superintendent recommends that the Groport Madison School Board adopt the resolution recognizing National Women's History Month and Irishamean Heritage Month. Uh we read the resolutions during the March 11th board meeting and now we need to vote. So move second that Mr. Kersner is first and Mrs. Dober second to roll call please.
013Mr. Kushner. Hi. Mrs. Dberger. Hi. Mr. Bower. Hi. Miss Gray I. Miss Walsh. I. Motion passes. Okay. Basketball team and cheerleaders, bear with me. We're going to get to you, but we just have to get through this for a second. The superintendent recommends that the Growport Madison School Board adopt the resolutions recognizing Autism Awareness Month, ArabAmerican Heritage Month, Community Service Month, National Depth History Month, and a month of Military Ch. So move second. Okay, I have Mr. Kushner as first and Mrs. Gray a second. Okay. The resolution of Gilport Madison School District recognizing April 2025 as autism acceptance month. Whereas the month of April is globally recognized as autism acceptance month dedicated to increasing increasing awareness, understanding and acceptance of autism spectrum disorder. hand. Whereas, it is important to recognize and support individuals with autism
014by fostering a learning environment and community that embraces neurodeiversity and promotes inclusivity. And whereas raising acceptance and awareness about autism is essential in promoting early diagnosis, intervention, and access to appropriate resources and support. And now therefore be resolved that the Growport Madison School Board of Education recognize and support the importance of autism acceptance month of April and work to ensure that all individuals with all autism have access to resources and supports they need to thrive. resolution of Growport Madison schools recognizing April 2025 as ArabAmerican Heritage Month. Whereas the Growport Madison School recognizes the importance of fostering a diverse and inclusive learning environment that celebrates a rich culture heritage and contributes to all students and community members. And whereas ArabAmericans have made significant valuable contributions to American society in various fields including medicine, law, business, education,
015technology, the arts, government, military service, and community culture. And whereas we celebrate celebrate Arabameans throughout the past and present and recognize their invaluable contributions to our country. It also serves as a time to combat ArabAmerican anti-Arab bigotry and to challenge stereotypes and prejudice. And now therefore be resolved that the Gilport Madison Schools Board of Education recognize the month of April as ArabAmerican Heritage Month. resolution of Gilport Madison school recognizing April 2025 as community service month. Whereas the Growport Madison schools recognizes the importance of civic engagement and community involvement and fostering a strong environment community and whereas April is designated as community service month, a time to acknowledge and se celebrate community service and a time to highlight service and volunteerism on our community. And whereas the school district believes the community service provides valuable opportunities
016for students to learn, grow, and make positive impacts on the world. And whereas the school district is committed to promoting a culture of service and leadership among its students, staff, and community members. Now, therefore, be resolved that Growport Madison School District Board of Education recognize the month of April as community service month. Resolution of Growport Madison School recognizing April 2025 as National Death History Month. Whereas the purpose of National Death History Month is to increase awareness of and express appreciation for the many contributions that deaf and heart of hearing individuals have made in our society. And whereas according to the 2021 American Community Survey, about 3.6% 6% of the United States population and about or about 11 million individuals consider themselves deaf or have serious difficulty hearing and whereas the deaf and heart of hearing
017individuals have made continuous and made and I'm sorry deaf and hearted hearing individuals have made and continue to make numerous contributions to the United States. Whereas the the American School for Deaf opened in Hartford, Ki, Connecticut in April 18, April 15th, 18717 as the first public school for the deaf in the United States. And whereas Galadet University was founded on April 8th, 1864 when President Lincoln signed a charter establishing the first college for the death in the world. And on March 13, 1988, Galadeette University selected its first de university president. And whereas the board of education supports the goals and ideals of national death history month and recognizes that many contributions that deaf and heart of hearing individuals have made in our country. And now therefore, be it resolved that the Growport Madison Schools Board
018of Education recognize the month of April as National Death History Month. Resolution of Gilport Madison Schools recognizes April 2025 as the month of the military child. Whereas the children of military families face unique challenges and opportunities and demonstrate remarkable resilience in adapting to frequent moves, changes in school, and supporting their famil family's service to our nation. And whereas the Growport Madison School District is committed to creating a supportive and inclusive environment for all students, including those from military families. And whereas the month of April is designated as month of the military child to honor the sacrifices and contributions of these children. And whereas Growport Madison School is proud to stand in solidarity with the military community and to recognize the unique needs and experiences of children of military families. And now therefore, be it resolved
019that the Growport Madison School Board of Education recognize April as the month of Military Child. Thank you. On roll call, please. Mrs. Walsh. I. Mrs. Gray. Hi. Mr. B. Hi, Mr. Hi. M. Mr. Hi. Motion passes. I'm having fun. Oh, can I see? Okay. Now, I'd like to recognize our boys basketball team. And Coach Hampton, would you mind coming up here? Our uh D Growport Madison High School varsity boys basketball team had a heck of a season and we want to take the opportunity. the board wants to recognize and celebrate you and honor our our varsity basketball team. So, uh, I'd like to introduce Lamont Hampton, he's our head coach. Uh, Coley Adamo, Sean Moss, he's the good-look guy in the pink shirt. Uh, William Wagner, is he here? Okay. Jason Campbell. These are our
020coaches. Thank you, gentlemen. Oh, there's more. Uh, our basketball team, uh, won the district champs, and that hasn't been done in 40 years. They went to the Elite 8. That hasn't happened in 90 years. And they were the regional runners up and that hasn't happened in 90 years. [Applause] I don't want to steal Coach Hampton's thunder, but that's all right if you want to clap for yourself. I I do want you to know we had so much fun watching you guys and we were right there. The whole community was right behind you. It was amazing to see this whole community come together for you guys and you guys came together for each other and you did it back for the community and we can't thank you enough. But there were some uh other outstanding awards
021I want to recognize. The Iguanas Club uh awarded Kamar Keys as player of the year. Kamar uh Ohio High School scholar athlete athlete uh Troy Hines Jr. The Max Sims Award. That's a big award. Max Sims Award. Uh, Tyreek [Applause] Ruffin. Uh, OC first team. Tyreek Ruffin. Second team, Kamar. Second team, Sir Cox. Oh, Sir Cox isn't here. All district. Tyreek Ruffin. [Applause] Okay. Um, Coach Hampton, I'd like for you to introduce your boys. Okay. Your men, you don't need this. Nope. Um, first I'm gonna call my coaches up, my varsity assistant, Sean Moss. [Applause] Um, JB head coach, varsity assistant Kohley out of Banjo. Varsity assistant uh Jason Campbell, Joshua Campbell [Applause] um scholar athlete. This guy got scholar athlete Justice Jackson. She's a senior. got accepted. Justice was accepted to Cincinnati University to
022uh [Applause] academics. Jaquan Ingram, he's a senior. He's been at um got a full ride to Tiffany University for football. Joshua Moore, another senior. [Applause] He's going on a full ride of football for a hot Dominican as well. Jeremiah Moore, the other twin, he's also going to Tipin University on a full ride for football. Tro Glenn, he's a junior. He'll be back. Great student. Melvin Shepard. He's the He's the freshman. He's the baby of the group. He's going to be really special. 3.5 GPA. It's going to be really good for us next year. I do want to recognize Sir Cox. He's not here today. Uh Ryan A Wilson had an emergency. Somebody was in a car accident. They're fine, but they're at the hospital. Um Troy Hines, where Troy up there? That's my son, by
023the way. Troy Hines. Hi, Troy. Oh, Camden Slaughter as well. He's not here. He had a family emergency as well. Am I forgetting anybody else? Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh Kofi Kado is not here as well. And uh Jordan Wagner, he's also a freshman. Can we have the board come up for a photo? [Music] I'll tell you what, I feel small. Yeah. Hey, real quick, I want to I want to give a huge shout out to the board members and the um DSC, the principles, the community. They were all um so supportive and it was amazing. Our kids had a great ride. Also want to thank Mr. Snider back there humbly back there smiling. Um he's he was awesome for us as well. Coach, stick around to the Hey, no pressure, but I told him
024we're doing this again next year. We can't wait another 90 years. Okay. Now, I'd like to recognize our Growport Madison High School cheerleaders. [Applause] Miss Hunner. Coach Humener, you want to come up or blending in? Before we get started, I want to take a minute to recognize that coach Hunner received the lifetime coach of the year [Applause] award. And all year, and I think it started last year, I kept saying, "You got a dynasty. You start in a dynasty and then you get the lifetime coach of the year. That's awesome. So, uh, your team wrote something about you. I'd like to read it. Okay. Ameriter awarded Growport Madison High School cheerleading coach Krena Huner the lifetime coach of the year award. Coach Huner epitomizes genuine commitment. She doesn't just lead her athletes, she nurtures and
025supports them, helping them become their best. Her commitment extends beyond the cheerleading mat. Whether creating senior banners, assisting in concession, and ensuring her athletes have the gear they need, she's always there. Her cheerleaders see her as family, no matter how busy or tired she is. Coach Hunter concern for her team will never end. She treats her athletes like her own, supporting them while instilling values like hard work, responsibility, and gratitude. She monitors their grade grades and connects them with tutors if they need it and is the most significant cheerleader in their life. Krena, your influence is boundless. Your athletes admire and respect you deeply. Seeing you and their mentor and inspiration, we appreciate you and your remarkable impact on those around you. Congratulations, Krina. You deserve the Lifetime Coach of the Year award. [Applause] Okay.
026Uh, now I want to recognize the cheerleaders and her assistant coaches. You want to call your assistant coaches up? Yes. Go ahead. Um, so, um, Lexi Lindic, she is not wasn't able to make it this evening. She was a hu She's She is the reason she is the reason that this comp team and these girls are so amazing. She is the most talented, amazing coach that I could have ever been blessed with um with the competition. She's an alumni cheerleader. So, not only did I get to coach her when I was 12, um but now she's come back and she is just blessing us with her amazing talent. and um I'm sad that she wasn't able to make it, but um Lexi Lindic I'm very grateful for. Um next I have um Ronnie Leaport. She
027has been I mean let's be honest, if you see me, you see her. We're kind of we're attached. We've been attached for 15 years at this this job. Longer with the kids. Yes. So if you see me, you'll see her. Um also um Nicole Dare she is also my side. I am very very very very lucky with the people that I have surrounded myself with. Um they have stood by me, they fight for me, they fight with me and they fight for these kids. So that is something that I am very very grateful for. So you can only be a good coach if you surround yourself with better. So, I am grateful. Okay. So, um the girls I don't know if you want to tell them all the things that they've won. Well, I was
028going to do that. Okay. Okay. Um, I will call the girls up and we are going to present we'll recognize them for all their awards they've gotten this year, but we are also presenting them with their um their national title rings from a marriage year. They won three national titles this season. So, they earned um their gold rings. So, the girls will be getting those and Paul will be distributing those. So, um first up, my seniors Chrissy Ogalry [Music] My aunt Yansancy, my other senior, my senior's graduating to have put a big dent in my program. So, I'm pretty sad. Uh, Porsche Yansy Kennedy Hill. And Olivia Tanner, aka she calls herself the queen. So if you guys see her, you know, um we have Francis We um Olivia Williams and um Oh my gosh.
029And Michaela Jones. She is a freshman. They um either on track or had theater or some other commitment with school. They're My girls are absolutely involved in everything. So they weren't able to make it this evening. Okay, picture. While they're getting a picture with the board, I want to tell you some of the things that they accomplished. One, it was a heck of a football season. Two, great basketball season. Uh, one for a generation. They be they were first in the winter nationals, first in Buckeye Nationals, first in March Madness, best in state. They got third place and they went to Orlando for the international uh cheerleading competition at Universal Park and they got second place but it was it was by 610 of a point. So congratulations Thank you. So proud of you guys.
030Okay, if you want to leave after that wonderful ceremony. Um, I do before before anything. Tommy Snder is the athletic director. He works tireless tirelessly. [Applause] We love you, Tommy. Thank you. All right. Um before we uh move forward here, I'd like to make a motion for a fivem minute recess. Second. Okay. Um, I'm first and then Mrs. Walsh is second. Roll call, please. Mr. Kushner is over there. Mrs. D. I five minute recess. We're doing roll call. Walsh. I Miss Gray. Hi, Mr. Bower. Hi, Mber. Hi, and Mr. Gers. All right. 7:53. We will reconvene at 7:58. All right, it is 8:01 and we are back in session. Okay, members of the members of the board, I'd like to welcome our performing art teachers to come up for their presentation for the board. Okay.
031Please make sure you speak into the mic and if you wouldn't mind introducing yourself. Absolutely. Okay. Hi, my name is Tiana Nich. I am the middle school band or I am the middle school north band director. Um, do we want to just introduce ourselves now or just Yeah, let's just do that. All right. I am Katie Harmon. I am the middle school south band director. The middle school central band director, Caleb Miller, cannot be with us tonight. He has grad school commitments. Hello, my name is Nolan Kelly. I am the high school choir director. My name is Reed Robashad. I'm the choir director at Middle School Central. Hi, I'm Jonathan Stewart. I'm the choir director at Middle School South. Jonah Herigg is the director at at the high school. uh and he also could not
032be here tonight. So, we'll be speaking on his behalf as well. So, first I'd like to say thank you so much for asking us to be here. Uh no one ever asks for our opinion and I love giving it. So, I'm really grateful to be here. Um so, thank you. Uh so, I'm going to talk. We kind of split it up. I'm going to just go over the middle school portion for the bands. So, if you Is this clicker? Is this Does this work? Okay. Look at that. Okay. So, just to go over some recruitment and retention, we saw an issue with recruitment because student it was hard to reach students when we were recruiting them outside of school. We would do band. They're called instrument fittings where they try out the instruments and they
033would get to play all of them and everything. And we had a a okay success rate. Only about 15% of students would um out of all the fifth graders would come out. So we decided to bring the fittings to them. And this year the change we made was that we actually decided to visit each elementary school and have every single fifth grader in the district try the instruments which turned out to be a huge success. Our grow our goal for it was about 20% growth. And so from our typical 90ish um students that we get this year we have about 120 signups which is amazing. So we're really excited for the band kids to get to do the thing. So um uh and in addition to that just to get our face out there we
034visit elementarymentaries all throughout the year. We do carolling. Um you can actually see on the cute little pics there. Um we do carolling and we do concerts for them. We try to visit as often as pos possible just to bring music to the schools. Uh and they seem to really enjoy that. Now with regard to um in in terms of equity is we we also strive to make music accessible to everybody. So any in we stress in every message we send out all of the packets, handouts that finances are never an issue for students and we have plenty of instruments that we provide for students and we have the budgets to repair them and everything and purchase if needed. So we stress that that is never a reason to not join bands and I think
035that's really helped bring them in. In terms of raw numbers, the the numbers are kind of small. you can see. Um but um like I said, we started about 90 students this year. Um and the growth, like I said, we got about we're about 120. Uh but what's really impressive as you can see is that our retention rate is excellent. We have from 2022 to now 90% of students have stayed in bands. So we are really really proud of that number. And this is from sixth to 8th grade. So that's that's a truly that's a big deal. Uh and we're very grateful. And so with this growth, our hope is that in 20 um the 2028 school year, if we have 120 students joining now, that we would be able to send at least 90
036of them over to the high school and help explode that program going forward. Okay. And then these are just some things we do um that that help retain the kids. They love the special activities. We really uh bring out um eighth graders go to Kings Island. We do districtwide solo and ensemble festivals. Uh and at all our concerts we have nearly 100% attendance rate. Uh so parents really enjoy seeing the music and we we make it, you know, at our at home concerts it often happens that it's standing room only. Uh, so that's like a really cool feeling to see that support. In addition, this is just a list of everything we do. We really make an uh we take a lot of care into taking students off campus, too, and giving them the experiences
037outside of the district. So, um, you know, we've taken them to the Ohio State Celebration Concert, which is amazing, um, you know, college visit for them, and they get to see college performances. Uh we've had students participate in middle school honor bands that are outside. That's like where the highest level students get to perform among other highle students in Ohio. Uh and the list goes on and on. Uh they're just and we just on Saturday had 15 students perform at the Ohio Music Education Association solo and ensemble contest where uh about all of them received either a superior outstanding rating, a one or a two. And that's amazing. That's all the work that they've put in. So we really really push the kids to get out into the community and they seem to really enjoy
038it. So yeah. Now, here's just a couple of things that we we've identified that we think are um that could be so we could use your help with if so starting with number one is scheduling. I see that we all see the value in the block scheduling and we we are cognizant of how that impacts um other subjects. But what it's done is eliminate the second elective for students to be able to choose from. Therefore, they're not able to they aren't less excited to be in band knowing that that takes away everything else. And that's a really So, we're foreseeing a drop in numbers with that change. And that's really important to us. Um, we have some suggestions. Um, and I wrote them all out. But if that's something we we are not just coming
039here to tell you about problems, some solutions we thought about is maybe proposing need-based blocks, shortening class periods to allow um another class period or eliminating focus. Whatever we can do to just add one more class for those kids, I think would make a huge difference. Um, the other scheduling issue is that at middle school central, middle school south, they have this what's called a heterogeneous sixth grade band where every single fifth or every single sixth grader that um has ever played an instrument is all together and they are learning from from square one how to put a flute together in the same room as how to put a trombone together. And that's like teaching six different subjects of math in one room at the same time for 40 minutes. So that poses to be
040a little bit of a a issue when it comes to teaching them effectively and retaining the kids can be difficult because they're feeling like class moving slow and they're not able to do as much with them. So we kind of have like a good better best um idea and like a good thing would try to maybe have a traveling or co-eing model which used to be a practice in the district. Um something else is maybe separating into woodwind and brass percussion classes so we at least have some separation. Um or if we could um do it the way it's done at North and it's worked excellently is having a woodwin class, a brass class, and a percussion class, which just allows for the most differentiation, um relationship building, and just bringing kids bringing them up
041to the higher level that they can achieve at. Um and having this equity across the district would really be beneficial for the whole program. Okay, I'm almost done. promise. Okay. Um a two other things that we've noticed um is the busing costs have are starting to limit the things we can do for the students. Um so all those really cool experiences that they had we potentially would have to take away because we can't afford even with fundraising. We've done many fundraisers and fundraising efforts. We can't afford to take them on all those trips and buy their instruments and buy the books and all those things. So that's something that would be really helpful is if there was a way to subsidize those costs or a lot money for these trips that would be really really
042great for the kids experiences. And finally the districtricting um this among so of those let's say 120 kids that we've recruited 37 or 38 are not sure we don't know which school they're going to go to. So then it's harder for us to communicate directly with them and work directly with their teachers and just you know bring our faces to their you know experience and all that. So that's just something that would be helpful is if we could know which school the feeds where and having that kind of map that would be really helpful for us to be able to just push our programs a little bit more. So, just to wrap that all up, overall, like I said, um we went from 15% to now we're looking at closer to 20%. And we'd like
043to be about 25% of the fifth grade class being in band for going into middle school. Um and like I said, 90% of students stay in band when they start um through 8th grade. And uh our primary concerns are um the scheduling and budget. Um, but overall, if we could fix those little issues, we would ultimately bring up the numbers in the middle school, which would help the high school band in a major way. So, yeah. Thank you. Okay. All right. I am speaking more so on behalf of uh Jonah Herige. Again, he was not able to be here today. Um, but I am also the assistant um, band director with the high school and primarily at South, but I do help with a lot of marching band season and I have been able to
044make myself available some mornings to be able to go back and forth and help them out during collaboration time when we're not having immediate meetings. Um, so I don't want to go too in depth with all these slides. I know a lot of this is in the board docs. Um, but the big thing we want to talk about is just the numbers. So when in the fall of 22 to 23, so the start of last school year, we had 72 band students, which if anybody knows a band program at a school this size, that's significantly smaller than what we typically see. Um, but our increase, we had a 19.4% increase to 86 band students. And when we look at the number from one school year to another with kids who signed up for band, we
045had about 40ome kids who committed on their schedules. But once we get to summer rehearsals, a lot of them bow out. zero communication um just communicate maybe with counselors uh after they sign up for band and take it off their schedule. So honestly, that amount of kids that we get bridged over from middle school to high school is kind of sad in my opinion given what we were kind of promised. And we did really really work hard to make sure that we kept track of those kids until they just didn't show up for rehearsal. And that was that was really difficult um to swallow on our end because we tried and we're the the goal for all of these conversations is to create a better bridge between the middle schools and high schools. And our
046communication been stronger than ever in my opinion lately. Um, so I think that we are on the right track to making sure that we get that bridge gapped, but I think especially with some of the things that Tiana had touched on with how to um make our brand program stronger, even if we can get traveling band directors who can go back and forth and just advocate like make it high school exciting for kids. Um, some of that we had seen u interest in eighth graders participating in pet band. So, I am also the pet band director, so I wear many hats. Um, but we have our eighth graders given the option if you want to do stadium bands. So, during football season, we give them that opportunity. It's not just eighth grade night, it's the
047entire season, we give them the chance to do um pep band. Some kids are like, "Oh, that's a different season. I don't want to do anything." But I still have quite a few eighth graders who still show up, are getting that interaction with high schoolers and are able to take that back to the middle schools and say, "Hey, this was exciting. You should do this, too." And if there's any kids, at least on my end, that we're like, uh, high school band's not for me. I always make sure that we have the conversation, what activity are you doing to replace that? Because then it really makes them think, okay, am I going to stay involved with school activities or do I want to just continue with band because that's what I'm comfortable with. They think
048of marching band as an entirely separate endeavor and it's really not. It's just a moving concert band. So, we're trying to kind of change that mindset and we only have nine seniors graduating this year, so we should have a pretty big increase this year. We're excited for it. We're excited for a new season. Um, typical ensembles, we kind of touched on some color guard, marching band, concert band, freshman band. Freshman band splits off from concert band second semester. So, they're all together during that first semester. Jazz band was a little bit difficult this year. It was not a class um during the school day. So he had to get together on Fridays and have a committed group of kids to perform with the jazz band. Um the year before they were extremely successful. We had
049the OSU jazz band come and share a concert with us. We would love to have that back. I believe it's supposed to be a class next year. Um and then pep band like I said. Again, a lot of this stuff is already in the board docs if you would like to take a closer look. A big thing we wanted to highlight was just the offerings. I think that was a big question was what courses are offered at the high school. So, when you're looking at it, marching band obviously is a half a year endeavor. Right now, they're doing concert band during the school day and marching band in the evening, hoping to retain even more kids, hoping to answer some questions of kids who are scared to try that new activity. And oftentimes we do
050get kids who are like, I think I'll try that my sophomore year. Um, so concert band during the day, first semester, second semester, they split off. So, we an upper classman band and a freshman band. Pep band is in the winter um with foot or not football season, excuse me, uh basketball season. So, from my understanding, in the first semester, Mr. Herdic only taught one period of band and the rest was study halls and then this semester he's teaching concert band, freshman band. I believe he has a history of music and then study halls. Um I I think that the goal for next year is to ensure that there's more music happening. So I believe jazz bands are turning, band methods, um music fundamentals. So this is more so getting the kids that we have
051interested in music, interested in the program to kind of boost theirelves further in their knowledge of bands. I know that some of the band methods will be like marching band methods, but it's not just isolated to marching band. could be conducting methods. It can really be anything that the band director chooses for it to be in in order to help boost kids because honestly in my personal opinion I wish we had something. when I was in school um at the high school, I graduated 2018 and I would have loved to have something that really helped push me into my field and I feel that the opportunities I had were wonderful, but I feel there obviously could have been more and I want more for some of our kids because I know at least one student
052who is graduating who volunteers his time at Middle School South who would benefit from classes like this and learning how to teach and that's the benefit of him coming to me. But if he had a class dedicated to that, that would be wonderful. Yeah, we have um all kinds of different um visions, just things that the band does really well within this slideshow. So, like I said, if you would like to take a closer look, I don't want to take too much of your time, but it is available to you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Hello. Um I am in charge of all the coral um discussions, so push on over to that one. Um, so again, I am Nor Kelly. I'm director of the high school. Um, I'm joined by Revershot and Jonathan
053Stewart at Middle School Central, Middle School South. Uh, Mr. Maddox could not be here today. Um, but we know he is sharing his support from afar. Um, my goal is to kind of share the current state and progress of kind of the coral programs that we have at the middle school and high school and plans and kind of retention rates that we have there. Um, so, uh, won't get too big into kind of the numbers of it, but what I can share is that we currently serve a total of 149 students across all three middle schools and the high school. Pretty much split right down the middle. 50% of those students are in middle school, 50% are in high school. Um, 73 students specifically in the middle schools. You can see the numbers there um
054based on South, North, and Central as well as the classes they offer as well as the students involved in those. Something to point out in all three of the middle schools is that there is a lot of combined uh grade levels that are working together uh as a result of that block scheduling, which we know we talked about. Um that offers an interesting perspective for these growing students, but also does present an issue when it comes to sixth grade students working along eighth grade students who maybe don't have the same level of confidence as perhaps we would like when it comes to the performing arts. So it does present a slight issue there. Um with the high school, um currently we have three choirs operating. Um one of them is a non audition group. So
055any student was able to join for this group. Um we did have four last year. We had concert choir, symphonic, devisc, and then a women's chorus. Uh due to the lack of students signing up for women's chorus, that class was unfortunately dropped in favor of having contrive be at a larger number. I also do have 12 students who are currently involved in the DVC choir who are doing both symphonic choir and devisc. So they are pulling double duty when it comes to that which is great to see. I love returning faces. Um so overall we are we have a total of 76 students um at the high school across those three choirs. Um in terms of retention uh we have about 45 uh% of our program being returning students. Uh the numbers are there percentages
056are there. Um and then that leaves the remaining 55% uh that are new uh to the program. Interestingly enough, the ninth grade incoming class is not the largest. It is actually the 10th grade. I'm at 14, which I do believe is very interesting. Um as far as retention uh at the high school, um we're it's this is my second year, so I'm still new to this. I'm still trying to figure this out. Um but the plan that we've had so far is working on a baseline which I want to kind of continue um for this year's concert series. I have reimplemented it in order to have uh themes um not just to make it easier for the selection of music but also to allow students to express themselves across each of the four concerts. Um,
057an important one to note is the winter concert, um, which I did actually share with the middle school choirs, and we also did do a combined, uh, piece at the end of that winter concert, which was, um, very exciting to have. The March concert that just uh, we just held at the high school. Two of the songs that the symphonic choir performed were also taken to the Ohio Music Education Association large group adjudication on March 8th. Um which was something that they got to talk about. Um and then our final concert which comes May 6th um with the theme of one more time to kind of express our uh kind of fleeting moments with one another which I believe is great. Uh in terms of outside of those the concert series this year is been
058about throwing things on a dart uh a dart board and hoping that they stick. Um I have introduced a lot of new into this program. Uh we did do the Ohio Capital Conference Honor Choir um that I was able to take uh four students who auditioned uh in order to go. We just recently did the Falcon Coral Festival, which is a paid um event that a one student, a junior Kennedy Simone Rufus was able to attend, and she was also nominated as a vocal scholar for that event, which was a very big thing to have. Um the OMA Soon Ensemble, we ended up taking 12 high school students across all grade levels and choirs in order to participate. Many walked away with a superior or an outstanding rating on that. uh large group competition. I
059did take the symphonic choir at the beginning of March in order to uh perform at. Unfortunately, they did not receive a superior or an outstanding. They received a three rating, which is a accomplished rating. Still something to behold uh especially as this is the first time they've gone in about three to four years. Uh especially since uh only about two of those students from the previous choir director were part of that class that did go. So this was a very new experience for a lot of those kids. Um we do have a Kings Island performance at the end of this year that we are taking the audition choirs to. Uh as well as we are I am trying to implement more of a senior appreciation into uh the choirs try to promote more of a
060uh commodery as with both the senior class as well as the grades underneath. So we will be having an event there with them. Um, as far as recruitment with the middle schools, all three of the middle schools, they do have performance and recruitment tours at the elementary schools in early May. Uh, due to kind of districtricting, sometimes they go to these exact ones. Sometimes they might double it up. It just, you know, kind of depends. Um, they do short performances with Q&As's for all their fifth grade classes. They sign up any interested sixth uh fifth graders for the sixth grade choir and they also share all those names with their counselors in order to set up their next year rosters. Um at the high school again as I said this is new for me and
061also this is a program that is um fallen a little bit due to just kind of postcoid um society and also the changing of a choir director. Um so we have had I will admit a a lower recruitment strategy than uh I would like to have. Uh however this year uh was the first time that I was able to go to the middle schools and I was able to recruit a total of six students across all three middle schools in order to participate in the audition choirs for next year. So they've been able to jump immediately into a higher kind of bracket of vocal uh scholar which is great. Um we also did have um auditions for the entire month of February which we also posted on our cruiser news at the high school. Um
062so we are slowly picking up kind of our recruitment strategy. Um due to uh it being new the middle school is kind of where we I want it to come from and just due to uh time constraints and due to costs haven't been able to make it over to the middle schools. but we've been trying to make it work with what we have in order to get eighth graders to come over. Um, as far as course offerings, um, like I said, last year there were four offerings. This year there are only three. Um, all three of these courses last for one year. They're a full year credit for all these students. Um, the, uh, non- auditioned choir being the largest at 47, symphonic at 25, VC at 16. So that is a much lower um
063ensemble number but that is a very specialized group of students there. Um in terms of potential offerings that I want to bring back uh unfortunately just due to audition processes our symphonic choir will the title alone will have to retire for next year due to a lack of students auditioning. But what we can do is actually introduce our first ever auditioned treble choir which will be known as Bell Conto for the 2025 2026 year. So there is um kind of a a a fix we've been able to make to that. Um big things that I want to try to do are bring non- auditioned more to a forefront. Not make it as much of a preference to have audition kids. I just want kids. I just want students to come and enjoy choir for what
064it does. Performance skill uh friends the everything that it uh can offer. Another thing that I have noticed that is potential to change after the 2025 2026 year is to switch everything instead of being yearlong to semester based. um that does present a potential issue of only having kids for uh a semester, especially in the audition choirs where I need more student engagement. But what I have noticed is that students do not have the flexibility in their high school schedules to make time for a fullyear course. So, if switching it over to a semester allows for flexibility with myself as well as with the four high school counselors, then that is something that I'm amendable to doing if it means that the choir program can flourish at the high school. Um, yeah, that's it. Thank
065you so much. Any questions? Yeah, I have it. The collision is that no longer do we not have a percussion group anymore? So if I'm not mistaken, the collision concert that was always so much fun. Oh yeah, we loved it. Back when I was in school, it was like a a ticket based. You had to pay for a ticket. Um anymore just because of concert turnout. It is a free concert for the community. Our kids work really hard. The Collision concert this year, and I could be very much be wrong because I don't work directly with Collision, but from my calendar is the 2nd, May 2nd. I believe that maybe they changed that to May 1st because of prom, but I could It's the first. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lily. I I remember there being
066a conflict with prom that they were kind of reverting to. Our uh percussion instructor, Helena Savileain, she does a wonderful job with with the students and works really hard with them. Um, I know we have students who are not percussionists who also uh dabble in the percussion arts. So, it's it's a really cool ensemble. They go outside of the traditional um concert band setting. I remember they would do glow-in-the-dark or they would do ladders like just body percussion things. They they kind of go way beyond what you think a normal band program is. So, yes, percussion collision still happens. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Well, I just wanted John, I can't hear what you're saying. Sorry about that. Push the button. I just wanted to say thank you for all the energy and
067effort you put into this presentation and for being here, you know, many, many hours after you started your day today. And um just I really would love to see us as a board and the district just follow up on some of your recommendations. Um I just what I what I would say is like finding our highest common denominator like was pointed out the schools that have the most robust and making that consistent across the board and just addressing some of these uh opportunities that we have to to grow the program. And um I I would also say from speaking with people here You know, we have contacts as we seek for new band direction and replace an employee. We have people here that know George Edge that work with Swear Engine. And I would just
068suggest that whether it's as simple as email um that we and involve some of those high level people to help us find the best of the best. And uh I just I just really loved everything you pointed out and and hopefully we can come together to support you and and help to make the the music program Amazing. And also when I see numbers like 90% that means 90% of these students aren't just participating in in choir but they're staying in our district and that's a big deal right now. So appreciate everything you do. I think everybody up here I'm I'm positive everybody on our board music was a very important um element of our education. So thank you all for what you do. I just want to echo that as well. Thank you for everything
069that you do. Um I am new to the music realm the last few years. My son uh is in band, but um I've gotten to see I mean not only they're learning about music, but you had referenced it as well, but they they've got their friend group there. It's their social network. Um it's helping to build confidence. So um thank you each and every one of you for what you do every day with our with teaching our kids. Thank you. The only question I had, I had a my son was interested in band. He picked up, he had to take an instrument that they didn't um because everyone took the drums, right? So, how we ever looked at going back to those students that may have been interested in band but in a specific instrument,
070tried something else, it didn't work out because that wasn't their passion instrument. Because I think there's a lot of kids that are possibly at the high school. Because in middle school band, there were certain positions and it was limited that they would be interested, but they don't know that they can still consider going since they didn't come from the middle school into the high school band. So with in regard to instrument selection, we they are picked based on the tri that's what the triyouts are for and we recommend that they stay with their instrument of that was chosen for them because then they can grow. Now the one thing the beauty of the schedule that is set up at North is that students who are interested in those other instruments have the ability so I
071had Um like now we have high schoolers who are like trumpet players that did percussion as well in middle school because they wanted to seek out those other things. So we definitely try to open up as many doors as possible with that so that they can explore all their musical interests. Um but yeah, so it it's it's open and if we allow more schedule flexibility that would really give more to that. Yeah, because you know they're now some of them could be in high school and still may be interested in percussion and things like that. And we can grab them now because they are there in ninth grade because they may have dropped started in band and middle school, but because they just really wasn't connected to that instrument, they let it go. So I
072think there's a group of those students that we may also miss that we could support. I just thought didn't know if we had a way like a let's go back and just see who was in band in middle school, didn't carry on and see if there's another way re-engage with them because a lot of them it could have been the music choice that they were kind of forced to take versus the latter. Yeah, just a suggestion. Is that where it's forced like they're the instrument is chosen for that child rather than the child gets to choose what they want to play. So our fitting process is that students come to the fitters with an idea of three instruments that they'd be interested in. At least from my perspective whenever we're doing the fittings, they'll come
073to me and they'll say, "Hey, I want to play this." Then we'll look at what the fitters recommended. If they said, "I want to play the trumpet, but the fitter was like, no, thank you. That doesn't that didn't work for you?" Then we'll look and say, "Well, they said you were excellent at the clarinet, excellent at percussion, is there one of these that you want to try?" If they are dead set on trying that instrument, trying the trumpet, we'll say, "Okay, we go work with you." And then the first couple weeks, if it doesn't work out, you can trade out your instrument. Um, through music and arts, the company that we go through, they are able to take the payments that you already made on one instrument and just kind of tack it on to
074a different instrument if something does not work out. So, just have that flexibility if it just doesn't work out for them. And sometimes it just takes the student trying the thing to figure out that okay, maybe it's not for me. Like they're they just don't believe the initial instruction they were given. So we we try to give them that opportunity. Oftentimes at South I say, hey, if it's not working out, have your parent call me, see if they're okay with the change. We could talk through what instruments maybe you because I try to keep their paper and say, "Okay, like this worked well with your mouth shape. Like maybe we can work on that, too." Um, in terms of the high school with students kind of moving on and kind of losing that passion, the
075only issue that we would come across is that the ensembles that we do have are past the middle school um level. So, if we don't have more um more representatives, more band directors at the high school to assist in more ensembles, it would be really nice to be like, "Hey, let's get like a beginner's high school ensemble because they will learn faster and become part of the the higher ensembles eventually." But just because we have we have the one band director all day long, it's kind of hard to ensure that. And and also, if we're if we're speaking numbers, we can't guarantee how many students that would actually be. It could be four students, could be 40 students. I don't think that would be the case, but that it would be wonderful because we want
076to ensure that everybody gets that chance. Um, to point of clarification in the question, I heard a traveling band director and something about an assistant band director. Do we have an assistant band director at the high school level at this point or is it kind of a float? So, I am considered the assistant band director. I take the supplemental for marching band season and like I said earlier I make myself available during first period band. I'm only able to be there for about the first 30 minutes of period and then I have to go back to South to fulfill my duties there. Um when I was in school we did have traveling band directors. We had assistant band directors. There could have been three band directors at the high school at any given time. And
077honestly it made a a great way for collaboration. It did a lot of breakdown for um some of these like subsections like percussion, woodwind, um or they also had how we have concert band, freshman band. Those are two separate class periods. They now or back then they had two directors doing one ensemble each at the same exact time. One was in the band room, one was in the choir room. There's just no choir during first period. We were able to use utilize that space. But as of right now, we are very um one to each school. And that that travel um Mr. Cody Bryson has been wonderful in allowing me to spend some of my mornings there whenever it's not um meetings and whatnot in our collaboration time, but if if we had meetings every
078single morning, I wouldn't be able to do that. And my my time with them, sometimes it's once a week, sometimes it's three times a week, and it just kind of depends on what we're doing with my job in that given week, whether or not I can spend more time with those kids. So, do you feel this is working well or do you feel that next level would be to have a full-time assistant at the high school? I absolutely believe that a full-time assistant would be beneficial at the high school just given that we I I have very limited time. I can't necessarily pull kids and get beneficial um subsectional time to give more direct instruction. So, I think having two people committed to that that one space I think would be wonderful. Great. I will
079say that we are in the process of looking into adding the assistant band director at the high school. Most high schools that have a uh 2,000 person population has an assistant band director. Also helps with the traveling and getting down to the lower grades and collaboration with the middle school and other uh music teachers. Has has there been any great presentation, lots of great Thank you for your time. Has there been any thoughts or consideration to bringing string instruments into our band program? As of right now, we've the traditional style of this district is just um band instruments, concert band instruments. We have never um truthfully considered string instruments. There has been some moments where I believe we had a string bass player who came to our district and said, "Hey, I'm interested." and then
080she was able to be incorporated in the jazz band. Um, and another time we had a student who was a violinist and he still had communication through the band director, did the um, solen ensemble events. Um, was able to get adjudicated for that. Um, but again, we have not considered just because I think just lack of interest right now. We have not considered a string a string program and realistically personnel to do that. I think we would just need more human beings like adults to do that. And it's very expensive because the district would have to provide the larger instruments. Um and it's not realistic to ask a student who is this tall and super skinny to buy a large double base to be used in class and to it back and forth. So that
081would be a big district cost that would have to take years to speak about. I was uh going to say that throughout my experience, there has been um some student interest in wanting to pick up string instruments and have an orchestra program. Um and it the response that myself and Mr. Miller, we team teach band with the sixth grade at middle school central has been um kind of just like that is so cool that you're interested, but unfortunately we don't have those offerings here. And there has been some students that have transferred in from other districts that have like, hey, I've been doing violin at whatever school. And like that's awesome, but we don't have it here. So there there is some student interest from my experience with that for getting um string instruments and
082orchestra kind of involved. Yeah, we talked about doing string instruments probably eight years ago and director at the time told us that yes that would start but never and I think a lot of our students even when my um oldest son was in the district which would have been around that time for college we did programs outside like urban streams and things like that because we didn't have it in the district um so that would be a great add if we could if that's something I think there. It's just how do we get it incorporated? Like you said, you do need the the staff as well. So again, great presentation. Thank you for letting me know about the concert on the first as well. Yeah, I would say from when and I'm sure Libby has
083input as well from when we had a huge orchestral band, a lot of the strength was was um homework. You know what I mean? There was a lot these students were in elementary school selecting that instrument going to private lessons playing in the Jewish center orchestra etc. So I think sorry I think uh maybe just looking at it collaboratively and as a as resources versus maybe what we can do in house if we have if we have the right places to steer these kids that are interested in string bass and violin and other string instruments I think we might be able to nurture that and benefit from it without have and all the resources that we don't have right now. And I I do know um at the middle school level, especially for choir, I'm
084sure Jonathan and um Anthony would agree, we only have two um choir classes each. So, there is still plenty of space in our schedules to kind of move classes or trying to come up with at least a solution without getting all new personnel as well, right? Um And sorry if I'm I don't mean to mon monopolize, but by way of auditioning, I know for me, uh if you can believe this, I was shy when I was younger. Um but the choir director would would versus audition would in the different schools would kind of listen and pick out and kind of promote up. So that would be another way is to just rather than having auditioning just have the middle school choir directors kind of filtering, if you will, the you know opt into the program.
085Yeah. So that was the goal with going to the middle schools. Um I've been able to go um to Mr. Suits and Mr. Maddox's and listen to students there. Um also with the audition process I am trying to make it a I'm listening instead of I'm teaching. Uh there is very the students bring a prepared song of any anything that they want to sing. I don't want it to be a choir song. I just want it to be something that they enjoy because at the end of the day, that is what the vocal arts are about is about enjoying what it is you're singing and what it is you're putting out there. So, I try to make it a focus of it's what you're performing that gives you the heart. It's not just the, you
086know, do that's all that stuff. So, um, filtering and kind of promoting up is definitely a aspiration that I wanted to kickstart right away. Um, which has already proved fertuitous to already have a few kids who have already kind of accelerated their way into um, kind of higher responsibility choirs at the high school and they haven't even been there for day one of a ninth grader. I did have one question for uh the choir the team with the additional fires we're talking about or the extra time. Have we considered like I know a lot of students are at least what I've seen they may not want to do choir but they've done like other ensembles or they're looking at studio recording and things like that. Is there a plan to ever offer? Yeah. So um
087performance skills is something that I think is important regardless of if it is vocal or otherwise. Uh public speaking, instrumentation, um learning of new instruments. I am not an instrumentalist. I am a vocalist first. Um but promoting different ways of being in the performing arts without necessarily have to be in choir is definitely something that uh is being considered. Um there's also hopefully fingers crossed um planning to have that implemented as soon as next year. Um there's also um I think that there is a lot of uh integrity to having groups that are sanctioned by voice part. Um to have a mixed group ensemble, especially with my concert choir, it's 47 kids across all four grade levels. I get a lot of personality and sometimes it's easier to say that I'm gonna be able to
088do something with it than, you know, have to deal with it and Miss Judy knows that. Um, but having voice parts that are specific to um them help them understand each other a lot easier and a lot better and allows them to work as a team a lot more effectively because they're not trying to listen to all of these different voices. just a few voices that sound just like them. Um, I have one more question. I think I'm all done. So, back from my day, I can't remember the name, but we were able to take, I guess, what you would call kind of a a music study hall in a practice room. So if you were a pianist or whatever, we had a lot of practice rooms back then, but you would you could actually
089take whatever it was your 45 minutes um as you progressed junior or senior and you had your credits fulfilled, you were able to take a class where you just were coming in basically and using a portion of your day to practice or maybe to practice with another instrument um or instrumentalist I should say. Is that anything that we have at this point? Um Due to myself and Mr. Herig, the band teacher, due to the low number of actual performance ensembles that we have, we have been reallocated to fulfill a lot of study hall proctors and uh history of music teachers, which is not a performance class. So, we currently have no time outside of our conference period or the cruiser time set up at the high school to facilitate anything of that um capacity, which
090is something that I know is very important, especially as a a studio class almost uh very akin to what you're talking about. And honestly, and this probably may be extremely irrelevant to today, there wasn't this wasn't a taught class or a monitored class. This was a here's your practice room, which might not work. And we and we have the rooms to be able to facilitate that, both large and small spaces, just again with the with the scheduling uh of the high school, there's no way for me or Mr. are hurting to set time aside in order to commit to that effectively. Thank you. Yes. Um from just from listening in the mornings, I think that the the high school in general is just trying to reign in students who are in places that they shouldn't
091be. So they've made a blanket um expectation that you have to be in the assigned area that you're in. You're not to go to another classroom. Even if the band students pre-arrange to want to practice during one of his study halls or one of their study halls if they align um they have been instructed I believe to go back to their their regular class. So they're not able to come during their lunch or during those times. And I think that if we were able to format those study halls to be more band student oriented. I know we have a couple of band students who probably do take advantage of that time with with his study hall. Um but there's back by count on one hand how many students do have study hall with him. I
092think we've developed that format of a band only study hall where they get the chance to fulfill their practice logs or their practice videos. I think that could be very beneficial to consider. All right. Well, thank you again. Um this was very informative and excellent job. Thank you. All right, on to item F, board items. Um, first one is the boardmanship training update, which I do have. So, we we have a a training scheduled. It is on, pull up my notes here. Um, June 16th, 6:30 p.m. with Mrs. Robbins from OSBA. Um, she said to plan on two to two and a half hours. So, we should be done by 9:00 p.m. that night. Uh, yes. Yep. And I believe that was the date we last for meeting um agreed on. Yep. June 16th. It's
093a Monday. All right. On to item two, educational trust. Yeah. Um, so there's a motion here. The the board sports uh the education trust funings events the golf outing is going to be June 13th uh 2025 and approves expenditures related to the event. It's going to be at Growport um links again same time as last time. Uh flyers are probably we're a little over two months out so they'll start going out in the next week. The flyers we had a great turnout last year for the first one. But yes, that's uh that's going to start happening. So, I just want to let you guys know we doing action for the um expenditures. Second. All right. I have uh Mrs. Gray as first and Mrs. Dberger as second. Can I also state um you know as
094we're thinking about our focus this year last year we did lunch lunch but what we heard today between that and I think what we've also heard from our athletics throughout the year maybe they'll be our two focuses to provide funding to those areas or have those available to support band and um our sports teams. Y sounds good. That'll be the focus this year. Yep. On to roll call. Can you raise a motion please? A board of sports educational trust funies a golf outing on June 1305 and approves expenditures. Miss Wal I Mrs. Gray I Mr. Ber I stutter I and Mr. K. All right motion passes. All right, on to the transportation discussion. And Mr. Koyer, do you mind um just uh informing us kind of where we're at with with everything and and we
095can go from there. Um before the meeting, uh I put everybody's everybody's desk and I board docs the actual um contract extension addendum. Um so you guys can view that um for the next board meeting when we have this on. But this is just an update for discussion. um you know we looked at different avenues and stuff but um in negotiations we're still in negotiations obviously obviously since it hasn't approved yet but um this is the contract extension denim that me and um Mr. Grienet are recommending to the board. Would it be okay to schedule some time with the two of you during the day to go over any of my questions? Yes, just email me. Yeah, I met I met with Mr. Third Kers or Mrs. watch last Friday like two over two hours
096conversation through all the stuff for you. You want to email us after before meeting tonight. You want to come in like two at a time. I just can't have three or one at a time that's fine. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Y and just part of discussion I actually also met I had questions just in general just because some of the things I was seeing. So I met with the Mr. Superintendent and um our amazing transportation director. So, I did do that for about an hour or so, went through things and and I just had just general questions with um and I talked to you as well. I think uh Mr. I don't I think we're Yeah. Anything else? All right. If not, let's go to item four, the um investigator update. Um so just real
097quick, um we have received information uh for an independent uh third party attorney uh that's familiar with the school law. Um they have no previous connection whatsoever with our district or any of our team members. Um this individual is a sole practice practitioner uh that works in Franklin County and we should expect a product from this investigation in May. That's what I have regarding that. All right. And let's move on to um I let's see G superintendent's agenda. Uh we'll start with the department reports. Thank you. Um the department reports I have uh two here that I'm going to speak to. the human capital. We are in the process of right now teaming up with the cabinet and uh a collaboration of our uh cabinet directors and talking about staffing and enrollment projections and at
098the same time we are on uh on the recruiting trail. Uh Mr. Trace was recruiting today in Zagger and some of the other places we've been is Ohio State University, Ohio University, Bowling Green State University, Akran and Toledo among a few. The other update is business services and there will be some followup with that coming up. But we are working on building improvements for the 4500 building on South Hamilton Road. Uh Mr. Houseman is working on estimates and proposals He's also uh going to share with you playground equipment, fencing for five new structures and paving um opportunities. Thank you. Any questions or discussion? All right, on to the next item, please. Was that a discussion? Oh yeah, I'm sorry. On to transportation. Go ahead. I I just been here. I didn't know what's going on.
099So, is there any updates from transportation? Yes. Sorry, John. I was just saying that there was additional report for transportation and was making sure that we had that presented. Thanks, Mr. President, Madam Vice President, ladies and gentlemen of the board, uh our report stands as submitted. I'm sure you've received it. Still struggling with the drivers. Uh we we are down about 10 drivers from last month. And although there's good recruiting and the wonderful work that Teresa and the ladies do in that office to keep that moving, it's it's a continued struggle. We are experiencing other districts raising their hourly rate uh in competition. Everybody's struggling with drivers. So, that's continuing. We have five in the pipeline. Well, that's all in the report. Uh what we have coming up soon is the um the Ohio School
100bus driver appreciation day. It's on May 5th. Cinco de Mayo. We'll do a celebration over there on Monday, May 5th. And uh Tesa's at hard at work with the route book updates. State they focus on each driver individually making sure the turn by turns which is required by state law is done. Very difficult work to do so that the subdriver has accurate information. One of the biggest challenges for a subdriver is having to rely on a middle school kid or some other device to get them to and from where they need to go. Sometimes the technology doesn't work so well. Uh the OAP conference is coming up and and uh we're going to have six staff from CBS, the three district staff and that's June 8th to 11th. Of course is an officer in in
101that uh organization. So we're really uh lucky to have her making us uh uh attuned to what's happening at the state level. It's an involved three-day conference. Toledo field trip overnight has been scheduled and approved. Did that already happen? The Toledo field trip, do we know? hasn't happened yet. Okay. So, that's all taken care of from what I understand. Yeah. And then end of the year picnic, which we have every year, is scheduled May 31st at Kyber Run. Any questions? Yeah. I had a question. Um, what is maybe for you, but the resolution on the band, this has been on there. What's the hold up? What's going on? I'm told either the band has to the band, you know, department has to Thank you, Tracy. I've just seen it on here multiple times and I'm
102just curious. So, the last we spoke, we're waiting back from information from Adam, our attorney, on um because it is our own bus, so we owned it. Um, Community Bus did the updates for it, and then we're in limbo. Do we have to sell it to the band boosters or can we gift it to the band boosters because it is a district-owned bus that we were not going to be able to use because it couldn't pass state highway patrol inspections. But it can be used for a band bus. So the band boosters own the band buses? No, the district owns the bus. If we took a school bus that we were going to have to buses, why would we have to donate? I mean, why can't we? It's district owned properties. It's community properties. We
103just can't gift it to the band boosters or anybody else. We have But if it's the band, why do we have to even gift it? Because it's the boosters. It's not the actual physical. We're not giving it to the band teacher. We're we're gifting it to the boosters. I guess I'm a different organization than the school, but I don't Why do we have to give it to the driver, right? Yeah. You're saying why can't it be the districts and the district to use it? which is part of our school. So why does then we are paying the we're paying the band booster driver. Okay. So and then we're taking on the insurance responsibility. Got it. So we're basically out of the state that was but then also you can't legally use it. So does it
104have to we have to get it out of our fleet then tech. Well we don't have I mean we could own it. We are allowed to own it if we want to take on that responsibility. But then we take on all of the responsibility of everything that's on that bus. the equipment, the driver, the insurance, the maintenance, the fuel. We take on the cost of that. If we donate it or sell it to the van boosters, then they that responsibility becomes theirs. They have their own driver that drives the bus every day. Can we check on that on the legal because I would think it if there was any accident on this? I would think it still would come back to the school because not if it's not owned by us because it would be
105titled to the band and it would be insured. Hey, I think I can help clear this up. The band bus will be for equipment only. Yes, we're not transporting students on it. So, the band bus is beautifully decorated in cruiser colors. It's great, but only equipment will go on that. I just was concerned like if there was an accident and it was no whether or not there was any students on the bus or not, we hit somebody, I would think that we would still be liable. No, because it doesn't have our students on board. It would only have their equipment. So, is that what we do for the football team, too? Like with their equipment, they have to have their own bus to transport their equipment or does the district do that for them? No,
106there's not the football. It's not a booster for the football. That's the football team and their it's their personal equipment. This is their their bands treat it differently than the sports. Well, they have a band booster. I don't know if football has a booster or not, but I think their equipment fits pretty well on the bus with them where band boosters you got drums and things like that. I don't get that. Yeah, we're just waiting on we're just waiting on guidance from our our legal department. Can I add in our ask about when we ask legal since we have the ED trust which is also separate not sure if we want to take that on but then it stays with the board then that could be a part of our fundraisers to cover the cost
107of that because it is a nonprofit that be a way because we don't know like if that person in the boosters how would that we would then if if somebody I don't know we don't we don't have any say with that so if the goal isn't gifted to that to carry on I don't know how much of a binding binding agree. So, just ask all those questions like a binding agreement that it's forever to be with the boosters until the boosters dissolve or whatever or is there a way for the ed trust to take that on and that the way it stays with the board of education is kind of in the school but not in the school that then it gets back to where you were at with we'll talk with legal. Yeah, just
108I think right up I think a possible avenue would be like a dollar a year lease or something like that where they take responsibility for it, but we still own uh we we still own the bus, they're leasing it and therefore they're not on the hook for maybe maintenance and other costs that they might not be able to afford. So I think there's quite a bit we can look at here. Um and this is a little off subject but not not a lot. Um when I was on the school board before um we had a partner Nick Solstice from the um uh prosecutor's office and as you know our def our de facto legal representation by law is the prosecutor's office. So when we were looking into things like this like the ban bust and
109other things our bill was zero versus $300 an hour. So, I think it would be great if we could get back to having that resource, establishing that resource for simple questions like this where we're not getting we're not getting hit with so many legal bills throughout the year. It's just a suggestion, an idea. All right. Thank you so much. Thank you. All right. On to item two. Yes, Mr. S will present the Chromebook approval. Purchase. Yeah. Okay. The superintendent recommends that the Growport Madison School Board of Education approve the purchase of 500 student Chromebooks and 350 staff Chromebooks. Move. Second. All right. Mrs. Mrs. Gray is first and Mrs. Dober is second. Okay. Uh good evening. Um what is on the uh board agenda is our selection for these two sets of devices. We did
110get multiple quotes from at least four vendors. I'm not sure how that worked out with Amazon because Amazon sent sends it out and gets even more vendors. Anyway, lots of quotes, lots of stuff. Um what we selected is on par with the fleet that we have now as well as the accidental damage protection for student devices. It sounded like you said something about Amazon. Is that correct? Uh yeah, sorry. Amazon is one of the partners and vendors that we use to solicit quotes. Thank you. Any questions or discussion? Um I'll just throw my two cents in. I I think um from what I'm seeing in reading about in in the trends since co I think I think we should look towards less Chromebooks at the elementary level and more getting back to uh written work
111etc. So it's just my it's just my comment on that. Thank you. Any other discussion under roll call please? Mrs. Walsh. Hi, Mrs. Gray. Hi, Mr. B. Hi, Mr. Zber. Hi, Mr. Kersner. No. Motion passes. On to item three. Uh, the treasure recommends the G mass local board education accept the minutes for the February 272 uh student advisory council meeting. I move. Second. I have Mr. Ker is first and Mrs. Gray is second. Any discussion on to roll call, please. Mrs. Walsh. I. Mrs. Gray. Hi. Mr. B. Hi. Sber. Abstain. And Mr. H. I. Motion passes. On to item four. Treasure recommends the G M sorry I think I did I switched those and apologize. Um except the minutes uh treasure recommends G Madison the board minutes for the 2000 or February 10th sorry parent
112advisory committee move second Mrs. Gray as first Mr. Kushner as second. Any discussion? I I do have a question like um on these committees like such as this one, there was only one board member present. So I assume that one of the board members couldn't make it. And I've noticed on past meeting minutes from these committees that um other board members had filled in for board members that were absent. And I know I did not receive a call to see if I could fill in. I don't know if anybody else did for that, but um how did that work? What's our process there? So how it works is you had an opportunity when we did the committees to sign up and it was a last minute so it was too late to do a phone
113call with all the changes um then. So I'm sorry is that Latoya? Could you start over because this is not I'm not No problem. So when the committees uh when we discussed parent advisory and student advisory committees, every board member had an opportunity to volunteer and so that's how that was decided. Okay, that kind of didn't answer the question. for the parent advisory committee. We had two board members that were to be on it and then we had an alter alternate and that's that's how the parent advisory committ and at that meeting what meeting was that were able to be at the parent advisor what what meeting was that the February 10th at the last minute they were not neither one thank on a roll call, please. Mrs. Walsh, abstain. Uh, Miss Gray. Hi, Mr.
114Bower. I miss the Bberger. I'm saying and Mr. Kel. All right. Motion passes. Number five. Uh motion the treasure recommend the score from Mass and Local Education approve the minutes for the March 11th records committee meeting and the March 11th regular board meeting. Second have Mrs. Gray as first and Mrs. Dolly Burger as second. Any discussion? Yeah, I would like to say that there's so many things wrong with those meeting minutes that it just took way too long to go through them. Um I when I go through them I have to go according to um trying to hear them. I can't really hear them. So I have to look at closed caption. Close caption doesn't have the speaker on it. So it takes me probably five times longer than it does anybody else. Uh I
115did send something late um to the treasurer and to all the board members and u I did start to go through the March 3rd the 17th meeting the St. Patrick's Day meeting that was fun. Um, and again, I say that if our students had paragraphs like this, it would be a problem. And for us as a board to put forth something that we wouldn't even accept from our students, we're supposed to be setting the example. That's all I have. I sent all the changes so that I thought that there's a lot wrong and I just don't want to take the time during a meeting to go through each individual thing, but I can if you want me to to go through and say, "Hey, this didn't happen here. Do we need to change it?" Did
116you guys get the email I sent? And and I was surprised to find out that not one other person reached out to say, "Hey, there's a problem with these blatant errors." Could you anybody else review them? Yes. Could you restate your what you were saying about paragraphs, please? Oh, that's the paragraphs like in the March 17th paragraphs. It it it's wouldn't be acceptable for our students to turn in something like this. And we certainly should be setting the example for the rest of our district students. We're we're at the top here. So my comment to that is I did review the minutes and I stand with what I've been saying. Um, I'm not going to spend hours um rewriting minutes if there are minor mistakes in them. I would send a request for corrections, but
117if it's going to take hours of a rewrite for me to um get them accurate, I'm not going to participate in that process. It's not what I believe is uh what we are compensated for or reasonable. So, I'm still looking for more accurate minutes to reflect what we're saying and the basis for our decisions and etc. Thank you. Any other comments? On to roll call, please. Mrs. Walsh. No. Mrs. Gray, hi. Mr. Bower. Hi. Mber. Hi. And Mr. No. Motion passes. On to item six. Item six, chair recommends grow approve the minutes for the March 17th special board meeting. Mrs. Gray is first and Mrs. Dberger is second. Any discussion? So these are the main meeting minutes institute were discussing correct Kathy just now. I just want to make sure I was following because we
118had a lot that wasn't the one we were on point of border. This is Can you start over, please? Maybe a little slower. Thank you. That's okay. Thank you. Any other discussion? I'm sorry. I'm not sure what um board member Dao said, so I'm hoping she could um repeat it. No, I said that's okay. Thank you. Okay. All right. On to roll call, please. Mrs. Walsh. No. Mrs. Gray. Hi. Mr. Bower. Hi. Mr. Dberger. Hi. And Mr. K. No. Motion passes. On to item seven. The superintendent recommends that the Growport Madison School Board of Education approved payment in lie of transportation reimbursement. The Ohio law allows for public school districts to determine the impracticality of transport transporting residents resident students attending school not located within the district after consideration of a number of factors. Upon
119that determination, the school district is permitted to offer payment in lie of transportation to the parent/guardian. The transportation department has completed studies and residents in affect in affected areas will be offered payment in loo as of 2024 2025 school year. The initial list of families being offered payment in lie of transportation is attached and is executive content since it lists students names. Some do. Second I have I think it was Mrs. Gray is first and Mrs. Dberger is second. Okay. Any discussion. All right. On to roll call, please. Mr. K. I. Mrs. Dberg. Hi. Mr. Bar. Hi. Mrs. Gray. Hi. And Miss Walsh. No. Motion passes. On to item eight. The superintendent recommends that Gilport Madison School Board of Education approve the following certificated personnel items. So moved. Second. I have Mrs. Gray as first,
120Mrs. Dger as second. Any discussion? Do all these uh certified individuals have their lure? I think it would be helpful if these um reports had the license number on them. I don't know. I don't know if we can. Can we put those? We can't put those out. Can you go to the mic, Miss Troy, so that way you can have that for the record, please? Thank you. Um, due to now how the state has set up with OID, our driver's license and our teaching license are all connected. So when you go to pull that up, like if I go to apply for a new driver's license, it's the same information as is on my ID number. So we don't publicize teacher ID numbers for that reason. Thank you, Joy. As an alternate, perhaps we could
121simply um confirm lure just, you know, license for the position. has a I will say that we'll try our best for license, but we have a teaching shortage and we there's alternative paths to license and there's alternative paths to certification. Um I I'll talk to Mr. Trace and see what we can do to be more clear about it. Uh Mr. Deputy Superintendent, the way the report reads, it looks like there's an aster pending lure and our background checks for those that the process for on boarding. So that is annotated on this report. Sir, great idea. Thank you. Some of these people that you're looking at are brand new graduates, so they don't have a license number yet. So until they've actually received that degree, which can happen throughout the month of May, depending on colleges,
122and then we wait for the Department of Ed to actually issue. So you sometimes can have up to a 60day hold on that actual license number. So they will be licensed. No one on that list is we intend for them not to be licensed at this time, but that's why you're not seeing a license number for them. And so they can't get a license until they have a successful background check, but we can't do a background check until they've graduated. And so there's a lengthy process to actually get that number and that license issued for each of these individuals. And that's normal every district. That's normal. I mean, that's just the process of Ohio. And the closer you get to now you have your veteran staff renewing license because every teacher in the state of
123Ohio, your license expired June 30th, everybody statewide, all 150ome thousand of us that are in that pool. the closer you get to the end of May and December, we try to tell our veteran staff, do it as early as possible, and we can actually renew our expiring licenses starting November one, the prior year. We try to encourage them to do that, but we clearly can't hurt all the cats in the right direction, but we try our best. Um, that backs the Department of Ed up. So, you actually sometimes can have a delay up to 60 days. They actually have until October one to produce a license by Ohio revised code. So technically I can still pay them up to 60 days. Yes. Correct. The other thing is we want to get them hired and in
124contract before because as soon as they sign for us they're ours rather than letting them dangle here and they've had six other job offers in this crazy time of shortage of teachers. And it shows that we're committed to our employees here. So, so by the time they got to the classroom, they're going to have their license and everything. Okay. Thank you. But there are multiple now, like Paul said, multiple licensers. There's those of us that are old school that went to a four-year college and got a license immediately out. There are people that have chosen to work out in the business field and now come as business teachers and they would be on a CTE license. There are teachers that have taken an alternative route where they've worked in business maybe for Chase Bank and
125now they want to come be a math teacher for us. So that's an alternative license. Um and we can go on and on. The the old school Joy Bach way of getting a license and everybody else sitting in this room those days are kind of they're still there but they're not the primary people coming out. Right. Thank you Joy. That was very helpful. Yeah. Thank you, Joy, for explaining all that. I appreciate it. Yeah. Well, for me, this trans this transcends necessarily teachers because we have other positions that are licensed. And I just want to know when we're looking that we didn't pass over a licensed individual for an unlicensed individual and that kind of thing. And I'm not talking about teaching staff necessarily, but just across the board, right? Uh oh. What have I
126done? Although we often refer to them as teachers, GMLA's contract covers all the certificated staff within the district. Those are all my members, GMLEA members other than administration that would also be considered certificated staff. So yes, we do go with the certificated people prior to looking at those alternative licenses. But in some fields, um, alternative license are going to be probably the only way for us to go. Ohio State hasn't produced a high school physics teacher in about the last 15 years because if you're smart enough to go to college and get a degree in physics, you don't want to work in the public school system. You are making a lot more money somewhere else. And to speak to what you're saying about passing over someone that has a license to someone that doesn't have
127a license, but it may be someone that's getting that alternative license. So maybe there's someone that we don't know that is applying, let's say, as an assistant principal. We don't know that person, but they have an assistant principal's license, but then we know someone that has a teaching license and working towards that alternative license. That license is legal and is actually encouraged by the state. So that person could be hired and it it's holds the same value as the person that has that that administrative license. So, we're not doing something wrong or illegal by hiring that person that's getting the alternative administrative license. And that is now encouraged within the state through administration and through teachers. We call that the grow your own. That's what I was going to say. We've given a little title.
128It's the grow your own. So we currently had put forth 14 names, 12 something in that ballpark of people within the district that expressed an interest to seek lens lensure in the areas of special ed which is our hardest to fill area. And um so some of those could have been like maybe some of our classroom aids that have worked with our special needs kids for years and years. They're wonderful people. They've never had an opportunity. So now they can go into that grow your own. They have four year up to six years actually to complete that degree and then they would come back and have to be our employees after that. So we had some teachers interested in that that might be a third grade classroom teacher but would now like to pursue special
129ed. We've had aids interested in that. I'm trying to think who else was on the list. So, we had kind of a So, we submitted those names, building subs who would are in our buildings daytoday and are would like to have full-time permanent jobs, but they're interested in working with our special needs students. So, it's a great program, but you're not going to see that same license that you're used to seeing if we're participating in those programs that are going to enrich our district. But that's good because we've had plenty of discussion about multiple ways to fill our vacancies. We've talked about for mobility within our district and that really hits like all of those check marks. So, that's great to hear. So, like if you're a regular licensed person, you go through a mentor
130program, it's a two-year program. If you're on an alternative license, they make those people go through a four-year mentor program, making sure that we've touched on all those areas to make them the best that they can be. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks. Any other comments? On to roll call, please. Mrs. Walsh. Hi. Mrs. Gray. Hi. Mr. Bower. Hi. Mrs. Dutterburgger. Hi. Mr. Kersner. Hi. Motion passes. On to item nine. The superintendent recommends that Gilport Madison School Board of Education approve the following non-certificated personnel items. So moved. Second. Have Mrs. Dberger as first, Mrs. Gray as second. Any discussion? On to roll call, please. Uh, Mrs. Walsh. Hi, Mrs. Gray. Hi, Mr. Bower. Hi, Mr. Nber. Hi, and Mr. K. I motion passes. On to item 10. The superintendent recommends that the Growport Medicine School Board
131of Education approve the eighth grade band trip to Kings Island. I moved. So moved. Got it. First, Mr. Kushner has first and Mrs. Dber has second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Kushner. Hi. Mr. Dberger. Hi. Mr. Bower. Mr. Gray. I'm abstaining. Yep. And Mrs. Mrs. Gray. Hi. And Mrs. Walsh. I. Motion passes. On to item 11. The superintendent recommends that the Growport Medicine Schools Board of Education approve the high school summer school teacher and coordinator job descriptions. Some moved. Kathy second. All right. I have Mrs. Dober as first and Mrs. Walsh is second. Yep. Any discussion on roll question about the program? What is it we're going to be doing? How long is the program going to last? These are specifically for high school students. So, this is credit recovery. These are students who
132maybe failed courses and then they are and we are actually doing um and if you look at the top we will also talk about attainment for some of the the health or PE kids coming in may want to do that to get it out of the way so they make rooms in their room in their schedule. Um everything will be online but they will have to come in and meet with or to test. So, in the job description, it actually explains that they can that's why we have some people on site because the students will come in and test on site. Gotcha. That's I didn't quite understand. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. And the dates are all listed in the job description. Any discussion? Answer. Roll call, please. Miss Walsh. I. Mr. Gray. Hi.
133Mr. Ber. Hi. Miss daughter. I and Mr. Kersner. I motion passes. On to item 12. The superintendent recommends that Gilport Madison Schools Board of Education approve the resolution authorizing the pavement contract. Second. And Mrs. Gray is first, Mrs. Dberger as second. Any discussion? Yeah. Why are we using an out of town general contractor versus um just contracting with a pavement contractor that's here locally? Prodigy is basically they're part of a co-op. We've used them in the past to do the parking lot uh by Primary Health One. They did an outstanding job and being part of the co-op, we get better pricing. So, who ended up doing the actual work at the at the uh primary health one through Prodigy? It ended up being AJ Asphalt. Well, how do you know you have better pricing going
134through this co-op? I mean, basically, how do you know you have better pricing? Being a part of the co-op, they're required to provide state term pricing and uh the contractor that we work with gets multiple quotes from separate contractors that they're working with. So, we always get the best best price. Well, we're paying for se for construction manager basically for this project, right? No, I'll oversee the construction and all the asphalt work. Could you restate, please? I'll oversee the asphalt work that goes on. You'll say you'll oversee it. Okay. All right. So, what does um Prodigy do if AJ's doing that? I mean, they're just doing it for free. I I just don't buy that. And they have the not to exceed a 15% for um the change orders. The AJ asphalt was in a
135on a previous project. I don't know who their subcontractor will be on this project. Did we have changeovers on the change orders on the last project? No, we didn't. Any other discussion? On to roll call, please. Mrs. Walsh. No. Mrs. Gray. Hi, Mr. Ber. Hi, Mrs. Diver. Hi. And Mr. Kirsten, no. Motion passes. On to item 13. The superintendent recommends that Gilport Madison School Board of Education approve the resolution authorizing the contract for playground equipment, fencing, and mulch. So moved. Second. Have Mrs. Dberger as first and Mrs. Gray as second. Any discussion? always have the same concerns. This is a $491,000 plus job. Um, which a out of town contractor is bidding to us through a co-op. I understand that. But, you know, that's where the $500 hammer came from too, right? I'm not following.
136I'm sorry. Oh, I'm sorry you're not following. I don't know how to be clear. just having experience that the uh winning bidder at a construction group that means nothing. I mean, if I'm bidding my audio video equipment, I may be the only person that plugs a price into that number. So, just because you're in a consortium does not mean you're getting a good price. Um, it means not it could mean nothing. It just depends on who else shows up. So, uh, on a project this size, I would I would think we would, uh, with the the staff that we have with your talent here that we would entertain local bids and and GC the project when it's something fairly straightforward like this and see if there isn't money to uh, realize and savings for the
137taxpayer. Thank you. There have at least been three different contractors that have been on site both with Prodigy and myself all providing numbers to Prodigy in hopes of getting awarded this project. Right. So, and obviously, so Prodigy's acting as the GC in this situation and then they're going to put their markup on the project. They're not they're obviously not in business to just take bids. If we go out for public bid also, we're going to have architect and engineering fees as part of this as long as well as advertisement fees. This typically is a cheaper route to go. It's more affordable and more economical than on a playground project, asphalt project, roofing project, things of that nature that don't have a lot of technical pieces to them like boiler systems and things of that nature
138to where if you don't have to go out for public bid and get architects and engineers involved and you can have a staff member in house oversee the project, it's normally to the district's advantage. Gotcha. All right. Um, and to that I would just say design bill. It's the same thing. Thank you. Any other discussion? On to roll call, please. Miss Mrs. Walsh. No. Mrs. Gray. Hi. Mr. Bower. Hi. Mrs. Dberger. Hi. And Mr. Christian. I'm just going to say no. And I'm not voting against the project. I'm just simply not in favor of the particular bid process. Thank you. I I'm not not against the project that we're doing. All right. Motion passes on to treasur's agenda. It's It's turning sharing here soon. Good. Okay. So, this is my uh March forecast or my
139March uh sorry, March treasures reports. Um as you see in the month of March, our tax summit came in. Um came in like a week earlier than last year, which is nice. Um so, we showed a profit this year. Well, the revenue came in as 32 million. Um our expenses 8.2. So, we had a net revenue over expenses of 23 million. But again, this this happens kind of twice a year. Once we get our tax summits in August and then either late March, which happened this year, or early April, which happened last year. Uh these numbers were in projections with what I had on my five-year forecast. Um so I'm happy about that. All the numbers actually, the expenses and revenues. So I am encouraged by that. And the next month in May, I'll be
140doing my five year forecast. Uh receipts again as I go through those. Um as you see the bigger this this month was of course the the real estate and then the personal property tax or one and the same and then we had a state or state foundation of 3.1 million and then other revenues also most of that is property tax payment also just has to go in that lineup expenditures uh very similar 72.5% of our expenditures are in personal insurance retirement and the other purchase services a lot of that is our bus contract really small other ones other than change her prior year again it's a little uh out of a little huge because last year in April we got our tax settlement and this year in March um so those numbers obviously will show
141negative next month but other than that um these numbers are all good services a little increase but that's just wages um purchase services went up a little bit again busting special cost but supplies and capital outlay went down and that is my report the month of March um pardon me. You said something about I think you were saying foundation. Yeah, it was getting messed up here. Um foundation and 3%. Could you restate that for me? The state foundation. Yeah, then go back to the receipts. State foundation was 3.1 million. Sorry, John. 3.1 million was the state foundation receipts. Thank you. Thank you for that. And I have a question. Um what is purchase service? you were saying would benefit purchase service that's uh a lot of that is um any purchase service we have but
142like about 600,000 that is the bus contract for this for this month. Okay. But it's all service and then the other stuff is just like our specialized contract. Special contracts is also in that which is huge. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Oh and other objects other objects was only 48,000 and that actually is um part of when we get our tax limit is we have um fees. So that was why that increased this month. It'll go back down next month. That's the fees and other fees, future tax. I have a question. Um, with the state budget, will you be able to do a presentation to us as so we can understand what's by May 13th, uh, the next board meeting? Um, or when I do my forecast, I'm hoping, but treasurers are talking to me. They
143don't have to have those budgets done by June 30th. So when the nachos do their fire forecast in May, it's not going to be done yet, but we'll I will present my fire forecast on the best information I have at the time. Okay. But yes, so I won't be here. So when we get back, I was just really kind of concerned about what I was reading. It was showing up 900,000 one year but then down 700 the next, right? So it was kind of confusing. Yeah, the house house came out a little bit better for us. It was up almost like a million, but then we do 750 next year. So again, again, over a two-year period, the district supposed to work on only a 250,000 increase over two years from what we're making it
144this year, which is ridiculous. All right, thank you. Um, number two, I have a motion. The treasure recommends grow from mass local board education approve the master service agreement with meta and this is just our we've used them for years. This is just our payroll system and our our accounts pay council receal system. This is an annual contract. I move second. All right. I have Mrs. Gray is first. Mrs. Dber is second. Any discussion? I I'm having a real hard time hearing where we're at. I'm sorry. Uh number two of the treasures reports. It's the it's the yearly contract with Meta. Thank you. No problem. What's the um I know I saw the what it is per student. I was just curious what it was last year. They went up a small a small increase
145wasn't okay. And you said this is basically your payroll system. Payroll system. C how we do checks, right? Council rece. Miss Walsh. Hi. Mrs. Gray. Hi. Mr. B. Hi. Mr. Dberger. Hi. Mr. Gerson. Hi. Motion passes. On to um board member comments andor special announcements and other business. U. Yeah, I would um I have a couple. One, if I could, I would like a a copy of the invest uh engagement letter for the investigator also. Um, great meeting. I appreciate you splitting the meeting up into two parts. I think it was so informative and really, really good what happened here today. A lot to celebrate and, uh, a good focus on the music. Um, when it comes to this contract with this transportation, um, if the board president wouldn't mind, I would suggest that we
146check with council, whether it be the, um, prosecutor's office or whatever council he chooses to make sure that um, we can do 2 by two meetings, not enter into round robin where the contract is concerned. And also, this contract was put out as attorney client privilege, but this is not a bid process. So, I'm not sure that uh stamping it attorney client privilege when we're simply negotiating a contract with an existing vendor actually that that actually applies. I see a lot of times when we get things that are I I got a letter addressed to me from one of our board attorneys that said attorney client privilege and it was coming directly at me over a resolution that was in the past that we all agreed on. And so I would say I would pay
147that attorney to represent me if it was my if I had a million bucks. And there we are. So in some cases I believe um not properly applying attorney client privilege. I I am I am not personally represented by a board attorney. So I don't want intimidated with letters that say it's attorney client privilege directly at me. And I don't want us to cross any lines where we're not in a bid process and it's may not be there may not be any privilege and uh where maybe these conversations need to be happening in the open because we're not in a competitive bid process. So I I just appreciate your diligence to make sure we stay out of the weeds with that. So thank you. Certainly I can follow up with that. Um I just had
148a comment that we had talked at the last board meeting that we would have a consent agenda and Yeah, thank you. Good point. Didn't we We voted on um Was it for It was for everything. Okay. Yep. We can do that moving forward. Yeah, I think the comments were basically I I don't think we'll have a problem with the consent agenda as long as we're not bringing forward new and unusual things and lumping them in with standard items, right? Like all these individual trips, etc. I think where we where things get pulled out is when there's an important conversation about one particular item. So, I think if we keep it generic, we can move forward in good time like we did today. So, appreciate it again. Thank you. Any other questions or comments? I I
149do have a comment. Um, you said the next meeting in May, but actually I got an email saying the next meeting, a special meeting on 4:23 has been scheduled. Yes. Which is a Wednesday. And our typical day is on a Tuesday. Um, as I've stated repeatedly and in response to your request, Wednesdays I have classes. I won't be able to attend that meeting. Okay. Just I know that we we did switch all of our regular meetings from Wednesday to Tuesdays. Um, and trying to accommodate everyone's schedule. Um, that Wednesday seemed to work out the best. Any other comments? All right, on to a German. Who was that? All right, Gray is first. Mrs. Dberger, a second. First, Mrs. Walsh. Yes, please. Miss Gray. I second. Hi. Mr. Kers. Hi. It is 9:45 and we are
150two weeks three.