001together the regular board meeting of the Milford accepted Village School District School Board I'd like to call this meeting to order call the roll Mr Espy Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yeah Mrs Nolan yes yes Mrs Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you um stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please thank you okay let's get started here uh I need a motion to approve the agenda and the human resources addendum as you have received in your packet so moved second discussion I would like to separate section H items two and three one of them says consent vote and the other one does not and so just to clarify I think um one of those is the Wonders and I think that is big enough to have its own discussion so um I'd like to do
002those in two separate boats instead of consent boat I'm getting there so you want to remove consent from h item two yeah no problem there so we have a motion and a second on the agenda call the roll please Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mrs Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you I need a motion to prove the minutes of the organizational board meeting on January 5th 2023 discussion Colorado Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mrs Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you I need a motion to prove the minute to the board work session on January 19 so moved second discussion collar roll Mr Cohn yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mrs Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you I need a motion to approve the
003regular board meeting minutes from January 19th 2023 so moved second discussion collar roll Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes this is Nolan yes this is chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you um we're now ready for presentations Mr Jones superintendent John Spicer thank you president Miranda members of the board it is my pleasure to introduce Mr Josh Kaufman director of Fine Arts and extracurricular activities for this evening's presentations thank you Mr Spicer Board of Education again it's my delight to present to you some of our fantastic student artists from throughout the district if I can invite all of our featured artists from seipel elementary to please come up and be recognized I'd like to thank as they're coming up uh Mrs Casper uh and principal carrier for really recognizing and cultivating a uh a culture
004of Art in their building if you walk through their hallways it's there's art everywhere and it's beautiful and they do wonderful wonderful work so um behind me you'll see their artwork which will be displayed in the main lobby here of the board office over the next month and I would like to individually recognize each of them we're going to go oldest to youngest tonight so we're going to start with Logan Craver who has the radial balance print in the middle there congratulations and then I have Morgan swindling who has the owl embroidery right here Morgan congratulations I have a second Morgan Woodward Morgan can I get a fist bump bud Morgan has the owl embroidery second from the end right you did so good congratulations good job we have Owen long Owen has the weaving
005uh which is on the end down there congratulations Bailey walkowitz Bailey has the weaving on this end I have Maddie Kelly Maddie has uh the symmetric butterfly on the right hand side Carly Walker has the other symmetric butterfly right here beautiful congratulations and Ali Murray has the Henry Russo tiger in the middle congrats great work for our seipeld featured artists [Applause] and thank you again to Mrs Casper for doing such a wonderful job at psycho [Applause] spout and get some photos so um so excuse them moms and dads if you'd like to join them and as they're stepping out I will never turn down an opportunity to celebrate the Arts here in Milford um so I'd like to share with uh thank you let's see one waiting to good job you did so great so
006I never turned down the opportunity to celebrate the Arts here in Milford uh so I just uh three highlights I'd like to share with you uh next week on Tuesday evening our Milford High School chamber singers have been invited to be the opening act for the American choral Directors Association National Convention down at Aronoff Center so they are the opening act for that it's an incredible accomplishment for our program and a pretty cool experience for our students um drama we've got some big news uh in a special collaborative project I know I kind of referenced this uh last month but our numbers have changed significantly and a collaborative project between the high school and Junior High drama programs we have over 80 students that are going to be in Wizard of Oz the musical I
007don't know where we're going to put them um or how many munchkin costumes that's going to entail but a lot of Munchies that's a lot of munchkins and flying monkeys but uh it's going to be tremendous it is the last High School production in the Z in the last 72 hours we've sold 150 tickets if you are planning to go to that show you need to buy your tickets now we fully expect that that will probably sell out the next two or three weeks which is two or three weeks before that show opens so um the last show in the Z uh before we close that for renovation uh and then finally uh just to put on everyone's radar April 21st and 22nd will be the fine arts fair uh every year we hold that
008at the high school over a thousand pieces of student artwork uh will be displayed uh and this year will Mark the first time at five o'clock on April 21st we'll be holding our first fine and Performing Arts senior Signing Day so all of our students that are going to be pursuing the Arts uh either as a career pathway or uh in marching band or in the theatrical players or whatever it might be at their University we're going to recognize that accomplishment with the senior Signing Day on April 21st so you're all invited they'll be our kickoff to the Fine Arts Fair thank you again for your support of the Arts uh in Milford and creating these incredible opportunities for our kids thank you Mr Kaufman next up I'd like to ask Mr Jeff Johnson to
009come up business operations this month we do have a bus driver appreciation so I'm gonna turn it over to Jeff thank you Mr Spicer members of the board as as Mr Spicer mentioned February 22nd is bus driver appreciation day so it's a little bit later on this month in the fall we do celebrate bus safety week but but this is uh particularly an appreciation for our bus drivers and all they do to keep our kids safe to get them to school to get them home from school by far the safest way to get your kids to school is to put them on a school bus and there's a lot of work and a lot of effort to do that in the most efficient way so I'd like to add bring up some of our folks
010from Peterman who for folks who don't know we do contract with Peterman transportation to do our transportation so if Judd Sandy Sonya and Renee would come on up be recognized I would like to say that that we will be reaching out to all our individual drivers we don't have enough room to invite them all to come to a board meeting but we wanted to bring in and recognize our leadership and and we will be reaching out and appreciating those drivers as we get to the 22nd um so we will recognize them individually but just wanted to say thank you for all you do and and you make my life a lot easier so thank you John would you give us a few words please we consider this a great honor to be invited here today
011so thank you all very much we feel that Milford is our home our community there's no separation between us and Milford schools um Sandy Coyle is the assistant manager Sonia is a router and at the end is Renee our office administrator um I I'm a blessed person working with these individuals I've never worked with a better team their their sacrifices every day they're committed their hearts are in the job um we are definitely a team that's going to be envied by other school districts so I thank you all very much thank you thank you real quick I wanted to say thank you uh all four of my kids take the bus to and from every day and you guys are great and I love the app so put a put a plug out there for
012the app my high schooler specifically times where the bus is when he has to leave the house and it works every time so but thank you you guys do great and we love uh Mr J on bus 30. thank you well done uh next under um this portion of the agenda I'd like to just address a couple things with the board we've had a few emails this past week regarding gifted education here at Milford I just wanted to just clarify some things for everyone while we have this opportunity Open Mic which will be very clear that we are not cutting gifted in grades three through five there's there's no one that wants to cut that there are no changes whatsoever to our math cohort that stays the same however there has been a change in
013our model in three through five this shift is gone to a combination of embedded and pull out so those students receive a full week embedded within their classroom and then they're pulled out opposite week as well so that is a change there I also want to note that six through eight there has been an English language arts resource called amplify introduced two six through eight and that brings additional rigor to the classroom it increases the number of books our students read as well as the complexity of the text that they are reading it allows for differentiation to take place and individualization I said that students do not necessarily have to be separate from their peers to receive this instruction that is appropriate for them I think most importantly what we have found out and why
014it was selected by our teachers was that there are five levels of differentiation in every lesson and so there's flexibility in real time for our students and our teachers and again I'd like to reiterate most importantly that our teachers help select this item and they're the experts and then lastly our seventh grade students about 65 to 70 percent of our students are in honors courses and Ela honors at the seventh grade there's a difference between honors and gifted you have to anyone can be an honors but not everyone can be in gifted and so our teachers at the seventh grade want to teach all of our students to that level and so we believe that this is the best model going forward and we're going to support our teachers in that decision we also know
015that other high performing schools have dropped that as well the name if you will I'm super confident in our teachers and their ability to prepare our students for whatever is next and their stage of learning and most importantly we are going to continue to monitor the effectiveness of all of our programs this program as well we're going to look at data talk to our staff talk to our principals and that we will communicate with families in May if there will be a change to gifted programming three through five and then potentially six seven and eight and that's it and John a quick uh comment and question maybe for yourself or or uh or Mr Espy we learned in committee a couple of things and thanks for the distinguished the the differentiation between honors and gifted
016I think that sometimes gets a little bit confused in our gifted program and I don't remember John so help me here is it the three through five gifted students they went for a meeting once a week to now every other week is that correct they met um every day every day every day and now they're meeting once or every day every other week every day every other week yes okay I see a rotation um so just that's the one change that I recognize and something else I think is really important to note and I'll turn this over to our treasure um Mr Espy um in what ways are gifted Services funded by state or federal funds so gifted funds flow through our foundation payments it's a very small piece of of our foundation I don't
017have that exact number I'd be happy to get that for you and report at the next meeting or even put on the website but it's a very small number when we're talking about other sources of funding did you ask specifically about gifted yeah I did and what I learned at meeting and and Mr Spicer maybe you can clarify because I think it's important to know that gifted services are funded primarily from not from state and federal funds and that was something that I learned and it was very interesting piece of information I I just want everyone in this community to understand that it's it's not funded as some of our other services are correct correct I I just want to make sure that even though we're talking about funding decisions made about how we're delivering
018Services definitely had nothing to do with funding and Etc so but yes the answer is yeah I don't want to confuse the two I think it is very important to understand that um it is it is funded this much and I'm squeezing my fingers together as hard as I can uh gifted services for our students from state and federal funding and how do we combat that it's letters to uh our lawmakers um we we encourage them to support all the services at our school uh including gift to students and that's what I'll encourage the public to do and I just want to make that point and thank you any other comments anything else Mr spinder yes sir okay thank you let's move on to Board of Education business I need a motion to approve the
019school year calendars for the next three school years that's 23 to 24 24 to 25 and 25 to 26. some out second discussion I do have one change I would like to talk about um in so election wise uh in May of odd year so may of this year and may of 2025 there is not a guarantee so I propose on that calendar it has it as a remote learning day and I say that we just make it a regular day because we don't know if there's going to be an election it it I would rather if we have a remote if we have a need for a remote learning day because of weather because the teachers need more planning time I'd rather use it like that so are you proposing just an additional flexibility
020let's call it a regular day and we can if we need to adjust correct yes I actually think this is a great idea um and Krista and I are going to attempt again to meet with the Board of Elections because we have the two schools that make it really difficult to separate voters and students so if we were to have something on the ballot in in our school district or that would affect our not a ballot issue from the district I think you know what I'm saying that we're going to ask that they you know maybe use this facility instead of seipel and then maybe find an alternative for Boyd so we yeah I think it's a great idea and I've worked as a poll just generally I don't know who what polling places you
021guys go to but I've worked as a poll worker at Patterson for the past few years and there was uh August election where school was at March there was an election where schools and and they have a separate entrance to the gym they use the curtains the voters come and go out of that entrance the kids were able to do gym on the other side so for the four pack I think it makes sense there's easy access that doesn't interrupt and those May elections have really low turned out too so it's not like a major presidential election any other discussion so we need a motion to amend the schedule for 2024 2025 to take I didn't catch the data May 6 20 25. May 6th I make it a regular school day from me from
022a remote day to an in-school day you need a motion so moved second I don't think we've got any more discussions so Mr Espy would you call the roll please Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mrs Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you we'll push those out tomorrow so now that they're approval we'll make sure everybody sees them and we'll push them out thank you okay very well it brings us to our first public participation participation public commentary um do we have anyone Mr that's me yes we do have Russ Stancil hello I'm Russ Denzel 1438 nautica's Cove I'm here today as a concerned parent in regards to the Wonders curriculum that's been uh proposed for the elementary schools in our district on the surface wonders looks innocent kids are being taught
023the proper curriculum uh but at the bottom it is psychological and sociological programming through what looks like education right from the McGraw-Hill wonders website it states quote we allow teachers to reflect critically on social norms values and institutions that produce and maintain social inequities the coach culturally responsive lessons and wonders frames our instructional content alongside key aspects of Dei diversity equity and inclusion to enable and support the important conversations taking place in our classrooms end quote this Dei teaching has been manipulated to push policies and agenda that expressly favor some demographic groups to the detriment of others countless Studies have showed this Dei teaching is actually having the opposite effect furthermore it goes on to say quote we believe this work is critical to infuse every child's education and all areas of the curriculum with
024resources and tools needed to help students and teachers build a strong community that values empathy understanding Justice equity and social action end quote kindergarten through fifth grade curriculum is this the school's job to manipulate the kids emotional and psychological state teaching them that they are oppressed or privileged based on their skin color we need the rid our kids of this toxic ideology to me this is just another attempt to Rebrand and Implement CRTs in our schools we don't need this stuff in our schools influencing the very worst things in our country I do not want my children being taught these ideas or theories and with that I asked the board to vote no on the Wonders curriculum thank you would you like me to comment on that Mr stansel let me be very clear we
025do not teach anything that's Dei we teach the standards we do not teach CRT we do not have code words we don't do any of that yeah well yeah your time's up but we'll I'll talk to you afterwards if you want to stay and we can we can have a discussion about um the Wonders program I guess uh we're not psychologically programming any students we teach the standards it's a resource and that's it I'll leave it at that yep I guess I would ask you in front of everybody is where were you the last month get an opportunity to come in it's been in every school building it's been out front no one's come to look at it no not at all but why wouldn't you why would you wait to come here and not
026have a conversation with the folks that are that are the experts no you're not right yes I mean we listen we listen to our community okay okay very good if anyone else no no other public Center okay oh I I didn't get it up here sorry I can add it is it an agenda item so sir isn't it an agenda item okay okay that's not an agenda item the gifted program it would be in the second set of uh public so if you want to fill that out we'll recognize you then okay let's move on uh to go now to the treasurer's report Mr John Espy did you want to go ahead and do a motion and second and then I would talk about all the items together or just go ahead um I think
027we have it set up as all one we will certainly talk about each one of them I believe okay sounds great so first of all I want to recognize Jenny our payroll manager who is exiting and going uh leaving us tomorrow and I just want to wish her well and just say thanks it's been a great getting to know her and she's top-notch so best of luck I also want to say a huge thank you to the treasurer's office team who allowed me to do what I do every day they're they're awesome and I just want to recognize those individuals before I get started looking at the at the report we're at 58.3 percent through the fiscal year um our operating fund had an investment income of a hundred and eight thousand two hundred fifty
028three dollars and 38 cents for a fiscal year-to-date total of 269 thousand seventy two sixty five the construction fund saw 111644 for the month and with a fiscal year-to-date amount totaling six hundred and one thousand one 168.03 um it should be noted that we have invested uh reinvested over 22 million of the 44 million that came due in November it's becoming a little bit more difficult to get the rest of the items just because we're fitting it into the construction drawdown schedule but I did want to bring up the fact that we are starting to see rates as high as 5.2 percent of return on some of our uh our latest Investments so that's a good thing for the district I also wanted to bring up the fact that we have engaged Densmore as we
029have what's called Arbitrage that we have to be careful with with our bond construction fund essentially due to timing and this is very common with school districts that are going through a build similar to ours what we have to do is um essentially pay the federal government back for for a portion of investment proceeds that we receive until at least a certain percentage of those funds are expended and since we're just now getting started with some of our larger expenses we will have to set aside some of the investment proceeds and pay that back at the end of the project so I just want to let everyone know about that okay moving on into I wanted to talk about the five-year forecast so I did present this and I've added a few a few slides
030this this month but I did present this last month at the work session I'm going to go over what a forecast is what exactly it's telling us and then just some details that I think are of really pertinent information for the board and also the community when we look at what the forecast is and why we do it it's required by Ohio Administrative Code and Ohio Revised Code and it's required to happen uh on by November 30th for the first filing and May 31st for the second filing I'm bringing to you an optional update because I feel that there are changes that are large enough to Warrant um filing a new uh or amended forecast it should be kept in mind that this forecast is only looking at the general fund it's not looking at
031any of the other funds that we have as a district and you can see we have Bond retirement fund we have 400s or the state grants 500s are federal grants this is looking just at the general funders I like to call the board's fund when we look at the forecast how it visually looks on the left side in the eye area I've I've highlighted is red that's the actual of the last three years and then the blue side is showing the forecast going forward some major items that are up that are affecting this updated forecast are I'm not I'm actually splitting out the tangible personal property tax from the general property tax line because this is being phased out and we want to make sure that we're dialing in these numbers and these projections exactly
032the way that our analytic program allows us to do you might ask what is a TPP tax it's a tax on Machinery equipment and inventories for businesses as we look at the major item I'd say the the largest single item that's affecting the forecast is capital projects so we have an inflationary pressure that we are feeling from the middle school and we're currently projecting a 9.5 million dollar overage in terms of what the general fund would have to essentially pay out over the next four fiscal years of the build also due to displacement due to the water retention plan and the Middle School footprint the field house financing that we're going to discuss a little bit later and so essentially what we're looking at doing is borrowing 10 million dollars in a lease purchase program
033that's Bank qualified and the difference between Bank qualified and a cops issue is or certificate of participation is where essentially being loan money directly from a bank and not individuals as we look forward in the capital projects the auditorium that I've broken down between fiscal year 23 and 24. the high school roof project also moving the weight room from what is now the Robin's building to the ox Gem and putting the proper flooring down for that also Eagle Stadium South bleachers that we know those are that's an aging infrastructure that is starting to cost uh quite a bit every year in terms of upkeep and so that's another item that we're looking at also Moving 80 offices to the current weight room that's displaced due to the auditorium Renovations essentially the green rooms from the
034auditorium were turned into ad offices some years ago and that would essentially move the ad office offices to the current small weight room in the high school uh there is a need for temporary ad offices and being moved to A-10 in the high school which is a small smaller staff room right now that would be repurposed for that year we also have the eagle Stadium scoreboard and then you'll notice that there are a couple items that are highlighted it's because we don't know the entire cost of that just yet and when I look at the five thousand dollars for the temporary ad offices in A-10 you know that's that's pretty I'm kind of overshooting it a little bit to that 5000 because we expect to only have to put up dividers looking at some of
035the other items moving the high jump pit due to the field house renovation The discus and shot put also the access key control King project when we look at that that's a that's over a 500 000 project that right now we're only and I say only it's 13 500 that's a is a large sum of money but when you look at the total sum of the of that project to only have to transfer that is is a is a huge win for the district uh and then also temporary locker rooms and storage and then the asphalt replacement plan that we're currently doing every year already which is projected to be at three hundred thousand dollars also looking at the benefits we saw an 8.5 percent increase in employee benefits this year with um information that
036it could go as high as 10 in the future so I can only use the information that I have and using that information that 10 growth is what I've modeled in the forecast and then as I just spoke about the permanent Improvement Capital Improvements that would essentially be moved to transfers I want to take a moment to talk about that when we don't transfer money out of the general fund for projects that are already approved and already in place we send the wrong message to I think the entire School community that we have more funds in the general fund than we do so essentially what I'm proposing and suggesting here is that we move those funds out into the permanent Improvement fund to earmark them for these Capital Improvement uh plans this is a breakdown
037of how the change has happened between November and February so you can see up on this uh the line where you're seeing this minus 355. you can see that a very close number comes in at the 1.020 the difference for the numbers is because this tangible personal property tax line is treated differently than the real estate line hence the reason I wanted to split those two out you'll also see down here some changes in the modeling with the fair school funding plan are restricted state grants go up and our unrestricted go down which I will talk about a little bit uh in as we get through this presentation as you look at revenues you can see that they are by most accounts flat they do not they do not move and they look very different
038than what I'm about to show you when we look at expenditures in a similar graph when we look at expenditures this is where you can start to see some some deviations in the Personnel Services and the Employee Retirement services that are allowing us to dial these numbers in due to the analytics that we have it's looking at histograms of our staff and when they think when when it predicts we might see some retirements and so when we look at that that's where we're seeing these numbers change or just dial in a little bit closer due to those analytics that we're using of note I also want to talk about this change here that you see in purchase services this is because this number gets brought into the number below and the operating transfers out also
039this seven hundred thousand dollars that is a negative now that's essentially a negative expenditure so we're lowering that down to zero because that was lost um exhaust and so since we've gathered more information we we've brought that out and again you utilize transfers to get into the permanent Improvement fund to pay from that fund when you look at expenditures as I as I noted you can see that they are much more volatile and it happens really in 24 where you can see a large number of transfers have to go out to meet the needs of those Capital expenditures whenever we're looking at at um forecast it's important to look at our staffing and enrollment trend what the top line is showing us here is that is our district enrollment and you can see a dip
040in 21 which most districts saw due to covid-19 but what you're also seeing is that our staffing is reacting to the district enrollment changes and actually as the enrollment went up in 22 our staffing levels went down and this is looking at primarily our teaching staff our 230 emis codes which would be teachers with students tied to them or our intervention Specialists that are in the classrooms when we look at the fair school funding plan the thing to note here is when you're looking at fiscal year 21 this area right here this peach color is our unrestricted funding coming in from the state and the green area is our unrestricted notice what happens this number goes up slightly however this green shade becomes much larger we have much more restricted income and less unrestricted income
041and that leads to some challenges that I'm going to get into as well we are what's considered a guarantee School District meaning that the funding formula that that was passed in 21 does not um does not actually we're not our income is not actually calculated on it it's based off of the guarantee of the year before the fair school funding plan went into place as you can see from this chart right here we fall here but there are around 250 school districts that are not receiving any more money than they received in 2021 due to the fair school funding plan whereas all the districts on this side are seeing that income if we did not have the guarantee right now we would be getting 5 million less per year than than we are right now
042so as we talk about the fair school funding plan which many of you might know is phased in over six years it doesn't help us to get fully funded on that formula because we are guaranteed and ironically the guarantee is not a guarantee going forward it's only a guarantee for right now during this biennium budget or during this phase of the fair school funding plan when we look at our district enrollment it is going up we are one of the very few districts in the state where we're seeing increased enrollment on average in the state enrollment is dropping by three percent so for us to be a guaranteed District meaning we will not see any any more income and have an increasing enrollment we have challenges also with the fair school funding plan it established
043base cost when we look at base cost it's for us it's Unique for every single School District it's 7 258 dollars and the state says that we will give you 32 percent of that and the other 68 percent has to be locally funded so what I like to do with this is look to see what our our expenditures per pupil actually are and compare us with like districts that ode groups us with and when you group when you look at the districts we are grouped with we are below average and we're actually the second lowest expenditures per pupil in that grouping it's it's great to look at like districts but it's also important to put it in context with some of our local districts when you look at our local districts we're still in the
044bottom three when we're looking at Indian Hills Sycamore Loveland Goshen Forest Hills Oak Hills and West Claremont but we are still below the average in expenditures per pupil another form of measurement is performance index and I've put on this slide exactly what performance index is measured with it's achievement progress graduation Gap closing improving at risk k-3 readers and prepared for success it's basically looking at all students whether or not they reach a proficient status but when you look at Milford and and our performance index versus our operating expenditures per pupil we can actually plot our local districts and this I want to talk take us a moment to talk about what this is telling us this is the average this line as we go across the x-axis that is the average performance index score this
045y-axis line is our average per pupil spend so when we isolate where Milford is right here you can say that no District spends less and achieves more in our local compare compared districts I think that that's an important thing to to highlight I want to take a moment as I wrap up here to talk about cash days if we are to if cash days are a measure of health for school districts and it basically is measuring how long could a district survive without any additional income and as we look at how to calculate this we take the total expenditures which is line 7.020 on the forecast and we divide it by 365 days and we come up with one day of expenditures then we take the cash balance which is sorry I said that backwards
046the total expenditures is actually 4.5 and and you essentially take the cash balance which is 7.020 and divide it by that one day of expenditures so when we look at this current forecast that I'm bringing tonight we look at we see we're at 164 days currently and it drops quickly until we're actually negative cash in fiscal year 26 as we end the year and far more negative in fiscal year 27. this is a busy chart but let me take a second to explain exactly what this is telling us in our local Districts The Green bars are representing cost per day and notice down here I'm highlighting fiscal year 22 and fiscal year 27. so the last actual year of the forecast and the final year of the expected or the estimated years when you look
047at at Forest Hills increasing when you look at Goshen increasing and we can all see that every single district has an increasing expenditures per day what the purple line is showing us is what the cache does over that time period so as you see our cache is dropping quickly and some districts are in worse shape but I'm worrying about Milford um when we look at the abbreviated forecast I I do want to say red is not favorable so when we look at our revenue or Surplus we're in deficit spending as we go all the way through this and this is actually seven years and I think it's important to see what happens out here to our cash balance when we look at this chart below the orange section is fiscal caution there's fiscal watch and
048fiscal emergency so you can see by doing nothing the district would be in fiscal watch and fiscal year 24 and fiscal emergency and fiscal year 25. this is another busy chart but bear with me I'm going to explain it if we look at every dis every District in our local comparison that I just showed you this is mapping out what their cash is looking like and this is caution warning emergency every District except for Indian Hill in our grouping is in one of those cautionary or warning or um emergency based off of the filed forecast so I think the point to take away from this is fair school funding in our area the fair school funding plan in our area is not helping us and it's a concern and it's something that Mr Spicer and
049I have have shared this week with our our our local state representatives but it's going to take the community doing it as well to wrap up here when we look at this shortfall it would take 8.51 Mills any time passed in this calendar year to last the district three years if we were to wait until calendar year 24 it would be 10.58 mils calendar year 25 10.9 Mills so that's where we are um I think it's important that we we look at this forecast we all understand it um I'm going to be doing some round tables along with uh or sorry not round tables but uh Town Halls thank you there we go um so we're gonna be doing town halls in the month of February and in March to discuss this further but we
050invite the community to come out and and learn about school financing first but then that will allow I think the community to see exactly where we are as a district John you talked a lot in your presentation about the danger of going into fiscal watch and fiscal emergency can you tell us what happens when we go into that and what happens with our control over our money yeah so with with fiscal caution we have to essentially start to answer questions through reporting to to the state of how we plan to rid the District of being in that in that category as it goes further into emergency the state does get quite a bit more involved and you know Mr Spicer might be able to glean some information from his time at other districts that have
051potentially been in that when you're in different roles they come in and tell you what to do they come in and tell you what what you're going to cut whether we like it or not it'll decimate our probably our art music and PE programs they'll probably take you to State minimums for busing anything else that where they don't believe that you necessarily need this the staff I mean we're a staff business that's what we do so um if you include busing you know we're 85 percent is people uh is what we do so that's that's where those cuts come and they come in and they just they pretty much tell you like you all have to still vote on it but you really don't have a vote the vote is yes and you when you
052make those cuts um as Mr Espy said Little Miami eventually passed a 13-point some Mill Levy um and I suspect they'll be back on the ballot in the next year or so having conversations with their superintendent something like uh looking at your all night you could only have five second grade teachers or something like that uh I think they would come in and say stuff like you gotta you know you're gonna pack as many kids in a classroom as you can um you know potentially cut Art Museum PE it's not an option um shutting the building down like at the end of the day the buildings are shut down pay to play goes to eight or nine hundred dollars ban goes to whatever x amount of dollars to like in order to have those extras
053John would have to calculate this is what it costs us to do the extras divided by whatever and then that's your that's what it's going to cost you to participate in that activity lights are off um it you know as soon as the school day ends and and that's it I mean I it's definitely not what this community wants or needs and um you know we're going to do everything we can um from RN to make sure that we don't cut any of those things John I know there's two Johns over there so I have to start calling you by your names Mr Espy what I've learned in the past year or so about public school funding is our state's significantly underfunds Public Schools not just Milford across across the entire state and what I've
054learned is there's a mix of funding in four basic buckets tax revenue that impacts everybody in this room and and our friends and family it's State funding Federal funding and grants fair to say that's our four buckets of Revenue at a high level yeah Public Schools what I've learned as well past operating levies every three to four years across the state to make up for the shortfall and naturally occurring inflation basically aligned expenditures um they passed these levees every three to four years and isn't it true we haven't passed 11 in 10 years is that is that right the last it was May of 2013. may 2013. we haven't asked for one it's not that we've had any that have failed to clarify thank you um which is remarkable to me and one of the
055things that I've asked you with some of the new analytical tools is to show us some of the great decisions we had to have made to not have to ask for for more so I'll be encouraged I think a lot of our taxpayers will be as well to show some of those times over the past 10 years where we've made some good decisions because it it it's a pit in everyone's stomach and it should be when we have to go to the box and vote for more tax dollars um it it's sad that our state doesn't fund us more than they do and isn't it true we are characterized as a wealthy District when we look at base costs and the funding model Milford is classified as as wealthy is that correct yeah so we're
056being funded at 32 percent on the dollar from the state yeah so 32 percent on the dollar where other districts that may not have the same um income construct that we do may you may be at 45 or I'm just just and there are very wealthy districts that get funded five percent even though the the funding formula says that they don't need it because it's statutorily required that they get at least five percent okay so there's that too okay so our expenses are going up our Revenue again tax revenue state federal funds and grants are staying flat relatively and it's putting us in a really difficult spot and I'll just encourage you and encourage the public to show up at these Town Halls ask the really really hard questions ask where is the money going
057right so we can really really dig in and understand uh it's some of the questions that we've been asking as a board and these Finance committees um for for several several months and fortunately Mr Espy is is using an analytical tool that we didn't have prior to help us see some of these um some of these wins that we've had over the past few years and uh and help keep us as fiscally sound as we can I mean all of these things are getting scrutinized I know that I drive you guys crazy and and Mr Spicer said hey we're all on board Jerry in our finance case we're all on board with scrutinizing every dollar I'm like well good because we have to be um so I I want to make a couple more comments
058because I try to make this as simple as possible for myself and for others and because it can be very very challenging to understand how these schools are funded and um it's a travesty that our our state doesn't fund us more not just us but any school district in in the in the state so how do we change it not by my words but by writing letters making phone calls and uh and asking this uh this funding formula to change and be um you know a little bit more supportive instead of so much burden falling on our taxpayers I mean a significant burdens falling on our taxpayers in this district and it should make you as um I'm not going to say agitate as angry as it does me if I may add to that
059Mr Combs the derolf case for those of you in the audience and listening was decided by the state of Ohio Supreme Court that schools could not be funded solely or the burden on the taxpayers local taxpayers it's unconstitutional it has never been fixed 20 some years later here we are Mr Espy and I Krista Krista Boyle we've met with Adam bird who is the chairperson of the primary and secondary education committee we met with another representative out of Warren County Adam Matthews today we're reaching out to Gene Schmidt I would ask you to reach out to her take the burden away from yourself this model pits us against you every time we have to go to the box as Mr Combs said so I would ask that you you reach out to them talk to
060them about the fair school funding formula and oh by the way the state is sitting on six billion dollars in the rainy day fund 6 billion that's your money his money my money all of our money not not Governor dewine's not the states it's your money and this is where it should be going not just to Milford but to all districts I do want to add something to that as well um you might have seen the recent budget draft that has come out from the governor number of things are funded in there but they're all almost all of them that I've that I understand I understand that to be within the formula so if it's within the formula we're on a guarantee and we get none of it so when we talk about you know
061there's a talking about funding additional sros um at best if it if it wasn't outside if it wasn't out uh wasn't in the formula it's going to be funded at 32 cents on the dollar um in the current iteration so I think that that's important to understand as well I appreciate that um Mr Espy has been knee-deep in the fair school funding plan for many years before he came to us and his review and his white paper that he shared with us that I had shared after osba last fall with everybody so he has extreme knowledge that Milford is now benefiting from and he can help us have these conversations with our uh our state legislators and talk to people to really help get some of the school funded that as Mr Spicer said belongs
062to the districts and education so moving on if there are no questions no more questions on the forecast due to the forecast and what I'm bringing to to you tonight for approval the amended certificate which the amended certificate for us is my estimate on our revenues coming in by fund they need to be updated as well as the appropriation resolution which is the planned expenditures by fund and so if we are transferring money to the permanent Improvement fund uh that's going to be an expense that needs to come out of the general fund but it's also recognized as a revenue into the permanent Improvement fund so I'm essentially um moving those dollar amounts around and also truing up some of our federal grants that we receive as well moving to the permanent Improvement fund those
063are already things that we as a board have voted on correct they just have not been moved out so you can get a true picture of what your cash balance is exactly exactly and what we're what we're doing here is just making sure that we're having proper um accounting for how we are reconciling where we're spending money this is almost as as strong of a um I I guess it when I look at this this is a let's let's audit let's be prepared for proper auditing um by moving this in the place it's supposed to be so we're not misrepresenting we've got this huge general fund when really there's there's a percentage of it that's needs to be allocated to permanent and Capital Improvements and we've not done that yet until now uh correct I
064mean it it kind of comes down to you can make these expenditures out of the general fund but until you make it you send the message that that money is unrestricted and you it's like personal finance if if I have a savings account with two thousand dollars but I know I'm going to spend a thousand most people are going to move that to their checking account so they can spend it right now we're keeping it all in the savings account until the last minute and then spending it out so there's there's really not an audit concern per se yeah there's a um there is a perception issue I think that was poor choice of words I agree yeah thank you and then moving on to number five which is the resolution authorizing lease purchase borrowing
065that is the uh discussion that I had earlier regarding the field house financing of 10 million dollars that would be a one million dollar payment for 15 years based off of the um the current interest rates that we're we're seeing for 10 years or 15. it would be 15 years yes 10 million for 15. 10 10 million for 15. and it would be directly with the bank so this resolution allows me to go through the process with Bradley Payne Municipal advisors to start to go out and seek bids essentially on that debt through an RFP and then select those that debtor and and then close and receive the funds in early April and and I'm trying to remember because you and I have talked about cops as well we do not have prepay penalties on
066this correct no prepay penalties and there's also an item within this that allows us since we don't plan to borrow any more the rest of the year to receive a lower interest rate moving on into number six this is an mou with Milford athletic boosters and mevsd any questions on the mou no that's just it's almost like a renewal of the mous we've had in the past correct it's a renewal of the athletic boosters to facilitate the season tickets uh the season passes if you will my apologies um first 30 000. and then anything beyond that comes back to Aaron and then they run concessions so they that's sort of their territory uh band boosters if you will they their territory is uh athletic uh spirit wear thank you I was going to say gear
067so spirit wear and then item number seven is a donation acceptance of a picture frame with the national motto and God We Trust donated by Kenya Dirks okay um thank you we need a motion to approve items one through seven on the treasurer's report so moved second any other discussion call roll Mr Combs yes this is Mason yes this is Nolan yes this is chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you moving forward uh superintendent report superintendent John Spicer thank you so much president random members of the board uh no major update other than this uh lovely map that we're going to show you might have to zoom in a little bit Steve uh definitely gonna have to zoom in on that these these I don't have Dave Miranda's eyes over there if we could yes
068yep thank you that'd be great yep perfect so uh what we'd like to point out is on the lower right hand side you can see sort of the entrance of Eagle Way Eagle's way excuse me there was an original plan to move that entrance South closer to uh the tennis courts baseball softball fields entrance if you will but having taking a look at that what we what we've been able to determine is if we keep the traffic light there throw the um sort of s-curve in there a little bit it's not really an s potential Savings of five hundred thousand dollars to the district so we this is this is the latest iteration of what traffic flow could look like or will look like on campus at this time so basically the light stays where
069it is right now yes the light will stay where it is right now can you scroll up just a little bit just in case anyone has questions about the rest of yeah there will be as a matter of fact keep going keep it going yeah and there it is it's the bottom left is that lovely roundabout so can you go just a little bit further for us um so we do have a roundabout on campus that will help with flow I'm just north of that roundabout you can sort of see uh um the first exit on that roundabout you would take a right and then drop off could potentially be take a left and then that would be parent drop off in front of the high school so that would eliminate any drivers and students
070walking from their parking spaces inside that would let any cross traffic there so we're excited about that opportunity um and I think it would be premature but there is an outside chance that we might get a light on 131 so with a new traffic study some new conversation outside chance I'll just we'll just throw it out there is is just that um there's some some conversations that still need to happen with ODOT Etc um Jeff anything you wanted to add I think you covered most of it Mr Spicer I just you know the biggest goal that we've got on on this site circulation plan is to separate cars from buses from pedestrians um you know there's there's stacking of cars um obviously we want to try to get people in and out of Campus as
071quickly as we can you know but safety is the first thing and and what Mr Spicer pointed out you know just above that that roundabout so parents can come in and drop off in front of the high school they will Loop and then go back out so student drivers parking in that main lot they'll park in that lot and they'll walk in but parent they're not crisscrossing the parent traffic like they do today um and again as Mr Spicer noted you know originally we looked at moving the traffic light South on Wolf Pen saves about a half a million dollars it also it makes construction a lot easier that wasn't going to happen probably until summer of 24 just from a permitting standpoint so we were going to have to put that S curve was
072going to be in for a year anyway then we would have had to tear it out so you're kind of throwing money I don't want to say throwing money away but you're spending money that they're you're then going to tear out so I think that makes a lot of sense um and as Mr Spicer mentioned with the traffic study we just got back within about a week ago it's it's borderline from odot's um standards or regulations I don't know if that's quite the right word as to whether or not a traffic light is warranted on 131 um it's close and and that's kind of what we've asked for there are going to be based on the traffic study you know 131 in Eagles way needs to be approved by ODOT Eagles way and Wolf Pen
073is a Claremont County approval because wolf Pen's a County Road obviously 131 is a state road so that traffic study will be submitted to both of those jurisdictions they'll come back with comments and we'll kind of work through what that looks like um we are hopeful that that light at Eagles weigh-in 131 will be approved we've worked um and asked ODOT for a light at that intersection I mean I've been here almost 14 years and I think I've been a part of at least two maybe even three requests um to do that we always kind of follow just a little bit short so we're hopeful that will happen Mr spars Spicer and I have both gone to both SHP and kleiningers who's our civil engineer under SHP on this project and and have emphasized as
074much as we can how important the site circulation and everything is to this project and and we're doing everything we can to get it right we even went to him and said you know typically in a traffic study they look at the public roadways how is all the traffic coming in going to affect the public roadways do we need longer turn Lanes additional turn Lanes is a light warranted all those kind of things and we went to him and said we want you to take this a step further and look at the traffic flow on our campus you guys are expert traffic flow people help us make sure that the traffic flow we're working on campus is as efficient as possible so they haven't come back that was only a week week and a half
075ago something like that but we've gone to them and said we want your input we want your help to make sure not only that we get people on and off campus as efficiently as possible but how do we flow and make it as safe as possible when they're on campus since we are borderline with air quotes here on having enough traffic there to Warrant a line have they taken into consideration the fact that you're going to have 600 more five six hundred more students in their teachers that's part of the updated traffic study so you know in the past we've met with ODOT we've looked they've done traffic counts but part of the updated traffic study that Klein interest has done includes the fact that we've got you know 600 plus 6ish 100 more people
076on campus every day and the plan is I believe you would come onto campus from Wolf Pen and you would go out on 131 the buses would travel through and come out is that correct that's that's part of what we've asked them to help us look at is what makes the most sense I think that was that was our plan originally was it not to have well kind of almost like not a one-way but kind of you know when you talk about first of all one way traffic is very hard to enforce it's a private it's private property so police aren't going you know they don't have any authority to ticket somebody for not going one way um you know for us to be able to enforce it that means we have to pay people
077to be out there to enforce it um you know for a number of years coming out of eagles way under 131 was posted as a right turn only from two to three o'clock or something like that nobody paid attention to it and the only way to enforce it is for us to put somebody out there um and it also creates some other problems because even if you could enforce it people turn right and then all they do is turn left at the first neighborhood and then they're turning around in everybody's driveway in that first neighborhood to go back and go east so that creates its own problems um you know so we're working with cloningers to come up with the best way to try to Route parent traffic student traffic while on site and then
078we do have control over where our buses come and go but keep in mind this is a fairly Central located campus so I've got buses coming from the north I've got buses coming from the south I've got buses coming from the East and the West what's the most efficient way to get them on campus and then they also once they drop the students off in the morning they've got to go to a second tier to pick up elementary students how can we get them off campus to go get the elementary students so that they can get to their second and their third tier currently in the in the afternoons every bus leaves Wolf Pen leaves Eagles way VIA Wolf Pen because Wolfman has a light if they went to 131 they'd be sitting there for
07920 minutes they'd still be there you know so if they need to go south or west they go out Wolfpen they turn they turn right on Wolf Pen and either keep going turn left on 131 or turn right on 131. if there was a light at 131 there's a possibility that maybe we send them straight to 131. but again that's one of the things we've asked them to help us with with what makes sense and how we facilitate the flow of those three sets of traffic once they get on site one of the big things that I'm really happy about is the stacking that we have on campus you know currently you come in if you're going to the junior high you know if you're going in the front we all know it's I mean
080what is it 100 feet worth of stacking at most we've got on campus even if you go behind the school to drop off there's only so much stacking so there's a lot of stacking on campus that will get cars off of Wolf Pen that will help facilitate that flow and will certainly improve traffic for people who are coming to a committee meeting and don't want to drop kids off at 7 30 in the morning guilty it will it will I think it will improve traffic flow for residents of Miami Township who have nothing to do with dropping kids off at the junior high or high school at 7 30 ish in the morning a couple quick questions Jeff so it sounds like you're encouraging all people of um that are licensed drivers to take 131
081for during the traffic study over the next few weeks uh well the traffic study's been done so the car counts have been done so don't do it now because it won't it won't matter okay so you weren't encouraging us to do that um the second question is is there any chance we could ask a question of our site circulation folks that are putting together a great plan for us is there any chance we could also ask them is there any way in the interim during construction that there's there's anything that we can do to improve site circulation temporarily through that just to take a look at our plan because I if they are the experts maybe they've got some ideas that are low cost that can help us redirect during construction that will help and
082maybe you've thought about that and asked um we have talked a little bit about it you're not going to like my answer um first of all at low cost is not an option because if you put something in that you're not going to use permanently then you're paying money to put it in you're paying money to take it out um the the moving Eagles way between the junior high and the high school moving that South is going to happen this summer so that s-curve that Mr Spicer reference will go in this summer um but we're also shrinking the parking lot between the junior high and the construction site so there's some challenges and some stacking reductions that are going to happen there that are going to be a challenge and I'm not here I'm not
083gonna lie to anybody under construction is there there's going to be some pains there's going to be some struggles there's going to it's going to take longer and I'm just going to ask people to be patient with us and don't do anything stupid could just be patient because it's going to be a struggle um the summer of 24 the work on the south side of eagles way the roundabout that Mr Spicer pointed out that'll go in in the summer of 24 so I think some of that efficiency for the second year of construction from 24 through completion in 25 will be there but but not right away we can always encourage people to take the bus because then that means less drivers on campus that is true it also means more buses you know on
084campus you know we've got a thousand students at the junior high we've got 1800 students at the high school obviously all the associated staff you know it's just like going to a Bengals game it takes a while to leave and I just ask for patience um you know and and we're working as hard as we can with some pretty smart people to try to make it better when we get done with this project yeah my idea of low cost is cones paint signs Jerry's going to be out there to be clear you're assuming that people pay attention wow good point all right any other questions thank you Jeff thanks Jeff okay moving right along um going to Human Resources business superintendent Spicer thank you president random members of the board asking for your approval of
085items one two three and the addendum under human resources I need a motion to prove items one through three plus the addendum as you have received some moved discussion another opportunity to remind um oh yes be remiss if I didn't in our committee meetings we discussed these things those of us that are assigned to them and then the ones we aren't assign to we do show up but that's where a lot of the discussion happens so um as we um vote on these on these items they've all been discussed and all of us have had a chance that we're in these committees to ask questions about all these different light items Etc so I just want to point that out quickly that as you see a vote Yes or vote no for for these items
086um it we've had a chance to review these and ask questions and and to give you kind of a little idea of what our last Thursday looked like we started at 7 30 we had another meeting at 8 30 we had another meeting at 9 30. we had one at one we had one at two and we had one at three I believe or somewhere that we had five meetings in one day so uh different board members coming and going as they needed to some were here for all of them so it's uh it's a busy day and um Mr Daniels can you turn the light up thank you I was about ready to grab a pillow and a blanket here um so yeah it is it it is a long day for the board
087but uh but it's a very productive day and we and we talk about a lot of things and there are a lot of synergies between the meetings one meeting follows another there's a lot of synergy on those so okay so I've got a motion and a second no other discussion color roll Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mrs Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you moving on to curriculum and instruction and we have had a change approved for the agenda we're going to do each one of these separate will appear so um Mr Spicer take it away yep uh asking for your approval for the foreign exchange students as listed Rodrigo Lopez of Spain and chowman Tran of Vietnam okay I need a motion to prove the two new exchange students that
088brings our total to three so moved second discussion Colorado Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mrs Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you um under item number two asking for your approval of the Wonders curriculum resource adoption for grades K through five okay I need a motion to approve the McGraw-Hill wonders curriculum for grades one through five so moved second discussion I actually do have discussion on this um I'm on the curriculum committee and we've discussed this a lot over the last couple months and Heard lots of positives about it um I'm not going to lie that I was uh concerned with what Mr stanzel who spoke earlier had to say and I was also contacted Yesterday by another Community member with a couple concerns so um I went online and I
089just did a little bit of research and I think Paul or lindsa maybe you can answer this so some of the things that I read on online were that um this program is so big and encompasses so much that it's I'll just quote some of it it's kind of like a smorgasbord a big a truck stop Buffet you can make bad decisions in every because everything's in there it's really easy to get lost um another educator said there's so much in there it's easy to not prioritize correctly it's so many things to pack it or packed in it's hard for teachers to know what to prioritize um how do you go about guiding teachers when there's so much in there that I know you've talked about the positive that they have the autonomy to pick
090and choose but also can I guide back up real quick can you just tell us so we know but I don't know if everybody knows what the process was to get to where we got to today so it wasn't decided they didn't tell us about it last month and we're voting tonight so can you just like high level that was going to be one of my questions I had I had three actually selection process I mean so we're in the same boat I I think it's really important to understand um what went into the selection process why wonders Rose to the top maybe what else was considered that doesn't stomp on my colleague's questions down here because I do think they should be addressed but maybe it is good to start in the beginning about
091the selections if you're okay with that Miss Nolan yeah that's right well going back to a year and a half ago the fall of 2021 when we first started this process of curriculum adoption for ELA there was a committee that was pulled together under the direction of Dr Dunn and at the time I was a part of the committee as being on that team so we came together to discuss different curriculum resources first of all we decided we came together to decide what do we want in this curriculum resource so we prioritized what are the things that we need in this curriculum and what are the things that we want in this curriculum so we basically made lists prioritized we identified basically four big rocks of things that were non-negotiable and then under those rocks
092we decided what were the specifics that we wanted to have in an Ela curriculum and that feedback mainly came from the teachers so once that was decided then we started looking at the curriculum resources the different ones that were out there and I'm gonna say we probably started with what Rob maybe eight at least eight right so we were just looking at if a pot if you will and to start eliminating what we knew we did not want based on what we prioritized were the needs for this curriculum resource so once we drilled all the way down and it took the whole basically school year of that year we started following 2021 and that process ended in uh spring of 2022 and that's when we had narrowed it down to two particular curriculum resources that
093we wanted to Pilot we basically test out to see which one we felt would best meet the needs of the students so those two were wonders and the other one was ckla so for in the fall of this year 2022 through January which they're still actually teaching it they piloted both of those we had 12 teachers in each pilot so 12 teachers teaching wonders and 12 teachers teaching ckla and so with that process we did a lot of planning together having a lot of discussions together I pulled the teachers together multiple times throughout those months for them to like I said collaborate together about what the curriculum was showing them and how the progress was going and how students were doing with it on both sides um the goal was that by January we would
094be able to come to a decision on which one of those curriculums would be chosen so through that process by the time we got to November we started to come to some conclusions about what we were looking at and we started to come together and really list some things about each the pros and cons of each curriculum resource that was the committee and the pilot teachers together doing those things so pros and cons of each of the curriculum resources once we did that we had videos made of teachers teaching their lessons and wonders and nckla so that we can share those videos with the teachers who were not in the pilot who are also would also be teaching that curriculum once it was adopted so we exposed all of the teachers to the ELA curriculum
095we we put the resources out for both of the curriculum resources the teachers had time to review we did it over probably about I would say probably almost a month so maybe 20 days that they had to view the video make the videos view the videos look at the curriculum resources we did like a traveling tour around every school to make sure every staff had access to those then I went around to each school and I held meet meetings and they were voluntary meetings with the teachers if they just want to come and ask questions any concerns about either of the two curriculum resources so once we did all that the committee came back together in December we had our last powwow we had our last review of both curriculums Dr Dunn was a part
096of that process and so was Paul was a product part of that process so when we brought all the committee back together once the teachers had done the pilot for the most part then everybody came back together and so we were all a part of that process and the teachers decided what curriculum they wanted the votes I did not vote Dr Dunn and I vote Paul did not vote the only people who voted it on those two curriculums were the pilot teachers and the committee members which were made up of principles psychologists and intervention specialists so the decision was made by the teachers and when we voted and we counted everything out on like how many sites voted for a b and c how many interventions Specialists voted for abnc how many principles and how
097many teachers the weight of the vote was teachers the teachers swayed the vote and both they all had access to both so that was the process I'll defer back to you I think to answer two of your questions you can make bad decisions whether you buy a product or you create on your own these programs generally that we look at we use resources Ed reports it it grades curriculum okay Ed reports we go on there when teachers there you go there it's total quality building knowledge and number three is usability they grade everything they're like a just a non-partisan curriculum review company so we tend to use things as written in the first year Dr Dunn talks it about you use it as a recipe the first year because it's your first year of implementation
098you meet with your teachers like I meet with they're they're separate but I think they run tandem we're in the first year of amplify we're meeting with those teachers monthly bi-monthly bringing in trainers adjusting what's unique about Ela is it is possible for you to miss a whole unit as a team but you know that that standards cover three four five times it's a little different than math standards are a little different than Ela standards so you customize it so these programs resources because our teachers aren't going to use this as a script on a daily basis but you have to make good choices you have to know your students in your classroom you have to lean into the results of your assessments and our teachers we can do things with them or we can
099do things to them we much rather would be on the side of working with them which is why we don't vote and we don't choose they're the experts they're in the classroom they're making the day-to-day decisions and they're giving us the feedback so I think there are bad choices when you use open-head resources which is free stuff out there um that you bring into your classroom and you can make bad choices when you adopt a resource but I think the next bit of work for this team before I pass it on is to now start working on what we call pacing guides what is it that we'd like to see in a period of time aligned to that standard and then how many times are we covering that standard throughout the year so I'm just
100going to kind of repeat a little bit of of the beginning of it we took a lot of time and we talked extensively about what to do with our Ela revision because it's ginormous and we know how important it is and we knew how unhappy our staff was with the current product readygen um if you're out there Savas ready gen we don't like it um so we took a lot of time I was very precise to involve so much equal voice with teachers and each grade level had three Representatives title skills did School psyches principles it was every building had at least three Representatives it was to make sure that all of our teachers and staff voices were heard and we first made it clear that that's for sure who won it not ready gen
101which we didn't that was easy and then we only looked at programs that scored High period and then when we got to the final three even with those three scoring high it was nearly unanimous that nobody wanted written wisdom there was one of those programs that just didn't feel right for our teachers the way it was delivered and organized so not only did we take an entire year to evaluate previous program current programs out there what a program must have instead of just moving forward and pulling the trigger on a decision we didn't we said we need more time let's pilot these programs let's see them in action let's have them delivered by our teachers two teachers and all grade levels did each program so four teachers did this in each so we got to
102really take six seven months and see these programs in action the way they're organized how they can give us some options for some adjusting and not um so it was as thorough of an experience as I have ever seen in 25 years here and we even were very intentional about the communication to parents and families so that they had access to the materials to see them and to view them we we have been discussing it in committee for a year and a half I mean it's not like it's the key topic every single time but it's been brought up in committee through this whole process so we've been very very thorough about the entire process the information I was shared tonight from that gentleman I I feel bad it wasn't information I was aware of
103I I quickly tried to look at it what I could see on the website it seemed connected to the how they hire their approaches to their diversity of hiring and making sure that they have people on stage AF who bring multiple views in as they're developing and creating resources and materials that was just at a I had like what 10 minutes to kind of glance through that I thought it was looking more at how they organized their company more than the other pieces so and I would agree what what I could see on the website as well like it was more about including being inclusive of the people that they employ so that then they can make sure that they're servicing a diverse Community when they do put their product out so that was more
104the message I got less about teaching that so as superintendent Spicer said we don't teach to that we teach to the standards period I just before you get there maybe I'll answer this the communication piece has been very intensive so we did the 30-day preview principal newsletters first it was in all elementary principle new newsletters we did three School Messengers three Thursdays in a row even had the opportunity to connect with all of you via email I think in January on the 27th just sharing hey we sent our first blast out here's board members is the preview website that we built we spent the time and energy Loosely not me because this isn't my stuff but um we have a coach that you know helped us build this we even got demo accounts for so
105Steve if you hit the additional tab there's actually demo accounts so you didn't even need to physically come in we've heard that parents don't have time or Guardians to come in so we have the materials out front then you have a you literally can log in and look at what your child is reading and the instructional materials um so we've slowed down um we engaged with very very very few community members less than four some questions as simple as who from my school was on this committee what were some of your guiding questions had a call today hey I can't get in oh come on up you can see it and I'll help you get the website that's three that's it and you know we've been doing this for seven months another parent that reached
106out was worried that it was going to be discontinued after next year so reached out to the rep to send a blast to say this is what it is forwarded it to that parent she was happy and that was it so it was for okay so um a quick question of all three of you um sounds like we had a really thorough process sounds like from Mr Dunn's commentary more thorough than anything you've seen in 25 years I believe that none of us are so we're making that specific to Elementary because Paul's process was extensive so my question for the three of you is do either of you support um any type of suppression alienation or division based on race ethnicity or gender in our schools absolutely not okay so when we have a concern
107of a parent or a Community member like Mr and I don't want to butcher's name stanzel Mr stanzel um and what I've heard from reading and researching wonders literally over the past few few months is the biggest complaint came from educators um the complaints were almost unanimous in that um it was it was pretty big pretty broad they wanted more specific direction we're talking about the ELA teachers not to say that ours didn't have similar experiences we it it won the the pick by the way um and there are also a lot of commentary about the Educators about it it um there was so much autonomy that they could really move in a lot of different directions and based on what I heard tonight from Mr stansel and the three of you being leaders of
108this curriculum for our district I'll just make sure and encourage us which I I I believe you will but just to reiterate if a parent has a concern about suppression alienation or division based on on on on something that has to do with race ethnicity or gender they need to address that with this group because it sounds like the leaders of this curriculum are going to stand in full support of anything that might be happening in the classroom and it'll get addressed through appropriate channels is that fair to assume from these three that is fair to its own okay make no assumption that is the case and and I'm I I say is that an assumption because I I have to believe that it's true and I just want to I mean when concerned parents
109come to us we have we have channels and we had a concerned parent tonight that stood up in front of this board in the community and addressed something that we can't hide from I don't care if it's one person let's address it head on and if the leaders of this curriculum are telling me that those type of things if there if if there's any of that come happening in our schools that we're going to take appropriate action absolutely then I have to believe that that's going to take place that that's going to be the case um so thank you for that thank you for the thorough research I hope that even in it's it this curriculum's worst day um that you're able to help our Educators navigate through some ambiguity because that's the biggest complaint
110that I've seen and and I would I hope you expect to hear some of that and you can step in and support this group when necessary yeah we're already scheduled for work to address that that work has already been scheduled we're planning for it we'll be coming to you next to talk about it and see and I but we're already making those arrangements yeah but really the really the nice thing about it is he got six months under your belt already with some people that can be trainers yep absolutely and that can speak intelligently on what they've learned and what they like and what they don't like before we start right so the other that's the other plus teachers now will have an opportunity to get training before summer and get materials before summer so
111then when they come back in the fall they don't feel so overwhelmed rushed and stressed out because they're trying to learn a curriculum resource and deliver it well to students so now they have an opportunity to learn it have the materials with them over the summer spend whatever time they want to look at it and trust me outside of their Beach time they do look at the stuff and they do plan and when they come back in the fall they'll be ready to hit the ground running and they will feel good about it just like our teachers and students we're always trying to learn and grow so my question to all of you is what more can we be doing because I think we almost did an overkill on the communication we took your feedback
112last year and slowed down we're building individual websites we're having vendors kind of do things that they normally don't do in opening up demo accounts for us or even partnering in principal newsletters putting materials out front putting materials in elementaries my question as we learn and grow because we do adoptions every year they're not as big as a core resource in language arts but next year we'll roll into some science and it's nowhere near as big and very content specific my question to all of you is what more can we be doing because we would have loved to have had that conversation as one-on-one or as a team I always don't I don't like that somebody feels they have to come here for their voice to be heard we would we would have engaged and
113pulled out the books and done everything we can to engage in that conversation so my question is what more can we do I think you guys did a great job I really appreciate after coming on the board last year and being thrown into an Ela Whirlwind um the the time and the effort went into this and then also the transparency and sharing with everyone I think it's important like we heard all this in committees but for everyone else to understand the process as well is good and I appreciate your confirmation that Mr stanzel's concerns and others that share the same concerns that maybe not waste them is a non-issue yeah I mean and Lindsay's name and email and phone number was at the bottom of every school messenger sorry um I just want to couldn't
114help yourself I feel like I would be remiss um if I didn't say something along the lines of what Mr comb says every month but um when we were in committee for this Melissa and I were on the curriculum committee last year and we have been talking about this specific um wonders and the process of getting to this for a year now um and this day we talked about uh the process of getting there but really what she gave you was a Top Line we went into extensive detailing committee about this and I really appreciate that as a board member because it really allows us to dive into the details um and then I'll just Echo what Melissa said um I also appreciate the transparency that has been behind this curriculum because it has been
115out for that 30-day preview and I don't know how many people were able to check the website but it was an extensive review of the whole entire curriculum um and then on top of that they had the books available out front so I really think that slowing down has made this more transparent to everybody and it gives everybody the time to digest it on their own I trust our teachers to make good decisions when it comes to the dirt of information out there we have to remember that they have to teach to the Ohio standards and I think we've seen and many of us have chosen this district for our children because our teachers do make good decisions and our children leave here with a great education so I just want to thank the team
116for their process with this and for trusting our teachers who are the experts to really get behind this curriculum I guess the last question that I have is and I don't know the answer to this is are we we're piloting this we're taking the time to Pilot and go through it is that at the exception or the rule in education I mean I would say it's the exception it's not that Pilots don't happen but a lot of times a pilot is very small they'll have a person or two do it or they'll do a little piece of it we did the full system for 24 teachers 24 classrooms I can recall back my first year on the board I was one of my first assignments as committee was cni and I was impressed with the
117amount of time that we went into and looking at the curriculum and having it in people's hands and having it in the in the kids hands so we could actually see what was going on and I and I I dare say that I I didn't know the answer to that but I kind of suspected that we're we're in the minority because uh I know we're very thorough in what we do here and uh and and because it was an Ela revision there's just a different way that you think through that and with all the changes with early literacy and some of the expectations that are coming forward from the state we're trying to get ahead of some of those as well to be prepared for that and this helps us for that as well yeah
118but Dr Dunn where did we don't just do this process for ELA we do it for everything and the community needs to understand that we do it for everything and hopefully appreciate that we we spend the time in getting it right um back to Mr Daniel's question so you asked what what for feedback um I personally think that this was a really good process I got emails from um I mean not just as a board member but as a parent from the principal and when the principal email comes out at the bus stop I got questions what why are they changing and I was able and educated enough to be like this is our process this is what we've been working through this is how it works and then I came in I stopped in
119here and read through some of the the books I will say I didn't really know what I was looking at because I haven't compared to last year's I'm not a teacher but I was impressed with all of the different units and the different topics that covered and what it could go through it looked super thorough to to what I was seeing so um to your question Mr Daniels I think it was it was good and the communication came a couple different ways and enabled people to reach out I you ask what you could do better um probably just understand that for the rest of your life you're going to be facing any any time you're facing a change management situation you can't you can't communicate enough because you will not no one knows it better
120than Educators please everyone and the expectations that you will is is a is a false expectation and your frustration is shared by just about every single leader that may have a in the armor that strives for Perfection because you're not going to get it and it's just maybe level setting expectations and communicate as much as you possibly can um and I'm not even suggesting you didn't over communicate here I'm just saying there's going to be another one and it's not going to be called wonders it's going to be called something else and guess what you're going to be under scrutiny if you're still in this role and you likely will be communicating like crazy about it and still frustrated that there might be someone that didn't like it that's the right I think what we
121want to do is be that in between for you yeah because there are times that we can redirect or really dive in and spend that time with them the only thing else you know we've got a motion in a second let's call a roll Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes this is Nolan yes this is chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you under item three asking for your approval of curriculum pay need a motion to approve the curriculum pay is outlined in your agenda so moved second discussion cholero Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mrs Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you moving on to business operations superintendent Joan Spicer thank you president Miranda members of the board asking for your approval we're going to separate these out number one Miami Township
122bus usage okay I need a motion to approve the Miami Township bus usage so moved second discussion Mr Spicer can you clarify for people that don't know what you're talking about yep I'm going to let Mr Johnson come up and do that for us okay thank you for your patience I make the trip a little bit quicker these days but um we asked this approval every year from the board there's no cost to the district basically what this does is allows Peterman to contract with Miami Township at our field trip rates to do their summer camp programs so it saves Miami Township a few bucks to use Peterman buses in the summer for their field trip so it's we don't even see invoices it's not like it's a pass through all you do is approve
123this and Miami Township gets a cheaper rate to contract with Peterman to use their buses for their summer camp program okay any other comments call roll Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes this is chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you asking for your approval of item number two the GMP Amendment with Conger Construction I need a motion to approve the uh guaranteed maximum price Amendment with Conger constructions I guess they're right right so moved second discussion so what this is is um you know we've been working through the design process working through estimates um you know the the current estimates a little over 12 million dollars for the field house project what this is is the phase one guaranteed maximum price that will allow Conger to release production of the pre-engineered metal
124building so essentially there are two buildings for the field house project they will have masonry walls up to a certain height and then a pre-engineered metal building that goes above that so all this is is agreeing to a GMP a guaranteed maximum price as president Miranda said to release Conger to issue a purchase order to get that pre-engineered metal building on order which will significantly increase it will help our construction schedule significantly we will be back probably in two months I don't think we'll be ready in March but probably in April basically for a GMP for the balance of the project in order to construct the field house project how does this help Arbitrage for us it's nothing to do with it it's because that's this this has nothing this is completely separate from the
125middle school project it doesn't have anything to do with it I mean you raise a good point I know you're kind of making a joke but this is completely separate from the middle middle school project you know quite honestly it was the necessity to do this was kind of caused by the middle school project because the middle school is going to sit on top of the current Robins building and weight room so we needed to replace those facilities um but but the cost to Counting everything else is completely separate from our middle school project and we don't have to ask for ofcc the seed no we don't have to ask to do anything the only the only thing we do need to do and Mr Espy and I are working through this process is we
126have to separate our Parcels so that the parcel that the field house sits on will be separate from the parcel that the middle school will sit on so that is something that we're in the process of doing can we make a case to tie that because of the displacement no just because it's coming from a different fund it's coming from the o-10 fund and the 004 fund so this is going to be in the pi fund so we won't be able to correct have a count towards Arbitrage okay we've we've looked at many different angles to so first thing I'd be able to keep all of the investment proceeds okay we can and the good thing about doing this at this time is we're going to have construction people on campus already I was here
127in 2010 and Jeff think that you were you were there for at least part of that and when you've got people with Earth movers and electricians and all those people that are already here on campus doing other work it's much easier and many times it's that I reduce costs so that's to our benefit we do think there's some benefit there but again I just I want to remind everybody that they are utterly completely two separate projects um you know we may have one contractor doing earthwork on the field house project and a different contractor doing earthwork on the middle school project it may be a different Mason on both it may be the same but it may be different the the only the only thing that's going to be the same that we know is
128our construction manager and that's Conger who is going to be the construction manager for both projects that's that's the only thing it'll be competitively bid you know so just because we've got contractor ABC doing the HVAC on the field house does not mean the contractor ABC is going to be doing the HVAC on the Middle School understood but the same was true back in 2010 too because we had some outside projects that were privately funded that were being done at the same time and we did get some economies to scale from doing that hopefully we can encourage them to do that wherever possible okay okay so I've got a motion and a second uh any other discussion call roll Mr Combs yes this is Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mrs Chestnut wrong Emily yes Mr
129Miranda yes thank you um I am looking here are we missing an item on this agenda public participation I do not see another public participation here including items it's been a long day okay uh it brings us to our second public participation uh do we have anybody we do yeah Scott hickey [Music] um I Heard the comments earlier about the gifted program and the honors program and I was very assertive and I appreciate that um I'm here representing several parents some that couldn't be here tonight that are still concerned and I understand that Patterson has had some Community direct communication some opportunity for questions and I think I'm asking for that same thing General I understand that we're going to have town halls for funding to ask us for more money eventually I'd ask the
130same thing for the gifted program in the honors program so we can ask these questions I have three sons two of which are in the gifted program at Meadowview my eldest uh was was teaching himself to read in preschool was reading encyclopedia's at first grade 99 math 92 to 98 depending on the year in ela he blows off the charts I'm sure there are other kids in the other schools that do the same thing and not having um that extra curriculum in the gifted program this year has hurt he's only in there every other week I think that was a mistake and I think we should reverse that on the honors program I absolutely hear that amplify has been chosen and that it doesn't have the honors program in that 70 65 75 whatever that
131number was I'd ask that we reconsider and look for a gifted program then for that was 10 that are that can handle the extra work and need the challenge because we don't want them to get bored when I when I hear that that there's five different programs or five different levels um I think about sports teams um my sons are in soccer and so you have your Rec your select your travel and what I hear is all three of those teams are going to be practicing at the same time working on the same material and I don't see how that would work um effectively how you would challenge the the ones in the gifted program and so what I'd ask is that we do a town hall explain that give us examples I heard um
132with the selection of the the Wonders there were videos of teachers doing this to be able to to show other teachers but let's show some of the parents how this would work when we get rid of the honors program in sixth and seventh grade um and so that it's not you're doing this to us to steal a quote we're doing it with the parents to understand because right now there's a lot of miscommunication and a misunderstanding in the channels and and you can explain it now but I don't know who all's watching and so I think having a town hall would help so we can have that interaction without this formal process I'd be happy to meet with you Mr hickey and you could bring your constituents with you why don't we schedule something here
133here in the hall next week and then we'll just put it out I'm not going to commit to something next week without having an opportunity to look at my calendar and fair enough fair enough meet with my team but we'll meet with anyone anywhere any place in any time okay um so we'd be happy to meet with you okay great let's schedule something and and put it out to all the the um gifted programs and and all the honored kids in the first and foremost I'll meet with you and a few of the folks that you represent if you want to come we'll meet with we'll meet first okay okay I'm not committing to a town hall tonight okay okay so that's my thoughts thanks very much thank you do we have anyone else no
134no okay moving along the next regular board meeting of the Milford Exempted Village School District Board of Education is March 16 2023 four weeks from tonight in this room at six o'clock I'm going to open the floor to uh John 1 and John 2 plus the board for any other comments that they might have only comment I have is um I I was able to pull up the gifted funding number we're at 324 781.75 which represents 1.3 percent of our state income Revenue do you know how that compares to five years ago not today no but I can find it I can definitely it would be interesting to see how the trend yeah I can pull the last five years yeah and and again just you're you're a big fan of analytics as as I
135am there's insights associated with Trends and I'd love to see what that is and uh maybe something Mr hickey we could share with you as well um so thanks John yeah what else let me let me do my thing here on the good news report and I'll try to do it quickly and I'll get home um congratulations to the Milford Hall of Fame inductees from the class of 2023 they were inducted on February the 4th the three individuals were Mary Gordon Burnside from the class of Rob Murphy from the class of 93 and Dr Frank Noyes as a contributor he worked he's the noise knee clinic and also Mercy Health who's been with us for a long time um Mr Espy you made the good news report congratulations um on beginning the video series Milford
136Money Matters uh series explains all kinds of financial topics uh Fair school funding which you talked a little bit about tonight uh legislation and all kinds of different topics I've seen the list of stuff that you're going to present and the next in the series is tomorrow correct uh it's actually going to be a week from tomorrow we're doing it every other week but we are going to be putting out an analytic okay tomorrow very good thank you um now there are a few other people in the room here to get congratulations congratulations to the Polar Plunge Milford team have raise your hand if you got wet a bunch of crazy people here um uh they had a they had a really outstanding showing on behalf of Clermont County Special Olympics uh back on January
137the 28th raised ten thousand five hundred and ten dollars ten thousand the number two team only behind Hamilton County Special Olympics it's kind of hard to beat them at their own and the number one school and we should be and we should be challenging some of the schools in Clermont County to do the same thing so that the Specialists of Clermont County get even more money um all the money does come back to Claremont County Special Olympics so that's a that's a that's a great uh effort from a great group of people um got a note from the A.D at the junior high um Mr trout uh tells me that our girls junior high seventh grade basketball team completed their season at 19-0 winning the league championship in the ECC and also uh winning the
138tournament Championship so congratulations to those those young ladies uh looking forward to seeing them up on the high school floor here pretty soon um and uh one last thing under um good news um winter sports season the Milford Eagles are first in the All Sport trophy which is where we ended last year and we're looking for a great showing out of our spring kids so they're going to seal the deal on a second consecutive All Sport trophy so we're looking forward to that dates to remember [Music] um some of these are a little redundant The Wizard of Oz We're going to be at the uh at the Z the zamudio theater the 17th and 18th for the high school performance and the 24th and 25th this is of March for the junior high performance and
139you better get your tickets I'm going to order mine when I get out of here tonight so I'm sure I got some seats to see these shows um so uh plan appropriately there's a website Milford theater so you can go out there and buy your tickets online um where did I go um Robin's building wrestling reunion is March 24th and I still I think we still need some more detail on that one as to what all is going to be going on but the robins building is going to be uh deconstructed here soon so they want to have one last go around in their building um Milford fine arts fair April 21st and 22nd and we're doing the Fine Arts student signing the same way that we would do athletics the same way that we
140would do academics it gives them an opportunity to shine too so that is on the 21st so hopefully everybody can come out and see that and and find out how many people we really have that are going on at the Collegiate level or Beyond and doing fine arts uh baseball reunion for the um two-state runner-up teams from 2002 2003 is April 29th which is also the same day that we are doing the prom at the Oasis Golf and Conference Center so both of those events are to going off on the 29th of April so Market calendars a new one uh Milford flight night is set for Thursday May the 11th at the Oasis Golf and uh and Conference Center this year's speaker is NFL NFL Hall of Famer Dick LeBeau and the introductory speakers we
141have two this year we do that occasionally and they are former Bengals Ken Anderson who is an MVP and Super Bowl quarterback and David Fulcher who was quarterback for the second Super Bowl team and last but not least Milford graduation will be held on Saturday May the 20th at the Cintas Center um any other discussion I need a motion for adjournment please I'm gonna assume no discussion call the roll Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan Mrs Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you and good night