001foreign good evening everyone Welcome to the board meeting foreign yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you we'll stand for the Pledge of Allegiance allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all um okay I need a motion to approve the agenda and the addendum that we received today someone moved second discussion and I guess uh what I'm going to gonna say Mr Rabe I think it I think this is where it goes It goes in section g item three a number two is that correct e g one sorry section g item one item B item one one administrative Personnel approvals and then this would be addendum would
002be Item B I'm not sure I agree I think doesn't this fall under uh three that's that's exempt Personnel that's okay so this is going where now so G one and then Item B wait a minute human resources GE right here okay sorry about that yeah get back to the first page here um discussion on the agenda Colorado Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mr Nolan yes Mr Chestnut yes Miss Miranda yes thank you I need to approval I need a motion to approve the minutes from a regular board meeting August 18 2022. second discussion Colorado Mr comes yes Mrs Mason yes Mr Nolan yes Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you I'm not going to turn this over to superintendent John Spicer thank you president Miranda members of the board it is time
003for presentations this evening we have Mr Josh Kaufman who is our director of Fine Arts and extracurricular activities thank you Mr Spicer members of the board it's great to be back in front of you recognizing our student artists throughout the district this month we're recognizing high school student artists if I could have any of our student artists who are present this evening to come up here to the side next to the artwork it is a busy time of year for so many of our high school sports and activities so a couple students couldn't make it this evening but we're still excited to recognize their artwork tonight we have artwork from Mr Tucker's 2D design class as well as Mr Leeson's graphic design class and Mr Shepard's Ceramics works are here in front so students I'm
004going to recognize your work we have a certificate for you and then um if you'd like to shake the board members hands I'm sure they would like to shake yours or give you a fist bump that would be great Emma crane did Emma make it tonight Emma's work is I've been told these are called an abstract analogous these uh black and white uh marker pen sketches uh so uh Emma's is this one here uh Charlotte Paris Charlotte has the abstract on the far right I believe Allie Williams is Ali yeah Hallie has the abstract in the middle those three are all 10th graders so a lot of artistic potential there uh senior Nick Hornsby as uh one of our graphic design students Mr Leeson's class and Nick has um James Stevens I just saw James
005this afternoon James has uh the the graphic design work on the bottom here uh Simone early Slack congratulations Simone has this brightly colored graphic design piece here then we have the three Ceramics pieces that are in front of the podium here I have uh irie Bagley and then uh Janie Miller and Rebecca caudell I don't believe could make it with us this evening but their work is here uh in front of the podium as well some wonderful works of art and if you think about it these works of art have all been created uh just in the last three four weeks so really impressive congratulations to our student artists and as always I'd like to take the opportunity while I have the microphone to share with you just a few highlights of our Fine Arts
006programs last month the high school band hosted its second annual Milford marching showcase at Eagle Stadium powered by Cullen electric we had over a thousand Spectators watched six bands perform and receive feedback and this Saturday they will begin their competitive marching season in the bands of America Regional Championship in uh Columbus Ohio it's at Fortress Obetz so rooting them on with that we were notified last week that we had four students in our high school band program that have been invited and selected to participate in this year's All-State honor band that's an incredible accomplishment both for these students and for our program we look forward to recognizing them in person at a future board meeting and we believe that is a record for Milford High School they have four students selected so that's outstanding next
007weekend will be the Milford High School Premiere drama program premiere of the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee which is a delightful comedy for our high school students tickets are ten dollars and can be purchased online and we are very pleased this year to be offering at Mr Trump director Trump's uh recommendation an American Sign Language performance on Friday evening for those who would benefit from that um my next piece is is a a kind of quick one but I think that it's it it's a little sad but there's a happy piece there too um Disney recently selected one high school in every state to have exclusive production rights for Frozen the musical uh Milford High School drama applied for that we were not selected as the school to represent Ohio however we were named
008a national finalist in the competition so that in and of itself is pretty outstanding would have been pretty cool to be the only school in Ohio to do that um however um we're happy to be a finalist I think it speaks very highly of our program the Milford High School choir has been invited to be the opening performance of this year's National choral Directors Association conference in January so they are the opening performance for that conference that is very exciting uh homecoming's coming up in a few weeks so just a reminder the community at the parade and the game will take place on Friday September 30th and the homecoming dance will take place at the high school gym on Saturday October 1st and then my two last ones finally I would like to take a
009moment to acknowledge uh the PA I know we typically don't do this at board meetings but this was a significant um at least as it relates to the Arts um I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of Milford High School graduate William Platt uh bill was not only a Milford High School graduate but he was a member of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for over 40 years and served as the principal percussionist before his retirement in 2010. so a fantastic product of our music and arts program at Milford High School and our thoughts are of the entire Arts Community go out to Bill's family and finally we are concluding tomorrow National Arts education week and I want to thank Mrs Crystal Boyle for assembling this video recognizing our student artists throughout the district
010thank you foreign because I love to um use like the watercolors and mix different colors to make different paintings painting um collages how you can make cool designs creating new things if you mess up it can still be art and like that oh it doesn't have to be perfect and one small mistake can make it look super good art is doing clay projects drawing animals you can draw things that you can't like normally do every art piece is equal in its own way because it's just the way you look at it like the book dot you could just look at something oh it's simple but another person could look at it like it's an inter intricate painting I like sketching the thing I like best about drama is all the friends I've made along the
011way they'll be my friends forever and I just love the people that I've met everybody is very accepting you can go on stage and make people smile there's no greater feeling than having someone laugh or just seeing the entertainment that you're giving someone while you're acting the people they're some of the most genuine people I've ever met and they're best friends what I love best about choir is that I feel welcome and it feels like a family it's a community of people that support and love each other it is the great musical capabilities that I have improved with learning it feels like a family every time I walk in the door to cooperate with new and a lot of people and being able to learn in a unique way being able to sing to relieve
012your stress and everyone there is so kind and supportive it's fun to hang around everyone is so supportive and so caring and it's a great way to relieve your stress what I love best about band is concerts my name is Kaylee and I like to play drums what I love best about Ben is the people in it I also like um the songs that they pick out my name's Dominic and what I like best about music is those drops over it what I love about band is getting better at my instrument that I can be loud at home and um I can maybe make new friends and then that I can also um hang out with at school [Music] thank you I continue to be so proud to work in this district and to be
013a part of our arts program and I thank the board for your continued support of the Arts Mr Spicer thank you Mr Kaufman I appreciate it um it's always great for our students to come in and share their gifts with us so we look forward to that every month and thanks again for being here uh Mr President Miranda if I may can I make a statement about some social media things that are happening right now um before we go to public commentary no I I don't see any reason why not go ahead so I would like to bring to the attention of the board and community members there's been some conversation recently about 988 and what 988 is is a National Suicide and crisis hotline in particular there have been some statements made that are
014just simply not true about the Milford school district that we have banned the number of 988 on helmets or other apparel Etc we are not suspending students for wearing them we're actually encouraging students if you want to wear your 988 stickers you may do so I think first and foremost if we discussed many times here at the board meeting we have 10 in-house Mental Health interventionists with seven additional mental health professionals provided through our well-established Mental Health Partners we have a hope Squad and we also plan to do a game of Hope in the future during the basketball season not only are we strong advocates for the national 988 suicide and Crisis Support line which is free it's a free public service we continue to share the important Community Resources to our stakeholders that we
015have again I said we do support the continued wearing of the 98 stickers I spoke today to will Cates who is our mental health coordinator we're going to buy and purchase the 98 stickers with their logo and color the 980 crisis hotline which is it's a federal government agency and we did recently meet with an organization locally that's the 988 initiative it is not affiliated with the national number or their resources we do believe that there is well intentions there we will Cates and I and some other folks met with them and we did have some concerns about that potential confusion raised with that again we have here we have licensed mental health professionals on staff that can work with them so we wanted to continue that and then most importantly is that will Cates
016did reach out to the executive director of The Claremont County Mental Health and Recovery board and they have the same concerns as we did so once again just wanted to share that feedback that we do support 988 we will continue to do that also just you know these support services are not just for students the support services are for any staff member um here as well as a matter of fact yesterday we did Will Cates and his mental health intervention has developed a wellness Wednesday for our staff so I had the opportunity to go to Miami Meadows to be with them yesterday so it's just one thing you know we listened to to staff and we're going to continue to try to incorporate those things for our staff as well so again not just for
017staff or excuse me not just for students but also for staff so I just wanted to make make that clear okay very well um this part of our program uh is an opportunity for public commentary Mr Ray do we have anyone uh Bill Thomas wait so yep um I came tonight to talk to the board about John's contract renewal I won't get into the money aspect of it um as you know West Claremont renewed their Natasha um raised her up over 180 000 decreased her work required work days which I did have issue with um I don't foresee that being something that's happening here but what I will say is I've taken a lot of heat for being a supporter of John from fellow conservatives because a lot of people think John's leans a little
018more liberal John has been what I feel is one of the the least political superintendents is what's what the district needs we need the less politics within this District so I have been a proponent we've worked you know pretty deep together on a lot of issues that have surfaced um you know I I will say I am in support of keeping John I've seen this District through a few other superintendents I was not a fan of Bob and I was definitely not a fan of Nancy um you know Bob was more about the the money not about the student Nancy was about the student but also had other other issues John has been about the student and about the district and the people and I feel strong only about keeping him on a superintendent I
019hope the the board continues his contract we as you guys know we have our committee that was put together an advisory committee to try to hash out some of the um some of the things that have divided this community we have a lot of issues that divide our community right now and we consistently fight on those issues which is not good for the kids so that is what this committee was supposed to be was to come together and try to come and find some middle ground on how we can advise the district to appease both sides which may not ever happen but we're giving it a shot so I'm very proud that John put that together and I think it's it's very useful I hope that you know going forward in this district there has
020been a lot of what I feel when my kids have felt it to isolation the parents political views and how they feel don't reflect the kids so how I feel about politics is not necessarily how my youngest may feel how my oldest may feel or how my middle child feels but isolating kids and and using kids as pawns is never a good thing my kids do not use their any political views in the school my youngest for sure doesn't um she's she's into arts and she's very accepting of all people and I'm very proud of her my middle child has decided to go to Oaks she's a little bit on the other side of things but I just I think the district is is getting better I have you know I we need to make
021sure that we Implement statistics and things for John metrics to measure them but ending on that I hope the board takes that into consideration tonight thank you thank you do we have any more that's all I have for the first public participation okay very well okay we're now going to move on to Board of Education business and uh before we get started in an effort to kind of have the community understand what's going on and be as transparent as we can about this process let me kind of go through what we actually do we have two Liaisons we have a liaison to the treasurer that is the vice president that's this is chestnut and I am the liaison to the superintendent and part of those duties include writing reviews presenting the documents to the board
022of education for review asking for and receiving edits where they're they're incorporating those edits notifying Board of Education of the review date performing the review including the financial piece and the contract piece were applicable um we started this process I don't want to say we were very late we were on the eight we started on the 18th of August the review period ended at the end of July so we were 18 days in when we started the process uh the review that I prepared for John I'll use that as an example um was given to all the board members at that time at an executive session um and uh there's a lot to absorb there but we did have an opportunity to talk about salaries uh annuities contract extensions and uh and had uh some
023things on the paper for that we requested comments from all the board members and informed uh and later informative board members that the review would be done on September the 9th so that we could have it we could have that in front of the board tonight which we do um I received comments from two of the five board members two of the four board members not counting myself um Incorporated all those comments and on day 20 of this process we notified uh the members of the um members of the Personnel committees which is Mrs Chestnut and Mr Combs that we would be presenting the review on the ninth um and uh and also told them that that contract would be on the agenda at that point in time uh the next day which is uh
024which was uh no excuse me September the 8th uh we had another meeting with the with the uh curriculum and instruction people and that is uh Mrs Nolan and Mrs Mason and I caught Mrs Mason before and gave her that same information and uh I had a one-on-one with uh Melissa after after the meeting and this was part of the discussion as well um the next day we presented Mr Spicer with his review and uh it was signed off at that point in time including all the financial pieces and the contract piece as well um so here we are tonight we've got an addendum to Mr Spicer's original contract which which takes care of the financial piece for him for the last year of his contract and then we've got a new four-year contract that
025we will be voting on that starts August of 2023 and runs through the end of July 2027 that's going to be voted on during the regular meeting tonight and that's what's coming up here right now um we measured the superintendent and the treasurer against the state of Ohio superintendent or Treasurer standards as they were um both of our both of our hires here have have done an excellent job they've exceeded their expectations uh really in difficult times in education um and uh Mr Spicer has worked a lot on keeping the focus on the district as such uh he's in the third year of his contract and as a result of his performance we're offering him a new contract at 165 thousand dollars a ten thousand dollar annuity and uh giving him a four-year contract Edition
026which runs through 2027 July 31st um salary and comp and and contracts are really not taken lightly by this board um but there are some certain considerations that we have to we have to think about when we're when we're uh doing reviews and uh doing the financial piece of the of the job and that is Talent retention uh Mr Spicer is a top talent so is Mr rabe we don't want to lose either of those although we have lost one of them which is coming up later this evening we'll Spill the Beans here um Mr Spicer is a top talent we want to make sure that we retain him and he stays here in Milford um we need to do that for district district stability um we went we just went through a pandemic and
027John was front and center on that working through uh making sure that the kids were safe making sure that uh things happened and and we kept kids in school and we had great success with that um we made a salary more competitive with what other superintendents around in this area are getting at similar size schools he signed a three-year contract back in and we gave him a salary that was appropriate for a new superintendent with no experience um he's got the experience now and we're moving and we're moving him forward give you give you some examples uh and Bill uh Thomas actually mentioned one of these West claremont's got a a salary of 180 000 for their superintendent plus a twenty thousand dollar annuity so that's two hundred thousand dollars Forest Hills just did the
028same thing both of those contracts were five-year contracts um Loveland is at 158 plus a 10 annuity so they're at 173 total we're coming in at 175 we're competitive um Mr Spicer has done the job and we need to move forward he's kept them safe during the pandemic he's focused on learning loss as a result of the pandemic um he's used data through spot exchange and surveys and everywhere he possibly possibly could and he's got new data measures in place to monitor the learning loss at all grade levels communication let's face it everybody everybody that's uh ever looked at uh social media knows that John is the face of this District he's the one that speaks for us he's the one that does what he's supposed to do um he's established trust with our community
029he's established trust with our stakeholders um he's increased transparency by being one of the best communicators I've ever seen whether it's Facebook live whether it's periodic or weekly videos whether it's board reports uh monthly staff meetings with everybody on the staff also visible and feed the feed our flock he did an all-staff convocation last year everybody in the district was there 700 plus people um he also has established his bill also said the citizens advisory Council to work on work on issues within the district that that need to be addressed uh he's resurrected the policy committee which kind of went dormant for several years um and he's also had a couple of a few board meetings ago we went through a process a district process which is one of our I think it's a policy
030that is the community-based review of uh language arts material that were questioned by the parents followed through every step of the way did a great job we ended up putting that behind us instruction he's working on really great reading which is at the youngest levels amplify which is at the junior high and Middle School levels and the northern Anthology at the high school levels um he's these are a lot of big words enhanced multi-tier system of support for students what that means is intervention specialists keeping our kids mentally safe as well as physically safe um he looks over our resources whether it's Finance Talent material technology facilities he's overseeing the new Middle School all the facility improvements and the bet for the benefit of our community um ever want to do that with your phone
031um he's worked with the Hamilton County Education Service Center to ensure best practices for promotion and uh and raises for all of us all of his direct reports and down through the organization uh he's worked with I.T to establish a stable internet um he continues to remain focused on the student needs he's committed to overall learning and growth for himself personally um he had gone through a three-month process with a an executive coach to make him a to make him a better leader and um the result of that is he's maintaining that coaching relationship and not only is he doing that but he's also rolling that out to his direct reports which is happening this year so those things are all good things we're getting a little bit better professional development as a result of
032John's experience and John's attitude of let's let's push it out and let's help everybody um he he always he's very visible at the peer-to-peer learning sessions with the superintendents around the city and around the county and uh he's been working with Patel for kids to implement best practices to benefit our district um this is a good guy Bill Bill stole my thunder he already said it it's a good guy uh we want to keep him here and I just wanted to let you know all the things that went into the process of his review and all the things that he he has done over the course of the last year plus that's all I've got um so with that being said um I need a motion to approve the superintendent's contract addendum discussion I just
033wanted to reiterate what you went through in the process and much of the work that John does isn't seen by very many people um he's doing it behind the scenes and I think he's done a really good job of um growth and Community feedback in the you mentioned communication I think one of his strong suits is also not just the external but the one-on-one communication when when people have questions you get responses and meetings and you know he makes sure that nobody walks away going I wonder what you know he really answers those questions I think that's important yeah and that's very visible with the at the board meetings when somebody comes to the microphone and has a question if he can answer it that night he's with them before they are out the door
034to uh to give him a response and if if not it's typically within 24 hours he's gotten back to him and given them an answer so these in in the private sector compensation is very very private it's sensitive when you're being funded by taxpayer dollars it becomes exposed and both all the teachers in this District everyone that works for public schools including our Administration they they're under that type of scrutiny and um it's uncomfortable if you put yourself in that position right now just really quickly any of you watching or in the audience so openly discussing compensation is just it's just an uncomfortable thing for anyone in these roles and uh um I'm happy that mine's not so just just to say that just really quickly so it's a it's a hot seat oftentimes and
035you know we're coming on the heels of a disputed and mixed review from last year just to be clear and I say disputed purposefully um John received some some great marks not this review I'm discussing I'm talking about last review um and there was there was a part of a review in separate form that that wasn't so great and what this board did was react to that and we encourage John to work with an executive coach like Mr Miranda just mentioned and I was happy to do that and and very much in favor of that and when we look at what the result of that was from the executive coach she made several comments about how willing he was to improve and how great of a listener he was and he's implemented several things that
036she's recommended so we can take nothing away from what appears to be some strong improvement from what she had delivered and I'll tell you my personal interaction with John has been nothing short of fantastic we do uh have debate from time to time but it never gets personal he's very timely in his responses and he's very thorough I I can't say enough good things about the communication that I personally have had and actually I think all the board um would would reflect that uh I I uh you know when we talk about this when we talk about this contract we have to remember the goals that were set forth for John this year are goals that were set forth in the in the last from the last board we are responsible this board is responsible
037for goaling our treasure and our superintendent and uh I will just say that I believe that those goals uh um were not ideal for this role and I am committed to and I think the rest of this board is as well we're pretty much in in agreement I'm committed to making sure that we have better more more measurable what is oftentimes known in a lot of the corporate world not just corporate world but smart goals they're specific they're measurable they're actionable they're relevant and they're time-bound it's a very common based on druckers management Theory it's it's it's something that we're going to incorporate for him moving forward but we're reviewing him on last year's goals which we're not smart and I say smart from an acronym standpoint parts of it were smart most of it
038was not so we're going to get better at that we have discussed and I can't go in the details in executive session we have discussed this issue and we we've vetted it the last time I would tell you when it was delivered to us there was several parts that we were in violent agreement with it was my understanding that we would be reconvening for executive session after we reviewed the documents that that David sent to the board because he absolutely did and as I read through them I had a couple comments and a couple things I wanted to bring to the board I didn't realize that today we would be voting on this on this agreement I will tell you this I will be voting no tonight on this contract um not because I have
039strong disagreements with uh with a lot of what was already shared a lot of some of the Improvement that that John's made over the the last the reason I'll be voting though is because I believe the extension is a little longer than it should be um I believe it should be shorter than that I won't get into all the details because I was holding that for executive session but just know that I am for an extension I'm not for an extension of four years and what some of the reasons behind that again as I'll say is I want John to perform against a a little bit more achievement-based smart goal type of goaling and I think he needs some time to do that I'm encouraged to deliver that to him and I'll be voting no
040because I believe that one sticking point for me is the is the four years I think it's it's longer than I would I would like and that's my discussion point okay you actually commented on the second part which is the contract but we're what we're about what we're discussing right now is actually the financial piece okay should I scratch all of that and replay no or no we don't need to do that when we come back to this can I say what I said earlier is that okay that will be perfect but what what is on the table right now for a vote is the financial these including the four years no just the compensation it is an addendum to his existing contract the third year of his existing contract okay it's a salary and
041annuity right now I'll Press replay okay any other comments and hearing none call the roll Mr comes no Mrs Mason yes so Nolan yeah Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you now we're going on now we're going forward to the new contract which Mr Combs has already hit replay on here um said enough basically this is a this is a four-year contract it in this contract it has the same numbers that he has uh on the last year of his existing contract and then we at the end of the year we were doing an addendum uh to handle the finances as we do every year so that's that's kind of how this has happened so I need a motion motion first I need a motion to to approve the superintendent's contract discussion um so
042I agree with everything that bill has said and David said and Jerry has said um I think John is great and we are lucky to have him and a few tweaks like Jerry mentioned with the Sparkles will set us on a stronger path going forward the sticking point I have on this agenda item is the four years most it is common to have extensions of one to five years three years is average three years is what most districts have in three years is what John had at we're at the conclusion of his well the end of his three years will be next July um we discussed a lot of things at our last executive session meeting um mostly not about John and at the conclusion of that as Dave said he gave us all a
043packet of papers to read which we did after we left um I did not share comments with Dave because I didn't feel they are appropriate to be on text or email as those are subject to foia requests and this is a matter that's supposed to be discussed at executive session which I thought we were following up with today um the other part I would not talk to Dave one-on-one about this because that is a violation of sunshine laws if Dave has that same conversation with each one of us feedback on a same topic that's called round robin round robin in and I thought we were discussing the final part of this at executive session today so I'm in favor of his contract I'm in favor of John I'm in favor of keeping him and going
044forward with sparkles but I am also not in favor of the four-year extension until we have a review against the goals that this sport has set so I'll be voting no on that for that reason um this is really kind of difficult because it's hard for us to discuss these matters because we're not at Liberty to discuss details of personnel matters or contracts but also we're legally not allowed to discuss what happens in executive sessions so it it's probably pretty hard for the public to follow like what we're talking about one thing I will say is after we left executive session I really thought that all of the board members were on the same page as to what was discussed and how we were proceeding to the next steps um I also want people to
045know that I can only speak for myself but I believe that the other board members probably feel the same way I always have the students teachers and community in mind um whenever I'm making a decision and I never go into any of my work as a school board member without researching weighing pros and cons and asking many questions before making a decision like this especially something as important as our superintendent's contract anyone who's worked with me before including Mr Spicer and the board knows that I don't always agree with everyone and I will always make myself clear when I don't agree with anyone I do my research and I just wanted to say that I am very happy that superintendent Spicer has been open to working with the executive coach that we had set him
046up with and that of his own cord he extended this work with her personally as well as for his team I think that shows real growth and really tackles some of the issues that we had had in the past I I agree with everything Dave said but I also just wanted to note that there's been a lot of hard work done with the Carnegie measurement tool as well as and the continued portrait of an eagle work as well as the work done with Patel for kids so I do think that there's been a lot of improvement and improvements have been made and good work has been done it's only right to acknowledge it in the proper way um and I wanted to follow up that we um so we've already embarked on the smart goals
047for next year and my expectation with anybody in any job is that we'll do smart balls one year you get a review you revise I mean we're not setting smart goals right now for the next more than one year and so I expected that that process will be and if for some reason John changes course then that's what we would reflect next year when you know more of this less of that but we're looking at an annual basis and the the continuity the district has a lot going on in the next few years we're about to get a new Treasurer hopefully not hopefully be like you but um uh and if we have bonds and we have you know building big building projects and a lot going on and so I think it's important that
048we can plan for five years we can look to the future with that continuity and his leadership any other comments I went first sorry I went second not sorry replay hearing no other comments um let's call the role Mr ribb Mr Combs no Mrs Mason yes Mr Nolan no Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you Mr Miranda may I make some comments please if the board has no nobody on the board has any objections yes you may only positive ones allowed I'll do my best first and foremost you said some kind things everyone has about me but the reality is it happens in the trenches I heard behind the scenes that's really what it is it happens every day in the classroom our teachers our support staff that's where it happens every day it
049is behind the scenes My Team there's been a lot of mention about smart goals I think it needs to be very clear that the goals that were given to me were given to me by the board not ones that I selected and then I with Elizabeth made them smart I then have established new smart goals for this year and turned them over to the board on June the 6th I've yet to receive any feedback on that so if there is anyone that needs further smart goals for me or feedback I need them soon because the school year has started I would be appreciative of that I think the last comment is you've heard it the average right now is 180 in five years so it's not you know over time yes it's three years but
050right now it's 180 000 10 annuity in five years so I'm very grateful to be here very honored to be the superintendent here but I just wanted to make sure that that was out in the open okay [Music] um we voted on that right and then out of the comments now we're moving on to the treasurer's contract I need a motion to prove the treasurer's contract addendum as written so move second discussion since I was since I wrote the since I wrote the review for Mr rabe it I guess we we're jumping a little bit out of order and that he's already uh given notice and taken another opportunity and we are really going to miss him here but um in his time here he has done great things for our district he has made
051the numbers easier to digest he has seen a switch from this past year to a new Financial system which is not uh not a small feat as Rob could probably say about other I.T systems um changing over but um you've really done a great job to make the financials consumable for us as board members for the community and we really appreciate all the work that you've done here so the contract if you if he were to stay we would have given him a four percent raise so that's what that's what we've included in this contract and that is prorated for the period of time that he's there and that'll be then that will be paid at the end well I've been on this board for the better part of three years now uh Brian to
052me he he coached me he's taught me he's retaught me he's re-re-taught me I if I don't if if I go into his office I never come out having not asked four or five questions and a couple of follow-ons he is the most patient person that exists anywhere on this property um no offense John um he he knows his stuff he does this stuff he gets the treasurer award every year I am very sorry to see him leave our loss is Great Oaks gain and and we wish him nothing but the best but going to be some big shoes to fill folks and we've got we've got a limited amount of time to do it so we will we will be getting on with that I just wanted to met with said but also um
053you may not know that Brian is a master of Robert's Rules which has been very very helpful um and much as as much as he teaches us about finances as well I know that he's taught me a lot about Robert's Rules as well which is super helpful amen uh so I'll say you know I'm new here obviously um and Brian has sat down and explained the whole funding thing which is so complicated and intricate and I understand Ohio's system is different than most other states so thank you for that but I think we've also talked about it at I don't know committee or somewhere along the way and that I had asked you know could we use your services to help educate the community community on financing so they understand it because we do have
054a lot of big things coming up with a bond and a building and stuff and I think you explain things very very well and so I'm hoping that we can still use your services to help educate others absolutely until your last day and and even actually even Beyond uh my discussion with Brian is uh we will we will do a prorate on him um if he had to come back in December to help us or to train the new Treasurer or get him get them up to speed on all of our processes which you're very intricate um he's going to be he's going to be available to us so that's that's good news as a new board member thank you Brian for educating me on a lot of the ways of school and public financing
055it's been super helpful and the thing I find you know most impressive really is last year's review and this year's review your your direct reports and everyone you interact with I haven't found anyone say anything bad about uh yeah um and that's pretty impressive especially in today in today's world so um hats off wishing you well thank godspeed and uh please please please help us with the transition okay thanks absolutely any other comments call the roll Mr comes yes this is Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you okay we now move on to the next part of business which is discussion of the nest we had a um earlier this month we had a work session for the public where we were discussing at length what what the nest
056is what it does uh and and started to discuss how we might consider financing that so right now I need a motion to approve the finalization motion to approve the finalization of scope of work and move forward with SHP to design The Nest a forty thousand forty thousand square foot facility which will include a weight room locker rooms concessions bathrooms wrestling rooms and a multi-purpose facility including three gyms to be located behind the stadium some moved second discussion and forty thousand dollars I'd love it yeah yeah that was yeah that was a wish um I'm calling Jeff to discuss that if that's the case so Jeff uh I just noticed he's still slow getting there so if you could share with us a little bit more about the most recent for the deadline for the
057design I I believe that after much discussion this board has after we discovered the finance option Mr Rabe shared with us he feels uncomfortable with any other solution forward for this District other than financing this project the one I I think portion of this project that's that's still a little bit unclear and I want to get some clarity from you is the decision about the auxiliary gems and the auxiliary gems the rest of it feels pretty clear-cut to me especially after our treasure tells us that we can do it but the only way we can do it that makes him feel comfortable is to finance it uh I'd just love to know based on your latest conversations do we have to make a decision tonight about including the auxiliary gym we really do because I
058have got to get started designing this project our challenge is that we're going to start on our Middle School in March April time frame and those existing facilities are going to come down I've got to get busy designing these things so that we can then bid it out and get it built we are already looking at a certain time frame and I'm not exactly sure what it is where we will be without the current facilities before the new facilities will be built we've already started having meetings about where do we put where we put our kids um on a temporary basis I don't have answers for that yet we will find those answers our kids will have spaces to work out in the summer during football season of 23 but we need to know because
059I need to get I need to give the go-ahead to SHP on this is what we want so you know we're asking the board to give us that direction and then once we get that direction at next month's board meeting my plan is that I will have actual contracts in front of you both for the architect as well as the construction manager to start that process because quite honestly I wish we'd have done this two months ago um we're kind of I don't say we're behind the eight ball but we're getting really close um timing is is critical and things are going to start moving here really fast all across that campus so we really need to know the direction that you guys give us to go so that I know what to do and
060get together with our architect and construction manager to get this done and Brian you're still feeling comfortable with we understand the market can change from an interest rate standpoint but that four and thirty number you think that's that we can get 30 years talking with Bond Council they don't see any problems with 30. they don't see us being able to go over 30. I was going to say can we ask for 100. no we can ask for anything that's what I say let's ask for 100. okay thank you and I and I and I'm not sure at least in my mind that the number of years has been has been settled I think personally I think 30 is a little bit too long I'd like I'd like to see it done a 15-year that well
061you probably know Dave the reason why I would be in favor of the 30 is not to stretch it to 30 it's to get the most favorable terms possible no prepays and really pay it off in a lot less than 30 but give us the ability in case we need to extend our cash flow remains with better burden over a longer time but we can always pay it down on a 15-year a 15-year amortization schedule although it's 30. if we can work that type of agreement with the bank yeah I did have a conversation with them they said it's a possibility that you can write that into the contract making prepayments I I agree especially knowing that um supply chain construction costs are not in our favor at the moment it everything's expensive yeah okay
062understood um your concern with the specifically with the gymnasium piece of that is can you elaborate on that it just simply um taking on additional additional costs I look I I've been very vocal about this needs to be done I really have I mean it's borderline embarrassing that a school like ours with the athletic programs that we have still have um our fans use portalets um it's just a it's just a really tough thing to to stomach sitting here and I've been in them very briefly um so I I just I just wanted to know about the um the deadline uh because that's the only piece that I wanted that I think is is even remotely uh remotely debatable uh and and again I've heard all the arguments I I was I've spent a lot
063of time on courts and Fields and tracks in my time and I know how uh how important it is to make sure that we have facilities to support these these kids so um that was the only that's the reason Dave I just wanted to know if we had a little bit more time and it sounds like we don't so I'm ready so yeah and and and I asked Mr Spicer and uh eventually Mark trout got it and provided me with information I'll give you just a with one with the gym that we have right now it is booked solid in the fall from three to eight Monday through Friday in the winter when it gets darker it also gets a little Bleaker it's an album three to nine Monday through Friday and eight to four
064on Saturdays um it gets a little better in the spring but uh you know you've got you've still got Junior High stuff going on but you've also got track that has to work out with rain a softball has to work out with rain baseball has to work out with rain we would it be nice if we could do this in phases yeah I just personally having uh spent a lot of time with the athletic department and sat in that gym uh waiting for kids to finish practicing at eight or nine o'clock at night it's it's tough I think what you know it it's just something that I think we have to do we don't we if we don't do it now it's going to cost more when we come back around the second time um
065and if we had done it five years ago or even two years ago when we first started talking about this two years ago when we first started talking about this it would have been less money than it is now by up by a considerable amount but with all the inflation and uh and shortages so I I really my personal opinion and I get one vote is that we move forward with this and we get it done and we do it complete and we do it right um we're you do it wrong you got to look at it for the next 60 years certainly for the next 30 years because we may be paying on it that long you got to get it right you got to put all the things in the need to done
066need to be done it doesn't necessarily have to be gold-plated but it has to be functional for for our community and for our kids that are here now and for kids that are going to be born 20 years from now somebody's grandkids so I I really believe we got it we've got to do this this is the time there may never be another time with money being what it is and uh and levees and things like that I think we've got to go forward any other comments I'm not gonna lie I've said this before I'm really uncomfortable company we don't have um and financing is more comfortable to me than our original talks of taking it out of the general fund um I agree with you know every we've talked about this a lot um
067Brian you mentioned I think that the one of the meetings we had over the last couple weeks that the overall interest cost of financing is probably about 2.4 million in interest so we have to just keep in mind that this um financing is a great alternative to making our monthly payments lower but it does add a big chunk in the long run as well it does so I'm not a hundred percent confident and comfortable voting yes I'm going to but that I really am uncomfortable because we are short of money it's it's kind of like when you buy your house and you go and you buy a I don't know 150 000 house and you've got the down payment and you sit there and you think about doing the rest of it you've gotta you
068got to take the plunger you're going to be renting for your whole life and uh and and yeah it's difficult it's not an easy decision for anybody sitting up here don't don't think for a second that it is because it's not but it has been well talked about um we may make it we're going to make a down payment on this but it's probably not going to be the full amount certainly but we're going to make a down payment just like everybody does on their mortgage and we're going to work forward from that if if our treasure feels comfortable with getting this done through financing I do if he doesn't I don't so the fact that we're getting ready to take a vote on this um is a public caveat that we Finance it uh
069before I answer so as long as Brian you're you're committed to getting that ball rolling I uh I'm ready to to give my my vote I believe the only way you is through financing fantastic and and we know where you work so we could come find you no uh any other comments I'm hearing none let's call a very important role Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mr Nolan yes Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes foreign feeling like when I just bought my house like oh no wouldn't it everybody does it just happened everybody does that that is a huge step forward for our community bringing us into say the 20th century because that's when Plumbing started but on on into the 21st century and it's going to serve us for many years and and uh
070as a district the boards and the people that are work in this District are going to take care of it it's not it's not going to fall into disrepair we're going to take care of this thing not going to convert it back to a bus garage like the other building got converted one way you have to move no promises you have to move it okay we are taking donations yeah and and we we have talked about maybe finding a a foundation for this District that that deals with things like this and that's just in the very early talk stages uh no guarantees but we need to uh we need to discuss that a little bit so um and they that so that will be coming soon perhaps to a board meeting um okay I'm now
071ready to move forward with the treasurer's report Mr Ray thank you Miss Miranda uh treasurer's report will be the first consent agenda for this consent items for this agenda so recommend the approval of item one the board approval of the board reports ending August 31st 2022 item two the annual programs resolution item three the creation of several New Student Activity funds and item for the disposal of books from Saint Elizabeth and Seton that were purchased with auxiliary Services money okay I need to approve I need a motion to approve those four items as listed discussion uh just a couple items to point out with the the finances uh we did have a little Oddity that occurred this year than what we've had in the past uh we did receive the final settlements from both Claremont
072County and Hamilton County however the rollback um and the homestead that we typically receive from the state in the month of September we actually received that in August so that throws the numbers up a little over two million dollars in there we also received because we had the final settle the settlements we also received the Tiff money from Union Township in August where we typically didn't see it from September so those two pieces right there throw the revenues off almost three million dollars in what we've seen in the past next month obviously that that will all play itself out and it will come back in line uh from years past so with that being said the ending cash balance a little over 55 million dollars in the general fund um Investments uh general fund Investments
073uh almost twenty three thousand dollars in interest on the month for 30 000 on the year and in the bond retirement fund we had just shy of 80 000 in the month which brings that total 154 000 on the year um item two the annual Appropriations we were waiting for the final report from the County Auditors before we can uh approve final Appropriations which are due by August 1st so we did we see that report said that's the reason why those are on the agenda the creation of the new funds uh we do have a number of Student Activities um that in the past were clubs but now they're switching to activities where they're actually going to be collecting money having receipts having expenditures so therefore we set up accounts on our books that all
074that money has to flow through you will notice there's there's some that start with 200 and that's some that start with 300 the big difference is if it's a 200 those are student-led organizations where the students make the decisions if it's a 300 fund um when you're looking at the the choir and the Esports and our Athletics and our drama you have an advisor that's making those decisions so that's when you look at it that's basically the difference between the two is who's actually running those programs and then obviously the last item because the those are auxiliary Services money those are State money that flow through us on behalf of Saint Mark's and Saint Elizabeth Ann Seton anytime they want to dispose of some of those items that comes before the board for for approval
075and did that change how that's funded now and it doesn't come for us anymore it still comes from the schools had the option they could take the money directly or they could still funnel it through us both St Marks and say to Elizabeth Ann Seton decided to keep the money with us both through us but there are you you do have the option now um also with with the auxiliary Services money they're always on a two-year cycle so this is the second year of their two-year cycle and and Brian just for some more clarity and emphasis um the creation of the five funds these clubs have been established we just we have to if they are to collect any type of donations or raise any type of money we have to establish a fund for
076all five of them to allow them to do that and they have to submit auditing reports and accounting reports to us so this is just this is just the way to allow these funds to actually exist and accept and spend money correct correct now this isn't all obviously we have a lot of clubs that are currently existing so what's it what I gave you in your packet is their purpose for why they exist and what their budget is we actually we get that for every Student Activity not just these five right but these five because they're new and we're creating a new fund for them that's why we have taken to the board to establish that but yeah that's the point of is it is anything they collect anything they spend has to run through
077our accounting software very good okay any other comments questions yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mr Chestnut yes Miss Miranda yes thank you we now move forward to uh superintendent's business to put superintendent John smizer thank you president random members of the board this evening under number one I'm asking for your approval of one regulation and two exhibits okay I need a motion to approve one it's a regulation regulation exhibits and two exhibits still moved second discussion call roll Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you uh under item two um I wanted to just take a few moments to speak to the board in in the community at large if you will just about the potential uh for levies um you know we we
078talk about finances um Brian is preparing our our five-year forecast in the coming months and so you know with that said I two years ago as we were preparing to put a bond on to build a new Middle School the Middle School update is next I made sure that I spoke about we will be back two years pass or fail to ask for an operating Levy we have not been on the ballot for an operating Levy since May of 2013. and so it is about that time where we are going to begin discussions as a board certainly with Mr Rave while he's still with us and the new Treasurer about the potential for that in a calendar year 23 which would be next calendar year I think it's important for folks to know that most
079districts come back every two to three years asking for operating levies you know our intention is to make levies last for as long as possible having internal discussions with our Treasurer and the board I'm not sure that it's sustainable to expect that a levy will last 10 years when their intent is to be two to three so this is just an opportunity to just begin that discussion the first time that a levy could be on the ballot for this District would be May of next year and then November as well so we'll need to make some decisions what I think is important for people to know School Finance is very difficult to understand if we pass something in calendar year of 23 May or November we only collect half of that in fiscal year 24
080and then we collect the full amount in fiscal year 25. is that correct Mr Abe correct thank you so I just wanted just to you know open that up start a conversation um but most importantly we're going to engage the community as often as possible to have further discussions about how we got to um you know potentially calendar year 23 and the need for an operating Levy um you know I know that Mr Rabe will discuss in the five-year forecast we are in deficit spending which means we're bringing in less than we're spending our assumptions are that you know just a three percent increase across all funds we're not overspending that's not how we got to where we are we've gotten 10 almost 10 years out of this because of the fiscal responsibility of passports
081this board and our current treasurer we continue to be fiscally responsible looking at um you know just ways that we can cut our budgets and go with the Necessities at this point we have plenty of time to talk about this it's open we're not sneaking one past the rooster the sunrise when I sneak of the sunrise past the rooster Mr Moran it doesn't happen that doesn't happen it doesn't have it so we're not going to do that I mean we're being as transparent upfront and honest with folks as we can be there is a chance that we'll be on the ballot in calendar year 23 May or November that's a discussion that we'll have to have as uh you know board myself the treasure and when it's best to do that but again we will
082have dialogue with the community and we'll I just want to open that up that's that's my point tonight any comments I think it's important to to bring it up as early and often um we talked about about your contract um it's sensitive for all the people that live in this community to pay taxes whether you have a child in this District or you don't or whether you sent one in this to school in this District 30 years ago or not it's sensitive and I think we need to uh we need upper transparent John you've really reached out the community via your Facebook live and some of your thought exchange things um I would say we'll probably need to double down in the next few months that's why Ms Boyle's on on this uh on this
083payroll because she's um she helped Marshall some really really good uh simplified visuals for the community in in the CPS district and we're going to expect the same one of the things that I asked in our finance committee meeting where I I made a comment and was that if every roughly three years we we go to the public or most school districts go to the public for an operating Levy and we've been able to do this for nine without getting into the granularity of how fiscally responsible we've been there's one metric that uh that is really Telltale that I think that the public should take a peek at and that metric is expenses versus Revenue because regardless of your Revenue regardless of your expenses it is one specific metric that shows you how you are
084spending what you bring in and if we very simply had that plus I'm sure Chris is going to put together many others but that one is going to be a pretty Telltale sign that over the past nine years how is this District really been spending the dollars that they bring in that percentage is is going to be important and I I know that you said yeah I agree we probably should do that in our finance meeting so I just wanted to comment thank you for bringing it up it's coming um it's not my favorite topic I assure you that um but these public entities don't they run because our community votes for them to run so um it's not going to be it's not going to be light that we put this on and we're
085going to be super thoughtful about what the ask is and uh we need to make sure that it's as transparent as possible so that's my piece thanks John it's coming and uh Crystal we're going to need your help to simplify this for everyone okay we have a really good track record of knowing how to communicate we've done it successfully for the last couple of years I I don't expect that to change it's it's tough to hit you up your pants and and take out your wallet it really is we we get that we're we're all in it with you we all have to do the same thing but if we communicate the what and the wise and give them the numbers that they can understand they'll get there and I see Morris out there and
086and we're going to be leaning on on his group as well as [Music] any organization we can get that will listen to us and we'll be out at the libraries we'll be out at the coffee shops we'll be doing what we need to do but we've got to make sure this community understands how the funding works and it's a it's not easy it's really not easy and and as you said Jerry we got we've got Krista here who has a good track record for doing visuals and uh we're going to be leaning heavily on her we need to get we need to get on with stuff camping record Kristoff saying that you're very important are we good all right we're going to move on to um the Middle School update um my good friend Steve's
087got a nice little slideshow for us pull that up next slide uh so here's our proposed schedule that SHP and Conger have um as mentioned a little bit earlier we got the schematic design to conquer construction and SHP on the eighth they'll take a look at those in the coming weeks and they will for layman's terms they're going to look at it and then they're going to try to put a price tag on it make some best estimates of what that that design will look like and then we'll then move into design development next slide please so here is the um the academic floor there's sort of uh what I'll call three sections to the entire building and that is the there's there's a gymnasium area there's an admin cafeteria type area and then there's
088three floors of this academic uh Wing if you will uh and so um you can see that there's some purple shade there the purple shade is the art room so there'll be an art room located on each floor it's sort of set into teams or pods in each of the corners on the first floor there is um is a nice Jess favorite I can't see that far and I'm drawing a blank on a name Courtyard thank you nice Courtyard that Jeff loves but but Misty and I are very excited about the opportunities that we might have in that courtyard with some hardscapes and some things of that nature next slide please so here is the far left kind of gives you the first floor visual of the three sections of the building uh the the
089yellow gym area if you will is closest to the junior high now which is the East end of that campus uh and then the courtyard excuse me the academic area is to to the far west of the campus so the green section in the middle was the admin the gray section is Food Service our custodial areas receiving Etc our Milford Academy is in the blue section they'll be they'll have a nice little section there of their own and then the purple areas our dining area as well orange represents the music so we're really excited about this design you can see sort of see maybe that the the purple section first floor to the second floor has two sets of learning stairs so that's open to the second floor uh my good friends in the audience
090robotics is still in the second floor in the middle right at the top at the lower left green section there you can see those large larger rooms that's our section for robotics so we're really excited about that and the opportunity for that program uh next slide so here's sort of a blown up area of the commons floor which would be the gym and our student dining Etc just kind of blown up it's a great design got a lot of input from from Misty we got input from students at the junior high as well as staff and we've had a couple different Community engagement opportunities as well okay so this this is not um this is not what's going to happen but this is a um just a little flavor of what could happen on the
091flow the traffic flow if you look at the gray lines um again I have stressed the importance to both SHP Conger and clangers we have to get traffic flow right on this I think it's probably one of the most important things that we have to get right knowing that what's going to happen inside the building is going to be great but we really have to make sure this is this is done right um so this is just a concept but you will see up by the high school um the southwest corner is a nice little roundabout so there's the potential for a roundabout here on campus to help with the traffic flow Jeff what's the right word for I was going to call it staging cars stacking thank you so we'll be there'll be a
092lot of stacking of cars um as well on on the site again this is just a concept this is not the final design but I wanted to just kind of put it out there for folks to kind of see it and then you can also maybe see the north side of the high school is bus only so that's a bus only area so there won't be the as we call it the shoot it kind of blocks Eagles way in the afternoons so all buses will be right there and students can access the middle school and the high school once they get off their bus uh next slide what's next you can just click on all this for me so schematic design was due on the ninth concordance HP are going to create their independent estimates
093there's a commissioning agent to review the mechanical electrical Plumbing designs the building envelope the outside of the building um and that is it so we're just kind of sit back right now waiting for these independent estimates and we'll go from there are there any questions comments did we get the schematic design on Friday good I was hoping you were going to say that any other comments questions okay let's move ahead to Human Resources business uh superintendent John Spicer thank you president member Miranda members of the board asking for your approval of Human Resources items one through five need a motion to approve items one through five as listed so moved second Gary you wanna there's a lot it's a long list yeah we've went through all of this in our in our Personnel Community we
094did and John I just asked is there anything that we need to bring specific attention to here yes yeah I would like to bring specific attention uh one is of course Mr rabe's um resignation which you you can still vote now um I don't know that it matters but um under the certified I just bring your attention to two of our great teachers that are going to retire um Mrs Gibson and Mrs Grady after 26 and 22 years of service to the district so we're grateful for their service um to us and I think that is the most specific other than we we have finally found a plumber so we have a plumber it's good work on Jeff's part and Ed Ed Beverly to make that happen and lots of communication with our plumber we're
095grateful for the the trades and um it's that's a it was a hard position to fill to find someone so we're grateful for that Miss Gibson Miss Grady thank you thank you very much for your service okay we have a motion and a second call the roll Mr comes yes Mrs Mason yes Mrs Nolan yes Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you uh we now move on to curriculum instruction again superintendent John Spicer thank you president Miranda uh asking for your approval of curriculum pay under number one I need a motion to approve curriculum pay as outlined in item one discussion I just have a quick comment we discussed this in our curriculum and instruction committee meeting that in the past for a lot of years apparently a lot of these approvals the money
096was spent and then they brought it to the board and so we we requested that it's brought to the board before the money is spent absolutely past practice has been that um you know we set these things up for our teachers to do and then we bring the curriculum pay and then it's approved we had prior discussion to the cni committee uh Paul and I did in the team and we agree with um with the board that we will approve curriculum pay going forward then it will happen yeah absolutely um to clarify we don't we don't pay it until until the work is done but they do the work before correct yeah so the work happens if they don't get paid until you approve it right right absolutely and and we do understand that there
097will be on occasion something that gets done that we would you know we drop the ball we somebody forgets to get it on an agenda but uh we expect those to be few and far between it would be the exception yes that is our our goal absolutely any other discussion thank you Melissa I've totally slipped my mind or I would have said something um any other discussion call the roll Mr comes yes Mr Mason yes Mr Nolan yep Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you art is my pleasure to introduce Mr Paul Daniels uh Paul is our director of secondary curriculum instruction and is going to give us a presentation on gaggle good evening all thank you for having me this evening John said this was a requested item by the board to discuss
098publicly I think it'd be great for us to be transparent as we always talk about with Krista our communication plan our rollout and how we are looking to support students through various means so uh go ahead Steve thanks uh so just a timeline one of our principals approached us about doing Gaggle implementation we did a pilot implementation with grades seven and eight in May of 2022 at Milford Junior High on June 2nd we had a special meeting with Gaggle representatives from the company a couple board members attended at their request admin staff to discuss the pilot per request of board members on June 7th we did notify the board via email with intent to purchase Gaggle for grades three through eight so moving from a pilot to a full-scale implementation in grades three to eight
099I'll talk a little bit later why three to eight not K12 just just about how we open up our G Suite in our spaces and then a commitment at that June 7th email to have implementation after October 1st after thorough training with our principals and a communication rollout but with our both with our families and with our kids we would not turn this on without having some discussions with our students so Gaggle is one content provider that does some work inside of our products only so we are they are a Content Analysis company that uses AI first that Flags concerning content and students School issue accounts or reviews and blocks potentially harmful content we are only operating in our G Suite Google Mail Google Drive Google Chat we are not in their own personal hemisphere
100of Snapchat Facebook Instagram we don't monitor that that's not within our purview that does not covered by our authorized user policy after AI Flags some things that goes to expert review so those are actual eyes with adults who see early warning signs they can take action to protect students from harming themselves or others before it's too late and it does include a rapid response so during the school day if we are open and in the school building that rapid response comes to the principle of that building if it is eight o'clock at night and they can't reach us like safe uh stay safe speak up our Anonymous reporting then we have the ability to turn it on to go to the police during the pilot we did not do that we just we chose to
101manage that internally with our three admins because it was such a small pilot so we were very transparent we did send an email or a school Messenger as well as this letter home to our Milford Junior High parents and how we were piloting Gaggle at the school families were notified but Mrs Goetz and her team there were Mrs Goetz Mr Wells an administrator who is has received a promotion in other District they investigated as if they were any other type of code of conduct violation it's important to note that even though sometimes things are flagged it doesn't always mean that we issue consequence that's really not why we're using this we're really looking at the lens of capturing things that are happening behind the scenes that our kids are either reaching out for help crying
102out for help threatening someone or others that's really what we're looking for so no disciplinary action lots of conversations and redirection so this was our three-week pilot it's important to note we did have three very valid self-harm incidents that resulted in a connecting a student with services so we had eight incidences of where the word suicide might have been used self-harm violence of others sexual content self-harm and suicide drug use drug use and restricted use so after the AI Flags then the principals look at it or the AI then the company then they they forwarded to the principals we were able we were able to boil it down to where we were able to connect three seriously um three serious needs and and those students are now connected with mental health services so three weeks
103we supported three kids the pilot was about twenty five hundred dollars so you shouldn't put a price on things but we have three children potentially with us based on some very very strong indications so one of the things that our board members asked us when we met with them and says who else is using this in Ohio what kind of districts how is this happening it's important to note that while Gaggle is one service provider there are other companies like go Guardian is in this space and so is another software provider called securely we chose Gaggle um just based on this conversation and kind of looking at the differences in the schools we have private schools on here we have Christian Catholic we have some schools who are in the top two percent of wealth
104and we have a few urbans in here as well so it's in some local friends like Princeton City Schools since I public is in there but we also have mvca who's at the bottom of 50 who uses this or 32 I'm sorry that is also in this space so that was one ask the second ask was um go ahead Steve the second well I will go back I guess but we might have skipped over it but that's all right just go forward so I just want this is not an indictment on anybody in here but we really have work to be transparent right so how how quickly sometimes we move has been a suggestion to slow down be a little more purposeful by the board make sure you're collecting good information make sure you're making
105good choices so I think what's really important is we were purposeful in our communication and we were purposeful in being slow and steady with this um we did in in notify the board the intent to purchase on June 7th we did disclose the amount of the contract it's roughly 31 32 thousand dollars we did ask it was a very good question which Ohio schools and then the other question was how are you supporting the mental health of your people that are look as a company who are looking at this flagged information and that was shared in the email as well which is training you with the Innocence Justice foundation training with the national Center for missing and exploited children um events and webinars discussing bullying drug use Mental Health and other issues impacting students and
106ongoing implicit bias training so those things are what the company does on a regular basis so we didn't get any feedback so we held it we did the contract when the money opened up for the new year out of a restricted fund and general fund which is student wellness so a lot of times what comes up is when we're sharing with companies it's always about the safety and the security of what we're sharing one of the questions that came up in that meeting was you know where else is this data going to a gaggle or other third-party server what third party or government has access to this data and how long is the data kept so the company did share with us that they did complete the most stringent third-party security audit a sock 2
107type audit don't ask me what that means I'm just trusting them at their word and then also you know good corporations also go undergo purposeful means of trying to hack into their system and the information they provided us was that they do this ongoing that they pay people to try to get into their system and then how long is the data cap data is kept for 30 days unless it's flagged as an incident then it's kept for one year if we were to null and void the contract tomorrow everything they have of ours is wiped because we've ended the contract so I think that's important because we're sharing information and oftentimes I think there was a question this week about are we operating um in the place of the parent or are we operating in
108partnership with the parent I think it's always important to know that we're mandatory reporters but nobody is operating um in a silo when the administrators found out that these students were in fact struggling and it was validated it was a partnership with the parent now becomes a different discussion if the parent refuses services and we feel like there is a strong chance that they will harm themselves or others that's a secondary conversation but if you talk to Todd or Misty Todd Wells assistant principal or Misty Goetz they will tell you that they worked in partnership with parents on every situation we even had one in mid-july that you know it just happens we were able to connect with a parent they were able to get the services or be aware of you know the self-harm
109issue so are we operating in the scope of our AUP that's our authorized use policy we are when you open final forms each year we talk about our privacy it's important to note as a public entity as employees and students we have no right to privacy inside of our Network we don't um so our our public being a public entity everything that we do can be records requested and is kept for x amount of years and we are pretty open and honest with kids and we are working within our filtering and monitoring this is a sipa compliant which is children's internet protection act it's FERPA compliant and it's Copa compliance so we are not working outside of any we're not pushing the envelope we're trying to catch up to the digital natives kids are in
110spaces doing things and um we're trying to catch up and if you don't see it in the moment it could be gone and some kids don't outwardly come to adult and say I need help they might use their email they might use a Google doc they may use a Google Chat that is their way of saying to an adult that I need help they don't outwardly say it and they don't all outwardly show signs that there is a problem before there's a problem so assurances these are the things that we're you know confident of we work inside of our ecosystem like I said we're not on your child's phone unless they're in their Google Drive and that's totally different if they're opening their Google Drive on their phone that's where we are we're not in
111there we're not looking at their phone history we're not looking at their messages we're not looking at their Snapchat we're not looking at their Facebook we are inside of the things that the public buys your money buys um for the district now email we are an email our third through eighth grade Rob will step up if I get this wrong our third through eight is a closed loop of email meaning you can only email internally so you are emailing your your classmates or you're emailing your teacher it's a closed loop that's on purpose as our kids get older we have to open that up because they use their email for career Readiness and to communicate with prospective leads and college career military so they are older we have to start to kind of open that
112system and allow them to communicate Rob we keep their emails on as seniors until October each year okay so we actually leave them open for a few months after they graduate because they use those to apply to send transcripts even though we tell them create a personal email address our our focus is not to be big brother and to be in the space of spying our focus is solely on Mental Health averting violence and cyber bullying we have been in this room for the last six months and they've there there have been comments that there is a bullying problem or our kids are sharing inappropriate things this is our way of supporting and that mental health is still the pandemic's over but there are still lingering mental health challenges and there will be for many
113years and we are not looking to discipline children we're looking at supporting and building a positive digital footprint kids get penalized all the time when they apply for a college or a scholarship or entry into a career or military they ask for your social media there's a reason for that they're scanning to see if you know you're the type of prospective employee that they would like to have based on what you're posting online and then finally again as we did with the pilot we are 100 committed to a yearly review of the data before making a long-term decision we didn't commit to a five-year contract we committed to one year three through eight or three through twelve to see you know we haven't talked our training was supposed to be on Tuesday the 20th with
114our principals our rollout was meant to be October 1st we kind of Pumped the breaks based on this today because we wanted to be respectful of the opinions and the direction that that comes out of this meeting today and then finally Krista did put on there to parents late September early October email newsletter followed by students classroom discussions like we would talk about this in advisory like we're doing this this is what we're we do this now but we're just you need to be aware and again continue to talk about that digital footprint these are our kids are digital Natives and um that's the space that we're in what questions have I generated I can step out of your discussion I had uh some of these increases in self-harm and suicide and violence and bullying
115that's really important right now and I think it's amazing that in three weeks three kids were supported to me that is worth every penny that along with the Hope Squad and will Cates and his team I just I really appreciate the commitment to mental health for our kids and then I've just been studying Gaggle as well and just from the presentations and everything um I think that this additionally helps create good digital citizens which is going to help our kids in the future and it's going to help them make good decisions um so I I really appreciate this looking into Gaggle and seeing how it works for our community so I asked Dave to add this to the agenda tonight because as the implementation date nears I think it's really important that there's a public
116discussion on it and to make parents aware of some of the implications of it I know a lot of parents don't read emails they don't get notes that come home in backpacks so they may miss communication on it and so that's why I wanted to have a public presentation and discussion on it um so I was contacted by a Community member back in May that had some current concerns about this I asked Paul about it I was invited to the pilot review session that he mentioned in June at that meeting I had a lot of questions I had some concerns about privacy the ability of parents to opt out and I've done a lot of reading on gaggle since then and I do have concerns about it there's definitely a positive um impact side of
117it like Emily was just saying that there's a you know ability to help students but there's also downsight and that happens every time someone has surveilled so this this will look at everything that the students do text emails or emails paperwork they turn in anything they do on their Chromebooks but a couple things to note that I have learned so if a kid is at home and they think they're having a private text exchange with another student um Gaggle also look at your photos that are um on there so here is one situation um students texting back and forth includes photos the students weren't texting on their school issued Chromebooks but when administrators and and they got an alert for for these kids there was a questionable content alert when administrators investigated they learned that
118while the teens were at home they would charge their phones by connecting them to the laptops via USB cables the teens would then proceed to have what they thought were a private conversation sharing photos via text but the Gaggle software running on the Chromebook could detect them because they had charged their phones into the crown into the Chromebook so I think there's a lot of um I mean I've I've I have so much research on this some is good some is bad but parents just really need to be aware of the of the surveillance of it and I think this was one thing that I learned I I did not know I mean I've had kids in the school system for 17 years I did not know of the doctrine called loco parentis Gaggle only
119will be implemented into schools that operate with loco parentis which is um a British Doctrine goes back to like boarding schools where you hand over in lieu of the parents to um to the schools and through loco parentis and the computer um policy that students or that parents have to sign is how they're giving consent to to do this whereas a lot of these programs require parental consent through Copa through simpa the schools don't have to get parental consent because they are giving it on behalf of the parents through the doctrine of loco parentis so I just think that parents need to be aware of that I mean I think any time I came to terms that my my teens will always outsmart me on computers I mean just like that's why we have NASCAR
120racing because the bad guys are better driving cars and police cars were I mean it's they're gonna where there's a will there's a way and they're going to so I as a parent appreciate services this is like bark you know that we would get at home so anytime we are giving our our students especially the third through eighth graders I don't know how much more mature the 9th or 12th graders are but they they need some help um just reminding and they say things and you know what what if my student gets flagged four times and that brings an opportunity for me as a parent to have a conversation and be part of that I what I really appreciate it out of Paul's convert Paul's presentation Mr Daniels was that it's an opportunity it's not
121disciplinary it's an opportunity to bring safety to our students and have those conversations because they aren't going to come to us and say Mom I'm what they whether they have the words for it or not they aren't going to the the behavior they're going to do is chatting with a friend or emailing something and anything we can do in that digital space to bring that conversation closer and involve parents I really appreciate I I personally think that that should be a parent choice and parents have the ability to opt in or out of it my opinion I have a question about that though because we sign a contract at we look at the handbook at the beginning of the year and every student is supposed to sign that handbook and it very very clearly states
122that school provided technology has no expectation of privacy so even if you are plugging something into that School Technology that's part of the school technology and I I just feel like if anybody has any of their kids on social media there's there's no expectation of privacy anywhere on there this is a software that's actually helping kids to prevent them from committing self-harm and suicide and bullying and like Paul said we're involving the parents in it we're not necessarily disciplining them uh the kids this is a preventative measure and I know that there are definitely like privacy issues with anything online um but I respect the way that we're looking at it um as only on school accounts unless you're like plugging something into your laptop it's not monitoring monitoring their social accounts and it goes
123right along with the Children's International internet protection act which requires us as a district to have a plan to prevent students from having access to things like harmful and obscene content um and it it's important too because we are mandatory reporters if there is something sexually explicit involving a minor or these things about self-harm these are things that are really important and this helps us do that instead of putting all of the expectation on our teachers or having somebody physically monitor all of these documents I think it's the the difference is when people sign that authorized use policy a lot of them well a lot of schools actually put in some states require that you have to put actually what programs and software you're using so people know what they're signing up for agreeing to
124um but I think a lot of parents and students assume they are signing that you know they're not going to look at porn or they're not going to look at inappropriate stuff and that the district is going to block some of those websites whereas this is information going to the cloud and we don't know where it goes um and and we don't know there's breaches all the time who in here has not received a notice of breach of privacy on something a credit card or anything I just think the parents need to be involved in giving consent for their kids before their personal information is sent out of the district we do know where the information goes right in the presentation I talked about how they use Amazon web services and they have their own
125internal server so and as mentioned after if you don't I will tell you a good example is if you're reading a novel and there's Shakespeare is always a good one right to talk a little bit about Romeo and Juliet what what happens on occasion is suicide happens in Romeo Juliet so there's lots of talk about the word suicide so we communicate with them and say hey we're reading Romeo and Juliet you're going to see an influx we don't hit it they don't hit it it's wiped away they hold on to things that are legitimate I do want to address one issue in in our conversations with Matt and Rocco pictures do not flow through any type of picture that is inappropriate does not flow through it is held and we have to communicate with them
126to get it so I do want to mention you know I don't want to be our team does not want to be in the space of surveillance [Music] um definitely not qualified for that just letting you know um but really we're looking at as another tool um to really hone in on things that we can't visibly see and kids who they have some needs but they can't express those to an adult so so um Paul first thank you for for this presentation I think the public needs to know what we're what we're implementing uh as far as data breach and data privacy it's been one of the the most contested topics in the world in the past really 10 years and it continues with uh with breaches at the highest level of security in the
127world which is at Banks um they're they're they they protect their data more than anyone else and they get compromised almost daily across the world so for anyone to truly believe that all of this data is 100 percent uh uh bulletproof um is is really is really not really facing reality that doesn't mean that it would be easy to access the data but could you see how a parent could view this as surveillance and it in it how a parent could view this as as uh not necessarily healthy for their children or as an invasion of privacy could you see how a parent could view it that way yeah I think we live in Two Worlds right we we we have the reality that we think we have a really good understanding and we also
128live I have another foot in the world that we're not always going to bring everybody along with us so I think it's that litmus test it's the number one most important question is are we doing what's in the best interest of kids so we also look at like directory information versus non-directory information so you know we don't um nowhere in our system do we have social security numbers for kids okay we have a state ID and we have an ID that we generate internally now we have directory information which is your name your address your phone number what we're sending to them is the kids email or adults because don't be fooled we're also you know protecting adults from this as well there have been kids around the country that have sent inappropriate emails to
129their teachers and Gaggle actually stops that from being sent I couldn't imagine being a teacher at 10 o'clock getting an appropriate email and having to wait till the next day but you know what we're monitoring for kids we're also monitoring for adults we're not separating the two buckets the G Suite is the G Suite so what we're sending up is you know their name their information their school so that when something gets pinged that report comes and it sends back to the school the name and the email like we're not sending up um like identifiable bank records and I I guess I guess the the question is can you see where a parent could feel that way sure and if you can what I'm trying to understand is uh what specifically would keep us from
130inserting a the ability for a parent to opt out of Gaggle even if 99 opt-in and only one parent opt out what what is the what is the pushback or the argument to not allow that small minority possibly small minority to have choice I I that's where I like I sit here today and I say I see all the great things that this thing has produced and I see a group of parents that may believe that this is overreach and I believe that a great compromise would be those that feel this way you have the ability to opt out and I'm trying to understand what it what keeps us from offering that to the parents I I seriously want to know that I'm going to let Paul talk but the answer that he said is
131sure I could see that the answer is no no we're not surveilling I do not see this as surveillance my own kids have it I'm thankful that it's there it is not surveillance that is not our intent and it should not be seen that way you have no expectation of privacy just as you or any one of us log into a work email or Suite there's no expectation of privacy so so the argument the the argument for publicly funded school districts and employees at will are two completely separate arguments with the surveillance it's too cold it's not surveillance with this um monitoring but I will tell you the the on this monitor the unfun not good answer is if you opt out you cannot exist on our Network anywhere you you can't live in power
132school you can't live in schoology you can't live anywhere because you've opted out of the systems that we have in place to protect ourselves as an organization like you okay um our staff and peers so the simple question is you have the ability to opt out but I need you to understand you can never hook up a computer to our Network that means you cannot go to school here well and so you're we're signing we're signing just handbooks at the beginning of the year saying I'm going to be safe I agree to this dress code I agreed this code of conduct I will not do drugs I will not do nudity I mean I'm I'm already we're already signing you know I agree I think my students should abide by this this code of conduct
133which I should abide at by work at my school as a board I mean our our emails are all in here too right we have we have gmails as board members and I just don't see a downside of the only thing that it is catching you could say I hate all my teachers they're all jerks they're so stupid a thousand times and giggle will care right we say warning suicide unsafe Behavior I want to know about that and what if if it's my student and your student talking and you want to be one who opts out I absolutely want in and so now your student has engaged with another student in the district so so thank you for that opinion my opinion is if I want to choose to my my child to opt out
134of that I want the choice I think it's a poor policy and that's how I feel and that's why we're having discussion so then you can choose for your children not to go to school here parental choice have the right to public education so if we're saying you can't go to school here where where would those kids go well I I don't want to backtrack anybody's comments I can only speak for me we copy everything and we give you paper copies of everything and you exist in that world there have been children who have had their technology taken away because they violated the AUP for periods of time there have been parents that have asked their children to have their laptops and their Chromebooks taken from them and teachers have adjusted I I can see
135both sides of the argument that's every decision we make we have to look at all sides but we we are really trying our best um to make sure that we're making good choices and to make sure that we're living within our our rights as an organization in the AUP we're not pushing them um I am concerned about your scenario that you brought up because Matt and Rocco were pretty clear that they're only living inside of our domain gaggle's actual statement on it on it was that they don't scan private text on charging phones but that a phone's photos do get uploaded to the school account and scanned do we have the ability to do that inside of Google photos Rob do they have the ability to upload from their personal device into Google photos the
136Gaggle will look at their photos I think the phone will say what I charge my phone at my work computer it says do you want your computer to access and I have to say allow or disallow so that they said aloud I think I think what you said is very important what you said is if they upload it to Google if they plug their phone into their Chromebook to charge it right which then then uploads the the photos to Google [Music] it because there are some there are some valid concerns um Elizabeth Warren um presented to Senate to the senate about Gaggle um about in some states where abortion is no longer legal that because we don't know what trigger words are used uh there's only a very small amount um very few of the
137trigger words are made public so we don't know exactly what they're scamming for and actually Nationwide if you um a lot of schools that have been using there's a lot of a lot of schools Nationwide that are using that it's there's no doubt and Educators from those districts if you if you go reading have expressed a lot of things um 44 percent of teachers reported that at least one student from their school was contacted by law enforcement as a result of flagging from the software 37 percent of teachers who say the software uses activity monitoring outside of regular hours report um uh are directed to a third party focused on Public Safety like police or something so what Elizabeth Warren presented to Senate um because we don't know what the trigger words are like in
138this scenario could you be criminalized if if if a student wrote about an abortion could that be flagged and sent to police in the states where it's illegal we don't know there's a lot of stuff that we don't know and I we can't pretend that we know everything about this because there's a lot we don't know so so I think the three students from that were um engaged from our pilot I don't know anything about them but I'm happy that they were engaged with you know principal parent mental health whatever that was and offered support and I will never turn down support that we offer a student I'm so happy as well we we're in we're in farm agreement with that so there are there are things about this that appear to be really really
139good and I think these type of things are parental choice and I'll believe that for a long time thank you for having me thanks for the discussion Paul um Dave anything from you anything from anyone else before we let him run from that Podium I got one more thing he's got one more he's not going anywhere I think it'll be better oh well hang on a second um is there a a switch that could be used as an OP Outlet here no no it's you're all in or you're all out yes and and the solution would be a policy change is what it would be it would but it would mean moving away from the osba model policy and I think you would have to make sure as a board I don't get a vote
140thankfully um you would have to make sure that you're legally uh in a good spot um in terms of being sued for any type of protection that would be my only caution you have the right to investigate change I would just make sure that your assurances as an organization are met so that you're not in a long drawn out legal battle that's why we have attorneys to keep us risk-free with these type of things and I have a feeling we're going to pursue it and I will be happy to facilitate that process good okay you have some good news yeah so uh today's a big day in the state of Ohio today is the day that we get to take a look at our performance on the new state report cards while I'm up here
141getting the one to share the good news with you please understand that this is part of a very large team one of which is well the most important I would say is our teachers our front facing and the systems that our team builds behind the scenes with John and lindsa Jenny Megan Rob and myself on the academic side of the work that we do so Ohio moved to a new report card I met with both Mrs Nolan and Mrs Mason as the members of the curriculum committee back in February we took a look at last year's ratings and took a good forecast of where we would be so the new report card came out today and you can have a rating from one to five stars obviously five is the best so in the area
142of achievement we exceed the state standards and academic achievement in the area of progress we have significant evidence that the district exceeded student growth expectations and that's how much students grow making um gains based on their individual past performance we have five stars in gap closing that's the component that measures the reduction in gaps for student subgroups takes all the subgroups in the district talks about how we close those gaps five stars which means we significantly exceeded state standards and closing educational gaps graduation I'm always a very great highlight in our report card each year we significantly exceed the state standards in both the four year and the five-year early literacy would be an area that we continue to learn about there's a couple ways that we can make some quick gains we actually already
143had a meeting on the calendar with our friends from Hamilton County to kind of understand how we could make some quick gains in the early literacy so it's a great day to celebrate but also to take a look ahead I think you know Simon sinek talks about a lot in the infinite game that there's aren't there aren't winners and losers that there's a head well that way ahead and behind so the pandemic is behind us the good news is our kids look on paper as if we're within two percentage points of where we were in 2018. so we're back almost to where we were um the other good news is that our systems work all the systems work that we've done around moving John is moving the district to be more data focused the multi-test
144tier systems the support that Lindsay and her coaches build on utilizing some systems that we already have in place at the junior high moving to more data focus and at the high school using the flex time for tbts it just means that we're moving in the right direction so again it's it's kudos to our staff there's obviously in any report card there's areas to reflect and grow and get better and we'll continue to dig into those but at first glance we're very happy for our teachers our students and our community today and then we'll continue to dig in we'll have more reports we'll have more data for you we'll have a some areas of improvement but for a moment we want to celebrate and then we'll dig in reflect and get better here doesn't have
145scores because that's still new when will we see scores for that I think 24-25 there's Lisa hair and I talked today there's two things that are glaring in there that's a really low percentage we have kids who enlist in our district they don't they're not on that report at all it shows a zero for enlistments I know that's not correct you are all at graduation you see how many kids get the pins the second thing which is interesting is when we dug in none of our kids who got credentials are listed you know we have 100 kids who go to the Oaks 100 plus each year none of their credentials are captured So Lisa and I have to kind of make some phone calls to understand where that linking did and did not occur so
146I think that's just something we have to get better on this is also be the area where we capture seals in the future so um but this is an area of concern for us especially Lisa and I understanding why those two components aren't there we know our kids aren't credentials the concern it's being reported not that we aren't meat properly meeting right so that would go up rather quickly changed in the past five to ten years and what in the to get really specific about the question is in order to achieve one two three four five stars there has to be certain criteria met how has that criteria changed uh in the past I don't know if it's easier to speak to five versus ten I'm just curious about that I'll give you the easiest
147one to explain is achievement everybody used to be benchmarked against a score of 120. wherever you wherever they took all your scores you're limited your basic you're proficient you're Advanced accelerated they had a funny calculator came out to percentage and you were compared to 120. nobody ever got to 120. so now what they do is in that achievement they take the top two percent of the districts in the state and what's their average so this year it was either 107.3 or 107.9 that makes a difference in your achievement because nobody's being benchmarked against 120 you're being benchmarked against the top two percent of the districts what's important to note about that is that achievement number will be fluent every year so you could be on the bubble of three and four stars top two percent
148could do really well that year you could stay where you are and you could drop so it is what most understand be graded on the Curve they made the curve not me I'm speaking yes yes it used to be a standard 120. but what they found was nobody ever got to 120 right it was a number that they that's what the report card is I think the most important thing too is we have to look at how our kids grow year over year and then I was say that if your kids are graduating and we all can agree that Milford is not a diploma Factory we do a really good job getting our kids the end game and that's you know do we don't do that alone we do that in partnership with teachers and
149parents and grandparents and everybody that's a village behind that kid then we move from a to F to five stars four stars three stars two stars of one which everybody will still equate one star to an f and five stars today we will also get an overall District rating uh next year we won't get one I think we're going to be somewhere if you were to take this plug in the formula we'd be four and a half to maybe 4 4.75 Stars you get half stars and quarter scars stars on your overall rating but not on your components Smart Gear this is the first year we've done discipline this is the very first year of this report card we took last year's data which was no rating and tried to forecast and we were close
150we were really close so next year we'll have a benchmark to look at and try to figure out if we're improving or not but right now yeah and the Curve will change and so do other things there are other metrics that will move behind the scenes that we'll have to be careful of if we're on the bubble of something we're going to have to be aware that we could float up and we could flow down it's just the you know the metric of where we are I would guarantee probably the next four or five years you'll probably have another report card to even confound it more excuse me that's kind of how it works I know I'm boring you Dave I'm sorry yeah just a little well already today thank you thank you Mr Daniels
151thank you thank you okay we're now going to move on to business operations uh superintendent John Spicer thank you president Miranda members of the board we do have under number one a king project we're going to vote on these separately the king project is um pretty significant for us and so we're really excited about this we've talked about this of course in our committees but I'm just going to turn it over to you as board members if you have questions for Jeff once we get a motion and have discussion so did you read that already yes so I yes so I need a motion from you and then we can have discussion and you can ask Jeff questions then okay and we're doing each of these separate correct yes sir okay um I need a
152motion to approve the board resolution uh declaring urgent necessity second discussion so Jeff just a quick update for everyone uh about exactly um what we're doing here this is part of our uh safety for our schools yes these are security upgrades we're doing for our schools um partially being funded by the security Grant we received from the state of Ohio the board last month approved the design contract for SHP to proceed with this this project when we had our first design meeting one of the first things that came to the Forefront is that the electronic devices as part of this project right now are at a 40-week delivery so and it's not like I'm going to order these things tomorrow because we have to go through a submittal process make sure that we're getting the
153right thing it matches our design um so what we're asking because of the 40-week lead item there's a resolution for um help me urgency urgent assessment urgent necessity thank you um so basically that's just you know taking a look at it going because of delivery items we've got to get this project done next summer we don't have enough time to go through a full bidding process and get these to get these materials in in order to get this project done so the the second piece of that is the quote from Cincinnati alarm not for it doesn't include any mechanical locks it doesn't include installation it is purely the electronic materials that we need to get that are those long lead items in the future we will complete that um big package that will include the
154mechanical locks as well as the installation that will be competitively bid and we'll bring that to the board in the future in order to get that project completed in the summer of 2023. Jeff how competitive do you feel that the material bid that's in front of you is now I feel very comfortable Cincinnati alarm is is a long-term partner in this in the security that we have in the district they do our Access Control they do our security cameras across the district they've got our fire and security alarm they're a trusted partner that we've worked hand in hand with I've been here 13 years and I want to say they were here maybe as many as at least 10 years before I got here so they know our district very well um they're a great
155partner to work with and I'm very confident that that we've got good numbers moving forward I think it's the second component and then the is that how is that more expensive less expensive how does that fall ballpark wise compared to this it will be it's about 50 50. if you remember right our budgets are around five hundred thousand dollars so if you're looking at the 250 um you know hopefully it'll be a little less but I'm not going to promise anything in today's market thanks Jeff okay so any other discussion call the roll Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mr Nolan yes Miss Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you under item number two the Milford High School HVAC system asking for a motion to approve the agreement to join the Ohio purchasing Council which
156also includes a quote for phase one of the HVAC process okay I need a motion to approve the HVAC project as listed here discussion it's just a little background the the purchasing Cooperative is just that it's a purchasing Cooperative um that goes out and competitively bids and approves um awarded vendors we have to join that Council in order to be able to use this vendor so it has been competitively bid this is a design build contract that we're working with a company called The Prodigy group so they are designing it as well as they will go out and solicit not only equipment bids but installation bids as part of that design build contract this is phase one as Mr spizer mentioned budget is not to exceed 950 000 it could well be underneath that we're
157still working through design but we want to get started and and proceed and get detail we've kind of got I wouldn't call it SDS cannot quite as formal as what we're doing with the middle school but we have had designs we've looked at equipment selections and we want to get that equipment ordered and get moving a couple items of note this project is being funded by Esser funds um and the second item of note is we've had some discussions there is a phase two um that we will probably be coming back to the board in October we were looking uh Mr Spicer our whole group Mr Rabe about what to do with the balance of Esser funds because phase two is about two and a half million dollars phase one that I'm asking for approval
158the high school prior to the 2009 Edition has one air handler unit that feeds the entire building and quite honestly it kind of starves the building so this project is going to install a dedicated outdoor air unit that would one of them will feed the gymnasium one of them that will feed the auditorium and that will take that air draw off of that main air handler for the rest of the building it'll improve air flow in the rest of the building phase two is the original Junior High classrooms that have 60 plus year old unit ventilators in them it's a two pipe system so we're going to look at bringing in a four pipe fan coil system that will be infinitely better than for the HVAC for that portion of the building but that's we'll
159talk about that next month and this should be no surprise because it's Jeff has put it on the the capital budget uh forecast for us both phases I believe there's two that might was it wizard three I know there was at least two there's two and again phase two would also be funded by Esther dollars right right any other questions or comments Colorado Mr Combs yes Mrs Mason yes Mr Nolan yes Mr Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you okay we come to our second public participation uh do we have any I do uh Rebecca born thank you I'm Rebecca born 1106 Fox Run Road Mr Spicer congratulations on your renewed contract thank you I'm hoping we can continue to support it because I'm not sure that Levy's going to go so easily thank you
160for your review of gecko you have always done an excellent job in explaining those things and you will not be surprised that I remain uncomfortable with some of the data Gathering of course I see the value in monitoring it and I see what it is accomplishing but I continue to be concerned about the continued increase of gathering information about our children I also agree about the parental consent but I heard a possible compromise and I don't want to go too far because I don't want to say something but um in the original uh paragraph where you tell parents that they're signing that the computers can you list gaggles we use Gaggle we use this we use that so they're at least informed that that's in there and then it's up to them to do some
161research about it I don't want to take my time with that but that's there's something you could probably do about that what I really want to focus on is to bring to your attention a move that the U.S Department of Education is about and I'm bringing it so that we can begin to wrestle with it now on July 12th the U.S Department of Education published in the Federal Register a notice of proposed rulemaking to rewrite the federal regulations that Implement Title IX to expand the law scope without Congressional approval to include sexual orientation and gender identity this will have devastating effects on parental rights children's well-being first amendments Right girls privacy safety and sports opportunities several highlights from their recommendations include create a new category of sex discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity
162make upholding biological reality a form of sex-based harassment and create a head-on collision with parental rights these regulations will be tied to Federal funding now I've heard it suggested that it may even be linked to providing lunch support where needed I have no idea how this stipulation for funding by compliance would impact Milford finances and numbers are not my friend I would hope that if Milford finds itself in this situation of complying to get funding we would review carefully the impact of agreeing with these Title IX regulations please hear this my objection is not about bashing transgender people don't make it about that and go to down that trail and it's not political I sympathize with the confusion our kids are in as we ask them to make decisions they aren't ready to make my
163concern is about the loss of and limiting of Rights for one group of people including the rights to opinions to create rights for another and to see this shift tied to school funding which is already a challenge is appalling so let's take a hard look at this and be prepared okay I do have a comment on that um just that um in general we are aware of Title IX changes um I'm in constant contact with our legal counsel about what that what it means for us and we're not expecting anything according to council any changes Etc from this Administration until probably February so we're aware of Title IX and and the changes Jenny is our Title IX coordinator um amongst others as well but we are very aware of what Title IX and what's potentially
164coming on the Pike and um you know what we have to do as a district to comply okay you have another Katon Ridner hi thanks for allowing me to speak tonight my name is Caitlin ridener 1030 Cooks Crossing Drive I um taught first grade here in Milford for nine years um the past eight of those years I was recognized as an accomplished educator by the state of Ohio that's the highest evaluation rating we can get in a in our year evaluation the accomplished rating that goes off of evaluations of my teaching as well as test scores and all other things involved in the process um I currently am no longer teaching I resigned in the spring and I do still have two children that currently go to the district kind of the reason why I
165am here in support of my fellow Educators as well as for my students who are going to continue in the district retention of talent was discussed earlier today in regards to Administration and I would like to also bring up to the board the importance of retention of our teachers teacher retention right now is a huge issue Across the Nation 43 percent of teachers right now across the United States want to leave the field of teaching and I hear from a lot of people well yeah everyone wants to stop working no one wants to work now but when it comes to teachers we go into this field because our heart is in it we are not going into it for the money we are not going into it for any other reason other than the fact
166that we want what's best for these kids and we have shown time and time again that we will do everything in our power to do what we can for the kids uh sorry I'm gonna get emotional now um I gave my all to this District um and unfortunately my mental health greatly suffered because of it and I was surprised to hear John say today that you know they're doing what they can to support the mental health of Staff because in my personal experience that has not been the case um but right now there are states that are starting to hire people as teachers that have no qualifications and I just don't want that to happen here so we need to do what we can to support the people that are working in our schools because
167Milford does an amazing job getting quality Educators the colleagues that I had here in the district they're unbelievable our teachers here I cannot say greater things about them um there are a lot of things that can be done to help support our Educators simple changes that can be made such as prohibiting meetings during our planning time um just basically stop adding to our plates um without taking things off it has become unsustainable at this point um all right I will be back another time there's a lot more to cover um thank you all right thank you can I can I comment about Caitlyn so we did do an exit interview with Caitlin and we did hear her um and so that's why I did mention that you know we've met with Will Cates our mental
168health coordinator to ramp up what we can do for staff not just for our students so we did hear her she is right we need to do better for the mental health and well-being of our staff um and so um I hear her you know things that we are doing as well is you know we're stepping up our efforts our professional development efforts with our new staff as well so that they're ready for what's coming I think as we've gone around the district the last couple weeks to talk about the portrait of an eagle on the road show is is what she said our teachers every single day bring their gifts give them to their their children in their classrooms and we cannot replace what they do for our students every single day and so
169Caitlyn is you know we are making a committed effort with our mental health coordinator to do better so we hear you you're welcome to come back next month but maybe you could sit down and we could have a conversation about you know those items not wait a month okay anyone else Amanda Fox Amanda Fox 6331 Lake Ridge Court um so I am very pleased with the um voting of having the nest built I think it will be a great addition to our community I think that it is needed to be said in the last two committee meetings that you guys had with the public concerning the nest there were several comments about past boards and past administration kicking the can down the road I'd like to remind everybody that in 2019 that board and that
170Administration did put to the public to have a bond put on and it was to cover quite a lengthy list it's still on milford's page if you would like to see all the items um we did have an influx of money after that and then of course covid so we have Esser funds to cover the HVAC system we got a grant for safety for the electronic keys at the high school um we're doing a great project with the nest that was also something that was on that original Bond the three things that are listed on the original bond that have not been addressed by any board since 2019 would be the upgrades to the high school electrical the technology classroom space specifically a media center and a project lab and a stem lab specifically it's
171embarrassing the size of our media room in our high school compared to surrounding districts so since we're in the business of Education I would really like to see the can stop and maybe this board I challenge you to find a solution for our academics portion of our district I am a mom of four kids I have two that are academically inclined and I have two that are Athletics so all the Avenues concern me so I would like to see those issues at the high school addressed and um as when we're looking at the path and the plan and stuff like that I know the original plan was to put the media center and where like the auditorium is now so I'm just curious like how do we get the rest of that plan implemented into
172the district so that the future Generations don't have to struggle with classroom sizes project Labs meeting space for teams that's like our corporate America is team building projects they that's where they learn the best and that's where projects are happening and those skills are learned in high school settings where they can meet and have class space so I just challenged this this board to find a solution for our high school Bill Thomas is Bill the last one last one okay very good because when you when you go a second time you go to the end of the line in the second one I wasn't going to speak again but uh I I decided to Bill Thomas 838 Georgian um John as we've talked in the past mental health the staff has been a high concern
173I hope so we can somehow engage this teacher into our committee somehow or bring as a something we need to discuss it has been a problem I came up to talk again about uh the the Gaggle product I've not dispersed I've heard of it I haven't researched it Melissa thank you for the detailed research that's why we elected you to you really go above and beyond we historically I met with Nancy a long time ago about bullying in this District it's been a problem I've dealt with mental health of my Mike one of my kids since he was in third grade Children's Hospital Child Focus I've been through the whole whole thing he was bullied a lot in school and we dealt with it uh Mr Kaufman Mr Dunn have been you know helped him
174through a lot of this and it was a struggle and and this product uh the district has been challenged for years on how can you how can you overcome that one of the things that you have to be concerned about is about the student I understand privacy is a problem and that you should have a choice in privacy but we're conservatives I know Jerry I know you're a conservative to the Core um we believe in pro-life pro-life doesn't it's not just about saving a baby it's about saving kids this saves children if we got to give up a little bit of freedom I understand that this we may it may suck that some of their information may be shared but if we if we prevented three suicides in 30 days or potential suicides you know
175sacrifice a little bit of choice I mean that's what we have to do we sacrifice choice to get rid of abortion that's what we're doing right now in this state we're telling women you have to have a baby because we want to save the life and this instance we're telling parents you know you go to school in this District you're not going to get a choice and I don't believe they should I think if your child has a choice to take and hide what they're saying and they're bullying someone and that could potentially impact the mental health of another parent's child that could put that child in a bad state of mind that and that their parents of the bullying child isn't doing what they're supposed to do yeah this product can catch that and
176we can stop it so for the first time in years I actually agree with the two Democrats on this board and I mean I I will tell you I am in full support of this product this is the first time I've heard of it and I would like to do more research to clear clear up some things but in essence it's about the student it's about saving the life of the students and this product allows that so we should support it hopefully I didn't step on any toes here but I'm I support it all you have okay well our next regular board meeting is October 20th 2022 in this room at 6 pm I'm going to open the floor up for a discussion from any members of the board and everybody yawn at the same
177time this is good news is this time for good news yeah this is a good time for good news I'm going to repeat uh the fair amount of what Mr um Kaufman had to say uh Milford marching band had their had their um marching showcase on August 27th I was there I got a chance to go I was one of those thousand people and my wife was also there uh what a great event uh good coordination of people working together the band working to get everybody on and off and take care of them all the athletic boosters were out there uh selling concessions so everybody can have something to eat and drink and uh got to see the show for the first time our our Milford band is just awesome they're going to do really
178well when we get to the competition so I'm looking forward to hearing the scores and I'm trying to clear my schedule so I can go over to Indianapolis in November to see them perform um our high school band had four people that were nominated the All-State band uh maybe a record we'll we're going to do some research on that uh the choir has been invited to open the uh to do the opening performance for the American choral Directors Association National Conference in January where is that located that isn't yeah home court advantage in Cincinnati great um we have two students uh Jackson Geiss and Corbin gray I think I got those names right that were selected as semi-finalists in the 19 in the 2023 National Merit Scholarship competition so congratulations to them um last year
179233 Milford students were recognized as AP Scholars by the AP college board and of those 233 27 of them are in the Capstone diploma that was the first year we did Capstone diplomas no second year oh but that is that is a that is a classroom full and that's uh those are great things um and finally fall is a fun time around Milford because we have we have some really good sports teams everything's in full swing now we're got all the teams on board trying to defend the ECC All Sport trophy that we talked about every month last spring to make sure that everybody was aware of it and uh we've got some reeling we've got some really good teams football is 4-0 3-0 in the league they're in first place they're ranked number five
180in the Harbin ratings which is for the playoffs so that that would mean we would get one home game for for the playoffs and one spot away from getting two so that that's really good that's really good uh boys soccer or nine and one they're 3-0 in the league they're first place their sixth place in the city however we have a girls soccer team that is 8-0 4-0 in the ECC first place the ranked number one in the city and number three in the state that is an amazing place to be uh volleyball is nine and one and seven and one again in first place in the league ranked sixth in the city another great job uh tennis is in third place boys Golf and girls golf are both in fourth places which are good
181finishes uh if we can if we can hold that position and cross country I'll mention them in that I do not have any records for them because they do they do a large meet and then uh you get the scores uh for for your positioning from them um great start uh if you got an opportunity to come out and see see them play whether it's a football game or a soccer game or a volleyball match uh tennis they're they're all doing very well um High School drama this is some of Josh's stuff uh doing the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee that's Friday and Saturday next week the 23rd and 24th in the High School auditorium and tickets are 10 bucks and you can get them online okay um High School football homecoming for those
182of you who are graduates and those of you who are not uh were scheduled for Friday May the 30th uh the game is against did I say May we may be scheduled for some we're scheduled for September thank you Emily uh versus Walnut Hills um that should be a good game and a good good chance to come out and see these boys do their thing uh the homecoming dance is the next night it's going to be at the high school uh soccer Fest is a little late this year I called the athletic director today because I didn't think we were having it because we normally do it in September we are doing it on October the 8th over at charity Lucas field boys will play LaSalle the girls will play Bellbrook so that's that's a
183good opportunity to come out and support the kickers and the soccer players uh and finally the Milford drum line has been invited to participate in blink in downtown Cincinnati they're going to be part of the opening night parade and that is Thursday October the 13th so that is all the good news and the dates that I have come out support your kids and the kids from the neighborhoods here and that's it volley for a cure is Saturday we missed that sorry I know and we big cross country meet too down at Valley View every Saturday sorry okay very good um just add those onto your list of things to do okay um almost to the end folks we have an executive session after this meeting um I need a motion to enter into executive session
184for the purpose of considering the employment and compensation of a public employee we will not be coming back we will we will adjourn and and go home in an hour he's been a longer than normal meeting so everybody go home and uh relax and we will finish up here shortly so I need a motion to uh adjourn to executives second no discussion call the road Mr komsky yes Mr Mason call a roll Miss Mason yes Mr Nolan yes Miss Chestnut yes Mr Miranda yes thank you