Edgewood City Schools - Board of Education Meeting 2/23/26

001All right, we're going to go ahead and get started. This is an a regular meeting of the Edwood City Schools. Um, >> can you call the role, please? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashgra, >> present. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes, >> present. >> Mr. Kevin Paul, >> present. >> Mr. Mark Measure, >> present. >> Mr. John Thomas, >> present. >> Okay. And um if you can stand for the pledge of allegiance and then remain standing please. >> Algiance 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. >> We have Miss Genie Rollins from Edua Ministerial Association. Good evening everyone. Thank you for the opportunity. Let's pray. Father God, we come to you this evening with praise. We

002praise you for the freedom to educate our children and the opportunity to shape the future of our community. We're thankful to you, God, that we can be unified in this purpose to serve as a school district. Father, we pray that this board's agenda be aligned with the will that you have for the children of these schools. We pray that each teacher, faculty, staff, and parent be committed to strengthen this community. We lift each person in authority in these buildings and in this board. Father, we pray that each one be filled with wisdom and integrity to carry out the plans you have set. We pray a hedge of protection be fortified around this district. Thank you, Lord, for your everpresent safety and protection to each student and classroom. Father, we submit this business agenda to you.

003Let every good thing come to pass with grace and mercy. And may every plan of malice or deceit be uncovered and replaced with truth and honor to the blessing of the children in our care. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Thank you. >> This time we're going to look for an approval of the agenda as amended. So move second. >> Mr. Mark Measure. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashcraft. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 50. >> Okay. Now we have some presentations. >> Mr. David Fair from the Buckler County Development. Okay, Curtis one. I think we just need five here. >> Thank you. Thank you for your time this evening. Uh once again, David Far,

004development director for Buffer County, representing board of county commissioners. wanted to speak to you tonight about a modification to an existing enterprise zone agreement that the county has with uh Carbana LLC. Um I was in front of this board back in 2020 with the original agreement. Um just to provide some background, enterprise zone agreements are economic development tools that the county has. Uh what we do is we reduce or abate a company's property taxes in exchange for job creation and investment. These agreements have to be done ahead of time before the company commits to the county or to construction. We do not do these retroactively. Typically, we may abate from 50 to 100% of the property taxes depending on the job creation, employment numbers, and investment. And these uh agreements tend to run from four

005to 10 years. We currently have two agreements within the Edgewood School District. We have the agreement with Carvana. We also entered into an agreement with shape uh also known as Magnode is the other company that we have an agreement with involving the Trenton School District. So we do use these sparingly. Uh they are for job creation. Uh we do not do retail. we would never do in a tax evade for a retail, Walmart, something like that. Uh they're generally manufacturing type facilities. If you're not familiar with Carvana, they have a facility located at 5506 Kenn Road. Uh that facility does vehicle processing. Uh basically they acquire vehicles, bring them in, take pictures, do improvements to vehicles, and then put those up for sale. They not they do not do any retail sales out of the

006facility in Trenton. So back in May of 2020, the board of commissioners entered into an enterprise zone agreement with Carbana. We provided for a 65% abatement on the taxes for a period of seven years. And in exchange, Arbana agreed agreed to invest $35 million in a new facility, approximately 200,000 square ft in size, and create uh up to 400 jobs within a three-year period. Like I mentioned, I was before this board in April of 2020 uh because as part of the agreements, we do ask that the companies reimburse the school district for part of that evated tax. In this agreement, uh Carvana agreed to pay back 50% of the taxes that were would have been due to the school district. And I did check with Miss Bowers. Um, our bond has been update up to

007date on all their payments back to the school district. So, they are in compliance. Um, in August of 2025, uh, all of these agreements that we have, uh, are reviewed annually. So, we don't just let them loose once the agreement is signed. They are verified every year. We have a group of residents that sit on a tax incentive review council. Uh, Miss Bowers is part of that committee. We also have representatives from the city of Trenton on that committee. As we were reviewing the agreement for with Carvana, we did find that they met the investment uh agreed to of $35 million, but they were short on their job creation and they had three years to create the jobs u in the agreement. So the first year actually they were doing very well. They created 226

008jobs. So they were actually 26 over their commitment. But by the fall of or December of 2024, their uh job numbers are down to 188. So due to that, the committee recommended that we modify their agreement and reduce the abatement we are providing because they were not meeting their job numbers. So we are with you tonight with a modified agreement. U this has been agreed to by the city council at the city of Trenton. I'm working with their economic development office and city manager. So the agreement would uh reduce the abatement from 65% to 50%. The school district's uh compensation stays the same, but you would still get that check for 50% of what that what would have been uh required of the company. City of Trenton did ask that the agreement be extended for

009another uh three years to make it a 10-year agreement. Um currently Carvana has a very similar facility in the city of Indianapolis. So, um, the company, I want to be on the record, the company has not threatened to close the Trenton facility at all, but there is one close by, and I think the city of Trenton would like to encourage them to continue to be in that facility for the long term and to encourage them to get their job creation numbers up to what the commitment was. In your packet, I provided the summary on the first tab. On the second tab is the original Edgewood school compensation agreement. Uh the tab after that is the agreement with the board of county commissioners. And then the last tab is the proposed amendment to the enterprise zone

010agreement. So the the reason for myself being here tonight is the ask is because you entered into an enterprise zone agreement. that agreement with the school does need to be modified. Uh so we are asking that Edgewood schools modify your agreement from the seven years and extend it out to 10 years. So that would be item number one. And then item two is just recognizing that the county will reduce the 65% abatement down to 50%. So those are the two items that we would like modified in the agreement. Um if that's agreeable to the board, if you're able to vote on that tonight or if that needs to be out of future, I understand. But wanted to get in front of me tonight for the ask and then answer any questions. I'm not sure how

011many of you were were here in 2020. I could certainly answer any questions at this time. >> Anybody have any questions for >> I don't think we have any And then like I said, it's agreeable to the board. If you're comfortable with making a motion to approve those two modifications, I appreciate it. Or like I said, that needs to be a later date. I understand that. >> Okay. >> I did have one question. So the the 400 jobs that they initially agreed to, is there any language in this new resolution on job creation? Has that number changed? Is it still expected that they would create 400 jobs? >> Yes. Um, so the agreement with Edgewood Schools doesn't necessarily change. The agreement with the board of commissioners is changing. Um, we are going to allow them

012to reduce that number down to 325, which is more realistic. So, they've actually uh were very close to their payroll numbers. They're they promised to have a payroll of around 13 million and they were at 12 and a half. So, we're finding fewer jobs at higher pay. So from the city of Trenton's perspective as far as the earnings tax, you know, the payroll is the important number. The job numbers are important too. Uh but really that payroll number is what they were focusing on. But you are um correct. They are reducing the amount of jobs from 400 to 325. Uh part of that I think is been on the company itself. Uh they've undergone some corporate turmoil the last couple years. uh feel like they're coming back out of that and they are I believe

013they are hosting a job fair because part of their um challenge has been actually finding the employees. It's not that they don't want to bring people on. They have had challenges finding employees also. >> How many facilities you may not know this you said there's one in Indianapolis. How many do they have across the country that are like the one here in China? >> Um I I would hate to guess on that. They seem like they had at least one processing center in every sort of organized area. >> So I would I would you probably 40 50 of these centers across the US. >> Okay. >> Any other questions for >> Thank you. Well, it's up to you guys if you feel comfortable learning if we want to add it to the agenda for next

014month. >> I would like to add it to the next. >> You guys comfortable with that? >> I would like to. >> Patty, have you got a chance on the numbers what that would be for us? >> Um I I've looked at it somewhat. Um we don't have all of our rates and everything, but I would like to share something else with you. Um, you've heard me say often that as we become richer locally, we become poorer with the state. And these aren't necessarily bad. Just the way that these numbers are reported, it helps us with our state money, if you will. So >> if we had a chance to run this by hand, >> sure. >> As an agenda item for Okay. So we'll vote on that in our March meeting which is March

01523rd. >> Yes. be followup questions. U Patty, so we'll help you if there any followup questions. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Our next presentation is Midpoint Library. Hello everybody. Thanks for having us. My name is Travis Spouse and I'm the CEO of the Midpoint Library System. I'm here tonight with a couple of my team members. We have Carrie Gman passing out handouts and Ally Daloa, both from our community engagement department. Um we're here tonight to promote Midpoint Libraryies uh team and our services um as your partner in promotion of community literacy. So we have just a few slides to share. Um first of all, there we go. So Midpoint Library System, we're one of two public libraries in Butler County. Um you can see ours is the green. Uh that map on

016the left is from Nancy Nick's office, the auditor's office. So you can see um our service area includes Trenton 7 Mile, but I believe your school district does have some territory in St. Clair Township. Am I correct? So some of your students might actually have homes that fall in the Lane Public Library system. Either way, uh we're happy to help all of the students regardless of their address. We're here for everybody. Um a little bit about ourselves too. you know, we're here, we have our mission and our vision statement, which is impacted, but more importantly, I wanted my team here to talk about some of the services that promote literacy. So, I'm going hand it over to Ally. >> Thank you. Um, like Char said, I'm Ally Dalgo. I'm the programming manager for the library

017system. And one of the things that we are thrilled to be a part of is Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Ohio. So, we are what is called the local program partner for that in Butler County. So, we oversee the database to make sure that the kiddos get their books every month, but we also deal with the funding part, the super fun part, right? Um, but we love promoting this program. We love Dolly. I could talk about Dolly all night. I promise I won't. Um, but this is just one of those great programs. We, I'm sure, in this room are all very aware that 90% of brain development happens before the age of five. We take that very seriously. Dolly takes that very seriously. That's why the kids are in this program are ages five and

018under. Um so that is your one of the programs that we have. We work with the lane libraries in the county to make sure it is promoted. Um I have registration forms tonight if anybody needs them but that was not what Carrie handed out. And then another program that we are very proud of um is called Starting Point. This kind of goes handinhand with Dolly. Um this is an initiative that we started back in 2023. Um and this is an early literacy program that we designed at Midpoint and it is for families for babies under the age of one to sign up and we mail them a box that has a library card in the baby's name, a board book and some other fun library things. There's all kinds of information including Dolly Parton in

019there. um our different like the Bartley County ESC, we have some flyers about that. So any community service flyers that we can connect families to. Um we want to make sure that we connect our families to these programs. So just really make sure our kids are ready for kindergarten. We know that is a big task for the schools and we are here to help always. >> Thank you Ally. Just to check in with Trenton area currently has 643 enrolled um youth under the age of five out of 900 eligible at least according to the way that the database is set up here. So basically Dolly Parton Imagination Library they they ship books developmentally appropriate age developmentally selected for kids from birth to age five once a month they arrive in the mailbox in the home

020no charge to the parents or families. It promotes reading. It promotes um parent child time. And um just uh again um in the end communities that have had that over the years show that kindergarten readiness scores have increased because of that ongoing engagement and um connection to literacy. So we could use your help getting the word out to schools um through the schools to parents as well. But um there is some room for growth um in that department um environment. In addition, once they do reach an age where they're reading a little more on their own, if they're struggling, we do have other resources besides just traditional books. These are just a few examples where you can um connect um the audio um with the um visual as well. So there some of these other

021resources too um for early readers who are still looking to develop their skills. And I'm going to turn it over to Carrie here to talk about some other advocates that we might have. >> Sure, Travis. Now we've talked about resources we have, but I'd love to be here to talk about opportunities for ways that we can directly work together. Um, a couple quick things right now. We do have some teachers taking advantage of um, utilizing teacher cards, which are special cards we issue to um, homeschoolers or um, teachers throughout our service area with kind of special privileges. We also deliver classroom collections that folks can keep in their classrooms. Um, we're always happy to attend school events. We do a lot of them. I think we recently came to a professional development day. Um, we

022also love to come out with the bookmobile. We currently do um send our outreach team to um kindergarten and preschool here in Edgewood. We love seeing them every month. Um and then we also uh have meeting rooms at our our library that folks are welcome to use for tutoring. I think actually the um Head Start kiddos are using that after the flooding and they're using those spaces right now. Um and then we'd really love to develop, you know, some reading prize incentives um ways to really get kids going. You know, I'm a competitive person at heart. I know a lot of people are. And so we'd love to work together to develop something like that to help um bring kiddos more, you know, up to where their reading scores need to be. And then at

023the end of the day too, we'd really love to work together to develop a way to make sure um every Edgewood student leaves uh with a library card. You know, the earlier kiddos can get their library cards, the better. >> Is there any questions we can answer for? >> So you mentioned a statistic there. you said from zero or 15 there 900 kids. Was that Trenton or the entire Edgewood district? >> So it was Trenton um statistical area. So I don't actually have it for like St. Clair Township or broken down to to know your individual school district numbers but when in our database it breaks it down in terms of city. So city of Hamilton has so many city trend has so many. So it's 900 is probably includes part of your district. 643

024are now enrolled in the program. Correct. Out to $900. >> Okay. Thank you. >> I would just like to say as a grandma, I love it. We go to every we go Monday, Tuesday, Thursday. Um the imagination play, the sensory play that you guys have for toddlers, um story time, and now that you do the babies where you that and we got the sensory boxes, and we still get all these books. So, we we really appreciate Mid Point. So, we've been having some conversation internal like one of the things that we're very focused on is trying to improve third grade reading scores. Some of the data that Curtis has looked at shows that we've got some opportunities there. And when I first heard Travis talking about this, I really thought this would be something that

025would kind of fit into the to the strategy that that Curtis has been kind of working on with the staff and the administrators. And I personally don't see any downside to this whatsoever. And I I think that there's probably a lot of reasons why we should try to take full advantage of this there. How would we do this, Curtis, and the district? How would we tie to how would we tie into this? How how do we maximize this? >> Right. I mean, I think I think we're talking a little bit about summer school, trying to close some gaps, and maybe maybe there's something we can do in the summer partner because this is something we're going to kind of blow the dust off and try to get going again this summer. not so much summer

026school, but maybe like a jump start program that kind of kind of a running start into the school year as opposed to the big gap. And so I think um you know, our principles, our elementary principles are good contacts for how to incorporate that. So uh I'm not sure about the the numbers of getting those families enrolled in those early years, but I'm sure Lori Harrison, Jenny Holmes, you got some >> So we're putting together a package right now for preschool and kindergarten enrollment. And I met with Kim Jones today and she gave Yes, I love that. She really today. So she gave me your summer form and we also um staple um where they can sign up for a library card to that. So we put that in every preschool and kindergarten enrollment. But

027in the preschool enrollment, we also have the link for the Delta Garden library in there as well. The 5-year-olds, obviously, it's a little too late for them. Um but we do push that out every year and we have our next week. So, those are in the folders of every preschooler in kindergarten that enable the edge of preschools. >> Right now, we're in a gap because the state has us decided to autoenroll um newborns as of what this fall. So, there eventually that gap will be closed. Everyone's going to be auto upon birth, but um we're kind of in that in between where there's some children that might be younger than five, but not just recently born, but that haven't been autoenrolled into that. So, thank you for being aware of >> how how are you

028guys dealing with the increase in English language learners because we have a pretty growth population there as well. >> We're we're acquiring materials for that too. Um, we could could use some help with that as well. >> Are we doing a book anywhere in the district right now? Yeah, >> we used to co had a So we our outreach team does go into the schools and we'd love to be able to return with them and help y'all. >> So we're we're not doing that. >> You're doing something with boarding rights up just >> so um they come in and they meet with our preschool and kindergarten. So this week um they do it once a month. So this week campus in meeting with all of our preschool and kindergarten. So they do come in our

029classrooms and teach lessons in each one of our classrooms. We used to have the bookmobile. Um the bookmobile I would it was kind of hard because the kids would return the books and then I would always feel guilty like oh my gosh we're like oh you don't have to worry about it. So it was great but we learned with the bookmobile we would let them check the books out of the bookmobile and they stayed at school and then that way we could get them back. So I don't know if that's the right thing, but we just felt better about all >> because co happened and we had three we lost 300 books >> and we are always so happy to bring you know those deposit collections into the classrooms and sometimes the bookmobile is a

030better fit. We're kind of a slightly older group. You know you're like first, second, third. Um but we love being able to go into those classrooms, do a story time, really engage and you are also kind of give Miss Kim a theme. So we we're fortunate to have staff that work so closely with them as well. They are fantastic. They are they are staple in our building and we just love having them in point. They they're wonderful. >> So, do we have a founded system? Is there a process in place that's sound and and firm or do we is do we need to set up another meeting opportunity to further integrate them into our district? I mean, what do we need to have more discussion on how to maximize this? You know, I'd love to

031have the opportunity to talk about um you know, preventing the summer slide and maybe set up something that, you know, a little outside of the school year. Um you know, because we have a really rich summer reading program that, you know, covers June and July and anything we do to keep those kids reading throughout those months. Like, you know, I'm thinking challenges with different classrooms, different grades. I'm thinking rewards. You know, something that would really intrigue kids. >> Yeah, we could definitely sit down with the the two principles and call some ideas. >> That'd be great. So we can maybe get contact information passed back and forth and set that up. I think this is exciting. I think this will be great. >> We're we're willing to talk other ideas too anytime. >> Thank you.

032Thank you. >> Thank you very much for coming. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Next we have a presentation from Chartwells. Let's go. Sorry, little it is here. Thank you. Someone's saving us right now. >> All right. Well, thank you for having us here. Uh we are Chartwells and uh beginning of this year we partnered up to help manage your food service department. So I wanted to kind of give you a uh a midyear update on how things are going. Uh just do a quick introduction. I'm Will King. I'm the area director for Chartwells for Ohio and Kentucky. And this is Sarah Higgins, your on-site uh food service director. And then some of these other people up here, they're not here tonight, but they're um the support team. Justin Hopkins, our regional vice president,

033Aaron Mason, our regional executive chef, Mindy Grant, our regional dietician, and then Rachel Bon marketing director. They've all been to the district multiple times and then spent time with the team during transit. So, I thought we'd dig right in just to kind of go right into the food. So, uh what's new? Well, what did Chartwells bring during uh you know, our first kind of couple of months into uh business? and and we really walked through all the buildings. Uh wanted to look at where some opportunities were. So we invested about $20,000 on truck dollars into some signage and some new equipment to kind of help kickstart the program. Uh so we put new signage in all of the buildings. Uh we added a station into the uh middle school and the high school. Sono station

034is kind of like our version of a Chipotle. So students can kind of go through and pick if they want to do a burrito or nachos, whatever they want to do there. Um we've done a couple of surveys on to get feedback um from the students so we can see how we're doing, what opportunities we have. Uh we've also uh began offering two hot entre and one core entree on all of the elementarymentaries. And then we launched some fun days, seasonal promotions, which we'll talk more about, but uh fun days are kind of like, you know, uh say a Thanksgiving dinner or something fun for Thanks or Halloween, things like that. And then promotional days or or LTS, limited time offers. And then uh two extra extra bars in the middle schools. Extra extra bars,

035we'll show you some pictures later on. Uh but basically, it gives the students more options for fresh fruits and vegetables. So, I'm going to turn it over to Sarah real quick. She's going to talk about the survey and then go over some pictures of the schools. >> Thank you, Will. Um so, on February 4th, I went over to the middle school and I just thought it would be a perfect opportunity to just do one-on-one with students at lunchtime, talk face to face to see how the food is. Um, I had an overwhelming response, very positive feedback overall with the taste, the variety, flavor of the food. Um, some popular items that several kids mentioned are their favorites is the tater tots. They absolutely love the addition of the Sono bar station that we um put

036in in December. Um, buffalo chicken dip, pulled pork sandwiches with the barbecue, homemade barbecue sauce, um, nachos. They really like the comfort food over there as well. Oh, we do like a chicken mashed potato bowl and we did like a turkey um meal from Thanksgiving time. But they really like those meals. Um we do have opportunities of improvement. That's just more training and product consistency, which is just making sure we're batch cooking. Make sure we know the numbers that we're serving. So we don't have issues with butters or fries getting on the harder side. It's a matter of being consistent with their batch cooking. Um opportunities. the kids, they just they want to see more fresh fruits and vegetables and salad variety. They like the fresh things offered. Um they like spicy things and they

037like a lot of comfort food that I noticed when I did this survey with them. Um we're going to continue listening to the kids and the staff and that's how we're going to create our menu because we're edgewood students and we want to put on the menu what they want to eat. Um this is kind of hard to read but there's a handout provided. Um these are just a few of the changes that the students requested or the staff requested to do. Um just simple little things like adding shredded cheese to the Sono station so they have a choice of queso and shredded cheese. Um on the-go options, we do salad, fresh parfets, um some kind of fun lunch item and a sandwich offered every day, but it's the same one through each week, so

038it's a little easier on staff and we change it up week by week. Um that's just name a few things. I don't want to read the whole thing. You guys have a handout available. It's the little things that make a big difference on the menu. I did thought it was very important to take the opportunity to show pictures of each school. Um so you guys can see some of the pictures before and then after. Um the top picture up here is a picture before school started. Um, we have added the signage above the servery to just kind of brighten the look of the cafeteria. Um, the staff over there is phenomenal. They do like different themes for the season. Separate for winter's the picture with the winter background. That's what the line currently looks like.

039They did Thanksgiving. Um, just a lot of good fresh fruits and vegetables just offered every day to the kids. Over here is Discovery Kitchen. Discovery Kitchen is one of our programs that we like to do. Um, it promotes kids to be able to try something new. Um, I also do provide the recipe so the kids can take that recipe home. I provide it to the administration so they can send it out to the kiddos. Um, something fun, easy, they get a chance to try it at school and then take it home with them. Um, it was very fun to do see the kitchen kids expressions and a lot of the kids were at second which is a good good feeling. primary school. We did add a welcome signage. Welcome to the Cougar Cafe. Um, you

040can kind of see the difference. It really lights up the area. Um, also I don't have the greatest pictures, but you can see on the side wall we added those food signs just brighten that surfery up. And down there is like apricots and grapes. Those are things that the kids serve themselves every every day. some kind of fresh fruit, vegetable items. Intermediate school. Um, we did add the welcome signage. Um, the corn the bottom picture is what it looked like before. We added food signage pictures around the servery. Um, in the right corner there is a picture of the kids actually serving themselves fruits and vegetables and they do a great job doing this. Um, the picture of the girl, um, this was Halloween. We did on hot dog mummies just for fun for Halloween

041at all the schools. Another fun thing we did was the Thanksgiving meal. We offered homemade um pumpkin muffin tops. We did homemade stuffing and got of course your gravy fashion roll mashed potatoes. Um middle picture, we're doing a breakfast promotion right now. So each week we're trying to offer breakfast for lunch. Um they love the cinn rolls. The last picture over here was the National Pizza Day everywhere. Um we offer flatbread pizza. We offer round pizzas every um Friday at the elementary. So it was just something kind of different for special pizza day. Um middle school, we did a lot of changes at the middle school. Um we added a lot of signage. We added um the extra extra bars. We rearranged the middle school a couple times just to see what the best flow

042was going to be for the students to come through. Um the signage, the ceiling signage we just added recently at the end of December. It really brightened up the cafeteria. Um you can see all the extra extra bars. Um in the larger picture, that's something Charles invested in to really promote the fresh fruits and vegetables. Um so station, we added that in December. Um the kid basically we serve the hot item and then the kids at the extra extra station with their garnishes on. And then here's just some pictures of the side. Um the bars filled up. Um you can see the garnishes for the Zodo station and on the other side is garnishes for sandwiches. Since they have two separate um cafeteria areas, um we just made a fit each area that is appropriate

043for each station. And then they got fresh fruits and vegetables. the register. We made it as a doublesided register so the kids could come out a little quicker so they had more time to eat their food. And then there's just a side view of the serving line. This is a high school. They do a wonderful job with their food. Um presentation is very very good. Um the top is the center station offered every day. The middle picture from the top that's our parade station. That was a breakfast day. Um the other picture up there is our grill station which we offer fries and sandwiches. Three different kinds of sandwiches every day. Pizzas we offer pepperoni and cheese every day with a special. Um the corner one is just a picture of the overall survey that

044it really looks nice at the high school. So we didn't add too much signage over there, but we did add station signage menu so they could see what was being offered every day. The middle bottom picture is a picture of just the breakfast that we offer and then more fruits and vegetables. Um we did a few caterings. We did the spaghetti dinner at the middle school in September. Um and then we did a couple breakfastes, one for administration, one for the veterans breakfast that was very well. Um I'm not going to explain all these. I just wanted to show you some pictures of the food that we we do every day. Um the top corner is the Nashville hot chicken sandwich which has been a huge hit for the secondary schools. Some seasonal limit time

045offers. So we do these seasonally for the fall. We were promoting some like homemade barbecue sauce, Sriracha ranch, and um like a homemade buffalo sauce just to dure your fries or chicken tenders sandwiches. just add a little extra flavor to your product. Um, winter we did chili days. We offered chili cheese nachos, chili on a baked potato, chili cheese dog. Um, just to get that kind of theme for um the winter of cold weather. Everybody likes a bowl of chili once in a while. Um, spring we're trying to do brunch for lunch once a week for all the schools and then we have a little bit of like a barbecue theme in May coming up. I'm going to turn it on well for participation. >> Okay. So, we uh ran the data where we're after

046the year. So, right top right hand side there is SP that that's a school breakfast program. So, we're serving about 574 breakfast a day. Uh, it's typically lower than lunch. That's kind of standard and we also broke it down by building so you can see what percentage of students are eating breakfast. It's pretty typical from what we see across the statewide. Uh we would of course obviously we're always driving participation. We must see those numbers go up. Um and then on the bottom of of the right hand side is NSLP which is national national school lunch program and we're serving 1,836 meals a day for that. And then again you can see the breakdown by building. Uh I also put the allocart uh percentages on the lefth hand side so you could could see that

047if you notice um like the um Edgewood Middle School they're at 60% participation in meal that's really good by the way u but they also have 47% allocart participation. So what what is all the difference? Well a meal is they have to be compliant with the state. So that means they're getting their proteins or fruits or vegetables. Uh, but then some students just want to come up, maybe they want to buy a slice of pizza, a bag of chips, and a drink, and that wouldn't necessarily be considered meal. So, we track both of those. Also, it's been a little bit of a tough year weatherwise. So, I just thought I would share this. We've had eight calamity days so far here in Edgewood, and one of those was a full weekend. You're well aware of

048that. But, but I just thought I'd put the financial impact of that. Our revenue is somewhere around $10,000 a day coming into the district. So, we're going to see a difference of around $80,000 just in revenue from the school lunch and breakfast program. And then we also doing uh the staff uh salary on top of that. So you don't have any revenue coming in but you still have expenses going out. Uh try to put some positive news on this slide is the rebates. Uh so what are rebates? So with chartwells we have purchasing power meaning I'll give you an example uh kind of a generic example but to help you understand it. Let's say that last year you were sell off. If you were to go buy a case of chicken, maybe you paid $100

049for that case of chicken. Well, at Chartwells, we get to negotiate those prices because we buy so much chicken nationwide. So maybe we get that case of chicken for $85. Instead of Chartwell's pocketing that difference of 15 bucks, we give it back to the school district as what we call a rebate. We feel like that's an incentive for working with us. So year to date, we've been able to give back $87,000 in product costs. Uh, I'm gonna kick it back to Sarah real quick. I know we're probably going over time, so we'll try to be quick, but she wants to talk a little bit about communication. All >> right, so for communication, I start doing monthly newsletters. This is the one I did in February. Just gives a highlight of what's going on in the

050cafeteria. Um, what have we done, what's to look forward to. Um, also I do meet with administration once a month to go over financials, food service, and just what's happening in the kitchen. Um, I do communicate a lot in the kitchens oneonone and through email with staff with kitchen leads and kitchen staff. I'm in the cafeteria several times throughout the week. Um, meetings with kitchen leads I on professional development days I always have a meeting with the kitchen leads and also a couple of those days I have had meetings with staff but hourly staff. Um, so I feel like I do communicate very well. I just I feel like it's very important to keep everybody in the loop. >> All right. Well, yeah, we'll talk a little bit about people. Just kind of give you

051an update. When we first came in, it's a big transition going from a self to food service management company. It's a big deal. So, we did bring in again our our regional chef, dietitian, marketing, and we we spent a couple of days with the entire staff just going over USDA compliance, culinary, new recipes. We worked hand in hand with everybody making the uh and giving them that information. So, we know it could be challenging uh for the employees making that transition. So, we want to recognize that. We did spend a good couple of weeks people travel from Ohio, Michigan, Indiana to kind of come and spend two weeks in every district or each building to make sure they worked with the employees hand on hand just to show them and give them the guidance that

052they needed. And then we started to pull back. Uh but even though when you do that, it still takes a full year transition. I mean, you know, they're learning new skills. A lot of your employees, which kudos to your district, have been here 20 plus years, but they're learning new skill sets, new recipes, just different ways of serving food. So, there's there's some transition in there that takes some time. So, um, so we're working through that, but you know, ultimate goal is to give the students fresh quality food that's going to make them happier and healthier. So, uh, we also had all the employees, uh, practice day one menu when we came back to school and we served every employee here at D at Edgewood. Uh, they all came in for lunch and it was

053a really good day. I think all the, uh, the staff here really enjoyed food and I think it was a great practice day for the uh, food service employees. Uh, in addition to that, we gave them an additional certificate this year that not all schools have. It's called Fair Check certification. It's an additional C certificate um that deals with allergies so that they have they know which students have allergens. It's really important to us to make sure we don't make any type of mistakes. So we wanted to make sure every employee had that additional training uh to make sure we focus on those students. So uh I know we shared a lot of information so we just want to kind of wrap it up with what's next. Again making sure we're increasing and promoting our

054programs kind of like the Discovery Kitchen uh the team did last week with the students and the elementary schools. just trying to uh introduce them to new foods, get them uh out of the box and trying new things, continue to get uh feedback from the students so we continue to edit our menus to serve the food students want. And then really uh just drive participation because we feel like the more kids that eat again, the happier and uh healthier they're going to be and I think overall no one will be hangry, right? They'll have better attitudes when they're here at school. So with that, we'll just kind of wrap it up and and answer any questions you may have for us. any questions? >> So, well, I got I got a couple things I'd like

055to talk about. So, I don't know. I guess it's been a couple months ago I had an opportunity to to come into the school and I've actually I've had some conversations with with some of the people that work in in the cafeterias and as you mentioned some of them have been here for a very long time. Kind of got I've kind of got mixed reviews on how it's going. Some seem to think it's going okay and and and some don't. And some of the concerns that that came up in some of the conversations at least that I was having was um actually kind of evident in your in your slides. Um I got some I got some calls from some parents very early on in the school year. One of the menu items that we

056served at at Baybeck was carbonsa bean salad and we were serving that to second graders. And I'm just kind of thinking that like when my daughter was in second grade, it was chicken nuggets and French fries. And I kind of questioned whether that was really an age appropriate menu item for first and second graders. May maybe it is, maybe it isn't, but that really was the only thing that was on the menu that day. So I kind of questioned, was this really the right, you know, was this the right way to go? And you talked about presentation multiple times. And in your slides, there's pictures of food sitting out underneath heat lamps. And one of the some of the feedback that I got from staff is that a lot of the kids were complaining that

057the food was hard because it gets dried out because it's under the the heat on that one particular day when I was visiting the schools. I got an opportunity to go to a student advisory council and the students were actually eating lunch while I was there. A lot of the things that I had heard from people that work actually in the cafeteria about maybe not age appropriate or maybe not items that the students were eating. I was hearing that echoed from the students and some of the things in terms of presentation, you know, bread being really hard, the food being dried out from sitting under the heat lamps. I was also getting that same feedback from the students. Actually had a student tell me that if you put enough ketchup on it, the bread gets

058soft again. And I'm not really sure that that's the I'm not really sure that's what we want happening. Right. So, >> sure. >> Um, you know, we're we're about halfway through this and and I'll be very honest with you, I was very reluctant in the very beginning to outsource our cafeteria service. Um, because we had did this internal for a very, very long time. And obviously, it was very appealing because it looked like it came with a cost savings. And we very much appreciate the fact that it does. you do have the purchasing by so much, but you we're just over the halfway point and I think we still have some opportunities with some of the menu stuff. Some of you talked about that in here and some of the presentation stuff and and you

059know, maybe that's important, but if it's making it to where the kids aren't eating it, I don't know that that really is is doing what we want it to do. So, I I just I do think we've got some opportunities to kind of fix some of these things and I'll be glad to go into more examples if if you'd like, but you talked about, you know, some of the reducing the bean items and replacing them with different kind of menu items. You know, I when you talk about going forward, we're just a few months left before we're going to be talking about renewing contracts and things like that. And what I would really like to see is what we're going to do that would be different next year to address some of these concerns. just

060being very honest and put it out there because, you know, as you said, we've got employees that's been here for a very long time. And when I've got a employee that's been here for 20 plus years telling me that there's opportunities that they're bringing up that are not being listened to or not being acted on, it kind of concerns me a little bit. These people know what these kids eat. They've been doing it, you know, a long time. And and some of these kids may not, this may be the only real good meal they get, you know, during the day. So, we want to make sure that they're getting plenty to eat and they're leaving out of here, you know, full and and feel good about what they're getting. So, I would just ask that

061you guys maybe go back and meet with these employees across all the buildings and and really give them an opportunity to give you some feedback. And if it means changing some things in terms of presentation, I would ask that we consider doing that. If it means changing some of the menu items, I would ask that we consider doing those kinds of things. Um because I I don't think it's I don't think what we've got right now is is bad. I just don't think it's as good as it it could be. And I would kind of like to just give you that feedback while we've still got time to make changes before we have to start talking about whether we're going to do this again for next year or not. >> I think feedback's important and

062I think it's also important to get multiple perspectives, right? So I think you can have a perspective from from a food service employee versus a perspective from your students and perspective from the board, right? So there's lots of perspectives of what what is the right menu items. What's the wrong menu items? So, we do do that. We do put a garbage project salad out there because we also know students pallets are a lot more different than when you and I were children and young school. And so, we try those things and if they're not good, absolutely, we want to take them off. We want to offer food that students want. So, that's why Sarah goes out and gets that feedback. I mean, again, she she probably did a a one-on-one survey for 100 middle school

063students and I would say 99% was very positive feedback. So, as far as product quality, we're all about product quality. If there's a dry bun or or a piece of chicken tender that's dry, that's us working with that staff who's we to understand what is batch cooking. So, batch cooking is cooking throughout the shift, right? Cooking. So, each student that comes in, each lunch line that comes in, they are getting fresh chicken tenders, they are getting a a sandwich that hasn't been sitting there for three lunch periods. So, that is our focus. That's that's something that Sarah does. She works with the team to try to, you know, make sure that she's implementing and the team implements that for freshness and quality because again Sarah's we're just a management company. So we have to work

064with the team here, the employees of Edgewood City Schools so that they understand that too and we all have the same goal, the same vision. Uh so absolutely your feedback is very important and we want to work towards that. So uh anything that we can do again we want to do another survey that's going to come out this year. We're going to work with uh sending out an email survey so we can get gather all that feedback from the community so that we can see is this the right menu mix? Is it the right food that they want to see? We don't want to our goal is to never offer food that kids don't want to eat. So I mean that's that's our number one goal is to make sure we're getting good quality food

065out there. And Sarah, anything to add to that? >> With the garbanzo salad, we always offer like three vegetables every day. So that would be just one operate. They would have two other vegetables to choose from plus the fruits every single day. And I have asked for a lot of feedback with all the staff. I actually on the professional development day in January, I went to every building individually so they could just tell me one on- one any suggestions they would have. I also asked the past several months for any feedback and I've emailed them several times. I've been in the kitchen like you have any suggestions because that's when I want to And that's another reason why I went out to the middle school to see how the food was going and see what

066they like and what they don't like. Um, and just I did hear about the hard buns and fries earlier in the school year at the middle school. Um, and I did address that to the staff and try to really tell you need a batch and watch your efforts. It was kind of hard to predict at the end of the school year because we didn't know what to expect. So, they were cooking a little bit more than they should and things were sitting lower than they should. But I like they have a better handle on it. I did try a sandwich the other week. I think last week I went over there and it was the last line and the bun actually was really soft and the quality was good. Um that's things that I wanted

067to do even more going to the school just spot checking the food. Um it's little give and take. Um it's been we had a lot of hiccups and a lot of challenging this school year, but I want the team to know that you know I'm on their side. I'm here to help and support them anyways and I want to hear the So, I appreciate that a lot. >> Just curious, why why don't we wrap the food? Why don't we wrap sandwiches if they're going to be sitting out like that? What what's the reason for not wrapping them? >> Yeah. I mean, we can wrap them. I mean, a lot of times students eat with their eyes just, you know, so you don't know what if it's wrapped, you're not really seeing a product. It's just

068a wrapped burger or wrapped chicken sandwich. You're not sure what it looks like. So, we can actually do that. If that's something the district wants us to do, we'll do it. >> I'm not saying what you done. I was just curious why we weren't cuz it seemed like that was it seemed like that was a big sticking point that we don't wrap the food >> and that was one of the reasons it was drying out and I'm just curious why we didn't do it. But >> yeah, I think it's more of just getting that batch cooking right and putting out the right amount and continuously rotating. So I think it's something we can fix internally u so we still have good presentation. But if if that doesn't work and we have to go to wrapping

069then we can do that to make sure we protect quality. So, and I encourage everyone on the board to come, you know, go to the high school, go to the middle school, try the summer station, you know, have uh have lunch on us and see what you think about it. >> I was at the Veterans Day breakfast. It was it was good. So, I I echo what you said. It was well received. So, I appreciate that. Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> No. Thank you so much. >> Okay. Thanks for having a good night. All right. Next, we have our financial forecast, our own Patty Bowers. My allergies are accept there. Leave the lights on. >> Getting sleepy and hungry. >> I don't know. because I travel to Watch out. Okay, thank you. So,

070um, as you all know, we're required twice a year to submit a financial forecast. This used to be a five-year forecast. Um, they're actually still accepting a five-year this year. Um, but moving forward, it's going to be your current year and three additional years. So, it's now called a financial forecast, but often referred to as a fiveyear forecast. I may refer to it as a tonight. It's not, but I have that and there's a reason for it. I'll explain that more as we go on. Um, so there are three reasons that we do this forecast. First and foremost, so that we can engage the board. Um, this is how we do our long range planning and discuss any financial issues that are um, facing the school district. It also serves as our basis for signing

071our 412 certificate. A little bit on that. Anytime we enter into contracts, uh both myself, the superintendent and our board president have to sign off on a 412 certificate. Um we send these in. They will go to the county with our appropriations. It's also attached to this uh financial forecast that's committing use. So, uh for example, last year we um renewed our contracts with both our teachers union and our classified union. we have to sign a 412 certificate that says that we will earmark our funds that we can meet those financial obligations for the term of that contract. So we are in the first year of that contract with still two additional years for both of our bargaining units. Um so that 412 certificate we signed we say yes we reserve that money so we

072can meet that obligation. Uh the third reason is to provide a method for the department of education and workforce as well as our state auditor to identify any uh potential financial problems. Uh this uh image here is a projected financial analysis. The uh highest blue bar there on the left that shows that we started this school year of beginning cash balance um with $11 million. We anticipate that we will end with about 10.8. Um I do want to point out here that anytime you're looking at these financial forecast, you're only looking at general fund dollars. So the district has a lot of different funds, but uh the majority of what our operating expenses are come right through this general fund. Um, so we do project that we will have a net loss of about $591,000

073this year. Um, I also want to point out that this is a moving target. So, um, we we experience things every day. Um, you've probably heard u about the flood that we had at the primary building. Um, we've had a condo go out at the primary building. We have a steamer out at the early childhood center. So this is a moving target. I could run this forecast every day and every day it will look different. So I do want to point that out just so you know it's a moving target. It can and it will change almost daily. Um here you can see our projected revenue analysis. Um more a little bit more than half of our funding comes from the state. Um local taxes provide about 39% all other revenue about 9%. So if

074you break this down you can there in that top section. Uh this is our property tax revenue. About 11 million will come from our property tax revenue. The public utility and personal property tax will be about 5.4 million. Uh the middle section is the projected state funding. Um you've heard me talk before about restricted and unrestricted funds. So that top line is the unrestricted uh $18 million and then 1.39 million um are restricted funds. A little bit about the restricted funds. The state tells us what we can use that for. So um it will be earmarked for gifted or special education or transportation. We actually have to identify those funds with special cost centers. We report to the state and show them how we have used that money. And then that uh third line there

075is the state share of local tax. So we also have homestead reimbursements and whatnot from the county auditors. Our residents can apply for that and the state will reimburse some of that. That's what that state share of local taxes is but it comes from the state and not the county. Then the bottom section is projected all other revenues. This can be anything from interest on um our bank accounts, uh pay to participate fees, anything that is not considered a property tax revenue or monies from the state goes in this last little part. Now, we're going to take a look at expenditures here. Um currently our personnel cost about 81% of our budget. We have purchase services under that about 13%. And then all other expenditures are 6%. We've got it broken down here on the

076right. You can see salaries come in about 23 million and 11.3 million for fringe benefits. U projected purchase services are coming in about 5.6 million right now. Um those can be anywhere from uh it's it's anything we buy. So, if you think about employees that we contract services from, this could be through Butler County Educational Service Center who uh supplies our subs for us in the district. Also, our placements for placing students out. Um that would fall in there. We have contracts with different vendors who provide services for HBAC. Anything that we have to buy would go there in the project services. And then all other expenditures there at the bottom, a very modest 2.3 million and again that's the supplies um and then also the operating transfers in and out. So we talk at

077the end of the year we cannot close out negative funds. We see this every year with our food service or have for quite a few years we can't close those out negative. So general fund will advance that money over and then we do a return of advance to get it back when we open up the fiscal year in July. Um here I just pro projected revenue versus expenditure. That blue bar um you can see that's our funding coming in. And then the uh orange is what's going out. So last year we did pretty good. We I think we had like 900,000 or so that um we had in excess of what our expenditures were, but that's not going to be the case for this year. Like I said, we're projecting coming in about 591,000 less

078than what we've received. But that trend continues each and every year after. Um you can see over to the far right there um that's our projected cash balance. Um it it does not look good for us in 2028. And I I'll reiterate again, we have those 412 certificates. We're we're mindful of what we're already obligated to, but with um no additional revenue sources, um I think we'll land about $329,000. That's our cash balance for the end of 2028. Um historical and projected average annual change. Um you can see there from FY22 to 25 we were increasing about 4% on our revenue. Our projected annual change now is about -1.6%. But the change in expenses we were averaging 3.05% from FY22 to FY25 and I've got that increased to about 3.54% uh moving forward. days cash

079on hand. What this is, if you get no more revenue, how long can you stay open? Um, and you can see here in FY26 where we are now, we have about 93 days cash on hand. Uh, the GFOA recommends that you have no less than about 16% or two months. Um, so we're we're good for this year. You can see we're going to fall a little short next year. um we're only going to have 52 days cash on hand and again not in that third year in 28 we're down to three days cash on hand um FY26 district enrollment and this is funded enrollment. So I want to point out here that we have more than 140 JVS students. Um there are kiddos but they go to the JBS therefore the JBS gets funding for

080them. We have satellite programs here in the district that averages between the middle school and high school about 13% per class. So if you have a student taking two STEM classes, the JBS does get the funding for those kids. We have that in both the high school and middle school. Then we also have um students that may not be one FTE, meaning that they're enrolled in five courses. um that we wouldn't receive full funding on those kids. If we have students that have met graduation requirements and they withdraw them in December, then we've lost a half year funding for those students as well. Um also preschool. So again, this is just looking at a funded enrollment and you can see we decline. I I want to point out here too that we're um we're not

081um on an island here. Every district Buffer County. Curtis and I have set it on the table with most of the schools here in Buffer County as well as state legislators. Enrollment is declining everywhere. It's across the state. It's national. Um birth rate is even going down. So, we're not on an island when we're looking at this declining enrollment. Uh perhaps we've dialed this back here all the way to 2021. You know what inflation is? we were spending about 10,580 a day from the general fund um to educate a student. In FY226, um we're at 14,147. Um and again, this is just general fund expenditures, but it it goes up. We're dealing with inflation just like everyone else is dealing with inflation. Uh daily cost to educate, right now we're at about $79 a day.

082Um, this is based on a 180day school year. The software pulls it out like that. But guys, this is a bargain to to get these kids in here and provide them an education, keep them in a warm, safe, dry envir. I mean, we do a lot for $79 a day. This is a value. You can see there on the right that uh state federal business taxes that covers about 77% of this expense and the other 3% is on our residents. Um I have segregated this here. This is the revenues. Just wanted to point out. So you can see there that FY25 that first column uh what our total revenue was and you can just see the decline. But that the top line there with the property tax um we did have some reductions in our

083revenue. And then you're going to see a million dollars reduction in the public utility personal property tax. Just want to remind you there we got that million dollar settlement from that Rocky pipeline last year. So that's the reason you're seeing such a big influx here. U it it's going to be about the 5.4 5.3 and moving forward. We have not received our property tax revenue yet. I got an email from the county today that they're they're working on the rates and getting this out. Um, typically we would have this before we're updating a forecast, but with the changes at the state, we're not doing the November with the May update. They now want they asked for it in October and then again for us to do it in February. The next one will come due

084in August. Again, all of this is happening before we actually get the property tax revenue. So, we base this on trends and and projections and what the software has in there. So, um, for coming up with this. We will likely come back and file supplement once we have all this property tax revenue and and um report that as well. So, I'm going to move on here from the the revenues and show you the expenditures here. Again, personnel, this is important and I want to point this out. Last year, our personnel costs were $23.6 million. This year we're at 23.1. And why I think this is so important is because we have with our contracts, the staff were entitled to a 3% increase, but we made more than a million dollar worth of cuts. Um otherwise,

085this this number would likely be 24 plus million dollars. Um so we were able to get that down. Um and the Employee benefits last year came in at 109. They're at 11.3. Again, that's modest, but I want to point out again with the cuts that we've made, we were able to keep it here. Our medical premiums went up 6%, our dental premiums went up 10%. So, I I think it's important to point this out, what we have done to be able to get this forecast to where it is today. Uh that third line there is purchase services. We're we're hoping to about 300,000 less this year. Again, moving targets and as things happen, if we have to bring people in to do things or place kids out, these numbers could change, but we will keep

086going back and updating. But right now, we're about 5.6 million projected. Uh that supply line, uh we're projecting 1.4 million. You can see it was 1.5 last year. Um hoping we can really knock this one out of the park here and land there. We're doing some different things and um trying to get better rates on things, if you will. I I monitor every requisition and purchase order that comes through that workflow. We're always looking for best cost. So, um 1.4 million this year. And then um the all other objects you can see about 515,000. This is right in line. This could be dues and fees, um, things like that, our bank charges. Um, so we've done very well. You see that 400,000 down there for all other financing uses last year. That 491,000, that's what

087we had to advance to food service to make them whole. We do pull that back in in July. Um, but like I said, we can't close it out negative. So, we have to offset that and make that fund whole and then we pull it back in. projecting 400,000. Um, I'm hoping we can make up a lot of ground here. I see that we've had a spot and whatnot, but hopefully we can make up some ground here. Um, these are what we'd like to call over and under that 6.010 line that you see out there on the forecast. Like I said, we were about $960,000 um in revenue more than what we spent last year, but this year I think we're going to fall about 591,000 short um in 274 million 6 million and 28. And

088again, this is because we're not receiving additional revenue. Our expenses are going up, but our revenue is just not keeping up with it. the this is the fund balance for the certificate of appropriation. You heard me talk about that. I'm I'm going to be asking board for approval on that again tonight. Not that it's much different. I would normally do this in April. We were able to get a couple grants in here. Mr. Philpot applied for one grant that $40,000. I'm hoping to get a fence back behind the intermediate building, but when these um funds come in, we have to have the board approve and accept funs. So, we'll do that tonight, but then we have to submit them to the county and get the county to approve before we can spend the funds. So,

089um we'll take care of that tonight and get that done. And hopefully we can get a fence up uh before the next school year back behind the intermediate building. And again, this is just a quick summary here. You can see that our our revenue there in that black bar and then our expenditures are in the gray and the gold line going across. That's our cash balance. So, our our revenue is just not keeping pace with our expenditures. But that's where we are and we are doing the very best to make the best of of the situation and what we have. Um, I did pull up here a couple of House bills. There's actually four of them. Um, something that we have been watching and this is impacting our revenue. So, um, I don't the legislation

090is done with it. We keep hearing more talks about the property tax reform that House Bill 129. It's revising the 20 mil floor for calculations. Um we were very fortunate that our community um actually approved our fixed sum levy with that substitute last year. They didn't used to include these when they calculated our 20 mil floor and we were able to um gain um additional revenues from the U growth, if you will. But now that they're including it in the 20 mil floor, um we are actually every 3 years they will either do a reappraisal or an update and we are in that reappraisal year here in 26. So this legislation says every tax year after 25, that's when they're going to start looking at this. So again, that's another reason for reduced revenues next

091year is because of House Bill 129. Um I'll point out here um the bottom one as well is this House Bill 96. Um we lost about 233,000 from this. This is that piggyback tax that they're calling it. Um so we lost um half of it will come in the second half of this year and then the first half of next year the other half. And again this is just the way that taxes are collected. um they operate on calendar years and the school operates on fiscal years. So, we're always getting uh our funding behind. So, we're we're monitoring this and we'll keep updating you as things come. But, um if you don't have any questions, that's all I have to present tonight. >> I had a question, Patty. Does your numbers for FY26 include the

092five House bills that were signed into law a few months back? 129 being one of them. >> The Yes, these um four here are are included in that. >> So 26 and beyond all shows the 20 mil floor. >> Yes. And I I want to point out two other things here. So, I you heard me talk about our negotiated agreements with both of our and I I want to point this out because that's 81% of our budget. The um 2% for fiscal 27 and 28 are in here for both bargaining units. Um and I also included um six staff members. I'm going to let Mr. Phil pod talk more about this, but just some things that um positions or whatnot that we didn't backfill and and some I'll let I'll let Mr. Phil talk about

093that, but that is also included what he's talking to you about tonight. We have it in this forecast. >> Okay. >> So, yes, sir. again state revenue to us per people. I think you said one time was like 9,000. The revenue we get from state >> there was like 8 8,000 and something. >> Okay. >> Um we're we're seeing a decline there. But guys, you got to look at this. That enrollment we're funded per pupil. Every pupil that leaves reduces our funding. We're >> about 8,000 some odd. Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you for the snapshot. I know u we're going to have to become just as much of lobbyist at the state level as we are to be local board members um in the very near future and there's a lot of uncertainty I think

094um in some of our initial school new school room training. I mean there was really no rhyme or reason why it went from a five to a three except besides they shared they know it's almost the running joke that you can't project 5 days out let alone 5 years now. Um so there's a lot of uncertainty and I do appreciate you doing that on if not a weekly basis a daily basis to try to keep this as close as possible. Um, and there's going to be some tough decisions at all levels that we as we've heard in the news and media and whatnot. And I do appreciate some of the forethought and some of those things we try to do to get prepared for this uh time being. Um, so thank you for all of

095that and this is one of the main reasons I want to run to be more involved and engaged in that process, but it is going to be some challenging times for sure. Yeah, we we've sat and combed through these numbers so many times and I I think Curtis said it best. We cannot cut our way out of this there. There's nothing left to cut. >> And even in regards to these bills, and I think you alluded to it, Mark, too. I know it has a 20 mil for calculation, but there's also a lot of once this passed, there's they said they'd keep us hold. They said this, they said that. There's a lot of those that we still can't bank on. We have to prepare for that scenario and so that makes it even more

096difficult to try to even think for next year future. >> Yeah. If you look at the two leading candidates for governor, they've both got very different opinions on a lot of this stuff with education. And I heard Amy Actton talk about that if she's elected governor that the voucher program will be something that she does away with. And if she does away with that, that puts $1.1 billion back into the education budget in the state of Ohio. There's over 101,000 kids taking advantage of that voucher program. And if you took that 1.1, you divided that up equally. And I know it's not, but just for reference, if you divided up equally amongst the 600, however many school districts it is, it's about $1.7 million of additional revenue per year to each of those districts that's

097affected by it. So you've got that conversation going with him. On the other hand, if you look at Ronald Swami, if he gets elected, he's going in the other completely in the other direction. So, you know, I think anything that we're talking about right now is fair is based on a lot of things that that we can't predict. This election is it's it's as far apart in November as as it can get. I mean, it's one extreme to the other. and uh and then you still have that um you still have that Supreme Court ruling that um that the voucher program is unconstitutional. So there's there's just I mean there's just a lot going with this and and if you look at House Bill 129, eight of the 10 districts in Butler County were at

098the 20 mil floor. And if you've been watching the news, Hamilton and Fairfield were two districts that people thought were pretty much untouchable and they're making huge cuts in Hamilton. And the future, you know, we don't know what the future would hold for Fairfield if that levy made doesn't pass, which is a 1.25 earned income. So, it's just a it's a lot to look at and and right now I think, you know, best thing for us to do is just stay on course and do the best we can with what we've got because I don't think we've got enough information right now to make any kind of informed decisions beyond these elections in November. >> Any questions for that? >> Questions? >> Thanks. Thank you. At at this time then I would like to ask

099Mr. Gary Gabard if he would come up >> after that presentation. I don't know why you want to go. >> That was tough. >> We we want to please recognize and thank Gary for his contributions to this district. He sat on this board for 12 years. president of six years president is and he he knows all of the comingings and going in the district. We are so thankful and fortunate. Um Gary also has his own business and he's very knowledgeable things. Roofing is not my wheelhouse for roofs and all that. So that has um hard to not have I know he would come now if I would call him and say, "Hey, you got a problem." We've also got Mr. Thomas back with us that also knows the district in and out. Um, but Garrett

100has just he's been a blessing to this district. He has um he's been on me a few times. He's had me crying a couple times, but nonetheless, I I appreciate you, Gary. I I can call him my friend. I really can. and so thankful that we had you here. We appreciate you more than you. >> Well, I appreciate the kind words and I would really like to thank the voters for giving me the opportunity to do that for 12 years brought back relationships from as a kid growing up going to school with some of you people and made new relationships and I treasure all that. So, I do appreciate that. >> Yeah. Gary and I go way back also from Saturday school at Edgewood High School back there. Used to be a Saturday school monitor

101and he had pizza delivered one Saturday. I don't know if that here but I was proud of him watching him grow up and become the the man that he is. And when I wasn't at Edgewood, I was in other districts watching him be on the board and and lead the district. And then uh um you know he reached out. We we stayed in touch over the years. we stayed in touch because we we were close and uh he he reached out to me and brought me back and I'm grateful for that because this is where I belonged and and even though I was gone for 24 years it never felt like I glad to be back together. Like I said, he he's more than just my board president, my boss, he's a buddy of mine,

102too. So, I'm going to miss him, but I appreciate him. Thank you. >> I appreciate you. Feels very different sitting up here without Gary. >> It does. >> What? It >> feels a lot different up here without you. >> Kept things interesting. I'll have to say Gary and I graduated together. I know you think I look much younger than him. Um, but we did graduate together. And when he ran for board, I thought, did he know that we have a school board? And I have to tell you, he is one of the best board members that I've worked with, and I've been on the board a long time, but he's one of the best, and I will miss him greatly. >> Thank you. >> All right. Well, now we're going to get into business. This

103love me, you guys. Uh, we do not have any public participation tonight. We're going to move on to treasure items. Um, Miss Powers, you can >> Okay, >> take it over. Get ready. Take your time. >> Yep, I'm I'm ready. Um, I would like to ask for a motion to block items A and B. This is the board minutes from January the 13th and January the 20th. >> Do we have a motion to approve? >> You going to wait till I ask. >> No. Do we have a motion to approve the board minutes? Um items A and B as presented. >> So move. >> Thank you, Mr. Thomas. >> Second. M. >> Is there any discussion on these items? Any questions? John, >> can you call the role, please? >> Mr. John Thomas, >> yes.

104>> Mrs. Lorie Barnes, >> yes. >> Mrs. Amy Nash, >> yes. >> Mr. Kevin Cole, >> yes. >> Mr. Mark Meers, >> yes. >> Motion carries 50. Um, I would like to block items C and D and ask for a motion to approve the December and January financial reports as presented. >> Is there a motion to block items C and D and approve the financial reports as presented? >> So move, >> Mr. Thomas. Is there a second? Are you throwing your voice? >> That was me. >> That was you, Mr. Paul. Sorry. >> Is there a second? >> Second, >> Mr. Is there any questions on this? Please. >> Mr. Kevin Hall. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mark Measure Schmidt. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashkra. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr.

105John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 50. Uh, next I will block items E, the amended certificate, and item F, the financial forecast. Ask for a motion for those to be approved as presented. Is there a motion to approve ENF as presented? >> So moved. >> Mr. Mr. Schmidt a second. >> I'll second. >> Is there any discussion on these items? >> Yeah, we have >> Mr. Mark Measure Schmidt. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashcraft. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 50. Uh, next I would like to Item G and H and these are uh new fund special cost centers. >> A motion to approve items G and H the new funds as presented. So move. >> Is

106there a second? >> Second. >> Is there any discussion on these items? Any questions? >> These were the grants that that we went out and got, right? >> Yes. >> And total $40,000. Is that what it is? Curtis had one for $40,000 for the fence. The other one um Summer Brown High School counselor applied for it. It's an Ohio Attorney General Grant um to do some things with social emotional um staff PD. >> How much was that? >> 13,000. >> So $53,000 in additional revenue for grants. It's pretty good. Mrs. Bowers, you call the role, please. >> Mr. John Thomas, >> yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashra, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes, >> yes. >> Mr. Mark Measurement, >> yes. >> Motion carries 50. Next, I would like to

107block item A and J and ask for a motion to approve uh two quotes from CNT Design. >> There are motion to approve items I and J. the two quotes for the equipment the kitchens as presented. >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. So when they present it, sometimes they'll invest in signage or this or that like how how does that work between is it physical assets that that we purchase versus what they provide and purchase or how does all that break down versus >> Char is not required to maintain our equipment. Um and we have some pretty old equipment. Um I I would like to charge these to PI not hit our general fund with it, but they're they're definitely needed. We may have to have just a little bit of

108electrical work uh to accommodate when we had we had someone come out look and I think one of our breakers was only 4 to 48 and it needed to be 50 or something. So, we need a little bit of work. It's just our our equipment is so old >> that parts for them. But you will run stupid. Why wouldn't >> that's what I want to do. Yes. >> You acted like you were up in the air. >> Oh no. >> No. >> That's why I was asking too. Why wouldn't >> we want to we want to do this and >> but their contract with us does not involve purchasing or repairing equipment. >> No. They did some things voluntarily to >> on their own with the signs and >> and to to it was complimentary

109of their menus, you know, to to upgrade in hopes of selling more meals. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You call the vote, please. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashkra. Yes. >> Mr. Mark Measurement. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. 5 Z. Uh, next I would like to block item K and item L. These are both special service contracts. One to applied behavioral and one from Max and Healthcare. >> Is there a motion to approve items K and L the services contracts as presented? >> So move. Is there a second? >> I'm sorry. >> Second. >> Okay. Mr. Thomas, >> is there any discussion on these items >> on the maximum one? I understand what it does, but I couldn't

110find like was it a a rate or a set amount? >> Um, we have a preschool student that um requires healthc care services, I believe. And Miss White, can you speak to this? >> Yes, that's correct. It's on the very last page. There's an attachment that has the hourly rates. This student in particular um only comes about two hours total a week because she's in preschool. Um but this is this company is her home nursing company. So it's continuity. We put the bill. So it's like 65 an hour I believe. >> Yeah. 65 per hour for the upper. >> Okay. >> Will this student be all day next year? >> We'll be a half day preschool classroom student building. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Can you call please? >> Mr. Mark Measure Schmidt. >>

111Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashkra. Yes. >> Mrs. Cory Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 5 Z. Uh the next agenda item is uh donations. We have one $500 donation from the class of 1975 to help with school lunches. $500 from John Landram to the boys basketball team. $730 from the PTO to Edgewood Early Childhood Center for conference dinners. 110927 from the PTO to EIS for conference dinners and $1,000 from the PTO for EIS to uh replenish their dojo pin. >> Is there a motion to approve the donations as presented? >> U Mr. Fall. >> It's very generous. Thank you. We obviously send letters or thank yous out to these people. So, we appreciate the donations. I'm sure the teachers appreciate the conference centers.

112It's a long night for them. >> Call the roll, please. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashcraf. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mark Measure Schmidt. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 5 Z. >> All right. That is all I have for tonight for you. That's it. >> All right. Next, we have superintendent items. Mr. >> Okay. First item. There are um the Genesis five. There's actually three. There were a couple that were not don't require board approval. They were just regular garden variety field trips. So, the three that you're approving tonight are overnight trips. Uh we've got two Butler Tech program trips, DECA and HOSA. And then we've got corlary trip that actually happened earlier this month, but it was a makeup

113from a cancellation due to weather in January. They we had to cancel a trip in January that you guys approved. They jumped on a another competition earlier this month. So, you're you're approving it back dating, but it was already pre-approved. Just so you understand that the other trips are forthcoming. We have a motion to approve the three overnight field trips as presented. So, >> Mr. Mr. Schmidt, is there a second? >> Okay. Is there any discussion? I'll call the RO. Uh, Mr. Messid, >> yes. >> Mrs. Barnes, >> yes. Amy Ashcraft says yes. Um Kevin call >> yes sir. >> And Mr. John Thomas >> yes. >> Okay. >> Passes 50. >> Item B are the board policies that you got last month at the board meeting. These are just quarterly Neola updates that reflect

114changes in legislation, changes in terminology and obviously just changes laws. So it's quite an extensive list there. um of board policies. >> Is there a motion to approve the board policies as presented? >> So move. >> Is there a second? >> Second. Um is there any discussion on these policies or questions? >> That was a lot of still reading. >> Yeah. >> Falling asleep. Don't do it. Not really. I >> I had one question just out of curiosity. Um, is it more common place to accept from any district versus just your adjacent district for open enrollment? >> Do what? Now >> on one of those one of the line uh the thing about um open enrollment, it talked about, you know, you can either go adjacent district or any district. Yeah. >> Which one is

115more common place? >> Any any district. No one just does adjacent. Okay. >> Yeah. You can do it. I don't know where stuff used to be. You had to be an adjacent district. >> Yeah, that was that was a past >> years ago. I'm dating myself. Okay. >> Now it's you want who you get because the enrollment gate? >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> We didn't have. >> So these policy letters, is there anything that we've modified from any of these or are they are they all Nola approved? Yes. basic boiler plate. >> A number of them seemed to rescend a lot. Has there been a bunch of change somewhere that rescended changed a lot comparatively versus this year versus other year? >> Yeah, that's just when the president or the White House changes or parties

116change and takes takes a little bit of time. You'll see those things swing back and forth. I >> think a lot of that social emotional and the >> um the other Uh, diversity equity. >> Yeah, diversity. >> A lot of that. >> Any other discussion? >> Call the roll, please, Mr. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mark Measure Schmidt. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashra. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Question carries 5 Z. The next item C is just a participation in the Ohio High School Athletic Association for the 26 27 school year. >> So move second. >> Is there any discussion on this item? >> It really is only $51 to remember. It just seems like with everything going up up and

117up like that was actually a pleasant surprise and now our membership was only 51. >> Would you call roll please? >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashcraft. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mark Leger. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. 5 Z. Item B is uh each year you have to determine if you want to um accept open enrollment students uh for for for the following year. So this is for next school year. Um recommendation is we continue our uh policy of accepting open enrollment students uh from anywhere in the state. And then um you also have to make a decision if you want to allow students within your district to do intra district open enrollment. If you add elementaryaries that have same

118grades, they can apply to go not to their neighborhood school but to the other elementary school. Um and we typically have this even though we've not had we did grade banding. So my recommendation is we do accept or allow intra district open enrollment requests for next year. Is there a motion to approve the open enrollment certification for fiscal year 27 as presented? >> Mr. Thomas is there any discussion questions? roll, please. >> Mr. Measure Schmidt, >> yes. >> Mr. John Thomas, >> yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashley, >> yes. >> Mrs. Ory Barnes, >> yes. >> Mr. Kevin, >> yes. >> Motion carries 5. >> So, um I'm just going to go through some um some thoughts and things we've been working on uh for next school year to kind of piggy back on what Patty

119was talking about. I put a slideshow up there. You've got it. I'm not going to go through all these slides word for word, but um obviously there's a lot going on with school funding right now in the state of Ohio. And you see what's happening in Hamilton and Fairfield. Um Hamilton's announced $9 million of cuts, closure of several buildings. Fairfield placed a 1.25 earned income tax uh levy on the ballot in May. Massive cuts announced if it fails, even catastrophic if it doesn't pass next November. These districts and many others throughout Ohio are facing these financial difficulties as a result of the recently passed legislation. And again, it's legislation designed to head off this grassroots movement to repeal property taxes to get it on the ballot and have all property taxes repealed. Legislation scrambling to

120try to stall that by doing their own level of cuts. and the public schools are kind of the the scapegoat for that. So, um that that's what we're seeing a lot of this legislation. Go ahead, next slide. So, how does this impact Edgewood? Um I think you just saw in the 5-year forecast, according to the most recent forecast, we're going to receive approximately $1.5 million less than state funding. next year as a result of the property tax reform additional 233 reduction in local property tax due to the Butler County tax roll backs. So we're going to deficit spend approximately $600 this year um and then projected deficit spend 4.8 million in 2027 6.1 fiscal year 2028. But when you when you um talk about increasing costs combined with decreased funding combined with declining enrollment, it's

121a recipe for disaster for Edgewood uh as well as many districts around the state of Ohio. Our enrollment has declined, excuse me, by about 500 students since 2020, and it's projected to decline close to another 500 by 2030. Why is that? Well, population rates in general um have declined throughout the nation and and also there's a lot more options for students and families. Um homeschooled, we have a we've seen a dramatic increase in homeschooled students over the past 3 years. In in 2023 at 80, 2024 103 and um in 2025 131 and up so far this year already 150 about 30 kids per year. Um, the big jump came in 2024. That's when they changed the requirements to be homeschooled. You don't have to submit a curriculum. It doesn't have to go through the county.

122You don't have to submit an assessment plan. Just write a letter to the superintendent. You want to homeschool your kids and and then you're homeschooled. That's fine. But it's just resulted in more people choosing that path. Um, students can also attend other public schools through open enroll policies. Kids can go other districts. Uh students can also attend community schools or charter schools. Students can attend schools through the Ed Choice program which are vouchers which was originally designed for low performing school districts so kids could get out of the poor performing districts and get into a higher performing district. That was expanded to not only impact those districts but also allow kids to attend private schools. And in recent years there were changes in the way those rules were written. And we've seen as Mr. professional

123spend over a billion dollars of public funding going to pay for private school tuition for families whose kids never attended public schools. They never couldn't afford private schools. Now we're just paying for it. Um so and then there's also a lot of nice really strong powerful positive Butler Tech programs. They even start as early as the 10th grade. So the end result is declining enrollment. So, as enrollment declines there and on the the home school rules have changed to where they don't have to submit a curriculum, they just got to submit a letter. You have to basically approve it. But where does that funding go? >> Uh the funding does not go to us. And there's there's ways that that funding can go to the families, but there's hoops they have to jump through for

124that. It's not just cart blocks. >> Okay. So, they do have to do something for those. >> Yes. Yes. >> What about the virt school? >> I'm sorry. >> What about the online schools? They get the funding, you know, schools. >> Yes. >> Yeah. When they go to a charter school, virtual school or open enrollment, the funding follows the kids. >> Only homeschooler does not. >> Yes. So, what now? The big question is now what for Edgewood? Typical logic would suggest that we have to look for areas to cut to offset the the reductions. You know, we're 600,000 in the hole this year, over a million next year, and it just grows and grows. And I think back to the five years that I've been back at Edgewood, I don't think there's been a year

125that I've been here that we haven't made cuts. As a middle school principal, I was impacted by cuts every single year. Last year in the spring, on my second day in this role, I had to give RIP notices to 10 staff members as a part of over a million dollar reduction uh plan. Um in fact, in the last three years, we cut over a million dollars average each of the last three years. And where did it get us to be 600,000 over this year? So I mean the next the next slide, Pat, the reality is I mean there's nothing left to cut. I mean if we continue to look for cuts, we're cutting programs. We're going bare minimum, state standards, state minimums. We're eliminating transportation or going to state minimum. We're eliminating extracurriculars. We're closing

126buildings. We're cutting more staff. We've got all the surgical cuts we can. The next level of cuts will be amputation, cutting the program, decimating the district. So, so the big question is what do we do? >> So, based off of some of those estimates that we've seen in prior rounds of cuts, even if we were to go to bare minimum where we cut busing, athletics, art, music, everything down to state minimum, that still isn't enough to get us past 2030. buy us another year just like the past few years have bought us time that we're not that we've got a little bit of time before we're not hitting the wall like Hamilton Fairfield all right now we're a couple years out but not not a long time you had the issue correct me if I'm

127wrong but the levies that our community seen in the last 20 years have been renewals so there's no new money >> no new money set >> so it's been 21 years since there's been a new money general oper operating and you can think about inflation >> and raises and salaries and all that across the board. >> It's it's it's been it's been the that's why you like you said five years always looking for a place cut and I think correct me if I'm wrong Patty we're in the bottom third >> yes >> in the county and we're and we're less than 75% of the state spending. >> Yes. >> Per Yes. >> Right. It's a good value. So that's why >> get bang for $79 a day. >> That's what that's why it starts getting

128real tough at these points and it's it's hard. Sorry. Go ahead. Right. So So honestly at this point it may sound crazy, but what's the plan to address it? Um but I'm not recommending that we make cuts. Uh I'm not recommending we rift staff. I'm not recommending we close building. I'm going to ask the board to invest in the district. Take some bold moves aimed at education, enrollment, and engagement. um bold moves that we do some things that will improve the quality of education we provide at Edgewood. Uh bold moves to address declining enrollment and bold moves that will be engaging to the community, get them excited about the future of Edgewood schools. What's exciting about more cuts, more layoffs, and closing buildings? Nothing. You see what's going on. It's sad. It's depressing. So, some

129of the things that I think that we'd like to that I'd like to focus on for next year. We know that nearly 70% of our students come to kindergarten not on track. We need to expand our preschool program to serve more students. We have anywhere from 25 to 35 kids on a waiting list every year for preschool. My recommendation would be to add an additional preschool classroom for typical that's non-special ed students, typical students because we have to by law provide for special needs. allowing 40 more approximately 40 more students to attend Edgewood and hopefully they'll stay. They'll have a great experience and they'll stay at Edgewood. Um we know that um next slide Pat so I'm sorry when my daughter was time to go to preschool there wasn't room at Edgewood. We had to

130find another had to find another option. And you know, you talk about adding more. I I personally don't know if that would be enough. If you're going to do this, I would say that we probably need to do it where any kit that applies, we can we can accommodate because I I think I think it's just that important. And um I think there's value to it for all the reasons that you're talking about. So if it means a second one, I think you're investing in in the right area. >> Right. We're just looking at what we got on the waiting list to see what what our need would be. So that's just an approximation that would take one. Um, so next slide. So given that we know that our kids aren't coming to kindergarten prepared,

131it's funny because that number kind of follows it through first and second grade and the third grade reading guarantee. It's a similar number of kids that aren't on track at aren't reading on track by the time they're in third grade. So, our idea would be to kind of reinstate a summer school program, a head start to the school year to try to take some of those kids that are not on track and close some of those gaps. We're going to we're going to try to improve it from the beginning, play the long game of preschool and get kids more prepared, work with the library, other things that we can do. But what about the kids that are already in the system? They're behind. So, my recommendation would be to um offer summer school. Again, we

132used to offer summer school years and years ago and uh reinstate that program, but not a summer school where you extend the current school year, but a jump start or running start to the new school year. So, do something after like the 4th of July leading into the days um before the school year starts and do that and and for students in grades K through 8 to get get the kids who are, you know, closest to being on track, give them a little jump start, a little push, and hopefully we can get them over the hump and close some of those gaps. Um, next slide. We've also seen more kids not graduating, although I think we're going to hit the graduation number this year, but we've also um seen kids leave our high school and

133attend other charter schools. Part of that is because one of the cuts that we made last year, actually two of the cuts, we cut our virtual academy in half. We we lost a dedicated administrator. We asked the teacher to double up administrative duties and we also cut a teacher. So, we cut it staff in half. So, I'm going to recommend that we invest in our virtual academy so that we can um not only get our kids across the graduation stage, but keep them in Edgewood and not lose them to other districts or other charter schools. Um, one of the cuts years ago before I got here, the decision was made to get rid of the public relations marketing position. So, um I later on tonight, you're going to you're going to vote to approve a

134supplemental pos. You already proved the supplemental actually hired a person tonight to um be be in charge of sharing the great things taking place every day. We need to engage with the community. They need to know what's taking place in our district on a daily basis. Share our story. So this person's their title is social media and website content manager. They're they'll be putting out three posts a week of just the great things going on in their district, engaging with the community, expanding our social media presence, and again, so people can hear our story from us and not have to read about it on other venues. They're not hearing from us. We want to tell our own story. So that's another investment in the district that are proposing that we do. >> And just to

135clarify, that's not another headcount. That is an additional duty covered by >> a supplemental contract would be like a coaching contract. Okay. Few thousand. Uh I'm going to recommend that we examine I'm not asking the board to make a decision, but the examine our participation fees. Um I I I I'm concerned that our current participation fee structure is a barrier for for many of our students. And um I I'd like to really dig into it and see if we were to reduce the fee structure, would that result more participation, which would not only benefit more students, but also generate approximately the same amount of money as what the current fee structure raises if we were to reduce it to have more participation. I don't know the answer to that, but I do feel like our

136current structures is a barrier. And I'm again, I'd like to see that barrier removed or reduced. That's a recommendation for a future meeting. And then probably the biggest recommendation I'm going to make is that we um return the two um buildings, the Trenton 7 mile building, EECC and EPS, the two neighborhood prek prek through two school buildings. Um over the last 5 years, the data has not shown that great banning is increasing dramatic um student achievement. The decision five years ago to great band the elementary schools was not well received by the community. It's resulted in more of our youngest and most vulnerable kids being transported across the district and there'll still be kids transported across the district. Don't don't don't think there won't be, but not as many every day. And also, it's an

137extra transition for all of our students in the district going from one building to a new building. And I think we lose the power. I'm in our elementary schools almost every day and they're amazing uh buildings with amazing staffs, amazing culture and uh the relationships that are taking place in those buildings is phenomenal. And why are we starting over every year or two rebuilding those relationships? I think that harnessing the power of that relationships between the students, the families and our staff over three or more years is better than the extra trans transition. An added benefit to return to neighborhood schools would be also that we could um with more kids have the ability to walk to school. I feel like our transportation department could optimize routes. Right now, one of the problems we're facing

138is we've got kids on bus routes way too long. We've got congestion on bus routes. And by returning to neighborhood schools, I think we could optimize our uh our problems on the school buses. And uh you know so again we're not going to cut our way out of the problem. I I feel like our only approach the community is going to have to rescue us and it's it's a matter of time when the board decides you're going to go and ask them to to to support a levy and what what that looks like uh and when. There's a lot of factors we're still waiting on. But the time that we have between now and when that time comes, I feel like our best shot is to give the community the best version of ourselves we

139can. Um to do things that excite them, that um improves education, that addresses enrollment and engages our community. So that's my recommendation. If if the board approves this um or supports this, it really doesn't require approvement approval. I can do this as superintendent, but I would never do it without the board support. a blessing. Um, I'll post grade positions tomorrow for the grade realignment. Um, I will get a superintendent's message out right away. Get the website social media coverage going. Um, I've already got community engagement meeting scheduled for March 3rd with the preschool and kindergarten parents. And I will schedule one uh March 10th and 7 mile, March 11th with the middle school. I would have done it payback because the flood. I'll move that to the middle school library. and then I'll regularly update

140the community and the board um at the board meetings and also do weekly updates with you guys as to the plan moving forward. So that's my thoughts and ideas for the 2026 27 school year. Well, I'm 100% supportive and you just said, you know, I that workshop that we did back in January, the effort that you and Patty and Alicia put into that with data to back up all the things that you were talking about was was pretty eye opening to me. I'd never actually seen that. And as I was listening to this, I and hearing your recommendations, I mean, it all it all made a whole lot of sense. I think that we've got some real opportunities to try to improve this district in the next couple of years and I think all these

141things that you're talking about right now would hope to start improving the the state scorecard which is we've been stuck um at average at best and I think it's time to kind of get back to being above average and I think this will do it and and and something else that I didn't include on this presentation which will come there will there will be some positions that to be reinstated. And I want to dig into that a little deeper before I put those out. But we made cuts actually so deep that I think some of those cuts are costing us money. And not only in the classroom, we're hurting because of some of the cuts we made and um but in terms of our operations, our our business side of things and operations. So there'll

142be some recommendations moving forward to reinstate some positions as well. And that's the positions that Patty alluded to and I I didn't want to that deep into the weeds today. I wanted to focus more about um the the education, the enrollment and the engagement, but but I want to be transparent, let you know those those recommendations will be forthcoming. >> Sounds good to me. >> Yeah. I I mean when you sit and you look at Hamilton like closing schools and cutting 150 positions and $9 million I think we have an opportunity to do something completely different and hopefully you know bring us back to what Edgewood used to be and not just barebones sort of >> that's the hope. I mean, I back in November when I saw the writing on the wall, I mean,

143I told you guys, I didn't think I wanted to work next year. And then since we um cuz really I didn't want to be the guy that just decimated the district that I love. And uh so when we started talking a little bit about um in our planning meetings with Miss Beckett and and just the admin team, the three of us because we're not a very deep admin team. Um I got excited again and um you know so the the the the fact that you know maybe I got the chance to make edge joy better than that, you know, than it's maybe it's been in a couple years. Um it it's it's gotten me excited. So, I'm not thinking this about retirement like I was when I thought I was going to have to be

144the guy doing another round of cuts, you know what I mean? >> So, um I appreciate the opportunity that uh Oakley to do this and see it through. You coined a phrase in that workshop that I had never heard before and that was you know um you you learn to read up until third grade and then after third grade you read to learn. I'd never heard that before. And you know, when we start talking about um you we start talking about that the kids are not doing well in their third grade reading exam. You know, they're not they're not doing well in that. It kind of kind of hit me and actually since then I've had conversations with kids in our district and and I've heard several of them say that they just didn't feel

145that they were reading well enough. That was one of the things that they talked about when uh Alex invited me over to the middle school and we sat in there and we were talking about doing that student advisory council and there were some kids in there that said they didn't feel that they were reading well enough and it just it kind of hit me. So I I think you know investing in these kids at that early age is you know hopefully going to be what you know be what gets this strategy moving forward and embraces those those test scores cuz I mean we've been stuck you know with we've been stuck kind of middle of the road for a long time and what we're doing obviously is not moving us forward. So it's time to

146try something different. We're stuck because we're not we're not expanding or or growing or investing and and I don't we're going to run out of money whether we invest or not. So, we might as well invest and drive this way forward. It's like the cliff. We're approaching the cliff and we can pump the brakes and cut and like what we've been doing for the last 5 years or we can try to do something positive. We're going to move a little faster to the cliff but hopefully we'll make something that people will be worth saving. >> You're not talking about money. I mean, what you're talking about is not a lot of money, right? >> No. >> And it's a plan. >> Yeah. >> You said it was hope plan. This is a plan, >> right?

147>> I've already I've met with the both the elementarymentaries a couple of times because it's a big adjustment for them. It's a big ask of our teachers and um and um you know, we're working real hard so that we don't have to involuntarily transfer people that they can kind of place themselves where they see, you know, the best fit, make what's best for kids. um without jumping grades, there's going to be multiple phases of postings. The initial phase is just going to be who's going where. Then there's going to be some openings. There's going to be some mobility opportunities, but initially um the the the I asked the grade levels to present a plan to me and and uh they all have communicated back kind of their plan and once we start the postings, we'll

148see if if it goes that way. My hope is, but uh the feedback I've gotten and they've been emotional. These meetings have been emotional, but at the end of the day, it was better than the meetings I have with them last spring when we were announcing cuts and layoffs. And uh I think I think like I said, these are amazing teachers. These the build the culture in both these buildings is phenomenal. Um and um I'm I'm optimistic that this is going to be um smooth. You know, they didn't they didn't throw me out. They didn't mute me. They haven't, you know, been blowing me up on social media. It's a positive group of professionals and I think work because they know what's at stake. >> And we um obviously are required to provide an education

149by the state and if we don't do it in a certain way, we feel have a plan for it, the state will for us. So, and unfortunately, we mentioned it with the funding, and I'm not saying education won't look different or the funding won't look different, but we have to do the best we can with the information we have at this instant. And I think there's going to be a heck of a lot of change on multiple fronts. Um, potentially near future, not even long-term future, on how education looks, how funding looks, all those things. But I appreciate you putting a lot of work into this. the facts and data do help um with the information we have available um to put the best plan forward that we have at this instant. So I do

150appreciate that and I do feel good about it. >> So we don't need to vote on this but we can if we want to show our support. Um I don't know what you guys want to do if you want. >> I'm completely comfortable with I stand behind it 100%. So if you want to vote, we can vote it. It's up to you. >> Doesn't require a vote. You know, I think it's important though that the minutes show that the board supports this move and and I think you've all commented to the affirmative. So the minutes will reflect that. >> We'll just do one. I'll just do one. >> Is there a motion to Let me see what he calls it. A motion to approve the 2026 27 school year planning. >> I will make that

151motion. >> Mrs. Barn, there a second. >> Second, >> Mr. M. >> Ms. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mark Meers. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Nashcraft. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> And Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> We got in this meeting. These people are coughing all over the place. I am out of here. >> All right. I appreciate that and this is a phenomenal presentation and I know this is like a synopsis of things that you have put together and this is a very small part of the planning but I'm excited. I'm excited for it. I think let's try something new. Let's be different. I like to be different. >> Be proactive than reactive. >> It's bold. >> I'd rather be proactive and then be reactive and then have to try this

152gutter to try to find something to fit. >> We be talking about closing buildings right now. I don't want to be doing that. So, >> got to try something different. >> All right. Is thereformational items? Is that all you have? >> Yeah. Well, I I will just give you a quick update um on the uh uh primary school, the flood over there. So, um things are going well and um we've got Jenny and her staff unbelievable how they they've come together and just They altered the close the wing of the building and um closed the gymnasium and just the way they reroute the kids and uh there's a plan there's a plan to get um some of these stuff done before spring break and then at spring break they'll flip the cafeteria and gym and

153there'll be some things to get done in the summer. The biggest uh the biggest thing that has to be done is the flooring has to come out. the flooring in all those classrooms that got flooded, the flooring in the hallway, the flooring in the gym, the flooring in the cafeteria because they're not doing the flooring now in the cafeteria. They're running air scrubbers anytime kids are in there. They're monitoring constantly the moisture and it it's a concrete floor and it's tile. It's not like wood and there's not mold and rot, but we're still mindful of air quality. So, so uh they're they're taking u measurements about every hour um to make sure it's a safe and healthy environment. But uh um uh Mr. Nap is kind of leading the leading the charge on that and

154uh he's working with Serpro and Jenny Hoy and her team like I said are phenomenal. I don't know how disruptive it's been but uh you know kudos to her staff because they're making it work. >> Thank god that teacher came in. >> I know. >> Did she get like a prize or something? >> It was a he. >> Oh he. Sorry. >> Yeah, we're just glad that he didn't get electrocuted because he his pants were rolled up. He was splashed around barefooted and then I joined him like an idiot. So, >> I can only imagine what that call was like. You're not going to believe what's going on over here. Just can't imagine. >> She just said it's really bad. >> It's really bad. >> Not a little. It it reminded me of those uh

155World War II movies where the sink or the submarine ships and there's like the the hatch that's spewing water out. Whatever you do, don't open the hatch. So, we didn't touch that door. We didn't touch that. >> What' you say was 10 Olympic swimming pools worth of water. >> Yeah. Well, not Olympic size, but like residential like 20,000gallon swimming pools, which is your average >> residential swimming pool. That's still water. an estimate on the cost of like >> it's going to far exceed the insurance limits but um no we don't have a cost estimate yet. Right now we're still in the um what's called remediation phase. Then we'll get into the reconstruction. The cost is going to be in reconstruction. The remediation is probably going to be um >> they said normally it's normal flood,

156you know, normal it's like 30 to 50. I'm thinking we're going to exceed that. But this will be an insurance claim and be subregated. So won't won't cost the district a lot unless we choose to make some upgrades which we'll analyze those real carefully. >> All right. Thank you for the update. Um next we have items from board members. >> Um Mr. Thomas, do you have anything to present tonight? >> Well, I did have this down just for the great job that the primary did. I went over there one day was unbelievable. You didn't plan on that obviously and the plan that you guys put in place rapidly, Mr. Nav, yourself, Jenny, Jenny's communication was excellent. The whole staff, the whole bit, you know, I mean, I got out of here because obviously I was

157only just being in the way. So, I'm just really great. Also like to congratulate the men's basketball team for uh winning the league title. That job great team to watch. Not only did they win, but they were fun to watch and class. A lot of class, no bad body language, just super season. Super season. And hope it's going to continue here for a couple more weeks or a month. So, uh, and the maintenance of gastial staff for the snow and all that, which great job again you guys, I mean, people don't realize how difficult how much long that takes. You guys did great. And then Scotty, uh, two tournaments here, girls tournament, division what division, Scott? >> Two, division. Division four, girls basketball. >> Division four. And then first time ever, I think in school

158history, we're hosting the state wrestling, right? sexual et good great job and just brings other people in to see our district and a lot of people like to come in and see that gym if they can wrestle real well or play bowl tell them they're welcome to stay if they'd like I'm just kidding that's a joke on anyway that's it >> okay >> Mr. falling. >> Yeah, I was going to compliment. I know it's been a crazy winter and obviously our staff and cleaning up. I know I came by a few times and it was pretty impressive. There's a lot of snow obviously, but the amount moved and cleaned up and taken care of by the staff and the contractor I think did very well through some of those challenging times. And then I also

159want to share I got to go with uh some of the staff to B Tech for one of the lunchons and got to celebrate a student over there uh for a lunchon and that was a great experience and a little bit different to see those students interact with everybody from the public and it is still education but it's definitely life learning right there on the soup and steak sal so that was a great experience for that and continued appreciation to everybody as as we continue to learn and get a lot of information, a lot of data uh to hopefully help contribute uh to making tough decisions. So, thanks Barnes. >> Well, I I came to the I guess it was the high school open house and that was really a unique experience for me because

160I've been out of high schoolers for a while. So that was really good to um just see what what programs are being offered and I wish more parents would have came. Um, and I also want to thank um, you know, the school for just helping me in this adventure because um, it's it's been a whirlwind the last couple of months and um, I really appreciate that and just you know being able to I attended a conference and Kevin and I both did got to attend a virtual conference and it is mindboggling what I I mean I was in education for 35 years and I thought I knew I didn't understand all of the intricate workings And so I appreciate all the help that everybody's been giving to me as well. >> Thank you. >> I

161just throw a final shout out to Gary being here tonight. You know, you think about 12 years on the school board, all the different superintendent. I was kind of doing the math in my head, what five, six superintendent, handful of treasures, all the moves across the district. And you know, you you know, you can you can kind of quantify and add all that stuff up. What you can't really quantify an add is like Patty talked about all the stuff you've done behind the scenes. I know you probably spent 100 hours standing on that asphalt this past summer out there making sure they was doing a good job. So I think it's definitely worthy of mentioning all the blood, sweat, and tears you put into this district over the years and definitely appreciate all your commitment

162and everything you did. Thank you. >> That's all we got. >> All right. Well, I just want to say thanks to everybody for having an open mind. I know we've get we've had a lot of presentations tonight and I think you know it's all for the better and trying to make ed better. Um so I appreciate all the open minds and the consideration of all you know the different programs and just trying to do a better job at educating and um doing the best that we can for our kids. So um I know we're relatively new forward but I appreciate you guys. We we've had cancellations of meetings, but we've had a couple work sessions that we actually got in and just the respect and um you know the the ideas and the way that

163you know we've talked to each other and consider things. I think it's it's exciting moving forward. So um no one has anything else. We will look to move to executive session um for to consider the employment employment dismissal discipline promotion demotion or compensation of a public employee or official or the investigation of searches or complaints against the public employee official lency or regulated individual unless the employee official lency or regulated individual request a public hearing. Is there a motion to move to executive session? >> So moved. >> Mr. Mith, >> Mr. Donis, >> call, please. >> Mr. Mark Measure Smith. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Nash. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Bond. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 5 Z. >> It is 8:17.

164We are back in regular session. and 29 seconds. Um, hold on. Let me check. Is there a motion to approve the administrative certified, classified, exempt, and supplemental nominations as presented? >> So moved. >> Mr. Meers, is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Would you call the role, please? >> Mr. Mark Measure. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Yes. >> Mrs. Lawrence. >> Yes. Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 5. Is >> there a motion to approve the supplemental nomination as presented? >> So moved. >> Mr. Master Smith. >> Second. >> Mr. Mark Measure. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashcraft. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Bond. >> Yes. >> Oh, abstain. Yes, I abstain. >> And John Thomas. >> Uh, yes. >> Motion

165carries. 4 Z. >> Is there a motion to approve the addendum to the superintendent contract as presented? >> So moved. >> Mr. Me. >> Second. Mr. F. >> Mr. Mark Measure Schmidt. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Danny Ashcraf. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 5 Z. >> Is there a motion to approve the consult services agreement as presented? >> Somebody say, >> Mr. Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashcr. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mark Measuresman. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. 5 Z. >> Is there a motion to approve the Butler County ESCOG substitute rate selection as presented? >> As presented at 135 days. >> So

166move. >> I'll second. >> Mr. Kevin Paul. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashcrat. Yes. Mr. Mark Measure Schmidt. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 5. >> Is there a motion to approve the job description for a tutor? Is that what that one was? >> As presented >> Kevin. >> Mr. Kevin F. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mark Measure. Yes. >> Mrs. Amy Ashcraft. Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. >> Yes. Motion carries 5. >> All right. At this time, we'll look for a motion to adjurnn. >> Somebody fall. >> Mr. Kevin Paul. Yes. >> Mr. John Thomas. Mrs. Amy Ashcco. Yes. >> Mrs. Lorie Barn. Yes. >> Mr. Mark Meer Smith. >> Yes. >> Motion carries 52.