Date of Meeting: 4/18/2022

Format: In-person

Meeting Summary:

The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.

Pledge of allegiance, followed by roll call. All Board members were in attendance.

Approved a motion to adopt the agenda with no additions.

A representative from the Rootstown Lions Club presented the April "Lions Club Good Award" to one elementary student, one middle school student, and one high school student. Recipients were recommended by their respective schools.

Three students representing the elementary school student council gave a presentation summarizing their main activities for the year. Highlights included a recess "buddy bench" where students who need someone to play with can find a buddy; planning for upcoming field day; holiday spirit days.

Seven high school students gave a presentation about the Leadership Seminar in which they participated, summarizing the seven leadership traits they learned about. All said they wished the seminar had been longer than 10 sessions. Next year the Seminar will be offered as a semester elective course at the high school.

Treasurer Connie Baldwin and Director of Instructional Services Maria Spence gave the required annual report for IDEA-B special education funding. They reported that 16.5% of the student population qualifies for special education services.

No questions or comments from community members in attendance.

Treasurer's Reports/Recommendations

1. Approved the minutes from March 14, 2022 Board meeting and April 4, 2022 Special Board meeting.
2. Approved addendum for the Summit Educational Service Center for fiscal years 2021, 2022, 2023 related service and excess cost agreements.
3. Approved participation in a Storm Water Grant in the amount of $9,673.00. This grant will be used to support instruction in environmental education courses, including lab materials.
4. Approved revenue adjustments for Cafeteria (increase $120,000.00) Flex Spending (increase $10,000.00) Athletics (increase $80,000.00). Increases to bring funding back to pre-pandemic levels.
5. Approved participation in Workers Comp Group Retro Rating Program through Sheakley and the Ohio Schools Council for January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023 with an anticipated premium of $21,356.00.
6. Approved agreement with Arbiterpay for compensation and tax reporting of sports officials at a rate of $2.00 per transaction to be paid from the General Fund as well as a one-time onboarding fee of $1,995.00.

Superintendent's Reports/Recommendations

1. Accepted the resignation of Kristin Zink, Intervention Specialist, effective May 1, 2022
2. Approved the hiring of Samantha Hopkins as a Monitor, Step 1, with a 1-year contract effective April 4, 2022.
3. Approved a 1-year unpaid leave of absence for Christy Duvall, elementary teacher, effective for the 2022-2023 school year.
4. Approved 13 classified contracts (bus aide, bus drivers, monitors, cafeteria workers, etc) for the 2022-2023 school year.
5. Approved 8 substitutes (custodian, teacher, bus aide/driver)
6. Approved the 2nd reading and adopted 13 policies (e.g., staff dress and grooming, college credit plus, use of credit cards)
7. Approved an agreement with ESC of the Western Reserve for the provision of Naviance Consortium for the 2022-2023 school year.
8. Approved Rootstown Youth Soccer Club and Youth Football to use school property during 2022-2023 school year.
9. Approved a National Honor Society Farmer's Market beginning in May, 2022. Student president of NHS was present to explain that the Farmer's Market is a new initiative to raise scholarship funds for NHS students. It will be held on a Saturday on school grounds.
10. Superintendent Hawkins announced that all Rootstown schools (elementary, middle and high schools) have been awarded purple star status by the Ohio Department of Education in recognition of their support for children of military families.
11. A tentative agreement has been reached with the teacher association. The latter will be voting on the agreement next week.

Building and Curriculum Reports

1. Elementary school will participate in right to read week this month
2. Hiram College is working on a grant that would enable Hiram students to provide math tutoring at th elementary school.
3. 68% of middle school students are on the honor roll.
4. New courses to be offered next year: Ad Creators, Flight in Space, Keyboarding
5. High School ACT Boot camp was a success; students who participated achieved a 3-5 point increase on ACT scores from pre-test to post-test. Plan to offer more sessions next year.
6. High school students attended the college fair at Akron University instead of KSU this year
7. 81 high school students are taking CCP through KSU this year

Under "new business", Board member Jennifer Curall raised the issue of many high school seniors spending very little time (some only 1-2 hours per day) at the high school due to participation in CCP courses that are done on their own time. Many of these students are at work or at home during a large portion of each school day. She raised the question of whether the district might want to consider a policy that would require seniors to be in physical attendance at the school for a minimum number of hours each day (eg., 4 hours). Further discussion would be needed, and there would need to be a grandfathering clause for the current high school classes. Another solution would be to bring CCP classes in-house; this is currently under discussion.

Meeting adjourned at 7:16 p.m.

Which members of the board/council were present: Jennifer Curall, Paul McEwuen, Craig Mullaly, Tom Siciliano, Amanda Waesch

Was there a public notice of the meeting that included the time and place of meeting: Yes

Was an agenda of the meeting or handouts available to visitors: Yes

https://www.rootstown.sparcc.org/docs/district/boe%20agendas/april%2018,%202022%20-%20board%20meeting.pdf?id=1571

Are minutes from previous meetings posted/available: Yes

Name of Observer: Rhonda Richardson