Meeting Details: Kenston Board of Education met in regular session on February 21, 2023 at Kenston High School, 9500 Bainbridge Rd, Chagrin Falls, OH 44023, in the Auburn Bainbridge Room beginning at 7pm. The agenda is available online. The meeting was live streamed and a recording is available. Public seating again appeared to be full for this meeting.
Board Attendance: President Jennifer Troutman, Vice President Neysa Gaskins, Dennis Bergansky, Beth Krause and Tom Manning
Staff Attendance: Superintendent Steven Sayers, Interim Treasurer Ryan Pendleton
The meeting was called to order by Board President Jennifer Troutman at 7:00 pm. Roll call and Pledge of Allegiance were conducted.
Minutes: Approved for Regular/ Organizational Meetings on January 9th, 2023 and special meetings on January 3rd and 18th, 2023 without edits or comments.
Board Reports
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Timmons Principal Dave Rogaliner introduced the new Timmons Student Council advisor, Mrs. Kirby Blanton. She identified the council’s new focus on the pillars of leadership, service, student voice, and engagement as key anchors for their activities, and highlighted some of the activities of the 3rd grade student council students.
Organizational Update
Board and Administrative Committee Updates
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KCAC is tasked with examining resources from other school districts to inform their creation of updated content that informs the community about school funding.
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Policy- Ms. Troutman advised that there is a policy which requires policy review every 5 years which explains why there is a “slew” of policies up for reading and review.
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Curriculum-
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A new business management class-The Incubator Program- has been created to pilot next year- more interactive, community based program. Some colleges will give college credit for this high school class
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Mr. Justin Foder has worked on creating a new English language Arts elective class to replace Selective Reading, titled The Superhero: Made in America.
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An Honors Stats class will be offered as a new alternative for Algebra 2.
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College and Career Readiness- first speaker series is planned on February 22nd.
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Auburn CC- 25 applications for 23-24 school year.
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Ms. Troutman introduced Mr. Ryan Pendleton, Executive Director of North Coast Shared Services Alliance, who is working, with an additional three-member team, to provide the services of treasurer.
Hearing of the Public on Agenda Items
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Linda Poultis asked the following question regarding policy development: How often and to what level are staff and the community brought into policy discussions prior to policy revisions being proposed during an actual school board meeting? She was specifically citing policies that are not due to or guided by ORC rules or federal rules and regulations. She requested that, for those policy revisions not due to above rules, “there be a reading of the proposed policy change, during the FIRST reading of that policy, such that the community can hear and understand the impetus behind the change and what issue was encountered that warranted the change.” She went on to highlight situations regarding changes to policy that were not clear and visible to the public beforehand such as the Sunshine Law policy changes (with regard to the regular meetings between the Superintendent, the Vice President and President of the Board that occur without agendas visible to other board members and the community). She also expressed concern about the legal fees policy and the fact that all parameters for seeking legal experts were removed and no policy guidelines were added as to when it was necessary to assume professional legal help versus seeking free legal services, etc.
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Suzanne Reagan spoke on behalf of a former board member who was out of town. Ms. Reagan read aloud to the room a letter that was written anonymously and received by this former board member. The letter expresses concern about the current board’s receipt of daily anonymous letters accusing staff and employees of misconduct. The letter continues, advising that money has been spent in legal and investigative fees to uncover the writer of these letters and that employees have been interviewed and advised to keep proceedings confidential. The letter writer accuses several members of the staff and a community member of working at the behest of a current board member to target staff who are on the board member’s “personal hit list.” Mrs. Troutman advised, “People need to be very careful about slandering people, especially elected officials. Slander is actionable in Ohio.”
Financial Items approved as written.
Certified, Classified, and Supplemental Personnel Contracts and Items Approved as written.
Business Operations
Teaching and Learning Contracts approved as written.
Special Education Contracts approved as written.
Old Business
New Business items approved as Written.
Hearing of the Public on Non-Agenda Items
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Miss Devon Gamble of Snyder Road expressed concern that several of her emails to the board have gone unanswered. While Superintendent Sayers has responded to her, she is in disagreement with him on an issue not clearly identified initially. She would like to communicate with the board further. Miss Gamble went on to speak about a form that she submitted to enroll her son in school as her new house on Snyder Road is under construction. Miss Gamble advised that the enrollment form she used was considered improper/invalid, but then she later discovered that another family, also building a home, used it successfully. This discrepancy caused Miss Gamble and her family to feel targeted. Miss Troutman advised that this was before her and Mr. Sayer’s time in office and invited Miss Gamble to sit down at a later point with both Mr. Sayers and her to have further conversation. (Sound goes way down at this point in the conversation (which appeared to be finishing) and cuts in after the next speaker identifies herself)
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Unknown Speaker due to momentary sound issue: The speaker raised the following questions: Where is the money coming from within our current budget for legal fees? How is this money allocated and how will its usage for legal fees impact other school projects and needs? Is the school using money earmarked for other student needs? How are time frames and parameters set up for legal investigations and are there checkpoints along the way to assess when the situation is resolved? Is this decided by the board or by the lawyers? Speaker expressed grave concern that we cannot continue to spend on legal fees at this rate without harming the school.
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Courney McIvor of Long Meadow Trail expressed concern that too many assumptions about the use of legal fees are unhelpful. Miss. McIvor also expressed concern that Beth Krause’s comments at the last meeting were unhelpful and could sow distrust in the board. She expressed disagreement with much of Beth Krause’s commentary from the last meeting.
Treasurer’s Report
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Mr. Pendleton is excited to be helping Kenston Schools as they seek a permanent treasurer. It is budget season and the administration and staff members will be engaged in working through the five year forecast.
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Certificate of Transition is required to be completed. This assures the safety of the transition of treasurers.
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Assistant Treasurer is an open position and the school has interviewed some good quality applicants. They will recommend a candidate at the next board meeting.
Superintendent’s Report
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Strategic Planning- Community and Staff survey window has closed. There was a good response to the survey but this is just one data point. More information is being collected.
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A Strategic Planning committee will meet on March 14th at Gardner. Staff and community members will be invited to participate.
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The administrative team is working on a staffing plan with the goal of operating more efficiently without compromising educational programs. The school district may be able to save as much as one million dollars in staffing due only to attrition.
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Open Enrollment will be available next year with the consideration of only accepting students that are already here through the program and their siblings.
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Transportation is still struggling with staff shortage and Mr. Sayers apologizes for inconvenience to families. Several steps on a local and regional level have been taken to try to address this issue as it is not unique to Kenston.
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Jesse Wineberger will be here next Tuesday evening at 7pm for a parent only presentation on Social Media.
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Next Family Ties evening will occur on March 1st-no homework or school activities after 5:30pm.
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Career Open House will be held for support staff on March 6th from 5-8pm at Gardiner.
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The last Kenston Conversation is scheduled for March 15th at 5pm at Sirna’s.
Motion to enter into Executive session approved.
NO ACTION WILL BE TAKEN UPON RETURN
Next meeting: Monday, March 13, 2023 at 7pm in the Kenston High School in the Auburn Bainbridge Room.
More information here: https://kenstonlocal.org/about-kenston/board-of-education/
Name of Observer: Jacqueline Berger
Reviewer: Shelly Lewis
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