Documenters: Aurora City Schools Board of Education meeting for Aug. 28, 2023

The Aurora Board of Education meets on Aug. 28, 2023. Lee Lundblad/The Portager

Documented by Lee Lundblad

Listen to an audio recording of the meeting here:

Aurora City Schools Board of Education

Monday, Aug. 29, 2023
7 p.m.

Aurora Conference Center
119 W. Pioneer Trl.
Aurora, OH 44202

In attendance

Pam Mehallis, Board Chair
Miriam Conner, Board Member
Michael Acomb, Board Member
Stephen Sabulsky, Board Member
Tony Zayas, Board Member
Mike Roberto, Superintendent
Paul Milcetich, Asst. Supt. of Curriculum & Instruction
Bill Volosin, Treasurer

Documenter Notes

Regular Board of Education Meeting

The meeting opened at 7 p.m. with the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. A roll call was then made, and all were present.
Hearing of Public Agenda and Non-Agenda Items (15 minutes)
Board Chair Pam Mehallis noted that no one had signed up to speak and so the meeting would continue as per the agenda.

Approval of Minutes

A motion was made to accept the minutes of the special meeting held July 11, 2023. Motion was seconded and approved via roll call. A motion was then made to accept the minutes of the regular meeting held July 24, 2023. Motion was seconded and approved via roll call.

Superintendent’s Report

Superintendent Mike Roberto addressed the board about the 5.9-mill operating levy scheduled to be on the Nov. 7 ballot. Due to new interpretations from the state auditor’s office, Roberto indicated that he and Assistant Superintendent Paul Milcetich must be vigilant in only talking about facts dealing with the levy and to keep neutral whenever possible. Roberto went on to outline recent and future meetings scheduled for discussion about the levy:

  • Teacher and Staff Convocation – Aug. 14
  • Chamber of Commerce – Aug. 15
  • Aurora Schools Foundation – Sept. 12
  • Howard Hanna and Realtors – Sept. 26
  • Superintendent’s Advisory Council – Sept. 28
  • Community Meetings (to be held at 119 W. Pioneer Trl.), 7-8 p.m.
    • Oct. 3
    • Oct. 12
    • Oct. 18

Facts and information will also be disseminated in the Superintendent’s Update to Families, Aurora Spotlight on Schools and in the October newsletter.

A levy committee will form in September, and lawn signs will be distributed and set up approximately two weeks prior to the election. At this time, Roberto wrapped up his remarks and asked if there were any questions. Mehallis asked for a clarification on the interpretation from the state auditor’s office, and Roberto responded that it was a caution to be very frank and forthright with all pending levy information. He then made reference to another school system that found itself in a problematic situation, and the state auditor’s office therefore decided to issue the caution to all school districts. Seeing there were no more questions, Mehallis then recognized Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum & Instruction Paul Milcetich.

Assistant Superintendent Curriculum Report

Milcetich began by telling the board that his remarks tonight would be centered on AP (Advanced Placement) scores and information. He noted that on Tuesday, Aug. 29, U.S. News & World Report would publish its yearly rankings on high schools, and AP statistics figure heavily into the rankings. (Since this writing, the publication produced the list and Aurora High School has been ranked 495th nationally and 18th in Ohio.)

Milcetich shared longitudinal data which showed a small recovery since the year of COVID. This past year, 184 students took AP exams and scored the following:

60 attained AP Scholar level, scoring a 3 or higher on three or more exams.
43 attained AP Scholar with Honors level, scoring at least 3.25 on four or more exams.
81 attained AP Scholar with Distinction level, scoring at least 3.5 on all exams taken.

Milcetich further noted that in addition to the students, congratulations need to be extended to the families and teachers who have all played a part in these great results. Milcetich ended his comments by asking for any questions from the board. Board Member Michael Acomb asked if there was a way to see a comparison of Aurora’s scores to area high schools. Milcetich responded that AP scores are not published like state standardized scores, and the best way we can compare is to look at the standings in the U.S. News & World Report list. Mehallis thanked Milcetich and then recognized the treasurer, Bill Volosin.

Treasurer’s Report and Recommendations

Treasurer Bill Volosin began his report to the school board by indicating he only had two resolutions on the agenda for this evening:

Resolution to Approve Financial Statements and Reports: Exhibit D-1
A resolution to approve July’s revenues & expenses was outlined to the board. A motion was made, seconded, and the resolution was unanimously approved.

Resolution to Approve Advances & Transfers: Exhibit D-2
A resolution to “clean up” many of the accounts at the high school and transfer small amounts to the General Operating Fund, which would then be transferred back into the School Support Fund for the principal’s use. Volosin explained that many high school clubs and sports accounts have remaining balances, and the transferring will zero out the accounts and allow the money to be used in the 2023-24 school year. A motion was made and seconded, and the resolution was unanimously approved.

There were no questions for Volosin, so Mehallis continued with the New Business portion of the agenda.

New Business

The board moved through this list of action items with little or no discussion. Each had a motion requested, made and seconded. It should be noted that each resolution had an exhibit attached to it; however, these were not available to this documenter or the audience. Each item was also unanimously accepted via roll call:

A. Resolution to Accept Gifts and Contributions
Mehallis read the monetary gifts/contributions aloud to the board.

B. The following list was read aloud and voted on as a block:
– Resolution to Approve Staff Resignations, Introductory Appointment of Support Staff
– Resolution to Employ Support Staff Substitutes for 23-24 School Year
– Resolution to Employ Substitute Teachers for 23-24 School Year
– Resolution to Award Teacher One-Year Limited Contract for 23-24 School Year
– Resolution to Employ Part-Time Support Staff for 23-24 School Year
– Resolution to Approve Revised Salary Schedule
– Resolution to Award Summer Supplemental Contract for Summer 2023
– Resolution to Award District Supplemental Contract for 23-24 School Year
– Resolution to Employ Long-Term Substitute Specialist
– Resolution to Employ Long-Term Substitute Teachers

C. Resolution to Approve Bus Stops for 23-24 School Year
D. Resolution to Approve Final Budget
E. Resolution to Approve Activity Accounts
F. Resolution to Approve Creation of Interscholastic Athletic Teams
Mehallis interjected that this item would be tabled for discussion at another meeting and therefore not voted on tonight.
G. Resolution to approve Purchase of Ford Transit Van.

Discussion Items

Mehallis noted that there were no discussion items and asked for a motion to adjourn. Motion made, seconded and approved.

Meeting adjourned at 7:21 p.m.


Transcript

The following transcript was generated by a transcription bot and is not 100% accurate. The Portager does not edit the AI-generated transcript. We understand the automatic transcript can be very inaccurate.

Aurora BOE 8.28

00:00
So first of July

00:06
so

00:08
many times additions or edits to

00:14
the goal state Yes. This is my office. Yes. This designs. Yes. It was great. Yes, yes. Yes.

00:23
That meeting on July 24. I have a motion for approval of those minutes.

00:31
Second

00:36
please call the roll. Yes. This is my own desires. Yes. Mr. Aiken 16. This is calling let’s say.

00:55
I have so I don’t think the minutes to share our plans for the upcoming five point I know operate live is scheduled for November 7. To start, I did want to remind the board that Bill and I will be a little more limited on what we can and can’t say more to that the years past that these rules haven’t really changed in the interpretation by the State Auditor’s Office enforcement is now more restricted. So communication providing factual information regarding levy is allowed. But it shouldn’t be designed to influence to influence support for or against, to not influence support for

01:31
gets the bar issue. Our plan is to provide straightforward factual information that is neutral event. We also will make ourselves available to answer questions concerning anything deriving from the levy because factual information regarding the district’s finances, operations, and the need for lending may be shared to pull out that information should be neutral, accurate, and supported by facts without advocating for or against the passage of the legs. So for example, we can’t say,

02:00
please help us keep our schools strong, because that implies that you know, we should find somebody. So we have to be very careful with what we said.

02:09
So I hope you in our families will misinterpret either Bill of Rights and neutrality, as is that may confuse the ethic by the school district as we provide the information but in the form of a neutral message. So

02:24
we have already started and will continue to fight a series of meetings about the levy and local community leaders. We started with our convocation day where we talked to all the staff and let them know about the levy and reminded them of what it’s about. That was August 14. And then the next day I met with the award Chamber of Commerce, to discuss the same topic to get all the factual information. In September, we’ve got plans to deal with the Royal Schools Foundation, and then that’s going to sit down with the religions that cover Hana to be able to go over into any questions they might have, because obviously, that plays a major role as well, the terms of the hostels, and then finally on the 28th, Carson pertinant Advisory Council, which is composed of 16 different community groups is going to be

03:08
that’s going to be the topic for that particular meeting. We’ll also meet with PTO and with Rotary that those dates are have not been scheduled yet. And as well as any other community groups that might arise or even locations would come up. We have a variety of committee meetings scheduled for this location here at the conference center, which will be open to all the Republican community starting on Tuesday, October 3. And then Thursday, October 12th, as you can see, from seventh eighth and Wednesday, October 18. So the goal is to try to hit a couple of different days. So this will catch people’s sports, sporting events, and things like that, and we’ll get that information out to the public as well. And then in terms of communication about 5.9 or operating ready. By September, we’re city schools, district update families will be focused on the facts concerning the levy. Bill is set to be my guest on the October spotlight on Aurora schools, which is a cable show. And then on the show, he’ll be sharing financial information and facts about the debt offering for November. And then our first quarterly your schools that the newspaper news

04:17
paper we sent out. That will be scheduled to come out in October and that will also share just factual information.

04:24
So we do anticipate the levy committee which I’m unable to lead and believe that it will be the treasurer of but were suspecting that before mid September with focus on sharing information about delivery through social media. And finally, we suspected that we can make you also have signs going up around the community approximately two weeks before the November election. So all in all, our goal is to get the factual information out to as many people as possible so that they’re able to make an educated decision concerning or see schools with

04:57
any questions in relation to that as safe

05:03
So it’s a state auditors interpretation of some of the rules that are already there, there’s actually a superintendent and a board, which was actually prosecuted, because they did not follow the steps that was seemed appropriate. So I’ll also pretend that some boys would be encouraged to be sure of treasures, to be sure that they are sending a neutral message but an education

05:33
compliance concerns? Yes, I

05:37
am.

05:44
Thank you.

05:46
It’s that time of the year, where we’re back in school this fall. And I try to give the board a little, as I like to call a temperature check on where we stand. With more nose, springs, and we’re looking at April, May, there’s all kinds of testing going on. And of course assessments, and Advanced Placement exams. So we started to get back a lot of these results on how students achieved in the summer, we got some of those in June, some of it was in July. So certainly some of that information. And tonight, we’re going to focus on the Advanced Placement, exams and scores sort of summarize some of that for you. And then this will be part one and part two. Next month, we’ll be more focused on the OCS, we still we have some comparative results. And we’re starting to get some preliminary reports in the secure data center. So we have a good, pretty good idea of where we stand, but we’ll have a much better idea in September and October. Actually, before I get into what I’m talking about tonight, with the advanced placement scores tomorrow, my understanding is that the US News and World Report results will be released or honorable release, which is one we always pay close attention to is the combination of advanced placement scores, find useful if you don’t have those. And then of course assessments, so we built just really Google honor. So we’re anticipating

07:05
what that’s going to look like tomorrow, tonight, I mean, surely, soon is going to be good news. Sometimes, you can maybe talk about that next month. And then

07:15
in September 15, report come out. So we’ll spend some more time on the independent state report card, perhaps in September and October. And then finally, there’s going to be new world war that’s going to be coming up the College Board, which is really just

07:32
it’s mostly focused on awarding schools who have high achieving access in terms of access, you know, meeting students accessing high level courses, which we talked about tonight. And then obviously, the scores associated with the students. So it really kind of just listen to talk about today. But

07:52
we don’t have those honors, yet, we just know, I wouldn’t be included. So lots of news and good news going out in the next month or so we’ll continue to share. Today I’m gonna focus on.

08:04
So I did share some of the past four years, some of this longitudinal data, and highlighting a few different years. So I’ll talk a little bit about that, we’ll talk about some of the individual awards, the students, as well. So as you can see, this first slide was back to 2012. It’s a little bit of a rebrand to last year, highlighted 1415 and 17. And one of the things I will draw your attention to next year, though, is when they look at your passing percentage of your total number of tests, you know, look at the meaning of the test pass, because that’s obviously the ancestral number of students taking these scores through tests. And then obviously not our best percentage, higher meaning that means the students are scoring those threes, fours and fives, which is great, and it makes us very proud, but also makes the students happy.

08:56
Typically, your families love that as well. Because their most time that translates to, you know, college credits, and college readiness, and so on. Those are all good news. So 1415 and 17. You can see up there were really strong years because of those reasons. And

09:12
those factors I just mentioned, we did have a little dip around the time for COVID, which, you know, talk to you all about that. I’m happy to report that also now highlighted 22 and 23 to Bellwether years, as we sort of recovered and get back to where we want to be. So you can see the number of tests in C two, seven and 821. You can see the passing percentage at 2.6 that we thought were three and really, I like to see anything above 80% comfortability 5% or so with a high number of students taking the test. And then obviously the test passed. One thing I would note though, is that we did have a little bit of smaller, collaborative, smaller senior class this year, so that it takes a little bit because you tend to have a lot of juniors taking up

10:00
So

10:01
that’s really good news. It’s exactly what we want to see. Obviously, this is something that we hang our hat on when the District High School did borrow a couple of Mr. Hayes’s camera images to share with you as well.

10:14
Such as a nice job of goes and sums it up. This just talk a little bit about the number of students the passing percentage, and indeed the highest. That’s a great since 2014 15. And then the last thing I want to bring your attention to, I know that this is a lot

10:32
on a big screen, but I didn’t give you you know, a screenshot of this a little closer in your report. But this is something that we just started recently for College Board, honoring those students who are AP scholars, who are AP scholars with modern and AP scholars with distinction. So we had 100 Force 84 Students honored in such a way 60 of them were the AP Scholar, and then basically, these three are higher on three or more segments, which is really pretty incredible. But then, even more incredible, we had 43 of them have 3.25, on average on all AP exams, three or higher on four or more of those exams. And then finally, one distinction to 3.5 scores of three or higher, high and more exams. So just pretty amazing that they’re doing our students are doing that kind of work. And obviously, to those to those individual students. Point of View abandonment, all AP instructors, certainly do a great work with those students. But really, if you think about the curriculum, where the students have to get to Tableau scores, it’s really all the teachers that they had previously for foundational skills, and all the courses leading up to that, too. So I really like to think that this is certainly we give our AP teachers credit, but there’s a lot of work and time, lots of other educators and teachers working with students to get them to that place to earn such high as Office services. This is something we really pride ourselves on. We know something for students that are interested.

12:06
So love, love to share this good news and sort of overall picture and all the work by these individuals. So take any questions or comments or any

12:17
Treasurer’s Report?

12:21
I appreciate. I appreciate what you said about all the educators. Thank you these great scores.

12:29
I’m curious to know, do these tests change from year to year? The Yeah, definitely they change every single year. That’s not to say that they can’t have I guess, recycle questions, you could use some similar questions, but they changed. Sometimes every few years, the format, slight change and the types of essays change the type of work or maybe even scope and sequence. So the under changing, and even, you know, new courses, for example, while the precalculus switch

12:58
last year, we approved programs that except that the new one, what if you’re

13:08
just curious, to me, we have access to see on your district scores. Just like for benchmarking. So yeah. It’s not like the voice t squared, which in a sense, where I have a dashboard performance index, and really, you don’t really have that for advanced placement.

13:27
What we will be looking at is, when when the US news and world report comes out, there’ll be components that go into that honor, and it will part of that is the placement of reading and math and the way students are VOCs. And then part of that is sort of the college readiness scores, which they’ll take from these advanced placement scores and a lot of it has to do with how many students are taking and passing percentage, it doesn’t necessarily break it down into every single subject to jump on 20 some subject but it does give us an idea. We can see capital data from at least for our school compared to the state

14:05
globally as well. So we can see like compensate like way off but I don’t have like I have spreadsheets and all kinds of apparently in order to power number districts and maybe

14:18
forget

14:23
about the

14:25
yes I do see is always students and teachers.

14:31
But Becky

14:33
seasoning I just got two resolutions to consideration. And I’ll start with the first one financial financial report for July. And for July revenues exceeding expenditures by about $6.5 million. Increasing your general fund cash balance to a book of 18 million

14:53
revenue for about five minutes and greater than projected and expenditures about point 2% Less

15:00
When we put the projections together, the initial revenue expenditure projections, basically, I had developed them by utilizing the budget line items. And the average percentage of receipts for expenses for each line

15:15
occurred over previous years. And then I adjust them based upon your own parameters such as the months when we have to pay for that payment to things such as that. So in July, rookie side, we received our for property tax advances for Portage County, which this year total, nearly $9.2 million. As an example, last July, we received about 7.8. So really all that’s telling us when we hear a final settlement in August will be lower

15:52
than what it was last year.

15:55
And really, what it comes down to is how fast when it’s coming into the county during the top pass, or how much advances and the final settlement for Portage County in August, and will receive our Summit County, probably in September. So

16:13
pretty the first half of the year, taxpayer

16:17
expenditure side after the first month are things pretty much running has, as we would expect some time

16:27
runs pretty close. So thus far for the fiscal year revenues of about 488,000 greater than projected expenditures of $7,400 Less, giving us a favorable variance right now nearly $500,000 We’ll get another change next month because our taxes that we received before its lowest

16:49
last year

16:57
was a resolution to approve the financial statements and reports on March 22. Any comments or questions?

17:10
is great. Yes. Designs? Yes.

17:14
disposables. Yes,

17:17
we have a second revolution D two is a whole bunch of transfers. And really what we’re doing here is cleaning up the buses because Activity Council for High School. So some of them had a little bit of money left over you can see the class of 2014 and 10 levels.

17:34
So in reality, what we’re doing all of those funds that you can see the different ones listed there, transferred to the general fund and from there, we transferred back to the high school school support from their principals account essentially. And so easily all of these activity accounts that you see there will not be closed out as the activity board for it. So this is mainly just a cleaned up of some new concept high school

18:07
due to a resolution to approve appropriation methods, manuals.

18:13
We found this question

18:17
this is not the best this was a lawsuit. Yes.

18:22
This is Yes. Yes.

18:30
Business resolution to accepting some contributions. You have a right to travel basketball in the jungle $15 million to the boys basketball program and $15 million to the girls basketball program. Also High School PTO donate $2 for greater breaks. And the elementary PTO donated $1,000 To know related to craft or pediatrics and emotional

18:56
moved. Second.

18:59
Any comments or questions?

19:02
Thank you so much. They are experts.

19:07
This is hard. Yes. It’s great. Yes. This is an all suicides. Yes.

19:13
Yes.

19:17
Personnel resolution.

19:22
So the EY b one is the resolution to accept resignations. Exhibit b one b two is the resolution to approve the introductory appointment of support staff

19:33
that you want to increase resolution to employ support staff substitutes are experts who

19:39
say that the funding for is a resolution to employ licensed substitute teachers for this

19:46
exhibit you might be fine as the resolution to award a one year contract

19:52
is going to be when the six is the resolution to employ a part time support staff member.

19:58
Exhibit II one piece

20:00
Seven is the resolution to approve a revised salary schedule for network operations.

20:07
What the date is the resolution to award summer supplemental contract?

20:13
Monday night is the resolution to award supplemental contracts to district personnel.

20:19
Exhibit 10 is resolution to employ a long term substitute specialist

20:26
and exhibit p 111. For resolution to employ long term substitute teachers for this current school. May I have a motion for approval?

20:37
So, I

20:40
have questions about

20:44
this this is yes, this is Mahalos Yes, yes.

20:50
Yes.

20:53
All right, Exhibit C is a resolution to approve bus stops for this current school year and a motion for approval

21:01
second, unanswered questions

21:08
this is my own yes desires Yes. Yes. Yes.

21:16
Exhibit E one D is the resolution to approve the final budgets for activity accounts for school year 22

21:24
And as a motion for approval

21:33
there any comments or questions in essence

21:38
Sure.

21:41
You want the user role in a different activity types of his various buildings, this is last year’s. So, just kind of shows where the money came in from

21:51
the next resolution than the projected ones for Ilisu. So pretty much

21:57
what was going on last year. So the various accounts and some of them as I had mentioned earlier from high school will be close that will soon be gone.

22:06
But by and large is that just all the various need to to many different funds and accounts that we have

22:14
different clubs

22:19
rotary clubs for

22:24
Okay.

22:26
resides yes misuse of all speak. Yes. Yes.

22:33
Yes.

22:35
All right. Exhibit 81. Is resolution to approve the statements of purpose and budgets were activity accounts for this current

22:43
meeting.

22:46
Sure, seconds. Any comments or questions?

22:52
Mr. resides? Yes. This was supposed to be yes. This is Connor. Yes. This is Yes. Yes.

23:00
Okay, Jimmy, you want to act as a resolution to approve the creation of new scholastic athletic teams and we have decided to table this. And so a motion in order to do that please. Move second.

23:15
Daughter. Yes. Great. Yes, this is all desirelessness Mr. civils. Yes. So we will table that discussion at one time.

23:27
He said that he wants it as a resolution to suit the purchase of the Ford Transit van

23:45
this one is actually gonna pass in your band because these are still unavailable. This one. We had the

23:51
strategy rusted away. So

23:55
that’s a good way without us Americans

24:00
are still positive.

24:02
Of course, this sources but

24:07
I really don’t know other than that, we can try and have a body for the dots.

24:16
Was

24:20
there any of

24:23
this is common? Yes. This is an almost Yes. Yes. This is Yes. This is Yes.

24:33
discussion items or any more?

24:41
Motion for journalists.

24:48
Yes,

24:50
yes, this is all YES.

24:53
YES.

25:01
Good

25:12
morning

Lee Lundblad
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