Welcome back to August’s follow-up summary of the board meeting to try and help provide transparency for my decisions while on the board. All of the views, opinions and decisions in these summaries are my own. Here is the summary.
I want to remind everyone that if you would like to read the minutes for yourself you can go to https://go.boarddocs.com/oh/xeniaoh/Board.nsf/Public# and select meetings to see all of the past meetings. Then if you select a meeting there is a link to the agenda and minutes from that meeting. The minutes from the most recent meeting, however, will not be available until approved at the following meeting.
This board meeting was on August 8th. We had no people get up to address the board and not very many citizens in the audience. This was a little sad because we had a lot of really exciting things to talk about and share this meeting.
We pulled a couple of items out of the Superintendents consent agenda. The first was to make sure we were recognizing our long-serving retirees. The second was to recognize all of the people we have brought back under XCS for custodians and maintenance. One impressive number is that 93% of the staff we brought on or back are Xenia residents or graduates. It is great that we are able to have such a positive impact on the community. The last item was to acknowledge the Washington D.C. trip we have every year and what a great opportunity it is.
Another important item we passed was an MOU with the City of Xenia to provide 2 School Resource Officers this year and I am hoping we can work out an agreement to have even more SRO’s. I know with recent events student safety is very important and we take that matter very seriously. We are having many discussions about what additional resources we can provide, plan of action training, and what we can do in our buildings both new and old to provide a safe learning space to our students.
The most exciting part of this meeting was the presentation on the new Warner Middle School! It was a great presentation and I encourage everyone to check out the video and renderings on the school web page. https://www.xeniaschools.org/news/facilities/warner_middle_school_construction_project I am very excited to break ground on the new building on September 8th at noon.
We passed a motion to finalize the agreement with OFCC for $38 million from the stat to help fund the new Warner Middle School and do some renovations to the high school. As a reminder the $38 million from the state is strictly for building construction costs and is part of a program we applied for a while back. Basically when the tax payers approve a bond issue for new construction it qualifies us to receive state funds for half the cost. We do still have two (2) RENEWAL levies on the ballot this November. These two levies cover our operating costs to actually run the school and without them Xenia will not be able to operate in just 3 years. These are not new taxes or increases in taxes, it is only to keep funding the school to the same amount as before. I know inflation and expenses are hard on everyone right now but to decline these levies would be extremely detrimental to the schools and the programs we can offer so let’s support these levies in November.
We also voted to name the Xenia High School Gym after Coach Phil Anderson. We are planning to have that ceremony around the December Athletic Hall of Fame.
This meeting was pretty straight forward and most excitingly it marks the start of the school year. I hope all the students are enjoying being back at school as much as my two little ones! Let’s have a great school year and keep working toward making a better Xenia.
Please send me any comments, concerns, feedback, or questions you may have. I serve you and I am here to represent you to the best of my abilities.
-Joshua Day
Joshua Day for Xenia School Board 