Board Meeting Recap for January 2025
Forest Hills School District is utilizing these articles as a way to communicate specific action taken at regular Board of Education meetings throughout the year. The Board of Education met on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 at Mercer Elementary School to discuss a variety of topics relevant to students, staff and the community.
The official agenda and related attachments for this meeting can be found on the FHSD BoardDocs page here. You can watch a full recording of the meeting on YouTube here.
Special Recognitions
In Ohio, January is School Board Recognition month. Superintendent Larry Hook presented each FHSD Board Member with a certificate of appreciation for their dedication to the district. School board members exemplify local control and decision-making in education and they volunteer hundreds of hours and an immeasurable amount of energy to ensure that our schools are providing the best education possible for the children of Anderson Township and the Village of Newtown.
Thank you to Board President Bob Bibb, Board Vice President Katie Stewart, Board Member Sara Jonas, Board Member Jason Simmons and Board Member Wendy Strickler for their willingness to serve the entire FHSD community.
The Forest Hills Foundation for Education announced that the annual FH5K will be held on Saturday, May 10, 2025. The Foundation is currently recruiting volunteers to make the event a success involving areas like logistics, marketing, after-party support and sponsor outreach. Interested individuals can contact FHFE by visiting its website at https://fhfe.org/contact-us/.
FHFE is also offering PTO grants for the third year as a way for the Foundation to hear from students and parents. Online applications will be made available Monday, Feb. 3 and due Friday, Feb. 21.
Superintendent Update
In addition to recognizing board members for their dedication to students and passion for serving the community, Superintendent Larry Hook discussed recent inclement weather that has impacted school districts across the greater Cincinnati area. In terms of the decision-making process for cancelling or delaying school due to inclement weather, Mr. Hook emphasized that the desire is to hold school each day because it is clear the best place for students to be educated is in person. However, that desire must be balanced with the district’s responsibility to provide for the safety of all students, staff members and visitors.
Superintendent Hook explained that many people are involved in the process to monitor weather conditions, road conditions, temperature, forecasts and much more to help him make a decision on the need to change the school calendar in response to inclement weather. While weather forecasts by local meteorologists are taken into consideration, the district does not solely rely on that information as it can often change in the days and hours leading up to a significant weather event. FHSD staff members are up early each day there is a chance for winter weather to begin driving local roads to observe road conditions first hand. The district’s crews also work to clear parking lots and walkways to the best of their ability, and significant amounts of snow or ice may impact that work and be factored into a final decision as well. FHSD is also in regular contact with municipal road crews district-wide and other agencies that respond to weather events in and around the school district.
The superintendent reminded board members and the public that for the vast majority of weather events, a decision to cancel or delay school will be made in the early morning hours. It is important for families to keep that reality in mind and to make necessary plans in advance for potential inclement weather. Specific details about the district’s inclement weather response and possible schedule changes for different scenarios can be found in this article on the district website.
Organizational Meeting
Prior to the start of the regular meeting, the Board of Education held its annual organizational meeting. During this meeting, board members elected Mr. Bob Bibb to serve as president and Mrs. Katie Stewart to serve as vice president for 2025.
The Board also assigned members to serve on Board appointed committees and in certain liaison roles. You can find the updated information on the Board of Education webpage here. You can view the full agenda for the organizational meeting here.
Board Action
The Board of Education often reviews and votes on a variety of actions that impact different departments throughout the school district. The following action items presented by department representatives were voted on together as part of the “consent agenda.” For specific information about any of the following items, you can find the meeting agenda and attachments here.
The following items in the consent agenda were approved by the Board of Education.
Human Resources
- 7.1 Human Resources Report
- The report covers a variety of topics including retirements, resignations and appointments of different staff members. You can view the report here and related attachments here.
Business Operations
- 8.1 Resolution Authorizing Southwestern Ohio Educational Purchasing Council to Advertise and Receive Bids (School Bus Purchase)
- This item allows FHSD to advertise and receive bids for the purchase of school buses.
- You can view the resolution here.
- 8.2 Amendment to Contract (GroundSystems)
- This item amends the existing contract with GroundSystems to allow for up to two-year term renewals.
- You can view the amendment here.
Teaching and Learning
- 9.1 Social Studies Course of Study
- This item presents the updated Social Studies Course of Study to the Board of Education. The material will be available for review in the curriculum department until the February Board of Education regular meeting, at which time it will be up for official adoption by the Board.
- You can read the proposed Social Studies Course of Study here.
- 9.2 Multilingual Course of Study
- This item presents the updated Multilingual Course of Study to the Board of Education. The material will be available for review in the curriculum department until the February Board of Education regular meeting, at which time it will be up for official adoption by the Board.
- You can read the proposed Multilingual Course of Study here.
- 9.3 Summer School Dates and Fees for 2025 Grades K-12
- This item approves the dates and associated fees with summer school programming for 2025, which you can view here.
- 9.4 Overnight Field Trip Requests
- This item approves requests for overnight field trips, which you can read here.
- 9.5 Cincinnati Center for Autism
- This item approves a contact for Services between Cincinnati Center of Autism and FHSD to provide educational services for a special education student. The service amount reflects a six-month placement from January 7, 2025, to June 27, 2025 at a cost of $54,941.00. You can view the resolution here.
Technology
- 10.1 Chromebook Lease Agreement
- This item approves a lease agreement with Lenovo for student Chromebooks in support of the 1:1 technology model. The agreement outlines an annual lease payment of $119,474.70 for a term of four years.
- You can view the lease agreement here.
Treasurer Update
- 11.1 Treasurer's Report
- Treasurer Alana Cropper’s December report provided information on the following items:
- Donations
- Five-Year Forecast
- General Fund Revenue
- General Fund Expenditures
- General Operating Cash Balance
- Permanent Improvement Fund
- Investment Income Snapshot
- Past Month Reconciliation
- You can find the December cash position report here.
- Treasurer Alana Cropper’s December report provided information on the following items:
This completes the consent agenda.
Committee Reports
Board Members provided updates on the committee meeting listed below.
- Policy Committee
- Committee Chairperson Sara Jonas provided an update on Policy 2265 titled Protections of Individual Beliefs, Affiliations, Ideals, or Principles of Political Movements and Ideology, which is compliant with Ohio House Bill 214’s requirement that school districts adopt a policy that “reasonably accommodates the sincerely held religious beliefs and practices of students; to require each public school to adopt a policy regarding certain expectations related to the performance of staff member professional duties.”
- The Board voted unanimously to adopt the policy at the January meeting, after it was presented for a first reading in December. You can view the policy here.
Board Discussion
Board members discussed a variety of topics including the Parent Academy meeting on January 23, 2025. They also congratulated recent winners of the elementary spelling bees. Further discussion included multiple celebrations of events and successes at different schools, a request to hold a board strategy workshop, efforts to respond to the recent snow events, opinions on the Board’s membership to the Ohio School Boards Association.
You can click the following link to view the full discussion period, which begins at 1:22:43 during the meeting livestream.
Approved Minutes
The Board of Education approved minutes for the following meetings, which you can view by clicking the link associated with each meeting. After clicking the appropriate link, you will need to then click “View Minutes” under Agenda Item Details, next to the category titled “Minutes.”
- Regular Meeting - December 18, 2024
