Norwood Young America City Council — Transcript
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Condolence Message for Mrs. Stacy
Annual District Report Card Analysis
Policy Revisions and Updates
Financial Matters and Fund Creation
Student Personnel Updates
Student Field Trips
Votes (6)
Special Message: Condolences for Mrs. Stacy
Superintendent expressed heartfelt sympathy to the Stacy family, students, staff, and families for the passing of Mrs. Stacy, a dedicated teacher, coach, and Norwood alum. She served for 22 years, was a digital art photography teacher, Norwood Indians volleyball coach, and mother of Bella and Brody. The district will close tomorrow for her funeral services.
2025-2026 District Report Card Analysis
Christina Chess, Director of Curriculum, presented the report card, highlighting 3.5 stars overall, with 4 stars in Progress, Gap Closing, and College Career Workforce Ready. Achievement received 3 stars and Graduation 2 stars. Discussions included chronic absenteeism calculation (hours vs. students, impact of new law on excused absences), gifted identification and services, and the impact of changing early literacy assessment tools (Ames web to MClass Dibbles). Individual school achievements in specific components were also celebrated.
Superintendent's Personnel Recommendations
The Superintendent presented personnel changes including resignations and new hires. Caitlyn Hy, a Norwood alum, resigned. New employees include Amanda Rose as an educational aid and Taylor Alip on unpaid leave for student teaching. Other advisors, homework help support, and coordinators for avenues were also recommended.
Financial Report and New Fund Creation
The Treasurer reviewed financial reports, including the CFO report and monthly financials, and the permanent appropriation resolution. Two small transfers were proposed: $4,652.30 from the Class of '26 to Class of '27 and $1,546.44 from the athletic playoff fund to the general athletic fund. A new 'George Knox Williams Avenue Elementary Fund' was proposed to accept a five-year donation of $2,000/year from Miss Cynthia Knox in memory of her late husband, George, for student joy and assistance at Williams Avenue Elementary.
First Reading of 18 Policies and Regulations
Mr. Atwood and Mrs. Chess presented 18 policies for a first reading, grouped into five categories. Changes included updated language for the Student Athletic Mobility Act (Senate Bill 276), removal of the consolidated school mandate report reference from several policies, House Bill 455 changes affecting board vacancy provisions and allowing policy posting on the website, modifications for the District Records Commission, updates to purchasing procedures (increased federal procurement threshold to $350,000), and expense reimbursement for credit card convenience fees (per Auditor of State memo).
Approval of Student Field Trips
The Education Committee presented a list of approved student field trips, including Norwood High School to Great Wolf Lodge, Sharpsburg 5th grade to YMCA campbell, Norwood Middle School and High School orchestra and band to the Trills and Thrills music competition at Wilmington High School/Kings Island, Norwood View 4th grade to Cincinnati Observatory, Sharpsburg 4th grade to Norwood Firehouse, Monasuri kindergarten to Norwood Fire Department, Norwood Middle School to skilled trade day, and Sharpsburg 5th grade to Read an Item.
Notable Quotes (11)
Mrs. Stacy truly embodied the spirit of Norwood Pride. Throughout her 22 years of dedicated service, her classroom remained a welcoming, calm environment where all students felt respected and valued.
Achievement and progress carry the strongest weight of the report card at 25%. And the four remaining components carry a weight of 12.5. That would be graduation, early literacy, college, career, workforce, and military readiness and gap closing.
So, chronic absenteeism is a score we'd like to reduce. So that is a score we want to move. Um, and we're grateful that we were able to move it. We actually reduced it by 3.7 percentage point changes but really 10.2 percentage change reduction for that.
So, if we were to say less than 10% or less than 5% of our student population factors into the chronically absent. That's where you're getting the majority of your absences to get that 30. Well, then they're missing well more than 10. 100 100%.
So in all of those previous years, you had excused absences and unexcused absences. So the law changed over the summer, so it won't be until next year's number where everything counts. Is that correct?
In the past, we've talked about how parents are able to sign a waiver and allow their student to move forward. That is no longer the case. Um it doesn't mean students aren't promoted to fourth grade based on this solely, but they are not included in that measure if they didn't receive um a proficient or above score on the third grade test, a 50 or on an alternate assessment.
We do have an opportunity with an Ohio reads coach, work with our middle school ELA teachers in sixth, seventh grade and also our intervention specialist as well. We've done some improvements with our TBTs in our data collection for reading and math and those um TBTs are going really well this year.
George began his education here at Williams Avenue Elementary in 1962. Uh, he was there through 8th grade and then graduated from Nor High School in 1974. U, as stated from Cynthia, George loved his elementary school um and that his lifelong friendships he made were prominent in his life based on his time here at Williams.
The first two policies, IGD, co-curricular and extracurricular activity, and IGDJ, intercolastic activities, both have updated language for the Student Athletic Mobility Act in um Senate Bill 276. It's called the SAM Act. Just allows a little bit of flexibility with students in neighboring school districts um if approved by the superintendent could participate in an activity that wasn't provided at their school district.
All of these policies have updated language from House Bill 455 to allow districts to post um the policy to the website instead of the school building. We're required to put this in the school building. And now um we might just keep it in the school building as well, but we're allowed to also just post on the website to fulfill the requirements for these um policies.
The first one purchasing procedures updated to reflect the simplified acquisition threshold. It was 250,000 and now it's 350,000 for federal procurement.
Ordinances & Resolutions (28)
Student Athletic Mobility Act, allowing flexibility for students in neighboring school districts to participate in activities not provided at their home school.
Legislation impacting board vacancy provisions, requirements for posting policies (website instead of building), and modifications for school district records commissions.
Key assessment for the Achievement and Progress components of the district report card, covering ELA, Math, and Science for various grades and end-of-course exams for high school.
Test given to English language learners based on reading, writing, listening, and speaking, used in gap closing calculations.
Standard financial report attached for review by the board.
Standard monthly financial statements attached for review by the board.
Document related to the current budget for the year.
Document related to the current budget for the year.
Memo addressing credit card convenience fees and their reimbursement, impacting expense reimbursement policy.
Co-curricular and extracurricular activity policy updated for the Student Athletic Mobility Act.
Intercolastic activities policy updated for the Student Athletic Mobility Act.
First aid policy, revised to remove reference to the consolidated school mandate report.
Food sales standards policy, revised to remove reference to the consolidated school mandate report.
Interdistrict open enrollment policy, revised to remove reference to the consolidated school mandate report.
Interdistrict open enrollment policy, revised to remove reference to the consolidated school mandate report.
Hazing and bullying harassment, intimidation and dating violence policy, revised to remove reference to the consolidated school mandate report.
Physical examination of students policy, revised to remove reference to the consolidated school mandate report.
Positive behavior interventions and support restraint and seclusion policies, revised to remove reference to the consolidated school mandate report.
Unexpired term fulfillment for board vacancy policy, updated to address House Bill 455 changes.
Student rights and responsibilities policy, updated to allow posting to the website instead of the school building (House Bill 455).
Student conduct zero tolerance policy, updated to allow posting to the website instead of the school building (House Bill 455).
Use of cell phones and electronic communication devices by students policy, updated to allow posting to the website instead of the school building (House Bill 455).
Student conduct on district managed transportation policy, updated to allow posting to the website instead of the school building (House Bill 455).
Admission of non-resident students policy, updated to allow posting to the website instead of the school building (House Bill 455).
District Records Commission Records Retention and Disposal policy, updated to address House Bill 455 modifications allowing a designee.
Purchasing procedures policy, updated to reflect a simplified acquisition threshold for federal procurement (from $250,000 to $350,000).
Expense reimbursement policy, revised to provide language addressing credit card convenience fees based on an Auditor of State memo.
School properties disposal policy, revised to remove reference to college preparatory boarding schools.