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Our FHSD school board met last night in a special executive session, which followed the two executive sessions held on the night of the August board meeting. The topic: Employment or Compensation of a public official. The team at AdvocateFHSD discussed, and came up with a working hypothesis, based on input from former board members and community members. We’ve had our eye on actions around these two contracts since late last year — which inspired our January blog post — since the board is only responsible for hiring the two roles of Treasurer and Superintendent. The Forest Hills School District Board of Education has approved contract updates for nearly everyone employed by the district, the only remaining contracts to discuss would be those for the Treasurer and Superintendent, both of whom have contracts ending next year, 2025. Responsible leadership would consider risk vs. impact to the district with any significant decision to extend or terminate a contract.  District Superintendent Larry Hook and District Treasurer Alana Cropper We hypothesize that the board may be discussing an extension for Mr Hook, and a termination of the Treasurer, based on conversations we had at the end of the year in 2023. Speaking with former board members from previous terms, several advised that Sara Jonas, Katie Stewart and Bob Bibb still had intent to remove people who had been hired during previous board terms. Our sources suggested that Jonas’ strategy to block future board members from making hiring decisions that they would not make themselves if they were unable to be re-elected, or should seats for future Republican party candidates fail in 2025. We reached out to Board President Jonas for comment today, as of the publication time, we have not heard back. We will update if we receive a comment or quote.
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Teachers play a key role in shaping the future of individuals and society by educating and inspiring the next generation. We entrust them with the tremendous responsibility of nurturing and educating our children. Other than parents, few people have more influence in our children’s lives. Teaching isn’t just a 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM job. It requires commitment to plan, to work “off the clock” to prepare lessons, grade papers and perform various school support and mentoring activities. For decades in Ohio, teachers were required to obtain their master's degrees. The law changed 10 years ago, so many Forest Hills School District (FHSD) teachers have master's degrees. For those that entered the profession more recently, most invest personally in ongoing learning about state-of-the-art teaching methods to ensure their continued efficacy in the classroom. In 2023, our teachers agreed to a one-year contract. This year, they're looking to negotiate a standard 3-year contract as the district has traditionally supported in previous years. Salary comparisons and the cost of living"You get what you pay for” is an age-old adage that applies to many professions, but in the case of FHSD teachers, it doesn’t really apply — we typically get more than we pay for. Our district rates among the State’s highest in performance and among the lowest in the area in education cost per student. The nationwide cost of living increases have hit our educators hard over the last few years as our last contract sailed for a 2% increase (2023 contract signed with FHTA) while the Bureau of Labor Statistics says the cost of living (COLA) grew 5.9% in 2022 and 8.7% in 2023. While inflation is now slowing, it still exceeds the 2023 increase. Over time, we cannot expect quality teachers to absorb these kinds of cost increases without a more considerate response than the 2023 contract.
Communication from the District:
As part of ongoing efforts at Forest Hills School District to support the mental health and wellness of students, the district is excited to invite the community to an upcoming presentation by the Hilinski’s Hope Foundation. As an educational institution, FHSD understands the importance of supporting student wellness and meeting the social, behavioral and emotional needs of children in the school community.
This community presentation, which will be hosted by Anderson High School and the Forest Hills Foundation for Education in March, is an opportunity for students, families and community members to learn about important topics related to mental health and suicide prevention.
The community event will be held on Monday, March 4 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in Titus Auditorium at Anderson High School. In order to ensure there is enough space to accommodate all who wish to attend, FHSD is encouraging interested individuals to fill out this RSVP form.
The Hilinski’s Hope Foundation (H3H) was founded in 2018 by Mark and Kym Hilinski to honor the life of their son Tyler. Tyler was a talented, kind-hearted and dedicated young man who excelled at sports, eventually playing football at Washington State University. At the age of 21, Tyler died by suicide.  Katie Stewart (Right) commenting on how our public schools spend too much on 1:1 technology policy while her kids utilize a similar 1:1 technology policy made possible through Cincinnati Public School auxiliary funds. About the Author
At the January 2024 meeting of the Forest Hills School District (FHSD) Board of Education, the FHSD community received an explanation behind Board Vice President Katie Stewart’s “NO” vote on that evening’s consent agenda ... screen time. On the agenda was a budget item including new Lenovo Chromebooks. Like most parents, she was worried about kids having too much screen time. But I think this vote points to a larger issue with Mrs. Stewart’s performance on the board of our public school district. Katie Stewart may not understand what a consent agenda is. Consent agendas consist of multiple procedural items, expected to garner unanimous approval. By voting “NO” on the January 2024 consent agenda, Mrs. Stewart voted “NO” on all items within the agenda.
 Black History Month was born in the halls of Ohio’s Kent State University in 1926. It was first established in the second week of February as Negro History Week by Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D., founder of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. In 1969, Kent State’s Black United Students organization advocated for the entire month of February to be known as Black History Month. In 1970, they achieved their goal, and the first celebration of Black History Month took place across the university’s campus. Six years after its inception at Kent State, Black History Month received national designation by President Gerald Ford who said, “we can seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.” It is important in the second week of February, that we remember Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D., and the contributions that he made to Ohio education and the establishment of Black History Month in the United States. It is important that we remember this history as legislators in Ohio and across the country eliminate diversity training requirements in state colleges and universities. It is important to remember this and for us to advocate for honest education grounded in historical truth, facts, and diverse perspectives.
The previous blog post discussed the letter recently distributed to Forest Hills residents, by the county auditor, which contained essential details concerning property reappraisal, revealed a series of intriguing discoveries that prompted contemplation of the underlying process.
When crafting the last post it appeared that certain properties within the area exhibited only nominal alterations, and in some cases, even negative adjustments in their property values. In contrast, other properties experienced substantial increases in their appraisal values, with some surging by as much as 80%. Initially, suspicions arose that these fluctuations might be linked to property improvements. However, a thorough examination of the Auditor's website revealed no discernible record of such improvements for these properties. Forest Hills residents recently received a letter from the county auditor with information regarding property reappraisal which is performed every 3 years, along with many new/renewed levies (Cincinnati Zoo and Anderson Township Park District among them), along with the new payments covering operating and permanent improvement levy. It is our understanding that most homeowners will see an increase in the value of their home. The average increase is around 26%, and based on our research into the Hamilton County Auditor’s website, it appears that some properties saw a single-digit decrease, while several homes saw 50% increase or more, with one property on Salem Rd increasing by 80%.
Fortunately, FHSD residents have a unique and qualified resource to help taxpayers understand this complicated system. It’s 2024 - and the district’s work to prepare for the year ahead is underway, with its first budget/organizational meeting on Jan. 4th at 6:30 p.m. New board members and the change of board president could signal a fresh start with new objectives for the remainder of this school year. 
Member Jonas’ statement itself is full of demonstrable falsehoods, these have already been addressed in multiple news articles as well as the Advocate FHSD blog.
 After 18 months, the Forest Hills School District board finally rescinded the controversial Culture of Kindness Resolution. In a special meeting this morning at 7 am, a unanimous vote was heard by a number of district residents in attendance to settle the lawsuit and rescind the resolution.
The Protect Diversity group has created a timeline of events to provide a retrospective look at the dates and documents that were publicly available surrounding this event for the background and accurate history, including the statement written in protest by the National Underground Freedom Center, here in Cincinnati. The district has issued a statement, now available on the Forest Hills School District Website, claiming that the “settlement is not an admission of liability or wrongdoing” and that the board “denies that the Resolution violates anyone’s legal rights.” Today, NPR reported that the Forest Hills School District offered to settle the lawsuit surrounding the Culture of Kindness Resolution, a written document created in part between Sara Jonas and several local residents and implemented in a flurry of chaos over a year ago. In June of 2022, members of the Forest Hills School District Board of Education Linda Hausfeld, Bob Bibb and Sara Jonas voted in support of a resolution that banned assignments where students would have to consider their race, socioeconomic class, religion, gender identity and sexuality. Board members Leslie Rasmussen and Katie Stewart voted against the resolution. Soon after, a group of parents and teachers filed a federal lawsuit claiming the resolution violated their constitutional rights. In October the judge assigned to the case issued a ruling on a motion to dismiss by the district. At that time the district issued a statement stating they intended to continue the fight to enact the language of the resolution “vigorously”.   Yesterday Forest Hills Residents voted in large numbers on a number of important issues; reproductive rights (Issue 1), legalizing marijuana use for adults (Issue 2), Trustee in Anderson (Dee Stone won over Dom Wolfer), the Park Levy and Library Levy, both of which passed. There is a summary from resident and journalist Dan Sewell.
For school board, Wendy Strickler-Biederman and Jason Simmons won over competitors Ken Kuhn, Kevin Comerford and Kris Wahlke. The negative impact of external agenda-driven groups isn’t a risk here in Forest Hills, it’s already a reality.  In a series of emails recovered through a Public Records Request (PRR) and social media content garnered from investigations into education-attacking political groups, we learned
that the “4 for Forest Hills” may have allowed the influence of potentially fringe political party members, dark-money group leaders and non-FHSD residents, to drive the agenda that they've attempted to implement — bringing expensive and embarrassing consequences to our district as shown in previous blog posts. Extremist board members can impact school CostsFor school districts, the intolerance of extremism can have a multitude of costs, we lay out a few significant and measurable costs of extremism in school boards here. Legal expenses: when controversial or illegal actions are taken by board members, the school incurs legal expenses to defend against the lawsuits and investigations. Court fees, insurance company’s higher premiums, settlements and the hours and hours of employee’s time spent in depositions and defense takes away from the true work of the district. In July 2023, the Cincinnati Enquirer estimated the district had spent around $500,000, nearly $75 per student, compared with CPS - a district with three times the number of students, spending $33 per student. Insurance covers most of this, but premiums will suffer - if the aggressive and exclusionary actions were never taken, we would not be dealing with lawsuits. The 2023 candidates for FHSD School Board discuss one thing that MUST be implemented going forward and one thing that MUST stop going forward.
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OpinionsThe views and opinions expressed by individuals and entities on this blog are their own and do not reflect the views or positions of AdvocateFHSD.org. WelcomeWelcome to AdvocateFHSD! We’re so happy to have you here. Strong public schools = strong communities. Here, we strive to engage and inform the FHSD community, and empower residents to be the best advocates for our students, teachers, administrators, and district. Archives
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