President Brian Hayes welcomed everyone to the Centerville Rotary Club and led the group in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. PDG Harvey Smith provided the prayer.

PDG Harvey Smith inducted two new members into the Centerville Rotary Club:

Nick Cruz (sponsor Pat Beckel) shared that he builds ADA compliant homes, including ADA rehabilitation for Veterans to enable them to stay in their homes as they age. Nick loves cigars, road biking, and traveling. His wife Maria is in med school. He met Pat at Pat's humidor.

Mike Norton-Smith (sponsor Arnie Biondo) is the Development Director for  Centerville, where he works on business attraction, retention, and specifically the new Uptown development project. Mike is from NE Ohio, his wife is a physician, and they have a 4 year old son and 2 dogs.

President Brian shared today’s thought is from Erma Bombeck: “If you can’t make it better, you can laugh at it.”

President Brian’s announcements included:

• Rotary Leadership Institute  has gone virtual and is having their Part 1 – Session beginning October 14, 21 and 28. They will begin at approximately 7pm and run to 9pm. It is a good way to immerse yourself in all things Rotary if you are just beginning with us or refresh yourself if you have been with us awhile. The cost for Session 1 is $20 and the club will reimburse you for that expense if you choose to attend. I will tell you it really helped me to get a bead on some things when I joined and I am sure it will be of benefit to you. Go to our website – centervillerotary.com and click on District 6670 in the orange banner at top and go to DACdb and sign up.
• Our next Board meeting is Monday, October 18, 5:30 pm via Zoom. All Rotarians are incited to join.
• Lee Hieronymus had an accident and broke his heel. He will be out for several weeks. Please keep him in your thoughts while he recovers.

We were pleased to have a visit from former club member, Bill Reber, who now lives in Florida.

Ron Hollenbeck reminded everyone that November is Rotary Foundation month. If you’re interested in earning your first Paul Harris Fellow or the next level, the club will match up to $500; each level is $1,000. Frank Scott will be here the first meeting in November to share information on the Rotary Foundation. Half of the money we generate comes back to the club in 3 years to fund district grants. Ron will distribute letters in November that show your balance toward the next Paul Harris. You can also purchase a PHF for a family member.

Elda Gatos-Gay announced it is Adopt a Family time. She is collecting $50 Kohl’s, Target or WalMart gift cards and needs them to be turned in by next week, October 14. You may also drop off at Elda's house at 8372 St Francis Ct, Centerville 45458. Our goal is to sponsor 25 children.

Adam Manning announced two service day opportunities:

• Tour-de-Gem this Sunday, 12-5:30 pm to assist bikers at Dover Medical Building, 5336 Far Hills Ave, Dayton 45429.
• Dictionary/Thesaurus labeling party right after next Thursday’s meeting.

Please let Adam know if you can help with either project.

Ginger Clark gave the final Operation Warm report. Thanks to the generosity of the club, we exceeded our goal of 530 coats. 636 coats were purchased. We were able to purchase 3 extra cases of coats since was over $600, which dropped the price to $19/coat. Great job Rotarians!

Our Happy Bucks this quarter are going to Blue Star Mothers.

Blue Star Mothers was originally formed during World War II, and is a private nonprofit organization in the United States that provides support for mothers who have sons or daughters in active service in the U.S. Armed Forces. The name came from the custom of families of serviceman hanging a banner (called a Service Flag) in a window of their homes. The Service Flag had a star for each family member in the military. Living servicemen were represented by a Blue Star and those who had lost their lives were represented by a Gold Star. https://www.bluestarmothers.org/

Pat Beckel was our Sergeant at Arms and he started Happy Bucks by thanking Nick for joining our club. Pat said Nick’s background is amazing and his wife is brilliant. He has done a ton for the community already, so Rotary is a perfect fit. Pat also thanked Mike for joining the club and noted the unbelievable changes in the community happening now are the result of Mike’s great work.

• Dick Hoback was happy to see former Centerville Rotarian Bill Reber here for a visit.
• Jim Harris gave for the new members.
• Ginger Clark gave for the new members, and said she was happy that Mike’s sponsor was here for his induction, even though he wasn’t for hers!
• Frank Perez gave for the new members.
• Rebecca Quinoñes gave for the new members.
• Brad Huffman was happy.
• Jeff Senney was glad to see Bill Reber.
• Nick Cruz was excited to be seeing his baby niece this weekend.
• Brad Thorp was thrilled to support Blue Star Mothers as his sons served in the military.
• Scott Kujawa was happy to support Blue Star Mothers as his son is in the Coast Guard.
• Adam Manning gave for the new members.
• Dale  Berry gave for the new members and BSM.
• Carol Sue Galloway gave for the new members.
• Crissy Allums gave for the new members.
• Don Overly appreciated Elda for leading the Adopt a Family program.
• Harvey Smith gave for the new members.
• Bill Reber was happy to be here for the first time in nearly 10 years!
• Bob Fry was happy for new and old members.
• Don Stewart was happy his Browns are off to good start.
• Elda Gotos-Gay was happy for new members and gave thanks for members providing gift cards.
• Boyd Preston gave for the new members.
• Susan Schnell announced her husband was appointed Captain at American Airlines, gave for the new members  and to support BSM.
• Chuck King gave for the new members, and for a great trip with his wife to Niagara Falls, Flight 93 memorial and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater.
• Ron Hollenbeck gave for the new members and potential member, John Lusk.
• Sofie Ameloot thanked Bill Menker her for being guide on Tour de Gem where she was able to raise $900 for Ronald McDonald House.
• Mike Wier was happy for the new members and that Pat shared hisdress code with Nick.
• Carol Sue Galloway announced she was a military wife for 20 years and is happy to support BSM. She also announced her team on the Alzheimer’s Walk raised $2,000.
• Matt Kuhn mentioned Chuck can’t really call it a vacation since he’s retired!
• Arnie Biondo was happy to get the COVIC booster shot, apologized for not being there for Ginger, and announced he will be gone for the next 2 weeks.
• Jeff Senney celebrated his 42 wedding anniversary. Congrats, Jeff & Sharon!
• Pat Beckel welcomed Bill Reber back to the club (for a visit.)

Our speaker today was Dr. Tom Henderson, Centerville City Schools.

Arnie Biondo introduced Dr. Tom Henderson, Superintendent of Centerville City Schools for the past 13 years.

Tom shared many highlights of our school district:

CCS has a bi-weekly payroll of 1,113, not including subs: 32 admin, 107 transportation, 612 certificate staff, 265 sports, 43 student nutrition, and 54 maintenance/custodian, all serving 8,162 students. They handle as much of maintenance as they can in-house and have licensed technicians on staff to accomplish the work.

CCS is involved in a Strategic Planning initiative although the pandemic slowed the process down.They kicked it off in January by reaching out to do focus groups, gather thoughts, feelings etc. Jan-May. In the summer, they put together a core team to move forward on planning based on feedback received in the focus groups. The goal is to make sure our future aligns with community priorities.

Also developing a Facilities Management Plan for all 13 facilities. The average age of CCS buildings is 56 years. The newest, Primary Village South, was built 14 years ago; Magsig Middle School is the oldest at 97 years old! The group came in to evaluate all facilities including over 20 different systems, electric, HVAC, boilers, roofs, etc. and now have a report going to the School Board in the near future. The plan looks a planning for at least 10 years down the road.

In 1998 the community supported a 1-mill permanent improvement levy and a 1-mill levy in 2019. Those funds are used for things that last more than 5 years - busses, boilers, water mains, and other big ticket items. They continue to work hard to keep the buildings in good shape.

School Safety is a priority for the school district, as parents entrust their most important commodity to them. They make sure to stay in touch with the newest technologies and strategies. CCS worked with the State of Ohio Homeland Security who did audits of several buildings. The report came back extremely positive based on many things already in place - officers at schools, staying complaint with all drills, radio system, doors locked - buzz in. They mentioned a 3M film that can go over windows to make them less breakable. If shot through, glass doesn’t shatter. CCS recently installed it on windows.

Recently they were able to Improve air quality circulation,  increase energy efficiency, LED lighting, and add new busses.

They have a successful college and career readiness program in partnership with Kettering & Oakwood schools. It includes 19 rigorous programs - communications, construction, technology, mass media, etc. They work together to provide those high energy programs to make sure kids are career ready.

School Finance State of Ohio requires districts to submit a 5-year forecast twice a year. CCS had strong support from community in 2019, and the financial forecast looks good.

Tom was asked about the strong emotions about a lot of things going on in our world right now and a concern about school board meetings getting out of control. Tom noted there are rules in place that control the public comment portion of the public meeting, which they can follow.

On March 11 when pandemic hit, the schools had extended spring break per the governor’s order. They had already planned through the end of school year when the governor cut their budget by $2 million. Difficult with 80% already spent, so they did a reduction of 20 staff. CCS helped them get other jobs at the time and all are back at CCS now. Federal monies became available and they took advantage of them to prioritized what students needed for remote learning - technology hot spots for all, free and reduced lunch still provided. Still have some additional funds coming in which must be spent by 2024.

Tom was asked if he has seen any long term effects on the kids due to remote learning and masking. He said test scores taken last year will be out later this month. The state decided not to do ratings because of the pandemic interruption. Some students are performing right on grade level, some worse, some better. Nationwide scores are trending on a lower rate.

Over the summer, CCS provided transportation for those who needed it so that wouldn’t be a barrier to education. They have ongoing assessments to check progress to ensure students getting back on track, which includes social and emotional assessments for students and staff.

Susan Schnell gave thanks to everyone who works at CCS to make it an amazing school system.

Tom mentioned this is one of most challenging times in his over 40 years in education.

President Brian thanked Tom for the update,  led the group in the 4-Way Test and wished everyone a good week.

Next week our guest speaker will be Carol Sue Galloway, Vienna Spring Health Campus.