[Music]
good evening and welcome to St Charles
thank
you on behalf of our St Charles
Community I am proud to welcome you all
to our campus for this Bexley state of
the community we have many faculty staff
administrators from the Bexley and
surrounding areas including myself I'm
an East more
resident we are fortunate that over a
100 years ago Bishop James T Hartley
picked Bexley to be built a high
school we value our relationship with
the Bexley
community and especially mayor Kesler
our Bexley Police Department with Chief
Lewis and our school resource officer
Jeremy Grimes and of course the
residents of
Bexley since 1923 we have graduated over
7,300 alumni that have served our
community and our country
and many professions but we are most
proud of the men that serve the
religious across the world in the last
14 years 12 men were ordained in the
priesthood with four more currently in
formation our alumni not only include
priests but champions in business top
tier medical and science professionals
professional and Olympic athletes
world-renowned musicians and composers
graduates of the militarys in addition
to two Road Scholars
when St Charles was founded by Bishop
Harley his promise was that every young
man willing to accept the challenge of
studying at St Charles would be given
that opportunity no matter of background
or means and that still stands
today our school was able to award $3.4
million in tuition assistance this
school
year our students come from 68 different
zip codes across central Ohio all to the
city of Bexley this fall we welcomed a
40% growth in our our school community
and looks like that our incoming fresh
next year will break that
record with our 15 Varsity Sports which
four out of the 10 as played so far this
year have finished in division one final
four for the state of Ohio our senior
class of 2024 will graduate 119 young
men that will move into post-secondary
schools such as Yale University of
Chicago Notre Dame Boston College John
Hopkins and many others
our senior class like the seniors across
the country are delayed by the FAFSA
process in picking and selecting their
colleges as of today we have an
appointment to the merchant marines
Academy a Navy Ro scholarship award
winner and an Evans scholar with more to
come in the coming weeks our class of
2024 has an average ACT score of
28.1 which makes St Charles one of the
top schools in Ohio with four of our
seniors having a perfect ACT score of
36 in 2018 St Charles started a 5-year
plan to build leaders for the next 100
years part of this plan was to improve
our current facilities on our main
campus this past September we finished
our beautiful Frank E Murphy class of
1954 Convocation Center which we are in
today this facility houses sporting
events with over 12200 people as well as
for the community just like the one
tonight that can accommodate up to 2,000
people another initiative of this plan
was to convert our old gymnasium which
many of you may have been in and it will
be a state-of-the-art learning facility
that we will call the Brotherhood Center
the Brotherhood Center was built on the
cornerstone of Faith Brotherhood and
academic Excellence that will be
dedicated to empowering young men
discover the and nurture their god-given
talents
this space which is in the heart of our
campus will feature a first floor
library media center an Amphitheater
three Collaborative Learning spaces a
school spirit Weare store and a Welcome
Center within the additional three fours
of love we will also have an additional
10 classrooms and labs to be used by our
students as we continue the growth with
the Columbus and Bexley communities for
years to come we are thrilled to see
this space open in the spring of 2025 so
come back next spring and see it all I
encourage you to check out the
renderings in the back of the gym and
you can see the renderings of the
Brotherhood
Center over the past year we have
partnered with many of the Bexley
entities on different projects showing
our commitment to the city of Bexley we
enjoyed walking in the Fourth of July
parade connecting with so many of our
students in our alumni we were fortunate
to receive a grant from the bexi
Community Foundation and work with the
tree and garden commission to add trees
along the bank of the
creek and these trees will increase the
number of rare species found in the city
of Bexley as part of our one 100th year
activities over 125 students in alumni
served our surrounding communities
during that community service day we
were happy to partner with the beex
parks and wreck department to help clear
the honeysuckle from the Jeffrey Mansion
estate the Bexley historical society and
the City of Bexley honored us during our
Centennial celebrations this past year
with a historical plaque that is in
front of our school so check it out on
your way out you will hear us say we are
building better men and we value the
partnership with the city of Bexley that
has enabled us to do just that we look
forward to seeing the completion of the
Brotherhood Center in the coming year
and partnering with Bexley community in
the near future thanks for coming to St
Charles welcome so a huge thank you to
St Charles for opening up such a
beautiful space for us as we have a
conversation uh to celebrate all the
great things that are happening in
Bexley uh I'm Jason of Jason and the
Benz I am the superintendent of Bexley
City Schools uh and we want to talk
about one
Bexley uh last February thank
you last February we had
sorry we had an incident in uh our
schools a horrific racist incident that
occurred uh that prompted a conversation
immediately uh with myself
uh mayor Ben Kesler and Ben Heckman
who's the director of uh our library and
that conversation was to to begin a
conversation around what we need to do
as a community and collaboration with
the schools in the library uh to address
the culture in Bexley as a result we
launched uh a Cooperative Community
program called the one Bexley project
I'm really proud of the progress that
we've had and we're going to talk a
little bit about that in this space the
premise sounded simple at first
and obviously it turned into a very
complex programming initiative uh that
we wanted to make sure that we were
bringing to all of the homes in Bexley
we know that this is a hard conversation
we know that it's going to be
uncomfortable at times but it's a
conversation that must happen as we
address our culture throughout
Bexley the goal of the one Bexley
project is to help realize a Bexley that
is welcoming for all and provides a
sense of belonging for all community
members and visitors
one Bexley is a promise that has not
historically been kept for all who live
work visit and play in our
community so mics uh and it's a project
that requires every Bexley resident to
be active and to participate in this
common goal and so here to talk more
about one Bexley is the one Beckley
project coordinator law
[Applause]
Baker all right
good evening everyone how's everybody
doing
today awesome thank you now that moar
and curly off the stage I can now do
what I do best and talk about this
wonderful project so as the gentleman
said my name is La Baker I use pronouns
she and her and it is very much my honor
to be a part of this momentous work you
know one of the things I think about a
lot in my my regular life I do diverse
equid inclusion training Consulting and
I talk about belonging a lot and when I
talk about belonging it's very much
different than fitting in when you fit
in somewhere that means you're trying to
mask who you really are to try to be
kind of un undercover and not really
stand out but when you belong you
celebrate all the uniqueness that you
bring to the table it's all of your
perspectives your skills your background
your culture all those things and so
what I've been tasked with is how do we
create this next rendition of Bexley
that is a place of belonging for for
everyone regardless of their backgrounds
their Persuasions or their identity so
I'm very excited to be working on this
and I can tell you right now while I'm
the project coordinator I am merely one
person who is going to be a part of this
all of you as Bexley residents and
legislators and business folks and
visitors have a huge part in this we're
going to be sharing stories with each
other we're going to be celebrating life
with each other and we're also going to
have some hard conversations cuz there
are going to be times when somebody
doesn't feel like they belong here so
what we need to do as a community is
rise up together and remove those
barriers so that when we invite them to
come in there's no reason for them to
not address and accept that invitation
so we're going to get ready to launch
brand new website for ju Bexley and we
also going to have social media Pages um
even today we have uh my husband who is
a great cameraman not that one but
you're great too but he's going to be
out in the lobby area to if you have a
story that you want to share or just say
what does belonging at Bexley mean to
you we will absolutely take that story
from you my good partner in crime Steve
Shapiro will be a part of that work as
well so you know Steve he is a part of
the bexy community and such a great
adviser and friend to me so I really
want you to understand that this is not
going to be powerful without your help
we need everybody being a part of this
so there will be opportunities to have
people in your homes for you to meet us
at the coffee shops for you to come to
the library for you to be at Jeffrey
Mansion even at the senior center there
will be places all over this whole city
and community that will invite you in to
be a part of this work so I ask you to
come with an open heart an open mind an
open hands because it takes action to be
able to do all of these things so I
thank you all for being here so much if
you have any questions at all I am
actually going to be on uh it's one
Bexley be.org is going to be the email
and so we'll make sure we do follow up
so you can also send messages to me and
let me know if there's things that you
want to actively be a part of or that
you want to present to the community so
I thank you all so much for being here
and I want to invite Dr Fine to come
back up thank you so much really
appreciate everyone being here and I
really want to thank La Baker La Baker
is a superstar and we need law and I'm
really thankful for the work that law
has taken on in the short amount of time
since we have embarked on this
relationship which was I think in
January Steve Shapiro who is a longtime
resident in Bexley also uh a longtime
educator in Bexley is going to be an
important part of that process with
asandra and we're really thankful for
that partnership and I'm going to talk a
little bit more at the end of my
presentation about what you can do to
get involved uh but really want to uh
thank lesandra she changed some plans
last minute to make sure that she she
could be here so thank you for for
giving the schools a little bit of time
to share some of the great things that
are happening I am Jason fine
superintendent and I have the absolute
pleasure to be uh the superintendent
it's an absolute honor uh to serve the
community of Bexley one of the greatest
things uh about Bexley is the people
we're going to talk a little bit about
the people and what makes this place so
special uh and lots of work that's
happening uh in and throughout bexi but
you can't start superintendency 101 you
got to thank the board of educ
and the beauty of our Board of Education
especially in 2024 education is hard
education is challenging and serving can
be challenging and Leadership can be
challenging but I am so thankful to have
a board of education and members of our
Board of Education who fight for kids
advocate for students advocate for
what's right uh and aren't afraid to
take a leadership role in education uh
in 2024 so we've got two new members on
our Board of Education since the last
time we were here I see Mike Carter is
going to give wave uh who's on our Board
of Education yeah I hear yeah that's
right I saw a vice president Joan Piel
is in the space I don't see where she's
sitting there she is yep thank you
Joanne Patrick King is sitting beside uh
Joanne Patrick is new to our Board of
Education Dr Jonathan Baker is in the
space his uh yeah thank
you and our president Victoria Powers is
uh going to be in the space cuz I think
she's going to speak for us a little bit
later uh but truly cannot thank our
Board of Education enough uh it is
really rare to have a a a full unit of a
special education that is committed as
as ours so huge thank you to our
board we're going to talk a little bit
and I'm going to talk I know I'm on the
clock Ben Ker's going to TI me I'm going
to make sure that we get the appropriate
time because you have a lot of great
information you want to hear but I want
to talk about the great things in Bexley
and one of the things that we hang our
hat on is the academic Excellence the
tradition of Excellence that takes place
in Bexley uh in the classroom and and
it's one aspect of who we are we're
really thankful for the successes that
occur and we we believe that the number
one thing that is important for our
students uh as a staff is that we want
them to be our students to be wildly
successful in whatever that is when they
exit our hallways and so that's the goal
at every uh step of the way with our
staff with our board uh with our
Community to make sure our students are
receiving that worldclass experience so
that when they go out of our Halls
outside of our doors they're ready to
take on the world and we're really
thankful for that we have a great track
record you've probably heard people ask
me all the time we saw that you were
number one in high schools best high
schools in the state of Ohio and world
news and report that is important to us
but it is not everything that we are we
think that it is more uh than just
academics to uh make up a Bexley uh
experience and it's the opport
opportunities that we uh are thankful
that we provide to our our students uh
and we've got a wide range of
opportunities that we provide and here's
just a handful that you see uh you saw
on the slide before that we have just
over 2 200 students uh most of our
students are involved in uh multiple
activities outside of the classroom the
the statistics are staggering we're
really thankful that students have an
opportunity to identify things that they
want to do outside of the classroom uh
one of the things that you see up here
is we have 74 athletic teams uh we are a
division 2
uh feels like a robust division one uh
at experience when you look at the Arts
that we offer and you look at the sports
that we offer I think it's important to
note that since the last time I stood in
the space at the community of the city
uh we've had seven state champions uh
that's a big deal for Bexley that's a
big deal for anyone yeah
absolutely we had Amaya BS who is a
sophomore she won back-to-back state
titles in tennis uh as a freshman and
sophomore we had uh Mason Lewis who won
uh the 10200 in track last year who also
just won the Big 10 Championship as a
freshman we had Sid Smith who won The
discus last year uh as a senior who just
won her first big 10 meet at Iowa uh
Jackson monus is a freshman who just won
the diving state championship coach
Mitch freeze is in the house is a big
part of that let's give it up for Mitch
yep and we just had about uh 3 four
weeks ago Marius Garcia won the 106 lb
weight class in wrestling with an Absol
absolute display of integrity and grit
uh as he brought home our first
wrestling state championship in 39 years
so we're really proud of our yeah really
proud of our folks even more exciting is
our arts and extracurricular there's
lots of opportunities uh we just
finished xanadoo this past weekend our
High School uh production they hit a
home run uh it's incredible what these
students are able to produce in the time
that they produce it making sure that
their academics are taking care of
making sure that they're in other
activities and clubs so we're really
thankful for the work that happens in
and out of our classroom
those opportunities can't happen without
the Bexley Education Foundation so the
Bexley Education Foundation I think is
something that sets apart our district
from many others across the state and
throughout the nation because our bexi
Education Foundation they find creative
ways to provide opportunities that maybe
we don't have the ability to do and you
can see on the board they're celebrating
their 40th anniversary uh the executive
director plam Glasco is in the space I
believe so pamm there's pamm so we're
really thankful for Pam and the work of
the bef y thank
you celebrating 40 years one of the
things that we did to acknowledge 40
years is uh the bef raised funds to make
sure that every one of our elementary
students were able to attend the zoo uh
you can see that uh We've uh they have
raised over $8 million in Grants and
services and funds for our community
over those 40 years that is quite
impressive they also were intrical in
making sure that we had a onetoone
initiative when Co hit uh we needed to
make sure that students could learn
whether they were in in the space or out
of the space uh access for all and that
doesn't happen without our beex the
Education Foundation uh they are
collaborating constantly with our
Community Foundation and other really
important uh stakeholders and uh
organizations throughout the community
we're just so thankful for the work of
Pam and and the Bexley Education
Foundation for the opportunities that
they provide to our students and they
just had Bravo which was a huge event we
were supposed to promote Bravo but this
got bumped so next year we want to see
it Bravo I want to talk briefly about
some of the things we've had a lot of
since the last time we spoke uh I stood
in front of you a year ago I talked to
you about a strategic planning process
and I'm really proud of the process that
we ran with our strategic plan this was
a robust process we had over 3,000 data
points ranging from students staff
members community members we reached out
to alumni we heard from our Board of
Education we heard from our our
community that said we want a strategic
plan that is uh one of or that that has
two things that we focus on one we want
to make sure it is not a cookie cutter
experience we don't want get on a
website and look at uh someone else's in
central Ohio strategic plan and have
Bexley look remotely like that we want
it to be unique to Bexley we're really
proud that we've created just that we
also heard from the community that we
wanted it to be a community-driven
strategic plan not driven by the
superintendent not driven by the board
not driven by specific louder voices but
a community-driven process we're really
thankful for those who came forward uh
and uh we're really proud of the work
that we've done I want to talk a little
bit about it one of the first things
that we did through that process was
look at our mission
statement the mission is what makes up
our DNA in Bexley and I'm really proud
of the fact that this came out loud and
clear right out of the gates and the DNA
it's who we are it's who we must be it's
our non-negotiables and if you look up
uh at our mission it's learn with
curiosity demonstrate kindness and
embrace Equity those are the things that
we must uh do at all stages it is the
foundation of who we are from there with
our community engagement involvement we
came up with our values this further
describes DNA and these are the the
values that we default to when we're
making really challenging uh decisions
we have to ask ourselves questions about
our values and I talk to our staff and I
talk to our students about the values uh
that we hang our hat on uh and I always
tell folks that it's uh two e's two i's
two RS and a w Equity empathy Integrity
inclusion responsibility respect and
well-being those are the things that we
must lay our foundation on as we make
our decisions if you take your mission
and you take your
values and you follow those in
everything that you do then it gives you
the ability to live your vision and so
that's not just in our classrooms that
is in all facets of our community that's
in our locker rooms that's in our
hallways that's on the stage that's in
the artwing that's in classrooms that's
in the community if you live your your
mission and you live your values then we
create spaces where our students can be
creative where culturally responsive and
relevant teaching is happening in our
classrooms where there's a uh joy and an
ethic of care that's happening uh we
want to make sure that our students are
flourishing and that happens if you live
your mission uh and values every day so
we're really proud of the vision that
came from a a lot of conversations as a
community from there we went into uh
beyond the Mission Vision and values and
we went into into what is it that we
want to make sure our goals and
objectives are as a district and these
came out loud and clear uh right as uh
we started moving into uh conversations
about what is it that we want for a
Bexley learner and four themes emerged
right away right out of the gates as we
were talking Mission Vision Values four
themes emerged diversity Equity
inclusion culture teaching and learning
and facilities and we had co- uh
subcommittees that were working on each
one of these as we broke into our our
subcommittees and we learned early that
our diversity Equity inclusion group
felt that there was so much overlap in
between our Dei group with the other
three of culture teaching and learning
and Facilities that we felt that we
didn't want to disband the group but we
wanted to make sure that the Dei the
diversity e inclusion became the map
culture teaching and learning facilities
were spaces and locations on the map
while diversity and Equity inclusion is
the map and that's it's really important
if you go onto our website you can look
up our uh strategic plan and you'll see
that it's colorcoded and our all of our
subcommittees came together to
collaborate to identify where throughout
each one of our objectives and goals our
uh diversity Equity inclusion fits into
the plan so we're really proud of the
work uh of those subcommittees and our
our uh community that was able to drive
the focus of uh our strategic plan with
regard to diversity Equity
inclusion the third piece if you look on
there teaching and learning culture
facilities I'm going to focus just a
second on facilities as you stand in a
beautiful space we too as Bexley
residents are having really important
conversations around what's possible as
we take a look at our
facilities and just like with the
Strategic plan we heard from our
community that we wanted to have a
robust Community involved conversation
around our facilities so we have
committed to doing just that and we're
really proud of the work that we we've
really started in uh the the Strategic
plan was approved in May of 23 last year
and we immediately started the process
and we are uh about nearly a year into
the process of digging into our
facilities we're thankful for those that
have uh joined us and we'll talk about
how you can become involved but you'll
see that we're going through a
three-phase process we just finished the
assessment phase the assessment phase is
where we've taken a look at our current
state of affairs in our buildings and
we're taking that information that's
leading us now into phase two which
which is our options phase and we're
hoping that the community will join us
at some meetings which I'll share uh
those dates and times here soon so that
you can help us process what those
options might be uh we know what our
current affairs are we want to see
what's uh possible with regard to
repairs renovation potentially rebuild
uh we'll talk about here in a minute no
op no uh decisions have been made we
don't know where we're going to go we do
know that the community is going to help
drive us and then the third P piece is
obviously our decisions phase
uh and that's we're hoping to have this
wrapped up by uh November of next year
as we go through a process and create
some reports so we want to make sure
that you know uh that we need you and
the question is why now uh well one the
Strategic plan identified it the the
Strategic plan identified the need to
look at facilities and that happened
long before I arrived you've been
talking facilities in bexy for a while
why because our buildings on average if
you've been to any of our meetings you
know that our buildings on average are
84 years old 84 years old is telling us
that the life cycle of some things are
starting to uh come up and we've got a
phenomenal uh operations team they do
such a great job that when you walk
through our our facilities we may not
see all the problems that we have you
can't see what's above the ceiling you
can't see what's below the floor you
can't see what's behind the walls but we
have issues that we've done a phenomenal
job our team has done a phenomenal job
of making sure that our kids have a safe
space that they're proud of to uh attend
school every day and our staff but when
you have 84 years on average we start to
have increasing costs so one of the
things that you've heard if you've
attended any of our facilities meetings
is that no decisions have been made I
have no idea where we're going to be at
when we get to phase three this options
phase is really important we're going to
need you to to be part of those uh
conversations but we also know that
there's no zero cost option and what
that means is we have taken a look at
our current affairs and there are a lot
of needs Kyle Smith our Treasurer who's
going to speak here shortly has done a
phenomenal job uh working with our uh
operations teams to identify where we
are currently what our plan is or what
our needs are in 0 to 5 6 to 10 and 11
to 15 years those are the buckets that
we're looking at to identify what we
need to do as we move forward and then
obviously modern spaces for learning let
me be clear I'm in education I got into
education because I want to work with
students and I want to work with people
it's about people and we will always
keep the main thing the main thing and
the main thing is the education of young
people and the magic that happens in the
classrooms however you have to make sure
that the facilities can encourage and
support and make our students feel safe
loved cared for uh and and be proud of
so although we're talking buildings
don't ever let anyone tell you that the
main thing isn't the education of
students but it does matter that we take
a look at what the facilities do in
terms of the impact of educating our our
young people so that's an important
piece that I always want to make sure
that we get in there
a couple of things before I bring Kyle
Smith up that we want to make sure uh
the third thing that our Board of
Education committed to and that's being
transparent so anyone at any time can go
to our website Carol Taylor is our
public information officer she is an
absolute Superstar she's done a
phenomenal job of capturing all of this
information you can watch any community
community engagement session that we've
had you can see any notes that we've had
in terms of our building team meetings
you can get a calendar you can subscribe
to the calendar uh we want you informed
because we feel as a community we're
going to be in a much better space with
the involvement of our community uh
driving this process so please if you
head to Bexley schools.org you'll be
able to see uh upcoming dates that we
hope you'll consider joining I see
several of our folks that are on our
building teams that have been attending
our community engagement sessions
there's also an open feedback form so
you're just too busy you can't get there
but you've been in our buildings and you
have some thoughts there is a form on
the the front page of our website it's
on the banner and it allows you to
provide any feedback uh that is
regarding really anything but most are
are dialed in on the facilities right
now so that's always there accessible
for you that comes directly to us and
our architectural team to make sure that
we address those things and then
obviously the last piece there's uh
videos of all of our community
engagement sessions we we have committed
to doing 12 hopefully you've been
receiving the mailings that we've put in
to update you and to invite you uh
please refer to those but all of those
things can be found on our website I'm
going to introduce the real magician of
the district uh Kyle Smith I've asked
Kyle to come and give a few thoughts and
share a little bit of information as it
pertains to uh the finances of our
district and Kyle Smith is an absolute
Superstar we are really lucky and
fortunate to have somebody like Kyle
Smith that is uh making sure that we are
good stewards of of the uh community's
money and taxpayer uh money uh he is
unique most treasurers one wouldn't come
here and and have this type of
conversation but two Kyle does a
phenomenal job of understanding what
students need and what a community needs
so I'm really thankful uh that Kyle's
joined us tonight he's going to share a
little bit of insight into the finances
and then I'll sneak back up and uh yield
my time but really just want to give you
a quick update of um Dr F's out in the
community with with your students and
parents and I'm usually in the office
plugging away and and um uh putting the
bills out uh to to to get things moving
behind the scenes but you can see this
is kind of where the time frame is and
we're kind of at a decision Point as a
district coming up and I'll talk about
that here in a second but we are in a
fiscal year of July 1 to June 30th uh
we're in this moment of we've pretty
much collected all of our tax revenues
for the year uh so we're going to live
off of that for the next couple of
months until property tax bills start
rolling again in July uh but we are in
budget season right now uh we have
continued conversations for about 2
months leading up into our July 1st year
uh but like I said we're at this
decision Point uh typical schools like
Bexley or Bexley like districts uh have
a revenue issue or uh circumstance where
revenues relatively remain flat because
of House Bill 920 which essentially says
when the district passes a levy they
cannot get additional revenues on that I
know there's some exceptions and I can
happily talk about those unique
exceptions on a cuz one to one or it it
may look a little different for you but
in general school districts do not
receive additional Revenue um from the
state in bexley's case and otherwise uh
but expenditures continuously increase
um that's true for us personally but it
also true as a school district so we're
seeing a a the orange line here is our
cash balance so we see a a declining
cash balance and we will have negative
cash uh in
2027
2627 the district has a cash balance
policy that within the first uh 4 years
of the 5-year forecast if that cash
balance drops below 70 days we're to
have an evaluation Financial evaluation
and we did that so that recommendation
as Dr Fine uh kind of alluded to we just
completed a strategic plan process and
no point in that proc process did I hear
Bexley schools do less spend less uh do
more add more
uh but with a typical school funding
cycle uh if a school district would pass
a levy they have a boost in
revenues as uh increased pressures on
inflation and and wages increase that
dwindles the cash balance so that's what
you're seeing
here and then we're at this decision
Point we've uh been able to delay
decision the decision point for a couple
of years for various reasons um uh Co
money uh income tax has done better than
projected uh so what's next what's where
are we in this decision Point uh at the
April board meeting we talked about
options Revenue options for the district
uh just definitional no uh simulations
or scenarios the finance advisory
Council or committee is going to be
meeting next week to put numbers to
paper to uh weigh different Financial
options in May there'll be a board
meeting that will discuss those options
potentially
uh or what we'll call a a resolution for
the board to consider uh we'll need to
pass a second resolution uh in June and
then ultimate filing deadlines in
July uh again Finance guy really brings
it home does but um uh but uh thank you
Carol Taylor's done a great job of our
website we're continuously updating that
with more financial information to try
to keep you a breast of what's going on
um to where most of your taxes I I don't
think we're lost on that um we
understand that we not only hold the
most precious assets of the district our
students your children um but also your
tax money and we uh we try to do the
best that we can with that thank
you also one thing I should have
mentioned when I introduced Kyle Smith
is uh he just recently his team received
the uh auditor State award for uh being
fiscally responsible that is uh only
awarded to less than 6% of all entities
uh so that is a huge uh I think
compliment to the work that's done as a
district so I'm going to wrap up because
I know the time is is limited uh this is
how you can be involved this is how you
can uh stay informed one of the things
that we stress about all the time is how
do we reach our community members those
who may not have students in our uh
buildings uh if you subscribe to our
newsletter you can find this off the
website uh you've seen some mailings
we're trying to keep the community
engaged but we really value our entire
Community it's not just those uh who are
sending students to us uh we want to
make sure that you're informed you can
always reach out and stay connected and
I want to end with one more piece of uh
one Bexley you heard me talk about the
Strategic plan and you heard me talk
about the facilities plan and how robust
we've been in terms of community
engagement that's exactly the plan that
we need for one Beckley one Beckley will
not work it will not be successful if we
do not bring the community together that
is students that is staff that is
community members uh that is is alumni
uh this is a challenging conversation
there were incidents that occurred long
before February there have been
incidences since February and incidences
will continue to
happen that is why it is important that
we have conversations that will make us
very uncomfortable but I'm really
thankful for the work of LA and Steve
and our two bz and the community and I
urge you to stay connected we have lots
of information that we're going to share
we've got a A system that we're going to
start kicking off to make sure that you
know how to be informed uh but it's a
really important initiative it's a
critical initiative and I'm really
thankful uh for the collaboration across
the city so a huge thank you for giving
the schools a little bit of time I know
we went a little long but it's exciting
great stuff happening I want to hand it
over to the legend in fact he has his
own day named after him Brian Drury is
going to come up we are thankful for the
partnership with Brian Drury as well
he's going to share an update on the the
Bexley Commerce thank you give it up for
Brian
jury wow that's a great hype man thank
you Jason uh my name is Brian Drury and
it's my pleasure as executive director
of the Beckley chairman of Commerce to
talk about the chamber which some people
go what's the chamber about well
hopefully we'll have a little
conversation about the chamber and what
we're doing um I've been blessed to have
a great board I I see one one of my
board members up here he front and
center he wants a prize Mike Davis and
also my uh chamber uh coordinator Maria
Martin they've been able to make the
chamber relevant in the community so
that people understand hey what is the
chamber doing and how is it going
forward next
slide to bride a little history of the
chamber it was founded in
1986 by a group of Business Leaders and
their goal was to make Ben Beckley a
benchmark
Community oh is
it okay they told me I had to say move
forward so now late breaking news I wish
somebody would told me that but that's
okay and this group wanted to support
the community to make Beckley a special
place to live
work their Vision turned into the
current Bexley Area Chamber of
Commerce all right we'll check this see
us Works
wonderful our chamber has three pillars
to success the first is finance and we
actively recruit people in the Bexley
area to have a solid collection of
business clients to meet the consumer
demand so one of the things I do which I
I really didn't want to do but I have to
do with this job I go out to the Bexley
buzz and see hey what's going going on I
need a plumber I've got a plumber for
you I need a roofer I got one of those I
need real
estate I have a lot of real estate
agents for
you but more importantly I've beted
those people I know them they're my
friends they're neighbors and I know
they will do a great job and that's the
difference between somebody going hey
this is my cousin I think he's good this
is my neighbor I think they're all right
but that that's what the chamber
provides operationally we've installed
new systems to make our automation so
making it quicker faster easier to work
with the chamber and finance our budget
is based on membership sponsors and
events Sheamus plug October 14th here at
St Charles Tes of Bexley please come
out we were able to increase our
membership this year as we set a chamber
record with 74 new members that came to
the
chamber this increase provided us to
have free events for the
community so our women's networking
event which we brought
back guest speaker series April 24th
from there at the Bexley Public Library
Ben made me say that um we're going to
have aging gracefully so if you know
parents people
you are aging gracefully please come up
I'm not looking at you Don I'm
not um candidates night where we got a
chance to meet our various candidates
who are now part of the city leap daid
kindness and also supporting Capitol
University with their NCA daa tournament
but we wanted to provide the Chamber of
relevancy and how do we do that we are
announcing two new programs the first
first is we have a grant program for
small businesses and what's going to
happen is that you can apply and the
Chamber is going to give back to the
community we feel strongly about that
and our board with the partnership of
the beex Community Foundation feels this
is important that the chamber not just
take but give secondly Capitol
University is partnered with us so if
you want to work on your MBA master's
program
undergraduate if you're a chamber member
employee or family member they're going
to give a lot of money to Residents and
people from there part of the chamber
this is
unique no not many I think one or two
Chambers have that process so we're very
excited we're very happy to do
that and last looking forward one of the
key things I am very excited about about
is that we support our local business
owners so if you buy a pizza at Bexley
Pizza Plus that owner takes his car to
Bexley Auto that owner gets ice cream at
Johnson's they pay for uh tickets to
Drexel and then that owner getes a local
gift at Urban Emporium who buys flowers
at pedals at Inspire just some of the
businesses that we do because we want to
keep the money locally because why is
that important you might say Brian it's
because those owners are our friends and
neighbors and guess what they do they
they take care of their kids and they
send them to camps they make support our
nonprofit
organizations so when you're thinking
about should I get that person out of
Cincinnati to come up to do my house I
guess so maybe they're good but you have
so many businesses that are here in
Beckle and there are friends and
Neighbors how do we support them so our
goal is to support the people and
community in the chamber people who are
about
us
so your friends and neighbors how do we
support them and that's where the
chamber comes in so with that it is my
pleasure to introduce the mayor of
Beckley Ohio The Honorable
Ben
Kesler wow so is that sounding okay no
we're good cool well good good evening
Bexley the fact that you're in this room
with us instead of being out in the
sunshine is like a real Testament to
your your grit and determination so
thank you for being here um I want to
thank uh Megan Meyer who is our
Administration development director for
helping put all this together in the
video that you're about to see I want to
also Al thank St Charles again is this
not the most beautiful facility this is
a gorgeous
space uh and it was so kind of them to
open their their doors to us uh as Jason
fine did I will also do which is if you
are a Bexley city council member if you
could just stand up and be recognized
please you're like stay standing stay
standing stay standing if you are a city
staff member please stand up your
recogniz and if you serve on a board or
permission or have been an elected
official in the past stand up and be
recognized I think I see Rick Weber not
sitting up there in the back but I'm not
going to call him that thank you thank
you for being here tonight um one more
thank you which is the we have St
Charles students here tonight that are
running our av they have been doing a
fantastic job great job
guys all right I'm going to give a
little presentation here but before I do
I want to show you a quick video to tell
you what we've been up to over the past
year and what we have
[Music]
ahead Bexley is a community that thinks
globally and acts locally this means as
the world changes as we face the
challenges of our times we Face them
together as a community we take bold
meaningful steps in addressing those
challenges at the local level often
leading the way in the region and the
state so let's look back at how 2023 was
a landmark year for the Bexley
community in 2023 we took our community
policing initiative to the very next
level and hosted our first ever National
nightout event we adopted a new youth
interaction policy guiding the way for
positive relationship building and
appropriate Intervention when necessary
heart safe Bexley has created a culture
of action amongst commun members to save
lives when there's an issue of cardiac
arrest in the community since launching
on October 1st we've provided free CPR
and AED training to over 300 community
members last year we continued our
efforts around project tail light
helping to remove barri barriers for our
community members to replace the simple
but very effective Motor Safety
component we started regular business
checks to proactively Foster
relationships and to better understand
the safety concerns of our small
businesses we hosted tabletop and
fullscale emergency preparedness
exercises with multiple outside agencies
to help mitigate the effects of an
active threat or natural disaster we've
added k9p to our ranks you'll see us
sniffing around schools synagog dos and
businesses for extra safety and our
department work collaborated with other
Public Safety agencies throughout the
region this was to help ensure the
safety of those worshiping and gathering
in our churches and synagogues in 2023
we took a hard stance against the
anti-semitic behavior that we've been
seeing in our country we're standing
with our Jewish community members and
we're making plans for Meaningful
programs centered on diversity and
inclusion as a part of the one Beckley
initiative in 2023 we embarked on the
year of the parks a complete
reimagination of our public parks and
Community spaces these projects were
supported in part by the beex Community
Foundation and Ohio Department of
Natural Resources we've carved out a
special spot for our favorite best
friends a natural dog park that's
nestled next to Alam Creek down the
pictures Schneider Park
Trail we opened a splash pad at
Schneider Park adding to the Beautiful
beautiful facilities here the Columbus
Blue Jackets playground our shelter
house and Schneider Park athletic fields
we look forward to the community coming
out and enjoying this space and cooling
off the summer we brought a pond and
Arboretum walk to Commonwealth Park
highlighting our natural environment on
this Gem of a community
space and the new bike and skate park
coming soon to Schneider Park along Isam
Creek and we're working with the Bexley
Public Library to transform this space
into an outdoor reading room for the
whole community so we can truly
celebrate our 100th
birthday but wait there's more this year
we will be finalizing plans for
Commonwealth Park we will be designing a
new pedestrian and bike bridge over Alum
Creek at Schneider Park and installing
alley of the future in 2023 we made huge
strides in sustainability by
implementing Universal Recycling and by
saving our residents hundreds of
thousands of dollars on their energy
bills with our new green energy aggre
ation
program we celebrated the 10th
anniversary of the accreditation of
Bexley as the first Municipal Arbor
redom in the United States isn't that
tremendous we received our soul smart
gold designation reflecting our
commitment to helping beex Go Solar
others are taking notice of our efforts
we were recognized by the Ohio EPA with
their gold encouraging environmental
Excellence award in 2023 we began the
process of revisiting our land use
strategy and set C of our zoning code to
promote thoughtful Redevelopment that
will set Bexley up for our next 100
Years of success we're working together
to foster a diverse business community
and to bring energy to key commercial
corridors while also ensuring that as we
renovate and expand our single family
homes these developments are in line
with our newly updated residential
design guidelines we're working with our
various board and commissions to ensure
that as projects come forward to the
city we consider multiple points of view
to help make the best project possible
and we're keeping affordability in mind
as we recognize there could be harsh
economic barriers to becoming and
staying a bexy resident and that we have
a role to play in addressing the
regional housing crisis in 2023 we made
changes to improve the safety of our
neighborhood corridors installing
traffic cming measures such as these
mostly loved medians behind me here on
Drexel and as our underground
infrastructure ages and weather patterns
change we're planning for Meaningful
upgrades and maintenance to our water
and Seer systems as we plan for the
future of our community we remain
committed to maintaining the city's
Financial Health and transparency the
city has one of the highest debt ratings
available and a healthy cash reserve and
Investment Portfolio all memorializing
our City's strong financial condition
while we're doing all of that we're
still making time to have fun
celebrating our
community from the most inviting
neighborhoods that you can imagine to
Fabulous Park programming to Signature
Gatherings supported by the Bexley
Community Foundation like the 4th of
July Main Event jazz in the park and
Labor Day block party to Jeffrey Mansion
preschool and the events like the
Halloween bash Bexley truly is a special
place to live work and raise a family
and in keeping with our strategic plan
we'll be launching several new planning
processes this year to guide future
development these include new commercial
design guidelines and a public art and
placemaking plan and just like every
year it feels like we're just getting
started here's what's next in 2024 one
Beckley programs and events more
colorful at a Ronda chairs bike
boulevards Bexley mural Fest on Main
Street more trees fewer mulch volcanoes
a climate action and sustainability plan
better software for better service the
skate park opening completing the final
sidewalk connections on Charles Street
more opportunities for public
engagement a million block parties Kalia
accreditation that is the National
Standard for law enforcement agencies
electric car infr structure taste to
Bexley the Jeffrey Park strategy
wrapping up our land use strategy 2.0 a
thriving Senior Center and a centennial
celebration fitting for our library we
can't wait to work with you on these
initiatives and more in the year
[Music]
[Applause]
ahead thank you to all of of our uh
celebrity guests that helped us with
that video and again to Megan for
putting that together um and Craig for
filming it um so I want to take a moment
and ask you to picture the Bexley of the
future no not that
one it has a lot of problems actually it
looks a little closer at it but the
Bexley that you imagine and you Aspire
towards for the generations to
come survey upon survey about Bexley
residence tells us that our community
envisions a Bexley that is harmonious
with its classic strengths like walkable
Street skapes safe
homes Safe
Streets traffic common
infrastructure access to lifelong
learning opportunities for kids of all
ages from 1 to
100 leafy shaded sidewalks and
intentional immersive Green
Space the events and activities that
build community bring us together and
enrich and
educate and a Bexley that is evolving to
more perfectly capture our aspirations
for the
future a Bexley that's open to all has
opportunity for all from education to
housing to employment to enjoyment
connecting all parts of our community
and investing throughout our community
a beex that has vibrant and growing
commercial corridors that serve as
neighborhood centers and places of
energy connection and
Community a Bexley that is anchored in
sustainability so that Generations beond
us can continue to enjoy the Bexley
overstory the sight of an owl in Jeffrey
Woods the shade of a birch at Schneider
Park a Bexley that has sewers that do
better job of keeping our basements dry
yes this is exactly what our sewers look
like under Main Street it's it's
not a Bexley that is more interconnected
with surrounding communities with safe
walkable and bikable routes and higher
quality public transportation
everyone necessarily wants to see our
community evolve in these
ways but the data is clear that the
majority of our community this it's a
consensus built vision and rallying
around it will bring a stronger
Community for bexley's next 116 years
and by the way I want to call out the
scoreboard up here for St Charles 1908
is the clock time that's when we were
founded 1923 is when St Charles was
founded I like that that was fun come
on tonight I want to talk about some of
the things that we have done and are
doing this year to drive this Vision
forward as was said in the the video
we'll be launching a public art and
placemaking planning process we're
doubling down on creating new
opportunities for businesses and
residents and future residents on Main
Street in North Cassidy and the
Livingston Avenue
corridors we're working to build a bike
and pestan Bridge across Alum Creek at
Schneider Park funded in large part by
grants from the state of Ohio Capital
fund the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources and of course our very beloved
Bexley Community Foundation
we're working to create a skate park
along the same Trail at Schneider Park
that connects the South Community
Gardens the splash pad in the playground
the athletic fields the Robert Frost
Birch Walk which is just opened the
Bexley natural dog park and the
Schneider River Trail Conn connecting
the mall to Main Street and yes every
single one of those projects was funded
with the generous support of the Bexley
Community
Foundation speaking the funding last
year we were
awarded over $15 million by the federal
government for a joint project with
Columbus to realize the full vision of
the joint Livingston Avenue plan it
includes landscape medians that act as
buffers at unused Center turn Lanes
mixed bike and pedestrian Trails on both
sides of the street wide tree Lain to
accommodate a majestic full canopy
treescape better connection to the Alum
Creek Greenways Trails more and safer
pedestrian Crossings and more this year
planning and Engineering has begun in
Earnest due to the complexity and scale
of the project we're operating off of an
approximately 7year timeline so don't
hold your breath it's going to take some
time but it will be moving forward I
also want to recognize the mid Ohio
Regional Planning Commission Eileen Lu's
here from morsy uh for their support of
this
project we brought mixed commercial
zoning to Livingston just last month in
an ordinance that works to drive
investment to Livingston so that this
Corridor can Thrive and become a safer
community- based connection between
Bexley and Burwick and be can begin to
realize its full potential a zoning that
complements the major infrastructure
work to come and that has aspirational
uniform standards that pair up with the
Main Street and North Cassidy
corridors and we're working with
property owners of the apartments on the
holsman landfill between Livingston and
Schneider Park to protect residents from
the environmental contamination there
and to bring Safety and Security to the
residents and future residents in the
increasingly uplifted southwest corner
of our city we're in the midst of
crafting a dynamic new land strategy
with exciting new ideas to guide
development policy in the city for years
to come Larry helman's looking really
sharp in this photo he told me not to
take any pictures sorry
Larry we're getting ready to launch an
update process for our commercial design
guidelines today we have Main Street
design guidelines they're 20 years old
we're going to be bringing Des ey
guidelines that are refreshed to Main
Street and also extending them to
Livingston and Cassidy we're connecting
Commonwealth Park East and West so that
by the end of this year there will only
be one Commonwealth Park large
continuous safer much more usable park
space for us in our future we're
installing a restroom and a gateway at
that United Commonwealth Park and we're
also adding a public restroom at
Schneider park near the Community
Gardens we're finishing up the wayf
finding package for bexley's bike
boulevards an interconnected series of
Norths South and eastwest routes
throughout the city designated for their
calm and safe routes and designed to
connect to existing and future bike
infrastructure in the city of
Columbus and as you've already heard
we're core Partners in the one Bexley
program in addition to this work we're
continuing to advance our own Equity
goals with a focus this year on
procurement infrastructure Equity access
to housing and interconnectedness with
surrounding
communities and we're taking a moment
after several years of historic
investment in sewer and water
infrastructure upgrades and property
side sewer remediation to revisit our
sewer infrastructure plans and to create
a blueprint for the next decade of
investment in plain English we're
spending a lot of time and resources to
work towards our goal of a more flood
resilient
Beckley and we're crafting new storm
water regulations to ensure that as
property develops in Bexley we're
actually lessening the impact on Alum
Creek we're reducing the load on our
sewer system and we're more effectively
irrigating our Landscapes we're adding
sidewalks where before there were no
sidewalks we're wrapping up to Jeffrey
Park master plan the first holistic plan
for our park in our history we're
working to design a Four Season shelter
house at Jeffrey to better serve our
summer camp program and to provide event
space and facilities for families and
communities to celebrate and grow
together we're designing an overhaul to
the pool parking lot to provide better
access to and enjoyment of the Allen
Creek Waterfront and the Jeffrey trail
system we're installing our alley of the
future improvements in the inaugural
alley block it'll be between north
standwood and Remington and we're
working on an exciting program to bring
the best Valley of the future to allei
throughout Beckley ideas like designated
and secure play spaces storm water
treatment better drainage smart lighting
and more we're picking up a lot of
litter together I join I ask feel free
to join me on this Saturday April 20th
our next Trash Talk we're working we're
working to finalize and adopt our first
sustainability action plan to bring
together all these initiatives and
efforts that we have been working on to
date and to create a vision and a
standard for the years to come
we're expanding our City's EV Fleet
we're working to encourage the phase out
of Highly polluting two-stroke landscape
equipment and small
engines including the creation of a
delightful program funded with the
support of the bexa Community Foundation
to lend electric lawn equipment to
teenage entrepreneurs looking to provide
lawn services to the
community we're expanding bexley's EV
charging infrastructure and bringing
overnight charging to underserved
residential areas
on January 1st we rolled out universal
recycling it's a project many years in
planning it's brought recycling access
to every commercial property every
apartment property every place of
worship every school in Bexley at a cost
much lower than what many businesses had
available to them to secure in the in
the in the past we are the first in the
state to do this one of the first in the
country it's a program we're really
proud of and it took a lot of work so
thanks to the staff for making that
happen and to council for supporting it
this year is our first year to be fully
supplied by wind sourced energy
throughout more than 80% of the
households and businesses that have
opted in inly since September 23rd
through the end of February our
community has saved over
$600,000 off of A's face rate the
average household has saved over $200
through February it's a remarkable
program even without the savings
bringing wind renewable energy to our
doors but with the savings
take your family out to jeppis to
celebrate we're planting more trees and
we're encouraging the planting of
private trees to accomplish our goal of
40% canopy coverage by
2029 last year I I am pleased to
announce that through our year of the
parks program we planted 146 new trees
in our community and our green spaces
that deserves a round of applause there
we
[Applause]
go we're working with Council to craft a
green building code to provide for
simple Common Sense standards and set
the stage for more sustainable
development in our future but none of
this is possible without a community
that is safe for all here to talk about
the year ahead at the Bexley Police
Department is Chief Gary
Lewis so first and foremost I want to
thank my team that's here deputy chief
Goff Lieutenant kenific officer Adams I
see Jeremy Grimes without their support
from all the men and women at the beex
police department a lot of the things
and initiatives that we have done would
not have
[Applause]
happened the mayor told me that brevity
was a key for me tonight so I he gave me
about a minute minute and a half so I
want to make sure that before I say
anything that I say this the Jason and
Ben and Ben show Mike Price you and I
need to get a show on the road this
spring and summer and Meg get the Mike
and Gary all right got that out of the
way so one of the things that we talked
about when I first took over the role
was how do we create a strategic Vision
a three-year plan and one of the very
first things was creating a community
liaison position this position has been
absolutely critical in connecting with
our business communities our schools our
churches our synagogues just today
Channel 4 came out and did a story with
us highlighting our efforts in meeting
with all places of worship and
specifically talking to them about
Emergency Management about active
threats about active Shooters and so
we're getting a lot of attention based
on that so an absolute great job for
officer Adams as well as the books and
badges initiatives that he's
doing so one of the other things um that
we talk about is the business checks and
the value um we're having officers get
out of their Cruiser engage the
community having that face-to-face
interaction what that does every shift
all officers are engaged in this they're
physically required to get out of their
Cruisers and engage business owners
managers and it has been an absolute
phenomenal uh opportunity for us to see
things very differently provide them
with safety tips as well as just a
overall assessment to their
needs this was our uh first town hall
that we did after October 7th we saw
that there was a critical need to really
focus on our Jewish Community we
partnered with the FBI The Joint
terrorism task force the rabbis we also
partnered with Jewish Columbus and other
partners to really focus on and share
what are the efforts the initiatives
that were doing and we did that at all
the synagogues it became so popular from
what we started in Bexley that other
communities here in central Ohio to
include Columbus Police mirrored and
copied that model and then it's actually
spread across the state so that started
here with a very deliberate intentional
act to make sure that our Jewish
residents knew exactly what we were
doing to help keep them
safe so part of that three-year plan and
it aligns with that last slide was how
do we look at some best practices and
one of the vulnerable areas was that
having three synagogues in a 2 and2
square mile seeing that we really didn't
have a proactive initiative in managing
and dealing with uh the potential if we
had a bomb threat at one of our
synagogues so we had um this started
last July so you can imagine this
October the impact in having p and
officer shaer showing up he works
Tuesday to Saturday so that way sweeps
are conducted on Friday and he's also
visible every Saturday the day of
worship so we have continued to see
great success with that not just at our
synagogues but our schools and other
places of
worship one of the other dynamics that
we have partnered with the FBI jtf as
well as a US Marshalls task force that's
US Marshall Michael Black who had just
sworn in officer Donovan as well as
officer Johnson just as recent as today
and this this is really um I always
what's the return on investment and the
return is as residents who've been
impacted by crime and these individuals
then bail um leave the state the US
Marshalls task force will pick them up
anywhere in the country and we've had a
number of these where this task force
has returned back to us um some
individuals from Florida and California
on outstanding Chargers from incidents
that have happened right here in
Bexley this was from our national night
out last year was the first the
tremendous outpouring from this
community and supporting ason night out
was just a really um a testament to how
supportive and hungry this community is
for that type of Engagement so thanks
for all who participated we will
continue this
year few other images from last
[Music]
year yes we had a helicopter
the Bexley High School softball team
extended an invitation for us to come
out and speak about safety and it again
just um we're really trying to take
community policing to another level and
engaging people and meeting them where
they
are two things I want to end on this one
that on your brochure there is a copy of
our annual report you can use that QR
code to download our annual report and
to get that information um secondly I
want to talk about we're going to be
doing some additional initiatives that
include a cops and kid day to focus on
our youth as well as the National Night
Out continue that process but I want to
share with you in the the year and a
half that I've been in this position we
are more diverse today than we were
yesterday I want to say that again we
are more diverse today than we were
yesterday the young men and young women
that we are
hiring look act and feel like the
community in which they represent and
that is a testament to just changing how
we've done business being very
deliberate and people answering the call
to do this profession thank
[Applause]
you thank you Chief
[Music]
Lewis now is the time that I tell you
that you have been unwittingly subjected
to a presentation
of bexley's newly updated strategic plan
everything we've covered tonight is
harmonious and driven by our strategic
plan the rectangles are all the
different slides I walked you through
it's a document that incorporates recent
plan and efforts drives the calendar for
additional plans in the years to come
and clearly communicates the visions and
sets of objectives that we're looking to
continue to advance in the years to
come so good job you guys oh there's
more you can find this all online at
be.org
the midst of all this we have our most
exciting event season ever and PS this
is about 30% of the graphic showing our
season coming up through the summer
there's a lot more that doesn't fit well
on the screen starting this weekend at
our Earth and Arbor uh Festival it's
celebration not Festival Earth and Arbor
celebration we're bringing back
community events that we all know and
love including the coai sence Fest main
events jazzes in the park smoke and fire
Festival 4th of July we're supporting
porch Fest and the into the woods Fest
we're partnering with Brew Fest at our
Labor Day black party on Main Street the
Harvest Fest the Halloween bash the
Christmas tree and manora lightings our
season sponsors are the Bexley Community
Foundation Raymond James financial and
Ohio Heating and Cooling but wait
there's more new this year the Bexley
mural Festival coming to to Main Street
in August and September we'll be
bringing worldclass artists to paint
three or more canvases on the sides of
host buildings on Main Street in an
interactive participatory festival with
live music food art it's going to be
amazing and yes it's funded thanks in
part to the generous contributions of
the Bexley Community
Foundation how do we do all
this in Bexley our greatest asset that
isn't our trees or those walkable
sidewalks or our
Parks our balanced budget or even our
schools
sacrilege our greatest asset is our
people it's the culture of collaboration
that we built as leaders in the city
from city council to the auditor to our
school board our library leadership our
Chamber of Commerce bexy Community
Foundation beex Education Foundation
board and commission members the
leadership of our private educational
institutions places of worship and all
of our volunteer and Civic
organizations and most importantly it's
the people who wake up every day and
dedicate their professional lives to
keeping our community safe to plowing
our streets fixing our potholes planting
our trees repairing water lines
expanding sewer capacity ensuring the
sustainability of our community for
generations to come they're keeping the
trains running and the community
sparkling people like the four Bexley
police officers that now live and work
in Bexley where their home is our home
tonight I want to introduce you to a few
new faces on our leadership team meet
Emily Buckley our new human resources
coordinator also a bexy resident who's
keeping us more organized and on track
than ever say hello to our new director
of administration and development Megan
Meyer M holding goat in this picture
she's helping more intentionally connect
with our business community and drive
new development for our future and
welcome to Carrie Martin our new Finance
director who's busy helping us reca
recraft our finance function with
stronger controls more accessible
financials and lots of very entertaining
personal
anecdotes and here I'm just covering new
employees and our leadership team every
day employees throughout our departments
give their all and provide exceptional
service to our residents employees such
as Brenton Austin in our service
department whose jovial smile and hard
work ethic have caught the attention of
many of our residents Brenton's not
alone this room is filled with many
other examples and often the most quiet
and humble servant is making the biggest
difference there's a lot to look forward
to in
2024 believe it or not there's a lot to
talk about that we haven't even touched
the surface of I'm so excited to be
working alongside it with you to keep
aized of what we're doing in a
bite-sized dose of useful information
where you might find fun pictures like
this check out the Bexley blast our
weekly email and my four things Friday
where I serve up some sometimes useful
anecdotes I'd like to introduce our next
ACT you may know them from the Myriad of
mentions they just received and the
indescribably phenomenal work they do in
our community
every single day here's a video update
from the Bexley Community
Foundation cued the
video hi I'm hi Raskin executive
director of the Bexley Community
Foundation thank you for having us this
evening I'm excited for you to learn
more about the wonderful work we do in
Bexley what started in 2010 as a
Grassroots effort to give where you live
has turned into one of the most
impactful organizations in our hometown
today the Bexley Community Foundation
has reinvested over $5 million in
projects and programs benefiting all
those who live learn work play and Care
in Bexley now and in the future projects
such as the Jeffree Mansion
expansion pickle ball
courts and Tennis
Courts playgrounds at our elementary
schools the Schneider park fields
our 4th of July and Main
Events the Bexley Farmers
Market The Drexel
Theater the North and South Community
Gardens trees and flowers throughout
Bexley and now year of the
parks join us by supporting the work of
our Bexley Community Foundation you are
joining a legacy of impact and
empowerment ensuring that Bexley remains
a vibrant Innovative and inclusive
community for generations to come
together we can build a better Bexley
one project at a
time to learn more apply for a grant or
donate to the Bexley Community
Foundation please visit Bexley Community
foundation.org
if you serve on the board of the back
Community Foundation you please stand
and be recognized
[Applause]
I see you there and Amy Giller start
who's the
chair I love how quickly she stood up in
that
again I also want to say you know we've
had a we've been dealing with some fun
Tech this evening I want to thank my
assistant Natalie V who has been a
fantastic support to me in every single
way
imagable we're able to advance our
slides because of the last minute coming
thank you Natalie so here to talk about
what the library has in store for 2024
for its 100th year of service did I just
give up the plot is this fine wearer of
wool ribbon stockings this perpetrator
of historic reenactments this t Tiki
DJing turntable steaming lover of the
Dewey Decimal System propagator of the
beige colored Stacks lender of board
games ukulele and Fine Art the one and
only Benjamin B
Hekman thanks for sticking around uh two
things I guess I need to thank my dad
for naming me
Ben that's a thing and then uh
secondly if you have come to this in the
past you know I've always started them
off so I'm not sure what I did to upset
Jason or Ben to now be the
last uh but we'll try to keep it
punching here okay so let's jump over
to oh yeah there it is that's the good
stuff um I I want to thank everybody I'd
love to come and talk about our
incredible Library uh we are a jam of
this community and as I learn uh every
day we are a jam of libraries across the
country uh which we'll get into a little
bit here uh so new approach for
tonight's thing here um last year we
talked about the Strategic plan so big
thank you to everybody who contributed
to the Strategic plan whether that was
through a workshop or a survey uh and so
we just approved our strategic plan a
few weeks ago like we don't have that
cool DNA like stuff uh we did it just at
the library but it was it's great it's a
great compliment uh and so we're going
to kind of highlight some of our
strategic plan as we highlight what we
uh worked on last year so coming up uh
first is our our mission and vision uh
we when I talked to all the staff about
this we had two things trust and service
one thing we can control and one thing
we can't so our vision to be a trusted
institution that builds community
Through connection we can provide the
con connection we can make things
available to the community but trust has
to be given and earned uh our mission to
Enlighten Inspire and Empower our
community Through extraordinary service
that we can control we can provide
extraordinary service so we made that
change and we go into access now these
are our core values access we hold the
principles of intellectual freedom and
the opening exchange of ideas we affirm
the rights of patrons to free and
Equitable access to Library resources
Services spaces and programs it's not
just about books or the internet uh but
it's through important things like a
seed Library so that you can plant your
garden and then dry your seeds and
return them no one's done that
yet and if you go tomorrow I think we're
all out of seeds so just go it's great
it's great we have a great thing with
the seed Library uh we also make local
legislators available so that you can
ask questions about what's going on so
part of that leads us to connection uh
we believe creating meaningful and
authentic connections with our patrons
Community Partners and each other is
vital we're actively engaged in life of
our community and embrace our role as a
partner and Ally so bringing people
together uh like when uh Brian Drury
called me and said we think the
weather's going to rain and then it
didn't uh for juneth and we had had
probably 3400 people in the auditorium
which I'm grateful that we don't have a
fire department in Bexley because we
would have been in trouble but we had a
great event of uh I shouldn't say that
in front of the man it was a record it
was a record it was great we had a great
time and and I think it was a a proud
moment for the entire East Side not just
Beckley uh so with juneth was great uh
bringing other Library professionals
together that's part of what we do we
are uh such a supported loved library
that we feel we should go and share what
we have learned with other libraries uh
and kind of set the trend for others so
there I am meeting Dr Carla Hayden she
is the librarian of Congress that is
like the head head
boss and she's very small but she was a
delight uh and she she's the first
public librarian to hold that position
there you go fun fact um and then that
leads us to
empowerment we provide a trust space
where people come to improve their
quality of life we believe connecting
people to resources Services experiences
in each other will lead to new
opportunities for individuals and our
community so letting you ask questions
of experts to better understand or make
up your own mind about what's going on
instead of having someone tell you what
to think read a book and figure out or
listen to an expert and make up your own
mind on things is so important to us so
whether that's on the growth of Central
Ohio or our now annual Supreme Court
program where we have expert come and
talk to you about all of the the rulings
from the Supreme Court that goes on in
June
Innovation we adapt to evolving
technology and information Landscapes
continuously improving Library resources
to remain relevant and valuable we
strive to be a leader in developing and
delivering creative bold and highquality
information services and resources so
innovative ways to share programming
like the BPL TV which we're currently
live on right now streaming that's right
uh our partnership with Bexley magazine
to get out our information about what's
going on at the library um our
partnership with the Bexley historical
societies to celebrate our Century homes
and of course our Innovative partnership
with one Bexley because we've yet to
find a library who's working with their
city and their schools so closely on a
CommunityWide issue uh a lot of great
things to be proud of there and then
literacy I love what we did with
literacy we Foster l literacy skills and
provide trustworthy information we are
committed to literacy in its many forms
foundational reading digital proficiency
information evaluation media analysis
and cultural understanding so last year
we had our first literacy nights anybody
participate in the literacy night all
right it was totally dope you guys
missed out we had the education um PTO
for each of the schools come to the
library um um they did pizza we had to
fund scavenger hunt we had 350 people
come from mantros we had 400 people come
from Maryland and we had 450 people come
from cassingham now for those of you
keeping track I guess cassingham won but
we had a great time and everybody got to
learn about all the great things we have
at the
library number eight service we value
compassionate trustworthy and
knowledgeable service aiming to meet the
diverse needs of all patrons while
maintaining a welcoming and supporting
environment Service First above all else
that hangs in my office that's the
foundation of everything that we do at
the library whether it's a notary
appointment whether it's home delivery
or whether it's Outreach it is at the
heart of all that we do uh and the staff
takes that very
seriously stewardship now I know a lot
of people are like oh yeah you guys
better be good with cash um and so we
protect and Steward our community's
resour resources collection spaces and
privacy with honesty and integrity we
promote transparency equity and openness
and all we do so it's not just about
taking care of taxpayer dollars it's
about being cautious and smart with
resources so we just P we just when we
go and buy things we try to make sure
that they're quality and they're going
to last a long time uh we try to think
about those things and let's also not
forget we're also stewarding the human
record libraries are the place where we
store the human record so like our our
Bexley digital archive um this is all
that we do um and so this is my next
page now we're going to get into some
fun accomplishments of 2023 you guys
ready the Strategic plan we just went
through right pretty good yeah okay all
right that's fine I know I'm the last
one oh that's fine uh we we we rocked
out the seed Library the the Bexley
centry home initiative uh we participate
in the heart safe Bexley we have aeds
for all the library Li Aries for all
floors of the library we had a great
training um the last time I saw some of
these officers they were shooting blanks
in the library so I you know I know
about all that so we had our active
shooter training that was very good uh
it was very empowering of our staff I
thought it was going to be very
nerve-wracking the staff felt very
empowered uh we're going to make some
great safety changes as well so thank
you chief for that um so we participated
in the heart safe speex our aeds will be
up soon and then I know when I come to
this you guys love like nerdy behind the
curtain things that I share so if you've
ever tried to take a phone call in our
basement it wasn't it wouldn't work very
well so we added a cell phone
booster that's right yeah that's right
that's great clap it up so now you can
take a phone call down in the youth
services area uh and you're welcome
that's our new tech guy he's he's
great okay we're going to hit some of
the numbers another great slide we had
over 150,000 people come and visit the
library last year that was over 500,000
electronic and physical checkouts over
40
74,000 Wi-Fi and computer sessions 320
personalized picks where you can fill
out a form online tell the Librarians
what you like and instead of Amazon
recommending a book a real human that
lives in your community will tell you
what you should read next give it a look
we hosted
6,642 people in 15 00 meeting room
reservations people from all over uh 600
youth programs that's just under 14,000
attendees 251 adult programs with just
over 11,000 attendees and 160 book
librarian questions so if you just got
an e-reader and your son is the software
engineer that lives in California who
personally thanked us for helping his
father get that happened to me the other
day I helped a guy with a knee reader so
uh you can book librarian and ask any
questions you want and we'll work with
you one
onone pla 2024 this is very exciting
stuff last week two weeks ago
7,500 Librarians descended upon Columbus
Ohio did you even
notice I'm sure that if you went to the
bars down by the convention center you
did uh the Public Library Association
had its Public Library conference here
in Columbus for the first time uh and we
had a great conference where we explored
new trends in libraries we went to
different sessions we sent a large
portion of our staff uh but perhaps our
greatest honor was we were on the tour
list and we hosted 56 Librarians from
around the country and the world to tour
our library so here is the picture here
of people learning about the magic that
is Bexley Public Library um we
specialized it so that they could take
back with them whatever they wanted so
they could meet with our Frontline staff
and ask questions uh one of them was are
you guys really all this happy
here wait they let you do stuff can you
just close when you want uh libraries in
every other state are very very
different um and we got so much positive
feedback and we are working with people
to help change some of the way that
their libraries run so that their staff
can feel more engaged and empowered um
so that was a great honor for us to
participate in all right and now are you
ready for the upcoming
events yeah upcoming
events uh the outdoor reading room we're
going to break ground really late in the
fall or beginning of Spring
2025 uh we didn't want to interrupt
other big things that we have going on
in the library this year um we're
working on a new thing does anybody here
use Libby the digital online reading app
yeah okay we're going to create a Bexley
section that should pop up on your Libby
app that should have our program guide
our Centennial guide other Publications
from the city that you can check out and
read through your Libby app so that's
pretty cool um we are
also now circulating just brand new
driving
cones yeah okay somebody's clapping for
driving cones great
so you can check out the cones and the
sticks and teach your young folks how to
parallel park safely in a parking lot
hopefully at the school or something
they parking lot pool parking lot great
place so you can now check out those
cones from from from the
library our other big project that we're
working on is the BPL Civic Center this
was a vision that came to me late one
night it's a mobile voter registration
Place uh it's going to be up 365 days in
the library you can leave notes for your
legislators you can get unbiased
information about what's going on and
we're this is hopefully something that
we're going to have up and running uh as
soon as I find a props person so if
anybody knows a good props person let me
know we're going to have this up for our
election in
November um and now just to tease just
to tease something does everybody know
something's going on this year yeah we
did a little work at the library before
a big thing that we've got going on so
we really shined her up okay that's what
we try to do is shine her up so we got
new parking lot signs I'm so confident
that oneway sign's going to help people
go the right way in the library parking
lot I'm confident it will not it will
not but we made the lane wider so it
should be fine uh last year we put new
carpet down in the back lobby in the
browsing room we got new tables chairs
plants and lamps uh we saw that we had
an a uptick of people coming to use the
library after school to study and have
meetings so we're creating more space
for that to go on we we the decline in
CDs We Shrunk our CDs down so we could
create more space so that is what our
browsing room looks like now it is so
much more inviting to go in there and
sit and read the paper or do work so I
encourage you to take a look at that um
we laid out the first floor differently
we got new tables in the quiet reading
room which is more flexible and then the
thing that kills me if you can see these
pictures I should apologize to everyone
in my six years of running the library I
never thought to have her power
washed but if you look here I mean that
just looks like a different building
entirely uh so she's looking really good
we got her power wash very proud of that
um and now for the big news in case you
didn't know we're turning 100 this year
[Applause]
yeah uh
the staff and I have been working for
many many months to get ready for our
big kickoff we have like six months
planned of the year of great events
author talks uh parties a whole bunch of
stuff to bring a whole bunch of
celebratory fun to this and I just want
to say to the staff has worked so hard
we've worked so hard to get all this
together so if you don't have your
Centennial guide come and take we I have
I brought some you can get it digitally
uh so we've got a lot of great stuff
going on first off the kickoff party is
next Thursday the 25th of April uh we
are going to have some cake so I that's
the most important part um we also had
an we have a very important librarian
that we' never had the opportunity to
meet who ran the library from 1954 to
1971 she started working there in 31
she's incredible she was a Visionary of
what library should be and we have
looked up to her since we started doing
all the new things at the library so to
honor Mary T Zimmerman we're going to
dedicate the browsing room in her honor
and it just so happens that her
97-year-old husband is still alive and
he is going to be our guest of honor
that night to celebrate this wonderful
person who laid the foundation for all
of the things that we do and I think
that's just a magical thing that can
only happen here in beex the guy's
living in
Berwick and calls us one day cuz he
wants to sell some books I can tell you
all about this later he also has some
furniture that was in the building in
1929 when it opened and I think we're
getting that back which is also cool but
that's another story um so I want you to
come to our birthday celebration we're
dedicating the room and then I am going
to interview an author who's going to
talk about the great books and why
they're still important for kids to
learn about the great ideas um if you
want to see someone who's never
interviewed like a real important author
and is probably going to crash and burn
come and check it out it'll be good I'll
at least try to make it fun um we also
our music series is coming up we've got
we just had our Rap City in blue we had
130 people in the auditorium it was
truly an amazing piece of music it was
really great um we've got I said Ricky
skags the other day it's Earl Scruggs
we're celebrating Earl scruggs's 100th
birthday uh and then in August AUST my
good friend Todd stole is coming it's
going to be all 20s music we got a lot
of surprises planned for that one so I
want you to come and check that out and
then the car show this is actually in
the month of our birthday it's going to
be September we're going to have a cake
and sparklers uh somebody's going to be
DJing all the top hits from every decade
we've been
open that's great isn't it yeah I know
you're going to love it just come early
for the like the 20s and 30s CU it's
some of the best uh so we'll have
classic cars from the era there it'll be
outside the weather's going to be great
the weather's going to be great so come
and check that out um and like I said
there's the QR code to get the Guide the
guide I put on the back table if you
want that information we would love to
really see you all come
out um what do we got next year oh and
then we worked so hard for all of our
author events so we've got a number of
author events coming up uh Maggie Smith
uh me interviewing again hanifa durrie
uh Linda is coming with Pat lazinski
who's the CML Library director I'm going
to Raz him when I introduce him uh and
then we we're celebrating uh James
Baldwin's 100th birthday so this is
happening off throughout the next 6
months this is really great we got a
great mix of local authors nationally
known authors uh we've worked really
hard on this so please join us for that
uh and then how are we celebrating
outside of the the library and in the
community these banners looked so cool
on the side of our building I never
imagined that that we would get it to
look this good if you haven't seen them
check that out come into the library see
what we've been working on we've got
some great banners on the light post
throughout the community so we're
grateful for our partners with the city
on that and then let me tell you what
we've lined up for you in the community
you can go to Johnson's in the summer
and get the Bexley Library Sunday which
is they're calling the Bookworm it is
cookies and cream ice cream with
alphabet letters on top and then a gummy
worm I mean come on that's
great uh Seventh Son is making us a beer
we're getting all the basics covered
everybody come on now come with me here
ice cream beer Bexley Pizza Plus is
working on a specialty pizza for us uh
if you go to our website and order some
of the books from grar grar C is going
to donate some of that money back to the
library and then at jeppis they're
working on a cocktail called the book
drop yeah so all right we got pizza ice
cream beer and yeah that'll get
Applause um we're just so happy we can
celebrate with our Community Partners um
and they've been great to do that uh so
that should all be fun inside the
building cuz I know Larry helman's back
there going this is a great B but
where's the swag the sweet sweet Library
swag so in-house design t-shirts by our
staff uh we're going to we're working on
a portal for people to buy Library
t-shirts Library tote bags that we're
going to have up all the time so you can
get our fresh designs that'll be coming
soon we have gold library cards that
you'll be able to get very fun and
sparkly yeah that's right Brian's
excited gold library cards we're also
asking you to share your story about the
library you can email it text it record
it um mail it and we're collecting all
of that on our website if you go to our
website we've already got some people
sharing their stories about the
library um we are going to have buttons
and bookmarks and drink
Koozies uh we've got little branded
library card holders for the back of
your
phone uh we bracelets it's all going to
be a a great time this summer um and
we've also worked very hard on some
great history displays so if you can see
Mark fishell here uh taking the photo op
and shushing us uh we've set up an old
desk of what it would have looked like
for a librarian probably about 80 years
ago we've got a history display with a
lot of great Library artifacts and from
the the stuff and then as you can see
over here the Village Library we've
worked very hard to capture the history
of Bexley and Bexley library and put it
into 10 panels that will be
interactive when I say interactive you
can walk around
them but they're 8 ft and you again you
can walk around them we can set them
them up and it'll be great so we want to
share that with you um and so this is
all a very
fun it's been fun for us to put together
it's been a lot of work and it's
important for us that we kind of capture
the incredible work that libraries do
not just our library but all the
libraries um and because every day we
have people that come into the library
and have an experience that can change
their life or or help them get along in
their journey and so I have a video that
I want to share that is just example of
what I
[Music]
said hi everyone I'm marel Stein I grew
up in Beckley I spent a lot of time at
the Beckley Public Library when I was a
kid I read only comic books I was a
comic book Freak one day my mom dropped
me off at the library and the librarian
was waiting for me and she said Bobby I
know you like comic books I bet I have
something else you would like and she
took me to a shelf of Ray Bradberry
stories and that changed my life Ray
Bradbery and that librarian turned me
into a
reader I just want to say Happy 100th
birthday to the Bexley public library
and happy 100 Years of of getting kids
to
[Music]
[Applause]
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read so just a wonderful example of uh
how an interaction at our library here
years ago he went on to write so many
books and impact so many other people
make readers we love being in your
library I love being your library
director you want to talk anything about
libraries we you know let's meet up
let's talk about it I want to thank you
again for being here and with that I'm
excited to
introduce the monque lampy city council
president and Victoria Powers the Board
of Education
chair thank you everybody so much I I
can't believe that I have to follow Ben
Heckman as the speaker who's amazing but
we're going to do our very best I know
everyone is ready to wrap it up but I
did just want to make a few closing
remarks uh first and foremost I wanted
to thank each of my fellow City Council
Members all seven of your council
members are here tonight um I know that
laurian fibes here Alex Silverman Danny
Hurley Sam Marcelino Troy Markham
Jessica Assad we're also blessed to have
several of our former city council
members in attendance I see Rick Weber
uh Richard Sharp Mark masser John
offenberg and a few others uh your city
council members are selfless dedic
dedicated and passionate legislators
legislators they are very uh open to
your ideas we make ourselves available
in a variety of ways feel free to email
us at city council be.org or stop us uh
when you see us out in the community uh
give us a call and we're happy to
discuss uh any ideas that you have for
the city as we are always willing to
listen to you I also wanted to thank the
many volunteers who serve on our boards
and misss uh I think it's safe to say
Bexley probably has at least 100
volunteers of folks who give their time
without compensation they give up their
evenings their weekends their time away
from their family to help Bexley become
the extraordinary community that it is
and I appreciate um them for doing that
I did want to mention we have an
upcoming election this November and
while in the past Bexley has had great
percentages uh this election is an
important one in
2023
68.5% of all Bexley registered voters
voted um I would encourage you if you
have not already registered to vote or
if you have kids away at College like me
make sure you get them registered
because this election
counts and finally before I hand it over
to Victoria um Bexley recently lost a
very dedicated public servant uh named
Bill Harvey
he served honorably as our service
director and our auditor for many years
the reason I wanted to mention bill is
that he was always the epitome of what
respectful civil discourse should look
like what it needs to look like I liked
to tell Bill when I disagreed with him
and Bill loved to tell me when he
disagreed with me but having had that
discussion with him whatever the outcome
was he always made better
and he always approached it in the most
professional of
ways and finally before I hand it over
um you've heard so many wonderful
updates tonight so many wonderful pieces
of our community that you could get
involved in I'm going to put on my lost
SCH law school Professor hat for just a
second and kind of give you a call to
action if there was one or two things
that you heard tonight that you love to
learn more about or that you are willing
to personally get involved in contribute
your ideas
I really urge you to do so that input
that Collective Insight that
togetherness will help bring Bexley even
closer together as your city council
president I'm glad to tell you that the
future of Bexley has never looked
brighter and with that I'm going to turn
over to the president of the Bexley
Board of Education Victoria
Powers thanks money
um it's it's uh great to be here this
evening I love this 1908 um up here um
it's a motto that I love to see when I
log on founded in 1908 updated daily uh
this evening we've heard about so many
successes important initiatives future
hopes for our city and its institutions
all of the ways in which we are building
updating and improving daily what is at
the heart of our city we've heard about
many ways that Bexley is working
together to be a lighthouse district and
Community where in our schools we help
our students to learn with curiosity
demonstrate kindness and embrace Equity
where we imagine and then Implement new
ways to do more for our students and our
citizens I'm grateful for all of the
ongoing work and as Ben pointed out Ben
Kesler I'm grateful for all of you you
are at the heart of actuallyy you are
making our community a better place I
appreciate Monique's call to action this
is a room full of people that are really
engaged and it makes all the difference
in the world thank you for being here
this evening working together every day
good night everybody
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