Board of Education Update — April 14, 2026 Regular Meeting

The April 14, 2026, meeting of the Board of Education included presentations on the following topics:

Girls Swim and Dive Team State Champions

The Board of Education recognized the girls swim and dive team for winning their third consecutive state championship in February. This was their 15th championship in program history.

Communications from the Board

Board of Education President Jenny McKenna shared that two teams of Board of Education members have been working on two areas of focus — board expectations and stakeholder ecosystems — which were identified from a Board work session in February. Each team shared an update on their work and will discuss this further at the May Board of Education meeting.

District Highlights

Superintendent Robert Hunt, Ph.D., recognized the UA Rotary Student of the Month —  Hana M., a senior at Upper Arlington High School. Hana is a member of the district’s Amplify student voice committee, and she also serves as a student mentor at Greensview, helping younger students to develop social skills and build confidence.  She says she is most proud of creating a student club called Hands for Humanity, which helps support families facing food insecurity.  Hana plans to go to Kent State University next year where she will major in interior design.

In addition, Dr. Hunt shared the following highlights: 

• Last week, the district held a family engagement session on supporting children’s mental health. Dr. John Ackerman of Nationwide Children’s Hospital spoke about suicide prevention, and Lauri Yersavich of Ohio Health spoke about how young people deal with grief.  Additionally, our school counselors and other district staff members shared what type of programming is available to support students in our schools.  A recording of the session is now available on the district’s YouTube channel.
• The Culture & Climate strategic priority will be the focus for the district’s next Coffee & Conversation event on Friday, April 17 at 9 a.m. at the Bob Crane Community Center.
• The district has the following hiring updates for the 2026-2027 school year: Beth Reyna-Williams as Director of Student Services and Tom Lombardi as Upper Arlington High School principal.
• Upper Arlington High School students hosted the fourth annual Human Connections Festival, celebrating what makes our school community unique. They held a school-day event on Golden Bear Boulevard and an evening event open to the community on March 25. 

Student Voices in AI

Denise Lutz, Ed.D., Chief Excellence & Engagement Officer, and Upper Arlington High School teacher Diane Kahle, Ph.D., shared an overview of the Student Voices in AI Club, which got its start in the fall of 2025. Twenty-seven students participate weekly in the club, helping to evaluate and inform AI policies at various levels including the school district, state and educational organizations. 

Notably this school year, the Student Voices in AI Club designed a survey and asked students and teachers in grades 6-12 to respond. This resulted in 2,048 student responses and 107 teacher responses. Since that survey, the club members have conducted follow-up interviews. Three students from the club — Alan, Soorvi and Barrett — presented the findings to the Board of Education, which included:

• The majority of students in Upper Arlington use AI one to 10 times a week. However, a good amount of students don’t use AI at all.
• Many students use AI for research and brainstorming, and very few students use AI to write their essays/do all their work for them. In fact, most students merely use it to jumpstart their thinking. 
• Students use AI for the following subjects the most: math, English language arts and social studies.
• Students reported that teachers in English language arts and social studies were most likely to set guidelines on when or when not to use AI in their classroom or on assignments.
• Approximately 65% of respondents want to know how to balance AI use.
• Students’ top concerns about AI include false accusations of cheating, accuracy of information, over-dependency, plagiarism flags and environmental impact.

Meanwhile, in the teacher survey, they reported these findings:

• Approximately 63% of respondents use AI one to 10 times a week, with lesson or activity planning being the most frequent use.
• About 42% of respondents set guidelines for students on when and when not to use AI on their assignments.
• The majority of respondents reported that they use AI to give them new ideas to use in their work (70%) and save time (63%).
• Their top concerns include student cheating, over-reliance on AI tools and plagiarism.
• About 48% of respondents think it’s important for students to learn about AI in school, and their priorities include: when to use it and not use it, how to fact-check with AI, how to recognize bias and fairness in AI, and how to balance their use of AI.

Hope Garden update

Chief Operating Officer Greg Thompson provided an update on the Hope Garden at Upper Arlington High School — a fundraising effort through the Upper Arlington Education Foundation. The Hope Garden is inspired by the life of Sam Short who passed away in April 2024. Sam was the beloved son of Mike and Tori Short, and the first graduate of Upper Arlington High School’s 100th class. The space, to be located on the east side of the building near the tennis courts, will be a peaceful and welcoming place for students, families, staff and community members to pause in times of heartache, seek hope in the midst of fear and find joy in times of remembrance. The project is ready to move forward toward final design and construction, after the fundraising effort hit the $150,000 mark. Construction would occur in the summer.

Re-imagining Time

Chief Academic Officer Jaclyn Angle, Ed.D., shared the findings of a study with New Solutions K12 to analyze scheduling, use of time, and staffing across all school levels. This work is a key element of the Excellence & Innovation 2030 Strategic Plan. The primary goal was to identify high-impact opportunities to optimize student outcomes and improve scheduling practices. This process involved multiple analyses and stakeholder engagement opportunities in the fall of 2025, including interviews with students and staff. The focus remained on addressing opportunities that would have the largest impact on student learning.

Dr. Angle shared commendations for each school level, as well as opportunities and next steps.

At the elementary level, opportunities and next steps include:

• Ensuring that scheduling of gifted, talented and accelerated programming reflects the high number of students who receive or qualify for services.
• Ensuring greater consistency in student access to math, literacy and intervention.
• Considering adjusting how related arts are scheduled to increase common planning time and simplify schedules.
• Establishing a short list of scheduling non-negotiables to guide elementary schools’ scheduling decisions.

At the middle level, opportunities and next steps include:

• Revising Flex/Enrichment time to provide content-specific, direct instruction intervention courses for students who struggle academically.
• Making targeted shifts to the schedule to devote more time to academic periods.
• Restructuring global language programming to provide an opportunity for greater student choice.

At the high school level, opportunities and next steps include:

• Expanding student access to best practice intervention.
• Taking a more differentiated and precise approach to scheduling core classes to expand elective and intervention opportunities for students.

• Building clarity on program pathways and clusters and ensure available course options align with pathways goals and student interests.
• Expanding external off-campus opportunities with a dedicated leader.

Facilities Master Planning Update

Dr. Hunt shared an update on phase two of the facilities master planning process, focusing on the aging middle schools and Burbank Early Childhood School. The survey window on the draft recommendations has been extended to the end of the day on Sunday, April 19. He noted that the district has had a high level of responses, but the majority of them are parents. The district is doing some specific outreach to target members of the community who do not currently have children in the schools.

In addition, the Board of Education approved an agreement with Perkins & Will for design and construction administration services related to phase two facilities master plan. The agreement involves a potential third-floor addition at Upper Arlington High School, if needed, as a transitional educational space during phase two construction involving Jones Middle School and for later use to meet the needs of enrollment and programmatic growth at the high school. The Board of Education made it clear that the decision to move forward with this agreement now was due to the timeline for phase two construction and the need to have the space ready in time for students, if a combined operating levy and bond issue is supported by the community this fall. Regardless of the outcome of a November ballot issue, the Board of Education would retain the rights to any design plans developed.

School Year Calendars

The 2027-2028, 2028-2029 and 2029-2030 school year calendars were presented to the Board of Education for approval, but the Board delayed voting on the calendars until their May meeting. This was so that they could take time to review a document of important dates during the school year, including religious holidays, that will be shared with teachers to inform their planning and scheduling for those years.

In addition, there are updates to the 2026-2027 school calendar that did not require Board approval, with the addition of a no school day on Monday, May 3, 2027, and the clarification of no school on Tuesday, May 4, 2027, due to spring voting. 

Policy Updates

Deputy Superintendent Stephanie Siddens, Ph.D., shared 3 policies for first read, including a policy on Artificial Intelligence, and 13 policies for second read and approval. One of the policies for second read is 5220-Attendance, which includes updates based on the state budget bill and will require more frequent notifications for families regarding chronic absenteeism. 

Fiscal Update

Treasurer/CFO Andrew Geistfeld went into greater detail on the five year forecast and levy cycles to expand on what has been shared at previous meetings. 

He shared a graphic from the five year forecast that depicts the district’s total expenditures and revenue, both historical and projected, from fiscal year 2025 to 2030. This graphic represents a typical levy cycle — in that three to four years after a levy was last passed, expenditures begin to outpace revenue. That is because approximately 96 percent of the district’s revenue is fixed, with little room for inflationary growth. This is due to a state law known as House Bill 920, which ensures that voted operating levies do not grow as property values increase. Instead, as property values increase, the millage collected for each voted operating levy is reduced to ensure the district’s funding from the operating levy remains flat. In short, as a homeowner’s property value increases, their school operating tax rate actually decreases. That is why suburban school districts like Upper Arlington return to voters every three to four years in order to keep up with inflation and maintain the current level of school operations. 

He reminded the Board of Education that the district last passed an operating levy in fall 2022 to support daily operations, with a commitment to return to voters in three years. That levy has successfully been stretched an additional year, but as expected, expenditures are now outpacing revenue. He shared that this is why the district is planning to return to the ballot this fall with an operating levy to maintain day-to-day operations combined with a bond issue to fund a phase two master plan.

Treasurer’s Updates

Treasurer/CFO Andrew Geistfeld shared the monthly financial statements for March 2026. 

You may visit our Upper Arlington Schools Board of Education page to access the April 14 meeting agenda and video. To view the meeting presentation, please click here. For meeting dates and more information about the Board of Education, please visit www.uaschools.org/board.