Board Meeting Recap for March 2026

Forest Hills School District is utilizing these articles as a way to communicate specific action taken at regular Board of Education meetings throughout the year. The Board of Education met on Wednesday, March 18, 2026 at Mercer Elementary School to discuss a variety of topics relevant to students, staff and the community.

The official agenda and related attachments for this meeting can be found on the FHSD BoardDocs page here. You can watch a full recording of the meeting on the district’s YouTube page here.

Special Recognitions

Seventh grade choir students at Nagel Middle School performed near the beginning of the meeting under the direction of Janna Frank, choir director. The students delighted the audience with a rendition of “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story and a fun folk song called “The Fox.”

Anderson and Turpin High Schools both recognized students who were recently named finalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. This is a significant accomplishment for these students and Forest Hills School District congratulates them on this prestigious recognition. Anderson High School has three finalists: Charlie Cox, Hifza Fatima and Luke Patterson. Matias Moscoso Boedo was named as a finalist from Turpin High School.

The Forest Hills Foundation for Education announced that it is awarding more than $45,000 in student grants this month, funding a wide-variety of initiatives and proposals that came directly from students across the nine FHSD schools. This process is assisted by a student grant review team of AHS students Sam Baker, Lillian Cassil, Nora Donoho and Sosena Tefera, and THS students Camden Goetz and Oliver Huang. Sosena and Oliver spoke at the meeting about what it was like to review student grants and help FHFE throughout this important process.

FHFE also highlighted the 2026 FH5K, which will take place on Saturday, May 9. The theme for this year’s event is “Small Steps. Big Impact.” You can learn more about the FH5K and register to participate by visiting www.foresthills5k.com.

Update on Superintendent Search

Marlon Styles, superintendent in residence at the Hamilton County Educational Service Center, provided an update to the Board and the community regarding the ongoing superintendent search. The Board selected Hamilton County ESC to support their search for the district’s next superintendent, and updates on the process can be found by visiting the superintendent search webpage here.

The search process so far has been focused on gathering input from important stakeholders in the community and engaging residents to hear their thoughts and perspectives. Hamilton County ESC has met with district staff and employees, as well as high school and middle school students. The community input process also included an online survey available to anyone that included an option to volunteer for smaller, community focus groups to share additional feedback.

The Board is currently finalizing the formal interview process and timeline, and Hamilton County ESC expects to provide an update at the Regular Meeting on March 31. Afterwards, the superintendent position will officially be posted and applications will begin to be accepted and reviewed. More specific information about the timeline and other updates related to the search will be shared on the district website here: https://www.foresthills.edu/board-of-education/superintendent-search/ 

Superintendent Update

Superintendent Larry Hook took a moment to welcome Mr. Greg Rose as a new assistant principal at Turpin High School. Superintendent Hook’s recommendation to hire Mr. Rose was approved by the Board during the March meeting. Mr. Rose will officially become a Spartan next school year, with his job duties beginning August 1, 2026.

Mr. Rose has previously served as an assistant principal at North College Hill High School and, most recently, West Clermont Middle School. His administrative experience includes championing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, overseeing building safety procedures, coordinating behavioral and academic interventions and much more. He earned a B.A. in history from the University of Cincinnati and a Master’s in Education from Xavier University. Before stepping into school administration, Mr. Rose was a high school social studies teacher.

This administrative change follows Mr. JP Casanova’s notice last month to Turpin staff of his intent to resign at the end of the current school year. Superintendent Hook thanked Mr. Casanova for his passion and dedication to Turpin High School over the past two years, and wished him all the best in his future endeavors.

Mr. Hook also congratulated Anderson and Turpin High Schools for recently being named to the 2025 AP School Honor Roll, earning Gold distinction. This recognition honors schools whose AP programs are delivering results for students while broadening participation during the 2024-2025 school year.

Additionally, Superintendent Hook gave a shout out to Ayer, Mercer and Summit elementary schools for being honored with the Governor’s Science of Reading Champion Award. This recognition, created by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and the Department of Education and Workforce, recognizes schools that are demonstrating strong implementation of evidence-based instructional practices aligned to the science of reading and where students are making significant progress. Only 157 schools across Ohio have earned this recognition, with only six being from Hamilton County. Congratulations to Ayer, Mercer and Summit!

Mr. Hook also provided an update on two key areas of the FHSD Strategic Plan:

• Strategy 1: Cultivate and sustain vibrant learning communities for students and staff, dedicated to fostering connections, ownership and continuous growth.
• Strategy 2: Help students become future-ready by integrating academic and real-world experiences, encouraging innovation and emphasizing how learning applies even beyond the classroom.
• Strategy 3: Build capacity to promote and nurture the social, physical, emotional, behavioral and intellectual well-being for adult and student learners in our community.
  
  • Each of these strategies is supported by the work of the XCL Program. Superintendent Hook shared an update on some of XCL’s key initiatives, and he provided data on the percentage of students involved with XCL and the number of community partners supporting this important work.

Board Action

The Board of Education often reviews and votes on a variety of actions that impact different departments throughout the school district. For specific information about any of the following items, you can find the meeting agenda and attachments here.

The following items in the consent agenda were approved by the Board of Education.

Human Resources

• 9.1 Human Resources Report
  
  • The report covers a variety of topics including retirements, resignations and appointments of different staff members. You can view the report here and find related attachments here.
• 9.2 Academic Calendar Revision
  
  • To maintain the District's long-standing practice of alternating which high school graduation ceremony occurs first each year, the attached Academic Calendars for the 2026-2027 and 2027-2028 reflect a revision to the time of day listed for each high school graduation in both 2027 and 2028. You can view the calendars here.

Business Operations

• 10.1 Resolution to Award Cooperative Purchasing Contract (Van Purchase)
  
  • This resolution authorizes a cooperative purchasing contract to BSI for two passenger vans for the transportation department at an anticipated cost of $160,760. You can read the resolution here.
• 10.2 Resolution Authorizing Advertisement and Solicitation of Bids (Copy Center)
  
  • This resolution authorizes the administration to advertise and receive bids for the installation of a copy center at the operations center main building. You can read the resolution here.
• 10.3 Resolution Approving Field Use Agreement (Anderson Wildcats)
  
  • This resolution approves a field use and donation agreement with the Anderson Wildcats. You can view the resolution and agreement here.
• 10.4 District Insurance
  
  • This item approves the renewal of district insurance for the period April 1, 2026 to April 1, 2027 at an anticipated cost of $614,690.66. You can view the annual premium summary here.

Teaching and Learning

• 11.1 Overnight Field Trip Requests
  
  • This item approves planned and possible overnight field trip requests which you can find here.
• 11.2 Science Regional Qualifiers - University of Cincinnati
  
  • The district and board would like to recognize representatives from our high schools who participated in the 2026 FHSD Science and Innovation Expos. FHSD students who presented at the Expo met the scoring criteria to advance to the University of Cincinnati Regional Science and Engineering Expo.  
    
    • Anderson High School - Excellent Rating
      
      • Maddux Poteat & Nirali Patel: Kidney Membrane Selective Permeability
    • Turpin High School - Excellent Rating
      
      • Ian Copeland: Effects of Processed Food on the Red Harvester Ants' Mortality
      • Lydia Ball & Madison Inman: Is Reaction Time Affected by Different Music Types?
• 11.3 HCESC Staffing Agreement - RBT
  
  • This item approves a contract with the HCESC for an RBT (Registered Behavior Tech) to provide staff and student support Monday through Friday until the end of the 2025-2026 school year. This position will provide direct behavior support for students with significant needs. The estimated cost is $15,575for the remainder of the school year. You can read the service agreement here.

Treasurer Update

• 12.1 Treasurer’s Report
  
  • Treasurer Alana Cropper presented the February report which provided information on the following items:
    
    • Donations
    • Five-Year Forecast
    • General Fund Revenue
    • General Fund Expenditures
    • General Operating Cash Balance
    • Permanent Improvement Fund
    • Investment Income Snapshot
    • Past Month Reconciliation
    • Permanent Appropriations
    • Amendment to Permanent Appropriations
  • You can find the February Cash Position Report here.

This completes the meeting’s consent agenda.

Committee Reports

Board Members provided updates on the committee meeting listed below.

• Teaching and Learning Committee
  
  • Committee Chairperson Wendy Strickler provided information about items that were discussed at the February 23 meeting of the Teaching and Learning Committee. These topics included district learning walks and how they are used to observe and measure the Portrait of a Learner skills in action. The committee also discussed career exploration work, staff professional development day, College Credit Plus, AP courses, artificial intelligence, student behavior, special education and more.
• Human Resources Committee
  
  • Committee Chairperson Jef Nye provided information about items that were discussed at the March 4 meeting of the Human Resources Committee. These topics included hiring efforts that are largely driven by staff retirements and resignations and the importance of hiring the right people for these critical jobs.

Board Discussion

The Board of Education discussed a number of different topics during this portion of the March 18, 2026 meeting. You can click the following link to view the full discussion period, which begins at 1:15:31 during the meeting livestream.

The Board celebrated a wide variety of student accomplishments including spring musicals, running clubs, the Summit recreation basketball league, Maddux PBIS efforts, Sherwood reaching 600 hours of community service and much more. Wilson Elementary recently hosted its annual Spark Day, which is an opportunity for students to hear from professionals in different fields to “spark” their interests and to get them thinking about what they may want to do in the future.

Additionally, the Board shared information about the superintendent search process and their desire to include community input and feedback in their search for the best possible candidate to fill this important role.

Board Vice President Simmons raised awareness of efforts to get a ballot initiative in front of Ohio voters to eliminate property taxes. While he acknowledged the importance of property tax relief, he pointed out that local school districts, townships, libraries, police departments, fire departments and other public entities receive a majority of their funding from property taxes. Mr. Simmons encouraged community members to share their voice with elected officials in Columbus and work against this type of initiative if it does not have a clear plan to avoid crippling entities that rely on this type of funding. Several other Board Members commented in agreement on this topic.

Lastly, the Board discussed a joint meeting being held by the Anderson Park District, Anderson Township and Forest Hills School District on March 24 that will include a final report on the Community Engagement Study regarding the use of the Anderson Park District property adjacent to Beech Acres Park. Community members were encouraged to attend the meeting to learn more.

Approved Minutes

The Board of Education approved minutes for the following meetings, which you can view by clicking the link associated with each meeting. After clicking the appropriate link, you will need to then click “View Minutes” under Agenda Item Details, next to the category titled “Minutes.”

• Regular Meeting - February 3, 2026
• Finance Committee Meeting - February 18, 2026
• Regular Meeting - February 18, 2026
• Teaching and Learning Committee Meeting - February 23, 2026
• Special Meeting - February 23, 2026