they have may have a motion for approval motion by Mr Smith second by Miss Basin question or discussion I this is probably a bad idea to assume anything but is the town want the 20 inch or the American Water Company for future growth in the area is that it's all about growth that's correct okay those landowners that might sell that property just south of the high school would probably love that so with that being said all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye those opposed motion carries 4-0 4.05 purchase for Jerry Ross Winfield Furniture Mr Reese thank you Mr President members of the board um we have been working with sharp School Services as they provided the furniture for when the Winfield renovation took place back in 2020 and so the as we split those two buildings are split them up from being K2 and three through five we need some furniture that's more appropriate for the sizes in each of those buildings as we split that up so we need to to add some additional furniture at those two sites uh so with that uh we're asking for approval from sharp School services in the amount of 416 6 16 and 75 cents uh for the new furniture for Jay Ross and Winfield you heard the recommendation from the administration for approval of furniture for Jerry Ross and Winfield from sharp School services in the amount of 125 824.25 for Winfield and 290 792.50 for Jerry Ross for a total of 416.
correct so we've got this getting a jump on getting your contract ready for next year and this has already been through the hearing phase and the advertising phase and correct it is ready to be approved tonight I move that we approve second okay motion a second did he discussion carrying that all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next item is an approval request for furniture for Greencastle High School so as we're working to time up with the different phases throughout the building project we have essentially the remaining Furniture to uh to have board approved or the remaining furniture for the high school to have board approved and then purchase kind of to time up on when we want to take possession of it and so this will be again the remaining furniture um for through the connector through the cafeteria and through some additional classrooms total amount is 551 228.08 and this will be paid for um through Bond Pro Seasons included in the original budget for that so it was my recommendation that the board approved this I'll make motion be approved I will second okay we have a motion in a second any questions surprise it surprises me with all the furniture that how many of these things are just one item of that like I would interest rate like 20.
well then can I make a motion uh we have a motion on the floor I have to withdraw I will withdraw my motion okay so go ahead oh so then can I make a motion to appoint Mr Shea Mr Rossi and Mr granfield yep I'll second Okay so Ms Waite has the motion Miss Amaral has the second any other discussion Dr Jenkins um so I know this is going to sound maybe you know given that I just made a motion to nominate three men but I don't wonder whether we nominate a woman whether we consider that well can I ask that can I just are we having opening this to discussion yeah I mean motion we always discuss we have a discussion so so just on that you know I would say I think in this you know when we talk about administrators it's most you know we do have other women that are going to be represented with miss paveya miss you know you know Dr Jenkins misgender I think it is important to have someone you know for talking about a principal one principal from the high school one principal from the middle school and one from elementary we have to have one from the high school in the Middle School the question is whether it was the elementary principle well I know that but I'm saying I we need to have one I think from one of the elementary schools as well like because it you know wasn't that like part of the discussion yeah no no that's no no my point is the other two are women I'm Sorry Miss Korea is Miss Korea as a woman who's an associate friends yeah I didn't say that Miss Korea actually okay so I think I didn't see that she had applied it's just it's this is her discussion too okay yes everyone is qualified and good work we're choosing between really good people here yeah yeah that's fine all right so we've got all right so we've got Mr Shea Mr Rossi and Mr granfield right happy Okay so we've got those three that's the motion and the second three years no no I said I'm happy I'm happy I think they're all yeah I mean there's no wrong answer right right this is the nice thing about this right now is there is not a wrong answer huh it's just discussion that's it okay support any other questions comments okay all in favor aye aye opposed all right Dr Jenkins four to one okay totally understood that's fine yeah yeah totally understood okay all right what do we have next up next is teachers three teachers that's what was on this list so we got two four five eight eleven twelve thirteen at the moment and if we go right down we'll be at 13.
you need a much to adjourn so moved Terry and Joanna all those in favor aye all those opposed we are adjourned thank you all for your service thank you
616.75 may have a motion summer motion by Miss Basin second by Mr Smith question or discussion this this includes a student desks as well as teacher desks or just this is just for students no both students and teachers and and this also included in miss pascus any special education needs in there as well thank you thank you all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye aye those opposed motion carries 4-0 thank you for your help on all those Mr Reeves moving on to uh five information recognized recognition items 5.01 superintendents discussion groups which covers our connections at uh in Winfield Cedar Lake and with the city uh Mr Smith anything to report uh had the first meeting at the Redevelopment commission for Crown Point it went well they obviously recognized Mr Hoffman for all the years of service he had there and a lot of very kind words spoken about him so um they had a presentation about media and the budget for the media so that's about the extent I got from Crown Point they indicated they have a great working relationship with Brooke and they're grateful to have Brooke here and that the city and the school corporation are working well together in that sense so it's about it from Crown Point I did not have an opportunity to review Cedar Lake this month and no news on that animal okay and just a touch base on Winfield I did speak with the former president Mr Steiner and he was in contact with the new board and just they have not reached out to any of us yet on the board to appoint the Winfield rep moving forward so I'll try to do some follow-up on that just to make sure we're in in the loop on what's going to move forward with that item 5.02 director of Elementary education Mr Ramirez thank you Mr President and board members I would just like to take this opportunity as we have focused some of the board reports on the elementary end on the amount of work we've been doing to align our curriculum at the elementary level over the course of the past two years along with professional development to support our teachers all of that then we'll support a common common academic experience for our students we've also been working on the flip side on extracurricular opportunities for our students and I really do feel that it is quite a vibrant experience that our elementary students get to participate in because of really our sponsors that we have in a variety of positions I'd like to talk about most recently at Timothy ball they had their National Elementary Honor Society in which we have a total of 57 students fourth and fifth graders and that ceremony took place last week it was really a great opportunity to bring the families in and to listen to the students demonstrate characters of citizenship at such a young age we also have a thriving best buddies program throughout our buildings and at MacArthur most recently they met last week and we're doing cards for kids and then they send cards to Children's Hospitals throughout Indiana and it's a really great opportunity for all students to be able to participate and to get to know each other another thing that I think is really important to see at our elementaries are the exploratory clubs that really are driven by the interests of our students we have new this year a chess club that started out at MacArthur based on student interest in playing chess and we have two sponsors doing that and again I think this goes back to that partnership and the dedication of our teachers and staff members wanting to see students develop and be exposed to a wide variety of opportunities we have an exploratory Lego Club at Timothy ball which again just goes to showing kind of the scope of what is able to be done at the elementaries lastly I'd like to thank Lake Street's PTO they sponsored a steam night which was a virtual opportunity for families it was open to everybody to partner with go to science and they got to learn about manatees down in Florida that took place last Friday and was really a great opportunity to kind of extend learning into the home the families received a kit again the sponsor who is a teacher provided these kits and then they did some kind of problem solving while they were on the zoom teachers were leading the breakout room so I just really encourage all of you to check out the school's social media Pages because they really do a great job of highlighting images of what's going on as well as they give you kind of the key happenings if you will in their newsletters so if you have any other questions about that by all means feel free to reach out to buildings or to me but I just want to thank all who are involved for the opportunities that they create for our students thank you director of secondary education Mr GM Fermi thank you Mr President board members I think we'll stay with the theme of extracurriculars and co-curriculars things that are happening with our secondary schools start off with robotics this past Saturday if you would have went by Crown Point High School you would have run into a Vex robotics tournament with 67 teams and the second largest tournament in the state I'm told of course our our Crown Point teams came on top of that that particular tournament which we're very proud of the whole program the middle schools have really taken off as well um Colonel wheeler always hosts a tournament in Taft Middle School this year hosted their first tournament and they are on uh they're well uh well on their way to qualifying for state and we know what this car starts happening from state to World we're sending them off to all kinds of places so very proud of them and we'll be hearing more about them as the year moves on I wanted to highlight the chess club we've always had a chess club at Crown Point High School for quite a few years now but now they've really raised it and now it's a competitive chess club they just participated in the Scholastic chest of Indiana Regional Tournament 35 students were participating out of that we had eight state tournament qualifiers and only one student was undefeated and that was Tyler Hudak of Crown Point High School so very proud of him and everyone that participated there but in the thanks to Mrs railoff for taking that club kind of The Next Step so that's really kind of neat our music department had a really neat opportunity Mr zmelco his first year is the Maestro of our Orchestra at Crown Point High School he took the kids the chamber orchestra to the Orchestra Hall in Chicago and when the symphony was playing that night at intermission our kids got to have their own little concert for everybody that was there that night so really cool and really cool opportunity for them and then finally uh let me just say this it's that time of year we're already starting to think about the class of 2027 and entering the high school so this Thursday night we'll be having our eighth grade parents coming in for a little orientation time this year they're going to let the students if they wish to come in as well we have a pretty strong Mentor program that's going on at the high school right now so they can take some tours while their parents here all the exciting things that happen when you start to become a Crown Point High School student so ready for that and this a little side note of this Friday night basketball games at home and we'll be honoring the 1998 boys Regional basketball Champions and Mr Kiwa was a coach for that team so I'll be there as well so kind of a lot of neat things going on we could go on forever and ever but I promise these guys so so any questions thank you thank you uh director of exceptional education Miss Vasquez good evening Mr President and members of the board I have a flyer I'm going to hand out to each of you our exceptional Learners basketball team at the high school starts their season this week so their first game is Thursday and the schedule is here on the flyer I will share that out we have our our cheerleaders and our players and it's just really an awesome time so if you can come we'd love to have you wanted to provide an update each December 1st we are required to count all of our students with IEPs and that count is used for what's called our adjusted pupil count it helps us generate some more money to help educate our students with exceptional needs so this year our count compared to last year was up 95 students which we were feeling it so we're glad it showed there on paper so we're up to 1 307 91 students that have IEPs here in Crown Point one other program I wanted to highlight at the high school we have Centier Bank coming into one of our applied skills classrooms and one of the gentlemen from Centier comes in once a week and co-teaches with one of our teachers they practice how to write checks make deposits and then they've even taken a field trip over to centier's training center and practice those same skills so we're thankful for that relationship with Centier Bank Mrs what was the jump the previous year do you know offhand from I could look I don't know off top of my head it'll take me a minute oh oh look but I mean if you had to guess by 95 this year would have been around 50.
a pin tray for five to Dollars and 85 cents just interesting one of the standard that's why there's run that slither is about 120 Pages yeah some of those are again just for the different parts of the parts of the building right um but the furniture in the high school be pretty standardized throughout and actually the they started to deliver some stuff today and it was began to assemble for some of the first classrooms that we're going to take possession of as well so it'll be nice furniture that's updated and it was much much yeah one of the one of the new chairs is a rough Ruckus chair the Ruckus chair that sounds fun to Russell you're over to help put this stuff together right not yet well good news because it's included in the cost they assemble all of it because there's a lot to assemble okay can I get a motion to approve this I think damn motion tonight okay all right all in favor aye all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is approval request for some donations one being Heartland Automotive to Greencastle High School athletics in the amount of 750 dollars um Putnam County Community Foundation to Greencastle Community Schools and the amount of two thousand four hundred fifty dollars and four cents and deer accounting to Red path Primary in the amount of five hundred dollars I'll make a motion that we happily accept all donations and I will second that okay all in favor I am all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is other business does anyone have any other business I I guess I have a random question um sure uh it's I guess I was gonna ask Chad but yo you can answer it too so a lot of our kids are making College decisions and they're deciding what kind of um scholarships they're going to apply for how is our um our guidance counselors doing what that process and how just how are they communicating to the students I guess and then um is okay so it sounds like they're on top of it okay thanks anyone else have any other business I don't know okay if you know next item on the agenda is adjournment all in favor aye all opposed motion passes yeah we have our annual Board of Finance meeting so close to that so we will consider this calling this to order and first item is new business the election of officers which I believe that traditionally just excuse you just uh mirrors the um the officers of the board correct you right I would make a motion to continue with that and that it cleared the officers again okay I have a motion a second all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next is a review of Greencastle Community School Corporation Investments Mr given yeah so just a brief Financial presentation here the first thing is actually a review of our Corporation investment so we don't have any true Investments but I would like to share um that we did generate uh 23 675 dollars and six cents in interest on our bank accounts last year and um that was a large part because we shopped our bank account and we moved three million dollars to Teachers Credit Union who paid us uh Who provided a much uh higher interest rate and um I'm going to do that same thing again and actually Teachers Credit Union has reached out about providing an even better interest rate so that way we're earning more uh on our hundred dollars so I just wanted to share that with you and then the final thing is just a review of the distress unit of fuels board the fiscal qualitative indicator so a couple years back the legislature said we need to be more transparent with school district finances so I'm required by law to provide you provide you with this information um just a general note that it is a year behind that that's how they how they provide it to you and there is a portal with the to in which the public can access this information so that first slide is just general information about our school district our 2122 fall ADM our net AV estimated population next slide please and just a historical picture of our average daily membership using the multiple different counts I'm going back to 14 15.
okay I'm just trying to make sure we gotten no disrespect we've got an odd number okay so we're good with three teachers yeah we're good with three teachers okay that's fine okay so who's let me let me give you uh Mr chairman ask one question sure um can I skip one category very quickly we have a union designee slash teacher as the next category and I don't wonder if the union designee might take one person off of our list as we consider do you know what I mean I know what you mean so can do we consider that and ask the union president first do you know what I'm saying because I know it's like if we use one of our picks then sorry they get another pick right for for their pick so maybe they pick first you know I know what you're saying I know what you're saying yeah you know employee yeah so might we invite Miss Vieira up to the microphone and ask her who their designee slash teacher might be is that how that works Maureen yeah either either if it's an office yeah either either Miss Viera or if Miss Boyle's still here yes technical presidents correct yes we're co-presidents so okay so just to clarify police one of the slots on the committee is the union designee's last teacher okay you are the union I believe right the representative of the Union so okay Santa rock paper scissors for it real quick so um Renee so she's designated I'm designating okay yes I'll make a motion that we appoint Renee Vieira as the Union designee to the search thank you yes thank you and and it's and so and then it's three um okay so time out okay so we go to did somebody I mean I was making a note okay did somebody second that three yes shoot second yes all right I don't know what would happen if we don't approve okay all in favor aye aye opposed okay so let's go back so let's go back to uh teachers and uh if you don't mind I'm gonna I'll give you my picks just to be in here uh I'm looking at Mr Bosworth uh where the heck yeah yeah uh Mr Higgins and even though we've got it later on I was looking at uh Trudy Santos who's a TA at the Quinn that's who I was looking at those were my those were my three one more time Mr chair sure Eric Bosworth who's a technology teacher here at the high school yeah Mr Higgins who's English and who knows what else and uh and everything else which is fine and uh Trudy Santos who is a TA at the Quinn hi can I yeah no one thing I I do want to make sure though is that we are representing I think it's great that we have a TA and I think that's you know included in this I do want to make sure that we are representing because we do have um you know we'll be a little heavy on the high school so just as which I think is fair but I do want to make sure we're not leaving out you know early childhood you know Cushman and we don't have anyone from Demello you know or Potter in this so just as you know thoughts we do have it we do have a demelo we have the Mellow teacher we have a Quinn teacher no I mean like on our list I apologize yeah so that's what I just want to make sure yeah I understand what you're saying that we have some balance there yeah yep nope I understand what you're saying ah but again I mean like I love all those choices but again I just uh I just want to make sure that we're I mean sure do we have anyone representing Potter right now I don't I don't think so I could no no I have uh I have I have a tech tech specialist uh Sandra chica from yes from Potter yeah yeah so I can go Dr Jenkins I would prefer to leave Miss Santos for the TA slot oh and again that would be my preference that's fine I'm good with that and then that would allow us to give us a little more flexibility to miss Waits Point um about um having some teachers that are not just at the high school level [Applause] I would agree with that no I'm and again no uh no sweat all right okay so go back I'm I said Mr Bosworth Mr Higgins and who was the one I just said I apologize uh Sandra chica from the tech specialist at Potter does that work so um go ahead yeah I would just want to speak I think for Mr Bosworth I think it does Phil again and again as all the candidates I think it fills the the tech you know piece so I do think you know I certainly support I mean again I support them but I think that is for that to fulfilling that that need on the committee yeah and that Vision so yeah it's just everybody okay Chris I'm good with that Shannon it's fine so I'll meet you I'll make a motion that we for our teachers that we appoint Mr Bosworth Mr Higgins and Ms chica as teachers to the search committee that's good all right all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries all right so we got those three we've got the union rep the PTO or parent two parents we don't have yet hopefully our wonderful administrators can get somebody from the PTO we'll go from there yeah and the last one go ahead I just have a question I'm I'm just a little leery of us giving up our appointment Powers um over two members of the committee I mean it is the duty that this is one of the primary duties right so is that who are we giving up the community the parents are we going to approve of them at the next meeting I think I thought we decided that was too late I I did put put it on Facebook as well welcoming people to apply for both I'm just a little concerned with about two members of the committee being appointed without the committee's review and approval I would certainly agree with that yeah I agree I agree I I hear what you I mean I'm not above if we want to have a 10-minute special meeting at some point the point people I can do that we can certainly come in but I this is the school committee's Duty and I believe it's important that we review and appoint all the members no and it's good go go go back to what I said uh when this first all started type of deal was this is you know this is this is all us type of deal for argumentative sake all right so let's do this uh uh I don't know what everybody's schedule is today is the 23rd give them if the uh if the school administrators can reach out to their ptos and get some get someone with interest by January 31st okay and then we can have a 10-minute meeting on on February 1st does that work sure Joanne do it by Zoom I can't make the first but that's fine I will trust the four of you to do that oh gee thanks uh I'm so second but I can't do the first yeah I do you want to do the second I can do you know the second is okay too again Chris I agree if we do it by Zoom instead of trying to I have a school committee meeting in my district on the first the first or the on February 1st so should we do the second you want to do this is the second good it's not good for me but I trust all of you and and again if we did advise Zoom so you're not schlepping someplace I'll be facilitating um okay I got it yeah yeah good um would it be okay for me also to share well I would anyway but share towards you know CPAC parents who also may be in you know dual role with the ptos and that sort of thing but yeah can I ask one more question so we have designated this slot as parents I'm sorry parents yeah um can we broaden it a little to say anyone who's ever sort of had their kids in the Dartmouth schools I mean there are people who maybe the kids are out a couple years no no no my fault personally okay personally I want act and I don't mean it I want parents of students in the system right now that would be my preference as well that is just a wider net and then we'll see what happens we can come up with without this 3500 students in the system right now give or take and I would you know somewhere down the line we should be able to find hopefully find two and that that's that that's my thought I'm not kin to going out to someone whose child graduated 15 years ago and I'm being facetious but understand one of times that things have changed type of deal so that that that's my thought okay so let's go back get well go ahead um by parents though like a custodial Guardian yeah it could be a grandparent that sort of thing just to clarify yeah because it's got to be yeah it's a custodial man and in all seriousness as I said someone that has the time I mean you you can't especially when it comes to reviewing the the applications you know and and being a vote to come up with all the semi-finalists and you've got to be there for both sets of interviews otherwise it's no it it you know it doesn't work that type of deal so that's that's the key is is somebody understanding the commitment that's going to be there so all right so do you want to does five o'clock on the second of February via Zoom work for a majority of us what's the date again February 2nd if it's at five I probably could log in so does that work for you ma'am well somebody's got to set the zoom link up oh we can do that no problem thanks and you're going to trust me with it no I can set it up yeah no uh I'd like to give it'll set it up it'll get set up five in the second I can zoom okay yep you can do that all right okay let me do this yeah I just wanna and Dr Gifford or um I should maybe I shouldn't like ask John with noons so at what date do we want these letters again from parents are we saying my general language January 31st okay I just want to clarify that okay January 31st the close of business Bush Street closes at four o'clock okay so if you're responding by mail or email it's got to be in by four o'clock okay and just for people's just knowledge they should email Miss Gunther yeah yes okay and thank you okay no problem okay all right and the last one is was the retired administrator that we changed to a TA maintenance custodian secretary Food Service so Dr Jenkins I'd like to make a motion that we appoint Trudy Santos to that possession second now okay so we actually Kathleen breached you to it so we have so we get a motion by Dr Jenkins to uh appoint Trudy Santos a TA at the Quinn as uh neck in that category uh second by Ms Amaral any other comments questions all right got you a hearing none all in favor aye opposed motion carries thank you very much everybody thank you to everyone who applied it is appreciated more than you will know yeah okay if you'd let those if you'd let everyone know I mean I know some are here but he just sent out the general email to everybody tomorrow that type of deal that'd be fine and also Mr chair just thank you to all of those who submitted a letter of interest we certainly appreciate it yep absolutely okay all right pupil supported service administrator [Applause] okay [Applause] and I will oh here we go I do have it okay uh foreign goes back to 2014.
it was much less yeah okay that's that's all I'm good thank you any other questions yes uh what was the greatest increase I think developmental disability has really expanded I think given kovid a lot of our preschoolers did not partake in early intervention services through First Steps so we found that a lot of families kept those children home and then kind of came out of the woodwork as people started returning in person and then we always experience an uptick in those mild disability areas of specific learning disability and other health impairment but nothing out of the kind of national and state averages were pretty much in line with that pattern okay thank you you're welcome I have one quick question so it I've been super quick math like about a seven percent increase in IEPs how did that if you know um line up with our increase in enrollment like did that have any correlation to just our overall enrollment increase I'm not aware of the difference in increase nothing to do with that um the other area we have really increased in a speech over the last three years we have really shown an increase in speech services but not students on the Spectrum no all good uh next 5.05 chief academic officer Mr Hartman thank you thank you I got three items I just want to comment comment on tonight uh uh probably are aware of next uh Wednesday we have our third e-learning day and that is a day that our students will be doing asynchronous learning meaning that the the teachers prepare the the learning activities for the students and at the elementary school there is a set of time set time about 30 minutes just to in the morning for our teachers and students to connect so that they understand what the activities are and what the expectations are middle and high school throughout the day are monitoring uh either by email or within a learning management system any questions or things that are happening with their students and are able to to meet their needs while the students are at home interacting with their activities next we have a number of things that are taking place in the school district as far as professional development starting at the high school level we they will be working on their tier one instruction and when I say tier one and when you hear that term we're talking about what happens in The Core Curriculum what happens in the classroom and they uh there are we call them professional learning communities which are members of uh the staff that teach the same course and they meet together and they're looking at their instruction uh and uh the lessons that are coming up and uh to honing those and keeping those uh in a in a position that's going to help our students maximize their learning also at the middle level we have a uh we have Dr Van Acker coming to the middle schools and he's going to provide a workshop one in the morning one in the afternoon for our middle schools and this is going to be on behaviors that students are uh uh having that might be you might say that because it can be disruptive in the classroom and Dr Van Acker will be sharing his insights and he has a tremendous amount of experience I know that he's worked with our exceptional education Ed area and we think that what he brings to uh the teachers may be in the exceptional education he also brings that to our teachers in the classroom because these behaviors are being seen by our by our teachers and therefore their ability to interact their ability to uh to help their their ability to uh to Monitor and to uh to work with students we think is very critical so he's going to be doing a workshop there at the elementary school we have a a session that's going to be about language arts articulation meaning we're going to have all K-5 teachers at Crane Point Crown Point High School in the auditorium and then there will be breakout groups and they're going to be working on their ckla which is the English language arts curriculum and articulating that K-5 so that's going to be part that's going to be their day the other couple of things that will be happening that day is there will be time for our teachers to meet as grade level teams at their schools there'll be time for Middle School teachers to meet to articulate their curriculums in their courses and classrooms and then also as a district we will continue on with our I guess it's I would say that at this point in time we're still moving forward in an exploration phase of Universal Design for Learning and when I say that I mean trying to create an environment in our in every classroom where every student has access to challenging curriculum and uh you'll hear a term from our staff called Universal Design for Learning and it's taking uh the concept of the concept we kind of think of is the curb cut we know that when you're going in uh you're you're walking or you're strolling your baby carriage or if you are rolling your groceries up onto a sidewalk you have these curb cut things that are taking place well in 1976 a curb cut was specifically designed for special education and for those that are handicapped but since 1976 that curb cut has been extremely important that has supported many people in uh uh in their activities and what their needs are so if you take that as an analogy the goal is to create curb Cuts Universal Design in our classroom so every student has access to whatever the curriculum is and that it's meaningful and it's challenging to to the student so we'll be working on that uh across the district on February the first at our uh during our e-learning day the second thing I wanted to share was we are moving forward on the change from RDS the student information system to power school we have five days of initial product training that's going to be starting on February or 14th go through March the 14th and so there's going to be five days so that's going to be initial where we have 20 people up to 20 people in every session that's going to be trained in PowerSchool and they will develop training for the rest of our staff as we get ready to implement PowerSchool as our student information system this is a big change we've been with RDS for over 20 some years and this change in PowerSchool which which we're excited about there's a lot of things that PowerSchool is that will bring to us that we we haven't had and we're excited about that taking place and so we are moving forward in that uh implementation we will be starting to upload information from RDS up into PowerSchool and that's uh that's coming up over the next five weeks we have a date of April 23rd where in a sense we'll be ready to uh to go with PowerSchool another thing as far as PowerSchool is concerned we're gonna we're going to be transferring uh six years of data from RDS into PowerSchool and then we also know that there are there's a data that we need to Archive to make sure that we have for instance transcripts of students work when they are requested going back a number of years we have over 20 years of Records in RDS so we'll be working towards that archive also and then the last thing I wanted to comment on the Indiana Department of Education has has uh um pushed out now what is called their dashboard and uh I would encourage you to go and take a look at the dashboard so if you go to the Indiana Department of Education uh and it's right on the front front page when you go to the website it says the dashboard then you can go to you click on that and there's an overview what the dashboard is and up in the top right hand uh Corner you'll see schools and districts and if you click on schools and districts and it'll open up a window put in Crown Point Community Schools and you'll get the list of schools plus the district and you can just you can get a picture of where we stand compared to the state and this is something that the the state has been working to uh to push out to make it uh I think to to demonstrate to uh the constituents of Indiana and our communities of how our children are performing and there's a lot of information that is on that page so I encourage you if you get a chance to go and take a look at that so thank you very much thank you Chief Financial Officer Mr Reese thank you Mr President before Mr East begins these next two Mr Reese and Mr Aquila I've asked them to really provide you all with an update where we are with redistricting the process we're looking at there um so between the two of them they're doing a lot of the heavy lifting and looking at data inputting data taking Community discussions with our leaders in Winfield Cedar Lake and Crown Point putting that all together to really kind of give you guys an update tonight so their portions might be a little bit longer than normal but that's intentional we just want to make sure that you guys have your have information that you may need us as we work through this process okay be ready now Mr Gill I'm sure the number of people viewing online will jump up significantly that's right so I'm going to start off tonight by talking about the demographic report we've uh asked Dr McKibben to update the demographic report we've used Dr McKibben since back in 2007.
so you can kind of see our Trend with that next slide just a historical picture um of our fund balances and on the right hand side you can see in The Legend all those different funds because we've only been operating with the operations fund and education education fund for a couple of years and obviously we also take on federal funds and federal stimulus funds in addition to State funds and so you can kind of kind of see that I would like to note actually I'm going to wait until the next slide next slide please um this is a slide of an annual deficit or Surplus for all all of our accounts um and you can see that excuse me and going back to 2017 18 you can kind of see where we are with our fund balances versus where we are today and so we've been able to grow our fund balances the last last three years to where we have healthier reserves so that way we can ride out some lean times or difficult times if needed and so that's a slide to uh to kind of share that what's the what's the horizontal Gray Line going through each year yep that's a good question I don't know what the horizontal green line is I don't have that with me um great question but I will find out and I'll share that I'll share that with you okay um for the next slide again just showing um fund balances as a percent of operations expenditures again making sure that um is uh expenses increase our reserves also increase so the rule of thumb is 10 to 15 percent worth of expenditures uh for a fund or three months worth of expenditures um and so again we are in a and we're in a healthier place than where we were just just a few years ago and then the next slide is revenue by type and again you can see federal funds state funds local funds all those different things and then next slide operating referendum Revenue as a percent of total revenue obviously that Line's flat because we don't have an operating referendum and then the next slide is links to a couple of different reports that are available for the public our audits Gateway for governmental units um in view IDE in View and then the doe School Financial reports for things like form 9 and such so this is something that we're required to do annually by law so I wanted to share this important information with you okay thank you next item on the agenda of the board of Finance meeting is board member or superintendent comments I appreciate all the work you do this we're going in uh out of Direction so thank you everybody's looking well thank you yeah that's only up to 2021 sure the next couple years will look even better okay next item is adjournment okay Motion in a second all in favor all right all opposed motion passes okay well thank you for coming to both meetings tonight
uh was do we Okay time out let me take a step back do we want to talk about this do we want to get this committee formed I mean we don't have any dates at the moment the the request the job it is it is posted type of deal so we've got what's the closing date on that ma'am February 3rd okay so yeah is there a date tied to um letters of interest to be on the committee as well with this one there was yeah so it's not like we're gonna get any more right yeah I get them all yeah shall we continue we got we got quite a few yeah go ahead Kathleen and um if if it is keeping me from being on I understand but I had submitted um interest but not again after so I I may not be selected I understand that but um my misunderstanding if that's because I don't see my look at the name I have from the last minute okay plus I'll note we only have one other school committee member who put his name in yeah I saw your name I thought oh goodness that's okay uh seriously uh makeup from the spring of 2014 was two school committee members one CPAC rep slash parent uh one parent of a special needs student one central office administrator one high school administrator one Middle School administrator one Elementary School administrator one psychologist slash sped team facilitator one sop and one sped teacher which by my count is 11.
it's been very very accurate uh with our projections for our enrollment a great level of comfort uh with what he produces for us I think tonight you some people may be surprised with with the information I'm going to share with you but I'm going to lay some groundwork initially from the demographic report talk a little bit of the history and then kind of get you what the the main bullet points are from the report I think it's important to know where we were and how we've gotten here and why some of those numbers are the way they are I know uh Miss Basin you ask about growth for this year we grew by 61 students this year that's in a population of 8 800 so less than one percent we did not grow by very much and we haven't grown by very much over the past few years our average over the last few years um is about 60 students if you look at three or four years is all we've grown we did have a dip in the covered year so if you mitigate that out we had a little bit bigger jump in the 21-22 school year but what's taken place in the district uh just give you an idea a good example of this is our graduating class this year for our fall EDM count our seniors were at 700 exactly when they entered into the district back in 2010 and 11 that count was 471.
so how do you want to do this you want to discuss this tonight you want to what do you want to do open if it has it has a February 3rd deadline so I mean I think maybe we could go I would say we should probably go ahead and do this that's fine I'm good so I'll start can I nominate Mr Nunes and Miss Amaral for to be the school committee members women do I have a thing in this okay where the heck am I okay so myself and Miss Hammer all have been uh nominated and the others all in favor aye aye oppose motion carries unanimously one CPAC representative slash parent do we I didn't see one of those I do not see no disrespect either of either of the next two I don't see any parents no I don't either so again maybe that's something that uh Miss Townsend and Miss Joker you can also reach out to see Patrick to the CPAC group to see what we can we can get what type of deal again use the same January 31st close up business January 31st and we can take care of them yeah on the second that's fine that's good okay central office administrator uh chair I'd like to nominate Mr Tebow to be the central office representative yep second I'm reading properly that's you know what's that the one that's the only one we have properly yep so motion Forever Mr Tebow any others all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously thank you Ross uh one high school administrator Mr Martin that's it I'd like to make a motion that we um I'm Michael Martin on the committee one second yeah so we have a high school all right so we have a motion for uh Mr Martin any others all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries thanks Mike thank you okay Middle School administrator can I make a motion to appoint Mr Hayes so we have a motion by Dr Jenkins second by Miss Waite for uh Mark Hayes on the motion any discussion that's great nope all in favor aye opposed motion carries uh Elementary School administrator we had I had one yeah Adam we've got Adam Hill Thomas and we have uh Audra Thomas and Miss Ms Y I will not attend I'd like to make a motion that we nominate Audra Thomas Elementary School administrator okay yeah sorry you can stick his nose in there uh all right so all right so we have a motion for Audra Thomas yep in a second second on the motion any discussion hearing none all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries okay psychologists sped team facilitator I'd like to make a motion that we nominate Caitlin colbeck who is a psychological psychologist DHS part okay so we excuse me do I have a motion for Caitlin colbeck has the psychologist sped team facilitator on the motion any discussion none yeah we got a motion in a second am I correct yes uh Miss Amber all second yeah thank you I made the motion Oliver I apologize I'm losing track that's all right that's all right high and quick all right all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously all right um SLP make a motion that we nominate Sandra posa to the committee Sandra I'll second that for SLP yes Alabama reposal faculty speak language okay I got stuff on two pages I apologize all right so we have that that's the SOP all in favor aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously and one sped teacher I'd like to make a motion that we um nominate Stephanie Mello for that position my second match good choice good choice yep all right it's okay so we have a motion for Stephanie Mello from Quinn special as the sped teacher all in favor aye opposed motion carries unanimously thank you everyone who participated and sent in your request that is greatly appreciated the interest in the district Wisconsin will you make it in the next couple of days to notify those people please thank you Kathleen will you get to CPAC to absolutely thank you okay oh all right uh next finally going uh Capital Improvement plan giraffe Mr Kiley thank you Mr noon so based on your feedback from the last meeting uh the major revision to the capital Improvement plan is to add a new or renovated school or schools um to the plan it was added in 2028 I I put it in at a cost of a hundred million dollars now not right not 400 million as was reported in some local media um talk about the Taj Mahal right right uh so the 2017 facilities master plan uh noted some options and it talked about Renovations and and and two and additions to several schools as options the range of options was between 54 million and 83 million in that plan now in today's dollars probably the 54 million from 2017 is the 100 million dollars today um that's just the reality of things so we put that in there there's certainly some more analysis that will need to be done to determine what's best for kids and what projects we can identify that would make the most difference for the district moving forward so that would have to be done but we did hear what you said and certainly want to begin that process looking at our options and trying to identify a project I was approached following our meeting by a member of the select board who was very supportive of the idea of thinking about big picture planning in town and I told him I'm absolutely on board with that so if we can be a part of a town-wide process where where that takes place I certainly want to be involved in that you know obviously there'll be opportunities for school committee involvement as well so so that was the major uh the major change to the plan I will note that we were talking about uh you know music instruments earlier well there is a music instrument request on this as we talked about last two weeks ago so um there's some great projects on there some that are really desperately needed so I'd be happy to revisit any of those if you'd like or answer any questions you might have the vehicle okay I'm sorry I just very quickly um once we approve this Mr Kylie when do you typically present this to the capital Improvement committee it's really up to their schedule and I'm not quite sure how they are scheduling meetings yet this year normally we would be meeting right around this time of year with them I have a feeling that that might be a little later okay I would just ask and if it's all right with the committee I would like to attend that of course and share some of our sentiments and feel free if anyone wants to join yeah I usually yeah I find out far enough in advance I I you know unfortunately sometimes you know I get an email at five minutes of four yes I'm meeting at seven you know nine o'clock tomorrow morning it's right you know that type of deal so yeah no I I agree I like I like to go in and see what else is going on there too I'll make a motion that we approve the uh fy24 Capital Improvement plan as uh stated second so we get a motion by Mr Oliver or a second by Ms Amaral to approve the uh FY 24 to 28 Capital Improvement plan on the motion any discussion all in favor aye aye aye opposed motion carries unanimously thank you Mr Kiley thank you thank you sir all right okay FY 2324 school calendar Dr Gifford sure thank you we did make the changes that you suggested last meeting including we kept the four day weekend for Labor Day weekend we added the 22nd of November as a Thanksgiving part of the Thanksgiving recess and also in December we moved that parent conference as you can see one is on a Monday and one will be on the Wednesday that's great that's great so those are the changes we've made questions comments do you make a motion to accept the 23 24 school calendar as presented I'll do that by Dr Jenkins second by Ms Amaral good so it just means that the high school has to move all there day before Thanksgiving thanks to two days before the day before before Thanksgiving Eve day yeah and it'll probably be okay yeah I think so yeah that'll that'll work out fine no problem yeah that's it you're absolutely right okay all in favor aye opposed motion carries unanimously you can smile miss fiori you got variety or you got the Friday off hmm my battles all right uh new business 2022 annual report Dr Gifford so I hope you had time to read through it it was quite lengthy or you will read through it but yeah and once again thank you to the schools for providing the information as well as our curriculum leaders and and everybody that participated in submitting information on that report so we would ask for your vote of approval for that before we forward to the town hall comments questions Dr Jenkins I have a question this might be for Mr Kylie and it's about the trust funds um and so I noticed some of those trust funds don't have any expenditures and I will note that one of them is I noticed that to be used to promote music in the Dartmouth schools and I don't wonder have we considered tapping any of that to support you know some of the expenditures I'm not saying we shouldn't ask the town but at the same point in time it's often good when we can say look we're going to also chip in some money but I don't I don't wonder whether it might not be a bad idea for us to look at using some of that if that's what that's fund is intended to use that it is what it's intended for and it could be it certainly could be utilized in that capacity we've been fortunate to be able to support some of the music purchases in the last few years with either with uh end-to-year monies or or planned purchases um so we have not utilized that money for that purpose but we certainly could and that has that has been tapped over the years yeah not recently but yeah right but since we just had a presentation about need and there's a source of money I just thought hey yeah maybe we could give you know Mr Flint some money just saying whatever that is yeah okay yeah see and it pays off to present that's right that was the the shortest like right oh he's coming back you're coming back the 13th okay I'll make a motion to accept the annual report I'll second that motion by Dr Jenkins second by Mr Oliver to approve the annual report I'll just say was very well done you know getting all the looking at and again with Mr Kiley all the financial what's there that's a bear to do that's got to be a bear have fun no doubt about it all in favor aye opposed motion carries unanimously all right uh superintendent's update I'm gonna fly through all this so uh just okay so a bunch of things that are happening one uh Quinn is celebrating great kindness Challenge and students are participating in the activities all week long and next Friday a big celebration for 100th day of school at Cushman they have held a Special Olympics young athletes day you may have seen on Justine's um newsletter if you ever get that some pictures of that Mr Capello Miss paveo Miss Phillips the officer Amanda and other offices came as a unified team and with students from the high school and they worked with a preschool student so we wanted to thank all of those that participated in that speaking of Cushman we get tired of saying it a little bit but they received another 600 6 500 award from the Feinstein group I don't know how much money is in that Foundation but it seems to be endless at this point fantastic yeah I know it's great Justine's been doing a nice job of outfitting some you know with new things at the playground some tactile sandbox kinds of things things like that so anyway Demello had a mad scientist day today and the students were entertained with a science program called Fire and Ice the programs were paid for by the PTO part of their fundraiser last year they raised six thousand dollars so those are the kinds of things that can be done with that and every Friday they wanted me to report that they're holding some stem classes in the cafeteria where students are collaborating on stem challenges and Lynn Liz volche the tech person over there is running some of those and on Friday it'll be World reading day with virtual children's author visits at the school and also they are bringing back the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra I attended one a couple months ago where they come and they it was fabulous it was just um people and they they they're playing music entertaining but also talking about math Within the Music it was fabulous so they're doing that again with grades three and four and we oh they're also doing fifth grade student councils running food drive for the Council on Aging and at the high school level we were received from the high school the college boards AP Computer Science female diversity award for expanding young women's access to AP Computer Science principles and the award acknowledges 1105 schools for their work toward equal gender representation during the 21-22 school year and we were one of 832 schools to be recognized for achieving this this result and as you know we've had an emphasis on expanding our computer science program so this was very good to get more young ladies involved in that also across the district school-based teams we continue to we brought the portrait of a learner work to the school base and we were very appreciative of everybody's work on that and we had another successful PD day and so I wanted to thank everyone including our directors a special ed department for planning and securing speakers our staff who presented oftentimes our teachers will present and as well as the tech department for running around school to school to ensure the technology was working for these presentations so that's it in a nutshell Mr chair yeah um well I just had one update um so uh the district is currently the uh as part of the tiered focused monitoring which Miss Townsend talked about uh reached out to um part of that process is conversation with myself as in my put my CPAC chair hat on um and uh we have a um parent orientation which is part of this process where deci has we have scheduled with the office of monitoring whatever it is a person is going to be hosting a parent orientation via zoom on February 7th and the link for that is accessible on the Dartmouth CPAC Facebook page and it may also be on a flyer in our weekly electronic backpack um I believe I did that and basically we hope to engage parents of students on IEPs in the district to be part of this orientation where they're just going to you know review basically the policies the procedures and and related to special education and so we hope to have a good turnout for that and again it's February 7th 6 p.m just for a half hour online via Zoom if if parents um and any interested parties so the CPAC is for parents staff interested parties uh to just you know tune in to that for that half hour to engage in that way it would be great beautiful anybody else Chris thank you Mr chair so just a quick question I'm just trying to understand um it came I came to me from social media the hanging of the banner in the gymnasium I'm just wondering how that came about the hanging of the Dartmouth Indian Banner um that was that was something that has been discussed for a while in this process going on and we left it to Mr thank you Chris Pereira and Mr christopholi to you know once it was ready to come up with a date to okay have to have it displayed in the gym that type of deal so that is something that has been talked about yeah I've been I was you know obviously been involved with the plaques and all that but for some reason the um the banner just doesn't seem to ring a bell with that and I just say that because as we all know and we just recently dedicated our our um our gymnasium um this has got um coach Gaspar yeah coach Gaspar is that that was one of the things that was my understanding that was always a big to him was that um there would never be any banners hanging from the rafters um I've heard that from several people um so you know I I'm just throwing that out there um I just wish we would have had a little more conversation about this because it's um obviously with the meteor it's just opening up another political divide um that being said I think that's one of your terms Mr Nunes that being said um it is what it is I just wish that the at least the committee was briefed a little bit more about it because I was taken back a little bit about seeing it in the media yeah no that's again as I said that is something that has been in the works for a long time in all the conversations that were going on was you know the plaque and the plaque here yeah the black ear the plaque at the football stadium at Memorial Stadium I believe there's individual plaques in the schools yeah and that was Tastefully done I have no and that was all part of the uh the thing all right the panel just doesn't just doesn't seem to ring a bell with me but that's you know I it could be my ADD ICT it's an agent AG e Factor yes um on another note um it looks like our our next regularly scheduled meeting is February 13th is that correct and that is our only meeting in February February um I don't know what the committee's thoughts are on this but that being uh seemingly being Dr Gifford's um last school committee meeting I I thought maybe it would be uh nice to have a small reception uh before I thought you were going to say give me the day off yeah I'm not going there are you gonna have much for a swap that's right um maybe a small reception uh maybe Mrs Sheraton could put something together Mr Kylie um we could invite some Town officials uh Dr Gifford has been here for almost eight years yeah um yeah so I you know we we've had our upset we've had our ups and downs so we've had our disagreements but overall I think the district isn't a better place and I think it would be nice that we we look to just do a small recognition for Dr Jeffrey absolutely prior to prior to that meeting or we could do it or we could do it after providing we have a brief agenda which unfortunately is not happening absolutely so I just that's great yes we'll work on that thank you that's fine um a couple of things that I have uh in the standard times uh yesterday uh they've started coming out with the fall their top fall athletes for the different sports than they had the volleyball and we had the privilege of having the top volleyball the you know All-Star type of deal plus we also had several other uh players at as All-Stars and or honorable mention so congratulations to them that's coming out and I again I don't know if you've been you know you know following the fall Sports uh you know the teams that can compete in uh fall tournaments and everything else and so far having a wonderful season and moving right along so you know we're in pretty good shape for for that or I know in our track team is got some students that have you know individually you know more so team-wise but also individually uh doing well so we wish them good luck as they continue on we'll have see what February 13th being anybody else with anything no all right that being said our next meeting is Mr Oliver said is going to be uh February 13th we are going to have a brief Zoom meeting on February 2nd at five o'clock for the purpose of getting uh the uh the parents for both search committee hopefully parents for both search committees uh if not we'll just go with what we have simple as that uh that being said the chair will entertain a motion to adjourn to Executive session for the purposes of negotiations with Union and non-union personnel and a pending legal matter and not return to open session it's all moved moved by Dr Jenkins second by Miss weight on the motion any discussion chair hearing on roll call oh before I do that Phoenix I hope you enjoyed your meeting you found it I hope you come back I'll come back and hope it was you know hope it was informative it was quite informative very good I think again thank you I apologize Miss Gunther roll call please yes yes Sharon Jenkins yes yes thank you very much everyone and have a good evening [Music] thank you [Music]
our growth between when students entering kindergarten and then when they leave as seniors this is this is a little surprising to me we've averaged over the last five years uh growth of 227 students for that cohort as they move from kindergarten through the senior class and we'll talk more about this how this happens the amazing part to me is in the last five years if you go back the last five graduating classes the average this is not an extraordinary number at 229 the average is 227. the variance over that five-year period is only 22 with the low of 220 and a high of 242. it's been very consistent the growth in our district from kindergarten through the senior year and that's going through the ups and downs of the economy through that period through covid this class these last few classes experienced that so I thought that was really interesting at how consistent our growth has been from K through the senior class one of the other things as you'll notice though is is when I talk about the senior class that leaves and the kindergarten class that replaces it in the next year that has not been as consistent specifically this year I'll talk to you in 2122 we had 613 kindergarten students in 2223 that number was down to 538 the important part about this is this year we lost the most number of students from the senior class to the new incoming kindergarten class coming in we lost 203 students so we graduated a class of 741 and we brought in a class of 538.
so without even doing anything else we're down 200 over 200 students we need to have the growth and all the other grade levels to keep that up and we did we grew by 61 students so that gives you an idea of what we're facing and that's not a new thing that average over the last five years is 133 it varies widely because we have classes like last year of 741. this year we're only put it pushing on a class of 700. so as we work through this though that number has been growing for example in our heavy growth years the school The Five-Year period where the school district grew the most and this is between 2003 and 2007 eight that's those five years of those that school our average when you look at seniors leaving in the new kindergarten class coming in 47. now we're averaging 133.
and the reason is our kindergarten classes are not growing nearly as fast as the rest of our grades through our district there's a reason for that and we'll get to it a little bit but through those years our average growth for those years was 283 students which is why now we're only growing The Last Five Years on at four years on average 60 students and it's mainly because that difference between the senior class leaving and the kindergarten class coming in we have not had the birth rate and what I'm getting around two years we have not had the birth rate in the district to maintain the continued growth with kindergarten students some reasons for that looking at the 2020 census if you were to take everybody who's in their 20s in The District 20 through 29 that total is 4 820 people now that's a 10-year Gap if you look at the same five-year gap for people who are 40 to 44.
that number is 4910 probably do the real estate market the values of homes specifically back in 0305 many new families starting could get homes and afford them in Crown Point now that's different it's difficult to find a home for 300 400 500 000 especially with the new home starts coming in and be a young family who are having pre-kindergarten students coming into the district our birth rate is not keeping up with our replacement rate you a little bit of feel of what's going on in the district of how our why every year we're I'm not losing students but as those seniors graduate the new kindergarten class comes in we're essentially minus about 150 every year we've got to replace some years it's more some years it's less and there's a significant variance in that group so with that being said the total District projection for enrollment for the next 10 years is an up 141 students that's not per year that's total we anticipate over the next five years we anticipate the report is anticipating over the next five years we're up 81 students and then second half of that 10-year period we're up another 60 students so total growth in the district of 141 and simply because we're to the point of we have to have new home starts we know new home starts are coming and I'll talk about that in just a second but we have to have the new home starts because those folks coming in are bringing in grades 1 through 12 into our district we've seen that over the last five years where we've had quite a few new home starts coming in so that's the important point I want to project is people think new home starts means we're going to continue to grow and we're not going to have space that's not the case the new home starts are what's driving us staying flat our growth is not exorbitant we can handle every new home start that comes in and we have room for all of them but we have to be aware of where those new home starts are going so as we're going through this process we're looking at where the new home starts are and working with the three entities because when you start drawing those lines as far as where the boundaries are going to be for elementary and middle school you don't want to overload one building that then has a bunch of new home start areas in it because that's where those students are going to be coming in specifically grades one through eight as they impact those two the elementaries and the middle schools so just to give you some numbers from where the new home starts are and where they're coming from our three entities that feed into us in the town of Winfield they're anticipating 1879 new home starts over the next 10 years in Cedar Lake That Number 1700 and in Crown Point they're at 2 356 is the expectation for a total of just under 6 000 new home starts over the next 10 years obviously a lot of that is dependent upon interest rates how much demand stays in place the bigger number that really impacts our district and our growth going forward is going to be existing home sales and I just want you to think of the people who you know in the community who don't have kids in the schools anymore but still have not moved out of the district I look at you Mr angel I'm also falling into that that that situation Mr Q I know others in the room Mr GM Fermi are in that same situation Crown Point has become a place where people want to live so when you get to the point where you're 40 and 50 years old you're not moving away those folks are staying in their home but they're not being replaced by younger families with kids moving in we have to have the new home starts to maintain the enrollment we do have at this point excuse me at this point so give you a good estimate of what this looks like in the 10th year is the first year the forecast calls for us to go over 9 000 students in the district and we're currently at 88.72 .
so with the renovations going on we will have plenty of space as we bring in new students and new home Starts Now what can change in these forecasts if interest rates go down again and now homes become more affordable people can have the down payments and and afford their mortgages we could see another uptick in some growth we have room for that because we have quite a few people as we said seniors moving out and then the kindergartens coming in as a significant difference so I'm excited by what's going on I'm excited by more people moving in um and the new home starts are taking place but we're tracking all that and then trying to use it as we start looking at the boundaries to make sure that we don't have to come back and do this again in four or five years I think it's important to note that the last process we went through this was in 2009 so even with all the growth we've had we've made it 14 years after that redistricting if we can get 10 years out of a redistricting you've done really well as much as our community is changing and especially with the new home starts going on throughout the community so that gives you kind of a feel for where the demographic report came in and then what we're learning from our new home starts and working with both the Winfield Cedar Lake and the City of Crown Point before we go with questions for Mr Reese Let's Hear From Mr Kiwa and he can give his portion of this as well and what we're looking at and then from there we can go into further discussion with it official Chief number 5.07 Chief human resource officer thank you Mr President uh and board members just to add on to what uh Matt has shared so far and it's been a great experience to work with Matt sitting in all these meetings in Winfield and Crown Point and Cedar Lake uh you know to just gather data so we can make you know informed decisions based on data but as far as our current staff goes in the last three or five years we have expanded our staff here in Crown Point in areas in Crown Point Community School Corporation in areas that have been in desperate need of bolstering um and unfortunately we just don't have the the room and I'm not talking about the classroom teacher right we're talking about Support Services we start talking about inclusion we start talking about uh you know Heather's area of exceptional Learners the supports that we've added are vital to help our students but they're social emotional uh counselors we talk about some of these ancillary services not just speech but you know OTP um we don't have room for this currently we are on top of each other sharing spaces you know in offices in conference rooms the exciting thing about you know where we're headed into our new facilities is not only were we going to have room for growth we're going to have good flexible learning spaces for all of our Learners and I don't mean just the exceptional learners but now you're talking about you know our high ability students and just all the supports we provide our our families and students K through 12.
so think of that as well when we move into our new buildings we're going to be taking that into consideration but it's exciting to see are folks that have been sharing very tight spaces here in all of our buildings to now have some expanded areas to really just let these programs you know take root and grow in in new facilities so super exciting for us there um how did I do on on that part okay um and so I guess I'll stop there I just wanted to make sure we understood that you know our new facilities are going to support new learners but there's a lot of things we're going to be able to do for our current Learners with our current staff that were very limited uh with right now that we're going to just be able to unlock this I think something that we need to point out here is very important that over the last two years we've really had a focus on Common Language common experiences common educational programs in all of our buildings so therefore a Crown Point education and any one of our elementary schools looks very similar same between Taft and Colonel wheeler that they look very similar and what is provided for them so with this and the work that Sabrina and Mark have been going through has really been crucial and important in what we're doing with this when you couple that with our response and how we've addressed the exceptional needs audit that was presented and making sure that we have those different Services provided all of that is fitting into what we're doing here also looking at then for instance stem programming and how do we provide a stem experience for all of our kids at the elementary level to get them ready for all these robotics experiences and different things that are going on so when we look at this overall um package of what we're doing not just buildings not just instructional programs not just exceptional Ed needs not just new programs that we need it's all encompassing to bring the vision together to really put us in a place that we're ready to go for the next 10 years to as we hear address those needs that are coming with the new starts I don't know if it surprised any of you my assumption going into this was that it's all happened in the Winfield that's it's the Boom but you heard Crown Point has more than what we expect in one field actually Winfield was third on the list correct Cedar Lake again with what they've got going and again projections are what they are it's what happens with the follow-through of it but it's pretty evenly spread across the district and making sure that we are ready for whatever comes knowing that in the meantime we've got to be ready to address the needs of our kids in all those areas we just discussed so with that what questions can we answer for you and I'm opening it up to the entire cabinet to be able to respond to those questions as well because they're all very involved with reviewing this information on a weekly basis with Matt and Artie and getting to the point where we need to be um I just wanted to thank Mr Reese for that very thorough background on everything um besides being extremely surprising for a lot of it um it was so nice to hear all of the research behind it the why the explanation on how things are getting replaced and how the classes change throughout I think that was incredibly insightful and definitely appreciated in terms of understanding the direction you know how everything will hash out later and I love Mr akiwa thank you for sharing how everything is tied in together and it's not just about New Growth but about supporting those Learners that we currently have so I love the way everyone has worked together as a team my only quick question and I'll only ask because of course you know I have had this question for multiple people are we on track in terms of having something to release to the public on when we'll know about redistricting as far as a formal announcement yeah let me take that one so actually we're going to release that information a month earlier than we had planned so our initial plan was to do that in March um what we our plan is now is to bring that to you at the next board meeting which is February 27th um for a lot of reasons that will really help us with kindergarten registration it'll help us with registration across the board but also scheduling and Staffing for the next school year as well um we could get that done and if we waited until March but we feel like we're in a spot where the information that we've received has been thorough enough that we can really mine through the data to come up with the plan and look at what we need to do so we right now we're we really feel strongly that we'll be able to bring that to you at the February 27th board meeting I I do want to say thank you to both your gentlemen uh Matt that was eye-opening you know what what you said so if if I'm hearing you corrected to to sum it up Crown Point is almost like a double-edged sword that parents send their kids here to school because of the Great Schools and then they find out they like the city so much they stay even after their kids are gone but I never would have guessed that gap of graduating seniors compared to incoming kindergartners very eye-opening thank you both so much being that I was wrong for the 2009 redistricting what's the company we're using again I always say his name Ryan McCann Dr McKibben yes thank you so I want to make sure it was said right um his formulas are you guys going into that little firm further today oh based on but he has his system in place based on all the numbers you shared with us tonight home growth continued Gap difference and all that to calculate or to give us the formulas to come up with what's going to be right with the information you've now presented is that accurate correct so what we have he's given us uh projections for each Elementary if we didn't change boundaries at this point we're not really using that because we're going to change the boundaries um specifically we have to it's Jerry Ross in Winfield um so with that we can once we determine what our uh the new boundaries are we can send those back to him and he'll provide us what the new projections are based upon those new boundaries so also going back to your point his studies the last two that he's done this is the third time we've used him have been spot on with his project and that's what I was trying to get at that we're not coming up with a new formula or anything it worked first before it's worked first why not continue with the same thing that's been beneficial in the past yes in fact I'd like to add one thing and I probably didn't mention that that I should it's you know in addition to instruction and instructional support one of the things we're also doing if you if you think about uh I used to serve molting when we when we talk about things like this evolving right into into a new era a new a new way of doing things in new places um we're also examining job descriptions you know things were teed up a decade ago or or more to be done a certain way and we're starting to reevaluate how we're doing things in in who's in charge of what and can we be more efficient by how we distribute responsibilities so from an HR standpoint we're we're looking at you know how we want to attack this going forward as we get into these new spaces and maybe that's some of that responsibility shifts around and those job descriptions uh change as well to improve our performance overall not just in the classroom but for those supporting the classrooms yeah Mr Reese Mr Cuba I think just to Echo the other board members the presentation was phenomenal tonight but I want to be pointed as a father of four children I think that there's real concern from parents you know changes makes people nervous I mean it just does that's a natural reaction and my kids got to go to a different School my you know make new friends maybe he's going to lose his best friend and what I'm hearing is that this is ultimately the best thing for not only growth educationally but also for the district to move forward that this is a necessary evil of of what we're facing with growth right I think that there's other schools in Indiana that have major problems are shrinking their population their student population is shrinking right so in many ways we're blessed but um my question to you or to anybody in administration is that did any part play the individual student did it play any role in this does Brian Smith's son did you analyze their grades or what they need and does that factor into this redistricting because I know those questions are coming right and and I understand that as a parent we're all concerned about our kids and what's best for our kids does that individuality play any part into what we're going to be rolling out for redistricting foreign from my perspective on what my part of this is and the answer is no um we understand the the um caution regarding change do I want to get it right we don't want to go through this in four or five years because we understand that people get comfortable in the building they're in they they know the principles they know the teachers it becomes part of their family and their educational family we're not here to change it on a regular basis like I said the last time we did this was 14 years ago we'd love to go another 14 or 15 year run with this because we understand why that change brings some some worry among parents and students but understand that there's just a time where you have to do it because we currently have almost a 300 student disparity in our elementaries between the top one and the bottom one and that's not fair to either one of those environments we need to get it back to where we have some consistency as far as our enrollments within our specific elementaries that as a programming and the services of our considerations and we are redistricting or adding on I think our service to our children no matter where you're at you're going to communication care about Jim is your mic on because what you're saying right now is really good I don't know if I can say I try to repeat it um my comment uh in regards to the programming and we're servicing children and our our desire is to have the best opportunity for every child wherever they are at in the school corporation and at the Forefront of everything that we are trying to do I do believe that children are that are our main concern they're they're the reason why we are all here and we do what we do is to provide this kind of service to our children and I understand that change is difficult and I understand that uh to make a move even in your family Mr Smith that you're talking about that how it might impact your children we know it's going to impact some children and yet at the same time I do uh uh I would I just would say the the services that these children are gonna even though they're going to change they're going to become better and they're still going to be cared for children are going to be they're going to be loved they're going to receive what they need and uh so I do I would answer your question that you yes children are at the Forefront of everything that we do here I think to kind of wrap up both of the comments that you've just heard that's what is so important about what we've been doing the work we've been doing for two years whether it's in the area of exceptional Ed whether it's in the area of elementaries and getting that to be a common experience whether that is programmatically evaluating what programs we need to have for the future going forward is making sure that this morning in cabinet one of our major discussions was what is the educational experience that every building going to look like and how similar is that going to be are there programs that are going to be one and not in the other and the answer with a few exceptions was they're going to be identical experiences and so Brian as you talked about we get the whole my kid's going to have to go to a different School I've been through that people on cabinet have been through that that's we're never going to make light of that or say it's just that's the way it's going to be we get that there's going to be challenges with it but we also understand that we're in a much better place to provide a Crown Point education for all of our kids in every building moving forward I think that's well answered I appreciate everyone's comments I you know one of the things I've always tried to State on multiple occasions as we went through covet and other circumstances as a board as a school corporation and with parents is what makes Crown Point unique and why people are drawn to be here and live here is the ability to come together as a community and not necessarily put oneself first or their own self-interest first or maybe what's in the home but the ability to have a bigger picture to look at the big picture come together to see that this change ultimately maybe not in the short term it's going to be hard but ultimately will be will be the best for everybody in the long term and so I just want to encourage parents as as you're making you're seeing the impact on the family and the children you may not be alone you won't be alone there'll be other families there'll be other children that are impacted but we can pull together in the school corporation I think Mr Hartman said it best really does care about your child it may look different maybe a different School a different building but the their needs will be met no matter where they're placed and I just want to make a point because it's going to feel personal you know and it's it's not going to help to tear apart there it's going to help to come together to understand let's support our kids as they walk through these changes let's support the teachers the administrators as they go through that that's where as a parent you could really be utilized to actually help the change not divide so absolutely I agree with you Brian exactly Jim what you said a spot on and I appreciate you fellas there that this is not an emotional response you're doing it with data or in this case projected data and taking we're taking emotions out of this seemingly difficult decision and thank you for that thank you for your comments and your answers as well I have one more question do some of our Title 1 for the makeup of those buildings is there an attempt during redistricting to maintain funding for that or increase the number of buildings that get funding or will that be reduced or has that been considered at all yeah yeah we have three Title One buildings uh currently at the elementary level and in 2009 uh whereas we were drawing lines for uh um uh I think the middle schools was when we brought Colonel wheeler on we were looking at the distribution of students including your economically disadvantaged students um I do think that as you're looking at the the redistricting you look at all the different populations you know as we look at exceptional education as we look at the programming for economic disadvantaged students I think it's all part of the numbers all part of what we're looking at as far as where the lines are exactly yeah and the middle schools opened up in 2007 and so there was a redistricting done at that point to split into the two middle schools in 2009 one of the points was to move as few students as possible while still getting back to being rebalanced and we were able to achieve that and the middle schools didn't change at all their boundaries we were able to move around to the elementaries because we had a we still do a feeder system of what buildings elementaries go into middle schools so we were able to move that that was a goal within that one was the move you students I think the elementary move was 130 to 140 students I think and the middle schools were none so that that was part of that at that point um just answer your question in 2009.
what I would say as we are looking at what's happening right now that's a point of information that's not a point of driving what we're going to do this is really more about making sure that we're prepared for the future and being where we need to be rather than that piece of it so if that were to switch and one building becomes higher than the three that are currently identified Soviet item 5.08 director of communications thank you good evening I want to make sure you know that our next coffee and conversation will be February 9th at 9 30. at the Crown Point Library and just on a positive note last week Timothy Ball Elementary shared some construction photos on their Facebook page if you haven't seen them yet you should check it out it looks like real classrooms real hallways there are lockers there are cabinets and from my perspective that is the first thing that we have communicated that looks like a space that people are ready to move into every month I do our newsletter and the past couple of months I've been like oh more steel you know it's hard to get excited but this was a really good opportunity to see that and teachers will be moving into those spaces within the next couple of months my goal at one point Brooke will be for the communications director to have the longest segment of this part because you deserve it I'm based on all the work you've done to communicate to our community what is taking place on a daily weekly monthly basis so thank you I know you do so it's a 5.09 oh sorry Mr Kiwa I'm just wondering I did talk a little bit about redistricting but there were a couple of things I wanted to say in my uh perfect back to what Mr basser talked about so I wanted to make uh sure that I made some commentary or offered some commentary tonight uh about what I said the big four uh big four is you know Transportation food service tech um and buildings and grounds with Matt here now um you know we're we're shifting some of our responsibilities with with Mr Reese here where Mr Reese will be working directly with uh buildings and grounds and food service I'll stick with technology and transportation um and I think that's going to be good for us uh but on that comment I just want to talk about Marty Freeman our director of uh transportation and just what a wonderful addition he's been uh to our our staff and and we certainly appreciate his leadership I must tell you that you know he's made building visits he's talked to principals he's gone and examined how buses are moving around on campuses he's examining our systems talking about evolving uh to making sure that that we're doing things efficiently and safely uh and changing just the overall culture of that department uh going back to what Mr Vassar opened up with earlier today you know we've got some folks that are retired bus drivers that want to return as Subs because they're getting the word that wow it's it's a really Nifty Place uh in transportation and I just want to just make a just a little public shout out here for for Marty and tell them thanks for all he's done in the short time that he's been here um I also want to have a little bit of a shout out for the girls in my office Renee Rich and Jean Lang as we prepare to move to the new building one of the things we're we're trying to accomplish before we physically move is just doing a little internal audit on all of our Personnel files and things that we need to have in order this is a really detailed task talking about literally getting into every file and making sure everything's in order before we move from here to there so they've been working diligently actually all year we're excited to you know get to a point here at the end of the year uh where we're really prepared and everything's buttoned up and tight uh as we get to move from this building to our new location so just thanks to those individuals thank you superintendent of schools Dr Tara so to build off of what Brooke mentioned with our buildings and looking like actual classrooms that people can move into I think it's important to note that Timothy ball was supposed to be able to move into those Dion I believe it was spring break-ish and we're moving into those in February President's Day weekend and realistically we could have moved into them sooner but when you plan on moving into a room or into a wing in spring break there are systems that have to be ordered to come in that if we could have gotten those sooner we could have even been in quick even more quickly so um this weekend as I was touring sites on Saturday which I do quite often it's amazing to see how many people are working over the weekends to get things done that they can't do and other people are there Dion coordination has just been spot on so we appreciate Skillman Dion in particular and how he's LED through that Mark mentioned the robotics competition that was this weekend um when Brooke and I were at the high school many a few months ago doing one of our super things the instructor Matt LeBlanc mentioned to me that that was going to that they were hosting this and said you should come so I showed up on Saturday the field house was packed it was amazing the parking lot was packed the field house was packed and just to see those kids so excited about what they're doing how they're doing it but not only were our kids competing they were leading the whole thing our National Honor Society was there they helped with set up they helped with tear down they helped with running the event so it's just great to see how one more area is bringing all of our high school students together to celebrate and you know Russ and I as we were standing there the principal marcinek you know he said there's a little bit different feel in the field house today than there normally is and he said yeah I've got to imagine that this is how our robotics kids feel when they go to a basketball game or a football game and just to see them getting excited I saw a parent who actually had like robotic earrings on you know hanging it's just it's really neat to see one more way for our kids to really feel like they're a part of this um two weeks ago Friday or a week ago this past Friday our wrestling team wrestled Mount Carmel from Illinois unbelievable atmosphere we're ranked in the top 10 I think top five nationally they are ranked in the top 20 maybe top 15 coming into this big wrestling meet with all these rough tough wrestlers and the national anthem it came time for that and everybody stood up and the the Gym's dark and the flag is lit up and one of our exceptional needs students sang the national anthem and you could have heard a pin drop in that place and afterwards the applause was louder than any Applause that of any match that night so it's just great to see the way that our community our kids rally around each other and really supporting all the different parts of what's going on so last thing just want to again recognize Anna note of appreciation on last week on I think it was Friday beyond that I took the city the mayor the mayor and his staff around Taft and were able to show them the progress that we're making there Dion snuck out of another meeting to be there and we appreciated his efforts to be there as well um they're posting pictures of the tour on their Facebook page and and doing some different things there but it's just nice that even though um Taft isn't necessarily in Crown Point proper how enthused and excited they are about what's happening here in Crown Point schools to be able to take time away from their schedules to come out and see the building so appreciate again the uh the partnership that we have with the city and the relationships that we continue to grow there thank you item 6.01 other business of the board anybody have anything that um you might have not mentioned or need to mention moving forward uh yes Mr Angel uh in my role as legislative liaison I just want to make the board aware Dr Terrell and I talked about this earlier this morning but currently in Indiana Senate bill 305.
uh they're they're discussing this now downstate would allow students or excuse me allow parents of hoosier students in kindergarten through 12th grade to opt their children out of regular school enrollment and instead decide on on their own how to use the funds the state normally would spend to educate children so that's the overarching part of it which is kind of frightening and um is Dr Terrell I spoke earlier that it's this needs to be monitored closely you can even imagine the misuse of funds there that could happen imagine that so I just want to make you aware of that next month I'll be going down to a state house day for school board members and expect to have much more information for you at that time thank you Mr basser you're welcome uh one other thing I just want to mention did we decide I know I was going to try to be the Winfield rep being there that's my elected position for the Redevelopment did we decide who's going to try to be or are we going to mention the Cedar Lake now that you took over Crown Point I don't recall discussing it okay well I wasn't sure that's why now as me as a president I want to make sure we're either the new members Danielle or Tim in available or would like to take that role on well we can I'll reach out to them as board president and see where they're at with it and then we can make a determination but just want to make sure before I throw somebody's name in the Hat so to speak that they would be willing to take that out to clarify it's a Redevelopment commission for student Cedar Lake they just put a board member on there is representation as right now still no voting rights we're hoping at some point in time that gets changed but as a right now just don't be aware of what they're doing that might affect the schools so it's more of a listening role and kind of informational role at this point until something with the state changes Brian how often do they mean once a month once a month and sometimes those don't go either so typically 12 meetings a year but you might have ten of those meetings in the evening they're in the evening on Monday evenings first second second Monday second Monday well Danielle I want to speak for you but foreign I'll try to reach out to them this week and then like let you know okay any other board business at this time yeah the only other thing I wanted to discuss again because we still hear some rumbles and it's not rumbles in a bad way but just some clarification I know we talked about Wednesday being an e-learning day if somebody could just take and speak to e-learning why this is important from the teachers administrators again and what the benefit is uh from that angle and I would just add why we're allowed to do that as well because that's part of the equation yeah um the e-learning days we're trying to protect both the the student environment as well as the teacher environment so they from a student environment we the the goal of the e-learning day is to help students to have activities that again are meaningful challenging we don't want to try to introduce new material during that time because they don't have the access to this teaching staff that that they would have but we do there's there is opportunities for students to con to explore we want to have meaningful kinds of activities for our students while they are at home with the with the e-learning when that happens that allows our teachers to have professional development have time to articulate to converse to collaborate to plan together so that we can have a have a the best environment for our for our children that's what those days are for when we have District level for instance right now as we're working with Universal Design this gives an opportunity for the entire District to take some time and take some steps forward together with this and uh um so so it's it's valuable for our teachers to have that opportunity to articulate at the same time we're very conscious Mark Heather Sabrina are very conscious of trying making sure that our teachers are prepared to deliver a experience for our students via the uh the internet the uh materials that are taken home uh so that they can continue their their growth and development have you seen significant benefits since we've been incorporating these e-learning days and have the the responses from the teachers and the building leaders been been positive oh all right I would defer here I don't want to speak for Sabrina and Heather and Mark but I think it's overall it's been very much a positive experience yeah I think to go back to the discussion about this alignment that we are so strongly working to achieve that without these e-learning days and the ability to group our teachers together whether that's across the district within their buildings it gives them the opportunity to receive professional development collaboration which then results in a common curricular experience for our students so I think it's absolutely essential to us being able to incorporate um really our inclusion Focus as well as our curricular Focus anything there on that Ms Jansen since you you know our regular in attendance and representing the Union 40 minutes we were just getting into the meat of it having a 90-minute shop for a two hour jump really lets us get beneficial thank you didn't mean to put you on the spot but thank you Mr Angel may I comment on how we're able to do this please thank you for your question um if as you know or maybe you don't know last year the state made some determinations as far as the number of virtual learning days you can have and they put a number on three Okay so we've we have taken those three days and we've kind of preserved those for those upcoming maybe I shouldn't say that for snow days okay so that we have those available for us because we are a performance qualified District that means that our performance lovers levels over the last four or five years uh have met the state criteria that means instead of using days to measure our school year we can use minutes so the state 180 days is what a school year is but when you look at the number of minutes that are required which is 300 minutes per day at the elementary and 360 minutes at the secondary level and you compare the length of our school day to that we have over and above the amount of minimum required minutes therefore we take those excess minutes and then we are able to have these four e-learning days plus we've got these three days for uh emergencies if and when they are needed great explanation Mr Hardman because then that covers everything benefits students benefit the teachers and even for the parents just in case we end up with some weather days or something like that so that we don't have to extend the school year yes uh no other business we'll move into item seven board statements of appreciation recognition being that we have two board members I know you've been in meeting and attendance this is where we can you don't have to say anything but say something may be nice about some an event you were at a person you're at that's involved in the school even a former student that's maybe even achieved we don't really have many boundaries but it's just making sure that we reach out and say something nice about something that might be going on in the community that affected the schools or vice versa so Mr best or anything they had this evening well I would like to extend thanks to our current bus drivers in addition to the ones already mentioned that are coming back to sub um it's hard enough driving 60 kids around but think of like driving 60 kids around with your back to them just appreciate bus drivers greatly and appreciate the people who've already retired that want to come back online that being said too the the folks who take care of the buses and make sure they're in good maintenance and they're ready to roll no pun intended there very thankful for them as well thank you um I just wanted to speak a little bit to what is happening in the elementary and middle and high schools in terms of programming thank you for sharing those things um I have some munchkins who participate in a couple of those programs so I get to see them firsthand but I love hearing about the distribution across the buildings and um the other things that are taking place and I loved hearing you share Tyler hudak's name he was one of my second graders when I taught so I feel especially proud to kind of see them as they continue on and um and it's really exciting to just see as they continue to to achieve different things and I appreciate you guys sharing those things sorry Mr Smith that's okay I just want to congratulate Mr Vassar and Miss bazen welcome to the board and um thank you you know well done tonight and hopefully you enjoyed your experience your first board meeting so we have many more coming for you your way so just want to recognize you too July thank you um I'm going to pass along um thanks to all that involved and I don't want to mention individual names but I have to mention a few and that's to uh Mr Molasky Mr casuars from Skillman and all those with behind the scenes already Mr Reese and all those as far as for the administrative input because with these building projects going on literally everywhere to schools it isn't an easy task to stay on top of them yeah make sure things are in order and yet still functionable for the educational process so that isn't accomplished by just one individual it's a team and I mean it's I'm remarkable that you know you would think a couple issues and I don't want to jinx it so I'll knock on wood and say that things have gone as smoothly as gone you know with even being able to move in early to one of these projects so um everything based on reports is everything's on Pace and with the shortages of things you know Nationwide that's that's a remarkable accomplishment as well so we'll hope that stays on Pace but I felt it's very important to acknowledge that because it's something I think sometimes gets overlooked on especially with the amount of construction going on in our school corporation so thank you to all that are involved in that motion by Miss Mason second by Mr Vassar all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye