President. Uh as about this time last year as we approved the budget and also the uh teachers contract and other pay agenda items, we approved for two stipends to be paid during the calendar year 2024. The first one was uh for uh January, the second one is here in December. As with that, as part of the budget, the plan was to move a million dollars from rainy day fund to our education fund to cover the cost for these stipends. Uh so, this is the formal adoption and approval to move the $1 million from the rainy day fund to the education fund. We recommend approval of resolution 855, $1 million transfer from rainy day fund to the education fund, and waive the reading. Thank you, Mr. Reese. You've heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of resolution 855, $1 million transfer from the rainy day fund to the education fund, and the waving of the reading.
May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Smith, second by Mr. Vasser. Question or discussions? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Appointments by the board and accompanying bond amounts, Mr. Reese. 5.09, sorry. Thank you. Uh as part of our annual process of establishing bond amounts for all the folks who handle cash and require my check signing capabilities within the school corporation, we ask your approval for the corresponding bond amounts. All this will be paid for from the operations fund, and we recommend approval of appointments and the accompanying bond amounts as presented. You've heard the recommendation of the administration for the approval of the appointments and the accompanying bond amounts as presented. May I have a motion? Motion. Motion by Mr. Vasser, second by Ms. Basin. Question or discussion? Once again, Matt, for those that might be listening at home, those bonds are the protection for us unfortunately if an incident occurred um if something occurred with one of those individuals because they have check writing privileges.
That's correct. I just want to make sure being that I'm in that line of work, I just want to make sure people out here understood why we get those bonds and the protection that gives the school corporation. And required by law. And required. Uh any other questions? All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Wheeler dishwasher bid approval, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President. Uh and it's come time to replace the dishwasher at Colonel Wheeler Middle School. Bids were offered out. We received bids for this uh project uh PC equipment, if you will. Received the best bid from C and T Design and Equipment Company for a total of $200,500. We recommend approval of that. You heard the recommendation of the administration for the approval of the Wheeler dishwasher bid to C and T Design and Equipment Company for a total amount of $200,500.
May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Smith, second by Ms. Bazin. Question or discussion? How long do that dishwasher last any time? I think we've been through six of them in my 23 years in my house, so I won't feel bad the next time I got to spend six $800 on anything. Any other questions?
All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Solen 5.11, Solen Robinson furniture award, Mr. Reese. Thank you, Mr. President. Members of the board, tonight we bring you the Solen Robinson furniture award. The project is done in the same manner we've provided all the new furniture into the schools. As Solen wraps up its construction, they'll be coordinated to bring the furniture on site and ready to be used shortly after the construction is completed. So, with that we will recommend approval of furniture for Solen Robinson for $651,555.71 from KI Inc. Thank you, Mr. Reese. You heard the recommendation of the administration for approval of the furniture bid for Solen Robinson in the amount of $651,555.71 from K1 Inc. May I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. Motion by Mr. Smith, second by Mr. Basser. Questions?
All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? Motion carries 4-0. Thank you, everyone, for your help on all those items and one of those procedural things that's just needed to make sure we're following protocols. So, thank you. Sick discussion report items, policy updates, first reading, Mr. Kiwala. Thank you, Mr. President and board members. We have uh first reading recommendation of this evening as we uh first begin to update our educational records policy that was uh originally in the old policy we're converting to ISBA. Uh sort of sitting with that is policy 0100. In there in definitions, um it talks about ISTEP being a state-mandated test, which it no longer is. So, we're just kind of updating this for uh what is considered to be or could be educational records. Uh I should also state that we'll be working with our administration going either even further uh into some guidelines as to what we will maintain at each level elementary, middle, and high school for what is considered to be educational records.
Uh so, that is to come as well. Um and then the last one, uh student supervision and welfare. Uh this will be a continuing discussion, but we are going to edit this particular policy and as you see there in its form uh to make it applicable to all staff members, not just certified staff members. You can see that opening line there. Um so, again, this evening all we're recommending is a first reading for information and we'll revisit this uh next month for approval. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Kiwala, for that information. And just a little follow-up on that, um when we receive um the updates from uh the old the used to be NEOLA, which I think. And we receive these new updates, all we do is make a comparison to making sure we're meeting that. Yes, so we I'm working with what's uh meaningful for us right now.
There is quite the process to shift entirely from NEOLA to ISBA. Uh not to get into the weeds too much right now, but um we are working with ISBA to get as much assistance as possible to make these transitions a little more easier, smoother, and more rapid cuz it's it's quite that way. So, we do get recommendations from ISBA and for the mandated ones, I will move us along and get those updated, uh but we're also just making an old just a flat-out change from the ISBA or the NEOLA language to the ISBA language. Okay. Any other questions regarding that discussion report? Nope. Thank you again, Mr. Kiwala. Yep. Moving on item seven, superintendent's discussion groups. Um start with you, Mr. Basser. Anything from Cedar Lake? Uh nothing at our last meeting to report that we will not have a meeting next Tuesday because of Thank you.
Next meeting will be December. All right, thank you. How about Mr. Smith? Anything to report? Nothing from Crown Point to report that affects the schools. Okay. With that, we'll move on to 7.02, director of grants and assessments. I think Mr. Hartman gave you what they call a tease with something he's going to talk about. I don't know if it's a tease, but I'll give you some information. Uh in 2020 when uh the federal government uh um gave an opportunity for states to apply for a waiver of certain statutes or regulatory uh guidance uh for title grants. Uh and uh we applied back in 2020 for two of the four. Uh this year we're applying for three. They are called Ed Flex waivers. Um the first one that I would share is with title one. Uh by the federal government standard, there's an 85% uh expenditure that you have to have and if you don't hit it, uh you have to give money back to the state.
Not the 15%, whatever is less than 85 is what you have to return back to the back to the state. So, we are applying for the waiver for a 75%, which allows us a little bit more flexibility in in that expect expenditure. The second one is uh is for title four uh grant, which I referenced. Uh the federal standard is 20% for real well-rounded school, 20% for social emotional, and something for uh technology. Uh the waiver allows us to bypass all of those uh limitations so that we can use that uh money to best service our students, which is really the goal flexibility so it doesn't impede uh Crown Point Community Schools in doing what we need to to be able to do. And the the the the third one that we apply for is for paraprofessional requirements. Um the paraprofessional requirements by the federal government uh is uh for them to be deemed highly qualified.
Uh they can be completed 2 years of uh study at an institution of higher uh learning or earn an associate's degree or pass a test, the practice test. The the waiver that the state applied for that we can operate uh on is that it just opens up the flexibility. Uh for instance, if we hire a paraprofessional and we have training for that paraprofessional, that will then then meet the meet the criteria that we can hire that person and deem them as highly qualified. Uh we have a lot of great people that may not meet some of the uh criteria that the federal government has has uh set. So, it does give us flexibility in hiring paraprofessionals, deeming them as high qual highly qualified. So, we apply for those three waivers. The fourth one that we don't is only for the uh corrections Department of Corrections and of course we don't we don't apply for that.
So, any questions? Ed Flex Ed Flex waivers. Okay, yes. Director of 7.03, director of elementary education, Dr. Shakib. Thank you, Mr. President and members of the board. Tonight I'm going to speak uh briefly about uh parent involvement and family involvement in our elementary schools and how important uh this home-school partnership is for the success and growth of our kids, our students. First, I want to thank our teachers and administrators uh at our elementary schools as well as the really dedicated parents and families that continue to work together with with us in very meaningful ways. So, some of those ways are uh first off, parent-teacher conferences, which the bulk of those, the overwhelming majority of those happened last uh Thursday. Um but not all of them happened last Thursday. We give teachers a couple weeks uh window to get those conferences in. Right now, uh three of our seven schools have reported uh kind of final numbers on how uh how many conferences they had and our numbers are looking really good.
Um it's just uh really impressive how dedicated both our teachers and our parents are uh to having these touchpoints. So, when it's all said and done, um we will have held over 4,000 uh individual parent-teacher conferences here in this 2-week window um as long as the current percentage keeps up, but I think I think it will. Um another big one is that grandparents days are back. Um we're really excited as Mr. Jim Fermin, Dr. Terrell, and I uh spoke this summer, uh we felt that this was an important um tradition to bring back to our elementary schools. It was a kind of a few years off there uh during and after COVID, but we felt like it was a great time to bring that back. So, uh all of our schools have already hosted or will soon be hosting uh grandparents and special guest day.
Um These connections also start with infants uh with our uh parent education piece of our Bulldog Buddies program, Birth to School. Um you can see we have hundreds of families that take advantage of those opportunities, which is really exciting. We start that connection very early on. And talking about uh or thinking about this topic, I need to mention our amazing PTO organization who really do some amazing work to really enrich the the school experience for our students and do a lot to help our teachers also. So, um just wanted to thank our teachers and staff members and uh our amazing parents and families uh for committing to this important partnership. Thanks. Thank you, Dr. Schoon. 7.04, uh Director of Secondary Education, Mrs. Ramirez. Good evening, Mr. President and board members. I would like to just take a few minutes to thank our community for really being partners with our school corporation.
We have a lot of exciting events that happen during this time period, whether there are choir concerts, band concerts, athletic events, robotics, lots of extracurriculars that our students are very fortunate to be able to participate in because of the dedicated teachers, staff, the talent of our students, and the commitment of our families. So, I thank them all for making our schools really the hub of our community. And some events that are coming up that I hope you will be able to um attend and or that our community will really turn out for our in our performing arts. We have the Peter Pan performance that will be happening at Colonel Wheeler Middle School. That will be on November 22nd and 23rd. And I have a sheet for you guys if you want the dates that are just kind of printed out so you don't have to scribble everything down.
Matilda will be the musical at Crown Point High School, which will have several performances, including one really special performance that I think shows the dedication of our staff and the kind of kind of the communication and the partnership between um the high school and our exceptional education department. They are going to have a sensory friendly performance. This will be the first time that they are doing this, and they have collaborated with um members of our exceptional education team through the vision of um you know, the theater director and his team to make sure that this is a comfortable and inclusive experience for all. And some of the features that you'll note at this special performance will be that there is a smaller capacity for seating, longer intermission, the house lights will be at a lower level, and there will be more consistent sound levels throughout, and there will also be um some additional um supports that will be in place that the students can and or the parents can use during the performance to facilitate their um attendance.
So, we're really excited about the fact that not only was there a vision, but then the execution of a plan that really creates an inclusive environment for that event. And then over at Taft in December, they will be performing The Internet Is Distract. Oh, look, a kitten. And so, um I do not know a lot about this, and I am very excited to hear about it. So, I hope that you guys will join us with it. Um but it seems very relevant to our uh use of probably technology and distractions. So, um just want to again thank the community for showing up for these events and for partnering with us, and thank all of the talented students, the staff, the families who participate in making them um successful events. So, I will hand these to you. Thank you, Mrs. Ramirez. Welcome. 7.05, Director of Exceptional Education, Mr.
Bascus. Good evening, Mr. Angel, members of the board. Um I just wanted to take a minute to recognize um We are We often thank our Crown Point Police Department as members of our school team, and I wanted to point out a couple of specific examples how they work hand in hand um with us and to help our students and families. So, Officer Norris is the SRO over at Taft, and we have a student who is um she really admires Officer Norris, and her classroom has a dance party as a reward for a few minutes on Fridays. And every Friday, she begs for Officer Norris to come down and dance with her. And uh we have finally convinced him to do so, and he will join in a chicken dance or something briefly. But I think one of the neatest things is she dressed up as a police officer for Halloween, and there's a really cool picture floating around on social media of them holding hands kind of down the hallway.
And she's she's a tiny little thing, but uh he's tall guy, and she's little, and then there's one of them walking hand in hand from the back as well. And it's uh very very touching. Um another example is um some of our students, you know, have big behaviors and um lots of concerns even when they go home. And our police officers are often responding to the homes of our students. And we have a situation where Officer Malebranche and Commander Isaacs are trying to work with the school and some of our professionals to help them and give them strategies for when they respond to the home, how to best meet the student's need and prevent any injury. So, I want to thank them for that effort. Thank you, Mr. Bascus. 7.06, Assistant Superintendent Mr. Superintendent Mr. Geofermi. Thank you, Mr. President, board members. I just have one thank you I want to get out.
I want to thank Tom Isebulich and Hannah Albrooks, our uh BSN Sports representative, and also uh Chris Iebert, our girls basketball coach, and Phil Deralla for helping Crown Point High School be selected as the Surge pilot program for Northwest Indiana. Let me just read what Surge is. Surge, in partnership with BSN Sports, aims to empower girls to stay in sports and lead healthy, successful lives through free online tools developed for our coaches. So, some of those tools would build self-esteem, instill confidence, provide girls with support required to keep them engaged and excited about the sports that they love. So, last Thursday, over 400 of our our female student athletes attended the kickoff program in the Crown Point High School gym. And we had I think three or four speakers from Surge that came out. And it's just a great program. Our community has always supported our female programs and athletes.