So, it was something he speaks to even to this day of feeling like he missed out um and not being able to have access to those clubs from an inclusivity perspective because the times just wouldn't allow. Um I also now found myself that I have an eighth grader who's going to be coming to Stevenson, so who will be playing sports as well. And I know that this would be a club that he would be proud to represent. Um he is adopted. He is an immigrant. Um he's very proud to live in America. and what um he has been afforded as especially being an immigrant coming to this country and he's very proud to be a patriot um and I know this would be something he would proud to support and to attend but he'd have to meet in the morning and I think one thing that I've talked to him about is free will which is what's great is these students if they want to get up at 7:30 or 8:00 and meet at Club America they have the choice to do so so I think um being able to offer the students the choice um to be able to come in the morning and if they want to get up 30 minutes early, I think it's a great opportunity to have our kids and empower them to start making those choices at this age.
>> Any questions for our bowlers? >> Probably going to be afraid to ask this, but what what are your average for what each for each you guys? What what's your average score? >> Anything's gonna be better than mine, [laughter] so I'm just just curious. >> Better than 50. >> Yeah. the the school I averaged uh roughly 190 for all the for all the match and practice totals. [cough] That varies for I would say in normal league and stuff because I I was someone who initially started bowling with one hands and I wasn't very good. Uh but then when I transferred I was able to like the back end of my season was amazing and that kind of brought my average up personally. >> Good. >> Um >> and honestly been putting up higher scores especially since uh Mr. Mr. G's able to like give me advice and teach me.
Um so those stories traveled across an ocean to reach me as a child. And last week I joined uh really a host of community leaders at the a black coalition empowerment event in Aurora where there was no less than 50 leaders from um there were people from Asiggo from Aurora from Planefield leaders who came together to reflect and there at that night I actually ran into former mayor Irvin who shared with me something that I thought was very appropo to share with the board this evening which is that his great-grandfather, he always corrects me, not grand great great greatgrandfather, so one generation back um actually was um born here, born in Tennessee into the slavery and left that escaped that and came here in 1859 and rose through resilience. He was actually not allowed to live in Aurora as a result of that settled on the Fox River here in Awiggo.
So, I'm going to go ahead and read this to you. So, the Avon Community School Corporation Board of School Trustees would like to congratulate Joel Powell uh with the passage of the following resolution. Whereas Joel Powell has been honored as the 2026 Indiana High School Orchestra Teacher of the Year by the Indiana chapter of the American String Teachers Association. Whereas Joel Powell graduated Magna Kumlad with a bachelor of arts and music education with violin emphasis and earned a master's of arts, excuse me, master of arts in secondary education from Ball State University. Whereas Joel Powell has been the AHS associate director of orchestras and director of string activities since 2019. Whereas Avon orchestras have earned two ISMA orchestra state championships during Mr. Paul's tenure. Whereas the Avon orchestras have consistently earned gold with distinction ratings at ISMA organizational festival. Whereas the Avon orchestras have demonstrated sustained excellence across all levels of the Avon orchestra program.
We want our kids to succeed. And we know just like with the SAT that students do better if they actually have taken a practice test and they know what it looks like. And so we're doing that same similar kind of thing with the the island. And then we have the I read the high stakes third grade test. Um this will be the week of March 2nd through the 13th. I did put this on here and scale's not in here, but I did that so I could give that to Gail and she could publish it if she wanted to. Um and our elementary schools will be pushing that out. That's like if you're a parent of a second or third grader and you want to go online to this site and just log in as a guest and see what the questions that are released look like.
It's not We've kind of think we hopefully we've I I scared to say this, but hopefully we've made it through the the worst part of the year with the with the temperatures and Yeah. >> and snow. So, it's going to warm up here next year. >> Still have hiccups every now and then, but you know, we managed to a lot of people don't realize that you guys got to come in at whatever time in the morning, get them buses started, make sure they're running and and warmed up. So, >> yeah. >> So, we can get away with not having two-hour delays. So, >> yeah, we're just ready to get rid of the snow. Uh, all right. Holly, you got anything for us? >> No, I think we have the information out, but the state, we did apply for a waiver for our snow day and they did approve that and then threw in um an e-learning day that we had taken.
We go spend the entire day at the canal and we we make candles and we make butter and the kids do a leather um punching like they make a bracelet. They make a 10 punch thing. You can see here that they're weaving. Um there's Mr. Walker teach school and some folk songs and things. And then the canal group, they bring in their artisans to do, you know, blacksmithing and all kinds of things. It's an all hands on deck activity and it goes morning till the end of the day and it takes us a while to get prepared, but they've got some other like all the kids make candles. I still have my my oldest son's candles on my Christmas tree every year. My second son's not going to go home. That's [laughter] the difference between Alex and Spencer. Um I still have it the Alex is and he's already um so this is a lot of fun that we partner up with the canal [cough and clears throat] the people down there.
Um, so that kind of gives you an idea because I when I first saw this price per month, I kind of thought, well, that's kind of high. So then I went out and looked at this. What we are getting is we're getting eight EEDs. Seven of them will be cabinet based. They're replacing our cabinets. Um, and then we are also adding one in the weight bar because we do not have one out there. And We're also adding one in the hitting barn down there so that we have those two areas covered. And then we also have a grab and run which would allow us to take one out to the soccer field in the fall so that we would have one out there as well. So um in addition to that, what CentOS will do is they will come in, they will inspect them, they'll check the batteries, they'll check the pads, they'll replace all of that.
Hollinssworth. >> Yes. Um, the purpose of a conflict of interest policy is to ensure that decisions made by the school board are based solely on the best interest of the school district and students. This policy is intended to protect the integrity, transparency, and public trust in governing the EVSC district by preventing personal, financial, and other interests from improperly influencing out official actions. The language is this. [clears throat] When a conflict of interest exists, a board member shall recuse themselves from discussion, deliberation, and voting on the matter. The board member shall not attempt to influence any decision informally or outside a meeting. Board members shall not use their position for personal gain or the gain of a spouse, domestic partner, parent, child, or sibling. consequences. Failure to comply with conflict of interest policies shall resort result in removal of board committees and leadership roles. The scope of this conflict of interest is the conflict of interest applies to all members of the school board.
They support communication in every form. They know sign language. They use devices. They help with hygiene. These ladies have to safely navigate encounters with all types of do bodily fluids. They have to lift immo and mobile students and change diapers frequently throughout the day and they have to assist with toilet training needs for the majority of their students. They assist and respond to medical needs alongside our amazing nurse Laura Vieti. They complete tube feeds, make sure students get the appropriate amount of water, not too much, not too little. It's very important. And they watch diligently for changes in behavior that could suggest seizures or aspiration. They work closely with our physical therapists, our occupational therapists, and our speech and language pathologists to make sure that the high needs that their students have are met, and that they have the appropriate accommodations in all settings. I mean, we're going to the movie theater for one book, one school.
A new initiative that we are very excited about is our grade level bring your family member to school math days organized and presented by our exceptional math team consisting of interventionists uh Kelly Damrosio and Deb McGillic and math coach Jen Fitton. These one-hour workshops are held during the school day. Um and we invite students and families to come together to play games designed to deepen students conceptual understanding of math and practice math skills. So last month we held uh workshops for fifth graders and fourth graders and their families. Both workshops um were very well attended and I think enjoyed by all. The concept of holding short events during the school day is, in my opinion, brilliant, especially when you consider the fact that is often easier for caregivers to step away from work for an hour or two um to attend a school event than it is to try to get to the family to a family night that competes with dinner and homework, sports, and other activities.
So you know for any continued improvement in the district, we're going to have to continue to sub support the student support area um in the future. But yes, the answer is yes. We've had a lot of participation in this year's budget uh and collaboration and the principles, you know, were great. It was great to hear what they needed. It was good dialogue. It was great um you know, Mike to be to to hear that from on the school side. you know, you do a lot of accounting all day long, but to really hear the needs of the school system um built helps to build an understanding and a vision for financial planning for the future. Uh what were the community's three type priorities? Good question. I don't have it with me, but uh on in hand, uh after school programming, safety and security was another one.
>> So that's I was going to ask we just threw out 80,000 obviously that not a solid number but are we talking 80,000 to keep things the way they are or 80,000 after reducing to 12 per grade and four days a week? >> Well, you're still probably going to need three teachers and three parents for >> that's fine. >> If you had 12 kids and The other thing that we're actually doing a survey on right now is to considering and I didn't get this on here because I found this out after I did the online zoom but like for us that apply as a program that's trying to reprint we have to have two new components in our program. If you don't have two new components your applications out so listening to some of the ideas they're not like we're considering proposing to go out fifth grade and travel down and join our program.
We will have the end of the nine weeks there, that first week of March. Um, but then we have a full week off for spring break and then Easter falls really weird. So, you're going to have a couple days off in March there, too. So, March gets really scrunched down really quick when you're figuring those days off to resemble what our calendar has looked like in the past. Um it does still give a week off for Thanksgiving. A lot of the feedback on that um was positive from last year. Um we did have a couple concerns from a couple high school teachers, middle school teachers, just trying to get them rained in again after a week off for Thanksgiving. Um and then December does give us still our full two weeks off for Christmas break as well. Now, the one thing I do just want to turn your attention to is uh I haven't heard a lot of information the past couple days in the legislature about the Labor Day bill, but there was a bill that um was gaining some support to move the start date for all public schools after Labor Day.
>> Good evening board members. Good evening um superintendent. with us. I uh have the January board report ready. Some highlights that I'd like to mention uh for January. There's a few uh highlights that I'm very proud of. Uh first of all, thank you Miss Ann Cordon and Rick and um behavioral health because again we had successful uh workshops for substance prevention this time around. Last time was the suicide um prevention uh workshop and this time was a substance prevention. Uh then we had our first ever boy all boys um mind body and medicine with Aaron Lopez and it's been um a success baby steps but has been great. Another highlight is that we have eight dually enrolled TOCC students. And um a big highlight that you'll see also on the on the board video is that 25 students got to build and keep their own telescope.
May 7th we'll be at the park and then we'll get back early in the morning on May 8th. That's all I have. So does anybody >> Yeah. Would you say cadence night again? What? >> February 19th. Thank you. >> Yes. >> How many um students have signed up to go on the trip? >> 60. Yeah, >> it's a good group. >> It's about half. >> Yeah, it's close. >> Pretty close to half. >> That's That's a good number.
So, thank you. >> Any other comments? >> My name is uh Matt. I um at a link as well. Uh, one of the things I I was listening to Logan speak earlier and he was talking about the constrictions that he has for the time and and the the pace that you had throughout the year. Uh, when I completed my doctorate, mine was on reducing the negative stress in a high achieving student. And as here at Stevenson, obviously, we have a plethora of high achieving students. One of the largest things of the data that came out of there was finding ways to minimize their conflict. And I think whenever we've been noted uh through what Logan was stating, even though it had nothing to do with this topic, these kids get on a path of of having a lot of things get crammed in at certain points and and they want to broaden their horizons, get more information uh and and put theirel in more leadership positions.
>> Uh I a 177 I think throughout the year. So I picked up bowling about like competit like serious bowling about six months before the actual season. I I kind of got back into it. Uh I had like already purchased a ball before that. But it was definitely a shock coming in seeing all these guys bowling like 200s and I'm like [laughter] wow it's really different here. Uh but thankfully to coach Gan, he was able to coach me up a bit and I started averaging around 180 towards the end of the season. So that was pretty solid. >> I my average was a 131.1. I couldn't know how to spin the ball when I did this liar league. The this this person that taught me how to bowl straightand and then I haven't learned how to cove. That's why my average is 131 ball. So was like a JB bowler.
Did not know that. That was a big surprise. And so Mr. Richard Baxter Irvin rose through resilience and skill and really became a part of shaping the village of Asiggo. Many of the structures in older Asiggo he probably had a hand in building and really he was a me. We talk about the trades quite a bit. We hear about the importance of the trades and here was a gentleman whose history um we can look back to where he brought that craftsmanship, that perseverance and that sense of belonging in our community. What I have come to learn is that Black History Month is not simply about remembering the past. It's about recognizing that the past lives in us, our families, our communities, and the places we call home. It is not something just for people of African descent. is for all Americans to really understand that it's our history, not their history, someone else's history.
Whereas Joel Paul has earned the respect of the entire school community for his high standards and expectations. Whereas the highest level of distinction given by the Avon Community School Corporation is accommodation from the board of school trustees. Therefore, let it be resolved Joel Powell as is hereby commended for his success and achievement. >> Thank you so much. >> Y that's important. Board members, I'll um take a motion. I move that the board of school trustees approve the accommodation for Mr. Joel Pal as presented. Second >> motion by Jennifer, seconded by Kim.