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district 308 board of education meeting can i have a roll call please mrs doyle mr gatewood mrs johnson present mrs croner here dr marina present mrs simonton president mrs swanson president please rise for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all on behalf of the board of education i would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our residents and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system residents interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls your name i ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback comments are limited to three minutes per person for a total of 30 minutes tonight i will read up to three email comments at the beginning with students if any being given the priority these will be prioritized in the order they were received starting with our meeting in september we will only be reading emailed comments that come in from our students should we have to restrict the number of attendees to meetings this would change no discussion of personnel matters or responses to questions are permitted the board does not participate in discussion during public comment follow-up to your questions or concerns will be addressed by administration through the contact information provided on the comment card thank you we have an email from melanie mcallister dear board of education hi i appreciate you taking the time to listen to me about this topic i am very concerned about the children in this school district there have has been an issue over at boulder hill elementary school with the air conditioning not working in the building this is a very serious safety issue that needs to be addressed right now it's over 90 degrees and children are sweltering in their face masks at that building they said it could take two weeks to get temporary air conditioning units this is absolutely unacceptable the children are very hot without air conditioning this cannot go on much longer something needs to be done also there was a letter sent out to the broker preschool parents that they were delaying starting preschool by five days because of not having enough bus drivers this is absolutely unacceptable because the majority of kids are at brokaw preschool because they have an iep or they are at risk students these are their children that have fallen behind even more academically by the pandemic the iep students and the at-risk students and now you are planning to delay these kids getting access to preschool that's incredibly troubling to me it seems like you have not looked into other options at all such as sending letters out to parents explaining the situation maybe they could drive their kids to preschool the first five days or carpool with another family i also know that there are other elementary schools that maybe have one to two classrooms empty that could be used for preschool maybe there could be an email a list of parents that could carpool the other issue i wanted to bring up is you said there would only be three public sorry excuse me be three public comments per topic however last week you allowed seven comments about the swimming coach and then only three people can talk about eliminating face masks that's not fair you need to have the same rules for everyone you need to allow comments per topic and you are not following your own rules for public comment you need to follow your own rules and listen to everyone's opinion even opinions that are different than your own thank you and this is from anna bosco please view the below linked presentation regarding the mandate of student masking there is extensive research data indicating conclusively that mask mandates are detrimental to students learning capabilities and overall health a study at a german university collected reports from 330 plus doctors and found 26 000 complaints from children wearing masks they found that 68 of students reported adverse effects including 50 percent increased anxiety 40 percent increased of shortness of breath panic attacks facial rashes dental disease headaches and more there have been more coveted related suicides in children than coveted deaths i understand that the school mask mandates are handed down from the state at this time i implore the school board of district 308 to join parents in fighting to reverse this harmful and unnecessary policy masks for children in school should be optional to be decided by parents and students based on that student's individual needs and there is a link www.canva.com design slash d a e f t s h g six z y slash view thank you michelle trager good evening my name is michelle trager i'm a parent in the district i have four children in high school level junior high level entering kindergartner and my kids are students in special education gifted education and dual language so when i see one of the just one of the priorities for the vision 308 takes care of like all my kids right there but tonight i want to talk to you about next month being fetal alcohol spectrum disorder awareness month and all of you have received emails from me at this point about this proposed legislation the fasd respect act i understand that as a as a school board you may not be able to publicly advocate for that but every single one of you as individuals should be contacting your let your legislators we've already had productive discussions with aids from senator duckworth and senator durbin's office and we also need to talk to our representatives fasd is an invisible disability only 10 percent of students affected with it actually have the facial features that you might associate with alcohol exposure most of them have iqs in the normal range however their executive functioning dramatically reduces their ability to get through daily life without accommodations and support the prevalence of fasd is estimated conservatively to be one in twenty that's two and a half times the rate of autism and we have a lot of kids in the stars program in this district one in twenty means every single one of our classrooms every single playground every single sports team has at least one student who is impacted by prenatal alcohol exposure it it cannot be outgrown it's a lifelong disability when i see the concerns about sel and mental health i think it's important to know about a 2019 study of the us adolescent population that was 17.2 for suicidal ideation and two point four percent for serious attempts in the fasd population it's 35.2 percent with suicidal ideation and 13 reporting at least one attempt in that year people with fasd have nine ninety percent of them also have a comorbid mental health diagnosis when i look at envision 308 i want you to consider that success in your sbl and your professional development will not be successful unless you take into account fasd in the pandemic the rate of binge drinking by women of child bearing age went up 41 so when you are considering envision 308 what does that look like in 2026 you need to be thinking about the incoming kindergartners who have been impacted by fasd thank you so much for listening thank you is that ill okay thank you board member comments i just wanted to um say that i'm happy that students and staff are back to school i know my kids were actually excited to go back to school which is i think a very common theme and i know that just like any other school year the first weeks can be a little rough in a few areas and there's some things to work out but i'm confident that those things will be taken care of and i'm hoping for a great school year with many positive things to come and just thank you for all the hard work to all of our teachers who have just i know they're excited to be back in their classrooms with students and i appreciate all of their hard work and wish them great school years i'm sure there will be some unique struggles this year and i hope that they would reach out if there's any way that even i personally could support them thank you i'll just piggyback on ruth here that i know as a parent seeing my own child's children's smiles when they've gotten home from school has been amazing and i did not realize how much we had lost really by not being in school and just how much happier and alive they they really are with being in school again and so i'm really grateful that we've been able to make that happen it has been really joyful even just seeing the buses in in the community again and i'm really grateful to our administration and staff for the around-the-clock work that i know you guys have put in to make this happen i know that some things have happened outside of our control with air conditioning and things like that but um i know we're working on it and that people are working on it around the clock and just grateful that we're back in school and grateful for all the hard work thank you um if everyone's had a chance to speak we'll move on to board committee reports okay so eugene would you mind telling us about the our first finance and facilities advisory committee meeting yes i can it was a great meeting just to get to know all of the new new members of the committee we had an opportunity to go over the expectations of the finance facilities facilities uh committee and we also had a chance to review even uh i'll call it finance one-on-one with dr pesky was able to go through that just to help us to understand and to know and to even refresh us on uh the school district's finances and what to expect so that when we're getting ready to make decisions we'll understand the context in which those decisions are being made and so we after welcoming everybody on the on the within the committee we're also still considering the was it 2020 plan for uh most of our facilities many of them being built around the same time so now we're working on doing assessments of all of our facilities to see what mechanicals or systems are at at a critical need to be either fixed and or replaced and then how do we accommodate that and within the budget and so we're also looking forward to dr pesky so i won't steal this thunder uh for the rest of for later on in the meeting we'll give an update on the proposed budget for uh for upcoming year thank you does the board have any questions for eugene about the committee okay over to you dr spartman well thank you dr moreno so good evening board as you all know we uh welcome back to over 17 000 students on august 18th uh and we we've as you said we've had a great start to the school year um it was great to have our students back after 18 months of either remote or hybrid learning on wednesday we had all of our district administrators uh out and about in the in the buildings uh helping out the administration in any way any way they could i had the opportunity to be at oswego high school where they welcomed students the staff welcomed the students with the band playing and the cheerleaders cheerleading and the kids walking through the big inflatable panther which was uh it provided a very welcoming atmosphere and i know all the schools did you know similar types of things and that was very nice as you know school district 308 and school districts across our nation are dealing with a shortage of bus drivers uh when we found out that the just before school was about to start that our service providers were not going to be able to provide or cover the routes our transportation department worked around the cloud around the clock to collapse routes and do their best to make sure we had transportation for the first day of school on august 18th and they did an excellent job we did have some delays and drop-offs on wednesday the team came back together on wednesday night and made the adjustments for thursday and the drop-offs after school were much better this past weekend we had to make a difficult decision to delay the start of the early learning uh students until august 30th as we work out our transportation needs and we sent out a communication to staff and parents of our early students on saturday informing them of the changes and we will continue to communicate throughout the week once we have those routes and packages all set to go last friday night at our high schools we had oswego high school had their annual pantherfest and here at oswego east they had their annual blue and silver bash and i think i know a couple of you were able to attend some of those events so if you had the opportunity to go to those events i know you had a very good time because they do the high schools do a very nice job of putting on a very friendly family-friendly atmosphere last week i had the opportunity to meet our meet with our student ambassadors and i can say that they are very excited with about joining the board on september 13th and today i along with elizabeth palatine and andrew gotthealth visited boulder hill elementary school as you know the air conditioning is currently out at boulder hill the district has installed portable units in all rooms and along with box fans in all classrooms a matter of fact when i was there they were they had another seven portable units that were dropped off so we have some larger classrooms or larger areas where we're putting two of those units in the in the in the in the classes the classes are warm you know the temperatures in the rooms range from 78 to 81 degrees while i was there i was there about noon i know in the morning it's cooler at night we're drawn in the 60 degree air um but part of the issue is we're we're maintaining the ventilation so the hvac systems are continually going so as the day warms up it's pulling in cooler air as we're trying to keep those rooms cool as we continue to ventilate ventilate the school the uh the gymnasium is air conditioning is working that's a standalone stand-alone unit and uh-oh i think my mic went off did it there we go okay so the air the gymnasium is a standalone unit so that's uh the for physical education the rooms are cool the room is cool and the uh that also acts as a cooling center for the kids when if the teachers need to bring them down and i saw a lot of different classes that were out in the outside under the trees they were didn't seem to be bothering the kids and the staff and everyone are dealing with the issue at hand as well as they can they understand that we're waiting on a part to be fixed and we're trying to expedite that arrival that part as quickly as we can i just like to thank everyone involved at the school you know the building engineer the district maintenance everyone that's put in all the good work to ensure that they're as comfortable as can be so as you can see there's a lot of things happening around the district and that is my report for this evening so thank you thank you can i get a motion to approve the consent agenda i make a motion to approve all items under consent including 6.1 minutes from the august 9th 2021 board of education meeting open and closed session the august 12 2021 special board of education meeting open and closed session and 6.2 to acknowledge the foia requests received by the district second mrs simonton hi dr marino hi mr gatewood hi mrs swanson um mrs croner hi mrs johnson hi all right item 7.1 is an annual intergovernmental agreement that is brought before the board tonight's agreement is in regards to the kendall county food pantry and the school district are there any questions in regards to the agreement and what has been presented for the board for this evening for information i just said one question this is a an older agreement so we're just renewing correct that's correct that was all i had okay thank you any other questions with it all right item 7.2 is a recommendation of new board advisory committee members for the equity policy and legislative and teaching and learning committees the board chairs have gone through the applicants and are recommending the new members to these committees are there any questions on this informational item okay item 7.3 is an annual ten is the annual tentative budget presentation our chief financial officer dr pesky will be providing tonight's informational presentation it's important to note that we do have the september 13th board of education meeting to answer any additional questions the board may have prior to us asking the board to approve the budget on september 27th so with that dr petzke thanks dr sparlin board of education i'm very happy to present this my first tentative budget presentation to the school district 308 board members i do want to acknowledge up there two things that this was presented with a lot of help from folks in the finance department two of those key players were debbie smith who works as our district bookkeeper and carrie chamberlain who also assisted a great deal on this another thing to point out on the title slide this is uh talking about what eugene was talking about a little bit of our finance 101 and i think it's important to point some things out that i take for granted that maybe some new board members don't necessarily know and for that fact maybe some uh folks in the community but up here you'll notice it's just a little thing but f uh 2021 2022 that's this school year that we're in um some people don't necessarily know that fy22 this school year we refer to it as fiscal year 22.
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have we heard from nikki no okay all right good afternoon i've been given the magical signal that it is 6 30. so i welcome all of you to the school board meeting of the bartholomew consolidated school corporation this is one of our regularly scheduled meetings and i very much appreciate all of you being here so thank you we start our meetings with the pledge of allegiance and if you're able i'd ask that you rise and join us [Music] and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice all right thank you very much there are five of us in attendance giving us a quorum so i will call this meeting to order we always like to share and start with recognition of our mission and vision which you see here on our screen these are what guide the decision making that we'll be making this evening so just so you're aware of those guidelines as well as our high expectation objectives listed here on the screen and then also listed behind us here as a board so i love these parts of the meeting because i just love playing with the gavel um the part the first thing that we have on our agenda this evening is our three different public hearings and i am going to turn to dr phillips to help us through these so i need to gavel out of our regular meeting i'm gaveling in isn't this fun i'm gaveling into our first public hearing and just as a reminder this is our second public hearing to take any public comments on the proposed bond issue of 13 plus million to be doing some renovation on several of our elementary schools so i'll turn to dr phillips to offer some suggestions or summary of these bonds thanks thank you dr shedd just a reminder anytime a school corporation is going to issue bonds for a facility renovation project they're required to hold two preliminary determination meetings we held one at the last board meeting public notice of these were published in the republic on july 28th and dr bozeman provided a summary of the projects on at the i think it was july 19th board meeting those projects include a complete renovation of parkside uh hvac at schmidt elementary school and then roofs on three different buildings and solar on one of those one of those roofs total of the bond is estimated to be 13.58 million dollars and the net impact on the tax rate is zero as we timed the issuing of this debt with both the refinancing of existing debt and old debt as it rolls off of the books so with your permission dr shed you can take any public comments all right thank you very much so one of my uh terms is twofers so it sounds like twofers to be able to do a bond to do some important renovations in our elementary schools and at the same time not impact or increase in any way our tax rate so if there are individuals that have comments to make about this particular bond i'd be more than happy to hear them now all right mr phillips hearing none i will gavel out of the second preliminary determination public hearing and i will move on to our project public hearing and this is very specific to one of our pop projects so mr phillips if you summarize that one for us sure i apologize for the repetitive nature of these two public hearings there's just no getting around the legal requirements when we're issuing these bonds this is the public hearing prior to the request for approval for you to approve the actual project itself as opposed to the issuance of the bonds and so it's very repetitive but essentially this is then approving the project's scope to include the renovation of parkside uh hvac schmidt the additional roofs and solar projects at the other building so again same project different context for the public hearing all right thank you very much so again we offer the opportunity for anyone to share their thoughts their comments about this opportunity to improve parkside as well as our hvac and a couple of in one building i think one too and some roofs along with solar panels yes sir it will not that's that's part two of the twofer are there any other comments all right we're out of that one and we are on to the next and this is a particular hearing as to the 2021 additional appropriation this is required when we will be spending more than the budget was approved for those who view who have not sat through our meetings before we approve our budgets almost a year and a half before we actually start spending so as you can imagine that's a little difficult to outguess as well as we do with cash flow issues as it relates to getting our our funds from property taxes from the county so i again i will turn to mr phillips to explain this one thank you dr shed this one is is completely different this is as dr said mentioned this is whenever we're going to spend money in excess of what the approved budget was for this calendar year and thankfully this the state legislature in this last session increased state support that actually tuition support per student tuition to support starting in july so that took effect in july and so we had a significant amount of new revenue that was unexpected when the budget was passed and so we have begun expending those those dollars in a number of ways the first additional appropriation request is specific to the education fund that's 2.2 million dollars those those funds will pay for three items number one uh covered stipends and added days that we paid in the second semester of the 20 20 21 school year that have already been expended the nine percent support staff increase that began on july one and then anticipated teacher salary increases be the collective guarding process but we cannot wait until after november to do an additional appropriation request and we won't have time before the year is over so those are anticipated items there just on the uh the teacher salary increases the second part of the additional appropriation request is specific to the operations fund it's 363 thousand dollars and it is only for support staff increases the support staff members that fall on the operations side of the budget there you go are there particular comments that people would like to offer regarding this additional appropriation all right thank you mr phillips for guiding us through these our public hearings are now over and we are on to our recognitions so super exciting and here comes miss dr kuk good evening yes very exciting indeed this evening we would like to recognize our 2021 bcsc teacher of the year so at this time i'd like stacey dowd to come up and join me as i say some wonderful things about her stacy joined bcsc in 1990 as a science teacher at columbus north she has taught the content areas of chemistry biology and physical science she has been a member of several professional organizations to assist her growth as an educator and has been a part of many different committees while at columbus north there are a few colleagues that wrote letters of recommendation on her behalf denise fryer richardson department chair in the audience here nick williams bcsc technology director and out he is a former student and co-worker and alex wayley a former student and current c4 instructor a few of their quotes the most important reason that stacy is deserving of the teacher of the year award is the ultimate impact that she has had on her students her ability to inspire a love of science goes far beyond motivating students to actively engage in her science classroom she has literally inspired thousands of students throughout her career to pursue further experiences in advanced high school science classes science extracurricular activities and even careers in science in my 35 years of teaching i've never known anyone more deserving of recognition of her ability to inspire students through innovative and effective teaching strategies and her dedication to continual learning the teacher profession and the success of her students and peers another recommendation stacy is the only person i was fortunate enough to have as a teacher a co-worker in the science department and appear in educational technology well what i admire most about stacy is her drive to constantly improve as an educator some teachers have been exceptional online teachers in-person teachers hybrid teachers and leaders in educational technology for their buildings but no one in bcsc has done all of it except stacy dowd as an instructor stacey brought great energy and passion into the classroom that motivated her students and challenged us to think creatively about chemistry and its applications she demonstrated a great care not only for her appreciation for the subject but also the students in the course and supported students that have paced at their own learning i am now in a unique position to teach now at columbus north and have seen that her energy and passion for teaching can be seen not only by her students but also by other faculty she demonstrates an eagerness to collaborate with and foster community with teachers i see stacy as a role model for the kind of teacher that i strive to be as i grow and develop my own teaching style so this evening as we present her with the award we do have two plaques one plaque will be hung in the entrance of the admin building that has our two so far bcsc teachers of the year last year many summers this year stacy dowd so that would be a recognition to enter those and then she also this evening receives her own teacher of the year plaque that she gets to have and represent so this time i'm going to turn it over to stacy because she has a few words she would like to share almost a hundred years ago now a young teacher named aina was standing on the corner with some of her friends they were attending the annual indiana teachers conference while they were chatting a dashing young teacher john pulled up in his new car and even though john and aina had never met aina told her friends i'm going to marry that man aina's words were prophetic as the couple later eloped to paris illinois why do i tell this story because i believe context is crucial to understanding you see john and iona were my grandparents ana ty ina taught homacon art and john taught math and physics the two they had two daughters my mother and my aunt who were raised to believe that education is the foundation of one's success and that pursuing an education can be transformative to their own children they passed on a love for learning and a reverence for education even though i have always valued the educational process i i feel that i did not choose education instead it chose me i discovered that i loved being a teacher i also discovered that teaching is a lot harder to do well than i could have ever imagined and to be a good teacher i needed to keep learning new things even before i knew its name i was looking for ways to implement udl so i started looking for good ideas at conferences during trainings and from my peers i am so fortunate to teach in a system that promotes and explores udl so so thoroughly i feel that there is still so much to learn i would not be standing here today if i had not learned so much from the many talented faculty at north and bcsc and had had the support of my family and my school so thank you all and thank you denise for nominating me for teacher of the year lastly i need to thank my students they have taught me how to be how to better teach them a few years ago i had a student sincerely ask mrs dowd why do we have a lesson on the last day of school i tried to explain how important every minute of my students education was to me and i ended up by saying that i felt i was called to teach and so he asked do they call you every day and i said no these days they just text and we do have a little bit more news she deserves that applause but i would like susie bruin to come up here thank you so much i'm susie brown with the where am i with bcsf the school foundation i was just so excited i'm trying not to cry because that was a wonderful story so thank you um but be on behalf of myself angie emma our community development coordinator and our board of directors and all of our donors we want to give you this gift of 500 to thank you for all you've done and we are honored to live our mission of supporting bcsc teacher students and staff so thank you congratulations thank you if you would like to take that to your classroom [Laughter] thank you very much we can't thank you enough for all that you're doing for our students all right next is the opportunity for an update on our coveted plan of action dr roberts thank you dr shedd i'm assuming josh or nixon we get a chance to get a picture with stacey and that big check at some point in time okay already okay thank you just making sure that that that happened congratulations stacy very very well deserved all right i'm just going to take a few minutes just to review uh where we are with uh covet 19 unfortunately this has been a set agenda item since uh i believe june well march of last year i guess my first started time has gotten away from us a little bit so just updating some information from our last meeting which was two weeks ago august the 9th our color stays the same with the cdc and department of health updated they update their color designations for each county every wednesday and so we'll see what we are this coming wednesday but as of last week we're at 2.5 just north of that red one there which is jennings county north and a little west so at 2.5 is where we are which is orange the local information so the community's covet 19 task force on its website each monday and thursday presents updated information so the information from today which although today is the 23rd they grabbed yesterday's data to get it posted and ready to go so it does say august the 22nd new positive cases in the community 15 that was yesterday's number and then hospitalizations were 29 that is down from 35 toward the end of last week the test turnaround time is stable below one which is a good thing to have if somebody is getting a test taken or administered that is a quick turnaround and then our local or internal information we talked about this quite a bit the last time that we we know that we get recommendations and receive all kinds of information from people around and above us whether it be at the federal level the state level even the county level in terms of numbers and information but the most important numbers to us as an organization would be what's happening internally and so these are the cases that we currently have as as just from a perspective standpoint first quarter of 2020 2021 last school year uh through fall break we had 29 positive test cases uh since the beginning of this school year so the first 12 days we count friday august the 6th through today so these are numbers actually updated at the end of today august the 23rd we have 107 positive test cases that is 94 students and 13 staff members identified within those cases are 698 close contacts and then 426 symptomatic individuals released have missed some time from school as they have uh went through the the testing cycle or whatever the case might be an important note on the close contacts the 698 is that those not every one of those come from our positive cases we might have a staff member or a student who is a close contact from something this weekend or some other event that was outside of school but because they are a close contact because of covet 19 they do count the data for us and so this is information that we keep track of and submit to the indiana department of health added perspective in terms of that 107 when we look at information from last year again i cited the first quarter of 29 positive test cases through fall break we went to e-learning on november 9th of last year so on friday november the 6th we made that determination and started e-learning on november 9th and remained in e-learning through winter break and then coming out of winter break our secondary students went hybrid and element elementary students were back in the buildings but on that date we were at 106 positive test cases and that was 70 students and 36 staff members so still a lot of information we're trying to glean from that in terms of what that is telling us but the the most obvious thing is that we have many more positive cases within the first couple of weeks the school year than we did a year ago and numbers that arrival rivalling the first three plus months of the school year so just information for you in terms of that perspective i do not have any additional recommendations in regards to the cova 19 plan itself at this point i'll take any questions that you have sure thank you are there questions my colleagues might have can you elaborate on closed contacts and who's who's not in class because of them yeah so it's it's um i don't have right off the top my head dr shed the number of students versus staff but those and even today that 698 is the number of close contacts out of the building for each of the days of the two weeks so that is not reflective i appreciate the question as i shape that back up that is not reflective of how many kids are out today because of close contact that is the total number of days missed i guess or or number of people within potentially dave's miss that we've had over the two weeks uh but at the close contact as a reminder of how that's identified is that it is uh six feet within six feet for 15 minutes or more and that's an accumulative amount so it's not um if if i spend six different minutes in your person within six feet three times that's 18 minutes that would be the then in close contact by the definition and what we're required to follow if it is if the individuals are masked is three feet so the mass do at least allow us to potentially cut in half the number of close contacts because we're operating with a three foot radius as opposed to a six foot one all right there are other questions yes mr stenner doctor said i the similarity of the numbers between the day in november last year when we closed school nine months ago went all virtual and today is kind of striking but i know we've learned a lot and we're managing things differently can you comment a little bit on why a year ago was appropriate to close schools and why that's not a suggestion that you're entertaining today it's a really good question mr stenner because as as time has evolved and we've tried to understand covet 19 better and how we can manage the circumstances and situation the major difference in these numbers in our decision last year's staff because if we recall when we made the decision to go to e-learning it was driven more by our inability to fully staff buses and classrooms because the number of people that we had not only because of the positive cases but also the close contacts of adults and that created a situation where we had to hit the pause button and then that lasted as cases continued to build an increase within the community did not allow us to come back to school easily following thanksgiving break but the staff member difference is the difference there we are having less staff members also having to quarantine important to note with a close contact and a reminder is that if there's a vaccinated versus unvaccinated quarantine situation so if vaccinated individuals are not required to quarantine if unvaccinated they are so our staff looking at number of staff members who may be close contacts may not having to be quarantined at this point in time so it is it's a staff response or answer to the difference at this point thank you excellent point thanks for the clarification anyone else i do have one thing dr roberts so you mentioned the three foot versus six foot in terms of uh close contacts and it's hard to say i guess but would you say it would be a safe guess that those close contacts that number would be probably well over a thousand if students and staff were unmasked yeah hard to say the percentage increase mr grimes but certainly much more than we would have because identifying people in a classroom for example within six feet versus three feet again it would sound like it's double but it's not um as as we go through that so the number would be greatly increased all right thank you very much for the update it's an opportunity now in our meeting for a public comment and if i can just as a reminder of how this all works i will identify the individuals as in the order in which you've signed in please make a point please share your name so that we do have that recorded and we do have people watching live stream on our meetings and we have this wonderful little timer here to my right we ask that comments be made for a limit of three minutes out of respect for everyone that would like to share their comments this evening so if you will please honor that and the last thing i'll say is if your comments have already been repeated thank you will recognize that you're here but i don't know that myself and my colleagues need to hear it the same things again so i would ask you to honor that suggestion as well all right the first person on our list is katie rogers so good evening my name is katie rogers these are my two youngest boys grover and dean grover is nine and in the fourth grade dean is eight and in the third grade both boys attend school at csa fadria i have an older son john who is a freshman at east today i am here to stand up for them to stand up for their future for the future of my one-year-old daughter errol who isn't yet school-aged is i am their voice i'd like to share with you lyrics from pat benatar's song hell is for children as it applies to this situation they cry in the dark so you can't see their tears they hide in the light so you can't see your fears many say that masks don't have a negative impact on our children's health i know you want to hear facts that these are our facts it is a fact that the people making this decision for my children do not see their fears it is a fact that the people making this decision for my children do not see their tears it is a fact that the people making this decision for my children are not there when grover comes home from school and has to lay down nauseated falling asleep for the night without dinner or a shower because he spent the day wearing a mask overheated dehydrated inhaling his own exhaust it is a fact that the people making this decision for my children don't know that dean suffers from speech challenges and has participated in speech therapy since pre-k these people don't hear dean when he looks at me and says i'm sorry mom people already can't understand me if i have to wear a mask at school i just shouldn't talk at all these people say that we need to protect our community and to protect our children but who is going to protect john grover dean and errol it certainly isn't all of them and at this point it isn't even you my children are being physically mentally and emotionally harmed by decisions being made that are beyond my control and without my consent pat benatar goes on to say because hell hell is for children and you know that their little lives can become such a mess when does it end what is the goal here at what point will you stop putting these children through hell they deserve to know and they deserve better so i ask you to remember this much like the flu and the common cold covet is here to stay it is not going away and neither am i thank you very much next on the list is robert contretes uh good evening i'm robert contrado thank you i'm sorry that's fine i'm not worried about that um i'm gonna try and limit overlap so there are some points that she made that i i'm not going to but i'm here as a concerned parent i sent you guys an email which you all probably ignored i'm still unlawfully blocked on social media from bcsc but i can't stand idly by as you abuse our children we the parents have the soul right and decision to make with our doctors what we're going to do with our children not you the school this is of right you the school board has desert decided to usurp originally i had prepared dozens of peer-reviewed studies about the efficacy of masks or lack thereof dating from 1962 to 2018 peer-reviewed mind you from places like medical journals cdc world health organization different different medical universities such as johns hopkins mayo clinic balboa however it occurred to me as i was reviewing what i was going to say today you guys don't care about facts you don't care about science all you care about is passing your rules to use our children as political pawns you ignored the science between the start of the school year and the two-week incubation period required to determine that the school was actually the cause for the spread of covet you ignore the science that says every covent test is not actually covet 19 but broad spectrum coronavirus which includes sars mers and other common colds you ignored the science that would require you to ask questions like why did new jersey and new york have the single highest numbers of transmission and deaths per 100 000 while they still have the most draconian measures you ignored the science that shows that annual illnesses increase during winter months because people choose to stay indoors instead of getting fresh air the fresh air you so choose to remove from our children's breath by requiring them to wear masks if you cared about the science you would ask why the death rate of pneumonia nationally has increased by a factor of locally from 8.1 to about 14 in bartholomew county per 100 000 people during these mass mandates you care so little for the science that you ignored the studies by the british journal of medicine that determines that during children's most critical learning periods that they are showing an iq drop deficit of nearly 20 points so why the mask mandate i have to assume it's it's a 100 political it raises concerns on what else you're teaching the kids are you not teaching them the scientific method you're not teaching them how to do research to read behind editorial headlines are you not teaching the kids what it what science actually is or are you teaching them to do as i say because i said it are you teaching them dangerous topics like the earth is flat or that their race or gender has anything to do with their success mr contrado could you summarize please your time is up i'm here to say that the evidence shows that you guys are irresponsibly imposing this mask mandate i think it's dangerous it is not for the children and i think you guys need to rescind it immediately and anyone who would vote against it should resign immediately and if not done we will file our taxes under protest and file litigation against the school board dory burton good evening i have four children in bcsc and i am playing a video for you guys to listen to is an emergency please hang on hold on are you guys able to test for the delta variant um so we [Music] um i guess there's not like a specific swap just for that like the swap that we have just [Music] are you there yes ma'am okay i had to ask um someone in the microbiology department because i wasn't sure um but so [Music] the state board of health does do like an experimental thing but a physician or a patient can't request that to be done it's just like it's like sporadically tested but like there's no swab that just looks for the delta okay the coven swab is the copic swab so there's no way to look for that they said okay all right well thank you so much you're welcome thank you bye-bye bye all right so with that being said your guys's whole meeting last time was about how the reason for the mask is because the delta variants so bad for these kids well there's not even a proper way to test for the delta variant so again like the other parent said just a few minutes before me the political theater needs to stop our kids need to breathe and we can and will file to where you guys will no longer get funding you will no longer get our taxes we make decisions for our kids not you guys you all ought to be ashamed of yourselves and you need to resign so next on the list i apologize there's not a first name n burton hi my name is nolan and i am in sixth grade at southside elementary and i'd like to say a few words although i am not a tax paying citizen yet i have yet chosen whether i'd be the choices that are made will one way or another affect me in the future i don't like the choices that have been made for me recently mass mandates i would prefer that the choices be left to the ones currently being mandated as children i've lived my life first for far being able to choose what i do and dealing with the reward or punishment you will you now have made a choice for me remember we are the future and what you do to us now may affect you in the future thank you thank you and again i apologize there's not a first name it's r burton good evening my name is rylan and i am currently a freshman at columbus north high i feel that my american right has been taken away by this country by choosing for me that i must protect myself the county has not mandated whether or not i must wear a condom so why try to protect me now most stis have a low mortality rate just as covid does so why has the county mandated this but not the other protective measures for more problematic diseases thank you william bradis fredis good evening my name is william broadus and i reside in 4151 columbus indiana and i'd like to speak tonight my concern is for what's going on in america right now in our great state of indiana more specifically what is going on in our schools and across the state you think by the governor passing the buck to the school boards that you have the authority to do what you want but you don't you are overstepping boundaries called the united states constitution the rules you have put in place regarding mass mandates and policies that you have created around cover 19 is absolutely asinine and a violation of our inalienable rights it simply makes no sense these rules vary from no masks to only visitors are required to wear masks and i'm speaking across the state of indiana except after hours because kova can't of course spread after hours to all masks without exception unless you are playing sports of course then there's the whole contact tracing policies that have been put in place where if a child has been tested positive by a test that the cdc says cannot distinguish between influenza and kova 19 they have to be quarantined along with any other student that was around them however neither this teacher school nurse or bus driver has to be quarantined because they are far too important and they are needed on staff this is such a double standard and if the masks work what are you afraid of if the vaccines work then what are you afraid of what are you afraid of anyway for a virus that has such a high recovery success rate why are you ignoring the data that the cdc published less than three months ago regarding mass and children in school this study concluded that while masking then on vaccinated teachers and improving ventilation was associated with lower levels of virus transmission in schools social distancing classroom barriers hepa filters and forcing students to mask did not result in a statistically significant benefit covet 19 possesses little to no risk to children 4.2 million children tested positive for covid and a total of .008 have died what about influenza the cdc shows that 480 kids died from influenza in the 2018-2019 season but no one required mass then in fact cdc stated that in 2020 only 654 children between the ages of 5 and 24 died from covet to put this in perspective out of 3 million 358 814 total deaths across the u.s only 0.019 percent of these deaths were due to covet in this age bracket this is what you're afraid of this has got to stop this is a violating our civil constitutional rights why are you selling out our rights as parents and the rights of our children for some federal funding all in the name of health care well you don't get to determine what is right for our children's health they are not your children they are our children so do the right thing rescind your vote and your determination we the people are tired of the shenanigans thank you mr broadus next on the list is eric grow good evening my name is eric grow we witness things just from the last school board meeting that should outrage everyone no matter their position on this divisive topic you refused around 30 of our constituents voices it's irresponsible and negligent it's bad enough in itself but then a bunch of people in scrubs were let in the doors after they were closed for others that's foul play in surprise they all spoke to present one side manipulative there are medical professionals that support other conclusions from what you had pushed that night we were given the impression you would consider our comments before you decided but consideration was impossible because you voted right after there was a lack of transparency and explanation this could have prevented at least the previous problem if not more i do want to make a point just to say that i do greatly appreciate mr grimes's comments on his vote regarding his vote i encourage everyone else on the board to follow his example of leadership on there you could tell that he put a lot of thought and effort into explaining himself so i greatly appreciate that i am however disturbed by the lack of representation of our community from this board a lack of effort to measure the representation and the lack of explanation of your actions and votes overall i was appalled by the explanations from the school they were repetitive canned answers that clearly trickled down from the top our school board took the advice of medical professionals and made their decision for the safety of all i heard this one a lot we can all agree that we all love our kids and just want what's best for them what a terrible foundational flaw in leadership of course these are all very agreeable statements but they are completely irrational explanations for your decisions as a leader they aren't even explanations they are excuses you can't you can make a terrible decision for the right reason you can simultaneously love our children and hurt them you made a decision and then pawned the responsibility off on quote medical professionals no it was your decision you stand up square your shoulders and own it it's the same political tactic our governor is in the process of utilizing defend your votes with fervor and thoughtful explanation don't just cast them quip an explanation and then sidestep we need to know somewhat intimately you know why you're making the the decisions you are we need to understand where you're coming from we need more transparency when you chose to sit on our school board you chose to put yourself in this leadership role you chose the pressure the importance all of it so do better but if you don't and the school board continues to make decisions from this place this place that is far from truth and transparency and we as a community stay so divided where do you think this is going to lead you can superimpose our current situation right onto the past other school districts have already taken maybe we're six months from where they are now maybe it's five years but the path is clear the case studies are there it only just so happens that this fight is manifesting itself on the hill of mass mandates but if we don't push back this fight will continue to move from hill to hill to hill to everyone sitting on the sidelines parents experts bcsc employees everyone thinking this isn't the hill i'm going to die on know this the real fight is happening whether you want it or not and it isn't over a hill it's much deeper and if this fight is allowed to continue it will be fought on hills like critical race theory vaccine mandates gender fluidity over sexualization and many more mr grow i have to ask you your time is up could you summarize quickly please parents in other districts thought it was just as unlikely to happen in their town as many of us here in bartholomew county do now don't wait for the root cause to encroach upon a hill you are willing to die on take action to stop the problem now before the stakes are too high don't wait for your back to be against the wall don't wait for this fight to knock at your door take action now get involved thank you thank you mr grow next on the list is roy west hi my name is roy west communication is a one of the most important parts of any relationship so i thought i'd just come here tonight to communicate some of my feelings and thoughts i wasn't extremely pleased with the outcome of the last meeting but more than that it was about how it happened i really feel that we as a community had a lack of representation and i think that happened in two potential ways right so during the last board meeting there were limits put on the number of people who could attend the meeting in person i certainly understand the limitations of this facility and you know how it could accommodate people however if that's the case then the meeting should be moved somewhere that can accommodate everyone who would want to attend additionally in the future if we're going to limit attendance i would ask that everyone be required to use the same entrance during the last meeting after admission admission from the main interest was stopped a number of individuals were allowed to enter from somewhere else i think those individuals deserve the right to be heard but not at the expense of others who have been patiently waiting in line i don't think it's too much much to ask that we attempt to try to treat people fairly if we continue to have rather large crowds i would suggest we have a change of venue however i know that's not always possible so if we can't do that i kindly ask that you share the school board fast pass system with everyone so we all have an equal opportunity to attend the meeting the other way that i feel that we you know weren't represented is during the last meeting the plan to implement a mask mandate it passed unanimously that seems very odd to me as this is such a contentious topic so it's it's clear that you know everyone had different options you know different sides there was a pro mask mandate and then pro parental choice if i had to guess on percentages i'd probably say 75 pro parental choice and 25 pro mask that's debatable so let's say at the least it was 50 50.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
okay welcome to august 23rd 2021 regular business meeting of board of school trustees held in public with a start time of 605 this evening if we can start i'll rise we'll ask mr hoffman to lead us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the fire of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice may be seated thank you mr hoffman all right to start our meeting this evening we have patrons comments item 2.1 will be patrons registered to comment on educational issues what i would like to do is we do have at this point we do have six names registered i'd like to go through the guidelines so that everybody understands the board will hear patrons legal residents and center townships or winfield township wishing to comment on comment on educational issues at the regular business meeting of the board of school trustees held in public patrons must sign the sheep provided back the room which we have and when their names are called to add to the address the board they'll move the podium in front of the room state their names spell them we spell them if we need them for record keeping address the topic topic that will be addressed patrons have prepared written statements on a topic they may present at that time a limit of three minutes is allowed to each speaker and this portion of the meeting during which participation public is invited shall be limited to 20 minutes unless extended by a vote a vote of the board speakers are to refrain please from speaking on personal issues and student issues so we can begin we have first on the list jimmy fox if you could come forward to the podium please state your name and address my name is james fox my address is 13036 cleveland street i currently have two students enrolled at lake street elementary i have a concern and two questions well question and two concerns uh on wednesday the kids went back to school on thursday i got a call from my neighbor asking if my first grader daughter was uh being sent home and i said no he said well i have to pick up my little guy uh apparently there was contact in the classroom a kid tested positive uh the parent was pending uh waiting on the test result to come back decided to send the kid to school regardless i never received a phone call from the school uh ten kids from that classroom were sent home my daughter and his son their desks face each other there's four desks in the group they sit across from each other i never got a call from the school i recall last month they were saying that we would get phone calls if there was any possibility of contact i don't understand how there was no phone call i think communication was like a big issue a big topic last month when we talked about it i still haven't gotten a phone call i texted the teacher asked her if she'd give me any rundown how are they determining who was in contact or what she said she didn't have an answer for it so that's that as far as the masks on the bus i know you guys made that a a priority that the kids had to wear the mess on the bus on wednesday thursday and friday as the kids were getting off the bus i noticed a lot of that nine kids getting off probably seven of them were as red as my grip and sweat ask kids what are you guys doing on the bus you jump around you run around now we're just sitting there so there's a sign seating on the buses obviously all the kids from our vicinity of six houses where these 13 kids are they all play together so they're required to sit with each other they have their mass on the windows are up they said that the bus driver has a small fan that blows on her the entire time these kids are sitting in a sardine can for the 25 minutes that they're you know right into school uh on the way home kids are pouring sweat i don't think it's it's healthy for them i talked to a lady that lives down the street she's uh got to stop before us she said her daughter got off the other day and she sat down with her she's been very hot face with red sweating you know i know we're heading into this sir yeah i know we're heading into cooler months and it should get better but something's done they're not even opening the windows on these buses this is kind of crazy these kids are first graders you know they don't know how to do it i think it needs to be looked into and also uh i talked to another neighbor and he has a sixth grade daughter and from my understanding the sixth grade girls are riding the school bus with high school boys i don't know if that's something you guys are aware of but it might be something you want to look into thank you for your comments just a reminder i do believe i stated in the guidance but uh as mr fox came forward as is just comments we won't com we won't you know engage conversation or go through questions during this opportunity to comment so thank you next on our list we have i'm sorry i can't read the first name but it looks like pierce i was small i wish to commend the school board and it's re in its recent decision to not promote critical race theory and all to avoid asking the children at all times expanding on the first issue all parents need to understand what critical race theory is and how it hides under different titles of intersectionality structural racism systemic racism implicit bias white privilege state violence against certain groups power racism colonization so that parents can respond accordingly if these topics come up to quote ronald reagan trust but verify pro-american education not alienating children from their own country is the goal secondly masking i believe works to keep people apart which can be a benefit in crowds masking on buses and possibly in hallways which might become necessary due to variants in the virus which have just appeared such as the delta and lambda which is causing a considerable new infection risk prevention is important with hand washing taking vitamins immunization with vaccine is becoming an obvious need we're indicated and should be strongly recommended and i discuss your concerns and you should discuss your concerns with your doctor just to make it more difficult recommendations change viruses mutate treatments improve so keep an open informed mind and stay healthy thank you thank you [Applause] kaylee chicky my name is kaylee chicky and i live at 1 three four five four cardinal lane cedar lake um first of all i just want to say thank you for um making the mass mandate go away at crown point high school i have um asthma that i was diagnosed with a couple years ago and i have friends that have been diagnosed with the same thing and it made it really hard to breathe in the masks and the positivity definitely is so much better this year i've only been going to school for four days and it's already a better year than last year was and i just wanted to say thank you for that because this is america and it's our right to choose and if people do want to wear a mask then that's also up to them and i haven't really seen any mass shaming or anything of the sort so i just don't really think it's been a problem and i hope that we can continue [Applause] thank you kaylee um olive santos stefano [Music] can somebody help her with a microphone please thank you i just want to make sure everybody can hear her thank you mr angel there you go i just wanted to say thank you for letting us have the choice to wear a mask or not it's so nice to breathe fresh air and see everyone's faces again now we are able to do fun things that we weren't able to do last year [Applause] it's like emily valerius emily valerius 13414 cedar street and cedar lake um thank you for your willingness to listen to the parent concerns and students um i am concerned that there are many more harms oh my topic is quarantining i'm concerned that there are many more harms being done than good quarantining healthy children with close contact for 14 days the isolation lack of social and physical activity and boredom from doing school from home or quite frankly not even doing any school is unmotivating and depressing our children's do everything right everything we ask them to everything you ask them to from taking their temperature sanitizing cleaning dust sitting away from their friends at lunch wearing the mask on and on and they still get punished and shamed and sent home to be isolated even though they are perfectly healthy for doing absolutely nothing wrong and what about the kids in our district whose parents cannot be home with them for 14 days or don't have the capacity to oversee what they are doing or provide them support needed to get school work done the amount of stress this causes to families of healthy children is causing more harm than good they will fall behind and they are not getting a proper education it appears that you are doing things that are not useful to our kids by taking direction from the indiana department of health on this issue who i believe do not take science into account before they put the stuff out there this virus isn't going away no one can make it go away any more than the flu or the common cold before getting the advice from the indiana department of health what if you asked why are we doing things like quarantining healthy children for close contact tracing that we didn't do or don't do for the flu you will be chasing this virus into perpetuity by following this guidance quarantining healthy children with close contact 14 days is not sustainable instead of making decisions based out of fear could there be an alternate alternative solution in may i had a phone call with the superintendent's office and i asked about gathering information on these healthy kids who are being quarantining have they gotten any of the symptoms have they gotten sick and i was told um no that wasn't being done and why not because you know the nurses don't have time for that which is understandable but maybe ask for a parent volunteer to do it or hire an additional admin with the coven funds received collecting this type of data could have served very useful making future decisions and still could what about creating a cover covered waiver parent sign taking all the risk and holding the school corporation harmless to avoid the risk of being sued if that is a fear what if you said we are not going to allow this to go on instead we are going to stand up against this nonsense and we are going to stand for our students we want you to stand in the way of anybody that tries to deny our children a proper education or stand in the way of anybody trying to lock down and isolate our healthy children please stand for the kiddos thank you [Applause] thank you emily and anne and brandon pence this is my son brandon i don't know if you guys can hear me with the mask um cloven has hit my family really hard my son is autistic and takes everything literally when kovid first shut us down he would see somebody walking their dog and he would run screaming back into the house we had no transition this year now i get a phone call after all the schools were closed today to tell me that he gets the quarantine at home until september 4th how is he supposed to get his education now i have nobody to give me answers he just got back into school his first day of school he did not eat or drink one thing at school because he had no place safe to go do you want to tell them some things tell them um i wore my mask every day and um the only time i took it off was to eat stuff did you drink anything yet no why not um i didn't bring my water [Music] so now we are dealing with more anxieties of being told to stay home for two weeks because he was exposed on the bus his brothers was exposed but he made it through his two-week vaccination plus he gets to still go to school how are we going to deal with this i know nobody from special education is going to be able to give me an answer by tomorrow we didn't he didn't even get to make it through a full week of school before he's forced to stay home give us the option to distance learn or something so that we have consistency all year long for him i know you guys can't give me answers but i need somebody to give me an answer give him an answer you have anything else to say tell them how you liked going to school i finally got used to going back to school but um this will make it harder because i'm going back to staying at home why because you were exposed 14 days to keep this kid at home who's coming to educate my kid there's no distance learning how am i supposed to teach my kid all these subjects like seriously i need to know and i want to know now i'm sure that's probably time [Applause] we don't we do not have anybody else signed up for a comment we'll move forward the agenda and this we move forward with the agenda at this time consent agenda dr terrell thank you for your consideration this evening on our consent agenda we have the minutes as presented in 3.1 we have the approval to apply for and receive funding from the ido formative assessment grant we have the personnel agenda and then the voucher registered checks as listed thank you dr terrell you've heard the recommendation to prove the consent agenda as presented do we have a motion to approve moved by mr hoffman and sec by mr angel any questions or comments on the consent agenda all those in favor signify by saying aye hi opposed motion carries 5-0 and action items this evening 4.1 uh american association of teachers of german dutch was a spa german is fun mr harmon thank you mr president seeking your approval this evening for the american association of teachers uh of german for the german is fund grant uh for 400 or 500 and this grant will be used by the german club at uh point high school in order to provide a winterfest uh activities at the middle school hoping that this will then encourage students to participate in german uh when they get to the high school speaking your approval this evening to apply for and receive funding uh from the american association of teachers of german thank you mr harper you heard the recommendation to prove to apply for and receive funding from the american association of teachers of german uh the grant for 500 to support the cphs german club we have a motion to approve uh moved by mr babjack second by mr hoffman any questions for mr hardman if not all is in favor signify by saying aye opposed most curious 5-0 at 4.2 uh approval to apply for and receive the idoe esser ii elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund to grant mr hartman thank you again uh this grant uh seeking your approval to apply for and receive the funding for the elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund two uh grant this is in the amount of one million seven hundred twenty five thousand two hundred seventy seven dollars and twenty seven cents this grant was uh established after the cares act grant that took place uh just after the covent first hit the schools so this was kind of a second-tier uh grant and this is going to pay for uh some of the things that took place last year for a crown point community school corporation that helped us through the situation that we had with online learning the sanitation with career and technical education as well as staff professional development so this evening we are seeking your approval to apply for and receive uh the funding in the amount of one million seven hundred twenty five thousand two hundred seventy seven dollars and twenty seven cents mr hartman heard the recommendation approved to apply for and receive funding from the indian department of education uh grant amount of one million seven or twenty five thousand one million seven twenty five thousand two hundred seventy seven dollars and twenty seven cents do we have a motion to approve second as moved by mr smith and second by mr hoffman any questions or comments from mr hartman if not all those in favor signal f5 by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and then we have 4.3 disposition of obsolete curriculum materials uh back to mr hartman uh this evening uh mr president we're seeking your approval the administration is seeking your approval to dispose of curriculum material that is uh out of date or uh uh worthless being worthless uh we're thinking that we're able to dispose of that in the appropriate ways that are guided by indiana code 522-20 thank you mr hartman you've heard the recommendation to dispose of obsolete curriculum materials uh that meets the requirement of the ic520-22-22 and ic20-26-5-4 and administrative guidelines 7310 we have a motion to approve still moved second moved by mr angel and second investor baby correct second by mr baby any questions or comments for mr hartman on this position of curriculum what typically do we do with those materials well we first thing with the curriculum materials print materials uh students have an option to take those they like and once that occurs then we can sell the materials or dispose them any other questions or comments mr harmon if not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and then 4.4 is the disposition of surplus property we're going to go to mr akiwa thank you mr president um in a similar fashion or vein here the school corporation utilizes on-site stores for furnishings and equipment that are no longer in use at least annually we bring the expansive request or at least we're bringing you an expansive request this time to dispose of or donate these items which are no longer usable or they go unclaimed within the corporation we make every effort in the district to repair repurpose save and use school corporation property but in accordance with the requirements of indiana code 522-22 and board policy 7310 the corporation that has property that has no uh longer any usable life remaining cannot be repaired or cannot be acquired or have any potential resale value we either dispose over a donate exhibit a provides you a list of these items and we are recommending this evening that the board of school testers authorize us to go ahead and dispose of the items listed in exhibit a thank you mr akiva heard the recommendation to authorize the department of buildings and grounds to dispose of the items listed in exhibit a we have a motion to approve second and moved by mr hoffman and second by mr angel have any further questions or comments from mr akiva not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed most carries 5-0 thank you mr akiwa and receive information items we're going to start with the 5.1 superintendent discussion groups uh does anybody do we have anything to there's report to rdc is continuing to use its funds to make improvements to 109th street and continuing their side grants business as usual thank you mr hoffman anything else if not we'll move to uh chief academic officer mr hartman are we all good there thank you mr mr robert thank you very much um as we started the new school year i would like to just commend our support staff work that they do to get us ready at the school level at the district office level at the support center it is truly uh it's a major task to get the school year ready to go with all the components that need to be working together on on the first days knowing that there are hiccups that come our way during that but the work that's behind all of that is commendable getting all things ready to go and uh to receive our to receive our children uh in the community so uh just a thank you to our support for what they do thank you mr harmon how about a director of elementary education mr ramirez thank you mr president and board members i would just like to take this time to thank jillian alonso and the educators out at winfield for their involvement throughout the planning and building construction that has been going on at winfield it's really an exciting building to be able to visit and to see the engaged learning spaces that have been created for our students and the opportunities that our children will have out at winfield and also we are looking forward to starting the design projects and building work for macarthur and timothy ball working with those administrative teams and their staffs in their building so we really appreciate the opportunities to enhance learning and really the educational experience of our students throughout our elementary schools thank you about director of secondary education mr gene fermi oh yeah i just want to recognize our administrative staffs at the high school in the middle schools and all the staff that contributed to the week before school started with our parent orientations and our student orientations these events have been built into our culture kind of took a pause last year and it was great to see them put all that effort in and just the the attendance from our parents and the students that were incoming freshmen and incoming sixth graders at the buildings it was exciting exciting days for them and hopefully it helped them off to a better start for their school year so just appreciate work that was put in prior to the first day of school for that thank you mr g fermi how about uh chief human resource officer mr akiwa thank you mr president i would like to go ahead and also just thank and congratulate the outstanding job done by our uh support staff members particularly uh our custodial crews uh grounds crews getting our buildings in tip-top shape for the start this year uh furthermore um i'd like to shine a little specific focus here on uh pamelonian or food service staff um i'm not sure if you're aware but we have many events that take place meetings and and professional developments in particular the the new teacher orientation we had over 50 new educational staff members that we put through a two-week uh orientation various professional developments and um i i just have to tell you that uh pam's crew is just amazing uh what they do to to support and feed our troops as we get them ready for the school year uh i'd also like to uh thank all individuals and this is support staff administrators and teachers you know they all take take turns to fill particular roles to onboard and sort of plug in our new teachers into the school corporation in our operations and our programs and uh they just did a phenomenal job this year so for all those that uh supported took place and and made the new teacher orientation uh a success this year uh my sincere thanks thank you mr akiwa uh business business department mr reese i have nothing this evening thank you and then we could go to uh director of communications ms allen hi good evening um quick update we're kind of over the hump of back to school so the registration communications and things are slowing down but i am finally starting to work on the first strategic communications plan that the district has ever had this is a two-year plan that looks at some of our most important communications needs including adding additional platforms that we don't have yet but also some much needed training for things that we do have so we've added social media we've added websites and all of those things look really good but how do we make sure that they're working together in a way that's really reaching the maximum potential they can provide a shout out kind of goes to taft middle school they already took me up on the offer for training before i was almost even ready to meet with them so we've already met and they're taking off with some of those suggestions and i'm seeing some improvement already great and uh superintendent superintendent of schools dr terrell so there's several things this evening that i'd like to bring to your attention the first one i just want to start off and have a conversation with the board and with cabinet members who are present regarding covid kind of where we are right now as as a district where we find ourselves after the first few days in school so i'd like to start by just talking first about what are things that we are required to do versus things that are recommended to do so the first one i know was mentioned earlier this evening regarding mask on buses that is a perfect example of a mandate so that has been passed down to all school districts across the country from the at the federal level requiring us to have our kids wear masks on buses so that's that's not something that as a district we can say hey you know what i don't think that that's really applicable i don't think it's a great idea you heard about the students who are hot should we open windows yeah we need to figure out something there the issue of do students wear a mask or not wear a mask is something that is out of our control something that is being required of us so that that would be an example of a mandate another example of a mandate would be quarantining of students so our governor has through an executive order requires school districts to quarantine students now i think it's important for us to understand and talk through um and i'm going to ask mr akiwa to talk through what that quarantine process looks like in just a minute but it's also important for us to understand and acknowledge that last year we quarantined thousands of people and literally saw no direct correlations or transmissions within our buildings we understand that the impact was very significant at the same time we also understand that per the executive order from the governor that's not something where we can say i know we had an individual earlier mentioned and i think she's left why don't you just stand up against them and just say no well there are things where we can make stands and where we can have interpretation and decide recommendations one way or another an executive order from the governor is not one of those areas where we can do that with that being said before i asked mr akiwa to kind of talk us through what that quarantine process looks like any questions about that any comments about that okay mr akiwa can you just talk through and and give us an idea of what that whole process looks like as we identify students who are close actually i do have a question dr terrell there has been some discussion at the county level of the possibility of requiring mass in schools and that again would be something that would be out of our control is that correct that is correct so i might clarify that last year the health department dr vavilala who is our chief health officer here in lake county had the authority per the state to come out and give us a mass mandate and say that masks are acquired in schools massacre acquired and restaurants massacre required in any indoor facility the state legislature changed that and made it so that she could make recommendations but then the whatever group it is so here for us it's our county council that decides what those regulations and requirements can be she makes a recommendation to them at that point in time then they would vote as to if that is a mandate excuse me if they decide as a county council that in lake county they're going to mandate mass in schools and they have the ability to just say just in schools at that point in time that would be another example of something that given the term mandate we would not have any consideration in one way or another she had made that recommendation earlier and the county council did not approve it that is correct correct yeah they met last week and actually that was with her health board to then make a recommendation on to the county council and the board of health didn't have enough people present members present to have a quorum to vote one way or the other for that so mr akiwa if you would talk us through requirements for close contact tracing what that looks like sure um i think first of all it's an important understand that we've challenged all of our administrators to work very diligently to try to understand as best as they can where the students are uh that's seating charts you know where you can get those done and it's very common for teachers to have seating charts so this is not a big ask but we do know that things are a little bit in flux with schedules and whatnot as we begin the school year uh so number one having uh as best control as we can on understanding where students are at a given time uh easier said than done in the classroom and some of our loose spaces like hallways you know cafeterias and you know on buses while we do have seating charts um our routes are still solidifying people are deciding whether they're going to ride the bus or not so we're seeing still a little movement there but we expect by the end of this week that those seating charts should be locked in this helps us understand where our students are but once we're identified with a positive case then our front office or our contact racing team sort of spring into action to go ahead and examine you know where that positive case has been uh in a given day uh within the contact tracing window in the school so i mean literally it's it's a team effort here this is not done by a single person many times it involves a dozen people and sometimes even looking at some video if we have to but we work diligently to make sure that we're identifying those that either meet the requirements to be identified in what's considered to be a three-foot circle or a six-foot circle based on the circumstances you know in hand uh and we we follow that you know precisely as best we can i'll please understand that you know as much as i'd like to think the kids stay in in their seats on the bus the entire bus ride we do know that this may not always be the case and it's hard for the bus driver to be watching out the whole time while they're trying to drive down the road but we do do our best to to pin down exactly where those students are and um then we begin notifying our families um which takes quite a bit of time we have to call our folks to let them know uh whether or not their student's been identified currently we do have the opportunity for those students that have could be of age where they could receive a vaccination they would not have to be contact traced or quarantined if they are asymptomatic not showing any symptoms and vaccinated so these are the procedures we follow i would like to say that we don't have practice in this but we do it's very similar to our efforts last year uh going through this so um i must say if you have any questions for or what like me to further clarify dr terrell um i just want to commend our nurses for just doing a phenomenal job getting all this uh set up and organized and and putting the timing to get it done so one other thing that has already just mentioned with contact tracing and those students who have received the vaccination so this is another example of one of those things that's not something that we can decide if we're going to acknowledge or not so one of the things that as parents are contacted about their student being close contact per the guidelines that we have received for close contact tracing from the state again the requirement per the governor's executive order indicates that if a student has been vaccinated and is not showing any symptoms of the virus at all then they don't have to quarantine that's not something that we get to decide that's something that has been told to us now the question that i've heard and has been expressed is how do we know when students are vaccinated are we requiring them to tell are we asking them we're asking them that's a parent's right to decide if they're going to release that information to us so that way we know at no point in time do we say uh you know if you would go take your kid and get vaccinated or here's a place to go get vaccinated again that's not our responsibility we leave that up to our parents to make that decision about whether they believe their student their child should be vaccinated or not so just another clarification there that fits into the requirements that we are given and why it's okay for those who have the vaccination and are not showing symptoms to not have to quarantine versus those who aren't showing symptoms but have not received the vaccination why they still have to quarantine so just some information there for all of you as you look at that our contact tracing it requires us for those without masks to go to a perimeter of six feet four good question so a point of clarification for this as long as we continue to not require a mask within our buildings it doesn't matter if two people within that classroom have mask on and the rest don't or vice versa 18 of them have mask on and two don't if every student in that classroom and mr aquila correct me or jump in wherever as long as it's not a hundred percent of the students wearing masks within that classroom then everybody has to be at that six foot mark so it's not well i had a mask on mr warney did not so therefore i'm at three feet and he's at six feet that's not how the language that has been passed down to a streets topologically speaking if we did have a masked mandate our perimeter is only three feet that's correct which would reduce significantly the potential number of quarantines that possibility exists so one of the things that we're doing right now excuse me as we said we would continue to review the information that's given to us but then also to look at our own data as we collect it so one of the things that we're doing right now over this first week of classes as we quarantine students we're doing it two different ways one right now based off of that six foot diameter because of not requiring mass within schools but then we were also looking at so if everybody had a mask on what would that impact of the close contact tracing be so that we can compare those numbers and and have that information as we continue to to review all of this information how together um so dr terrell in our classrooms not to debate if their our classroom sizes are appropriate however with the amount of kids in the classrooms have we taken have there been precautions sent down to the teachers to try to stick to a certain format i know we've talked about seating charts and getting them in place that we can do help help our nurses and everyone with contact racing but has there been anything further put in place to so at this time there has not as far as for instance saying everybody has to be in rows facing forward so one of the changes that has come out from the cdc and now the indiana state department of health is that that piece of that three-foot rule if everybody has a mask on and they're facing forward that and they're facing forward has been removed so you could still have students involved in group work you could still have students arranged in their desk where they're facing each other again that's not the requirement the requirement is simply if all students are wearing masks now it goes to three feet did i say that correctly mr akua mr mr hoffman alluded to it that you know everyone it's a high tension world when we talk about what we're doing or opinions but in my opinion to reduce the quarantine to three feet would help tremendously and that's the the one thing i've heard tonight that sticks out the most along with that where we were a month ago when we sat here we see a lot of familiar faces in the crowd this evening um i think things have changed and again we're just talking about opinion but my mind is that things have changed in the world with the amount of spread and the amount of i'd use some examples of schools to the south that may have started a little bit sooner than us and i i just find it hard to believe that we won't follow the same pattern and i'm a little bit more into belief that let's just jump ahead of it and and mandate the masks um it's just a you know express i want to express my opinion to everybody and let let you know how i feel about that and number one objection number one is to keep the kids in school master no mass quarantine contact tracing we do not want to go to a remote learning environment we want to keep the kids in school so that's not something i'm favorable of but i just think it's the the best route yeah i think i think it's early and um you know we're four days into the school year so i'm looking forward to seeing what this week kind of shows us as far as quarantine numbers and um also looking at what the difference would have been uh if we were in a mass situation what those what those actual numbers look like so um that's that's kind of where i stand with it just too early to tell but we'll see we'll see what the future holds doctor general as a point of clarification i think talking about students that have been vaccinated and whether or not they have to a parent has to share that information and my understanding as you indicated the schools would not require that if a parent chooses not to share that information would that student then be treated like an unvaccinated student for purposes of quarantine that is correct i'd like to follow up with mr warney's comments and you know one of the oldest adages in education is the need for seat time there are the butts in the classroom that's where you learn i'm sorry that people are experiencing difficulties but you have to understand there's only so much we on this end can do we're trying to do what we can to minimize this the spread of this disease by the same token what can you people do because somebody brings it in it's going to spread okay we don't have control over that we have control of our school buildings we have control of our school buses we're trying to be as least restrictive as possible in good conscience and using good common sense now as as we've discussed if we get mandates we don't have a choice we made a decision a month ago and within virtually within days after that decision was being made the the spread of this disease was was going rampant across the country fortunately this county or this part of the county isn't experiencing that rapid spread like many parts of the country so you know mass are voluntary but it takes cooperation from everybody to make that a successful policy so that we don't have to mandate it so you know people want to blame the school corporation sometime the blame is on your neighbors or people you don't know and again we don't have control over that we try to take that into consideration and formulating our policy but i've been on this board for over 19 years and i've said it before and i'll say it again when i first ran for the school board i spoke with the then superintendent and said how do you become a good school board member the singular advice was do the right thing and that's what each one of us up here is tries to do every time we have to make a decision that impacts any child in this school corporation or their families thank you you know one of the things i probably should have started this with and i actually even have it in my notes start with this and i failed to do so so i apologize but i think it's important that we recognize the civility that has taken place in our schools you know there was emails that we received during the summer about mass shaming or bullying if kids are wearing masks compared to those who who are not and i'm not saying that there is not an isolated incident or something has taken place but i can tell you overall having been in our build all every one of our buildings over the last a few days the way that our kids are handling this and working through this our teachers or administrators are to be commended if students to choose to wear a mask they choose to wear a mask and they just continue to work through that i think this audience tonight and the way that you guys have approached this the um emails that we receive from others and we receive them from both sides expressing their opinions about they think we should wear masks we shouldn't wear masks one of the things that i'm very proud of here in crown point has been the way that we as a group as a community have interacted with each other without the nonsense that you see in a lot of places so thank you for that you know i think as we move forward one things that we're going to continue to take into consideration is the debate before us really is not about our mask a great strategy or a strategy for mitigation of covid that's not the point the point that the thing that we have to look at and we will continue to look at is how do we keep kids in school that has to be our number one priority you know i think mr hoffman you made the comment that we will continue to do the things that we need to do we've taken steps to make sure and i know that there are people out there who will hear that and say well that's not true because you're not requiring mask once again i think it's really important for us collectively to understand our approach to this has been as the health experts tell us and require what we need to do from a health expert standpoint that's what we'll do for instance if the county decides or says that we need to mandate mask we will do so the governor's executive order indicated we need to quarantine students with close contact tracing and gave us the stipulations of how that should happen we will do so when it comes to recommendations we still look for our health groups to give us and the ability is there for them to make the mandates they need to make the mandates about the health side of it as an education system as a school corporation our job then is to figure out what it is that we do within our buildings from an educational standpoint to continue to move forward with that uh i just want to kind of put a bow on what i had to say and uh agree with mr babrick and it would be nice to get some information but also stress as dr terrell said that it's not a game it's serious but absolutely if you can use the rules of any game at your advantage to keep kids in school that that's what it says i'm not you know the the idea that this works or this doesn't or you know whatever it's i just hear that the rules of the game are if you are mass you're three feet if you're not you're six feet and i'm very with the blinders on to hear that and think wow they're wagging a carrot here and it could give us an edge so that's why i kind of put a wrap up what i had to say there one other thing that i'd like to address and i'm going to ask mr mrs ramirez and mr gin fermi and mr hardiman if they would address this and i know that we continue to have students who are put on quarantine and how they're receiving their educational support if you guys could just talk through a little bit about what that would look what that could look like i know it's a little bit different at each level but just give examples of what we can do there yeah okay if i can go ahead first we as a department of curriculum instruction uh put out the practices that teachers should engage in not only when we're in person at the beginning of school but also in the event that you engage a student that goes into quarantine quarantine to maintain that a level of education a level of instruction so that the child can continue to grow set up so that upon re-entry the student is ready with their class within with that with the practices that we uh we learned about last year we grew last year and implementing those into this school year quarantine situation such as making sure that the agenda is always posted for our students beginning at the beginning of the day so students can have access to that if they are warranty or absent or uh for some reason it can can can perform work to be able to connect with the child through a virtual uh uh through a virtual kind of a application such as zoom we have goguardian we have opportunities through repair deck and flip grid those are some of the tools we have so that we can engage and get feedback from students as well as give feedback to students during the course of the school day uh so those are the things that we are we have prepared for in this event yet at the same time it is not like being in school and i think as we consider and think about the situations that we're in we want to try to help students to stay connected we want them to continue to be engaged in the instruction and the growth and then we want them to return so that they are not disconnected from the rest of their class so mark sabrina do you have some maybe some specific uh examples right now well i mean we're just starting to hit the quarantines but as we as you said you know expectations were laid out to the teachers at the secondary level you'll see more of the buzz course being used and the teachers communicating to their students through their buzz course through their agenda through emails and just continuing on similar to what we were doing last year but we do have a lot of those other new tools that the teachers got much better at over the course of last year that we hope and encouraged them to use but the big thing is to make sure that those students stay connected to their classrooms and their in their curriculum and that may mean different things for different students but i the teachers need to reach out and make sure they're communicating during that time whichever way they can do the best for those students i know it's a little different for the elementary at the elementary level as well teachers were given the same guidance and i think the positive is that they have experience throughout last year and how to deliver instruction to students who have to quarantine by utilizing our technology tools that we have and making sure that really each situation is a very individual situation what it's going to look like for a seventh grade student versus a first grade student could very greatly differ also taking into account at home support that may be able to be provided so our number one goal is again making the curriculum accessible to our students keeping them engaged and again making sure that we tailor that involvement based on teacher direction as well as partnership with the parent or caregiver so that we are working to figure out what best meets the needs of each child and what is a manageable practice thank you yeah mister mirrors i started interrupt but it feels like the heat is actually blowing instead of the air conditioner mr key would take care of it it is a little toasty we're just trying to experience the school bus situation that was described before apologize trying to bring a little humor in with that we have a gremlin that lives within our thermostat back there and every night about 6 30 it whatever reason jumps up to like 76 and it doesn't just cool the cool air it goes to heat yeah so we're not trying to smoke you out i promise we're trying to work through that so um any any other questions things that we can talk through here for you as a board dr chair i think it's important to touch upon the process that how the board arrives at a decision perhaps when it comes to covid also how your administration processes the information as it comes in i know you said there's data points and there's you're following the tracing you're following the positivity rate in lake county there's a lot of factors that go into that but perhaps it would behoove everyone to just hear how frequently your administration is monitoring that uh the process how once you gather information you come back with perhaps recommendations or discussions with the board if you could just explain that i think it might be helpful to the general public yeah thank you for bringing that up um so some of the information that we continue to monitor so if you were if you go on the indiana state health department's website there's a whole covid portion of that and you can actually drill down into uh region one which is our region up here uh the several counties in this part of the state but in there one there are several things we look at for our county in particular we look at the positivity rate what's happening with that how that continues to fluctuate but we also look at things such as you can go in there and it'll break it down by age bracket of what the percent is testing positive in each age bracket and i don't have the brackets right in front of me but it's like one to four five and it breaks it down to that specific and we try to look at those and i look at them on a daily basis as far as excuse me the information that we share is cabinet has an entire cabinet weekly we do that but then for instance because mr akiwa the biggest piece of what he's doing is working with our nurses and quarantining he and i and ms allen work together daily to review those numbers and look at what that is where the impacts are taking place then also depending on the day the need where we see the different hot spots that are coming up and this is not just referring to this school year but going back to last school year at that point in time getting with the directors of elementary ed secondary ed exceptional ed and our chief academic officer to try and figure out what are the things what are the needs how are we going to address those learning situations as we just talked about with them communication that i have with the board is on a regular basis sometimes that's daily most of the times it's many times throughout the day just to try and continue to keep up and let you guys know where we are we continue to utilize our website to put our covet information out there so we are as transparent as possible with the number of close contacts but then also positive cases that we're seeing within our district again understanding we're four days in but that information is there so it's a continual process i wish we didn't spend near the amount of time that we do spend on it but unfortunately that is one of the main topics that we've got to address right now and try to continue to figure out what is the best way to meet the needs of our students and how do we keep them in buildings thank you though for the question anything else with covet if not let's move on to something a little bit better yes let's go down how about i've got a couple more things before we go okay so um so a couple of the things that i want to talk about is beginning of school um it's amazing every year as you will go through our buildings i try to get into every one of our buildings the first two days of school to see our our parents the excitement as they bring their kids to school the amount of work that goes into that first two or three days is just amazing behind the scenes and appreciate so much our teachers our staff as they continue to work through that the taft development on the site is full bore if you guys haven't driven out there by that i encourage you to do so lots of big equipment moving lots of dirt right now they're working on actually the footprint of the building making that what it needs to be and getting it level with driveways just some really cool opportunities there and in the near future we'll come to you guys with an opportunity to go out and turn the first shovel of dirt have a ceremonial proceeding with that as well so kind of an exciting opportunity for our our district mr ramirez mentioned the elementary development at both timothy ball macarthur real excited about where that is leading right now and continuing to help us address the growing needs of our district also at the high school we're getting pretty close to being to the point where we're narrowing in on what those things are that we're going to address there working through budgets and continuing to meet the challenges that are faced right now with the coveted shortages and different things that are happening there so really an exciting time here great to see our enrollment ticking up from that pre-covered numbers and just again appreciate the start of the school year and all the different aspects of that so thank you thank you dr terrell and thank you for the opportunity for discussion this evening as mr smith brought up at some of his hopefully just if nothing else informative to the public that may have some questions how about other business of the board does anybody have any other business to discuss this evening one thing i might remind you of diana has sent you emails regarding the fall conference down in indy she i think a couple of you have already responded and we've made the reservations for that it's not too late to get in on that but if you would just the sooner you can let her know the better chance of all of us getting in the same hotel and and different thing there it's a great couple of days if you can take advantage of that that'd be great other business good how about uh mr smith you want to kick off board statements of appreciation mr fabric yeah nothing for me miss trafford i am going to recognize the members of the town of winfield council and thank them for their attention and cooperation and working out approvals for our new middle school in winfield township with some anxious moments but i can tell you that for a small municipality like they are they don't have a lot of money to work with um they had a lot of asks from the school corporation typically as they indicated if this were a a subdivision or something it probably would have taken up to a year to get necessary approvals and they did in a much more expedited time frame than that and for that we appreciate it because we do have a schedule to we need to have a schedule to try and get that project started so it can be timely completed and opened in 2023 two years from right now so we thank them mr angel um just to the high school staff for the back to school event morning of monday last monday for the welcome back to the school corporation for everybody uh whoever was involved in that russ and his staff dr terrell uh the band was there it was energetic and having it in the uh gymnasium just added a little flavor to it like it was an old pep assembly back in the high school days so how about a nice welcome send-off so and we should probably thank dr terrell also for the uh a little bit of a change in culture to get the uh community standing when you're here to fight song oh yeah yeah we played the fight song twice because not everybody was quite awake i think and he was going to play react he was going to have them play it three four five times until everybody rose right so that's that was uh the coaching background came out to him and everybody listened and adhered to it and we were only able to get through two of them and the jazz band was nice too and a jazz band there while we were having breakfast and it was just so exciting to feel the energy in the cafeteria and then into the gymnasium so great job all involved thank you we should probably thank and recognize our union leadership for speaking uh at our back to school event this year for the first time in many many years thank you for your participation yes next year she may request to go before our student council president well not nothing with much with much detail but i do have a few items i want to congratulate mr hoffman just told us news this evening that he's going to be grandfather for the first time a new granddaughter so congratulations mr hoffman we had the uh the back to school that mr angel mentioned and i think uh as we talked about the the band and cheerleaders i think we were told many years ago the extracurriculars at crown point the participation rate was somewhere around 75 80 percent and encourage all the kids to get out and participate and then there's a correlation to the grade point average that went along with those that are participating it was really pretty special to see and it looks like that tradition will continue especially coming out of the struggles of this last year obviously but emails no not there yet new teacher appreciation the new teacher not appreciate but the new teacher week and mr g and fermi uh bulldog rush i know that was something that you were had a big part of back in the day and passion of and all these traditions that are now their traditions it's not like oh we're trying this thing called and um i hear a lot of community comment on how well they're received and um even the the new teachers the appreciation and the welcoming that they get i i hope those are some traditions then that while when us at board members are not here anymore we'll continue for a long time because of the amount of appreciation that comes out and i think the key words too appreciation um is great um first day of school you know it's nervous for everybody nervous for parents that was amazing so i was just trying to wrap it up with some highlights and excitement and uh and one other thing that just mentioned earlier you're welcome to continue to email the board we all receive it we read it um sorry that at times recently we did have to put together a template response just to keep it you know to get a response to everybody so they know that so they would know that their email was read i think was maybe most important that someone just doesn't think they're sending an email to a black hole and when we had opportunities to personalize them we would but we'll continue to respond and read your emails as they come to us does anybody else have any comments before we wrap up this evening if not look for a motion to adjourn moved by mr angel in second by mr hoffman all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed most carries five zero you
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okay we'd like to call the meeting to order with the pledge of allegiance good evening and welcome to the regular august meeting of the green castle school board um i'm sure there are several people here that would like to address the board and make a comment um we have laid two stacks of papers here at the end of the aisle up on the stage which are our board policies for public comment if we're going to have several today we will probably adhere to our rules pretty closely so i would suggest anyone wanting to make a comment tonight would come up now and probably get one of these papers and review the uh the policy um like i said we know we're going to adhere pretty closely to these policies tonight um first item on the agenda is adjustments to the agenda mr gibbeney yeah so we have one adjustment tonight it's to permission to advertise the 2022 budget as well as the cpf uh plan and bus replacement plans to advertise 21 22 budget 22 2022 budget 21 22.
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so they would have been pretty predominantly a four five six building we had a third right it just seems to be our hot sauce i just have one maybe procedural question is there any reason why substance abuse reduces violence or you know the other headings is that like a statewide other questions all right open to the public for agenda items only um so in accordance with district policy zero one zero one six seven participation board meetings members of the public must sign in at the podium or online providing their name address group affiliation if applicable please state your name address followed by your public participate participation agenda items only comments to the presiding officer of the meeting your public participation is limited three to five minutes in duration no participants may speak more than once on the same topic until all others have been heard do we have any questions for agenda items um there's no sign in sheet but it's patricia o'reilly 745 school house so i'm just asking about uh agenda 7.2 just wondering why there's an extra day um there's there's an extra we put in an extra snow day um this year just because of last year we actually ended up closing and had to add it back an extra day so that extra day if you don't use it we'll be giving back to our memorial day okay and then uh 9.2 about the uh new policies and regulations um i've asked this about other things um it's hard for me to find stuff on the website are we gonna get like once these are approved are we going to be able to find these on the website on the website somewhere yeah they all get updated into our policy part of the website underneath the board but the board tonight is going to be asked to approve a uh a contract with a communications firm to redesign the website and make it more user-friendly so there's actually under under the board of ed then you go to yeah oh okay all right that's all thanks thank you we do have one online it is from jackie beers regarding 6.9 item 6.9 will reduce kindergarten from eight teachers to seven teach with moving mrs arias from kindergarten to first grade i understand this is due to current numbers being low however please take into consideration the influx of students that occur between now and september we have been in this situation many times before i hire an eighth teacher at the last minute and sometimes after school has already begun i do not want to be in this situation again this year i'm asking for to consider leaving this cesarean position her current spot kindergarten allow us to have lower numbers so we can accommodate any new registry to follow cbc guidelines and give our youngest students the best educational setting to learn as always thank you for consideration well the facts are this currently inside the county uh kindergarten classrooms uh as we did a check on this is anywhere from 18 to 19 kids with no aids currently if we left eight teachers in our kindergarten we would be at 12 13 by removing one kindergarten teacher would be going to 14 15 and if i still cannot fill any spots i'm going to take another kindergarten teacher bring that number up to 17 put another kindergarten feature somewhere else because right now filling positions and making sure we have enough staff where we need them is our major concern okay any other agenda item comments seeing none [Music] personnel resolutions to high school resolve the superintendent recommends for approval the resolutions has outlined the personal resolutions under district high school 5.2 through 5.10 can i get a motion motion motion mr battle there second second mrs morris discussion seeing none can have a roll call vote please martinez yes mars yes busan yes i'm sally yes but larry yes [Music] yes ocean passes okay dan i'd just like to congratulate the gentleman who got a spoiler license that's that's a big thing that helps out the district immensely it does um personal resolutions middle and elementary school resolve the superintendent recommends for approval following resolutions has outlined the personnel resolutions under middle and elementary school 6.2 through 6.12 can i get a motion motion miss martinez second second second mr battle there discussion martinez yes morris yes ocean taxes education resolutions district and high school resolved the bamboo board of education approves the resolutions has outlined that educational resolution within the district of high school seven point two through seven point four can i get a motion motion motion mr battle air second second second mrs morris discussion so there's five snow days or there's two yeah it's five there was there was a mistake made in the calendar and they decided to keep it for the five days because that's god forbid we have to go virtual last time we went virtual i had to actually um use the snow date to kind of get everything all situated for virtual so i decided to keep the fifth day in and if we don't use it we'll just give it back door and memorially we can extend it out a little bit there so the extra days because it only says online the extra days are the 31st and the 26th it doesn't say yeah that that's all getting admitted after this is working okay okay question on the teacher's handbook we put in the policies new policies i probably did not because they just they constantly they just changed they're so fluid and they keep changing that we keep sending updates i haven't even sent that letter to the staff yet i'm doing it this week just because um thursday i knew that this was coming um i got the heads up that this was coming out thursday so you know i want to wait until just the right you know where i think we're in the spot where if i give that information it's not going to change within 48 hours at the record there's no covet on i just searched the code but there isn't okay can you just confirm what day it is that changed yeah it was um did we add one to november it's um the second the first tuesday in november which is election day okay because what we did for election day is we're doing an online day initially we had that day off but we're actually going to do online since they gave us the ability to do that so we just kept that day in there as an extra snow day or anything like that any other questions so you're not going to get a role full vote please martinez yes mars yes yes what's the matter yes thomas yes by the ladder yes yes dan i'm sorry with the election day so we're allowed to do virtual yeah just on that day just on that [Music] and basically what what what they had told us was we could use that as a trial rover virtual to see if we had any internet problems any sort of issues whatsoever that we could um use that i don't want to say an experiment day but a day where you know we can get some feedback on how virtual is going if we have to make any adjustments to our plan moving forward because again as as things are going in the way we are going i i hope you're in school all year long but yeah you just don't know and that's just this year or that's like as far as i know that's just this year thank you okay education resolutions middle and elementary resolved that the boundary court of education approves the resolutions is outlined in educational resolutions under middle and elementary schools eight point two and eight point three can i get any motion motion motion miss morris second miss lusada discussion i'd just like to compliment the english the language art department on their books i thought this the selection is updating very nice that's something that i've as you know i've said every year that uh we we need to get more current books for these people and mitch album is an excellent writer abstain education approves the resolutions as outlined in policy resolutions under district and high school 9.2 can i get a motion motion motion mr vavalaire second mrs martinez discussion so i just had a question i think at our last meeting we talked about an opportunity between meetings for us to sit down and review variances from blast and that that's my fault because obviously i was on vacation um so if you want to table these until we have that meeting you're more than welcome to do that although i can tell you right now i have another stack of positives i mean that's what you're having to have to redo as well um i can tell you that in this stack of policies that you're reviewing there is nothing earth shattering changes um there is some abolishments of some old policies which is coming from estimated spouses to our policy company that updates our policies and things like that otherwise it's just straight forward um striking changes uh to keep up with you know current legislation as you know they make amendments and things like that so we're okay going forward all right yeah okay any other stuff can i get a roll vote martinez yes mars yes yes ocean taxes okay resolutions resolve the founding board of education approves the resolution of the outline of financial resolutions 10.2 through 10.8 can i get a motion motion motion ms mark second second second miss martinez discussion [Music] any other 10.8 yes sir um i guess i'm having a little bit of trouble with that one in particular because of the speed with which we brought it over and i guess the the website seems to be a very big farm in my side it comes up every year as something that just doesn't seem to communicate well it doesn't work well with our community we've had a number of issues with it and constantly being asked to suddenly somehow come up with that and come to the realization that in-house we just cannot do that at this point in time so i asked myself if i can go out and get a company to do that unfortunately she's not here to say yeah she want me to go through so i mean personal opinion i think the initiative is great i do agree with you the website could seem to be improved um for the this particular proposal were there any other bids solicited from other vendors um and what is the expected all-in cost for the contract because i noticed that the website was a separate carve out with additional costs associated with it correct i contacted three this seemed to be the best one fit our needs um is it typical for us to vote on a contract without knowing the full expected spend um as you see there's a monthly cost um and it all depends on how many months we use it so if we're only gonna use it for two months at six thousand dollars however if we're able to use it for ten months it's thirty thousand dollars so usually what we do is at this point we do that not to exceed costs and that's usually what we do at this point in time cost okay so my question is there's the consulting side of this monthly retainer that much again i understand the website work seems to be in addition to wherever that retainer is so that's the total cost correct and again the reason the reason i mentioned myself is the reason i want to do that because communication is the thing that keeps coming back to me so you know i didn't want i did you know in years past what we've done is we've just brought in technical people to do websites right and it just hasn't worked for us so what what i decided to do and talking with michelle was let's bring in a communication firm who will make sure that the website is communication friendly it's all-encompassing it does what we want it to do so um again i am not a pr specialist i'm not i don't say i'm a communications specialist um however i think at this point in time if we bring in somebody who's a specialist to oversee that to make sure that we get the exact product we want that it's much more a beneficial spending than some of the other things that you know we've done in the past and do you think that they would be able to advise us not only on structure but also copying content exactly what they're doing exactly what they're doing again that that's why when i talked to michelle it was more about not only doing reviewing the website but making sure it's a communication platform that hits the needs that the board wants to hit because right now every time we talk about the website and we talk about information getting out you know we have multiple multiple ways of doing it we're trying to make sure we hit all those multiple ways we're for whatever reason and again i'll take the blame for it you know it doesn't seem to be as successful as we think internally that it is so at this point in time you know i just said you know i'm not an expert in this i'm not going to say am but let's bring in an expert who can say hey you've been doing this pretty good or no you've been terrible at this and this is the way it needs to be done and they just think at this point in time after our discussions and our offline discussions um with members of the board and with michelle that this was the direction that we needed to go i appreciate it and you know my final comment would be i think it's uh refreshing to see that we're not only like you said going to get a review of what the website kind of does right from a structure and hyperlinks and accessibility perspective but also what information we're putting out there how usable and useful it is to the people that are going to the website so you know from that perspective and and i also think that you know one of the things that you know offline with multiple people on the board and i have spoken about is making sure that that and again i talk about format and making sure it's clean making sure it's presentable make sure it's readable make sure it's something that's easy to digest and because we have a wide range of constituents within the district at this point in time really i think that you know we need somebody who's a professional at that to make sure we're getting the messages that we need to get across from our website thank you well um i think it's great that we're bringing in uh expert to help out with this communication situation we've been trying to handle i'd love to see in the future a way to involve the students i know that that would be really difficult because you know all these other confidentiality things but i think in the long run if we can find a way to incorporate them you know pr communication things like that's their thing right so one of the things i liked about her was that she's done this before for other districts and then she has experience doing this with other districts as what you just said she does have experience with student content as well so i really thought that that her particular proposal met by means the best um with a couple of the other ones that i you know one was out of like ocean city new jersey another one was out of lake minnesota another one was out in new york city so when i contacted those you know they gave you the typical canned proposals can things that they would do and with laura it was more no i'm going to customize it to what your needs are i'm going to come in and have conversations with you guys i'm going to come in and talk to you and see and make sure that whatever we do is meeting the needs of the district i think that was a big difference between the four proposals that i looked at and that's the reason i wanted to kind of move quickly out of this so so that's me and talking michelle and i'm just moving as quickly as possible because i like to get things done i don't like things to just linger and sit around and not get done so you know we're going into a new school year we're coming out of covet hopefully we're not going back into a code that locked out um you know we have a number of issues that you know we're gonna have to deal with there's gonna be a number of communication items that are going to have to deal with with you know do new regulations on quarantining and all the other different items that are going to come along i just felt as though we needed to get this done so we get her in here so we can get this cleaned up as soon as possible hopefully you know have a workable communication system out to our parents and our staff and our stakeholders and everybody else that works and that's clean so you know to me it became a very much a priority to get done and to move without it okay any other discussion can i get a mobile vote please martinez yes mars yes busan yes what's the matter yes thomas ellie yes uh yes with an extension of check number [Applause] and januzzi yes ocean passes okay um other matters to come before the board of new business i just wanted to say um congratulations to mrs mary i think the students are going to be sad i know they really liked his classes i hope we get someone as engaging as him to replace him as a teacher but i think it's exciting for him to move on yeah i'm glad we were able to offer him this opportunity i know um speaking to jeff having a relationship for death you know he was applying it to other districts so keeping here to me is a win for us yeah because he has his ticket now right correct is there any general updates you can share regarding new guidance from the state on covet or any changes since the last meeting sure um obviously the governor came out today mandating that all teachers be vaccinated by october 18th i think it is or they have to submit a medical or religious exemption for that again or they can get tested twice a week or right where they can get close to testing twice a week now the testing twice a week um again this is the reason that i really don't want to get anything out so i have all the information um i asked and you gotta know this i've asked uh i put it for a testing machine for the difference um through the county um the last i checked was they have the machines they have the testing supplies and everything else i just haven't exceeded it yet i also haven't been told i'm definitely getting it either um because i think that makes it a lot easier for us if we have a machine here um obviously we have one machine for the district who probably could appear at the high school and do testing out of the high school nurse's office um you know that's you know i'm gonna try and find out if we're getting the machine this week because that kind of makes things a little bit easier for for the district when it comes to this um in terms of um quarantine and all the other stuff that's still relatively the same that really hasn't changed the big news though is mandatory vaccinations okay i apologize i thought there was an update from a department of education suggesting that it was okay to use virtual options for individuals or classes again no that is not the case jordan schiff is now the assistant commissioner for the department he's former superintendent hillsborough his memo to us was basically you know do your best but try to get kids don't wait for home instruction try to get kids their opportunity um for education as soon as possible um and again what we had said earlier still isn't the same which is um we're probably going to use a virtual home construction option we'll just start earlier obviously like day one day two um versus waiting until day five um but we're still not going to do simultaneous instruction again just going back and looking at the stress that that put on our teachers and our staff um i don't think at this point in time that that would be a good move for our staff for um moving forward especially if it's only you know one or two kids depending on classes the situations obviously it's a little different in the whole class if a teacher has to pardon then at that point the whole class will probably be unvirtual with the teacher but that's you know a different situation for you know different circumstances again these things are fluid um you know i've always tried to approach these things with some some level of common sense right by kids as well as trying to take our stand into consideration and try not to tax them out too much because obviously we attack our staff too much that creates another issue so um we're gonna try and keep that happens at least as we move forward and try to do great i think that makes sense you know just from prior conversations i think there was some amount of concern about waiting elapsed time for home instruction and then does this look more like a probability not a possibility how practical is home instruction when the individual is supposed to be quarantining anything right so i think the you know the state loosening that guideline giving because the other thing is you know obviously there's regulations that if we're out for three consecutive days for a snow emergency or a declaration of mercy or medical or health emergency we can go to an all virtual option after day three my hope is that they even lessen that up to give us the flexibility if we have to flip to the next day that we can right now we're still being told three days so we're really hoping that that even becomes a little bit of a you know what we're getting a little bit better at this you know going from in class that you know virtual option that they loosen that up for us a little bit as well damn i thought what he announced today was all teachers had to be vaccinated except for religious or medical no they don't i believe i believe i didn't get the actual you know again i heard i enjoyed that i mean like everybody else i haven't gotten to the official memo i'm sure i will get one either tonight or tomorrow um exactly i thought they had taken the i did want to opt out and just get tested i have a hard time thinking that they can do that again that's just me but again i i would have to wait for them official memo and then i would be able to tell you whether or not that other option is or is not for the um this week probably at the end of the week is basically just asking everybody to update their stuff and you know this is where we're at these are what we're being told hopefully i have a memo by the department by that time without mandatory vaccinations and things like that and we can get a better handle on our inside information and then you know kind of go from there because obviously we have to you know if we have 30 percent of our staff which i think the last time i checked about 30 percent didn't have a vaccination um you know coordinating you know testing twice a week for 30 people is going to take a little bit of an effort as well yeah because then we have to test them and then they have to be quarantined while they're testing right i'm not sure again i need the guidance because again i think in that situation that creates a very big hardship for us yeah and i also think that you know one of the things is we don't get the testing machine and again there's this question these are questions that i have that i would have we're not going to test who's going to do it you know i mean i have a litany of questions that will follow the only reason i'm not asking those questions or verizon with those questions is because i put it into a machine last i heard was from the uh county executive is that there are machines available to schools they're receiving supplies from schools for testing and they know that we're on them so my hope is that we get the machine soon and we get the test livestream and this way we can just do it internally so this way we can you know make sure it gets done in an expeditious manner versus you know people have to make appointments and then missing class time and things like that right earlier that i'll have to pay for it before classes well that's the next part about it we won't be paying anything because we're getting this right you know yeah but the flip side to it though is if we don't get the machine we don't get the supplies then it becomes who who's it up is it on the employer is it not the employee because they didn't get that i don't know that answers interesting right and [Music] it is all state employees so if you are anyone who works in a school district must it's not just teachers and it does say or undergo regular testing or it doesn't say that it does say that i'm on the philadelphia quiet right now and again while it's all well and fine yeah until i get an official memo no you're yeah i i i'm not going to say one way or another out of here yeah absolutely okay anything else for new business or other matters to come before the board is mr steele here today no he is not this is part of how false parts you started out last time i talked to everything yeah everything was going smoothly we are open to the public for discussion items yeah patricia o'reilly 745 school house money so i'm just asking a general question because i understand that um regardless of vaccination status all the students and teachers have to wear a mask correct start september okay um so i'm just wondering about um you know what you will do if there is any pushback from that like either from the students or the parents like say your students say oh i'm vaccinated like what's going to happen they will become they'll be sent home okay thank you hello lauren paxton president of the bbea um if we get that machine that you were talking about do you know which kind of machine is it is it the i do not okay do you know who will be uh in charge of it running it and taking the tests i do not thank you okay we have no questions online so at this moment in time we need to go executive um if everybody's okay with the hivs i'm gonna skip executive session and continue to move on all right so we are up to approval of hiv cases middle and elementary school resolved this battle board of education approves of resolutions that have find an approval of hiv resolutions under middle and elementary school this is 15.2 can i get any motion motion mr vada layer and the second by mrs martinez and well we'll discuss roll call martinez yes morris yes musamata so exactly president
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so whatever school year we're in the last year is the fiscal year we're currently in so even though it's uh it's uh right now august in the finance world it's fy 22. so i want to start off with the basic finance 101 and the the first thing is what is the purpose of the budget why even have one well number one it's required by illinois school code it also gives us the expending and taxing authority so without a budget we would not have those powers it serves as a financial plan for our departments the buildings and the district and more importantly it's used as a management and communication tool for our district i think it it really shows how we align our financial resources with our human resources and then more importantly with our educational programming and how those three pieces come together so the purpose of our budget it's it's mandated we have to have one but it's also a great tool to show where our priorities are and how we meet those so we have a couple budget requirements in that uh state mandate it's uh number one there is uh we need to have a final budget number two we need to allow as a public body we need to allow our public to actually look at it and see what we're doing and then after they do that we adopt it there are some budget filing requirements so the rules there are we need to adopt it the board of education needs to adopt it by the end of the first quarter of our district's fiscal year our fiscal year runs from july 1st to june 30th so the end of that first quarter is september 30th but before we adopt there we go before we adopt it we need to put it on public display for 30 days so they can see it the public can see it look it over and give us feedback the budget must be on display for 30 days and we need to let people know it's on display by publishing a notice in the newspaper that's circulated in the district uh we'll be doing that in the beacon news it'll go out tomorrow october 24th or august 24th so now we go back up to adopting it on september 30th we adopt it and then we have to file it so after september 30th once we approve the budget it needs to be filed with our county clerk within 30 days of adoption so by by the end of october the budget also needs to be electronically submitted on the official isbe forms within 30 days of being adopted through the illinois state board of education to help facilitate transparency we will be posting the budget on the district website so people have access to it it's also in board docs and then we will send a copy of the final budget to the regional office of education as well uh what does that specifically mean our calendar i this is a little repetitive but just to show you on august 16th we met as the board finance and facility advisory committee we really talked more about that education finance basics 101 some of the information i'll share with you today we did review some rough revenues and expenditures for fy22 and that's in more complete form today so i'm excited to send this to the committee members so they can really digest this and give us some feedback so to that brings us to today august 23rd i'll be calling for a resolution to hold a public hearing on the fy 22 tentative budget the board of education will review it today that's what i'm going to present here and then we'll place it on display i've got my folder here ready to go public display at the board of education office as well as our finance office so that people can look at it if they want to come see it in person and it's got my contact information on there so if anybody's got questions they can follow up with me and then on september 27th which gives us 34 days we'll have the public hearing once we close the public hearing we'll go right into our board of education meeting at the regular regular meeting of the board of education i'll ask you to adopt the final fiscal year 22 budget so now for a little bit of the finance 101 so sit back and enjoy revenue highlights we get our we get our revenue from three different sources the first one being local the second is state and the third is federal but there's a lot of different local federal and state sources so the first one is obviously we rely heavily on property taxes and the property tax extension later when we talk about the levy i'll talk about how we calculate that and basically you can see there this year's budget was based on the 2020 cpi the consumer price index which was in december 2020 it was 1.4 so we use that number but then we also use the 2021 tax levy so we calculated that december of 2020.
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now if the public is spit on the topic you know and the board is supposed to represent the public shouldn't it also be a split vote however that wasn't the case and only one board member communicated voting per their constituents therefore if you're not voting for your constituents who are you voting for what reason are you going against the voters is is there more information that hasn't been communicated to us that would help us understand your decisions or do you think your beliefs are more important than those of the public i think it's clear by the lack of mass the first few days of school where people's thoughts on the matter are if you're uncertain about this just remove the mask mandate and reinstall parental choice i think the actions of family would give you all the data you need in closing i just asked the school board to do a better job of trying to represent their constituents thank you [Applause] thank you mr west next on the list is patrick edwards hello i'm patrick edwards i'm here to say things that some people have said goodnight a little bit but not enough look none of this is being done rationally nobody is thinking clear-headed here let's start with the data and by the way all i want here tonight is the truth if you want to find me after the meeting and correct me on anything i want nothing more than to be wrong no more not one more minute do i want to be wrong about anything if i am so please correct me i don't think you will the people who were here the past couple meetings who were nurses and doctors they were lying to you through a mission through semantics i used to teach english could i ask mr edwards you're to be speaking to the board so do you mind talking to them sure no problem no problem thank you um just seems like they're really willing to listen to us more though to be honest but the vega says 361 kids the last i checked have died from coven johns hopkins research proved that none of these kids were enrolled in school none of them none of them not one kid and it makes sense if you look at the gega you see that kids who get coveted and die are kids who are in hospice they're already very sick look it up yourself if you don't believe me 361 that's it compare that like he a gentleman said earlier the 2018-19 school year flu deaths 480 that not good enough for you take the average of the past five flu death years or flu years however you want to phrase it average them out they're always going to be more hospitalizations they came up here last week and lied about hospitalizations or a couple weeks ago they talked about how there's hospitalizations filling up in bartholomew county i looked that night one of them also talked about florida the florida cases were surging not that that's relevant to here but i went home and looked 18 000 people were hospitalized correct 200 something were kids when you dug further seven were in the icu none have died the last i checked delta actually has been less serious less deadly than the other variants it's just more contagious our culture it seems has such a difficulty accepting that a virus can kill so many older people who are more vulnerable and immunocompromised but do nothing to children practically that it seems so hard for people to accept i look today there are no kids hospitalized from bcsc schools in this county period and by the way they also got up here and talked about hospitalizations with covet of kids spare me that is so misleading being hospitalized with covid is not the same as being hospitalized because of coving a kid can go in for ankle surgery get screws put in his ankle have to recover in the hospital for a few days and upon admission they were tested they're considered a kid with covet finally and i'll wrap up everybody else got four minutes julie good to see you again but i am tired of i mean you work in elementary education so you know all the distractions our kids have already the blue screens the social media sometimes when they're as young as eight years old all the home distractions they have the fear we're putting them in and now what are we doing we're trying to suggest that suddenly they're in some kind of a danger when the data just doesn't it doesn't provide for that and let me finish with this does anybody really think a parent who's on the fence about sending their kid to school like let's say their kid is a cancer survivor or is immunocompromised are any of you as parents really going to send your kid to school once you find out oh they approved the little cloth mask that's going to keep my kids safe spare me all of you and all the doctors and nurses who are up here lying for the past two weeks the past two meetings i should say all of them they know and they cannot get up here and say otherwise they have a better chance of their kid dying in a car wreck on the way to school than from kovit they cannot dispute this they will not be able to dispute this that is a fact please can we i am asking this board i am imploring you i haven't even got into the social anxiety it causes my daughter he already i'm not going to get into it i'll get emotional but please reconsider that's all we can do is ask i feel like i've at least gotten it out i've expressed myself if you have any data you think i've gotten wrong let me know i want to learn but mostly i want some rationality back in these schools you guys have a job to do and you're not doing it thank you mr edwards next on the list is chandra williams hello my name is chandra williams thank you for allowing me to speak tonight i currently have four kids in bcsc i'm also a first responder on the front lines of this pandemic for the last 19 months we have all faced a very difficult situation that nobody was ready for many people have different opinions as we all are allowed to because we are free americans just as we all have opinions we should all have a choice if your opinion is that mask works by all means you should have that choice to mask up and mask your children if you don't think or if your opinion is that masks do not work then don't mask yourself or your children the choice should lie with those that are responsible for their children on a day-to-day basis i understand that you guys are responsible for the education of our children during the school hours but you are not responsible for the decisions i make for my children their medical bills and their overall well-being you don't have to deal with the emotional mental physical and negative social effects of our children day to day like us parents do my children come home daily with dirty masks and now are currently sick not with covid and have had to miss a whole week of school waiting on that negative covid test result and now are one of the numbers the health ramifications of the pathogens such as bacteria parasites and fungi in the mask are beyond concerning my four-year-old eats her mask tell me how gross that is the moisture retention reuse of cloth mask and poor filtrations increase the risk risk of infection in a recent study cloth mask which many of everybody has were 97 ineffective and surgical masks were 44 ineffective in blocking influenza-like viruses covid19 is smaller than the flu so please explain to me why is a first responder on the front lines of this pandemic we are told that surgical and cloth mask do not work and we are not allowed to wear them at my job but yet you're forcing our children to wear masks which leads me into our constitutional rights article 1 section 1 where you are taking our power and liberty by taking away our choice in which you said you would not do in the second dot in letter 3 that is being sent home with the kids that are refusing to wear masks which then leads to article 15 section 4 that says every person elected or appointed to any office under this constitution shall be entering before entering on the duties therefore take an oath or affirmation to support the constitution of this state and us which you are not supporting the constitution by your decision to refuse our choice so i ask that you re-look into and revise your mask mandate to allow choice since it's our freedom and you focus and be responsible on the education of our children which really needs the attention because many aren't aware of all the changes in curriculum being taught and us parents will focus and be responsible for the health of our children i would hate to see i'm finishing i would hate to see bcsc lose funding for all the children in this community community that is withdrawn before the middle of september because our freedom and our choice and we're being silenced thank you thank you miss williams i apologize i'm not going to do this name right is it dan mcgurk i'm dan mcgurk i reside at 1870 brookfield drive thank you for the privilege of addressing the board today i'm here to talk about the current policy of asking our children to wear masks while my topic has been discussed by their speakers for which i'm grateful to hear their support my points have not all been addressed i'll be brief and factual but first it is a real privilege to have been inspired to take a more active role in the administration of our school system especially as my wife and i have four young children i'm excited to come back in the future and learn more about this process my question today is why are you masking our children as we've heard the peer-reviewed science and literature shows no benefit to children wearing cloth masks to prevent the spread of covet parents should be allowed to make this choice for their children if it's appropriate for their medical situation many states in the u.s as well our peer countries in europe including the uk france italy switzerland the netherlands and all of scandinavia are not asking their children to wear masks to school even with more stringent adult requirements for them even the world health organization cautions against doing so and it's not in line with the cdc's more stringent recommendations on this subject our children's health and well-being is at stake masks should be removed to allow max o2 saturation and full depth breathing no rebreathing of mouth bacteria no risk of postural changes from shallow mouth breathing full adaptive learning capability by being able to communicate with the whole face no constant learning distraction by having a cloth on their face all the time and more the risk to our children is vanishingly small i won't go through the statistics that i've been gone through right death was a higher risk to our children than covet or flukes death of course flu was a higher risk to our children than coveted i urge the board to reconsider and then the policy of mandating children wear masks in school for coven it's not actually protecting them and kids wearing masks is not protecting the teachers as shown in science and statistical analysis so for whom is it being done thank you thank you all right and last on our list is jonathan abbott howdy everyone i'm mr abbott i'm here on behalf of myself and my family of course all the parents here instructing the bcsc employees i'm here to inform and instruct our representatives of the law and their duties and obligations to uphold the law as well as the roads we are also here to inform the people of our community of their constitutionally protected and secured rights and our duty as americans to properly hold our representatives accountable to the law first and foremost i'm here to obtain the lawful authority upon which the bcsc claims to have the power of that ultimately violates the rose overrides the constitutions governing the indiana republic and materially burdens the constitutional rights of the people to which bcsc serves so i would actually like that response in writing as soon as possible at your least convenience if anybody can provide that answer for me now let me explain in detail why the bcsc has the duty and obligation to share this information of what i asked because we people should have competent knowledge of the public policy of the state of indiana which is clearly evidenced in the indiana code i see section 51431 which declares as follows a fundamental philosophy of the american constitutional form of representative government is that government is the servant of the people and not their master this [Applause] and if you would please there are two crucial concepts to take away from that sentence first is the state local and federal governments of the constitutional united states of america which includes all of the states of the union are undoubtedly the servants of we the people so since all public officials and government employees are public servants of the people this indicates that all state local and federal governments exist only to aid in the conduct of the business of the people and this is evidenced in indiana code section 51431 which states the general assembly finds and declares that this state and its political subdivisions which is columbus exist only to aid in the conduct of the business of the people it is the intent of this chapter that the official action of public agencies such as bcsc be conducted and taken openly in order that the people may be fully informed now a couple of the parents and individuals have expressed how there wasn't much opportunity for the parents to really speak uh and and there was maybe a incentive for others to that would correlate with that we there's not for instance as saundras talked about i have here letter three which was passed by the bcse and this was issued to students and parents concerning the coronavirus who are not wearing face coverings and it specifically states as indicated by the following but the bartholomew county school corporation has been given the authority to require universal masking in his school buildings and the second option as sandra pointed out the school corporation may exercise any power it has to enforce policies of the board provided that it does not violate the state or federal constitution and of course this derives from indiana code title 20 section 2634 thank you so much will you summarize please mr evan gladly um we the people do have actually the constitutional protected and secured right to not wear masks because it's also provided as a statute two of them one being in the emergency powers ic 10 1432 and it specifically states this chapter may not be construed to compel a person either on behalf of the person or the person's child less than 18 years of age to submit to any physical examination medical treatment or immunization if the person parent or guardian relies in good faith on spiritual means or prayer to prevent or cure disease or suffering and objects to the treatment in writing so i want to present that to you guys they do have the authority to a certain extent until it you know overrides the constitutions they that their statutes there protecting our constitutional rights that being there right there so turn it in writing you turn it into the bcsc board and writing saying that you don't want your children wear a mask because you rely on the good lord to protect you to defend you so if anybody needs that information we're here me and jessica all the time we'll be glad to assist wherever we can so i got more unfortunately we're limited on three minutes you are thank you very much uh which violates like you said article 131 of the republican constitution 1851.
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well just just the 2022. okay budget and this flush replacement yep bus replacement plan and the cpf plan okay okay can i get a motion to approve the adjustments to the agenda so move second okay i have a motion and a second any discussion or questions excuse me hearing none all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is um actually a public hearing uh just basically taking comments on the 2012 before we open the collective bargaining with the teachers union on the 20 21 22 excuse me contract we have to have a hearing that allows for public comments on that hearing so at this time we will open the hearing to anyone wanting to make a comment solely on the collective bargaining for 2021.
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this year right and when i'm done presenting this i will start working on the levy and i will file that in december of 2021 the levy that i will bring to the board in either november or december will be for our next school year so uh the life of uh the life of a finance officer in education we're always living in right now i'm auditing and reviewing last year's budget we're adopting this year's budget and i'm already looking at estimating next year's budget so we're living in three years so sometimes it can be a little confusing in addition to property taxes we have what's called cpprt corporate personal property tax replacement if you were around in 1978 you know that our illinois taxes were based on both income tax and personal property tax well in 1978 they no longer did personal property taxes and in 1979 they also canceled and suspended the need for corporate bodies to provide a property wealth tax income as well but to support that in the school systems they came up with the cpprt which allows us to collect revenue based on the economic health of the state we also have interest earnings we collect registration tuition course and athletic fees we also collect fees for risk facility rentals and e-rate and that's kind of all the local funds the state revenue there's evidence-based funding which is uh our major source of state funding we also have categorical grants or sometimes you'll hear them called mcats for mandatory categoricals it's things like transportation reimbursements early childhood block grant the special education reimbursements tuition reimbursements driver education reimbursements so there's some revenue realized in reimbursements and then finally in the federal revenue we have our participation in the national school lunch program we also participate in several federal grants such as title one 1 title 2 title 3 and title 4.
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thank you so much [Laughter] i appreciate all the comments that were made i'll ask you to put your name on your list and i will ask that you must submit to the three minutes please i need your name on the list um yeah my name is jason major and i just wanted to highlight a couple of things real quick one request i would have is for the next school board meeting and i'd like for everybody else to just think about this of the approximately 1100 kids and staff that have been traced or identified as asymptomatic how many resulted in a positive test so the kids and the staff that are not at school for some reason were they a positive case all right and i'm not i'm not here to talk about mass or no mass i'm really again like last time talking about how to keep kids in school all right so my daughter is a sophomore at east and she is in the top i think 20 in her class which is apparent i am just extremely blessed to be able to say she's in the top 200 let alone the top 20.
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what's the song yeah i'm kristen hamilton president of gcta i'd like to begin by addressing the elephant in the room why i'm not wearing a mask i'm not wearing a mask because i have a medical issue with the appropriate documentation on file i'd like to be very clear that i'm in no way massless because i'm attempting to protest the mass mandate now to the issue at hand with respect to the pre-collective bargaining hearing i would like to request the continued support of the community the school board and administration gcta and administration have a good working relationship where communication is a two-way street and i'm very appreciative of that i'm not going to stand here and ask for the moon but i would like to remind everyone that green castle teachers are standing on the front lines and as usual we are doing what's best for students covet has certainly changed the world we live in and education is not exempt from those changes the district has a comprehensive plan with protocols in place to keep everyone safe we are thankful that gcta was an active participant in forming that plan last year educators come to school each day to mold the minds of our future generations we understand and accept that doing so however does put us at a greater risk of getting illnesses or whatever else may be going around such as colds blue and even covet we are thankful that last year there was an extension of the coveted relief days to account for absences when required to quarantine or god forbid one of us having coveted ourselves with the pandemic still active and the delta variant picking up speed we would like to advocate for the reinstatement of covet relief days for all staff we understand this comes with a price tag and may may have to result in some trade-offs but we feel strongly that this reinstatement is necessary for the health and well-being of not only staff but also students families and the community in closing i would be remiss if i didn't mention that our salaries have been frozen for some time it is our hopes that many of the changes implemented over the last year will have positively impacted our bottom line which would give us actual dollars to negotiate this year thank you thank you anyone else with a comment on the or for the collective bargaining hearing yes one more he wants to know if you have comments on negotiations is that correct sir yes okay so i'm sorry it's sometimes hard to hear through the mask um and they said they didn't know what the comments were about i just want to say thank you um i'm starting my 20th year working here at greencastle and i know that this is an extra step that the state has put on us i feel like our board has always come to us with negotiations and been fair and we've been able to work things out apparently some schools didn't play fair and so the legislators came in and put a law so there's one more thing on all of our plate that you guys have to do here tonight so i want to say thank you as a teacher as a mom i want to say thank you for always my kids graduated in 14 and a 10 for always hiring and retaining excellent teachers okay my one son has a master's degree he has an mba and he helps people with their finances right now and that is needed in this time of cobit and people not knowing about the future my other son went on from this great education he got in this town to get a phd and he's a pharmacist and he has been working night and day since this started giving out the coveted shots he's in a wildfire area and so when people had to evacuate their home he would get you know new medicine for them and and as a community member i want to say thank you for hiring and retaining great teachers i see it every day when i'm out in the community i'm sure you guys too too there's there's seth at the barber shop there's emily who i saw catering lunches the other day there's alexa who just graduated last year who's training my dog you know there's johnny at the fire department um thank you for hiring and retaining great teachers so we could have a great community here well thank you for being one of thank you anyone else with a comment regarding the collective bargaining hearing so hearing none we will close that hearing um and just a little side here i apologize for the temperature in here um mr giving he said one of the chillers is down in macanally right now so it's as everyone notices it's probably a little more uncomfortably hot than we would like it i don't have one i'm not a teacher okay let's just do like let's go this way um i was saying essentially that um the reason it's so hot in here we have a chiller down in macanally right now so it's why you're noticing that it's uncomfortably hot okay what we are going to do now is deviate from our normal meeting a little bit typically we reserve public comments for items that are actually on the agenda there is nothing on the agenda tonight about our back-to-school plan or a mass mandate however we know it's a relatively emotional topic in town so we're going to deviate from that a little bit and allow public comments for anyone who wants to address the board concerning those items i asked people to pick up one of the board or the policies here on public comments it looks like we maybe have a few so we're going to stick pretty close to these um for those who did not pick up one or didn't know or didn't hear me [Music] gonna try to keep it to three minutes um [Music] if you have spoken then you don't speak again on the same topic until everyone has um you'll need to stand up to the microphone down here state your name your address not your street address just you live in green castle you live in coatesville fillmore um and what your affiliation is whether you're a parent it's just a taxpayer employee what have you um just so we know that you know knowing that we're not doing questions and answers we're not having a dialogue we're just going to accept comments like we did last month so this is kind of a one-time deal outside of last month this will be the last month we do this next month we'll be back at the board room with comments on the agenda items uh the other thing that we require here is that we are respectful respectful to the board respectful to people with opposing viewpoints once the medium becomes abusive or is personally directed or we're out of line comments are over i know everyone has probably seen youtube videos of meetings in clay county avon carmel clay school systems it's not what we're doing here tonight you want to make a comment you will respectfully make a comment um again once we're disrespectful comments are over and we're moving on with the meeting so microphone is open for whoever would like to come up and address the board first i would like to say thank you to everyone who came out tonight um i know that uh everyone here is feels very passionately and um and i'm thankful that we have so many people that care about their children uh whether you're on the mask side or against masks thank you for caring enough to come to this meeting tonight and i also like to say thank you gentlemen up there because uh i know the decision for masks was not what you had originally thought of and i'm sure that none of you were like hey let's really stick it to all the parents and the students and decide to change and change and make more masks at the last minute i'm sure you lost a lot of sleep over this and it was a tough decision and you understand that there's going to be a lot of people angry with you and that there's going to be a lot of people very thankful about it um i know it was not an easy decision for you there's gonna be con there's gonna be consequences either way so regardless of how anyone feels about it thank you and thank you for being the ones to make that decision either way and uh i know it could have been easy just for the regular could you please name an affiliation my apologies my name is logan kuhn i teach math here at green castle high school and i live here i live here in green castle and yes my daughter goes to green castle schools thank you logan anyone else will they comment some people on this sorry my name is anthony fenwick my kids go to green castle i live here some people on the school board have decided that our children should be masked every day without exception and without presenting any facts so i will provide some facts for you 4.2 million kids have been diagnosed with cover 19. out of that 4.2 million 0.008 percent have died that means point zero zero zero four percent of the child population has died of coping 19.
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we get some federal idea special education grant monies for both both our regular ed or kindergarten through through 22 years old but we also get some dollars for preschool special education we get medicaid benefits and this year federal revenues we realized in the form of esser 2 and s or 3.
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that just goes to speak to her good work ethic and the grace of god to give her the the brains that she's got to be there but like dean like it was mentioned earlier she's had a little bit of trouble in learning to speak spanish so because she is not at school with other kids last year she had a little bit of difficulty in that class she had some trouble understanding the teacher over zoom you don't get the direct interaction like you would through zoom with the teacher and the other classmates so that's why i would just ask that you know aside from the mask no mask keep the kids in school please all right keep the kids in school um if we have to go to e-learning can we instead maybe think of a e-teaching bring the kids to school and let the teachers teach from home and do zoom then possibly using some substitute teachers that that might be less worried about being in a classroom that's a potential option learning to speak socialize and live with mental issues like we talked about last time is a big deal for these kids especially middle school and high school that are at such an impressive impressionable age the last thing i'll say real quick is i'm a board member for three years at a local non-profit learning center and i can tell you over the course of the last year we've been part of the bartholomew county first responders for kovid and we have had uh we've got about 130 kids enrolled in school right now and uh through the last year and a half we've had zero transmissions at covid in school and these are the kids that are doing this all the time and got all this not all over because they're they're everything from memphis to school age so please take that into consideration too that again as it's been mentioned kids are a lot stronger than we think they are thank you thank you mr major all right again thanks everyone for their comments and sharing that with us next on our agenda are those uh are what we identify as our what and the first one has to do with our policy revisions and our first reading we always go through at least two readings of these yes so you have uh in your packets uh pages of marked up policies and hopefully you've had a chance to review those this is your opportunity to ask questions in terms of a first reading i can scan through i did not have all the slides up but it scanned through in terms of the kinds of policies that you have for example there are some bylaw pieces that were do were in regards to just the purpose of the the board uh that has been brought up a few times this evening um in in the check here just a second so that first uh that first one in regards to the bylaw on the policy for the board uh began to get toward your ability to accept transfer students for example and options in regards to transfer students and how you would handle those school indiana code indicates that you have to accept students of employees that you have you do not have to accept all transfer students and so gave some leeway into that ability and that's what we've done for years is we've accepted all transforms transfer students who have had interest in coming into our school corporation that's just clarifying that particular piece he also had some information about the employment of the superintendent employment of professional staff and employment of support staff answer revisions to those policies specifically there were some non-fatterization pieces in there as well as nepotism was cited in those policy revisions the next policy that you had was 2266 which was nondiscrimination on the basis of sex education programs or activities there are some specific definition changes at the federal level specifically the recognized definition of rape that was changed in january 2021 there was an original reference that came out in may 2020 some revisions made in that and so we were just keeping up with federal changes in that definition we also are adding policy 4425 is actually a new policy or recommending that it be added which is for nursing mothers that is a new policy pursuant to the provisions of federal law two that require a corporation to permit additional unpaid break time to support nursing mothers so that is a policy we did not have in place and we're asking for that approval we have a technical correction and leaves of absence there just was some wording in a sentence that were out of order and so i've corrected that made that technical correction for you we also had a revised policy or recommending for promotion placement and retention and specifically this gets into a student's iep or service plan as per state law and we are making sure that the case conference committee is involved in any retention conversations that are occurring about a student so just revising that policy to reflect that language we also have policy 6250 which is required adm counts for the purpose of state funding and verification of residency for membership that's bringing us up to code with last fall's memorandum from the doe about the requirements that we need to receive from families about verification of attendance or residency for their children so there are required documents that we have to have on file that is brought up to speed we have uh a lot of wording uh in regards to property inventory and accounting system for capital s assets policy 7450 and it goes back to some changes that have not been made for a long time through the u.s department of education newly updated education department general administrative regulations or edgar and just bring us up to speed with those new revisions we have a policy revised on staff use of personal communication devices just indicating how and when those staff that staff use should occur including in vehicles we have a revision to food services policy 8500 this is being revised to add the emphasis being sought by the usda or united states department of agriculture to make sure we are not stigmatizing students who lack the funds to pay for their meals or have unpaid meal charges so some updates to that policy you also have specific policy i mentioned cellular telephone use earlier we have additional policy in regards to the use of cell phones by bus drivers except in an emergency situation that's policy 8606 and that exhausts the policies that we have currently a number of pages about 85 i believe if my math is quickly correct that you have had those questions yes are there questions that my colleagues might have about any of these proposed revisions mr stenner thank you dr shedd uh can you explain for me the you talked about accepting transfer students yes i i think is something that we've been doing all along we have yes but now we're putting it in to policy yeah there were just some revisions in language based upon changes with our policy is not changing and even the way we had it written was okay to allow us to to accept the transfer students that we do because as you're indicating we basically had an open door for that as most school corporations in indiana do but there is a statutory code on who you have to accept and so we have the language is ensuring that not only do we accept the ones that we have to but ads then all other students that are perhaps interested in our school corporation thank you so just aligns with language from indiana code but by practice mr does not change anything that we're doing thank you for that are there other questions i'm wondering a little bit go ahead wondering a little bit about the food services revision from the usda to prohibit stigmatizing students who lack the funds to pay for their meal i'm wondering um i'm looking i've been looking through it i'm wondering um how that if you could explain that just a little bit more yeah let me pull that one back up so that was a number eight five zero five zero okay so with with the information you have in front of you as a reminder that we've um scratched out anything that we're removing and is in red for you and then changes or even in some cases aligning with past policy and just bringing it back as we make other changes is in green so there was some changes in the discrimination piece just making sure that wording was aligned with federal guidelines for language on discrimination and then we have the numbers that are indicated in there for example under dietary modifications we have to have information to us and attend school days within 10 school days from healthcare providers to make sure we're taking care of needs of a student from a dietary standpoint and then scrolling here without going too many pages dr biltz the next change [Music] also gets into dietary modification includes that number 10 again there is a checked area there the food service program shall not accommodate a student's request for specific substitutions to the standard bill pattern that's based solely on religious or lifestyle choices so there is dietary modifications medically it does not have provisions for other situations list the person this goes through any any charges or challenges to the policy the director of food services and the part that you're probably most interested in is the paragraph under mill charges the procedures will provide direction so the deposits into a student's account are not considered income to the child nutrition program until the student charges a meal to his or her account further the procedures will this is where we're including it provide direction so that students attending corporation schools who do not have funds in their account or on hand to cover the cost of their military time of service are treated consistently and two address feeding students with unpaid meal balances without stigmatizing them and three provide for notification of parents when a student charges the meal and four establish a plan to collect the charges made by students so the unpaid charges are not classified as bad debt at the end of the school year so the policy sets up the the what is required by us to do the administrative guidelines and the practices in the in the cafeterias and our food service department will have to reflect those four four items the additional amount that that was added there is a significant negative lunch account balance shall not be permitted a significant negative lunch account balances any balance owed in excess of fifteen dollars and so then there is working with the families to to try to address that if we get above those those dollar amounts so these practices the intent is for to remove the stigmatism that goes along with that's always possible with with children who are are unpaid or on on free or reduced priced lunches based upon circumstances or practices that some schools might have that there could be a stigmatizing circumstance or situation this policy is to ensure that that is not a part of how we conduct business within our food service departments okay and um i the practices i believe we have in place already uh do a nice job of minimizing that the policy is aligning with federal guidelines updates uh to ensure that that is is not the case okay and i appreciate those questions and just a reminder to to the board in terms of each of these policies that are brought before you either about every six months and are based upon case law uh changes to indiana code changes to federal definitions like the word rape and that one one policy as those items are updated we are provided with those updates for potential review addition of policies or revisions to policies if we see fit and each based upon each of these policies and who might be overseeing that department or circumstance then cabinet members will review those for those changes before we put them in front of you so the markups have occurred through a process that's based upon both the recommendation from neola which is the vendor we use for the service as well as then review internally thank you dr robert you're welcome thank you very much for the questions as well any others all right we'll have the opportunity to review them again and they'll be on our agenda of our next meeting next on the agenda is the opportunity for board commendations mr grimes go ahead i've got three here that i would like to share last saturday i had the opportunity to catch just a little bit of the east soccer game at the uh at the new soccer complex and just uh compliments on the very nice facility that that has turned out to be and i think you know even more so than the playing surface and the stands and all the niceties surrounding it the thing that stood out to me was you know it's good to see this bcsc soccer complex sign out there with both columbus north and columbus east on it and i think that's just a uh i don't know it just struck me at the time of a good reminder that you know north and east yeah different schools but certainly part of the same corporation and at the same time you know all part of the same community as well and i i think that's you know i don't know that just struck me as being a nice touch and then uh secondly i also had the opportunity to see c4's contribution to exhibit columbus tunnel vision anybody out there audience members here anyone who hasn't seen it i would encourage you to take a peek it's on 5th street between st peters and central it's uh you know a super neat tribute to columbus's rich architectural heritage and i i would like to share just a little bit from mr johnson c4's architecture teacher of just what goes on behind the scenes to make such a thing possible and he shared with me a little timeline and the people involved and so forth but this is all from mr johnson he says the project started fall of 2020 with a group of 15 to 18 c4 architecture students by winter break the design group had identified a concept for our exhibit after spring break thing about 18 construction students began the building process around 70 construction students under the guidance of both mr johnson and mr mike metz completed the foundation and installation just this past week he went on to say mr metz mike matz was essential not only in this 2021 installation but also the 2019 installation in addition a student from mr jeff metz's design fundamentals class assisted with the layout of the qr codes and the designing and printing of what he says was their swag in other words t-shirts students in mr dalton foley's precision precision machining as well as mr derrick gratz's welding classes also assisted with fabrication uh he wanted to give thanks to forced construction for transporting the structure to central and the tony london company who printed uh k the qr codes at no cost and so mr johnson concludes with there's no way i could begin to name all the students that have touched this project and i'm sure i've probably left out some of my colleagues there are a lot of very talented instructors and students in c4 to make projects like this one possible so again a very cool thing and then my last one i wanted to mention a report from mr jensen about uh ap scores in bcsc and just to share some things some a handful of highlights from mr jensen in 16 content exams taken by 15 or more students in bcsc nine of those exams had more of our students scoring a three or better than the state and global average for students earning a three or better three being kind of the predictor from the college board on college success columbus north 55 students took the exam for ap calculus bc and 14 students earned the highest possible score of five also at north six of 18 students took the physics exam earning the highest score five 10 of 32 north statistics students also scored a five and then also from mr jensen lastly here a clear source of pride for the district is the performance of our students on the ap computer science principles ap english language and composition ap spanish language and culture and ap statistics both high schools are achieving outstanding results in these ap courses so good job to the students and teachers in all those ap courses absolutely thank you very much for highlighting that there are other commendations all right thank you mr grimes school board member reports dr bills thank you dr shedd on august 18th we had a bcsc health trust meeting just to give you a little information on these meetings they typically have mr phillips will typically give us a financial report of the quarter on the health trust and then we had some quarter two reports from optimum rx which is part of the health trust and then sciho we get a report from them and we were looking at several different options with mj insurance also gives us a update and then we have a health center i know this is quarter 2 20 21 report a wellness update from kelly thompson and that's kind of the schedule we go we do every health trust meeting as we have some updates from cyclo and from different mj insurance and mr phillips gives us some financial reports what kind of claims from the insurance from poseido we usually hear about um claims reports maybe if they're higher or they're lower and then any type of other financial reports or kind of what's the what people are going into bcs maybe to the hospital for or to um the doctor kind of patterns and trends of what's happening over the at the health trust just for informational purposes so that was the bcsc health trust meeting last wednesday august 18th great thank you others i will share briefly um i sat in on an indiana school board association leadership roundtable on the 18th it's a very interesting conversation about school board meetings this year so far and then on friday the 20th the business advisory group met and it was noteworthy this is my first year on the business advisory but this year is the 18th year that we have had our business advisory council which says a lot about our continued effort to really work as a community to offer the best that we can in our schools dr roberts offered an update regarding the pandemic the numbers have jumped since i heard them on friday morning and then we also i wanted to share this because i personally was not aware we offered a shout out to united way and their student help line that that is available to really help all of our learners or students in particular need and a specific example here at the start of school was their offering of water bottles for using in you know the water those things that i use at school all the time because we had we had students coming to school without them so that was very thoughtful and appreciative dr roberts also offered an um update on a draft of the strategic plan and was very open to good questions and observations that were made by the business advisory members and i think with that about summarizes our work all right cabinet reports mister yeah i just have a preliminary enrollment report for you on the fall enrollment for the district generally we're still cleaning up numbers at this point in time particularly at the high school level but overall total enrollment is up over last year kindergarten enrollment is back almost to its normal range of course that first grade group was small last year as the kindergarten class it did not rebound like we we had hoped it would with those students coming back at the end of last school year this fall the class of 2028 our current fifth graders remains the smallest cohort in our corporation and i just remind you those are the children that would have been born in 2010 at the end of the great recession so a few dips on our enrollment over the last couple of decades and columbus virtual pathway is at about 350 students as of this morning awesome there are particular questions for mr phillips about them okay on to the how and dr roberts those items for which you're requesting approval sure so uh in your package you had information about each of these approval items so i'm requesting approval for the minutes of our last school board meeting which was on monday august the 9th two weeks ago you have a list of supplemental contracts typically we have field trips and professional leaves or school fundraisers or and school fundraisers we did not have additional ones for you this time claims and payroll typically on here we had the claims for august the 23rd so just one set of them it was about 900 thousand dollars we didn't have any additional pre-runs prior to that so that's all you had for claims from payroll we had the one for august the 13th that covers the work days from july 19th to july 30th this is a normal payroll it did include new teacher contracts it began on august the 13th and uh just a reminder here the pay for bus drivers and nine month staff has not yet started so as we've gotten them now underway they will get paid here coming up so that was about 2.3 million dollars in payroll this last time we also have a teacher appreciation grant policy in your packet from dr fleet that policy is a required one it has to be filed by a certain date each year we're not changing anything with our policy that is simply indicating that as understanding that we will probably receive teacher free appreciation grant money i believe it was budgeted if we do then how do we uh pay our teachers that so a reminder that teacher appreciation grant dollars received from the state of indiana can only go to teachers scoring either a highly effective or effective rating on their evaluation there's a 25 percent differential between highly effective and effective so just reiterating or re-upping that policy these next ones are all tied to the public hearings that you had tonight three of them three public hearings four resolutions so letter g is resolution to approve the 2000 or 2021 lease rental bond uh to adopt the preliminary determination resolution to adopt the reimbursement resolution and then to adopt the 2021 additional appropriation resolution again all tied to the public hearing items that we covered earlier and then we do have a revised 403 b401a plan this changes our vendor to equitable it also changes support staff match from a concrete finite dollar amount of five hundred dollars to a percentage three percent of the base primary pay this would go into effect november the first and then we have remainder remaining items for mission received bids for the hvac building control projects at clifty creek and richards and also permission received bids for hvac building control projects at mount healthy and csa fadria mr edwards i think these are first approval items mr edwards uh new position so he does have a lot of federal grants that are on the table for him and he's asking for your permission to file those applications for title one part a title one part d title three part a and the non-english speaking or nesb federal grant and those are uh mine that may be a long list as i've provided to you a through q ask for your approval thank you very much so if i may uh i'd entertain a motion for approval of four a through q as they were presented in our packet still moved thank you dr bills is there a second thank you mr bryant are there any questions that individuals have of dr roberts for it or mr edwards or anyone else that can help us with questions about a through q mr stenner sure i had questions on the resolutions four of them there about the construction projects and the additional appropriations what are the next steps that we're going to go through in those processes if we approve tonight what what are the next dominoes that fall there will be i'll have to look at the the timeline there will be more approvals not at the next meeting but at the following meeting both for for two different parts of the project you might remember that we are um also refinancing the existing debt at central middle school there's just three years left on that debt but it's it's we're allowed to refinance it now and with with uh rates where they are it's silly not to it's it's only going to save us about a hundred thousand dollars but it's certainly worth a hundred thousand dollars to go through those steps i apologize mr stenner i'm trying to find this uh okay at the september 27th meeting you'll have three resolutions in regards to the refunding of the central middle school bonds existing bonds and they're just approving the amendment to lease the continuing undertaking and approving re-improving the building corporation so those lease rentals we have a sub-group basically that serves as the lease rental corporation and then regarding the parkside projects three resolutions to approve there as well no public hearings but three resolutions one to officially determine a need for the projects one to approve the lease rental plans and one to approve the reformation of that building corporations because they each use their own building corporation thank you there are other questions all right i'll call the question so those who are approving who items for a through q as they've been presented to us if you'd signify by saying i i those opposed all right dr roberts those items have passed thank you and dr pleek your turn i request approval of the human resource recommendations as presented this evening thank you very much i'll entertain a motion for approval of those recommendations so moved thank you mr grimes is there a second thank you mr bryant any questions for dr pleek all right hearing none those who approve the re the approval those who approve the human resources recommendations as presented to us if you'd signify by saying i i those opposed all right those have passed unanimously duct to plead all right is there anything else for the good of the order individuals have comments to make i'll say smidge is that all right sure yeah for anybody that's still left out in the audience just for the i think i've lost track this is a third or fourth meeting in the road in a row where we've had outside uh community members speak and i would just like to say you know appreciate you coming out and spending time this evening to share your comments and concerns and not to get too philosophical but i know it was unpleasant as disagreement can be i do sincerely believe that healthy civil civil discourse is certainly a um you know a very important part of any well-functioning society and obviously we've gotten to the point where there is no shortage of what i hope continues to remain healthy in civil discourse and then also congratulations to ms dow for being the recipient of the teacher of the year and also wanted to mention i think she was a 1920 bcsc teacher of the year mindy summers for being selected top 25 for the indiana teacher of the year just recently and then also i'd just like to extend best wishes to north and east athletic teams as they participate um against one another um all week um cross country tennis tomorrow girls soccer wednesday boys soccer thursday football friday and saturday and look forward to the northeast football game friday night and school foundation will be there with some blue and orange cookies so feel free to partake of one of both perhaps and oh and also the sound of spirit sound and spirit of columbus the the joining of the northeast bands will make its debut performance friday evening at the uh football game as well great all right awesome thank you for that mr stenner i'd like to echo mr grimes comments about participation in these meetings i think we make better decisions when we hear everybody's point of view also particularly proud of all the students and staff that have been part of the exhibit columbus that opened up over the weekend it's very exciting indeed thank you dr bills sure i also appreciated the comments from everyone at the board meeting um tonight and two weeks ago i've actually gotten a lot of emails some of them to be some people being disappointed some people thanking me so you know we have we do try to represent our districts and our people and i and i wanted to just say that um some of the information you know we are not medical experts so you know we look at data i look at research but we also have to listen to um medical professionals and people who have seen children so um there's no really i mean all of i think people could show data obviously those of you spoke tonight and last time on one side and others can show data and research on the other side you know so i think i voted because of the high number of children you know that were came into school in the very beginning and it was a very high number you know i voted because of the medical professionals and our mission is to keep all children safe that's part of the board mission so your feelings and thoughts those of you who are disappointed with the vote a couple weeks ago are understandable and i want to let you know that i voted with my conscience and as the facts that i understand them and it's the same reason about a year ago i voted not to open school because i thought that the school that the rates were too high to open it was the same situation for me i vote my conscience and i vote what i think is right you know covet has been really unpredictable believe me i'm tired of wearing a mask just as much as anybody else so but we also want our children in school as stated by somebody tonight in my opinion and i i still feel even tonight that we've done that we've tried to do our best to do that so i'm you know for those of you who are who emailed me and said thank you you're welcome for those of you who emailed me and said you're disappointed i'm sorry but i hope this gives you a little bit more input on you know kind of why i voted the way i did a couple weeks ago and i did email some people back excuse me excuse me no excuse so thank you for speaking at the board at the meeting tonight and whether you agree with me tonight or not you're always welcome to email me and speak at a board meeting so that's my that's my input thank you mr brian all right thank you very much i do appreciate everyone that has come and your thought you've obviously put a great deal of research and thought into all of your comments we have your notes i have all my notes of things that were said we do continue to listen to all the advice that we're given both your opinions the advice that we're getting from our community task force from our health care community as well as the state and the and the federal government we do our very best and it truly is for your children that we are trying very hard to stay in school rather than even think about going into e-learning again so thank you all very much for being here this evening
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you may ask yourself what does that mean well it means children's are far more likely to choke to death while eating hot dogs or drown in the bathtub than to die of covid they're also far more likely to be killed on the way to school either walking or riding in a vehicle our kids don't need mass to stay safe and adults can get vaccinated so what are you protecting i think you're protecting yourself from political backlash from the people that you've deemed important give us a choice to mask our kids and stop making them live in a george orwell novel i believe the two greatest things that we have here in the united states is freedom and liberty and i see you trying to chip away at those things and that reminds me of frederick douglass frederick douglass one of the finest americans ever lived he said there are three boxes to freedom the ballot box the jury box and the cartridge box thank you for your time thank you [Applause] hi my name is kay janat i live here in green castle and my my oldest son currently is in elementary school here um i want to start off with mirroring mirroring just what he said thank you guys for making that hard decision i'm sure i'm sure it had to be hard like no matter where you are on the fence um just thank you guys for sitting up here and taking this for us okay however i do have some concerns about the masks one of the biggest ones is what we just saw earlier with the voice projecting how are our kids supposed to hear the teacher when it's muzzled um also i know a lot of our kids who have trouble with ish like with with hearing with speech they need to see the mouth movement for my child in particular i know that's important okay also people who are asthmatics i don't know if any of you guys are asthmatics in here but if you've ever had an asthmatic attack that's a scary feeling that's a really scary feeling um when you have that cloth over your face over your face especially in a warmer area it feels like that it feels like your your bronchial tubes are closing up just like an asthma attack i don't like that i don't want my children to have to deal with that um i do want to say that when um when you guys were elected and i'm not trying to like address you personally so please don't think that when you were elected you said the school board really is to make sure that the beliefs visions and priorities of the community are communicated to the school administration to make sure that that school is really abiding by the community's wishes i'm just asking you to abide by our wishes okay thanks guys hi i'm holly hill i'm a teacher at dear meadow sorry i might get a little emotional um i kind of just wanted to piggyback a little bit well first of all i want to say thank you for your guys time and effort and all the hard work you guys are putting in because i know this is not an easy school year last year was not an easy school year and i don't really see much end in sight for when it's going to become easier on you guys or on us as teachers but one thing i would like to point out as well as a teacher of tiny humans in first grade so six and seven-year-olds it is really really hard for us to teach them how to manipulate sounds it is hard for us to see how they um use the sounds that i'm saying how to write down the sounds that i'm saying how to copy the sounds i'm saying today i try to spell the word cap app and those letters that don't have a voiced sound to them they really had a hard time understanding what i'm saying versus being able to at least read my lips a little bit for that um so i think what i would just be asking is just a little bit of concession like there was last year of six feet apart versus the three feet or if there was some way to also help give some of that to so that we can get feedback from each other from me as a teacher to see them and for them to see me as well um so i just would hope that as you guys kind of work through the plans and work through everything that you kind of take that into consideration as well um we're going outside as much as you know as much as possible doing reading books outside today i did writing outside just to try to give them a break and to be able to let them be kids and have you know and not have something on their face that it's just really hard at their age um for me as individual with anxiety it's also hard but i'm an adult i can i can do it um but i'm worried too what happens when it's a rainy day their only time without it is for their 30-minute lunch that's a really really long day for them if we don't have the ability to try and space out even if it's a little bit even if it's just for five minutes here and there so again just as you're working through your plans if you guys would just kind of take that into consideration as well thank you thank you [Applause] hi my name is jess featherston and i'm a mom of two very frustrated students one at dear meadow and when it's easy both of my children are artistic and from a very young age my oldest son has been taught to recognize emotions and faces and he cannot do that with a mask i have a six-year-old with a severe speech impediment who also cannot be understood now at all last year during speech therapy he gained nothing because he couldn't see their mouths couldn't see their faces it's conor missed the social cues when faces are covered his behavior is especially negative and it's directly related to frustration from his mask and his his excuse me his inability to communicate charlie is now refusing to go to school he will not he wants to be homeschooled now because children make fun of him because of the way he speaks and it's worse when he is wearing a mask if those were your children what would you do that's all i have to say thank you [Applause] uh my name is david keen i have two kids at red path so one of my concerns is facial expressions picking up on them uh how's the teacher to how easy is it for a teacher to look at a child from across from me to you and only seeing their eyes and know if they're frustrated concerned upset angry can you do that i don't think so another thing is uh redpath was trying to push on some individual teachers were trying to push on masks prior to your requirement and my concern was is that's my choice at that time so why why is this why am i getting emails about it well i spoke to my children about it and i said hey i took care of it you don't have to wear masks tomorrow they feel it's a punishment they thought that if they went to school without a mask that they were going to get in trouble that to me that's concerning because whether it's a requirement or not they shouldn't be afraid to take it off and then also i worked nine and a half years every day i had to wear some kind of respirator and it's the ones that you guys got on right now forced air oxygen whole nine yards i got mold spores growing in my lungs because i was wearing a 94 okay which is better suited than what you have right there it's sealed to your face and it did not protect me that mask is not going to protect you from a airborne pathogen okay and another thing if this was really about covid why isn't there sanitizer right here on this mic [Applause] good evening paul jadel mcdonald's owner operator got two kids in school and i've got a wife who's a teacher i appreciate everyone's time here a lot of great comments um i don't like mask i know no one else here does that i think anyone wearing a mask is like this is dumb we don't like doing it the reality is is we're at this place where i challenge the school board is where's the threshold on when when we get to take the mass off in the school um at what level do we change and maybe have to instill more protocol like more daily cleanings i've just not seen much on based upon cases per 100 000 positivity rates you name it i think it would help all of us here if we kind of had a better gauge of where the threshold would be i do the same for my employees they were not happy even though they're vaccinated when they had to wear masks again is like this is just i'm following the science and trying to do the right thing but when i gave them a threshold they're a lot more encouraged at least to know that when things got back to a lower level they could take the mass back off and i think that could be something that would be a win for all of us our kids um and hearing some of these sad stories i mean it is tough and i applaud any parent who has a child with a speech impediment or having any of those struggles i mean this is it's not easy so i just i just encourage you to be more forthcoming with where thresholds are so that way we can have a better idea thank you guys sorry it's a little um a little short hi my name is michaela stonebreaker i'm actually a senior at ghs um i play tennis and i live in green castle obviously and i do cheer and as an actual student who has to wear a mask every day in green castle high school i don't support it i don't wear a mask in school and i get told every day wear your mask wear your mask my teachers but my fellow students look at me and they say wow that's really great michaela because nobody likes wearing a mask i mean every day i mean we have to wear a mask but most of the students don't even wear it right they'll have it down here they'll have it so their nose is uncovered so there's no point in wearing a mask anyway and the only i mean people in my school wear masks just because they want to have a football season or because they want to their senior year they don't want it to be ruined not because they actually believe in masks or because they believe in covid because they all know that they'll get coveted and they'll bounce back because that's what humans always do we bounce back that is what we are genetically engineered to do but i think it'd be nice to actually see someone who is actually in the school and seeing all this happen all the time i have students being like yeah that's great you shouldn't wear a mask this is stupid we don't believe in this and as somebody said earlier people look at it as a punishment because it is most kids i mean of the kids that do get covered they bounce back fast thank you [Applause] hello my name is jody gooch i'm a dad of four in green castle schools i live here in green castle and first off i'd like to thank the board for opening up for comments and to be able to exercise free speech i respect all views and that's why i'm here i'm not i'm here to stand up for liberty so that's some of the things i have to say okay i want to get right to it i know time is of the essence we've been propagandized uh that we live in a democracy and we don't we live in a constitutional republic with written inalienable rights democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner there's a living breathing history lesson being played out right before us right now and i'd like to challenge the history and civics teachers that we unbelievable lessons right now with the civil liberties that have just been crushed and ignored stamped on and we're moving on and just the rules keep changing okay a couple of lessons i'd like to challenge those teachers to investigate with their students something called the nuremberg code hipaa laws stockholm syndrome just to name a few and again my words tonight are not to be derogatory to people that are pro-mass pro-vaccine that is not why i'm here so but i will say i think the mandates need to go away mass mandates the contact tracing quarantine i think i'm also speaking for the silent majority as when i attend events just a week ago monday night a varsity event right here nice crowd you'd have to you'd be hard-pressed to find someone wearing a mask okay so when i think people have the choice they they make that choice and they make they usually get it right especially when their kids are involved and i've seen it multiple events okay so good products typically don't have to have mandates or have marketing plans okay people will do it if it's working and they feel the need to and i'm totally open people that want their children masked by all means the policy you started with being the schooler i thought was great it's open if you want to social if you want to uh uh e-learn the schools work with these kids if they want to stay home if they are afraid if they believe that they're in a genuine harm's way there's there's other options but i don't want to be a part of the masking with my kids i i think the masking does not work against transmittable or transmitting viruses in fact the boxes that it comes on half of them will tell you it does not provide protection okay in my career i handle death and trauma every day every day i wear personal protective equipment every day okay i believe in it when it is it when it's needed um and if anything with handling what i see in my career i know not a glamorous career but it's taught me the fragility of life okay and what life because death is real okay and it tells me that to on the flip side to get busy living and living living freely okay uh the masking just i'm gonna go quick i know i'm taking a lot of time uh a little experiment put an o2 monitor underneath a mouse wear your mask normal put an o2 monitor on it goes into alarm falls below osha standards for a safe workplace i mean it's not that's not rocket science it's actual do it uh the eca activities that have been canceled over the last year and a half and that my kids have missed out on from uh little o i mean what the tradition that people from green castle i think it's most special thing going since what 1932 gone and i hear that it's gone for good and they're just going to go to a class field day and that's some of the biggest best stuff that kids get to experience while they're here at schools please be brief we have people waiting pardon time please be brief we have people gotcha gotcha uh so in closing uh challenge you to do the right thing and and if the board does not want to move on this and remove the mandate put a referendum out send out all parents that have kids get a vote per kid in school uh it's time to resist this and stand up to the tyranny i want to encourage all people to step forward with their beliefs and be strong because we'll get exactly what we accept okay and so i'd like to close with using the great dr martin luther king's words it's time for peaceful civil disobedience thank you and god bless you all [Applause] good evening my name is elisa isaacs bailey and i'm known as mrs isaacs at the middle school i am also a parent of two children who are in green castle schools and a parent of a child who has graduated and gone on to productive life i am i want to agree with a couple of the things that i have heard i want to agree and show my support for extracurricular activities i could not agree with both mr gooch and with michaela that all of the extracurricular activities that we want to have do make the school experience valuable they're ways that kids can plug in who don't necessarily feel a part of things during the regular school day and i want to point out what a great argument that is for wearing masks i have one class of 20 students that for the past two weeks 11 of them have been absent due to covid i think it's important to go back to why the decision was made we didn't start the school year in masks people like me who are vaccinated were very excited to not have to have a piece of fabric in front of my face and there are times when i pull it down to make sure that students can see my face or hear what it is that i'm saying but the reality is the covid began to spread like wildfire through our school one day at greencastle middle school we had over 80 students gone and when i would open my book in skyward the code for covet absences filled my page i don't like wearing a mask but i do it and i do it because to me being patriotic to me loving my country means loving the people who live in it i'm vaccinated there's a good chance i could go to school without wearing a mask and never get sick at all i'm wearing it to keep your kids from getting sick from me because the studies have shown that even vaccinated people can possibly carry covet and could spread it in all likelihood not to someone who's vaccinated but to someone who isn't so i am in favor of football games i'm the director of the drama club at the middle school i didn't get to have a real play last year i'm looking forward to doing that this year and if that means wearing a mask being vaccinated doing everything that i'm able to do to try and stop the spread i will do it to be honest if there were enough studies if the fda approved like they did the pfizer vaccine today that if i shaved my head people wouldn't get coven i would gladly do it well maybe not gladly but i would do it because we care about your kids it's not possible for us to care about your kids as much as you do because you're their parents and i know that all too well myself as a parent but through everything that's happened since this started in 2020 i think there are a few of us who can question how devoted the educators in this community are to your children to suggest that there's something insidious at play here is itself a kind of evil and i want to see this be a community where we all love our kids enough that we will do whatever it takes to keep them safe even if it means discomfort thank you thank you good evening my name is morgan shootman i have lived in greencastle for about five years three of those years right up until this past school year i worked for deer meadow primary and i can tell you and i also have two children that were in this school system during last year we saw so many children having a hard time keeping their masks on the point that other people have made about not being able to see their teachers clearly or hear especially when you're working in the special education area like i was is extremely true there the masks get filthy they are really disgusting the kids dropped them on the playground i can't tell you how many times i've seen just masks laying all over the playground um they get food on them they chew on them um and you know that's probably not a problem in high school but in elementary kids that's a major deal for them and how good is that for them to be having that on their face all day long like that so i do want you to be aware i mean those things are definitely happening at the elementary level for me personally i do think that you as the board should know that i said i had two children in this school corporation and as of last week i pulled my children out which nobody has said that here tonight so i'm letting you know that if you do see a drop in enrollment it could be because parents are sick and tired and they're pulling their children out and i will now be homeschooling my children so thank you [Applause] thanks my name is matt cummings i speak loud i get a mask on we'll have fun um i'm a parent of two kids in tz and now in middle school and from green castle indiana last seven years so i wanted to commend the board this is a difficult decision i personally been through with the school that i work at in indy shifting from a physical presence to an online presence and so when we were sitting down making a decision we looked at three things one what's the data say about the issue two how does this impact my customers three what risk does it have on my staff when we looked at the data around mass we saw overwhelming scientific peer-reviewed research not google memes that said mass reduce don't prevent the spread of covet so i can continue to urge you to support a mass mandate in your school as you can see it's difficult to talk with a microphone and a mask on and as other people said masks are hard they get dirty and that's part of the problem is that we have to learn how to wear our masks better have massive fit in order to continue to reduce the spread of covet so i want to commend you all for taking time to hear the issue on science i'm excited to see i have friends on all sides of the aisles here we'll see after this how long we're facebook friends afterwards but i do want to commend you all for taking time to listen to the public hear from different folks and also tread on this issue very carefully and finally it brings me great excitement when i hear people quote frederick douglass martin luther king jr and george orwell all when the under the guise of liberty and individual freedom but yet all three of those people were also radical leftists so thank you for bringing them to the attention of this place thank you bye thank you evening my name is joan billman i've lived in green castle for 45 years i have three daughters that graduate the school system and and i love it and i thank you for the uh listening to our responses today i am against the mask i don't wear a mask anywhere except when i travel to my visit my daughter's on airplane because they won't let me fly then but my daughters live in utah and texas and last year my grandchildren ages from 6 to they all had to wear masks and they hated it my daughters hated it they couldn't see their friends they couldn't they had dirty masks on for one thing they weren't on right my daughters fought it i mean they just were just one daughter said well just wear the mask because i want them to be in school but she hated it this year they're not wearing the mask oh they're so happy they're back in school and they're so happy and especially in texas where it's 95 degrees like it is here and here in green castle the kids have to wear a mask they don't have to wear it at north platinum i guess it's cooler there or south platinum but they have to wear it in green castle why first of all they don't do anything i have researched this code thing it's coming out of my ears the masks do not work i call those little blue things that you're wearing now paper diapers they do nothing on the box it says they do nothing and uh they also are from china and they have chemicals in them that are polluting your system so i you may look into something else but the but the thing is what i'm so concerned about is our freedoms i can't believe that the school board could take away the freedoms of every child in this school system would go against at least half of the parents that don't want their child masked and it's just not right if a child wants to wear a mask to school okay they can wear it the teacher wants to wear a mask to school if they feel better go ahead but don't mandate it this is supposed to be a free country god said it god said we have rights over our own body the constitution says it that we are free people and the nuremberg code says that we should not be experimented upon and with mask that's an experiment see how well you do the kids have poisons in their system they get skinny okay and uh and vaccine i'm against the vaccine the copa vaccine if you force the kids to take the copa vaccine you have blood on your hands so i think you better consider that but thank you [Applause] hi thank you all again for all your comments i think there have been a lot of great points my name is stephanie garnen i have a master's in medical genetics i'm a former employee of riley children's hospital for seven years and i worked in maternal fetal medicine for seven years prior to that in indianapolis and i'm in regular contact with my colleagues i currently work for a pharmaceutical company that has me in the field going from children's hospital to children's hospital every week and talking to them virtually and what i can tell you is that this is harmful to kids right now one percent one out of a hundred which when i work in genetics i had patients that had conditions i considered common if it was one in ten thousand so one in a hundred kids is being hospitalized with delta variant of covid there have been hundreds of deaths over the summer that is not a gamble i think we should mess with if it is your child it will matter to you i promise i have been in the room with many a parent whose child has died of something rare and it hurts not less it hurts a lot and you don't want to have that kind of blood on your hands i think that we can solve together by working as a community some of your concerns children with delays are and mental handicaps and autism are a group that i've worked with quite a bit there's a my company has a treatment for pediatric dementia which yes is a thing and we have masks for those kids that are clear or we at least will work with a care provider to provide a clear hood or something along that line we could also have a community i would be the first to donate masks for children who are showing up with dirty baths or dropping them on the playground and need another backup pair i think that these are things that are solvable no one loves the masks i was also very disappointed to hear that we had data coming out that the full vaccination did not prevent spread at the level we were hoping but the vaccines do what they're supposed to do they're not supposed to completely reduce spread that is known in many other disease states so these are things we can get around it will help in the community for adults and children 12 and up to get vaccinated but in the meantime we have to deal with this issue and our kids are unprotected if they're under 12 and don't have a choice to have that vaccine yet the earliest that's likely to happen is december of this year assuming that that pfizer trials move forward and get fda approval they're filing next month i follow it really closely um i just think that this is something that we can work together on we also need to think about our teachers who are not getting paid currently when they have to be quarantined our kids are doing better in school you know i talked to my friend who works she's the head of developmental peds at riley and she wants her her children her patient population to be in school and the way to do that is unfortunately right now to wear masks and have as many people vaccinating as possible these are things that we can do as a community to help support our kids and keep them healthy we also need to think about our time please okay um i also talked to her an hour before i came here and riley has the highest rate of children in the emergency department right now than they have ever had in the entire hospital's history it is not only coveted but the majority of the cases are covered and i you know that's just data that i can't make up um she said they're having emergency protocols trying to make sure they have enough icu beds and enough staff to take care of these kids not only our kids who are getting sick with covid but also the kids who have cancer and have to have their heart repaired for a birth defect and or in a car accident so this is not just about covid we have to protect our hospitals for other things too thank you so much [Applause] hi my name is maggie rogers i have lived here basically my whole life i have two kids in the school system now and i just i i homeschooled last year because of the mass mandate our son chose to go to school this year so while i understand i don't think anybody in here wants to wear masks i'm fully vaccinated and had the delta variant and i'm wearing a mask because i'm respecting the wishes of the establishment i'm in but anyways i just have something to read really quick um we are in a time in our community that we need to put others needs before our desires we need to keep people safe and healthy it is incredibly frustrating to see people behave selfishly and make decisions based largely on what i see as ignorance because i've seen no empirical evidence at all and propaganda like i said i don't want to wear masks i know the teachers don't want to wear masks surprisingly my son has no problem because i think he sees us reacting healthily to this in front of him my husband i actually have opposing views on this so i feel like i've heard a lot of you know both sides of things um the first is that people say masks don't work i've read 14 studies that say that they do and have not found studies otherwise so i'd love to see those if anybody wants to see mine you can ask um and i just can't really wrap my head around the idea that since we can't do something perfectly we shouldn't try at all obviously younger kids are going to have issues wearing masks properly but i don't think that that should mean that we don't try at all to protect not just the kids but the amino suppressed the parents at home the grandparents the families of these kids that if something happens to them it will affect the kids in my opinion worse than wearing a mask you know the government control and indoctrination is um i don't really know how to how to address that it's um not happening and i think that it's not very a valid argument for this board to consider because we make our kids stand and pledge their allegiance to a flag in a country every day i don't have a problem with that but i feel like that's indoctrination maybe we should focus on other things um and i understand that there are kids that are going to be made fun of i always made fun of growing up we never had to wear a mask i think that's just something that comes with childhood and good parenting and a good support system can get them through any of that i think that the people who are against masks and vaccines are placing a huge burden on the rest of the community like many people have said adults can get vaccinated and while it's your choice to get vaccinated you have consequences that come with that choice and that is we don't have enough adults in this community fully vaccinated therefore our children are more at risk as the rest of the community um as a i mean we've lost more people to cover than all of our wars combined i don't know if people know that um also you know we've been dealing with this things like this in history for hundreds of years 1777 george washington forced his troops to get the small tax vaccine 1905 jacob jacobson versus massachusetts scotus ruled the mass mandates and vaccine mandates are constitutional um and i just i just think it's time you know that we individuals must um give up their rights for the better good of the community and i just think that's where we should all focus we should i agree with mr janelle or we will be done holly hill all of these things are great ideas anything we can do to get the masks off my kids who by the way had the delta variant so they're immune but they're still wearing masks because they're asked to um i think that's great i would love six feet i would love anything we can do to get but until then i appreciate you guys making the hard decision i know it's hard and i know you get a lot of flack for it so i appreciate it thank you thank you my name is evan jones your name evan jones okay live here in green castle all my life got a daughter in tz and i think it should be everybody's option nobody should be able to mandate anything we all live in america we're free we're getting ready to fight communism with who we have in office but these masks don't help anything they're thin they're not going to help an airborne pathogen your underwear are thicker than those masks and when you fart through that and denim you still smell it you're going to get it good evening my name is randy parker and my affiliate here is well started out as a taxpayer and a tax-paying parent now i'm a taxpayer three grandsons two of them which go to greencastle schools those of you who wear the mask that's your priority okay that's what you want to do you can do it okay our children are allowed that option they are forced upon them all day long in school okay and we have heard the stories about our children are scared to pull their masks down to take a water bottle and take a drink out of that setting at their desk okay that's what the water bottle is for is to take a drink out of it okay then my second thing okay kids are forced to wear these masks all day long while they're sitting at their desk okay then they're allowed to go outside of recess for 30 minutes without these masks okay what are they doing out there while they're recessed they're running they're jumping they're screaming they're hollering they're being kids working up their adrenaline everything else okay recess ends put your masks back on they're hyperventilating in their masks they're breathing hard in their mouths they're breathing that dirty toxin back in their mask inhaling it back into their little lungs exhaling the back out inhaling the back end the mask are dirty they are right they pick them up off the ground they get food in them uh this should be the parents choice if they want the child to wear the mask that should be their choice i say no to the mandates okay it does seem that we are becoming somewhat repetitive um hearing much the same from every comment or one one side of the coin from each comment or every comment um do we have anyone that has a different perspective something new and if so we could have a couple more comments if not we'll close comments thank you i'm greg velasquez i have two kids in the school district here uh lived in green castle about eight years now i don't believe we should be forcing the kids to have masks i know you guys have a difficult job and you have to try to figure out what's best but i think like somebody mentioned earlier it's a lot about covering your own butts from state probably from insurance lawsuits i don't know there's probably a lot of things you have to consider but i do believe it should be a parent's choice and if a kid wants to go in with them asking the parents want their kid to do that that's great that's fine that's the prerogative it's a free country that's what we should have they should be allowed to but where does this end where is this going to end what's next you're not going to get rid of this you're not going to get rid of it it's always going to be here for a span of time what are you going to do next how are you going to chase this thing you can't there's no way and it's a kangaroo court when you they send the kids home i have my son was off for a week because a parent had her kid masked at lunch break he sat by the kid tested positive at some point last week or the prior week so now my kid has to sit out for eight days or 14 days because he said at the lunch table with this kid that been wearing a mask when they weren't wearing masks or weren't supposed or didn't have to so the kid with the mask got to cover now my kid's sitting out and we talked to two different nurses from two different schools everybody's got a different idea it's like going to the bmv you ask four questions for four different people you get ten different answers so you guys are just chasing your tails the nurses are chasing their tails there's no really good setup um and just yeah that one teacher talking about a stu her list of students blank everybody out 80 kids yeah you're going to get that with this kind of rhetoric you've got going on with the nurses and everything they don't know from one to the other what's going on and what to do so yeah you're going to have a bunch of kids out there tracing why isn't his whole lunch room out i don't know or his whole classroom that this kid was in we don't know it makes no sense you're not going to end it you're not going to flatten a curve it's just going to run its course it's going to happen people want to talk about we had to get smallpox vaccines back in the day the death rate was hundreds times more than what code is and if you follow facts you would know this that the recovery rate is better yes there are people that have underlying issues and that's where it really affects people like that and i get it they can wear a mask my i had a fortunate uh today i was able to go to my doctor for my yearly uh checkup and i had my son with me and of course he wouldn't ask any questions i didn't have my mask on uh he didn't ask me if i'd been vaccinated which i was surprised but i said so how do you feel you know the school just mandated this mask thing for our kids again where they started where it didn't and he's like it makes no sense these kids do not need to be masked he said i don't believe they need to be masked my job i'm fortunate to be able to talk with a lot of different people i was down at iu bloomington with a customer of mine he's a microbiologist professor at iu last year i talked with him when this mandate first came out with mask and he laughed he said it just drives me crazy said you'd have to spit in my mouth before i'd get it so even these people who are educators and of course you're getting it all across the board some doctors are for it all uh others aren't but where does it end and to mention that like one of the other parents did you are looking at a mass exodus of students if this keeps up teacher parents are tired of it there's no end to it i believe everybody should be like you did in the beginning everybody should have their choice their kids if you wanted to do it if not don't but you are looking at a mass exodus [Applause] okay do we have any comments that are have opposing viewpoints or just not because we are becoming repetitive and that's one of the things in the policy that they will stop comments once they become repetitive so we will try one more comment and if they will probably end up after this one my name is jessica connect i have a daughter at deer meadow and something that wasn't really hit on was virtual why aren't we doing the virtual option last year we did this sure we're not i don't want to send my kid in a mask i want a virtual option i don't know i don't understand why we're not asking the parents would there be enough teachers to teach an unmasked group a mass group or a virtual option have we looked into this my child if she rode the bus and got on the bus at seven o'clock and got home at four she'd have a mask on for nine hours do you guys want to wear a mask for nine hours i've seen all of you adjust your mask it's frustrating thank you [Applause] okay well then we're going to close the public comments for this evening thank you all for sharing your viewpoints next item on the agenda is recognitions mr gibboni yeah we don't we don't have any recognitions this month we'll start with our students a month next month okay next item on the agenda is approval of the consent agenda which includes meeting minutes from the executive session and the regular board meeting from july 26 2012 and the allowance of claims financial report and personnel reports part one and two which are posted on the website and on the door at central office mrs romer hello everyone in your board packet you're going to see two regular payrolls for the month of july the first was dated july 2nd 2021 for a total payroll of 586 dollars and 22 cents along with that payroll came accounts payable for payroll taxes and retirement dated july 2nd 2021 total accounts payable 97 875 69.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
the one thing i think it's important to point out with the esser grant dollars that we got due to kovid they're reimbursement grants so it's not really revenue it's it's revenue to match expenditures due to the pandemic so it's not like hey you got this extra money you can put it towards your budget wherever you want it's you know we paid for ppe we paid for some of the we're paying for some programs for learning loss we're we had uh um we have the ability to do some things with air quality so it's it's not necessarily extra revenue it's a reimbursement some expenditure highlights uh salaries are a huge cost for districts typically about 80 percent of our budget is salaries and benefits benefits include both trs and imrf the trs is for our certified employees contributing to the retirements and imrf is contributing to non-classified employees teacher assistants nurses things of that nature and then benefits also include medical dental and vision but as well other expenditures include purchase services supplies capital outlay tuition things like transportation food services private placement we also have our utilities is a large cost in our financial statements every month on the board you'll see we have quite a hefty bill to pay every month a lot of that bill is electricity natural gas phone water things of that nature our internet connectivity we also have lease payments and capital projects so there's a basic way that we categorize our expenditures so the job the job of the school district is like i said really balance our revenue with our expenditures some of the challenges that we have in balancing that is evidence-based funding really started the conversation about what an adequate education looks like and if we were adequately funded how much would that cost well right now based on what the state has determined our adequacy target to be we only meet that about 62 percent so we need another 38 percent in budget and revenues to reach that level of adequacy that's a that's a lot of money 62 percent of about 240 million dollars so we have a heavy reliance this is an interesting one it's what makes our district very unique very special but it also has its challenges we're very reliant on residential properties we are very much a residential district we don't have a lot of corporate uh support for our educational program we're about 71 percent of our property wealth is all in residential so that's one thing that makes us unique and we'll definitely talk about that more when we talk about levying and what that means in terms of our taxpayers and the the cost of educating our students another thing is we are a tax cap district that translates to our revenue being capped at cpi or five percent i always get a kick out of the five percent because i can't remember the last time that we were at five percent way back years ago five percent it was like wow you know we gotta limit this somehow but who knew that cpi would go down and it's been down for quite a while the number i quoted just a little bit ago is our revenues are capped whatever we got in property taxes last year we can we can only get 1.4 percent more of that this year so it uh it's an interesting challenge some of the rising costs that we deal with obviously our we have annual increases in collective bargaining agreements we have increased in special education populations unfunded mandates vendor contracts and transportation and food service equipment and technology needs and facility and maintenance repairs so we have we have a lot of we have a lot of requests for our our budgets on the on the revenues the one thing i'm going to talk about today is very confusing i'd like to straighten this out there's there's a budget our budget is made up of nine funds and they're all listed up here but there are there are five of those funds that carry most of our most of our transactions and the largest amount of our money for instance in the education fund salaries and benefits operations and maintenance our facilities transportation imrf and social security and working cash those are called the operating funds so sometimes you'll say wait this says that our budget is 226 million dollars in realized revenue but over here it says it's 244 million why how can that be well the 226 million is in the operating funds the additional 25 million is in the other funds the debt service we do have the district does have debt we have debt payments to pay off bonds that's in the other funds we have capital projects we have tort which is uh workers compensation student insurance different district liability insurance is all paid through the tort fund and we also have health life safety so those are the nine funds that we have but today you're going to be hearing a lot about the operating funds which is everything except debt service capital projects tort and hls or health life safety so with that let me prepare so thank you very much i appreciate you guys entertaining my finance 101 but that's kind of my finance uh if you have other questions about basic finance don't hesitate to reach out to me but now i want to translate what that means in terms of dollars so if you look up here this is our fy 22 revenue by source and by source i mean local state and federal but it's only the operating funds so you'll see we have 236 million dollars and you can see how much of that is local how much of that is state and how much of that is federal funding so i gave you the numbers and the percentages on our revenue there's another way to look at our revenue very exciting let's look at that it is called estimated revenue by fund so rather than looking at it by local state and federal i can say in the education fund what what funds are bringing in revenue our education funds through like our property tax levy we ended up realizing 196 million dollars in revenue from different education funds the operation and maintenance fund we realize about 23 million dollars in transportation we expect to see revenues of 9.3 million in imrf and social security we'll see about 7.3 million and our working cash fund we'll we'll see about 168 thousand dollars working cash is kind of an interesting account it's one of those accounts where we have a fund balance so that we can cover our cash flow so if we're if we are having a cash flow problem we haven't received our revenue but we still have to pay our bills every month we can use our working cash fund to lend money to that account and then we have to repay that um out of our repay the working cash fund from our our dollars it's like a way to internally loan ourselves money so that's our revenues i'd like to talk about our expenditures how do we spend our money if you see here and again i'm talking about the operating accounts um what we do we our education fund we spend about 186 million in the operations and maintenance fund we'll be looking this year at spending about 23 million in the transportation fund we're looking at spending about 15 million and in imrf uh social security will be looking at spending about 6.3 million i can already see maybe some of you might have a question there wait john your your revenue fund was only 9 million you're going to spend 15 million we also uh some of that the transportation transportation costs were reimbursed by about 80 percent so um we're balancing how much we spend and how much we need to spend versus how much we get reimbursed and we try to balance that but we do spend about 20 percent of about 10 million dollars 20 percent 2 million dollars is from local funds and then the rest is reimbursed so another way to look at operating funds is by what we call the objects the object codes and finance are as you can see their salaries which is about 65 percent you can see that we've got our benefits which are about 13 so that's where we get our you know 78 82 of our funds are on on salaries and benefits you can see we've got purchase services we've got supplies capital outlay other objects and non-capitalized equipment so that's another way to look at how are we spending our money all of this is summarized in a lovely 30-page document that i would i would like to review with you at any time if you'd like to sit down this is just a snapshot of basically the information i shared with you in the previous slides in the document that we call budget at a glance but this information you can see if you look across the top you can see the nine funds education operations maintenance debt service transportation so it makes sense we've got our beginning balances for the year we've got our revenues and then we have our different expenditure sources and at the bottom we have how much money based on our budget and our revenue and expenditures how much do we think we're going to have in our fund balances at the end of the year fund balances are kind of a funny thing i'll talk about it on the next slide here this is another page in the in the 30 page document from the isbe basically what this is showing is the education fund the operations maintenance fund transportation and working cash so four of the five operating funds they left off imrf for some reason in this one so in those four funds you can see what the total revenues are you can see what the total expenditures are and based on the money we receive this year and the money we spend this year we are looking at having 3.2 million dollars in a surplus that surplus will go into our fund balance um just as a little background information most districts look to have it about a 20 to 25 percent fund balance the reason that number is so important is it allows us to pay our bills with the cash flow when do we get revenue and when do we have to spend it we have some cash flow issues that we need to overcome and a fund balance of 20 to 25 percent will allow us to pay that pay that cash flow without having to borrow money or what you guys have heard is tax anticipation warrants so we're trying to remove that cost from our budget but right now we don't have the fund balance to do it interesting thing here i'd like to point out that 35 million dollars on this page that says it's a fun balance that that's pretty healthy i would be very happy if we had that kind of a fun balance all year long the problem is with the way cash flow works this budget is a snapshot in time so we were we are we are realizing revenue but we need to pay our bills we're also separating and this is an unaudited number so once the audit comes in they're good the auditors will separate what did we receive in in june in our taxes because some of that money needs to be credited to last budget year and some of those june monies get credited into this year so when the revenues come where they're divided um that number will go up and down depending on where we are because we borrow money tax anticipation warrants those fund balances will go down to zero at one point we won't have any money but then we'll look at building those back up by borrowing and we'll hope we hope to get to a healthy fund balance so we can get out of that that need to borrow to pay our cash flow needs and that board of education is i think my last slide yes so i would like to entertain any questions that the board might have and i will definitely put this on public display and i will share with the board any feedback and comments i get from the public to share with you and like dr sparlin said we do have one more meeting september 13th so if there are questions needing to be addressed we can use that time as well so any any immediate feedback or questions i have two questions i'll leave so this comes up literally every year for probably the last 12 years um can we at some point if you look at slide five the revenue highlights yeah so in slide five you say registration tuition cost and athletic fees can we break those down i know that we say that every year but every year at the beginning of the year i got my 300 dollar bill this year for would you well 600 if you count athletics and but i guess what we're looking for is just kind of a breakdown how much of the athletic fees actually goes towards athletics yeah would you like the register where's the registration fee get disbursed kind of that's just yeah it's a question that comes up i am absolutely swimming in numbers and i have some of those numbers for you so i will give you a very 50 000 foot overview okay and i'll give them to you in terms of percentages okay so registration fees and i you're right i know as a parent myself in the district and having having uh students in different athletic programs you do wonder where is this going and were i not in the position i am i i have that same question in the position i'm in but i'm in a position to answer that a little bit so uh the the the initial answer to this is regis let's start with registration fees every parent who registers a student kindergarten through 12th grade pays a registration fee full day kindergarten pays a to a fee for full day kindergarten all of our registration fees last year we collected um we collected about two million dollars the cost to educate our students per pupil was about is anywhere our instructional cost to educate a student is about eleven thousand six hundred dollars and but if we add the operations the building side too then per pupil that breaks down to about twelve thousand three hundred dollars so the so if you look at that in percentages the registration fees we collected is only one percent of what it costs the district to educate a child now i know what you say some districts say hey it's only one percent can we just can we just look at um not charging i mean it's only one percent it's almost nothing that's why on this one i did want to share with you one percent equals two million dollars so we've been really struggling to maintain that balanced budget and we've made a really good strides the last few years so now what you would be asking the district to do if we wanted to provide a no registration fee opportunity i just need two million dollars every year so that's how the registration fees break down so any questions on registration fees or any other yeah no but my question sort of that's a good segue into it is are we looking at having to make any budget cuts this year that's a bigger conversation i think what i'd like to do is i'd like to get through this tentative budget um conversation and then i think we can entertain the idea of what is our what i would like to do and we'll we'll see in envision 308 a little bit one of our the main finance goal is to maintain a balanced budget so in that i will be providing five-year projections on an ongoing basis and i want the board to know where we are financially based on our human resources and our educational programming and our when if we want to do something different we need to move the money around or we need to look at making cuts so i'm not in a position to say if we do or not but i would look forward to having those conversations to say based on our based on our revenues and expenditures and what we're doing is that something the board wants to entertain i i will say and i do know dr sparrow and faith can definitely comment this a lot more i think you guys have really been taxed with making a lot of cuts recently and my concern is how much more can we cut without impacting the the students in the classrooms can i ask an opposite question so um in in the budget and in the strategy that you're creating given that the residences tax are taxed with 71 percent are there additional revenue sources that the district can consider use that would help bring additional revenue outside of the sources that you just you presented from state federal and local so number one in the envision 308 goal is maintain a balanced budget by following up i almost feel like i'm doing both presentations now goal number one two three four is this one was put on there specifically by dr sparlin so he asked that we need to review uh nope sorry it's uh goal number three not number four goal number three is explore ways to increase private and grant funding opportunities to allow for more educational uh more educational improvements not less so in five years that is a focus of ours so when we talk about envision 308 absolutely so eugene a couple years ago we had a director we we we talked about and we had a director of development and uh that was that person did fundraising and was working with advertising and as dr prescott just said uh private uh you know private funding and bringing things together but uh unfortunately with coven it uh that kind of that kind of dried up for a little bit of time and that was one of the positions we we cut but in the future when we're on a more financial stable ground that's another position that we'd probably like to bring back all right listen i don't want to get too far off that topic but athletic fees ali i was coming back to you i heard you the first time but that was good i appreciate you pausing because with registration those questions come out with just registration fees in general with the athletics again i i think it's fair to say that what what the fees we collect are just a fraction of what the programs cost so if we look at just the athletic programs at oswego east and oswego high school all of the kids who participate in athletics all of the kids that pay their i think right now the the cost is 300 per sport and those dollars add up and if you look at those revenues over the expenditures those fees account for of what the programs cost so if it's a million dollars to run athletics 390 000 comes from revenue from fees and 6.1 million is covered by the district the district local revenues or state and federal this comes from our revenue so i i do understand the the concern that parents have saying well where does that money go the truth is it's revenue that goes into the school district but i think what we need to do is have a better uh a better accounting of those dollars and actually i sat down and um with the athletic directors and with dr sparlin and they brought this to my attention and i think they came up with a great idea and that's why not instead of just giving an athletic budget from district revenues and then saying well we'll get the revenue somewhere and get these expenditures somewhere why don't we allow the athletics department and we did a we did a little analysis of what their budgets have been what we found out is that the budgets for each high school if we just let them have the registration fee and said the registration fees are their budget it is a wash the only thing that doesn't cover is the salaries the district then has to pay the coaches salaries and the the the referees and the officials and the transportation that's where the other one point or 6.1 million comes from out of a you know the fees cover um cover about you know 339 percent so i thought that was a really good idea and we're going to try to look at implementing that next year all right and then my my last question was on slide seven slide seven so i think another i i know that you kind of had it in small print but to me because i am also in this industry like i see unfunded mandates and we all hear about unfunded mandates but i'm not sure that everybody understands what they mean when we say unfunded mandates and how many there actually are you and i are on the same page i i went back and i took a look at this and because i i knew you know that unfunded mandates what does that mean it's little words but it's a huge impact and so what i'd like to share with the board and the community is uh since the year 2000 there have been over 130 new unfunded mandates things like requirements in special and physical education lead testing uh exams that are required in civics classes concussion testing suicide prevention and i think the important thing to note here is that a lot of these concepts are really sound they're really important but i think what the unfunded mandates does is it puts the decision-making power in the hands of the legislators as opposed to the administrators and doing that at a local level so if the legislators make a mandate like that that we can look at doing that but that costs money both financial and human it takes someone time to do that and uh program impact as well we only have so much time in a day so how do we meet all of this a perfect example faith brought to my attention on unfunded mandate it's called senate bill 0654 so it was just passed into law july 1st what it says is that all public schools shall provide daily time for supervised unstructured child directed play for all students kindergartens through grade through eight specifics further requirements that um it's uh it concerning play time this provides that the play time shall not count as physical education so no pe and that um that provides that the play time shall be considered clock hours so it's taking from the instructional day for the purposes of the code and provides for the inclusion of students with disability provides the public schools prohibit well the cost to this it doesn't cost anything except time and supervision because the the teachers in their contract are given a certain amount of supervision time and now they have a little less for unstructured supervised play so that's another example of an unfunded mandate a big one that mr miller and i were talking about ken miller we were talking about the affordable care act and the shifting of those costs to education and through states to education and the impact that that's had so like i said since the year 2000 130 unfunded mandates sound ideas but without without dollars it really taxes some schools i just had a comment you you mentioned discussion about potentially changing the way we are using our athletic fees and my i just want you to keep this in mind as you're discussing that obviously i know nothing has been decided at this point and my concern is there are some sports that are cut sports and some that are no cut sports and so some are you are limited in the number of students you are able to have on the team and thus limiting the dollar amount you are bringing in to cover the fees for that sport and with some it might not you know be a huge impact because there aren't maybe a lot of expenses but others that are no cut i know i just i'm concerned that it's not going to be i don't know if i want to use the word fair or acne right i mean i think about cross-country in the high school as a no-cut sport you can have 50 kids out for cross country there are very little overhead expenses with cross country i'm not saying there are zero but compared to something like football or hockey or something that has a lot of equipment expenses yeah you know they use a lot more funds um i that's a concern that i would have about if i could that's a really good concern with i think maybe to it's definitely a question that we will take into consideration i can only imagine when we have this conversation with our athletic directors that this is going to come up as well but for we are already funding athletics with a budget and it's running that program is running and so now all we're saying is that the expenditures can remain the same and will be what they've always been the difference is the revenue rather than just saying well we just take it from state local federal now we'll just say you know what the fees that were paid are being allocated towards those expenditures so we're not changing how we allocate it and who gets priority we're saying we're going to still continue the successful athletic programs we have we're just going to tell the public hey the register the fees you pay for athletics that's what pays for these programs at 39 percent the district's picking up the other 61. does that help a little bit so one pot i'm not part of sport hold on a second latonya yeah not her sport he was just you're just clarifying okay yeah i just have i just have a statement and then um so dr petsky and this just sticks in my crawl because we have been you know borrowing money to pay our bills for so long that we just think it's normal that that's what you do right um and i want to get to the point where we're not doing that and i know as eugene mentioned there are things that you know how are we looking to expand on our opportunities for revenues but also um when we get things like additional funds that doctor i mean that governor pritzker um you know included in our evidence-based funding like what what are we doing with that money and are we employing strategies like zero-based funding you know to to help in that regard yeah well and first of all you're exactly right so to your first point tax anticipation warrants or borrowing to pay our cash flow issues we've we've been doing it for a little while but it is a it is mostly seen as a temporary solution um when needed but we've needed to do that because of our fund balances and the the money we have in our reserve so that's why it's so critical to build those reserves um we need about 20 to 25 percent which is why in envision 308 that number we're really trying to hit that dr sparlin is aware of that in our first conversation that was one of the things he brought up we need to take care of our financial situation we need to uh we need to not have to borrow money to pay our bills so that is a priority um so we will do that and i'm totally forgetting what your second question is funding what's that zero-based funding yeah and not necessarily zero-based funding we call it uh zero-based budgeting yeah that's right and that is definitely uh some districts do incremental budgeting so they just say hey you had ten dollars last year you get two percent more you get 12 this year and they just grow it other districts do line item budgeting they actually go through every line and they say do you need this yes or no keep it cut it and then there's zero based where you take everyone back to no money and you have them build that budget up there is a fine line between needing to go totally zero based and going to line item incremental and just looking at how are we spending our money so we are definitely looking at all of those different approaches to budgeting and the answer to your question is yes we will be considering zero-based budgeting where appropriate some things it's not needed um because we do have leasing costs we do have uh internet costs we've got utility bills a large portion of our budget salaries things of that nature but when it comes to when it comes to the rest of our for instance the salaries and benefits alone are 80 percent so we basically have 20 percent of our revenues to use for all other educational operational uh uh purposes so that 20 percent we can go through we have a lot of flexibility there thank you thanks i would like to first of all just to touch again because latonya said exactly what i was thinking but the reason the tax warrants are an issue is because we pay heavily interest heavily on them and that's money that we can't use otherwise in other places so i think that's a very important distinction and why it's such a goal um for the district and something that i know myself and some of the newer board members were campaigning on so i think that's really important and if i i don't know if it's appropriate or not but the numbers are in there if you go in here this is going to be on public display tomorrow and if anyone knows what page to turn to i've budgeted for the interest or the the payments on interest on the dollars i budgeted two hundred thousand dollars and you love which is about one percent yeah when you look at that compound effect over the last year few years that we've needed to do it it's really um put some um strain strangle holds on what we've been able to do and what we want to do in such things as like in vision 308 yeah another thing and as a target while you're talking about that too just to answer that it's also that 200 dollars it's not yes or no it's how much do we need to borrow for cash flow right this year we had to borrow 25 million dollars to cover a couple months we ended up and uh we we were watching those dollars closely we just happened to get revenue in so we could pay it off in june and not july early and we saved twenty five thousand dollars in interest for one month on that 25 million so i think what we can do as a as a board and then as a business office let's balance let's really do a solid cash flow and know how much money do we need right now and do we have enough or are we overborrowing and that's a question we need to know i don't think we're overborrowing i think we know our cash flow pretty well but i've not done it in this district before i will definitely communicate to the board on what our borrowing needs are with a good cash flow analysis and i think sometimes we have to it's very hard especially with covid it was very hard for us to look ahead but i think that it's incumbent upon us to look to the future as current board members two other things that i just wanted to address we during covid did receive a pretty decent sized um grant for technology can you just give me a little bit of background on page i don't know i think yeah it's this page rising costs with equipment and technology needs and kind of what that entails yeah um and faith can fill in two a little bit that was the digital equity grant um we got i want to say it was like 1.1 million dollars in the digital equity grant to prepare for remote learning and faith i think you were asking more about what the costs and things are so some of the delays that we've been putting off as we've had other budget cuts in other areas projectors in all of our classrooms if you've gone to the junior high classrooms or the elementaries if you sit in the back it's kind of hard to see because things are fading and we're working on replacing all of that there were access points and things that needed to be addressed and i think there was a plan in place but there wasn't money at the time so difficult decisions were made about putting off some of those things now as more has been put off there is a kind of a snowball effect of what we need to do to even catch up and maintain the technology we have more or less advancing into new types of technology that we really need to look into to better instruction so kind of a combination on those rising costs are some of the maintenance and as like the light bulbs from projectors only have a shelf life of so far you need to replace all of those our chromebooks and those things only have a life of four to five years so they need to be refreshed and while the cost of a chromebook is going down there are other kinds of technology that are really adding to that cost okay thank you for that and then just it's one last comment more than anything is i know we have quite a few um openings in the school district and from the hr side of things that really also affects us financially because if we are not if those positions are not staffed we then have to sometimes contract them out at a higher price than we might need to so as we move into um this new school year getting those uh staffing positions solidified is going to be very important and helpful um for not only our current staff who are doing more than um their their fair share but also it will help us from a financial standpoint as well and can i add to that that if we are maintaining those that we employ um we're spending less money because if we're training people and then they're leaving then there's cost there as well so making sure that we're creating a culture where people want to be here thank you thank you dr petsky yeah well i really appreciate the conversation board so i look forward to more conversation i have one oh except here we go more conversation because i know that the community is often curious because so much of our education fund goes towards salaries and benefits can you just share with us how do we compare with other districts are our percentages roughly the same or you know that's i've been meeting with uh with mr miller in the hr department and that's one of the tasks that we're poised on right now it was revenues expenditures sr grant funding budgeting looking at what the impact has been on so i i honestly have not done that comparison yet and i think that comparison may change a little bit we'll be looking at collective bargaining agreements and increases and negotiations but i see um that is definitely an activity that we will uh uh ken miller and myself will be engaged in okay so it's an important part like you said it's 80 percent of our salaries is 80 of our budget is salaries and benefits so we need to make sure that we are we are providing enough in that area dr mourinho to answer your question a little bit um if you look at our instructional spending and our operational spending per child uh we're well below the well below the state average and uh dr petsky in the update this week's update he can provide those dollars because if you take that difference between what what it costs us to educate and what it the average cost is in uh for the state and you multiply that time 17 000 kids you come up with millions and millions and millions of dollars that we spend the west to educate our kids here in 308 right right and i just want to be clear that i um know that our salaries are lower than other districts so i but i know that it is a common question of our community as to when they see our budget it is alarming for parents to see that you know that much of the budget so just asking the question as to um are other districts like is that common that it's 80 percent goes to here yeah those are those are state averages so when i quote that 80 it's actually 78 to 85 percent that is an illinois school budget is salaries and benefits in that range so we are not out of the ordinary but i do like dr sparlin's idea i can give the board a quick update just by using the per pupil expenditures instructionally and then you know we don't have to dig through all the contracts we can just tell you how do we compare on our spending that'll give you a really good picture so a good idea yeah and i think it's important dr moreno and everyone to know that any company whether it's a business or a company or a school district their line item for salaries and benefits will always be the majority so in the business world we see like a 70 30 um and then in education because you have to have so many staff members per student you're always going to see it be a little bit higher too but what i think is very interesting is is the is as you ask breaking it down so people understand why it is that amount of money so i appreciate that comment and what the what the norms are right so that's what i was thank you are there any further questions or comments for dr petsky i i would be interested just the comment that dr sparlin made regarding we spend a lot less per pupil than the average but how are we performing in terms of the average that's you don't have to answer it just question yeah i think that would be a later topic but a good question okay so shall we move on we shall thank you all right uh item 7.4 is in regards to our are developing our five-year strategic plan and vision 308 so developing a five-year strategic plan is a process and tonight will we are going we are happy to share the next step in that process as you know the board had previously approved the one-page document that is divided into four sections so faith if you could click to the second slide please and those four four sections are student learning support for student learning finance and facilities and community partnerships within each of those four categories the board and administration have identified specific objectives that our work will be focused on over the next five years the first half of tonight's presentation shows each individual objective from each of those four quadrants along with what we've identified success to look like over the next five years the second half the presentation shows the work that will happen between this year and 2026 for each objective of the plan tonight is an overview of what success will look like at the end of five years and highlights the work that will be done to accomplish those tasks the details of the plan to accomplish what we present will be shared with staff and with you along the way we are happy and excited to be presenting our five-year strategic plan uh with the targeted objectives to accomplish our work and we look forward to the feedback from the board on tonight's presentation all right i think uh it's my turn to talk here a little bit really excited to talk about this with you i have heidi pajasik who's also going to talk through and i know dr petsky is also going to help out but there's a cast of thousands that went into this so there are lots of people to thank along the way lots of the statements that were in here were a team effort and then we took all of the success indicators to our whole admin team principals assistant principals district office maintenance everybody on august 6th and got some of their feedback on those pieces as well so what we're going to go through tonight is a real team effort with everybody thinking about where do we want to be by 2026.
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the second payroll for july was dated july 16 2021 for a total payroll of 340 thousand nine hundred twenty one dollars and fifty two cents along with that payroll came the accounts payable for payroll taxes and uh retirement dated july 16 2021 total accounts payable ninety nine thousand seven hundred thirty three dollars and seventy nine cents next in your packet you're going to see a list of prepays there's some unusual items this month uh during the month of july we do make debt service payments so you're going to see that the it's substantially higher than it is other months these are dated july 1 through july 31st total prepays for the month of july 2 million 367 thousand one hundred fifty five dollars and seventy three cents did anyone have any questions about any of the prepays no i just noticed it was a very expensive month it was yes okay there's no questions we'll just go ahead and move on to uh claims dated for today august 23rd a couple of unusual items would be the lease payment for the high school and middle school laptops you'll see that on voucher 736 were there any questions about any of the regular claims dated for today that i can answer for you i had none okay all righty if pending no questions i'd like to submit those for approval and if you're ready to move on to the fund report we can do that sure okay next in your packet you'll see um a fund report dated july 31st 2021 balance at the last day of july in education 1 million 201 thousand 595 dollars and 18 cents operations balance the end of july 2021 1 million 791 682 97 total for all funds at the end of july 6 million 331 thousand two hundred seventy seven dollars and thirty seven cents lastly in your finance package you're going to see a depository statement and bank balances for the end of july 2021 at the top you see the balance in all banks the second you'll see the minus the outstanding checks and then at the bottom you'll see july 2021 fund balance for all banks minus outstanding checks is 6 million one 331.
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so as dr sparlin said we're going to start off with the student learning pieces and all of the things in blue there are the statements that we've already approved that are from those four quadrants and the yellow tan piece is what are some of the broad brush strokes of what are we going to see when we get to success because we really have to agree on what are some of the things that we want to have accomplished so the very first one improving literacy and math and going through what that looks like we've written math and literacy frameworks but we want to implement them that means new staff coming in it really becomes our way of doing business and instructing math and literacy we need to have data systems in place to monitor the effectiveness which includes classroom walkthroughs and we want to see the percent of students meeting expectations at least up 10 percent in both literacy and math and that would be on state tests the second priority focuses on the social emotional and behavioral development and wellness of our students by 2026 we will have social emotional learning curriculum in place early childhood through 12th grade that reflects the illinois state learning standards for social emotional learning but is also i think most importantly reinforced through our academic content area classes so we're taking those illinois state learning standards and we're applying them to every content class that the students experience throughout their day we also will have a comprehensive system of intervention developed for behavior and social emotional wellness for students and and most importantly a way to measure the effectiveness of both that curriculum and the interventions going on one of the pieces that we want to do is to have more choice and challenge which means you know the chance for success and personalization and instruction so some of the things we'll be looking for by 2026 is really that differentiation especially in literacy instruction and then we will be using administrator and teacher surveys to see how that improvement is happening and part of this piece is also making sure that our staff development models the type of instruction that we want which includes staff development that has differentiation and choice and challenge for our staff looking at the next piece for creativity and what that looks like we want to have more of opportunities for our students to problem-solve and creativity if you've heard my soapbox before we can't just be dumping curriculum into people's minds so that they answer what siri can ask us very answer very quickly so we want to have more examples of that and we will include specific examples with new coursework as we go along and have accumulated list of where we are going with creativity and problem solving a next piece that was very important as we made our rounds and vision 308 listening sessions was the inclusion of financial and digital literacy by 2026 we want to have new k-12 social studies curriculum that includes financial literacy and that's at all levels elementary junior high and high school and then have redone our high school courses to incorporate digital literacy skills among them the last piece is on k8 assessments and while we do want to reduce that time we also get need to get much better at utilizing that data so we want to have anna reports to the board on student achievement that include both the aggregate but even more importantly desegregating the data into student groups so that we can look at celebrations and plans for improvement based on that data we really want all of our schools to use that process as well so we are starting a district team to model that process and then use it at the school level as well then going on to the next page and it's not there it goes we also want to look at all of the equity statements that we will soon be talking about with the board and want to have annual feedback on those to identify celebrations as well as areas for continued improvement another key piece of that is looking at the recruitment and retaining for our staff and we want to look at reducing the discretionary turnover on that by 10 percent in all the different areas teachers administrators teachers assistants then we want to keep track of the demographics of newly hired teachers and administrators and see where they fall in different subgroups by those people that are graduating and are available for hire when we think about safe and nurturing learning environments for students we often focus on physical safety but as a district we want to also make sure that we are focusing on the mental and social emotional wellness of our students and in dividing safety in that way we want to make sure that all of our staff are trained in different strategies for supporting that mental and social emotional wellness of their students but also have allow students to have the opportunity to learn different skills and strategies that will support their own mental and social emotional safety as they grow and develop and also support that of their peers so that they're seeing themselves within that community often students are really well aware of the mental and social emotional well-being of their peers sometimes before we are as adults and it's important that we equip them with different strategies in order to support that as well along with this will need to be a lot of professional development for staff so we want to have not only an annual plan that shows that at a glance but a three-year plan as you can see all the different components of envision 308 it will have to be some parts of the training coming this year some parts coming at later pieces and again extremely important that the professional development we provide to staff models the type of instruction that we want to see for students with differentiation and choice the next piece is something i'm really excited about the vision of the future of instruction and what i mean by that is getting people together and talking about look at this year's kindergartners and predicting out what is the world really going to expect of them and what does that need in education sometimes we don't slow down enough to do that and yet we really need to look into the future skills that are needed have forward planning and then think about our technology purchases and our curriculum and instruction to align with that and then looking at the the next piece we really want to have our students and our staff working on this inclusion piece if people don't feel included in the community they can't learn at their most so we're looking at annual surveys and an interview process to gain feedback from students on how we're doing on that then the next piece is all about special education english learner services and gifted students and we want to go through in our special education pieces and look through not only for the academic but behavioral and the social emotional outcomes look at data and then having building based teams and administration to help out with the oversight of that we realize we need to look at the whole comprehensive english learner program and look at continual improvement and what that looks like and get into data on how effectiveness that is and then a big push from our community also was to review the gifted program to identify strengths and opportunities for improvement and that plan was part of 2026 as well all right i'm going to take a break and hand it over to finance and facilities so for finance and facilities we've got five priorities this year one we talked about is maintaining a balanced budget i think the big thing to know is a budget is a plan it's a it's a living and breathing document and if we just adopt it and don't monitor it throughout the year it's not going to do us any good so we will maintain regular updates uh we'll maintain regular updates and communication on our five-year projections as well as our uh we'll provide you financial reports at the board meeting to talk about our monthly spending and revenues again a huge focus on building 20 percent both jennifer and latanya commented today about our need to borrow money for cash flow purposes that 20 percent number will put us in a position where we hope that we will not have to do that so we'll report regularly on the update um operating fund reserves um and uh that will be built into part of our current five-year projections as well we're currently at about a 10.5 percent fund balance um on when you look at that throughout the year we really need to be up to 20 percent uh dr sparlin would like us to explore ways to increase private and grant funding i think he talked about we do we did we do look at different opportunities we're always looking for ways to increase our revenue um and we will continue to do that um through the business office and through teaching and learning and and wherever there's an opportunity we will gladly welcome that i think to start the conversations there really easily with our education foundation and uh and things of that nature there's a lot of opportunity there we also so the first three goals are really financial and the last two goals are really the facilities portion it's something we need to look at eugene talked about we do have a plan called the vision 2020.
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excuse me three hundred thirty one thousand two hundred and seventy seven dollars and thirty seven cents if you compare that with the last page of your fund report you'll see that those balance to the penny okay great thank you thank you okay can i get a motion to approve the consent agenda i will make a motion a second okay i have a motion in a second any questions or discussion hearing not all in favor aye all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is reports and our first is the assistant superintendent report yeah we don't have a assistant superintendent report this evening tonight next is superintendent report yeah so thank you first off i always enjoy hearing from patrons and hearing from passionate parents i think it's great to have everyone involved in their in their child's education um i can i think we all can see that there are many different uh viewpoints to mask to not to mask to vaccinate to not vaccinate um you know our goal this week here was to return to him as much of a uh more traditional school day as possible with some of our protocols in place unfortunately the number of student staff cases in in our school district and the complications with contact tracing and the amount of students that it's displacing from our classrooms we just weren't going to be able to continue to operate that way and you know have our students in person in in-person instruction which obviously we believe is philosophically and philosophically belief is best for students and that's in the physical present or excuse me in the physical classroom in the presence of their teacher um so you know it's rather obviously rather difficult you know i understand that people are passionate but really the revision was made with two goals in mind and one is obviously for the safety of our students our staff and then the second one is keeping as many students in the classroom engaged in in-person instruction as possible because when we're having quarantine 10 to 15 students from a 25 student classroom that's not ideal because we can't expect our educators to teach both in person and virtual at the same time it's obviously also important to protect our special events protect performing arts and athletics and by following the indiana state department of health guidelines for contact tracing it just wasn't going to be possible to continue down that road and so the decision was made to mandate mass k-12 and with that with that in mind according to the cdc guidelines in the indoor classroom there's an exception there to where if all students and staff are masked and you're not within three feet then you don't have to quarantine those close contacts there's a close contact exception so that close contact exception would allow us to keep more students in the classroom and not have to quarantine as many of our as many of our students as we have been that could drastically reduce the amount of kids having to be quarantined hopefully that that's the goal we still can't control you know what takes place outside of the classroom if there are close contacts or cases you know spread within within the community but within the classroom excuse me within the classroom setting we can hopefully uh you know help control some of that some of that spread you know just like we said at the beginning of the year and just said we like we said all throughout the school year last year the plan that we have today is not necessarily going to be the plan tomorrow we are in a 100-year pandemic you know there are additional things that we are going to look at there you know i have yet to see a real good metric to operate by but certainly there are things that we are going to continue to look at we are going to continue to look at the data within our own classrooms and within our own school system to see if we can make adjustments to see if we can you know you know provide some additional opportunities or potentially places where we're not requiring masks i think that's what we all want and i know that's i know that's personally what i want and you know we're going to continue to to monitor this and adjust accordingly but we just can't turn our backs on in on not follow any of the guidance you know whether it's from the cdc or the state department of health we're following state department health guidelines for contact tracing so i understand the frustrations i'm frustrated too but again the goal is just to keep as many of our students in the classroom in the in the physical classroom with their teachers as possible to allow athletics to continue and allow those special activities to continue as well and so we will continue to to work through this and we will continue to obviously take into consideration all the feedback received and work to make adjustments obviously moving into the future okay thank you very much next item on the agenda is old business and we have on their old business tonight gcse building project yeah so we could is it kevin are you going to be the presenter tonight so we have kevin and mike montgomery from krm architect group and they have been working with us since last september and we are really excited because this fall really october november we're going to go out to bid and then we'll begin uh construction here december january so they're going to provide a high level update of kind of where things where things stand yeah cory our presentation and so board members you guys have a full kind of report packet and this is a summary presentation so i'm going to reference page numbers and see you guys since we moved the auditorium you guys can't see so we're starting out here on page five which is the overall project schedule timeline you can see the red line there indicates where we're at right now we're part way through to the design development phase moving into the construction documents and then those brown bars that follow we'll enter the the bidding phase that jeff just mentioned those top five projects are mainly the scope of work surrounding the high school and then after those are underway we move into completing the design and bid for the middle school and elementaries and uh we'll move on to in your packet page 13.
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it was vision 2020 it was created in 2014-15 so that was five years ago we need to look at what did we do and what did we not have the money to do and while that we there are some things in that plan that weren't done there are other priorities that have been added to that so we've been working with we've been working to audit rob and i our our facilities and find out the major systems and and things like that so we will we will have that plan for the board and then the the uh we will develop that five-year plan to address those uh the physical capacity of our building and program needs so brokaw the transition center you can see there the end goal what we hope to see is that solutions have been developed to identify space for our projected enrollment needs our program needs and make sure that the solutions are carried out in a timely way to address those space concerns in our educational environments thank you now we're going to go to compute community partnerships and it will be extremely important that we continue to have feedback not only from our students but parents committees all of those pieces so we will continue to bring new plans and communication on division 308 and have that be part of the process as well so the work of a school happens with our internal resources but it also happens through beneficial partnerships with a variety of different community resources and stakeholders including mental health agencies businesses universities etc etc so by 2026 we want to have expanded our partnerships with a variety of different stakeholders within the community we want to make sure we have those partnerships published and accessible with information for all of the community and our staff students within the district and continue to analyze the work that we're doing within our district and then how i continue to identify new partnerships that are beneficial both to that outside agency and the district as a whole we are looking at developing our family engagement strategies so really expanding our opportunities for parent education for family engagement and for parent groups and meeting schedules and making sure that again we have an avenue and a vehicle for communicating all of that information with our with our families and that we continue to to grow those opportunities as our community needs change and then what i think one of the most important pieces of community engagement is having all of our stakeholders feel connected to our district feel that they are a part of the positive growth and development of both our students performance as well as kind of the school as a central hub to the community i think that's some we are a place we are our largest employer but we are also a place where we bring together large groups of people and so by 2026 we hope to see a variety of people with different backgrounds engaged in a lot of different community events that are housed and centralized through the school district and that those showcase the positive relationships that we have we'd also like to develop an alumni program and continue to honor those who began in our community and stayed within our school community and finally by 2026 and sooner but we want to have a dashboard and a calendar of reports so we're looking at measurable data but also reports that would be shared back to the community to build trust and to build collaboration and communication over where we're going by 2026.
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the overall site plan this should look fairly familiar for the most part there is a change there on the north um where the drive comes to below between the school and the tennis courts so we're working through how best to do that but before it had come up and around the baseball field you know eventually will be moved but we're working uh we think a a better solution to bring your support service and deliveries into the building back that way as a reminder there's kind of some rework there at the joint at the mackinally expansion we'll talk about here in a minute those are two kind of the major site projects as well as the what's going on right now in the track and turf move on page 17 in your packet this is an overall floor plan of the high school project we'll go into kind of each area here in more detail but you can see starting on the right there a big focus of this project is the media center it's had some issues and it's just well outdated so that space is going to be moved a little bit over and build out into the courtyard create more daylight more technology access and really become a kind of a hub within your academic core of the building there's some flexible space that happens as right as you come into the school to your right and then so that we don't lose any classrooms where the media center is moved from will become the replacement of those three kind of displaced classrooms in the light blue or the general you know academic areas all of the schools are going to be improved finishes and upgrades so throughout all classrooms but then in green the science area specifically uh gets additional scope so there's a new layout a new arrangement new greenhouse storage case work kind of the whole nine yards to really bring you guys up and beyond um you know current current standards for your science area the blue is your servery and cafeteria we're working with a specialist of the servery design and providing options that are coming here in the next couple weeks on that space specifically and then purple we're going to be of course connecting the macanally to the high school providing safer and just all year access to the facility also within that connection will allow a pretty simple and economical solution to add one more gym space so your after-school activities have more flexibility and really be a benefit to the whole area or the whole school district keep going here we'll blow it up and look a little closer so next slide takes you to page 41 in your packet and this is that media center area so you can really see how we're getting into you know again design development which starts to look at the exact furniture and how the spaces are going to be used in more detail working with staff right now on the collection size so as we transition and move over probably be you know good time to revisit the collection and circulation of those materials introducing again more flexible technology some after school new curriculum that you guys have in e-gaming there might be you know space within this that supports some of those ideas especially in that flex and collaboration space and then potential to improve the outdoor courtyard and seating area and connect and really make that a more usable space as well our next slide on the screen will be page 43 in your packet which zooms in on the science classrooms you can see we're getting basically how it worked out in the teacher's schedule and curriculum two labs will share one prep and storage area comes very efficient a high density storage system and again removing and replacing the greenhouse with a more modern setup so it can be well utilized and it connects to three of the four rooms and also we're introducing more daylight into these spaces next slide will be page 25 following along just an enlargement of the the connector what we call the connector project again a second court added and then in that kind of light green space that falls along that's going to be a glass wall with lots of seating opportunities and it also spills out from that cafeteria expansion so you know you've probably all noticed how small in comparison to your student body that the cafeteria is so kind of solve multiple problems here with one solution also you'll see here in 3d in a minute but that new main entrance to mcinally i mentioned the site work we'll be able to upgrade kind of that outdoor space and also get rid of the steep ramp that can be a problem in the winter next slide is these are kind of in pieces so you're on 28 or page 30 but this is the lower level of mac and alley really a nuts and bolts type project to bring the locker rooms and reconfigure them so that you have equal men and women locker rooms and this was possible by relocating the undersized wrestling and weight room two beneath that that connector so with those two spaces becoming relocated that's how we picked up the space to to improve the locker rooms and then we get into the prettier pictures here so page two of your packet will be this slide this is if if we cut a section through that connector you're seeing the weight room you know undeveloped really we're starting to get into the planning of the actual equipment soon but the weight room below the new gymnasium and that glass wall to the far right that i talked about that with your seating great kind of pre-function space you know as kids are you know after hours going between events and then this opportunity arrived to open up kind of the center of the the building there we had to have a stair access an elevator anyways so you can see you'll have views into the weight room and vice versa and also gets daylight into the basement so it feels more usable space introducing kind of a gathering space in that vertical two-story space which will double up as a teaching space for some of the classes that happen within the strength tank strength training space next slide shows you an update of where we're at on the exterior and so top one is really the full east elevation and the goal here was to obviously at the the connector we have an opportunity to provide a little bit more modern innovative look but we want the building to remain as timeless as possible so working our way from you know the major new uh construction over to where we tie in it really needs to be kind of a gradient and so if you see where your existing cafeteria is it'd be just to the right of the trees with those three windows with a little bit of brick we're picking up and adding our expansion starts off with masonry it'll tie in with the architecture uses the limestone which is around your main entrance now as a transition point and then moves to that glass storefront and then you get this real proud element of the green cap or the green castle g before it jumps up to really kind of your new proud entrance which if we skip forward should be the next one i get i just lost my screen um so here's that new entrance where we said you know we can flatten it out and have a combination of stairs and ramp for accessibility but really provide a more covered safe and usable outdoor space right there it also is going to protect some of the sun coming in the space and again hopefully balance that you know sophisticated a little bit institutional you know more and more high schools and projects are competing at almost a collegiate level so it gives you a little bit of that uh with meeting mostly functional goals and uh obviously brings your branding into it next and this is basically you've walked in those doors and turned a sharp hard right so you're looking back at where that two-story space was cut so you know this is all really early and will change a few times as we start to get into the details of what finishes and graphics might go into the space but kind of gives you the ambiance and possibilities here next now we've just kind of jumped over that railing and we're outside the weight room potential here i think we saw this in the section cut but you can you know imagine this space kind of opening up during training time and kids doing you know stretching or plyometrics out here the wrestling group being able to you know set up inside or outside their space and really be pretty flexible and open next and then we just wanted to give an update on you know the current project that's ongoing right now um this this photo is a little out of date but we're trying to remain on schedule contractors doing a good job considering all the conditions and we're excited about that and then finally i think last slide is just a reminder you know we are working on the engineering now for the layout at the transportation lot which will house your softball and baseball the tennis being shown there is just a placeholder for a future option that's not part of the scope of work right now so this is this is in civil engineering's court right now questions or comments that looks great so it all can be built tomorrow it's going to be next week now obviously this is something we're really excited about there are a lot of people like faces here in this room that have helped contribute to these ideas and concepts and just really excited about just the opportunities this can bring to our students and just the way it can further support the type of teaching and learning in our classrooms today so thank you kevin thank you guys thank you okay next item on the agenda is new business and we have an approval request for a resolution eca athletics event link yeah so um per state board of accounts we just have to have the board approve the ability to pay to use online payment service for uh athletics okay easy enough i'll make a motion to approve second okay we have a motion in a second any discussion carrying none all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next is the an approval request for food services adult breakfast lunch price increase yep so per usda these prices are set so we're seeking approval to raise adult breakfast price to two dollars and fifty cents and adult lunches to 4.60 i'll make a motion to approve that i was just thinking whether or not mcdonald's could match that okay make a motion to approve it i'll second that okay motion to second any discussion hearing none all in favor all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is an approval request for food services noon aid pay increase yep so uh just seeking an increase from eight dollars to ten dollars an hour for all of our new nades and that's paid for out of our food services account i'll make a motion oh i'll second that okay we have a motion in a second any discussion or questions carrying that all in favor all opposed motion passes next item on these is on the agenda is an approval request for teacher appreciation grant actually uh the gcse certified staff evaluation plan would come would come first and we're just seeking to make some adjustments to our plan for this school year as a result of the pandemic we want to suspend the attendance rating as a component in our certified staff evaluation plan suspend the use of slo school letter grades state assessment data as a ratings component and the staff evaluations we're still going to look at data we're still going to use data to help inform and drive instruction but not necessarily as a part of our staff evaluation plan and then making some adjustments for the number of required observations based on whether or not a teacher is highly effective or not and this is something that we we i have to annually submit our staff evaluation plan uh to the doe and so i'm seeking to do this with these adjustments sounds good sounds fair so can i get emotional proof so a second okay i have a motion in a second any questions or discussion hearing none all in favor all opposed now let's have the teacher appreciation grant yeah so this is just something we have to annually the board annually has to approve it's already actually grounded in policy so we're not changing anything so all you're doing is reapproving an already existing board policy that i have to submit to the department of education so it's my recommendation that the board approved the teacher appreciation grant policy as is already written i will make a motion to stay approved okay dale russell made a motion to you second dale right okay we have a motion in a second um all in favor all opposed motion passes okay next item on the agenda is the 20 2021 2022 safe school plan yep so our safe school specialist mrs goodpaster updated and revised our plan of which i have to certify to the doe within 60 days from the start of the school year that we have a plan and it's been updated appropriately to deal with crisis emergencies and such and that plan has been updated and i'm just seeking board board approval for our safe school plan some move second you have a motion in a second any discussion or questions hear you not all in favor paul opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is an approval request for from the transportation services or center for closed bid sales of one 2003 blue bird all-american 84 passenger bus and one 2006 ford thomas minotaur 24 passenger bus does mcdonald's need any buses really not he left before we got to it so these buses are no longer of use for us so we're just seeking to dispose of them and receive a little bit of cash for selling them it's a yeah it it is painful how much we have to pay for them versus what they're worth after about 10 years okay can i get emotions to approve some of a second you have a motion and a second all in favor all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is an approval request for to add an additional bus route yep so we have a student that we're transporting um to school for the blind in indianapolis that's an am and pm route and so we're just seeking approval to um add that route and compensate the driver for for that i'll make a motion for that second okay we have a motion in a second all in favor all right all opposed motion passes next is an approval request for some donations one from the indiana association of school principals to greencastle high school in the amount of 600 won a scholarship from from scholarship america to green castle high school about one thousand dollars one from edwards royal comfort heating air and plumbing to greencastle high school athletics in the amount of fifteen hundred dollars one from green castle pediatric dentistry to green castle high school athletics in amount of fifteen hundred dollars and one from the putnam county community foundation sigmoid fund the green castle high school athletics in the amount of two thousand dollars i'll make sure make a motion we accept the money happily second okay have a best part of the evening a lot of seconds okay we have a motion and a second all in favor aye aye all opposed and thank you yes thank you to everyone and the last item under new business is permission to advertise the 2000 or the 2022 budget bus replacement fund and the cps fund yep the bus replacement plan in the cpf plan so corey if you pull that up and i know that everyone's really thrilled for the most exciting part of the night we saved the best for last i'll just kind of run through this run through this briefly and if anybody has questions be happy to answer them so just kind of as i as i shared last year and there should be a picture of the silos those are our primary budgeted funds we have the education fund the operations fund the debt service fund and the pension bond fund and moving on to the next slide just a little bit of background on the fund use and primary source of revenue so our education fund primary covers salaries and benefits deals with all things instruction related and is funded from our state tuition support based on our student enrollment our operations fund is used to pay for maintenance building related needs and anybody that helps with to take care of our facilities in our buildings as well as covers the superintendent's office and treasurer human resources and the main source of funding is local property taxes and then the education operate education to operations transfer no more 15 each year the debt service fund is just for that just to help repay district debt and that's from local property taxes and then pension bond fund that's used to repay our pension bond liabilities and actually we don't we don't actually charge a rate or levy we use our local income income tax dollars to help cover that cost on the next slide so when we are working to build a budget we're building it for 18 basically in 18 months of expenditures and 18 months of revenue on a lot of different variables and so on these next two slides you can see what 20 of the different variables are and there are varying count days throughout the year so we have to essentially make our best guess in order to determine what our revenue may be so that we don't develop a budget that is too costly for what we're taking in because we don't want to end the year in the red we'd like to end the year in the black moving on to the next slide you can see fy 2022 state tuition support totals so this is what we're projecting for the fiscal year beginning in july and carrying through june you can see the basic grant so that's based on our adm academic honors special education grant based on the differing classifications of students and disabilities and then cte grant based on the different participation counts in our cte program so we're projected to take in roughly 12.7 million dollars in fy 22 which is an increase because we know that the legislature also provided for an increase in some of those different areas moving on to the next slide just showing a little bit of a funding comparison between fiscal year 21 versus fiscal year 22.
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