That will continue in this district. Teachers, staff, I have heard from so many during this process. Um they've asked um and your your questions to the community, Mr. Allen, were echoed every time I go to a building as what's the decision going to be? Have they made a decision? Mr. Brimberry, are you going to be involved? Did you apply? And we've kept confidentiality during this process. This board's professional approach to this is unmatched in my 30-some year career. I have been a superintendent before. I've been through this process. I have been in every leadership position in a school district. At no time for our community have I seen a process more professional, more thorough, and more in-depth in terms of the hiring of the superintendent in this case, myself. I thank you for your confidentiality as well. It helped us greatly in our district. Um community leaders that have reached out, our parents, I've heard from every key leader in this community about they hope the board makes a decision in the best interest of these children.
This is relating to the safety of educational workers. Requires Department of Education and public charter schools to take certain steps to report incidents of harassment and implement procedures for handling harassment of education workers. Elevates the penalty for harassment of education workers to a misdemeanor. And uh see here to testify for Department of Education Kayashi. >> Hello Chair Kim, Vice Chair Kedani, Chair Elephante, Vice Chair Lamos, members of the committee, Shantima testifying on behalf of the Department of Education. The department stands on our written testimony in support of this measure. Uh this bill helps to protect our educational workers from harassment, especially because it elevates the offense offense from a petty misdemeanor to a misdemeanor. We really appreciate the department of the attorney general developing the pilot program to assist state employees with the temporary restraining orders. Uh given the attorney general's pilot program, the department would like to recommend the following amendment to section 2C number five.
Um we also look at internal protocols that we have within our school building to make sure that they are you know building safe welcoming environments. And last we have to review of course the school policy. It's the 5200 school policy which is our absency policy. So that's what we're asked to look at. So what I'm giving you here is a snapshot of our longitudinal data. You can see our 2425 data which came out at the end of January and the midFebruary um is down from 2122 and that is due to culture culture culture right so you will notice that we're below state average from 2223 which is at 18% and we're almost always below state average which is at 15%. So, our numbers are strong in that we're really only a smidgen over that 10% mark, but we are a place where we do solutions.
Mrs. Hassan? Thank you. Mr. Diaz. I. Mr. Taylor. I. Mr. Otto. I. Mrs. Hassan. I. Mr. Kieliszak. I. Mr. Gabba. I. Mrs. Petrie. I. Mr. Focarino. I. Motion for finance, 10.1 through 10.21. I'll make a motion. Mrs. Hassan. I'll second. Mr. Gabba. Second. Roll call, Mr. Labou. Mr. Diaz. I. Mr. Taylor. I. Mr. Otto. I. You have an an abstention. Abstaining from check 021315. And the rest, yes? Um and check 021297 and the rest, yes. >> 0212 97? Yes. Okay. Mrs. Hassan. Abstain from check 21203. Yes to the rest. Mr. Kieliszak. Yes to all. Abstain check uh 21194, check 21097. Okay. Mr. Gabba. Abstain check number and no the rest. Mrs. Petrie. Abstain from check number 021085 and yes to the rest. Mr. Focarino. Abstain from 21076. I to the rest. Motion for education resolutions 12.1 through 12.18. Uh I'm sorry, I have to uh interject.
As far as Spanish language arts and resources for special education multilingual learners, we plan to pilot as mentioned for um K through5 special education ELA and develop a tracking system so that we can progress monitor. We continue to develop a scope and sequence development align standards and curriculum development work for SP Spanish language arts. And then tonight again we will share stakeholder feedback and themes with the board on the comprehensive review. Um I am providing some additional resources on behalf of Jeremy who could not be here today. We continue to make steady fast forwarding progress in advancing our strategic safety efforts. Since November, we have completed the safety efforts audits. where third party workers and shared the initial findings with a safety and security work group to review results and engaged the group in intentional planning around initial action. An executive summary audit findings was completed and shared with the board and district leadership will continue to next as it relates to wellness.
Um bus contractors are up 3,000. Technology's down. Transportation as a whole is down and then utilities are down by that much. I think so like if you remember from the from the last two months that we've been able to share this this data with you. It's really really hard. Like you you can't compare December to January to February to March, right? Like we have different expenses, bills come at different times. And and so there's a lot of overlap and a a lot of nuances that go into it, but it is really good to see hey you spend this much each month and and here are some things that stand out. January we had a really large credit in the operations that we had to pay pay something for the bond up front and then we got reimbursed from that. So, there was a large credit in January.
Thank you, Mrs. Ramirez. Board members, you heard the recommendation of the administration to approve this curricular resource for adoption for use beginning in 2026-2027. Uh may I have a motion? So moved. So moved by Mr. Vasser. Seconded by Ms. Bazan.
I'm giving you my word you have. Um I'm proud to lead these kids. For our kids in our community and our parents that are listening, let me assure you um my past history, the greatest indicator of future behavior is one's past history. My past history says that I'm a believer in students at a high level. Um I believe Huntington uh in a few years will go from uh I believe our former leader said good to great. We're in that process. You will have the best school corporation in the state of Indiana academically very soon. Those progresses are being made as we speak. Uh as we climb that ladder, know this, the culture is more important for kids than anything we do. It will be a safe haven for children to be themselves, to sometimes uh drop the ball and us be there to help them back up.
Um the page >> uh I have it on for me it's page four the section 2C. >> Okay. >> Number five. >> So it reads um assist educational workers who are subjected to harassment and they were requesting to amend the next part to remove including providing assistance in obtaining a temporary restraining order then adding the word by and then continue with the rest reimbursing the educational worker. Uh the reason why we're requesting that is because the attorney general's pilot will be providing that assistance uh in helping helping the employees to obtain a temporary restraining order which is more appropriate uh than the department of education providing legal assistance in obtaining a a TTRO. So given that the attorney general's pilot will address that we feel it's more appropriate that the language be removed from the bill. So we strongly support this bill to protect our educational workers from harassment.
And our intention is to figure out how to do that. How do we do that? We get our key stakeholders in the room together. Who are those key stakeholders, principles, and assistant principles? They have been working on it since September, right? They've been working on it probably since their whole career. However, since September, there has been very intentional conversations surrounding attendance. Now, we're getting a trifecta together. That trifecta is counselors, teachers, and mentors. Those mentors are identified others in the building, a coach, um you know, someone else who might be able to support students and or reach out with to parents. And then of course, the last component is the parent guardian. So us building a you know strong line of communication with parents of how important it is for their children to be here and for us to be able to help them is essential.
I'm going to ask for a motion for resolutions 12.1 uh with the amended resolution of 12.10 to include only the 25-26 calendar changes and then through uh resolutions 12.18. So, is there a motion for that? Mr. Taylor? Ms. Eason? So, just for clarification uh resolution 12.10 uh we are only amending the 25-26 calendar. Uh we are waiting for the 26-27 calendar to be uh revealed from the administration. Roll call, Mr. Labou. Mr. Diaz? Aye. Mr. Taylor? Aye. Mr. Rado? Aye. Mrs. Eason? Aye. Mr. Quiles? >> Aye. Mr. Gaber? Aye. Mrs. Petiri? >> Aye. Mr. Forcarino? Aye. May I have a motion for facilities resolution 14.1? I'll make a motion. Second. Mr. Quiles, Mr. Rado, second. Mr. Diaz? Aye. Mr. Rado? Mr. Taylor? Aye. Mr. Rado? Aye. Mrs. Eason? Aye. Mr. Quiles? Aye. Mr. Gaber? Aye. Mrs. Petiri? Aye. Mr. Forcarino? Aye. A motion for policy resolution 17.1?
The um human resources department is collaborating with DT and union lead union leadership to um have an understanding of where we've been with wellness and where we are trying to go and put together some plans and surveys to gather more information from the 308 um staff about their needs as it relates to wellness. Additionally, we are um continuing to ultimately with the professional learning plan, we have been in lock step as far as our alignment and understanding what's happening within district leader team leadership team, excuse me. um the focus initially on that school leadership team piece and now with MTSS we'll be able to um begin to have more lockstep conversations regarding professional learning for next year as it pertains to lifting those pieces of work. Additionally, we have also committed to continuing to lift uh culturally responsive strategies and the culturally responsive teaching leading standards um as well as rightful presence in those tenants to just continue to educate the system as well as create opportunities for growth.
If we didn't have that credit in January it would have been about 520. Right? Which is which is right on. So, just important to know it's nuances like that. We did not have a school resource officer fee this month. We are sup Ideally that that happens three times a year at approximately $12,000 each time. Again, I think that it's ideal to have that come up three times a year, but we're working with different organizations to be able to get that done three times a year. So, it's dependent on on on some other people and and programming. Maintenance is up 25,000. That's a big one. That's that's the one that we get into the weeds with to try to look at specific bills. From different months and try to do some comparisons and and see. So, just know that we're always looking at that one. Overall some of the large expenses in in maintenance for the month of February covered lots of repairs and service across the district for the boiler systems.
Are there any questions or comments? Since this is a new course for next year, uh do you have any preliminary enrollment for that course? Yeah, we are working on finalizing those numbers. We anticipate that there will be two teachers teaching the uh course next year, and we have them scheduled through the grant funding to attend AP training, so that they are prepared to teach the course. >> So, at least two different At least two sections, yes. Wow. Yeah. That's a good start. Great start. Any other questions or comments? There being no further question or comment, we'll move to a vote. All in favor signify by saying I. I. Nays? Vote carries 5-0. Thank you, Mrs. Ramirez. Move on to action item 5.04, apply for and receive the 2026 and 2027 Community Foundation Grant, Mr. Gianfermi. Uh thank you, Mr. President and board members. Uh as you know, annually we have an opportunity to work with the Crown Point Community Foundation to apply for grant funding for our students.
Let me assure you there's high expectations for excellence in this community and in the school corporation. Our key stakeholders expect excellence. That's a lot of different prongs of excellence that I demand as the superintendent. I assure you I lock arms with those who are in uh the business of helping children be highly successful, not average. And in closing, I'd like to tell you that uh Jay Peters and our team the last 3 and 1/2 months have been exceptional, have been extraordinary. Cindy Gray, Tanya, Jay, my administrative office, and our building level leaders, we have been very, very short-staffed and we continue to be right now. The motto was, it will not affect our children, and it will not affect our schools. Um I am uh grateful for their leadership of some of the people to my left and some of the people out there. Uh you will get a great effort from Chuck Brimberry, and I promise uh the Huntington community I am a advocate of all children, and we will see that type of leadership in this community from this point forward.
Uh, thank you for this opportunity to testify. We stand by for questions. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. Let's see. Uh, testifying for the Office of Public Defender, Haley Sheng. >> Good afternoon, chairs, vice chairs, and members of the committee. My name is Haley Chang. I am the first deputy of the Office of the Public Defender. Um, our office has submitted testimony in opposition to this bill, and we want to focus our testimony only on part two, which amends the harassment statute and elevates it to a full misdemeanor. Uh, we've outlined in our written testimony the very clear conflict that we see with the language disrupts or interferes. We believe that it is overly broad, vague, and would not withstand constitutional scrutiny. Um, in addition, we believe it runs into speech protected by the First Amendment, and we've outlined that in more detail in our testimony.
So these are the key stakeholders. As the principles went through and developed their plans they were looking at the attendance challenges. Some of our challenges are transportation. So, in a walking district, especially when you start to get older, 7 through 12, we have to make sure we're inspiring students to be self motivated and getting here on time and making sure they're part of it. Also, with our parents, right, we have to make sure we're relying on their transportation. They're getting our their younger children to school on time. So, that's something that we need to communicate to parents how important it is, the routines, and the regular schedule. The next piece is the medical issue. A lot of times parents will look at a sickness because it says excused or we give them um it's it's an excused absence. They think that it doesn't count towards their absences.
I'll make a motion. Mr. Gaber? I'll second. Ms. Eason? Aye. Roll call, Mr. Labou. Mr. Diaz? Aye. Mr. Taylor? Aye. Mr. Rado? Aye. Mrs. Eason? Aye. Mr. Quiles? Aye. Mr. Gaber? Aye. Mrs. Petiri? Aye. Mr. Forcarino? Aye. I'm now going to open up the comments to the public. Please state your name, address. Abdel Serradum, 33 Wood Street, Garfield. Good evening, everyone. My name's Abdel Serradum. I'm running for the Garfield Board of Education. One of the biggest concerns I hear from parents is communication. Too often, parents are finding out important information through social media, rumors, before hearing it from the schools, and that's a problem. And I'm not here to point out problems. I'm here to bring real solutions. Right now, we rely heavily on email but not everyone checks it in real time. We need faster and more reliable communication. So, my solution is simple.
>> The RFP process for window film installation and the district has scheduled installation. The has also full scale emergency exercise and reun reunification to refine time. These efforts are intended to strengthen district-wide preparedness and ensure clarity of expectations across systems and stakeholders. systems management. Uh there are three key focuses that I'm going to talk about. One has to do with uh technology. So as part of our process to put uh order into how we deploy technology and uh how we manage as well as spend money on technology, we decided to develop a technology plan. Part of the process is to do an RP. ERP process was uh executed except when we reviewed the submission the uh the pricing that was provided by the firms who were prohibitive they just didn't make any sense to go that route. So we're going to go a different route and try to do some of the work most of the work internally and just maybe get uh a consultant to provide us with some support.
Professional services is anything about professional services can cover a lot of different things. We have anything from attorney fees in there to organization fees, things like that. This one this month is when we paid the annual fee for our front line our student data tracking software. So, that's up. Quite a bit when you see that total. And then it is good to look from month to month, but it's also good to see hey in in February of 2025 how much did we spend versus February of 2026 and our operation expenses decreased by about 15,000. So, yeah. That's that's really good. Again, here we're still trying to figure out the best way we want to be able to to categorize some of these things to to be really clear and really simple. So, this looks a little bit different each month until we kind of figure it out.