We try to post as much as we can when we can, but again, we're we need a we need a little help on that. So, we're doing that. We're going to try to pull from some of the kids. I know it's a little touchy sometimes, but uh but again, social media presence unfortunately, when things unfold in a school or any school, uh it's going to get out there before we can get it out. It's just because you know, we're trying to deal with the issue at hand when it's happening. But uh you know, students get stuff out sometimes to their parents. So, uh it gets out there. I would try to inform the the board immediately of what's happening uh so that they're aware as well because they represent the community, but uh you know, again, our our social platforms here are are thriving with regard to in-house too.
So, I do encourage everyone to >> yeah, >> take a look at that classroom resources page. >> Yeah. >> And may want to add one last thing regarding this without overlaying. I want to open up is that the audit scored us really low in terms of actually having those curricular resources >> internally even. And so I would say that the work the team has done in what the strategic plan committed to is that we would build that with our educators versus just coming in and doing a wide sweep um and saying here's what we're doing and let's go because that also yields a lot of tension because then who's actually then implementing the curriculum or the expectations when you have not built that sustainable plan. This year we're in our second year for example with our literacy curriculum. So for those resources that we are using currently I think that's a great addition and we'll look to evaluate that how we can bring on this.
And we are also from each elementary school I think one or two of the kids that make it have made it um are going to be on site for the TED event um with their project so they can be in the lobby and and be a part of the the blueprints and breakthrough theme and then um Mr. McFall is also bringing his um anatomy table to the event and having some kids be there to be able to interact with the public um with the big fun incredible table. I like that. Can you remind us what the date is on TEDx? May 16th. I went to Van Buren invention convention and I was blown away. I mean I I just wanted to hang out there all day. >> [laughter] >> It was really It was really neat. I was I was shocked. And Van Buren is um they're in their final stages for STEM certification for the Department of Ed.
Uh going back and I apologize. This is about child abuse. Something that's really dear to my heart. And in the the new ISBA code, I believe, that any Yeah, second paragraph. Any school employee who has a reason to believe that a child is a victim of child abuse or neglect shall immediately make a oral or written report to the Department of Child Services or to law enforcement. After the report has been made, the school employee shall notify the school building principal of that report that was made. Which is all good, but I think maybe that should be switched around that child abu- child abuse should be reported immediately. I totally agree with that, 100%. Too many cases, and I'm not talking about Crown Point, but there's too many cases that don't go reported. But, would it make more sense for a teacher, say Michelle, she's a teacher out here, that she is suspects child abuse and she wants to report to make her principal know about this before the report's made, so the principal's not blindsided?
So, it started with me going to every school and meeting with third grade team, and then I met again with the fourth grade team, and then again with the fifth grade team, and that seemed very inefficient uh for one person, and um then we started testing, and we got the data. And so, what we moved to or what we are now lovingly called Unite meetings. And so, Unite stands for using numbers, teamwork insights, and insights for excellence. Thank you, Melissa Ross, for that. It She did a nice job coming up with a a grand name for this. Um but what we did where we created these PLCs, these learning communities, where we brought all the third grade uh teachers in the district, all the fourth grade, and all the fifth grade on three different um three different days. Now, we've done that twice, and the teachers were able to come together and bring the data.
Our family supports safety for all persons in schools to include staff, students and parents, everyone. Four years ago, a similar bill was going through legislature and I sat up here and I gave you the same information. Excuse me. I'm sorry. DOE representatives during that hearing provided testimony in the House Judiciary Committee on February 24th, 2022 that specifically stated the following about parents of special education students. Not only do they harass, but they also interfere with the operations of the school. This testimony specifically targeted special education parents and is extremely concerning. >> Can you summarize, please? Can you summarize? >> Yeah. So, it's okay. My name is Jason Manga. Um, I am father of Ana Manga and Michelle's husband. Um, as parents of former former special education student um that had to endure IEP meetings where we had to actually physically record um the meetings because the ineptness of the folks that were in those meetings uh and the knowledge that they had um was just um they had no knowledge of special education.
board goals and district goals. Both board goals and the district goals are aligned with our mission and vision we um discussed previously. They focused on giving every child well-rounded education in a multi- cultural community. There are specifics of a board goals and the district goals. They are all directed and then uh best interest for the our students growth. Budget timeline. This is a typical uh budget timeline. Um we started our budget planning last October. uh we worked through every uh step um for for several months um with the helpful collaboration and the discussion and the meetings um I greatly appreciate uh our supervisors Dr. Freeman board members um the principles um supervisor everyone who uh contributed their time and then their hard work into this budget. Um we also uh implemented our new um planning approach this year with the uh administrative team which um worked very well and uh we create we were able to create uh new um structured and streamlined process.
We have um Smore, uh which is a uh a sort of like a newsletter for parents every school we we kind of implemented that. So, uh so, there's a lot of stuff going on here. Uh long-range facility plan was mentioned. We are working on that. It's due in May. Uh it's a little bit more um you know, integrated than people think. Uh we have to get our um architect involved, you know, to make sure that we're all on the same page and then the board needs to see it. So, we are working on that. Right now, of course, budget's the priority, uh but that brings us to the list of priorities, right? Now that we see our budget numbers and where we're at, uh some of those priorities may change a little bit. Uh we did just get some numbers um today. Was that today or yesterday?
So thank you for that. >> Yeah other questions. Yeah Brandy >> I have excuse me I have two questions. So the first question is um which students are benefiting the most and the least from your current strategic initiatives and how are we ensuring that every subgroup whether multilingual sped learners are seeing the measurable improvements and this is truly going back to the equity and then also measurable outcomes. So I think at the heart of the strategic plan um we really focused our pillars um on not only looking at academics and student success but then also looking at um the access and availability. So if we take a look at our different objectives you'll see certain objectives that approach kind of the student population as a whole. But then there are also certain objectives which we're going to hear about next that really focus on some of our diverse learners both um our multilingual learners and our special education students.
Um there's an article in the the magazine about it so just just really excited about that and um middle school will be next. That's my update. Awesome. Any questions? Uh claims. The claims one is correct. Um is there a motion to accept the claims as presented? I move to approve the recommendation for the claims as presented. Is there a second? I'll second. It's been moved and seconded to approve the claims for I forgot which day is March 23rd 2026.
Um actually, they want you to do the the reverse. It it's to make an immediate report to the authorities. You are not to put a step in between because that could potentially lead to a delay in the report and then cause it not to be immediate. So, that that expectation for every mandatory reporter is to go directly to the authorities. Um and it's written that way for that reason. If your principal's not in the building and they're not going to be back till tomorrow, well then I'll just I'll wait till tomorrow to make the report. You cannot let that happen. So, this is really just written to follow the law to make sure that that report is done ASAP. And Indiana law currently is you don't have to be a teacher or any professional employee, any citizen That's correct. >> must report child abuse or it's a criminal offense.
So, yes, we looked at data. Yes, we looked at checkpoints um and the percentage passing, and that's important, but we really moved into why are we needing so much intervention and remediation? Let's look at our standards. Do we know the exact standards we're supposed to be teaching? Uh do we know the standards at the level of complexity and depth? Um and often times we found that we didn't know that um and that we're kind of teaching at that below level, and so maybe that's why we're not seeing as much progress as we feel like we're working really hard, but are we working hard at the right things? Um so, that's what these meetings really came to be, and it uh became a place of a lot of encouragement and empowerment for people to share some great ideas. Um as always, the best parts of these meetings were never things that I planned.
So, we had to forcefully go to those IEP meetings. We had to forcefully and aggressively um advocate for our daughter. We actually had to go get our own independent evaluator, our own sorry, >> independent educational that cost about $3,000. >> We had to text with the um the the teachers, the DOE teachers, um the special education teachers. So in that case, I just fear that a law like this is going to make what we did for our daughter seem like harassment or aggressiveness towards the department employees. And we had to do that to advocate for our daughter who deserves these services under IEDA. So I am very concerned that a department system is going to over supersede an individual right and that is a serious problem. There are already laws in place um as a public defender said that can take care of this and this is just I think a step in the wrong direction to make it more difficult for a lot of different individuals versus a department that can take this and and somehow address the issue in other ways.
Um I'm going to get some feedback on this since this is new. uh if uh we can you know improve if there's any any uh process for next year. Now we can uh dive into some numbers. So where does money come from? So um the major uh source of our revenue come from government aid and the local taxes. So um the federal aid and state aid and the local taxes uh basically uh those are something that we don't have a control over. The only thing we can h we have a control over is the fund balance. This year's fund balance is a little bit high 10% uh fund balance is the uh the unspent uh surplus that uh carried over from prior years. Since we have a fund balance which is our savings, uh we were um even if our state aid is 55% we were able to uh build a uh balanced budget.
Today on the uh School 8 fix, which the board hasn't really seen yet cuz we're trying to um unpack some of it. Uh it's a little bit higher than we expected. Uh so, that's going to impact some of our numbers. Um so, again, our priorities list is is uh is still in motion and kind of on the way. Um just for um I know every board member here has received uh a lengthy discussion email uh email and then discussion on um the shed purchase, but I can answer for them. Um that shed was through bid. Uh it's going to be used as a concession stand uh outside on the field for the youth sports, for our sports, for baseball um cuz we're putting it in an area where both fields can utilize it. And we're hoping that we can get it there um established quick enough for graduation so we can that's where we can hand out water to everybody when they're coming on the field.
So in terms of measuring progress a lot of year 1 is in that planning and preparation that Dr. Kgatti talked about that was really highlighted in the um curriculum audit. Um as we get further along in the year, one of our objectives was really to implement educ uh we launched the first um training to our uh building and district admin on 317 which really then Brandy gets at the heart of how are we monitoring and tracking progress and student success. So that also kind of coupled from the planning to then um diversifying across the system to try to address needs to then tracking the progress is all part of year one. Um so not that we can what we're really looking at right now is how are we accomplishing and implementing the objectives for this year. So more to come um in terms of data and measuring that progress.
All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed same sign. Abstentions? Motion carried. Is there a motion to adjourn the meeting for the evening? So moved. Second. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed same sign.
So, that's interesting that they want to word it that way. Long as it's reported immediately. >> That's the most important, right away. Thank you for all those answers. Sure. Moving on to item 7.01, Superintendent's Discussion Groups. Mr. Warne, anything Thank you. Mr. Angel, anything from Winfield? Nope. Mr. Vasser, anything from Crown Point? >> Uh yes, the new project going up uh moving from the south going north, 109th north to 101st, just east of 65. There's a new warehouse project that is going to be built. Over 1 million square feet. So, very similar to the new building that's being built off of I-65 and Route 2 in Lowell, the the new John Deere uh facility. It's a huge facility that's being built uh in the in TIF district as well. They're purchasing uh taxable bonds, just reporting to all of buddy everybody here. The developer is going to purchase those in the amount of $9,915,000 with a 25-year maturity.
It was always from the discussions um that people really wanted to know from someone else um what you're doing or how to make this better. And I'll share a story on some of these pictures uh everyone had a math activity they had to do, hands-on math activity at at this high high level. Um and in our fifth grade session it was a three-stage. Um we were doing area of triangles, parallelograms, and trapezoids. Very difficult. And hands-on. And so we got through the part one and one of the teachers said, "Oh man, that was really hard." I said, "Oh man, that was a below-level proficiency. We're not even there yet." Uh and so that was a really great place to be in that moment, just you know, haphazardly uh feeling like our students feel, right? And how do how do we move them through kind of this challenge and and keep pushing them to to what we know they can do.
Thank you for the time and >> thank you. Thank you. >> I'm sorry for what's happened to your daughter. Okay. Anyone else wishing to testify on this measure >> hearing?