Thank you, Sasha Amaro. >> [applause and cheering] [applause] >> She does like to sit in the back though and walk slowly. Never when there's an incident though. Our teacher of the year is unable to be present with us tonight. It's Ms. Lauren Walters. She is our STEM teacher. Every organization needs a hype man, and that is exactly what Ms. Walters is. She is there hyping up the students, making learning fun, making the staff feel excited about being in it in the school even on their hardest days. On staff to staff athletics, she is there showing the children you don't go easy on friends, but you always play fair. Ms. Walters came from a lower grade um uh when she first began she was in one of the lower grades, kindergarten, and now she occupies her time with STEM, and she's able to meet the entire community.
Um, thank you to Ms. Plier, Dr. Waller, Dr. Campbell, and even uh Dr. Mitchell for your mentorship, guidance, and, you know, constant support throughout this journey. Like, your advice and encouragement have truly made a lasting impact on me. You know, thank you to the members of this board for your time, dedication, commitment to supporting students and ideas. You know, again, seeing how you're making such a big impact in today's world is is truly, um, gratifying. You know, thank you, um, to even like all the members of SSAC for the work that you put in, the ideas that you shared, and the passion that you bring to every meeting. It's truly a wonderful opportunity that I experienced. Finally, a thank you to our board members Joel, Manal, and even Sahara. I truly couldn't have done this without you. I'm going to I'm going to miss all the, you know, time that we had together.
Recently, I have noticed the schools have gotten more strict and given less variety in accommodations or taken away ones from kids who need them. These accommodations should not be seen as a privilege as they do not give kids a step up, but make their education as accessible as possible. As a whole, our students reflect our community and we should strive to help our students achieve success in any way possible. Every student is different, but that's why accommodations like online resources can be extremely helpful.
uh she is recommended to start on May 11th, 2026 with a fullear contract which would begin on July 1st of 2026. And with that, I recommend uh Miss Kenyon to the position of human resources director. Okay. May I have a motion to approve Blinda Kona's short-term contract from May 11th, 2026 to June 30th, 2026 and a one-year contract beginning July 1st, 2026 to become the next director of human resources as presented. >> So moved. >> Second.
So, kudos to the school board and the committee that did redistricting because when you look at the numbers, you know, we said we want to stay within 15%. We're within 3% in areas and some of them are are for maybe yeah, I guess 4%. But, and on top of that, not only demographics, but when we look at when we know our ILEARN data and the power of um the class sizes from our referendum that we have steadily gone up and middle school data has definitely helped us in this area to make us one of the top 10% districts in the state of Indiana. And when we zoom in on the middle schools, we looked at it and this is our English language arts. Um we had the spring data where they ended at at North and South and then we redistricted and so these are the same kids to see what their data was when we went into three middle schools, but again, look how close they are.
But something that has really truly stood out to me was my senior project. For my senior project, I created a closet in Columbus East. It's called the Confidence Closet and it holds free prom and professional wear for students to have access to. Thank you for having me. Hi, I'm Stephanie Christopher. Um, for my future plans, I plan to go to IU Bloomington as a direct admit to Kelly School of Business. Um, my favorite teacher, um, this kind of led to one of my passions of business is Mr. Vanderulk because he's just takes like we have creative ideas and he just runs with them and it's really awesome. Um, and then Mrs. Buck because she's like really enhanced my art skills. Um, leading to me winning some competitions which was awesome. Um, one of my favorite memories is my senior project because I'm really involved in my church youth group venture and I was able to tie that back in to school and like serve the community in Guatemala which was just even more personal because I'm originally adopted from Guatemala.
>> [cough and clears throat] >> Um and I am well aware of all of those things. I I know that you don't know me as a community member, but I I have a good sense for how painful this is for everybody to even consider this. Uh and the last thing I wanted to do was come here to be the superintendent of a district that has to close a building. Um but I'm also looking at the financial situation that we are in, and we have I don't know. I went to meetings, and I listened to my predecessor say many times, we're going to have to do something. And that time has come. At some level, we're going to have to do something. The timing, we can figure out, but we're going to have to do something. How much the two [clears throat] ladies that spoke before Darcy were talking about construction being finished.
I was really surprised. >> thank you. We we appreciate it. We're proud of them. That's for sure. So, thank you for sharing. >> Um Julie Wendorf, director of the Crown Point Community Library. Uh reside at 478 East 114th Avenue. I just wanted to come today as April being the national American Library Association's month for celebrating school libraries, but also national library week was last week and just wanted to put together this document to show you all the great ways that the Crown Point Community Library and the Crown Point Community Corporation partner with each other to really lead um I think our community and to make us stellar. And so, I'm really proud of that. I think some of that comes out of my past. I actually worked in the corporation for a number of years as a substitute. Uh but also was an educator prior years in in another state.
I'll remember that. Very good. All right, moving on to Mr. Giveny with his report. Yeah, so I'll I'll be brief. We want to bring in some some student groups, but just like to highlight April 17th, we had the top 10% dinner and it was just another excellent just recognition of our students and also celebration of some of our some of our staff members and that always takes place at at over at the end of the fall and just a really nice really nice event. It's a really moving moving speeches from the kids. Just always really really impressed by what they have to say. Obviously prom was last weekend. From all accounts, by and large, everyone was safe, everyone made good smart decisions, and also had just a great time. So that's always encouraging anytime that that takes place. Um And obviously a lot of more good things continue to happen with celebration awards and recognitions taking place in the month of May.
So, same two spots, some little bit different on the job description, and we've hired with those skill sets in mind in terms of tonight. Before I move on, any questions on those two positions? I know the board's pretty familiar with those. Thank you. Some other things on the agenda tonight that I want to draw attention to. I believe I told you I'd bring back to you the summer hours recommendation from Mr. Klausing in terms of the people that'll be working for him and the pay rate. Those have been updated. I know you've had a chance to review those. I would also tell you that Mr. Klausing has done a wonderful job. One of the ongoing projects for HCCS has been how are we going to scan and get all student files to a manageable electronic version and who has time and when to do those things.
So uh again this this is not replacing our SROs. Our SROs continue. This is support staff for the SROs. This is the sentries that are out in front of the high schools and marked vehicles and then the people that do our metal detecting at large events uh essentially. Uh so that's what we're looking for. Again, our SROs are all first responders. That's all firemen uh firewomen, police officers retired or or still active. And there is our timeline. Same timeline that we had for our custodial services. There was no pre-bid walk-through on this. That's the only difference on the custo- than the custodial. And you'll see we had three bids submitted. We did have a fourth come in but it was after the deadline so we left that unopened. Uh very competitive. They each beat each other in different categories as far as pricing went. Uh they were pretty much all cost neutral for us.
It looks like number It's so tough tough to see over here. their goalie number. >> That's Lily really trying to catch up but needs to stop before she crosses the line. Samantha side playing defense. Number eight, that is uh Caroline. Another one of our freshman playing defense. So, number two, Bridget Hughes. Again, not keeping any stats on Westwood, but she's been one of their top scorers for today. And that's a goal. All right, 94. Four minutes left. About 4 minutes 23 seconds left in the second half. I'm sorry, the first half, second quarter, nine to four. So, what's going on outside of uh girls lacrosse? First, let's talk about boys lacrosse. They are two and seven. They are playing at Westwood today. So, typically the men and the women will kind of alternate over there. So, they are playing at Westwood, which means they're probably finishing their season, regular season home against Westwood.
>> Look at >> Because he's the point guard over there. >> Look at it. MONTEMAYOR HERE. OH MY GOODNESS. >> OH MY GOODNESS, INDEED. >> That was like >> That was incredible. Montemayor just doing everything there. >> Not getting stopped. An absolute highlight on his his repertoire. Yeah, he is a He's great. Like he's like the I'd say a little cleaner, but like the Fill Bizzito of like just in the paint around the net. It's like he will find the back of the net. >> I could chew it like that. And the oldest example that possibly I [snorts] could come up with that you never lived. >> I know. >> [laughter] >> Hey. What's the range? >> How did How did you even come up with that? >> He already played lacrosse once. >> [laughter] >> My goodness. Oh, silly. Powell brother or something. No, I don't even know.
And they'll flick this up at the the draw and that'll be it. And Spartans looking to go into the second half with an 8 to5 lead. And we're back with second half action. as Spartans are taking an 8 to5 lead. >> Spartans that quarter had four goals with Marino scoring a goal scoring a goal and James scoring two goals up and over Northampton. Both coaches reorganizing their offense and defense. I'm sure we'll have a stellar second half game going up on the draw once again. >> We were up with the balling line with Crims with the ball >> getting the ball over sand. with the ball over sees a little bit of daylight. Nothing there. Gets the ball back to sand. Sand turn around taking it in. Nothing there. S goes behind the X to M. Me and the Crim. Crimson is a nice move.
>> Anybody have any questions? Can I throw one? >> The Wilson reading, reading naturally and language live. Do any of our sending schools have these programs? So when the kids come to us, I see on the uh language live, it's from fifth grade to 12th grade. Do >> Yes, we do have kids that have had exposure. We don't have a lot of kids that have received um Wilson. We do have kids per se that have received the language live, but the Wilson is a very intensive certification. It's not just a training. So a training versus a certification is a lot different. So, like a Wilson certification is 60 lessons that you have to do with a student. I'm certified in the Wilson. That's that's why I can answer this, but 60 one-on-one lessons that you do with a student and you're evaluated from the school.
I I don't think that I really thought about the impact of teachers scheduling it and then us pulling them back, right? So, um so I would I mean, I don't know. I'd like to keep it the way it is. >> Okay. >> But >> Okay. >> I don't know. >> And so, with the current configuration, the the way we would potentially deliberate doing something different is if it went past the 18th. Yeah. Okay. Just to be clear. Okay. And how many snow days do we have this year? Eight. Eight is what we had to count towards the >> So realistically that happened this year [clears throat] we'd only go to the 10th or we'd add another day, right? Something to that effect. >> It would depend on how many days we had over the 180. >> I believe we had two kind of unusual days that some other towns didn't have to experience because one was like an a late opening and it backed up to an early release and it just was like school would have been an hour and it wasn't we couldn't even do the buses.
The students know her as DJ Waltie Walt. We call her our technology crisis interventionist. And again, Ms. Walters is involved in every aspect of learning, in every aspect of making the community better. Thomas Jefferson School is as strong as Thomas Jefferson School is because of staff that we have like Miss Sasha and Miss Walters. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you. And that was Miss Bolger from School 9. >> [applause] >> Miss Alfonso, School 10. >> [applause] >> It is a privilege to recognize Maria Banano as power professional of the year of James Madison School number 10. Her kindness, her dedication shows every single day. Maria loves to come in and communicate with everybody and show her kindness around. Her husband's chuckling cuz he knows how she communicates. >> [snorts] >> Maria has a remarkable way of making students feel cared for, understood, and confident in themselves.
Um I really do appreciate the memories we shared and the work we've accomplished this year. It's truly been an incredible opportunity to work beside you. And good luck in college, and thank you everyone. Thank you. I can say the same way about Daywake and Manal and Joel as well. They were so amazing to work with this year. But, as my SSAC board notes and updates have come to an end for the very last time, I just wanted to take this time to thank every single board member here on the Board of Education of SD308, my teachers and team for helping me throughout my growth this year and the years before this. Becoming a student board ambassador has been nothing short of amazing. This opportunity not only gives me the opportunity to voice concerns I personally have, but also the concerns of many students across my own high school and district.
>> Any discussion? >> A vote. >> Mindy Herman, >> yes. >> Darling, Julie Jetty, >> yes. Stacy Salt, >> yes. >> Katherine Potter, >> yes. >> Bridget Sandlin, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Welcome to the >> Okay. Discussions for T uh topics for discussion. There are none. Um are we going to close session? >> Yeah. And we are going to close session um for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance dismissal of specific employees of the public body 5cs 120-2 C1 and collective bargaining matters between a public body and its employees or their representatives deliberation concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. 5ilcs120-2 C20. May I have a mo motion to adjourn to close session? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Discussion.
Um when we re you know, redistricted kids there and you know, where our average was 54.6 as a district and when you look at the state average, I mean, we were significantly above the state average over you know, about almost 15% above the state average and very similar in that area. And then when you look at our math, um we have if you you know, again, I was so impressed when you look I mean, gosh, North and West after redistricting, we're exactly the same percentage of kids passing. Um and then South was right there, too. And so, it just shows that we continue to have strong testing scores. When you look at these scores in isolation, you say, "Wait, 50%?" And we we definitely understand that, but when you still compare us to the other states of in Indiana, we have some of the highest math scores.