001We'll call to order the Brownsburg Community School Corporation Board of School Trustees regular meeting of June 13, 2022. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please join me in a moment of reflection. Thank you. Consent items, Dr. Jessup. Yes, thank you. I'm going to ask for approval in two separate batches. So in the first approval, ask for the minutes of May 9th business meeting and May 9th executive session claims and superintendent's report. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second. Any questions? All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. And then ask
002for approval of the minutes from the May 23rd special business session, the work session, and the executive session. Do I have a motion? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. I have a motion and a second. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? I abstain because I didn't attend the last meeting. Thank you. Communications. First, we have a commendation to the VHS choir, Bel Canto. Dr. Jessup, do you want to take that away? Absolutely. So if those of you could join us up in the front. Okay, come on over here. So, nobody really wants to see my clothes. There you go. Okay, so you're up here because you won state, so tell us a little bit about that. So, honestly, being a part of Robert's require was a life-changing experience for
003me, not just because we won state, but because you meet your fellow people there, and it's just such a bonding experience. And, like, for one, I'm so good at talking about it, so I feel like... being here today and using our recognition is really just a great place for us. So I'm vice president of our show choir, Starlight, and Kat is the president, and then Megan is VP of Bel Canto, which is the actual concert choir, which does concert choir all year round. So at Starlight, we got the privilege of joining them, and it's just really a life changing experience. okay grounds for community school corporation certificate of commendation is hereby presented to belcanto starlight voices for being named state champions at the 2022 issma state concert univoice choir finals congratulations Mr. Hilton, before we
004continue, With the approval of the minutes and the superintendent's report, we did approve four new leaders for Brownsburg schools. If you wouldn't mind, give me a minute to say who those people are. Please do. So we have Chris Renner, who is moving from East Middle School to be the new assistant principal at Eagle Elementary. Stand up, Chris. We have Lisa Riley, who will be moving not this school year, but the following school year, from the instructional coach at Lincoln to the assistant principal at Crossroads Elementary. We have Casey Becker who's moving from a special education teacher at Eagle to the assistant principal at White Lake Elementary. And we have Emily Zito who's moving from the transition teacher at BECC to being the ECC coordinator. And I know we have lots of teachers here to celebrate
005with them. So while you're welcome to stay for the whole meeting, you can also go and celebrate. And if Mrs. Murphy has any pictures to take, you can all be set. Thank you. Thank you. Let's just give them just a minute to file out to the back. move forward they're almost almost out there in the back next we go to the Brownsburg Education Foundation report mrs. Dierman okay so we had the chip in for the kids golf outing that was presented by summers he'd even in cooling and that took place on Friday the 10th so thank you to all the sponsors and participants and the volunteers and we're still counting up what we were able to to make from that for our students so well that'll sure be on the VF website Grants, individual teachers
006or staff groups can apply for the Incredible Grants Award that focus on the innovation and creativity and those can be done by August 15th. The BEF Pioneer Camp, that takes place this week at the Log Cabin Homestead property behind this building. Third fourth and fifth graders who are exiting will be participating in this fun educational and hands-on camp experience This designer purse bingo, which is presented by Ellsberger orthodontics. That's Tuesday, August 16th The doors open at 5 p.m. Bingo starts at 630 Tickets include 20 rounds of bingo and are on sale starting Saturday, July 23rd at 9 a.m And you can see the BEF website for more details on that, updates and sponsorship opportunities. And last is the annual surplus sale. That'll be Saturday, September 17th from 8 to 10 a.m. Central Office Warehouse. The
007exact inventory is not known yet, but check the BEF website for updates on that. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Dierman. Operations update, Mr. Voigt. Good evening. Just a few quick items that I wanted to share with the board this evening having to do with both facility and technology services. This is a little on the dry side, as so many operations updates are, in truth. But there are some kind of fun numbers in here that I thought I'd share. So the first two slides is facility services equipment, and it lists the equipment, the major pieces of equipment that that department is managing. And you can see it's color-coded. This is actually a process that was started by Mr. Starkweather and Mr. Faulkner has taken it on for his department as well. Things that are listed in
008green are things that are in good condition. Things that are yellow are things that we're watching closely. I don't expect you to read it because, quite frankly, again, it's really, really dry. And then there are a couple of red items that you can see in there. And if you look, there's a few green check marks. And those are things that we're trying to take care of actually this summer. This is part of when you see consent agenda contracts that are being approved for boiler replacements and that kind of thing, a lot of that is trying to keep this chart in the green. And we use this chart to prioritize what is being repaired and kind of what the condition of the overall system is. Couple of fun numbers. We have 38 boilers with over 100
009million BTUs of heating capacity. We have 25 chillers with 4,500 tons of cooling capacity. That's enough cooling capacity to cool about 1,125 homes inside of Brownsburg. And then you can see a number of other pieces of equipment. This is the kind of stuff that no one is really too interested in hearing about unless it's not working, in which case then they're really, really hot or really, really cold or something's not working quite right. If you go to the next slide, that also includes all of our cooling towers. You'll see that we have a big block of cooling towers that are in the yellow you're going to start to see those showing up probably again in those kind of middle-sized contracts that we're trying to crank out every every summer to keep ahead of this lengthy
010list of equipment the next slide is actually the items for technology services under the capable leadership of mr starkweather in the back there there's some fun numbers here as well 4 300 desktop computers 2850 laptops for a total of almost 8 000 computing devices in our district we have almost 800 surveillance cameras throughout the district about 1400 telephone handsets that his department manages 550 wireless access points, just countless items that are being maintained by his department. And then the fun fact for the evening is 10.7 terabytes of files is being stored actually through OneDrive and off-site storage. That's the equivalent of 2.3 million files. And for those of you that are literary and bent, That is the equivalent of 330,000 copies of War and Peace being stored off network as part of our district-wide storage.
011Again, you can see the color coding. The vast majority of this is green, but you'll see some areas that are yellow and red, and those are things, again, that Mr. Starkweather is tracking carefully. And in fact many of those items almost all of them actually are being taken care of this summer We're replacing his department is replacing over 800 computers In lab workstations all 750 teacher tablets and most administrator tablets are being replaced. This is again all part of the work that Mr. Hacker helps us with so ably in terms of the general obligation bonds that we're about to be issuing later on this year This is part of that replacement cycle So I thought I'd share that with the board because sometimes I don't necessarily know that people Understand kind of the things that
012are going on in the background to make sure the classrooms and students and staff were able to move forward As as best they can so with that I'll be happy to answer any questions Do we tend to have the bulk of those supplies and equipment with the same contractor when we're making these replacements? So when it comes to technology, most of that is being bought off of a quantity purchase agreement. There are two or three different manufacturers that we use. Some of the more... unique network items are part of an E-rate purchase process that you may have noticed in a board packet a few months ago. When it comes up to the facility services pieces, those items over $150,000 are required by law to be publicly bid. And so that goes to a number of
013different vendors. Some of the smaller items, we do have a quoted process that we use to take care of some of the more routine items, pump changes and that kind of thing, the smaller ones. There's different ways on how much money is involved. That answers the question. Yes, I think it does. Thanks. Any other questions for Mr. Voigt? Thank you, Mr. Voigt. Before we begin public comment, I want to revisit public comment from last month. At the May board meeting, the only two people to provide public comment were a student who discussed the mental health needs of students and Mr. Chase, who's also speaking tonight, who talked about the term marginalized students. When Mr. Chase began addressing Dr. Snapp directly, I stepped in to state, board policy requires that speakers only address the presiding officer,
014which is myself. Mr. Chase and I then raised our voices at each other, and I made a comment that I understand the mental health issues some of our students face, and I told him to sit down. When I got home that evening, Mr. Chase had sent me an email apologizing for his conduct. I then offered to speak to him on the phone, which we did, and I apologized for how I talked to him. I also told Mr. Chase that I was not commenting on his mental health. Regardless, my actions that evening representing my fellow board members during public comment was not appropriate. I've spoken to and apologized to each board member and have told them I will do better going forward. I appreciate their support for me continuing as board president. As board members, we
015may have our individual opinions, but we must act as a board as a whole in making decisions. I cannot let my personal opinions represent the board as a whole. Over the last month, some members of this community have alleged that I do not support nor care for those who struggle with mental health problems. This is not true. Though there may be differences of opinion on how mental health-related services should be provided to our students, I have and will continue to advocate for programs that help the mental health of our students. Additionally, teachers and other staff members have had to deal with teaching during a global pandemic. They worry about the safety of their students due to an increase in school shootings and other violence, and they must deal with efforts by legislators to interfere with
016their ability to effectively teach. The need for mental health support is at an all-time high for our students and staff. I have always been a huge proponent for providing these supports and pushing back against efforts by those who want to limit these services for all or some in need. Going back to the last board meeting, I should have done better in facilitating public comment within the rules of the board. communicating my thoughts in the tone of my response to mr. chase and in representing the board for that I apologize to the board to mr. chase and to the community that being said since we have a number of people speaking this evening Ms. Heffernan is going to keep track of the time for each individual speaker, and public comments will comply with the following rules.
017And I'm just going to read part of the excerpts from School Board Policy 167.3. The School Board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on corporation matters. The presiding officers shall be guided by the following rules. Attendees must register to speak during public comments upon their arrival at the meeting. Participants will be recognized by the Presiding Officer and will be requested to state their name, address, and group affiliation. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to two minutes. Please assist us with adhering to the two-minute rule as non-adherence may lead to a disruption of the lawful assembly of participants. And all statements shall be directed to the Presiding Officer. No person may address or question board members or administrators
018individually. With that being said, our first speaker is Dave, is it Tinky? Mr. Tinky? I understand the school corporation diversity officer has resigned. I believe this is an opportune time to discontinue the diversity program, which does not support the mission of the school. An individual's ethnicity, I'm sure I can say that better sometime, skin color or sex are not moral categories. Neither are they signs of failure or indications of achievement. The idea of diversity in today's society is a flawed concept that looks at a few characteristics and misses the hearts and souls of the individuals. That is, we as a society view Magic Johnson and Larry Bird as diverse. Even more diverse are Billy Graham and Mother Teresa, or Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney. Yet, each of these three pairs share a common goal, desire,
019or a worldview that far exceeds any differences. But if you line up Billy Graham with William Shakespeare and Joseph Stalin, the diversity... View today sees complete uniformity, but in essence in truth you have a prophet a poet and a killer as Supreme Court Justice John Roberts said in 2007 ruling the way to stop discrimination based upon race is to stop discriminating based on race I Agree Let's end this practice of putting students in groups and instead let them earn their own way based on individual effort and merit eliminate this program, and instead invest those dollars in education or return them to the taxpayer. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Tinkley. Reverend Yvonne Brandenburg. Thank you. I'm Reverend Yvonne Brandenburg from Good Samaritan Episcopal Church. My address is 1206 Auburn Drive here in Brownsburg. I've been asked
020also to speak for Reverend Amy Lindeman Allen, biblical professor of Christian Theological School, who has three children in this school district, as well as Dr. Calvin Brandenburg, both out of town tonight. I share our thanks to the school board for your wisdom as more than a year and a half ago you created a new position of coordinator of diversity, equity, and inclusion for the district. The board recognized the ethnic, racial, religious, and gender spectrum within the school community, a diversity that makes us all richer as a people. This positive move illustrates the school board's belief that a school is only as strong as the opportunity of each and every student to achieve their potential. We expect and we assume that teachers and staff and administrators understand this and live it out. We also recognize the
021tough job that educating has. The teachers, administrators, and staff have a full plate before the school day even begins. Not everything on a teacher or administrator's plate can possibly have all the attention they would like it to have and that it deserves to have. For this reason, the Director of DEI was deemed a crucial component of the long walk to equity and inclusion. I share the words of one of your students from the weekly after school Equality Alliance club that my husband and I have attended for several years. After the club one afternoon a student said to me, we need to know there are people in the school who believe in us and who are in our quarter. And then they added, I bet that's a hard job for a school. I said no. You
022may not know it but there is a person whose job is that the director of diversity equity and inclusion and the school district has that person it's like the Athletics are so important in the district that we have an athletic director We've got to be respectful and you are so important that we have that we've got to wrap up and be respectful the two minutes for everyone Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Mr. Joe chase. So at the last bad board meeting there was an assumption about the reasons for the mental illness uptick we are seeing currently in our society with our children. This is tragic but an obvious outcome of our current society. Currently we tell children they are victims or victimizers. We tell them that gender is fluid and you can do whatever you
023want. Drag queens' story hours are commonplace all over the country. We tell them the most important thing about them is the group that they belong to. We told them for two years the air was toxic and they had to wear masks. We can go to high school libraries now and find how to be anti-racist by Ibram X. Kendi, but you can't find a Bible. All social morality in our society is breaking down before our very eyes. I am shocked that the mental illness problem is not worse. In light of the tragedy that recently happened in Texas, I am of the opinion that money's being spent on SEL programs that indoctrinate students and DEI programs based on identity politics could be better spent hiring more armed officers at our school. It would be a small step
024towards solving mental illness issues all while protecting our children. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chase. Rachel Green. Thank you. Diversity, equity, and inclusion. That's what we're talking about here today. The greatest teachers have been sharing messages of diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout the decades in this country. From Mr. Rogers to Sesame Street to the Magic School Bus, Captain Planet, Hey Arnold, and Reading Rainbow. In the 1980s, Sesame Street updated their curriculum to include topics such as relationship, ethics, and emotion. Mr. Rogers focused heavily on social emotional learning and emotional intelligence. The year was 1968 when Mr. Rogers invited Officer Clemens to share a swimming pool with him on national television when segregated swimming pools were still very real in this country. This is diversity, equity, and inclusion. The great public teachers from the educational shows
025of our youth all promoted diversity, equity, and inclusion as our collective contribution to living in a happy and harmonious and equitable society where everyone can succeed. Social-emotional learning is as important as mastering the academic subjects when it comes to nurturing a child into a capable and healthy adult who is able to successfully navigate this world once they're no longer under the protection of their loving family. Social-emotional learning has been proven to strengthen other abilities such as decision-making, planning, motivation, conflict management, and academic performance. This is the same diversity, equity, and inclusion that's being taught by the great teachers today in the Brownsburg school system. These ideal worlds from these childhood shows are places where community members talk through issues honestly and compassionately, and they work together to support each other so that everyone can succeed
026and have a good life. The ideal community is also the dream of many of us parents here for our kids in the Brownsburg school system. The teachers of the past and the teachers of today know that diversity, equity, and inclusion are a cornerstone of healthy childhood development. You will notice that the people who oppose diversity, equity, and inclusion don't like to say the words diversity, equity, and inclusion. They call it a list of other things that are meant to invoke emotional fear response. I appreciate the school board for allowing all parents to voice their opinions and concerns. I also appreciate the school board for leaving concerns based on propaganda or misinformation at the podium so we can focus our time, energy, and resources on the evidence-based practices that help our kids learn, grow, and live
027their best lives. Thank you. Thank you. Rhonda James. Rhonda James, 3310 Temperbrook Court, Danville, Indiana. So, and we go to Brownsburg Schools. Danville address, Brownsburg Schools. As if it wasn't obvious before, Mr. Hilton has a conflict of interest in holding this position of president of the school board as one of his... clients is the ISTA through the firm of which he is a partner. This is a well-known fact. It is now also a well-known fact that his behavior at the last school board meeting was embarrassing to the community and blatantly offensive to not only the concerned parent who spoke, but anyone with mental health concerns and anyone who watches the video can see immediately his lack of respect for this parent. This was so offensive that it was even picked up by the local news
028and radio stations, so people across the state were aware of an incident in Brownsburg having to do with a school board. Needless to say, this is not good for the reputation of the town or the schools. At some point, there have to be consequences for these actions that are blatantly wrong. The board cannot continue to make poor decisions and just keep shoving them down the throats of so many parents who are offended, disappointed, and legitimately angry, and then just move on like nothing has happened. Many decisions and actions have been offensive to a large group of parents in regard to the curriculum choices, and no matter what, the school board choice is to proceed. As time has gone on, there is no doubt that several of these choices have not been in the best interest
029of the children, but they continue. Apologies are too little too late, actions speak louder than words, and Mr. Hilton needs to resign. Other things need to stop as well, like the SEL program for one. Just teach our children the basics and what is educationally right for what they need to function in the world, and parents can handle the rest. Parents whose tax dollars are funding much of what goes on here, start listening to the parents in the community and do the right thing. Resign. Thank you, Mrs. James. Dr. Brian Widener. Good evening. I live at 6576 Leochord. I have two children in the Brownsburg schools. At recent meetings and again tonight, there's been a discussion about the need for equality in education, emphasizing the efforts to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion in Brownsburg schools are
030not only not unnecessary, but detrimental to some students. I wanted to address this issue with a line of thought. This morning as I taught graduate students in education at Butler University, I used this cartoon to illustrate the difference between equality and equity in education assessment. It shows a variety of different animals, a monkey, a penguin, an elephant, so on, in front of an examiner who is stating, for a fair selection, everyone has to take the same exam. Please climb that tree. Now we can argue that if this is a test of how well animals climb trees The monkey is far superior and that this is indeed a fair and equal test But more likely this is a test of how athletic the animal is how proud it can be how capable is in which case
031this is not an Equitable test is an inequitable test Equality is not the same as equity My question is how often do we do the same thing to our students here in Brownsburg? For a simple example from data provided at school board meetings this year, we have around 16% of our students who identify as black or African American. Yet 29% of our disciplinary referrals in our district are black students and only 3% of students in high ability classes are black. So this leaves us with two possibilities. One, our black students are much worse behaved at a rate of two to one to the average student and academically less capable than the average student by a five to one ratio. Second, we have an equal but inequitable system for evaluating student behavior and academics that unfairly
032places undue burden on students of color. While the prior is possible evidence from every major educational study in this field suggests that the latter is much more likely efforts in diversity equity and inclusion are critically important for the success of all students in BCSC and Ask the school board to continue to maintain designated initiatives and to hire specific personnel to guide their progress equal is not Eric Knight, thank you Eric Knight Brownsburg, Indiana Got a student in the high school I'm listening to this comment. The whole thing, the whole premise of, I wasn't even going to talk about this, but the whole premise of equity and equality. I don't understand how you treat someone different and how paternalistic that is. To not expect that some students can't rise because of their condition. Sorry. Anyways, the
033thing I want to talk about, and Hilton, this is to you, President Hilton. Quite simply, I agree with I can't remember her name. It's time for you to resign as president. You can't say that. I mean, that was actually the most honest thing I've heard. We keep having these discussions. We keep being told to trust the board, to trust our decisions and such, and that this doesn't exist. But then we hear something like this, and quite honestly, probably was the most truthful thing that we've said. Anything that parents that disagree with you on, I know you don't agree with this. You don't like us. You don't want to hear it. I'm sorry, but why you chose to say that and that words, it just tells me that what you honestly think of parents who disagree
034with the board's decisions. You can disagree. Obviously, you were elected by your constituents, but I can tell you that's not going to fly. The moderates that are on, you know, undecided. I have a feeling they're going to see it differently. And I challenge you to step aside, step down and board, hold him accountable. The flippant remark was ridiculous. Thank you. Thank you. Dave Wyatt. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak for you this evening. Mr. Hilton, thank you for your apology this evening. My next question is the coordinator of equity and diversity is open. Does the board plan to fill that position? Can the board describe the process by which that is performed and can the board note here this evening? How do community members volunteer to participate as a selection as a
035member of the selection committee process? How would they get to be on one of those selection committees? I've heard a lot of discussions this evening and I think that some of these issues have already been resolved and This is one of my favorite quotes here, which I'll have to read again apparently I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. That's what the board should be striving. That's what teachers should be striving. That's what we as a community should be striving for. And that when we make a position such as this, and if these class activities, SEL, and so forth are being presented in the community, if that in
036fact has taken place, do those actions align with this benchmark? I don't think that they do. That does not say that I'm not diverse, that I'm not for equity, I'm not those things, but I think that it's a difficult position to take this approach to solve the problem. The benchmark has already been provided here by Martin Luther King. I would use this as our milepost as we've done for... many generations. Again, thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Wyatt. Beth Riga. Beth Riga. I live in Lincoln Township, and I have one daughter in Brownsburg Schools. I've been coming to a lot of the board meetings in the past year and I've talked with many of you, talked with many of the people here in the audience and talked with many of my neighbors as
037well. And last month, even though I was not here, I did watch it on video and it wasn't the first time that I'd seen fireworks in these meetings. I understand things get heated. We all want what's best for our children and we all advocate strongly for that. I do appreciate your board service. I know that it's hard. It's a lot of hours. It doesn't pay much money. There's not much gratitude for what you do. And I appreciate you, and most of the people that I talk to in Brownsburg do appreciate your service. Some of you have received death threats. You listen to people yelling at you here. There's definitely yelling in the parking lot afterwards. And it's not the best of situations. So I do appreciate you guys taking the time to volunteer in your
038committee and to help our school system and our children. children. There's a small group and some of the members of that group are here tonight that are very vocal in saying that the Brownsburg schools are awful. Mr. Hilton, you should resign. And that there is nothing good to be said about Brownsburg schools. And when I talk to most people, I get the sense that most people do not believe that. Sure, we have problems, but there's a small group that's affiliated with a couple of groups, Moms for Liberty, Low Left Turn in Education. These are very well-funded groups on the national level, and they make themselves out to be grassroots, like they're coming from Brownsburg, but instead they're getting some money from the national level. And that's something that even though we can't look at their
039nonprofit records, the January 24th, 2022 Guardian and several other materials have told us that this is the case. So it's not right for these people to shout down most of the people who like Brownsburg schools, who want you to keep working for better Brownsburg schools, and we support you. Thank you. Thank you. Jessica Owens. Hi, I'm Jessica Owens. Sorry, guys. I have three kids who attend or have attended Brownsburg schools. One just graduated. Ready? Okay. I'm here in support not only to be a voice of support for Mr. Hilton and the board, but to redirect this conversation back to what it's really about. It's fine for people to be offended, but what is not fine is for when people take it online and make threats yet again. I believe it's important to discuss with the
040board what this is, a warning. We are in the midst of a mental health crisis. The threats and hostile comments made online against Mr. Hilton and various board members throughout the last few years are a clear sign that hate is brewing, not just online, but within the schools. After all, some of the people making these threats have children attending the school alongside ours. I would like to direct attention to the extreme amount of stress and anxiety that my kids experience at the hands of that hate. One of my daughters is gay. During the final week of school, she came home crying because a boy would not stop speaking with a friend about the graphic sexual things he would do to the other boy in an extremely mocking and loud voice in the middle of class.
041The next day, he got upset because he thought someone was referring to a gay student. He got loud and said, you don't mean that kid's an F word. He then proceeded to mock gay people while everything in his body was poised for violence. My daughter was terrified to speak up, to talk about who she is and how unacceptable that is. Literally the same day, my oldest child witnessed two boys horsing around in the hall and start mocking a trans boy. One of them shoved the other into the passing trans kid who recoiled and screamed, ooh, you made me touch it. These things happen every day. It's only a matter of time before someone gets hurt. I fear more and more every day about the safety of my kids when they leave for school. I would
042like to see our community come together to work towards substantive changes to support a more positive experience within Brownsburg. I would like to see how our schools work within this current crisis. Yes, we've got to wrap up now. Sorry. Yes, absolutely. One more sentence. To keep our kids safe and how you monitor this hate speech as a threat. Thank you. Thank you, guys. You are doing a wonderful job. And our last speaker is Kristen Ferklick. A huge segment of this community is rightfully angry. They've been told that their opinions don't count. They've been shut down, locked out of conversations, retaliated against, and now the parents have been told that they are the drivers of mental health problems in their children. Last month, we saw Eric Hilton weaponizing decorum to silence dissent. A simpler way of
043putting that, kill the messenger. Many have noticed a very distasteful sentiment circulating that seeks to invalidate the knowledge, opinions, and experiences of anyone in the community who does not have children currently in the Brownsburg schools. It doesn't matter how well researched, informed, or educated. They simply do not count. The truth is that we, as a group, are the most representative inclusive in Brownsburg. We are taxpayers. These are employers who see the results of social justice being prioritized over merit-based academic excellence. These are the coaches who are celebrating that our girls will have the opportunity to excel in sports. These are the grandparents who don't want their grandkids exposed to obscene materials in the school library. These are law enforcement officers who see the consequences of restorative justice. These are anonymous mental health professionals who see
044skyrocketing levels of children identifying as transgender. These are angry parents who are scared into silence by the well-earned reputations of retaliatory administrators. These are parents of special needs students who year after year are not getting their IEP needs met. These are survivors of communist and socialist regimes that see the dangerous fallacies being peddled in our schools. Kristen, please wrap up. You're two minutes. Rest assured, these words will morph into a misleading footnote in the meeting notes. But this is not about me. I'm just the messenger. Thank you. That concludes comments from patrons. Old business. 2022 Go Bond Project hearing and second preliminary determination hearing. Mr. Hacker. At this point, I will open a public hearing for this matter. Mr. Hacker. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. So tonight we will be going through
045hearing number two. As you recall at our special business meeting on May 23rd, we had hearing number one as advertised in the Republican and on the school website. But this is pursuant to Indiana code. Anytime a school is about to enter into a lease agreement or project that meets certain thresholds, we must have those hearings. And tonight is the second and final one. And so this is our general obligation bond. Here to me, I refer to that as the GO bond. And so we'll be looking at some site development, primarily at the high school work that we need to pay for. If you remember back, I believe, at the May regular scheduled board meeting, Mr. Voigt here talked about in the operations update our parking space issue at the high school with our increased growth.
046and for student parking. And so we, I believe, we're even out of the number of parking passes that we had this year. And so we certainly need to do something about that. And so again, this may be difficult to see. Again, senior academy, and you'll see this red area here outlined. Futuristically, that's kind of some area that we know that we need to address for parking and add more spaces. Unfortunately, we have a giant drain that kind of runs right through there, that blue line. That is an issue with making more parking at the high school site. And so the general obligation bond 2022, we will be looking at filling that gap ditch in and moving the legal drain so that we could move forward with site development work also other items that could be
047purchased out of that geo bond was replacing the school buses technology network and device replacement as mr voigt was discussing earlier tonight and selected maintenance and other repairs but again primarily this would be work at the high school with the site development again if we look down there there's our parking needs versus current capacity we were over that capacity i know this year And again, as we look at our demographic study with the amount of students that we know we are coming to Brownsburg schools, we know we probably will reach that even sooner than 23-24. Next year, we will be out of space, which again is the reason for and the need for this work. And so as far as our project goes, our timeline, May we had some initial planning and finance discussions working
048with our engineers and architects with the design team as well as our construction manager. We will be going through Hendrick County Town and Brownsburg Regulatory Approvals here this summer. We hope that in August we will have the construction documents completed and then in September we will begin the public... bidding process of all construction contracts associated with this work and begin the order of replacement of school buses as well. and meaning that in October we will award construction contract. And so the reason we are doing this now is because just the amount of time it takes to procure and make all the materials that are required for this work and filling in the drain. And so we had to be ready to start that this summer, which is earlier than we typically do our bond, our
049geobond projects and such. And so hoping that in November 2022 we'll begin the production in August that we'll be able to start in 2023 on this work. As far as the finance, right now this is to establish the maximum amount of terms here. And so our architects and construction team are still working to get us our final numbers. And so with the GEO bond, we are going with the maximum amount of school corporation we can do, again, to establish the maximum terms. Our goal is to not go up to 10 million, but we have to provide ourselves the ability to do so, depending on what the construction bids come back. As you are aware, with inflation and things, we just have to make sure that we're flexible enough to cover all the costs. And so
050maximum repayment term of this $10 million will be 10 years. Again, and this will happen every single year at no impact to our overall school tax rate. And so it is intended as of the last 10 years that this will be the 11th year of a tax school rate drop. And so we want to ensure that that is stated. And we want to make sure that everyone is aware of that. Again, not result in a tax increase. And this information provided by our financial team at Baker Tilly. So next steps again, we had May 23rd was our first hearing tonight is second Once we will get through this we will ask for approval of several motions associated with this project and then in August we will come back with the final bond resolution and so
051that's kind of what our next steps are and So at this time, I certainly open up if board have any additional questions I know you had a chance to do that in May but also the public first does any board member have questions for mr. Hacker Hearing none, does any member of the public have any comment or question regarding that issue? Yes, sir. Sure. For me to have the exact amount, I probably need to go and look. And what we typically will pay attention to... Sorry. is the debt to assessed valuation. So as our assessed valuation goes up, the capacity we have with debt certainly will increase in order to allow the tax rate not to jump up. And so that's really what we focus on to ensure that our tax rate doesn't increase in
052that manner. But I will definitely need to go back and look at that number. And so I can tell you that we are looking around $30 million in 2023 as I do some initial work on our budget for 2023. That would be our debt service payment of the amount that we would owe in 2023 is around $30 million-ish. And so, but again, as a growing district, we are currently building an elementary school, and we had big renovations going on at West Middle School, and the transportation center, as a growing district, that is expected. And so while our tax rate, I believe, is about fourth in the county, and so we'd like to try to stay at that range as well. But I would be happy to get our overall number to you and see me
053after the meeting and get your contact information. I'd be happy to share that with you. No problem. Any other comments from the public? Mr. Wyatt. This is a very nice high-level 50,000-foot elevation of what buckets. are going to go into this $10 million bond. Is there any greater level of detail that rolls into these higher level buckets as to how much money will go to buses, how much money goes to technology and network, selected maintenance and repairs and so forth? So if the public has a better idea, not necessarily of the granular detail, but more substance behind this higher level, can that be provided either now? or by an email or after the meeting. Sure. So I can tell you that each year approximately our bus replacement is about $1.6 million as we look to
054be in 11 and 12 buses. And so that's the number that we look to. The other thing with the general obligation bond is that we want to provide the flexibility by stating these things. And so as our construction bids come in, and whether we are high or low, we can provide ourselves the flexibility to make purchases using those funds to ensure that we maximize what we're able to. And so while some of the exact dollars for our site work is still to be determined, and the construction bids will ultimately finalize that this fall, what remains, we want the flexibility now because we have to establish that. in order to be able to make those purchases if need be. But I know about $1.6 million will be our annual bus purchase on an annual basis. Any
055other comments, questions from the public? Hearing none, I will now close the public hearing. Thank you, Mr. Hacker. The next item is recommendation to approve project resolution. Mr. Hacker. So this resolution establishes the estimated costs of the project and the tax impact and timing of the impact as presenting in the project hearing. And so this recommendation to you, just to have your approval, I appreciate that at this time. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. Motion is second. Any questions or comments from Mr. Hacker? Hearing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. recommendation to approve preliminary determination resolution mr. Hacker yes this resolution sets the maximum term of the bond issue the annual impact the debt service levy and tax rate as presented in the preliminary determination hearing
056as we just heard that a maximum term of the bond issue is ten years at no impact to the overall school tax rate and asking for your approval at this time do I have a motion so moved a second second motion and second any questions or comments from mr. Hacker on this one Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. D, recommendation to approve preliminary bond resolution. Mr. Hacker. Yeah, Mr. Hacker showed an eye, and I apologize. And so this particular resolution establishes the maximum amount to be borrowed. And again, we are setting our flexibility going the maximum amount for a general obligation bond at $10 million, as stated in our hearing. And so at this time, asking for your approval of that particular recommendation. Do I have
057a motion? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Motion is seconded. Any questions or comments from Mr. Hacker? Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Next, recommendation to approve declaration of official intent to reimburse expenditures. Mr. Hacker. Thank you. So if a school corporation has any fees or costs associated with this project ahead of time, so before the closing date of the bond, the IRS requires the school corporation to declare their intent to reimburse those expenditures once we close on that bond. And that's what this particular resolution will allow us to do, is if we have to spend any money with contractors or design fees, things like that, out of the school budget, that we'll be able to reimburse ourselves. Once the once we close in
058the bond and so at this time asking for your approval to do so do I have a motion? So moved have a second second. We have a motion to second any questions or comments for mr. Hacker Hearing none all those favors signify by saying aye aye all opposed Motion passes. Thank you. Mr. Hacker. Thank you. Next we have the second reading and recommendation to approve staff handbooks. Dr. Jessup Yes, thank you. This is Second reading and recommendation of the staff handbook. This includes the Brownsburg Community School Corporation Police Department, Health Services, Nutrition Services, Transportation staff, teacher handbook, as well as support staff handbook. Ask for approval at this time. Do we have a motion? So moved. Do we have a second? Second. Motion and a second. Any questions for Dr. Jessup on the handbooks? I
059just had one question in regards to, I think it was changes to dress code. and there's a couple of other things but those follow the policies that we just did as a we're getting ready to do right yeah okay that's all I need just want to make sure any other questions for Dr. Jessup hearing none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye all opposed motion passes next we have the third reading and recommendation to approve board policies Dr. Jessup So this is the third reading and request for approval of four policies that all deal with technology. I would like to, as before I asked for approval, let you know that Mrs. German and I worked on some, I would say, general semantics of some wording to just kind of clear some things up
060to make them, I would think, easier to read and provide some clarity within those. And so I would ask for approval at this time. Second. Okay, motion second. Any questions? Dr. Jessup. Hearing none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, Dr. Jessup. New business, there being none, superintendent comments, we will go to Dr. Jessup to fill in for Dr. Snapp this evening. Do you have any comments? I'm just kidding. I would actually just like to thank all of those who were involved with the commencement ceremony. In order to do a commencement the way we do, there are a lot of people involved from our facilities group to our technology to the staff at Brownsburg High School. I think we had another great celebration of our class of
0612022 and just wanted to recognize that. Thank you, Dr. Jessup. Board Member comments? Mr. Wells. Yes. First of all, I want to thank everybody who spoke tonight, but I also wanted to say that I was not in favor of Mr. Hilton's... comments with Mr. Chase at last month's board meeting. The tone that he talked to Mr. Chase does not represent the school board as a whole, talking to a person who has every right to speak at public comments. With that said, though, I do appreciate Mr. Hilton apologizing to each board member individually and letting us know that he was out of line there. Hopefully we all will learn from what happened last month at last month's board meeting and we can all move forward. Thank you, Mr. Wells. Mrs. Dearman. Yes, I would like to
062basically second those comments. I do appreciate Mr. Hilton's public and personal apology and agree that it was inappropriate and that as elected representatives of you guys, it's our job to maintain civility and try to be understanding. And I'd also like to say there's clearly some very emotional topics. that are being brought up and discussed that are really important to our students. And I think our students oftentimes will take our lead. The better we can communicate, the better we can articulate how we feel and listen to each other, I think the better our students will do with that also. I'm sure they're feeling a lot of the same divisiveness that we are all feeling. So I would just like to put that out there and encourage all of us. whether we agree or not to try
063to have civil conversations and discuss our differences thank you thank you mrs dearman dr frigy so a couple points um congrats on a great educational foundation event it went fantastic and hopefully a lot of money was raised keep doing it thank you to all the comments made tonight no matter what your opinion is your opinion doesn't matter keep them coming i mean the more we know the better the I appreciate Mr. Hacker. I mean, that's a lot to actually lead through this whole meeting. I mean, you did a great job. And congrats to Class of 2022. It's sad to see them go, but, yeah, good luck on their future adventures. Now, sort of echoing basically what has occurred, yes, Mr. Hilton, of course, made his apology, and to us as well, but just some thoughts.
064There are times that we all make mistakes and act without thinking. This does not excuse the actions of our colleague in the previous school board meeting. It is my opinion his comments about mental illness were uncalled for, disrespectful, and not conducive of his school board presidential position. It's not this is not the behavior I have come to expect from this individual especially while acting a school school for president Thus it was quite disappointing to me the board. I believe the community to say the least His actions reflected poorly on the board as a whole despite being the actions of one board member But hopefully we can find a way to move forward and nonetheless and that's what we're gonna do Thank You, Dr. Freedjie. Ms. Heffernan First, the golf outing was a tremendous amount of
065fun, even though I didn't win. So no ringers this year to bring us in, but it was a lot of fun. I cry every single commencement, and I didn't know hardly any of the kids. I think I start crying before it even starts. So the masks were actually a little helpful in that regard, but it hit all my tears or dried them up. Congratulations to the class of 2022, though. I did write down my thoughts. I can barely read my own handwriting, so we're going to take a stab at this. But at the end of the day, I truly do believe that we all have at least one thing in common, and that's to do what's best for our kids, even if it looks a little bit different for each of us. And I really
066never want to lose sight of that, that the kids come first in everything that we do. It's been a tough couple of years. Emotions have been high. We're all human. This seat that we sit in isn't easy to hear like over and over again without being able to really speak to anything that we hear in a lot of situations. So it's not easy sitting in this seat sometimes. However, it's extremely rewarding. You know, as we sat through the commencement and we've seen what we've been able to do, I mean, I've truly been in awe of watching these kids excel and what the teachers have been able to do through several unprecedented years. And what our community, our administration, you know, have really, like, stepped up during this time. With all that said, echoing what everyone
067else has said, Eric is well aware that I did not approve of the behavior during the last school board meeting. And as the president, Eric speaks on behalf of the board. I'm confident that he's learned from this mistake and doesn't take this responsibility lightly. And I believe that this behavior will not be repeated. So I appreciate your apology personally and publicly tonight. but just um a reminder and you know we look at the kids every day and that's what i mean i've been on the board for quite some time now in the last couple years has been the hardest and i feel at times we kind of start to lose sight and it's more about winning and being right than it is about our kids and so please just always keep them in the center
068of all of our thoughts regardless of our differences thank you miss heffernan and i would also echo about the commencement ceremony it was nice to get back to where we could actually hand out diplomas and shake hands and do that thing and Mrs. Dierman got to present her own daughter so that was a pretty pretty awesome thing for her to be able to do I everybody their comments they made tonight were fair and I appreciate the honest comments I appreciate the honest discussions that we that I've had with each each one of you and I and I truly do I mean with my statement what I said tonight I think there was some comments made up as far as us not wanting to hear what certain people say. I think we've done a very good
069job of keeping our public comment period the same procedures. We haven't cut back. We haven't limited topics. We haven't done that. So I think we want to encourage and continue to have people come to the board and make their comments either side or on an issue. That's fine. So we encourage people to continue to do that. And you're welcome to come and speak your thoughts and share your positions on certain issues. So we definitely encourage that. And again, I wasn't able to make the golf outing, but again, from what I heard, just another wonderful job, great job to be for that. So with that being said, I will now, one more thing, I will be on vacation next month, so the meeting won't be in the capable hands of Dr. Friege. So we'll be back
070in August, and with that, I will ask for a motion for adjournment. And I will second that. Motion and second. All in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed? Motion passes. Thank you, everybody.