001i'd like to call to order the brownsburg community school corporation board of trustees regular meeting march 13 2022 please rise for the pledge allegiance to the final states of america and to the republic justice for all a moment of reflection please thank you first we have accommodations wrestling state champions Thank you. We have three state champions. That's a new record for Brownsburg. And as part of our commendation process, we recognize state champions from Brownsburg High School or any level. And so if those three guys could come on up here, please. So for all of you, one of these wrestlers won in the lightest weight class, and one of them won in the heaviest weight class. Which one do you think it was? So it's not much of a secret that I'm a big fan of
002wrestling and they're easy to be fans. It's been fun watching them. So Revan won at 106, Jake won at 120, and Mike won at 285, which is different for old-timers like me. They used to call it heavyweight, so you could weigh anything. Now you actually have to weigh 285. And so this is a great celebration. It's with a little bit of mixed emotion for Blake because he's a senior. and he's going to the University of Iowa next year to represent Brownsburg and play football for them. But it was a fun ride. Jake, I'm going to ask you about your last match. So Jake Russell is a guy who did one state two times before, and so everybody kind of thought that he was going to win, but why don't you just give us a snapshot
003of that match. We went into it with a lot of confidence. I just trusted my coaches. Everybody else thought that I was the underdog for all year with the event. And you did. I mean, I'm going to talk, because you have a real interesting, because you wrestled a guy in the finals. the conference you guys like the finals sectionals the regionals semi-state and state and you've been training with them since i was like four years old yeah so so you know each other really well of course he's from the school down south that we like to be and so how was that different when you're under the light rest of them it's like it just feels like it's the same match over and over again so i feel like i'm used to the match so
004i felt comfortable against him okay and then what's the final sentence three oh all right layton you're Third, third, and then under the lights. The rest of the kid did the fifth the week before. And so just tell me what that was like, finally being under lights. It was a great experience. I passed two third places. I don't think anyone else would have been satisfied, especially as a sophomore in junior year. But it gave me the experience I needed to just end it on the run. Well, much as I hated that when you lost your junior, that ensured you came back and wrestled as a senior because a lot of folks graduate mid-year and I think that's an unfinished business to be one of the things there. So we're all really proud of you and
005Ms. Epperman and Mr. Weldon has some accomplishments. Grounds for Community School Corporation Certificate of Commendation is hereby presented to Jay Taukade for being the IHSAA State GVN Wrestler at the 120 League Class, the second consecutive State GVN. Revin Dickman for being the IHSAA state champion wrestler in the 106 weight class. And Lakin Jones for being the IHSAA state champion wrestler in the heavyweight class, his second consecutive state champion. Or you guys can stay and hang out. Sure, that's what you guys want to do. Thanks, parents, for coming. Brownsburg Education Foundation, Mrs. Dixon. This weekend was the rally for our kids gala and I know several of the administrators were there several board members were there it was a great event and I found out that this afternoon that over $80,000 was raised at that event
006which was fantastic a large amount during the dessert dash but I we my table came out ahead so we were feeling okay about that with hayloft cupcakes the Graduate Walk Bricks Special is through March 17th and graduate walk bricks are available for $10 off and have to be ordered by March 17th to be placed in the ground by graduation. There's also a chip-in for the kids golf outing on June 9th presented by Summers Plumbing, Heating and Cooling and reservations and sponsorship opportunities are available now. And BEF Pioneer Camp will happen again this summer, June 12th through the 15th, June 19th through the 22nd at the Log Cabin Homestead property. And that is for exiting third, fourth, and fifth grade students. Registration will open soon on the BEF website. Thank you. Operations update, Mr. Voigt. All
007right, good evening. Tonight I was going to share quickly some of the information that was shared via Friday notes. There's some updated items in here from when that came out a couple weeks back. But we are beginning a series of projects at Brownsburg High School. Those projects include the renovation of the pool, which is this area right up here. That was opened in 2003, and so it's 20 years old and desperately in need of... Replacing of the filtration equipment and all the finishes inside the pool We're also going to be working on the senior academy which opened up in 2009 It actually is this gray piece here and will be surrounded by additional classrooms and all that I'll get to the classroom numbers in a moment But all that is driving towards a total capacity
008in the building of 4,000 students We'll also be renovating the varsity gym, which is open to 2001 most of that work is really refinishing it. It's not actually making many modifications inside the gym itself. It's mostly, I'll call it paint up, fix up for the most part, replacing bleachers, that kind of thing. And then we are adding a new field house facility that is part of the senior academy addition and it'll fill the space between the varsity gym and the football stadium. We will have a connector for those of you that have been on the board for a while. You remember the push we did last year or last major project of the high school that have hallways that connected all the way through the building. Currently the only way to get to Senior Academy
009is via the first floor and so when we're done with this project on second floor here you'll actually be able to walk all the way through into the main commons and that'll be now the building will be connected on two floors all the way through from north to south. We'll also be relocating the Senior Academy cafeteria and dining room and upgrading that so that it's more closely aligned to what we have in the main building. I mentioned teaching stations before we did the big project in 2017 we had 124 teaching stations currently we have 177 and when we're done with this project we'll have 221 and by the way the difference in the colors the dark areas are the ones that we've already renovated the light gray is the areas that will be renovated as
010part of the project and the green is all the additions For those of you that have experienced our parent pick-up and drop-off line, we know that that is not a pleasant experience at all, and we are working hard to try to get that cleaned up and corrected as part of this project. And so we are actually realigning the parent pick-up and drop-off. It will be on the west side of the building, and the primary entrance will be through the senior academy. We'll likely still have some parents coming to the front of the building, and that has been completely separated from student traffic, which is this purple area. Students will continue to come in off of Bulldog Boulevard and no longer will we have students and parents crossing lines. I won't say who is the worst
011driver, the parents or the kids. I'm not sure which. Depends on the day. All the student parking will be in this area. Again, segregated away from the parent line. We are making use of another connection. This was actually something the town requested the last time we brought a major project of the high school to the town. They wanted more ways of getting traffic onto and off of our property. And so we're making good on that. Our total current capacity is 1,574 marked spaces on the high school campus. And when we're done with this project, we'll be jumping it up to 2,117, give or take a few. We've also, eventually, we're making sure that we have set aside space so that as we continue to expand other facilities on the property, we're leaving room for that,
012whether it's marching band, that kind of thing. This is a special bonus material that you didn't have in your Friday notes. You've heard us talking about the relocation of the ditch. This is an aerial photograph. It's about three weeks ago, three weeks old now, but it's taken really above what used to be the band lot and parking area number one. And what you're seeing moving vertically through that image is the box culvert. They're about a third of the way there. They're holding off until the end of this week, and then over spring break, they will be cutting across. Bulldog Boulevard and then that area will be back up for student traffic when they return from spring recess. So we're continuing to make good progress and that project will wrap up sometime after commencement. This evening...
013Last week last week last meeting we awarded the pool project bids I'm sorry. That's in this board packet. There's starting to run all together for me We are awarding this evening the bids for the pool project and we the scope of that work includes Expanding the tanks that it's 25 yards wide that way they can practice going across the tank and not just be limited to the length of the tank. It'll continue to be 50 meters in length. We're replacing all the pool equipment. Some of you recall that about a month and a half ago we had a pretty catastrophic failure of our filtration equipment and we were lucky to be able to get it back up and running in order to finish out the season. We'll be replacing all the bulkheads, the starting blocks,
014the diving boards, all of that equipment. We'll be replacing and modifying the spectator seating so that we can slightly increase our capacity, but more importantly, it's going to be a lot more comfortable up there in terms of the way that it's configured and how we're handling the HVAC and all that will be. part of a project that will start, the pool will shut down on May the 1st and that will run about 18 months. And then this is the overall project schedule as it sits today. We've already started the ditch relocation here. This is actually a series of individual projects. We've already started the work on the North PE building this past week, tearing that building down. This is the project with the pool and you can see it will start in May of 23
015and finish up at fall break of 24. And then there were additional parts of this project overall project that will come up for bid here in the next several months the senior academy in the field house will be awarded sometime in June is when we're expecting to have those bids come in a Key piece to this is the north student parking lot We're going to be a little tight on parking next fall Particularly because we have to do some work to kind of sequence a way around in a lot of ways This project is very similar to the interior project that we did in 2017 It just has bigger impacts on the outside. And we're still working through all the phasing. There'll be more information that I'll bring to the board here as we get
016a little closer. So I think that's all I have. Thank you. Any questions? State Board of Education survey results. Ms. Murphy. Okay, thank you very much. I'm just going to share some results from a survey that the Department of Education did statewide last year. The survey is called Perceptions of K-12 Education in the State of Indiana, and on the February 1st State Board of Education meeting, they shared these results. The methodology is important with the survey that you know who's taken it and why and how. They did it in partnership with Gallup. and administered it by mail to a little over 3,000 homes with school-aged children. A targeted mailing was supposed to result in a representative sample that provides a statistically accurate picture of the opinions of Indiana parents. That's what they worked with Gallup
017to provide. Respondents provided feedback on students' experience and their own opinions and attitudes about school, and then they weighted based on major subpopulations like age, gender, education level, race, and ethnicity. The results overall, the state board said, the high levels of parent satisfaction with the quality of their child's school as well as the subjects and topics being taught. And if you look at the numbers that says the same, 88% of Indiana parents are satisfied with the quality of their child's school. And then if you break that down into elementary, that's 90%. Go to rural and small town areas, 96%, which I believe we would be counted in. 90% of the people in average or above average household earnings. are satisfied in 84% with less than average household earnings. If you dig a little deeper, the
018satisfaction does not differ significantly between parents of different racial backgrounds, according to the State Board. 78% say their child was on track or ahead in learning for 21 and 22. 81% of households earning more than $52,159 say they are on track. To reference that, the median Brownsburg household income is $93,000 in 2020. So 81% of the households more than 52... thousand and sixty nine percent earning less than fifty two thousand would say their kids are on track. 71% of parents who have a child of color say their kids are on track and 81% of parents who have a white child say their kids are on track. If you look at the curriculum, seven percent of those responding to the survey don't approve of the subjects taught at their child's school. But then when you dig
019into that seven percent, two-thirds of that seven percent say they don't approve or they don't acknowledge that they don't approve, acknowledge that they don't know or Let me say that again. Two-thirds of those who don't approve, acknowledge that they don't know or are unsure what is being taught. So that goes down to 2% of those responding know what is being taught and don't approve what is being taught. Parent concerns, the two ones towards the top were school safety. 47% of lower income parents in micro or metro areas are concerned about school safety and 33% of all parents. 16% of parents say their child is concerned about safety at school. And when you break that down between rural and lower income, those are the numbers there. Post high school education was another concern of parents. 72%
020of parents say that education after high school is available. but 27% think it's affordable. Households making that sweet spot of $52,000 to $85,000 are least likely to say it's affordable, or least likely to agree that it's affordable. And then if you go above $141,000 or less than $27,000, they say it is affordable because they probably can't afford it or they're probably getting some more aid. 32% of parents of juniors say their child is not prepared for life after high school. 53% of parents of seniors say their child is not prepared. 70% say child will enroll in a four or two year university or trade and 15% say child will seek employment and 11% don't know. But I wonder how that differs from what the kids say. But that's what the parents say. So that is
021the end of the IDOE survey and the results presented to the State Board. If you have any questions. Any questions? All right. Thank you. Thanks. Second reading of policies 4000 and 5000, Dr. Jessup. This is the second reading of policies 4000 and 5000. We will have a third reading and approval next month. So any questions of content? First reading of policies 3000 and 8000. Dr. Snap. Curious if you have any questions or things to follow up for the next meeting. Any questions? First reading of 2425 school calendar. Dr. Snap. You have in front of you the calendar for the 24-25 school year. This does reflect the adjustment of starting school a day earlier so we can have the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. It will be a non-student, non-teacher day. This is just the first reading.
022We'll bring that back asking for approval next month. Question? Thank you. Pocket talk demonstration, Mrs. Johnson. Hi there. As you may be aware, our ELL population, or English Language Learner population in Brownsburg has grown substantially over the last couple years. And while we love having those students as part of our Brownsburg family, it does cause a few obstacles that we need to learn to navigate. And one of those, of course, is being how do we best communicate with our students and parents. We can no longer really rely on Contract Now, that translation services, because we need to be able to have that on-the-spot communication with parents when they come in, because that's so important if a kid is in trouble or needs help. to see the nurse or is having academic issues, we need to
023be able to talk to them right away. And so what we did is we investigated different options for how to have that on the spot translation services and we ordered 35 pocket talks that are distributed around the district and they provide us that opportunity. So I'm going to demonstrate. So it's a very simple device that has English and right now I have it going to Spanish because Spanish is our second most popular language spoken in Brownsburg. Right below it is Yoruba and Yoruba can also be translated on this device. Although Yoruba doesn't speak it back out, the parent has to be able to read it on the screen. But let's just say a Spanish speaking individual comes into Brownsburg High School. Hi, welcome to Brownsburg High School. I hear you're ready to register your son.
024How can I help you today? And then I could simply give the device to the parent and they could hit the arrow that goes to Spanish to English and talk in Spanish and it translates it back to me in English. And so again, we can have that on the spot communication without having to rely on a separate individual and scheduling a translation services. This has been already proven to be really successful in our schools. Our front office staff uses this on a regular basis to communicate with parents. I've heard of a principal using it when a Child didn't make the best choice and they needed to communicate about some bad choices the student made, they were able to use this over the phone. And even a student in a classroom using it who was a
025Ukrainian refugee came in and in order to build relationships with students was starting to use it to communicate back and forth with their peers. So it's been a great device to help us just bridge that gap of communication with our ELL students. Any questions? This does 77 languages. Crazy. I believe, well we got a discount because we purchased a certain number, but I believe if you buy one individually it's like $2.69. Relief. That's the biggest thing that I've heard is that they don't have to fumble through a train, like us trying to schedule something that we can just right away have a conversation with a parent. And so I think it's just relief that they can have a conversation in confidence with a school person. And when you use it over the phone, how does
026that work? I think that what I've heard is that the administrator put on speakerphone and so it was just like It was talking. Do they have them kind of spread out among the different schools, or how is that done? Yeah, so we purchased 35, and depending on the school is how many they got. So our athletic departments also received one to use for after-school events, and then the high school, I think, got five. The middle schools got three, so one for each grade level, and then each elementary school got two. And then, of course, our registrar got one here. central office so that all the families that come in and she uses it quite frequently to help navigate that enrollment process with our students. That's great. Thank you. Yeah, thank you. Enrollment growth staffing alignment.
027Dr. Snap. Thank you. So I want to look at four different slides here today looking at our population and that's so appropriate that Mrs. Johnson just did the pocket talk conversation. So this is our enrollment overall enrollment increased by about 43 percent from 2008 to 2023 enrolled by students of color increased 255 percent during that time and so when you look at the light blue that that's white students and then the light green are non-white students and so you can see a significant change begin to see significant change in our population okay john Our ELL students, which we just talked about, you can see it's grown 188% since 2008. One thing that I'd like to point out, a three-week period in January this year, we enrolled 150 new students. 50 of those 150 students, English
028was not their first language. And so this is a number that is rapidly growing when you begin to look at our student population in Brownsburg in a historical perspective. When we look at free and reduced lunch, in 2008 we were at 16% and during my tenure I arrived in 2010. We were one out of five at 20% and then we went to two out of five and now we're right about one-third of our students are on free and reduced lunch. Once again, looking at the transition and our student enrollment. And lastly, also looking at special education, this has not increased as rapidly, but certainly an 86% growth in the number of students requiring special education support since 2008 is pretty significant. And I want to give this report here just so we can begin to
029think about how we align our staff with our changing student population and how we can best meet their needs. And so that's all for the report. Happy to answer any questions on any of those four areas. Question? The Harris Academy, since we're basically being by ourselves now, is that the reason why because of our mass enrollment for special education? The reason why we kind of let Avon go? No, not at all. The reason that we asked Avon to exit was just we're at 3,000 students and we can use all those seats. It didn't have anything to do with the special. populations we have a number of under as we grow when you look at the number of students and an i-learn is one of their is about 46 percent of our students come to us
030able to pass i-learn compared to our pass rate which is about 65 overall and so when sometimes we'll have students move here that are under credit to high school we need those seats that avon was taking and so that's the reason why more more students moving in that are under credited thanks any more questions Comments from patrons. A reminder, you have three minutes, and please state your name and address once you get to the podium. Rob Kendall. Rob Kendall, Brownsburg. I just had a question, a couple questions about the... I don't know, are we calling a director of student learning or a DEI officer? Just hoping in the no doubt robust discussion we have here in a little bit about that, that we could get answered since I know Ms. Heffernan told people during the
031election she was not in favor of the DEI officer and Dr. Snapp told parents just a couple months ago the DEI officer was not returning. The old description, which did not, I guess, make it to the agenda in February, said the Director of Student Learning collaborates with the Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Team to positively address the closing the achievement gap. It doesn't specify for who. Co-leads professional development for the corporation related to increasing student learning and lead staff development specifically in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Now that was the old general description. I noticed under the new general description It has been changed since last month, which says the director of student learning is focused on addressing the achievement gap by collaborating with the curriculum, instruction, and assessment team to review, identify trends,
032and execute data-driven discussions to improve the educational experience of a diverse student population. This individual collaborates with the learning team to develop professional development to increase student learning. So I'm curious why under the old description, diversity, equity, inclusion was removed to this new description. What changes went into that and why the term diversity, equity, inclusion is now under essential functions number seven, integrates best practices into professional development program for certified and support staff focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion. So if we're not bringing back the DEI officer, which I believe Dr. Snapp told the parents at that meeting did not work, and Ms. Heffernan said she did not support bringing back the DEI officer, how is someone who, quote, focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion not a DEI officer? Why was this moved out of
033the general description and down to item number seven on the essential functions? I'd appreciate as we have the, again, no doubt robust discussion on this tonight to determine why that got moved, why the language was moved, what went into that discussion to move that language, and why it was moved down to essential functions and how someone is focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion that is different from the DEI officer we previously had who Dr. Schnapp, I believe, admitted to parents that didn't work out very well. Thank you. Thank you. Can I send items, Dr. Schnapp? Thank you. This time I request approval of the minutes from the three board meetings listed there, special called meetings, approval of claims, and superintendents report, please. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. Questions, comments? All those
034in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Old business. First, I'd like to open a public hearing on amendment to lease Senior Academy Project, Mr. Hacker. Thank you very much. So tonight we bring to you again this was we approved the form of the amendment to the lease at the February 27th special business meeting and tonight we have the hearing on that amendment to the lease. Since the school corporation is funding the senior academy project that has been shared in multiple board meetings including information tonight from Mr. Voigt we're financing that or using the project through lease financing. as has been done with many other of our past projects essentially that we have done the past several years and use across the state of Indiana in order to borrow for renovation
035and construction for those projects and so the building the senior academy itself is currently subject to a financing lease therefore we are amending that lease to ensure that we can increase the lease rental due from the school corporation which would be sufficient enough to pay the principal and interest due to our bond holders and so this amendment to the lease adjusts the current lease to ensure that with this new addition and renovation that we're able to make those payments. And so again, the lease tonight, just to ensure that answer any questions you might have and ensure that it is fair and reasonable. Open it up for any questions or comments at this time. Any questions from the public? No questions. Any questions from the board? All right. I'd like to close the public hearing. So
036recommendation to approve resolution authorizing execution of amendment to lease Senior Academy project, Mr. Hacker. Absolutely. So after the hearing, I'm asking for your approval of the amendment to that particular lease that allow us to make the bond payments for the project with the Senior Academy renovation and addition. Ask for approval at this time. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Recommendation to approve resolution assigning construction bids and contracts. Senior Senator, Mr. Hacker. Sure. This resolution allows school corporation to receive bids and contracts associated with the construction of the senior academy and then award those bids to the building corporation. Again, the building corporation is the name on the lease, and therefore we will have to
037put it in their name, but the school corporation ultimately pays the payments using the proceeds from the bond. And so asking for your approval for that resolution at this time. Do we have a motion? Do we have a second? Second. Any questions, comments? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Recommendation to approve resolution approving 15th supplement to master continuing disclosure undertaking. Mr. Hacker. Sure. This resolution is required by the Security and Exchange Commission, the SEC. The resolution that we approve any time that we have a project and basically a agreement between the school corporation and the SEC that we will provide timely financial information. And Dr. Frije, I believe that is quarterly. We do that quarterly as considered timely, including providing all the information such as
038Form 9 and stuff on a biannual basis. So asking for your approval for that. So moved at this time. Any questions, comments? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Recommendation to approve resolution approving Jules settlement, Mr. Hacker. Thank you. So if we go back a ways, I believe we asked the board to enter into this national class action settlement against Juul. And so Brownsburg Corporation did in fact do that with your approval. And are excited today to say that there was a settlement and Brownsburg Community Corporation is going to be awarded $142,184 for participation in that class action lawsuit. There will be some legal fees taken from that $142,000, but we're anticipating we'll come away with about $100,000, again, to help pay for things like our vape
039sensors and things that the school corporation have really put in place to try to address the vaping issues and things. And Juul just happens to be one of those companies. And so for us to accept that settlement amount, we need your approval. And that's what this resolution is designed to do in asking for that approval at this time. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. Questions, comments? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign? Motion passes. Second reading and argument. Second reading and recommendation to approve student handbooks. Dr. Jessup. Thank you. This is the second reading for the handbooks. I do want to draw your attention to the additional request for the elementary that we put something in the section on transportation regarding parents needing to call the office and
040not leave messages for teachers and voicemails. So I ask for approval of the handbooks at this time. Do we have a motion? Second. Question and comment? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Third reading and recommendation to approve policies 1000 and 2000 is Dr. Jessup. I think that would be me. And this is the first batch from start to finish. Just a reminder that these will be implemented for the 23-24 school year. That's approval, please. Do we have a motion? Second. Second. All those in favor signify it with saying aye. Aye. Opposing sign? Motion passes. New business. Recommendation to approve construction contracts. Mr. Boyd. This evening we are recommending six individual contracts for two projects, the 2023 Campus Paving Repair Project and the 2023 Brownsburg High School Pool
041Renovations. All of these bids were received and opened on March 2nd in compliance with the Indiana Public Works statutes, and all include the material, equipment, and labor necessary to complete the work within the reside and bid package. As noted in the March 3rd Friday notes and again in tonight's board packet background information, two additional projects were bid on March 2nd. No bids were received for the 310 Stadium Drive project. Three bids were received for the 2023 E-rate purchases. And we are recommending the rejection of all proposals for the E-rate project due to a variety of issues with those bids. Both of these projects are being re-bid at this time and will be brought back to the Board for approval at the April 10th Board meeting. As required, the consultants associated with each of these projects
042have reviewed the bids and provided the recommendations being submitted to the Board this evening. All the bids recommended this evening are the lowest responsive. and responsible bidder, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Any questions? Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Recommendation to approve school assignment of Bell Arbor, Section 5. Dr. Jessup. Yes, I would like to ask for approval of Bell Arbor, Section 5, to go to Cardinal Elementary West Middle School. This is the fifth section of this neighborhood. This neighborhood is one that has been redistricted, and so we want the new section to go where the rest of the neighborhood is going to be redistricted. The good news is the new homes will not be finished until
043the school year starts. So they'll just be scooped with the other kids when the redistricting happens. So I ask for approval at this time. So moved. Second. Any questions, comments? All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Recommendation to approve Director of Learning position, Dr. Snap. Thank you. I want to kind of go through a little history here, if you'll indulge me, kind of a historical perspective. So back in January of 2007, these are all from the board minutes at that time. One of the goals, continuously improve student achievement. The third was to commit to respectful, caring, and empathetic behavior from all staff, parents, and community members. The number of diversity hires was increased and will continue to increase in order to reflect the population representative BCSC
044demographics. At that same meeting, Mr. Murphy, a board member, requested additional information on diversity. The current certified, at that time called classified staff, we refer to them as support staff now. The following month they were working on their goals commit to respectful caring and empathetic behavior from staff students parents and community members diversity and staff recruitment diversity training for staff members creation of new marketing tools specifically for minority hires including the creation of a new community outreach liaison position all Directly quoted from the board minutes at that time On April the 23rd, they approved the full-time community liaison position. And then again in April, Mrs. Armstrong, who was a board member at that time, led board members in an extensive discussion of the board goals for 2007-8 and reviewed metrics for each goal. Emphasis was
045placed on higher standards for performance, increased communication with stakeholders, and diversity. The next month in May at that board meeting, the objective was to promote a climate that supports equity and diversity among students and stakeholders. The number of minority staff will increase by 5% in each of the next five years. By the end of this, the 2009-2010 school year, all faculty and staff will complete the corporation's diversity training program that needed to be established. In June 25th of 2007, Tony Bell, who was hired as the community outreach liaison, addressed the board regarding various initiatives taken to assist new students and families in becoming acquainted with the educational system in Brownsburg. He stated that the influx of new families has brought a diverse set of thoughts and backgrounds to the community. August of 2008, Mrs. Armstrong
046thanked the administration for their conscientious effort to hire a strong yet diverse staff. And then the following March, Mr. Murphy, a board member as well, stated that the forum on diversity held at Reagan Elementary School on March 19th provided good information and was well attended. Mrs. Corbin noted that approximately 100 guests were in attendance. During the 2009-2010 school year, the coordinator of... I'm sorry, that should be the community liaison position was eliminated with other positions due to the budget cuts. And from 2009 to about 2011, over $6 million was cut from the budget. So that position that was created, excuse me, and that should stay community liaison. In February of 2021, the coordinator of equity and diversity position was approved. In May, the individual was hired. And through May, the... of 2021 through the present
047we have ongoing staff equity trainings in june of 2022 the coordinator of equity and diversity resigned at that point in time i was very clear to the board who requested and very publicly that the position is purposely not filled to review the goals of the position and what would do the best for our students and tonight the director of student learning position is being recommended based on findings over the past year job responsibilities are reflected in the job description So when we begin to look at the gaps in student learning, if we look at the, these are the four areas that we showed the greatest growth in population. We can see that there's a gap between special education, general education students, whether you look in math over the last couple years of over 40%, in
048English it was over half a year ago. We look at the English language learners, which is a rapidly growing group, you see it's about a 33% passing percentage. free and reduced lunch about 27 percent down to 22 percent and then we look at students of color versus their white counterparts a gap of about 20 percent so we can see that there is a significant learning gap that needs to be addressed and that's why we're moving towards this recommendation of position of director of student learning but i want to go back historically because i think it's important to talk about this so on the left is the job description of the coordinator of equity and diversity from 2021 but this is on the right is the community outreach liaison position that you can see there highlighted
049in kind of a key that we'll do on this one in the next one yellow are the same or very very similar on both job descriptions and so you can see the position that was recommended and approved back way back in 2007 has far more issues dealing with diversity than we even saw in that position in 2021. The blue are similar yet distinctively different and then the purple are same both identical and we don't see any there those are basically routine items. There was a question if we could go to the next one John. This is side-by-side coordinator of equity and diversity versus a director of student learning. I think there was a comment from a patron about that it was changed. It was not changed. We had a draft form. A draft is just
050that. that we get feedback on we continue to develop it and work on it and then we come up with what we're finally recommending this doesn't we didn't recommend anything in February because it was a draft form for review and feedback which we got as we looked at that so if we look at the position that was hired in 2021 there are two areas that are same integrates best practice and professional development deal with certified and support staff focus on equity diversity inclusion The blue deals with recruitment of a diverse staff. That's on both. And then the purple is just about on every job description at this cabinet level with the superintendent and then advises the superintendent and corporation on effective strategies to achieve the goals. That's very similar. So there has been at least
051some conversation about what's different. between what we recommended in 2021 and what we're recommending tonight. I think by looking at that side by side, the essential functions, you could say, yes, there's one thing out of seven and out of ten. that are the same. No doubt about it that the wording's right there. Any reasonable person could say, yeah, there's one thing there. There's another one that deals with recruiting that it's very similar. I think a reasonable person could say that's pretty similar. And then those purple things, like I said, are just routine items there. So what we've done when we had the coordinator of equity and diversity, we looked at the things that were accomplished and areas where we needed to accomplish more. And that vacancy gave us almost a year to reflect and look
052and strengthen that. We can see by the data, whether we look at the first four slides that I show tonight where we have a rapidly growing student population in distinctive areas or how that translates to gaps in student learning, that we need someone who is focused on student learning. We believe, based on what we've experienced in the past year looking at this, that the director of student learning position addresses that very carefully. So at this time, recommend approval of the Director of Student Learning position. Do I have a motion? Do I have a second? Second. Questions, comments? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Aye. Motion passes. Superintendent comments. All right. We've been doing a lot of conversation about the calendar. And just when you thought we had had
053all the conversation, We have a very total eclipse on August the 8th, 2024. April, April, thank you. April the 8th, which happens to be the Monday after our scheduled spring break. Right now we know at least four of the county schools are planning to take that day off. We are seeing more and more schools take that off. Why is that a big deal? Because this basically happens once every 800 years. And we are in the ban of the eclipse that's going to be darkest right through here. I jokingly said, if you want to see dark, just wait six hours. It's going to get dark. But that would defeat the whole purpose of being around an eclipse. The issue is also, it's at 3 o'clock, which is dismissal time, traffic issues, and we're told by people
054that follow such things that we can expect a lot of traffic here. So, I'm not asking for any action tonight. I'm asking you to... Dust off your science notes. We can do, these are the things that we thought of. We could do nothing. We could just go ahead and have school that day. I think we're going to be, if it's at 3 o'clock, that's about the time we're dismissing the high school. Our middle school kids will be on the bus. It will get dark for a period of time. I think traffic would be questionable at that point in time. Elementary kids are going to be in school. Recommendation B, students and staff could return to school on Monday, January 8th. Typically the Monday following winter break is a professional development day. This year it happened
055so late, a little bit later than normal, we could bring everybody back on January the 8th and then on April the 8th, count that as the professional development day and basically for our students would extend spring break an extra day. Recommendation C, we could cross our fingers and hope for no more than one snow day. waive that day that is not a recommendation I'll make although this was supposed to be the harshest winter in history it did not turn out to be that way maybe they got it a year too early and maybe that will be next year I would like to hold those days for our high achievement that we could waive in case we need them and not bank on that and then I'm also open to review other recommendations and can come
056back to you in April with more information but This seems to be something that's trending to not have school and students on the 8th and just see if you had any thoughts. Is there a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? You want to promote educational experience. It's a good thing for school, right? Yes. Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity if you live to be 800. I don't know about you guys, but I don't plan to be alive in the next 800 years. Jim, what did you do at the last one? You guys are on my team. Don't laugh at me. I do have one concern about asking staff to come back without a staff day at the end of a break. I think that that's a tough thing to do as an educator to walk into a classroom with or ask them to
057use their break time to prepare for school. I like that we build in a staff day. So that's something that I would like to at least consider as we make a decision on this. Okay. And this is relatively new. We've not had the conversation with our support staff advisory or with the teachers group yet. We'll be happy to do that and get some feedback from them. Typically that day back is about a half day of professional development in the morning, and then they have a half day to work in their room. And we would intend to kind of follow that same format then, but I do understand coming back after a two-week winter break might be a challenge. All right. Be thinking about that. If you have thoughts, I'd be anxious to hear them. And
058that's all I have. Thank you. Board member comments. Mrs. Dixon. I have two thoughts today. One, I was doing a little bit of looking about the wrestlers, and it looks like we're the only one of two school corporations that had multiple wrestlers that were part of the state champion. team, which is pretty cool. So it's nice to see the athletics continue to be top notch. Also, I do appreciate staff and administration continuing to look for solutions for students. The pocket talk is one option for that, and I think the director of student learning position is also evident of that as well. Mr. Wells? No comment other than have a great spring break. Dr. Freedy? First off, that pocket device was fascinating. I would think every school ought to have one of those. Thank you for
059sharing that. Just a reminder to our students and staff to stay safe this spring break and hope you enjoy your time off. And congrats to all of our student athletes and their recent successes. I mean, of course, I did vote against that one thing tonight at the very end, but that's due to a variety of reasons. I wouldn't have very great detail on other work sessions. There's no reason for you guys to worry at that point now. So have a great spring break. Mr. Hilton? I just want to say a special thanks to Renee Barron from the Brownsburg Education Foundation. It was a fantastic event. Magala, she does wonderful, and everybody, too, that helped make that possible. I know it takes a lot of people and a lot of businesses and all of the community.
060I think that was one of the largest ones they've had. And as far as fundraising, plus it was just a great event. I'm glad to be able to participate in that. So a special thank you to Renee. Yes, congratulations to the wrestlers. And it was interesting during the last campaign, probably one of the things I was asked the most was, are we going to get more translators? Because it's so hard for kids coming in to register, and it was a struggle for their parents, and just the confidence in the parents coming in and being able to do that. So I think that's a really great solution that you've come across. So thank you, Mrs. Johnson. And just have a great spring break. And I appreciate your time, comments, and joining us tonight. Motion to adjourn?
061So moved. Second? Second. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposing sign? Motion passes.