001Oh, yeah. That's the money right there. It's not the people, it's not the power, it's the technology. I didn't think that, I don't know, I forgot about seeing him because, and then my toddler, when we got there, I had him dressed in a long sleeve shirt and sweatpants. And so I'm like, I'm like, yeah, he has like drenching sweat on him. Sorry, kid. I wanted to say, Sam said, you're going to get one curse for more than a week. And I'm going to get that one. So that's what I'm going to do. That's a challenge. I do. So after Ryan's call, oh, Luke's call is 18. After they work on it. So you said, I will not because the other parents are on that day. Maybe she said it. I'm sorry. I didn't see Jesse.
002I just saw him. Now, they did a little mixer on Thursday night, which I did not know. I saw the last one. Thank you. I'd like to call to order the Brownsburg Community School Corporation Board of Trustees regular meeting May 12, 2025. Please join and stand with me for 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. Thank you. Would you mind joining me for a moment of silence? Thank you. Communications, middle school related arts schedule. Mr. Repay and Mrs. Cochran. Cochran, the principal at West Middle School. Andrew Repay, principal at East Middle School. And we're here tonight to talk with you about our middle school schedule for next
003year anticipated. So over the last several years we've been really looking at the overall effectiveness of the middle school schedule with students changing and us trying to meet them at varying levels of support. We developed a schedule with our teacher leaders as well as support from the corporation leadership team to create a schedule that would really enhance academic opportunities for students as well as add more structured breaks throughout the school day. With that, that eliminates our current purple and white schedule. So students right now have a related arts or an elective course every other day and this allows them for them to have two every single day and that really kind of increases their ability to have structured breaks as well as kind of allowing us to meet their needs and look at the whole
004child. So this is a more narrowed focus of what that schedule would look like next year. So you can see the scheduled breaks with the two related arts courses for each grade level. And really everything else stays the same. The core content classes are slightly shorter, but again allowing for those structured movement breaks throughout the day. What will maintain the same, which we feel very passionate about, is that seek intervention and enrichment period in the morning, which we do feel like is our greatest leverage point with our student success. And so what that creates is currently when teachers have their prep time, that is during the related arts period. And so currently that is for every team only one a day. Now when we're going to have two related arts period a day, then we
005ask ourselves, okay, what productivity is happening for the teachers during that time? So this is a sample of what that will look like going into next year. So you'll see that for essentially Monday through Friday, something is set. We have the regular prep time, but then also what's called team time, PLC, and then seek. And so essentially those supports are times where the teachers will have time to actually collaborate with one another during the school day. That will allow everybody to be on the same page, not just within each building, but then also across between both buildings. So one thing that Ms. Cochran and I feel passionate about too is making sure that our students between East and West have a more similar to identical experience moving forward. So you'll notice even under the PLC
006time that at least even once a month that the PLCs will even Zoom together with support from the secondary department heads as well. They're essentially sandwiched between for the team time, the SEEK PLC and the PLC that's our academic support, and the team support is really all about behaviors that the teams can work together to support kids. So, I have a question. Good. On Wednesday, does that mean no longer have a shorter period of dismissal? So we'll still dismiss at 2.05, but the core now related arts will still stay 45 minutes, five days a week, but the core content classes will be adjusted for Wednesday. Okay. Any other questions? Thank you both. Thank you guys. Brandsburg Education Foundation report, Dr. Dixon. Thank you. Chip in for the kids golf outing. Presented by Summers Plumbing, Heating,
007and Cooling. It's Friday, June 13th at West Chase Golf Club. Contact the BEF office for sponsorship opportunities or individual team registration. And you can register online. Scholarships. Seniors were presented with scholarships on April 24th. BEF awarded $84,000 to the BHS class of 2025. 27 of these scholarships are on behalf of the BCSC employees because of payroll deduction contributions. Thank you so much. Grants. The BEF grant committee met to award over $90,000 in classroom and corporation-wide grants for the 25-26 school year. Announcements about grant recipients will be made soon, as well as the 2024 grant chosen as the innovative grant of the year. Operations update, Mr. Hacker. Thank you very much. So this evening, kind of taking a focus still within construction, a little bit more of a narrow focus within construction, and that is the
008Senior Academy Cafeteria. So if we think back to when we opened up the main building cafeteria in 2020, obviously that was substantial program change with the new cafeteria really moving from the south end to more of the central location, much more of an open environment, lots of different types of meal options, really some fresh cooking taking place right there on the line, and just much more healthier. very, I won't recall, just trying to increase participation from our students because we know again that when students are eating throughout the day and eating healthy meals, that's going to have an impact on education. So we wanted to carry that forward into the senior academy cafeteria. And so these are renderings that look like, I promise you it's not this far done, but the renderings look so real.
009But this is kind of the first take, or really the final draft, when we talk about graphics of what the Senior Academy, like the serving lines and such, will look like down in the new portion of construction. And so very similar options that you'll see as far as food availability that we have in the main building. But the theme of this, especially for the being right next to the field house and a little bit more surrounding with the... You kind of other athletic events and things kind of want to do a garage type feel more like that you would experience there out down on Mass Ave and so we saw the pizza cutter is right there on the left and That would be kind of a you'll see the pizza oven right there. So we're
010cooking right there on the line Very very fresh hot excellent pizza. I might say the nutrition services does an amazing job You'll see the hot spot which is more of a kind of traditional lunch that you would find down in the main building as well And the Varsity Club, more of just kind of sandwiches and things. The goal would perhaps that could be a spot where if you're having an event in the Fieldhouse that you can also open that place up. That way we can have, again, more of the Varsity Club feel with food and accessibility. And then there on the right is Simply Greens, the salad bar and such. And right across the way there, that would be just a cooler for all the drinks and things that's kind of built within the Senior
011Academy cafeteria. So again, lots of fresh, hot options for our, again, there would be some seniors and juniors, it won't just be seniors, but very similar food types that'll be offered down here. A little bit different look to it and such, maybe different names of each of the locations with very similar looks, so they're a similar type of food. That way our students are getting similar experiences. You'll see the mobile stations here that as kids as they finish up getting all their food they'll just head on out and then have a seat there in the main cafeteria. A new feature of the new building will be the Market Central. This is located, it's kind of more of a grab-and-go option. It is just right before you get to the Senior Academy Commons area and just
012before you get to the serving lines. But this is going to be open, not necessarily all day long, still kind of figuring that out, but certainly in the morning, available during lunch, and then we would like it available after school. And so this is kind of like the quick grab and go, maybe some cold options, I would say much like a Wawa perhaps, or Buc-ee's that you can go and grab something quick. We say those because people think those are nicer gas stations, right? But again, the cooler's here in place, drinks, we'll have some fresh produce available, we'll have the coffee shop here. Again, we have the coffee shop down in the main building as well, so very similar features in the Senior Academy. A goal of this location as we continue to work with
013Hendrix Regional, I know we have the partnership we'll approve later this evening, is really new nutrition for athletes as well. So our goal is to have this open after school for some of our athletes who, you know, if you've got an early lunch at 1130 and then you're going to practice and you did or may or not brought a snack or if you have a competition, sometimes those kids are going off in time very late into the evening without another opportunity to eat. So working with athletics and working with nutritionists. perhaps with HRH and our nutrition services department. Our goal here long term is to have some options available for our athletes or those staying after school that might need that extra boost in nutrition. That way we are, again, thinking of the whole child.
014Nutrition is certainly an important part of that. So again, this is kind of unique to the Senior Academy area, but this is a little bit farther south. So again, as students, especially the drop-off for all student drivers, it's going to be a little bit close to where if you enter as a drop-off location or as you're walking through as a driver, you're going to walk right past this. And again, Senior Academy, we don't have doors there to keep the underclassmen out. This will be accessible during those times for all of our students. So again, just something extra that we're looking forward to offering our students. And last but not least, still landing the plane here on the graphics, but right now we feel like this is kind of what the Senior Academy cafeteria, the common
015space that we think, as far as where your bearings go, the field house would be over here on the left. The serving lines I just showed you are around the right. Market Central is actually going to be right in this hallway here on the other side of this line. But again, a nice, clean space, very consistent feel with what you'll see in the main building cafeteria. And again, this view from up top, a nice big kind of bulldog wall has a little bit of a backlit purple glow to it as we see a lot of pictures in front of the bulldog that's down in the main building as well. So trying to offer a photograph option for folks that might be having banquets or participating in events in the field house. So when they come
016out here, they're going to know they're in Brownsburg. Just very excited. I would say Jordan Ryan has worked extremely hard on all this. Her mind is just outstanding, and she casts a great vision. And again, just very excited for the opportunities we're going to have to offer our students here at Brownsburg. Happy to answer any questions you might have. Any questions? Looks like there's empty space in the middle. What am I seeing? Like right here? So those are the trash cans and tray return areas. So again, more like what we'll call a food court perhaps. Instead of a little bit more long and narrow, instead of taking it up to a window, we've got carts and such that sit there. They'll dump the trays in the trash cans, stack the tray on a cart, and
017then we can just quickly rotate those carts and trays out as we take them back to wash and prepare for the next round of kids. And three lunches here, the same three lunch times that are in the main building will be... in the senior academy very consistent schedule thank you all right finance update mr hacker this one will take a little longer so um one of our goals here as we move ahead in 2025 there's been certainly a lot of changes and adjustments with legislation lots of um you know a lot of things in the news media and such and so our goal here is to provide just a little extra information at our board meetings and upcoming to kind of talk and just be a little more transparent open about what's going on and
018the impacts that some of that legislation has on us here just a couple weeks ago we had the this really isn't related to new legislation but have there is a legislative impact but the DLGF, Indian Department of Local Government and Finance, just released the 2025 Circuit Breaker Report. And it's great that they released this in April. We really probably needed it back about six months ago before we approved the budget. But they get all that to us now, so these are actuals. And so prior to kind of getting into the report and the numbers, I want to kind of share, just remind folks what Circuit Breaker actually is. So Circuit Breaker is related to tax caps. And the circuit breaker essentially will be the uncollected tax dollars due to the tax caps that are set
019in place. Again, homeowners only pay up to 1% of the gross assessed value of their home. And what that means, if your assessed value comes back at $300,000 for your home, then the total tax liability that you will pay is $3,000, right? The 1% of that. However, the tax rate is applied to the net assessed value, and oftentimes that tax rate applied to the net assessed value, especially in Brownsburg where the median price is over $300,000 of our homes, will typically exceed that 1% option. So, again, this is purely hypothetical, but for instance, if the $300,000 home after we apply the tax rate, perhaps that comes out to $4,000. But state law says you're only going to pay $3,000. So that difference, that $1,000 difference, ultimately is the circuit breaker. And that difference is essentially
020split up between all the taxing units, between the town and the schools and the library, by percentage of what our tax rate is. That is split up between all tax units and is considered the circuit breaker credit or tax cap loss. And that doesn't sound like a lot, right? In that instance, maybe $1,000, but there are 15,000 homesteads. in Brownsburg. And so with the majority of those homes being at or above the tax cap, that does create some substantial circuit breaker credit again or tax cap loss that Brownsburg schools deal with. We also have a very high residential tax base and data would suggest that these types of communities see a higher circuit breaker credit. And again, those uncollected tax dollars are unfortunately only applied towards the operations fund. unless a school qualifies to implement
021the protected taxes waiver and I'll get a little bit into that here in a second. So you can see below there since 2021 what our circuit breaker credits have been. Again, this is tax cap loss or revenue that is removed from the property tax levy that hits our operations fund. We've gone since 4.6 million in 2021 to this most recent report that came out at $9 million. And so, again, that's money that's essentially taken. We levy for a certain amount. That money is removed, and Brownsburg's operations fund gets the remaining balance of that. So, operations fund, why is that important? Well, I know I've shared this slide many times, but if we just focus right here on the ops fund. The operations fund is people, including custodial maintenance, bus drivers, mechanics, a lot of the
022central office staff, or really any employee that's role is directly tied to the operation of a school district. We have to pay for utilities, property casualty insurance, transportation, general maintenance throughout the district, as well as plenty of custodial maintenance, bus supplies, and such. And these are very consistent expenses for all schools, right? All schools have to deal with this. But when you have more students and more buildings, obviously the expenses are a little bit higher for larger districts such as Brownsburg. Those numbers typically increase with students, facilities, and staff. The property tax dollars that you receive again come in form the our tax rate they pop that that's revenue for the operations fund and debt service fund But as as we just talked about the circuit breaker credit again that only applies to the operations
023fund because The debt service fund is protected right we have to pay our debt So any money that's designated to pay debt has to be paid out of the operations fund and so operations certainly a big part of we've got a lot of buildings to take care of and is a big part of what we do so some previous legislation impacting operations fund this is really back in 2023 but but it's again playing a factor in how we're moving forward financially which is why i wanted to bring this back so in 2023 house bill 1454 unfortunately removed brownsburg's community school corporation's ability to utilize that protected taxes waiver And so what that means is the protected taxes waiver, which is right there on the bottom, allowed us to essentially transfer dollars from debt service into
024the operations fund because we qualified or had such a high circuit breaker loss. So this wasn't additional revenue that we had to levy for. This is essentially a transfer of money from debt service into the operations fund. Essentially utilizing any cash balance that we had, we would ship that over. For Brownsburg schools, that was about $3.5 million that we were moving from debt into ops. Again, that wasn't impacting the tax rate. It wasn't extra money that we were levying for. It was simply just utilizing the dollars that were already in debt service and moving them to ops. Unfortunately, again, House Bill 1454 took that our ability to move that away starting in 2024 and beyond. So again, what used to be a little bit of a balance between debt and ops for us now only
025hits the operations fund. And I've shared this slide with you before. And so the impact of 1454 from legislation, that is an impact to revenue. Because essentially if we are unable to transfer money now from debt into ops, that was purely revenue that we were able to use for the operations fund. And so what you'll see here is up top, I just kept it simple, waiver yes or waiver no. So when we were, and really the net ops levy here is the number that we need to pay attention to. The Ops Fund levy at the top, that's really considered a max levy, and that, by state statute, is the maximum amount of dollars that we can levy for. That's provided with a formula. So that's not us saying we need $14.6 million. That's the state
026saying this is what you can levy for. And that increases a little bit each year. So what used to be, when we implemented the protected taxes waiver of $14 million, we have a little bit of circuit breaker loss, not the full extent. And so you'll see the net levy here at $12.4 million. We levied for 16.2, lost 3.1, ended up with 13, and then in 2024, 25, you can see and so on. This was what the projections were based on our financial team of how much revenue we were going to bring in in our operations fund. Well, after House Bill 1454, we were unable to implement that waiver. So therefore, we now have that full amount. So instead of 3.1, circuit breaker hit. In 2024, 6.8. And so instead of what we thought we'd get
027is $13.4 million in net revenue in the operations fund from property taxes, ended up only being $9.9 million. So when we look at that over the course of the next several years, again, that's money that we can no longer transfer from debt service into ops. That's just pure loss of revenue. And over the next seven years, that total was about a little over $24 million. And these were based on some projections and things that may not be exact, but I can tell you that it was about $3.5 million that we were transferring, and that is very, very accurate as far as the number that we were going to lose in the operations fund. That was a big deal for us, right? That's a significant impact, especially when we're not losing buildings, we're not transporting fewer
028kids, utilities are not going down in cost, and property casualty insurance is not going down in cost. Also, we've got to think about raises for all the staff and things, and so that is a substantial impact to the way that we operate. So, does that just hit Brownsburg? Let's take a look at some comparisons. What I did is pulled information from, really got to give Corey Ebert a lot of credit here in helping me with this information. There's a lot of numbers on this page, and I'm asking you to stay with me. What you'll find here is the schools from our HCC conference. Avon, Brownsburg, Zionsville, Hamlet, Southeastern, Noblesville, and Westfield. These are all districts that I think that a lot of folks would associate ourselves with, right? Similar size, similar suburban type schools. You
029know, we would compete oftentimes for staff. And so which is the reason that we selected these for the comparisons. What we've done here is, again, for each school district, you'll see a total tax rate. You'll see the certified levy, which is the total amount of property taxes that the schools are asking for. What the total circuit breaker credit is, so the amount of money that we're taking away from the levy. And then the net levy. And then in order for us to have any sort of quantifiable number here, We have this per ADM or per student number that really is the only thing that we can be consistent on when talking about how far can this money go for us. So again, quickly, you can see here that as far as, and I'll reference this
030slide a few times, of all the schools on this list, actually Brownsburg asks the community for the least amount of property tax dollars. That's important to know, even though we are not the smallest school corporation on this list. We've got Zionsville, we're very similar to Noblesville, we're bigger than Westfield right now. Avon's a little bit bigger, and HSE obviously is a big district with two major high schools. And you again, you think 10,503. We've also thrown our pre-K kids into this number because we still have to provide utilities and transportation and things for our preschool. Okay, so you can see here Brownsburg. This is for 2025. We levied for a total between debt and ops for $62 million all over that. That $9 million circuit breaker. So we're left with $53 million total that were
031split between debt service and operations. And then you can see here as far as this number right here is the dollar amount per student that we now have available out of the operations fund only to provide all the services that I was just talking about. And so I find this to be very fascinating is when we take a look at that number right there alone, just the operations number across all these districts, here's what we end up with. These are by schools. So Avon, just looking at the operations levy after Circuit Breaker, about $1,200 per student. Brownsburg, just over $800. We've got $1,400 at Westfield, $1,700 at Hamilton Southeastern, $1,200 at Noblesville, and again over $1,400 at, excuse me, that was Zionsville, this is Westfield. Get my greens mixed up. And so obviously we are
032at a disadvantage right now when we talk about again how we're transporting students, the utilities, property insurance, the ability to pay bus drivers and our maintenance folks, our mechanics. We are already starting with far fewer dollars per student that we can go for to provide those services. Prior to if we were still able to implement the protected taxes waiver, That would bring us to just over $1,100. So we think back to up through 2023, we were pretty happy with that number. I mean, it wasn't perfect. We knew that we were still not quite as high as some of our other peers, but that certainly was a dollar amount that we could live with when it came to the amount of revenue that we have per student in order to provide and maintain our facilities. But
033unfortunately, that's not the whole story. Because, you'll see up here, there's also, there's Referendum 1 or Referendum 2. Referendum 1 means that is an operating referendum that a district might have. Referendum 2 would be a capital referendum or construction referendum. And so, when we look at some of these schools, which I believe, we are the only school on, I promise I didn't do this on purpose, this is the HCC schools. We are the only district that does not have a referendum. So, our total levy here only goes to debt and ops. So you'll see Avon has an operating referendum, Zionsville has an operating referendum, and a capital referendum. Same with HSE, same with Noblesville, same with Westfield. So the extra dollars from a referendum they're using to help with their operations fund, that can go
034to the education fund as well, and also then construction for the capital referendum. So if we just look at the operating referendum and did the same... Kind of add those up together between operations and the referendum It's a substantial difference of what these schools are able to offer their students When we look at this number So when you add in an operating referendum at Avon, they're looking at just about $2,500 per student after the referendum and including the operations fund. Again, Brownsburg does not have a referendum, so we're here. You've got Zinesville, HSE, Knowlesville, and Westfield. And so substantial difference when it comes to the amount of revenue that's available for the operations fund. And so a little bit more, and again, just to be completely transparent, as I've looked at this, part of me
035understands why, when we think about some legislation, that I feel like they are pushing schools towards referendum a little bit here. They're putting a lot of barriers in place for schools, and especially with property tax reform. And what I found is very, very fascinating because one question you might ask is when we look at the total circuit breaker loss, Brownsburg's 9 million, Avon 6, Zionsville 1, HSE 4, Noblesville 5, Westfield 8. And we are the largest, we are hit the hardest with circuit breaker. Okay, you might be wondering why. Well, some of that has to do with the tax base, right? If we had a community with a large 3% tax base, they're obviously able to generate a lot more revenue. That has an increase in their assessed valuation, and a higher assessed valuation means
036you can lower your tax rate, generate the same amount of money, and you're not going to have as much of a tax or circuit breaker credit. But here's where I really want, this has been kind of a learning experience for me as well that I wanted to share. So our debt rate is by far the largest on the board here. Now our tax rate, again, has dropped, but when you look at the debt rate specifically, we are at $1.05. Avon is $0.96. Zionsville is $0.70. HSC, $0.50. Noblesville, I think it's $0.46 or $0.48. And Westfield at $0.68. And so one might have to ask. These are all growing districts. They've all been building buildings. What's the difference? Well, the difference there, quite honestly, is that they have wrapped up the funds to pay for all
037of their buildings in the capital referendum. And so Avon does not have a capital referendum. That's why theirs is a little higher than anyone else's as well. But they have the operating referendum, so that does help. They keep their debt service a little bit low. And so what's happening is when schools for a long time have implemented the referendum, they've been able to keep their debt service and operations fund just a little bit lower. And those are the two rates that ultimately impact circuit breaker. And so while I'm not suggesting and upset that we don't have a referendum, I'm just giving the information as to why you might see a difference here in that total circuit breaker loss that Brownsburg has to endure. So we have wrapped up all of our construction to deal with
038growth into the debt service fund. And that's obviously we set payments up for 20 years and we've been able to lower the tax rate because our assessed value has been growing. But overall, we've had to keep our debt service rate a little higher in order to build all of our facilities. Whereas the referendum with our peers has been able to keep their debt service down, which then lowers their circuit breaker, which then gives them more money per student in the operations fund. And so it's a little bit of a fall-down approach there, and one that we've managed very well for a long time. So why am I saying all this now? Because ultimately, when we think about the two major funds and the revenue sources here, our education fund and operations fund. And we spent
039a lot of time talking about the OPS fund. But as a reminder, that the revenue here in the operations fund with property taxes minus circuit breaker, which we've talked a lot about, we have the miscellaneous revenue that comes in. That would be our use of facilities, transportation charges for ECAs, things like that. But also that transfer from the education to operations fund. And so the state says a maximum of 15% of revenue from the education fund, that's as maximum we can transfer. And so we've really worked on trying to lower that transfer because the goal, again, how do we keep as much money in the education fund for educational programming, for raises for staff, and that helps everybody. But unfortunately, because now that we are unable to implement the protected taxes waiver, and because of
040the high circuit breaker loss, and we'll have a little bit more of that with some of the Senate Bill 1 stuff, that we now have to take a look at this transfer between the Education Fund and the Operations Fund. So increases that we might see here in revenue in the education fund, we also have to look and say, well, in order for us to keep the lights on in our buildings and maintain them, we do have to look at increasing this transfer. And we're starting that right now. Our plan is to increase the transfer this year of about $1.5 million. But as Dr. Jessup is making decisions on staffing and who we're hiring and how many years of experience and what raises that we have available, all that are things that will be impacted moving
041forward based on some of this information so again this is just purely information and it could be a change in our budget moving forward as far as looking at revenue and the transfer from the education operations fund we have to continue to look at increasing this and i just want to make sure that everyone's on the same page as to why so i will stop there and answer any questions But I will say that next month in June, I really want to focus a little bit more on Senate Bill 1, which is the property tax reform. And we'll talk about changes in homestead deductions, supplemental credits, and tax rate implications. But as to right now, I felt like this was enough. We can keep that for June, try to focus on one topic right now,
042but certainly want to open it up for questions you might have. One question I have is based off of the referendums from the other schools. Sure. I mean... Those are just short-term fixes based off the community, correct? So the flow to whatever their current levels they want to be at, it doesn't do any long-term fixes for them, correct? It's a long-term fix if they can continue to renew that every seven years. And so now what will be a little bit different, so for instance, I believe Avon's is up for expiration renewal in 27. This year legislation adjusted where referendum can only take place in even. general election year. So it will be in 26 or 28 November elections. So I believe they're they got a decision to make. Are they going to go in 2025
043and try to throw the renewal on early or will they wait till 26? But they can no longer do it after, you know, in 27 or 29. We have to make decisions on 26, 28, 30 and so on and so forth. But yeah, I wish I could say that schools use this to catch up and then they back down. But for the most part, and we could say that maybe we all do this as we begin to live within our means and the amount of revenue that we're bringing in. And I believe that schools certainly do that. I know that if Avon doesn't renew, that we've heard Dr. Windham say that about 150 teachers, they may have to look at cutting. That's some tough decisions, but also some, you know, as you can see that
044we're lacking very... As far as dollars that we have available to do all the things we need to do that does become a little bit harder. So using Avon's example, I think I see a .2 of my business rate in terms of referendum. So .24 is their referendum tax rate. If that was hypothetically implemented at Brownsburg, how much would that add per person? Would that be like $240? That's a really good question that I am not prepared to answer in this moment right now because that has to do with that we have to take a look at the assessed valuation and multiply that. And so what I can tell you is that number is out anybody, if you're at the tax cap, you'll still pay that referendum tax. So that everyone essentially pays that. On
045top of for ops and debt service, you're only paying up to 1% of your homestead. And then the referendum would be above that. And you're going to pay the full amount. Which is why there's a little bit of certain, I think it's like over 65. Circuit credit or circuit breaker credits and things that are applied across the board But when you see that Avon referendum their levy for 13 million and they get 13 million That's because everyone's paying that amount. It's not impacted by circuit breaker Absolutely I've got a question. Sure the when you're talking about House bill 1454 There was nothing prior to that that looked anything like this. So the plans that were in place that kind of set the course for how we managed things. You mentioned we were on a positive
046track, but there wasn't sort of that disparity prior to that happening. We were all kind of more consistent with our waivers. That's correct. Totally agree. And that kind of shows, that's why I wanted to show this. When we were able to use, before 1454, and we were able to utilize the protected taxes waiver, this kind of shows that we were somewhat consistent. It's not perfect, but we were able to operate within this and still. give great raises and still upkeep our facilities and such in a way that everyone has become to expect. And the goal is still to do that. I mean, we are taking a look, I promise you, at taking a hard look at all of our expenses to ensure that we don't lose expectations here. And so that's a lot of work
047yet to be done. But yeah, as I think I've mentioned this, it's really feeling like they changed the rules of the game in the middle of the game. So this wasn't a preventable situation because we were completely unaware. It was not. And so this was signed, I believe if I go back to the slide here, it was signed in law May 4, 2023 with effective date of July 1, 2023. And so the caveat there was that school districts could still. implement the protected taxes waiver if you qualified if you did not issue in any additional debt. And so that which really eliminated us right off the bat because we were in the middle of this construction project. And so this was signed kind of last minute. That would certainly be in May 4th. That's the
048last day of the session at that particular year. But we were already under contract with all of our construction bids of the construction stuff that's currently going on. And so for us to stop, that means we were going to default. We were still going to owe those dollars and we'd have had a site undeveloped and at a construction project. halfway through so we really didn't have the choice so when we approved the project and all the things that are going on that you currently see that was again under the the um we were going to do that without an increase in tax rate and the ability to continue to meet the needs of the operations fund we're going to implement the protected taxes waiver and then the 1454 came in place. So that was right
049in, like I said, really in the middle of the game for us. So we really didn't have the option to try to keep this, unfortunately. Thank you. Yep. Any other questions? Brownsburg has ran so lean for so long and done a great job managing finances that it really has been a perfect storm and you know it's my thought and I'm sure I don't want to speak for everybody but you know keeping in mind like our original goals for our students and what we're here to do and retaining top talent and you know maintaining our you know status as one of the top school systems in the district I mean it's going to make us take a hard look at that. and really to continue to manage what we have. I mean, with Avon looking to
050lay off 150 teachers, I know that we'll get to the point where if we don't do something, that will come to, or could possibly come to, if something doesn't change, something we have to look at. And I know class sizes are important to us. Sending kids off prepared is important to us, and providing the best education is important to us. So really, I just want to continue to keep... in mind like what are our main goals of the school system and how we have to look at that absolutely and so we're i promise you're working hard back here to um at all possibilities and and again in july when we talk about education revenue you know what are we 16th highest on the list and you know dollars per student now you can see we're
051very very low in the state especially with this operations fund and so we've done a really nice job of doing the absolute most with with far fewer dollars than others and we're very very proud of that And we really want to keep those expectations. So I promise you we're looking into every avenue that we can to keep things moving forward for us. Thank you. Yep, thank you. All right, comments from patrons? Seeing as we have none, consent items? Dr. Dressen. Thank you. Looking for approval of minutes of the April 14th business meeting, April 28th executive session, approval of claims, and the superintendent's report. Motion to approve. Second. All those in favor, say the word aye. Aye. Opposing, sign. Motion passes. Mrs. Heffernan, if I may, with that approval, we just approved Kristen Sargent as the
052Harris program lead. So she will take over leadership of Harris Academy for the 25-26 school year. So we're super excited for Kristen to assume that role. Thank you. Old business. No business new business recommendation to authorize approval to advertise for disposition of real property. Mr hacker. Thank you very much. So, if you recall a couple of years ago, back in 2022, we purchased the homes on grand street 527 and 601. And what we've been able to do with that is my own agent and corresponding contractors have been able to utilize those spaces that allowed us to eliminate the. construction trailers on the site where the current multipurpose field is being built. They should start rolling turf out any day now, by the way. And so, but with the, as we bring a close to this
053project, they are looking to vacate those homes. Unfortunately, they'll have to mobilize kind of across the street at Peatmore Drive. They can no longer stay in that. That decision really saved us a little over $98,000 in construction costs since we weren't paying to rent the trailer. And again, that savings passed right along to Brownsburg Community School Corporation. And so very, very thankful that we had that opportunity. And since we are done with those two homes, really, again, to be good financial stewards, we don't want to knock those homes down and just have vacant lots there on Grant Street. If you like now, since we are done with it, we'd like to sell. In order to do that, we need, obviously, your approval to authorize the sale. We will accept bids for those two particular homes.
054And while we will still have the ability to refuse any bids, they would come in and, you know, we can set a minimum threshold. We'll work with appraisers on that to do that. But the goal is that sometime in July that we were able to close on that and give it to the highest bidder. So if you happen to answer any questions you might have in that process, but asking for approval to authorize the sale of those properties at this time. Do you have a motion? So moved. Second. Question, comments? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Opposing sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Recommendation to approve meal prices. Mr. Hacker. So in the board packet you'll find the current school year and proposed school year for next year 25-26 for nutrition services. This includes
055breakfast K-12 and then the K-5 lunch, grade 6-12 lunch. And so it is a proposed difference of about 15 cents for breakfast and a quarter at each of the lunches. And again, that is simply due to additional costs that nutrition service is taking on with supplies and such. So I'm asking for approval of those increases for next year at this time. Second. Questions, comments? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposing sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Recommendation to award construction contracts, Mr. Hacker. Thank you. Again, I just want to start out by saying that any of the construction contracts that we're being asked to award tonight, the reason why we're doing it now is, again, these are directly related. This is not a new project. And, again, these projects are not impacting or
056have an increase on our tax rate. It's something that we've already approved several years ago, I guess a couple years ago now. It feels like forever, to be honest with you. But I think in 2023, we approve these projects. And so the reason why we're just now coming to you now with the contracts is because we knew the work from a scope and sequence standpoint would not start until this upcoming summer. So we wanted to wait in order to make sure that we had the appropriate pricing and such. Sometimes contractors will inflate prices. if they feel like it's going to be too far out and in order to protect themselves so again this isn't anything new but it was time for us to go out to bids with with these and so you'll see here
057this is for the continued interior refurbishment of the brownsburg high school and asking for approval to award the construction contracts this time they did come in right at budget so we're very thankful in that Questions, comments? All those in favor signify saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Recommendation to approve master affiliation agreement by and between Hendrix Regional Health, including the nursing management and supplemental staffing services agreement, sponsorship agreement, and sports medicine agreement. Mr. Hacker. Very good. So a copy of these are also in the board packet as well. Essentially, this continues and renews the... sponsorship agreement and partnership with Hendrix Regional Health. And so we really started that in 2026. It's really not up to expire, or excuse me, 2016. It's not set to expire until 26, but we
058wanted to go ahead and get ourselves going with those negotiations. And we're very pleased with the current services and sponsorship agreement that is taking place. It's a true partnership. It really is. And not only do they provide naming rights and things to the stadium, and includes $105,000 sponsorship agreement. They also provide the... the athletic trainers at both East and West and the high school and as well as the nursing partnership. So they provide us with a health services supervisor that manages our nursing staff at the schools. And so in just an outstanding partnership, couldn't be more thrilled to extend that for an additional 10 years. And that additional 10 years will start in 27. So it's not 10 years from now, but at the 10 years of the conclusion of the current contract. So really
059this secures the HRH partnership through 2036. Asking for your approval to to sign those at this time second questions comments All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Recommendation to approve new novels for the 25-26 school year. Dr. Jessup. Thank you. At this time, I would ask for the approval of four novels, one at fourth grade, one at sixth, sixth grade high ability, and one at eighth grade high ability. These books were selected by our fourth grade teachers and our secondary English teachers. Each book, once we decide that we want to add it, we do have a parent review the book one parent for every teacher who's recommending the book so we received all of those in i will say that one of the books that we
060are replacing is a book that we had concerns about every year and so we took that one off of our list and added a different one and some of the parents who had raise concerns with us were the same parents that we asked to review the new books. So rather than we wanted to make sure that we had the connection with that group of parents. So I feel good about these books and ask for approval at this time. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. Questions, comments? All those in favor signify saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Superintendent comments. Dr. Chester. It was a good week, good weekend for the Bulldogs. Our academic Super Bowl team, our band, our orchestra, and our choirs all performed in fantastic ways and
061did great things. So we're super excited about our students' performance this weekend and then certainly also wishing everybody a strong finish to the end of the 24-25 school year. Four comments. I just want to take a moment. I had the pleasure of going to the... teachers of the year, support staff of the year, recognition ceremony. That was really entertaining, but also a very positive experience, and I really appreciated that. I want to thank Mr. Hacker. You do such a nice job presenting all that information. I really like the construction updates much better than the finance updates. Yes, sir. They're a much more fun gift. And that's really it. I also had the opportunity to go with Gordon to attend the Teacher of the Year and Support Staff of the Year banquet, which was fantastic. I
062think it's really interesting the number of nurses that were nominated for Support Staff of the Year by their peers in the buildings, and three of them in the buildings, which is amazing, and their administrators had great things to say. But to see the HRH contract and knowing that that partnership allows us to with the financial situation have some of the best people and they really are some of the best people. In the same vein, I think we have to take an opportunity to thank Renee Behrens and all of her hard work with BEF because to see the amount of money that is raised for grants that go directly back into the classrooms, it's so necessary, especially with the legislative situation and cuts. And in addition to that, the donations from all of the The payroll
063deductions that people are willing to do, that the staff is willing to do, to put back into the classrooms for scholarships as well. I know that means a lot to Brownsburg families. So those are the positive numbers to kind of offset some of the craziness that we see sometimes that's out of our control. And it's nice to see the community, Brownsburg school community and Brownsburg community community, impacted in a positive way by choice. And I did have the opportunity to also attend some of the music programs this weekend, and that was something that was really fantastic and uplifting to see. And once again, another weekend of Bulldogs representing Brownsburg very well at the state level. I know we still have, what, two weeks left of school? After two and a half weeks, three weeks left
064of school? So, opening up in the cart before the horse. But, Mr. Hacker, great job all school year with the construction updates. I'm not going to say I wish I was going back to school, but I'm excited for everything that's going to come next year to high school. I hope if the pick-and-go place in the senior academy is as good as Bucky and Wawa, you may get students who never want to leave out of there. great job this whole school year from an athletic standpoint academic standpoint the music programs it was a very strong year for for the bulldogs dr jessa miss lippy miss hacker great first year together without the interim title on your names you guys did an excellent job this school year again Don't blame me. We hope nothing happens over the
065next couple weeks. But I know this is our last official board meeting before the end of the school year, so I just want to publicly thank all three of you for the job you've done this school year. As always, I echo what has been down here. Just looking forward to seeing all our graduates walk in May, and all the students keep up the good fight for a couple more weeks. Yeah, I'd like to echo everything as well. And, you know, it has been an awesome school year. And we have a great administration team and just super proud of where we are. And, you know, going back to my comments earlier, you know, we were dealing with a lot of things that are outside of our control. And you guys are doing, I know, the best
066that you can with the situations that we have. And we're fortunate that we do have a community, to your point, that cares so much about our students and our teachers and our schools. And we'll do what it takes to, you know, continue to provide education to our kids in the schools that we. are proud to have in Brownsburg. All right. I have a motion to adjourn. So moved. Second? All those in favor signify aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Meeting adjourned. You don't know a smile or frown, do you? Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. It's just built up.