001I'd like to call to order the Brownsburg Community School Corporation Board of Trustees regular meeting October 6, 2025. Please stand and join 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. Please join me for a moment of reflection. Thank you. Communications, Brownsburg Education Foundation report. Dr. Dixon. Thank you. Designer Purse Bingo was presented by Adelsberger Orthodontics on Thursday, October 2nd. Thanks to everyone who helped or attended and helped raise over $18,000 that evening to benefit the student and teachers in our community. The Log Cabin Homestead Community Event took place this past Saturday, October 4th. Many BCSC families and community members attended this free event at BEF hosted
002for the seventh year. Participants saw what all third graders experienced during the month of September, and they enjoyed pioneer games, toy making, and other activities and live music. Save the date. BEF Rally for Our Kids Gala is Friday, March 13th. The 2026 theme is Saddle Up Soiree, so dust off your boots and polish your pearls. This is a night where western charm meets evening elegance. Early bird whole table reservations will be available from December 1st through the 15th. Anyone interested in helping plan this year's gala, please contact the BEF office and volunteers are always welcome. Thank you. Operations and Finance Update, Mr. Hacker. Thank you very much. So this evening a few different items here But we'll start up our start off on just some follow up on some recent events So some things that
003happened over the weekend and even today just provide some quick updates. So Great news here that I could say that if anything I'm sharing here, nobody was injured or hurt. But in case you heard some things on chatter or just had some calls. But yesterday on Sunday, we did have, unfortunately, a car miss the turn here. This is Bulldog Way, just between East Middle School, Reagan and Lincoln. Popped through the fence here into the retention pond. Again, the kids that were driving that particular vehicle got out safely. Nobody was injured. But that does kind of, when you... when that something like that happens leaves a little bit of a liability here especially with the retention pond on school property and so it did we just want to update that this is that same fence today
004that bcst maintenance staff it is temp fencing just got some chain link it's not the black a permanent fence here but it is at least secure at this point in time and so as the um the crews got the car out and got everything clear our crews were able to get in and get that all wrapped up tied it up we will have a permanent Fix in place here soon also working through insurance and things like that associated with that particular vehicle So in case you happen here anything or see that want to make sure and just cover that this evening As well as something today at the high school so we did have the the fire alarm go off at the high school today and so that was part of the interior refurbished project
005going on a contractor hit fire suppression sprinkler system with a forklift Causing a fire alarm to go off due to the water suppression system being in place. So with that happening, the students and staff evacuated. Luckily this was today and not tomorrow. Tomorrow we do have the PSAT at Brownsburg High School going on. So not that we want this to happen, but if we had to pick a day, today was better than tomorrow. Contractor provided the remediation. We got the water cleaned up right away. We had folks on site quickly. We'll be moving the supply lines. That was actually part of the project is to move those. They were not supposed to be there in the first place as part of the project, so we'll get those moved. And fire alarm. The other good news
006is today's alarm can count for the October fire drill. So again, I guess try to see the positives where you can here. We don't have to have another fire alarm since we evacuated the building for October as of today. But again, all this was cleaned up for the most part. If that's the worst thing that happens, we'll consider today a great day here at Brownsburg High School. Any questions on, again, just a couple things that might have been thrown your way, I want to make sure and provide updates on those. Perfect. Switching over here, I want to kind of give some props to Mr. Ebert here. We've talked a little bit about the budget committee that's going on since May. We've really talked about the legislative impacts for the BCSC budget. And as we looked
007ahead to 2026, kind of looking at some cuts there, upwards of about $3 million for 2026. Mr. Ebert has led two meetings up to this point with the budget committee that is formed of 14 teachers. We have a couple directors on that, two cafe managers, three transportation facility services team members. We have three support staff from central office members on that, one building treasurer and one behaviorist. So a nice overall coming up. just lots of different employee groups represented. Corey's done quite a bit of educating on what's going on with legislative session, much of the same information you've heard here at the board meeting, and then began to have some decisions and some ideas. And I really wanted to touch base on that because one of the things that we've really began to look at,
008and this was a lot of the information shared last week, last Tuesday, I believe, the 30th was the last meeting. Just kind of look at some of the operations adjustments that have taken place here in Brownsburg that we've currently started and also planning on doing here in the future to assist with those budget cuts and trying to communicate with the budget committee and give them some decision-making powers. But a couple of things we've done here recently with staffing in the operation is we take a look at positions at this point. Any position that comes available, we're not automatically just filling. We're making sure we ask those questions. Is that can we do any sort of consolidating with that particular position? Is there responsibilities that can be shared or shifted around? And so you can see
009here that we have done that on a few instances. So we've consolidated a maintenance and custodial position at Harrison Alpha. Since that is much more of a smaller building, we didn't really feel the need that we needed two of those positions at the district. So we have combined those, kind of what we call a super custodian, essentially, where they are not only... cleaning the building but they're also taking care of the preventative maintenance as well as any of the tickets that take place and so instead of having that second position that is about a forty seven thousand dollar savings we right now have not replaced with hiring hold on positions at Brown and Crossroads and so again that would be about a sixty four thousand dollar savings for those two spots We had an additional
010maintenance person leave for a different opportunity. And again, we have not. That's in our energy management section of operations. We have not replaced that. We've just shifted his responsibilities to the other two individuals in that particular department. Again, about just under a $50,000 savings. And while this isn't necessarily savings, because it was... Not necessarily part of the budget do want to recognize that we have shifted responsibilities at the custodial level We've moved some folks from the elementary and middle school around especially as opening up 330,000 square feet at the new space of high schools We've added seven custodial team members of the high school, but did not add seven members All those have just been shifted around and so had we not move those folks around that it about an ad of 225 thousand dollars
011for those seven positions and so again, that's not actual savings, but it is Again, as we try to look across the entire board of how do we make an impact on the budget and wanted to make sure we shared that. As far as contract adjustments within operations, we've eliminated the number of mows with our Brightview contract and are looking at mulching every other year. We do that. It's about a $63,000 savings on the annual contract. We have the geese police pest control. We are looking at a different opportunity or another server there. We're just combining that with some of our other pest control into the contract. But by eliminating that particular contract, that's about $30,000 savings in 2026. And then we've done a custodial. paper product reduction. I mean everyone still has total paper if
012they need it, I promise you. However, we are switching companies and with that a little bit different type of paper product and that switching to that company is a $70,000 savings for the upcoming year and so that process has already been in place. The other thing we're looking at is energy management. So 2025 electricity, now some of this has to do with opening up new square footage there at the high school, but electricity on pace for a 28% increase just on the utility bill as we look where we're at from 2024 through 2025. Now some of that can be usage, but oftentimes that is also just anticipated with the increase of the rate as well. And so right now we are expecting that 2026 rates for for electricity, Duke energy to increase about 11%. And
013so in order to try to mitigate some of that increase in the in the rate, we're looking at our usage, our energy consumption and really lighting and HVAC are two biggest users of electricity in the district. So we have made some adjustments up to this point looking for more. Again, this is one of those specific areas that we walk through with the budget committee and had them help us with with this decision. But we have upgraded HVAC systems across the district for efficiency. That's been a process that's been ongoing the last several years and will continue for the next couple. We have upgraded LED lighting in both interior and exterior, and we have the sensors as well as we can adjust that. So, like for instance, the parking lot in a high school on a
014normal day is only about 15%, but we crank that up to 100% on the night of a football game because we know that we have events and things, and so we are trying to just manage that effectively. We've upgraded to more efficient copy machines throughout the district. And one of the things that comes with the student laptops, if you think, you know, it doesn't feel like it's that big of a deal, but laptops are now being charged at home versus in the building. And we've actually eliminated the number of computer labs we used to have. So we think about the number of machines that were plugged in and such as well. And we continue to participate in the energy curtailment rebate program. We have done that several years now through Hendrix Power, but Duke is
015also now offering that. And so we don't know exactly what that rebate will be for us. That adjusts every single year, but that is money back. as for participating in those programs. But these are the things we're going to look to do in the future. We've piloted this at Brown and Whitelich, I believe, up to this point. But as the budget committee said, we'd like to move forward with this district wide. So we have the temperature controls right now. Set temp points are at 70 degrees in really most spaces. We have kind of varied that as far as the band from 68 to 72 degrees, meaning that a room can get up to 72 degrees or if it goes over 72 degrees that is when the chiller will kick in to cool that room back
016to 70 or if it in the winter months if that room gets to below 68 then then we'll have the furnace kick in, boilers and stuff will kick in in order to get that back up to again to 70. Quite honestly, the gas is not, the usage is not as high as the electricity. So we're going to keep the set point band at 68 to not have rooms any colder. We feel like that, especially if we don't need kids wearing gloves as far as to learn. But we are going to increase, especially in the summer months, which is typically when it's not 80 degrees still in October, is usually fewer months of impact. But we are increasing that range to 74 degrees instead of 72. We are also taking a look at occupied versus unoccupied
017times. Occupied is essentially when the building is in use. Unoccupied time is typically at night. We have always had this in place, but again, we are looking at adjusting those times. So at the high school, we are looking at turning the building on unoccupied now at 9 p.m. And that is through 5 a.m. And you'll see here that up until this point, it used to be at 11 p.m. So we're increasing that by about two hours. And that's about what we're doing across the board. Middle school and central office will be at set from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m. Unoccupied elementary early childhood center. Harris Alpha will be at 6 to 5 a.m. Again, that's about three hours worth of savings. The lighting schedule will also adjust. but we will have emergency lighting stay on
018in common areas so again it won't be completely dark but just try to manage that more effectively but in case we have events going on such as the play the musical board meeting those types of things the event schedules will override that so ensuring that if as long as people are in the building then the occupied mode will remain on but will shut off whenever that the the event space is no longer in use. So again, those are items that we are looking at moving forward with and the budget committee was all about. And the reason why they were all about it is because just by doing this, we think they anticipated savings will be somewhere in the $200,000 range. And that is essentially just looking at, especially in the unoccupied times, is when we
019look at the usage over the time of unoccupied versus occupied and add that two hours based on the rate working with our energy management team. and Duke Energy and Energy Harness. We've had a few folks in to kind of help do some audits. That's the number that they come up with. And they've been pretty close on those things as far as some of the LED lighting, the switches. They've been very, very close to what we anticipate with savings. So this is a really, really nice number for us and looking forward to moving. seeing those savings in place. As anything, those savings are typically based on the rates that are currently in place. So as the rates go up, that savings goes down, but it is savings because we are still, it's the usage that we
020can control, unfortunately not the rates. So I've got one more item here on enrollment, but prior to moving to that, any questions on some of the financial savings here within operations? Perfect. And the last thing today is last week, October 1st, is the fall enrollment count day for all schools, not just Brownsburg, across the state. And what you'll see here, I've compared last year's enrollment, 24-25, to this year's enrollment. Now, the 25-26 number, what I say is this is still what we call unverified, meaning that we've submitted it, but the state hasn't necessarily verified it. We haven't signed off on it, but this is our preliminary numbers from internal power school and such. And so you can see here, if we just look at the aggregate, last year we were 10,250. This year, 10,374, a
021growth of about 124 students. When we think back to the demographic study that we shared last winter, 2025, the anticipated enrollment was 10,362 for us from Dr. McKibbin's study, which would have been within 12 students. And so I think we've considered that a pretty good estimate on where we're at. Again, we did open up enrollment here out of district and a few grades, more so this year than we had in the past, and so that could also account for maybe some of those differences, but I think any time we're within 12 students, we'll consider that highly accurate. The other thing I wanted to point out is some of the demographic information that was shared is still in place, meaning that we are not growing in the K-5 area. So, again, for a myriad of reasons,
022especially with houses and interest rates and things primarily and birth rates, we are not seeing the replacement of the kindergarten number with the senior class. So, again, last year's senior class was a little over 800. We bring in a kindergarten class at 637. So we're already starting, you know, a little over 170-ish students behind the eight ball. So for us to grow 124 means we are growing. that 163 plus the additional 124. So we are seeing the growth of middle school, growth of that high school. And so again, the other thing that I want to show and share is that again, it's not just that people aren't deciding to move from Brownsburg because this comparison of the difference is kindergarten last year to kindergarten this year, first grade, first grade. But when we track the
023class, again, from kindergarten to first grade, 635 to 660, that's an increase. 688 to 720, 758 to 773, 57 to 78. So again, people are still moving to Brownsburg because of the school corporation and the great academics that our reputation has in place. And so people still want to move here to Brownsburg, but it's really, we're not growing at the rate we are a lot, just based on those kindergarten numbers at this point in time. So I'm happy to answer any other questions you might have, but that is the operations update for this evening. Thank you. Any questions? Second reading on policy 4305. Ms. Lippe. Yes, I am presenting policy 4305 as second read, and I'm happy to answer any questions. Questions? Comments from patrons. We have one, Amy Huang. Please just state your name
024and address, and you have three minutes to share. Amy Huang, 1579 Red Sunset, Brownsburg. Good evening members of the board. As a teacher and representative of my colleagues, I want to thank you for your support during this bargaining process. The tentative agreement before you is a good one, and we believe it reflects the best possible outcome given the current circumstances. That said, I also want to acknowledge the reality we are facing. Due to limited state funding, this agreement does not include an increase to teachers' base pay. This is not for a lack of effort. Our bargaining team always negotiates responsibly within the funds available. Unfortunately, this year's budget simply does not allow for one. We recognize that this agreement still falls short of the compensation that BCSC teachers truly deserve. Our educators remain deeply committed
025to their students and community. We hope that in future years, the state will provide funding levels that more accurately reflect the value of that work. Thank you. Consent items. Dr. Tessa. Thank you. At this time, I ask for the approval of consent items, which include the approval of minutes from September 9th public and business meeting, September 22nd executive session, approval of claims, and the superintendent's report. Do you have a motion? So moved. Questions, comments? All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Old business, third reading and recommendation to approve policies 2600, 4410, 5372, 6110. Ms. Lippe. Thank you. And as you just stated, I present to you the third reading and recommendation to approve those following policies, 2600, 4410, 5372, and 6110. And I'm also happy to
026answer any questions. Is there a motion? Second. Second. Questions, comments? All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Recommendation to adopt the 26 budget, 26-2030 bus replacement, the 26-28 capital asset plan. Mr. Hacker. Good. Thank you so much. So back in September, we had the hearing on the 2026 budget. Tonight, we come to you with the recommendation to adopt the budget, the bus replacement plan, and the capital assets plan, as stated. in the hearing and asking for your approval at this time. So moved. Second. Questions, comments? All those in favor signify saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Recommendation to authorize 2026 budget adjustment. Mr. Hacker. Thank you. So this is a resolution that is recommended or actually required by the Department of Local
027Government and Finance. And so the reason this is in place is because the budget submitted will go through a review process by our budget rep. And then they will issue us what's called a 1782, which is ultimately the final review that the school corporation will have the ability to review and make any adjustments to the budget. because we um hendrix county never gets assessed evaluation to us prior to having to submit the um the forms in gateway but there is an adjustment that has to be made to ensure that tax rate goals and things are put in place and so this resolution allows me and mr ebert to make any of those adjustments without an additional board meeting and so asking for your approval to make those adjustments during the 1782 process at this time
028Second. Questions, comments? All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. New business recommendation to approve centennial of Brownsburg neighborhood placement. Ms. Lippe. Yes, we'd like to recommend to the board to approve the school assignment of Centennial of Brownsburg to White Lick Elementary, Brownsburg West Middle School, and Brownsburg High School. And that is based on current student enrollment, number of available classrooms, and transportation patterns. Do we have a motion? Questions, comments? All those in favor, signify saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. Motion passes. Thank you. Superhero comments. Yes, thank you. As we head into these last few school days before fall break, I certainly want to acknowledge all of the things that happened this week, whether it is the start of the postseason for many of
029our high school athletic teams, whether it is fine arts concerts after fine arts concerts or competitions over the weekends. We also have parent-teacher conference on Wednesday and Thursday evening for our staff. and our parents and those are all just a nice way to wrap up the first quarter of the school year. It is hard to believe that last Friday was the end of the first nine weeks. Today was the first day of quarter two, which is crazy and hard to believe how fast the school year is going. I'd also like to recognize that on Saturday, the class of 85 and the class of 95 came to Brownsburg High School and had a tour. And it was very fun to listen to them reminisce about all of the things, all of their experiences. And what was,
030you know, as I think about acknowledging the fine arts and the athletics, when they were talking, those were the things they talked about are the things that connect our kids to school and make them love school and want to come each and every day. And so it was great to take them around and show them what Brownsburg High School looks like now. our high school is almost exactly three times the size student population as it was in 95. So they were much smaller then than we are now. So that's why I have. Thank you. Board member comments. I'd like to wish all our fall sports teams good luck as they head into tournament play. And I'd like to thank Mr. Hacker, Mr. Ebert, and the finance committee for all the work you guys have done.
031That was really good to see and the numbers that you put together there. And we're looking forward to closing the gap even further here soon. I want to echo Mr. Hayward. It seems like every meeting, Mr. Hacker and Mr. Ebert are finding a few more dollars here and a few more dollars there. And it's appreciated. And I know that that's not the fun part of the job. But it's definitely noticed in the budget committee. That's hard work. Also want to thank Ms. Huang for her work on the... with the teachers union and our administrative team to make sure that we have a teacher contract that moves forward and Hope that the teachers do understand that they are appreciated and they're the magic that really makes Brownsburg Community Schools what they are Excuse me. I can't
032believe that the school year has gone by this quick, even though my kids think it's been dragging on. But hopefully everybody has a great and safe fall break. Good luck to all the athletic teams as they get ready for the sectional playoffs. Dr. Jessup, thanks for reminding me that it is my 30-year anniversary from graduating from high school, even though my graduating class was 75 students. But no, and I'm just going to echo what Mr. Hayward and Dr. Dixon said. Shane, Mr. Ebert, and the entire finance team. Great job keeping us up to date on everything. It has been very informational. Learning things, I'm continuing to learn, and I think it's good for the community also to see what's going on and how all of you are trying to do what's best and trying to
033save money. I know you guys are probably all having nightmares of numbers, but please continue to do great work. As always, I echo everything that came down that way. Hats off to the theater presentation that happened over this weekend. They did a fantastic job. And if you get to see maybe a replay of that somehow, you ought to. It was fantastic. And again, everybody to be really safe on fall break and be careful. It's always the hardest one last, isn't it, Matt? Yeah. I have not, it's not been 35 years now since I've graduated, or in my, since I've graduated, so that makes me feel good. But thank you, Mrs. Long, for everything that you've done with the contract process. So, appreciate you. And the admin staff who have worked hard to make sure that
034that was a smooth process. Mr. Hacker, for all that you guys are doing with the Finance Committee. Amazing and hard work that has been not going, isn't going unnoticed by all of us. So, we appreciate it. Other than that, have a happy fall break and go all of our sports teams. And that's it. Do we have a motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All those in favor say the same thing. Aye. Meeting adjourned.