001Order the Brownsburg Community School Corporation Board of School Trustees regular meeting. Please join me in, stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please join me in a moment of reflection. Thank you. Communications, commendation, Allstate Band and Allstate Band Honor Band. Ms. Murphy. Thank you very much. I have three illustrious guests this evening that we would like to call up first. Jonathan Hayquist, sophomore trombone player. Oh, not there, bud. Turn around. He has been selected to the Allstate Honors Band, which is the top-level Allstate Band. Kirsten Earnhardt Jr., who plays the trumpet, has also been selected for the All-State Band. And if you
002remember, Kirsten was here a couple of months ago because she's also in the All-State Orchestra. Do you play trumpet in the orchestra, too? Okay, just want to make sure. Up next, Elliot Smith, saxophone, a senior, also All-State Band. Okay, so one at a time, I want you to tell me who is here with you. My dad, Mark, and my mom, Kirsten. My mom, Gwendolyn Earnhardt. My mom, Monica, and my dad, Scott. All right, thanks so much, guys, for being here, and thank you, parents, for all the time that you spend with them and to get them to their quests and all the things that they're doing. So, Jonathan, that's a big deal because you're just a sophomore, and someone just mentioned to me you're the first chair in the All-State Honor Band, so you're the
003number one trombone in the state. Yeah. That's a pretty big deal. That's a pretty big deal. So you're also I also asked him what do you like? Do you like the band? Do you like the marching band? Do you like the concert band the pet band and you said I just like playing trombone If there's time to play it, I'll play it So but he does like marching and had a solo in the big show this year If you could design the show for next year's marching band, do you have a big concept of what you might do? I don't have an overall concept, but what would be cool is some of the DCI shows, the higher level marching bands, start out with a big hit. Like they just start out there and they go
004for it, and then they slowly down and do all the fancy stuff before they build it back up. I think it would be cool to start big like that. And the solos would be all? Trombone. Okay, just thought I'd check. All right, Kirsten, all-state trumpet. There's also the drum major for the marching band also. Yes, ma'am. So when you took all this bunch of people to the Rose Bowl parade, I know you didn't take them, but you went, did you have some extra responsibilities as a drum major? Yes, ma'am. We did a lot of things behind the scene that people wouldn't think of, like taking care of people, and if they forgot a glove, then I would give them one of my extra gloves I had in my uniform bag. And then we helped out
005the directors if they needed to. So you're an all-state trumpet player and the drum major. Do you have as much time to play your trumpet as you would normally? Because you're not. You're up there directing. Yeah, I don't have a lot of time, but when I do, I last semester was in fifth period freshman band, and I was TAing for Mr. Catholic and Mr. Rausch. And the times when I wasn't needed, I was practicing up in a practice room doing all the all-state auditions, and we've had it since. mid-October, so it was also during the season, so we've been working on it for a while. Awesome, well congratulations to you. Elliot Smith, saxophone for Allstate band, but what other instruments do you play, Elliot? Piccolo, flute, oboe, clarinet, alto, soprano, sax, tenor, and then in
006marching band I had solos on the duduk and the aerophone, which are like electronic saxophones. So where do you keep all these instruments in your home? We have like a dedicated room that I practice in and then my locker at school is like Jenga trying to fit all the cases in and make sure nothing falls out. So we said sophomore, junior, you're a senior, so where are you going to take all these instruments next year? So right now I'm looking at a double major in Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin for saxophone performance and psychology. So it'll be like a five-year degree. So what does that look like to have you do you have to audition? What's that? What's going on? Yes in two weeks? We're gonna fly up there, and I will do a conservatory
007audition with the Saxophone professor dr. Connor and then in a few weeks after that I'll be notified whether I made it into the conservatory the college or both for my dual degree well Congratulations to you mrs. Dixon. Do you have our commendation? Yes, the Brownsburg Community School Corporation's certificate of commendation is hereby presented to Jonathan Hank West Elliott Smith Kirsten Aaron Hart for being named to the Indiana Allstate Honor Band and Allstate band on February 9th 2026 Moving on to the Brownsburg Education Foundation report. The Rally for Our Kids Gala, presented by LeBlanc Nettles Law and Queen Anne's Lace Flower and Gifts, is Friday, March 13th at 6.30 p.m. in the Cardinal Room at the Golf Club of Indiana. Attire is Western Charm meets Evening Elegance. Please consider attending this fun evening. Complimentary beer, wine,
008and soda from 6.30 to 7.15. Live music by Dave and Ray. MCs Annie and Cole from Hank 97 1 FM games raffles dancing a live auction and more General and VIP reservations are available online on the BEF website or in the BEF office through February 28th The graduate walk brick special begins February 14th and continues until March 20th order a graduate walk brick for $10 off the regular price of a current student brick Bricks must be ordered by March 20th in order to be placed in the walk by commencement Pioneer camp be f once again be hosting by any pioneer camp this summer during the week of June 22nd through the 25th From 9 a.m. To 2 p.m. At the log cabin homestead property all exiting third fourth and fifth grade students are invited to
009attend Registration is currently open visit the bef website to learn more And BEF scholarships and other local scholarships, the applications are now open and will close tomorrow, Tuesday, February 10th. There will be over $100,000 awarded to the BHS class of 2026, including $87,000 that's been budgeted by BEF through scholarships funded by BCSC staff, memorial, and endowed scholarships. Operations update, Mr. Hacker. Thank you very much. I have a few items this evening to touch on. The first, we typically do this each February, is a facility usage report from the previous calendar year. I know it's a little bit small, but as you can see up there, since 2019, you'll see the comparison on the very right side of the chart there. But total community event hours in that time frame has increased by 57%. Total number
010of events has increased by 31%. The overall invoicing for those events, community events, has increased by about 50%, again, due to the higher number of events. And you can see some additional data points there as well. Again, you can see the overall invoicing for community events for the... calendar year 25 about 377 000 and so quite honestly i as we look ahead to 2026 imagine that number will only increase due to the amount of folks that are wanting to utilize the facilities that we now have um and so again it's it's wonderful to have the facilities that are now large enough we can continue to host large events we had a recent state track meet that was in the new facility that brought about i think close to 150 or so athletes in that was
011not really a school related more individual stuff so we continue to garner attention from lots of folks around the state as we look to utilize our facilities in a manner that helps out the entire community so happy to answer any questions again this is just more of information fyi stuff but i want to make sure that everyone's in the same on the same page any questions you have on facility usage Perfect. Next on the list, just again, as we cross certain thresholds or milestones throughout the year, just want to keep the board informed. Last Friday was our official count day for second semester. Again, this is the ADM stands for average daily membership. This is a snapshot in time of how many students are enrolled. in the school corporation the first fall count day again
012is in october second one is in february and what will happen is that the state will then go through and adjust the amount of dollars that are that each school corporation will receive based on if the enrollment went up or went down as you can see here for us last year this year We started out 10,251 last fall. We increased that this fall to 10,374. Last spring, 10,311. So we increased 60-ish students here from last year, and we increased about 28 students from the fall to spring this year. So that means we will receive additional dollars from the state per student this spring instead of losing them. Not all corporations, as we had a meeting in the county. very few actually were up in the entire county from the fall to the spring and so
013we feel very fortunate that we gained students and did not lose students again for funding purposes so and the last thing here on the within the operations update is just really a celebration of the of our first community engagement meeting we had last wednesday had the first meeting here had about 130 or so in attendance And we'll continue to have those here in the boardroom. It's a little tight, but we feel like this is the best spot to continue to host those meetings. I just really felt nice. I think Kat would agree. Just a positive vibe of support. A lot of great questions asked by folks who were in attendance. And we were able to dive into a lot of information, really push out our message of the need of advocacy from the entire community
014to our local legislators, as well as talk about additional things that we're doing to try to offset the budget issues that we have been forthcoming here at several board meetings. But as a reminder, got to cut. 3 million and 26 an additional 3.8 million and 27 and looking at additional 1.1 million in 2028 based on those legislative changes we were cc'd on several different emails from the community of those sending to legislators as well as forwards of replies so we know that there was a lot of action taken place by those in attendance and we're very appreciative of that i also wanted to add in case i know We've said we would record these, but I wanted to kind of show when you click on our, go to our webpage, Vicki's done a nice job
015of, Vicki, what's the appropriate terminology of that? Page pop. Very official. So we have a page pop in place that even if you attended or did not attend, it's hard to miss that we are advertising these are going on. So we're being very upfront and transparent about this. So again, for those who just visit our page a lot and don't care to have this page pop, you can click this Don't Show Again. But if we click right here, This will take us to the main community engagement page where you will see the meeting materials. You can see here the call to action. We have the session recaps of just our summary, the meeting presentation, really the slides, and then, again, you can also find the meeting recordings. So just wanted to make sure that we
016were up front and transparent with where the folks can find this information, and we are looking forward to February 25th for session number two right here in the boardroom at 630. That's all I have for operations update this evening. Happy to answer any additional questions you might have. Thank you. We will move on to comments from patrons. As a reminder, you will have three minutes to speak. Please state your name, address, and we will start with Mr. Wyant. Good evening. David Wyant, PO Box 513 of Brownsburg, Indiana. I see on the agenda this evening that you're looking to make changes for Area 31 transportation services. If the board or somebody up there can prescribe describe your rationale and insights into making these changes and What if and how those those changes might get triggered? The
017total number of students that are in area 51 or area 31 and the number of students that are using those transportation services and my second question is if you're able to Provide such feedback. Have you heard from the state legislators that those emails were sent to? has that information gotten to them in regards to your email campaign and what those folks have done or changed their positions and so forth, what's transpired after those emails were received. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Reverend Brandenburg. I'm Reverend Yvonne Brandenburg from here in Brownsburg and part of the clergy team at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church. And I'm here to thank the school board and the school administration and the teachers for your time and thoughtful dedication to the education of the Brownsburg students and for the part
018you play and what all they can become through their lives. For education matters, and so does the future of our students and the reason that they want their voices to be heard. The decision of Brownsburg High School allowed a safe route for the students to live out their truth, and that is a patriotic and educational value in activism. That active participation is a necessary and responsible part of civic life. And so I thank you and the teachers, all the administration, and the police from the schools that were there to help assure that the planning and the carrying out of this student protest was done safely and with all good intent. peaceful protesting is a powerful and peace-filled way that they use to say enough is enough. I thank them and I thank the school administration
019and its educators from Brownsburg High School. for allowing this student voice of agents and change in a way that they planned and supervised the safe way for these students to have this opportunity. May there remain always the valued respect for dissent as an outlet for peaceful student voice. I thank the students and the school leadership for demonstrating and allowing our students to make the statement together that democracy is not a spectator sport. May we as a school and as a citizen's community live that out with them more and more. I thank you very much. Thank you. Consent items. Dr. Jessup. Yes, thank you. I'm asking for approval of the minutes from the January 12th business meeting approval of claims and the superintendent's report Do I have a motion? All those in favor, I'm sorry. Are
020there any questions? No, thank you. All those in favor. Hi Okay All those opposed motion passes approval of the minutes I'm learning. Old business. Third reading and recommendation to approve policies 3700 and 6130. Dr. Jessup. Thank you. This is the third reading and recommendation to approve policies 3700 and 6130. These are reduction in force and bad debt. These were presented for the first time in December by Ms. Lippe and just asking for approval at this time. Do we have a motion? Salute. Second? Second. Thank you. Any questions or comments? No. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. New business. Recommendation to approve new board policy provider. Dr. Jessup. So coming right on the heels of asking for a policy approval I am asking for approval for us to move to a new
021board policy provider. We had been with Neola and then we moved to isba And now we're asking to move to church church. Hiddle and Antrim as they are there are legal representatives It makes sense for our policies to go through them As we've worked with them and talked with them about making this move, one of the things that I am really in favor of is the idea of streamlining our policies. So instead of having seven policies or ten policies or a policy that says the same thing for students, for certified staff and support staff, they put that into one policy, which I think makes a lot of sense. And so I ask for approval at this time. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? It is a flat there's a
022cost but it is equal to what we were paying for the other service All those in favor aye all those opposed motion passes Recommendation to approve the contract contract non renewal for administrative positions for 2026 2027. Dr. Justin. Thank you as we have spoken about the need to reduce some staffing one of these is something we talked about earlier in the school year and that is the non-renewal for administrative positions secondary department heads for english math science and social studies while that is a reduction of four positions we are actually looking to combine those into two additional positions so it is a reduction of two positions let me say that again We are no longer having four secondary department heads. We are going to have two academic administrators. So it's really a reduction of two
023positions, but all four of those positions have to be eliminated in order to move to the two. So it's a reduction of two positions. So I ask for approval at this time. So moved. Any questions or comments? No. Thank you for clarifying. Yeah. All those in favor? Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Recommendation to approve use of performance qualified flexibility. Dr. Jessup. Thank you. So performance qualified is something a school district can earn based on performance on standardized tests. Brownsburg Middle School Corporation has been a performance qualified school district for a number of years. And the flexibility allows us to do things like not have to attend for 180 school days. That does not mean that we do not need to meet the minutes required. So instead of having to attend school 180 days, we
024are required to attend school a number of minutes. Our school days are actually longer than is required by the Indiana Department of Education, which allows us to make use of the performance qualified flexibility to not have to make up a snow day. So let me say that again. While we wouldn't make up that snow day, we have or will have enough minutes in our days combined to meet the minimum that is required by the state. And actually, we far out attend over that minimum requirement. And so I would ask for your approval to not make up the January 26, 2026 snow day. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second. Any questions or comments? Good job. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Recommendation to adjust Area 31 transportation services. Mr. Hacker. Typically, we
025don't have presentations associated with the recommendations, but I did want to provide some additional background information for the board as well as those in attendance this evening on Area 31. So, Area 31 total, and again, these numbers are going to represent the students that are currently enrolled. What we are asking for tonight would not impact any of the students that are currently enrolled for the 25-26 school year. Any changes that we would make would be impacting the 26-27 school year. So the numbers that I will show up here are an estimate from what it would do if we changed it now. Because scheduling is still going on right now, and students who are applying to Area 31, we do not know the status of the students for next year yet. We do not have that
026information in order to kind of... show you what it would be if that makes sense so but we are going to kind of talk a little bit about what we considered required transportation for area 31 versus the courtesy transportation that we've added required transportation That is something that's been in place forever. Since we started Area 31, we want to ensure that we can get kids to and from Ben Davis High School to attend the programs that they are enrolled in. And that would include picking up students just before school starts here about 6.45 in the morning, taking them to Ben Davis High School for the a.m. session, going back to Ben Davis High School, picking them up to bring them back to Brownsburg. Picking up the second p.m. Group of students at Brownsburg High School
027Taking them to Ben Davis and then picking them back up at Ben Davis and bringing them back to Brownsburg High School So that is something that we want to make sure that continues to stay in place Now over the course you might ask how many students is that it really varies It starts off with a few more as a reminder only junior and senior students can attend area 31 so as the lot of these students have their driver's license and begin to either ride with a friend or are just driving themselves so throughout the course of the year the number of students were transporting does drop a little bit I think we probably gets down to 18 or 20 total students and those little as we charted them back and forth but again this is
028important that we have that we also have students that are dropped off at the Harris Academy as well since we do have some classes at Harris Academy through Area 31. So right now it's not our intent to adjust any of that kind of transportation. We want to make sure we get kids to and from Brownsburg High School to Ben Davis. The courtesy transportation items are things that really we implemented I think for the 2019-20 school year as Mrs. Murphy and I went back to look. And these are things that we added just to try to increase access or eliminate some barriers for students. And while It pains us to have to come to you to ask to potentially adjust the transportation services as we began to look at the potential budget impact versus the number
029of students that are impacted. We really have to make some of those tough decisions, and this is one of those tougher decisions as we come to. This is not something that's required, and quite honestly, we are, if not the only, one of the very few schools of the 11 that participate in Area 31 that actually provide these services most. do not and require the students to provide their own transportation and so what is that transportation what does it look like right now we have three morning routes to pick students up at their homes and transport them to brownsburg high school so they can catch the morning bus to area 31 meaning that prior to 2019-20 in order to catch the 645 bus to make it to the am session that students and families needed to
030provide their own way to brownsburg high school one of the things we added in 1920 was to go out and pick those students up so we have three of those routes there's two midday routes to transport students programs not located at ben davis high school so as the area 31 program is expanded there's a logistics program that is in i think plainfield we have the fire science program that is off-site at ben davis but still in wayne township we have a supply chain program i believe it's in plainfield we have aviation that's over by the airport and then we also have the building trades that is off-site as well and so We began to take students, and sometimes that's a big bus that only has a few students on that. And sometimes it's a car
031service. We're able to use car services. You can see there in that fourth bullet point. But those are, again, additional what we call courtesy transportation items to get those students to and from. And then one of the things that is Also something that's additional is since the Ben Davis High School bell schedule and the Brownsburg High School bell schedule are not the same and early release Wednesdays take place, by the time that students on the PM session get back to Brownsburg High School, our buses have left. So we have to have additional three routes on Wednesdays to take students home. Now, how many students do these impact and what's the overall cost? I'm glad you asked. So as you can see here the total cost of that additional courtesy transportation is about 195,000 so just
032again about 200,000 And so if I did not add this but I did look it up the required transportation the trip the shuttles back and forth that we are required cost us about 60,000 a year and so it is substantially more to add for those if we have 182 total students You know, it's about what 70-ish of those that are taking advantage of the courtesy transportation and so again some some tougher decisions that need to be made but as you can see there the 23 students being picked up the morning it costs us an additional 38 000 two midday routes additional 88 000. 3 p.m. routes for the Wednesdays only an additional about 12,000 and the car service to get those 10 students only to those spots about 57,000 so again about $200,000 in savings
033that would be of this year and we don't know exactly what that will look like for next year because we don't know the number of students enrolled I do want to add that there could be some junior students here that will be seniors in those classes. One thing we want to make sure that we'll work with Dr. B at the high school is to ensure that students still have the ability to complete their certification classes. And so we will work individually with those students and families to figure out something. We realize that for anybody new to the program, we can advertise this. It has been adjusted in the scheduling books and things that students are utilizing right now to determine what's going on next. But if we have some individual situations, we will find a
034way to work with them and manage this. This is not a, you know, we are asking for your approval to adjust, not necessarily to eliminate all of these, but we are presenting all of them to you in a manner that allows us the flexibility to adjust based on the student enrollments for next year and based on what would make the most sense financially for us. So happy to answer any other questions you might have on this, but at this time we would ask for your recommendation to adjust the transportation services for Area 31. Do we have a motion? So moved. Second? Second. I have one question, Mr. Hecker. You said that it's in the scheduling books and whatnot, so families, as they're signing up for the first time for Area 31, are already familiar with
035this new policy. Yes, they should be. We communicated this, that we were thinking about. We wanted to give the board time, obviously, and time for this to take place, but we had talked to Dr. B in advance saying that this is going to be a potential, something we're going to consider based on the budget cuts and to ensure that they communicate that effectively with families. And you did say that it does include students at Harris or Alpha as well? That's correct. Yeah. Okay, great. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. All those opposed? Motion passes. Thank you. Superintendent comments? Dr. Jessup. Thank you. I certainly want to congratulate our band students again, who we recognized tonight. That's very exciting for them. I want to congratulate our wrestlers on their regional win. the regional win. We are
036in the season of wrapping up a lot of winter athletics. It is also the start of show choir, guard, percussion, lots of things. So if you're finding yourself without a basketball game to go to, there are lots of activities that our students are involved in. And then finally, I certainly want to thank those people who were able to attend our community engagement sessions and for those who are not able to attend and I said you might choose to. Watch on Saturday morning in your jammies with a cup of coffee. Thank you for those people who watched it. We have heard from a lot of people who have reached out to legislators. What have we heard from legislators? We have not heard anything from legislators yet. Although what I would say is it does sound that.
037The responses that our people are getting from legislators are not, I wouldn't say just a canned comment anymore. The responses speak directly about Brownsburg Community School Corporation. So I feel we at least sent enough that we were brought to their notice, which was part of what we wanted to do. We're hopeful. I know that Mrs. Murphy and I are planning to send another email blast tomorrow to some people that may not have heard from us in a few years because they used to serve on committees, but why not renew our friendships and ask them to reach out again? But certainly anything that we can do to continue to advocate for Brownsburg schools, that is what we are going to encourage people to do. Thank you. Mr. Hayward? Yeah, I want to add on to that
038congratulations to Jonathan, Kirsten, and Elliot on their all-state honors. That's awesome. I also want to thank Dr. Jessup and Mr. Hacker for presenting at the first meeting, community engagement meeting, and also the Brownsburg Chambers of Commerce meetings. I think you guys did an outstanding job. Reverend Brandenburg, thank you for your words of gratitude and encouragement. Really appreciate you standing up and giving us those words. And good luck to our winter sports teams as they begin tournament play. Thank you. Mr. Wilson. Mr. Hayward said everything I was going to say, so I'll just go ahead and pass on. Thank you for your words today. Ditto. Thank you just for all the effort and thoughtfulness put into the community engagement meetings and it's a lot of hard work and you guys have been prepping for this so
039thank you for that. The students who are honored tonight, great job and let's see, any great job it's much harder than it really seems at the very beginning. It gets way better so you'll get more comfortable so thank you guys all. I did realize that the BEF page has a backside for the first time ever, so I'll add those notes. So there is a free SAT ACT test prep workshop for... primarily sophomores and juniors on February 21st from 10 to 11. So if you're interested in that, sign up on the BEF website. And also a Kids Explore Robotics workshop for students grades 1 through 9. The cost to attend is $25, and the students get to build and take home a robot. There's two different after-school sessions on Tuesday, February 24th, and that's on the
040BEF website as well. Those are too important to not... include in what we're doing here i want to thank everyone who came to the community engagement session i thought that it was fantastic that so many people were here and got great information and i did send my emails to legislators and i encourage everyone to do the same i did receive some personalized responses back and i do feel like that brownsburg community members are being heard so It's making a difference, but that takes all of us. So thank you for that. Motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. Meeting is adjourned.