001I will call the meeting. We will show the pledge of 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. >> Welcome everyone here tonight. We will get started with election officers for 2026. Look for nominations for president. >> Any other nominations? Have a person second. All in favor? Raise your right hand. Motion carries. Six to zero. Thanks, Matt. [laughter] >> Congratulations. >> Vice President, I will open the floor for nominations. >> Nominate. I'll second that. >> Any other nominations? Not hearing any. All in favor of Matt Hol vice president, raise your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. I will open the floor for nominations for secretary. Have a person second. Any other nominations? Not
002hearing any. All in favor for secretary. Raise your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. President of the board of finance quarter Ross. >> A personal second. Any other nominations? [snorts] Not hearing any. All in favor of quarter Ross for board of president Finance. Raise your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. Um, Secretary Board of Finance. >> Nominate Liz. >> Second. >> Any other nominations? Not hearing any. All in favor of Liz for Secretary Board of Finance. Raise your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. >> [snorts] >> ISBA legislative representative liaison >> nominate Tom. >> Any other nominations? I hear any all in favor of Todd Ner for [snorts] [clears throat] legislative representative and leaison raise your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. [snorts] treasure [laughter] >> we have a nomination and
003a second. Any others? Not hearing any. All in favor will leave. Mr. Treasure, raise your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. That does include $100,000 >> bond. Point legal counsel Doug Wilson. >> Have a first second to pertain Doug Wilson as our legal counsel. Any discussion? Hearing [snorts] any favor, raise your right hand. Motion carry six to zero. Need to establish our regular meeting dates and times for 2026. I will look for a motion. >> I move to make it the second Wednesday. Um such as our present practice >> 6 p.m. first and second to retain our meeting as the second Wednesday of the month. 6 pm. All in favor raise your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. And the compensation I move to go with the annual by statute PDM of 112
004per regular meeting $62 for special meetings with a maximum of $112. >> Second to retain compensation as stated. Any discussion? Not hearing any. All in favor raise your right hand. Motion carries. 6 to zero. I will look for a motion to adjurnn. So move. All in favor say I. >> Call the board of finance recommend action matters review investment. you should have um in your packet there's a one sheet on the investment term and this is basically our interest from our two accounts our checking account um for financial and then the account we have with trust Indiana which gave us a little bit more interest and we put some money in there um as you can see it's down a little bit basically it's just because the interest rates have gone down so still a
005great deal higher than they were a few years ago um so but as obviously as is interest rates go down but you can see um the differences there in the two. >> The second part, review physical indicators report. >> So for the fiscal indicators report um and this is something that is um available for the public. There's um a link um that that anybody can go to um to see this information. It's always a year kind of year old. So, I'll kind of fill you in with um how we are right now because we're just finishing up 2025 um information. So, we'll report on that next year, but I will going through this. So, um the first um piece of information they include our is our average daily membership obviously because that um makes such
006a difference in our funding. So, as you can see, they um start they have 10 years on there starting with 2015 2016 through last school year 2425. And just to give you what those numbers are um that 20 2015 2016 that fall in person was 226 students and then um the 2425 fall was 1,723 students with the spring being 1718. Um, now this past fall, which we had on October 1st, was 1,725. So, we were up a couple of students. Um, which is which is nice. But as you can see, we've kind of started to plateau a little bit um with that. But just um that's the first piece of information that they have. And then we'll take the other um count will be on February 1, the count. [clears throat] Um demographics. Um they
007give three pieces of information. our um free reduced lunch population, special education and English um learners. Um just to let you know for that um 23 24 school year, they haven't they're a couple years behind on this one. Um that was um at 47.8%. That blue bar is 47.8%. The orange bar with special education is 20.9% and then our English language learners was um 1.7%. for this current school year um for 25 26 so far because um the um free reduced lunch and English learners report is done based on the October one and then the special education is based on December 1 those two counts. So for our um free reduce we are at we were down a little bit 45%. And our um special education was up just a little bit at about a
008percent more at 21.9% and our English learners were down a little bit at 1%. Okay. Um now we get into some of the financials. Um the sheet with all of ours with all the different funds it shows um a lot of funds there. Um the main ones to look at are the orange which is our education fund there. Um kind of the darker teal color. Um that is our rainy day fund. And then the yellow is our operations. Those are um primary um funds that either we operate out of or it's kind of our savings account there. Um the ones you see that are going below the bar that the reason for that is those are our federal grants that get reimbursed. So at the end of each year, they're always in the negative because
009we get reimbursed for that later. So they eventually zero out by the end of the grant, but it's always in a reimbursement cycle. So that's why you always have for that federal a little bit in the negative there. But um all the others are in the positive as you can see um kind of the history of each of those funds. The next um chart that you have um shows whether we were in um the deficit surplus. Um the biggest thing on this is what we're always trying to do obviously is to have more revenue than expenditures or even so that um we're staying kind of living within our means there. And as you can see for um 24 our expenditures were below our revenue which was good um because we had um couple years where
010where necessarily were not. Um and then that yellow bar just says it was above then we we had our expenses below our revenue. it would have been underneath there. Um that we had our expenses above our revenue. Um to go along with that, that black line is where our um fund balances are. Um so it takes a look at our funds and where they are. You can see for 24 they go up a little bit. I will tell you I'm working on 25 right now and our fund balance will be up a little bit more. And to the credit of everyone in here has made some obviously tough decisions with that. That is with less revenue than 24. Um and basically that is because of um mostly from our tuition support because of our declining
011enrollment and the amount of money they give us for students. So we are doing more with um less trying to um save what with what we can. So we've been able to grow that fund balance a little bit while getting less revenue. So um we see this next year our fund balance be a little bit up but both our revenue expenses will be down um because because of what we've got but we've also been spending less to stay within those means. Um the next chart um one thing that they like to look at with schools is their p um their fund balance as a percent of expenditures. um they'd like that to be um within that 15 to 20% mark so you're not having too much of a fund balance but then you're not having
012too little of a fun balance. Um and the funds they look at are those three main funds I talked about the education the operation and the rainy day. So they take um the fund balances of those divided by the um expenditures from those accounts for the year and that's how they get that percentage. So, as you can see, 24 we started going back up. Um, we had been at a pretty good point um at 2020 wait and then we started to go down. We've gone up a little bit um 24 at 17.8% and I will tell you for 25 we ended at 21.2%. So, we are continuing to raise that um cash balance a little bit because of some things we've been doing to try to save money. So, um that's where we are. And
013then um one of the last um points here is just how much revenue we get by um by the type whether it's state, whether it's federal, whether it's local. Basically the blue the state that's our tuition support. That's for in our education fund. That's that's a big bulk of the money because that's what we get for student. Um the bottom part that pink color that's what we get from taxes for operations fund. So those are our two main sources. The very top two colors, those are basically our federal grants that we get. And then that little purple in the middle. We have some things called miscellaneous revenue, whether it's from our summer school grant or um from when um schools send us fund for extracurriculars, but usually those are kind of a wash because we
014we may be paying for a bus driver and then they send us the funds. So it's revenue, but it goes back out. So um just to give you an idea you can see pretty clearly the main sources of our revenue and then they always include which we don't have one um any operating brand or any revenue. Any questions? >> Thank you. Um, to kind of go along with that, we have some board members here. [clears throat] 2019 was the first year in the previous 15 years that we had balanced our budget while having declining enrollment. It's a whole lot easier to balance your budget when you have a surplus of kids. Everyone can do that. So 2019 was the first year in 15 years that we had done that. So we then had COVID hit.
015We had huge drop in ADM. had some unfortunate health insurance issues that really um little that money down. [clears throat] This is two years in a row. And to Melissa's point, you also understand there are a lot of years where we have declining enrollment. We actually get more money from the state. So you may go down 30 kids, but we'll come head ahead under $1,000 because the formula gives you more money. This last year we had declining enrollment and we got less money from the state. So they're really trying to stick it to us. So, I'm very thankful for everyone sitting up here, people out here, understanding of everything that we've had to go through because it has not been fun. I appreciate DCA and our work we've done together. Um, no one said it
016was fun, but we have really turned our financial picture around a lot, which is going to go a long way in the coming years with Senate Bill One. So, thank you guys. Thank you, Melissa. Thank you, Ben. I'm very appreciative for that. So >> just look for a motion to >> move to second right into the regularly scheduled meeting for January [laughter] 15th, 2026. I will call the meeting order once again welcome all guests under recommended actions routine matters approval of the minutes of the meeting held December 10, 2025. So move >> a second. >> Have a first second for approval of amendments. Any discussion? Not hearing any. All in favor raise your right hand. There's motion carry six to zero. Approval and order payment of claims and payroll. >> So move to approve payments.
017>> I'll second person second. Any discussion? Not hearing. Any all in favor? Raise your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. Conference attendance and field trips task one. I request the board please approve the following two field trips northk high school and south skater high school FFA program for attending the car machinery show in Louisville, Kentucky on February 13th this year. >> Move to approve the list of field trips or conference attendances. [clears throat] I second a second for the conference attendance for field trips. Any discussion? Not hearing any. All in favor, raise your eye hand. Motion carries six to zero. Resignations and leaves. Ask the board to please approve the following resignations. Dispended North High School effective December 19th. Deon Slas High School varsity volleyball coach and one lead. Courtney Oani is going to
018Portugal February 12th to 16th. Move to approve resignations and leaves. >> A second. >> Have a person second to approve the resignations and leaves as stated on attachment one. Any discussion? Not hearing any. All in favor raise your hand. Carry 6 to zero. Appointments and terminations. Ask approve the following hirings. Jackie Blair North Elementary School homebound six hours a week. Jonathan Blankman North High School math and engineering effective January 6th. Lily Ricky South Elementary School prek promises effective January to approve the hirings second for the hirings. Any discussion? Not hearing any. All in favor is your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. No public comments. Nothing under old business. Brings us to the new business extra effort award this month on the north end. >> Uh Mr. Korn, let's start with you. >> All
019right. >> Please. >> All right. Well, thank you very much. So, we have uh teachers here tonight and we have another teacher over here this evening that we're going to recognize and we're going to start first of all with our first grade teachers. Um this is a very special group. Um one thing that I admire about them, first of all, these have worked together for for several years. First grade is a very well old machine at at elementary. Um, these ladies work very well together. They plan together. Um, they trust each other and that's very, very important. Um, takes a long time to form a bond like this, but they have done a great job and they make first grade very special. Another thing that stuck out to me, we always are doing our best
020to meet every kid's individual needs. And these ladies uh of course they work very closely together but they move their students around from one class to the other so that they can level you know where and kids where they're at. That's not an easy thing to do at any grade level but especially first grade. So kudos to them on that. >> [clears throat] >> Another thing that they do is of course the gingerbread house, which I know that sounds like a lot of fun, and it is, but you go in there and they have that thing. I mean, it is down to a science. Me, I don't think I could do that. Um, I would have things everywhere, but they but the kids love it. They know the same first grade tradition every year. Um,
021and it's important to note that, you know, of course, school is about about learning, but it's also about making memories. And this is a great memory for these first graders every year. These ladies bring a very positive culture to our building. They are fun. They help you spread laughter. You go down to to their area, you can't help but have a great time when you're down there. Um, so I I greatly appreciate that. So because of this, I would like to recognize this team for their hard work and their efforts over the years. Thank you very much, first grade teachers. [applause] >> Um we're also recognized uh Mrs. Walsh, former second grade teachers. Um back before Christmas, she had an idea to create blessing bags for our community. So she put put it out to
022other grade levels if any of them would like to participate in lie of doing a classroom gift exchange. And so we had first, second, fourth, and sixth decide to participate. So students from all those grade levels went down to her room. I mean, it was [clears throat] packed full and came down several days to pack these bags. Um they contained hats, gloves, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and socks. Um, in the end over 300 bags went out into our community and they were donated to the police department, sheriff's department, the warming center, the uh trustees office, foster care, new directions, kasa, agape, all for one ministry, franza house, the arcane foundation. So she thought it was a wonderful idea to, you know, instead of parents doing this, let's buy something donate to this and make a real impact
023on our community. So I want to thank her for doing that. Well, please [laughter] understand Thank you. >> We're not centered. >> What do you mean? >> Yeah, they are. >> They are. Yes. [laughter] >> Congratulations, ladies. Thank you so much. >> Holland honor. with anybody. [laughter] >> I don't know what you meant by that. Uh so yes, what we we have with us today is Mr. Johnson, our AB. Um a lot goes unnoticed. Um if you're having experience being an athletic director or knowing an athletic director, I constantly tell them that I feel bad for for Laura, all the hours that you are away. People have been telling me that for 34 years. [laughter] >> Not because of your job though. That's in the minutes, but [laughter] so just a lot of things that
024he does that again goes unnoticed. Uh creating and maintaining his budget. Athletic transfers, which we know it's the wild law west with athletic transfers that are going on across the state. Uh event scheduling that takes a lot of hours. Ticket sales, event setup, and tearown. um IHSAA compliance and student eligibility. Uh he maintains facilities and ensures safety with our equipment. Uh organizing gym availability with the various sports and activities that goes down even to the second grade with dirt road. Now we're full swing with that. Uh schedules uh and works with the transportation department for all of our away contests. He sends that to me pretty much every every other week. uh and then our evaluations with our current coaching staff. Not only that, now he's tasked with all of our workbased learning students and
025maintaining all their hours and everything that goes with that. Uh this year has been a particular particularly significant year because this is the year that I serve as president and he's the director of the MHC. So all the banquetss that go with that, awards and honoring these kids, communicating with those students that go to different schools and what their uh accomplishments are. So uh I can't thank him enough for what he does. Um and one thing that I didn't mention is that he's a very effective communicator. He tells me what's going on. Um some things that are we can plan for the future with fundraising and everything else. So Scott, can't thank you enough with all that you do. Um, I certainly wouldn't want to do it, but always here to help you. So, yep.
026Scott Johnson. [applause] >> Also, I need to say thanks. This was my team for suicide prevention training. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> I'm glad you're very >> glad you're [laughter] ladies. Get out of here. [laughter] >> Thank you so much. >> Have a great evening. You guys have a good night. >> Um, here. [laughter] >> We'll leave that alone. [laughter] >> Fine. >> All right, moving on. Accept member disclosure statements to accept the following report. [laughter] to accept. Have a person second to accept the member disclosure statements. Any discussion? All in favor raise your hand. Motion carries. You're lucky if you like [laughter] elementary [laughter] church about $166. $643 to go toward their milk and lunch money fund. Knights of St. John is donating $1,259.70 to South Skater Elementary to go towards special education teachers for
027use in their classrooms. South Skater High School is also receiving the following $152.16 the FFA from Culver's First Baptist Church of Green donating $500 to the FCA. Knights of St. John $629.85 85 to the special education department, Westport Christian Church, $1,000 to the student Christmas fund. And lastly, South Gator High School received $5,000 goes toward the FFA from Riverview Fox. >> Move to approve the list of donations. >> Have a second. Any discussion? >> Much appreciated. >> No other discussion. All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carries six to zero. Approve student fundraisers. Ask the board to approve the following fundraisers. North York girls basketball Tyler Johnson coaches versus cancer. Um free donation or free will donations during the game donations will go toward cancer families at Peter County Memorial Hospital. [clears throat] North
028Gator High School student council Betsy Litmer snowball semi formal dance cash for tickets January 12th and 24th student council program. North Gator girls basketball, Tyler Johnson fried chicken dinner, meal tickets and donations, money to go toward new equipment, uniforms, and camp shootouts in the summer. North Skater High School yearbook cannab activity during halftime of the game on January 9th, 16th to 23rd. Money will be used for yearbooks for students that cannot afford them. North Kater football, Steve Spurn, trash bag sales, sale of trash bag date to be determined. Proceeds going to Thursday meals, postgame meals, varsity, JV, pregame meals, JV junior high. Pre-post game drinks. It's a lot. North Gator High School at FA Atlanta Mormon strawberry sale to be determined. Selling strawberry jams, salsa, and popcorn. Proceeds to go toward the FFA activities, contests,
029and events. Um Gator FA, Katie Morman, and Elena Tesler. Craft show. um craft show money to go toward FFA activities, contests and events. And lastly, North Gator Greenhouse Kesler plant sale, flowers, herbs and vegetables, sale of plants. Proceeds go towards the selling plants for the following year. >> Move fundraisers. >> Second to approve the student fundraisers as stated. Any discussion? Hearing any. All in favor, raise your right hand. Motion carry six to zero. Let that go first. >> Mr. Holland, you're first. >> You got big stuff to go to. We're gonna let you go first. You get out of here, sir. Thank you. Appreciate that. >> Um up to you every every other month. Um so I had uh our juniors and and sophomores took PSAT in October. We got that data. I compiled it.
030I'm sparing you all that time. I have some pretty graphs for you guys, but I think that's gonna be for another time. And the reason why I bring it up is because PSAT is tied to student scholarships when they're applying for college and SAT moving forward with our school letter grade is going to be a factor into it. You couple that with attendance um as well as the uh three seals that are going to be in the new diploma. So that's the reason why I bring that up. Um some dates of interest. SAT school day will be uh in March. We're looking at the 10th and that is just for juniors. Um we're in the middle of Learn Checkpoint 2 right now. We'll start three in early February. And then I learn for our seventh
031and eighth graders. That window is going to be from April 13th through May 8th. Student council will host a blood drive uh on January 21st and we're going to be competing with South on that. Uh and also the student council will host our snow our snowball winter dance and that's going to be on the 24th of this month. And then our parent le and sponsored junior high dance will be on February 28th. Um will we be we will be hosting the MHC academic meet this year. Uh last time we hosted was in 2020 I think according to what Ernie told me. And then that's going to be tentatively March 12th because we got to work around everybody's spring break. Um so we're looking forward to hosting [snorts] that. Um we do have um numbers for
032all A and A and B honor roles. So of the 56 uh 7th graders, we had 32 collectively that were on either one. So to break it down, 12 all A and 20 for A and B. Grade eight, we had 40 of the 66 students, 20 for all A, 20 for all A and B. Uh, grade ninth of the 77 students we had 34. 15 all A, 19 A and B. Our sophomores, um, of the 70 students, we had 34. 14 all A, 20 A and B. And then juniors, we had 36 of the 78, 12 all A, 24 A and B. And then rounding out with our seniors with the 79 that we have 42 made that list 15 all A and 27 A and B. So we're really proud of those students and
033the achievements that they've made um given that they had an extra ninth and 10th block based on our schedule. So really proud of of what they've done first semester. So hopefully that continues into the second semester. Um admin team is working diligently on our schedule for the 26th 27th school year. So really trying to move that forward and get that finalized. Um, athletic hall of fame induction will be Friday, January 16th. Reception will be in the cafeteria at 5 and the induction ceremony will be following the JV game. Uh, the Greensburg Optimus Club is sponsoring the Optimus International essay contest. This is going to be a $2,500 scholarship for the district winner. Uh, and then in Greensburg, Optimus Club is actually going to put in an additional $200 uh $100 for um the winner, 50
034for this uh for the second and third place finishers. And that's why one of the reasons why I bring this up is that Val Steven, our sophomore and senior English teacher, is actually having our sophomore submit an essay for it. So, um, really looking forward to hearing what the students are writing about. So, uh, life skills classroom with Mrs. Morris and Mrs. Sers, the coffee cart for the teachers have been a huge success. These high schoolers spend every other Wednesday working at the branch to build those job skills. So, we really appreciate the opportunity branch provides for our students. And to round it out um with Miss Callie, our choir and band instructor at North recital night is on the 29th of this month. Um 700 p.m. in the cafeteria and then the solo and
035ensemble uh contest in Columbus will be on the 31st of this month. So a lot going on given it's so early in the second semester, but uh I tell the seniors every day that they're one step closer to graduation. So a lot of things to look forward to. Thank you, sir. Thank you. >> All right. I just have a little recap from things last couple of months. Um, first thing, we celebrated our 67th day of school. I'm not sure why that's a thing now, but you know, we used to just celebrate the 100th day of school, but now we're celebrating the 67th day. So, I don't we did that. Uh we have had some visits uh from a couple of legislators, legislator Meltzer and legislator Zimmerman to Mrs. Smith's room to learn more about our
036great school. And I've asked um Linda to share a little bit about that tonight, this little project that she's doing. You want to do that now? >> Sure. >> Okay. Well, it all started last year when I got one legislator to come. And this year we stack Oreos. >> We have a winner of the stacking of the Oreos. >> Cheater. [laughter] >> He's had too many. >> But they was there. He stacked Oreos. Then my kids couldn't understand why I couldn't get President Trump to come and he wasn't even stack Oreos. They just wanted him to come. And so we have learned a lot about you know local and clear up the presidential you know all their their realms whether it's you know local or the legislators in Indianapolis or Washington DC. So I had
037told them that a legislator came last year and that they wanted one to come this year. And so we've worked really hard. We've gotten two to come this year and um Gina wants to come as soon as we're finished with the session and we're going to zoom call with four on Friday and we're hoping to get more. So in order to entice them to come, we started making books and so this was the first book that we made if you give a legislator a letter and all of the books have been remakes of other popular books because it's remake of if you give a house a cookie. I'm sure that you've all read that to your children. And then the giving school from the giving tree and um this was one of the kids favorites.
038um do not open you know do not visit this school and it's from the book um do not open this book and so um then there's been a couple more and then we found out that the first lady her initiative one of them is literacy and she also helps with the Dolly Harden project. So, of course, we had to make a remake of the code of many colors. And this is the one um I have it ready to go in the mail to her tonight. Yeah, this is gone. The first lady and so she will get hers tomorrow and then the rest of the people that we're sending them to. We started with our local legislators and then we moved to the ways and needs committee because they control the budget even though it's not
039a budget year. And now we've moved to the education committee and the four that are going to zoom call with us on Friday education committee. So maybe we can get a little bit of headway and then I've been invited to come to the state house on February 10th. So, I'm going to go on February 10th and try to get someone there to understand [laughter] education because on the last committee in education, there was only one educator and he was an assistant principal in junior high. And so, when I talked to these legislators about why TAG isn't working and why some of these other things are bad, they really don't understand. It's not that they're voting against us, they just don't understand. And so, >> thank you for that. Thank you. [clears throat] Neat, neat project.
040And the books are really cute. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thanks, Linda. Appreciate that. >> Uh, let's see. Here's some other things we've had going on. Our kindergarten, they present an annual Thanksgiving play. If you've never seen this before, it is really cute. The teachers do a great job with their costumes and everything. So, that that was a lot of fun. We've had our family fun night hosted by our Title One department. Lots of games. uh cookies, hot chocolate, everybody got a free book and then of course we had all of our Christmas programs uh during the month of December. So we got a few other things. Uh so every year Mr. Kramer um with our the local cheerf fun food drive and this year uh they collected 5,73 items which is just a huge
041accomplishment for that class and obviously thanking our um families for sending those items in our elementary choir. They teamed up with Greensbury Elementary in South Decator to sing along at the holiday walk back in December. Um, as we mentioned, the blessing bags that were sourced to the community. Um, the ginger head uh gingerbread house day that first grade does every year. Um, and looking forward to the future kindergarten roundup, we uh started advertising two days ago and we have almost 50 kids signed up already, which is amazing. Yeah, because last year we had 42 uh the entire two months it was advertised. to have almost 50 in two days. We are very pleased and [clears throat] hopefully that number is going to continue to grow. Um and then basketball, they started this week. Boys basketball
042did. The games will start here in a couple weeks. Robotics will go to their first tournament here at the end of this month. And archery's been underway to a couple tournaments they've headed to. And the elementary team's doing very well. Two second place finishers this year. So, >> first great first semester for us. >> Thank you guys. [clears throat] With that being said, future business regular board meeting Wednesday, February 11th, 2026 here at central office at 6 pm. I will look for motion. All in favor? I we're