February 10, 2026 Regular School Board Meeting

001you then stay in. If not, you're welcome to step out. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for the opportunity to serve this community, the school corporation, and the students that walk in the doors every day. Uh we thank you for the breaking weather and the sunshine today. Um we ask for you to be with everyone that works in this building, spends time with the students, uh be with them as we push through the second half of the school year. Let it be a good school year. Finish strong. Uh keep everyone safe. In your name we pray. Amen. >> Amen. >> Pledge all these to the body of the United States of America and to which stands one indivisible with liberty and justice for all. All right. >> First thing on

002the agenda is approval of the agenda. >> Uh two changes, Mr. Morris. We have an additional study trip like who you consider in the consent agenda. And then uh we need to move ECA personnel junior high girls trap Shannon Co. would like to remove her from the consent agenda and make that stand alone actionable item person. All right. If I have any questions entertain motion on the agenda with the changes second any discussion all in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed. Motion carries 5-0. uh bear positives tonight. Two uh one I would just simply like to thank our maintenance crew led by Mr. Ron Downing the last three or four weeks as you know with the amount of snow we've had. They spent tremendous amount of time and trucks plows and the Kabota.

003I just appreciate them coming out early in the morning, late at night on weekends. Um they do a tremendous job. Um that's that big snow that we got over the weekend a couple weeks ago. I mean they were on a Monday morning before I could even get out here and check on them. So tremendous amount of work. Thank you for approving the new plow by the way. We did that couple meetings ago. We broke that in. >> Lot of work. >> Wow. >> Really well. One of several that we are using. But, uh, just appreciate Ron, Nikki, Brad, Lisa, everybody that that works hard to get the the schools ready as best we can and that's always nice to see that we're we're ahead of the county because they're doing the best they can, too.

004But I appreciate it. And then the other thing, of course, clean sweet. Our girls basketball program has definitely major positive. We won both the seventh and eighth grade county and our girls won sectional once again. So we'll try to get them get personally recognized but just excited happy for our girls program as they had quite quite a year and off to regional uh this week weekend in at Marriott. So very positives I had tonight. Maybe there. >> All right. At this time, uh, we'll take comments from patrons. If anyone would like to address the board, please stand at the podium, state your name and address, and limit your remarks to three minutes. This is the one time in the meeting uh for public comment. So, feel free. So, Good evening. My name is Spencer Boyd

005and I live on Fifth Street in Park City. >> You're fine. >> Okay. Making sure I wasn't missing something. Uh Mr. Molton and the school board, thank you for the opportunity to speak for the next few moments. I wanted to address the topic of the relocation of the sixth grade to the junior senior high school building for 2026, 2027 and beyond. First, let me say that even as a father of a fifth grader, I'm impartial on the location of sixth grade. However, for me, the more important question is the why behind the change. And I'm sure Mr. Molton will address some of that in in your remarks later in the evening that are on the the agenda. Uh, in my own limited research into different instructional models for students that age, junior high, grades seven

006to nine, or middle school, grades six to eight, there's actually not overwhelming support for either model. Uh, in light of that, I'm really interested to hear what our school board um, uh, has researched and discovered as to the bene benefits and concerns of making this change. My primary interest is knowing that the governing board of our school district is making a fully informed, well-th thoughtout decision that considers every aspect, including but not limited to the financial ramifications of the decision. Because in education, we must make decisions not only with the best interest of the students in mind, but also with what is most educationally sound. In my experience, when it comes time to make important decisions, I've always been more successful when I've done it in the context of community, receiving input and advice from

007people who care and honestly want what's best. In addition to hearing the school's plan to accommodate the transition, if this board were to form an exploratory committee made up of teachers, parents, community members, retired educators, and the like, I um in order to provide input, I uh volunteer to serve on it. The challenges we're facing today have never been solved before. So that requires new perspectives and a willingness to try new things. I am confident that our district leadership cares and desires the outcome that is best for our students and I believe that will be achieved through making decisions guided by best practices in education and input from an abundance of counselors. Thank you very much for your time. >> Thanks. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Lloyd. Uh, moving on. At this time, I'll entertain a

008motion on the consent agenda. >> I move to accept speak consent agendas with the addition of masking to >> a second. Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> All oppose. >> Motion carries 5-0. >> Personnel ECA recommendation from uh athletic director beach junior high girls track Shannon Co. >> I also make the motion to accept the ECA personnel can >> second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. All opposed. Motion carries. 401. >> Certified staff maternity league appointment. This be I believe first grade comes from Miss Fly, Miss Hobbs, Carrie Ferguson. Who is this? Is this >> Yep. >> Okay. >> Be Miss Swallops. So >> I think that's the final one for us to think we're done. You guys have gotten for your maternity leaves. I am so impressed. >>

009Okay. Uh entertain notes in on maternity leave appointment of Miss Ferguson. >> I'll make the motion second. >> Any discussion? All in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed. Motion carries 5-0. >> And a classified stab. Um this would be at the elementary um replacing Emma Wright and it would be Kyle Neil Clifford. Um I met Kyle. She's wonderful lady. I think she's doing a good job. Mr. Downey, you got anything you want to say about Kyle? >> Hard to work and gets along with everybody. >> So she's working evenings for us. Um preschool wing is that kind of that's kind of her primary area. Some other areas as well. But um glad to have Kyle ask for your official approval of her today. >> All right, I'll entertain a motion on classified staff

010appointment of Kyle Clifford. >> Motion to second. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> All opposed. Motion carries 5. >> All right. Tonight we have with us uh from Defer Iran, our school board attorney, Mr. Steve Murphy. Mr. Murphy, thanks for being here. >> Always a pleasure to come to Monroe Central. >> The topic for this evening is a proposed resolution, as you know, arising out of the uh addition of Union Township to our school district. We need to uh take a look at the voting plan for board members for uh future years beginning, I guess, in 2026. And so I have drafted uh a proposed resolution which simply starts the process. It's pretty simple. Uh it just says we're going to we're going to uh adopt a a new

011election plan. You might note in your packet is the timeline. I think it's kind of interesting because u it's lengthy. Uh it requires uh the board first of all to approve a draft plan and and I'm going to submit to you I think it's in your packet a proposed plan that Adrian and I have been working on but it's up to the board to decide whether you want to do that plan and I'll if you want I'll get into the briefly into the details of that but it's really for the March meeting that you would adopt the plan. the process gets initiated. The hopefully the board would approve a plan in March. If you don't, that's okay. But if you do, then we publish a notice in the paper in the Winchester paper. And there's

012a very lengthy time period, 120 days that we just sit and wait. Uh the purpose of that 120 days is if anyone wants to file a protest, they can do so. But that really slows the process down. Uh assuming no one protests and it takes 500 voters to protest the plan, then um we send the plan to the state board of education and to the Randolph County clerk and then the state board of uh state board of education hopefully will approve it and send it back to the clerk for action. So that's the timeline. You've got a resolution in front of you. Uh if you don't have the proposed amended plan, it's right there. And if you have any questions of me on how this is going to work, I'd be happy to entertain the

013questions now or we can do that in March at the meeting where you we're not approving the plan tonight. We're just approving the resolution that says we're going to get the process for >> and I know in our work session there were several questions that came up about this and I I think I think most of these have been addressed by this plan, but obviously with Mr. Murphy here tonight. Board, please fire away any questions you have about it. >> Steve, thanks for coming. I I do have a question because um union currently it's in their lawsuit and they're trying to overturn this whole thing. So, say that they're successful. Can we make this contingent upon them not being successful at that lawsuit? Because what I would not like to see is they they are

014successful and now we have to adopt somebody from Union Township even though they aren't represented by us. >> Well, I think the answer to that is yes. I think if if this lawsuit is successful, Union Township will not be part of this district and this will not make any sense and right we could we could adopt a new plan. I just know with the lengthy time frames that it it's like would that start us over a square one that now we have to start the whole process over and could we be able to do that in time? >> I think we can make it contingent upon the resolution of the lawsuit that does bring Union Township into >> and I don't know what the time frame is going to be on that. Hopefully hopefully it

015might be before we actually get to the point of because you have to do a final approval of this plan after the state board of education approves it. >> Okay. >> You mentioned pro protest. >> Yes. >> 120 days. Yes. >> What's that process? What >> the petition that the 500 voters or 20% of the Let me see see if I can find the language time. Um, a protest must be filed with the clerk's office, must include signatures on a petition of 500 voters or 20% of the registered voters in the school district. So, there's a form that you would use the clerk's office >> the current school district or future school district. >> Yeah, that would only have >> it be the current school district. >> Good question. >> Thank you. Anybody else have

016anything? Good. Do >> you want me to summarize what the 2026 2028 2030 election would be or do you figure that out? >> We've got it, but if you don't mind stating it for the record, I think that'd be great. in the 2026 election, which obviously is this year. And it's a little difficult with our timeline to get there, but as there would be a a an election for the ATL large representative and for the uh Parker City and farmland representative. The atlarge would be for a two-year term. The other two would be for four-year terms. And then in 2028, you would have an election for the other for the Green Township, Stony Creek Township, and the new Union Township Representative all for four-year terms. And then back again in 2030, it would be Parker

017City and Farmland. Question that I know came up during the work session back in January. if that at large position u and you've got the language in here but if you could speak to it if that at large position that candidate or board member would resign from the board what would happen to that seat >> then the position would be filled by the board with somebody who lives in Union Township >> no longer be a large position >> it switch over to a Union Township to a Union Township Bull Res. >> Now, hold on. If that if they resign or have to move out or whatever that position is, if that's before union gets moved up here, >> oh, it would become if they become vacant after July 15th, 2027, >> then it has to

018be out of Union Township. before large. >> Sure. >> For the first six months. Yeah. January to June 30th. >> Yeah. >> Have to be here. >> Yes, they do. >> Thank you, Steve. >> Appreciate it. I appreciate it. >> So, again, as Mr. Murphy said all the board is doing tonight is drafting a very broad um resolution just saying you're going to start the process. Um you can review the plan but you're not approving the plan until March if you pass the resolution. >> Any other questions? one uh I guess point for clarity mainly because a lot of people are hearing this for the first time not us tax revenue switches when well that's that's a wonderful point you want to tackle that one so >> well we don't know for sure >> we

019do not know for sure I didn't think so I just the legislators are supposed to be tackling that as we speak so the session is supposed to end the end of the And I would hope that we could certainly have an answer by then. Steve, I mean, I'm misspeaking on I mean, right now I think the statute silent on it. >> It is. It is silent. >> Right. I will make a motion to approve the schoolboard reorganization resolution as presented. So is that do we need to add anything for the contingency on that or >> this is just starting the process. We'll make we'll do that for the plan next month. We'll we'll make a contingent next month. >> I think that's just what I'll be to >> any discuss any further discussion. >> All

020in favor say I. >> I. All oppose. >> Motion carries 5. >> Thank you Steve. You're welcome to stay, but you want to scadaddle, that would be fine. Now's the time. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Steve. >> Take care. We'll see you next month. >> All right. Yeah, I'll be here March. >> Okay. Under other business, uh item number two, the ready 2.0 grant. So, there's been a lot of talk about this. Um I Mrs. Taylor and I kind of approached the board, talked to you in December about it. Talked about the work session. We also talked about it last January at the last meeting last month in January. Um just just some more clarity on this. Um because I I'll be honest, I'm I'm very confused by it. So I'm getting more and more

021information as we go. So Randolph County United is our local county economic development group. Okay. And Mr. Schaefer, I know, was here a couple months ago. He serves on that board. Mr. Patterson at one time did still. Um >> Yeah. >> Okay. Good. So, and there there people from out from at one time I did. I mean, people throughout the county that that that serve on that group. They have their own executive director. Um they're kind of a combination of tourism and u chamber of commerce and they kind of lump it all together in Randolph County being a small county and they call it Randolph County United. Okay. So really um this kind of came from them. This idea of hey you would you be interested in applying for a grant. This grant I want

022to be very clear on this. The grant money is not coming from Randolph County United. They they are part of the process. um and they obviously make a determination on what grants they're going to approve and what not, but the actual funding is not coming from Randolph County. And again, Mrs. Taylor, if I screw any of this up, please stop me because she knows this a lot better than I do. So, back in December, or maybe a little earlier than that, Mrs. Taylor found out about an opportunity. It's called these ready grants. And I've heard a little bit about them. Um, but again, they're they're more geared toward economic development. Some things kind of fell through at the county level. They had some applications they thought they might be getting. Um, they didn't. So, they

023really encouraged some folks to apply, including us. Miss Taylor jumped all over, submitted an outstanding grant proposal, and um, got it. Um we were notified by economic development that we're going to get $650,000 um for a daycare expansion or to to add daycare here at Monroe Central. So as we've talked about um that is matching. So you're going to have to match it with public funds. We're going to have to come up with a onetoone match of that um if the board accepts it. All right. So where exactly is the money coming from though? Um, so if you just Google ready uh 2.0, um, this is kind of what you're going to get. And this is a jumbled mess of verbiage here, but there are a couple key points that we need to to highlight.

024READIY stands for Regional Economic Acceleration and Development Initiative. READIY was established several years ago by our former governor Hulcom. All right. And it so again a prior administration and the idea was they're going to take a pot of $500 million spread it out throughout these regions throughout the state and they're going to award it based on a grant process get it right and hopefully through and again data driven long-term planning um the idea of attract and retain top talent in the area. So, and there were certain criteria, you know, quality of life, um, housing, there's four or five different key ideas or criteria, um, that centered around economic development, not only in those regions, but throughout the state. The group that heads this up is the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. Okay? If you Google Indiana

025Economic Development Corporation and you look up recent news, there was all kinds of bad press back in the fall with this group. There's some allegations that and again this is not necessarily Governor Hulcom, not necessarily his administration, but there were just some allegations of fraud that were taking place that some grants might have been awarded for, you know, reasons that were not completely above board. That makes sense. So once our new governor came into office, u he has actually to my understanding replaced the head of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation and they've kind of started all over. So the ready grant that we've applied for is the second round of funding and they've already started the process of awarding these grants. I can just tell you that the the actual funding or these entities getting

026this funding is way backed up. I don't think there's a concern that the funding isn't there. I think the concern is we've got to make sure because there were questions in the previous administration that everyone has dotted every eye, crossed every tea, done everything exactly right. The reason why I say that is because our neighbors to the east, Randolph Central, I've talked to Mr. Abraham about this. They received a ready 2.0 0 grant several months ago for the welding lab, a smaller amount, but I spoke to him again today at a meeting about this and to the to date, 13 months after they had submitted for reimbursement. They have yet to see a dime. This is a reimbursement grant. This does not come as a here's a lump sum of money, start spending it. You

027spend it and then you submit for reimbursement and you have to prove obviously that you spend it on if you are buying computers with it then you've got to show your invoice. You got to show the board approved it. You got to show that you took bids for it. All the processes that you would have to for a grant. So there's a lot of red tape is basically what I'm trying to tell you. And it's a very slow process. just want to be upfront with you, let you know what you're getting. Um, and I talked today. I mean, this is not something that we're going to want to go out and just spend all this at once because, you know, we also have a match and we may have a cash flow issue if we're

028we're dishing out this much money and it's 13 months before we get a reimbursement. Again, that may be because of what had happened in the past. it may be a much quicker process, but again, I just want to be honest, open, communicate with you what what we're dealing with here. Um, I don't think the board's seen this. I don't think I included in your pack but but but Anne got an email back January 21st and it looks like uh we're east central Indiana is a is someone that has been hired to uh do the rebursement process. So I think they're trying to clean this up. Um, we've already had to resubmit a budget, which we looked at because they they cut our our ask down by 100,000, but we are being told we're getting 650.

029But again, typically when you get a a grant, you know, I like to receive what's called an award letter, you know, and bring it to the board or sign off that we accept this. To date, we've not really received anything. And again, we're being assured by Randolph County Economic Development, Randolph County United, that that you've got it. I actually had a conversation with another board member last week. He called me and congratulated me, not Clyde, but another one, and just said, "Hey, you have an outstanding proposal. We're excited about it." Um, and that's great. That's all good and fine and dandy, but they're actually not the ones sending us that. So, it is coming from Indianapolis and specifically the Indiana Economic Development Corporation. So, I'll stop there and then we'll talk about what we hope

030to do with this, but I just I wanted to try to answer get information out there about this grant process because it's been it has been a little confusing and I was enlightened today by a few conversations I had. So, questions for me or Mrs. Do you know how long from Randolph Central it it's been since they spent the money and they've applied for reimbursement >> again? >> You said it's 13 months since they applied for the grant. >> No, I I misspoke if that's the way it came out. It has been 13 months since they submitted reimbursement. >> Okay. Did they get a formal letter of awarded? >> They did not. I specifically asked that question. They were told by economic development, you got this >> and I'm sure they they got and just

031like we did that this is how you get your reimbursement. This is all those things happen. But a formal letter from >> that entity right there. >> No. No. And again, I don't I don't know if that I don't know what that is. I don't know if that's one person sitting behind a computer screen somewhere. I don't that's 100 people sitting in an office complex but but yes it's been 13 months. He actually called me because I told him I was going to share this information with the board tonight our meeting. He called me again this afternoon and said they responded to a recent email and he said that they had asked for um some additional documentation which that's a good sign. That's actually means that but there was some documentation that they didn't submit

032correctly and that they wanted to see from Mr. Abraham. So specifically like there was a change order like there was a change they did in the walding um contract or whatever and it's it required a change order. Well, they wanted to specifically see that change order. He was like I got to draw that. No big deal but just another thing to do. So, >> at this point, we're not looking to do any action. We're just in a holding per holding pose and seeing what happens. >> I mean, I think we are we have the budget submitted and we're going to definitely try to, you know, get get more answers, but I mean, I I think you can count on the fact that we're getting this. It's just I don't know how quickly it >> Do

033we know any other schools in the state that have received this that have been reimbursed? >> And I also talked to Rand Eastern today and they had money last year and they haven't seen any yet. >> Anywhere else though in state that we know of that schools that have received this? >> I think no I I I don't want to speak to any schools. I don't know about schools. I'm sure there are get on the website start looking but >> I think and maybe find a successful reimbursement and see how long it took then what that process was and this has been around again this is the 2.0 iteration of this and then and and we are way on the back end of that because like I said we're kind of replacing some people that

034kind of fell off. So the whole one ready uh 1.0 know I think that went through. I I'll just have to see if there were I'm sure there were schools but but the 2.0 version I don't know if anybody's got any fun that any other questions on the grant what our hold up is there on this. Okay. So with that, um obviously this next topic kind of dubtales from the daycare expansion because the grant is written around the idea of um growing our daycare because of the need we have here and obviously economic development. Randolph County recognizes that, the state recognizes that. Um again, it's a great application. I don't want to I don't want to rain on that part of the presentation, but it's just that or maybe we're not getting our funding. >>

035Oh. Oh my goodness gracious. >> Trying to start over all that. >> I guess I was ready to go home. Good job. >> Sorry about that. >> One click. Okay. So, at the work session in January, the board is board. We talked about the ready 2.0 0 grant. We talked about the uh potential daycare expansion and it was brought up the idea of potentially moving the sixth grade to MCHS 2627. So I ask you at that time to allow me the opportunity to go back to our leadership academy and u just get their thoughts on it as well as to talk to some of our teachers which I have talked to the current sixth grade staff and I've also talked to our teacher leadership team corporation discussion team about this. So what I'm presenting tonight

036um is what's called a SWAT. You may have used a SWAT at some point um in any organization, churches, uh nonprofits, use these a lot, but SWAT stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You can kind of think of it as a pros and cons, but strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. And again, I asked our entire leadership team. We just got the whiteboard out one day. We just started filling these in quickly. Is this a complete list? Absolutely not. You could spend hours on this and add to it. Um, you might see, we might have one identified as a strength that you might think is a weakness, but at least it gets some down on paper and gives us an idea of, okay, well, what do we got with this sixth grade possibly doing this?

037So, here are some some strengths about the idea of moving sixth grade to MCHS. And I'm going to just roll through these pretty quick and then at the end of each slide I'll I'll I'll take questions. So we have an excellent experienced staff members currently teaching our sixth grade and our seventh and eighth grade team is outstanding. Okay. It's a strength of a corporation. We have veteran teachers that are leaders that would in my opinion thrive with this kind of challenge put in front of them. I would not have said that a few years ago. I might not have said I I would I know I wouldn't I wouldn't have said that when I was on that team 25 30 years ago, but the current makeup of our sixth, seventh, and eighth grade teachers are

038outstanding and I think they would complement each other extremely well. Mr. Middleton his experience as a former elementary teacher and also as a former elementary principal I think is invaluable in a move like this. He understands both sides, okay? Or both ends classroom space. Again, not necessarily strength, but it is what we have in the corporation right now. I'll show you this later on the map. Classroom space is available here at MCHS. We are very limited on our classroom space at MCE. And why do we need some classroom space? Because obviously the daycare is something an opportunity we'll look at later. Why do we have space at MCHS? It's not necessarily because we have an enrollment's down. That's not true. Our enrollment compared to where it was 30 years ago. It's actually higher now than

039it was then. Right? Our enrollment at the high school is not the issue. The issue is why we have space is because high school has changed. Okay? There are new diploma requirements. There are programs that no longer exist that have freed up space in this building. And that would allow for us to have a sixth grade pot. You could actually have all the sixth graders in their own unique area, which I'll show you later. Classroom schedule is also a strength. The idea that the sixth grade would have to be on a high school schedule is not necessarily u required. Now you may you may want it to be but the class schedule could remain the same. Obviously we have a band room up here at the high school. We don't have a band room down

040at the elementary. Now it's okay for sixth grade band. They have band in the in the cafeteria every morning. It works fine. But the idea that would be a strength for our sixth graders. They could come up here to get started in band. They actually have band room. There's band storage. The instruments are up here. Same with the library. Obviously, excellent library down there, but but uh Mrs. Burus comes up here as well. So, better locations. Uh reduce uh student drop off congestion. Again, it may sound silly, right? >> Means a few less kids who get dropped off the elementary. All right. Now, you could say a weakness is there's more kids up here, and we're going to get to that in a minute. But, um, you know, and not necessarily a strength, but just

041something we we have to throw out there. I mean, many of these kids are already riding a prek through 12th grade bus. In this corporation, we run elementary through high school buses. Some corporations don't. Some run only high school, some run only elementary. So, a lot of these kids are already having interactions with with older kids. Um, they're around cadetses at the at the elementary. You know, it's the class I'm teaching. We go down there every every day except Fridays. Um, you got a lot of high school kids that are interacting down there. Anyway, >> I know there's this great fear that there's all these big big bad juniors and seniors out there and some of them aren't the greatest, but many of these juniors and seniors are no longer in the building. Many and

042and and in the future will not be in the building. When you're saying, what what do you mean? The new diploma requirements are going to require especially those seniors to not be in this building. They're going to be on a job site. They're going to be involved in some kind of internship. They're not going to be here. Will there still be some juniors and seniors in the building? Absolutely. This idea that all 95 seniors or 62 seniors or what they're not athletics, our cross country attract or football kids. They already come up here for athletics already takes place at the high school. So just some of the strengths. Any comments on this slide or we go to weaknesses? I do have one comment on it. The classroom space, something that you talked about a lot

043when the preschool that I really appreciate and it's kind of stuck in my head was when we when the elementary school was built, it was not built for having an SRO. It was not built for having a math specialist. It was not built for having a reading specialist. It was not built for having a daycare or a preschool in it. And it was built for a half day kindergarten, not a full day kindergarten. >> Yes, it was. and one through sixth grade. We have changed that drastically. Just by going to full day kindergarten, you double the requirements of of space there. So, I don't think people that that always stuck in me. That was years ago, but it has stuck very much so. And this goes very much into that. So, I I appreciate that

044you bring that up years ago and I I like to regurgitate those kind of things sometimes. And man can correct me on this, but I believe that building was built for one special ed room. I mean, there were region covers. >> I was just thinking about that. >> Special ed was designed for one room, >> three, four rooms now. >> Yeah. >> Same way up here. >> All right. So, things change. >> Y >> it was designed for a nice consistent enrollment, four sections each year. They designed it around the pods and that's the way it used to be. You didn't have a lot of changes in enrollment. You didn't have open enrollment. So, it was a lot of consistency. Funding wasn't necessarily tied to your enrollment. So, we're down a little bit and still

045had four teachers. That's not the case. Okay. We're constantly fluctuating down there between three sections and four sections. And the building's designed for four sections each grade. We're going to get back to the buildings here in a minute, but uh weaknesses. Okay. Well, obviously you're going to have more students up here at the high school. So, more students means you need more lockers. You need more supervision. It's going to be a strain on administration. It's going to be a strain on student services. There just there's more here. There's going to be more traffic in the parking lot. Okay. Uh lunch schedule, morning breakfast supervision. This is a big concern. And I think lunch schedule we might be able to we'll be able to get both of these addressed. We're still not sure about the morning.

046So everybody comes in at the same time and we can separate sixth graders from upper classmen at lunch. But breakfast and morning supervision, we're going to have to get creative there if the board wants to make this move. I already said this, but three or four sections of sixth grade that varies every year. And and frankly, we're going to have to start doing that at the seventh and eighth grade level. And we just haven't because they've been set on a high school model. But as we get classes of of 60 to 65 uh kids start rolling through the junior high, we're not going to be able to run four sections of seventh grade science. And we just we just can't. We're not doing it at the elementary right now. I don't think we'll be able

047to do it at the high school. Classroom space at the high school currently being used for storage. I know this doesn't sound like a big deal, but we're using a lot of space up here right now to store stuff. And I don't know where that's going to go. I mean, just desk and furniture and just the paper. I know that sounds silly, but you know, copy paper. There's not a lot of closet space here. There's just not. So, we're using vacated classrooms. So, storage is going to have to be addressed. Room shifts. You know, nobody likes to do this, but obviously if we make this change, you're going to have to shift some rooms around. You're going to have to move, displace some teachers, um, put them in a different area of the building. Uh,

048PE, art, music, digital learning rotations. All of those are rotations right now at the elementary. So, what are you going to do with those? What are you going to do with Mr. Gorly when he's supposed to be having sixth grade PE from 8 to 9:00? And I'm just throwing out numbers of times. If sixth grade is not there, are you going to bring him up here to do PE? Are you going to use him somewhere else? If you are, who's going to cover that up here? All things that need to be considered. Gym space, not only during the school day, but obviously during athletics. This is more an athletic thing, but you know, I think you're still going to have to use the elementary gyms for some practices. And then a huge one's teacher license.

049Um, a lot of our current sixth grade staff is really based upon a non-departmentalized license, which means, you know, they're supposed to be teaching sixth grade, not sixth grade math and seventh grade math and eighth grade math. questions on some weaknesses that have been identified by the group. Again, Mr. Middleton, Miss Blah, chime in if you see anything there. All right, so let's talk about some opportunities. Sixth grade to high school gives an earlier orientation to the building. Now, why is that important? And again, I'm I'm not I'll be frank and I've talked about this. The hand gets tired when you hear me gripe about it. I'm just going to give it up. But I think we we've constantly tried to push kids along further and further. And I'm thinking more on the top end.

050Drives me crazy that we got juniors and seniors and we get them all this we're already getting them halfway through college and they're not even through high school yet. I understand the economic impact of it, but man, that eighth grade year, it is more and more like when we were in school, a freshman year. I mean, the amount of courses that kids can take in their eighth grade year that are going to count on their high school transcript, it's it's way different than when you were in school. The the eighth grade year is more like the new freshman year. Okay? So with that, by getting them here, getting them acclimated to this kind of schedule, um it's we think it has the opportunity to help those kids. There is no reason why you cannot have

051a separated junior high environment in this building. It will create I mean, it's going to require some work. It's going to require mine's a lot smarter than mine to figure it out, but it can be done. Not just from a schedule standpoint, but from the physical building, how you do your bell schedules, how you do your lunch, you can create a school within a school, it can be done, right? PreK through 8th grade or fifth grade environment. It's another thing u we need to focus on. there are not that many, especially around here, that many preK through sixth grade buildings. They're just not. Now, a lot of those sixth graders go to a traditional middle school, but many of our elementaryaries, I can tell you from talking to your colleagues, few of them have sixth

052graders in their buildings. allow our our elementary to focus more on age appropriate prek through fifth grade getters. Okay, more offers. So there's an opportunity for a sixth grader and again we're not talking about 20, 25, 30 um honors kids. We're actually talking about those kids every once in a while that are just an absolute, you know, prodigy in math or English. Here's an opportunity to get them into a higher level course. All right? Even as sixth graders because those teachers are already up here, right? I just put it on there. But a obviously we have a courses here. We have all kinds of other electives, but an opportunity for those kids to get in those courses even as sixth graders. Math intervention. This is a new one. Uh Mr. Milton, you got this one

053all figured out. I know. But and this fly, but so this is 67th 678 >> 678. Help me out. This is required for kids that what don't >> Well, I think it'll vote yes, but they have to have an advanced math class. If they get the pass or pass plus on I learn and have a C and have a C or better in math, which a lot of our kids do, we have to give them an advanced math class. >> We have starting next year in the fall. >> Yeah. And we haven't figured out how we're going to do that at the elementary under our current setup. That's a lot. It's feasible up here. Civics is another requirement that we don't do well well at. We just don't. >> Is that requirement for sixth grade?

054Just just sixth grade. >> Yeah. >> Seven. >> Six. >> Yeah. Mrs. Burus is kind of doing that right now. And the library rotation for sixth grade. Get it covered. >> We got social studies teachers up here. And again, this would be contingent on them having open in their schedule to be able to do it and all those kind of things, but just an opportunity. Again, doesn't mean it's going to happen, just an opportunity. PE, art, music, digital rotation. We already talked about them on the previous slide, but if you don't move them up here, and that just gives Miss BL four more hours where she can use those teachers, an hour for each of them, but four hours a day. um she can use them for response to intervention RTI which she's begging me

055for staff there and we just we just don't have the resources to be able to do it. Okay. Um and obviously these next three points kind of get into the whole reason for why we kind of started this conversation again. Space space at the elementary to create a daycare suite that's connected to Cubette has it all in one spot. Hey, yes, you could do a daycare up here. You could require a lot more work. It's going to cost a lot more, but obviously again you got daycare kids with high school kids, junior high kids. This would provide one area where the parents can bring those kids in if they choose to early on in those kids infancy. Those kids could start in daycare, go right into Cub Academy, go right into kindergarten at North Central

056Elementary, all in one spot. Hopefully, we can attract and retain staff who utilize daycare. It's obviously what we're already doing with the room, one room that we have right now. And then we obviously hope to gain students. Um, we're opening this up to our whole whole community, keep them here. Again, like I said earlier, infancy to graduation all on one campus. Opportunities, questions on that. >> I will say we just had a teacher tonight in our elementary discussion. Great teacher has one in our day here and she said that's why she's here. She actually will be presenting another sub in the fall because she's going to have another one in the fall. >> So that that right that that was the number one seller for her. I mean, I'm sure you can have the numbers

057in Miss Hayes here, but are the the staff that use the daycare, are they an elementary building? >> Are they both? Both. >> Yeah, >> I think the the not having the daycare here I think like you're talking about is to me it's more the the cost of be for the bathrooms and all that kind of stuff is is really high. But honestly, like Jay County, they have a daycare in their high school building and they do it that way so that their high school kids can get the education without going to another building. We have the luxury of being on the same campus. It's a short walk down the road. But still, it's I don't think that's the big thing. I can get money. >> Their high school is in the kind of feet.

058Yes. And not spread out as well. >> Berlin helps that. >> Yes, >> for sure. >> All right. some threats. Obviously, I would as a parent, this would be my number one. I mean, this would be the first thing when I think of a threat, first thing comes to mind as a parent. And as your superintendent, it's first thing comes to mind. Sixth graders in a building with juniors and seniors. I mean, just you just think about that. Yeah, I can completely understand why somebody would be concerned. That doesn't mean that can't make things work. But I could see where people would jump to that right away. Student maturity, no question. Will some kids thrive in this kind of environment that we will hopefully create? Absolutely. Will some kids not and some kids struggle? Possibly.

059Yeah. Uh 90 plus students out at the high school. just hallway traffic in general. You're you're going to have unless if you stagger your bells, but you're just going to have 90 more students in this building. This is key though. We're not getting I wish we're not getting 90 more students. >> Okay, that would be wonderful. That'd be a wonderful problem that we're getting 90 more students in this building. Okay, which means we can't we can't add staff. There's no new funding by doing this. It's just moving them from one building to the other. Fifth grade. And this is a this is a non-negotiable one for me. So this and that's why I'm asking we make a decision on this soon so we can make sure this doesn't happen. But fifth graders can't have them

060missing out on those end of elementary celebrations, those things that we've done traditionally for sixth graders for years. We got to take care of these fifth graders right now or the next month once we know if we're going to do this or not because if you're doing it, we got to get those things in place. Still have time to do, but clock's ticking. And then obviously a threat you have to consider is will this hurt our enrollment? um especially initially because parents are going to go back to point number one right there on the threats that I don't want my sixth gra so some threats questions on threats I don't want to put you on the spot Mr. me in but I'm going to >> maybe I'm very naive as a parent. I personally don't

061think number one is a any more of a threat because my students a sixth grader versus them being a seventh grader. That's just my personal opinion. I mean do you feel how do you feel about that that bullet right there? >> Well, I think it's in general you're going to have that concern. I mean, that's going to be the first concern that pops up. Um, you know, Dustin Smith, give him some props. He he came up with a bell schedule that I said, I haven't had time to look at it, but for lunch, it'll be sixth and seventh graders together. If we make this move, eighth and ninth would have a second lunch. then you know our sophomores through seniors would be in the third lunch. Um I think I I saw right you have

062some maps up here so we can kind of show you how it's laid out. I mean I I to me and we've talked about this as a leadership group. It's it's how it's presented and I think if it's presented well which I think we're on a good track. I mean, we don't have all the answers figured out quite yet, you know, but I think that we could kind of make the case that that we can do it and do it safely and and alleviate some of those fears. >> Something that was brought to me about it that I had never thought of, but like in the last two weeks, we had decent weather or we've had bad weather. And I know when you have a two-hour delay, things are condensed. And you know, morning's an

063issue because you're going to be together when you have a lunch schedule that's condensed because of because of a two-hour delay. I know that's you don't know what you don't know and you got to work through things that you don't know. But, you know, something else that to be thought of as a as a threat when you know on a perfect day, yeah, you're going to have seven, sixth, and seventh grade eat together, but I don't know what the lunch schedule looks like up here. But I know it gets messed up on a two-hour lunch. No different. >> Yeah. Blood schedule, the way that's set out would be the it would be the same. That that part in a two-hour delay bell schedule doesn't change. So, >> and like we talked about in our work

064session, you don't know what you don't know. There's just there's things that are going to pop up that are awesome and things that we missed. >> Really, my main story that I brought to M was that morning time. But, you know, again, they're riding the buses together. I think that we could we have a section in the cafeteria um kind of for the sixth grade to kind of sit amongst themselves, you know, and I mean I I I could see that something we could work through pretty easily. >> And we have board members that have fourth graders. Is that fourth graders? So, and you guys have this coming right up of >> I would say with my two daughters when they were in sixth grade and my son going to be in fifth grade, not

065long after sixth grade, the student maturity part I could see maybe that but when they see the juniors and seniors that they know or that they knew when they were that age, >> it would have been excitement and high fives and hugs and I would have little to no >> concern. I know you're using threat because that's part of your swap model and you don't necessarily mean something terrible is going to happen, but I >> I would look at it as a possible. That's just my perspective on it, but I would see it as a positive. And I could be completely wrong in this, but just trying to think of, you know, since I've been here going on, you know, two and a half years now that like I can't think of a single time

066where a senior, a junior got in trouble for picking on >> I think of those high school students that go to elementary and the impact that they've left on my kids and the friendships that they have with those kids now when they see them and those they're out of school. Again, I just I think of that as more of a positive than a threat, but that's just my opinion. >> And something I hadn't thought about is you had mentioned some of the extra programs that they would be I to me that's one of the biggest things is getting kids involved in different things in the school. And that's where I think they they have better happiness at school. I think they have uh more involvement. They they care more about school. They care more about

067life if they are involved in the programs that we have. So I think reason and a want to come. >> Yes, I think that is a really cool thing I had not thought about. >> How many six guys you think take advantage of a in the next few years? >> What would that be? >> I mean, that would be there'll be a lot. >> So, on that one on the top there and then on every other slide, you had the schedule, right? From some perspective, right? Strength, weakness, opportunity. You talked about a separate bell schedule >> keeping sixth graders a little bit away. If I mean if your school model's changing, my comment would be let it change. >> And so if your seniors are part-time college students, interns, whatever it may be, right? >>

068Because you talk about that a lot. >> And then I I hear it from Isaiah, his friends, but he's a junior. And so, you know, I would I would not pigeon hole myself into believing that your community is going to see it as bad and then you segregate sixth graders. >> Usually, segregation leads to what you're worried about. >> So, I'm not telling you how to do it, but as you think about it, as a parent who had kids that are now older and one that's on the end of this with Mr. Morris's comments, Nathan, and everybody else's. I think you do a good job. I would not sell yourself short. I wouldn't be scared of it. Does that make sense? I wouldn't over complicate it personally. If the school models change it, then lead

069that change it. Let people come look at you for the exam. >> So, I think that's a nice I mean, nice job. >> No, no, I think I think that's an excellent point, Mr. and and it's thing that Mr. And again, we just really been focusing on this since last month and it's something Mr. Milton and I are going to get to talk about and again everybody's going to have a different thought on this but I'll go back to the uh slide that says uh yeah right here to me this is something that when I was a junior high teacher years and years ago we tried to do and Renee can talk to this too but a school within a school. Mhm. >> So instead of segregating sixth grade, >> I think what I would

070really like to see happen is the mindset that we are going to identify sixth, seventh, and eighth grade as our junior high and we want to make them feel like yes, we go to the same building that these high school kids go to, but we are Monroe Central Junior High and it's grades six, seven, eight. Now, are we gonna have to be able to have a separate administration for those people? And we're not we're just we can't we're not we're not big enough to do that. Ideally, yeah. Would it be wonder if we had a third building where those kids Yes, that would but that is that's just not feasible. Okay. Just not going to happen. But I think within this building, it can't happen. And I'll go back to my very first point. We

071have outstanding staff that can think outside of the box. And I had a conversation with one of the junior high teachers this afternoon. She knew we were having this meeting tonight. And I can just sense that she is excited about the opportunity of this challenge of creating truly a junior high within the building. It's not going to be easy. And I'm not going to say it's going to work, but I think I think we can definitely take a look at it. All right. So, >> I'd rather you say it is going to work. >> Okay. We'll work through everything we can to make work if if the board tells us this is what we're doing. So, I don't want to spend too much time on this because this could, you know, get into all night

072where where things are going to be. But, I'm just just want you to have an lay of the land. This is an older map, so be careful with reading labels on there if you can actually see some labels because they need to be marked off. But this gives you a footprint of where we're at. So just just so you can have an idea. Again, some of these classrooms are being used part of the day or with a limited number of students. Some are used for afterchool activities. So I don't want you to think that we're saying, but I just want to give you an idea of what's open here. All right. Oh, shoot. Sorry. Keep hitting that. So, this is this is what we called it what we have called the junior high pod. So,

073when this building was originally built, there were six classrooms here. There was one here and there was one here. And this was just the office. When we originally built this, we went through an renovation about 15 16 years ago. They recaptured these two classrooms and basically made them into student services. Okay, this is where your registar is and your guidance school counselors are. And we expanded and connected it to the high school. So, two rooms went away here because it really just kind of mirrored what this pod looks like up here. But you got four classrooms right here right now. Um, you got seventh and eighth grade teachers teaching out of this room. This room right here right now is the inschool restriction room. Okay. How many kids you have in there at the max?

074Three. Five. What's that? >> I'm not following your point. Where you at? >> I apologize. I apolog right now. Okay. There. There are other places in this building that that is a room that it can be utilized. Obviously, these two rooms right here. One is where we're sitting. Number three and number two. So, three is where we're at. Two is right next door. Um, this was built almost 30 years ago just kind of as a multi-purpose area during CO. We put the wall in, it stayed. There are two classrooms right here if you wanted to make them two classrooms. The fax room. Okay. 110 U. The fax room is right now the teacher's work room. It's fine. It works. We no longer have fax. U room number four up here. Um says computer lab. It's

075not. So this would have been an old English room. This has been Mattie Wilman's room. Right now it's a storage room. It's not being used. Uh let's go to six. Six is right in the middle of the building. U six is kind of a catchall. Used to be a computer lab. Um, I teach out of there on Fridays. That's where my intro to teaching class is. I think KP has a couple study halls in there now. Um, and then Mrs. Smiley in there. So, it's a it's it's being used, but it's certainly not being used all the time. And again, >> scheduling wise, we can figure this out. And then obviously the choir room. Now, during mask and gavl season and everything else, band uses it. I mean, they'll go over there, but it's it's

076underutilized right now. So, you got six rooms right now that you could definitely say are either empty or not being utilized to their full capacity. Okay? You could really say that about our media center, our library. Big space, not being used all the time. Okay? May change though, may become a board room. You have to take away three. So, it just gives you an idea of of some of the space. When I say that we have extra rooms up here, that's what I'm talking about. Now, when we say a sixth grade pod, we're talking about this area right down here. Number one, we're talking about those four classrooms could be not decided, but could be your sixth grade classrooms. And then the Millennium Hall, those eight classrooms, then the Millennium Hall, these two are science,

077but you have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Those could be your seventh and eighth grade rooms. So Nick, you want to go point for Mr. Morris? Help out on this. So because I want this is this is the key point. You know what I'm talking about. The three doors. >> Okay. So these three doors separate the middle school have for years the junior high lockers from the high school lockers. Okay. We're we're exploring options. Obviously, there are fire doors, everything else, but really would like to be even more restrictive right here. And I know Nick's been kind of working about that, thinking about, but go ahead and talk about that if you want, D. So yeah, Brett and I have talked about it too and I think we have to keep the

078doors as they are. But just one of the ideas I threw out is, you know, kind of going back to the the segregation part. That's the key is that the to keep all junior high in this area, you know, and if we can get that door so we can badge or whatever it might be and teachers can get through it, but students don't have the accessibility and that keeps everybody through this part of the building. Now sometimes um you know for example if they're going to ad class, band class, whatever it is, they would have to go to the other parts of the building that kind of funnels through this way instead of going through the high school building if that makes sense. >> This is kind of on the map of the high show

079>> the Millennium Wing. Now are there high schoolers in the millennium wing that 9 through 12? >> There are so yeah >> Mr. Sims. So they there there are some high schools that or students that that can >> but that would be moving to the number four computer lab or 143. >> Well not not necessarily don't don't u the open rooms right now. I mean, again, that's a whole staff shift. You just don't know where they're going to be. >> Okay. >> And and you've got >> Yeah. You've got teachers that teach both junior high and high school. And, you know, you just you're going to continue to probably have that master schedule-wise. You're you're not going to see that go away in a small junior senior high school. >> So, when we saying junior

080high right now, because we in the other slide, we talked about eighth grade being almost like the freshman year. What's your mean sixth and seventh or sixth seventh? >> Junior high right now as it's currently constructed is seven and eighth. >> No, no, I mean in this future when you're when you're talking >> Well, that's that is still up for Okay. >> interpretation. I think to your point, Mr. Patterson, I mean, my mind is 678, but >> for sports it's 5678. I mean for high school configuration and everything else IHSA it's 9 through 12. It's 9 through 12. It's seven and eight. So it would be six, seven and eight. Got it. >> Yeah. >> So you talked a little bit about storage area and I am like the the desk and things like that.

081What do we have in all those storage units out in the back? Like what's out access back there? Right. >> So why do we have all these extra desk? Like why don't we just get rid of them? >> Well, there's times you go out and get 25 out, bring them in. >> You need them out there. We that pole and this pole. >> It just depends on how he puts some of his classrooms. We're all time moving. And then some years the teachers will want them out. There's no place to put them in here. >> We've got them in conxes out there, right? >> Exactly. >> ConX is like shipping containers. Yeah. basically >> bought those during CO and they've actually been good storage, but those are full. I'm just want to tell you they're

082full. And that room number four, some of that is potential um daycare furniture in there, but that room number four is full of stuff. These two rooms aren't too bad. Two and three. We've obviously got stuff in the choir room, got stage units. We always have trouble with where to put the stage units, the graduation stage, keep them outside, but then they get all rusty and nasty and everything else. >> Sounds like a couple more comics. >> We We potentially could use some of this grant money to buy some extra storage. We definitely need to look at that. >> All right, let's look at the elementary. >> When you go when you see the media, the library, >> is that used at all? Yeah. So, Mrs. Burrus comes up for one class period. To be

083honest with you, a lot of a lot of students don't check out books anymore, right? Everything's fine. But there's a lot of times just for miscellaneous reasons that, you know, they'll go in and have class in there. I know Mr. Jurgen flies the drone there sometimes, especially in the bad weather, you know, and can't get outside. But yeah, you know, they're they're willing to work together as classes and I know Mrs. Oy and Mrs. Brazwell has been in there together and so at times >> yeah to look on that that's a big area it's already got two doors in it. I mean in the middle I don't know if the lockers go all the way through. They probably do all the way along that outside wall, but you could pretty easily divide that into two

084or three smaller rooms of some sort to to storage or whatever. I wouldn't want to throw it out because I know that's not really one do, but that's in the middle of school and there's probably some plumbing and stuff. Makes you wonder if that would have been a decent tree or daycare or something or there, but it's not. I mean, I'm not saying that, but that's a big area. big area >> with doors and and there's some plumbing I think in there. I'm not sure how much >> if I wouldn't want to take out the drone exercise field. >> It is nice to have >> but that's an area you could do. >> Well, it's not being utilized probably. >> That's an area that I know he uses for staff meetings. You didn't really have

085much else. PD is obviously used. Academic team uses it. it'd be good to to retain an area somewhere because you know there's sometimes that a class just because of of the way it works out that gets it can get large and so you know we've had that happen a couple times Mr. Kennedy's class and you know so to have that area to be able to go in have students spread out be comfortable and all that you know sometimes we have to use the light or the the cafeteria for that but u it's nice to have a bigger space to go if we need to. All right let's take a look at the elementary. So again, the additions up there in the top lefthand corner, as we've already talked about, elementary design with the idea of

086four sections per grade level. So you have first grade, second grade, third grade pod, and then once you get around the corner and you start having three sections, four sections. This changes every year, but originally this is fourth grade pod, fifth grade pod, and then your sixth grade pod. So we added on the preschool wing. This is a preschool room right now. This is a preschool room right now. This is the daycare room right now. This room right here, 63, was converted this past summer to a third preschooler because we had to displace them once we added daycare. Okay. So, again, there's a door here, bathroom here, but this is all going now this direction. FA really faces north and it's part of our preschool room. This room is a resource room still exit here.

087Uh these two rooms are what fifth sixth grade rooms got an English room here I think math room here. Okay. Um the idea would be and again if the board says move the sixth grade if we do the entire daycare community the idea would to be to take to move basically get this back to preschool which is what it was originally designed for. So sorry Carolyn move the preschool out of this this back to where they originated. This would be your preschool area. These this area right here would be your daycare room. Kindergarten would not change. These three rooms here would continue to be your kindergarten. Keeping in mind that is this year because of size we only use three of these rooms. This room is not being utilized for kindergarten. But hopefully we'll correct

088that here a couple months because we're now four sections of kindergarten. So again, when we say we want to add daycare at the elementary day take daycare rooms, I think what we're talking about, and again, this is subject to change obviously just Mrs. Taylor and I kind of vision this area right here. So what you would do is you'd still have your entrance here possibly and this would be kind of become what we call a daycare suite. So daycare and correct me if I'm wrong but daycare when we talk about walls I'm not talking about necessarily floor to ceiling walls wall could be a three-foot wall and you can have a room here another room on the other side of that then another three-foot wall another room along side of that. So, we don't have

089to get too concerned about obviously you're going you may want some walls in here, but this could open that up and you could really have a nice daycare still using the same entrance exit that the rest of Cub Academy uses. You're going to have to have an external exit we know out here. So, you're got to do some work here. Again, this is all subject to a architect going through all of it, but just spitballing here initially about what are you thinking about? Where would daycare go? That would be our initial recommendation. Annual speak to that. >> Oh, you did a great job. I will tell you that for next year, we're going to go to we have two rooms and we're already >> we're full. We're sitting on almost 30 kids. >> So, time

090out real quick before So I want to be very clear on this. This is not for regardless of what anybody we are not recommending any of this work be done or any of that be done this part till the following school year. All right. This is going to take this is going to take time to build this out. This is not a June and July project. Can't happen. You need to forget that right now. I've already told Ron don't you even say that. Yeah. I think we I've already warned them be quiet over there. It's going to take some time because number one, I mean, you're going to have to have an architect. >> Yeah. >> They'll have to come in and prove it. You got to permit it, all that. So, >> what is

091the intent like we are thinking about doing here at the junior high wing of secluding? I hate to word use that word, but the fourth and fifth grade. >> Yes. >> You're going to put some doors in there and keep that. I mean I I think I think if anything you could and again this is all subject to architecture. I mean these are interestes in the classrooms. I think we've wall this all off. >> Can't see. >> There's nothing light. >> Yeah. Thank you. You just turn one of those off. I'd be able to see it better. >> Is that one that does that help? Can you see it? >> Yeah. >> Idea would be to wet >> I see it now. this off. And again, um I I don't Well, but that would that

092would completely make that the back side. No more going to the front anyway. >> Everything's going north out the Cub Academy and got your Cub Academy, >> but the pod itself is walled off anyway now because it's the bathroom. So, >> yeah. So obviously the construction is not going to happen over summer, but are we still able to have an extra I mean with what we've got without are we able to add a room that we can take kids in for next school year? You know what I'm saying? >> Have a first grade room open for sure because right now kindergarten's only three rooms. Is it ideal to have our infants one place and our little our toddlers in somewhere else? No. But we will make it happen. But we do have a space for

093them for next year. >> That'll be a short term and fix until we >> Yes. >> do whatever construction and >> I don't see any numbers of >> vacant rooms on this map. >> Can it be done? Five bucks. >> It can be done. Do we want to try to pull that off that fast? I just Well, I mean like this room right here. >> I mean, if you hire If you hire completely out, Sure. Yeah, you probably could. But I mean that room right here, >> uh, sorry >> 63. >> Uhhuh. >> We did not open that until after fall break. >> Correct, Carolyn? >> Correct. >> So, and and again, we are limited. I mean, I want you to understand what we have. I mean, we're talking Ron, he's doing everything else he

094does. You're talking Brad who does everything else he does. And then you got Lisa and Nikki when they're not mowing. Obviously summer and any other touch-up things. That's your maintenance crew. And Don Don Mills is part time. >> I I just >> I know what you're saying. >> But but I mean a lot of people think, oh, the maintenance front, that's who we're talking about. That's it. That is the maintenance department. You got custodians are cleaning, but >> you had idle. >> Anytime when we say we do inhouse, that's who's doing. >> So, >> and how many can we put in that one first grade room? We don't know yet. We're waiting for state to come in to see if we can make it two rooms with our three foot wall. >> Oh, >> right

095now 12, but >> one is our ratio. >> If we can make it two rooms, 24. >> We don't want 24. >> We could. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> I think our biggest thing that we've already seen is we have a lot of parents who went half day preschool with Carolyn's crew, but then they want to send they don't want their kids coming home. They're working, so they want somewhere to send their kids for the other half of the day. And we've already seen that in flex and we haven't really even opened it. >> You'll you'll see it go up total when you offer the whole day to more. >> Absolutely. Like >> we I did some numbers. We have eight that we'll be sharing with preschool next year. We have 14 that would be in

096one room and eight in another if we can manage two rooms and by the time this is completed vouchers CCDN vouchers will be available again. So that will be huge for >> all right. So um that's kind of a layout that's SWAT. Um again I've talked to the sixth grade teachers talked to the u the discussion team. Beyond that we've not had a full staff meeting in Eden building to talk about this. I don't think you have just kind of um you know my my point right now would be this. I would say that if the board wishes to do this or not that you you make that decision at the March 10th meeting. I would say you either approve the sixth grade move, you reject the sixth grade move, or you table the sixth

097grade move saying we're not doing it at least for another year. But we need to know as a staff no later than March the 10th. Okay, just from a scheduling standpoint. And then then once you've made that decision, that will determine whether or not we start looking obviously at hiring an architect for this or whatever. But we need to know what you want to do with sixth grade first. Is that fair? Correct. And I and and to the point that was made at the podium tonight, I agree. I think this needs to be it's a major decision. This is a a major curriculum instructional decision um that has been bounced back and forth for years. Okay. When this wing was built in 2000, the debate that that board had at that time was whether to

098do this or to build a middle school. Okay? and they just knew that they could not support a third building. So that's why these basically eight classrooms were added to this building in 98 99 2000 because we were just we were running out of room and it was either build a middle school or add on to the high school. So this this concept of and and at that time they were talking about okay we bring the sixth grade up do school. So, it's been talked about. Um, >> so what we're talking about here is if if the board decides to table new sixth grade, we're not adding another uh child care room at the elementary. The only possibility would be to do that up here, right? I mean, >> well, I mean, if you table

099>> if we keep the sixth grade down there, there's no room for us to do anything else. >> Not down there. No. >> So that would either be we don't spend finering >> or we move it up here >> or you >> we don't fill that. Yeah. We don't fill that community. >> When you mentioned the licensing teachers so they could how many is that they can possibility or time frame? >> So so right now there are three sections of sixth grade. So sixth graders are moving up. I mean, this this group of sixth graders are going to be seventh graders next year. Um, the fif current fifth graders, there are 91 of them, I believe. 90-ish. Okay, there's four section of them. Regardless of where sixth grade is next year, we were already planning

100for four sections. So, you're taking the three current sixth grade teachers and somebody else is going to teach sixth grade next year. Okay. So, when I met with the three current sixth grade teachers and one of the special ed teachers that services those kiddos, um I told them that and this was a couple weeks ago. I said, "We're going to present it to the board. I don't think the board's going to take action on it till at least March, but once they do, if that happens, you will have the first option of going up. If you're adamant, I do not want to go up. but she's going to open it up to the rest of her staff, see if anybody else would want to come and if there's still a need. And at that point,

101she's going to have to determine those up, right? Does that make sense? So, we're not positive on licensing, who's it going to be, and that kind of thing. But what it probably would mean is these these teachers that move up are going to be able to teach sixth grade. They wouldn't there's no crossing between sixth and seventh. That's correct. If you're non-EP departmentalized and they will be sixth grade teachers and again have we looked at every single license at the elementary she may hire somebody this summer and they may >> may want to do it and have it on the license goes respond. They >> they same question some may want to move up here. Yes, they naturally had lots of questions, hesitations and >> but tears and everything else. I mean, we had it

102all, which I fully expected, >> but there would not be any go back and forth to >> Well, so that that is something that's a weakness. That was listed as a weakness and that is something that yes, that >> we were going to definitely kind of talked about that. Whoever that fourth teacher is, if you decide to do this, we're going to have to tell them, you are probably only going up to teach sixth grade for one year and then you're probably going to have to come back down because we got a lot of we got another we got a three section coming basically. >> Yeah. The fourth graders currently are the problem. >> They have been all the way through up to >> but kindergarteners will be in a few years too when they

103get there. 61 of them. So you're you're just that's going to change every year. >> And I know Mandy always says that she's way better than Nick, but right now she has >> right now >> preschool first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth grade. So we have eight grades in the elementary building right now. We have six grades in the high school building right now. And not only that, we have sixth grades and shrinking because of the new curriculum that we have. The juniors and seniors will be out quite a bit. So, we have more equivalent here in a couple years to five grades up here. So, eight versus five, that's that's pretty big. I think >> that's what Mandy told me. Way better. she can do this cuz she's >> so much better than you.

104But still, >> is there anything else you need from me informationwise from our staff? I would while you're thinking on that, I would just say this to the point again that was made by Mr. I mean I I would welcome a chat a talk with any patron, parent, student, teacher um about this. I will go through the SWAT with them. I will listen to them. I I know you as board members would do the same. I would encourage those discussions as long as they're productive. Um let's have those discussions. Is every single thing about this just a slam dunk? No, probably not. Okay, that's not the way decisions usually work. But I do think there there are a lot of goods here and good things that could happen out of this. Um let's let's have

105those discussions and then ultimately on March 10th you need to make decision if you're not making it tonight. >> Yeah. If you're if you're if we're thinking March 10's the decision, are you able to think about doing something to the cafeteria or something like that before we get there? We talk before like a community. >> I think that's one thing I I mean, in my opinion, that's what is >> advertised. It was it was well discussed throughout the community. I mean, I had eight or 10 people ask me about it. So, it's not a secret. We're not a whole lot that showed up. >> Yeah. Night to >> I would also encourage people and anybody that's here that can please watch watch this part of the video. You can fast forward through it. It's going

106to be online tomorrow. I mean you can watch that presentation again. I will meet with anybody as long as my schedule permits um and go through this individually within the parent. when if you start seeing overwhelming on that then we can look at scheduling something like that maybe >> what I don't want this to become is something that you know the visor community we just don't need that we just we don't everybody can have their opinion on it but golden bears we can get through this >> I don't I and I I could be wrong I just the discussions I've had and the questions that I've been asked I don't see but I want to I there are valid concerns in my opinion and everybody has the responsibility as parent be worried about that and

107ask questions. I just don't think it's a an issue that's going to divide. >> No, I agree with you. I wouldn't have the meeting responsibly to worry it's an issue. I would have the meeting to stay ahead of it as a teacher. That's what I would do. Anything else? >> Thank you all for putting in the work. That was a lot of work. Really appreciate it. >> Okay, quickly because I know we're way over on time. Student count. Um, we had our second count 10:14. So 10:26 in the fall, 10:45 last February. Again, we point to that kindergarten number that really is kind of has hurt us. Our senior number is at 61 right now. So that's a key number to watch. That's the last, as I talked about last month, that's the last small

108cohort group we've got. So we got a lot of 80s coming, which is good, but you got to replace them with 80s or you're going to lose. So we got Roundup coming up in April. We're going to need to look at that. But we kind of need to see that thing bounce back because I'd say at this point it's definitely we're starting to see a trend. And again, I I I keep beating this drum, but this is not uncommon. This is what superintendents are telling the boards throughout East Central Indiana. >> Oh, I state urban rural. It doesn't make any difference. Noville's cutting 13 million out of the budget. It's just not secluded to the central Indiana. It's it's everywhere. >> You want to put that out there, Ken? you know, and get it out

109a month ahead, but we don't do anything till March. Kindergarten round ups in April. We want that out loud and clear because >> well, it could make a difference to some people. >> Beth's already working on it, but we're going to talk about tomorrow at the cabinet meeting. I already kind of think about it, but we're going to do a mailing throughout the district all throughout Union Township. They'll go out soon, hopefully prior to spring break with registration material, hopefully a QR code. Um, just get the word out. Like I said, definitely here, but then also down in the township, try to promote that. Is another month gonna make a lot of difference to the team preparing what they need to do? >> I don't think so. I mean we we've got I mean we

110we we have thought through a lot of this and a lot of this can be executed after the 10th. I mean the big thing is just scheduling for Charlotte and they they spend a lot of time on scheduling that are kind of a holding pattern here but we we'll get there. We're okay. I think it's worth it's worth another three or four weeks to really make sure this is what you want to do before you make a decision. >> I think the communication's going and we need to be very sensitive of that. Can can you shoot us an email before those go out go out what it looks like? That'd be great. >> Yeah, I I'll be glad to share that. I will probably bring that I'm hoping to the March 10th meeting kind of

111to get your final approval for it. I'll show it to you and uh like I said, we're struggling a little bit. Beth's working on this for me because we want it just to go to the townships. We don't want crossover in the Delaware County and send to Winchester. That just creates bad feelings. Trust me. >> Yep. >> When we've got those in the past, we build >> I get them from Union. >> Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's one thing. But, you know, so she's working on it. It's been a project, but she'll get there. >> So, what you're sending out is for registration or just so registration can't happen until we know what the sixth grade doing and it will take me six weeks with P school to get registration up and going. >> I I

112think what we're talking about is just a a code that says registration will be open on this date. use this code to get there. We'll also have our >> We'll also have our kindergarten round update. But we want to we do what I don't want to happen is wait till June to send that out because parents are already thinking now about where they're going to send their kids that. I mean >> synchronous learning very quickly on this just just to give you a quick update. So we received a waiver from the state for the January 28th day that we missed that was a traditional snow day because we had used our asynchronous days. Asynchronous don't know what those words mean. It's okay. Still got me confused. But asynchronous is you prepare lessons. Kids can do

113them whenever they want. They don't have to be live. We get three asynchronous days a year that count. Okay? You can if you try to do four, it's not going to count. So, we had used our three asynchronous days. That's why January 28th was a traditional snow day. The state granted us a waiver for that day. That is why we're not making it up next Monday on President's Day. The second part of that is they have given everyone that applied regardless of whether you asked for it or not a waiver for January 26 which was the Monday the first day of the storm >> snow call. >> Okay. So the 26 we used an asynchronous day. So this is really a gray area but I finally got someone at DOE to say look here's the

114deal. we'll give you back one asynchronous day for that day. So even though we've already used it and we're already counting as day instruction because it was if we have to miss another day, we can use an asynchronous day. Does that make sense? So we have one asynchronous day left. That is different than I told the teachers the other night. We'll clear that up Thursday. What is synchronous learning? Well, synchronous learning is they say because you're gonna shoot me down right away, but synchronous learning is basically what we did back in COVID somewhat. It's the the live instruction that's going on. Obviously, not good, bad. I don't want you to think that was good. We're not trying to say it was good, but but synchronous days are not limited by the state. So, a whatif

115scenario, which superintendents, admin, teachers, parents, everybody was starting to sweat a couple weeks ago. What if we had a blizzard and we were out that whole week and the following week and now we're looking at we only have a few built-in snow days. Those days, unless you get more than two days of waiverss, those days are gone at the end of your calendar. We have no way to do synchronous learning or at least we've not set that up. Some schools have this as an option. They don't go to it as their first go-to. They use their asynchronous days. They use some makeup days, but they have it just in case there's an emergency. And I'm going to tell you, I I can't remember the last time we missed more than three days. I look back

116through my calendars. I keep track. I mean, we have not gone over our three asynchronous days four or five years. Okay. So, this is the first time we hit four and we're getting a waiver and we got one more left. But I am talking to teachers about should we look at reviving this just in case we need to in a day or here to avoid going in June after I learn, after I read, tacking it on end of school year. And I and this was kind of at the direction or request of a few teachers. They asked me to please look at this. So um Blackford uses it, Yorktown uses it. Can't remember who else is. Blue River Blue River synchronous. So I will report back to you in March, but we are definitely studying

117it right now as an option. TAG um just an update on TAG teacher appreciation grant. those names were submitted. We had 16 applications uh just shy of $39,000 to divide up and uh based upon the increments in those applications, we submitted eight names and that's going to exhaust the amount that we're going to receive for tag. So the top eight applications were submitted. Um we had various levels. We had a couple 7500s. We had three 5000s, four 5000s, and we had uh two 3000s. So, >> how did that go with Liberty Perry trading? >> So, we kind of had three of us involved. So, Daleville actually uh scored ours. We scored Liberty Perry's and then Liberty Perry's must have scored Dale Mills. I think that's how that worked. I I mean, I thought they did

118an outstanding job. I thought they did a really thorough job. They had about six of them, I think, that scored theirs. I can tell you it was just Miss BL, Mr. Middleton, and myself scored Liberty Parish. And it was hard. It was extremely hard. We spent hours on it. We did it all together. We didn't do it individually. Three of us spent a couple hours scoring those applications. It was a hard task to accomplish. So, teachers have been notified that they either did not get submitted or their name was submitted. We expect to get the funding sometime later on this spring. Then we'll have to have that money out to by the end of the school year. I I know when we talked about this, you asked me to bring that back and it's a

119hot topic. It obviously is. We'll see what happens with this session on it, but that's what the tag is. Uh the other quick comment is we do have the auditors here um every two years. First time they've been in person since uh co Mr. Morris sat in on the intro meeting last week and they plan to be done by the end of the month. So it's going to be a quick turnaround for them. They generally take six to eight weeks by no one be here at four. So this cheeseman's working hard to get everything. Beth's working real hard to get everything they've requested, but it's going well for how that goes to get finished. >> Board members maybe receive emails from them. >> Yep. >> Uh survey information as well just to keep everybody updated.

120>> Please look for your email state board accounts. It is not fishing. Mr. Hadland does send some of those out, but these are not fishing emails. >> And then you get a phone call from Mr. >> Oh, yeah. >> Welcome to Las Vegas. Anybody have anything else? I I do want to say with the girls, I know you you called out the girls basketball team and that's awesome, but our community supports them really really well and we embarrass every other community we go to. It is insane. Like our student section that shows up at girls basketball games is unheard of. Our not just student section, but adult section puts every other school to shame. And it's not just Union City. It was last year. Uh, I mean it is constantly. So, we have a really

121great community that really supports that team, which is awesome. >> I think we had twice the fans at Union City playing Union City. >> Yes. And I uh the week before that we were the boys were at Newcastle and then the next day the fourth grade team was down there and I was talking to some Newcastle dads down there and even Newcastle ad for the even the boys that we had a bigger fan section and student section than Newcastle did in their builds. So kudos to to that. One other thing um elementary science fair was last week so excellent turnout Amy went for the presentation. It was very well ran, very well done. Congratulations to those kids. Anybody else? Yeah, I'll just repeat my thanks for all the work that's been put into, you know,

122the SWAT for the sixth grade move. And it's not a decision I don't think anybody's taking lightly. And definitely everybody, all stakeholders want what's best for the students. And at the same time, how do we best utilize our buildings? >> Thanks everybody. This meeting's journal. The >> time's an end. That's why I feel was