Noblesville Schools - May 19, 2026 - Board Meeting

001Thank you and now a moment of silence. Thank you. First up we have recognitions Dr. Hayo. All right, thank you board and good evening to all of our guests. Thanks for being here this evening. At this time I would like to introduce Mrs. Marnie Cook our executive director of marketing communications who's going to celebrate some young artists we have with us tonight. Wonderful, thank you. I wanted to start by inviting up our we have several of our art teachers here with us and so I wanted to invite them to come up to the front first, please. >> [applause] >> These are This is obviously the where our students you know start to hone their talents as with all of our fabulous art educators representing all of our different schools. Thank you guys for being here

002tonight. Okay, so I'm going to call up all of our art artists that are here with us tonight and then I'd ask you if you're if your art teacher is here please come stand by your art teacher otherwise you can just stand kind of at the end of the line by Miss Hayes. Okay, from Hazel Dell we have May Fritz and Sarah Medrano Gonzalez. >> [applause] >> From Hinkle Creek we have Elise Whiteman and Mia Witkin. >> [applause] >> From Noble Crossing, we have Janaya Baxter and Macklin Negba. From North, we have Anari Smith and Daphne Spignardi. >> [applause] >> From Promise Road, we have Lilly Abu Afia and Anaya Hamama. >> [applause] >> From Stony Creek, we have River Buck and Daniel Rooney. >> [applause] >> From White River, we have Myer Ferge and

003Clara Capelle. >> [cheering and applause] >> From East Middle School, we have Max Bay Davlatov and Diljot Singh. >> [applause] >> From West Middle School, we have Parker Nelson and Lakeland Sikora. >> [applause] >> And we have several artists from our high school, Ethan Clark, Rosalyn Irwin, Gabriella Sucup, Celia Springer, Maila Vassmyer, and Judah Wisnuski. >> [applause] [applause] >> So, one of the things that we really appreciate about um recognizing students Every year, we recognize a different group of young artists at Noblesville Schools. Um one of the things that we talk about a lot in this administration building is that we want to always make sure that we're in touch as much as possible with our students. Um we try to be out in our buildings as much as possible, but one of the ways

004that we really feel special and connected with students is that we get to enjoy their art every year. So our art teachers um looked out across all of their students and all of their projects throughout the school year and made these selections to have um this these students' art hanging here at our educational services center. So thank you so much to our fabulous art educators, to all of our fabulous artists. Thank you for helping um make our space beautiful with all of your talent. >> [applause and cheering] >> All right, congratulations again to all of our young artists. Uh if you on your way out this evening, if you didn't see them on your way in, if you go out and turn left, all of their artwork is on display right down that hallway. So

005please uh check that out before you go and congratulations again. Uh next I would like to invite Dr. Heather Hendrick um up to the podium because she's going to recognize our 2026 Millers of the Year. Well, good evening everyone. Um tonight I have the honor of recognizing those staff members who embody the very best of our spirit and that is our Miller of the Year Award winners. And these individuals were nominated by their colleagues and then they were chosen by our selection committee. They have all gone above and beyond in their work areas and have have shown an unwavering commitment to our students, to their fellow colleagues, and to our families. So, at this time we're going to welcome those winners up. Um they will be presented with a gift card from our Education Foundation

006and a certificate. Um so, from our food service area, we have Price Workman. Is Price here tonight? >> [applause] >> From maintenance, Neil Weddington. >> [applause] [laughter] >> We'll just have you stand up here for a minute, Neil. From transportation, we have Trish Byrd. Representing our school resource officers, we have Officer Mike Steffen. >> [cheering] [applause] >> And his fan club. Representing our student our substitute teachers, Ms. Kathy Brown. >> [applause] >> From technology, Christy Smith. Representing our front office staff and secretaries, Jessica Schultise. >> [cheering] >> From our nurses who's unable to be here tonight, Alyssa Davis. And lastly from our instructional assistants group, Sandy English. Congratulations to all of you. We'll go ahead and have you turn about here. Thank you for everything. All right, and next I would like to introduce Dr.

007Janae Mobley, who's our uh principal at Noblesville High School, who's going to talk to us about uh high school congressional art competition. Yes, good evening everyone. Um tonight we get to honor another artist uh who won a very high privilege. So, Emery Henderson, could you come on forward? >> [applause] >> Congratulations to junior Emery Henderson on winning the congressional art competition from US Representative Victoria Spartz. Emery's piece is titled In the Garden and will be displayed at the US Capitol building. She's also been invited on a complimentary trip to Washington D.C. to join other winners from across the US. Congrats, Emery. >> [applause] >> Congratulations. How great. All right. Next, to talk to us about our high school wrestling team, I'd like to invite Coach Weimer up to the microphone. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Yeah,

008I'm I know my wife has a stopwatch. She's sitting out there. Um Thank you, Dr. Hal, for being here. Good afternoon, everyone. School board, thank you. Would all my wrestlers please like walk up here? Remember, we got to stay in shoulder to shoulder. No phones. Look at these great-looking young men. Multi-sport athletes. And Coach Bowers. Look at that. Um I do have to say about this team This team this year was a program history year. I'm the head wrestling coach. I've been here for 9 years. Um and basically all these kids I've been coaching since they were in second, third, fourth grade. Um this year we went 20 and 6 and uh our dual team The great thing about wrestling is it is a dual meets, but it's also an individual. So, um during our

009dual meet season we uh got the opportunity and invited to compete in the uh uh IHSWCA Indiana High School Wrestling Coaches Association 4A Team State Duals. Only eight teams are allowed and selected to compete in that. Um we were one of them. It's never been done in the program's history that competed at the state duals. These guys accomplished that. Next you know well, yeah. >> [applause] >> There's kind of a lot of Yeah, there's a they've done a lot of things. This year we won our sectional championship, um third year in a row we won a sectional title, um fourth year out of five that we won that, but we had all 14 wrestlers make it to the sectional championship match and we had nine champions. Um never been done in the program history having

010all 14 guys. It was basically Noblesville wrestling against the best of >> [snorts] >> our sectional. It was pretty cool to see. Um All 14 made it to regionals, obviously, and then all 14 made it to semi-state, also, which has never been done and there was probably only maybe five teams in the entire state that qualified all 14 wrestlers to the individual semi-state. Um that was something again, making history. >> [applause] >> We had two wrestlers um qualify for the individual state tournament. Um Brody Weimer, we step forward. Aiden Kincaide step forward. So, Brody Weimer as a freshman uh wrestled 126 lbs. He's the second freshman to qualify for state in Noblesville's program history. Um only behind the other guy that I'm getting ready to talk about. Um he lost Friday night. Didn't didn't you

011know, when you if you lose Friday night, you don't place. But uh so we got work to do and he's very excited about that. And then the young man next or the older guy next to him, I guess, Aiden Kincaid. Aiden Kincaid uh as a freshman finished fourth in the state, as a sophomore had a lower back fracture, could not compete and had a whole year off. As a junior he came back and he was a I just say 165 lb state runner-up. >> [applause] >> The amazing thing about that is Noblesville has not had a state We've never had a state champion. The last state finalist we had was in 1992. I was 12 years old when I was in 1992. I'm 46, so it's been a minute since we've had someone under the

012lights wrestle for state championship. He is a junior. So obviously we got work to do and you know the goal is hopefully next year we'll be here talking about him winning the being the first ever Noblesville wrestling state champion. So, with that being said, we have also both of those, Brody and Aiden were selected to represent Team Indiana and compete on the um Cadet National Dual Team, Brody, which is 16U, and then Aiden at 18U on Team Indiana against the best in the country from all the other um states in freestyle and Greco, which is the international styles of wrestling. Folkstyle is what high school is. International, when you see on the Olympics freestyle and Greco, they both were selected. And there's only 20 kids basically on each team um and they both were selected

013to make that team. Which is amazing, which has never been done. And then the last thing I want to say, we had five young men qualify for Fargo, which is the toughest tournament in the country which is international styles. Um Henry Antubis Eli Kincade, no, not Eli Kincade. We're going to get him on cuz finished fourth. We're going to get He's going to be our sixth. Brody, Aiden, Zack, and Kale Metzler. So, never had five guys qualify for Fargo and we did that this year. So, I just I mean, this is a trailblazing team. They've been doing these things since they were little kids and now they're in high school and they're like our motto was time to hunt and they were they hunted. They're hunters. So. >> [applause] >> Honey, how did I do?

014That was good, right? Okay. I have all the wives I have all the wrestling moms always keeping time on me. All right. At this time, could I have all of our music educators who are present to come join us up front for just a minute. >> So, I am excited to share um that Noblesville Schools has been recognized for the 12th consecutive year as a national best community for music education by the National Association of Music Merchants Foundation. And this is a particular honor that's that have that is given that Noblesville Schools is one of only two districts in the state to receive this level of consecutive recognition. The National Music Education recognition highlights school districts for their outstanding efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students, and community leaders in embracing music education as a part

015of the core school curriculum. Districts were selected based on music funding, staffing of highly qualified music teachers, commitment to standards, and access to music instruction. And here Noblesville Schools, we are so proud to offer over 30 music classes across all grade levels. So, huge congratulations and thank you for all the efforts of our amazing music educators. Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right, and we have one more student group to honor, but the students aren't here because I believe they are preparing for something this evening if I remember right. So, they couldn't be here, but I we still want to make sure they get honored. Um so, I'm just going to read you a little bit about our high school winter guard. So, the marching band is busy tonight as they are preparing for the

016for the Indy 500 parade. That's a probably a worthy excuse, but we'll let them off the hook this time. But, we wanted to recognize our Noblesville High School Winter Guard as they placed fifth in our state competition. This is their first time being a national semifinalist in the world class category. And then, NHS Indoor Percussion earned a fifth place finish in the Indoor Percussion Association state finals. So, again, a huge congratulation to both of those groups as well. >> [applause] >> All right. And with that, we're going to shift gears now. I would like to invite uh Principal Tonya Moody up to the podium to talk to us about our hair teacher spotlight this evening. Does it matter which one I speak to first, guys? Okay. All right. I'm First of all, so honored to

017speak about the next three teachers. Um first, I'd like to start with Ms. Carrie Gantz. Come on down. Carrie Gantz is a dedicated teacher librarian whose passion for literacy shines in everything she does. We are so lucky that Carrie takes great pride in creating a library where every student explores new books, discovers new interests, and she makes sure they have a lifelong love of reading. Whatever the Whether she is helping a student find the perfect book, planning her engaging activities, or engaging in curiosity, Carrie is making a lasting impact at Promise Road. Carrie Gantz. >> [applause] >> You get to stand right there. I know, isn't this exciting? Next. Oh, what do Where do they want you to go? Okay. All right. Ms. Megan Orcutt. >> [cheering] >> Oh, sorry, guys. Megan is the kind

018of teacher who brings brightness and joy into every room she enters. Megan is our art teacher. She has a remarkable gift for seeing each child for who they are. She came to us from the high school. This is her second year at Promise Road and we feel so grateful that she chose to come down to elementary. I knew when she stepped in for her interview and she had large palettes hanging from her ears and a big skirt that was full of color that she belonged at an elementary school. Her classroom is always a place where students feel safe to grow, create, and be themselves. She has brought color throughout the entire building in ways that Mr. Fama and I are so grateful. Thank you, Megan. >> [applause] >> Okay. Ms. Shelby Johnson. >> [applause] >>

019Shelby is the kind of fourth grade teacher that every school hopes to have. She brings a lot of humor, a lot of kindness, and a lot of energy every day into her class. Quick story, Monday was dress like your favorite admin and Shelby nailed me like nobody's business. It was spot-on to even wearing my glasses, how I wore my glasses, my tennis shoes with a dress, and putting lipstick on throughout the day. >> [laughter] >> Her positive attitude and caring nature make her not only a favorite among students, but she is a trusted teammate who everybody wants to work with. Every child looks to Shelby for both meaningful learning, but also positive relationships they can count on. She has a very unique ability to connect with students, create confidence in them, and make learning engaging.

020We are so thankful for Shelby Johnson. >> [applause] >> I Yes, I'm I'm very excited to bring the team up to present tonight. We were We loved having you come and visit Promise Road today. They did bring back um one of their gifts that we gave them today. Um David, we will be making you one, obviously. Um so if you get a chance to come up and see their picture, I think you would You guys will enjoy it. Okay, come on up. And I'll introduce who is here. Okay. Um with today with us we have Ms. Nikki Boyle, our instructional coach. Ms. Janelle Baker, one of our incredible instructional assistants. Ms. Audrey Schmatz, one of our kindergarten teachers. Ms. Shelby Johnson, a fourth grade teacher, Katie Caesar, our um one of our counselors, Katie Loose,

021our social worker, Ms. Peyton Moore, one of our counselors, and Billy Fama, assistant principal. Okay. We're ready. Okay. As principal of Promise Road Elementary, I am honored to introduce our school community and the values that guide our work each day. We intentionally tonight chose to center our efforts on compassionate care and support, recognizing that students thrive when they feel seen, valued, and encouraged. This commitment is not just a philosophy, it is reflected in the goals you have set for us, and the ways we measure our progress. Through these shared expectations, we ensure accountability while staying grounded in what matters most, the well-being of every child. We are staying grounded. We are excited to share our continued commitment to this work and the meaningful steps we are taking to support our students, families, and staff. Um

022I encourage you to take a moment to just look at these beautiful children and happy people in the photos. It's a great representation of our school, who we are, and what we believe. As Tonya mentioned, um the goals that have been set forth for for us are are in place. Um students feel emotionally and physically safe at our school, and that's very intentional. Our staff is supported so well by our leadership. Um we know that we are loved, and so we are able to love our children well. Um there's trust, respect, empathy, open communication, and strong support amongst the students, the teachers, our leadership, and our families. So, all of the care that we provide to our students, all of the support that we give them, is is shown through the learning that they're doing

023not only in academics, but also all of those soft skills that will impact them for the rest of their lives. So, throughout the rest of this presentation, I hope that you're able to see the really intentional work that we've done to ensure that our care our children have a lot of compassionate care every single day. We'd like to introduce the team behind our work. This committee represents a wide range of roles across our building, administrators, classroom teachers from nearly every grade level, specials areas teachers, support staff, counselors, and instructional leaders. Every perspective was intentionally included because creating a positive school culture takes all of us working together. For this work to be meaningful, we knew it needed to be intentionally developed, consistently taught, and actively lived out by our staff and our students. This timeline

024shows the progression of our work over the past year. We began last March by collaborating to identify the practices and experiences we believed were most important for all students. By July, we had thoughtfully developed and organized how those six best practices would look across classrooms and throughout the building. In August, we intentionally began teaching, modeling, practicing, and reinforcing these expectations school-wide during late start and professional development days, focusing on different practices throughout the year. Now, our focus is on sustaining that work and continuing to live out these practices daily so that every student consistently experiences a safe, supportive, respectful, and engaging learning environment with us living out our promise to every student every single These are our six best practices. Our six best practices are our six agreed-upon beliefs that we promise to every single

025student every single day. We know that anytime anyone enters Promise Road, they will see these practices in action. We take pride in knowing that this is a promise that we will make to our students and ensure that they truly feel that love and care that we have for them every day. As a staff at Promise Road, we know how essential it is to create an environment that is conducive to learning. Um so, creating our six best practices helps us all to be rooted in those core beliefs and bring us back to what matters most, which is our students. These six practices that we've chosen at Promise Road, they align with the commitment that the district has for compassionate care and support for our diverse students. As we've talked about this afternoon, um Promise Road is

026an incredibly diverse school. And when I look at the students, I'm so excited for all of them. Even though they don't know it right now, probably, their lives are daily being enriched by the opportunity they have of being part of such a diverse school like Promise Road. So, what we're going to talk about next are the results of the student wellness survey that you guys approved for this year. And these results have helped us see areas that our work in these six best practices is working. And other areas that we can continue to grow in. First is welcoming climate. Our student survey data shows that students feel welcomed and supported at Promise Road. Creating a positive climate continues to be a top priority because students learn best when they feel valued and connected. Next is

027sense of belonging. We're proud that students also feel re- that they also reported a strong sense of belonging in our school. They feel loved. This reflects the intentional relationships that our staff work to build with them every single day. When the results showed us the teacher receptiveness, um it just showed that the students feel comfortable approaching teachers and believe that their voices are valued and heard in those strong student relationships that are created and worked on each and every day um through those intentional community building, responsive instruction, and teacher language really help foster that trust and communication amongst the students and staff. And then our um safety results we are really proud of because we feel that that shows um that it is a strong a strength in our building environment and that we are

028committed to to maintaining spaces where students feel both physically and emotionally secure through those strong classroom management and those clear and predictable routines and we shout out to our safety guy, Billy Farmer, as well. >> [laughter] >> Hi everyone. Uh we just wanted to thank you again for coming out and visiting us at Promise Road earlier today. We hope you enjoyed your visit. Uh we also appreciate the opportunity to share with you a little bit tonight about our best practices. Uh we realize that's just a snapshot, uh one day, right? So, we wanted to showcase a little bit more of how we have been caring at Promise Road all year long. So, we hope you enjoy the video and I hope Andy can get the sound to work as well. May you have auspiciousness and

029causes of success. [music] May you have the confidence to always do your best. May it take no effort in your being generous, sharing what you can, nothing more, nothing less. May you know the meaning of the word happiness. May you always lead from the beating in your chest. May you be treated like an esteemed guest. May you get to rest. May you catch your breath. I may the best of your today's be the worst of your tomorrows. Woah. I may the road less paved be the road that you follow. Woah. Well, here's to the hearts that you going to break. Here's to the lives that you going to change. Here's to the infinite possible ways to love you. I want you to have it Here's to the good times we going to have. You don't

030need money. You got a free pass. Here's to the fact that I'll be sad without you. I want you to have it all. Woah. I want you just to have it all. I want you to have it all. May you be as fascinating as a slap bracelet. May you keep the chaos and the clutter off your desk. May you have a questionable health and less stress. Having no possessions, though, immeasurable wealth. May you get a gold star on your next test. May your educated guesses always be correct. And may you win prizes shining like diamonds. [singing] May you really own it each moment to the next. I may the best of your today's be the worst of your tomorrows. Woah. I may the road less paved be the road that you follow. Well, here's to

031the hearts that you going to break. Here's to the lives that you going to change. Here's to the infinite possible ways to love you. I want you to have it. Here's to the good times we going to have. You don't need money. You got a free pass. Here's to the fact that I'll be sad without you. I want you to have it all. I want you just to have it all. I want you it all. I want you to have it all. I want you to have it all you can imagine no matter what your path is if you believe it then anything can happen. Raise your glasses. Go. Go. Go. You can have it all. In closing we just like to take the opportunity to say thank you. Thank you for allowing us to

032speak about this but I think as we created this presentation we were also just really thankful to the school board. You've really provided through your strategic goals and your support um an opportunity for us to thrive. So, thank you. We we definitely enjoyed our visit today. Our pictures are are wonderful and you know, we really got to see in action you know, your best practices and and and how much caring you show to your students. It was amazing. And thriving you definitely are. Just a little emotional when you guys first started your presentation just because being there today in that environment it was so warm, welcoming. It was calm but fun. And the kids I mean staff, everybody every single person in the building and you can tell really feels like they belong and they're

033happy to be there. That says a lot for you guys. So, thank you. Thank you. And I'm a basket case these days. Great job. Great job. So good. Thanks for being here. Uh-huh. >> [applause] >> Thank you. That's good vibe. love it. I love all of you all so much. I got you, Julia. I got to be with you. You guys are doing an awesome job. Thank you. Good job. Congrats. Thanks for all you do. Okay. Um next under reports, we have um strategic plan report starting last year. Um we give a brief update each board meeting on a goal that's on our strategic plan. So, this month we have Dr. Ryle. All right. Thank you. Board and uh those still with us in the audience, good to see you tonight. Um we're going to

034keep this brief cuz I have another report to give tonight that's going to take a few extra minutes. So, um I do want to check in really quickly on how things are going here on the strategic plan area. So, just as a quick refresher, um about 2 years ago now, we we had a a pretty in-depth conversation with our community to affirm what the priorities were here at Noblesville Schools. Um and these were those six areas. Uh Parmeswaran actually just highlighted these also. So, great segue for me. Um but with within this section, um tonight we're going to talk just a little bit about Excuse me, celebrated school culture. And so, uh as you see here, the the statement on that is Noblesville Schools is committed to nurturing a welcoming and innovative school community that

035honors our timeless traditions and our school spirit. And so, these were the measures of success for the So, the time we won't we won't dig into those right now, um as well as the strategies. But tonight, we really want to focus in on celebrating Noblesville Schools employees and our community members. Um which was definitely something that came out a lot um when we talked to our community a a couple of years ago. It's something that we value that we value deeply in Noblesville and want to want to honor. And so, the most forward-facing thing that we've done recently in this area has definitely been our new Noblesville Schools Hall of Fame. So, you may recall uh gosh, a year and a half ago, maybe 2 years ago now, that we first talked about that this

036was something that that um had been dreamed up and was something exciting we were going to do. Um and so, we we announced the first class um uh gosh, a year ago already. Um and it was so exciting to to celebrate them, but as part of that process, um the actual structure, of course, took some time to get just right and get and to get built and placed. But, we're very excited that the structure is now built. And so, for those who maybe have not seen this in person yet, this is um next to the community center, between the community center and Beaver Stadium, um right there on the side. And the the location was very intentionally chosen. We wanted to to be near an area that a lot of traffic goes, so the stadium

037area, of course, is an area that a lot of community members visit, but we wanted to make sure it was outside of any barriers that prevent people from be able to just go and visit anytime they chose to do so. And so, this this felt like the perfect spot uh to put um this area to to honor all of these these individuals. And so, if if you haven't again been out there, I would encourage you to stop by next time you're over on that side of town. Um the whole the whole structure is highlighted by by this this structure right in the middle, where um the names have started to be added. So, the inaugural class has now been added, now that we've had their um their um their ceremony to to actually induct them

038into the Hall of Fame. And so, there are eight names now on the structure, and of course, as you can imagine, we're excited to watch this fill um as the years as the years go by. So, just as a reminder, this was the inaugural class that we announced back in 2025, and these are the eight individuals that we honored just a few weeks ago um with a special ceremony there um at the at the community center. And so, here they are. Um that evening, we we definitely got some some fun candid shots of these folks, but for those who weren't able to join us, um each honoree uh I said just a few words about why they were nominated and chosen, and then each of our honorees had a chance to invite a special guest

039to get up and share some personal stories or or, you know, anecdotes about those folks. And I will say for those of us who attended, some of those were quite entertaining to hear some of those secrets from friends and family members who shared some things with us. But, it was such a special night. Um it it it truly was was very emotional for everyone who got to be there. And so, here's Here's one of our our nominees our honorees, excuse me, Tony Euler. Um he shared a few words with the crowd. And most of the honorees also took the opportunity to to express their appreciation and and gratitude. And then, like I said, definitely some funny candid moments before we left that evening um as as as everyone was so excited to be there. So,

040what a great tradition. Um the second class has actually already been announced. We announced that at Miller Palooza about a month and a half ago or so now. And then, we plan to do their induction ceremony this fall. And then, the plan going forward is this will become a fall tradition now. Um the first class was just delayed because of all the the intentionality went into getting the structure open. So, so such a blessing such a a tradition that I think will be so great develop in the years ahead. So, with that, board, I don't know if you have any discussion or comments on that. Anybody? It was great. >> It was great. Great job, Marty. I mean, that whole project, the whole the whole event, it was it was fantastic. >> And it's nice

041where it's placed. Anybody can go see it if your family's in from out of town or Thank you for sharing. It was a great It was a great team effort. David and several of his team members and Heather and Adrian were also important stakeholders and and helping us get that all together. Thanks. And we appreciate the individuals so much, all the commitment that they've given to Noblesville Schools and their dedication to Noblesville Schools. Like, what makes us a great community is people like that. So, that's neat that we get to honor them and appreciate them. So, good idea. >> As someone who actually went through Noblesville Schools, it was it was uh all sorts of emotions to see um you know, John Land, he was he was my first grade teacher, but he was also

042the last principal or my daughter's first principal at Hazeldell. And then he retired. And you know, Mr. Tow, he was my seventh grade science teacher, you know. So, it it was all very nostalgic and it was an honor to be there. Okay. Awesome. Right. >> Thank you, board. Thank you. Okay, next step under reports, we have a financial update, Dr. Hile. Okay. Thank you very much. So, this evening, um I want to give some updates on uh finances here at Noblesville Schools. Um I want to spend a few minutes looking kind of looking backwards and talking about some of the history um as we as we think about our district. I want to talk about our present and then probably most importantly, I want to take a look forward as we as we think about

043some things coming. So, um tonight, the purpose of the presentation that I built tonight um are these these four items. I want to provide the board and our community um an update on current and future financial status and projections for our district. Um I want to explain a little bit about some of the impact um that we're seeing here locally uh as related to some legislative changes that have happened over the last couple of years. Um SCA 1 is the one that has gotten the most attention, but there's actually a few that came before that that have had an impact on Noblesville Schools as well. So, we're going to briefly touch on those. Um I do want to discuss our prior our prior and our current referendums that we have had here at Noblesville Schools.

044And then I do want to share some thoughts and some initial information about the possibility of a of a future referendum campaign. So, with that though, um I have to put on my teacher hat for a moment. So, I do want to um to make sure everyone kind of understands everything else we're going to talk about tonight. I'm going to give everyone that's here with us this evening a quick crash course in how school funding works in Indiana cuz I think this is really important to understand these pieces as we talk about everything that comes next. So, um in in the biggest most broad term, school finance is is uh kind of managed in buckets is the way that we we often talk about it in schools. And so, for here at Noblesville Schools, we

045have five main buckets where our revenue will come to us. Um the biggest one is the one on the left called the education fund. This This the one that is funded by the state budget and it's the one that's tied to student enrollment. So, the more students you have, in theory, the more the more funding you'll have in the education fund and vice versa. Um it is the largest fund by far for every school corporation in the state of Indiana and it's that way by design, but it's also the only one that is funded by the state legislature through the budget. The next one that every school has is the operations fund. The operations fund is locally funded by property taxes. Again, in every district in Indiana has an operations fund of some kind. Um

046the way The easiest way to think about the operations fund is that it funds everything um that helps with operational side of the district. And so, um a lot of our positions that are not teachers um might be in this in this. A lot of support staff, technology, utilities, things of that nature. Sorry, I skipped a step. Back on the education fund, the easiest way to think about it is anything that has to do with teaching kids is probably coming out of that fund. So, operations basically pays for a lot of the other day-to-day expenses. Then, the other fund that I would say every district likely has, I would have to pull a chart to be 100% sure, but it'd be unlikely anyone wouldn't have this one is the debt service fund. The debt service

047fund is exactly what it sounds like. It's a fund that's used to pay back debt. The only time that school districts take on debt are is typically when they're going to do some sort of a large-scale building project or maintenance project or repairs or things things that cost a lot of money that obviously can't be just built into the regular budget. Um it's kind of a common misconception that schools should just save up for big projects. The reality is schools don't have enough extra money to ever really save up anything. So, to do that, it is it is an expected part of school finance in Indiana that schools will establish a debt service fund and then take out bonds, which are another word for a loan, um that then is just paid back over time.

048So, that is what that fund is exclusively used for is paying back any debts that we take on for big big projects. Um and then, the two that that not every district has, but we do here in Noblesville, um the referendum fund, which that fund is essentially additional uh dollars that are provided by the community through a vote that the district can then use to further meet their mission. And it can be used for whatever the community approves it for. Um so, we'll talk a little bit more about that in a few minutes. But here locally, just in big broad terms, that is typically used for um to help um help increase teacher salaries, to keep class sizes low, a lot of our school safety and student mental health initiatives, and so on. A lot

049of those extra things that we want to provide for our children um are are made possible through that referendum fund. And then the last one, the exempt debt fund, this one's kind of confusing. This one is tied to a capital referendum. So, a capital referendum is a referendum that a district might take out if they are doing a large, really large project. There are certain projects that meet a certain threshold that can only happen if the community votes on them. That's pretty rare, but it does happen. Um and we're going to talk about ours in a few minutes. I'll I'll show you a couple examples of ours. But the but the way the fund works, it works just like the debt service fund. All it is is the it is just being paid back over

050time. The only difference is it's just structured bit differently because it was voted on by the community versus everything in the debt service. So, with that said, the three that that we're going to really uh talk it most about tonight are these three right here: the Ed Fund, the Operations Fund, and the Referendum Fund. Because collectively, these are the three funds that David, our CFO, and I kind of refer to as our operational funding. These are the three that basically have our cash flow to run this district day-to-day, and to pay all the bills, and to pay all the people, and to do everything it takes to operate Noblesville Schools. Um and so, if you if you look there, you'll kind of see the breakdown. You'll see that again, the Ed Fund, as I said,

051is by far the largest at 60%. Ops Fund is is at 21. And then our Referendum Fund is almost 20% of our budget. Um and that's for this for this current year in 2026. So, a question, because obviously we're going to talk about uh referendum tonight, a question that comes up a lot is, "Well, why does Noblesville Schools need a referendum?" You know, not every district has one, or maybe people might think, "Well, maybe we should we should not have one." So, I thought we should spend a few minutes kind of looking at what what factors kind of influence the way our funding comes in and out that that kind of has made this a part of Noblesville story for so long. So, this chart right here, um if you can see it, it's kind

052of small cuz there's so much on it. But, what this chart is showing you is the basic grant. So, this is Ed Fund per student that every single district in the state of Indiana receives. So, if you look at this chart, you can see somebody's all the way over on the left that's pretty pretty significantly higher than everybody else all the way down to the right, which is the district that receives the least. The state average is right there in the middle. That number, if you can't read it, is $7,490 per student. Um and Noblesville Schools is uh 273rd out of the 290 school districts in the state. Um and we receive $7,184 per student in foundation and complexity funding. And why this matters is um you know, we are we are being funded below

053significantly below, I would argue, the state average when compared to other districts. And it is what it is. It's been this way for a long time. There's a lot of reasons within the formula of why that exists. But, the fact remains, our district does receive less dollars than most districts in the state through that education fund through the student student formula. And just to do really quick math, um if it if it helps think about this, we're in the bottom 6% in the state when it comes to Ed funding like this. Um it's about $306 difference between those two if we were at state average. And if we were at state average, based on this year's enrollment this fall, um that right there would give us an additional $3 million annually into our Ed Fund.

054That would give us more uh dollars to help operate the district, okay? And and at the end of the day, um this is this is just the way the budget is structured and without getting into all the the details of why, um it's typically uh the case that a lot of more affluent districts just receive left fund less funding from the state. It's the way the formula works. Um again, this is nothing new. This has been Noblesville story for a long time, but it's an important part of our story that that I think needs to be needs to be shared. So, then let's talk about the operations fund, the other big fund that we talked about. So, So again, you probably know what this chart is showing you cuz it works the same way. It's

055showing you the district who gets the most on the left to the least on the right. Um you see the state average there, it's 1,934 and Noblesville is 247 out of 290 um at 1,251. So, in this case, again, this is the operations fund. This is the other big fund that pays bills and helps us operate the district, pays pays for insurance and technology and and non-certified staff and so on. Um the difference here, this puts us in the bottom 15%. The difference is about $683 per student and in this case, if we were just state average per student, this would generate another $7 million a year in more funding that we would be receiving to again help pay our bills and operate. So again, we've talked about two funds so far and you kind

056of see the trend here of part of why Noblesville has always kind of had some funding gaps when we think about how we compare to our peers um throughout the state. So, just in case you're curious, I always hesitate to put other districts up by name, but I'm going to make I'm going to make one exception on this slide only because a lot of people sometimes wonder, well, how do we compare to our county peers? And so, when we're looking at operations fund, this is the county. Um these are the six districts here in Hamilton County. Um and again, this is not a criticism. This is not a Let's Let's point fingers, but rather just to understand that school funding is not the same in all places and districts get funded at different levels. Um

057and so, the what what really influences this for the operations fund, it it truly comes down to what the balance is between what different property types exist within your community. Um and we're going to talk more about that here in just a second um on next slide. So, when we look here, this is a lot of information. So, I'll try to just give you the highlights of what this is telling you. This is for our township, Noblesville Township, which is where our whole the school district is contained of what is called our taxing district. And so, within that, we have Noblesville Township, but then the big one is Noblesville City. Those of us who live here know, just cuz you're if within the borders doesn't mean you're in the city limits and you have different

058tax rates depending on where you live. But at the end of the day, all of us, if we are residents of Noblesville schools, are in one of those two areas. And [clears throat] if you look over on the right at the top, that is showing you the breakdown of um home values when it comes to assess values. So you see the majority of folks are kind of right in that middle range, and then there's some outliers um on both ends there. But the the really important part I want to highlight is the bottom right. The bottom right is showing you how property tax caps affect our district. Because um you may not know this or may not remember this, but back in around 2009, 2010, the state uh constitution was amended to put property tax

059caps in place. And what that did it was it was a means of property tax relief for business owners and home owners. Um and what it what it did is say, "Well, your property can't be taxed higher than a certain amount." Which is great as a home owner, but the trade-off of that is of course it then starts reducing revenue for all of the government units that that get their funding through taxes. And so if you look, um category one, cap one, that long line for us, that's home owners. And so in Noblesville, the vast majority of our property is home owners. And home owners are the ones that hit the cap the fastest. And so in our in our area, most home owners are already at their caps. And so we are not collecting

060as much money as some other communities might uh as some other districts might through that. Um and then if you look below that, if you're curious, cap two are apartments and farmland, and cap three is commercial. Um so again, when you think about that chart before, because we are so heavy residential in Noblesville, we just have a larger um uh property tax cap loss as a result of that. It's just the way the way that it works. So, talking speaking of the tax caps, this is something people hear about uh a lot. Um when we were working working with some of our outside consultants to help us run our financial analysis as we prepare for this conversation, I asked them to do a look back um and talk to us about, "Well, can you go

061back maybe 10 or so years, and how much money have we lost each year to those tax caps? And so, this is this is it um to the dollar of what we've lost over about an 11-year period in Noblesville Schools to the tax caps. Um so, if you if you look there if you just again, I'll do the math for you. If you add those up over just that 11-year period, um that's about 41 and 1/2 million dollars over over that 11-year period in total that that we have not collected. And again, um as a homeowner, we all appreciate property tax relief, of course. You know, it has done its intended job of of kind of slowing down property tax growth. Um but at but at the end of the day, it does reduce revenue

062um for our school district, as I just showed you on the on the slide that came before. So, knowing all that information, um Noblesville Schools has um been part of the has been a part of the referendum conversation pretty much since referendums became a thing. So, around around that 2008-9 time period when the state legislator made some legislature made some changes to um how the budget was going to work, how state how school funding was going to work, um the tax caps came into law. >> [clears throat] >> Our very own uh Senator Kenley actually was kind of the person who had this idea of well, if communities want to provide more funding for their schools, there should be a vehicle that would allow them to do that. And so, out of that idea became

063the the referendum option. And so, in its purest form, what a referendum means all referendum means is the community votes on it, whatever it is. So, there can be a referendum for lots of things. In our case, we're only worried about referendums for for money, for funding. But in this case, it means that a community took a vote. And so, I wanted to quick give a quick history lesson on the referendums that have happened in Noblesville ever since. So, if you look there at the top, these these three that are on this page, these are all construction referendums. This is different than the referendum when people say referendum that they're usually thinking about. These are for specific construction projects that were happening at that time. So, the first one in 2009, you can see there

064it did not pass. It barely failed, but it was not successful. Um I will tell you that was right after referendums became a thing, and people didn't really know what they were doing. No offense to the past leaders of Noblesville Schools, but it was very new. They weren't really sure how to navigate this. So, it almost passed, but it did not. Um the following year in May, however, um they came back and had a conversation with the community, and then it was very successful. It passed by I believe about 60%. And if you're curious what that one paid for, the 2010 construction referendum built Promise Road. Ironic that they're here tonight. Hey, good job. Yep. Um it was also the conversion of West from an intermediate to a middle school. That happened as part of

065this funding. Um and then there were some expansions and mechanical updates to several of the elementaries as they were going through the transition to K-5 buildings. So, those of you who were in the district back then, you probably remember all those projects. That's the money that helped pay for all of those things. So, that was a lot of cost. That's why that went to a community vote for those projects. And then a few years later, um the district said, "Hey, we have one more big project we need to do in 2013." So, once again, that passed and that passed by an even wider margin. Um and that one was to add the freshman center on at the high school. Um it was the addition of the new high school secure office area that that is

066still in use today. And it was also the renovation at East. Um so, again, very large projects um that needed to be funded through a vote because of the way that worked. But, the referendum that we're really here to talk about is are these right here. Um these are our operating referendum that have happened over over the time that this has been an option. So, the very first one was passed back in May of 2010. Um the second one was in May of 2016, and the most recent one, and the one that still exists today, was passed in the fall of 2018. So, again, just in it at the most high level possible, these referendums have just provided additional dollars from the community to make up some of those funding gaps, and to also say,

067"Hey, our community wants us to do these extra things. This is the funding provided to do those things." Um so, a few examples, of course, we we are very proud of our school safety program here in Noblesville Schools. The fact that we have at least one SRO in every school, that's very unique, but that that costs money. Um we have we have expanded mental health uh supports for children and and counselors and all sorts of programs. Those those require extra funding. Um we again have been able to keep class sizes lower than some other districts. That's cuz we have funding and so on and so forth. And so so that is what these are currently funding and we hope will continue to fund. The reason I wanted to make sure I pointed out the the

068um building operating uh operating referendum, however it is for those who are who look at their tax bills, those are still being paid off. They'll be paid off soon, but they show up. And sometimes that leads to confusion. People sometimes think, "Oh, they already have two referenda at the same time." One is not this. It's just a debt being paid back for those building projects that we talked about a minute ago. So that's That's a source of confusion sometimes that people don't don't know what the difference is. So I want to spend a minute talking about what's our current state of finances here here at Noblesville Schools. And a great place to start is this headline right here. Um so if you lived uh if you were uh paying attention a few months ago, um

069we actually put a statement out ourselves uh to share with our community that um due to some changes in our revenue from the state for some of the things that we just talked about and some things coming up, um that we were going to need to right-size the budget a little bit. You know, when revenue drops, you can't sustain that forever. You do have to adjust your budget just like you do at home. And so um we we believe so so strongly that this the school district belongs to the taxpayers and community members of Noblesville as well. So we want them to know what's going on and how we're being good stewards of their dollars. And so we put this out um proactively to say, "Hey, you know, here's what's going on. Here's where we

070are." And because of that, we need to make some adjustments just to balance the budget and be good stewards of our tax dollars. And so um we put this out. Of course, it did generate um some media attention and social media attention, but that's okay. That was That was the purpose. We wanted the community to know um to know what was going on. So here's a few of the factors why, if you haven't seen this before. You heard me say [clears throat] a minute ago our biggest fund is driven by student enrollment. Um so, what this chart is telling you is the blue line is what our demographer, who's a person who kind of studies enrollment trends and kind of gives you predictions, this is what he said a couple of years ago that he

071thought was going to happen to our enrollment. And then a couple years later that had not come true, the red line is is what really happened. And so, a couple years later we said, "Hey, we need an updated study. Can you give us an updated prediction?" And so, that was the green line, but unfortunately that didn't come true either. And so, the red line is showing you what our enrollment has done. And so, unfortunately this year our enrollment did drop by just over 200 students. And there are a few There are a few factors for that. Um one of them is, you know, Indiana continues to become more and more choice state. There are more choices than ever before. Um that's great for parents, but that does of course affect enrollment sometimes if people decide

072that they they would like have another option for their child. But really here in Noblesville some of the biggest factors that we're navigating right now, um even though it's [clears throat] hard for people to believe this chart when I share it, because we still see new homes being built all over the place around here, the truth is we've kind of crested the tipping point now where new homes are not outpacing those of us who our last child is graduating and we're not leaving. And so, there are the home pace is not keeping up with our graduating seniors each year over time. Um and so, it's just start starting to come the other way. Uh birth rates are down around the United States. Um enrollment drops are pretty much in every state right now for that

073reason. Birth birth rates are just down in the United States. That's not a That's not unique to Noblesville. And then one other factor um that we're starting to notice here, especially in Hamilton County, um and this is something that's out of our control is that home prices continue to climb. And in for some communities, and I think we're one of them, you know, some families when they have young school-age children are unable to afford a home in this community right away. And so, they may be coming in later um because interestingly our student enrollment climbs as we move up to the older grades. And I think that's part of that part of that phenomenon as well. So again, I know I've already said it, but remember our our education funding is tied to the trends

074shown on this graph. It is tied to our student enrollment. And so that's very very important that we keep tabs on that. And so because of that, um and also because of some of those changes that our legislature made a few months or a few years ago, um both through Senate Enrolled Act 1 and a few other things they did prior to that, um this significantly has overhauled our revenue streams and how money has been coming into the district. And so unfortunately, um those have really hit our operations and our referendum funds. Um and and again, these these have just taken a toll. And so what this is showing you here, this chart, is just showing you revenue versus expenditures. It's It's just a very simple graph. Um but it's just but its purpose is

075to show that while most years we were running in a slight, um you know, surplus, which is what you want. You want to continue to build reserves for for when rainy days come along, um or at least be a balanced budget. And while we've had that for so long, because of all those unanticipated changes that happened, the last two cycles unfortunately have put us into a deficit spend. And so we can maintain that for a while. We are very financially conservative and very healthy, but that also means we have to react to right-size the budget because we can't maintain that forever. And so that that is the rationale for what we shared a few months ago. And so when we think about that, remember I showed you this chart, these are the three funds that

076that pay for day-to-day and all the things that happen here, but the companion chart that goes with it is this one. This one is the our is showing you all that money in those three in the chart on the slide before, those three funds, but this is where that money goes. And so if you look here at this chart, 87% of the money that comes in for the education, operations, and referendum fund is going to people, either in salary or benefits or both. Um and so that's great. That's how it should be. We are We are quite literally a people business. Those who've heard me talk about this before already know the joke I'm going to say next. We're a We're a people business. We We employ and retain and and attract the best big

077people to help educate the little people, right? That's what we do. Um but that also means that if [clears throat] we have to make adjustments, there's not a whole lot in that 13% that can be trimmed because it's already operating pretty efficiently at this point and we can't make up large deficits by trimming but so much out of the small the small pie. So most cuts that happen, unfortunately, usually end up affecting people or programs. And so what have we done um to reduce some of these expenses this year? And so um we have been reviewing renegotiating our contracts and our services um to seek savings. I'm going to pause for a minute and give a huge praise to our CFO David over there at the other end of the the dais. David is quite

078literally a master negotiator. Um Yes, it's it's well deserved. Well deserved. Um any any contract or agreement we get, David somehow finds a way to get them to give us it for a cheaper price every time. It's like magic. If you need someone to help you buy your next car, call David. Take him with you. Um we've also been reevaluating our programs and our structures to make sure that we are operating as efficiently and effectively as we can. So So you know some examples of that might just be, you know, looking at the way we structure um some some of our the way we do operations here in this building or the way we manage certain things. Is there a more efficient way to do that that would trim some costs? I'm trying to protect

079the student experience at all as much as possible and yet looking for ways to be to be more innovative and and efficient. We've also established some new processes that help us make decisions for staffing. Um we're we're looking at it a little differently and so the administrative team knows for the last year or two, we've just taken a different approach to staffing to be a little more um stringent in how we look and evaluate any new positions or even refilling positions to make sure that we're looking for the least impactful ways to to shore up the budget, um which then leads to right-sizing our staffing and our programs and structures. And then a piece that David and I continue to do um weekly, daily. We continue to advocate with our legislators because they they are

080the ones who set the laws. They're the ones who govern how we can or cannot collect revenue and how we can spend it. They need to hear from us. And so I was at the State House yesterday actually, you know, meeting meeting with some of important policy makers there and then lending our story as Noblesville Schools and and letting them know kind of how we're navigating some things. During the session the last few springs David and I both will go individually or together to meet with with policy makers for the same reason to tell our story and to help them make better decisions and help them understand how these decisions will have a real world effect back home here in Noblesville. >> [clears throat] >> So just to give you a quick quick summary of

081kind of what we've done the last the last I'll say year and a half. We we kind of had two phases of this and the first one we didn't talk a lot about cuz it was much smaller and they were just things we were able to do naturally. And that's what I what I've listed there in the 200 excuse me the row. Kind of like leading into the school year we already knew some of this was coming. We know our staff can tell you we talked about this a long time ago for the first time. This wasn't a surprise when we got to this conversation in the spring. But because of that we we started kind of being a little mindful of some staffing and and some things. And so through that we were able

082to reduce about 14 positions in the first part of the year. But then in February when we had a really you know say okay we need to make a more significant shift. Through all that and I will say we were blessed to be able to do most of this through retirements, attrition and then there were a few true cuts. We were able to reduce a total of 46 positions throughout the district while still protecting student experience and programming through that. So over that probably year year and a half period it's been about 60 positions that that we have reduced and the savings the budget impact on that is is over $4 million in salaries and benefits for for all the things that come with that. And I do want to highlight cuz this is a

083question that comes up a lot you know where did these where did these cuts happen? Part of those cuts that just happened a few months ago was a 6% reduction in our top administrative staff. Um that includes two members of the executive cabinet here at ESC. Um because it was so important that we take a look at the entire district, um not just focus on, you know, teachers or classified staff or whatnot, but to really look everywhere and decide what is the what is the most appropriate um way to navigate this together. So, in addition to that, just a few a few highlights about Noblesville Schools, just how we operate in general. Um in addition to those efforts, here's a few other things that we're always doing as as as, you know, folks who are

084responsible for the school corporation. Um we have had a commitment the last 7 years to continue um doing what we can to reduce our school tax rate for our taxpayers. And it has dropped 7 years 7 years in a row, which has been a a great success. Um um that debt fund that I talked about a minute ago, um David Mr. Hordermiller has had us on a very aggressive debt payoff schedule, which ultimately saves us dollars um as taxpayers here in Noblesville Township. And then a huge success, and David gets all the credit for this because it is truly because of his leadership, um our district is has a credit rating of AA, and that's the highest in the state. And there are only three other school corporations in the state of Indiana that have

085that credit rating. And that doesn't happen by accident. It happens through very strategic and intentional decisions um and careful management of our money. So, again, a huge thank you to David for that. And what that means, if you're a taxpayer here in Noblesville Schools, um what that means to you is when we do need to take out a bond to fund repairs, projects, maintenance, you know, the high school right now is having all the air handlers replaced. That's a $20 million, I believe, project overall. When we do that, we get the cheapest borrowing rates possible because we have the highest credit rating. So, it's a huge win for all of us. But, that's really important that he that he worked so hard on that. So, huge thank you to David for that. Um and at

086the end of the day, to kind of wrap up this section, it it's so important that our district has to stay financially stable, though. Um because, as you can imagine, you know, we have so many employees that depend on us being stable for their for their weekly paychecks and to provide for their families and it's important that we do that to provide the best for our children that we serve. Um, because when we when we think about this in the central office, there's two main priorities that I have on this slide that we that we try to frame every financial decision through and that is providing an outstanding educational opportunity for every child every day. And two, seeing what ways we can always continue to invest in our hardworking employees um, because they they deserve

087it and we want them to have a great experience being a part of our being a part of our team also. So, let's talk for just a second about how the new property tax legislation is going to affect our school district specifically. So, if you [clears throat] look at the top left of this chart, again, I'm sorry for lots of lots of things on one page. But if you look at this chart, this is showing you um, a couple of things. The top left is showing you the dash line is our gross assessed value and assessed value just means the total amount of property um, property value that exists within a certain area. So, for us it's it's our school district. So, if you added up the the property values of every single home and

088business and piece of land, that's what is in that chart. But then the lines below it are the net values because as if you're a homeowner and you pay taxes, you probably know you don't actually pay based on that top number, you get a bunch of deductions and things that come off and then that's the number they use to figure out your tax bill. But in the past, if I could stand up there and cover the chart, I would I would ask you to ignore everything from 26 forward because in the past it has always worked that even though there's a gap between that line and the one below, they follow each other and they always follow each other, right? They even though they're not at the same place, they're going the same direction. What's

089happening with SEA 1 that you've heard about, the Senate Enrolled Act 1, is it is going to change how this works and it and the easiest way to say it is that it is going to artificially deflate the assessed value that's used to collect our our revenue from from taxes now. Um, so, if you look, you'll see that even though the top line is predicted to continue growing because our home values will probably continue to rise, the value used to generate revenue for all the taxing units is going to be pushed down. And the way that's happening with the two charts below, um there are there are there are homestead deductions um that are coming that are coming off for homeowners. Those will continue to increase. And then the same is true for those in

090the 2% which if you remember are apartments and the farm land. They will also start seeing some additional deductions that are going to change how the how the thing works. And so, at its purest level, here's kind of a historical look back and then a forecast forward of what our net assessed value is just generally speaking for our operations for operations fund. And so, if you look here, you'll see that we had that period of growth. For anyone who was a homeowner or was unfortunate to move in the '22-'23 time period like I did when I moved to Noblesville, you probably remember that home values there was one particular year when they all really jumped. Probably not hard to spot on that chart. Um it was not long after COVID when, you know, all that

091happened. And so, we we still see that reflected, but now the market is kind of normalized and gone back to normal normal normal levels. But, it's probably not going to go backwards. Those home values increases are going to just remain now in part of your value. But, if you look, you will see that starting in '27, just like on that other chart, it's actually going to go backwards. And it's going to go backwards for 5 years straight is what's predicted to happen. And so, we have to factor that in when we think about how our revenue was now going to work as we plan um as we plan for plan for the future. And so, in in the biggest summary of this is that because of all this, we do anticipate that we will lose

092several millions of dollars each year because of these changes. Um it's just going to change how how our revenue is is collected. So, how would this affect um any type of a referendum renewal for Noblesville schools? So, when we look here, um this this is the same chart, but it's slightly different. The percentages are just a little bit different. If you If you have a good photographic memory, remember the other one. And that's because this is the projection for the referendum fund, and I won't bore you with all the the math details, but in short, the referendum fund gets calculated just a little bit differently, and it has to do with TIF districts. TIF districts don't pay um things on that other chart, but they do still pay the referendum. And so, we have to

093look at a little bit differently. Again, Policy Analytics, which is the firm that helped us with all this analysis, really tries to be as exact as possible so that we have really really accurate data. So, anyway, that's what this is That's what this is showing us here. Um and so, this this kind of helps us look at what's what's coming. And so, if we look, um what this chart right here is showing you, I had the map over top of what I just showed you for the assessed value, but I had the map, if we kept the same ref Excuse me, referendum rate that we have today, what would happen? So, if we just said, "Noblesville, would you let us continue the same tax rate that we have right now, even though it's the same,

094it will generate less revenue year over year for that period until all the changes are implemented, and then it will start to turn the corner back up?" Um obviously, you know what that would mean for the budget. If the revenue starts dropping again, we would have to account for that somehow. And so, want to make sure this is very clear though that this is this is why we're we're looking at this a little bit differently now. So, um what instead that we're starting to do is we had them project out, "Well, what is another option that we could do?" Um this is a potential uh a potential rate strategy that we could use instead now now that we understand these new rules under SEA 1. And so, just in in pure form, um we're currently

095looking at what it would look like to have a maximum rate of 57 cents instead of 37 cents, but with a gradual rate increase over that same period so as not to overly burden our taxpayers, but also make sure that we're taking care of of the needs of the district and maintaining financial stability um moving forward. But as part of this, you know, David and I have discussed that if we if we use the strategy like this, we would absolutely want to make a commitment to our community of a not to exceed increase year over year. Again, to be good stewards of those dollars and have a very clear commitment to our community. And so, right now, what's modeled here is a no more than 4 cent increase to the rate each year until it

096hits that 57 cent rate um out when it when it hits the peak there at the at the end. So, let's [clears throat and snorts] look at the math. Excuse me for just a second. I'm talking a lot. So, let's look at the math together. So, this shows the revenue that would be generated generated under those scenarios. So, the bottom line is the one that I already showed you. If we kept the same 37 cent rate, again, it's going to decrease revenue. So, that would involve additional budget cuts year over year over year over year until until, you know, it bottomed out in 31 32. Um the dotted line is the revenue that would be generated um if we if SCA 1 had never happened at all. So, let's say SCA 1 was not a

097thing, the assessed value just kept on climbing and we said, "Let's just keep 37 cents." That's what the revenue would have been at that dash line, but that's not an option anymore cuz SCA 1 did happen and it won't happen. But, just for comparison, if none of this happened 2 years ago, we would we would be well, at least thinking about what could this be. The purple line, however, is the revenue generated with SCA 1, but under that that gradual rate strategy that I just showed you on the on the prior slide. And a couple things I do want to point out. Um this does generate less revenue than the than the 37 cent rate under the old model, but we expected that and we planned for that. And and here's why. The goal, before

098SCA 1 was even a conversation a couple years ago, the goal was always to look at any way we could reduce the rate if if we brought this back to our community for a conversation. That was always the plan. Um we were we were looking for for to do more with less and to be more efficient and to, you know, thank our community for their ongoing support over 16 years. Um but look for ways to do that. SCA 1 has just changed how this has to work now. But that is still the goal is to still say, "Hey, we think we can still reduce a little bit here and be excellent stewards and be mindful of the intent of property tax reform while still doing all the things that our community wants us to deliver

099for for the children of Noblesville." Um and so, if you look here, this is This is showing This chart is showing you the the actual impact, year-over-year increase on the median taxpayer in Noblesville in our community. And so, currently in 2026, the median home um the gross assessed value of that home is $351,000 or $350. That is the median, not the average, but the median. So, essentially, the majority of homes are pretty close to this number right here, okay? So, what we had them run is, "Please run how much the increase would cost annually um under both of the scenarios, both the old 37-cent rate, what would people have been paying if nothing would have changed and we would have just kept the rate versus this new idea of that gradual no more than 4-cent

100rate increase up to tapping out at 57 cents. And so, you can see the comparison and actually how it shrinks over time. It gets wider as it goes for the impact for our homeowners. And again, just to do some very, very quick math, um like I said, the goal was always to lower the rate, and that's exactly what this is doing. It's just going about it a different way under the new SCA 1 rules. And so, with that, um if you're curious, I did some math for you. Um for this median taxpayer right here, over the over the life of the 8 years, um this is just under a $2.50 a month increase. That's what we're talking about here, year-over-year based on what we're paying right now. That That's it. Uh $2.50 average per month

101each year over the over the 8 years. Um so, again, trying to be very mindful of our of our community and our and our taxpayers. So, with that, we're on the home stretch. Um what would be the process if if the board did decide to to have this conversation with the community? So, just in pure form, we've talked about this so many times, but I want to I want to say it clearly tonight. Um our current operational referendum, the one that I showed you many slides ago that was passed in in November of 2018, um by law, referenda in Indiana cannot exist longer than 8 years. So, you just do the quick math. 2026 is year eight, so our referendum will automatically sunset and expire on December 31st of this year. It will no longer

102exist. And so, that funding stream of about $25 million a year will go away if nothing else happens. If we just say we're we're not going to talk about this anymore and we're done, it will just stop. But then that means the budget will need to be corrected $25 million annually the other direction. Um so, with that with that note, obviously you know why this is such a priority to talk about tonight and to consider. So, the process and the timeline, very basically, up until tonight, um David and I have worked with with several um experts that that, you know, were that do a lot of this financial modeling on the outside, um so they could run different forecasts for us, look at different options, what could be some approaches with this, um being mindful

103of of two things: accomplishing those financial goals that we talked about a few minutes ago, but also truly trying to to do our best to live within the spirit of property tax reform and taking care of our taxpayers and our neighbors and our friends who live who live here and pay these taxes with us. Um because at the end of the day, let's just be honest, no one likes to pay taxes, self-included. Nobody gets up and is excited to go pay their property tax bill, but that's part of living in a in a community and having wonderful schools and wonderful amenities and all all the services that we that we enjoy here in Noblesville. And so, um with that, anyway, we we had them run all these forecasts so that we could think through some

104options and start really preparing for tonight. So, tonight, um May 19th, is what I just did for you here. Um I I gave you this presentation. And later on this evening in the agenda, I will be recommending that the board approve a resolution. Um and all this resolution is doing is giving David and I permission to talk to our county auditor about some of the back-end paperwork and whatnot that would be involved if the board would choose to move forward. To be crystal clear with the community tonight, this does not commit us to move forward. It does not lock in a rate. It doesn't commit anything. But just to be a show of good faith, we would like the board to officially give us permission to have those conversations so we can ask more questions

105and develop the paperwork for further consideration. Then at the next regular board meeting, which is Tuesday, June 9th, um that would be when I would make a ultimate recommendation to the board um to move forward with the referendum process. At that point, we would have to talk about how the question would read that'd be on the ballot. Um and we would also have to establish a maximum rate. Something I kind of skipped over on those prior charts, but I think it's important to to explain is on the ballot um what has to be approved by the board and shows on the ballot is whatever you think the highest rate at any point in the 8 years will be. The irony is you don't actually have to take it all every year. Um and sometimes you

106don't need to take it all and we can get into that another time. But on the question, we have to share this is the highest we think it will ever be. And so that's a big decision, right? That's a lot on the board to decide and also a lot for for um for Dan and David to also think about. But ultimately, June 9th, that's the recommendation that would be made. Um if the board chose to move forward and and vote to put that on the ballot, then from June 9th to November 3rd is what's considered the campaign period. Referendums are a political campaign just like any other. They follow a lot of rules just like regular campaigns. Um we would be sharing a ton of information with our community at that point, um having lots

107of community meetings. I'll be available pretty much anytime, anywhere to come and meet with folks and answer questions and help people understand what a yes vote means and what a no vote means. And then ultimately, the the actual vote for the referendum is just on the regular election day with every other vote that we will all make when we go to vote on November 3rd at the general election. It's just one of the many things that'll be at the ballot waiting for you that day. So, last thing, um where can community members go for more information? Um about a year or so ago, um we were very excited to launch our Dollars and Cents website. So, if you haven't had a chance to to check it out, I would strongly encourage you to do so.

108There is a link right on the front page of our of our main district uh web page. Um and we have all sorts of information on there about all of the things that I've talked about tonight, how our funding works, how we spend our money, um cuz again, this could this district belongs to the taxpayers and community members of Noblesville. And I feel strongly they have a right to know everything about how we run this district. And so, that includes our finances. And so, we built this for our community. So, please, um if you haven't checked it out, please do. Um and if you have any feedback for us, we'd love to we'd love to hear that as well. So, with that, board, I'm going to stop and see what questions or discussion you have

109about anything that I just talked about. I have four. Okay. I just counted. All [laughter] right. Ask away. >> many notes, but four of them are actual questions or I guess just clarifications. Um so, we're just to be clear, we're obviously not the only district in the state that is having to adjust our budget and these referendum discussions. Can you give us an idea of what that looks like? Yep. So, um we won't know for sure until everyone has made their decisions here in a month or so, um but this conversation is happening statewide. Um we are hearing that it's potential there could be 40 to 50 districts who are considering a referendum this fall for various reasons. Um some don't have one at all, and so now it's time to have that conversation. Some

110are like our district where it's just expiring and it's time to talk about it anyway that we would have needed to talk about it no matter what this year. Um some districts have a referendum now and are needing to go back early to their community and and discuss maybe increasing the referendum because of some of the same reasons we just talked about tonight. So yes, this is not unique to Noblesville. This is this is kind of the sign of the times right now. Right. Right. It's nothing to do with mismanagement. It's all state funding and >> Yep. Okay. Yep. Um And our audits are public record. If you want to see our audits, we actually just our most recent audit very clean. And then also just just to confirm an earlier statement was we could

111potentially have a higher rate by 20 cents. But homeowners would actually notice a decrease in what they pay. Correct? For the referendum. >> The the It's hard that that's hard to pinpoint because the the tricky thing is everyone's individual tax situation is different and where you fall on your home value, it will look differently. But to help try to capture most folks, we built out what's the median home on that, right? And so it is that that home would have a very slight increase, but a much less increase than under the old model that we've had all this time prior to now, if that makes sense. Yeah. So again, the average over the 8 years would be about $2.50 a month. I'm going to increase for that home. Got that. >> But again, that that

112If we modeled out all the homes, some actually I believe will actually pay less. It just depends on where you are and your personal deduction schedule cuz all of us are a little bit different. Sure. So. Mhm. Um and then as far as I you kind of touched on it a minute ago, but just for more clarification, um as far as having a referendum or not, it's not something that we as a board approve as far as charging people more. We just approve whether or not we let the let the community vote for it. >> Great question. So yeah, sorry. I should have said that when we went through this. So the board's role um the board's role is just to ask the question. That's it. Um the board the board's uh position on that

113would just be to say, "Hey, this is a really important discussion to have as a community." And so the board but the board is the body who has is the only one that has the authority to actually ask the question. No one else can put that question on the ballot except the school board. And so, um their role is to decide, do we want to ask the question or not? But but actually once the school board, if the school board were to vote next month to say, "Yes, let's put this on the question so the community can weigh in." That is actually the end of the board's responsibility from that point. They do nothing else the rest of the time. Um from that point, it is truly the community deciding what happens next. Um And

114so so that is I'm glad you brought that up because that's a common misconception. People say, "Well, the board, you know, they just decided on their own to raise my taxes." That's not true. The community truly makes the decision on this issue, not the board. Okay. Mhm. And then last one, um if we don't um approve asking the question or if the community does not approve the referendum if we do ask the question, um what does that that look like in future uh referendum possibilities? Cuz aren't there some things changing with referendums? Great question. So, um most urgently, if our referendum funding stopped on January 1st of 2027, whether it's because the board um decided not to ask the question or they did ask question the community ultimately decided we no longer support this ref-

115a referendum. Um either one, we would of course respect that. We would move forward. Um but that would be a immediate 25 million annually um reduction of the budget that we would have to account for very quickly. >> copy paper. That is not copy paper. That is people and programs. I mean, there's no way around it. I mean, if you think about the chart I showed a minute ago, that's where all the money is going. That's where the cuts would come. Like there are very few things outside of people and programs that would even help that. Um so it would be um so if you think about the the reductions that we went through a few months ago, um I'm not going to say those were painless or unnoticed because of course they were. Um

116but this would feel very different. It's very different making a $3 adjustment than a $25 million dollar And so some of those things we would try to do quickly, some of those we would not be able to do immediately. We would have to wait 6 or 7 months cuz of certain factors of before we could actually make a change. Um and then to the question I think you're asking, which is when will be the next time we could even have the conversation again? Um the law now states this the referendum can only be placed on general election, so we would have to wait 2 years before this could come up again. Um But it could could be a very ugly 2 years. >> That's correct. And so, and I think I think how that matters

117in what we're talking about is um we could not it let's say that funding stopped, we would not have the ability to just wait it out and try again. We would have to make those cuts. There's no way we would have enough cushion to roll the dice and hope we can get it through on the next time because 2 years is much too long with such a budget that we have. And And could you also speak to on that point if if we were to wait, >> Mhm. the sharing of the referendum dollars? That is true. So, starting in 2028, with any referendum that's passed in 2028, there's a provision in the Indiana code now um that that some districts will have will have to start sharing a portion of those dollars with um charter

118schools. And so, that is something right now that does not apply to us. It's something that a 2026 referendum that does not apply. Um but any any after this cycle, that will be a portion. Um the details of how much that is, I don't know off the top of my head, and it kind of fluctuates. It's based on some factors that we'd have to calculate. But at the end of the day, some of the money our community intended to come to us, we would actually have to redistribute out to other entities. And And if I'm just being honest, if we had to account for that, we would have to ask for more to make up for the fact that some of it is going somewhere else now. Maybe that's what you were asking, I don't

119know, but Yeah. >> but that's just me being honest. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. We decide we need this dollar amount, and we have to give away this dollar amount, we would just have to increase that extra to cover Yeah. cover that portion. >> Now, that's just for new referendum. But if you if we have one this year, it doesn't apply. Yes. Yep, that's that's any referendum passed after and I think it's actually passed after January 1st, 2027, but 28 is the only next time someone could pass one. Yeah. All right. >> Good questions. Anything else? Anyone? Well, if I just wanted to say that I really appreciate the stepping how we're not just What was it? 52? How much? 57 is what we >> Seven but might be what we recommend. But, you've mapped

120out that we could potentially take a lower rate each year in order to meet where we we currently are because the goal is status quo, right? We're not asking to add on new programs, new staff. We just want to maintain our current status quo. Yes. Because as we all know, there's going to be another budget year at the state legislature and who knows if there will be other property tax reform or other cuts or maybe we will benefit as a school district when they do a new budget because we're trying to plan out the next 8 years, but there could be changes. So, it's good to know that if for some reason we have a beneficial year with the state legislature, we can bring it down to and and I like that we're going to

121make that commitment to the community possibly that we're not going to take the max if we don't need the max. The goal is to stay on status quo. That's right. And that rate would be established the year before the and the >> the year before. So, board that um again, just cuz the way the way we've had to manage this in the past has felt very different, but um every year board, you actually establish the referendum fund and the referendum rate is part of the budget process in the fall. It's just part of what you do every year. Um with with what we're suggesting as a possible strategy under the new rules, um we would we would just talk about that a little differently. And and I'm I'm glad you brought that up also um

122Ms. Lambert because um a big piece a big piece of this is, you know, I describe the referendum process a lot as it is it is the ultimate trust exercise because your community is quite literally saying I'm going to give you my money. That is That is what it is. Um there's no way around it. And so um with that we that we take that very seriously. I mean, that's a big commitment and there's a lot of trust that we're going to that we're going to do good things with that money and and and live that. And I firmly believe that we have very responsibly used the referendum up to this point um and we're committed to doing that also. But where I'm going with that is um that's part of why I want to

123be very clear of what how we would intend to use that rate because the community should absolutely feel comfortable attend those meetings in the fall when it's budget season season and and and seeing, "Hey, they said no more than 4 cents a year. Let's see if they're actually sticking to that or not." Um if we don't we should absolutely be uh addressed about that because we we are making a commitment and we need to live to it. And so should whoever's sitting up here if that were to occur. I mean, it's a commitment that this this group of I would also be making. >> Correct. So, I assume there's going to be some sort of accountability or checklist, if you will, of things that need to be met before we decide to increase or decrease,

124right? I mean, right right now the way we've kind of modeled this out is just trying to keep track of what a reasonable rate of increase um that we think if if all conditions if nothing crazy were to change one way or another, this is just a normal rate of increase to keep up with inflation and our bills going up. Um because something I didn't say earlier, but I think this is common sense to a lot of folks, it costs more to do the same thing today than it did yesterday because everything goes up. Gas prices go up, insurance goes up, salaries go up, you know, that it's just part of doing business. And so our funding ideally does increase slightly each year. And so what we tried to model into the models is using

125some pretty conservative estimates, we feel like at most a 4-cent rate increase is would keep us there. but if there were some conditions that accelerate that, we could say, "You know what? This year, we actually don't even need to do the 4 cent increase. We can bring it down to 3 cents or 2 cents or whatever." But, again, right now, based on what we're modeling, we think four the 4 cent rate is a pretty good pretty good starting place based on what Policy Analytics has been able to, you know, project out for us. I don't know. I'm doing a lot of talking on that, but I don't know if you have anything to I mean, that's what I said. I think that the thing to um the only thing to add is that historically our

126uh fund has grown uh 7 to 8% per year. At this four uh 4 cent increment, you'd be looking at about 5 to 6% a year maximum. And so, again, just that commitment to to wanting to take less than what we have historically. This is a you know, situation based on those projections. Of course, this is all estimates, but uh this at least gives us that ceiling to live in live within over the next 8 years. Can you say that again? Sorry, the fund has traditionally grown 7 to 8%. We're assuming we're assuming a 5% 5% Yeah, it's based on the projections. 5 to 6% growth every year. Okay. Okay. >> cent rate increase schedule. Okay. Can you say who Policy Analytics is and how they helped like cuz I think that's important. >> Yes.

127Sorry. Probably should have said that at the very beginning, but I was so excited to get get into my my talk here. Yeah, so >> I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.

128>> they're kind of the experts in that space. Um and they are able to run much more detailed um forecasting models for us than than we could easily do ourselves. Um they have access to some data sets that we could probably get our hands on, but it's just more difficult. It's very time-consuming, but they This is what they do. And so, they're a trusted partner for for a lot of us. Um they and but they can help us, and they can model things out. So, you know, as we prepare for tonight, we've had quite a few meetings, phone calls, emails, zooms. And then again to refine and say, "Okay, now model this. Now model this." And ask questions like you just asked like, "Okay, help us understand. What are you assuming in this chart in

129terms of the growth or whatnot so that we can better understand?" Because at the end of the day, they have their model they're building, but we need we need to understand it and be comfortable with it, too, that we'd say, "No, that's a reasonable guess for Noblesville." >> Yeah. Um so, what David's telling you is, you know, over the last few years, historically, that has seen Would you say it's about 7% growth? >> Yeah. With this, they're anticipating that it's probably going to have the home growth values they think are going to actually start to slow down a little bit. Um so, if we account for the 4% plus the AV growth they think will happen and then all that other back-end math, it's really going to result in about a five-ish to six 5

130to 6% rate of increase. So, we'll be less, but we're committed to that. >> Yeah. We're we're comfortable with that. And we could use them on an annual basis if we need to when it comes to deciding on the rate. Yep. Just to add just briefly to that to say that, you know, Dr. Hall mentioned that we have 27,000 property parcels in the district. And so, what Policy Analytics has is a proprietary model that brings in every single parcel's data and applies the this deduction schedule that was brought about by SEA 1. So, that's where with these projections, uh yeah you know, we we don't have the ability to do something like that. So, their model gets us to the parcel level detail. So, that way we know exactly what, you know, if a house

131grows, uh let's say 4% a year on a on an annual basis, they can put that in to every uh Cap 1 parcel that's residential parcels to grow 4%, model out that deduction schedule based on current assessed values, and then know where we're going to be at in, you know, six years down the road after SEA 1 is fully implemented. And as the new homes are built, they can then those will be added to their model, obviously. Yeah. So, yeah, if if that's something we want to do on annual or biannual basis just to check in, "Hey, are the forecasts holding?" We could absolutely easily bring them in um to do that, and they could can come present at a board meeting if you want and kind of share that information. Yeah. Okay, great. Thank

132you. >> All right. Any anything else? All right. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much, Dr. Ault. That was a really good presentation. >> And yes, just so everyone knows, the board has seen that once before and we have been talking about this a lot more than just tonight. So, but I mean it's a I really like all of the different modeling that you did. Are those I added a few new things tonight that we hadn't talked about before. >> Yeah, it was great. It answered all my questions that I'd had before had before. So, you modeled everything that I'd had that I'd had before. Were those slides Gosh. We're going to put them up publicly after the meeting publicly after the meeting tonight. Perfect. There you are. Okay. Okay. I was kind of last minute

133things right up till the meeting. >> Okay. So, those will be public after the meeting then. Okay. Um all right, we are moving on to uh public comment. And this part of the meeting is for public comment on an agenda topic that someone actually signed up for and we did not have anyone sign up tonight for public comment. So, we're moving to um consent. Um the board adopts uh the following items or actions with which reflect board policy and Indiana code. Those items are claims, donations, minutes from our last meeting, overnight out of state trips, and personnel listing. May I have a motion to approve the consent items as listed? So moved. Joe, may I have a second? Second. Brett. Uh any further discussion? Yes. >> Joe. Uh I'd like to thank our wonderful community

134again for donations they made to our school and they are significant. Tri Kappa gave us $300 to be used for students in need at uh Noblesville East and Mr. and or Mrs. Anonymous uh gave us $2,500 to be used for the jazz band and we certainly appreciate those gifts. Okay. Thank you very much. All those in favor? I. >> I. Op- opposed? Motion carried. All right, moving on to action items. The administration is requesting approval of the proposed employee handbook for staff members for the 26-27 school year. May have a motion to approve the 26-27 employee handbook. Motion? Motion. Stephanie? Second? Second by Joe. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. Next up, we have um the student handbook. Administration is requesting approval of the proposed student handbooks for

135grades K-12 effective for 26 and 27 school year. May have a motion to approve the 26-27 school handbooks for grades grades K-12. Motion. Motion, Brett. >> Second. Second, Joe. Any discussion? I do have a couple of questions. >> Go ahead. Go ahead, Misty. Um and um Julie, if you can't give me the answers right now, that's fine. Um kind of putting you on the spot with these questions, so I apologize. Um for the uh let's see. The elementary handbook, I saw a line in there on page 33, line K had been uh removed, which states students may use electronic devices on the bus to do homework, etc. Are they Do you know the reason for this? Are they no longer allowed to do their homework on the bus or is it due to just being

136a electronic device? You can get back to me. That's fine. Um I think it's just based on the fact that the elementary principals that we reviewed it didn't know why that was I think it felt like it didn't have a place in there and it's not because people will be Okay. So, it's not something they are not allowed to do. It's just no need to specify. Okay. >> As they reviewed it each year, I think we review these documents every year and they talked to them and they um Yeah. that committee decided that >> Okay. Thank you. Um and then on as far as transportation section in one of them, um that was Did we already do the employee Uh-huh. Um sorry, back to that one. Um for there was a section removed for transportation

137such as railroad crossing, bus loading and unloading. Um do you know the reason behind that? I'm sure there's a good reason. I I just don't know what it is. Okay. Perfect. Perfect. Um Okay. And Is there a This is the last question, sorry. Um is there a specific reason why we specify for vaccines the meningitis and HPV but none of the other vaccines? Why are those specified in Okay. Okay. Okay. Cuz I know that we require, you know, as the state requires us to certain vaccines. I was just curious why those were specified but none of the others. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Any Any other discussion? All right. All those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. All right. Uh consumable uh supplies and materials for grades K through 8 effective for the 2026-2027 school year.

138May I have a motion to approve the consumable supplies and materials fees for grades K through 12 effective 26-27 school year. May I have a motion? So moved. Stephanie. Misty. Misty. Misty, Stephanie. I was waiting for Stephanie. Misty. I'll take the second of the motion. Okay, you went first. Okay. >> Joe, second. All right, any further discussion? Just really appreciate everybody keeping those low. Like >> Right, those are really low. I looked at all the numbers and I'm like I would not be mad as a parent if I saw any of those. Yep. Good. Thank you. And a lot of them went down. Oh, yeah, that was going to be my comment was that it's important to note that there were very few increases and they were very minimal with most of them being less

139than a dollar, but there are also several decreases which are substantial decreases. So, that's fantastic. And listen, I have a daughter who got her CNA at the high school for free and she's now renewing it for $2,000. There you go. Thank you very much for just having those small These kids get certifications for sometime $100. So, it's pretty good. It's an extensive list, too. There was a lot of work put into this to make sure it was the best value and I really appreciate that. Okay. All right, all those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. All right, we have uh universal screeners for number sense. May I have a motion to approve the adoption of the Forefront Educational Universal Screeners for number sense for grades K through 2 with implementation beginning in the 26-27 school

140year. May I have a motion? So moved. Joe, second. Misty. Um any further discussion? Yes. Okay. Yes. description of that, Dr. Hal? First. I'll work I'll actually defer to Dr. Rich for that description. Thank you. >> [snorts] >> So they work with each student individually and there's a number of them or I just wanted to know how that is implement. I don't feel like I have There we go. I wasn't using that correctly. Sorry about that. >> [laughter] >> Every time I feel like there's a new microphone over here every time I come through. Um so in terms of intervention, yes. So the data that's collected that's one data point. We have other data points of course that we're also collecting through local assessments um um as well, but then we have teams at each

141school uh that will look at data and review that to determine individually uh whether students need just a little bit of help or if they need a more significant intervention in small group. We have structures at every school that do that. So that's already in place. We already do that. This is just going to provide additional data for us. Does that answer your question? >> Thank you. It's great. Um I just I wanted to, you know, point out as well that um by approving this does this does not approve an expense for us because this is covered under the formative assessment grant, correct? So, the families don't have a cost, nor does the district? That is correct, yes. The state provides funding for this test. Okay. So, so is it like a test? I'm confused.

142Is it like a something on their iPad that they do? Okay. >> Yes. Yeah, it's a it's an assessment. So, um and it's skills-based assessment based upon those early math standards that exist through um Indiana academic standards. And so, everything's standards-aligned. And then it will provide us the feedback that we need to determine where there's a gaps that need to be addressed early. So, so the the whole concept is early intervention. I mean, we know the research says that that is what's most important. Intervene early, and the earlier you can intervene and identify issues early on, the better off long-term we're going to be. So, this just provides us another tool in our toolbox. It's a good thing. Um along with other things. But, it's a good thing. Okay. Okay, great. Thanks. All right. Anything

143else? All right. Uh all those in favor? I. >> I. Opposed? Motion carried. Next, um the board received a a bid on Monday, May 11th for Hinkle Creek Elementary School for a roofing replacement project. And the vendor that was the lowest response most responsive and responsible bidder um met our specifications. May I have a motion to approve the bid from Windward Roofing and Construction for Hinkle Creek Elementary School roofing replacement project with a total contract amount of $365,864. Motion? Anyone? Motion. Mr. Stephanie. Stephanie second. All right. Um any further discussion? I do have something um Mr. Hordemiller. That will be done this summer? Okay. Wonderful. Can you you give us some examples or reasons of why it's time for these to be replaced? Yeah, so you may recall back on when we did our 2025

144bond, uh we had this included in our capital plan. So, uh the operations team we work with uh uh an outside um architect to review the the roofing status across all of our facilities. And so, it's not the entire roof in the case of East Middle School for example, it's just one section because there's so many different sections. And so, there is this one particular section where it's you know, it it's time. And so, you know, us being uh like I said, having a capital plan, I wanted to make sure that we we don't just hit you with one roof all at one time. Uh it's different, you know, uh sections throughout the various years. How many years do we get out of a roof? Right. I know I know having been around for a

145while that that I know we do roofs on a on a some kind of a basis. I know I believe whether it's flat or whether it's angled and all those other kind of Yeah, I think both of these are over 30. So, it's it's kind of a 25 to 30-year time span. And like I said, once we got these on our capital plan, it's just really important that we stay up with them. So, then that way we don't you know, have them all at one time. Over 30. Yes. replace, you know, multiple buildings at one time. Right. Or have a leak or Or yeah, a leak therefore resulting in additional damage. >> Exactly. Then Okay. Okay. Thanks. Thank you. >> Anything else? All right. >> a question. >> Nope. Nope. So, when you forecast what

146you're going to do as far as roofing or um um paving or whatever, you have established a bond and then fit several uh actual work projects into that. Correct? That's right. Typically. Correct. That you want to do. Is this going to fit into an existing bond then? Yeah, this I I know you won't remember the last, but this was the last but this was both of these roofs were on a slide last fall when we talked >> Oh, I remember it now. Sure you do. Uh-huh. Um it's again, it's all in accordance with our capital plan, uh, the bond that we uh most recently had approved by the board, uh, last Great. Great. Thank you. I knew you were doing great with it. All those All those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. All right.

147Next step, we have our second roof that we received a bid on May 11th. Uh, may I have a motion to approve the bid from Roof Links LLC for the Noblesville East Middle School roofing replacement project with a total total contract amount of $841,970. May I have a motion? I have a motion. So moved. Joe. Second. Misty. All right. Any further discussion? No? Okay. All those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. All right. Uh, last thing under action items, uh, may I have a motion to approve the resolution off authorizing administration regarding auditor certification. May I have a motion? I make that motion. Brett. May I have a second? Joe. Any further discussion? Dr. Hay would you like to add something? >> us about >> Absolutely. So, just very quickly, just uh, bring us full

148circle from my presentation, um, this is the resolution board that is giving, uh, David and I your permission to engage with the audit, um, to kind of share some share some preliminary numbers and do some back-end discussion with them and think about potential questions, um, which is a necessary step to prepare for an actual recommendation next month, but again, to be crystal clear, this is not committing the school corporation to move forward with the process, but just is just I'm being clear to the auditor that we do that we do have permission to have that conversation. Okay. Anything else? All right. All those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, next step, we have, uh, public comment for non-agenda items, and we did not have anyone sign up tonight. So, we

149will keep on moving to superintendent remarks, Dr. Hay. Well, everyone's heard enough out of me, but there's three quick things. Um first off, 7 days of school left. Our teacher friends are still here. I'm sure you know that also, [laughter] so I always uh say that we I love this time of year. It is an exhausting, fun time of year, but uh but it is so much fun. It's great great stuff. So, seven more school days um and another successful year um will be wrapped up. And then a couple of exciting celebrations that are about 2 weeks away. Our board, you may remember our golden graduation that I believe all of you had the the blessing to attend last year. That's coming up on June 1st. Um I think you've already gotten some information about

150that, but we'll send some more when it gets closer just some reminders. Uh any community members who don't know what that is, that's a special graduation ceremony that we hold the day before um our main graduation event for some of our students who may have some special needs or medical needs um so that they can also go through graduation, but in a setting that that is comfortable for them. So, it's truly truly a a touching and special special experience. Can't wait. And then um the very next night, board, as you probably know by now, I'm sure it's on your calendars, um graduation is on June 2nd at the fairgrounds. Um I know several of us in the room have graduates this year, so it's going to be an extra special night both as uh in

151our official and personal capacity, so really looking forward to that. And that is all I have tonight. Wonderful. All right, committee reports. Uh Noblesville Parks Parks Board, Joe. Yes, Sparks meeting May 6th. Uh some of the events we're going to cover. We had a ribbon cutting down at Seminary Park for the the new playground down there. If you haven't seen it, stop in and go down the slides. They are quite fun. I shared the experience that day. Uh we're working on a new carousel and we're in the process of picking out animals that that are going to go on it and we're going to we're going to do some hand painting of that that for for some of the children in the neighborhood. So, that's coming up. Uh we had a great Penny Festival when

152everybody that went uh had a good time. It was It was postponed a day, but it was worked out much better the next day. But, the highlight of that whole weekend was [laughter] going to be the 5K race that was run at 8:00 the morning before the the Penny Festival. We had 370 runners, and it was just a delightful day. All of it came off well, and we made $10,000 out of the event, which will go towards our $100,000 new carousel that we're working that the Noblesville Parks Foundation, which is a sublet of the Parks Department, is working at raising money for it. Now, going on through some other issues are really good. The golf course made $25,000 more than the same month last year for April cuz the weather was all so nice. All

153summer camps are full. Concerts are all scheduled. Check the Check the website for those. Somebody has a adult or not adult, but an older child that wants to be a counselor, there's still a few positions open for that. And I have to say I love working with the Parks Department staff, and the volunteers over there. It's just a pleasant group of people that we get to associate with over there. All right. Thank you very much, Joe. Noblesville Redevelopment Commission, Stephanie. Yep. So, there was only one thing that we voted on Well, I didn't vote, but the the Redevelopment Commission voted on. It was to consider the approval of the resolution that the tax increments may be collected in the year 2027, and they are needed to satisfy the obligations of the Commission, and therefore no

154pass-through to taxing units or other related matters will occur. All right. Thank you very much. Anything about cabinet reports or Um I just I have a couple of comments, okay? First, Joe, thanks for your work on the Parks Department. As many of you know, I've been on the board for the Noblesville Elementary Football League for, gosh, since 2013. Um I currently run the concession stand, and have for like 4 years now. Um and we did request approval for some, I want to say renovations, but just replacing some cabinetry and paint and they gave us their blessing. Of course, we pay for it. Not not we, but meaning the any FL pays for it. Um so, thanks for that. And um let's see, Dr. Rich, congratulations for the National Principal Supervisor Academy certification. Very well earned.

155Appreciate that. Um and it looks like we have 32 graduating seniors with the certificate of multilingual proficiency. So, that's amazing. Um and then Heather, um are there any uh prospects from the drive a bus event we had last weekend? Oh, I wondered how that was going to Good. Good. And then um Marni, great job on the plaques for the Teacher of the Year Awards going all the way back to what was the first one? 2015? Yeah. So, those are great great idea. They look great. Yeah. All right. Um our next regular school board meeting, as Dr. Hale said, is Tuesday, June 9th here at 6:00 p.m. Um so, may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Joe, second Misty. Any further discussion? Thank you for everyone that stayed till the till the end. Um

156Yes, all those in favor? I. Opposed? Motion carried. We are adjourned. Thank you. Okay. So, I guess we might want to