001Are you guys ready? >> Good evening and welcome to the October 28th regular school board meeting. We will start with the pledge of >> allegiance. flag. >> Thank you. And now a moment of silence. Thank you. Uh first up, uh recognitions, Dr. Hy. >> All right. Good evening board and good evening guests. Uh our first uh item is our uh monthly hair Chevrolet teacher spotlight. So at this time I'd like to invite Mr. Lawrence up. And while he's coming up, I want to share with the crowd that this program um each month highlights three teachers and provides $1,000 to their school for student academic and extracurricular achievement. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Lawrence. >> Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. >> Yes. >> I paid them a lot of
002money to be here tonight. >> Good to hear from you. Yes. Um we'd like to thank Harris Chevrolet obviously for recognizing our wonderful spotlight teachers and I would like to ask them to come forward at this time. We have Britney Melinger, Christina Trusty, and Sarah Zinc. We can give them a big round of applause because they're awesome. Because as they walk up, we want to clap. Come on up. Yeah, we we won't bite. So, I'm going to talk briefly about each of them. Uh they are amazing people, but also amazing educators. Been very fortunate to have all three of them uh around uh teaching at our school for several years. Uh I will start with Britney. Uh she's our little Miller's preschool teacher of nine years. Uh she became a teacher because she has always
003wanted to teach and she loves to learn and instill that in others. Her goal for students is to foster a love of school while building the foundational skills they need for future success. Advice for parents is to read every night, be present, and ask about their day. Outside of school, here it comes. She's a swifty. She likes to read, craft, and listen to the one and only Taylor Swift. Noblesville Schools is special because we strive to be the best and always put children first. Britney Melinger. Next, we have Mrs. Christina Trustee, kindergarten teacher, 23 years of teaching experience. She became a teacher because she just really, really loves kids. Her goal for students is to be the best version of themselves. Advice for parents is to partner with your child's teacher. Talk positively about school
004and focus on effort, not perfection. Outside of school, she enjoys spending time with family, traveling, and volunteering in the community. Noblesville schools is special because of the people. She is certain this is the best community to work and to raise a family. Christina Trusty. Finally, Mrs. Sarah Zinc, a resource teacher at Hinkle Creek. 26 years of teaching. She became a teacher because she wanted to inspire a love of learning and help students realize their full potential. Her goal for students is to reach their full potential and to continue on that path no matter what. Advice for parents is to enjoy the small moments with your child as it goes by fast. Yes, don't we all know that? Outside of school, she enjoys spending summers in Michigan with her family playing pickle ball and cooking. Noblesville
005schools is special because of the small town feel and sense of community. Mrs. Sarah Zinc. Again, big round of applause for all of our spotlight teachers. Thank you. Please appreciate you being here tonight. All right. Next, we have our schoolboard spotlight presentation. It is Hinkle Creek night and uh I want to start off by saying a big thank you. We are very thankful for this opportunity to spotlight not only our wonderful teachers but also our school tonight. Uh Hair Chevrolet, I want to thank them again. Big thank you for providing the monetary donation to Hinkle Creek in honor of these wonderful teachers. Uh and then finally uh we are certainly very thankful that we have a wonderful board and an administrative team that cares and takes the time to come and visit our schools and
006get to know all of the great things happening at or in Noblesville schools. Uh, for example, uh, I have some probably one of my favorite pictures this year was when the board and our administrative team came by came by, stopped into our applied programming programming class. Uh, just it was just great having you around. It was great to know that you were learning as well that day and every day you visit the schools and we can't appreciate you enough for taking the time to do that because we know you have busy schedules and to stop by and learn about Hinkle Creek and and all the schools because I know you're doing that. Uh we appreciate it. So, thank you again. Now, I want to go into what you saw today and what you experienced today.
007Math hoops. And if you're not familiar with that, uh Dr. Ohio did a great job last spring uh having a wonderful relationship with the new Noblesville Boom and uh we had a an incredible experience where they brought math hoops to our administrative team meeting and uh it's a an incredible game computation skills uh a lot of fun. We had the foundation of the Pacers, the Fever, the boom. They came to our school a couple of months ago, taught the kids and the teachers how to play this game. They supply the game. Uh mainly fifth grade we focused on uh for this year. They uh again it's a computation game regard with in regards to basketball and current players from the NBA and WNBA. So, it's very intriguing for the kids and I know the board
008uh had a little fun today as well. Uh the kids really get into it. Uh there's a shot clock there. It's not only computation skills, but there's time involved. There's a lot of uh memorization certainly. Uh and you have to have a lot of skill and you found out a little bit of luck as well. But the kids love it. Uh you see some pictures of the day the Pacers came. Uh, and here's some, uh, some wonderful guest celebrities that appeared at our school today. Uh, enjoying the fun as well. Uh, we had a great time having you today. I hope you enjoyed it nearly as much as we did because we had a blast. Um, Dr. Forgi didn't want to leave at all, but we had to pull him out of there eventually. But
009again, thanks. The kids really loved it. Uh, we were glad you're here today. I want to talk about the hammock garden next. This is something new. Uh we uh had enough uh money in our PTO budget. They were gracious enough to fund what is called our Hinkle Creek hammock garden. We did this at the end of the spring last year. And basically what it is is we have 35 posts that were uh cemented into the ground with 35 hammocks. Uh Wi-Fi could reach that far out there. So during the reading block, teachers can take the kids out and have their independent reading time in a very wonderful nice location. Uh it was great having uh not only the hammocks all in the spring when the weather was nice and the weather's been pretty nice in
010the fall as well, but uh the kids love it. A lot of smiles there. I see a trustee in there somewhere. Did you see that, Christine? I threw that in for you. The teachers also love it. They're not reading. I don't know why they're not reading. Maybe it's just they're taking their wonderful break that they well are very well deserving of and a schoolboard member shows up every once in a while and enjoyed it as well. But uh we we love it. It's great. And uh I'm going to go right into transition into our Cougar Challenge reward. Every year we raise money for our PTO. Um and uh this year was no different. The donations came in. The incentive this year was uh the winning class and the winning top three donation, if you will,
011participants from our school. Uh they all were treated to a camp out uh overnight. Yes, I'll say that again. An overnight camp out, which uh seems kind of rare and strange to hear these days. Uh at the school in the hammock garden, Mrs. Fitzgerald's fourth grade class uh was the leading uh class. they earned the most and they won the camp out. So at night on October the 3, uh we met everybody from the class and again the three top uh fundraiser gatherers, if you will, uh at the school uh along with our SRO, Officer Beaver and myself, and a lot of Officer Beaver's friends came by. It was really fun. And I don't know if you can see it in the background, but that is the Noblesville Police Department SWAT truck, which if you
012haven't seen, you need to check it out. It is really cool, and the kids loved it. Had a blast. We had a movie night uh on the lawn that it was a great evening. Uh cool temperatures and everything. Kids loved it. Had a movie night. There they are running through the SWAT truck. Had a blast. Can't have a camp out without s'mores at by the campfire. Uh kind of surprised at how many kids did not know what a s'more was, but we uh we made them and and they were very good, I might add. We uh went on a snipe hunt around midnight. Raise your hand if you've been on a snipe hunt. If you haven't been on a snipe hunt, you need to go on a snipe hunt. Ask somebody. They'll take you sometime.
013Uh we caught two. We caught two in uh in the nature center that night. Why are you laughing? Because you get it. All right, in the morning we had some sleepy faces and uh it was really fun. Uh again, thank you very much for letting uh letting us show off tonight and for coming by today and learning a lot about Hinkle Creek. And again, thank you to our spotlight teachers and all our Hinkle Creek friends back there. We appreciate you being here tonight. >> Thank you for having us today. I think we we definitely all enjoyed it. Yes. Okay. All right. Um, next up we have our um, at each of our board meetings, we do a brief update on our strategic plan and this month's update is Dr. Ryan Rich on academic excellence. >>
014Mr. Lawrence brings all the fun [sighs and gasps] and then I have to [laughter] talk about academic excellence. No, this is fun, too. Actually, I will say that when I first learned we were going to do these updates, this was immediately the one I wanted to do first. However, because the new diploma requirements were so timely, I felt like that was probably more important. So, this one has been waiting in the wings for a while. So, I'm really excited to uh present this to you today. Of course, here's our aca academic excellence uh goal that we have through our strategic plan. And in particular, it's always nice to just do a quick overview of our measures of success here. Um, the one that I wanted to really highlight, and that's why for the screen I've
015I've put it in bold here this this evening, is critical thinking skills. Students engaging in a curriculum that develops critical thinking skills in every classroom. And as the board knows, we have done a great deal of work the last two to three years around uh curriculum and curriculum adoption and implementation uh math, science and now literacy, English language arts. It's been a lot of work in a very short period of time and we really really have tried to focus on selecting curricular materials that align to what are in most cases new state standards, new expectations that really elevate the importance of not just content area knowledge, just not knowing things, but understanding things and being able to be critical thinkers. And so with that in mind, I wanted to bring us back to math and
016I wanted to talk specifically about what it takes behind the scenes when it comes to adopting a new curriculum is only step one. When you have new standards and you have a new curriculum, it requires a lot of work from our team here at ESC and also the work of individuals out in the schools, our teachers, department chairs, lead teachers, instructional coaches, principles, assistant principles to make sure that everyone is on the same page and we are supporting one another when it comes to the type of instruction we should be seeing, the types of expected outcomes we should be seeing. And I view this these updates as an opportunity to make sure that you just to stay informed and educated. And I think it's really important as board members that you know and understand the
017behind the scenes, what happens behind the scenes when it comes to making sure that this is successful. So, I picked math because um some of you uh served on the math uh program review. you're familiar with the adoption that we went through and um we are now in year three and we've gained a lot of great momentum and I wanted to specifically talk about middle school um because when we were looking at um my teammate uh Jen Walton who's not here tonight but who is phenomenal in secondary we kind of follow the data and what the data is telling us and we saw that we needed to give some TLC to math in middle school and I believe we've done that. And so I want to talk first about with math. One of the key
018shifts more recently is we're all familiar with content standards. Those standards from the Indiana Department of Education tell us what students should know, understand, and be able to do. Those are the skills at each grade level. But it's lesser known the concept of math process standards. And the math process standards are actually um just as important. And those process standards really reflect going back to that earlier measure of success, the importance of critical thinking. Math process standards really demonstrate the ways in which students should develop conceptual understanding deeper understanding of math content and the ways in which students synthesize and apply the skills that they are learning. So you all know that in middle school we adopted amplify math and that emphasizes visuals, conceptual models, problem-based learning and critical thinking through math skills and also
019they are aligned to and support the national mathematical teaching practices through NCTM. And so, um, there's tight alignment there, but there's a lot of work to be done to make that happen in reality in the classroom. So, um, I really feel like the work that we've done, which I'm going to share with you here next, really aligns to three strategies from our plan in particular. Number one, making sure that we are establishing clear, common expectations, understanding, and ability to use high quality teaching practices. providing our teaching teams with the best possible, the most rigorous curricular materials and also making sure that we're providing consistent time and support so that they can improve their practices. Um, there are 10 process standards. I'm going to give you just one as an example to show you what it
020is that it means when we say that the process standards really highlight and emphasize the importance of critical thinking. I won't read this in its entirety but it is here on the screen. Modeling with mathematics. So when we think about conceptual or visualizing modeling with mathematics is one of those key process standards because embedded into it are skills that we know students are going to need in today's world and the world of the future when it comes to not just being able to calculate something but to be able to conceptualize something and to think critically through that. And so that requires a real shift not only in our materials but then how you teach through those materials. And as a reminder, we have 24 plus math teachers in our middle schools. They range in experience
021from brand new to teaching to we have math teachers in our middle schools that have 30 plus years of teaching. That's a broad range with a lot of background and experiences in how to teach math. the new standards, the new process standards, and the curriculum we've adopted requires a very specific teaching methodology. And so we need to support that. Here's an example. [clears throat] This comes directly from our Amplify curriculum. If you think back to either when maybe you were in math class or maybe even the math class of just a few years ago, when you would walk into a class period, you might see a warm-up. In that warm-up might be a series of problems and students are expected to solve those problems. Practice, repetition, repeating over and over again, memorization, computation. This is
022the type of model you're going to see or you're going to see as a warm-up when you walk into our middle school classrooms. Now, this is called a tape diagram. You'll notice there's not a single number, right? This directly reflects the process standard modeling with mathematics. It's a class warm-up from sixth grade. Students use a visual model called a tape diagram where they are thinking about the representations of relationships between quantities in preparation for using them to write equations. So in the old days it is what is the method for writing aqua equation? There are certain rules you follow. Plug and play, repeat, you get the right answer. But a student couldn't explain why that works. Explaining the why behind the what is now elevated in terms of its importance when it comes to students
023demonstrating their thinking. When we talk about for example success not even beyond school but success even on iLearn, these are the tasks that students are now expected to do. It's not just that simple computation. It is things like modeling and being able to explain their thinking when it comes to modeling with math. So this visual emphasizes beginning work in that sixth grade standard solving real world and other math product problems involving rates and ratios using models and strategies such as reasoning about tables of equivalent ratios, tape diagrams, double number lines, diagrams, or equations. And so there's more than one way to answer this warm-up and that is okay. If students can give different examples of how the quantities of X as equal quantities plus the quantity of Y may equal Z in different ways and
024how that might differ from the first T diagram to the second. That is what the teacher is looking for. Not that the answer is five or four. We really dug into this work. Again, I want to give credit to uh Jen Walton. She really was um instrumental in this. Um we used um in terms of our strategic plan and action, we we picked this resource to help us when it comes to classroom instruction um working with teachers improvement efforts succeed where there is a coherent vision of high quality instruction shared by teachers, coaches, and leaders. There has been tons of meetings and collaboration with our principles, instructional coaches, teachers, department chairs to really make sure that everybody's on the same page and unpacking those units of instruction and amplify understanding exactly what it is that
025we expect students to know, understand, be able to do and how to demonstrate that critical thinking. Then how are we going to provide the professional development? We must make sure that professional development is not a workshop. It's not a oneanddone. It's not a conference. Instead, we have cycles of practice, feedback, and reflection that are tied to our curriculum use. And so, I'm going to talk a little bit more about that here in a moment, what that looks like. instructional leadership. Um, again, making sure that everyone from central office all the way through buildings um is on the same page about expectations and in particular an expectation that our principles are not just managers of the building, but they are instructional leaders and they also know and understand what we should and should not be seeing
026in the classroom. And that's been a really important emphasis. So, we now to support that and address that. High quality materials, we've already talked about that. and then also assessment and accountability. Um making sure that we are holding each other accountable um to make sure that the work that we are expecting is happening in those classrooms. So in terms of some practical actions, I know there's a lot of words here, but we have really um engaged with Dr. Mike Steele. He serves on the National Council of Teachers Ma of Mathematics. He also has worked w directly with the Indiana Department of Education. We have had him come in work with our teachers. I actually scheduled a session where he came in and worked only with our building principles and we developed a short list together
027of what our look fors are when we visit classrooms because those principles and their assistants are going in and doing annual observations and evaluation of teachers. And I wanted to make sure that their expectations were calibrated against our expectations for math. And so we walked away from that session with these are the look fors and this is how we can help support our teachers when it comes to the strategies instructionally that we want to see to promote the mastery of the standards that we're expecting in the classroom. He has unpacked units with our teachers together. He has modeled and taught in the classrooms with our students where teachers are sitting back and watching and then they debrief afterwards. why did you do that that way or how did you do it this way? So that
028they're learning from him and seeing that in action. That has been really really helpful. The other thing that we have done is we have worked with Dr. Lori Ferry. She's been outstanding to work with visiting teaching in classrooms observing teachers giving feedback working directly with central office administration and also our building principles. um we have something called a math lead team and we meet with her and debrief um periodically where we talk about what we're seeing and how we can continue to ramp up and support our teachers. There are three um areas of focus that we identified through Dr. Ferry that she has established with all of our teachers in middle school. And that is one using visual models of math. Number two, short conceptual strategies or what we call number talks and also student
029math discourse because those are three high yield practices that align to the type of math learning uh that we want to see happening in our classrooms. When I talked about accountability earlier, all of our middle school teachers have regularly and we collect this. They they actually identify what is a goal for themselves. We memorialize that in writing and then we say, "Okay, what can we do to support that?" And then we do regular check-ins with them. So if for example I'm really wanting to use increase the use of a strategy we call vertical spaces which is a specific strategy where we're increasing meaningful math discourse. Then do are we seeing evidence of that in the classroom? To give you an example also, um Jen and I and principles, we recently visited uh both middle schools
030and did classroom walkthroughs. And I was really excited to see that in every single middle school classroom, we now see whiteboard spaces around the room. We see students up and we see students sharing what their thinking is and defending their thinking. And again going back to the tape diagram as as an example, there may be more than one way to demonstrate that you were able to model mentally with math. It is not necessarily that you have the right answer, but can you defend there is more than one right answer in many of these cases. So um district and building administrators, instructional coaches and administrators also meet regularly. We review progress and ensure teachers have the support that they need. uh we dig into data. We did that after the last round of iLearn scores came
031out and NWA as well. Really just trying to make sure that it's a comprehensive um wraparound of support and effort. Here's an example of a number talk. Um for example, again um I'll just use the first one. What is 120% of 60? This is from a sixth grade again from a sixth grade classroom. Um, well, there's an answer to that, right? It's 72. Well, but how? Why does that work? And are there more than is there more than one way to figure that out? Well, there is. So, for example, well, 120. Well, I know 100% of 60 and I know that 20 is x percentage of 100 versus, okay, I know 10% of 60 is six. So would that be 6 * 100 or 6 * 12 because you divide 120% into tths? This is
032the type of thing that you hear students doing in classrooms more often instead of passively sitting back and focusing on complying with the teacher by getting the right answer and not ever knowing or understanding how I got that answer. That's critically important. Here's some examples. Uh photos of kids in in action. Um you can see um students using you know math manipulatives. Al algebra tiles are used. You see um students up at the board demonstrating their thinking. Um again visual representations, modeling with math. A lot of discourse and collaboration happening in the classroom. Um this is hard. This is a shift for math teachers in particular who are used to control and focus on right answer. This can be tough, right? And so it's important if the standards say this is the new expectation for
033what learning looks like in a math classroom, it's our job to support them. That's what our team does. That's what we're here for. Also, teachers are learning how to think through math this way as well. We have brought teachers in. Here's an example of teachers who are empowered to try some of the sta same strategies we're asking students to engage in. Um teachers are seeing um they're getting really excited about this because they're starting to understand math in a new way even beyond the way they learned it through their methods courses when they were in college. So, um it's been really great to see that and um really we've seen some natural leadership develop in our middle school math department chairs and and some of our math teachers who have really taken ownership in this.
034So, there's a degree of increased just focus on professional opportunity to grow as well which has been a nice um um aspect of this. So next steps um we try to provide time during our professional learning days and our PLC collaboration time so that we're con I mean we weekly meet um for example Jen meets every Friday with our middle school instructional coaches. We talk every month with our middle school principles. We're constantly planning how can we continue to level up level up level up so that we can improve student learning. Um we're doing sharing and observing in each other's classrooms, classroom visits. um instructional coaches have been working on developing like question scripts to help teachers reflect on certain techniques that they're using in the classroom. And then we need to really really continue
035to think about how this impacts our intervention time for students who struggle um and what how that time needs to look different to make sure that we're giving students what they need. That's something that we've been working on more recently planning for. And I want to remind you going back to what I said at the beginning, the reason that I was excited to share this with you was because this is just math. Remember that we're doing this kind of work for literacy support for English language arts. We're doing this work in science. I mean, we have an open sed happening this week. The stuff that is happening through literacy and elementary, that is what our team is here for to support the goal of academic excellence. And so I just think this is a really
036nice example, but this is just an example. This is the type of work that's happening every day. Questions? >> I have a question. How [clears throat] how do how are the students taking it? Do you think the students like this way of learning better? I mean, it's different for them, but I would think they would like it better. It's it's >> Well, one, I think it depends on the student, right? Individually. >> Um, me as a student, I would have absolutely loved this. Yeah. um but maybe others not so much. When we did our first round of classroom observations, when we first implemented Amplify within the first month or so, it it [clears throat] was it you could tell it was uncomfortable. It was uncomfortable for the students and it was uncomfortable for the teacher.
037And it was really important that we got in and did those early observations because you can't just purchase a curriculum and give it to teachers and expect go take it run with it. Um you have to provide the support. So what's been neat in subsequent observations um again I think we've done we've done two rounds of walkthroughs. I have done two rounds of walkthroughs um just since the beginning of this and it is really cool to see the shift. Uh definitely it's become more the norm. It's more expected. Students know what to expect. Teachers are getting more comfortable with their prompting, their cues, their questioning strategies. Classroom management is a key aspect of this because you're talking about middle school students. If you want to include and encourage discourse, you've got to know how to
038manage that well. So, um, we're it's a work in progress, right? We're always working to get better. But it has been interesting to see that you don't walk in and see straight rows with the teacher sitting in front of the room anymore. It's just not happening as much as maybe it did before. >> More interaction between the students, which is good. >> Yes. Well, and I think it it it helps in not even just math, but overall in all of the classes, if they do this method, um it's more engaging for the students, which actually ties into attendance. I mean, you know, if their classes are more engaging, they're more excited to come. >> Well, and we we we apply the science of teaching. I mean, the bottom line is when I talked about vertical
039spaces, if I've got three students sitting in a group and I give them something to discuss versus if I have three students and I give them a whiteboard and I make them stand up and they have to write it with there's research behind that engagement, cognitive >> focus and critical thinking skyrockets and so those and so explaining that is important and and teaching teachers how to teach that way that small little shift increases the the output the outcome right so that's why Mike Steele and Lori Ferry have been so helpful because they're math experts they are leading experts in the state and and frankly I mean do Dr. steel in the nation and for them to come in and be able to help us with that has been awesome. >> Um I do have one
040question with so with our core subjects we have you know these collaborative teams and whatnot. What does that look like at the three different levels for the non-core academic classes? So your you know your science or not your sciences but your your pees and you know all of the other topics even STEM at the high school. >> Yeah. So during our um our uh our PD days, professional learning days that we have we have those days chunked out so that there is a certain amount of time that's given to the building principles and then there are choice sessions and then there were what we call directed sessions. What we try to do is we work with department chairs or leads in those areas to determine what type of support or what work do you need
041to focus in on during that time and we will give them designated session time for that and then on those I always want to say sorry because I'm old and we used to do early release it's not early release late starts now we do late starts um they have that time as well so they they have that time also for collaboration. >> It's probably a little more challenging because like at the elementary level, there's only one PE teacher per building. There's only one technology teacher per building. >> Yeah. Although we do have times when um I'm looking at Dr. Towns in there because she knows this and we have provided time for them across buildings to come together. >> Perfect. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> One more comment is um you've done amazing work and
042you can tell you really love what you do. Um, I I know it's easy for you to to nerd out over all this stuff. >> It is. Sorry. It is. >> I don't know. It's great information. Well, but I want to go back to again, it's just so important that I I want you all as board members to know and understand that everything that the members of the department of learning do behind the scenes in conjunction with our instructional coaches and our building principles to support all of the, you know, the curriculum that is adopted, the standards that need to be taught. So, it's it's an awesome team. So, I >> mean, it's easy it's easy to pick up on your passion and even, you know, Jen's everybody's um all your department chairs here that
043I mean it's easy to pick up on your passion for what you do and we appreciate that. >> I appreciate that. >> Yep. We appreciate you for sure. >> Any other questions? Joe, >> you know, explaining professional development sometimes is is is something, you know, out here in the public important it is. And you just can't do this without significant amount of professional development. And I was thinking she asked how happy the students were to do this. You know, I I know as a as a mature person, okay, that the you've been doing things in our little rut for a long time. >> You got [snorts] to get out of that rut. Okay. Yeah. And and that takes professional development to realize there's a better place than that place where we have been to do
044this. So back to when we explain these things and what goes on behind the scenes, it's our professional development that really helps drive this too. And our charge in education is that we are preparing the students for the world in which not we live today, the world in which they will live. And so by its nature, expectations are evolving, which means our practices need to evolve to keep up with those expectations. So that's why professional learning is central uh to to what we do as a school district. Well, and I'm excited to see that it's highlighted. Um, and we're focusing on not really the method or I guess there are more than there's more than one way to get to the same answer because we all have that kid in the past that got the
045math problem wrong, but they got the right answer. They got it wrong because their work wasn't what was being taught. >> And it doesn't and it doesn't discount the importance of knowing basic math facts, number sense, computation skills, all of those things like Mr. Lawrence was talking about. Absolutely. fundamental, but we have to do more than that when it comes to what we know kids will need in terms of thinking skills to navigate the world of AI and technology and the shifting landscape of all things that are the world in which we live. So, yeah, >> that kind of leads me into my question. So when I think about this conceptually and I think about maybe like a semester in elementary school in a certain grade, maybe you have to cover fractions, long division, word
046problems, and graphing, are you still covering the same material using this methodology, but it's just using a different way to learn it? Like including like visuals? Like it sounds like maybe they're able to use actual pictures of how these things work, but still covering the same material. or have the standards completely changed of you don't have to do word problems in third grade anymore you don't have to do graphing do you know what I mean >> I do yeah that's a great question so what is really nice about the standards in Indiana is they are highly articulated and spiral up so as students get older you're going to see that the expectation in terms of critical thinking is going to increase the the level of the skill is going to increase and so you're going
047to see that maybe in the lower grades the focus uses on more those um foundational what we call procedural aspects of math with some conceptual. There still is conceptual focus of course in elementary um but you're going to see that that that focus on conceptual math is going to increase as students get older. And it it is a balance still. And that's why going back to that earlier slide, it is the content standard and the process standards in tandem that is the expected focus. Um in the before times in Indiana, there were there weren't process standards. It was only content standards. Process standards have been layered in and they [clears throat] are just as important now. So >> I do have one more just thinking what are these standards who puts I know the state
048puts them together who does it Katie Jenner or a whole >> I don't think just her answer we came I just >> yeah uh it's it's typically a committee a broad-based group of stakeholders and there is an opportunity typically there's a call out from DOE um matter of fact there was one I think in this last for I can't remember what content area it was maybe computer science um where they'll do a call out and they assemble a group of experts broad-based stakeholder group >> maybe both the people you've used I mean from a from a university level to >> absolutely teacher level >> yes Dr. Steel is one of them. He's a great example. I mean, he he participated in that. Yep. >> And you mentioned this like education majors, do they learn how
049to teach math in this way or do they or is it much broader when you're getting a degree in education? >> I think it'd be hard for me to answer that question because I think it would vary so much from program preparation program to preparation program. Yeah. >> Back to what you learn in college is just a start. Okay. Yes. and you get your how we're going to do it. Okay. >> If I were to go teach a lesson the way I was taught to teach a lesson in the the 90s, I probably wouldn't have a whole lot of student engagement. >> Well, I was wondering about current students. If they kind of are always adapting their curriculum in college to how kids are currently learning. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> All right. >> Dr.
050Rich, >> thank you. >> Wait a minute. >> Oh, sorry. >> I got something. Dr. Rich, Dr. Towns and your team, everybody that was on it, thank you for the roll out on >> it that was massive. As far as the adoption of curriculum from the state, is that time period too short just right? What's it typically I the amount of time? I know we had adopted the actual who you chose to go with as far as a vendor earlier in the year. >> Yeah. Did do you have enough time? And was this year different than in past? It seems like there was a lot more to do. >> No. Well, I mean, I think it depends on how significant the shift in the expectations is. Um, I've seen standards shift and change year-over-year. Some
051shifts in expectation and standards are greater than others. A great example of that, I think, would be with literacy. Um obviously the state changed a lot of in terms of expectation, standards, science of reading. Yeah. So that was that was a big big shift and I can guarantee you that that will be a topic of one of these presentations coming up sooner rather than later because that that has been um a massive undertaking that's we've it's really great work. It's exciting and we need to update you on that as well. >> When was the last big shift that you remember? Well, it's it's it's it's depends. It's content area by content area. Yeah. >> In years ago, there was a six-year adoption cycle where every six years you adopted new that that really doesn't exist
052anymore. Now, it really is just a matter of when there are standards, new expectations. Do your materials support and promote those or not? And if they don't, you've got to go back to the drawing board. And that's what these program reviews have been about with math and science and then literacy. Thank you. Okay. Y >> All right. Anything else? Thank you. Thank you everyone. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh public comment is up next on the agenda and we did not have anyone that signed up for public comment. So we will move on to consent. Um by the board approves and adopts the following items or actions which reflect application of board policy in the Indiana code. And these are our consent items. They are claims, donations, minutes from our last meeting, outofstate and
053overnight trips, and personnel listings. May I have a motion to approve the consent items as listed? >> Misty second. Joe, any further discussion? >> Yes. Uh we would like our schools always appreciate community support and Nathan and Megan Stalling uh donated $525 to White River for students in need and First United Methodist Church also donated $200 to White River for students in need and we always thank our community for that. >> Thank you, Joe. Uh all those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. All right. Um, moving on to our action items and in accordance with the Indiana state law, schools are now required to utilize a more comprehensive expanded history background check for employment. May I have a motion to approve the separate personal list as related to additional background check information. May I
054have a motion? >> Motion. >> Second by Stephanie. Any further discussion? All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. Next up, um, we have the teacher contract ratification. The Noblesville Teachers Forum and the Noblesville Schools met on Wednesday, October 1st, Thursday the 2nd, and Friday the 3rd to discuss and negotiate the agreement for teachers for the 2526 school year. A tenative agreement was reached on Friday, October 3rd. Uh the Noblesville Teachers Forum ratified the agreement upon tenative agreement on Wednesday, October 8th, and the board held a tenative agreement meeting Tuesday, October 7th, which was open to the public to discuss uh the tenative agreement prior to the ratification. May I have a motion to ratify the negotiated agreement for the school year between the Noblesville schools and the Noblesville teachers forum per the terms
055of the agreement as stipulated in article nine of the negotiated agreement. Brett second. Second, Joe. Any further discussion? >> Just want to say it's great that we've collaborated and come to a good consensus and thanks Christie for sitting in for three days and >> to our teachers and >> yep, >> happy that we've for sure. All right. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. >> Thank you. Um, next up, um, the collective bargaining agreement that we just approved has eliminated the vesting requirement for the district's HA vivba plan. The following resolution grants the administration approval to update the plan document to match the collective bargaining agreement. May I have a motion to approve the resolution giving the administration the ability to update the HA viva plan document? Motion. Joe move. >> Misty second.
056Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. >> Moving right along. Okay. Next up, we have um the budget adoption. In accordance with Department of Local Government Finance, the 2026 budget must be adopted prior to November 1st of 2025. David Hordemiller, chief financial officer, held a public hearing in regard to the 2026 budget as required at the budget work session Tuesday, October 7th, and now request approval of the budget. Again, the work session um is p was public and it is recorded and on the website if anyone would like to view that. May I have a motion to adopt the 2026 budget ordinance as well as a resolution to reduce appropriations for the 25 and 26 budgets. Resolution for adjustments in the budgetary process. Resolutions to adopt the school bus
057replacement plan for the years 2026 to 2030. Resolution to adopt a capital projects expenditure plan. resolution to transfer amounts from educational fund to the operations fund on a monthly basis. May I have a motion? >> So second anyone >> Misty, [clears throat] thank you. Any further discussion or questions? >> Yes. I just have a few questions. Um, so we had a work session a couple of weeks ago and I was out of town, not able to attend that, but I listened in and watched the video and thank you so much David for presenting your packet and, you know, explaining everything in a very clear, concise way. Um, a couple of questions. One was the VIBA contribution or how that changed and I guess that would be more related, well, I guess it's sort of related
058to the budget, but also related to the teacher contract, right? I don't know if you can explain what the VIVA situation is or what we're changing about that. >> Yeah. So, the VIVA situation is one where for all certified administrator contracts, the district was contributing 1% of salary into a Viva account. And the the stipulation that was in the prior CBA was that you had to retire for Noblesville schools with, I believe, 10 years with at least 10 years of service to be vested in those funds. And so, uh during the bargaining process, we we realized that um you know, we wanted to get money into teachers, you know, pockets now. And that was one area where you know 1% of salary was going into an account that uh you know if you left the
059district you know after three you know um without having met those requirements that I mentioned earlier then you would not have access to those funds. And so we realized hey like let's go ahead and and uh best uh everyone in these um accounts as well as then redeploy that 1% into uh the the compensation then that we approved within the CBA. So it is redirecting those dollars away from annual contributions then into those salaries to allow us to do the the steps that we did in the contract. >> I feel like that is a really good thinking out of the box like solution too because yeah if you're here for less than 10 years you lose all of that money because it's contributed by the school. Correct. >> And if you don't retire from the
060district >> don't retire then you don't get the Okay. And now they're able to access that in January. >> Yes. We will be updating the plan in the coming weeks with uh the plan administrator and then circulate um all the detailed information to all the employees eligible so they know exactly how to submit claims to get reimbursement. You can almost think of it like an HSA account that has an administrator of the um of the account. >> Yeah, that's really great. The other thing I heard you mention during the meeting was the um revenue that the district gets from referendum, which I feel like probably helps us be able to give teachers a little raise this year. Um and you specifically mentioned how tiff districts are benefiting from that. Can you explain that a little
061bit? Like how referendum dollars affect tiff districts and how we're kind of benefiting from that in Noblesville? Yeah. So because we do have that operating referendum which is a rate driven fund that is going to then be applied to all the assessed value. So including tiff uh assessed value within tiff districts. Once you know the the development gets underway and there begins you know construction and development then that assessed value is going to you know be you know directly uh added to our budget by way of that rate being applied to that um assessed valuation. So that is not the case for you know say our operations fund. all of that assessed value within that tip district is outside of that. So that you know lends to, you know, circuit breaker impact and so forth,
062but having all that assessed value within those tiff districts uh with that rate from the referendum fund applied to it is going to generate more revenue. And so in fact this year um I think we talked a little bit about it in the presentation, but the referendum fund is also bringing in almost I think it's about $4 million more mainly because the the state legislature put a cap on for both 24 and 25. uh it was about three it was 3% in 24 and then in 25 they did a formula based off of ADM and it was about a 4% cap but both of those years we lost almost $2 million right that did not come into thoseville schools coffers and so by the elimination of that cap this past legis session allowing our rate
063to then no longer be artificially suppressed to around 34 cents and going back to 37 cents then that fund is going to bring in almost 3 about 3.7 almost $4 million more next year which again goes directly back into 93% of it goes to salaries and benefits again for competitive salaries and for teachers, administrators, classified staff, etc. So, yeah, it's it's absolutely generated, you know, by those tiff districts having that assessed value as well. >> Yeah, that's just it's fantastic that we're seeing our tax dollars be used for something so valuable like retaining our teachers and being able to pay our teachers. I just think that's a big return on investment if you will. Um, >> it's important. One other thing I've noticed, well, we've discussed as our student enrollment this year is down 200
064students. Is that correct? >> Yeah. 200 >> appro approximately 200. >> So, how are you planning for that for future budgeting or I mean we have no crystal ball. So, but there are I guess certain things that are maybe impacting our enrollment or you know what how are you planning budget-wise for that decrease in number of students meaning decrease in number of amount of money that we're getting. uh in one word, conservatively, right? Because you know, if you look at the numbers, our senior class right now is just above 800 and our kindergarten class is just below 700. And if that was to be a trend that was to continue, then uh you know, again, we just don't know. But if that, you know, just based on what the trend is, that would suggest a
065potential decrease next year as well. Yeah. >> And so then that's where, you know, we look into what are we doing with our expenditures and we're we're being conservative in terms of our growth. Like obviously you know when it came to to bargaining this year we we there was much less that we could bring to bargaining based on you know how our enrollment was trending not to mention how our assessed value has been trending with sea one right so you know the our main metrics in our budget are are trending are trending down and so that's where you look at what's going on with our expenditures well yes we our expendentures um are are going to conservatively grow based on then how much re or how much money we have in the bank and that's
066when if you look at our fund performance in the in the the budget book material you'll see that you know we do exceed the uh the the schoolboard policy on the the the percentage of expenditures in our fund balance, the policy says between 8 and 15% and we're we're looking close to 20%. Right? And so like we're not spending it down to get into the range. We're going to stay a little bit above that minimum range to make sure then that we can take on and buffer that should we continue to experience a decrease. >> That makes sense, right? >> Yep. >> You do a great job. We're so lucky to have you. Thank you so much for >> Thank you, David. >> All the ways you think outside of the box and get us
067extra fun. Appreciate it very much. Any other questions, comments? All right. Um, all those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. >> All right. Next up, uh, the administration has requested the approval of the proposed employee handbook changes, uh, for all staff members for the 2025 school year. Um, just a note that the changes for the handbook are the changes that occurred uh, as a result of the teachers contract that we just passed. So, may I have a motion to approve the 202526 employee handbook? >> Stephanie, >> Joe second. Any further discussion? >> Thanks for highlighting that. I was like, >> yes, >> I was like, what's been changed? Oh, thank goodness. She had >> That's a lot of reading. >> Thank you for doing that. >> All right. >> All those in favor? I >>
068opposed. Motion carried. All right. Next up, we have public comment for a non agenda topic. and we did not have anyone sign up. So, committee reports and we start with Dr. Hy. >> All right. Thank you. Uh, first off, hope everyone had a great fall break. I saw lots of refreshed, happy faces in the schools last couple days, so it's good to see everybody back. Had some great chats with some kids. Um, I want to say a big thank you again to our board uh for supporting our new teacher contract. Um, I know Mr. Crosser just said it a second ago, but we it really was I enjoy the process. I I it's three very long days. Um, but I think they're great days because it's clear from the minute we start till the minute
069we're done. We all want the same thing and we're all working hard to maximize whatever we have at the table. As David shared, we we did have less funds this year. Very open with each other about that, but we made sure to make every penny count and and I think we came up with a great contract feel good and already looking forward to the next time we get to sit down together in about a year. So, we just love our teachers so much. Uh, very thankful that we're able to continue to invest in them um even in spite of some final challenges. and we just appreciate our strong relationship we always have with our forum. Um I want to share that we are very proud. We've had quite a few visitors to the high school
070in the last few weeks. Um it seems like everybody wants to come see our new wing. So great job board. Um a few examples. Project Lead the Way staff from around the country visited a few weeks ago to check it out. Um Dr. Singh who's the president of University of Indy came and had a tour with me a couple weeks ago. Um and this week we'll be hosting a contingency of of uh leaders from Brazil actually as part of our sister city exchange. They will be visiting on Thursday morning. So very excited for them to get to see it. Also, uh looking forward, uh this is probably more for the community than the board, but looking forward, uh next Monday night, the board and I will be attending our regional ISBA meeting. Don't forget board.
071Um we'll be up in Cooko that night. And this is something we do twice a year where the board gets um some updates and training from the schoolboard association um on some legal updates and just some some policy things that they update with them. And I just want to uh always express my appreciation that the board is so committed to learning and growing together. So thanks board. Looking forward to that. And the very next day, uh, community, just to let you know, my annual state of the schools address will be on Tuesday. This year, we're doing it after school at 4:30 p.m. at the high school. Um, partly because we do want to show off the wing, but partly because, um, some of the things I'm going to talk about will lean into that space
072and I want our community to get a chance to be there with us. So, public is invited. Um, you do have to register ahead of time on the chamber website. Um, so go check that out if you're interested in joining us at the high school at 4:30 on Tuesday. And I'm going to end with a celebration. Um because board I haven't even had a chance to tell you this yet because we've been on break but over fall break Julie successfully defended her dissertation. So I would like to publicly and officially congratulate Dr. Zacher. So congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Another celebration. Wasn't Christy Crosser recently recognized as an ISBA top 25? Yeah. Congratulations. >> Thank you. >> Very proud of our leader. Congrats. >> Thank you. Thank you. All right, attendance review committee. Misty. >> All
073right. I always struggle with the um updates because there's a lot of fun facts and interesting information and all sorts of things in there, but I just don't know that everyone is as interested in it as as what I am. So, I make all sorts of notes that I share and I end up with like a quarter of it that I actually spew out. So, let's start with a couple of fun facts. the attendance review committee. Um, any idea on what the lowest months of the school year have the the worst attendance rates or the lowest attendance rates? >> The worst attendance rates. >> Yeah. >> Spring. Yeah. They're >> I'd say December, >> February, and March >> because of the because it's so cold. >> Because there's no breaks. There's no breaks. >> The
074longest stretch of school that we go without any significant break. >> Okay. So um >> right so February and March traditionally being the lowest attendance rates um and this actually is the case for all groups that are attracted and there's a lot if you want a chart on attendance Julie has it there are all sorts of charts >> doc Dr. Dr. Dr. Thcker has >> Dr. I apologize. >> Yes. >> Um there's even a chart for students with an attendance rate of 94% or greater. And you know what? Even in this group, the lowest um the the attendance drops uh the lowest drop is February and March. So it even follows the trend. Um so let's see. Our lowest attendance rate for last school year was 94.72%. When was that? In February. >> That was
075our lowest. That's >> That was our lowest. >> That was our highest. >> We have pretty good attendance rates. >> That's pretty good. >> But we still have chronic absences that need to be addressed. >> Um our best attendance rates start out strong in August because everybody's excited. They want to meet their teachers. They want to see their friends. Um and it is just over 96 and a half%. You would think it would be 100 being the beginning of the school year, but it's not. it's 96 and a half percent and then that slowly declines to just under 96% in February and back up just over 96% at the end of the school year. So we hover the line 96ish. Um but one thing that is again and I always say this it's very important
076and we are we do have a great crew working on it. We focus on understanding the student, knowing the student, their family, their situation, because every absence is different. It could be a chronic medical issue, whether it was newly diagnosed or they've been dealing with it for years. It could be um outside of school family responsibilities. It could be anxiety. It could be, you know, extracurricular activity that's not related to school. So, and it's just important to know the students so that we can come to a solution and get an attendance plan in place and put in supports where they're needed. So, sorry, I'll I'll stop, but this is this is a great group and I'm excited every time we get to meet. Okay. All right. Thank you. Uh Noblesville Schools Education Foundation Board and
077I will report on that. Um we met September 25th. Um 18 grants were awarded uh this past cycle. Um the new grant round will start in January. Many grants which are $500 or less are always open uh to teachers, students, uh staff. Uh the end zone during homecoming was a success. 170 people attended. Um the hundred year of Miller's website is live for those of you that like to check that out. Um, holiday trivia is coming up February 4th at Beer Brewery and Miller Palooa is March 13th of next year. Little plug for the Miller Palooa. >> Um, so I attended um the last one which was earlier this year and I was the winner of the Miller for a day with the football team. >> Oh, >> I say I but I gave it
078to my son of course. I'm not gonna go out there. But um and we just did that um at our last home football game and it he got to choose a friend and he absolutely loved it. He got to join the football team um at five o'clock as they started doing their little walkthroughs on stuff. He got to go back into the the high school locker room with them. Got to eat with them. Got to hang out. He got to come back out into the um the the field uh locker room. So, there's two separate ones, but he got to go in the locker room with them. He was out on the sideline the whole time and um really got to be with the players and the coaches. Um and then even at halftime went
079back into the locker room. >> That's very cool. >> It was fun. >> And he wants to play football when he gets to high school, right? >> Yes, he is a football player and he is a rising freshman, so he's super excited. And you know, and it really just hit me when he was standing on the sideline. He is actually you by size you can't really tell he's not in high school. >> That's good. That's a good thing. >> So we're excited. We're excited. >> Right. >> All right. >> Just keep up the raffles for the Miller Palooa. That's where I was going with it. I didn't really mean to focus on my kids. It was the Miller Poo. >> I'll next year that next year. It's very cool. All right. Uh Nolesville Parks for
080Joe. >> The parks and the golf courses are still open and a great place to spend some time. The uh the leaves are looking fabulous. If you decide to run your electric bike down the trails, the is still spectacular out there. Beauty of the trees getting ready to fall. Uh the ice rink is soon going to be put up at the Federal Hill. So, as we move into Christmas season at the parks department, just go to their website and see what all the fun things we're having. And once I get the 1 November, I'll have some details on all our Christmas activities. >> Okay. All right. Thank you very much. Our next regular school board meeting is Tuesday, November 18th. Um here at six o'clock. It's close to this date just because we're pushed back
081a little bit because of fall break. Um may I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Make a motion. >> Brett second. >> Second, Joe. Uh any further discussion? All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. We are >> adjourned. was only an hour. >> I don't know.