001All right, you guys ready? >> All right, good evening. Thank you for joining us. We will start with the pledge of >> allegiance. Thank you. And now for a moment of silence. >> Thank you. We will start with recognitions. Dr. Hy. >> Right. Thank you board and thank you guests for being here with us this evening. We have a few uh student groups to recognize tonight. So, at this time, I would like to invite Ross Wellman, the boys volleyball coach, to come up and speak to us for a minute. Hi, I'm James Pierce and I'm the uh girls track and field coach and um we had another good season this year. Um we have um I think just one of our members is here because we have a lot of people um that were here
002that either graduated or that are in cross country and they're just finishing their work their workout and there wasn't time to get cleaned up before to come over here. So um Anley, you want to come up? So um while Anley's coming up, uh our team our team did very well. We um we had a primarily young team. We had a team that had about 70% of our scoring was from freshman and sophomores. So, we've got a lot of young people back, which is really exciting. Um, we were fifth place in the HCC conference and then we were third place in the IHSA sectional and the IHSA regional behind the eventual state champion Carmel Greyhounds and the HSC Royals. So, that was uh pretty cool. And then um we had uh state meet qualifiers. We had
003a 4x8 team in there. We had uh Ansley Applegate was in the um 1600. Brinkley Cooper was in the 800. And then um Aninsley was in the um 200 and then we also had the 4x4 uh relay and got a lot of good experience that way. And um so while Aninsley's up here, Angley had a really good season. She's got um multiple school records now uh including the she was on our 4x1 uh who which set the new school record of 4944. Um she's also a member of our 4x2 indoor record uh that we set uh earlier in the winter. And then the one that's the big one is the 200 meters. She was is the new school record holder in the 200 meters 2537 and that eclipsed the previous record 2540 which was set
004in 1986 when I was 14. So >> pretty cool. Congratulations. >> That's amazing. >> Soccer team. All right. Good evening. I'm Jake Fresky. I'm one of our track coaches with the boys team. I brought with us our part of our uh returning regional uh champions for the boys track team. This is the first time that we won a regional since 2005, which is really cool. So, we got Banner Barnes, giveaway wave, John Libs, Jack Rush, Isaiah Vose, Angel Wilson. All right, who else am I missing? Nathan Nathan Leech, Coach Kinley, Coach Dirkson. Okay. Um, after the regional meet, we had qualifiers at the state meet. Uh, set a 4x8 uh school record getting second to Bloomington North, who is the eventual cross country state champion, who we're going to take down this year. um set
005that uh school record in 739. Uh that was a 12 second school record. That was Banner Barnes. Uh and then graduates uh Jack Strong, Braden Livingston, and Isaiah Vose. And then John Libs has the 3200 school record, finishing eighth at the uh state meet. Banner finished fifth in the 1600. He also had a school record of 9006. John beat his uh 905 school record. Angel Wilson we have as uhund200 top 20 in the state uh taking down uh two school records in the 10200 as well as uh Banner in the eight and then um that's it. That's what we got. All right like to introduce uh Coach Bullard and the girls softball team. Congratulations. >> All right. I'm Dee Bullard. I am the varsity head coach for softball. Um, tonight we have Haley Shako and
006Izzy Zap. Uh we had a pretty good season this year. We won our third sectional in five years. Uh we had five seniors receive academic all state. Unfortunately, they're all at school now. That was Brooklyn Grayson, Macy Duval, Ma Nash, and Addie Emerson. Brooklyn Grayson was also first team all state, a north south all-star and was the MVP of the North South All-Star game. We had all HCC first team was Addison Rzinger who could not be here tonight. Brooklyn Grayson and Haley Shatco. Second team was Delaney Rundle and Izzy Zap. And then finally, all county was first team was Addison Rzinger, Brooklyn Grayson, and Haley Shako. And second team was Delaney Reynold, and Izzy Zap. That's what we did for this year. And before we move on, I do want to acknowledge we had a
007few teams that could not be here tonight. So, I do want to say we do have certificates and some um special recognitions also um for baseball, girls tennis, boys golf, and unified track. So, again, huge congratulations to those teams as well for their accomplishments this spring. >> Okay, go ahead. Yep. So, next, uh, I'm going to ask Dr. Miller to come up, and we're going to talk, uh, first about our hair, uh, Chevrolet teacher spotlight. And while he's making his way up here, I do want to always point out that this program highlights three teachers every month, um, from one of our schools and provides $1,000 to their school for student academic and extracurricular achievement. With that, Dr. Miller. >> Great. We're uh we're so glad to be here tonight. Uh we appreciated hosting you
008for building tour today, but uh really proud of our building and proud of our people and and uh it's my pleasure to re uh to recognize three of our teachers. Uh we put this this out to our whole staff and ask for nominations and it's kind of role and these three teachers received the most nominations uh in our building and so uh would like to recognize them if they can make their way up here. Is that all right if they do that while we talk about him? Our first spotlight teacher is Sarah Stewart. Sarah is a uh seventh grade science teacher for us. This is her 12th year uh teaching. Um and of course we we pose the questions the the uh the district questions to them. So I won't read them all to you,
009but just some highlights. Um you know, why did you become a teacher? and she's always wanted to be a teacher and she loves that she is in her dream job. She put on her on her uh questionnaire which I which I just really appreciated. Um her goals for her students are that they all know that they're valued, cared for, and matter. And uh she wants to help them fall in love with the amazing world of science and uh her advice to parents drew my attention. uh even though they will never admit it, middle schoolers love school, there's always a lot of joy and excitement around that science classroom. So Sarah Stewart, our next spotlight is Carrie Zto. Uh Carrie is sixth grade language arts and she's been teaching 12 years as well. And uh you
010know why did you want to become a teacher? And she mentioned making a lasting impact in students lives and how middle school is sometimes awkward and she loves to help students feel seen, valued, and confident not just in their academics but who they are as individuals. And I I sure appreciate that. Her goal is for students to leave her classroom not only stronger readers and writers because of that language arts thing, but also confident and capable in being students. So, Carrie, we appreciate you as well. And then our final spotlight recognition is Morgan Zeller. And Morgan is an eighth grade language arts. So, we've had we have a seventh grade, sixth grade, and an eighth grader teacher in here. Um, she's been teaching a total of eight years. We stole her away. She came out
011of a of a brief time being at home. So, she's been with us four years and just does an amazing job down there in the eighth grade language arts. You know, why did you become a teacher? Her response because the influence of one teacher who cares can change a kid's entire life. And uh I also was drawn to to uh you know what makes Noblesville schools special? And Morgan's reply was that despite the size and growth, we've retained a sense of community and small town pride in our schools. So, uh, our three spotlight recognition teachers for East Middle School. Thank you guys. >> Congratulations. >> So, now I'd like to turn it over to our spotlight. Is that right? Okay. Uh I want to turn over to u Mr. Derek Rubble. He's going to talk
012about uh program we started last year. It was in its first year and uh really had a lot of success and a lot of uh a lot of positive things to build on and plug in a population of our building uh into an esports program and giving giving kids a chance to plug in and connect to our schools. And um you know, as we talked about earlier, there's there's a there's a future in esports and uh whether it's scholarships and college teams and and things like that, people now pay to watch people play games. And I know I know that's uh Derrick's part of Derek's presentation. So, I'm going to step out of the way and turn over to Mr. Derek Rubble. >> Thank you for your time. Um so, esports, everybody asked the question,
013now what is that? It's really any not it's not any different than a basketball team or a volleyball team or a cross country team. It's it's basically video games but in a team format. It's very competitive. We can advance the next slide if um at the middle school last year as Dr. Miller just said uh it was our first year. Uh we kind of like learning as we were going. Um we joined this uh organization called Play Versus. And Play Versus is basically a host with other middle schools across the country. We're in the Eastern time zone. So, we play in the east region. Um, like in our Mario Kart League, we play there was 170 middle schools that participated in Mario Kart. Just to give you kind of an idea of how many teams
014are are involved with that, we play all Nintendo Switch titles. So, it's it's Mario Kart, uh, Splatoon 3, which is kind of like Capture the Flag but with Inc., um, and then Super Smash Brothers, which is kind of like a melee uh, fighting game. Uh we played a season of about 11 weeks uh long uh during during the season last year and it happened on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays after school until about 5:30, 6 o'clock. So why should students be a part of esports? Uh the biggest thing for esports in my opinion is the community. So it's it's a it's a group of like-minded students who get together that have a passion, a desire to do, you know, something they do at home anyway, but now they can do it in a format where they're
015in person. They get to do it as a team. They get to work together, get to collaborate, and that's part of the character development. So, they learn a lot of valuable skills uh critical thinking, collaboration. Uh there's some STEM uh standards like analysis of game data. So, after we would play, we would have discussions, we would have some talks about what how can we improve, you know, what what was our times, you know, what can we do to get a faster time? So we would have like a little session afterwards after the meet uh and be able to talk through uh some of that and then we would come up for strategies for future uh events and practices as well. So last year again uh we just did a spring season with play versus uh
016it lasted about 11 weeks from about February to the beginning of May. Like I said before we played on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays after school from 4 to 6. Uh we had nine total teams. uh each each game had a team uh that represented and some of the games had multiple teams but across those nine teams there were 44 total participants. There were a few students who kind of overlapped and played on uh some of the same games as well. So they played on multiple teams. Uh you can advance to the next slide. Uh some of the results. So individually for our Splatoon 3 team we had nine participants. Uh there were very few schools that actually participated in Splatoon 3. Uh I think it was under 20 uh in that region. So like maybe
01717 teams. We didn't know anything about Splatoon 3. Uh I didn't know anything about Splatoon 3. Uh the students we were learning together. So afterwards we were just like how do we even play? Like we didn't know how to play the game when it started. So I I guess the biggest uh thing for Splatoon was the learning experience. Just learning a game together. How do we play? How do we get better uh at that game? So I was very proud because you know the first couple weeks we're not we're not doing very well at all. Uh by the end of the season we at least knew how to play the game. We actually got a couple wins toward the end of the season, so I was pretty proud about that. Uh, our next team was
018the Mario Kart teams. Uh, we had two full-time teams, one team that played, a third team that played uh, occasionally depending if we had enough students to that could come in and participate. There were 11 total participants on those three teams. It was very competitive, highly competitive. Uh, as I said before, there was like 170 different Mario Kart teams across the country, and our top Mario Kart team finished seventh in that 170 team. So, very, very good. And I also point out one of those losses was a forfeit loss during spring break. So, um, we probably would have would have finished even higher uh, if it wasn't for that. Uh, and then the next slide is the Super Smash Brothers teams that played on Thursdays. We had a total of 24 different students that played
019uh, in Super Smash Brothers. I know that's really small uh, to read. It was very competitive. Um, we had six teams that played all simultaneously at the same time. So, my classroom, as you guys saw today when you came in there, uh, it was completely full, extremely loud. Um, but I do want to highlight someone. Uh, I'm going to have him come up actually right now. Uh, his name is Brandon Garrett, and he is a fresh a current freshman at Noblesville High School, but he was an eighth grader last year and played on Smash. Uh, Smash is a very popular game. Uh Brandon actually was undefeated in every single game, every single match for 11 straight weeks, Super Smash, which is it's unheard of to not lose a game. So, I'm gonna let him speak
020at the end of the presentation. So, if you want to come back up when I'm finished, I'll I'll let give him some time to talk about it as well. You can advance to the next slide. Uh this year, we got some bigger plans, uh more than just a spring season. We're actually going to host a uh schoolwide Mario Kart tournament on Saturday, September 6th at the middle school uh in the LGI from noon to 4. Uh this is basically just to kind of spread the word, get it out there, see what kind of kids are interested in Mario Kart. It's also a good way for me to kind of who's really good at the game. I can kind of go through there and talk to him and say, "Hey, let's let's come out for the
021team." And then we're actually going to participate in both a fall and a spring season for Mario Kart, especially since we had a lot of success uh last year with Mario Kart. And that'll start in September. will run to December. Uh and then in January, we're going to host a schoolwide Smash Brothers tournament. Same idea, and get more kids involved. Uh and then the spring season will last with all three games, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, like we did last year from February to May. Some of our goals for the future, we want to get that participation up. We want to get more kids in there, get get the spread the word. Uh we want to develop a sense of pride for the program. Uh you know, maybe even invest in some uniforms or some shirts uh
022to kind of spread the awareness. um maybe some fundraising to do that for within the community uh for the for the teams. I think the biggest goal of mine though is you know I've talked with Adam Zobie at the high school. He's the esports coach at the high school. The whole reason why we're putting this together is it's a feeder program. And so we don't want kids going into the high school not knowing how, you know, how this works. They want to give them some sort of an experience before they get there. And our high school team's had a lot of success uh in eports the past five or six years. So, that's something that we're really looking forward to uh for the future. So, I'm actually going to invite Brandon back up uh to
023have a few words about his experience. And I've also invited Angel Guerrero, who is a current eighth grader who played last year as a seventh grader to talk about their experience after school each day. >> Um I had a lot of fun. >> I learned some new skills like uh leadership Uh they uh they taught me some things, I learned some things. Just so much fun. Most of the people there I'm now like really good friends with and like just a lot of fun. >> Same thing with Brandon. Some so fun. Good stuff. Good stuff. It's been great. It's a lot of fun. Well, I have a lot of fun. Make some new friends. And pretty much this is the best year I ever have. So, that's my presentation. I want to spread the word
024about esports and hopefully this thing takes off and, you know, becomes even bigger than what it already is. Thank you. Uh we enjoyed visiting your classroom today. Um I mean this is a great program. My son is quite a bit older, but he would have loved to do something like this in Noblesville schools for sure. >> I would say the same. I mean I'm a gamer. I like to play video games. If this would have been a runaround when I was in middle school and high school, I would have you this would have been my thing, right? >> Uh $15 million was given in scholarships last year. Wow. like with the with the NACE program which is a special program for esports all around the country that with colleges that do have an esports program.
025Uh so there's a lot of incentive into joining you know especially at the high school level you know possibly getting that opportunity for scholarships and and and just to be recognized you know there's something out there for all students and so I think esports gives that that niche for you know students to be involved in something that they really you know have a passion for and enjoy at home already. >> Thank you. here. If the opportunity arises, invite us. Okay. If some you got some event going on, send us a little note out to us to come and watch. >> Do you have room for I mean, do you have spectators? >> Yeah, you Saturday, September 6, come on down to the NMS LGI and see kind of how how they play and how they
026interact. And thank you. >> More than welcome. >> I love how you have these couple of schoolwide events, but they're dual purpose because they're actually your scouting events, >> right? Yes. your setup is >> HSA yet, right? So, you can scout. >> But there are some uh there there is an organization at the high school level where schools around, you know, our area is already participating in, you know, the competitions much like IH a IHA, oh my goodness, >> you get the idea. Uh but it's an organization that has kind of linked that up um you know, the same way as as other athletic events. So, >> your setup is really impressive uh today. Thank you for showing us that. Do you uh have a selection of games like in the future for next year
027that I >> Right. Right now we're just going to try to hone in on those three games, try to get better at those three games. Those are the three games that they really focus on at the high school. So that's kind of like our purpose is to >> Yeah. >> go in as a feeder program to the high school. We also play those three titles particularly because they're rated E for, you know, they're they're good for that age group. Uh, we don't want to get into games that maybe are more inappropriate for like a middle school age student. So, >> my whole family played Mario Kart on vacation. >> Fantastic time. >> Great game. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next on the agenda, each of our u monthly meetings we have a strategic planning
028presentation and we are um we've cycled back around. So this is the second time this year. So take it away. >> Yeah. So um this evening I'm going to be um presenting to you on one of our measures of success. Um if we advance the slide just a couple do I have that ability over here Andy or is that all you the keyboard? Okay. Um, so if you look at the third measure down there, um, we're looking at our, um, teacher retention, which is very timely. Obviously, we just got done with our hiring season. Um, and so looking at the staff that have we've, um, have returning for this year. I'm going to be sharing uh, quite a bit of data with you tonight. Um, I feel like this is more of a celebration that
029it is a presentation to be honest. If you've taken a peek um, at our numbers and how we're doing, it's just really exciting. So um the first thing I want to dive into is um Andy doesn't seem to oh there we go is just looking at the challenge of teacher turnover. So if you look at teacher turnover within itself there's a lot of of challenges if we lose individuals. It's not just losing a a person or that role or that position but you lose all of these things. The first thing you can see there is disruption to student learning. um you think of all of the the um disruption to curriculum continuity. I know our department of learning um you know the training that they put into our teachers and devote to our teachers with
030anytime that we have new curriculum coming on board um is just a massive undertaking and so anytime that we lose someone that we're losing that that knowledge. Um obviously the increased costs um so it does you know cost the corporation money um anytime that we lose someone because then we're out there you know we're going to recruitment fairs and job fairs and and just like I said before the training that goes into all of that um is a um a decrease for us. Um and then you can see the last two there loss of institutional knowledge and decreased morale. Um the loss of institutional knowledge is is key in my book. You know, you think about those individuals that have been with us at Noblesville schools for 30, 40 years, and when they walk out
031the door, not only are hearts sad, but we have lost just such a breath of of knowledge and people that just know what I call like the Noblesville way. And so, um, you know, some of the the retirements, those are those are a little bit easier to swallow because they're moving on to that next chapter. But when people leave us after 20 years of experience to go on to another experience, you know, that's just really really difficult. So the next thing I wanted to look at was our key factors influencing retention. Um these are probably the fi top five in my opinion. Um obviously compensation and benefits. David's team does a great job to ensure that our um salaries and our benefits are all very competitive. So that is really um you know helps a
032lot of our staff stay on board knowing that they have good benefits and and and good paying jobs. Um secondly just our working conditions and our school climate and I'll touch upon that a little bit later in the presentation but just ensuring that people feel valued that they feel supported that they're working in an environment that they want to come to every day. Um thirdly our professional development. Again kudos to our learning department. Um you know they have really dumped a lot into that. You know, Nobles Noblesville Schools takes a lot of pride in ensuring that each of our staff members, not just our certified staff, but our classified staff as well, is really growing as a professional. Um, and I think our our PD days, our four professional development days that we have um
033within our calendar really, you know, lend to that, which is great. um our autonomy and voice. We want to ensure that you know our teachers do have a voice and you know how things are going, what kind of curriculum is being selected and just their overall working conditions. And then lastly, the other um really key factor that's influencing retention is um recognition and appreciation. I don't know anyone that doesn't like a little, you know, word of praise or or, you know, a little um at a boy um type thing, whether it's informal um recognition or some of the formal um things that we do like our gala and things like that. You know, people appreciate those things when they know that they're being recognized for the work that they're doing and that helps people to
034stay on board and and be retained with us. So I guess before I share out our um turnover statistics um I wanted to share kind of what the state and national statistics are. So um the very top line you can see there the national average teacher retention rate is sitting at about 78%. And that was just a recent study that was um from Frontline Education. And then if you look at the very last um paragraph there um right now in the state of Indiana for teacher retention we're about 80% rate and that was as of last year as of 2024. So that just kind of sets the stage for you of um you know what those percentages are and you'll see how that compares here to Noblesville schools. Um so we can can we go
035back one Andy? Sorry. Um back one more. There we go. Okay. So I know this is a little bit hard to see. Um but this is our retention rates um starting from the 2122 school year all the way until this very past school year 24 25 school year and it's broken down um by building and then you can also see our district. So right now as a district the far right corner there on the bottom we are at a 91.94 retention rate. Phenomenal. I just shared with you what the national and state average is. Um that that is a huge celebration for Noblesville schools um of retaining really great people here. Um all of our buildings um I I gave a shout out to our principles. I had sent this information to our principles last
036night to share with them as well. Um they're just doing a really really great job and I'll kind of go into a little bit of the details of why I feel like our retention rates are are so high right now. um you can kind of see some fluctuation um within those. And so I'll kind of dive into the next slide um just looking at some overall trends. Advance one. Here we go. Thank you. Um so obviously the overall district retention rate um and this is just for certified staff that we're looking at for right now is just for our our teachers shows a positive trend. So we in 2122 we are at 85% and now like I said this past year um that jumped to 91.94% as a diff as a district and then um
037I guess correspondently with that our um obviously the staff that are leaving has also gone down so 105 individuals that left and 2122 and from this past year is um 59 individuals that left and I I will say that our teams really feel that. Um I I know that we all remember the years where we were um you know bringing in or hiring over a hundred people that I mean that is just a it's a heavy weight for not only our cabinet team but just everyone for our building principles for our other teachers that are are trying to mentor our new our new staff. So if you look at you know those 59 individuals that is much more manageable and feasible for our district to take on those new teachers. So looking at some of
038the building specific trends um and again this isn't to call out any building this is really to celebrate these buildings and what a great job that they're doing. So at Noblesville High School um you can see that the u retention rate there has jumped from 86.63 um in 2122 and now up to 88.68% this past year. um obviously being the largest um school the number of staff has decreased um from 27 to just 24 and I I don't say just but you look at what a massive school that is and and in my opinion the those um larger schools I think are harder to retain those teachers because you know it's just harder with that many more staff members to make those connections to make sure people feel valued and um and and seen in
039that environment and so so big kudos to the high school for the work that they're doing. Um, Noblesville East Middle School, again, you can see um they have a strong recovering retention from 84% in the 2122 school year to um 91.86 is um I know I don't see Doug um but I know he was looking at this earlier and had shared his thoughts. So um great great job to East and then um to West Middle School. again they saw a little bit of a dip in the 22 23 school year um with 14 individuals leaving but then this last year with only seven individuals that had left. So now looking at the elementary schools um Stony Creek wow um 100% retention rate in the 22 23 school year. I know um Heidi and Dino were
040both celebrating that year. um that that's just a great accomplishment and they've really maintained that strong retention uh rates in other years as well. So, great job to Stony Creek. Um Promise Road Elementary, I've had many conversations with Tanya about her retention. This is something that her and Billy have both worked really hard at and you can see 80% in 2122 and now up to 98%. I mean, that that is just an amazing jump. Um and and I really um devote a lot of that um increase to the leadership that Tanya and Billy have provided in that building. Um and then Hazel Elementary, they also showed a significant improvement. Um they went from 81% in 2122 all the way to 93% this past year. And then rounding down our elementarymentaries, Hinkle Creek again showing an
041upward trend uh reaching 95% um in the 2324 school year. and 2425 school year. So again, just doing a a really um great job with their retention rate there at Hingle. Noble Crossing has also demonstrated an upward trend in retention and has shown a really steady increase each year. Um North they did have a 84.21% retention rate in the 2122 school year. Um and then it slight slightly just dropped a little bit to 87% and that was with five leaving staff and two of those were retirements and we do you know we do take those into consideration and I'll show you on some future slides you know the reasons of why people are leaving and then to round it out the White River Elementary um they also shut us showed a steady increase with their
042retention rate as well um from 82% in the 2122 school year all the way to 93% % this past year. So again, um these our schools are really excelling of keeping, you know, good people in their schools. So I thought this was really interesting. Um this was our area specific trends. I don't think it's any surprise to anyone here in the room, probably especially to Amy or Erin, um but our our largest area of turnover is in special education. Um and we all know um just the the challenges that that role has. Um and that is no um you know nothing that Amy or Aaron are not doing. I would say truthfully um our retention rates especially in the area of special education are far greater than other schools at both the state and the
043national average. And I do think that that's because of the strong support and leadership that Amy and and Aaron provide. So um even though that is our greatest area, um there are a few other areas where you can see that we've lost quite a few individuals. Um, and those are things that we're we continue to look into of of why we have people leaving like in the English language arts area. Um, that was another another big one as well. Um, and then it was it was interesting in 22 23 where we lost seven kindergarten teachers. So, there's just kind of pockets of of different things there that I I I saw that I thought was interesting. Um, this also was um very enlightening to me. I mean, this is really the reasons why um staff
044leave. So, anytime a staff member resigns or retires, we do ask them um you know, why why they're moving on, where they're going to, just so we can have record and and data from that. So, you can see here kind of by building, why people are leaving. Unfortunately, um this is disheartening, but the the biggest category there is that they're just leaving education altogether. And that is a trend that we have seen in the last five years. Um and again that does um unfortunately match the national trend as well. Um but we are seeing that that here at at Noblesville schools. Um you know we do have other individuals that are going to leave to a different district as well. Um sometimes that's to be on the same schedule as their children or family or
045whatnot. Um sometimes they have a better opportunity, that type of thing. Um we do have a pocket of people that you know are relocated when you know for their family or maybe a spouse. Um, you can see our retirement numbers there and there's a variety of of other reasons that are listed that we had a small number of of people. So, I just thought it was interesting for you to see kind of where are these people going when they leave here that you know if they're not retiring, what's happening to them? Um, as you know, um, our team conducts stay interviews in the spring. We've done this for the last two years and I've shared that data out with you. Um, but I thought this really um coincided with all of our staff retention when
046we sat down with with people that were selected to do the state interview. Um, one of the questions that we asked them is why do you stay? You know, what what do you love about Noblesville schools? Why do you why do you stay here? And you can see there that they that that um those interviews really revealed that people enjoy working at Noblesville schools because of our students and their colleagues. And that was heard time and time again. And we are very fortunate as all of you know to have really good students and families and just the people that we work that work here at Noblesville. Um that's that's the answer that we got time and again. And then you can also see there it says many of the staff members mentioned that they um
047just really feel connected. They feel supported by the community, by their building administrators, by their by their colleagues. Um, I think actually one of our hair um, Chevrolet teachers tonight said that too that she just felt, you know, incredibly connected to our community and supported by the community and and we hear that a lot. So, I think that also kind of ties into why why people are saying and why our retention rates have been so strong. So, um, I I and this is my own interpretation and just things through our say interviews and through our exit interviews that our HR team is doing. These are things that why um I feel that um contribute to our strong retention rates. Again, um kudos to our building um administrators. They're really the ones that set the climate
048um you know, and the environment within our buildings and make, you know, our our teachers want to come back every day and make it an enjoyable environment. They've done just a really great job with that. um our quality professional development opportunities um again with our learning department what they've created with that and just making sure that people are are growing as professionals here I think is has been really important um our effective mentorship program um I know Ryan has spoken to you about that but that truly has been such a great thing especially for our first year teachers um and not just those kids coming out of college but those that are just new to Noblesville that they're matched up with a mentor that can really walk alongside beside them and support them. Those people
049want to come back because they know that they have someone that's supporting them along that, you know, with procedural things, with curriculum things and and um that that just means a lot. So, I I really feel that that's contributing to it as well. Um as I mentioned earlier, David's team um has worked really hard to ensure that we have competitive salaries and benefits. Um, I also believe that our commitment to work life balance, you know, our um, I know our team as a cabinet as well as all of our billy administrators really try to encourage our staff to make sure that they have a work life balance. Just as our our kids, you know, we want them to be, you know, well-rounded kids, we also want, you know, our staff to enjoy their time and
050their families outside of their workday as well. um those recognitions like I talked about before, one of the key influencers of just making sure that people feel valued and and supported and recognized. Um and then focus on student well-being. That might sound odd to you, but there's a lot of districts that they are so laser focused on the academics. And I think that a lot of our staff stay because we truly are focused on the the whole child, not just their academic performance, but also how are they doing as a person? and what are they learning and growing in, how's their mental health, all of those things. And so, um, I think that that's a strong belief in our teachers here and and why they choose to to continue to stay. And then, as I
051mentioned before, just our supportive community, you don't find that everywhere. And um I really feel like because you as a board um in our district and our community um I I feel that Noblesville schools is really the heart of our community and I think our our teachers and our staff feel that same way as well. And then obviously um I I feel like this all folds into our retention rates of of why one of the many reasons why we were named as a top employer um in America. I think people want to be a part of that. they want to continue to be a part of that um and what we've built here at Noblesville Schools. >> Thank you, Heather. >> Thank you. >> I I I I appreciate the things you've done over the
052last two or three years to to to because I I I think you're pretty responsible for a lot of this increase in and things by by backing up the certified and classified staff both and raising them up and and and and making them feel good about, you know, what they do. I do have a question on the people who leave education since that's our biggest number. When you do exit interviews, is there anyone is it is there any particular thing that we see that's causing >> money? Yeah. >> Unfortunately, that's usually that's usually the thing. It's um it's money, you know, um especially with um and I don't want to be stereotypical, but especially with a lot of our male teachers, you know, that to support a family and things like that, they they are
053leaving for for better financial opportunities, unfortunately. And when you say it like 50% 60% >> I don't know that person I I respons to go back and look into. Yeah, that's a great question. >> Yeah, >> thank you. >> Yeah, thank you. >> Thank you. Um, great presentation. I do have a question. What happens with when a teacher changes a building? So, how does that affect a a retention rate for a building? >> So, we do count it towards their Yeah, I had that question today from one of our building principles. She's like, "Oh, I didn't realize." But it it does um count towards their um loss of of retention because they're basically losing a staff member, >> but it doesn't count towards the district's retention. >> Right. That's correct. >> It stays within the
054district. >> Yes. Right. So, we're not losing them, but that building is losing that down at the bottom. Right. >> Aster down there. Didn't really lose one, but >> Right. Right. So, and and I did notice on the personnel listing that there was um someone that had retired, but now they are actually with us, hired in a new role. >> Um so, does that also kind of play in line with that as well? >> We didn't really uh work that into the data, so to speak, other than like yes, we counted them as retired, but now they're we're grateful when people come back in a different capacity. Absolutely. We'll retain them again and see how much longer we can keep them for. Yeah, that's a good point. That just made me think of another question.
055How much I do know we have people retiring and come back and do it. Is that is there a big number of that or what's just >> Yeah, I would say most come back in a subbing capacity to be substitute teachers um or to do um like we had one um that actually was a teacher when Ryan and I taught that she's came back to do a long-term um maternity leave for us at East Middle School and we have I mean I haven't seen her in probably 20 years and I'm like I'm so excited that she's back because she retired from from us from you know quite a while ago. So, um, so yeah, I would say most of them come back in a substitute teaching capacity. >> Well, I think it's, you know, in
056your presentation, aside from all of these statistics that you provided, which are great, by the way, um, it speaks volumes to know that someone, you know, retires from our district, but yet they still come back and work for us. >> Absolutely. >> On a different level. So, I mean, that does say something about our district. >> I agree. >> Thank you. Amazing presentation again. All right, next up we have consent item cons. Oh, I'm sorry. I skipped public comment for agenda topics. We don't have anyone that signed up for public comment for agenda topics. So, we will move to um consent items. Um by single motion, the board approves and adopts the following items. Claims donations, minutes from the July meeting, out of state trips, and personnel listings. May I have a motion to approve
057consent items as listed? So >> Joe, second, Misty. Further discussion? >> Yes. I would like to point out that the First United Church gave us $800 to be used at various schools for students in need and Brandon Mitchell gave us $100 for the same thing for students in need. And we appreciate our community to help support our schools. >> Thank you. All right. All those in favor? I >> I >> opposed. Motion carried. All right. Um we are on to action items. Um, in accordance with 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 personnel list as related to additional background check information? Motion. >> So move. >> Joe second, Missy. Any further discussion? All in favor?
058>> I opposed. Motion carried. Next up, we have uh bids. We um on Thursday, July 14th, um the Noblesville High School um air handling unit replacement project bid pack three. Um we were presented with that. Um may I have a motion to approve the bid from Layman's, Inc. for the Noblesville High School Air Handling Unit Replacement Project, bid pack 3 with a total contract amount of $1,989,000. May I have a motion? >> Motion, >> Stephanie. Second. >> Joe. Any further discussion? >> No. Okay. All those in favor? I >> opposed. Motion carries. >> On to the next air handler. On July 21st, the um Noblesville High School air handling unit replacement project bid 4 um was was presented to the school board. May I have a motion to approve the bid from the Irish Mechanical
059for Noblesville High School air handling replacement unit project bid pack 4 with a contract amount of $1,700,000. >> So move second. >> Second by Brett. Any further discussion? >> Okay. >> Shocking. I do have a question. Um so with the uh Leman's bid um I know it is mentioned on there that we um they do provide a statement for background checks for their employees and subs um that they use. Um do we is there a process that we check to make sure that their background checks are actually to the extent or the level that we require for everyone in our buildings? We don't have a specific process other than them signing the affidavit acknowledging our background check process and that they do indeed conduct those background checks on their all of their employees that will
060be on premises. So, it's not a process, but it's rather it's a it's a formal affidavit that they sign acknowledging that they would uh conduct those background checks. >> Okay. Okay. And then one more. Okay. Um Irish Mechanical, I noticed um on there it stated that there were meetings where they had qu there was a meeting with questions and answers. um with the layman's bid that those questions and answers were provided, but there was not one with Irish. >> Yeah, I when you brought that up, I I noticed that as well. And so that level of detail with from that meeting, I think was just inadvertently included. We can certainly get you those details from the meeting that we had with the the other contractor. I just don't think that the KBSO, our engineer, did
061not include those with that um bid acceptance summary that they provided for the other one. >> Okay. And I have a question. Is it common in this size of a project to have two different um contractors installing the units? And then the second question is I'm assure the equipment itself is the same for all these units. It's just different people installing. Is that correct? >> That's right. Yeah. And in fact, and that's, you know, part of the reason for breaking it up is just the the size, the scale of the project. And at the end of the day, too, it's the having uh contractors be able to come to the table to be able to bid on it, right? To create the competition in the in the bid itself. And so by breaking it up
062is to say we can, you know, get contractors that have that capacity to come to this job and bid it, which again, we we had competitive bids, right? If you looked at the bid tabulation sheet, there was a a spread of about $600,000 on on one of the bids. So, uh, again, be able to bid something like this and then find just the right the sweet spot for some of these vendors that say, "Hey, this is something I can can come in and knock out, you know, based on their capacity." >> Thank you. Um, and not trying to undermine anything because you obviously we're not involved in the conversations and the um the checking that you guys do with everything, but with a $600,000 difference. Um, I keep thinking you get what you pay for.
063Is there, you know, anything that we're not getting with the lesser bid that we would be getting with the other? >> Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. um you know at the end of the day both bids did come in under budget and so even the the higher bid was was under budget as well and that's just again KBSO factoring in you know escalators inflation uh lead times on some of these you know from the manufacturer so of course the the bid includes the purchase of the unit as well as the installation cost and and so uh the more competitive bid uh really like I said earlier it comes down to capacity and and workload sometimes these vendors they look at their their their project list out months ahead of time and they'll throw
064a high bid out there you because they they look at these projects and a lot especially in the HBAC world right now, a lot of construction going on and so there's a lot of work that's already out there. So they may feel like they could get lucky with a you know throwing a high bid out there because if we only had one bid and it was high you know we'd feel like well we we'd probably have to take it right and being the only bid. So again having that competition um with with maybe just luck of one having less projects in the future and one maybe having more uh you know came to our advantage. >> Thank you. Any other questions? All right. All those in favor? I opposed. Motion carried. Um, next we have
065um policies for first read. Um, at this meeting um the policies that we have for first read are listed. They're on board docs that anyone can um view. Um many of these all of these policies were um recommended by our attorney church and Anan to be um updated. So, this is the first read this uh meeting and then our next meeting we will um vote to approve policies. >> You're not gonna read all 16 of them? >> Nope. Nope. I'm not I'm not. >> May I say a couple things? >> You may. You may. >> And I want to acknowledge Miss Cross has already sent me a couple questions on these and I'm working on um getting uh dialed in answers. Part of why there's so many policies this time around is this was a
066pretty impactful legislative session that we just went through and so it did force quite a few changes for school districts around the state. Um so quite a few uh need to be updated. There's and if as you look at these some are very minor wording tweaks, some are pretty significant overhauls. Um so we want to make sure we understand uh understand all those. So again, um, board, certainly send me any questions you think of as you start reviewing these to give me time to review those with our attorneys, and then we'll be back to again hopefully recommend these for approval next month. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Um, next up, we have public comment on non-aggenda topics. So um, in this section, we allow the public to speak on something that's not um, on
067the agenda. And we did have someone that um, signed up tonight. So if you'll come up to um the microphone and introduce yourself. Uh Neha Patel please and we will start the timer when you get up to so you have three minutes. Okay. >> I'm the operator at the learning experience. We are a childare facility serving six weeks to 12 years of age. Recently we have found out that lot of parents are in the need of before and afterare our current program because the parents are not able to get in due to some reasons and they are outside our teachers our school everything they love about it. But the only hiccup they are having is not school systems are also working hours everyone has bills to pay. So they are working hours the financial stability
068to their families. Now the problem what they are facing is that they don't have enough family members or anyone who can bring their kids especially with parents they are always they are finances in a providing school system allow the schools or elementary schools that huge saving grace for all the families because if we provide that not only the kids are safe and loved in our Also the parents are also keep that my kids are safe. So they can also provide financing to provide. We are parents as well. Uble to provide you if you want but those parents are really asking like they are getting benefit from this kind of services. So um we are wanting your help to raise this future Einstein and the future residents if we are able to provide services. >> Okay.
069All right. Thank you very much. >> Yes. Thank you. Um, next on the agenda is committee reports. Um, Dr. Hy, >> thank you board. Um, just a few things really quickly. Uh, we are back and moving. It's been a great great start to the year. A lot of great things happen. Um, want to say I I hope everybody enjoyed my my uh back to school video this year, the Miller countdown. Uh, last time that Mrs. Cook checked in, we were well over 100,000 views and growing across all platforms. So kind of a lot of fun to put together and just a great way to kick off the year and uh get everybody excited to come back. So a lot of fun if uh you ask nicely maybe one day we'll have a kearp solo at
070the board meeting. Who knows? So anyway uh Noville High School STEM grand opening. We had that on August 7th. We had a great turnout board. I I want to thank all of you for being present with us that evening as well. It was so much fun having the community uh in to see the space. Um we are actually putting on finishing touches on a video um that's going to share a lot more about this new space to share out with our community because some folks could not attend and we want them to get to experience that with us too. So be on the lookout for that. That's that's being worked on. And then last thing I want to bring up tonight um just within the last day or so we did an official um push
071to announce to the community that our new dollars and cents website is now live and and ready to go. Um and and the whole point behind this, you know, where we talked about this a year or so ago, the the premise and and the driver behind this is we all know school finance is complicated. There's a lot of questions all the time about how it works and where money comes from and where it goes. And so we want to make sure that our our community feels informed, feels like they have a way to learn about that. Um has a way to to kind of check in and see see what we're doing. So um for our community members out there, you can absolutely learn more about how your tax dollars are being spent by checking
072out the site. It's snowbolilschools.orgdolls and cents. Um, you can also find it right on the front page of the website. It's pretty easy to find. It's under district news and and also under the business department tab. And one note that I know we talked about um a few months ago with this board now that it's live. Um I definitely want as community members uh take a chance to review that and look at that. Uh we definitely want feedback because this is for the community. Um we want to know, you know, are there things on there that are confusing or don't make sense? Are there things that you would like to see? Um because the challenge of building something like this is if you talk to a hundred people, everyone may have different things. So we
073tried to to to find a nice balance of sharing information but not making it too overburdensome with too much that people that once again turns confusing or doesn't make sense. Um but we definitely want some feedback on that. So we're hopeful to have that. Um several community members have reached out and really thanked us already for this. Um and same thing each one of those conversations I've reiterated as you as you mess with it the next few days look around. would love to know your thoughts if there's things um that you think would would be a benefit to that. So again, very excited to see that uh get going and we look forward to improving it in the months ahead. >> Okay, >> that's it. >> All right, thank you. Uh Noblesville Parks Board, Joe.
074>> Yes, the parks board met August 6th and we continue to evaluate uh the new things we're going to do out at Finch Creek. Uh there's going to be a new electric sign down by the greenhouse down by Federal Hill. That should be something coming up soon. Golf is doing great. They said July was our best our fourth best month ever in people spending money at the golf course. That's good. Summer camps all went well. They're all wrapped up. Feedback was good. Uh youth programming in the future in the fall of 26 27. The boys club is going to work at uh have an afterchool and before school care uh that they're going to they're just getting it organized and they're trying to get their transportation organized how they're going to do this. So more
075coming on that. And the other thing we have uh is out of school explorers. Okay. And this is for days that we have uh in-house learning. They're going to provide different kind of programs. So August 25th, they have Imagination Station. November 12th, Time Travelers. January 5th, Winter Wonderland, Adventure Quest. July or excuse me, January 19th, Mad Science. January 26, Mission Space Exploration. February 16th. uh and spring safari. Now, some of these are also days, president's day and other I I didn't mean they're all are out of school days, but other things where we don't have school things are going on. >> There's a lot of great things going on at the parks department. And I saw Marty in your notes that you were working maybe with the parks department on thing. >> We have a
076we have a a a group of young people, the new parks director and our assistant director are young and incredibly energetic, okay? And they're looking into lots of new stuff. I'm just really impressed with the way they're running the parks department. And over and above that, uh I said yes to one more thing. Okay. And I'm on they looked down the road. I said, "Which who's retired on the parks board that could do the Noblesville Parks Foundation?" Well, they all look at me. I say, "Okay, I'm I could do this at 9:30 on Friday morning." It's a group of nine or 10 people who are incredibly young and energetic. They're all half my age. And just keeping up with them is good training. Okay. But the things going on over at the park department, the
077parks board are just unbelievable. So I think our tie with them and I I I we talked about these school activities, how much we appreciate working with them to help make things better for our kiddos over here. So plug in and if I can help if I can help facilitate that and be sure and and come through me and I just appreciate those folks so much over there and what they're trying to do for the city and the kids of Noblesville. Did you say they have uh they're installing a new electronic sign? I haven't seen it. I think the concrete syrup down by Federal Hill. I think it's over by the is it called the green room. Yeah. On the corner. There's going to be a sign on the corner. And the big discussion was
078what angle to set it at so everybody could see it coming both ways down. Was it 19? >> Well, I wonder if it was easy for them to approve that permit or if they had to jump through a lot of hoops like Marne did for hours at the high school. >> They came to the same planning commission that I saw her at and there was only one guy at the planning commission that night. We all went for just like we did for you, Marne. So, no, I get to do a lot of things being around town and see a lot of fun things happening. Okay. So, the parks department is A1 first class. I have them with them. Thank you. >> Did you say so for our professional development days? >> Yes. Yes. >> It's
079going to be like during school hours they can go to these park camps. It's like a day like a like a day out thing. Yeah. Do they cost or >> all these different >> Yeah. They How much do you know how much they cost? Uh, I don't have that on this thing, but if you go to the parks department website, you can find out. >> That's pretty neat. Wow, that's awesome. >> I just like this after school thing. I think they're trying they're they're really integrated themselves in our student. Okay. Which I think is fabulous. And that's why I tie up with them. Okay. It may apply to you, Julie up with them. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you, Joe. All right, Stephanie. Redevelopment Commission. >> Redevelopment Commission met on July 28th with only one agenda
080item. Um, the commission approved the resolution to rescend and replace the pledge of tiff revenue of the Noble West project from strictly 83% for the payment of bonds to the commission keeping the greater of either 17% or 67,490. Um, this means now that the taxpayer agreement is no longer necessary due to the change. That was the only agenda item. Okay. All right. Thank you. Our next uh regular school board meeting is Tuesday, September 16th here at 6:00. Uh may I have a motion to adjourn this meeting? So move >> Joe. Second, Misty. Any further discussion? All right. All those in favor? >> I opposed. Motion carried. We are adjourned. Thank you.