001States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> So first up we have um four star awards and it's exciting to see some people here celebrating with us. So, we have two top-notch third graders here with us today. And as a former math teacher, man, my heart is pounding for you guys. I love it. So, we have Hudston Marsh and Payne Johnson. You want to come up here, FOLKS? Are we missing? >> Hey Kane, you don't get to go sit down yet. >> So you also get a two certificates, one from us and one from the state. >> You want to turn around so mom and dad can take a video and picture? I'm going to read a little bit about
002what this is. So, the Department of Education here in Indiana partnered with National Math Stars to recognize exceptional math talent across our state. We are pleased to announce that Belmont Elementary had two students this year who qualified to apply for the National Math Stars program. These students had to score in the top 2% of all third graders in the MA in the state in math based on their iLearn assessment, which is no easy test for those of you who have had any kids take it. National Math Stars is a nonprofit initiative that identifies talented second and third graders across multiple states who demonstrate exceptional promise in mathematics. Nominees represent the top 2% of their local school context or score in the 98th percentile nationally or state recognized exams. And so Kane here is in Mrs.
003Ellsworth's class and I know she's very proud of you. Mrs. Hutter, you're here. Do you have anything to say about Kane and Hudston? Good job, buddy. I'm proud of you. Are you proud of yourself? >> Yeah. You're doing excellent. >> We're very proud of you. >> Good job. >> Congratulations, Mom and Dad. Yes, sir. >> Can I add something? >> Sure. >> Um, I know I probably shouldn't. It's not time to be doing it. What they do about high abilities uh classes? Are they not having them again this year? We've always had high ability programming. We just don't have separate sections anymore. Um, but they have programming that they're going to do. And our director of learning here, as you can speak a little bit more, and Mrs. >> Hutter, >> yeah, we'll continue to
004have high ability enrichment, >> okay, >> opportunities into next year. >> Okay. >> And a lot of that will be STEM based, so it'll play into what Kane's interest and strengths are. >> Okay. >> Thank you for asking. So then next we also have two be braves awards and we have two staff members here tonight from our food service department. So congratulations to Mrs. Pennington Kinas and Mrs. Heather Hartman. You guys want to come on up and have to be embarrassed in front of their congratulations. And I'm gonna have to read. You guys can turn around and face your fans. And um so these ladies, Penny was named um the Indiana School Nutrition Association's office assistant of the year for 2526. Um every year isna recognizes a school nutrition colleague who values servant leadership and
005dedicated to the field of school nutrition. Um I'm sure they had several applicants and we were very lucky to get two folks who won in their respective areas. Um they are going to be recognized November 4th through 6 in South Bend at the state's school nutrition um conference in November and I think they got a monetary gift for their to also be recognized. So, we appreciate everything that Penny does to try to keep all the probably office as aspects, organizational documentation of food service, and I'm going to put your boss on the on the spot here. Do you have anything to say about the role Penny plays in your organization? >> Um, Penny's an advocate for our department uh to parents in the community. Um, she services the student accounts. She keeps things balanced. Um,
006she's a great communicator. Uh she's always flexible and accommodating and um just very um her adversity shows every day. And then we also are recognizing Heather Hartman, one of our production managers in um the food service office and she received an award called the School Nutrition Association Superstar of the Year Award. and again several applicants and we're very proud of her for what she has done to again advocate for the food service industry as well as North Adams food service and Aaron again you want to talk about what Heather has done >> so what Heather does is the day-to-day production she's in charge of all locations and all meals served through North Adams Community Schools so the miracle really is made with with Heather um she's been with us for several years. She came up
007from just a food service worker and and is managed through the operations. And if you've known uh we've had several transitions. We've built a new campus. We've established a new kitchen um which comes with changes in staffing and changes in SOPs and she has never um hesitated to step up and do an excellent job. Penny, how many years have you been here? Penny? >> Um, I've been with North Island 19 years. >> 19. And then Heather, how many years you been here? >> 22. >> Oh, okay. You too. >> I wanted to thank all of you for coming. Um, if for any reason you want to stay, we welcome that. I'm sure it'll be a riveting meeting. A whole lot of handbook conversations of different sorts. But if you have other things that you'd like
008to do tonight to celebrate with your student or your family members, you're welcome to go as well. Excited to see some students here that I haven't seen. >> Thank you so much. Thank you. >> But I really haven't been. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> All right, so next up we have public comment on agenda items and we just lost all of our public. >> Yeah. Um the first item we have are our consensus items, but we will be striking the minutes from the last meeting from consensus items this month and we'll move those to the next one. >> Um there were a few additions um since you received this agenda. So I wanted to note those. So, under assignments, we did add Matt Congress for the position of assistant girls soccer coach
009and Melissa Barton um to be added as the interventionist teacher at Belmont Middle School. Um that is not a new position. It's going to be a little bit of an expanded role, but it is taking the place of Marissa Mayu, who um you will see has asked for a change of position to um take over for Melanie Walther in her retirement. Um and then we also have a resignation from Barbania. um it's a resignation in Indiana, but um she had taught for many years in Colorado and um has retired from Colorado officially, too. Um and then again, the transfer of positions from Marissa Mayu from the reading interventionist in middle school to um sixth grade English. And then Nicole Rich would has been added to change positions from sixth grade social studies to seventh grade
010math. Wanted to take a couple of moments to talk about two retirements um of long-term longtime teachers here at North Adams. Melanie Walpert has been teaching English language arts and from what I understand in the sunundry other positions for the last 33 years and has been quite a a pillar of our middle school community and our middle school programming. And um I know that she makes great relationships with kids in the classroom. She has lots of special interests that she brings into the classroom. She's a great music person and she's taught, I think, some enrichment classes with music and just done some things to help kids enjoy that. Um, and we have been really blessed to have her and we will miss her. Mike Keller is another long-term longtime North Adams employee who's been here
011for 35 years teaching seventh grade math. And Mike um is one of those people that Melanie too really but how late even later in your career you can rejuvenate yourself. And Mike really took it upon himself to learn about this new math pedigogy called building thinking classrooms which is a whole different way of looking at teaching math here in the last few years. and he really bought into that, bought into data collection and data tracking and has had some phenomenal growth with his students. Um, and so we wish them both the best and lots of years to get to enjoy um, their families and I think Melanie has a new grandchild that I'm sure he's going to be spending time with. So, best of luck to them and big thanks for everything they've done to
012help build North Adams. It's a way of making you feel whole, too. >> Are you going to tell me you fired some of these people? >> No, I didn't hire those people when I was Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Oh, >> yeah. I know that. I'm getting start looking at the seniority list and it used to be all >> on the first page. >> Yeah. >> No, no more. had them as well. >> Yeah, >> I think that's all I have for it. >> Okay. Any questions or comments or motion to approve? >> Motion Michelle, second by WY. All those in favor announce by saying I opposing sign 35. Uh, next we have a program update from >> Well, that worked out well perfectly. So you all have a copy of um our performance update from
0132526 though our participation has decreased and that's because of the number of population that we have. We've also countered that with decreasing our total operation expenses um so that the program stays within balance. New programming uh for the summer of 2026 includes one summer location that will be at Belmont Elementary. We'll serve breakfast 9:15 to 9 or excuse me, 9 to 9:15 Monday through Friday and we'll serve lunch 12:15 to 12:30. Something that we're introducing new this year are meals for the weekend and those can be picked up on Fridays um right after service or as they get there. Uh those will be shelf stable items. So they'll include peanut butter jelly, shelf stable milk, fresh fruit juice, and then peanut butter jelly will might be a protein or um we're also doing the Star
014Kids chicken kit and tuna kit. And those will alternate throughout this uh first month of June. >> Do they have to have a student from North Adams to be able to >> They do not have to be a student of North Adams, but the student has to be with them in order to participate. Further updates include we have our two health inspections and again um we used to be able to say we passed with 100% but changed the form so now it's uh no risk factor intervention violations or repeats. Um during our waiver days, we took the opportunity to take our staff and our janitors on field trips. So our first field trip was to Convert Dairy Farm in Allen County. Uh they had a dairy shop, so we got to see them make cheese
015curds. We got to purchase some items. They also had um a small cafe, so we had pizza and milkshakes. And then just on our last uh waiver day, we went to NVP LLC farms in Salina, Ohio. It's only a 45minut drive that included 3,700 milking cows. They also had an educational center, um a cow barn, and we learned about regenerative learning or regenerative farming. and um also got to find out that they produce milk exclusively from bathing yogurt and bathing yogurt is something that we incorporate into one of our cold kits every day. >> So, it's kind of like a farm to table trade source. Um other events that or events that we hosted this year included Belmont High School seniors with seniors in November. We served over 190 adults and 131 students. We celebrated
016Friendsgiving in November with our elementary. We decorated and kind of made it a surprise for the kids in a Friendsgiving menu planned. We hosted um I think this is our 20th year hosting a Thanksgiving tasting with kindergarteners where we introduce them to items that might have been part of um the original Thanksgiving meal including cornbread, apple butter, dried cranberries, apple slices, colored cap, carrots, and popcorn. We hosted a cookie workshop for PK and K in December. I think it's been our 20th year since we um that was our 20th year doing that. That was always fun. We give the kids little chef hats and they get um to sprinkle put sprinkles on their iced cookies and they each have a little kit all of their own and it's always fun. Uh we celebrated Dr. Seuss's
017birthday um in our elementary on March 2nd. And then this year, Miss Hutter um invited us to celebrate I read in the elementary serving Sundays to the second and third grades for their success. American Dairy Association of Indiana sponsored um some handouts for our elementary cafe that included stickers and then they also provided little trend dictate them during the lunch hour. Uh just recently we hosted donuts with grown-ups and we served 249 adults and 453 students. >> Very nice. >> Uh Smuckers this year for a new menu item. We did a taste taste testing. Uh they have a peanut butter chocolate hazelnut that is equivalent to a one meat one bread exchange. And so now, uh, for our elementary, we serve up to five to seven meal choices. Those include four cold, one hot, um,
018and salads for grades three and five. So, our cold options include three smoker options, grape, strawberry, chocolate, and then our yogurt kit, two pre-made home, two pre-made salad options, and one hot meal options. And then that small kitchen, that's amazing. Um, at our high school and middle school, we're up to 11 meal options every day, including five cold choices, two premium two pre-made salad options, two hot meal options, and two uh pizza choices every day. We serve approximately, 1600 meals a day. Uh, I would even say as far as almost 1,700 because it's 1 650 to be exact, 57 to be exact. Belmont Elementary and Middle School will continue to be community eligibility, offering breakfast and lunch to all students for the next three years. What that means for our families is there's no charge
019for breakfast or lunch. And then I provided you with our free and reduced rates for each location. And just as a reminder, we do serve safety open time in addition to our Belmont elementary, middle school, and high school. Um, and then training wise, our managers are all up to par on training hours. They complete nearly 30 a year. Um, in addition, our management has just completed their surf safe training which will be good for the next five years. Any questions? >> I think that's great information. Something to really be proud of you guys. >> We stay pretty active. >> Yeah. >> And accommodating. >> Yeah. So, just in case these folks get questions, do you want to talk about why um we kind of pulled back on summer feeding because we had it had been
020a communitywide thing and that was kind of during COVID and some different things, but do you want to talk about just the financial aspect of why that was necessary to kind of downsize there? >> So, you need a a minimum number of participants and those participation numbers just weren't strong enough to continue through in our parks and etc. A lot of that has to do with co-op programming and there's not a lot of that going on in our community as much as it used to be uh because of labor and food expenses. We generally say you got to have 50 a day to participate and if that number isn't consistent, you just can't financially support it. Um it's important that we keep the National School Lunch Program separate from the summer program so that it
021doesn't burden us with further expenses during the school year. >> And that's our main object with summer school, summer camps, things like that. You have >> pretty strong participation plus just community. But when I think you were noticing when July rolled around, >> the numbers just really weren't there. >> Um, also I wanted to give you guys a visual of one of the discussions in food service about um artificial colors etc. So a lot of our cereals have already omitted those food colorings. But if you look at our packaging, so this is a commercial brand Doritos and our school lunches now packaging is similar, but we have reduced fat and we have new colors and artificial colorings added. So we're already already seeing the push and the move towards that and that includes our slushies
022and our juices etc. Also wanted to give you kudosum haven't talked about it a lot. Maybe Kriner has something to add. I don't know. And it's still just in developing stages. But as part of the high school's move to incorporate more work-based learning as part of the new graduation requirements and high school redesign, um we are trying to come up with ideas to do more studentled businesses as kind of entrepreneurialship opportunities in the school. So we have been working with Bart Coilma and Aaron has been extremely helpful in helping our marketing and business class business management classes are kind of heading this up. They are um trying or still planning to put in play kind of a cafe shop, coffee shop um for students. Um, we're going to be repurposing some space um down in
023one of the new dining halls and um I really appreciate Aaron helping them because it still has to meet the safe and purpose smart snack guidelines and um she got into some of her contacts and was able to go with a group of students and a couple of the business teachers to Loganport who has one of these and they figured out a lot of the things probably learned from them of things not to do and what to do. And so we appreciate everything you and your staff have done to help support that endeavor. I think it the kids are really excited about it and excited to see when get up and running. There's still quite a bit of leg work going on, but they're excited. >> Since you threw my name out there, I'll tack
024on one of the fun parts about that is it's been a true collaborative effort. Like it's it's food service and guidance and everyone up top, but the best part is like we'll have construction classes building. We have our interior design classes designing it. It's going to be workbased learning kids working in there. The business classes are coming up business model like it's like >> special ed department help with deliveries like some of our work study kids. >> Thank you. Thank you for your >> next uh we have some policy updates. Second reading looks like the first one is >> 5895 student employment. Um, >> I think that actually got approved. So, I think we're up to a technical correion. The retention is um that's just because again we don't have anymore from an out of
025state kid and that state requires it. Um, so I gave you an updated packet to just kind of go through things. So 8390 is about animals on school property. Um obviously service animals are um part of the law and we we honor that. Some some of the choices um that you could opt as a board to accept deal with emotional support animals and therapy dogs. Um my recommendation is not to um include the language about the emotional support and therapy dogs for this reason. Um presently there is not a a great deal of formal regulation surrounding those two things, especially the emotional support. And it's very difficult to discern what type of training, what level of training, especially when you're talking about bringing an animal into a classroom setting. Um, service dogs have been extremely
026highly trained. Um, and I'm just not as comfortable right now with considering the therapy dogs and animals. The law is very clear on a few areas. um miniature horses and dogs have been accepted as a therapy animal. But anyway, >> your horses. >> Yeah. And the school had to pay for the uh transportation. >> Oh my god. >> I'll make your husband's aware of that. >> Dean would probably be on board for that, too. >> I get it. But yeah, it was it was again for those who for whom it's important, it's great. But >> um >> so I guess any discussion on that one because that is I re I um there's several areas that there's optional language in there if you want to explore those two options. Again, my recommendation initially is to
027forgo that at this time. Um not saying it'll be a forever thing, but right now my experience when we've been approached about allowing especially emotional support animals there just was not the level of training and widely accepted certification of those I think it would open us up to risk you know like you've got an animal that's not trained you're falling in appropriately the chance of harming another kid or something doesn't make sense >> and then you also have allergies and some of those things that we would have to accommodate potentially both sides. >> I don't know if you have any input on that particular items. >> We should just be having a school and not a laboratory situation. It's a very touchy area of the law. It's >> you don't want to turn your back
028on somebody really need something. >> Right. Right. As Kim has mentioned the standard for determining and what is being done for us >> versus just bringing your pet along >> is pretty pretty iffy. So if you just avoid it as much as you can make >> you're going to be there'll be a case this person needs to have with them >> and you will come >> that case by case basolves or that's a different consideration >> but just as to open it up like Scott said we would end up with some pets that may provide comfort but it's not necessarily something they have to medically or psychologically have to more basic functions >> well IEPs and federal forms have standards too so you're going through that process to vet it >> right yeah and you
029can ask for again um whatever providers might be appropriate And there are kids who have that. There's there are kids who have seizure disorders who have seizure detecting dogs and those have those are in schools and we don't have one right now. Um um there's ones that detect trauma. Um diabetics certain severe diabetics have animals that can detect when their blood glucose is getting too low or too high. So those are all things again like you said work on a case by case basis. Yeah. the next policy. So, um I don't know if you want to vote on these one at a time or you just want to go through them and we'll discuss as we need to. >> I'm okay with everything else. I'm voting at the end. >> Yes, I'm >> okay. 8405.
030This one just has changes basically because we provide we have provided child care and prek that we have to make sure we are having our water tested as per state law which we are um just have that in um 8451 deals with parasitic infestations and bed bed bugs. Basically, it just changes anywhere the word vice was used to parasitic infestation because now bed bugs are part of this language too. Um, bed bugs becoming more common and it just provides some language on how we handle that which is, you know, when do you send someone home? What do you do with items? How long do they need to stay out with? Can they have live bugs or knits and stuff? And again, health department rules um state that none of the neither of these things are
031necessarily a health issue as far as they're an inconvenience and a nuisance, but they're not a anything that are going to make someone highly at risk of being ill. So, it's more of a management strategy. They don't really want to see us excluding kids for long periods of time because of this. It's really um try to contain it, educate on proper ways of getting rid of the infestation, continue monitoring and repeat if necessary. Um 8462, child abuse and neglect. Um, one of the only notes I had to myself as far as an option, I did recommend accepting the option that if a child presented um, as a victim as a an alleged victim or potential victim of childhood abuse or neglect that minimally we would have our school nurse assess them for any things that
032she can assess them for and if there were need to have any medical intervention to recommend that to whatever authorities would be addressing it. Um, They also, this one also requires if there's anything that could be suspected to be a crime um in the report that we also have to report to law enforcement. It's not a can. If you report to DCS, you must also report to law enforcement. Any questions on that one? Okay. 7540.02 02 digital content accessibility. This one had a lot of changes to it. Um I recommended including student content option because I just feel in this current age students could be helping with websites. They could be running um even some student le with supervision social media for the school. Um we are looking at starting a sports broadcasting course next
033year under Mr. Web and so there would be content they would be creating as well as just probably live voiceovers and things like that from podcasts or radio um broadcasting. So I wanted to include student um content as an option on page 38 and 43. It has to meet the guidelines of the school and district as well as the state. Um and it has to be approved by a staff member or monitored by a staff member. Um on page 39 41 to 42 um this is about staff use of digital content. Basically it says staff members shouldn't use their own personal platforms or their own personal accounts or apps that require a student to have to access those personal accounts. It should be things that are provided through the school or vetted by the school.
034Um and they may not post anything that would be identifiable confidential information about students. um that goes against our VA release policies. Page 48 is about digital accommodation and digital accessibility from ADA standpoint. Um basically it says if you have questions, concerns, it tells them who to contact which is central office. Um it I recommended five days for us once we receive a complaint or concern about the accessibility to try to resolve it. And then um I think I said annually we would have some type of audit of our substantially high use um digital content for ADA accessibility because that's just part of the wall language as well. That would probably largely fall under Justin the communication person but he already tries to manage a lot of that through our website and social media. Um
035page 54 says the director of learning is who I um recommend approves apps to be used in the classroom as an instructional um instructional tool. And then 56 and 57 deal with annual training is what I recommended for staff who create content for the school to talk about digital accessibility. There's no changes in a very long policy for doesn't seem like real big ideas but it's very far reaching. Any questions or comments there? 8455 is talking about coach training references and IHSAA reporting. We already do a lot of these things. Um it's in other policy pieces and this is just another one another group of people that has have some of this. So um the first one on page 60 I recommended that anyone that sponsors an athletic type activity also be included in this
036language. 62 and 63 talks about the required trainings that we already require. the cardiac subc cardiac arrest um heat related illnesses concussion um management but these folks would be required to I think it's every two years they have to renew that training um and then 67 to 68 talks about they are mandatory reporters too so if there's anything that would need to be reported to law enforcement DCS administration they are mandatory reporters patriotic and religious observances. Um, most of this change, and again, this is an older update that I just now got around to because it didn't have anything pressing, but it's basically the national motto and how that may be displayed and not displayed in a classroom setting. Um, 6220, budget preparation. That just has a one or two as far as choices in
037it. um required elements in a budget report to the board annually. um 7455 accounting systems for capital assets just corrected um a state board of accounts reference and let's see it explains better the costs included in capital assets and I think it cleans up some references to some other policies and some cross referencing 6230 budget hearing Um let's see this is just a slight revision to this policy to clarify the budget approved by the board is made available in the manner and at places required by law and resolves the questions about the term form being a document or a manner in which it's to be supplied. a lot of legal ease for hearing something. 8220 school day. Um, this is again a policy that's been around for a while. This is practice we've already been
038doing unless you guys want to be that person. It says the superintendent has the right for you to choose if we make up a day like use no makeup day or add it to the end of the calendar or apply for this to the state for a waiver. um especially on years that there are lots of naked things. I think some folks down toward India and central Indiana had to do that this year because they had some really severe winter weather and ice that kept them out for a while. And then page 86 was the superintendent can decide if there's after school events are going to go on practices, games or weekend events in blue weather. 8600 transportation. I am going to ask that because this is going to be one of those things that
039we're going to talk about tomorrow. I'm going to remove that one and ask that that be instruct for tonight's meeting because I think there's some things we can talk about tomorrow um in our executive session when we look at budgets and things like that. Um and then the final policy 8121 background checks right now page 92 I suggest if we do not check the national CPS check we have never done that on any other staff not to mention contracted staff I will tell you just for your knowledge most 90 some percent of the contracted staff we work with especially when it's into construction projects they do their own background checks and that's part of the contract that they have to supply that information for us or have it on file for anyone who may work
040here. Um, I did check that we could check with the BMB for any um outstanding traffic violations if they are working to drive for us. and page 94. Again, just like other staff that we have already voted on policy similar to for contracted services, there are is now a big list of potential um charges that an individual may have faced that the school board can choose to still hire that person if you wish, but they have to be on a special part of the board agenda for that consideration to happen. But again, we've already gone through that with every other category of staff. Any questions about anything else? And again, I I would recommend striking policy A600 for tonight. Any questions or comments or a motion to approve the policy with the exception of 8600?
041>> Motion by Joel. Is there a second? >> Second by Michelle. Motion by Joel, seconded by Michelle to approve all the policies with the exception of 8600. All those in favor say I. >> I oppose and sign. Approve five to zero. Uh, next we have new business. Uh, the first item is approval of summer school staff based on student enrollment. >> Um, Nicole, do you want to talk about you? >> Sure. >> Running on Facebook. >> Sure. >> Um, this was one of the things that again I think um we were going to share with you tomorrow, but we can do it here tonight too. So that summer school this year is going to look a little different than it has and a lot of that is because of how the state has changed some
042different requirements of the different grade bands as well as how they are funding summer school. Previously pretty much if you met a minimum number of kids you were going to get reimbursed up to a certain amount and that we have a little bit more complex of a formula now. So Nicole can explain kind of what we're having summer school for, who we're having summer school for, and why. >> Sure. So the state is going to prioritize grades two and three. Again, this year, students who have not passed I read will be the priority for summer school. Um, and students who are in grades two and three will have the highest allocation per student awarded to them for summer school. We are also able to offer additional programming but your per student rate is going to
043be less than the priority course which is iid. And so one of the things that we had to consider for this year is how many students are interested in attending and of that interest with the new per student rate that we were given. Can we afford to run that programming? And so instead of getting just one lump sum like we have in the past, we're now getting a per student allocation and that's really going to impact our programming. So when we look at our K1 programming for example, our interest is a lot lower, significantly lower, and we are not able to run that programming with the way that the state is doing the rates. So those students are going to be attending the Boys and Girls Club. So parents were contacted and they are still
044able to have a summer school option. It's just going to be run at the boys club. they have a separate grant fund that they're able to run their programming through. Um, so it will look different this year. It's based on numbers and our allocations will be per student. I can go into more detail tomorrow um about those numbers and specifics, but that kind of gives an overview of how it will look this year. and high school. >> Yeah, high school is also going to be um similar to the rate of what a K1 would be because again grades two and three are the priority. So I have worked with Miss Todd at the high school and we've looked at numbers. So we're going to be running a credit recovery. We have strong numbers to run
045that program. And then we're also going to be looking to run an algebra one remediation course and an ELA. And that is to help support the new graduation requirements so that students who have failed one or two semesters of ELA or math um English or math this year that they'll be able to recover those credits. Funding will be based on completion of those students. So the students have to attend and pass in order to get funded for their per student rate. So we're making sure we have plenty of students and in those courses this summer. >> So we are able to run high school programming. It just looks a little bit different. >> So the split positions explain that a little bit if you would like are they each working just a portion of the
046day or >> correct? They are going to job share of that position. Okay. >> And that is similar to what they have done in the past. Any other questions or comments or a motion to approve the summer? >> Motion to approve summer school as presented. >> Okay. Motion by WY. Is there a second? >> A second by Joel. Motion by second by Joel to approve summer school staffing as presented. All those in favor by saying I. >> I oppose and sign. Approve five to zero. Next is the approval of the summer feeding program. So I think Erin, just to kind of explain to you what would be happening and when. So it's most of June. >> It's all of June. >> All of June and um lunch and breakfast. >> Breakfast and lunch both for
047summer school students and for the public. and then Friday take home um from the community and students who fall or who are there you don't even have to qualify right there's no qualifications just if you feel you have you would like one as long as you have a student of school age with with you >> the student can come by themselves >> the students can come by themselves >> any questions or comments or motion to approve I'll make a motion to approve. >> Motion by WY. Is there a second? >> Second. A second by Michelle. Motion by WY. Second by Michelle to approve the summer feeding program as presented. All those in favor announcements say I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. Approve. Five to zero. Next is the classified handbook. zero. >> So, I tried
048to in the notes give you a chart on the classified handbook that would kind of just highlight what the significant changes were. There's some mortgage things that we're cleaning up every year. Um, so in the classified handbook on page three, we are I don't want to say adding a new position. We're expanding an existing position that is listed under the 260. So, we currently have had for a long time a district cataloger who is the person that receives all of our um items that have been ordered and she logs them, unpacks them, make sure they get to supposed to. We have to have many of our items barcoded. She does all that, gets it entered into Destiny, our asset management program, as well as our library program. Um we have been increasingly seeing um more
049and more difficulty with the expanded responsibility in our business department Beth in particular of she has been our primary person to order everything because we have decreased things. So um she also has to get the entire budget for the next year done and submitted in the summer. um close out one fiscal year, get ready to open another fiscal year, plus all just the regular stuff we do on a daily basis. So, Amanda Richmond had talked about being interested in expanding her role. And so, we are going to give her um some increased responsibility with purchasing as well as receiving. So, we're going to call this a purchasing and receiving clerk. Um and so that is a again not really a new position but expanded responsibility position and so she will be doing a lot of
050the purchasing and working closely with that in addition to supporting the library and doing all the receiving and getting items out to staff. Um, it's on page three, page four to seven, employment policies. I was able to cross reference about eight different classified annuals from across Indiana. And I decided to include some references to existing policies that we have. The sexual harassment um, safe workplace compliance type things. It's nothing that was again any big surprises, things that already exist. they just were not included. Page seven, continued employment. We've had a couple situations for some specific duties wherein the staff member has to be able to perform some physical tasks in order to accomplish their essential job functions. Um, we had never had it spelled in the employee handbook that we could request that a fiscal
051assessment happen with someone with a um, corporate medical or a preferred medical provider in order to assess their fiscal capabilities against what their job functions are. Um, again, it's not anything that every person has to do, but if there becomes an issue or a concern that someone might not be able to assist a student, if assisting a student physically is part of your responsibility, it allows us to make sure that that is a safe situation for the student as well as the employee um with someone that is capable of doing that. And just for clarification, I think it said that in the job description, it does spell out what the physical requirement is. Correct? >> Now, yes, for several of them, there's a few job descriptions I need to go back and update, >> but
052that is the intent. >> Yes. Yes. So, for example, um if you have a bus aid who is struggling with their mobility to be able to climb stairs and they can't get on and off and they aren't able to necessarily navigate to assist preschool students from buckling and unbuckling or they're not able to assist um special needs students from getting on and off the bus who might also have orthopedic issues, that's a concern. You know, if you have a custodian who cannot lift and is going to have pretty much a permanent lifting restriction over what we may be able them to lift, that might be a consideration as well. If there's certainly we're all expected to make reasonable accommodations and we can for every job, but there are a point in time again for essential
053job functions have to be able to largely be met. >> That's also what help in the hiring. >> We have started putting those in our postings. There's a physical element of why you might need to be able to lift, you have to be able to bend, um, squat, >> stand for long periods of time, be on a ladder, those kinds of things. >> Um, we had never had a written in the handbook discipline. >> Discipline procedures for classified staff. Again, it's not anything earthshattering. is pretty much a warning and a improvement plan and then of three strikes. We're probably going to do something differently and then a rejoiner that anything terribly egregious could move directly to the work. So, um time reports, this is to try to stop folks um from working the time clock.
054Um and again, we're not interested in every day looking at the time clock. These are for patterns of things. We are having some situations because of the way front line works, our time clock. Um, the example I gave you, if someone is to begin their day at 8 a.m., for example, as long as they clock in before 8:07, it shows up that they clocked in at 8 or it accepts that they clocked in at 8. Similarly, if they're supposed to be done at 2:30, they can clock out as early as 2:22. Um, now that doesn't seem like a lot until it happens every day. And then you're talking about a few hours over the course of a week that someone's getting paid for for not working. Um, so that is something that again I think
055the language in there is when it establishes a pattern that it implies an intent to kind of defraud the system. Um, that is going to potentially result in a disciplinary um infraction. >> Is it automatically after just like they were supposed to clock out at 2:30 that night that per I know a lot of businesses have kind of gone to that quite honestly it's just that general fun but it goes the other way if you're over the seven minutes yes that's that can be another thing that it could work into overtime >> too it definitely can be used to maximize your pay minimize your hours work hours. >> It's the beauty of technology and the terrible part of technology. So it's again >> look everybody can clock in a minute late or a minute ear.
056I mean that's not what we're looking at. we're talking about when it's obviously trying to maximize again pay versus minutes worked or hours work um remote work. I saw this verbiage in a different manual. Again, we don't allow very much as a rule of thumb working remotely, but there are times it makes sense for people to be able to work from home um if it works in their job. Um but wanted to have some verbiage in there just in case. We haven't run into any problems, but in case we sometimes there's something um in policy to go back on that said this is you should be accessible, productivity is still expected. Um bereavementally we have had a lot of um people in their probationary time period taking advantage of the different needs we have had.
057And again that may or may not be okay. Last year, we did put a 60-day probationary period in place that disallowed taking any personal or illness leave during the 60-day probationary period for new hires. Um, some of the directors talked to me and requested that we consider bereavement because they had been seeing that a lot. I felt we needed some type of compromise, I guess. So, I said for immediate family during that 60-day probationary period, they could have three days. Um, again, that's what you guys are for is up for discussion. This is a first reading. I also added >> a question. >> It's listed on the and we did add stepparents into that list. I don't have it in front of me but yeah it's um spouse parents including stepparents child stillborn child miscarriage
058occurring beyond 12 weeks brother sister step brother step father-in-law mother-in-law brother-in-law sister-in-law grandchild or other persons living in the immediate household >> um Page 12 adds some additional language regarding patterns of illnesses. Again, we've had in there that we could request a doctor's note after three consecutive days of illness sleeve. Um added some language in there that noted excessive absences, meaning you have exceeded your annually allotted um illness or illness that provides an indication of a pattern. So for example, Fridays and Mondays are often missed, things like that that we would we could ask that we need some kind of medical certification that there's a reason for this many illness leaves happening or this kind of pattern of leave. >> Friday or Monday count as a reason for sickness. >> Monday sometimes are a rough
059day. um vacation limited the amount of vacation time that may be taken at a time to five days without permission. There are folks who again because of um maybe some ongoing medical conditions have saved their sa their vacation leave until the end of their annual aotment to make sure they didn't need it for other reasons. That's not what we're talking about. Again, there's the rejoinder here with permission is fine. Um we've just had some situations where someone may take their week vacation and then at the end of that vacation say we're going to continue to take more vacation. Um now yeah there's there's language in there that should prevent that because of lack of notification but this also I think is just an extra layer that this there needs to be communication and thinking ahead
060because we have to make sure positions are covered. Um workman's comp. Um, we'll talk about this tomorrow as well, just when we talk about finances. Um, we have had a record number of workman's comp claims this year. Um, like more than we've had in the last 5 years combined. And so, we didn't really have any language in our handbook about workman's comp, the process or what to do if you're injured or on the job. So, we just included a lot of that language. probably 20 to 21 is what our classified staff most often have questions about and that is what do I do again if we have a delay or a cancellation who has to come in what do I what can I do what do I need to take a sick day for or
061a personal leave day excuse me for if I don't want to go unpaid and we had never had any language in here about if the county or state says or the county says we're under a travel emergency and it's only really emergency travel that's supposed to be happening. So, we added some language and tried to clarify some of that. And then grievance, again, that's nothing earthshattering. It we have always done it informally, but it had never been written in here. So, we just added it so that it has language applied to it. Again, this is a first reading, so if you have additional questions, comments, thoughts, please Let me know when we can talk to us more. Sorry. Next is I was looking at the next meeting of the handbook. Um, and I have to
062apologize because I some of these formatting issues and saving and printing issues when you do a review and a tracking of changes, the PDF was not wanting to read correctly. So, I don't know if what you received on your end, you could see these changes, but I had to do a lot of work here to try to get it to print out this way. And anyway, transportation handbook. Not a lot of changes on this one. um basically just added some language about drivers typically are expected to find their own substitute and we have always had that as practice. It just did not state that in the absence of them doing that. Obviously, they would report it to a supervisor always and that supervisor is then responsible ultimately for finding that coverage if the driver cannot
063idling. Some extra information just about district and state policy on idling vehicles, especially buses. um next year. I don't know that I've talked to you a whole lot about this except talking about um a situation where we did have a student that got off on the wrong bus stop and I'm hoping this the parent actually suggested this program. We looked into it and we're going to go ahead and do this for next fall. Um it's a program. We have the program already called Transfinder. This is an add-on. It's Wavefinder. So that on every bus there will be kind of an iPad with a scanner. Students will be expected to either know a code or be able to check their picture on the iPad screen or scan an ID card. And basically it checks the kid
064on the bus. If you don't show up as someone that should be on that bus, the expectation is you don't get on that bus. Um, we need to make sure, especially with our younger kids, that they are getting on the bus they're supposed to be getting on, that somebody knows where they're getting on and where they're getting off. Same thing, they they scan off. Um, there is an app that parents can have that they are able to track where their kid is um from their phone. Um, another nice thing, especially with our city routes that can have lots of kids and a little more fluid at times, like our Boys and Girls Club routes are packed full of of students that if we would hopefully never have a bus accident, we would be able to
065immediately get a roster with contact information of who was on the bus at the time of that accident and not have to try to get go talk to kids individually. and get that information, we would be able to start contacting families immediately and have some level of comfort in knowing this these kids were already off. This kid is on there. Um, so it's going to be a big lift this summer to get that done. Uh, so with a program like that, any student that could potentially be on the bus would be listed in the app for that particular bus. But if they're not necessarily riding, you should have them on. that they could like say 50 kids are routinely or identified as potential writers for that but you may only have as >> now it
066is going to >> mar if they're not on the bus then they wouldn't be marked >> right now it does mean which we've already had rules you're not supposed to be changing buses and things like that um so for parents to call in we're not going to be able to do a lot of bus switching, which we haven't been doing anyway, and that has helped keep things a lot cleaner. Um, a little bit, sure, that um if it's an emergency situation, that's why the secretary is going to have to get notification early enough that she can make some changes. But some of our buses are starting to get full enough that we can't just have extra. >> Yeah. There's no more the well I want my kid to go to this kid's house after school
067for a birthday >> or I was going to say 10 or 12 kids going to a birthday party. >> No, we can't. >> Yeah. >> And some of it's a lot of it's just safety of not being able to account for everyone and keep track of where everyone's supposed to be going. >> It does. >> I think it's nice that parent came with the solution. >> They were very helpful and very >> social media. >> I agree. They were very helpful and had a lot of positives and constructive suggestions. So, we appreciated that and it's ended up working out. I I again, it's still all about it's only as good as the humans that are inputting things, but um I think it's has a lot of capacity to do a lot of things. Um put
068some speed limit information on there. did want to establish a speed limit of 20 miles per hour on campus for buses. Not that we have any bus drivers with lead foots or anything. I don't think we do right now. Um unauthorized writers on field trips. One of the things that I think one of the policies you guys just approved here in recent history had information about like coaches kids or bus drivers grandkids or something about when or they could or could not ride on a bus for a field trip. Um, so this just reflects that policy. And then we had just a little bit of new policy, I think, on something you just passed about post accident testing, drugs or alcohol usage. So that was just added. So next is elementary school handbook. Um, the
069elementary and middle school handbooks are very similar. A lot of the changes in red that are not highlighted in yellow were just me kind of changing the tenor of some of the language, making it a little bit more I think um familyfriendly perhaps. Um but the big things from the assistant principles are in yellow and there's not a lot. Um the big one this year is from the state legislative changes to the cell phone policy. So luckily the elementary and middle school already had a no cell bell bell. Um now the difference is previously um especially at the high school they might have been able to get them a passing period or lunch or something like that. That is no longer the state is coming down really strictly saying we don't want it out during
070the school day whatsoever. Um, they did allow because at first the way the proposed language had been written, we thought we were all going to have to buy those security bags that pretty much blocked the signal that lockers are allowed to be. >> I saw that lockers can be acceptable >> and that is going to be our acceptable. >> Um, they have to be powered off in their locker all day long. Um, we are expecting to have to do some education with our families because that's going to be a new thing um for folks to not understand you might not have the ready access to your kids you've come to be used to. Um, what I am hoping and going to encourage is we have been struggling for some time getting kids in this generation
071to use their email to communicate. So, one thing I'm really going to impress upon families and parents is your kids all have devices that have email or messaging systems that are school vetted that if you really have a message you need them to get, it would be great for them to get used to checking their email. >> Well, there are a lot of I've been under the impression by my kid that you not >> well probably not like campus messenger and some and it depends on the age. I'm not going to say that. But high school in particular, I'm not going to really say check your email because we've been trying to teach that and preach that for some time. So, this might be a good way to do it. Um, >> um, I don't
072think in the elementary those were the really the cell phone was the only thing that Tim Okay. Um, just from a cell phone perspective, I can see a lot of kickback coming from and I know it's been transitioned in, so it's not as big of a gout punch, but I honestly think that um, coming from the world where I've done a bunch of education on the whole school shooter and those types of things is that parent or family member, guardian, whomever it may be, sense of peace. It's like that may be their only way to communicate in a situation like that. So I think it's better served for us as a school community to up our education what we're going to do in those times simply because um that is a square of the moment
073where a second matters more than anything. And I think that inability to oh my gosh they're okay or whatever it may be. I mean we pray that it never happens but it's like insurance. You don't need it till you need it. And I think the better prepared we can be is going to help us serve our community better much better and that's just we have done I don't know how much education in our school systems and it's like and for me personally I think it would be kind of a you know just knowing and it's not necessarily distracting the child but in that that moment like I said we pray it never happens and we hope it never happens but we have to do the best preparation I saw on the news just in the
074last couple weeks a trial and it's a lot of it's happening in Texas. Drones are in a cabinet and when there would be an emergency like that, that cabinet opens up, they're released. There's remote control of it where they go seeking whoever that invader is and they have some types of pellet that they can shoot at the invader. And it even showed the the drone hitting at them and knocking this that it was a dummy that was being demonstrated. >> I see a little bit far >> that's yeah I'm not suggesting we but that was a very interesting concept. >> Well there is a lot of study that usually someone intend on doing something like that. It doesn't take a whole lot to fork their >> You have seconds. I mean, you have seconds to
075react. You are acted upon or you react in short order. and the best we can do. And it's just like I know when we did our rebuild and so forth out here, I was one of the huge I guess proponents for I it's awesome to have our doors labeled, but we need to have them label interior and exterior because if somebody it only takes a matter of seconds for somebody to become so disoriented in a situation, whether it's a fire, whether it's a a lifealtering, you know, situation where we have an execute or something. They need to be able to identify I'm at door five or whatever. But then our fire personnel, police personnel, whomever need to know what door they're coming to for for safety. Obviously, we're going to have police securing and everything,
076but I just >> Well, in that kind of emergency, it does become easy to discard. I had an example of that in a school building when the fire alarm went off. It was during lunchtime and I had a group of students start going as if it was a tornado drill that I had to intercept and say, "No, no, this is a fire." >> Yeah, >> it was it was the kitchen had some smoke off the alarm. >> Yeah. But yeah, in an emergency this can >> the law does give the ability of the superintendent to say in emergency situation students can access their cell phones. Now I don't know again what you're talking about that's not really going to do anything. Um a lot one positive thing assume most staff elementary staff anyway have them
077and most of them communicate with parents through remind or class dojo or something and so there would be the little usually a way for the parent to know I've got everybody they're okay that's a piece of piece of mind secondary is harder because they're switching all the time aren't those policies are because I mean the state's regulated but just I mean we're not teaching them how to manage cell phone use because they're going to get in the real world and they're still going to manage it at the workforce you know I thought teachers are we ask them to put it in their purse and you know use it for personal um usage that's during the school day too so I just struggle with this one firstand that and I wish we could just help them
078navigate through that and teach life skills and how to how to manage because we're have to do that. >> I don't know why this one was such a huge push because we all thought what they did last year was good enough with the don't have it out in class. Um, >> and this may not be the end to how it will be, you know, ultimately as it rolls out and other technology and so forth. >> I'm such a huge technology. >> I read pages. >> Well, there's already a study happening. Just FYI, we went through this whole big push that everyone needed to be onetoone and we're now in the big push for AI and STEM and Some of our state legislators are pushing to have a study on what has happened especially in elementary
079with the use of onetoone devices and I think we're going to start seeing discussions I know we're going to start seeing discussions already out there going back to more paper pencil especially at the elementary level. >> Yeah there are some states it's already enacted like kindergarten first grade no devices whatsoever which I think again that's going along the way. You got to teach, you know, you got to teach some responsibility there at an early age. But but yeah, where is that there is a sweet spot where it's appropriate to >> there is and I think that you have to understand child development. We don't teach 100% at any level with >> technology. I would hate to eliminate it, but there should be a good balance at every level. And there's probably places that haven't done
080that, and that's not necessarily good. But there also is a lot there are a lot of studies about kids and screen time and kids and technology. And it can be for kids that don't have that prefrontal cortex developed, which is all of our kids. There is a big struggle on whether they really can self-manage some of them. I don't know. >> I agree with you. There has to be >> you got to learn something. But >> I don't know. We're not done. >> I asked Mr. Kramer to come in. Um the high school has these changes about wireless communication, but he has proposed a different attendance policy and it's going to look a lot different and sound a lot different. Well, not a lot different. It's he's going to explain to you the reasoning behind
081his proposed change and um especially with the new accountability system and every level has big points associated with attendance. Um so you want to go ahead and >> please >> thank thank you for waiting >> good discussions and drones. Um so as the handbook reads right now we currently have you can rack up all these attendances excused unexcused whatever it may be and then boom at the semester it resets and you start over within that we also have a policy where it's called a fiveday limited absence policy and that's per semester. So with the combination of this over the three years I've been here kind of seen how these things have been exploited by people who would do that. So, one of the issues is, and this is usually our upper classmen, they they'll get
082that fiveday limited absence policy, which is like a parent can call the kid and say, "So and so's not feeling well. We got an orthodontist appointment." It's like, yeah, there's some builtin and they're kind of gimmies. Like, yeah, sure. That now a lot of people see them as like, well, these are my days. They're my personal days. I I got five per semester. So, 10 10 per year. And I assume that magic number was this is the number where you get to 96% attendance chronic abs absenteeism. So the original idea was let's keep them 10 or under and like it's we're good with the state. But the way kids are going about it now it's like they'll burn through their days and then then they do get sick or then they do want to do
083the senior skip day after prom or mom and dad wants to take them on vacation. So it's a lot of times like they're they're using them like personal days and they're just getting way past it. So our current overall attendance of kids that meet that 96% threshold who are under 10 days it's it's in the 60% which is it's it's bad which is like granted there's some there's some other schools in the area that are similar to that but given our clientele it it should it should be a lot higher. So, one of the things that I'm proposing is we do away with the Oh, sorry. There's one more one more area that where it causes problems, too. Um, a lot of kids that who really need to be targeted with attendance policies, it's like
084they they'll get into like 12, 13. So like they have some consequences and like I'm just about to forgive my for lack of a better term sink my teeth into them get the prosecutor involved and then boom semester happens clean safe clean slate and then it's not till April May when it's like they're racking it back up and by that time they're they have 20 some absences and it's like just I'm just now starting to get the ball rolling again and really start to put pressure on parents and then boom school is done clean slate the next So the proposal is do away with that break it the semester with that though we'll add on instead of having a 5day limited absence policy it's going to be a six day the seventh absence would feel
085boring so at seven they're getting face to face with me um 8 n you're looking at like an after school detention 2 after school detention which 10 it's a Saturday school then they're starting to feel a little bit so by this point I've contacted parents four times now so If they do get to 11, and obviously 10 and a half is the magic number. They can have 10 and 1/2, they're good. They get to 11 and they're they don't they don't count for the the accountability anymore. So, you heard us bring up accountability. This is the state is going to be grading us partially based on school attendance. It's one of the success indicators for each grade cohort. 9 and 10 will have their group. 11 and 12 will have their group. You're going to
086hear a lot about this and if you haven't already, but the the magic number for attendance is 96% which is 10 or 10 and a half if we're we're getting close. So, what the what the policy does is it addresses the personal mentality. Like there's there's still some built in. Like there's some families that can do that and honestly there there's kids who like they do pretty darn good all year. like you'll have a couple like maybe half a day absence first semester, second semester comes around, they get sick. And there's there's families who they do want to go on vacation, not on our spring break. There's there's a decent decent chunk of them. And usually those are our high-flying kids, too. But if they got sick and they want to go on vacation, then
087they're getting letters from me in the mail about like, well, you already got two absences or like this puts you right on the line and I kind of bumped heads with some parents who are like, I have a great kid. Why why is this matter? So, it gives them a little more flexibility too, a little more leeway. So ultimately targets the kids and the families who are really using it who we need to need to address and it I think it helps those families that are doing what they're supposed to be doing and gives them a little more flexibility. Um there's one other thing there's one other thing in the policy. So, you'll notice that the consequences are kind of drawn out more the it used to be I think six or seven absences. I
088can't believe I just said six or seven uh six or seven absences before we get the prosecutor involved. But what they're wanting to see based on my communication with their office is that there needs to be a longer history of consequences. So, you'll see it's it's 10. 10's the number now of like on the 10th one 10th unexcused or 10th plus the the five day six day limited absence policy that's when the prosecutors can get in like I would get the prosecutor involved you know so it kind it's kind of a win-win win-win in my eyes areas where I do expect it to be rocky is at first it's just different so people that have been with more that instead of this policy for a long time it's new to So it's as soon as
089it's approved, it's all right. How are we getting messages out to parents? How are we letting them know? So the more messaging we can have on that is great. There's going to be some ticked off people like the people who know the policy really, really well are the ones that abuse it the most. They're going to give the most push back. Good. Bring them on. Uh and then yeah, that's really about it. Any What questions do you guys have on that? >> I have a comment. Um I think I think this is really a good thing because as somebody who's uh in leadership out um in the world um exactly what you're saying I see happen with young people I'm hiring. It's my days. I get these days off. What are you talking about? And
090it's very very hard to rein in. And I think what you have proposed very much mirrors what you see when you're working somewhere. like you get to a certain level, there's consequences associated with it and you don't get to take off 20 days a year in addition to other days. So, I I fully support it. I think it's a great change. I agree people are going to be mad. >> Yeah. >> But I think it's important because people you're preparing these kids to be on high school and they need to know what it's like when they get out there in the working world that you can't just take your personal days. One thing that's not in writing here that well I guess it's in writing but the way we do it is different. So the
091when a student has a medical absence that's it's excuse and people play that game too sometimes where it's like they'll go to Fort Wayne to see this that and the other doctor just so they can get their kid out of school. It was less this year because like we started looking at those notes this year making calls and pushing doctors like hey like so some of the people that were writing a lot aren't anymore. But this also gives a little more flexibility with like we've had so many kids with just horrible things within missing 40 50 days this year like real days and they still get the letters in the mail every time like hey you have this many absences like they call me back like hey like kidney has a mass in his lung
092can't breathe like why are you getting on just procedural but that's it's still in there for the people that that do abuse it so it's like the medical is going to count against the whatever But it really pertains to the people that are using it. There's going to that's going to be another area of push back I think too like well my kid gets sick all the time. We're going to work with the kids who are sick and bring the doctors. I'm not going we're not going after them. Yeah. >> But there's also perceived there's something out there for those that have an extended medical >> problem or illness that is extended and there's ways to manage that too. >> And like a lot of times there's two things and the biggest one is they
093do the the ROI where I can talk to the doctor and just like hey is this really what's happening? So extenduating circumstances are still going to be treated with exceptions, right? >> Any other things you wanted to talk about, Mark? >> I don't think there was a whole lot. We revisit. >> I think it's a great idea. >> You want all the remote controls and >> I'll work for the handbook, right? >> And those are all first reading. So again, questions, comments, please reach out. Um, okay. Next we have approval of revised area 18 agreement. So all I think it's eight now school districts are having to approve this revision of the agreement and then Brad Gates at um Bluff and Harrison who they are the LEA for area 18 will then do one large
094collective that they have to have all of our agreements first. So um we have not redone the area 18 agreement in a long time. some things that have been happening in the last couple years that necessitated reooking at the agreement. Um just for the longevity of the consortium. Um we've felt some of those things this year with some different programs being started in different districts and procedures that impacted our enrollment and our ability to continue to sustain programs because of loss of shared students. Um programs starting that were very comparable to what were already happening in other schools. And so again, you're just basically robbing from Peter to pay Paul with numbers and we're all in a situation now with budgets being tight and needing to make decisions based on numbers. And so some of
095that changed. Um we had a school system Huntington North pulled out, but we did have a lot of language in there about what that really needed to look at. So looked like So I was on this committee to revise this. The um new director Eric Nuny gave just kind of a article by article change. I'm going to go through it really quickly. Um, article two was more of a larger change. We focused on that basically the school and the director um or excuse me, we will be monitoring student enrollment in programs and any program that has under 10 students enrolled for two years or more um will have to have a review by the governing board. Now, we can't the governing board is not going to tell any school you can or can't have a
096program, but what it will say is you are or you are not eligible for Perkins dollars to help support that program if it's not showing to be well utilized. Um, article three, we didn't really have anything in there about the number of of votes, people voting that needed to be present for different decisions. Um, article four talked about advisory committee. Um, article five dealt with equipment. We've had a lot of situations like when Huntington withdrew, what happens to the equipment that Perkins dollars allocated area 18 um had been given and so we have included an inventory disposal and audit expectation um language there. Transportation. Again, we are an anomaly in that really it's largely the Adams and Wells County schools that share programs. The reason Huntington withdrew is that they pretty much had all the
097programs and they just self-supported themselves. Jay County does the same. Blackbird is a member of my um the MAC and area 18, but they really don't send to any area 18 schools because of distance. And so this part set out a 30 mile 30 minute rule that if you are within 30 miles of 30 minutes of an area 18 program that is where you need to send your students and and don't go out of the program or out of the consortium um budget. I don't think we really have any big changes there. cost allocation. We had for as many schools as we had, everyone build differently for the sending students you received. And so this is going to kind of um streamline that and make everyone will fill out the same spreadsheet that will calculate
098what your reimbursement amount should be from sending schools. Um, article 10 capacity. Um right now it's not been an issue but if we end up streamlining the number of programs it could be basically let's say our welding program any of the schools who could potentially send to us for welding we have to look at the number of students who are participating in the high schools and it would be a percent of the potential maximum seats available and that would be how it could be determined how many Belmont seats were given AC seat south Adams were given if they didn't use seats that other schools could get them. Um, again, it's not been a problem because we have overexpanded ourselves in our offerings, I think, across all the eight districts, but um, there's language in there
099for determining um, capacity and how those seats are allocated. um a much more explicit language about how new programs can be formed, the timeline, the application process, um and considerations for when a new program may be approved or not approved by the governing board. And then just some appendices with some different um policies and forms that putting in an appendix will make it a lot easier to not have to just reopen the whole agreement. So that was a 30,000 foot view of again just trying to put things more in play that provides a little more structure, a little bit more support and unification among the area 18 schools so that again we can provide quality CTE programming but also maintain the efficiency of everyone's programs. Um there was a point where there was a lot
100of money in Perkins and everyone was trying to get their piece of it. Um, but it has not. I think it's backfired a little bit. So, we're trying to rein everything back in. >> Some of that has been going on for a long time. >> Yes, it has. That's what I've been told. >> A few that have been there for a while, but yeah, I think we had this conversation. >> Yeah. >> Approx. >> We have 13. >> 13. Okay. >> That are P full pathways. >> Okay. I think there's 18 in county. >> Okay. Is there a motion to approve the revised agreement? >> I'll make that motion. >> Motion by WY. Is there a second? >> Seconded by Dave. Motion by Wally, second by Dave to approve the uh revised area 18 agreement.
101All those in favor announce by saying I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Approve. 5 to zero. Next is the approval of two donations. We want to thank Dave and Christina Coats um for their very generous donations of $1,000 toward girls tennis and $1,000 toward boys volleyball. I'm sure that both of those programs will very much appreciate um >> doesn't have coach s. >> Well, thank you. You're going to have to get somebody to design a special golf club glove or something. >> Thank you to them very much for especially when it's a non-revenue sport. It's difficult to fund raise, difficult to get money for equipment, uniforms, just special things for the kids. >> Okay. Is there a motion to approve those donations? Make a motion. >> Motion by Michelle. Is there a second? >> Second
102by Joel. Motion by Michelle. Second by Joel to approve the donations as presented. All those in favor announcement saying I the posting sign approve five to zero. Next we have the superintendent report. Well I can't believe we're in the last two weeks of selection. Um things just keep flying by. We are definitely ending um fast and furious trying to get schedules for next year figured out. Um personnel allocations figured out, budgeting things figured out. Spring sports are still in full swing and um fun to watch. Um commencement is coming up May 22nd at 7 o'clock. >> 229. >> 29th. >> Okay. Sorry. >> No, that's okay. >> The last student day is May 22nd. >> Got myself confused. May 29th for graduation. Sorry. Um, day of awesome is on Thursday, which the elementary and middle
103school kids love, where they get all the bounce houses and get to run around like crazy. My my little guy says, "Mom, we need to do this every day. Make this happen." I'm like, I don't think your teacher will agree. Um, I know we have eighth grade and underassman award or excuse me, eighth grade commencement coming up here. Um, as well as high school underassman awards. Do you know the date on that? >> Pardon? >> Monday. And are we going to stream that? I can't remember what the decision was on that. >> I think so. >> The plan was yes. I don't think have been made. >> No, Justin's working on it. Dare graduation just happened this week. So, our second, no, first dare graduation. And that cast was very excited about that and kids
104did awesome and saw some stuff on social media with that. That was fun. Yeah, that was super fun for him. Um, we have been having bicycle rodeo going on. Nicole, you want to talk about our bicycle helmet? >> Hours of work on her part. >> Yes. But it was it was a fun project. So, we were able to um I wrote a grant. We were able to have all third grade Belmont students that attend Safety Village. They were given a helmet after attending. It has the Belmont logo on it. and the kids love it. So, it was a huge hit. So, we're hoping to do that each year. >> Autograph. >> Yes. >> And that's why I saw you guys here. >> Yes. That was why. So, we can send some pictures in to thank
105them for the grand. >> Yes. >> I mean, for sure. Um, I'm probably forgetting some things. I'm sure >> it is >> Thursday. Rotary gets to honor our Belmont Middle School students of the month, the last section. >> So, they're coming over to Rotary. >> The kids love that. That is a fun time for them. Well, and Rotary did we did just have last week the Rotary um did the academic letter banquet and that's always a really nice to honor a lot of our high school kids that are the top 10 in the class. That was fun. And I >> was the first ever. >> The Decada Rotary Club started in 1915. So, thanks. >> We do have some great community who do a lot and to support our students and are always willing to
106step up when there's an opportunity to help them recognize them. So, we appreciate that a great deal. It's been a good year. It's been a fast year. Really fast year. I really thought it doesn't seem that long ago that August was here, but it will be right back around and we'll be starting a new school year. It will seem like overnight. have lost our summer. >> Yes, >> for sure. I think it's going to be a repeat of last year where it was so mild for so long. >> Yeah, >> they didn't get through these frost advisories before summer. >> Yeah. >> Never going to get a garden pl I told them they're on their own now. >> Sink or swim. >> Real quick, back to commencement. Commencement's at seven, >> correct? Right. >> And
107I think they usually like you to be there sixish. Does that sound right? >> Any other matters to come before the board? >> I I just real briefly here quick. U it probably chances are the legisl next legislative session uh could look different with the changes at the Senate. Um, I attended the Decater Chamber lunchon yesterday with Matt Layman being presenting and and he did give some indication. He thought there would be some changes to property tax reform in our more our favor. But I mean, he wasn't specific at all. uh he made the comment that it he kind of thinks the um house will be acting more like adults than the senate where usually the senate is more stable. >> So he said that may look a little different too. But anyways, we could,
108you know, hopefully maybe at least a little bit of relief from what it looks what we're told right now. >> Hoping. >> Yeah, that's right. >> We shall see. It's going to be an active session, I'm sure. >> I'm sure it will. And there'll be a lot of even just from a lobbying standpoint, there'll be the the power dynamic is going to shift somewhat because some of our more some of those incumbents were very influential on some of the big committees. >> Yeah. >> So it'll be kind of a question of who writes >> and it is budget year. So we'll be creating a new budget. >> I did read however that the revenue far exceeded the prediction. I don't want to say far, but 7% over what was predicted in that growth. So that's
109hopeful >> till the next forecast of short >> hopefully won't be won't feel like the sky is falling. >> Thank you everyone. Thank you.