001To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Our first item is our award. So, we have some special guests with us tonight. One special guest in particular. So, Hunter Burke Holder, would you stand up? I'm going to say some nice things about you. First and foremost, his principal wrote me and said, "Hunter is one of the most kind-hearted students at Belmont Middle School." Which is probably one of the best compliments anyone could get. He shows resiliency in his own personal life and strives to be the best person he can every day. He consistently treats classmates and staff with respect and patience, and his empathy is evident in all his relationships that he builds across all
002grade levels. He contributes positively to our school culture and embodies what it really means to be a true brave. A clear example of Hunter's character and leadership occurred when one of his classmates this year became seriously ill. Recognizing the family's financial and emotional needs, Hunter independently came up with an idea for a fundraising plan. He organized the sale of handmade keychains and pens that I think he does with his grandmother to raise money and sell to raise money for that student and her family. He recruited help from fellow students Landon who generously contributed supplies, but the idea and majority of supplies came from Hunter. He ensured there were multiple days of sales. When the fundraiser concluded, he donated 100% of the money raised to the student and her family. >> How much money did you
003end up raising? >> It was right at $300. Wow. Grandma picture. >> It's a video. So, >> thank you, >> Hunter. Thank you so much for doing that. I know that that family was not anticipating what had happened to them and just for you to come up with that on your own and contribute all the money and I know that had to come at some expense to you with the supplies. Thank you so much for doing that. I'm sure I know it meant a lot because we've heard from the family and we were very thankful for everything all the students did, but you and your family in particular. I know your principles here tonight. Do you have anything you want to add? Just like I said in um my narrative, we are just so proud
004of Hunter and his efforts. He kept u myself and the rest of the administration team on text to make sure every morning we had those supplies. He was in the office picking them up and setting up his own little station to sell them. He sat through multiple lunch periods to make sure that kids had the opportunity to um buy the keychains and pens. He was super active in that and really a go-getter with everything. We're just super impressed with Hunter. Wish we had classrooms full of him. >> Hunter, do you have anything you'd like to say to people about generosity or just stepping up and taking charge when things happen? >> No. >> [laughter] >> That's okay. On the spot, but we appreciate, you know what, sometimes it's the folks that don't need to be
005in front of people that do some of the best and greatest things. So, thank you so much for taking that initiative and doing that. AND [clears throat] >> that was very kind. If you guys want to go, you're more than welcome. You're more than welcome to stay. [laughter] Thank you for helping right now. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. That's awesome. >> Okay, we're going to do a program update next. >> Oh, yeah. Thank you so much for letting me visual my daughter's name. Um, just to start, thank you for allowing me to come in and present this information to you. We are doing some great things at the middle school and I am always hyped up to talk about those great things. So to start at the top of the um paper that
006I gave you, it does just have our information for our checkpoints both one and two for language arts along with our cumulative language arts I learn from the 2425 school year. Then it goes on to our math checkpoint data for checkpoint one. We're getting ready to take our second checkpoint for this year on Thursday. So that data we will have Thursday afternoon. Then it also has the cumulative data for the 20 um 425 school year. As you can see across the board in the grade levels both in language arts and math for the most part we are above state average. Our teams are putting in a lot of work to make sure that they're doing remediation and working with our kids to improve their skill gaps. The one thing that we've talked about a lot
007at um school with our teachers is we don't just focus on who's at proficiency and above proficiency. I learn is a college and career readiness test. And we know that not all of our students are going to go that path. But we also want to acknowledge that they're building the learning in all of our kids. So if we look at our data that compare even the state average for below proficiency to ours, we have less students below proficiency than the state average. Sometimes by up to 20% um below that. So our we look at as a whole we don't just look at above and at proficiency but we look at are we growing the kids into the approaching proficiency category. Are we shrinking our number of kids that are below proficiency and they are just
008doing great work and they're working hard. They're looking at the data. We have all of our teachers looking at this data. So we test in home rooms and our home room teachers are even looking at this data. So it could be a science teacher looking at this. how can I help my language arts and math people support these students in um their their education? And so we're using common language. We're looking at what vocabulary words our kids are going to see in the test. What kind of skills do they need in terms of just dragging and dropping or um what kind of technology skills do they need to be able to do well on the test? looking at the different reading passages um the depth of knowledge question types that students are going to look
009at. So it really we are we are doing this as a whole team. It's not just the language arts and math teachers. It's all of us. These are all of our students. It's not just language arts teacher students. So we really are working hard last year and this year um to increase our our goals in percentages. So after we get past all of that, there are some new regulations coming down um about remediation requirements for our students. So that's our new talk for this year is how do we increase the remediation. So last year we built in times during our home room where we were remediating students. Now we're going to be looking at all of our students are going to be taking an academic lab during our fifth period which is our longest block
010of time. And during that academic lab, we'll be looking at math and language arts remediation. The regulations for that remediation follow the MCSS, which is a multi-tiered system of supports, and that is requiring us to have um a certain number of students in grades. It also requires a certain time um requirement. So, we're working with that to make sure we're within those standards. So that is a way to make sure we're hitting everybody. That's anybody. We have to remediate anybody that's not at or above proficiency. So within that fifth period academic lab, we're also going to do our high ability enrichment. Um so our students will participate in different activities. We have drone kits that the kids work with. We bought some Lego kits that um the kids are working with. We have um coding.
011We have art. We have stress and anxiety relief that our students or gym teacher works with them on how do I reduce my stress? How do I reduce my anxiety? So, it's really taking the student and looking at them whole picture. So, that's part of our high our high ability enrichment that we'll take um during that fifth period academic lab. We're also looking at not just iLearn data, but looking at how do we make sure we're showing growth in our students other outside of iLearn. So I learn does a great job telling us who's at and above proficiency, who's approaching proficiency, and who's below proficiency, but sometimes it doesn't show us great data on how our students are growing. So, we're looking at what can we use to make sure we're praising all of our
012kids for the growth and the work that they're putting in and how can we show that um in numbers to to show them and to keep track of ourselves. So, that's our in part of the um remediation process. That's what we're doing during our flex days and our PD time after um on Wednesdays from that 2:30 to 3:30. Those are all things that we're looking at during that PD time. Um during our flex days we are using that for vertical articulation. So our departments are meeting sixth, seventh and eighth grade and looking at the different skills that are taught in each of those grade bands. What are some core standards that our teachers need to make sure that like sixth grade here's the foundational standards for seventh grade and then for eighth grade. We have
013done in the past some work with the high school. We would like to incorporate some of that again this year um during those flex days to make sure that we're we're preparing our kids for what they're going to have to do in high school. Um, we also as part of our flex days, I also build in breakout sessions for our teachers. And some of those breakout sessions can be mindfulness. Some of it's just reading in the library, a quiet place to read. Some of it's physical activity. I really believe in um them being treated well too and taking some time for themselves to fill their cup back up because they can't do this work without being allowed to fill their cup back up. And I really want them to make sure they're taking care of
014themselves. So that's part of what we do during our flex day. We have about 45 minutes breakout session, potentially an hour and a half to really just work on something that interests them, that's passionate about them. We have a great group of teachers willing to lead that. So, we have some weight room. We have just some general cardio. The art teacher runs some painting and drawing sessions that that she does. So, just a lot of opportunities for our staff to also fill their cup back up. Um, we continue with PBIS in the district and specifically at the middle school. We had one right before Christmas break where we went swimming at the high school and the kids loved it. Um, we also do things just as a whole school. So, in the fall we did
015a kickball tournament, home rooms versus home rooms. That was very competitive and kids took that very seriously. It got a little crazy at the end because it came down to we were out of time and we had to call a tie and nobody liked that. It was it was intense. Uh we also have we did our first pep session where we recognized our fall, winter, and then our soontobe spring athletes. We also played some minute to winning games that were super fun. We had the staff versus um kids from each grade level that participated in that and that was super fun. So we really enjoy just doing being able to do some fun things with the kids. On Fridays, we do fun Fridays. any student that doesn't have an F or a D or an
016F and no office referrals or lunch detentions for a two-eek time frame, we let them come to the activity center and participate in Just Dance. We do dodgeball and volleyball in the gym. And then we also have board games and bingo in the cafeteria. So students can pick where they want to go and they can just go and participate in that fun activity for that Friday. So just some more incentives for our kids doing great things. Um, every other week we will continue with bring change to mind this year which I think I presented that last year. That's just bringing mental health awareness to students and it's studentled. So, uh, myself and the guidance counselor kind of facilitate meetings, but it's really truly led by our students. With that, Alive and Well was in for
017our sixth grade group. there's kind of a breakdown of what they went through, but that's really looking at the whole child and making sure that they're making good decisions. They also talk about um using technology appropriately and just making sure that our students are making good decisions. >> Um we did some Y tribe training in the [clears throat] fall for special ed um staff. They're starting to implement that in our um SEAL groups this school year. We will continue to have our eighth grade we'll have parents come in for eighth grade graduation and awards ceremony this spring. Our eighth grade students participated in JobSpark in the fall, which I don't know if any of you have been to JobSpark, but it's this amazing opportunity for our kids to go and they get to do hands-on
018activities that teach them or show them what they're going to be doing in different career paths. Um, I was able to go last year and one of them like A was there and so like kids could work on transformers and like they had the EMS there and they could work on all of that. I think IvyTech was there where they could do some like actual chest compressions and like IVs and they have culinary pro like just all of the things. This year they had cosmetology which I do not believe they were there the year that I went. Um, but kids could get like pencil braided in their hair and they could see all the fun things. So, it's just a great opportunity for our eighth grade students. We also this year went to I Explore
019Day at Ivy Tech. Um, our eighth grade students that are participating in PCC in the fall went and that really is just an opportunity for them to explore all of the different um, bachelor or associate programs that they have at IvyTech. So, IvyTech shows them the different career paths that they could pursue on campus with them. Again, great opportunity for our kids just to see like there is something local that they can do. So, if they don't feel like they have the financial support to go to one of the bigger colleges, this is something that's close to home um and still has great programs for the students to um participate in. We are kicking off our fundraiser in January and then that day of awesome will be in May. Also a super awesome day if
020you are available to come and just watch the the people that we partner with for that fundraiser bring in bounce houses and hula hoop contests and limbo contest. It's just like amazing day for the kids to participate in um and have some fun. Lastly, and I know I'm going through this super fast, I apologize, but it's all on the paper in front of you. Lastly, um, just to talk about Hunter and the amazing work that he did. We have an amazing North [clears throat] Adams community. They were able to between all three schools and staff, we were able to raise $2,500 for the family. Um, we had a student who I'm not sure if Kim kind of gave updates through the course, but we had a student who went home on a Wednesday. by that
021following Tuesday she was lifellighted to Riley. Um so just super scary super scary experience um for the family and with the help of staff and the students and parents we were able to raise those funds and Hunter was a big part of just the students um getting them involved. So it was just a really neat experience. I know we've had a situation in the past where we've raised funds for for other people, but um we just truly have a great community. We have a great North Adams community and super proud of our students at Belmont and how they've stepped up and pitched in for raising funds for the family. It was just it was awesome. We have great kids. They do great things. [clears throat] Any questions for me? And again, I know that's super
022fast. I went through a lot. >> I don't really have any questions. This is all fantastic, but also the point of identifying, recognizing staff and holding them up as well. >> Uh because that's extremely important. As you said, their cups empty and they they need to be filled frequently. So, kudos for for that, too. >> Thank you. Thank you. I remember what it's like to those are long days. They do a lot for us. So >> thank you again for letting me come in and present this. >> Thank you. >> All right. So we are at public comment on agenda items. We can move on. So this being our January meeting, we had the organization of the school board present first item on the agenda. >> Are there any um well I guess we can
023we'll decide how we want to do it if we want to go through position by position >> probably. That works too. >> Is there a second or any other Okay. Any other nominations or anything? If not, we'll go ahead and vote on that [laughter] to keep things. >> Um, so we had a I guess a motion by Joel, seconded by WY to retain the current officers in their positions. All those in favor by saying I oppose sign. Approve six to zero. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Michelle. So, president is remains myself, vice president is Michelle Stimson, secretary is Dave Hill, and assistant secretary is Jill Pledger. Next item is the appointment of the treasurer and deputy treasurer. Currently in those roles, Beth Clim is the treasurer and Lorie Balmer is the deputy treasurer. A motion position
024first. >> Motion by Michelle, seconded by WY to retain Beth and Mory in their current roles as treasurer and deputy treasurer. All those in favor announce by saying I. >> I oppose and sign approve 6. Appointment of board meeting recorder. It's Lori and we're going to just really hope she agrees to take. No choice. >> I'll make a motion that we keep the recorder as is current. >> Okay. Motion by Michelle. Is there a second? >> Second by Joel. Motion by Michelle. Second by Joel to retain Lorie Bomber as reporter for the schoolboard meetings. All those in favor announcement saying I and I oppose and sign approve six to zero. Next is the appointment of our legislative liaison which is widely served currently. Repeat that. >> Okay. Motion by Joel, seconded by Michelle. Okay. Motion
025by Joel, seconded by Michelle to retain Wy Wy as the legislative leaison. All those in favor announce by saying I. >> I oppose. Same sign. Approve. 6 to zero. Next is our school attorney currently Mr. Scott. >> You didn't bring your hat this year. And also >> motion by motion by Michelle seconded by WY to approve or retain Scott and his current role school attorney. All those in favor announcement saying I. >> I oppose saying sign. Approve six to zero. Next is the appointment of the Adams County redevelopment commission representative currently at state held. >> I'll make a motion to retain this a >> a position. >> Okay. Motion by WY. >> Seconded by Joel. Motion by WY. Seconded by Joel to retain Dave and his position with the Adams County Redevelopment Commission representative. All
026those in favor announce by saying I. I. Oppose. Same sign. Approve. 6 to Z. Next is the establishment of our meeting date and time. Our current meeting is on the second Tuesday of the month at 6 p.m. >> Make a motion. I'll second. >> All right. Motion by Michelle, second by WY to continue to have our meetings on the second Tuesday of the month at 6 PM. All those in favor announce by saying I. >> I. Oppose. Same time sign. Approved. Six to zero. We're going to get nothing. >> I know. >> Next is the salary of the board members. So, the law sets it at a maximum of $2,000. There is a pdeium that you could choose to add. Historically, we have not done that. Um, so any thoughts on retaining the same or
027making adjustments? >> Motion is second. >> Motion by Michelle, seconded by WY to establish a salary for the board at $2,000 with no predium. All those in favor announce I >> I oppose. Same sign. Approve six to zero. Next is the SEBT trustee appointments. We have Craig Moore for North Adams Teacher Association and Kim Hyatt as the administrative representative. >> Make a motion to >> retain. Okay. Motion by WY. Is there a second? >> Second by Jill. >> Motion by Wy, seconded by Jill to continue with Craig Moore for Na and Kim for the administrative represent representative for the SCBT trust appointments. All those in favor announce by saying I opposing sign approve six to zero. All right. So we will close the current meeting and open the finance meeting. >> We throw it at
028uh I call the 2025 north uh finance meeting to order. There you go. Uh so the first order of business is to elect president and elected secretary. So right now the current one [clears throat] is bill is the president. Um and so is there any nominations for president? >> I make a motion between president is second. Okay. All in favor of DJ Hill as as the president say I >> same oppos to get secretary and um Darling is the secretary. So hear any nominees for secretary motion secretary. I'll second that. >> Motion. Thank you. Uh for Darlene to be secretary second by Stacy. All in favor of Darene secretary. >> I pass stuff. >> [laughter] >> In 2025, North Adams Community Schools earned a total of $252,828.88 in interest income in our operations fund account.
029And we also earned a total of $116,580.38 in interest on our construction bonds and rainy day fund. Any questions on that? >> Okay, we have a slides in a packet. These are the things that are legislatively required for us to go over that the um the distress something called the DUAB distress unit um that the board puts out and that we are supposed to go through with you every year. So the first um and this is a public website anybody can go and look and poke around if that's what you want. The first um table you have there is average daily membership. So, um, we've been in a decline in enrollment. The good news is in the last 2 years, we have slowed down that decline significantly. Um, I think for us, Adams County's population
030is decreasing overall. Um, the other two schools are fairly stagnant in their enrollment. With the advent of vouchers, it impacted us more so because we have most of those private schools here within our boundaries. So, I'm hoping at this point the the um impact on the vouchers is I'm hoping will stagnate and then we can just kind of work from there. Um again, basic tuition support last year from the state um was just over $7,600 per student. and that's a student that is not getting extra money because of a special needs eligibility or a CTE enrollment or um high ability or something like that. Um this year it's or I'm sorry, last year it was just over 7,300. This year it's over 7600. Um so every student um brings in quite a bit of money,
031but it takes quite a bit of money to educate them as well. Um the next one, next slide is fund balances. So that's basically how much cash we maintain in each of our different funds. And these charts are really confusing because they have every kind of fund from before the state consolidated things like capital projects and general general fund. But the big ones you need to look at are education, operations, rainy day, debt service. Those are the four big ones we operate on. Now, um, so you see some of those, this is a bar graph. You see a few of the bars dipping below the the baseline. Those are our federal monies, federal funds, and our federal funds are for the most part all our big grants and they work on a reimbursement model. So,
032we are almost always waiting on a reimbursement. So, that's why there that looks like it's in the negative. It is in the negative in the moment, but you're going to get reimbured for it. It's just a long process and it's a rolling they're rolling grants as Nicole will tell you. It never ends. Never ends. Um you do see a bit of a jump in rainy day from 23 to 24. If you remember, we transferred a million dollars between education and operations because when we were redoing our budget, we needed to make sure that um our budget was going to reflect what was optimal for us and what we were asking for. that money had already been earmarked um to do some capital projects with and some different things here on campus. And so we had
033we have already spent 400,000 of that on different projects um in 24 and we have another 600,000 we've already spent um or have earmarked in 25 for some different projects that were already on the books um whether it's water heaters or parking lot resurfacing or whatever the case is. um education fund. That's the darker orange. Um one thing that they did redo this DUAB website and it has a lot more detail now. So before we had no idea necessarily all the monies they were pulling from and what funds they were talking about. Now they have little charts that you can click on. And so we did find out that some of the monies that are included in ours are like our healthy families deposits and receipts and expenditures as well as Adam's Wells because we're
034LEA for both of them. So that was interesting to go through all the different fund lines that they were include included and have to figure out what a couple of them were because they don't label anything the way we label them. And um so we learned a lot. >> That also distorts a little bit. >> It does our >> It does. You're right. It does. um education fund in the last year in 2024 in particular looks healthier than it's probably going to remain because we were able to take a lot of pressure off with our on my way prek and CCDF vapors um to help pay for the expenditures from our prek and child care. You know, I've we've talked about how those have been slashed. Um, slashed is probably not the right word, cut
035out almost entirely as the year goes on. Um, basically no one else is able to get a voucher and haven't for some number of months now. And those vouchers have been cut in half. And I would say they're more than cut in half because some people's amounts are first. We can't really figure out why some of them are being reduced the way they are. But basically, child care and prek is no longer can we expect to be funded probably from the federal government or from the state government. I know there's widely made talk about this. There's some bills being introduced to try to provide some tax credits I think to help offset the expense of child care. Um but I don't think that we can expect that on my way in CCDF situation. I don't
036think in general it'll help the families maybe. Yeah. Not not the providers. >> Important too. >> Yes. >> Um so some of the things you also see in debt service. We did add a geo bond and lease bond in the last couple years. So there's some fluctuation there. We also had our um viva and our pension severance bond come off. we pay for it at the end of 2020 in between 2023 2024 somewhere in there. So that there's some fluctuation there but nothing that I would say is remarkable. Um we are trying to be conservative again in anticipation that property taxes are continue [clears throat] to be impacted and revised at the state level. Going on to the next slide. So this slide shows an annual comparison between how much money we brought in our
037revenue and how much money we expended. Um the horizontal lines under each year show you what the overall that means all of our funds not just education core operations. It's everything together shows our cash balance as a district. Um and then the deficit surplus is just basically the difference between the green and blue bars for each year. So the last three years I would say we've never really truly spent more than we brought in. There's probably things like again we have our LEAs included in there. We have some bond payments that happened in different times where we got bond money or bond sold. But the last three years we have had a stronger revenue um than expenses and our cash balances have slightly grew. again in anticipation and knowing what's coming with our prek monies
038coming probably back to education fund still wanting to try to give raises trying to cover the shortfall with curricular fees that continues to happen try to cover what deficits we may experience with property tax reform I'm glad that we have built those cash balances a little again they're not exorbitant they're certainly largely within a target that is considered appropriate, but um that's going to start getting eaten away >> just because we're all in every facet of life, I think, feeling the need to tighten belts and we will be no different. >> Luckily, we're in a situation as opposed to other districts I talk to every week that some of them are really going to struggle in the next few years financially. So I am we are blessed to to have some of that buildup. Um
039the next slide is our fund balances as a percent of expenditures. So when we started working with Stipple, Chad Black really talked to Beth and I about target for this percent of expenditures. Um your cash balance is what they're meaning. How much money do you save as compared to how much money you're spending each year? Um and this is again that emergency fund basically just in case things don't go the way you plan. And so our cash balance um target for education fund it had been 12% when we started working with him three or four years ago. We have since raised that to 20% just because of what all is happening around the state. And so as you can see right now we are healthy. We are healthier than that. we have given some decent
040raises compared to our revenue and enrollment the last few years. So again, I expect we won't continue to hold on to that amount. Um and again having to pay for several more things like curricular fees and prek and child care from our education fund right now that's going to not continue to acrue the way it is. In operations, our target annually is around 25%. As you can see, at the end of 24, we were hovering just above that. And um operations fund is going to get hit too again, as I've explained, I think at different times in the past, for several reasons. We are weathering the operations storm better than some districts, which is a blessing, but we are also using that to help offset some of our struggles with education fund. And um so
041it's going to be a balancing time, but we have it to balance. So that's a good good place to be, I guess. Um the final one is a chart that just shows you revenue um from the different types. And so federal revenue is kind of that tan yellowish color. And as you can see um federal dollars after the advent of ESSER in 2122 and things again solely as a reimbursement. So we even into 23 we're still being reimbursed for some things. Um it's kind of stagnated. I can tell you actually what's happening is kind of going down. Um we are every year we are experiencing fairly decent cuts in our title grants which is a big part of what funds a lot of our PD our um education for our students who have um different
042needs or struggles. Um, I know like Title One is how we help many of our elementary students who need extra remediation. And I think we've lost 85,000 in the last three years from that grant, which might not sound like a lot in the big picture of a multi-million dollar budget, but when you're talking about how many staff we're paying through that and how many kids we're trying to serve through that, that's a big cut. So Rene, Nicole is having to and Renee at the elementary get creative and re adjust annually about how we're meeting those needs and how we're staffing it. Um, and that's probably going to continue. We keep being told that some of these grants aren't going to be pulled completely, but certainly we're seeing a reduction. Title two is the same thing.
043We continue to every year see a reduction and that's what pays for PD for the most part professional development but also um high ability some of those kinds of things that we do for teachers. Our educa our state revenue went up after 22. So there was a pretty big jump from 22 to 23 and then a little bit of stagnation and it's it's kind of stagnated right now. So we're hoping maybe there'll be some new monies at the benium. Um don't know. Well, I guess I did see the finan the fiscal report came out and it looks like the Medicaid shortfall was not as significant as they were anticipating and the um loss of revenue for the state didn't happen like they thought. So, I'm hoping that continues. Um local tax revenue is a fairly
044stagnant um tax revenue for us. Although, as I talked to you about some of the changes being talked to at this talked about at the state level, we might be talking about local tax a lot more in coming years. Um, that's not been something we've ever taken advantage of local income tax as a school system. Other systems have and they disallowed it last year, but now it's back on the table as something potentially schools can use to try to offset what I anticipate will be some further reductions in state fun. Sure, you can talk about more like that about that in the legislative today for um I can't remember the district uh here in Indiana, but it was shared on I was on a uh webinar Zoom with the state school board and uh they're
045wanting a new high school, but they're looking close too and and build a new one. But they're they're approaching their county to be a part of the project, >> which that's kind of a new place. I don't know. >> I think it's VGO County, >> is it? Yeah. >> To try to take advantage of that lift. >> Yeah. So, I don't know. Maybe that might be a future to come type strategy. I don't know. >> I don't know either. I don't know if that is part of that push to have those oversight councils where there's a county board who really has oversight of the school district at least financially. >> That would probably open the door towards that. I'm not sure if they're looking I actually taught in terote VO county my first year out
046of school and so they have north and south VGO which are the big schools in terote and there's West VGO which is the little country school over by the Illinois border. So I'm thinking they're looking at consolidation potentially or at least consolidating we go with one of the others I think is what I read but I'm not sure. Any questions or any during the meeting is adjourned. Okay, we will reconvene the regular board meeting and we are at consensus items. Um want to wish Terry Free who has been a long time custodian at the middle school. Um, Terry is one of those guys that, um, I think he could and should stand up as an so many of our kids on how to persevere through trials. Terry does have, um, some orthopedic issues and he
047actually um, has some prosthetic legs and he broke his femur and so wasn't able to use his prosthetic. So, he's um taken some time off to heal for a while, but again, he works crazy hard and does a great job for us. We wish him the best and wish him a fast recovery. So, if >> you really didn't know him, you wouldn't know his condition. >> No. He's a great guy. Yeah. Um I don't think there's anything else right now. Okay. as far as it um so any questions, comments or motion to approve the consensus items? Motion to approve the consensus items as motion by Michelle, seconded by Jill. Motion by Michelle Michelle, seconded by Jill to approve the consensus items as presented. All those in favor announce by saying I oppose. Same sign approved.
048So, we did want to take a break. We have a special guest with us this evening now that he's official. Um, I would like to ask our high school athletic director, Erin Baker, and our newly hired high school football coach, Blake Flaker, if he can talk about the name. [laughter] That's usually how he leads off to introduce himself to everyone and say hello to the community. Okay. Um, so we went uh through a pretty lengthy process trying to find a new football coach. Uh, interviewed I think five or six different people and and Blake just kept uh sticking out and uh we kept coming back to him and thinking, man, this is this is what we're going to need for our program. And so uh we we landed on Blake and we offered it to
049him and he was excited to join Belmont. and I think he's ready to go. So, he's blamed Laker. Uh, yeah. So, that is the name. Um, Aaron's flustered with that one that you definitely have to be careful with because people don't forget it. So, yeah, I just want to say um I'm really really thankful, really appreciative. Um, for anybody that kind of knows my story, knows my background, uh, me and my family kind of went through a lot this last year and I actually thought that I was going to have to step away from coaching maybe. Um, and so just kind of by the grace of God, Belmont, you know, kind of all the stars aligned. Uh, I was teaching social studies, social study job opens up. Uh, head football coach had a football coach
050job open up. So, kind of all those stars aligned. I'm really thankful to be here. Um, you know, I'm really excited to get going. Everybody that I've met, everybody that I've come in contact with has been great. Um, you know, so far all my interactions in the community have been great. So, um, like I said, I'm really appreciative, really thankful. Um, I'm excited to be here. Um, you know, I'm excited to get things going, excited to get things changed. Um, you know, I hope that the kids are excited. Right now, we're we're kind of compiling a good coaching staff, a coaching staff that I think is really solid, cares about kids, cares about Belmont football, um, and wants to see it be successful. So, um, we're going to keep building on that and, you know,
051we'll we'll see where the spring takes us in the summer and we'll just kind of domino effect in the next fall. So, >> um, but yeah, really thankful to be here. Appreciate it. Um, like I said, I want to thank Mr. Baker. U, Miss K has been amazing so far. So, I got to meet some guys in social uh, studies department the other day. So, they're really great. So, like I said, it's been it's been an awesome experience so far and it's just now starting. Do >> you have like a top five things on your coaching philosophy or kid philosophy that you'd like to share? >> Yeah, I mean I don't know when we're going to do like an official meet and greet at the parents and everybody like that together. Um but just some
052things that I'll say is um one I really really believe that we are going to change things. Um, and I really feel like one thing that people need to know in this movie, one thing that you guys need to know is that I am 100% in. I'm not the type of guy that, uh, you know, you go to the pool and he just kind of sticks a toe in. I'm the cannonball in the deep end kind of guy. So, um, I'm all in. Um, we will change it. We're going to change the attitudes. We're going to change the way uh that we mentally approach things. Um, we're going to get kids in the weight room. We're going to be strong. We're going to be big. We're going to recruit kids. Um, we're going to make
053them fall in love with football. Um, you know, but one thing that I really pride myself on, one thing that I really try to do is I try to make better than just good football players. Um, one thing that I really care about with my experience of football, um, which is a long, long boring story, but football has really changed my life. Football has really saved my life. Um, and so one thing I really want to make sure is when a kid leaves Belmont, he is not only going to be a better football player, but he's going to be a good husband, he's going to be a good son, he's going to be a good father one day, he's going to be a good person in the community. Um, and so, um, one thing that
054everybody is probably going to hear me say a thousand different times, it's how you do one thing is how you do everything. Um, I really, really believe in that. Uh, I grew up in a military household. My dad used to say that over and over and over again. Um, and so that's one thing that I really believe in. Um, and I think if we can get our kids to be great and try their hardest at every single thing they do, whether it's turning in an assignment, taking care of their siblings, whatever it is, it's going to translate onto a football field. So, um, so yeah, that's that's where we'll start. Um, like I said, I'm excited to get in the building, excited to start building relationships with kids and, um, you know, kind of get
055going. So, >> well, we're excited for you to be here. Yeah, very much so. >> Any any other questions for me or anything like that? I'm going to try making the wrestling meet tonight. So, throwback night see the whole jerseys and all that. >> So, if there's no questions, I'm excited to hear. >> Thank you so much. Thanks. Thank you. >> Thank you. She's here. She's here. >> I I think she's here. [laughter] >> I think we might need a break before going to the next one. So, next item on the agenda is uh our policy update. >> I tried to go through and make it a little easier. Um the third Scott on this. So, if you look at your cover page, I did go through and kind of color code my recommendations on
056things that there were choices with them. Um, some of them are pretty. I will say once you look at 1422, for example, you look at 3122 and 4122. It's just a difference of who and honestly those are very similar to 2260.01 01 and 22662. Um so a lot of it is just the anti-harassment. Um so let's just dig in and get that done. Um so on an easy place to start is the first group on the rescended policies and the technical corrections. My recommendation would be to accept those >> and move on to the things that we have to have more discussion on. >> I think that's we need to vote on this now. Okay. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the policies um that are being rescended and those with technical corrections as
057noted? >> I'll make that motion. >> Okay. Motion by WY, seconded by Joel. Motion by WY, seconded by Joel. Um, do would it help to do the policy numbers or don't do that? >> I don't think so. We got them divided on the agenda. >> Okay. To approve uh the res the rescended policies and the technical questions as noted. All those in favor by saying I >> I oppose same sign approve six to zero. Okay. So the revision Okay. So that first one's the the chunk. It's all the non-discrimination. So, one of the first questions that we had to decide on page 64, um there was a choice whether you wanted to include obscene gestures as part of inappropriate behaviors that could be construed as misconduct um that rose to the level of harassment or
058discriminatory acts. My recommendation is yes on that. It certainly can be certainly we can still use discretion depending on age, depending on what the actual gesture is, but it needs to be included. So that because there are some that certainly give rise to that. um page 66 and again Scott please type in if you have a certain other um I recommended to not choose that option because while we do have employee assistance plans it is not always extremely explicit or welldeveloped and I want to make sure that we have some of the options that if we had it in policy it's offering I'm not sure that We always we can we could say yes if you wanted it in there. We do have employee assistance program. Um I just don't know again sometimes it varies
059on what that's available through insurance and things like that. Um page 67 had an option of disallowing finding what they call genetic information about someone by basically doing a record search online. Genealogology stuff. I assume some of this is basically just trying to find past things, looking at if there could be anything that's a disability by going through social media or something like that. I don't see the need to disallow it. It's nothing you do anyway. If you want it, you can. I just don't see the need to have it in there unless Scott sees bigger reason. >> Page 68. Um, we do currently through SCBT have a wellness program, but I didn't want to include that as an option because that might not always be an option. So, it's great when we do. I
060don't want to require that we have it. However, um, page 68 to 69 just lists the compliance officers. Right now, um, again, we've kind of changed things up. Scott Miller takes care of usually our classified staff if there's any things that fall in that level and then I am taking over for student and certified staff. Um and they recommend you have a male and a female um just to try to offset different circumstances. Anyway, um me being superintendent is not always the best option, but in our current situation being a smallish a small 3A, it's kind of we got a wear line. So, there are some also some verbiage in there. If I would ever be a subject of one of these complaints, then there's things where it would go to Scott Ainsworth as board
061counsel or some of the complaints might go to Stacy as board president to process. so that I would be taken out as being the compliance officer. Um they also want that one of the one someone is over the compliance officer. Usually one is has ultimate say. So I recommended that I as superintendent be the person that if Scott were working on something that I would be the ultimate say. For example, if I as long as I was not involved in it. Um, page 70, the compliance officer may delegate specific duties. There's a lot of steps in having to conduct a title line investigation, for example, or an OCR investigation. There are often will be times that you'll want to delegate someone investigate something or complete an interview or do something along those lines. Um, we
062already publish annually. I just Scott, again on page 70, you can read that. My take on that was we already put it on the website. I don't know if there's a need to if they're talking about republishing it annually. I just thought it was kind of redundant. >> Um, we include it in the handbooks because that's what we have every year that I can guarantee it will be available in some form written. Um it's I recommended that the superintendent is over the compliance officers and then the board attorney if the superintendent is a complainant. I did not see the need to mandate we use this verbiage just because it can change in the CBA and they don't necessarily change at the same time. I don't know if you have a particular thought. We have non-discriminatory
063language in the collective bargaining agreement. Um I also did not necessarily want a policy that um referenced particular forms. Sometimes those forms are archaic. They're not what we use. They're black. They're they're hard copy. They don't always filter well. They're not digital. So, um it's fine that we use something like that, but it I didn't want them referenced specifically. Um there's often times where we had to choose how long someone had in our organization to respond to a complaint. So, there's lots of steps in these. Um so, Niola recommended that you give two business days for the compliance officer just basically to respond initially. as to say I received your complaint and I am working through it. Um then on page starting on page 74 I felt we needed to have an opportunity for informal
064resolution. The last thing we want to do is have to go through a formal resolution process on every item if there's an opportunity for informal resolution. Um, at times depending upon I hate to say the size or maybe the depth or the breadth of the circumstance I said I thought it was okay for the compliance officer to be the investigator and decision maker. There are times where that would not be appropriate. I don't know if Scott has >> um and that kind of goes into the next thing. There are times we may want to contract with a third party independent because again the breadth of the situation, the intensity of the complaint, sometimes who's involved in the complaint and the um fear of bias and um there's lots of school systems that may do that
065in different situations just to try to again alleviate some concerns for bias. Um, also 10 day 10 business days for evaluation and 20 business days for investigation were what I recommended. I don't know if Scott has any other sufficient for >> um and then there's the opportunity if we needed longer and I hope that that's key. We can always the investigator can always ask the superintendent and inform the involved parties. Um, then moving to page 74 some more. Um the appeal decision has to be um given within 10 days. I did not choose to check the no the extra protections for the impedance of evidence presentation. basically in the new Title 9 and some of those and again this is Scott maybe this is where I'd [snorts] appreciate you but there is it used to
066be you could keep the parties involved who may make a complaint for example or witnesses to a situation try to keep them anonymous as possible. The new law is not as protective of those folks as it had been. And so while it says we can and we can try to keep anonymity and confidentiality and and those things um we can't do so if it impedes both either side from gathering information contact witnesses against you. >> So would you recommend a a yes on that option on page 74 about after the confidentiality one? >> No, I think we're fine. >> Okay. Um and again we have an informal resolution process. So that choice got checked onto page 77. That was the actual informal resolution language. That's just an inclusion of it. Um page 78. Again, Scott,
067I'll defer to you, but there is a point in some of these. As you can see, this is a very lengthy, tedious process. I think it's kind of up to you how much of an appeals process you want to offer. Um, >> we've already done a lot in some situations. Um, so I did not check that. Um, I also did not check to let the complainant know exactly what the respondent's discipline was. They have some rights depending on the situation to know that, but when you're getting into an employee situation, that could be going into its own legal matter. >> Um, >> I'm not a fan. No. >> Yes. >> Um so if there is an appeal an appeal of the determination then they also have 10 business days to file that appeal. Um page
06879 n my recommendation is that the complainant cannot challenge the discipline that is given the respondent. that that's what it is. And if you have a civil matter that you want to file a legal proceeding against and seek other but as far as what we might do to an employee for example um a chance to get their um let's see on page 80 um five business days um to address the appeals of the determination. My recommendation on page 81 that the if there is a third party decision maker that that decision is final and there's not another appeal process that's an option. I >> mean we're talking only stay within our it's not like we're blocking them from trying to internally if we've got external personality beyond that. >> Um page 82 just listed the
069different discipline um options that could happen um primarily for staff. Um I just recommended we checked all of them. Not that you would do all of them in any particular situation, but it's an option depending upon what the situation requires. Page 84. Um, while I certainly want to support training for anyone that would be in this compliance officers, investigators, decision makers, positions, that training is not always timely when different positions change up. So, I didn't want something that really nails down on having to have an immediate um I have through um just for your information through a kind of a contact we have with Trish Church Hill and Anram, they've given us a few hour training for these different positions that are virtual. So, we have it's basic, but if you really want the indepth
070one, you're going to travel to a different state for a multi-day conference um for what is the nationally recognized best of the best one. And so, that's just not always right there just because someone left their job and somebody else had to take over. But again, I'm fine with saying we will get some kind of training. I just don't want to pin down too much on what that will look like. So I don't know Scott if you have >> flexibility. >> Um and then page 85 I checked that the we needed some language in there that the board has discretion and interpretation um of some of these processes and some of these definitions and again this is me in one policy. I don't know how many pages that one policy was and then you multiply
071it by six or seven and they're almost restatements with different focus audiences. I live with an 8y old [laughter] but um so is there any discussion or questions? Again, those policies, those three policies in that segment are pretty much just repeats of each other with the same choices in the same spots. Questions? >> Okay. So if you wanted to vote on those three policies again I think it's the same it's a repeat of the same >> okay information almost verbating. Okay. So is there a motion to approve policy uh 1 1422 3122 and 4122. >> I'll make a motion to accept the policies as presented with the recommendations. >> Motion by Michelle. >> Second by Joel. Motion by Michelle. Seconded by Joel to approve policies 1422, 3122 and 4122 with um all of the recommendations
072as noted. All those in favor announcement by saying I >> oppose saying sign approve 6. >> So then the next policy we have is 2260 and that is the non-discrimination and access to equal education opportunity. very similar to what we just went through. Um, I only had three things here that I really noted. On page 157, I suggested um again that we accept the listing of the operations director and superintendent as the compliance officers and that that info will be annually published in the handbooks. Um, on page 164, the superintendent's decision is final. Um, and on page 168 169 there's several bullet points um I think letter N on down that are if you think you need more clarification on language that have been given I did not feel we needed further ones unless Scott
073thinks some of those are better >> um so that's that one there's any questions on that one it's very similar to Um, again, a lot of this one was taking out some of the gender references um after February 2025's dear colleague letter from the US Department of Ed. So, there's a couple years ago we put them all in and now we're taking them all out and it's just one of those law things. So, he wants to vote on this I would say that one because there's some different stuff. >> Okay. So, is there a motion to approve 2260? >> So, move. >> Moved by WY. Is there a second? Second by Dave. Motion by WY, second by Dave to approve policy 2260 with corrections and revisions as noted. All those in sign approve. 6. So
074kind of a subgroup of that is 2260.01 which is about section 504. Um our compliance officer right now for section 504 is the middle school principal. Um and again that information is published in the school handbooks. Um I again recommended against referencing this information in the collective bargaining agreement. We have some broad non-discriminate non-discrimination language and I would say employment relations board governs a lot of what your interaction and what needs to be with any employees that may fall under a 504. Um, page 180 again, compliance officer may collaborate with the board attorney before giving a final recommendation or ruling on a 504 discrimination claim um before filing that final report. Superintendent's decision is final. Again, everyone always has the opportunity to go further to um an OCR complaint if that's what they want to
075do. Um, the office in Chicago is where we get always worked through for OCR. Now, that office has been shut down and the new office is in Denver. So, there's a switch of the new address and office contact information. Um, and same thing as in the prior one on page 186. I didn't think we needed all those additional bullet points to clarify or add to previous language. Okay. Any questions or comments for a motion to approve um 2266? >> No, I've been down too far. 22601. Thank you. >> Motion by Dave, second by Joel to approve 2260.01 with the revisions and changes as noted. All those in favor announce by saying I. >> I approve. Same sign. Approve. Oppose. Same sign. Approve six to zero. Next is policy 2266. [clears throat] This one is um
076discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs or activities. Now I will warn you. I just read a report today that there are two cases being heard right now at the US Supreme Court on topics that have to do with this. So, this law could very well be changed or this policy could be changed based on what the Supreme Court outcome is. And this was the participation of transgender athletes in in sports. Um, so this has a little bit to do with that, not all of it. Um my initial recommendations on page 2011 were to choose option one of having no hearing, no formal hearing. Um on page 203 selecting the preponderance of evidence standard as opposed to I was going to do this to myself otherages. I don't know if Scott has um
077a preference. It's preponderance of evidence versus clear and convincing evidence standard. What's the difference? >> Okay. It's like taking steps preponderance is clear and convincing beyond the check. >> So you a higher standard if you put it in here what we're doing. I think preponderance is sufficient. >> Okay. That's essentially most likely, you know, let's say somewhere 60 to 75% 100% sure. >> Yeah. Got it. Okay. Thank you. >> Um, >> that's way too Thank you. I appreciate it. >> Um, page 204, I recommended option two just because it's spelled out. what it's meant by disciplinary standards more so I don't know Scott what that was maybe getting too specific versus option one which pretty much just says you can discipline someone from a school standpoint who may show discrimination and then page 205 is
078again just checking all if this is a staff member who engaged in this misconduct just everything under the sun that could be discipline for a staff member doesn't mean you do any of it. Doesn't mean you do all of it. Just means there's these are the options. So, is there any questions or comments or a motion to approve 2266? >> Motion to approve. Motion by Jill. >> Second. Second by WY. Motion by Joe, second by Riley to approve policy 2266 with the changes noted. All those in favor by saying I opposing sign approved six to zero. >> Okay. The next three policies 1623, 3123, 4123 are just like the first three we did where if you look at one, you look at them all. just one's about certified staff, one's about administrators, one's about classified
079staff. Um, so this is non-discrimination for equal oper equal employment. So this is all about employees. Um, I will say I don't want to go through everything because pretty much the same choices that we had to make in the first three policies are the same choices you're making here. So if you have any questions um they would be the same question we had earlier. Okay. Any questions or comments for motion to approve? >> Motion by Joel. Is there a second? >> I'll second. >> Second by W. Motion by Joel. Second by Wally to approve uh policy 1623, 3123, and 4123 as with the My gosh, I've been my brain is like up. >> Yes. Thank you. With the revision presented, all those in favor by saying I >> I comment. >> Yeah. Yeah. Approve six
080to zero. Next one is 2262. >> Okay, finally getting out of the non-discrimination stuff. This is this the last key program that I wanted us to have in policy just because we do have a child care now in addition to our relationship with Boys and Girls Club. Um the only thing here just there's really not much to note just it was needed changes is the liability insurance policy. recommends we have a $300,000 minimum liability up to $500 liability insurance, which we do. Um, that was really the only choice. >> Okay. Any questions or comments or a motion to approve? Make a motion to approve. >> Motion by Michelle. Is there a second? >> Second by Joe. Motion by Michelle. Second by Joe to approve policy 2262 with the revisions as noted. All those in favor
081announcements saying I oppose same sign approve 6 to zero. Next is 3220.01. Okay. So tag change really big time this year. In fact spent a lot of Christmas break in this first week of school when we do the new tag applications. Um so this policy is just basically to reflect what the legislation is. There's no big ideas there. Just for clarification, if anybody understands teacher appreciation, thank you. We love our acronyms. Any questions or comments or a motion to approve? >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> Motion by WY. Is there a second? >> Seconded by Dave. Motion by W. Second by Dave to approve policy uh 3220.01 with the revisions as noted. All those in favor say I. I oppose and sign approve 6 to zero. Next is policy 1230. So this one
082is just a policy that needed updating that basically says I will let you know if we have any staff um current or former who committed any criminal activity especially as related to students. It also says that any legal expense that exceeds I think I put in there $10,000 at a time would be reported to you this morning. >> I hope we get to use that. [laughter] >> I don't [laughter] I'll talk to you anytime you want to talk. It just usually means that's not good news. >> Any questions or comments for a motion to approve? Motion to approve. [clears throat] >> Motion by WY, seconded by Joel to approve policy 1230. All those in with the changes as noted. All those in favor announce saying I. >> I. Oppose. Same sign. Approve. 6 to zero.
083Next we have our last group. Last group. So these all deal with possession of weapons. This isn't any new thing. This is just something I needed to update that I didn't get to um when they changed the law about um concealed carrying things like that. All this says is that possession of firearms or weapons by visitors prohibited unless they legally may possess it and we folks as a board have approved them to be able to carry it on school property. Okay. Any questions, comments, or a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve. >> Okay. Motion by WY. Is there a second? >> Seconded by Dave. Motion by WY. Seconded by Dave to approve 1617 3217 4217 and with the revisions as noted. All those in favor announce I oppose sign approved six to
084zero. Next we have new business. Uh first item is conflict of interest for this is something you probably should have been doing even though David is different himself from those things since he has a family member who works with us. Um, this is just basically something as we've gone through some different training with recently with the auditors and ISBA even that they recommended that we just do this annually for anyone who sits on the board and might have any opportunity to have any content whether they have a family member work here or they're involved with a business for whom we may contract with or have the opportunity to contract with. Um, it's just one of those protections things. So, nothing's new. It's just We didn't. >> Okay. Any questions, comments, or motions to approve? >>
085Motion by WY. Is there a second? >> Seconded by Michelle. Motion by WY, second by Michelle to approve the conflict of interest documentation for Dave Hill. All those in favor by saying I. I. Oppose. Say sign. Approve six to zero. Next, we have the approval of the 2026 IRS mileage rate. So, IRS up the mileage reimbursement rate from 70 cents to 72.5 cents and we just have to stay up what the IRS approved. >> I'll take a motion. >> All right. >> Motion by WY. Is there a second? >> Second by Michelle. Motion by W. Second by Michelle to approve the 20 26 IRS. >> Our church finance meeting last. >> All those in favor announce by saying I. I oppose. Same sign. Approve. Six to zero. We have the approval of a resolution to
086move education funds to operation funds on a monthly basis. So typically historically we have been around 7 to 8% of a transfer from education to operations. Looking at the property tax and how what its impact on was on us would be as well as trying to get our education funds stronger so that we can continue to pay people what we want to pay them. Um, if you remember last six months, we throttled that way back to 2% 21,000 a month, which is really low. So far, we're doing okay with it. We are going to keep watching it. We might come back to you and say we need to increase that. We're just I think we can make it. Um, again, this just tries to help keep our education fund as strong as possible so that
087we can compensate because our our operations fund comparatively has a little more wiggle room. But we've done a lot to try to take as much pressure off education as we can. So, we're just going to continue to monitor it and make sure that our appropriation stays healthy. We we took it kind of down to the wire this year. I mean, we made it just fine, but it was right at the target. So, we'll keep monitoring, but it's what I think in in working with Chad that we need to keep trying to do to try to be in as good a shape as we can moving forward. Any questions, comments for a motion to approve? >> I'll make a motion to approve. >> Okay. Motion by second. Seconded by Jill. Motion by second by Jill to
088approve the resolution to move the education funds to operation funds on a monthly basis. January to June of 2026. All those in favor by saying I oppose. Same sign. Approve. 6 to zero. Next we have the approval of donations. So I want to thank Marco Developments. Um I've talked to you a little bit about the Luxo production system that we're really excited. Um I think we started installing it in December. I don't know if it's actually at the right. I don't think it's up. Is it going? >> They played it at the girls basketball. >> That's pretty cool. Um, but thank them for their $10,000 donation for that um for part of that system. It's again, it does a 3D projection on the gym floor of the students. And um kind of like the big
089call out, roll out, walk out, whatever you want to call it. And I know they have fun doing their green screen, do all their posing. That's really exciting. If you don't know who that is, that's Mark. >> Oh, is it? >> Yes. >> Oh, thank you. I did not know who it was. >> Okay, Mark. >> All right. Uh, any questions, comments, or motion to approve? >> Motion to approve. >> Motion by Michelle, second by WY to approve the donation. Um, all those in favor, announce by saying I. I approve. Same sign. Approve. 6. Next superintendent report. So just a reminder that Monday, January 19th is Martin Luther King Day and we do not have school that day. Um as long as we don't have any snow days between now and then. I will tell
090you as a board I have been hit up to try to make sure that two-hour delay can happen on Tuesday morning because like I was that the IU national championship >> game [laughter] [laughter] do want to say that's exciting for Indiana no matter who you reach for normally it's exciting for Indiana story >> quite a story wish them [laughter] the best. February 9th is our third um waiver day. That's our legends day for our gentlemen who live and die by the Super Bowl. Um so no school for students, PE for staff. Um this is schoolboard appreciation month. So, I want to thank you guys for doing your um all the things you do for basically nothing, sitting in reading 250 pages of policy in your favorite time. Um, and then I usually come in in
091January and I kind of have a word of the month and I know we've been here a little bit already, so I'm not going to sort of stay um here a whole lot longer, but my words this year is renew. It's just really going to be a time of looking back and revising and reworking things and moving forward and kind of doubling down, looking at what we've been doing. It's, you know, after you do something a few years, you think things are getting better. It is getting better, but I think we need to come back, look at it again, move, make bigger goals, better goals, revis this year, but try to just keep that. renew ourselves too, right? And um good luck to all the winter sports. We got I know we just had the
092wrestling team um do a good job up at state and they're wrestling tonight with their throwback, which is fun. Um, I don't know if you saw on Facebook, but they I think they're going to wear some of the old style. >> I don't know where they got them singlets with tights. Somewhere Tim or someone found an old Decar High School wrestling varsity jacket. Would be super fun. I'm sure they're doing it up big and in the annex. Um, so that would be a good time to go. That's all I have. That's it. Okay. Other matters to come before the board. >> I did a board member public comments. I didn't move on to that one. >> Okay. >> Sorry. >> I I did have a this just the one page the first two the wireless
093communications device that probably will happen and it has quite a bit of support of where uh the students are. to having a wireless communication with them during the school day. You need to just not allow it to come in at all or if it does there has to be a place that that's where they're kept for the day. So that would need to be determined if that's so there's also another statement about teachers using wireless in their classes. That all has to be school equipment. district equipment if they you know it doesn't prohibit prohibit but it has to be school prohibited. Um then the the other one uh talking about social ban of media accounts with kids or for adolescence there are stipulations to would would be to that um in during the school time.
094The the last three I just kind of threw in there. uh don't see that that's going to happen with uh any of those. The commercial advertising that really has been talked about for maybe 20 years off and on just a means to uh districts earning money. There was a time few years where we really did start looking at how we could uh earn money even like wind farms and that idea but then the state board of counts came in and said no way you can do that. Um and then the last two the last one I put on there because we do our district is involved with uh uh but it it um Terry commented on this in that meeting today and um said he didn't anticipate that at all. This one is a little
095bit something that I've upset the superintendent because again with all the bills regarding education and the huge changes that they're putting forth in education the last several years this bill was put forth that public schools only charters could privates could still join lobbying groups but public schools could not pay to be part of a lobbying group for their own interests >> and I don't know do this Terry made a comment that this gentleman uh claims to be the very first charter graduate. >> Oh, >> Ireland. >> Didn't know that one. >> Wow. >> So, yeah, >> there's a few concerning things. There's another one which again it's not all bad but it's a comes at a cost to us at a time I don't think we're going to get extra money is there's a bill
096to require schools to offer to buy the add-on to our filtering system which is often paid for our e-ate funds that allows parents to choose the filter at home that their student uses when they're off school hours which again I can see if you want to throttle it down it just it is extra money >> that we may or may not have. And so there's just like the cell phone ban, a lot of the schools are asking why are we doing this? What we what you did in 2024 is working. >> Yeah. The expansion on that or the change on that I mean it's already >> I don't know. And it's not getting a lot of positive traction among the superintendent or parents as they are becoming more aware. And again, there's a part of
097me that says for elementary age and middle school age kids. I get it a little bit. But once you start driving and >> or playing sports and you don't drive, but you can keep in your car then I guess but don't drive and you're have after school activities or latch key or whatever. There are some legitimate issues that I think some parents are going to question. I really like perfectly honest the ban on social media. I don't know how effective it will be, but I think it's time we start fighting that fight that there are certain apps and things that certain kids of certain ages don't need. >> Yeah. >> That one I think would solve a lot of problems if it's enforcable. >> The other another factor too, the session will they're planning on
098ending it the end of February. So that doesn't give them a lot of time and that hopefully is a good thing. >> So they didn't think they have many education bills though. They surprised us. [laughter] >> I think they're always going to >> Yeah. 732 bills I think I read. >> Yes. But they only have after tomorrow, they only have one more day next week for a bill to to be able to pass. So, uh, and Monday being a holiday, that cuts it off. So, it's just Wednesday of next week. >> Thanks, R. Anything else? All right. Thank you.