001I aliance to 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. Uh so tonight we have some Northstar awards that we want to recognize for their their bright testing skills. So, we're excited about that. We are. So, first person I want to come forward if you can get up here. Riker handshoot. Hi, Riker. These students all received a perfect score on their I What grade are you in? Third. Third grade. And who's your teacher? Miss Quinn. Miss Quinn, congratulations. You want to turn around and face I think somebody's trying to get a picture. So, Riker, I have one question, a couple questions for you. Are you ready to answer some more questions? Cuz these you can't get
002wrong. What's your favorite book to read since you're such a good reader? I don't even have a favorite book. You don't even have a favorite book? I don't even have That's okay. Who'd you bring with you tonight? Um, you got a big cheering section. My mom and my sister. Your mom and sister. Yeah. Awesome. Well, congratulations, Riker. And you did really well. I'm going to read something that your principal and your teacher wrote about you. Are you ready? I can't see. Riker should be so proud of himself this year. He is a polite, respectful, and very kind student. He's wellliked by peers in the classroom and is a team player. Riker has so much potential and he tries hard and does his best. He makes a sincere effort when it's test time to show what
003he knows. Kudos to you, Riker, and a fabulous job on a perfect score on the congratulations. Now we have J Martinez. So Riker got the first one out of the gate. Now you know the question. Congratulations to you. Now, do you have a favorite book? What's your favorite book? Percy Jackson. Percy Jackson. You've got to love those adventures. So here's what your teacher and principal have to say about you. So Shayen Martinez is a very bright and creative student. He understands the importance of Ireie. So he took his time and was dedicated to doing his very best. Chaitton remained calm and courageous throughout the testing process because it's not a short test, is it? No. Chaitton's strong will helped him persevere and stay focused. Congratulations. Chaitton, you are a proud brave. Do you want to
004tell us who you have with you? My grandma, grandpa, my mom, and my uncle. Awesome. and Kim. I should ask you what third grade and who's your teacher? Miss Ellsworth. Congratulations. And last but not least, we have Jed Curtis. What's your favorite book? That's okay. Do you have anything you like to read about? No, that's all right. You're just a good reader. That's all right. So, here's what your teacher and principal had to say about you. Jed is a hardworking student. He never backs down from a challenge and tries his very best in everything he does. He puts forth effort in learning new things and ask questions when he wants clarification. His effort is what helped him achieve a perfect score. Jed is also a terrific classmate to his peers. He's a great team player
005and is always willing to lend a hand to help someone. Belmont's lucky to have a student like Jed and we're so proud of the person he is and can't wait to see the big things he'll accomplish in the future. Congratulations for your fan club. My dad, my brother, and my mom. That's awesome. Congratulations. Third grade. And what's your grade and teacher? second grade got a perfect score as a second grader. Congratulations. And who's your teacher? Miss Mir who is here. Miss Mirror, do you have anything to say? I mean, I wrote all that. Congratulations. Thank you everyone. Did you want to say thank you to the parents and families because reading with your children and encouraging reading at home is what facilitates this type of achievement. And I know all of you have obviously really
006emphasized that at home. So, we certainly appreciate it and thank you for taking that time and encouraging your students to be a good reader. Um, again, those things don't happen by accident. That happens by families and people investing in them. I would love for you to stay the rest of our meeting. I'm not going to tell you it'll be the highlight of your evening. We already got somebody says I'm out. Thank you. You're more than welcome to stay or or go join your students later. Thank you for coming this evening. There you go. Exactly. It should be Oh my gosh, you guys have some genetics going on there. All right, we're going to go ahead and move on to public comments on agenda items. And so, um, is there any comments from the public on
007some agenda items? The public left. They left. So, guess what? We're gonna we're gonna move on. So, we're gonna move on. So, consensus items. Um there are a couple things that I did want to um note. We have two retirements on tonight's um agenda. Both of these ladies have given quite a bit of time to North Adams that have made indelible impacts on their students and um for years and a lot of our parents and community members. So, our first is Kelly Shinberry. Um, her principal wrote, "Kelly's been an essential part of Belmont for the past 29 years. She has taught recently preschool, but also kindergarten, third grade, and title. She's also worked with our high ability students throughout her career. Kelly is one of the kindest people you will ever meet. She has put
008so much heart and love into every student and has walked through her doorway in the last 29 years. She has always found ways to reach students when others couldn't. She not only got her students prepared academically, but she prepared prepared them for a successful life. Kelly is someone who inspired incoming teachers who looked up to her and wanted to be at least half the teacher she was. Kelly has loved education and children with all her heart and she is always positive and has an amazing and bright outlook on life. We thank her for all her hard work and dedication. She will be greatly missed at Belmont. And our second retiree this evening that you're voting on is Rhonda Johnson. Rhonda has had an extraordinary 30-year career in education. And we proudly honor and celebrate her
009retirement. And she has dedicated 25 of those years to the students here at Belmont Middle School. Over the course of three decades, Mrs. Johnson has inspired and influenced lives of more than 3,000 students, leaving a legacy of passion, commitment, and excellence in the classroom and beyond. In addition to being a dedicated teacher, Mrs. Johnson has contributed immensely to student life as a swim coach for 20 years, instilling perseverance and teamwork in countless young athletes. Her leadership extended to academic competitions as well, having coached the academic Super Bowl teams for 22 years, guiding students to think critically and push boundaries. Mrs. Johnson's impact on this school and community is immeasurable, and her tireless dedication, study guidance, and unwavering support has left the lasting mark on generations of learners and colleagues. Mrs. Johnson is embarking on a
010well-deserved retirement and we thank her for her remarkable service and wish her all the best in her next chapter. She will always be part of the Belmont family. And from what I hear, she's not completely leaving education. She was a science teacher this whole time and I think she's going to have an opportunity to work with some special science centers to help them de develop curriculum for young people as they might v visit some of their I don't know. What did you tell me, Tiffany? Were you the one that told me? No, sorry. I'm not even gonna say because I have it wrong, but it's something to do with space, I think. That's cool. She is a fabulous science teacher. And last Thursday at our Rotary meeting, we periodically honor Belmont Middle School students of
011the month. And about three4s of the students, because we always ask them what their favorite subject was, science came out about three4s of the time. And then math followed. But I made the comment, "Well, we've got a strong science team at the middle school." And then I read the retirement, but yeah, I'm glad she's still sticking around. I think so. She loves kids. My son was very disappointed when he heard cuz he was going to have her next. So, well, I bet she that Thank you for saying that because I bet that makes her heart happy to to know that she's made already has a reputation for students that haven't even had her yet. That's awesome. I think that's all the notes I have on the consensus items. Uh, do I have a motion to
012approve the consensus items? I'll make a motion. Motion first by WY. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Darlene. Any discussion or anything? Okay. Uh, all in favor say I. I. I. See opposed. Um, passes five to zero. Uh now we're going to move on to uh some program updates. Uh Aaron with our food services uh give us some some good food service updates. Wherever you want to stand, Aaron. Okay. Um so this is our second year as C for middle school and elementary. You might want to explain to them what C is. C is community ele eligibility provision which allows us to feed all students in elementary and middle school for free. Uh we have again applied for C to be extended for another four years. The reason why we're applying again
013is uh we've had a increase in the amount of eligibility. that will increase our reimbursement amounts. Uh we report all of our free free students to the state and um it gives us another starting point extended four years. So with Belmont Elementary, uh this program has allowed us to see a 6% increase in participation for lunch, a 3% increase in participation for breakfast. Middle school has shown a 8% increase in lunch participation and a 19% increase in breakfast participation. Now, high school we still have is um paid free and reduced the traditional allowance. Um but we have noticed a 1% increase in lunches and a 27% de or excuse me a 1% decrease in lunches and a 27% decrease in um breakfast. Overall, our reimbursement has increased by 7%. Although we've had a 3% increase
014in food and a 3.6% increase in labor. We are a nonforprofit so we're staying within balance. Uh our summer program last year averaged over or averaged 308 meals a day. that included two sites with breakfast serving 2,846 meals and lunch serving 300 or excuse me 3,331 lunches within a 20-day period. This year's summer program, we only have one site that will be at Belmont Elementary from June 2nd to the 27th. We'll be serving and it will be open to the public. We'll be serving breakfast at 8:05 and lunch at 11:30. That's all I have for you. Thanks. So, Erin, with some of the conversations that people have probably been seeing in the news about um potentially some decrease in funding and like the what is it the um farm to school programs and potentially some
015federal what are you hearing about that as far as your world goes? So what we have seen within our area from COVID on, we had what we called SunBucks, which would send out an amount of money to to families per student, and I believe it averaged around $125. That has been cut or omitted, so we won't be sending out checks this year. Uh, another item that has been cut or defunded is what we call farm to school. Belmont High School did participate in that offering um fresh ground beef burgers from Fisher Farms or excuse me, Felt Farms and they were taken with great anticipation from the students. Once they had it, they came back and and it did increase our participation on Burger Day and we could even afford to put bacon one because the
016burgers we got for free. Uh the what was challenging about the program, we had an order site called What Chefs Want and you would place an order for items but you weren't certain if you're going to get them or not. So, you had to double up your order just in case. You'd have to order from Bordens, a traditional commodity, and then hope and pray that the other item would come. Um, it took a bit more labor, but in all, uh, just with the employees and the staff, teachers and what have you, and the students, they really did like the item that we concentrated on. We could have went to, you know, doing pot roast or something, but we just stuck with something. We knew that if the kids liked it the first time, they might
017like it the next time. Uh, we also bought hydroponic grown fruit or grown vegetables locally through Neon Farms, tomatoes, and then there was Roma grass or Roma that was hydroponic. And the quality of the product was amazing. But there again, you didn't know whether you'd get it or not. And there was a bit of processing involved because you'd have to chop it up the but it felt good to be supporting local farmers. So we'll see if it comes back. And what are you hearing about? We know there's been some recent executive orders, I believe, at our state level, that are going to increase the threshold for TAMP and SNAP, which is how we determine if students or anyone um are eligible for whether it's curricular fee reimbursement, used to be that anyway, or free reduced
018lunch. Are you anticipating a drop of our um participation? So, in anticipation of that, we're taking um advantage of the current numbers that we have to extend our eligibility for C for the next four years in case anything changes because once we're in that agreement, um they can't make much of adjustment to our students. Uh for high school, it it'll affect greatly St. Joe and Zion if those thresholds are increased. And another thing with um like the talk of the town is regarding nutritions and and dietary changes made to food stamps. Those changes that you're hearing about are the changes that we've already made in school nutrition since 2009. um you know that the on average the government spends $50 billion through food stamps or $50 billion or expended through food stamps just on soap
019alone and so they're omitting possibly omitting um that allowance through your food stamps and so in anticipation of potentially some of our students who have qualified for some of those services element elementary, middle school, still fingers crossed that we'll qualify for the C and breakfast and lunch can be provided free of charge. But I know you and your staff have always really worked hard to make sure no student goes hungry, no student goes without. And whether it impacts our families or not, we're going to continue to work hard and make sure that those kids get quality access to quality food. Um I know you do the share bin along the share bin. Um, we also never deny a student lunches regardless of their economic situation. Um, and we seek community help to recover those funds.
020Um, and if we, you know, if we didn't find community help, we'd have to come to the district and ask them to use general funding. But we've been successful in seeking community help. Do you have kind of a number? I know I'm catching you off guard, a number off the top of your head. this this year. I think you'd already said you'd you'd re gotten donations to cover all of our all of your seniors who still had a balance on their food service charge. Was there like what was that amount round about? 5500 5500 allowed us to omit all of our student account balances for this year. So everybody will start with zero. Thank you to whomever. I'm sure some of those folks want to remain anonymous, but thank you to whomever for that. How
021do you reach the public to let them know how they can do that? Like how they can So we have in our letters for free and reduced and for enrollment u small paragraph half paragraph recognizing the need and encouraging to to make donations. We also when students move out or they become seniors, we don't refund anything under $10 because administrative postage and all that good stuff. So that automatically rolls in. Anyone else that leaves and depart um and they contact us, we ask them whether they'd like to make the donation rather than having the money back. And that generates quite a bit over the year. And then I reach out to local organizations, whether it be the Rotary Club, Optimus, and there's some church groups that are quite generous and you know, every little bit
022helps. Cool. Thank you, Aaron. Yep. All right. So, we're going to move on to old business and we're going to approval of policies. And this is our our second reading. Um so this way would you like to go? So there will be opportunities for voting this time. Um I would just say because we have some new members. If there's some things you're still not sure about, you still have more questions. We can always you can always in the discussion part request that we postpone um something or if you have some different thoughts on things. Again, I didn't receive anything up to this point, but we can always ask for amendments as well. And there are a couple things I've noted in here that you did have options that I wanted you to tell me what
023your preference was. And so, we'll decide that. So, I just want to kind of go through them in um groups again. So, we had one group of bylaws that was kind of the 0 142s and um one 144. This deals with a lot of board member stuff in our bylaws. So, um 0142 again, um changed the title a little bit to election and eligibility. Um talks about added some things about what it means to be eligible to even run as a board member. Um what things might disqualify someone from running for a board as a board member. Um their age being 21 or older. Um you don't have to be a property owner and you can't be working for the school corporation. So, any questions on 0142 on the election of board members? Okay. 0142.1
024is just a very minor change since we went from an appointed to an elected board a few years ago. Um, it just adds the term elected in front of board of school trustees for us. Nothing really big changed there. 0142.2 two is about the oath of office. Basically, it adds what the oath is. Um, and basically it says also that boards can if might be required to do other oaths for different things. Nobody I've talked to, I don't know if Scott's had any ex I've never come across that, but um I guess it has it in there. If you don't want that to be in there, we can strike it, but that's basically all that does. Um, any questions on 142.2 or comments? 142.3 vacancies and appointment of board members. It changes a legal reference
025um and talks about what happens if there's an insufficient number of petitioners um that file for election for a position that's open. Really, that's all on that one. Any questions there? 0144.1 is um about board compensation. So um right now the legislation legislation says that board members may be compensated up to $2,000 for their annual compensation as well as a PDM stipend. You folks have not here before chosen to take the PDM stipen. Um, I can tell you if again, we'll probably see this one come up in another couple months. See, that has been passed. Yes, it's going to come up in a couple months where the new one says um $2,000, but I'm sorry. Um, up to 10% of the lowest paid certificated staff member salary, it becomes the um compensation or again you
026can choose what you wish up to 2000 I think. Um so again if this is one of those that you would rather wait until my guess is I'll get another update in July June or July that's fine. There's going to be a lot of things because of the new legislative session that we're generally going to have to update small little things here. Um any comments on that one? Okay. 0144.2 board member ethics. A lot of shoulds to sh and um a section at the very end. This is a section that's basically in any staff member policy and we passed some of these things in earlier. I think basically talking about that as board members you have to have um rel your relations and interactions with students needs to be above board too. Um so good
027personal boundaries, appropriate conduct and contact refraining from inappropriate um digital messaging the things that you would expect. It just had not been included in this policy before since I see they specifically say Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Twitter. It's not not really a Yeah, MySpace. Yeah, you missed MySpace. I'm all about Skype that needs to come back. I think Skype they just Skype is now gone too. Um, well, if you would like to amend that we take out those specific references because I'm sure all of them will become archaic at some point probably. So, okay, we can strike that. And then it's just a reference to other policy in student records that addresses some of the confidentiality about student information. And um any other comments or questions about the ethics? Okay. So that's the end of that
028section and when possible I was hoping we could try to just approve them in these segments. Um so I we have one modification. So you'll use um number six there. Yeah. All right. All right. So, do I have a motion uh to approve the policies with the following amendments that we talked about? I'll make a motion to approve. I'll second that. Okay. So, first by Jill, second by WY. Any other discussion? All right. All in favor say I. Oppos. Same sign. passes five to zero. Okay. The next group are the 0164, 0165, and 0167.3. These all have to do with meetings. Um, so 0164 is a brand new policy. Um, we're going to go through some resentions next that basically all the rescended policies just summarized here in 0164. So it provides definitions. It provides
029regular information on how regular meetings have to be conducted, notified, documented. Um executive sessions, special board meetings, and emergency board meetings. Again, nothing that's too crazy or too different from what were in these individual policies that addressed a special board meeting separately from a regular board meeting separately from an executive session. And so it's now all in one policy which is I think good. Yeah. Um with the executive session I don't know if the IC number changes because they've this legislative session has added some things you can do in executive session. They did there will be some changes to that one. Yeah. I'm sure. Then 165 is um again another consolidation of some other bylaws um that are going to be absorbed into this bylaw and others were rescended. There are a couple things that
030I needed to know what your preference was. So one is under some of this deals with member participation when we would have people attending virtually. So it's under the section member participation in meetings through electronic means of communication. So the option I recommended um that's highlighted in yellow was that we have to have at least the majority in person. So I just said um the number of board members who may participate in any given meeting through electronic means is limited to three board members. Um the other option is if as a board you wanted to limit the number of times per year a board member may participate electronically. we've not really had except in COVID and that was again I think we were having some meetings we didn't have visitors and things that's not been
031a habit that we or a practice we've had here often at all um I definitely think option one option two I'll be honest I don't know if I want to have to keep attendance Um, now Scott, as I'm thinking here, like our situation tonight, I don't perhaps it would just be better to say that it has to be less than quorum. I don't I think you're what you're after is a quorum physically in attendance. So, do you suggest that's what we state instead of giving a number state that you need to have a quorum present physically? and then sort of back your way into that means no more than three if all seven are intended that becomes the the right because I think no like tonight if three participated by well you didn't violate that
032thing but you now only have two sitting in the room so then maybe the suggestion is Um, the number of board meetings, board members who may participate in any given meeting through an electronic means of communication is limited to one less than those who are physic. Yeah, that's getting wordy. Yeah. Yes, it is. That's what lawyers need to do. I like you said that. It's true. Or maybe it's better to say we have to have at least 50% of participating members in a meeting present in person. I like the pasta versus the Yeah, it's easier to comprehend. So, do you have a sentence that you think makes sense? A less wordy sentence. Okay. So I can like the board members participate in person must be quorum and then go on with your other people. Say
033that again. The board members present must be quorum and then you can move on to who's not. Okay. So the board members provided you have a quorum present any other members wish you just physically I like the lawyer version I guessed you have yeah that's the part that trip you up say that one more time provided a forum is physically present any other members may participate provided a quum is physically present other board members first separate and what's our poor minimum basically it's got to be 51% in this group since you can't cut one of you in half please don't please don't and I think that one is the exception is an emergency board meeting right do so and that has happened here in Indiana recently I think yeah um like when if a tornado
034would come through here or some other natural disaster, you might have to get together from wherever we are as quickly as we can and make decisions for continuation of education. Okay. So, we are taking option one. Option two, yes, no. I don't know. No, maybe not. um or at least that's going to be the recommendation is no option two. Then on the next page is another segment of yellow about if you want to attend electronically and again we're assuming it's outside of an emergency board meeting situation that you would have to give me or the board president. I suggested 24 hours. Um that to me would kind of be a minimum just because it does take a little bit more um on Justin or whomever to arrange that because that person also has to be
035able to be seen and heard by the folks online for them to be able to vote. Um I think 24 hours is I think so. That's fair. Does that mean if the board president is not here and virtual does she still leave or they still leave virtually? the highest ranking officer that is present for the meeting. Either man. Either man. Sounds good to me. There you go. Okay. Any other questions on um 0165? 067.3 is about public participation at board meetings. There's a lot of green here just because we have not updated updated in a while. we talked about it and during COVID we had several updates and then things changed after CO. Um, I didn't really change a whole lot from what our practice and policies had been that ours is pretty open that
036it provides the board president has an opportunity to set a time limit if we would have a lot of people wishing to speak and trying not to have repetition of the same commentary. um making sure that the folks here who are here to speak on topics have um a vested interest in our district or in the topic. Um other than that, I don't think there was anything that I saw. when you say, you know, someone that's wanting to speak that they can't that should be from this district or um do we get that specific? I just think sometimes you can get some outsiders that create Yeah, I thought we had that discussion before. We did. But it was within the district passricular materials huh curricular materials and they're challenging them. Yeah. My personal opinion is
037it should be someone who minimally resides in our district and we all kind of agree on that pays taxes to support the school system. It does it doesn't matter because you have a free movement of students. somebody who lives just over the Allen County line, kid went to Winnick and they wanted to follow their kids here, can that person participate? Yeah. Um if they have a student here, but before you said they need implement someone who either has a child, a student enrolled or resides for you. Well, C says anyone having a legitimate interest in the actions of the board may participate during the public portion of the meeting. That's very good. Yeah, but it's not a bad idea. It's fluid. Yeah. And I'm sure it's for that reason because of the fluidity of students
038right now now that we have an open door across. That's true. Um, it gives the president of the board plenty of flexibility. It does legitimate too. I guess we could always put expand C or put some examples there. I don't know if that would then you're trying to be exhaustive, but when you say a legitimate interest in a student or in a I don't know. I think abroad is maybe better as you said that allows the president to the president discretion some determination and these are guided by the following rules not necessarily control um and then something of note for our board there was also and this didn't come from me this came from Niola So this was a something from their my guess is it probably is this Grove versus Berkeall consolidated schools baseball
039about board members placing items on the agenda. You folks have the ability to request items be placed on the agenda as well. However, this addition would say that it needed to be approved by the superintendent board and the board president prior to adding that item on. So that just means there needs to be communication prior to when the board agenda would be set. Now Scott, do you have any thoughts on that? I think it's fair. I mean, you have to have somebody in control of that agenda. Yes. Any questions on that one? Okay. So that's the end of that section of those three laws. Those are again all about public participation, board member participation, and meetings. We did make an amendment on 165 where it was the option. The language I have is provided a
040quorum is physically present. Other board members may participate electronically. We chose 24 hours on the amount of notice needed to be given to the superintendent or board president if someone needs to participate electronically. And I think that was the end to any amendments on that one. So, do I have a motion to approve the policies of what we talked about with the following amendments um that we talked about? I'll motion to approve. So, Joel's first. I'll second. Any other discussions? All in favor say I. I. Oppos. Same sign. Passes five. Okay. The next segment is again there were several policies that were Neiola suggested be rescended because they were basically absorbed into some policies most of which we just talked about. So those were 164.1 dealing with regular meetings, 164.2 dealing with special meetings, 164.3
041dealing with emergency meetings and 164.4 the definition of a meeting of the board. Okay. So again, all this I think is been absorbed into 064. Any questions on the receptions? Do I have a motion to pass this? I'll make a motion. Motion by Riley. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Jill. Any other discussions? All in favor say I. I post sign. Passes five to zero. So the next one is a new policy um that addresses drug-free workplace. It's for those of you who I think work in very many organizations. It's not a I'm surprised there hasn't been one before 2024. Um there were a couple of options on this one that we had you had to select. So, the first one was if you receive federal funds, which we do, um you
042have to um meet the requirements of the Drug-Free Workplace Act and the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act. So, that one is kind of a non-negotiable. We received those funds, so we have to. Option number two is just that um our workplace is free from the use of controlled substance and alcohol which I feel as a school system that's appropriate appropriate for most schools appropriate for us. Any questions on those? So do I have a motion to pass the J3 workplace? No amendments to it, right? Well, well, we made the two. You've chosen the two options, right? All right. With the the phone amendments that we talked about, the motion second. Yeah. First by Jill, second by Joel. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Oppose. Passes five to zero. Okay, the next one
043is um 1520, the employment of administrators and superintendent. I know I did not make a copy of my Niola policy of this one in my copy, but we did add Jay athletic director. So, you might want to write that in um because they that person is considered administration here at North Adams. Um, and basically this just tells us what we can do contractually um with someone who has an administrative contract um and not. And then it talks about if you um have a referendum, you really can't give them a monetary reward or bonus that was approved as part of that public question. Not a whole lot there. Again, just making sure we have our correct list of administrators for purposes of audits and things like that. Any questions on 1520? Think I forgot to put
044your we can approve that one. I have to put the So that needs to be approved. Yeah. Okay. We'll do that. Okay. All right. So with the athletic director amendment. Okay. So do I have a motion to approve the policy that we just talked about with the amendment of that adding the athletic director? So why darling second? Thank you. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Same sign. Passes by I know the stuff gets long. and tedious. Um, so then we go to the next segment which are pretty much all related to one another. 1520.08, 3120.08, 4120.08 all deal with employment of administrators or professional staff or s non-certified staff in extracurricular positions. Um, we have been doing these practices for years now. we just didn't have them written in policy. This deals
045with a lot of um making sure that folks who are in these positions, no matter your position in your full-time job, have all the same training on head injuries, traumatic brain injuries, concussions, heat related illnesses, sudden cardiac arrest. Um it also talks about the type of education we need to provide to parents and student athletes and the signups we need to have for those before students may participate. Um and then 5340 talks about if a student shows certain signs or symptoms following some type of um whether it's a medical event or complaint of symptoms or they have some type of collision or or injury during play of when they can when they must be removed from play and how long it has to be before they can be returned back to active participation. So again,
046this is something that's been pretty standard protocol in the athletic world. It just needed to get added into our board policy. Do I have a motion uh to accept what the policies that we just talked about? Motion. Motion by Joel Le. Second. Second. Second by by Darlene. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. opposing sign passes 5 to zero. Okay. The next section is again another group that are very related to one another. Um make sure I get to the right one here. These are talking about if a staff member, any type of staff member basically has received what would be um I feel a legitimate threat toward their person or legitimate intimidation or is the victim of battery or harassment. Um it tells them what they need to do as far
047as what the school's involvement needs to be. they have to report it to their supervisor who will make an oral report to local law enforcement. Um, basically that covers it everywhere. Um, and it talks about this is any threat made by a student, a parent, a visitor, a staff member, so colleagues or any agents of the board if they feel they have been threatened. And my interpretation of this and Scott you can pipe in that this would probably have to rise to what would be considered by legal code harassment, intimidation, battery. Um certainly there are sometimes things because of having knowledge of of folks that you may feel threatened, but this is what would a law enforcement officer would say this qualifies. reasonable man standards, which means just because you might be soft-hearted, you may
048not be reasonable. That's it's just another way for an agenda to be met by whomever's making the decision. Yeah, exactly. Somebody gives you the stink eye, we probably can't do anything about that. But if someone makes a verbal threat or through email, through electronic messaging, certainly makes gestures like they're going to do bodily harm. Um those are things that need to be reported to the supervisor if they happen in the capacity as your position. Um and then needs to be reported to law enforcement for them to investigate it and see if anything further needs to happen. So do I have a motion to approve the policies that we just talked about? Motion. Darling first second. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I post same passes five. Okay. Um, I am pulling the bullying
049policy in this next section because we just had another April update and guess what? There was another update to the bullying policy. So, we're going to move it into our new policy review. Um, well, didn't they add and they added more stuff to it in this legislative session. The bullying policy always is is fluid and changing. Um, but the one that I do want to address tonight is 5350 student suicide awareness and prevention. Um, again, not tons of changes there. Basically, the big thing there is that um, parents have the right to review any materials used in bullying prevention or suicide prevention programming. That was legislative um legislation in the last legislative session actually and then a lot of shells and students changed from children to students. Not a lot of big changes there. Just
050a few references to some new laws. Any questions on that one? So, do I have a motion to approve what we talked about with um and then also tableabling the rolling aspect and moving that forward to new business later. Is that correct? Do I have a motion? Motion. I'll second it. First by Darlene, second by WY discussion. All in favor say I. Same sign. Passes five to zero. All right, that's all of them, right? Was that But that'll come in a little bit. That's the old stuff though. Now we're Now we're moving on. We're in the new stuff. So, all right. So, we're going to be conducting the hearing of a lease and additional appropriations. And so at this time I suspend the regular business meeting and I call the uh public hearing for the
051lease and additional appropriation to order. So the next item on the agenda is the board is for the board to hold a hearing on a lease and additional appropriation hearing in uh connection with the proposed project. If you are interested in speaking at this hearing, please make sure you've signed in uh sentence sheet with your name and address and then you'll get opportunity to speak and make comments about the lease rental uh be paid under the lease and appropriation of bond proceeds have at the hearing. We will ask that each person limit their comments to three minutes and that the topic be limited to the lease rental and appropriation of fund under consideration. Uh the notices for this these hearings were uh published as legally uh required of Indiana code 20-47-3 before a school corporation
052may enter to a lease with a nonprofit building corporation. school may corporation must conduct a hearing regarding execution of um proposed lease agreement and whether the rental to be paid by the lesser building of corporation under the proposed lease is a fair and reasonable rental for the proposed uh improvements. Similarly, uh before a school corporation can uh appropriate any dollars, it directly receives as bond proceeds and must conduct a hearing on those uh proceeds for additional appropriation for those funds. Uh so now we're going to open up the public hearing. Remember, if you'd like to speak, please sign in. I have to keep going with that. Can I keep going with that? No names. Thank you. All right. All right. So now we're going to we're going to um close that the close we will
053now close the hearing and reopen regular board regular meeting where we consider bond related res resolutions. So we're going to look at uh the approval of the res resolution authorizing execution of lease. So Mr. Transworth, could you summarize this resolution? Sure. As required by Indiana Code 20-47-3, after a lease hearing, the school board must approve the lease agreement and authorize the school board authority to execute such lease. The lease is the agreement whereby the school corporation will levy the required property and pay the lease payments through the life of the bond issue. The lease payments would be paid to the building corporation used to pay the bond holders to repay the proposed funds. Can I stop you just one second? Um Scott, would you mind just for the public sake because I did have some
054folks ask me. So what is the deal with this building corporation? Who are they? What do they do? Why are we doing this? What what do they mean? The current building corporation that we have was actually originally formed when the middle school was first constructed. It is a fiction that's created by the state because the state doesn't allow a school to borrow money. So you create an alternative entity to whom you sell a piece of real estate. They then borrow the money to build what you want on that and lease it back to the school. The school who can appropriate the tax funds then uses those tax funds to pay the building corporation and the building corporation pays off the loan. The loans are basically in the form of these bonds which provide a tax-free
055interest to those who are willing to invest. You get a lower rate because they're taxfree. Thank you. And do they I was also asked so do they determine what we do or make decisions on what happens with the project or the reality is that the building corporation is simply there as a purpose to conduct the financial business only. There's no planning by that group as to what's being constructed. They're simply just a financing mechanism agreeing to take in the asset so that they have something to create as collateral. They make no decisions on the construction process, what is to be done or anything of that nature. It's simply about finding a way for a school to fictitiously borrow money in accordance with the statute. Why they don't change the statute? I don't know. It makes
056no sense. I guess people have developed the system and some people get rich off the system, so they're probably not going to change it. Okay. So, can I have a motion and a second to adopt the resolution authorizing execution of lease? I'll make that motion. Motion by WY. Second. I'll second. Second by Joel. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Opposing sign passes 5 to zero. Approval of addition appropriation resolution. So we'll need action on this. So Mr. Rainworth, can you please summarize the additional appropriation resolution? Sure. The additional appropriation resolution outlines the appropriation of funds received for the sale of SC certain school facilities to the building corporation where portions of the proposed projects will be constructed. The resolution also certifies that any funds will be placed in a school corporation construction
057account separate from all other school corporation funds and spent only on the projects since the appropriation will be from the bond proceeds generated. Can I have a motion and a second to adopt the additional appropriation resolution? I'll make a motion. Motion by Jill. Second by Darlene. Darlene. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. Uh post sign. Passes five to zero. Approval of a resolution assigning contracts and bids. Mainsworth. Can you please summarize a resolution assigning uh bids and uh contracts? The next resolution is the resolution assigning bids contracts for the building corporation. At the bond closing, the building corporation will own facilities where some of the renovation work will be completed. The building corporation will also be the issuer of the bonds. As a result, certain contracts may need to be with the building
058corporation because the building corporation will hold the money to pay the contractors. school corporation receives the bids and/or contracts and awards the bids and/or contracts under state law, but then retains the right to assign those bids or contracts to the building corporation for payment at the discretion of this board. That also explains a lot of what we So, can I have a motion a second to adopt a resolution assigning bids contracts? A motion. Motion by Joel. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Second by WY. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. Those same sign passes 5 to zero. Uh next one is approval res resolution authorizing fifth supplement to master continuing disclosure undertaking and issuance of bonds. have made that's real clear, right? Sure. So, Mr. Reinssworth, please summarize that resolution that
059we just talked about. This resolution is designed to satisfy securities and exchange commission requirements that school corporation enter into a continuing disclosure undertaking agreement if it issues bonds to public investors. The agreement requires that the school creator agree to provide timely information about financial and other aspects and provide notice of certain material events if and when they occur. The bottom line is these bonds are going to be sold to the public. So you have to meet certain federal requirements under the Securities Exchange Commission and that's what this done. We've been using this same indenture for a long time and just keep amending it whenever we do a new building based bond. So could I have a motion and a second to adopt the resolution authorizing the fifth supplement to master continuing disclosure undertaking and in
060insurance issuance of bonds? Motion. Motion by Darlene. Is there a second? I'll second. Second by Jill. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Post same sign. Passes five to zero. adjournment of uh adjournment of lease bond and appropriation hearing. So I now adjourn this meeting and reopen the regular business. Do I get to bang the G again? Yes. Love it. So our next item of business is the permission to hire uh summer school staff. Amazingly, in just a couple weeks, we'll be in summer school. So summer school 2025 will run June 2nd to the 27th. Um, as I think Tiffany told you not too long ago, the state is definitely prioritizing summer school for grades two and three for I read either preparation or remediation. Um, but in the best interest of all
061our students, we are going to be providing that for preschool through grade five and then also high schoolers who need credit recovery. The state has informed us that they are going to be decreasing our reimbursement for summer school this year. We're hopeful to be able to cover um the parts that we need to do. I don't know if you have anything else to say, Tiffany. The reimbursement amounts um will be published later this week. So, we're hopeful that some decent news from it. We know that with everyone being required to offer it, it will look a little different than it has in the past. very excited and appreciative of our second grade or incoming second grade parents and families that I think we have a large percentage of our second graders attending. Um, and again,
062I know it's because of the worry with the I read and mandatory retention, but again, I think it's just going to be great to keep those skills fresh and reinforce and get them caught up if they have some deficits and enrich if they are ahead. So, thank you families for making that part of your summer schedule and letting us work with your kids another month of their summer. So, you have the staff members who have who have um applied to work our summer school. So, do I have a motion to approve the permission to hire summer school staff? So, moved. Motion by WY. Second by Darine. Any other discussion? Uh all in favor say I. I. I. Opposing sign. Passes five zero. So the third item on the agenda is the first reading of some
063more policies. So again, is this going to be like an every month? Just checking. Asking for a friend. might get a Christmas present. Um, so again, this is first reading, so there's no votes here. This is just an opportunity to learn about the proposals, be thinking about for the next few weeks. If you have any questions or suggestions, and then in June, we will go through those just like we did this old business section. And it will be a second reading on which you may vote at that point. Um, so the first I don't think I have them in in the order you have them unfortunately. So let me double check here. I'll just take the one on the top of our stack is adjunct teachers. You did approve this policy. Um I think it
064was in June. Um there were a couple updates in the April update that just happened. So I wanted to bring that forward since we did have a staff member on the adjunct teaching license. Um the first section of green that you see just reflects the new hiring legislations of allowable convictions. We've approved this for every other type of individual already that we have hired. So this is just because an adjunct teacher is a new type of staffing um personnel. I guess they have to have this they have the same requirements of if we would hire someone that had any past certain past offenses on their criminal record, it might trigger either one not being able to hire them or number two putting them as a special um agenda item. And then there was an option
065um at the very end about discussing the use of adjunct teachers. Um I don't have a problem. Again, it's a little bit strange to me that they have that since discussion is no longer required. Um, so I'm a little I probably need a little more clarification myself on that one. Um, I don't care one way or the other. I don't have a problem. We've discussed the policy. They're aware. They're aware that it's not my intention to make this a widespread use of this type of position. Um, the reason being is basically it's creating a position that because of prior work experience allows them to get a very special license from the state. Um, but under that license, it also excludes them from being under any of the protections of collective bargaining or the teachers union,
066which means we would not do this, but you legally could pay them either far more or far less of what anyone else being hired with a traditional teaching license would would receive. And so obviously for that reason it it is concerning I think for um Indiana State Teachers Association that it could be misused, misapplied to either again pay someone outside of what they might fear is reasonable or fair or not pay them what they feel is reasonable and fair. The next one is 166.1. This is another section of bylaws. Um, this one just basically added another thing that can be on your consensus agenda item and that is a policy that is simply a technical correction. Technical corrections are basically just changes in a word or two, grammar, a misspelling, something like that that doesn't
067really change any of the meaning of the policy. It can be listed in consensus. Um, 167.2 two not a whole lot of note there just again some Nola suggestions um let's see another couple reasons for executive session I think wy this is the one you referenced there's going to be other suggest because new legislation just added two or three more things right Um one or 1220 is about hiring a superintendent. We have already approved language about nepotism and fraternization of any other types of employees. So this would just be applied to the hiring of a superintendent as well. Kind of adds that information. And it also added um all the different options a board may employ if you were in a superintendent search like using a committee of board members, outside professionals, consultants. Um you
068could even use your outgoing super if that was appropriate or your choice. Um members of the community if that was something you were interested in doing. 2131 has not been updated in a long time and hence many pages of strikeouts. Basically, it's just going to become a new policy if you turn through five or six pages. Um, they just really redid that one. Um, this is basically talking about learning standards for students and it just addresses a lot of the general competency areas, communication and collaboration, general education, pride and ethics, interaction and cooperation, citizenship, arts and culture, social change, health resource management, career planning, and leisure time. All this is very 30,000 foot view of just a lot of the types of learning that we could do with different kids um different students in different
069grade levels at different times. Um I don't think there's going to be anything too big of note there. Um 2221 talks about mandatory curriculum. Been a few changes again. Um, a lot of I did miss an I on letter I. I see what you were talking. There was a missing I on letter I for instruction. So, the big changes here or inclusions is the human sexuality legislation did change um in the last legislative session and we just need to get that in there. We've already invoked a lot of those or most of those um requirements, but it's just getting it into our policies um about how that may be instructed, what parents being able to see the curriculum, being able to opt out of that curriculum and having an alternative assignment. Um and then it
070also addresses the new personal financial literacy and computer science requirements that they've added that will be starting next year. Um, see student assessment. There were so many changes I just cut and paste the changes because it was another one that more was changed than wasn't. This is again um it removed old language that addressed old tests like IEP. Now, it focuses on the legislation surrounding IE, the mandatory retention, the appeal process for um recommended or mandatory retention, excuse me. Um, one of the things that you need to decide as a board, I recommended that the board did not hear appeals on retention for iie. If you wish to do that, we can make that um happen. So, be thinking about that? No. Yeah. One of the revisions 2700. Um, I think the state has been
071trying to work on some efficiencies and so the annual performance report which was something we always had to do in post, we no longer have to do that in post. So, that whole policy is gone. Policy 511. This is about legal settlement. They've had some changes here in April again. Um, we've been a lot of this is you have to number one make sure that in order to get ADM monies for a student that they are actually a legal resident of Indiana. Um, and being here on the border of Ohio, I can tell you you do have to watch that because we do have Ohio residents. I'd love to be able to bring them in, but Indiana won't pay for Ohio residents. Um, and Ohio won't pay Indiana for their residents that come across the
072border. So, if they have an Ohio address, um those families either have to be willing to pay the tuition or if we would miss it, then we have to pay the state back that tuition they may have given us. So, it's one of those important things. It also talks a lot about transfer students. Um, and basically a lot of this language is about schools not just looking like or not engaging in processes where it looks like in their words in this policies notes cherrypicking and like taking the students who might be a high performer or um an athlete or something and then saying I don't want a student that we can't necessarily we don't feel like we can meet their needs whether they need special learning um situations or supports um or behavioral supports. Um,
073so again, it's kind of when you open your b boundaries, your borders, you take up to what you say your capacity is, and every year we have to say this is how many students we could take here. Um, and there's not very many reasons you can't take someone. If you're saying I have open enrollment, it's usually not a problem, but occasionally it has some difficulties. Um 5350 suicide awareness and prevention. Again, parents can view bullying prevention, suicide prevention, a lot of just basic technical corrections, not a whole lot else. And then here we go. Bullying 55 5517.01. Um big focus on this one. And then the last one is protection of the victim, notifications to parents of the victim and the alleged bully and how many days you have for that. I can tell you
074in this last legislative session, they pretty much gave you 24 hours and you don't really even get a chance to investigate whether it's a true bullying situation or not. you have to notify parents there was a potential misconduct um that your child was either involved in, allegedly perpetrated, allegedly was a victim of, and we'll let you know more when we have a chance to look into it. Um so I know that change is coming. There's a lot of um requirements and timelines on documentation and remedial actions for the bully, alleged bully and the alleged victim. And again, permission for parents to view any resources we use for bullying prevention. 5410. This is all the stuff that deals with the legislative changes surrounding high school redesign and new graduation requirements as well as again some more
075stuff about I read and passing I read through the third grade and what happens if that does not these are just legislative reactions. Um 5460 again graduation requirements from the new high school redesign I think I put the 5517 in here twice, so I apologize for that. And this last policy 9270, which again, I would encourage you to talk to our athletic directors, talk to some other folks. Um our one of the other proposals on here is we are considering and going to ask your permission to um start a virtual program here um at Belmont. And so one of these policies is also allowing more students who may not be full-time students at North Adam schools to participate in IHSAA and other extracurriculars here. So our policy here to four has been a student has
076to be taking and passing at least five solids here in one of our schools physically in order to be eligible to participate in any of our extracurricular programs. Um in this era where more and more families are choosing alternative enrollments and alternative methods of schooling. Um, one of the things that we would like to do is try to maybe soften that a little bit. Some schools in our county do require what is proposed there where they could participate if they are taking at least one course in person and then they would have to be able to prove to us that they are passing five solids in their, let's say it was a homeschool curriculum, online curriculum. Um, again, they have to meet IHSAA requirements, which are passing five solids. Um, but it wouldn't necessarily be
077that all five of them have to be brick and mortar. So, that's something that I think we need to take some consideration of. Um, my hope would be they would get around our kids, love our kids just like we do, and decide they want to be here more. Um if not, again, it's giving them some great socialization opportunities, potentially um encouraging some athletes who have some great skills to help grow our programs and strengthen our programs. Um so there's pros and cons on both sides and I would encourage you to think about those and get back with me on some of your thoughts there. And that's the preview I guess of that section of policies on the executive session members. Um that's the 067. Yeah. board member there. No online. Okay. Thank you. Um, so
078the next item on the agenda is the consideration of opening a virtual option at Belmont Middle School and Belmont High School. So you all have a presentation packet in front of you. Um, as you can see probably it has a little bit different title than the one I sent to you over the weekend. That's because the high school is continuing to kind of work on their proposal and had some different thoughts of some different titles, which is great. Um, so the those of you who have been on the board for a couple years know that we've been talking about this off and on of whether this was a direction we wanted to go and another option we wanted to explore. Um, and there were definitely pros and cons to it. I certainly feel that we
079can accomplish the most in a brickandmortar school with most students, but there are those for whom whether it's a full-time online or a hybrid online situation or again perhaps a homeschool family might only want to access or take advantage of a couple different learning opportunities and continue with their homeschool curriculum or their their programming. otherwise. And so, um, there's some different reasons we're looking at this and, um, I'm going to try to explain that to you. So, some of it is financial. Um, we are thankful that the state did give K12 public education some additional funding, whereas a lot of government entities did not receive that. And so, we we do give our thanks to that. Um I will say in what was um communicated with the public there are some caveats that I think
080need to be considered. I think it was what a 4.2% increase in K12 monies in 26 and a 1.4 1.5 in 27. So part of those increases are a little misleading in that one of the changes that happened and again it's just an accounting thing but it changes how you view the money. Um curricular fees for the last um two years we haven't charged for curricular fees to families which has been a great thing for families. Um before that we would basically get a reimbursement amount up to $157 158 $159 per student from the state after we had our ADM counts and they would see what our ADM counts were in October and in February and you would get a per pupil amount given back to you. Um so that was always separate and it
081was in its own separate fund. What they did this time, um, and I I imagine it's an efficiency thing for them, too, is they rolled those curricular fee dollars into the foundation grants. So, again, we all get a base amount per kid that you have. And so, they just added those dollars they were going to give for curricular fees to that foundation amount. So, it's not really that you were getting new monies because those monies were there. They were just reimbursed for curricular fees. you're just they're just adding that in there on the front end instead of reimbursing on the back end. So again, being said that that is a 4 point whatever percent increase, you really need to take off the curricular fees because that money is already earmarked for something else. The other
082thing that was included in that K12 was there was some education scholarships and increases for those that were added into those monies that were again just purported or reported to the public. So again, a little misleading. Um the other piece is that um our on my way prek and CCDF vouchers which have been very um positive for us. It's allowed us to offer it free to our staff and at a very reduced rate for our community and offered another daycare option for staff and community. um they have drastically we are hearing we're being told are going to cut their voucher amount. So right now for a full-time on my way prek voucher student we we may receive up to $362 a week. Right now we're hearing that probably will be no more than $142 per
083week. um CCDF, they hadn't really done anything with full-time versus part-time students. We are anticipating they will differentiate in the amounts that we receive for those young students that aren't eligible for on my way prek. So, our three-year-olds um and probably will get half of that for some of our part-time CCDF students. All that goes to say we had taken a lot of our pressure off our education fund by using some of those monies to finance our preschool and then daycare as well. Um we're still going to be able to offer it. It's still a good thing for us, but it's just not going to be as lucrative as it was and not going to allow as much pressure to be taken off. Um, the other concern we have with, like I mentioned earlier with
084Aaron Stewart's presentation is with the threshold increasing to qualify for TAMP or SNAP, that's what determines whether you qualify somewhat for on my way preK and CCDF. Um, so we're expecting that there are fewer people who are going to be eligible. And then the third thing is again, not only did they increase the amount that a voucher is worth, they decreased the number of vouchers more than likely that are going to be awarded. And so the wait list is extremely long. So we are worried about even some of our families who may qualify being able to get a voucher in a timely manner. So that's one thing that we're also considering. Um federal funding. Um, we know that we're anticipating our title funds, which is what helps with a lot of our remediation in the
085elementary, is probably going to have at least a 10 to 15% cut for next year. And again, it's been being decreased every year, but um that's going to be a big chunk of reduction all at once. We've already been told to expect title two, which is where we pay for all our professional development, and title four, which isn't as substantial for us, but it still again supplements a few things. They're going to combine those two title grants from the federal government and we're expecting cuts there too. I don't know if you've heard anything new. Significant cuts I think is the significant cuts. Is isn't there a title three? There is that's eliminated. Now that one for us is really inconsequential largely, but for other schools it's the English language learner grant. Um, for other schools
086that have high populations of of English language learners, it will be devastating to be honest with a lot of the programming they have. So, um, knowing that the only two ways in education fund that you can really save money are to cut staff, which we don't want to do, or increase enrollment, which we would love to do. Um, and we we did this fall see some other kids come. Um, but again, the options out there right now, school choice, universal choice is a big theme. And so whether we agree with it or not, whether we think brick and mortar is the way to go, everyone has that opportunity to make their own decisions. So, I think we've just been kind of having an epiphany here that we say one of our core values is community
087and it is and we think we have a special community here and we think we have a great culture for our kids then we need to find other ways to share it. It might not be in the traditional way that we have always celebrated and created but it can happen in other ways. And so, um, the other thing I guess I didn't mention is, I don't know if you followed the legislation. This was another concerning thing for a lot of school districts. Um, Union School Corporation, Union Modoc, um, the legislators did sign a bill that basically dissolved them. This was not predicted. This was not discussed with them. Um, it was kind of a strike of a pen. My husband was a union photo graduate, was he? Yeah. And he was upset when he heard
088they are very small. But the one thing that was unique about Union School Corporation is that right at the time around COVID, they started a virtual school and they've become one of the largest enrollment virtual schools to the tune of six 7,000 students. And so knowing here in the last month because all of us were saying surely this isn't going to happen. Surely this isn't going to happen. and it happened. Now, they're suing, I think, to try to reverse that. I don't know that there's very many people I've heard think they have probably constitutional grounds to do it. I don't know. Well, there there was and I can't state the school district, but there was legislation that the those that sued won because and the reasoning was that the legislators just singled them out among
089others and that's what it was based on. So, I don't know. This one's a singular. Regardless, there are potentially six to 7,000 students, and we have a few students who are geographically in our district, we don't know those names, who were attending Union's digital learning school. And so, this appears to be a prime opportunity to number one, expand some of our offerings, see if there is even a, again, this is a pilot program. We just want to start small. we got 10 kids, that'd be great. If we got 30 kids, that's probably the maximum this year because we are um proposing to run it through our access um our access teacher, Aaron Shyman, feels that he can help facilitate the online portion of um of this programming from from his seat. We're not right now
090looking at adding any staff to do this, which is why it has to stay small and manageable to see how it goes. My question is that it is focused at the high school level. We are hoping to offer it at least 7 to 12 if not 6 to 12. Okay. Um and again because there are limited seats, it is going to be highly discerning. It needs to be a good fit. We are not looking to capture students who are currently students here who would rather not get up and be at school at 8 am. It we're looking at students who have already been in an online situation or again potentially in a homeschooling situation. Um the other piece of that is it's not just the online, it's the flexibility. We would love for a student,
091even our online students, I still think there's value in some classes in particular for in person. So dual credit and CTE are still things we would love for them to come in in person and take those. Same thing with a homeschooling family. They probably have their own homeschooling curriculum and programming, but they might not have the opportunity to do Linda Arnold's CNA class where their student can get their CNA certification or Jason Egley's welding class or something like that or take Mike Green's US history for dual credit. Um, so those are some of the things that we're hoping to capture some folks. Um, and again, because we feel like if we're going to do this, we need to lean into our value of community. That's the reasoning, too. Then if you're going to do this
092and we're going to say these are subsets of the middle school and subsets of the high school. Then you need to be able to participate in all the special programming we do, whether it's athletics, extracurriculars, praise day, hunger games day, commencement, if they're on the if they're on a diploma track. So that again they have opportunities for some of those socialization opportunities. Fine arts also be fine performing arts also be Yes. as an elective. Yeah. Yep. So um I'm trying to think what else I left out. I gave you some other information and just FYI later I do have calendars for you all that um our financial um liaison Chad Blacklock from Stiffl um we want to do kind of a work session just so that you can see more clearly and specifically kind of
093what the financial impact of this legislation has been because it's not going to go away and in fact we're anticipating they're going to continue working on the property tax reform this next section and the section after and it um from what we're hearing it's probably not going to be a real it's not going to help what schools are feeling are going to be happening. Um, let's see. Was there anything else in this? Make sure. So, are we coming up with the curriculum or is that curriculum already? We It is going to be an online curriculum. So, we we were at the point of potentially changing our access alternative school curriculum anyway. And we have reached out and are um have another couple options that are we think a little more robust even than what we've
094been doing in access. so that they're I would think a better support for a full-time online students. Um but uh and they do have a a 6 to2 curriculum including related arts and electives um and a few other options that are not just the core four. Um because again if if we are going to consider giving a Belmont High School curriculum or diploma, excuse me, to a full-time online or even a hybrid online student, we want it to have some rigor because we have really stood on. I think that's the part that we're it took us the longest to kind of embrace is that we have always really celebrated here that a diploma from Belmont means something and we want it to continue to mean something um and mean that a student had to show
095that they had learned and could achieve and were prepared for their next steps. So um that's kind of why we're looking at a little bit more robust program that has a lot more instructional components to it. um a lot more grading, even some access to some live teachers at times. Um and again, all we're really talking about right now is a pilot program. How long? Um I think one year is not going to tell the tale and two probably won't either. I would say at least three years because it just you just don't know until you start getting the word out and then it kind of has to start evolving. Um, and for those three years, it'd stay at no more than 30 kids. I would say that is going to be something I can
096bring to you annually. I think it would depend on what our enrollment is, what our interest is. Um, it has to be financially um, manageable for us before we would get to a point we'd have to add staff. So, um, how would it affect like our sports classification? Like Union Township, they didn't have they weren't 5A by any means. Like, no. Does it count towards that? Um, see, they but those those online students weren't they were all over the state. They didn't participate. They were actively participating. So, it that the numbers wouldn't be there. It would still be the That's a good question. for what we're doing. Now, this would be considered still Belmont High School. So, if we had 30 cap, that's not going to make a difference to our classification. We jump up
097to but it would be something we would need to consider. The other thing that is that did not help union is I think their own local representative was the one that brought forth this dissolution of the corporation. That's what I read too. That's what based upon their test scores and those test scores were a conglomeration not of the in-person school but also of the online school. Um and so that is also something that you have to weigh in is it's not a help right past a certain point if you're not able to facilitate but it was unclear what what the inperson test scores were whether that was really pulled out because that was my understanding too the maths uh score were way down. Yeah. And uh that was it was more of a a focus
098I'll say attack on virtual than necessarily was the actual brick and mortar. There was some comments made that um there's another virtual school run through a public education district here in Indiana who uses the same platform as Union did and some of the folks who run own may be part of the legislation that are that are affiliated with that other Yeah. Well, the the one around around Muny that got into legal trouble, although it's never actually gone to court, but it was misuse of funds and they were had on the books much more students than what they actually had. Yes, that's another reason to keep it manageable. Um, again, we're not adding staff. Our our guidance counselors have been part of this conversation. and they're going to be the guidance counselors for these online kids
099are going to be expected to be working with them. Um checking in, attendance is going to be taken every day, monitoring progress, um all those things you better be keeping good documentation because again, you're right, they are watching and should be or should and should be. Again, not everything is perfect and we don't have it all worked out. Um, I think we're getting pretty close to being able to do a very scalable model and wanting to put out at least some interest surveys to see what kind of numbers would we potentially see. How many of those students are students that we don't see in our schools right now? How many are um J County just launched the same thing probably about three four weeks ago and I talked to their superintendent and they had about
10028 kids when I talked to him a couple weeks ago about half of them were current kids in the building. Now again their administrators called all those families and I think they've convinced several of them that this probably isn't the best option for you. But again, it it's going to need to be a kid-by-kid basis. What are your what are your needs? What are you wanting out of your education experience? What can we provide? What then maybe we won't be the best um option for every kid depending on what they're wanting. Um but I think we got a lot to offer, a lot that I think don't a lot of people don't realize again the amount of opportunities we have here for a lot of kids. So, I'm assuming you're looking for approval for this
101to start next school year and or is it like approval? I'm looking for approval for a pilot of no more than 30 kids for again an online and I'll be bringing a handbook to you. Um, but I just want approval for the pilot so that we can start sending out interests or forms to see how many kids might be interested. And then I'll probably bring you another piece of information next month about this is where we're at. This is what we're thinking. Um, again, it's just trying to be a option for people who want different things out of education. And are we thinking they would be in such normal school hours or they have flexibility and that's where they want to be? I think for us to accomplish what we're wanting to accomplish with some
102of the online students that I foresee being interested in this, I think flexibility and schedule is going to be a very big thing. So, it's likely going to be um with these online classes, they have to show x% of progress per week and um they might have to have a daily check-in for attendance like um what we are putting what our initial thoughts are is that they have to check in by video with our teacher facilitator every day at a certain time because what we've learned from other schools that have done this is you want to see the kids, not just have them email you that they're here or open up Canvas or whatever that they're awake. It might be at 10:00 a.m. where they're more likely to again because some of the reasons kids
103would want to do this is some kids just don't function well 71. I don't know if this would be an example of a kid that's out there, but also one that let's say swimming is they're they're dedicated to it. So the amount of hours every day that they you know That is another example of that flexibility. It is. We also see a lot of kids and I think there'd be some in this area who show animals um their families kind of that's their part of their livelihood and that so they're on the circuit a lot doing that or performing or Yes. And some of the we are part of the reason we were looking at a new platform is to make sure it is NCAA approved. The courses are from there try to because that's
104a big thing for kids who might want to go to college and participate in athletics is that they would recognize those credits. I guess my only concern is the number and how it affects like we were talking earlier about test scores are going up and I wait for those to start going down because I have always had the best success with my kids. Um then I also don't want to affect our current students and their athletic dreams and classification and all that stuff. So those at least separate those numbers. I'm sure by in person virtual well not I think that's why I asked earlier if they're here like in town they would count towards our if they were part of our virtual school their test scores would count. Um that's again why we're trying to
105look at some more and would really encourage a more hybrid option. Um now right now elementary would not be part of this mix. um because the level of I feel intervention a lot of those kids need it would be really difficult to provide that one. So that's part of the reason I want to do the level of maturity and not that you know older kids don't have some difficulty there but I'm not saying I'm opposed to the school board. I think those are valid concerns. Those are our concerns. So I wasn't here for the last two years. Well I think that's something to continue to monitor. And that's why I respect your idea of let's keep hold it at 30 where that's a manageable number that's not going to have a direct negative impact. Uh
106and I think 30 is probably ambitious. I mean I if we had 10 to 15 I would be happy with that number to start out with. Um I think when Fort Wayne open there's a waiting list but I know they're a huge district too. So yeah. Well, and I think there's value in being able to say we have limited seats and so we're going to have to be discerning on this has to be a good fit. There has to be a good reason you would want this option. Um something that really fits you, fits your family. Well, also having limited seats does put some competitive value to program too if it becomes if it gains reputation, right? and we have an inerson alternative school for some kids that that is more appropriate. Again, there's lots
107of different layers here and it's really hopefully just getting people in front of us and saying, "Okay, here's all the options. It's kind of a smorgus board. What works for you? What are you needing? What are your aptitudes? What are your preferences? What are your strengths?" Again, it's great to say, "I want to be an online student," but when you know that time management and procrastination are a big struggle, okay, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but online's probably not your That's why I have to go to the office. But for other kids, that's not a problem. They work better and they might work better at some of them work better at 10 o'clock at night. I don't know. But again, I think it's where you're going to have to sit down
108and our guidance counselors and admin would planning this is approved to sit down with each of these kids and families individually and really have an in-person conversation. This is the why. This is what we can do and there will I have a feeling there'll be some congos that I really don't think this is something that's going to be a good a good fit. Well, I think a strength to it also is that you have a hybrid component if that's chosen. Yes. And I again I think that piece especially with the new high school redesign is huge because those kids have to have something whether it's dual credits a minimum score on the SAT which is not easy to get or be a concentrator in CTE. That's the majority of the ways that these kids are
109meeting their graduation requirement. And so while there are some CTE pathways online, there's not a lot because not very many of them translate very well to online. And if I was interested in being a hand doing something hands-on, I would much rather go with Matt Hunter to construction trades or Jason Egley for welding or pre-engineering and do it in person than a simulation online. that really didn't teach me how to use a power tool or a welder or anything else for that matter. So, um again, I think because we do want our diplomas to mean something and be good postsecondary planning for kids, I I can tell you we definitely support the idea that this needs to be highly discerned that it needs to be a good fit, reasonable fit anyway for a kid and
110their family, not just well, I don't want to get up and go to school every day. um also provides a great opportunity for some kids that might just be going through a rough spell. Um there's kids who maybe they're just going through some mental health issues or were injured or a medical thing and then we have kind of something in line already planned already available with supports in place. So, it's good. It's good just as a a stop gap to for certain situations. I think it's great we're exploring this because, you know, the world changed with COVID and so many people now are working from home and it just stands to reason that schools are needing to adapt now, too. And so I think it's great that we're staying ahead of that and looking at
111different ways that we can meet our students and famil family's needs and figure out a way how to best provide for them. Um especially like you said with all these parameters in place and really, you know, have a lot of good checks and balances there. But it's where we are now. It is and people can find the options they're seeking any number of places. So I think at some point you we just had to then we need to just make ourselves an option now. So threeyear pilot 30 kit max unless the board approves increase in that. It would be no more than 30 this year and it's probably going to be less because again my goal this year would be no extra staff. I like that you're starting with high school and middle school, not
112elementary too, just because I think online school for elementary kids is rough because then the parents got to be there, especially if you're going to do it, right? And uh cuz we did that with our elementary kid and she was there and it was Jenny was there the whole time. Um so I am glad that we're just starting with middle school, high school. I would say start with that sixth grade. I know you said maybe seventh grade, but if we're if our district is middle school sixth, 7th, 8th, I would just start with sixth als. So, that's just kind of my recommendation. And again, for middle school, highly discerning about this has to be something that there's a this there's a reason this would be a good fit. And I like that aspect that, you
113know, the conversations that you're going to have with the parent, the student, and whether it fits for them or not fits for them. I do like that. Um, you know, the other thing I think too with online is, you know, with being here in the district and you only have one instructor right now, you know, that kid might need a little extra one-on-one help. And if we can still facilitate that and you never know, there might be another teacher that would give a little bit of their time to help facilitate that. One of the things we already have in the plans is to have um tutoring Yeah. available, office hours available um for students. And sometimes it might be more than a suggestion that you're not making progress. You're behind. You're going to have to
114come in and um meet with someone so that we can try to get you caught up. Otherwise, this is not going to work. Especially if you track their test scores and everything and you see, okay, when they were in school, here it was. Now they're doing online and they're dropped. Well, then we got to figure that out, right? Can they do their iLearn and stuff virtually? They have to come into the building to do. And I would say I guess I should we're only looking at folks who would be within driving distance of us for that reason because we want to encourage the hybrid. Yeah. Sorry. I thought there was okay. Yeah. Was he gonna say something? I was but I lost between a so even if they do the virtual they and they live
115in district or even close to driving distance they still can participate in sports and wrestling and football and baseball and basketball and you know track theater whatever. Are you ready for a motion? You guys are So, do I have a motion to approve the development pathways academic pilot program of virtual um a virtual school? I'll make that motion. Motion by WY. Do I have a second? Paper scissors. Darling. Second by Darling. Um any other discussion before we vote? I'll just say I've been involved with hybrid online now for a number of years and uh we really do we have students that come to us because we are hybrid. They know of people that have done strictly online and they appreciate the opportunity for the flexibility but also to have actual interactions you know in different
116aspects of that training. It makes me nervous, but I trust you. That's why it's a pilot. And just like with boys volleyball, we'll bring you back our data. And um if we say it's not working after, like you're like, man, this is just bombed after the first year, then we can tweak it. I mean, it gives us the flexibility. This is going to be tweaking. No doubt. Yeah. But I also do with what you said, anything needs a three-year period, unless there's just some big reason. But yeah, you do need sometimes. Historically, sometimes that's been a drawback in education. We're too quick to jump from one thing to the next before we really see if it's truly working. Yeah, I want to be clear. Teacher, our district doesn't make me nervous. just online makes me
117nervous just with my history with but but I think the way you're planning it and the pilot program and we have concerns too but I think it's just an area from a lot of different standpoints we need to investigate and put a good foot forward but it's not a hill we're going to die on if it doesn't go well. Um, I think we're going to learn a lot year one because we're going to learn a lot about what people want, what they're looking for, and what we can. So, it'll be, and I want to say kudos to our middle school and high school admin and guidance staff because it's going to be a heavy lift for them, too. It's it's extra and they're excited about it in a lot of ways, but it's going to
118be more and in addition to U last question. Are we the only one in Adams County that will have done this? To my knowledge. Yes. Okay. Which is kind of cool. That makes me no. Joel, you're not alone. But um we'll try we'll give it we're going to give it a good try if you are okay. All in favor say I. I. I oppose same sign. You're open your way. Passes five to zero. All right. So, we're going to move on to approval of 20 25 2026 flex day flex waiver day. Okay. So, we did get approval from the state a couple weeks ago um on our flex waiver proposal that you folks already agreed to let us put forth. I just wanted this on the books that these are these four dates that we
119had proposed on the 2526 calendar are now approved by the state so we can put them in there formally. So do I have a motion to approve these uh flex waver dates? I have a motion to approve. Motion by Joel. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Jill. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I oppose. sign passes 5 zero. Next one we uh we're going to look at the approval of summer 2025 feeding program. So as Aaron said they're going to have one they want to propose one summer feeding um location which will be at Belmont Elementary June 2nd to the 27th. They'll have breakfast from 8:05 to 9:05 a.m. in the new elementary um cafeteria multi-purpose room we call it. and lunch will be 11:30 to 12:30 p.m. So all of
120our students who are in summer school will get breakfast and lunch and then any community members or also kids who are in camps or sports can come in and eat too. Um and then any community that wants to come in. Um I say 11:30 a.m. PNP Thank you. I'm sorry. I was trying to What are you saying? Oh, I had a typo. It's 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. I guess. So, I did have a question. So, obviously during CO there were tons of locations for this. Every year it goes low. Is there a reason it keeps is it just they're not getting a lot of they didn't have enough participation to keep warning it. And I think during CO the state was giving a lot more dollars to Well, and when the program started several
121years ago, we had a lot more locations too way before CO. Okay. I some of it's Yeah, some of it's financial too. The ability they lost money I think when because they have to hire more staff to be at those sites and deliver and and staff it and then they were making food that may not get because I think co they were going to neighborhood even we had one in our neighborhood. Yes. And I think with people not being able to go out or you know that was but yeah that's why it's down to just the one site. So, do I have a motion to approve uh the summer feeding program? So, moved by. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Darlene. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Oppos same sign.
122Passes five to zero. Um also the uh looking at the approval of the food to school purchase contract renewal awards for school year. So this is a lot of this is a lot of rumage that really just means can they purchase from the same cooperative with that has the same vendors with just the noted noted additions of vendors as they did last year. So, it just helps you purchase food more cost-effectively because you're buying with lots of different schools are going in together into a cooperative um to purchase in bulk. So, do I have a motion for this proposal? Motion. Motion first by Joel. Do I have a second? A second. Second by Darlene. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. I. Opposing sign. passes five to zero. All right. So, now we're
123going to look at the approval of the 2025 2026 preschool rates. So, again, I talked to you a little bit earlier that on my way prek and CCDF voucher funding, we are looking at being significantly cut, which is another big impact to our revenue. Um, in looking around our area, these are still extremely affordable price rates. We feel um like one was like over 200 a week I think. So we are asking to increase prek for um from $40 per week to $48 per week. And again um that's for a half day five days a week there. We do have a 4 day a week option if some and there's probably a slightly say again. Yeah. In the afternoon. In the afternoon. Um, we also I I hate to do this, but just again knowing
124the financial situation that all schools are in, us included, we had been able because of how lucrative our On My Way PreK and CCDF vouchers were able to offer staff free preK and free daycare, we're going to have to start charging something. And so we're proposing $20 per week for pre-K for staff. That would still include in that cost afternoon daycare for those who have morning prek. Their their students can stay until 3:30 um for free. That's again still a very good deal for child care for three years and up. Yeah. Super. She had that when I had kids that age. I know. Um, so again, it's still for staff a very nice perk, just not unbelievably nice, I guess, as it was when we had the ability to do that. But funding changes, revenue
125changes, and so we're going to have to change with it. Um, $48 is still, again, we're not putting bringing in a ton of a ton more revenue. um that is just trying to help cover some of that shortfall. All right. So, do I have a motion to approve the 20 25 2026 preschool rates? I'll make a motion to approve. Motion by Jill. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Joel. Any other discussion? All in favor say I. I. Post sign. Passes five to zero. So now we're going to look at the approval of the Belmont High School dual credit courses changes. So our high school has been very busy and making a decision to realign. So you've heard probably of the Indiana um common core not common core Indiana core. I have common
126core in there. Indiana core what? Indiana college core. Indiana college core. Lost my verbiage. So that is the certificate that if your student earns, it basically counts as your freshman year of college at almost all Indiana colleges and universities. So it is very good. Yes. Um they the caveat that most people probably don't understand on the Indiana College Corps is that you have to offer it has a very prescriptive list of courses you have to be able to offer dual credit for and the students have to earn credits in all those in order to earn it. Um and you have to take all those credits or give all those credits from one institution. So, it was very difficult to get all those credits from IvyTech, which was with whom we've had that relationship for a
127long time. And so, um, Indiana University has really been growing their dual credit pipeline. And so we just recently, I think the high schools just announced that they are partnering with now Indiana University to offer the ICC, which again is maybe a slightly higher rate than IvyTech, which is usually their credits were free. IvyTech is at $25 a credit, I think. I don't know. We still have partnerships with PFW. We still have partnerships with IvyTech on some classes, but it again I think with the ICC is going to make a lot more of those credits highly transferable and more meaningful um for what more students probably major programs are. We're also only the second district in northeast Indiana to partner um with IU. No offense to any Purdue fans. This is not none taken. Sorry.
128We have a vote on this. Yeah, there's no athletic affiliation with this. Um, the other piece is IU has been extremely um, easy to work with on getting teachers in the M's pipeline. And I cannot emphasize enough, number one, this is a huge kudo to our high school staff that we have so many teachers who have gone and gotten their masters so that they can offer um, these courses for dual credit that meet the Indiana Higher Ed Commission's requirements. I we talked to lots of other districts who they cannot entice their high school teachers to do this and IU has been extremely responsive and coming up with different programs that allow these teachers to do this at a very cost-effective way and again a lot of them are online and it just makes it a
129lot easier for them to go back and get their masters. So that's another reason is that we've just been able to get a lot more teachers into the pipeline, a lot fewer refusals because they have to meet certain criteria and what they've taught before. And so it's just allowed us to anticipate retirements and things like that that could be again if you can't offer some of these classes for dual credit, you're either going to have to offer the class online, which can be a struggle for some kids, or they're going to have to leave school and go take it at a campus in Fort Wayne, which that can work, but a lot of kids don't really want to have to include travel time. Um, especially a lot of these kids who are in to the
130dual credit thing are playing sports or in other things and they don't have the time to to maybe take an evening class or leave in the middle of the day or at the end of the day. Um, so I think this is just going to work really well and that's why we were a little late getting this course titles because we were still finalizing that relationship and what we were doing with with IU. So, do I have a motion for the approval of the BHS dual credit course changes? I'll make that motion. Okay. Motion by WY. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Darlene. Any other discussion? Elected Lisa. Uh, all in favor say I. I. I. Post sign. Passes five to zero. Would it make you feel better if we required they
131have to learn the boiler maker fight song? It would make that. Yes. He bleeds red. All right. So, the the final agenda item tonight is approval of donations for our baseball facility. So, big thank you to Michael. I'm going to butcher this. Lenos Lennis Chile Cely. Um he donated $1,300 to our baseball team that will help purchase our play and finish a storage building. So, thank you very much for your generosity. So, I have a motion for the approval of this donation. Motion motion by Joel. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Jill. Any other discussions? All in favor say I. I oppose same sign passes. Five in favor under the superintendent report. So, lots of stuff happening on campus this summer. Just going to try to give you the highlights. The first item
132isn't a North Adam schools project. It is a um DOT. Um, they have agreed to work on a re-ignaling of the stop light out here to try to make it a little safer for turning. Just asked me about that this weekend, like literally. So, they are going to start that this summer. Um, and we'll be giving some information to folks right before school starts just to make sure they understand it. But hopefully we won't have near as many near started working on that over a year ago. I said it was not a school issue probably. Um well, we want to say thank you to Mayor Rickard and um Mr. Rumshog um for bringing that up to the state and they brought the school to the table just because it's often our kids and our parents,
133our staff who are having close calls or even a couple fender vendors out there. So appreciative of them for taking that on and fighting the good fight. Um I don't want to say that. I'm glad a couple thunder breakers happened, but that helped talk the state into doing it. Unfortunately, that sometimes is what it takes. It It was because they had this conversation a year ago and then a couple act small accidents. Luckily, no one was injured, but it happened. They're also have I the city received a grant I believe that they are going to put some raised crosswalks in along a street and um the northern part of Pway. It's not northern part, the part of Pway that's along the school. Um, just to make people have to slow down and make it a
134lot more visible. Um, we're jumping. They do at PW sometimes. Oh my goodness. No jumping the cross. What about Monroe Extended? Yes, there. Okay. I said A Street. Monroe Extended. That's what I meant. I must say I'm not sure if three kids get it across block. Um, one thing that's going to impact local traffic and then when school starts, luckily they are going to wait until school is out, but Five Points is going to start putting their roundabout in and so that will probably cause some rerouting in August, but all summer for a lot of folks that are just moving in and around town. Yeah, I just heard re that to second street will be shut down totally and that so it'll be first and third street that will take traffic. Yes. So things will
135get tight there. Um especially when buses have to start making some of those turns with extra parking. How long is that supposed to take? 100 days. No, it says in there. I should read everything. Oh, you're fine. your phone parking. We're doing a lot of asphalting the small lots around campus that didn't get it the last time we we dealt with some of our resurfacing. So, um parking in the large student lot at the high school and the large lot in between the high school and middle school will be available. Um a lot of the other lots will not be at different times. Um let's see. We're also going to be having some different areas of staging for some of the um plumbing and renovations that are happening in the school area. Basically, just remember
136a lot of our small lots are going to be either being resurfaced or used for staging for construction roof. They are going to stop if they aren't finished by commencement. They're going to stop and make sure that there's no sounds happening during all that time. Um have everything cleaned up for commencement. Um I put just a lot of notes in there that I've had meetings with staff about. Um we are going to be starting before school lets out by just a few days um on some of the things happening at the auxiliary gym um area so that they can start getting some of those floor cuts because it's going to be a very tight summer work schedule to get those things in and teachers able to get back in some of their areas especially at
137the Raz area of the middle school. Um, most of the football ADA ramp has been installed and they should be done here soon. There's some cleanup that needs to happen around it, but most of it is finished. And then we're going to be starting our fencing work here after some of the uh resurfacing because a lot of that will be will need to happen after the resurfacing is finished. Um, I am going to pass out a calendar here because I do want to try to get a executive session or work not executive session but a work session scheduled um sometime in June or July with you folks so that we can go through more more in depth about the financial changes and um what our response to that's going to be. So, if you would
138on this just mark out dates that don't work for you, we probably need at least 3 hours. So, like tell me on this day is good or not good or no evenings or whatever the case may be. The likelihood that we'll get everyone able to come to one day is probably nil to none. I'll just choose the one that the most people can come to. Um and I did put my vacation date weekend there. Um I gave you a flyer that we one of the flyers we passed out to staff. Um we did meet with them. Holly from the health department came and presented about the measles. Um we have started putting out information on social media just to families so that they're aware. Um we are being told by the hospital and the health
139department. Again, it's just a matter of when, not if, there's going to be um an infection um in our area. They are anticipating potentially early fall, of course, when we return for school. Um it could happen sooner than that. It could happen a little later, but as the education platform and education platform, we felt we could help with just spreading what are measles, what about the virilency, what about vaccinations and immunity? So, some key things for our folks listening at home. If you had your vaccination and want to make sure that you have immunity um and you were vaccinated between 1963 and 1967, evidently there was some differences happening with the um vaccines, then you probably need a booster or at least go have your antibodies checked with a tighter, which again the health department
140paid for and AMH came and administered um voluntary tighter test, which is a blood test just to test how many antibodies you path from some of the for some of these childhood illnesses to make sure that your if you were immunized that you still have immunity. Um talking about a lot of our new moms or grandparents who have new grandbabies were concerned about infants and the hospital did share that infants and children as young as six months can be immunized if they wish to be. um they still have to have the other two doses after one year old, but a child as young as six months can receive a vaccination. The best way to protect a child younger than six months is just to make sure all the folks that are around them are vaccinated.
141Um the thing that is making us kind of get involved in this is that the CDC as well as our state I feel are saying that anyone who is not vaccinated um against measles and would have an exposure to it which is fairly a broad exposure is very broad when it comes to measles because of how contagious it is. It is far more contagious than COVID or the flu. um and stays live in the air and on surfaces longer than most of those. It stays live in the air for two hours. So going to Walmart, you might not have known who might have been there before you, but you could be exposed. Um so anyway, if you are unvaccinated and are exposed, it's a 21day quarantine. So that's 3 weeks. And that is something that
142obviously we would like to for anyone who wishes to avoid that if if they want to make the choice to be vaccinated or get a booster. That's that's we want them to have that information. There are those who can't get a vaccination. There are those who don't want to get a vaccination. That's entirely someone's personal choice, but we want them to be able to make an informed choice and decision knowing what the repercussions might be should they be exposed. If someone gets measles, how long will they be out of the building? 21 days after the last symptom? Um, probably 21 days from the time I would say symptoms occurred. So contagious is 4 days before the rash begins to 4 days after. There's always symptoms before the rash begins. One of which I didn't know
143was pink eye is one of the main symptoms of measles before it started. Runny nose cough, high fever and pink eye always starts first. So almost any normal kitten. Yes. But they did the hospital has said because we had probably seven doctors in that room because measles were eradicated in 2000. The CDC determined a lot of our younger docs have not seen what measles really looks like. But they said for those who have or who have treated it and I've treated a lot of childhood rashes, you know it because you know what it's not. And it's again it follows a very predictable pattern of certain flu cold like symptoms followed by a rash. And so you're back to your point, you're contagious 4 days before the rash begins, four to five days after the rash
144begins. Um, but the other bad part about the measles, again, if you were not vaccinated, you feel really miserable. You're really sick with them. It's kind of not like the old chickenpox where you have a lot of bumps and you might not feel great, but it for most of us wasn't terrible. Um, the high fever is a huge concern because measles fever is not a low grade. It's 104 to 105 um, fever and it's not the bumps. It often times produces a respiratory infection that leads to pneumonia. It has 20% of the folks who contract the full-scale measles will be hospitalized with pneumonia. Um it can also lead to encphilitis and the encphilitis can lay dormant in the brain for 10 to 12 years after the infection of the measles and then represent that far
145later. So there are some repercussions to it that I think because most of us I've never lived through it. most of us in this room did not live through it um when it was something to be concerned about. So again, everyone's going to have a different perspective, but we want folks to make an informed decision in our hospital and Adam's Health Network providers are definitely waiting and want to hear from anyone who is interested in asking more questions and interested in getting a vaccination. Um um so we had this information shared with our staff. We're going to start sh we are starting sharing it with just community and kids. Right now we have about 71 students who are not vaccinated and most of them are preschool kids. And so our nurses are reaching out to
146those families and if we have enough interest um the hospital said they will come and do a vaccination clinic here for families to bring in their kids just to make it easy if that's what they want. Again, some folks will choose not to, and that's that's their choice and perfectly fine. Um, but chances are we're going to have to come up with another continuity of education plan. Um, again, this is not like CO and that is not going to shut the school down. It'll just be a few individuals here and there that will have to be quarantined, but we will have to make sure they continue to be able to be educated, especially our littles who are with iid looming. that's not something we really want them to have to go through. Um, if we
147can, so we need to make sure we have good continuity of education plans to facilitate that. Um, commencement, I sometimes forget to remind you guys of this. Friday, May 30th is commencement at 7 p.m. Board members, you are invited and we want you to be there because you're the ones that hand out the diploma covers. Um, they actually get their diploma from guidance counselors a little later. Um, but for those of you who haven't done this before, you usually arrive around I would ask you to be there by between 6:00 and 6:15 in the high school office. You get to look at the rosters of graduates and see if there's anyone you know or that you want to make sure you get to present a diploma to. Um, you sit on the stage and then
148you each take turns standing and passing out diplomas. Um, and we do walk in front of the graduates into the gym. girls tennis team is having a phenomenal season. They're still undefeated. I think they lost only one match. So, it is amazing and they're doing great and I wish you the best. And I know Tiffany, I'm probably going to have to defer to you and Justin. He just left. Middle school track is having a great season, too. And we have a huge list of students, great list going to conference and a double digit list of students who have met state standards. Um so and school records have been and school records for sure. We've had two for sure um potentially a third with a relay, but both of our mile records were broken this year.
149So, and what did this middle schooler ride a mile in? So boy um middle school record is was set by seventh gra by a seventh grader 451 and our girls record was set um by a sixth grader and she ran a 527 sixth graders are just better. We've got a phenomenal fifth graders pretty impressive. So, congratulations to them, too. And then we have the I always say the wrong. It's either the day of awesome or the best day ever coming up, which our little kids and bigger kids enjoy where they put up all the blowup houses out in the practice um soccer and football field at the middle school and the kids get all kinds of fun stuff and prizes and it's kind of their end of year celebration. So that's coming up and um
150if you get a chance to come for that that's a fun time. I forget the date Thursday. Next Thursday this Thursday coming Thursday then a lot of zoo trips. I know the zoo is popping. Um and I can't believe we're at the end of school. So I just want to say thank you to everyone. Thank you for all of you and all our parents and our kiddos. I wish everyone a happy summer and hopefully get some rest and rejuvenation. That's all I have. Any other matters come before the board? Just what I gave you uh uh the on the cover sheet that does uh list out how uh the school board uh office in the future. uh and you don't have to declare a party that describes uh that and and then two there as
151Kim said earlier the change in in pay uh from the top being 2,000 to that 10% of the lowest salary of the teacher the attachment these these came last Thursday night was ISBA's uh spring uh uh meeting that was held up in Fort Wayne. So that I just copied some out of there. Uh the first one there that is the state budget and this reflects what Kim was talking about. Uh that the tuition there was an actual increase of 2%. Uh because what Kim was talking about as far as curriculum materials when you back that out and and so forth. Um and uh then the teacher appreciation grant how that's going to change the actual evaluation of teachers is the meth not the method but the the categories are changing. The one big thing that
152uh happened the the final language that does not require the stipen to be added to the base after two years. So, that's kind of a significant change. Um, and then on the next page, then this is the uh Senate Bill One and the referendums that Kim's been talking about, how that's going to change change all that. Um and uh the neck there down the bottom page 19 parent rights uh and um there was also and I don't think it's in here there there's a bill or they passed where if the child let's say is deceased or it's moving away, parents have the first right to come in and remove their personal items and they have to be notified to do that. Evidently, there must have been a situation out there that seemed like an entirely
153unnecessary Yes. piece of legislation, aren't they? [Music] Utiliz had their things withheld from them, I guess. Yeah. or they didn't like it that they were removed and whatever. Yeah. Um and then on the last one here that that top one 366, this changes requirements for uh superintendent. No longer do they have to have a master's degree. If the board does select a person that they want, eliminates requirement to enter into a regular teacher contract with the superintendent. Although superintendent contracts normally have addendums to them anyways, but that regular teacher contract is kind of like a cover page. Uh and then eliminates the requirement to have a certain percentage of teachers on some committees. So um and the human sexuality one and the last one deals with absenteeism. Thank you. Thanks. Amazing the number of bills
154every year that are targeting schools or affect schools. There's a lot to try to keep track of. I wish one year legislators would meet and say, "Hey, you know, there isn't anything we really have to do. Let's all go home for this session. Take a hiatus. had some long nights this session. Anything else? Well, thanks. Appreciate your time. Meeting adjourned. Thank you.