001I'll put a ticket in two nights. Maybe there's a good filter here that you can see tonight. That's that's it. Filter. All right. I just I thought that was Perfect. >> [laughter] >> Oh, yeah. Floor is hot. Just for a minute. Did you run down the hall or something? What's that? I said, "Did you run down the hall or something?" Yeah. Are there >> It happens all by itself. >> [clears throat] >> The only thing you can say is every person After 30 years of gambling 50 I do the same thing. That's the problem. Just it's nothing. I'll send you a text message. Yeah. Oh, cool. Yeah. Yeah. >> [laughter] >> Stephanie, are you sponsored by anyone? Is that a sponsorship you're putting the drink in front of the camera there? >> [laughter] >> You
002should hold out for 10%. Faithful Nutrition. >> That's it? My daily lunch. NIL. NIL. So, give me some. Yep. >> [laughter] [snorts] >> We have morale coming in baseball casket. We can start having sponsorships of board meetings online. There we go. Are they still open? Or were they not? Faithful Nutrition? Yep. By my reason. Okay. I got it. I just didn't see it. I I probably spend too much time there throughout the week. Nutrition on the weekends. I like when you're busy during the day. I mean, it's a great Huh? Fill you up. Sure. Yeah. I think probably It's probably better than my diet do protein powder. Yes, most definitely. You know, I haven't drank pop in like 8 years. I tried to get away from it. It just keeps calling my name. Keeps [clears
003throat] calling my Maybe make it 8 minutes. >> [laughter] >> 8 minutes. 8 days. I'm marking my calendar. Yeah, I'll explain them like 8 9 years. That's good. Yeah. All right. Is everybody ready? Yes, ready. Call the meeting to order. Stand up and do the I pledge allegiance 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. >> [clears throat] >> Mr. Ketcham, we'll turn it over to you to do our BCS vision. Thank you, Madam President. Welcome, members of the board. We begin every meeting with our portrait of a graduate vision, and that is together with our community BCS is committed to providing an engaging and relevant learning environment based on a strong foundation of academic
004knowledge, transferable skills, and real-world experiences. Baseball Bulldogs embody confidence, empathy, and resiliency to ensure 21st century success. So, with that, Madam President, we'll write into our agenda. The first item for your consideration are the minutes, and there's a plethora of minutes there for obvious reasons. So, I'll seek a motion to approve those minutes as presented, Madam President. Does anyone have any questions about the minutes from last time? Can I seek a motion to approve? I'll make such motion. Thank you, Larry. Do I have a second? >> I'll second. Thank you, Shawn. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say sign. Motion carried. Thank you, Madam President. We'll continue down our agenda. The next item for your consideration are the payroll journals and register of claims. You do have an additional five pages
005of claims in a packet there, so I'll give you a moment to look through those. As I said earlier before the meeting, you'll see a lot of $18.50 reimbursements. Those are employees being reimbursed for doing the online portion of CPR. They'll actually do the physical check off with director school health school nurse Carly Weiler. But, we have received a couple local grants to cover the cost for employees to become certified in CPR annually. Mr. Obey, is there anything else in that in that packet that the board should be aware of? I don't know. Happy to answer any questions when you're ready. Seek a motion to approve those as presented. I'll make a motion to approve the payroll journal and register of claims. Thank you, Jeremy. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Sean.
006All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carried. Madam President, we'll continue on our agenda. The next item for your consideration is the list of personnel. Miss Cole, is there any changes on the list of personnel since it was distributed to the board? No. I No. So, I'll give you a moment to look over it. Happy to answer any question you have. Seek a motion to approve that list as presented. Any questions? Can I seek a motion to approve the payroll or personnel? I'll second that. Sean. [clears throat] I'll second. >> I have a second? Thank you, Jeremy. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carried. Thank you, Madam President. We'll continue on our agenda. The next item for your consideration are the
007travel requests. There are four travel requests here. Uh Ball State Counselor Connection, IASP Fall Professional Conference, uh Admin System Event for Miss Hooton, and the Unite Meeting also the state reporting. Both PowerSchool related. Seek a motion to approve those as presented, Madam President. Does anyone have any questions on the travel? No. I'll make a motion to approve travel as presented. Thank you, Larry. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Jeremy. All those in favor say I. I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carried. Thank you, Madam President. Next item for your consideration are the administrators, directors, and other salaries. Uh you you have that information in front of you. Just a Just a point of order for me, I just want to express my gratitude for our administrative team for the amazing
008job they do. Very well-deserved uh raises if you approve these. Uh they are representative of the percent increase to both the teachers and classified staff. I'll seek a motion to approve as presented. And obviously, Mr. Geminare, you probably need to abstain from from that. That would be me. Thank you. Yeah. Are these the stipends? Those are not. Those are the salaries uh for the administrators and directors, Mr. Merkel. Okay. Any other questions? No, I think it's pretty straightforward. I'll make the motion to approve the uh adjustment for the administrator, director, and other salaries. Thank you, Jeremy. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Sean. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed same sign. Motion carried. And Laura, I will abstain. Yes, I got it. Thank you. Thank you, Madam President.
009>> And Paul, I'll just add like thank you for moving quickly through that process. I know it's always kind of a sequence of events when we get through certified classified and usually the administrators in those last. So, thanks for bringing that all to conclusion here before the new year. Absolutely. Happy to do that, Mr. Raver. And a big credit to Mr. uh Tim here [snorts] cuz just helping us see He takes care of so many things behind the scenes. So, thank you, Tim. We'll transition. Speaking of that, Mr. Hunter's portion of this board is the financial report. Mr. Hunter. All right. Um the financial report for the end of November is on the screen. Um go through this quickly. Starting off with the education fund, we started with $2.2 million. We had revenue of a
010little over 1 and 1/2 million versus expenditures of just over 1.4 million. Um so, that balance climbed by 113,000 to finish at 2,319,697. That is a a high water mark. We actually hit over 2.3 million one other time in 2024. Um but just barely. This is this is actually the the highest balance we've had in the education fund. Um the debt service fund, we started with um a little over 1.4 million. We received property tax in November um from Franklin County. Um so, that fall property tax draw. Um we have no expenditures in November. So, uh the balance climbed considerably to 2.16 million. The operations fund started with a little over 3.4 million. Also, the Franklin County property tax draw was boosted the revenue for that fund to almost a million um for the month
011of November. Um expenditures totaled $564,000. Um so, the balance actually climbed over 400,000 to to finish at over 3.8 million. Um no um activity in the rainy day fund. So, the the total across all funds, we had 8,302,911 across those four tax supported funds. That also is a high water mark. So, Mr. Ketchum's last board meeting officially, and we he gets to go out and on top here. Hey Tim, one question on the education fund. You made a note of that being kind of a high water mark. I assume December will be a little higher than normal with retroactive pay and things like that >> So, So, December, we have the this first going on. payroll of December, of the the certified um retroactive which obviously the the raises that were granted is substantial. So
012So the balance will drop going into year-end and then also the big thing that will change with is debt service payment. So we have a little over $2 million in debt service payments that are made in the month of December. So um >> [clears throat] >> we'll talk about it in just a second um property tax collections. So December we've received Ripley County property tax draws but but because of expenditures the the year-end balances will drop. January also has a three-pay month so there'll be an extra pay payroll in January. Yeah. So the education fund balance was just over 13% which is you know which it sets us up well for going into a couple of heavier bigger than usual expenditure months. And I remember Mr. Aver my first year 2017 we touched $500,000 for
013a cash balance in education fund. That was after the rod payment and all those other payments. So again credit to to this team for being good stewards of taxpayer money. Tim, you want to continue? This is um a new addition. Um we since we closed out all of our construction projects and and kind of started them back up. Um but we have two listings. So we have the the 2024 general obligation bonds that we sold a little over a year ago. Um if you remember that the the net proceeds were um a little under $1.9 million. Um the if you recall the general obligation bonds have the most flexibility in our um expenditures. And um so we um spent a little over a million dollars to date. So we have $870,000 of that original um
014proceeds left. But you can see on that far right column the actual balance of $936,000 and change. When that money was was deposited and Mr. Knobby um has it invested. Um so we we've earned um you know $70,000 in uh revenue so far on that um money as it's as it's paid down. Um and we've sort of held on at once we sold the bonds this fall the 2025 first mortgage bonds on that top line. Um the net proceeds of not quite $6.5 million. Um we we started paying the the biggest expenditures out of the 2025 bonds have been for the roof project going on at the high school and middle school. Um so we paid over half a million dollars last month but but we're just starting to to spend any money from from
015that um bond issue. So we paid less than 3/4 of a million dollars to date. Um so about $5.7 million left. You can see we've we've earned just a little bit of money on that um $5.7 million invested but if if if that balance didn't get spent down it it would be a couple hundred dollars in um revenue from the interest between what um BNY Mellon who um is the trustee of those bonds and also Mr. Knobby um manages some of those funds in house. But we will continue to report on this and I know as we talk more about um projects in 2026 and um prioritize some different things and get the board um subcommittee reestablished and get a new superintendent brought on board and uh we'll we'll be looking at um putting some
016of those dollars to use. Perfect. Mr. Hager? Yes. Uh the 2024 GO bonds what was what were you using that for? That That was used and if you recall when we when we issued those the general obligation bonds they give us a lot of flexibility and we can spend it on projects throughout the district. We can spend it on um equipment, school buses. The the legal um expenditure of those funds is is is pretty flexible. And um so one of the things that we had talked about was trying to preserve some flexibility um with the changes the upcoming changes with property tax reform and seeing what what may happen down the road if we receive less property tax revenue. But the expenditures that we already have range from a few um capital improvements that were
017sort of left over after we completed the site improvements here like an example would be the the tennis shelter that wasn't included in the big project but it was something that we wanted to make sure we had. Um so some things like that. We had um some additional with the Success Center, some of the renovations down there. We were required to do some mechanical work and um some things that were beyond the scope of what the the Education Foundation um was able to raise and we wanted to make sure that they're the funds that they raised went toward the furnishings and the to create the the space that they were, you know, trying to accomplish there. Um so so we invested some of that there. Um we did we did um painting and improvements over
018the summer. So kind of a miscellaneous um capital improvements along with um we also did some computer devices for What was it for? Staff devices that were paid >> Oh, no, we paid all of them. We paid for staff and student devices. These payments for the last So substantial amount of technology equipment in in the building, which is um which is what that's for, which is one of the reasons that we're in as good a shape as we are with our operations and education fund right now. Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Hammond? I'll continue on. Tim, do you want to talk about property tax collections? Yes, so um Franklin County property taxes we reported last month. They were received um in November. Um but Ripley County we received earlier this month. Um we
019received a a total in from Ripley County of 1 and 1/2 million dollars between debt service and operations funds, um which in total was a little over 100% um from Ripley County. That offset um we were about 98.5% that we received from Franklin County. So all together we came up about $43,000 less than what we expected to collect. Um so about 99.5% of of what was expected. Um over the over the past 5 years, 2020 through 2024, we averaged collecting right at a 101%. So and usually when we had a year that we were under 100% we would shoot back up over 100% the following year. So hopefully that may be the case in 2026. Do you expect uh Franklin County to make up their deficit? I would think so. They The the biggest reason
020um that they wouldn't distribute money would be if if they didn't collect it, if people were later. So um so that should flow back in. Okay. Excuse me. >> [clears throat] >> Tim, you want to continue? 1782 notice? Yeah, the budget update and we included the initial um 1782 just one page on the um appropriations. Um we received the we received the 1782 notice and and returned it. We have not gotten um the revised copy, but um our budget, I'm happy to report, was approved as advertised. The the amounts $18.3 million for the education fund, $7.75 million for the operations fund, the rainy day fund and even though our $8,978 the remaining balance there. Um our debt service um budget was reduced. We we had an advertised budget of $4,668,769. When we sold the bonds,
021we were we based that on the estimates and planning that um you know, that the interest rates that we might sell the bonds at, you know, we couldn't be overly optimistic. So when when that actually occurred, those debt service payments were reduced and the actual um budget amount for debt service is $4,582,769. Um our our tax rate for 2025 is was a little under 91 cents, 90 cents and change. We we don't have our tax rate after we responded to the 1782 notice, but um we believe it will be 91 cents and change, about a penny increase, um less than 92 cents. Um which I know we've we've talked about um earlier this year with some of the property tax re- reform. In years ahead, it may change as far as trying to manage our
022tax rate. Um tax rates may go up while property tax bills continue to decline for property taxpayers as the property tax reform is instituted. Um so but for this year um we are about within a penny of of the 2025 tax rate. I'll summarize that, Mr. Hunter. So what will happen is we've been focused on the tax rate, you'll start to focus on the tax levy, the amount collected in lieu of the tax rate. The tax rate may increase, property tax owners may still pay less because of the deduction credits. So this school the transition will for what taxes are levied, what are collected versus the tax rate itself. Any questions for Mr. Hunter on that? Tim, you want to talk about transfer resolution? Yeah, this is a an annual housekeeping item. Um basically giving
023Mr. Knobby authority um to make transfers between major budget categories at year end to keep them in balance. Usually and and actually this year we're we're not as tight against our appropriation ceiling, so probably less of a of a need for any adjustments, but it's typically something we do at the December meeting. And he would report back in January with any changes. Todd, before I ask the board for approval, what's maybe a scenario that you would leverage that authority? Um under actually under state law you're not allowed to run any appropriation into the red. Um so it's oh like payroll we we we budget everything, but you know, payroll goes over in one building and less in another building, it just brings everything to zeros. So it's really just a back end type thing. It's
024just a follow statute. They I last audit they never complain they never complain about it as long as your total, but under statute you're not supposed to run any appropriation in the red. So with that information members of the board I will seek a motion to approve the authority for Mr. Todd Knobby um to have the year end transfers. I'll make that motion to approve. Thank you, Larry. Do I have a second? I'll second. Thank you, Sean. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say sign. Motion carried. >> Thank you, Madam President. One more approval of a resolution. This is to transfer amounts from our education fund to our operations. Again, we're very lean, we only transfer about 4% uh into those funds. Tim will lay out a little more information for
025the board. Yeah, that that amount has not changed. We're allowed to transfer money from the state basic grant in the education fund that we receive to cover um operations um fund expenses. The state set a target of less than 15%. We've been less than 5% and actually we're not increasing the amount for 2026, so $70,000 per month, $840,000 for the year is what we're planning on transferring. I don't know the state average, I I'd like to find that out, but I believe it's probably 10% upwards of 10% about the amount that's transferred typically in a district. Some districts are at 15% or above. That's not really an infraction of the statute, but it does kind of put you on the list that you're transferring potentially too much from your education fund to your operations fund.
026So again, the landscape is we transfer very little money out of our education fund to operations, which is a sign that we are good stewards and we we pay for what we can pay for. So with that members of the board I'll seek a motion to approve that resolution as presented. I'll make a motion that we approve the transfer of funds from education to operations. Thank you, Jeremy. Do I have a second? I will second that. Thank you, Colleen. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say sign. Motion carried. Thank you, Madam President. We [clears throat] transition to the next portion on our agenda and that's patron comments. At this time we'll open up the floor for any comments. We just ask that if you speak do not talk directly about a
027student or um teacher or anybody that works at the school. No takers today? All right, moving forward. All right, we'll transition to our first action item. You have before you members of the board a a letter from our school attorney Doug Wilson. 2013 the BCSE board entered an agreement with Ivy Tech Foundation about selling $1 million in in bond revenue and investing that million dollars into the current Ivy Tech building. In doing so, Ivy Tech's portion was they would create a million dollars in scholarships at the foundation. The deed and the lease read that once that million dollars was exhausted this school would deed back that 20% of the building that we owned. So this is kind of housekeeping, we're actually probably a couple years past this. That million dollars in scholarship has been utilized
028a couple years ago, but just for housekeeping reasons we'll seek a motion to transfer that 20% back to the Ivy Tech uh foundation. And we need a motion to do so, Madam President. Happy to answer any questions you may have. Well, the only question I would have is obviously we continue to look for ways to fund those credits to your point that that million dollars ran out some time ago and we we're continuing to fund that, which is incredible. Is there anything then like formally on the books with Ivy Tech that we need to think about in terms of what that relationship looks like or That's a great question cuz it's an invaluable essential relationship. We we've had some informal conversation about them leveraging our our facilities here and we still have kind of a
029negotiated a rate of credit hour rates. Uh but we'll continue. Uh this group will be innovative in how we fund that because that is a heavy lift. You know, 13 years ago we thought a million dollars would last a long time and it didn't and that that's a good problem to have. We have so many students earning Ivy Tech credits. It's important for us to fund this and again our our community should know this. The savings to our families is enormous about the investment we're utilizing to pay those credits. So, we'll continue. The next superintendent will continue to prioritize funding this and have those negotiations, but that's a long answer to say we don't have any formally right now, Mr. Raver. Yeah. But uh there there's some conversations happening that maybe that can occur. Got
030it. So, if some of those extra things happen, we kind of document that and put that process in place. Yeah, correct. Correct. Can I seek a motion to approve the approval of the deed transfer? I'll make that motion. Thank you, Blaine. I'll second. Thank you, Jeremy. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Thank you, Madam President. The next action item for your consideration is a local teaching teaching license and a quick history lesson. In 2018, Batesville School Corporation was granted the legal authority by the Indiana General Assembly to locally license teachers uh with the caveat that it had to improve student outcomes. Uh you have a recommendation for me to approve Miss Joy Lake. Miss Joy Lake is a retired Spanish teacher for Batesville High School. Her DOE
031license ran out in 2020, expired 2020. She is retired. And in order to administer the WIDA test, the WIDA test is an acronym for English as a second language, you have to be a licensed teacher to administer that test. Miss Lake has been gracious to volunteer to come do that, but she has to be licensed in order to do that. So, we have the authority to grant her a local licensure so that she is eligible to administer that test for our students who are qualified for the WIDA test. So, with that, Madam President, seeking a motion to approve that local licensure for Joy Lake so that she can administer the WIDA test. Does anybody have any questions on that? No. I'll make the motion to approve. Thank you, Larry. Do I have a second? I'll
032second. Thank you, Shawn. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Thank you, Madam President. Boy, wait one second. See what's for lunch. Maybe just the bell to dismiss the class. Next action item for your consideration is approval to increase reimbursement cost for bus driver CDL physicals to $125. You have a letter of recommendation from our transportation director, Mr. Gregorman. Uh that is basically the the cover the cost of the CDL uh physical for our drivers. That's simply because the cost of doing business uh to get that has increased from 110 to 125. So, uh seeking a motion to approve up to $125 reimbursement for CDL physical for our bus drivers. Follow up just for my knowledge, is this something we the school would have paid for? We have,
033Mr. Timmons. Yes, great question. Bus drivers are are so hard to find. We try to eliminate any barriers and sometimes $125 is is a barrier for some people. So, we we reimburse them for that physical. So, it's just an increase of $15 Patrick, thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Can I seek a motion to Yeah, I'll I'll make a motion to approve the increase in the reimbursement for CDL. Thank you, Jeremy. Do I have a second? I'll make the second. Thank you, Larry. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say nay. Motion carries. Thank you, Madam President. The next item for your consideration is we obviously are part of the Southeastern Indiana Career Center. There is an operating agreement that all schools are a part of. That operating agreement was updated recently.
034It's been approved by that board. That board is represented by the superintendents in the cooperative schools. Uh the the biggest language change was in order to add another school, it had to be unanimously approved. We've worked through some processes where it wasn't always easy as it sounded it should be. So, the language is now changed 2/3 of the board members have to approve a school entering uh the Southeastern Career Center. This operating agreement really doesn't have a lot to do with our corporation other than if we're audited, I'm sure Todd will need this document and there's some kind of transfer of funds or or whatever it is. This is basically how the career center does business. That that's really the only substantial change that I want you to be aware of. This document's already been
035approved by the local board, but we do for transparency want this board to have their eyes on it. So, I'll seek a motion to approve the new operating agreement for the Southeastern Indiana Career Center. Does Does anybody have any questions? Can I seek a motion to approve for the career center? I'll make that motion. Thank you, Sean. Do I have a second? Thank you, Jeremy. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Madam President. And that rolls into the next action item. It is the It's the adding of Madison Consolidated Schools as a member of the Southeastern Career Center. They were at one time a member, it withdrew. Uh I'll just be blunt, created some hard feelings among other superintendents. So, to to bring them back, we
036had to change the governing body to bring them back. So, that's why we changed the operating agreement. Now they're seeking to to join. But in doing so, there is an expectation for them to pay $598,000 in buyback amount. That's the amount that basically while they were gone, they didn't pay into the operations to operate that institution. In addition, they will bring additional students and revenue to the career center. It's a good move to bring Madison back. But again, this this board should be aware of the why. So, I'll seek a motion of the resolution to to bring to add Madison Consolidated Schools back into the career center. Paul, two quick questions there. One is is has there ever been much turnover with the career center? I mean, it's always been the same kind of group
037of schools that I'm familiar with. And then two, like when they left, like where where would have they gone for that period of time? So, there typically has not been a large amount of turnover. I think in the last 20 years, Mr. Weaver, maybe two schools have kind of come and gone and wanted to come back. And what they did was they thought that they could basically house those opportunities in their own district. And turn out they couldn't they couldn't afford the students all the opportunities that the career center affords those students. So, superintendent changed in that corporation. New superintendent wants to come back into the career center. So, that's the why. And and they will, you know, it impacts Batesville because we have to pay per student. And if if they're not meeting their
038bottom line, so by adding another school, there's additional revenue to ensure that we have lower cost. Makes perfect sense to me. I'll make a motion to approve the resolution to add Madison Consolidated back to the career center. Thank you, Jeremy. Thank you, Sean. All those in favor say aye. Aye. All those opposed say sign. Motion carries. Thank you, Madam President. The next item for your consideration is the approval of property, casualty, and automobile insurance. It was kind of a late approval process, but Mr. Hunter has some information. Tim, would you want to share with the board the information on our renewal? Yeah, the the information wasn't available um before the board packet went out, but um we're looking at a a a 5% increase um from we were around $260,000 for this year across all
039lines of insurance. And it's 270,000 272,000, I believe, um for 2026. They're obviously payrolls, um the number of vehicles we operate, all nothing is declining as far as the the risks um that we're insuring for. Um but um the the coverages, like I know the cyber liability coverage, our policy is increasing from a million dollars limit to two million dollars. So, the the different um lines of insurance are being enhanced. So, um the the insurance market, the I think property is finally going to is declining. Um liability not necessarily as far as rates. Um but the overall package, we're we're looking at a 5% increase for 2026. And if I may just give a history lesson for this board, the IS Craft is they basically they they get quotes almost on a menu. Like they'll
040do automobile here, property casualty here, liability here. Used to be you had one broker gave you one price that what you paid. And you really couldn't control your percent increase. So, this trust is 80 schools, Tim? Yeah, approximately 80 out of 300 districts. Over the life of this arrangement, it's been a cost savings to to Batesville Schools. A 5% increase doesn't sound great, but it compared to the market and what other schools are facing, it's a reasonable increase. And it goes back to Mr. Merkel, your point. How do we continue to offset costs come out of operations? Our property and casualty comes out of operations. So, that impacts us, but Mr. Hunter does all that work, and I appreciate that. So, we have a recommendation for this board to approve to to I will add
041one more thing. It's a group of 80 school districts, and um they negotiate to get the the rock bottom rates for the different coverages, but each um school kind of comes in with their own experience. Um so, so if we are a better risk, we don't have to necessarily cover the the neighboring district that is a a higher risk. They each kind of gets priced um up or down based on your own experience. So, we we benefit from the buying power, but we also can benefit from our own claims history. Any other questions about the insurance? Can I seek a motion to approve the renewal of property, casualty, and automotive insurance? I'll make that motion to approve. Thank you, Larry. Do I have a second? I'll second that motion. Thank you, Blaine. All those in
042favor say I. I. All those opposed say sign. Motion carried. Thank you, Madam President. I believe the last action item for consideration is approval of an overnight field trip request for FFA and Miss Cassie Wolfie. The date of request is 12/4 at National Western Stock Show. Well, obviously we have some robust policies and procedures now for overnight field trips. Those have been followed, so I'll seek a motion to approve that overnight field trip as presented. Any questions? I'll make the motion to approve. Thank you, Blaine. Do I have a second? I'll second it. Thank you, Larry. All those in favor say I. I. All those opposed say sign. Motion carried. Thank you, Madam President. On the superintendent's report, uh the first item is the old 3138.1, first reading. Uh maybe the biggest I shouldn't say
043the biggest, but something this board should should have an internal conversation about is now there is uh through Senate Enrolled Act 286 the ability for this board to discuss the compensation and I and I know that that will occur during January reorganization meeting, but I simply want to make this board aware that is an opportunity for the board. Uh the the statute now says the board stipend can be up to 10% of a starting salary for a first year teacher, so that would be up to $4,500 stipend for the staff. I'll say this publicly and privately, you know, that that's well earned. That's a well earned stipend. So, I would I would ask this board to kind of reflect on that to see if they want to move forward with that with that. There were
044there were not any other that that some other things staff evaluation. Uh you you were aware from approving our staff evaluation, it is basically changed. Used to have four categories, highly effective. Now they only ask is you have to have a measurement a metric to evaluate teachers, so that updates our policy 3220. Teacher appreciation grants are changed statutorily. Only up to 20% of teachers are eligible for that. So, again the old policy simply reflect the statute. So, these aren't necessarily our decisions. Just make sure that our policies are aligned with statutes. So, this will be considered the first reading, Madam President. Between now and and next meeting any questions, please feel free to to ask. Follow up with. >> [clears throat] >> Last thing just an update. Uh we this board is aware we own
045two homes behind Fifth Street right behind BIS. Uh they are to the point of where they're going to cost the corporation money to maintain. Uh Tim and I have had some robust discussions that the property they're on is more valuable than buildings. So, we're going to move forward with the demolition of those homes as we look forward to expanding potential BIS property there. And and just a note, Batesville Fire Department is going to leverage those buildings before they're torn down for some training purposes. So, again community connected. Simply wanted to make the board aware of that. And then obviously I wanted to take a moment and sincerely express my gratitude to this board, to this community, to this room [clears throat] for the opportunity to serve as a superintendent for 9 years. It's been a
046tremendous honor. Uh it's afforded me the opportunity to work at the next level and I'll always be indebted and grateful for the opportunity from this board. Especially Mr. Aver who hired me, who was on the board that hired me 9 years ago. Where has 9 years gone, Mr. Aver? So, it'd be remiss not to express my gratitude to this board for that. So, thank you. Thank you, Paul. As a school board member, I want to express my gratitude and thanks to Mr. Ketcham for his leadership through the 7 years I've been on the board. I mean, they've been very very transparent, no surprises, and uh we really appreciate what you've done for us and we wish you the best at the state level. Thank you, Mr. Merkel. Appreciate that. >> Maybe maybe we'll see some
047benefits from being in Indianapolis. Well, let's hope so. Let's hope so. Paul, as the board we've come together to get you a little parting gift that hopefully every day that you use this that you remember the great board and the great community that you've served over the years and we appreciate everything that you've done for us. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thanks. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> Thank you. Paul, do you want to get a picture of the board right now? Love to, Larry. Let's get a picture of the board right now. Should we adjourn first and take a picture? Yes. Let's adjourn first. That way we don't want to be part of the video, right? We need a verse. How we doing Tim? today? Okay.