001:00 Let's call the meeting to order. If you'll please stand and recite the pledge of allegiance with us and have a long recession. I pledge 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. Thank you. Before we start real quick, I don't know if she made it around or not, but uh Kathleen want to stand up so everybody can see. Kathleen is the tribune. She is the new reporter to the trivia for us. >> Uh Kathleen Myers is her name. So, she sings fired up each side. might have. Well, she's better looking. >> I want to welcome everybody. Uh, is there anyone here tonight that would wish to speak on tonight's agenda? Fantastic. All right. Actually
002the first thing we'll talk about look for entertain a motion to approve the regular and consent agenda as revised. >> I move that we approve the consent and regular agenda >> as revised as second. All in favor? I >> against opposed. Very good. Passes 5. We want to recognize anybody for that was on a consent agenda that may be here >> for appointment. >> Melissa. >> Yeah. You want to talk about Melissa? She just got approved. >> Just got approved. >> Melissa Miller got approved. to speak my wife. >> Oh, I didn't know. >> I can tell you guys that Melissa was Melissa was a bus driver for us and then she came in in the middle of the day and she was the secretary for the guidance department and I think she just fell
003in love with burden with these two and of course somebody's retiring much, you know, against my recommendations. >> We call that quitter. And I did. >> So they they interviewed and they were really excited. Melissa did really well and uh so she now is training under Marsha because Marcia has I mean not a lot of years because she has been there very long but a a lot of knowledge about being a registar and she has school works and graduation and all that stuff. So she's training Melissa right now and we're really excited. U she's just a a great lady and we're happy to have her. SORRY about that. I thought we were going to do that in the next part. >> All right. So, I'll turn that over to the principles or whoever for the
004uh school highlights and teacher of the month that we've got. >> Okay. Um I am filling in for Brandon. U >> he's at the Howard County Music Festival. >> Yes. So, um is Liliana Smith here? Brooklyn Rainey. I do know Ava Wood is here. So, Ava, come on up here. I'll try to be as energetic as Mr. Gleason. I know sometimes I try to match that, but I'll do my best here. Um, okay. So, AA So, um, okay. It is my pleasure to nominate Ava Wickham for Taylor High School student of the month. She's the fifth grade student of the month. Ava, this is what the teacher or staff member said about you. Ava is a student who brings both excellence and energy to our school and community. One of her most notable traits is
005her sense of humor. At times, she may use humor a little more than necessary, but what truly sets Alo apart is her heart behind it. She uses her personality to make others feel included, welcomed, and connected within the Taylor community. Her ability to lighten the mood and help classmates feel comfortable reflects strong social awareness and genuine care for others. Beyond her positive personality, Ava is a very strong student academically. She consistently works hard in her classes and pushes herself to reach her maximum potential. She takes her responsibilities seriously, strives for growth, and demonstrates perseverance in her academic work. Ava does not settle for average. She aims to improve, learn, and challenge herself. Ava Wickham represents the kind of student we are proud to recognize here at Taylor High School. She is hardworking, uplifting to others,
006and committed to personal excellence. For these reasons, she is highly deserving of the student of the month offer. So that's super duper cool. I wish I knew who wrote this about you so I could tell you. Maybe you could ask me, BUT CONGRATULATIONS PERHAPS. >> Is there one more? >> You want it this way? Just straight. >> Yeah. >> Check for that part. The last student is Harlo Brown. >> Okay, that is it. That is the high school uh students of >> I don't know if that's a compliment or anything. >> We do not. >> No, we do not. I think we're going to have um our kindergarten teachers are going to bring like multiple students to kind of do it all at once. Um I think maybe next month or maybe. So, we're trying
007to kind of set that up with some grade levels just to kind of knock them out. Very good. All right. So, we'll uh we'll move on to the financial reports. Uh this we need to do those each individually. The financial reports and the list of deal check. >> No, that's just for information. >> Okay. So, Renee, you got is she still here? >> You got you got anything else to add? >> Oh, I have all kinds of things to add. >> You do? Don't know what that's that's a good answer. Thank you. All right. So, those will be filed subject to audit. All right. So, on to new business. So, the first thing is the uh uh I'll entertain a motion to consider for the consideration of the 2026 2027 school calendar revision. I'll move
008that we approve the 2026 2027 school calendar revisions as >> second. Any discussion? Good. Okay. Those in favor? >> I >> opposed passes. 5-0. >> And then uh next I will entertain a motion for the consideration of approval of property and casualty insurance renewal. >> I move that we approve uh the consideration for the approval of property casualty insurance renewal as presented. >> I'll second. Rene, you got something? >> No, I was just going to go over a little bit if that's okay with you. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Um, so we are going through Henriot. That's our agent there. Well, Henry, what was their old name? Now it's Hub. >> You know, it's new fancy. Everyone gets >> Hub International. >> Um, so same agent, same everything. Um, we had been going through Astra um
009in the last two years. So this is year number three with going through Astra. Um, that's also known as Great American. So, same name again. Everyone loves two double names for everything. So, um we're sticking with Astra this year for our property and liability insurance. Um we are changing to a new company for our workman's comp insurance and cyber liability insurance is going to a new company too. So, um I love a good recommendation. So, of course, I asked like, "Hey, what's the rates like? What's their, you know, customer service like?" Um and they said that a lot of their a lot of their customers are with these other two companies and have been very happy with the customer service. So um our rates are going up a little bit. The rate is at the
010bottom. It's going up 4.5%. Um just a whole over the whole um term of the renewal which it starts on uh 41. So >> we had bad luck last year. If you remember in the first year of the renewal, we had the roof come off at the elementary school. So we were upside down. They had paid out more than they received from us. So that doesn't go well for your next rate. >> We do >> one year. Yeah. >> It's weird. We do it in April, which is kind of >> I just inherited it that way. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Anything else? Okay. So those uh those in favor >> I >> oppose. Okay, passes 5 to zero. >> And then u let new do business see. Um I'll make a uh I'll entertain a
011motion for the consideration of the school safety specialist. >> I move that we approve the school safety specialist as presented. Second. >> Any discussion? >> We just essentially had uh the principles go through the safety training. So, we have one, you know, I'm still one and then we have one in each building. Um I thought that was important in case anybody leaves or anything happens. Then, you know, we have multiple safety specialists and then we're going to look at the safety plan that we have and we'll bring that back to you guys next month. I think every May we have that approved. So now we've got three new sets of eyes on it. So pretty good. >> So all in favor? >> Opposed? That's zero. All right. And then uh I'll also entertain a motion
012for the consideration of small yellow bus driver position. >> Second. Okay. All in favor? I >> opposed. >> Okay. >> And then we also need to I'll make a motion for Jessica Russell, school bus route number two, small yellow bus driver. >> Second. All >> in favor? >> I >> post. Okay. Jessica's got her. All right. Item eight. Uh I'll entertain a motion for consideration of donation report request from one church to the athletic department. What is that? Is that a So um per talking about one church earlier in the in earlier session. Um as a result of them being able to use our building for the volleyball clinics on the Wednesday nights for the basketball little league that they had going on. Um, Steve and I met with uh with Johnny and then I
013forget what the principal's name is or the principal the uh the pastor off the top of my head, but they came in one Friday morning um and said they wanted to present us with a check. Um and uh basically it was a a thank you and they said in their words a way to bless the school and hopefully just kind of continue um to to be an outreach for the school and the community um of $1,000. Um, so again, they said that they look forward to kind of continuing to build a relationship with us and and hopefully, like I said, make that basketball thing a little bit bigger, maybe the volleyball thing a little bit bigger and continue to grow. Um, and they said that they'd love to be able to continue to bless us
014with with monetary donations in the future. So, >> very good. Those in favor? >> I don't motion. >> Oh, I didn't make a motion that we approve the donation from one church to the athletic department for $1,000. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I opposed. Very good. All right. Item under new business. And I'll make a motion for the consideration of resolution approving the issuance and sale of ad valerium property tax first mortgage refunding bonds and the approval of financing documents related there too. >> Second. >> You got you got some discussion. >> Of course I have. >> No, this is just the refinancing of those 2018 bonds. So >> nothing exciting here. a lot of words, but it is >> it's a legal thing. >> We do we have any questions in your
015>> So the the interest rate 5% also back in 18 like we talked earlier >> and what are we thinking it's going to be? I know you don't know exactly >> probably around four is what they're hoping for. >> Um school bonds are very low risk. Um, so they're easy to sell to others. >> Okay. Thank you. Very good. All right. So, those in favor? >> I posted a 50 again. Very good. Last item. I want to entertain a motion to consider it. Three items left. >> Look at your >> Oh, my bad. My bad. My bad. My bad. >> You're good. >> That's all right. I'm going to try not to let you trip me up every meeting. All right. Item G for the considerate I'll entertain a motion for the consideration of the
01620 26 spring common school loan application. I'll move that we approve the 2026 spring common school loan application. >> Oh, you David says he doesn't like to talk at meetings, so he's put me in charge. >> David's hanging out with Tiffany. Um, so the com school loans are something that we do. They offer them two times a year. It's a 1% interest rate that the state offers schools and this year we have to use it on student education stuff, technology devices. So um this year we are doing it on working on a Chromebook refresh for the middle school. So in the past years we had done just large purchases of Chromebooks for all the high school or all the middle school. This year we're or now we're going to try to do a roll refresh
017up grade each year and that kind of stuff rather than those big giant large chunk purchases of you know new Chromebooks for you know all the high schoolers and things. So now we're working on a whole >> you have to remember we don't get funding anymore um for curriculum materials and we can't charge students for any of this. So we have to be really smart about how we get this so we can keep our devices fresh. It is a chore. So, it's all David's right now. So, we've thrown that in his lap and he's got to do this all the time and keep us rolling. >> Very good. Okay. >> David says he loves working with me, too. >> No doubt. No doubt. >> All right. Any other discussion? Okay. Those in favor? >> Opposed.
018Okay. All right. We got two more. That's part of the revised agenda. Uh, I'll entertain a motion for the consideration of ESS Midwest Incorporated addendum to extend the agreement. >> I'll move that we approve ESS Midwest Incorporated addendum to extend agreement. >> Second discussion. >> Yeah, I have no idea what that means. >> It is it's the platform we use for our subs. >> Okay. So, we're just locking in the same rates that we had this year for next year and extending our contract. >> We just got this today. We're like, let's add it in here right now. Let's just lock this thing in last year. Is that a year toear? So, every Thank you, Mr. Van, for that explanation. All in favor? >> I opposed. >> All right. Last item on the agenda. I'll
019entertain a motion for the consideration of a revolution resolution authorizing litigation against social media companies. I think you guys all got that email today, right? You want to elaborate? >> Yeah, it's pretty simple. um we did not give in the initial time that they did this and I I sent you guys the WTR um session that they they had on there and uh the the guy who leads education in the state of Indiana is all in favor of this and right now there's 106 schools that have already jumped into this. Um there's going to be litigation against social media companies like Tik Tok and um have Snapchat and Instagram whatever that kids get on and that cause problems in school and mental health problems. And so um the rural school um community reached out and
020said, "Hey, if you want to join this lawsuit, um here's the gentleman's number who's running it." And so I reached out and they sent the document immediately. All we have to do is sign this thing with interested and we can get the ball rolling. And there's some work on our part that we have to do, I think, to show that we have mental health issues or could be issues in school where where kids would set up fights on their phones or whatever might happen via phone. So, we want to join this lawsuit because there's a potential payoff that we could then use towards helping kids with mental health that might be a behavior specialist or something. >> It's a win-win. We don't win the case, we don't lose any money. Thank you for picking that
021up. Okay. >> All right. So, uh, those in favor >> I'll make a second. >> I'll make a motion. >> Too much conversation. Go ahead. >> Consideration of resolution authorizing the litigation against social media companies. >> Second. >> Any more discussion? All good. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. We are good. All right. So, principles, Mr. Wy, Mr. Shaw, anything else? >> I'm going to turn it over to Jake. He can kind of give you a little um brief look into some of the numbers that are coming back for um our weekend. >> Yeah, >> nothing is official yet, but >> yeah, nothing's official and it won't be until July, so I can't talk specific numbers. Um we started uh the window opened for i3 um which second and third grade students have to
022take that um third grade students have to take it if they didn't pass the second graders. So that window opened uh not this Monday but last Monday. And so we uh we decided we were going to test all of our third graders last week and all of our second graders got it this week. Um, so one of the cool things about testing third grade this year was we had uh 40 of our kids had passed it after last year, which more than doubled the number of of our highest previous attempt ever. Um, so having 40 kids u get to stay in class and get continue with the education and continue with the normal everyday stuff while we pulled some other kids uh that didn't pass the test um to take that. And so we we
023today or I guess last night we started getting some of our scores back and um positive kind of like last year. We're all almost at the same exact spot as we were last year at this time which is awesome because last year we got to 80% for the first time in the school history. Um, one of the things with third grade that's extremely unique this year is that we are uh we have 20 I think it's currently 24 by the end of a couple weeks it might be 25 but I think 24 students are sped students out of the 90. Um, so when you start thinking about um some of the difficulties that those students have taking the test and we focus a lot more on growth for them because getting them to grade level
024is always difficult. Now, we have done a very good job of it. We have awesome sped teachers. Some of our sped kids did pass it this year. Um, which is awesome. But we have very high sped population. Um, if you think about second grade where I think the number is like seven or eight compared to 24. It's a pretty You see what I It's It's pretty daunting. But, um, our kids really took their time this year on the first test. They'll get those that did not pass will get to take it again in May. And then uh the third graders that didn't pass in May will get a chance after summer school as well. So we are pleasantly surprised with even the students that didn't pass the growth that they had that kind of lead
025us to believe that they can pass. They're quite possibly on track to actually pass. Whereas coming into it, maybe we, you know, not that we didn't have high expectations for them, but they outdid our expectations, which is always awesome. Um this week we did second grade testing. Um and the second grade scores started coming back today. Um second grade is a little different. There are three tests and when you're in third grade we take test one and test two on the same day because um one is kind of like a skills like choose the word ABC, you know what I mean? It's kind of a quicker test. And then the second test is more of like your reading comprehension. So in third grade, we take those two tests on Monday and then the third test
026on Tuesday. And then we kind of catch up for the kids that were sick or maybe they weren't here for whatever reason. in second grade because maybe their attention spans aren't quite as great. Um, we take a test every single day. So, we go test one, test two, test three, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So, we started getting test scores back today once our kids started turning it in. Um, super proud to say I will say over 50% of the grade already either passed or they're on track to pass. And so kind of to put that into perspective, we have we have not had a kid at Taylor that ever was on track to pass that did not pass it during their third grade year. So we are I'm not I can't give a specific number, but
027we're over 50% that have either passed already or they're on track to pass >> compared to last year. That is >> Yes. Compared Yeah. Compared to last So last year we had 40 kids pass, but and I think we had another three or four that were on track, but we had 96 kids in that grade. So, it's different this year. It's less kids. I think we have 78 kids in that grade. And we're already over half of them have already either passed or they're on track to pass. And some of the kids that were not on track, the number the number that you have to get to, which I know doesn't mean a lot to you guys, you have to get a 405 or sorry, maybe a 406 to be considered on track. We had
028a lot of kids in the 400. Um, and it goes all the way down to 200. So, they're very even the ones that um even the ones that didn't pass are extremely close to either passing or being on track. The cool thing is we've kind of broke down our data for the last several years. Typically, we see a growth in anywhere between 25 to 4550 points from test one to test two, which happens in May. And if that happens, I think we could be looking at over 70 to 75% of the grade either passing or on track to pass in third grade. So that would be awesome considering last year's group we sent to third grade this year was looking at about 44%. And we were super proud of that cuz that was the highest
029we had done ever. So we're seeing a lot of positives. Super proud of our kids for taking their time. Proud of our parents who have chipped in doing some extra stuff that we're sending home. and obviously super proud of the teachers that take this very personally and so it's it's a super cool thing to see some success and hopefully as we continue the school year we'll continue to see it with I as well did we ever do anything with bring the gentleman in to talk to our kids >> I saw that No, >> not yet. Oh, that was supposed to be Fisher. Let's keep that up. I'll have to follow that. >> Yeah. Got Well, next meeting will be uh Wednesday, April 8th, and I will entertain a motion to adjourn. So, move. happening.